Blog

Looking to the Future

“Do not remember the former things,

     or consider the things of old

   I am about to do a new thing,

now it springs forth”

                 Isaiah 43:18-19a

                                                                       

Dear Forward Looking Christians:

         Reading the above quote from Isaiah, we hear the good news of Isaiah’s prophesy. The people of Israel had lost everything; their homes, their temple, their country, their freedom. In captivity, far from all they knew, they were a people devastated, seeing only death. But the voice of the Lord comes to them to restore them and give them a new hope.

         This new day was going to be unlike anything they had known. It was going to be something radically different from everything they had always done. It would be something they were not used to ever doing or living through. It was going to be a new thing.

         God is always causing us to move forward into a new thing. We cannot remain, looking back and relishing the past. The fact is if you walk forward always looking back you are bound to fall or stumble. The same idea applies to the ministry of the church. The congregation that sits looking back will never see the goodness and possibilities of God’s work towards the future. God is always taking his universal church of faith forward, led to new ways.

         It is time we, as the congregation of St. Mark, one small piece of that universal church, start looking forward and moving into those new ways. Our community has changed. We have changed. We cannot keep following the old ways looking back at the past hoping that we are heading in the right direction.

         As the council discussed last month, now is our time to begin turning to follow and discern our path forward. God’s work continues onward to do wondrous things in this world. It is about to spring forth. Our challenge we have is to follow. It will be hard, it will be difficult, but just like the Israelites found while in captivity, this new hope is the only way to find renewal and joy in the promise of God.

         This month we will start to examine our future as we form the Future Looking Task Force. I ask you all to please pray for this task force and our congregation as we start to look forward to that new thing God is about to do.

                                                                                                                         In the peace and grace of God,        

                                                                                                                                    Pastor Kirk Griffin