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Pioneer Planting
By Rev. Greg Moore
Pioneers seem rare these days.
While new information seems abundant and cheap, doing new things with the new information is rare. We humans, being chronic creatures of habit, seem to fall back into old ways of thinking, being, and doing, no matter how much new information comes our way. Information alone does not motivate us to change.
Nowhere is this truer than in the church. While every indicator tells us that the church in the west (of every denomination, every race, and every geographical location) is on the decline, we seem slow to change. When faced with information about decline, most of us in the church instinctually begin to circle the wagons. “It’s time to strengthen the faithful, not try something new,” we think. “Let’s take care of our own, and then, when we are strong enough to care for ourselves, then we can reach out to others,” we say.
Pioneers are rare these days.
New Faith Community planters are seeking to lead us into communion in new places with new people. Here’s the thing: while they are pioneering our work in new places with new people, the work they are doing is anything but new.
Pioneering new relationships based on love is the ancient work of the God called Trinity, and of the people called Methodist. The God who sends Jesus Christ, who sends the Holy Spirit, who sends the apostles, who sends John Wesley, who sends the pastors who started our churches, this God has always been in the business of sending pioneers out.
While their craft of creating new spaces for new people to be gathered in the communion is old, it is a new thing in our day to see people step out into unfamiliar places and meet unfamiliar people in order to embody the deep love which is creating us all.
Maybe you’re called to do that work, too.
Maybe you’re a pioneer.
The New Room Society is seeking to gather together the pioneers within the North Carolina Conference. If you feel called to move into new spaces in order celebrate communion, we want to hear from you. Contact our office, let us discern and celebrate with you the call that God has laid on your life.
Pioneers may seem rare these days, yet by God’s grace, they are leading us into God’s preferred future, where all are at the table sharing in God’s grace together.