So What's It Like Being a Transition Team Member?

Well - I've got to say- my Prius has enjoyed stretching its gas mileage these last two years. Indeed, I've enjoyed stretching my imagination as I've cruised over the plains and rolling hills to go to the Nebraska-Kansas Area Transition team meetings. As I've passed the green highway signs, pointing out nearby towns and small cities along the way, I wondered to myself -if we become a NEW conference, would I ever serve this town? What would it be like and what are the greatest challenges facing the area? How can God use me to connect with so many in such a vast amount of space?

When I've crossed the Nebraska border I couldn't help but recall all the Willa Cather images, displayed in my mind like sweet reminders of college literature . I thought about the great skies and the unexplored territory, the possibilities and of course the people - the wonderful people. Yes- Nebraskans are wonderful people - I now count several of them friends! I've also found that the Nebraskans think Kansans aren't so bad either. Indeed - as we've roamed together, gathering at each others common space of ministry, we have found we just plain like each other. We've all passed little green town signs along the way - wondering what this un-easy work is all about and how it will affect each person in those areas. Each time we meet, however, we seem to see glimpses of a real call - an audacious ministry - even though it's un-easy to think about.

That's really what it feels like to be a Transition Team member - un-easy. Not like the uneasy queasy feeling from cruising over a hill too fast (who says a Prius has no pick-up!) No - it is the un-easy work of getting to know folks - even if you were born and raised in their conference but now serve another. Learning to trust each other is un-easy work. It's un-easy talking about change and hope and reality. It's un-easy putting our heads together and trying to let Jesus Christ guide us across the Great Plains of ministry when the roadblocks of pensions, health insurance and the appointment process keep stumbling in. It's un-easy going through story after story about our decline - knowing all our churches, small or large, need a gentle push to step out and shine in the Great Plains sun. And it's certainly un-easy talking about the pain and grief of how things could change (and already have) as we face our great task of making disciples.

This work is just plain un-easy. It is also the greatest hope I have for our future. Not the only hope, but the greatest. Time and time again, I have found this team asking the right questions. We're no longer afraid to step out on the Great Plains like we're stepping out of the boat - or a tractor - or a Prius if you choose- and ask this great area - "how do we need to adapt best make disciples for Jesus Christ?" Our answer as a team is to become a NEW conference. We hope to land on solid ground with that claim, but the soil can have just as much of a sinking feeling as water does.

I'm putting my bets (even though we're not supposed to bet) on that un-easy, sinking feeling that might just land me in ministry to the Vast Great Plains rather than just a portion of my home state. I know there's a chance that we might not land there - that makes me uneasy -but I HOPE we land there. I don't want technical questions to keep us from missing the boat. Because I seem to recall that Jesus always redirected the technical questions he received. He kept pointing to larger areas, filled will people, beyond the borders of his hometown, even going as far as Samaria to call God's people to be adaptive and expansive in their call. I will even go so far to say that he wanted them and us to be un-easy.

I have technical questions too and I understand the feelings and worries of all of those who feel uneasy (and even queasy) about fully working these issues out until after we take a vote at Annual Conference. I'll have more to address on that subject in my next blog. But for now - I hope you can sink with me, just for a moment, into the un-easy driver's seat of a vehicle that could serve the Great Plains - and just try - for a moment - to imagine what the transition would be like if each little green sign you passed in Kansas and Nebraska were yours to serve.

Grace, Jan

"They tilled their land in peace;
the ground gave its increase,
and the trees of the plains their fruit."

1 Maccabees 14.8