By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC
Conference Family, I just returned from Omaha, NE after Gather 2019/Annual Meeting concluded. It was a good hard annual meeting.
It was an especially good meeting for the PacNWC. Communitas Cov, Spokane, (Asher Ernst) and Iglesia Esperanza Viva, Kent (Esau Del Arca) were welcomed into membership in the ECC. We are thrilled that we now have three vibrant churches in Spokane after a time, not long ago, that we thought we may have none. And IEV is now our second Spanish-language member church (with Iglesia Latinoamericana, Bellevue). We have been praying to the Lord of the Harvest daily and he answers our prayers in these beautiful ways. Welcome churches!
In addition to our new member churches, we celebrated the ordinations of Chaplain David Arnott (Navy, Whidbey Island), Pastor Stephen Bjorlin (Irvington Cov, Portland), and Chaplain Lisa Eastman (Providence Regional Medical Center)! Congratulations! We also showed our appreciation with our Clergy Lifetime Service Recognition for seven of our own: Harvey Drake, David Greenidge, Rick Hampton, Rick Mylander, Lawrence Pennings, Paul Petersen, and Brian Wiele. We are so grateful for your service!
We also brought 2,599 names of the denominational total 14,826 for B.L.E.S.S. this year. And I loved that so many of you were part of the 60% of all ECC churches that participated in Immerse. Good things happen when God’s people are in the Word and are BLESSing people! There was much good news and many important decisions made. For Gather resources, summary and recordings see link below.
Gather was also an especially hard meeting. We removed First Covenant, Minneapolis, one of our historic founding churches, and two pastors including Steve Armfield, who is especially beloved. Steve has served in multiple places of influence and importance throughout our body over decades. I first met Steve when we both served on the Board of Ordered Ministry almost 20 years ago. After each vote, we palpably saw the spectrum of some with great relief and others great despair; some a sense of reaffirmation and others disorientation. There was a thick cloud of difference in what people believed the Covenant to be. Though the votes surpassed the supermajority threshold, it’s important to note that there was not a small number of delegates that did not agree. Yes, the church has spoken and there is a level of clarity achieved. But we also clearly saw that there exists significant differences and opinions about history, identity, and how to approach these types of consequential decisions. Deep convictions of discernment, theology, and practice were at acute odds. For today, my word for us is to proceed with caution and care-fulness.
I have many reflections but I cannot capture them in this article. But I feel compelled to address a couple of thoughts here. Please give me grace in understanding that these are not exhaustive. I attempt here to briefly name and describe them, but I urge us to stay connected in unpacking these and others matters that you are thinking through as well.
Keep Learning/Keep Talking – It doesn’t matter where you are on the vote or theologically, these matter are important concerning the mission field God places us in. We cannot avoid it or pretend it’s not real. The complexities of how this affects our mission is vital. I also reflect on how much attention and resources have gone into all of this compared to other areas of our mission and other groups of people. Let’s keep learning and keep talking.
Avoid Harm – In our pain and even in our relief, it’s easy to be reactionary, to rant on social media, or to push matters in other unhealthy, even un-Christlike ways. Please stop. I’ve been shocked by some of what I’ve seen and heard. For example, I was aghast that two of our PacNWC pastors were verbally attacked in the hallway after the votes. It unfortunately was experienced to have racial overtones as well. This is from the enemy! Stop making others sound like they are inexperienced, unwelcoming, or unloving. Stop making others sound like they aren’t wrestling with the same Bible. Stop putting things out for all to see, where in the end, the very people we are reaching out to, and especially those who are LGBTQ, will think increasingly negatively about the church. We must hold God’s glory safe in our hands as the church. Protect that, and each other – avoid harm. In Christ, let’s be better than that sister and brothers.
Answers are not easy to come by right now. In fact, words are difficult to find. In my monthly update to the our executive board yesterday, I wrote this:
Sometimes when your whole being is tired and things around you are in such a swirl, like soldiers or first responders, we naturally fall back to our “training.” My training and instincts take me to truths like Psalm 18:1-2
I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Sometimes there are no words. Sometimes we just need to sit. Sometimes we need to wait on the Lord as the sun beats down. But we find that he will provide shade under the towering shadow of his big-ness. God holds us today. He is our rock and our deliverer.
[Click Here] to visit the Gather 2019 Recourse Page including live stream recordings, agenda, and delegate summary.