Jumping Off the Board Over the Deep End
2/17/03

The congregation she serves is on sabbatical. People read Jan Linn's books, prayed the prayers, and took the leap. The pastor wrote:

Dear David:

I need a reality check, desperately!! This sabbatical year is something far, far more than just setting aside programs and activities, isn't it? There are already powerful things happening, that are uncomfortable but yet I know the work of the Spirit. I'm totally blown away by how important being in control has been to me, and to others. The matriarch of the congregation has become a semi-invalid, due in large part to the fact that she is not in control of what's happening (which she readily states). I'm doing a lot of grieving because it feels like something is dying; however, I keep reminding myself that there is resurrection. Last week one of our younger women called me to tell me about an experience she'd had on her way to work, where a fully formed prayer "popped" into her head; she then shared that prayer as an invocation on Sunday morning, and it was one of the most beautiful ones I've heard.

David, people are taking this seriously, the Spirit seems to be moving among us, and it's scary as hell! Jan should put a warning in Reclaiming Evangelism that your life as you currently know it will be turned completely upside down by putting his suggestions into action. Then again, isn't that what Jesus tried to warn us about in his parables? Life is not the way it was, and I don't have a clue what it's going to look like. For a control freak like me, who has a "calendar fetish," this is EXTREMELY uncomfortable!

So tell me, dear friend: have we all gone off the deep end, or is this a fairly typical reaction??

Dear XX:

Yes, you have gone off the deep end and there be sharks in those waters. Yes. It is far, far more than just setting aside programs and activities. It's about centering down, simmering down, settling down to LISTEN to the Spirit rustling the waters, to hold hands and pray, to discern and discover. You are right on target. It does mean losing control. But it's a control we never really had anyway. I commend you for grieving and then getting up and going on. But, seriously now, don't you just love it? Don't you think this is REAL MINISTRY? Would you, for one minute, go back to the old, safe, predictable waters of the wading pool after you've plunged in with the sharks?

I imagine that your calendar will diminish and your gospels will increase in their claim over your time.

David Digby - First Christian Church, Ames, IA