Like me, I bet that you can hardly contain your excitement that we are almost ready to enter the church season of Lent.  Let’s face it – nothing says “good times” like Lent.  Now, if you are going to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, (especially this one – congratulations to the Saints!), at least the proximity to Lent holds some appeal.  But Lent itself?  Really?

We have our own unique ways of marking this time, of course.  Some of them are quite meaningful.  I remember, as a parish pastor, my attempts to encourage people to take on a spiritual discipline rather than “giving up” chocolate, for instance.  (Yes, clearly a personal agenda in that one.) We did some wonderful scripture studies.  One year we did a whole series on death and dying, including planning our funerals, during Lent.  (They were right there with me until the day we had to put our wishes for our funeral on paper…)  We sang some hymns that we didn’t otherwise sing and tried to avoid saying “Alleluia” during worship (which chaffed, let me tell you).  Still, I am not sure what people gained from these Lenten opportunities.

I certainly can appreciate the role of both penance and discipline in the life of disciples.  And I suppose that these do offer some people real opportunities for spiritual growth in the process. I would encourage you to discover a purpose for Lent. (I know…Purpose Driven Life comes to mind…I guess that works for some people.) However, I really would embrace a reflection on another understanding of Lent.

Lent was a time (once upon a time…all good stories start with “once upon a time”…) when those who were going to join the church, those who would be baptized into the faith, were prepared for this momentous moment.  It was a time of study and reflection.  It was a time of learning and growing. And it was all in preparation to become part of the covenant community of Christ, the church. It was a BHD (big, hairy deal) to become part of the church!  People were intentionally prepared for baptism, discipleship, and membership.  Wow.  What a concept.

But this is not a call to look at how we prepare people for membership (although that is a good idea). Rather, I would like us to utilize Lent to look at that for which we would be preparing people. In other words, what would make someone want to be a part of us, our church, our denomination? How are we prepared to be a place where people would want to be involved because there is something happening there? Is there a God thing here?  If not, why would anyone want to be a part of it?  We can keep baptizing people we know won’t grow up in the church, and making people members that we then drive out the back door because we ask them to serve on standing committees that waste their time, or we can prepare ourselves to by a Spirit-filled place where people encounter God, are equipped for ministry, and are sent into the world to use their God-given gifts to do the work of Christ in the world.

The General Council has been working with the image of building a plane while we are flying it as we transform the presbytery into a place people want to participate. (This comes from a pretty funny EDS commercial you can check out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zqTYgcpfg) Well, now we have a plane. Where are we going with it?  I used to believe in the Lewis Carroll saying, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” (And for those of you who hear me in the future in some presentation use this phrase, well, be compassionate.) Now I think, if you don’t know where you are going, God will probably still lead you where you need to be.  We are ready to take this plane someplace, and we think it is where God is leading. We hope that we have made a place ready that people will want to be a part of, or, that we can help congregations become places like that.

Check out the news section of our homepage for a link to our unique presbytery meeting on March 6, 2010. We hope you will come, and bring lots of people with you. We are excited to land this plane in Lyons and see where we are next called to fly. We hope that we will provide you with some more tools…for the journey.