Quantum Discipling

“Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.”

In the year that the pandemic started (can we all gasp at the fact that it has nearly been two full years?!), I was invited into a group of leaders across the church who were asking questions about how to be church in a time in which the status quo simply was not possible. At the time the group started, we were all facing challenging times as we struggled to find ways to convene community for prayer, worship, fellowship, and formation. In large part, we were doing our best to be thought leaders in how God was inviting the church to show up in that time so we could co-create ways forward with other leaders in our parishes, missions, and ministries. 

As the pandemic continued, Tuesdays at Two continued to evolve as a network of parishes and leaders interested in redevelopment who came together to listen to the ways the Spirit was activating new and surprising gifts in the lives of our congregations and ministries. It was an invitation into transformation through listening to each other and to be open to being transformed precisely because we received the wisdom of the group as we grappled with different questions. In essence, it became a wisdom community in which every person was both facilitator and learner. We were traveling together into uncharted territory. We needed the wisdom that each person offered in that space.

Last week, in our discussion, one of the conveners of the group shared an article by Marcus Guest in which he argues that in an uncertain and complex world, the organizations that survive are those who have the most connections out in the community. He writes in the article,

“Quantum mechanics challenged physics orthodoxy — sub-atomic particles were not ‘things’ but ‘interconnections between things’ meaning the universe has no fundamental building blocks. Reality only exists as a complex web of interactions — a system of relationships.”

(You can read the whole article at https://marcusguest.medium.com/11-survival-of-the-best-informed-bf0c7cf505d5#62bb.)

Over the last 12 months, our parish has been creating new connections and relationships by taking a different approach to the use of our parish buildings and grounds. While having one larger tenant on the grounds provided for a large amount of revenue to the parish, it also left us open to financial crisis when that one tenant left for a larger space. Instead of attempting to repeat that, which likely would not have been possible anyway because of commercial real estate market, we have been actively seeking out other community organizations to use our spaces for their meeting needs. From recovery groups to faith communities to homeowners’ associations to a micro-school, we have increased the total number of connections and relationships we have within the community, and of course, we have been able to realize fairly reliable rental income from each group making use of our parish grounds. 

If we are able to take a step back and look at the whole picture, we are quickly becoming a place in which people in our community gather to be with one another. The hospitality we have extended out to the community is creating new invitations as people learn about our facilities and our willingness to work with different groups to meet community needs. 

As more groups approach us, we continue to create new relationships and new connections. In the language of quantum mechanics, we are defining a new reality for our parish and for the community around us because of the interconnectedness we are realizing. In the language of community organizing, we might say that we are actively defining the future in which we hope to exist: as a place in which people gather to be knit together in relationship, to be connected in hope, to grow together in faith, and to serve one another in love. 

As the call for Tuesdays at Two was ending this week, one of the conveners wondered aloud what church might be if we understood ourselves to be storefronts for human relationship - a place where people are able to come together to be together. I think that is a wonderful vision of living into Christ’s reconciling mission in the world, and I think it is absolutely part of what we have visioned for ourselves as a parish in this part of God’s creation. Here, we are a storefront in which people get connected to one another, and through our interconnectedness, we grow into the fullness of the image of God. 

As we move into the future we are creating, we are going to have some growing pains that come with it, and it will be easy enough for us to want to fall back into the “old way” of doing things. Or, perhaps we will be tempted to only do things the same way we have always done them. I think part of how we “boldly confess Christ as Lord and Savior” is by leaning into the future that we are creating and by asking where we see possibility as we grow into being a community of gathering, a community of relationship, a community of connections.

In Christ,

Hunter+