The richness and trouble of scripture still is profound to me. All these years of faith later; all these intellectual studies of theologies and doctrines and theories later; all these seasons of exaltation and despair later. Scripture has been present in all of it. Comforting me. Confounding me. Questioning me.

Seasons of new life, of brokenness, death, laughter, changes, and boring routines are chapters in all of humanity’s experience. This ministry, Grace Outrageous Ministry, with its GO Gatherers and GO Gatherings and Going into the future has experienced, also, all of those seasons.

The great King Solomon with his deep wisdom and addictive behaviors has become more of a scriptural friend of mine. He is kind of an odd one to befriend but hear me out. His love of God present and he had a strong desire to follow the tenants of the faith. And yet… WHEW did he struggle with the powers and principalities of darkness. The addiction of the materialistic STUFF and to women and the love and abuse of power pulled him again and again further from the loving, gracious presence of God. The great battle with his soul endured for many seasons of his life and while the battle raged on, there was, somewhere within, the continual love, wisdom, and presence of God. We see it in the king’s writings:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (MSG)

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Look at those seasons. Pause. Read them. Can you assign years to those seasons? I can. I can assign 2014 to lamenting; 1986 for birth; 2005-08 for searching; 1996 for crying. I can review my life and see how certain years stand out for seasons of change in my story and also see how seasons overlap and intertwine.

I can do the same in the seasons of my faith life. Many events in my childhood were seasons of destruction. My mid 20’s brought about the growth of my faith. I was learning things that in other seasons I would unlearn… or rather learn that they did not reflect the full interpretation of scripture. My mid 30’s began the true love of scripture, the love of my faith. I have had seasons of waging war against it… and against God as life events brought me to my knees. I taught and preached on topics that I have a very different understanding of now. I listen to old sermons and cringe a bit. My faith season now is one of speaking up and speaking out. Against walls and hate and name calling and exclusion.

The seasons that tell stories of true of this ministry, too. We celebrated births, mourned deaths, and endured changes. The most recent comes with the decision to close our physical location. This was a decision that did not come easily. At all. However, it ultimately was due to our desire to be responsible stewards of the donations our GO Gatherers provide to keep the life of this ministry alive. Paying rent and expenses on a space that we only were physically at a few times a month was simply not the right thing to continue doing. The ministry is fortunate to have people who have offered spaces for us to use when we do have the need to gather in a more formal space.

With this change and with my new season of life, the vision team has decided to shift the ways the ministry reaches out into all the nations and into the lives of people on this journey of life. We will be creating a more active social media community, plan more gatherings for outreach opportunities to serve (shelters and food pantries) and new ways to engage the scriptures through online learning opportunities.

Let me be clear – I NEED YOUR INPUT! I need your ideas, your critique, and your help. All of this does not come naturally from talents and knowledge. If you have ideas on how to engage the online community better and in more current ways, please tell me. If you come across a way of learning and engaging the scriptures through online groups, tell me. If you see some way that we are trying something and it is not working, tell me. This is your season to speak up!

I am learning and growing in this, as I go. Yet, another new season for me! A season to reap and to construct.

Let’s enter into this together. Stay tuned and watch for what is coming up. Share your stories, reach out to me for prayer, questions, doubts, life’s journeys, and celebrations. We go into this next new season with open hands to receive, raised hands to praise, and hearts ready to receive more and more of Jesus. Less us. More Jesus.

A new venture in the future will be podcasts. How this will look and the format is to be determined (more to learn!) so stay tuned. AND AGAIN, if you have info to help us launch this, please reach out.

Changing Seasons