There’s a vital art, in church leadership (as in other fields I imagine), of pitching the ‘tone’ right in gatherings - formal & informal - when events around us are profoundly shaping & complexifying our emotions.
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Making space for anger, disappointment, bewilderment & frustration. While also seeking to sustain hope, love & patience, and to help people look for joy.
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Rarely is it possible to do all of these simultaneously. Sometimes we can make spaces where all can be named in turn. Often which we do first or last is a challenge. And sometimes we mis-judge the right order, or proportional space/emphasis for each.
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Yesterday’s @HodgeHillChurch Zoom ‘coffee & chat’ time was a case in point. I led with ‘joy’, when we needed to start with grief. It jarred. You could feel the dissonance. Thankfully, others tugged us to where we needed to be.
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And one of my wonderful colleagues concluded our time together by singing the original (Judy Garland) version of ‘Have yourself a Merry little Christmas’, and brought us to tears. And that made it right.
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So prayers, solidarity and much grace with all of you (us) who, in the coming days, have to set the ‘tone’. We’ll get it wrong, as well as right.
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But prayers that we’ll listen hard, to strain to hear the song that the angels are singing, with all of its complex harmonies - and join in as much as we’re able.
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