Reignite

As our time of discernment and transition continues, again we reflect on the question, “What is God calling us to do and to be?” As previously noted, the board has put forward three key words to help us think about the redevelopment: 

Refresh. Renew. Reignite.

When I contemplate the word reignite in the context of redevelopment, I ponder some of the thoughts of Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks. In his book Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, Schultz maintains that every organization has a collective memory that creates a path for people to follow forward. Transformative lessons learned by Starbucks that inform its future include:

Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core…Don’t embrace the status quo. Find new ways to see...Never expect a silver bullet...Tell your story, refusing to let others define you... Stick to your values, they are your foundation...Find truth in trials and lessons in mistakes...Believe.  (Onward, p.309)

Just like Starbucks, St. Peter’s has a history full of transformative lessons that guide our future. 

Journeys to new worlds can be scary...Change is constant…When you’re wondering how you got to where you are and what to do next, God is there…Everyone is worthy of love and belonging…Love takes practice…Adapt towards strength…The one thing we cannot afford to lose is hope…Love is a renewable resource…Teachable moments surround us…Love takes practice…Relationships are important…We’re in this together...We are loved by God…We are called.

As we ask God to reignite our vision, we remember what God has taught us in the past. 

Our transformative lessons and our reignition come from deep, sacred places. In the beginning God formed us and breathed life into us. Then, came baptism and being made children of God and receiving the Holy Spirit who continues to inspire us. Lee Fjordbotten says that today, God promises to re-inspire us – and I would add re-ignite us – not once and for all, but ongoing. 

Fjordbotten  writes, “One professor used to say that ever since our fall from grace we have been trying to climb Jacob’s ladder. The Christ event, however, has ‘turned everything on its head,’ meaning that our efforts to climb up the ladder actually result in climbing down. The true solution for us is to let go and ‘fall up.’ That is not easy to do.”  

As we journey in and towards redevelopment, we need to be free as only God can make us free. Fjordbottom points out that that freedom might just be so radical that we’ll need to experience it anew each morning, by remembering our baptism, refocusing our thinking, and being reignited. This reignition does not arise from external circumstances, but from the Spirit who resides within each of us. 

“God is making a new heaven and a new earth.  God is renewing the entire creation.  Only God doesn’t do it from the top down or by rearranging the external circumstances of God’s children. Instead, God is changing our world—a world infected by hunger, violence, persecution, homelessness, the unequal distribution of wealth and health care, and indifference— into the Kingdom of God one [reignited] heart at a time.” (Jake Owensby, Finding God in Messy Places)  
 

God changes the world through reignited hearts that ache for peace and long for justice. Hearts that are committed to ending hunger and poverty. Hearts that embrace people across the world and across the street and tell them, in word and deed, that they are worthy of love and belonging. Hearts that refuse to allow shame to have a foothold. Hearts that have great compassion with others because they have great compassion with themselves. Hearts that know our redevelopment is about more than renovating a building.

Refreshment, Renewal, and Reignition, will begin and continue as we acknowledge that we are not the authors of this redevelopment story – God is. And, as Owensby might remind us, St. Peter’s is a vital part of the great story that God is writing. “And the ending of that story will be good. Very good.”

Onward,

Mark