I write this article sitting at gate 10 of Dallas Love Field, waiting to board my flight back to North Carolina after a whirlwind trip to Texas. I was there to take part in introductory meetings around the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Thriving Congregations Initiative — a program funded through Lilly Endowment aimed at strengthening Christian congregations so they can help people deepen their relationships with God, build strong relationships with each other, and contribute to the flourishing of local communities and the world.
Participating congregations receive opportunities to cultivate qualities of thriving by gaining clarity about both their own gifts and convictions and also the needs and opportunities in rapidly changing ministry contexts. This process cultivates five distinctive qualities of thriving congregations: holy tenacity, compelling clarity, faithful agility, rooted relationships, and dynamic collaboration. Ultimately, the initiative invites congregations to design new ministries that fully utilize their gifts to meet an urgent need through “holy experimentation.”
Over the next year, a small team of members will gather around this opportunity to conduct experiments in the way we engage on mission — embodying the healing ministry of Jesus in our neighborhood. The timing of this invitation is exceedingly good in Yates’ life. As we reckon with the new world wrought by the past few years of the pandemic, everyone we meet bears wounds — whether physical, spiritual, social, economic, or relational. We know Jesus the Great Physician has work for us to do to bring a Spirit-empowered, healing touch in our congregation and our neighborhood.
As a way of helping us understand what this ministry design might look like, we stepped out of church and into Globe Life Field — the next-generation ballpark that is home to the Texas Rangers. The ballpark is a marvel of engineering, and we wanted to learn more about its design. Our tour guides were the chief architects, and they talked for hours about the process by which they create spaces of welcome and meaning.
I like those words — thriving and renewal. I hope you do, too. They have been at the center of my prayers for our church as we consolidate and listen for God’s call to participate in God’s healing of our wounded world. As we make our way through the summer, the seeds planted in our soil this week will be germinating and growing. I hope that you, with me, will pray for this process of innovation as we seek to go — and grow — on mission.
Grace and Peace,