Be Perfect-Agree With One Another-Live in Peace

¹¹ Finally, brothers and sisters, good-by. Try to be perfect. Pay attention to what I'm saying. Agree with one another. Live in peace. And the God who gives love and peace will be with you.-2 Corinthians 13:2

"Try to be perfect"; "Agree with one another"; "Live in peace."  Impossible words to live by, don't you think?  But these are the words on my mind as I start off three days of church politics at the NC Synod Assembly today.  Have I ever mentioned that I HATE church politics?  But I often find myself in the midst of it, whether attending assembling, sitting on my church council or simply discussing it with friends.

It is through these political channels though that we actually strive to "be perfect; agree with one another; live in peace."  Sadly, our means to that end is often littered with great imperfections, disagreements and verbal violence.  It is our very love for God that can bring out the worst in us.  Each of us has our own idea of who God is and what he wants from us and when others don't see him the same way, we think we need to defend God.  And that is what leads us to nasty church politics.

The good thing about Assembly though, is there is a lot of prayer and worship also.  It keeps recentering us and bringing us back to what we are supposed to be there for and reminding us of who we are and Whose we are.

As much as I dislike church politics, it is a necessary evil.  We NEED church community and to be a community, we need an identity.  We have to use the political avenue to define and redefine that identity.  It's that redefinition that brings out the bad politics, because even though we know change is necessary, it is also very difficult.

Please pray that good decisions will be made for the NC Synod of the ELCA over these three days and that after all is said and done, we will be able to continue to "try to be perfect; agree with one another and live in peace."

Father,
Watch over our gathering these three days.  Send your spirit to each voting member that we will be able to do your will.  Bring peace to the hearts of those who bear ill will and let them bring their grievences with a humble heart.  Amen.

Joys:  Looking forward to seeing some folks I haven't seen in a while; two month break on newsletters!; coffee ready when I woke up this morning