*Editorial Note: Awakenings 2025, our biennial National Gathering, is 3 months away! Join us the in the greater DC area on March 6th–8th. Your voice is needed as we wrestle with wholeness and beauty in the life the Church. In light of this, we asked our 2024 Writing Fellows for a short reflection on the integration of these two disparate themes in their own local contexts. What follows is the second of three co-authored reflections, a beautifully holistic integration indeed! ~CK

Beauty in Mature Faith

I walked into a hospital room to greet an elderly congregation member I had not yet met, still young in my journey of ministry. Cast on her leg, stuck in a hospital bed, she greeted me, then looked out the window, and said, “I just love the sky when it is this blue.” She was instantly beautiful to me in that moment. My first thought in response was, “I hope I can be like her at her age.”

In a society where we value youth, the elderly are easily dismissed as irrelevant. We spend a fortune on products to cover up the signs of aging. Wrinkly skin and graying hair are deemed undesirable. The longer I spend in the church, however, I see beauty in the folks who have aged. It radiates from a woman (north of ninety years old) who once introduced herself as “Anne, old as dirt.” It sparkles in the eyes of Joyce, who prays with Anne before church services. They write out their prayers and give them to me. While we chase young families and seek out the opinion of those in their prime, there is something lovely embodied by the aging ones. Their faith has travelled many miles and still finds a home in the arms of God. Similarly, their fidelity consistently finds their way to a pew of a Sunday gathering. Covered in the aging but deeply wise costume of that which we spend so much energy avoiding, the tenacity of their faith is a gift of beauty to the church.

~ Amanda (Mandi) Hecht, 2024 Writing Fellow

While we chase young families and seek out the opinion of those in their prime, there is something lovely embodied by the aging ones. Their faith has travelled many miles and still finds a home in the arms of God. Share on X

Wholeness & Beauty: Whose Voice is Driving the Conversation?

When I think about exploring how the church can embody wholeness and beauty as a missional witness, the pragmatic side of me wonders: Whose vision of these things will drive the conversation? Of course we all agree it should be Jesus, but if church history has taught us anything, it is that churches tend to bend centripetally towards the voices of those in the center. Part of this is practical: At a certain point it’s really time consuming and inefficient to try leading a group from the margins. If we want to get anything done, there’s nothing quite like appointing a leader and letting them make the tough choices, setting the vision for the road ahead. We all want a Moses to come down from the mountain and show us how God wants us to live. 

And yet – the biblical and historical evidence shows the folly of this tendency. As Paul argues, Christ intended for us to be a whole body, with Christ, not a pastor or a board of leaders, as the head (See Ephesians 4:11-16 and Colossians 1:15-20 as examples of Paul’s thinking here). Followers of Christ have released vision casting and dreaming to our own detriment, and to the detriment of the church’s missional witness.

The best antidote to this is a church that recognizes that Jesus is just as present (perhaps even more so!) at the margins as he is at the center. As we seek to embody greater wholeness and beauty as a church, let us be aware of the ways that we elevate certain voices over others. Let us seek out those at the margins, those who we do not see or hear as often. And let us embrace the slow, sometimes frustrating work of letting the Holy Spirit lead the Body of Christ on God’s own terms.

~ Benjamin Park, 2024 Writing Fellow

As we seek to embody greater wholeness and beauty as a church, let us be aware of the ways that we elevate certain voices over others. Let us seek out those at the margins, those who we do not see or hear as often. Share on X

Beauty in Paying Attention

In a capitalist society, we learn to see others as means to our own ends. A friend of mine recently described her emotions upon receiving an email that she thought was personal, connecting her with a program opportunity that would be meaningful for her. She said she felt so seen and known. Then she realized that the person was merely going through their contacts and sending out emails because the program they worked for was struggling, and they needed new participants. I’d venture to say that we all have experienced ways in which most communication to us does not actually show genuine care for us. 

What if the Body of Christ was made up of people who actually pay attention to each other, listen well, and get to know each other with no strategic goals in mind? I think this would be beautiful in at least two ways.

1. Firstly, this level of attention would be a compelling witness to how we are known by God who calls us by name. Remember, God needs nothing from us, but chooses to invite us into a life and love that is personal and full of steadfast love and mercy that hears, sees, and responds to us.
2. Secondly, paying attention to others is one way that we grow in discerning how the Spirit is at work among us, creating the beauty and wholeness of the new creation in our midst. Isn’t this the invitation of God in our maturity as a whole? May it be so.

~ Emily Beth Hill, 2024 Writing Fellow

What if the Body of Christ was made up of people who actually pay attention to each other, listen well, and get to know each other with no strategic goals in mind? I think this would be beautiful. Share on X