Today started early with our first Tri-Conference Caucus at 6:30 in the morning. We are off to a great running start though, despite the sleepy eyes and coffee groans, with our UCC General Minister and President John Dorhauer taking some time to talk with us over our communion breakfast. His energy is better than the caffeine as he excitedly offers his support for the Together As One (TA1) resolution we bring to the Synod floor in just a few days. It’s hard to imagine life without my Connecticut and Rhode Island counterparts anymore - we’ve been together as one in every capacity from conference meetings to trainings, from Super Saturdays to websites so finally bringing it to the wider church seems eons behind the reality. 
 
Isn’t that how change in the church seems to work though? I mean true change - transformation, even. When the Spirit moves us in a direction she is inevitably much faster than our beloved congregational polity. It is a perpetual dance of innovation and tradition, leaping toward the new while honoring the timeless. I believe it was exactly what Prez. Dorhauer was saying; that it is time; that we have everything we need to faithfully move toward what we don’t know, to let go of that which no longer serves, to propel and move closer to the coattails of the Holy Spirit as she urges us, loudly, to follow her toward the mission of the church. We have everything we need. I know, at times, it doesn’t look like it. I know, at times, it doesn’t feel like it. But we do, we really, really, do have everything we need. Your finance committee is going tell you that you don’t have enough money, but you do. Your property committee is going to tell you that you don’t have enough space, but you do. Your outreach committee is going to tell you that you don’t have enough people and your pastoral relations committee is going to tell you that you don’t have enough time - but my friends, you do. 
 
If God is urging us, which God most certainly is doing, to catch up to what the church is becoming, God is asking that BECAUSE we have everything we need! How do I know? I know because nothing is impossible with God! We are not supposed to be able to do it all by ourselves my friends, we are a people of faith! We do all things through God. Let me ask you a tough question: if we only do the things that we know for sure we can do, then what do we need God for? We must leave room for God to do that which we can’t even imagine! We must leave room for Grace and Holy Spirit and Faith. We have everything we need, my beloved church, to become everything God needs us to be in this beautiful, crazy, broken world.