In the Sunshine

I am writing these instructions so that … you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. – 1 Timothy 3:14b–15 (NRSV) 

Timothy knows how to behave in church. He knows how to grow us. 

We sit on the edge of our chairs in growing season. Organizers, like Paul and Timothy, till the truth. We repot our plants, because we know what it means to be root bound. Bound roots happen from gossip, the mean use of the tongue to displace pastors or discredit lay leaders. We outgrow our pots when we talk only in stringy circles in the dark of the pot. 

We also turn our big plants towards the sun, which shifted while winter was becoming spring. You can force forsythia to bloom; you can’t force truth. You must wait for it. You must say it and test it out loud in the sunshine, not the parking lot. 

Many congregations are developing behavior covenants. They earnestly want to bring their worlds into alignment with truth. It’s not easy. Gossip compacts the dirt. Tilling aerates the truth. The grumblers who gossip and triangulate against direct personal communication are rumbling in many of our churches. We do need behavioral covenants. We also need to be repotted, turned toward the sun. We need to learn manners. We need to understand that aggressions, no matter how micro, hurt.  

Covenants, like plants, are not meant to be filed away in dusty spaces, to be left in their original pot with a tight tangle of roots. We need repotting to grow. 

Prayer
Turn our plans to face the sun and set our churches on resolana, “the sunny side of the street.”

About the Author
Donna Schaper is an interim Pastor at the United Church of Gainesville, Florida, and author, most recently of Remove the Pews—first from your theology, then from your building.