CB Signs of Life

Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks and my well-meaning goal of writing in the blog almost every day has really taken a hit. However, I am not giving up. It will just take some time to build the momentum. When I am not in the office it is hard to have time to sit down and sneak out a post, but I will work on it. Monday and Tuesday brought the CB Mission Northeast Board Meeting out it Pittsfield, MA. It was my first time going to a CB Board meeting and I went representing our Central Maine Cluster but also turned out to be the only one representing the great state of Maine. I won't go into all the details of the meeting, but we voted on a reorganization of the administrative/shepherd structure of CB and worked on tweaking the new covenant agreement that will bind the churches together in Association. There is much to do. From my own experience and talking to other pastors including some of the ones at the meeting, there is a real lack of connection between most or many of the member churches and the association. I myself have felt that as I struggled greatly with what it meant to be CB after we went through such a difficult time as a church three years ago and CB was silent both during and after. Now I understand more of why these things happened and I have made a personal choice to try to help correct these issues rather than just giving up on them. Some see the issue as one of commitment. I think really the heart of the matter is one of relationship. The churches need to sense, to "feel" a relationship with CB. And that will only be accomplished through people. First it must flow from those in leadership who will set the stage, prime the pump, be the example by reaching out and touching the local pastors. Then the local pastors can begin to replicate that with each other and lead their congregations into the covenant relationship that will build the Association between churches. This by itself will be a challenge as Randy Keely has so many churches spread over such a wide area with which to try to have contact with and so many of the cluster leaders are already busy pastors with congregations that absorb most of their time and energy. I do believe it can work though as we learn how to care better for one another and reach out to one another in love for the sake of the whole body of Christ. On another personal note, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some of the other pastors. I made many good contacts and started building some friendships. I came back exhausted, but also challenged and refreshed for the work here at Bean's Corner. It is that result-challenge and refreshment- that we need to help our brothers experience so that they will feel a relationship connection to CB Northeast.