Dear First Baptist Family:
I am still marveling at last Sunday and the giant step we took together into a new season of life and ministry for this congregation we love.
Deepest of thanks to our Moderator of the past seven years, Rod Coates. During Rod’s tenure, FBC affirmed full inclusion of LGBTQ+ siblings; began the process of renovating the sanctuary building, tearing down the old office and education building and replacing it with a new, fully accessible community building; launched a capital campaign; and hired Ministry Architects to help FBC reimagine congregational life in the 21st century.
Rod, as you lay your gavel down, we say thank you, Mr. Moderator, for your many labors of love in service of Christ and First Baptist Church.
An Invitation to “Beginner’s Mind”
Now, as we move forward together, I invite you to the same practice as last summer, as we were beginning our journey with Ministry Architects. As First Baptist Church learns new rhythms of congregational life, please let yourself adopt a posture of “beginner’s mind.”
Whenever you and I are beginners at something—whether gardening, or parenting, or Pickleball—we come at the experience with a sense of curiosity, humility, and even wonder. We have no idea what the outcome will be. There’s an innocence to our approach, a little like the way children engage the world.
By the time we’re deep into adulthood, a lot of us find ourselves trapped in what we might call “expert mind.”
Especially if we’ve done something before, our familiarity can hinder us from imagining new possibilities and different outcomes. Navigating the day in expert mind is a little like running around the track in a stadium. We see where we’re going. We’ve measured every step. We know what the finish line looks like. No surprises.
On the other hand, navigating the day with a beginner’s mind is more like exploring the deep woods with our flashlight and binoculars and compass. We leave room for curiosity and surprise and wonder.
When we come at things with a beginner’s mind, we get to experience the enthusiasm, curiosity, and joy of doing something as if for the first time:
Baking a cake.
Writing a poem.
Arguing a case.
Leading a Bible study.
Joining a small group.
Attending a meeting.
Reading the Bible.
There is a prayer I love by John Philip Newell that essentially asks for a beginner’s mind:
Open us to visions we have never known;
Strengthen us for self-givings we have never made;
Delight us with a oneness we could never have imagined…
May it be so.
In the Great Love,
