So That Nothing May Be Lost

As a spiritual director, one of the things I often do is ask people to reflect more deeply on their experience. This is not an opportunity to analyse or to critique. Instead, it is a time to look more deeply at our experience, to listen more carefully to the movements of God, to take that graced second look at things we may have missed the first time. I believe that God speaks to us through our human experience, sometimes in a language that is hard to understand. But it is still an important thing to do: looking more deeply so that nothing of what God has done may be lost.

So, this week, I hope we have had an opportunity to ask those we invited to church what that experience was like for them. What did they enjoy? What did they find surprising? What was strange to them? What made them feel uncomfortable? Again, this is not to analyse or conduct some kind of "customer survey", but to help those who came to church think more deeply about their experience. We need to enter into those conversations carefully - it is holy ground. But it can be an important ministry, holding open some space where God's call can still be heard.

One of the things that I have uncovered in my own spiritual life is that, yes, we first have that experience of God's call. Then we have the experience of understanding how to respond to that call, how what we have heard and known applies to our daily life. And this can take some time, can take a life time. If God truly has called these people to come to church, then maybe we have a responsibility to help them unpack and listen more carefully to what God is saying to them. All of us need help in that path of discernment. And I believe that one of the marks of a healthy church is that we move more and more into that ministry of being a discerning community. And this week we have an opportunity to do just that.

So, give them a call. Talk to them again. Ask them what it was like to come to church. Continue to show interest in that sacred part of their life. And if they are not sure what the experience was like, if they have some questions, maybe we can ask them back once again, ask them to "come and see".