Grace and peace!
We have all been living in this “in between” time for the last year. It isn’t what it was, and it’s not what it will be, and it is what it is. It has been a difficult and a complicated time.
These next three issues of the Network’s Connect Journal are going to tie together to form an arc.
- We begin with this issue. Our theme is “Grieve.” We know that there is grief. We encounter it every day. And we know that part of our task as people of faith and Christian public leaders is to accompany people in their grief. This is made more difficult this year when all of us are also experiencing grief. We think it is important to name this. We are immersed in grief like we never have been before. And yet God promises an Easter and a new beginning. How do we reconcile these things?
- Our second issue will center around the idea of “Re-Enter.” We know that at some point (hopefully soon!) the majority of people will be vaccinated and some form of herd immunity will become a reality. There will be a day (hopefully soon!) when we can take off our masks and can talk face to face, shake hands and maybe even hug. There will be a “new” that we will enter. We know it won’t look like what has been, that it will be something new. How will we enter this new time? What questions do we need to ask? What will we need to wonder? How will we re-enter our ministry and discern what God is up to?
- The theme of the third issue will be “Shift…Shifted…Shifting.” When something is broken and put back together, it may be whole but also different. Similarly, our ministries have been shifted. It will take time and energy to identify our new landscape, to assess the needs and to wonder about God’s imagination during this time.
Connect Journal exists to help you in your ministry. It is our hope that these three issues will stimulate you to think, to pray and to ask new questions.
Life today looks very different than it did a year ago. We suspect that it will look different in a year yet again. But we are confident in the promises of God to be with us. We are confident in God’s wisdom. And we are bold in asserting that our ministry will continue, and that we will be stronger together.
Welcome to the conversation!
God’s peace,
The Connect Journal Editorial Team
Connect Journal 