A New Day at Highland Hills

Last night as a part of our quarterly town hall meeting, I had the opportunity to share some exciting things that are “dawning” in the life of the church. The room was packed, but good news bears repeating!

It has been two and a half years since you all called Ethan and I to Co-pastor the church. I have been affectionately referring to this as a grand experiment, both to call pastors so young and to call two instead of one. In those two and a half years, much of the work of the church has been to heal and find ways to enjoy being together again. 

But now is the time for something new.

With the start of Lent just next week, the church will begin a season of discernment and calling. We will spend a better part of this year discussing how God has called people before and praying for clarity in how God is calling us as a church today. Following CBF’s Dawnings program, throughout the year a leadership team of representatives from different parts of our church body will help lead 4 different listening sessions. Those sessions will happen later in the spring and fall. This process of Dawnings will hopefully give us as a church a better understanding of who we are, and who God has called us to be. 

Ethan and I are also beginning leadership training through something called the Iwa Collective as we begin to consider how we as a church might “remission” ourselves for God. Beyond a simple revitalization where we hope to enhance our current programming, remissioning raises the question, “If Highland Hills were to disappear overnight, would our neighbors notice?” Our hope is through the remissioning process, the answer will slowly but surely become an overwhelming yes. We believe that God has called Highland Hills to faithful presence before, and will do it again. By engaging in the work of remissioning, we think that God will show us what our future as a church body will be. I’m sure we all have guesses or hopes for where we will land, but I take heart in knowing that we are doing our best to build only with God’s guidance, not our own, lest we build it in vain (Psalm 127:1).

There is a lot more to be said here about our next steps of faithfulness as a church, and this is but one small step in that direction. But suffice it to say, it is a new day that God has given us to minister here on Briarcliff. For that and so much more we say, thanks be to God!