All About Love

​I’m in the middle of the writing phase of my DMin project (Doctor of Ministry) in Public Theology at Drew University. We are scheduled to graduate in August. This has been an amazing and interesting experience not the least of which is influenced by the pandemic.
 
Our lead mentors are part of the Middle Project, a non-profit multi-faith, multi-cultural, anti-racist group. The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is lead pastor at Middle Collegiate Church in NYC. Very cool East Village neighborhood with a lot of life and energy.
 
In a tragic turn of events, Middle Church was destroyed by fire early in the morning of December 4, 2020. It was of course empty at that hour but had been empty anyway due to the pandemic. They have been worshipping remotely via technology for over a year now. No meetings in their building what-so-ever.
 
Middle is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-orientation, multi-faith, multi-everything church! They have close to 1500 members now and their worship is so energetic. Even streaming worship on the internet captures the life and times of this congregation as they overcome this awful event and work to rebuild.
 
Middle has a Sesame Street-like puppet thing for the “Message for All Ages” like a “Young People’s Message.”  They will do very moving stuff like “Blackbird” from the Beatles with a liturgical dancer. Amazing! Their singers do songs like “How Deep Is Your Love?”—yes, the Bee Gees. You can imagine, this just fires me up.
 
You know what’s really interesting? Since the pandemic began, over 200 new people have joined their church just from online new member classes, Zoom small groups, streaming worship. All that.
 
It is just over-the-top incredible!
 
The Spirit is on fire!
And the common thread is true love.
“Revolutionary Love” is something they talk about all the time at Middle.
 
Love is something we all share in common no matter our faith tradition. We’re all about love. All of us. Love of God (or whatever label we use), love of neighbor, love of community, love of self.
 
How do we love each other?
How do we do for each other?
How do we live it out?
 
It’s the “New Commandment” right out of Jesus in John 13: 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
 
What’s that look like? More important--what’s that feel like?
Well, stick around and watch what happens!
 
Fairmount Church is obviously still doing almost everything online while the pandemic numbers continue to rage all around us. Most of you are getting the vaccine or getting your doses scheduled as you become eligible. We’re doing all the things we need to do to protect each other in order to be ready to come back together in person as soon as possible.
 
The engagement level for our worship online is huge! It’s on par with churches many times our size. There’s no reason to stop worship streaming online even when we return to in-person meetings. The technology just extends our footprint! It just extends the love.
 
We’re just trying to be church and get through this pandemic to do our discernment work later this year. What is God calling us to do and be post-pandemic? What is the Spirit pushing us to do and be?
 
How are we following Jesus?
That’s all about love.
It’s bigger than you and me.
It’s deep.
It’s wide.
It’s profound.
 
Your session is committed. I am committed. And you too are committed.
It shows in your engagement.
 
Jump in and watch what happens!
The Spirit is on fire!
The Spirit is kicking us around!
What’s next for us?
Let’s just see what happens.
It’s all about love.
 
Grace & Peace,
Scott