Dear NT-NL Leaders:

This is one of those rare years when the liturgical calendar lines up so that Ash Wednesday is on Feb 14th, St. Valentine’s Day. It may seem less rare to us because it just happened in 2018 and will happen again in 2029. However, that will be the last time it will occur this century and prior to that it had not occured since 1945. So we get this event three times in the span of 12 years, making it relatively commonplace for us. When the multitude of clergy in the past century and those coming after us this century never did or will.

This clustering got me thinking about how easy it is in leadership to assume our experiences are normative. Because it has happened to us with some frequency we assume it is going to happen that way in the future or must have been so in the past. In so doing we can try to apply formulaic approaches to our current challenges and then wonder why they are not flourishing. Context matters and we have learned that lesson over and over again in the past four years.

Four years ago in early February my spouse and I were leading an NT-NL group on a journey through Turkey and Greece. Talking about early church leadership and leading adaptively in crisis. We could not have imagined, as we heard initial reports of cases of this virus Covid-19 growing, how our lives our that of our communities would be forever changed, and how many lives we would lose, in the coming years. How we would be forced to lead adaptively in a crisis and think differently about community and all the things we took for granted.

By and large we, the communities and leaders that make up NT-NL, have done that work. It hasn’t been easy and often it has been costly. Our relationships changed, some didn’t survive, but other new ones have been made. New ideas and practices based in what works in a particular context have taken root and many are growing new branches. Indeed, as I visit congregations I am hearing more stories of hope and possibility, along with of course challenge and grief, than I have heard the last four years.

However, as we this cluster of Valentine’s and Ash Wednesday we cannot assume we have it figured out. That it will be this way for the forceable future. No we must continue to adapt and learn if we are to be effective in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in our ever changing reality. And what doesn’t change, what never changes, is that gospel of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:8). That even on Ash Wednesday when we are reminded of our mortality, the gospel is proclaimed.

So this Valentine’s Day enjoy this unique confluence of our popular culture’s obsession with romantic love with the ashs of our mortality. And remember God’s adaptive solution to our sin and death, God’s love poured out in Christ for you and for the life of the world. Remember so you may go forth and tell the world.

In Mission Together,

Bishop Gronberg