By Tere Tyner Canzoneri

I joined Oakhurst Baptist Church in January 1979 after my first quarter at Candler School of Theology.  Although the church wasn’t everything I was looking for, it did share my commitment to social justice ministry and it was (as far as I could discern) the only Baptist church in town that would consider ordaining a woman to the ministry.

It was not a large congregation and they put me to work pretty quickly. At the time everyone was expected to be in at least one mission group, on at least one committee and twice a year be part of a small group that studied the church covenant which begins with the following sentence: “We are together only to be the church of God in Christ. We are not here by chance, but God through grace is making of us a fellowship to embody and to express the Spirit of Christ.”

A large copy of the covenant hangs at the front of the sanctuary. It affirms the radical inclusivity of the community and includes the following commitments:

• I will gather regularly with the church to worship God, share the good news, and continually examine its implications for my life.
• I will study the Bible, meditate, and pray so that I will more fully experience the presence of God.
• I will also be sensitive to God’s message as it comes to me from persons, history, the arts, nature, current happenings in the world, and other sources.
• I will be responsible to God through the creative use of all my income and possessions. I will give systematically and even sacrificially to the financial support of our church’s ministry.
• I will discover and affirm the gifts God has given me and use them in God’s service; I will evoke, affirm, and celebrate the gifts God has given to others.
• I will intentionally give myself as Christ’s servant through participation in His mission in the world.
• I will offer to know and love my sisters and brothers in this fellowship, and I am willing to be known and loved by them.

These intentions direct the life of the church.

If I want to embody God’s love in this broken world (and most of the time I do) then being part of this community has been a good way for me to go about it. A person could spend a lifetime on any one of the covenant intentions. No one person could ever live the covenant fully. But within the community there is always someone who is committed to each of the intentions and among us we call each other to take the whole seriously.

If I want to be part of God’s mission in this world (and most of the time I do), then I need people whose calling to live that out is similar enough to mine that we can collaborate. No one can person live it out alone. I learned early on that if I tried to do everything I thought needed doing that I would be dead and the world would be just as full of need. My job as a Christian was to discern what I was called to do, my sliver of kingdom work, and support others who were doing their sliver, and trust God to bring fully this kingdom that was already, though not yet, here.  I need my sisters and brothers to remind me of this balance.

If I want to understand God’s word for me and for others (and most of the time I do), then I need those who challenge my thinking.  Both those whose ideas are similar to mine and those with whom I disagree; people who share my experience of God and those who understand God quite differently from me but who nonetheless are willing to stay in conversation and break bread with me.

My work as a pastoral counselor is based on my deeply held conviction that each and every person on the planet is made in the image of God and is Beloved by God. Most of us, however, have had too much hurt, failure, and confusion to experience ourselves that way. It is as if the beautiful stained glass window we are has become covered in mud making it difficult for the light of God to shine through us. In the process of the Christian life we discover that image of God inside us and let the love and grace of God wash the mud off the stained glass. This changes how we know ourselves and we naturally express more of God’s loving presence into the world. We are reconciled with God, self, and others. The result is increased freedom, increased self-expression, increased love.

This doesn’t happen alone. It happens in relationship. It happens in community.

Oakhurst is not a perfect place.  Passions run high. There have been some long, heated battles.  Plenty of people have left in disagreement or hurt.  Many times I have been glad not to be a pastor or having my turn as a church leader.  At times the main reason I have stayed was that I like being in the choir.

Nonetheless, through the years this church has become my family.  I am known and loved and can be myself when I am sad or joyous, wise or silly, over-committed or lazy, conflict mediator or trouble maker, full of questions or entirely too sure of myself. I have been forgiven and celebrated, consoled and enjoyed.  I can know myself as God’s Beloved because these folks love me. And as I love them I experience again how deeply, wrecklesslessly each of us is loved by God.

Oakhurst has just entered the CBF Dawnings process.  We are excited as a community to spend time listening to who God would have us to be, what God would have us to do, in this next season of our life. We expect in the process to know more about God, ourselves, and the larger church as we hear how other CBF churches answer these questions.

We are not here by chance.  God knows us and loves us and calls us to places and people where God can use us to love and support each other and to also love and serve the world.  In the process we know more of God as Creator, Embodied Love, Wisdom and Comfort beyond human comprehension. This happens in community.

We are not here by chance, but God through grace is making of us a fellowship to embody and to express the Spirit of Christ. Thanks be to God.

Tere Tyner Canzoneri is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s member care and wellness manager, providing avenues for pastoral care for CBF field personnel. This post was presented at CBFDay at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, Ga.