Dear Rose Park,
Yesterday morning I joined a few other pastors for breakfast at Deboer’s on Douglas. I had Oscar’s Breakfast Tacos with a bottomless cup of coffee; it was as good as it gets. If you’ve never been, or just haven’t been in awhile, let me know and I’d love to take you sometime.
After checking in, as pastors typically do, the conversation eventually landed on the church. We talked joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. We talked about how important it is for churches across the denominational spectrum to seek unity through mission rather than uniformity through positions. At one point though, one of the faithful pastors used two terms I wasn’t familiar with. He used the terms ‘centered set’ and ‘bounded set.’ The terms originate from mathematics, but have been applied to the church in recent years. I wasn’t the only one with a furrowed brow, so he explained using the imagery of shepherding: a bounded set is when you spend energy, time, and resources into building the fence to keep the sheep inside, but a centered a set is when you spend energy, time, and resources into building the well to draw the sheep towards the life-giving water.
As I sipped my coffee and nibbled on the crumbs from my tacos, I was struck by this image. Are we building a bounded set or a centered set? As we think about the global church, the future of our denomination, or even our own homes are we spending more energy in building the fence or building the well? As a pastor, I certainly hope I’m spending more time and energy reminding you of the well (the life-giving power of Christ) than I am of the fence (the so called rules and regulations that keep some in and others out).
This image also reminded me of the old saying: “you catch a lot more flies with honey than vinegar.” Perhaps we should be more concerned with drawing others to Christ with honey than building the fence and painting it with vinegar. I want to believe that if we can cultivate and encourage a heart for Jesus in the lives of those around us, then they will genuinely desire to be nearer to the well and further from the fence.
As we continue through the season of Lent, may each of us consider how our lives, relationships, and communities are constructed. Are we more concerned with the fence or the well?
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark