Conference Minister's Corner 7-29-2025

Sometime when I hear the same word used in different contexts I start to wonder if it is more than coincidence, but rather if it may be the Holy Spirit drawing my attention to something. In the past few weeks, the word that has stood out to me is the word “wild”.

The Reverend Antony Coleman was the preacher for the closing worship service at General Synod. It was one of the more inspirational sermons I’ve heard in a long time. His text for the sermon was the Pentecost story. But the crux of the sermon was about lawns and meadows. Now if you had told me beforehand that I was going to find a sermon about lawns and meadows to be inspiration, I would have told you that you are crazy. But Reverend Coleman suggested to us that we look for God predominately in our orderly, well-manicured, intentionally-nurtured places (much like our lawns are orderly, well-manicured, and intentionally-nurtured). However, the Pentecost story reminds us that God shows up in profound ways in places that are messy, unkempt, and disorderly (much like meadows are). In other words, God shows up in what is wild.

Two weeks later, I was sitting in worship planning with the Up-Out-On! Camp at Horton Center. The scripture they were considering was the emergence of John the Baptist as a prophet in the wilderness. They too were perseverating on what it means to find God in the wild. As a matter of fact, they would start the Vespers service with each person standing up and saying, “My wild ideas for Horton Center…for my church…for my life is…”

I tend to lean towards looking for God in what is structured and well organized. But these two experiences have me looking a lot more for God in what is wild. And you know what? I’m finding this is bringing me some comfort. There seems to be a lot of wild days right now, and it is good to know that God can be found right there with us in them.