WASHINGTON — Life in the intertidal zone — the region above water at low tide and beneath it at high tide — is diverse, active and adapted to an environment of harsh extremes — an ideal metaphor for the Christian journey, Ricky Creech told delegates at the District of Columbia Baptist Convention annual meeting Dec. 3.
Sometimes it's high tides that bring success, sometimes it's low tides, Ricky Creech told the DCBC. (Religious Herald photo by Robert Dilday)
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“The tides speak to us of potential success,” said Creech, executive director/minister of the DCBC. “Sometimes it’s high tide that brings success, sometimes it’s low tide.”
That image took hold in Creech’s mind as leaders grappled with developing a new strategic vision for the 150-church convention, he said.
Earlier this year the DCBC embarked on a “Journey of 180” — 60 days of discernment, 60 days of dialogue and 60 days of dreaming — designed to develop a strategic vision. The result was to have been a proposal for realignment to be presented at the convention’s annual meeting.
But “the story was interrupted,” Creech said, as leaders determined that a period of reflection was necessary before moving forward with a new vision. Delegates at the DCBC meeting agreed to a two-year “season of Jubilee” for churches to build trust and intentional relationships as they consider their common future.
“Abundant life doesn’t happen on the straight line of the interstate,” Creech said. “The best of life happens in the twist and turns of two-lane roads, dirt roads, beaten down paths, and paths created by our own hands and feet.”
Creech said the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem in the final weeks of his life as a slow movement through towns and villages where he engaged in preaching, teaching and healing.
“Jesus had a destination,” Creech said. “He knew his destination. He’s marching to Jerusalem to his death. But he doesn’t take the quickest route. He’s not lost. It’s not just about the destination. It’s about the journey. He could have made better time, but he didn’t. He stopped along the way.”
That may have been the lesson of the “Journey of 180,” Creech said — for the DCBC community to slow down.
In reflecting on the strategic vision process, another tidal image came to mind, Creech said — the “standstill.”
“The standstill is the moment between journeying tides,” he said. “It’s when the ecological system pauses to prepare for the changes and shifts that may be coming. Without a standstill between tides, the shifts of water would be so dramatic it would damage the ecosystem of the intertidal zone.”
That zone is highly variable and often hostile, Creech said. At low tide, organisms lay eggs in the dry sand and fiddler crabs and birds come out to feed. When the water returns, fish feed on what has been left behind.
“But the organisms have adapted to and even exploit those harsh conditions,” he said. “This community lives on the edge and it’s one of the most intense places in the world. Edges are the most abundant places for life.”
That may be why Jesus used the metaphor of fishers to describe his disciples, Creech said. “Jesus modeled life on the edge. The greatest theologians and thinkers and changers were men and women who camped on the edge.”
For the Christian community, living on the edge may at times mean remembering that the destination is not as important as the journey, Creech said.
“Perhaps as a community we need to learn to slow down, to adapt to the ebb and flow, to create spaces, to embrace the life of Jesus Christ — while all the time moving forward because standstill lasts only for a moment and then the tide shifts direction.”
Embrace that standstill moment, he said, and “at the appointed time, move forward knowing full well our future story will be found in journey between the tides while nurturing our community that dwells on the edge.”
Robert Dilday (rdilday@religiousherald.org) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.
Related story:
Two-year ‘season of Jubilee’ will prepare D.C. Baptist Convention for strategic realignment