pat loughery

[This is a cut-n-paste of an email I just sent. Rather than rewrite it for this blog, I’m just posting it.]

Perhaps some of you have heard this news but most probably haven’t. Tomorrow Mt. Si Vineyard is gathering for the last time to worship together, eat breakfast, celebrate the Advent of Christ, tell stories, laugh, sing, and say goodbye. I know I have some weird ideas, but it sounds to me like we’re having a good ol’ fashioned Irish wake. Only with less whisky and more interest in how the Seahawks game is going.

The summary goes like this: through the fall, as we have become more and more clear as to our own identity as a people, we have lost several families – most moving out of the area – and after having a stead Sunday gathering of 30-35 for a few months, our regulars fell to half of that. We drew to a decision point, knowing that we faced many challenges ahead. Our leaders gathered together and once again placed the life of the church at the foot of the cross. We considered three options; first, continuing forward in the same form and hoping for the best; second, shutting down completely and calling it a good effort as we go our separate ways; and third, shutting down this expression of Mt. Si Vineyard, asking people to prayerfully seek their place in the local expressions of God’s kingdom, and either find another church to connect with and serve through, or to join us as we begin the early process of re-planting a church here in the Snoqualmie Valley. We chose the third option. Tomorrow is our last day gathering as Mt. Si Vineyard, and next Sunday evening in the Loughery home we will have dinner and the first gathering of whatever the next expression is.

All of our friends in this faith community are considering their options and are deep in prayer. Some indicate that they know they are called elsewhere; some indicate that they know they are called to join us next week; some are still undecided.

Some of you on this email are pastors of other churches in our valley. We have continued to tell our church how much we value the fellowship and unity that is here, and that there are probably two dozen churches that we can honestly and highly recommend to them. If you meet our folks, please treat them with compassion as these poor folks have had to deal being led by me for a few years 😉 Please ask your churches to keep us in prayer as we grieve the loss of this body but also wait in joyful expectation that God continues to move among and through us.

I’m incredibly proud that we have been a church who saw ourselves as participants in the mission of God and were active in serving our community. Last year we made a transition from servant evangelism as a primary outward-facing effort to more direct ministry to the poor, partnership with community service organizations, and giving away our time, money and attention to people whom God is seeking.

I’m incredibly proud that we pursued our vision in a way that had integrity for us, not giving in to the ever-present temptation of a quick fix for church growth. I’m incredibly proud that Sundays never became the be-all and end-all of the church’s life together, but simply the time for God to be glorified and for us to be equipped for the mission ahead. I’m incredibly proud that we were known as a people who were loving to each other, had servants’ hearts, were comfortable and hospitable to guests, and willing to risk everything in order to join God’s movement. I’m incredibly proud that we grew through the hard work of evangelism and building relationship with those not yet part of a believing community, and only ever had one couple who connected to our church directly after being involved in another local church. I’m incredibly proud that the Kingdom of God has grown much like yeast influences bread dough even though you can’t see it happening. I’m proud that we took the life and ministry of Jesus seriously and ourselves not so seriously.

As the pastor of this community, I’m proud that our most recent all-community project was a wonderful service to our community. During the Snoqualmie and North Bend festivals, our family photo booths served 263 families by giving them family portraits in the name of the God whose image we are all made in. When we heard over and over again how many of these families had never had a portrait done, we knew that this was a work of God through us for them. The project was the best thing we did, and we made the right choice to refuse any payment or donations for doing it in order to reflect God’s abundant gift to us.

As you might expect, while we are happy with the fruit we’ve seen in the last three years, we also know that God has something else planned ahead. We’re experiencing a sense of grief and curious about what lies ahead for each of us. We know bittersweet.

Thanks for your friendship and our relationship as we serve God together in our various locations and expressions and roles.

Frequently Asked Questions (which you may be seriously interested in or have no idea what I’m talking about)

1. How are your hearts in all this?

You can ask others for their answer, but as for Shannon and I, I can say that we’re on a roller coaster between grief and sadness on one end, and hope and joy on the other end. We know that we’re not done here, and we know that God is surrounding us with his comfort in all that we are now experiencing. The creative juices are flowing as we consider what might be.

On a positive note, our pregnancy is now at 11 weeks and healthy. Many of you know that the last 7 of those weeks have been traumatic as we lost a twin and Shannon was on bed rest. Last Monday we FINALLY had a positive ultrasound with no further concerns, and the doctor released Shannon to participate in life again. She responded by taking Kaileigh to the park to play on the swings and slides.

2. Was it because you started a job?

We survived two and a half years of church planting by relying on previous investments, Shannon’s business, and God’s provision. God’s provision recently became a job opportunity for me. It’s fascinating to me to look back and see God’s hand preparing us for this transition, though. For those of you ministers in the Snoqualmie Valley VMA, the reason we won’t be seeing each other in the near future is because I will be working in Seattle and just can’t get away from my work to gather with you, but I’ll continue to pray for you and us; and keep in email contact. Maybe even see one or two of you out and about.

3. Was it because you identify with parts of the emerging church?

Ooh, I knew somebody was going to ask that :-). Only God knows, but I do know that the things we are called to be – missional, relational, authentic in our discipleship, blending the best of contemporary and ancient spiritual practices, speaking the language of our culture in order to see what nonbelievers value, sermon forms that are discussion-based instead of lecture-based – and our mission/vision/values – those things continue to burn within us. God’s not changing our direction radically; if anything we feel more focused.

We’re not going to give up on these values and decide that the next time around we’ll be a Willow Creek or Saddleback style church; those are great, and they exist and thrive here in the valley, and that’s not what we’re invited to be. While there are parts of the conversation that is emerging church that I don’t at all relate to, much of it is helpful to me in considering mission and the place of the church in our moment in history. I feel excited to know that there are others who are considering similar issues and seeing that some have similar and some have wildly different outcomes.

I could write a book on this one, so if you ever want to talk about this one more, I’d love to do that. Over proper beverages, of course; perhaps even coffee. [Of course, if you have no idea what emerging church is, either ignore this paragraph completely or ask me and I’ll give you a couple of good resources]

4. Was it because of the location?

From day 1 of our planting efforts, we’ve believed that we were called to plant in the Snoqualmie Valley. We have considered other communities – Issaquah primarily – but while other places make a lot of logical sense, we haven’t felt God drawing us there. We love North Bend/Snoqualmie. We hope to live here all our lives. I can’t see planting a church and pastoring in a city that I can’t live in. However as I’ve said, we’ve placed everything back on the altar, or at the foot of the cross, or up in the air (pick your favorite illustration). It’s possible that the valley isn’t where we gather next, but highly unlikely in our current understanding of God’s call for us.

Separately, the building we chose to meet in was a great facility for us. A little funky in decoration style to be sure , but great people and a fun environment. Where else could we worship on a Sunday morning and then bring people over for Monday night football on the big screen TV and uncovering the pool tables? That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if our public gathering expression next time around is more indigenous to our community and to our passion to serve our community out where they are. We want to be a community resource on days other than Sunday.

5. Was it because church planting is too hard?

Gathering and shepherding a community of faith is hard. Especially given some of our rules of engagement about not stealing sheep, about working with the poor and broken and unchristians and nonchristians. It’s been incredibly difficult. But we know we’re supposed to do it again and learn from our first attempt. Whether that reflects stubbornness, insanity or discipleship may be an ongoing question…

6. Are you going to continue blogging?

Yeah, though the whole work thing sure cuts into my blogging time. I still don’t know to what extent I’ll process my thoughts and feelings out there, though. It’s hard to decide when to write personal things in the blogosphere. I’ll definitely have to change the location and name along the way.

7. Was it because you just wanted to rename the church to a shorter name?

No, but that’s definitely going to happen next time. What kind of idiot would use a 5-word name?

Feel free to email me with more questions if you’d like. Or call, or buy me a cup of coffee. Or ask the rest of the folks in Mt. Si Vineyard.
—
Pat Loughery, Pastor (425)888-VINE(8463)
Mt. Si Vineyard Church Community – North Bend, WA
pat@mtsi.org – http://www.mtsi.org – Blog @ http://www.mtsi.org/pat