by Pastor Dan Baumgartner

To squeeze one last drop out of a tired old cliché- it’s hard to believe. Honestly. June 4th marked the completion of ten years for me as the Senior Pastor at Bethany. In 1999 our family returned to Seattle after a six year absence. Anne and I were excited and also had a healthy degree of fear. We were absolutely convinced that God had orchestrated the entire crazy idea, so that was reassuring. But the idea of returning as the pastor to a church we had attended…that was a little hard to imagine. We tried not to come. God had other ideas. Now we’ve blinked, and ten amazing years have passed.

In 1999, our son Jesse was almost 13 and entering middle school. Son Nick was 10 and headed into fifth grade. Our daughter Dana was just 7, going into second grade. Fast forward. Jesse just graduated from college in May, Nick has completed two years of college and Dana will be a high school senior. Oh my. It HAS been ten years.

I sat down to reflect a bit on these years, and amazingly 10 things came to mind. These are not “Bethany’s Top Ten Accomplishments” or “Dan’s Top Ten Pearls of Wisdom.” Rather, simply ten observations that came to me as I reflected on ten years in the Bethany community, in no particular order. But they seem important.

It’s Messy. Life is messy, lives are messy, friendships are messy, community is messy. Life happens in the mess. The goal is not to eliminate mess, but to find beauty, humor, God and one another in the middle of it.

Pay Attention. In these 10 years, this has increasingly become my personal refrain, my defining question: Are you paying attention? If I ever get my book written, I will squeeze these words in the title somehow. My very first day in the office at Bethany, someone asked me if I had the 10-year plan for Bethany figured out.

I laughed. I knew that God’s Holy Spirit was already at work here- it wasn’t waiting for me to show up to begin! So it seemed right to pay attention and try to notice what God was already busy doing in our midst. Queen Anne Avenue, local coffee shops, the Wednesday Night Dinner– all places filled with the Spirit, if we’re paying attention.

It Takes All Kinds. In a community of people following Jesus, the goal isn’t to become more and more like each other. Rather, the opposite. How do we appreciate different gifts, personalities and people? Why did the Apostle Paul spend so much time comparing the church to the parts of a human body? Because a healthy community needs all kinds of folks to be healthy. Musicians, artists, leaders, followers, speakers, caregivers, question-askers, consensus-builders, contrarians, mature faith, new Christians…it takes all kinds.

The more we appreciate the differences, the better we exhibit the Kingdom of God. The African proverb has it right: “If you’re going to go fast, go alone. If you’re going to go far, go together.” I want to go far, and together means journeying with all kinds of folks.

Resist Being a People Pleaser. Tough one. Everyone has an opinion, which is to be listened to and valued. But everyone has an opinion. If we did everything to try to please all the people around us, we’d go batty. Quickly. Try to figure out what God is asking for. Go from there.

Make Decisions When You Have To. This one comes right out of USC President Steven B. Sample’s book The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership. It runs counter to the “don’t procrastinate” message which is usually so helpful. But I’ve tied myself into knots stressing about decisions which not only don’t have to be made right in the moment, but may be much more apparent closer to the deadline. Knowing yourself well enough to distinguish between procrastination and patient discernment is sheer maturity. I hope to have some at some point.

Resist Doing Things the Way They’ve Always Been Done. At least ask the question. The default is almost always to precedent. The conversation almost always starts with “the way we’ve always done it is…” Why? It need not be. If we are following Christ, we are free in many ways. Surely we can be free to at least consider different ways of doing things.

Hunches Are Often Good. Often they are meant to be followed. Sometimes they are of the Lord. How many times have I had a gut feeling, not followed it, and realized later I have missed a prompting from God or a rich opportunity? Of course there are other “voices” in existence. But most often fear that ends in inertia is a bigger barrier to God than inaccurate hearing.

Live Thankfully. It’s the only way. We don’t have all the answers, bad things do happen to good people and yet- there are always reasons for thanksgiving near at hand. The intentional and disciplined cultivation of a thankful spirit leads to a soft heart. My prayers of thanks regularly include our family at Bethany, a great team of colleagues on staff, and the inexplicable presence of the Holy Spirit in worship times and many other places.

Pursue Silence. I’m scared. I think we are increasingly discarding our opportunities to listen, to think, to reflect, to pray. Headphones, cellphones, bluetooths, podcasts, computers, iPhones represent amazing technological advancement. They also represent an enormous amount of noise. I see them more and more in use during those times and places once used for thinking or praying or reading- while walking, jogging, riding buses. We are receiving an unprecedented amount of information.

But where is the space to process it, the silence to listen for God’s direction, the time to mull and discern? Maximum information is not the goal. A heart connected to God is. We have to battle for adequate time to cultivate this.

I’ve been leading a number of small group retreats recently. The most powerful parts of the weekends seem to come from the simplest thing - regular, enforced quiet times on the beach, sitting, walking, being. Rocket science? Of course not. Rare? Increasingly.

Jesus is Everything. Sure, that’s what pastors are supposed to say, right? My deepest conviction is that our world is absolutely crying out for God to save us- from ourselves, from one another, from sin- even while we increasingly resist Him. Proud of our standard of living or scientific progress, we come face to face with the facts of these last 10 years.

• September 11, 2001.
• Iraq.
• Afghanistan.
• Ethnic Cleansing of Kosovo
• Darfur.
• Growing disparity between rich and poor.
• Growing addictions, gluttony, materialism in some places, starvation and malnutrition in others.

Coming face to face with the fact of God’s love in Jesus, and His presence in the Holy Spirit changes people and life like nothing else.

It has been my great privilege to get to see God at work in and through all of you in the Bethany community in these ten years. It is my great pleasure to call you friends. And it is my great hope that we will together “fix our eyes on Jesus” more and more in the days and years ahead.