My Final 2019 Blog
This will be my last blog post for 2019. Me and my family look back on a hectic, eventful but blessed year. We have switched jobs, moved provinces, bought a house, enrolled our children into new schools and activities and most importantly started making new friends. There were people lining the corridors of this transition without whom we couldn’t have made it. I think of Linda Littlejohn who so generously invited us into her home for the first two months of our stay in Surrey. The leadership team of City Centre who was ever supportive, understanding and encouraging as we adapted to our new environment. Jesus wasn’t kidding when He said that whoever shall leave family and friends for the sake of the Kingdom, shall find many other family and friends. It’s one thing about Jesus you can bet on: He is who He says He is and He speaks truth. We found a family of faith at City Centre Church.
It is funny how you sometimes long and chase after many things without success and then one day something that fits you surprises you by finding you. This is how I experience my crossing paths with City Centre Church. I wasn’t actively looking for a new posting. We had a good life in Fort McMurray and were well settled in. My church there was happy with me. I didn’t feel that I managed to ignite in them a missional awareness and zeal but was grateful for the fact that they allowed me the freedom to live out my own. I felt I was good to them and they to me but there was this growing nagging feeling that I am not really among “my tribe”, people who understand and share our missional call in this time.
Since this was the year I was to turn 40 and enter midlife, I read a few books to prepare me for this transition of which The Second Mountain by David Brooks stood out. In it he explores how in many lives, there are two stages distinguishable. In the first half of life, people chase after establishing themselves professionally. They set financial goals and attempt to achieve them. They work hard for fame and to make a name for themselves. This stage usually ends in some form of disillusionment where not everything achieved is experienced as worthless, but where it is discovered that there is so much more to life than wealth, health and fame. This paves the way for some to climb what Brooks call “the second mountain” where you focus more on intimacy, relationship, faith and community. The focus here is not on going as fast as you can but on going together with others. It kindled in me a desire to work less as a producer of spiritual products for religious consumers and more with a group of people that shares the same sense of urgency when it comes to mission, Christians moving out into the world to the broken places and people that doesn’t share our faith.
At just this time, I was contacted by City Centre. My decision to accept a new position after less than three years in my old one was met with opposition from the people I served and loved as family in Fort McMurray. This added to the stress that usually goes with such difficult decisions, was a heavy load to carry. But Conviction is a wonderful thing. It can make you stick and pull through with the toughest decisions. This and the grace of God through other people brought us where we are now: at a place where we haven’t for one moment questioned that our decision was a very good one, one we experience as in accordance with God’s will for us.
I love being part of a church where there is shared ownership, not just for duties involved but also a deep buy in into the mission and mandate we as a church received from no other than the Head of the Church Himself, Jesus Christ. I love the combination of simplicity, right priorities and low politics of City Centre. I love the diversity that are embraced and welcomed at City Centre. I love the daring vulnerability in which we reach out to people on the fringes of society like homeless people, addicted people and teens with challenging circumstances. I admire how City Centre Church decided to remain staying church in Whalley, an area that was considered a problem area and still has many challenges but also an area that is currently being revitalized and popularized as the heart of Surrey. How those who came here before me managed to move ahead and make daring changes without really pushing anyone away.
City Centre has convinced me anew that there is a unique and pivotally important role to play for a church. I see what it does to people to share in the worship and fellowship with people from all different walks of life. I see how hungry people are for opportunities to serve and for save spaces to talk and to listen to each other. I see how broken people find hope in how we reach out to them. I see staunchly secular institutions like local schools opening up to us because of the good name we build up through the humble faithfulness of people who dare to care in Jesus’s name. I see collaboration between churches and organizations for the greater good on a scale I haven’t witnessed before.
Entering midlife indeed changes one and hopefully matures one. Some of your insecurities fade as you make peace with the fact that you are not perfect and cannot be all things to all people. Other insecurities you learn to live with and through discipline and grace learn to make even your weaknesses serve the purposes of God. I am way less obsessed with making my mark and way more interested in the process of discerning what is God up to in this community and in people’s lives. I realize even more now how short and precious life is and how who you travel with and how you invest in them makes all the difference-more so than any impressive bank balance or award or degree can do. I am more focused on the direction that I need to travel in with fellow pilgrims and less worried about the exact destinations that would lead me to.
I want to thank every member of City Centre Church for this wonderful start I could have with you. I consider myself blessed because of you and carry the love of Christ in my heart for you. We do look forward meeting up with family we haven’t seen for a long time in South Africa. We haven’t had a break in a long time and are thankful that we get to take one after such a full and eventful year. And yet, our heart stays here. God is with this church in a way that rejuvenate me and all who take the plunge of faith and trust with us.
May you experience joy, peace, hope and love in you rising this Christmas time. I look forward to continuing this adventure with you early 2020.
In Christ
Gabriel J Snyman