The dance of Re-Conn-Tore. Interesting concept, dance, isn’t it? Do we think of swaying bodies on a dance floor moving rhythmically to whatever music is playing? Or Strictly choreographed couples carefully co-ordinating their movements over the stage to gain as many points as they can? Or country dancing/barn dancing (ceilidh if you’re in Scotland) where everyone is having so much fun not worrying too much whether they are doing it right or not, but just enjoying themselves.
When I think of the dance of Re-Conn-Tore I am thinking of the symbiotic relationship between those three words. Renew. Connect. Restore. They all need to interact with each other. On their own they are great concepts but we believe they need to work together to bring about the sort of change that we love to see.
Facilitating change and helping create new pathways is our tagline on the first page of our website. And below that – faith, hope, love and justice. All of these have to go together if change is to occur. And renewing, connecting and restoring is all part of that.
So we might have a yearning to renew our faith. Or to connect with others in issues of justice. Or a passion to see restoration happen in our communities, churches, families, ourselves. Deep down we might have a deep longing to find out what we were made for – great song by Billie Eilish, by the way.
All of this involves effort to change, alter our way of thinking, go down different pathways that might be new to us. But as we do, we find others doing the same and we join them. And that encourages us and it encourages them. So we find renewal as we connect. And the journey of restoration begins and carries us forward. And we find that God was doing a ton of stuff in that place with other people and we get to join in!
We believe that God wants to use everyone in the gifts that they have. Sometimes the only way to find those gifts is to go deep into ourselves and ask ourselves – what are my passions? What are my hopes? What are my dreams?
The first time I tried to do that was very emotional for me. How could God use my hopes and dreams? I wasn’t even sure what they were. I’d never been asked to dream before. I’d always thought I should behave a certain way, do a certain job, attend a certain type of church. But as I dug deeper, I realised that I had hopes and dreams that God wanted to use.
I’ll be honest. It was a journey even after that. Because my first hopes and dreams were about how to help others. How to help others find release and transformation and freedom. That is a passion of mine but God wanted to start with me. It is too easy to deflect onto others and let them do the hard work. But God wants to start right here. With me.