"The Practice of Pronouncing Blessings"

In the book, An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor has a chapter on the spiritual practice of pronouncing blessings.  Taylor says that we should be blessing things more often because when we are seeing things closely enough to bless them, we are looking at them through the eyes of God.  Pronouncing blessings, she says, might be the closest we ever get to God.  Blessing things and people and spaces is a way of looking at them not for what they can do for you or what they have accomplished, but simply for the wonder that God made them to be. So as I say goodbye as a staff member at Northbrook, where I have laughed, grown, stressed, worked, loved, and been loved for 12 years, I would like to pronounce some blessings - a benediction if you will - “a blessing that comes at the end of something, to send people on their way.”

Northbrook, you are a church filled with love.  

• You notice people.  
• You check-in with people.  
• You encourage people.  
• You welcome people - not just with a quick hello, but with a “join me in my pew/sit at my table."  You aren’t afraid to dig-into-scripture, to hard conversations, to the gritty work of service, to seeing the world both as it is and as it could be.  
• You are joyful.
• Your spaces are filled with laughter more often than not.

 
When I tell people about the wonderful church that you are, I tell them that you will always choose loving the person in front of you over holding tight to some belief with which you are grappling.
 
You have loved my family so well.  You have cheered my girls on, helped keep them safe, taught them the stories of God, and made sure they knew how loved they were.  You have been a home for all three of us for more than a decade.
 
You have made an indelible mark on my life, and I will forever be thankful for my time (and all 400 jobs I have held) at Northbrook.
 
And until we meet again, remember you are a beloved child of God (and loved so fiercely by me).

Many Blessings,
Leslie Bowers
Former Director of Creative Services