AT THE GROWING EDGE

by Jocelyn Watkins, 2026 Illinois/Wisconsin District moderator

“I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you” (2 Timothy 1:6)

“Your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).

Beloved in Christ,

If you look closely at a tree near the end of summer, the newest growth is usually visible at the outermost edges. The younger leaves may be a slightly different shade. A branch extends a few inches beyond the older wood. Beneath the bark, another layer has joined all the rings that came before it. Years of wind, drought, rain, injury, and abundance remain within the trunk, while life continues to press outward into space the tree has never occupied before.

As our year of “Kindled Anew” moves toward its closing months, I return to what first drew me to Paul’s words in 2 Timothy: the gift of God was already within Timothy. Paul calls him to rekindle what has been placed there: to stir it, tend it, give it air, and allow it to burn with renewed strength. For much of this year, we have looked toward those embers and asked what might still be alive within our congregations, our district, and ourselves. Now another question comes into view. Once the warmth returns, where does that renewed life begin to reach?

A tree can only grow from the life already moving through it. Water rises through roots anchored in old soil. Nutrients travel through wood formed in earlier seasons. The newest leaf at the end of a branch depends upon a whole history it cannot see. The church carries a history in much the same way: Scripture, memory, worship, relationships, convictions, and practices shaped long before any of us arrived. What has formed us continues to feed what is forming now.

Eventually, growth reaches an edge. The branch arrives where there is no older wood ahead of it. A root presses into soil it has never entered. Congregations know these edges. A neighborhood changes around a church whose doors have opened onto the same street for generations. Familiar ways of carrying ministry become harder to sustain. New questions enter old rooms. Gifts emerge for which no committee or program was designed. The rooted life of the congregation meets circumstances it has never encountered before.

The newest growth has no thick bark around it yet. It is tender and exposed, and reaching farther changes the shape of the branch. This is the growing edge: the place where deeply rooted life encounters open space.

Paul sees a similar movement when he writes to the Thessalonians: “Your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.” Whatever God is doing within this community is becoming visible in the distance their love can travel. Increasing love changes the boundaries of concern. People who once seemed distant become part of the circle. Another congregation’s joys and struggles become more than information in a newsletter. Questions about what we need begin to share space with questions about what we can offer, receive, share, and learn.

Our life together as a district gives those growing edges places to meet. We enter rooms with people whose congregations have taken different paths, whose circumstances may reveal possibilities we cannot see from within our own walls. A conversation over lunch, shared worship, or a visit to another church can alter the field of vision. A branch extending into unfamiliar space begins to discover how much life surrounds it.

Dennis Beckner’s 2027 Annual Conference theme, “Growing Faith,” arrives at an especially fitting point in this journey. Drawing from Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, Dennis invites the wider church to consider faith that grows abundantly alongside love that increases. When he joins us at district conference in November and leads our equipping session, we will have an opportunity to hear more about that invitation. His theme also follows naturally from the work we have been doing under “Kindled Anew.” Rekindling has drawn our attention to the gift God has already placed within us; growing faith turns our eyes toward where that renewed life may now be reaching.

By November, I hope we will bring more than reports and business to Polo. I hope we will bring evidence that our edges have moved: relationships strengthened, gifts newly recognized, boundaries crossed, help offered and received, and connections that did not exist a year ago.

A tree’s newest growth may be only a few inches of tender wood beside a trunk shaped across decades. Yet that small extension bears witness to life still moving through the whole tree. The rings within the trunk hold the story of where it has been, while the growing edge reveals where that life is reaching now.

As “Kindled Anew” moves into its final months, may we honor what has carried us this far while keeping our eyes on the places where renewed life is pressing outward. The Spirit who rekindles the gift within us is still at work wherever faith reaches farther and love makes more room.

Look toward the growing edge. It may already be showing us what comes next.