The beauty of God’s blessings. Praise in song. Family. Whenever or wherever 2 or more are
gathered in His name. Honor God. God’s great earth. Family support. Communion. Love.
Helpful. Family. Notice a trend?
A beautiful flower. A bird flying over the lake at Camp Christian. A Panda mission trip. A
mountain. A Habitat build. A pile of food collected for the food pantry. A Panda mission trip.
A pile of Christmas gifts collected for kids. A big old stone church. Grandma snapping beans
on the porch. Notice a trend?
These words and pictures were affixed to the poster board I placed in the Narthex for you to
put up words or pictures of what comes to your mind when you think of church. The word
family was prominent in the words written and placed on the board and included in one image.
Pictures of mission trips were prominent among the images. Only two words – communion
and praise in song – were things we typically do in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings, but
they are not limited to acts of worship reserved only for Sunday mornings. Only one picture
was of a church building.
That tells me that you believe that we are most “the church” when we are a family and engage
in mission. I believe that is indicative of who God is calling us to become. So, I wonder: When
are we most like a family? When is our next mission trip?
The Board and Elders are interviewing community leaders about what’s going on in our
community and what still needs to be done. This is a big task, so we’re going to spend some
more time doing those interviews. If you’d like to help the Board and Elders with this task,
please let me know and I’ll get you a person to contact and a list of questions to guide your
conversation. The results of these interviews will give us the information we need to plan
ministry we can do in the community with our neighbors.
I believe this process is leading us toward becoming the church God envisions that is like a
family and engaged in mission. We discerned that vision through prayer. Not that we’re not
already a family who does mission work. This process will allow God to guide us to ways we
can strengthen the fellowship of our family and do mission in new ways. I don’t want us to
rush this time of discernment. We don’t want to push ahead without hearing all God has to
say. Please hold the Board, Elders and congregation in your prayers as we continue to
discern God’s vision and mission for our church.
