In last Sunday’s sermon (June 18), I reflected on the awesome wonder of God’s mercy and the humbling reality of human sin.  I am aware, as I write this, of all the changes going on for our church family, as a body and as individuals.  We are saying good-bye and God bless you to Todd and Lisa Query and family.  Later this summer, our organist, Joe Turbessi will be off to graduate school in Boston.  Another occasion for a good-bye with blessings!  In our church families there are illnesses, grief, and losses, but also anniversaries and wedding celebrations, joyful reunions, new births and graduations.  In the midst of all this change, in humanness, I cling to the promise of God’s presence and the comfort of God’s mercy.
 
A part of a prayer from the Service of Death and Resurrection says it this way:
 
“God of us all, your love never ends,
When all else fails, you are still God.”
 
Of course, God is still God!  But sometimes, sinners and wanderers like me, need to be reminded.  May you know the wonder of this awesome and tender God in this summer of transition and change.
 
 
 
 

  “All believers were together in one heart and mind….
With great power they gave testimony to the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them.”  (Acts 4:32-33)
 
In a recent Sunday worship, four young people from our congregation gave their witness about the ways Christian camping touched their faith and their lives.  In their wisdom, they noted how challenging it is to return to everyday living after the mountaintop of a week of church camp.
 
All Christians face the same challenge in our everyday living after the powerful and joyful celebration of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter.  How do we come down from the mountaintop and sustain hope and joy when there is also struggle, grief and pain in our lives and the lives of those we love?
 
The young disciples from our congregation pointed the way that Sunday.  It is the same way that the earliest disciples practiced: staying close to the family of faith and giving witness of their experience to others.  The faith family offers signs of Jesus’ presence still with us.  One who is filled with joy offers comfort to another who is sad.  Christian friends stay close to one who is suffering and give witness to God’s healing power and love.  The one who is grieving is lifted by word of a new baby born or another one baptized into the faith family.
 
Joyce Rupp says it this way:  “I have the hope that comes from knowing that the risen Jesus is not just a Bible story.  Christ is here in our midst.  I have been surprised so often at how simply the risen Lord is near, and surprised at how this hopeful God always re-enters my existence through the people around me.”  (Fresh Bread, p. 58)
 
Join us for worship each Sunday so that you may be sustained for your living by the risen Christ and so that you may be strengthened for your witness.
 
 

Dear Members and Friends,

This congregation enters January with joy and thanksgiving for the year just completed and for God's gift of a new year before us.  We also enter this new year with some challenges related to our financial situation.  At a recent meeting of the Church Council, I was urged to communicate with you as a congregation so that together we might prayerfully and faithfully respond to the challenges before us.

We are thankful for so many of you who have given generously and responded with a commitment to next year's budget.  As of Thursday, December 22, there were 268 commitment cards returned with commitments totaling over $469,694.15.  We still expect to receive more cards with commitments, but we do not expect to achieve our goal of 320 cards returned nor do we expect to reach our income goal of $590,000.  

There are several factors contributing to our current situation:

On the income side:
Giving patterns have changed; receipts from giving have decreased.
Keith Liddle bequest used to pay ministry shares has been expended.

On the expense side:
Fixed costs related to our building continue to rise.
Number of staff in relationship to size of our congregation.

In December, the Church Council adopted measures related to staff budget:
Omit from the budget a proposed Associate Pastor position.
Omit from the budget the Parish Nurse position.
Freeze all staff salaries.

In the new year, the Church Council will use a vision and goal setting process to guide the final 2006 budget development.  The options are:
Budget reduction through reconfiguring the staff.
Going to the congregation and requesting increased giving.
Or some combination of both.

In the midst of this, I am reminded of a quote:  "God doesn't give a vision without sending the resources to provide for it."  I believe God has a vision for this congregation and I believe the resources we need to do ministry are available to us.  It will require prayer, creativity, faithfulness and an openness to the Holy Spirit's guidance on our parts.

The God who has been faithful with this congregation in its long history will continue to be faithful.  Our congregation has met daunting challenges before and we will do so again.

I look forward to moving into the new year with you.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Lynn

Christmas morning had a precise ritual in my large family as I was growing up. The older ones, my brothers and sisters, came to my parents’ house with spouses and children in tow. We observed Christmas Eve with a wonderful meal and worship at church. The morning of Christmas day was reserved for vast opening of presents and rejoicing in each other’s company. The grandchildren, my nieces and nephews, have another memory of Christmas morning. They recall the presents and the surprises in stockings, but they also recall with some disdain being made to wait. They would be corralled in the upstairs of my parents’ big old house while coffee was made and juice poured. They would be made to wait until all the adults were awake, robed and armed with steaming mugs of coffee. Now grown and some of them parents themselves, my parents’ grandchildren still grumble about waiting for the opening of the presents.

Waiting is hard. It is one thing to wait for Christmas presents. But we also know other kinds of waiting—for test results, for the other shoe to drop, for word about a job, for word about a loved one. We know about waiting in hospital waiting rooms and in labor rooms and waiting in line almost everywhere! It is part of our life and so the Christian tradition evolved a season of the church year to bring our waiting before God. The season is called Advent.

While the world rushes toward the 25th of December, the Christian community lingers abit in the weeks before to reflect, to dream, to imagine and to hope. As the winter dark deepens, we light candles. As the cold closes in, and the world reflects the pain and suffering of the human condition, we bravely sing songs of God who reigns inspite of it all. Advent is a season for us to practice waiting, active waiting because we know and trust the outcome. We wait to experience love so powerful that it breaks barriers of time and space and risks everything to come and be with us.

I invite you, in this advent season, to allow yourself the lessons of a waiting season. I invite you to worship as we wait together. I invite you to quiet moments of paying attention to the God moments in your everyday life. I invite you to imagine the new life God is giving birth in you.

The one we anticipate is named Emmanuel, God-with-us. Waiting is hard. But the gift is amazing and worth the wait.