Dear Friends,
A couple of weeks ago, in my sermon, I talked about experiencing a moonbow. This is a rare phenomenon where a white bow appears across a dark sky. Another rare sighting was when my son and I were treated to a fog bow at Harmon Canyon as we hiked. For someone who loves to see rainbows, these other forms are amazing to experience.
I think about this as I think about ministry in the church. We often have expectations of what to expect in church, especially in worship. I will equate this to the big and beautiful and colorful rainbow. We know what to expect. But what about when we try new things? Like a moonbow, or a fog bow, they may resemble what we know, yet be different enough to be noticed…and still beautiful.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve experienced this with our Second Saturday Worship/Second Sunday Rest. The worship service is mostly the same, but on a different day. Some have loved this, and some feel as if this change is too much. What I like most about Second Saturday Worship is that we always share a meal together. This form of fellowship does not happen on Sundays. If you have not joined us, please try it.
We’ve also experienced change in worship because of the Covid crisis. When everything shut down in March 2020, we (like all churches) had to quickly implement online worship. Through technology, our worship continued and when we were able to worship in-person again, we continued to offer an online version. I believe that the online option will always be a part of our worship. In January, I came down with Covid, got better, then had a rebound infection. Yet, due to technology I was still able to worship with you all, and even preached from my dining room at our Second Saturday service.
While worshiping online I noticed that we still have much work to do to improve the quality of the sound for those of you who join us online. One challenge is that we do not have the in-house expertise that would help us solve the dilemma. I want to assure you that we are working on it. Even with the sound challenges, I am thankful that we can join together in worship!
As we look towards the rest of 2023, I am wondering what other ways we can experience worship, and community together. Other opportunities that we have are monthly breakfasts; weekly Stretch & Prayer; weekly Word & Prayer; and book studies. I am always open to your ideas of how we might build community within our congregation and with our greater community.
On March 1, I will have completed 13 years as your pastor. It doesn’t seem like I have been here that long! I look forward to seeing what year 14 brings. Mostly, I am grateful for all of you.
Peace,
Pastor Nancy
