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Dear Centenary Family,
I hope you all have been having a good summer. It’s been exciting to hear about some of the great experiences many of you have had this summer as you’ve had time to rest, travel, and reconnect with family and friends. The change of pace summer brings can give us new perspectives and new energy and help us focus on what God is calling us to do next.
I want to update you on a couple of things that will be different as we approach the fall. Many of you are aware that for a number of years, we have been able to fund a part-time Minister of Older Adults position because of the generosity of an annual grant that comes from the Mary Bowers Trust. Many years ago, Mary Bowers asked that the trustee of this fund consider Centenary when making charitable grants to worthy organizations in the Richmond area. A new trustee is now in charge and has let us know that the grant making year, which has always run from July 1 through June 30, will be shifting its application process and disbursements to January 1 through December 31. That means this position is not funded through the end of this year. We will be invited to apply again in September and see how our application is received with the hope that in January we will again be able to fund this position. In the meantime, we’ll work together with each other to care for each other, particularly our older adults. Several of you are already doing this ministry among us. If you’d like to be part of a small group of volunteers that would gather online every two to four weeks to touch base on needs for care and support, please let me know. You can email me at srpastor@centumc.org.
As we move into the fall, I want to invite you to consider making a new commitment to return to in person worship. One of our goals for the coming year is to reconnect with each other and experience the joy of being the church! Much of the joy of the Christian journey comes from making that journey with others. We want to find ways to gather again in person for fellowship, spiritual growth, and service. There are a number of ways we can do that and I would imagine many of you have some ideas. If you’d be interested in being part of a short-term task force that would work with our ministry team leaders to help us put together opportunities like this, I’d love to hear from you. Here’s a great article Rebekah Simon-Peter that might prime the pump for some of our brainstorming: Why Churches Must Build Spiritual Community
The sermon I’m working on for Sunday is from Matthew 14:22-33. My title is Jesus’ Superpower and Where it Came From.
I look forward to worshiping with you Sunday!
Peace,
Matt
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