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One of the most frustrating things as a pastor is spending so much time and energy studying scripture and writing a sermon, spending so much time perfectly crafting the stories I tell and the words I emphasize... only for a student to say, completely off the cuff, something more profound and inspiring than everything I had written.
This week during our Lunch and Worship service, I preached to students about how vital community is in our lives. How it's impossible to go through life alone and you shouldn't have to walk through life by yourself. Then, as is the norm at our worship service, I turned the conversation over to the students, I asked them, "why is community important to you?"
I listened as students shared stories about how it's been a struggle to make real friends, stories about how they found and then lost their community, stories of feeling alone on a campus of 17,000 people. The conversation ebbed and flowed around these struggles until I followed up with a simple question, "Why is Wesley a community you keep coming back to?"
No one said a word as they sat and thought for a moment, until one student broke the silence and said, "I walked in the doors of Wesley and knew right away I could be myself."
That's it right there, that's the goal, that's the mission, that's why Lamar Wesley exists. To make a place where any person can come through our doors and know that they are loved. That any person who encounters us can feel the love of God radiating off us. To make this campus a reflection of the Kingdom of God by loving students as best we can.
Students walk in our building at all stages of their faith journey and it's our job to let them know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are loved. Not just by me, but by God.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Kyle Tremblay
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