Building Community, Staying Relevant
We're almost halfway through the year – can you believe it? We are back to in-person worship and meetings and have tried to continue Zoom fellowship with our friends who live far away. This has proved to be a hit or miss effort. But we keep trying because we care about them. Your leadership team has begun meeting in person and our focus is on the future of our church. Your ideas and thoughts are also welcomed – in fact, needed.
Our major downside is that we are an older church that has its limitations. The upside of our church is that we are a loving, inclusive church that welcomes questions, discussions of faith, and reminds us not to leave your brain at the door. I believe that if God wanted us to all see God the same way, we would have like minds. I believe that God shows us God's self in many different ways; in ways each of us can understand God. For Christians, we see God as Creator. We see Jesus as God coming to us in human form to show us God's nature, heart, and will. We see the Holy Spirit as God indwelling in us so that we can do God's work in the world, as Jesus has taught us through his life and teachings. The Holy Spirit helps us have more joy, love, self control and peace in our lives; to be more patient, kind, generous, faithful, and gentle. We all need help in some of these areas. I know I would like my life to reflect these attributes more.
So how can we share our strengths with the community? Churches have to be relevant to the people in their town or city. Are we relevant to the people of Willits? What would make us relevant to the people of Willits? What is happening in our world that would make our church a place they would be attracted to in some way? How can we learn to have more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in our lives? I think we can agree that all of these attributes would make our city a better place to live. How do we achieve this? The main thing is going to be to listen for God's guidance. In the process of finding ways to be relevant to our city, do we truly believe God will guide us? Will we keep it in our prayers – our collective prayers – not just a few people?
What do you think the UMC statement of Making Disciples of Jesus Christ means? According to Wikipedia, the word disciple means student or apprentice. If you are a disciple, it means you have devoted your life to a person or trade. Jesus had many disciples that followed him. Twelve of them became his Apostles. So the UMC statement means that we follow the teachings of Jesus. We work for justice and inclusion, peace, forgiveness and help others in the same way. It means we work to bring people into that place where they are living out the teachings of Jesus. Does it mean we all have to believe the same about Jesus? No. Your Leadership Team is working on how we, the church, can be relevant in these changing and unsure times. We will do updates on our Facebook page, our Willits UMC web page, and in our Sunday bulletins. I pray that you will all keep our church in your prayers. Shalom
See you in church on Sunday.....Pastor Rosemary