The Good News

I’ve been using star words/intention words/guiding words for a decade now and (as you can tell) it has taken all sorts of shapes and forms during that time. Some years, whatever word or words I have, have actively lived in me, constantly present and shaping me all year long. Other years, I completely forget about them until the end of the year and they become the lens (or one of them) that I use to reflect about the past year. Sometimes…

As I write this newsletter, my favorite football teams all lost, our political world is in turmoil and it’s below zero outside. These are the dog days of Winter! All joking? aside, February has always been the month I struggle through the most, for a variety of reasons. From what I understand, I am not alone. Years ago, Carla and I decided…

Well, now I’m excited! A year or so ago, our Vision & Leadership Team asked whether now (then) might be the time to enter a Strategic Planning Process. We all looked at each other, knowing the work that goes into such an effort and decided: no. We just didn’t have the capacity to do that work well. And more time passed.

This afternoon we confirmed 21 of our young people. Yesterday we hosted our annual Fall Festival and trunk or treat which was the busiest yet. Our Sunday School students are working on learning songs for the Christmas pageant. The choir sang what I would say was a difficult song beautifully done at the 8:00 worship service. Confirmands talked about what makes a space sacred and kids during the 10:30 service built a temple with their imaginations and became the priests who were sent out to do God’s work. Then they surprised everyone by coming back to the sanctuary through the door by the organ. Adults gathered to learn and support one another. People shared their favorite Halloween costume with someone they didn’t know well at the beginning of worship. We welcomed new members. We built community. We served our neighbors. On and on the stories go of life at First this weekend. And I stood and watched and wondered at the place God called me to nearly 14 years ago.

In church work, we are always working ahead, so this Christmas carol has been in my head for days. I think mostly because the idea of a still and hushed world feels like a dream. It is two weeks before the election, our lives are inundated with political ads that tell us only the worst of the world, and tension lives even among people who are voting for the same people.