It is a new year—we have flipped the pages over on the calendar. Many of us have made resolutions to make some changes in our lives: get more exercise, eat better, read Scripture daily.
Change is difficult. Psychologists tell us it takes at least 6 weeks for a change to take hold, and move from something we struggle with to being a habit.
Sometimes change is imposed upon us, whether we want it or not. The mainline church as a whole has been experiencing change, as has this congregation.
In 3 years, this church will celebrate 200 years of mission and worship. The world today is much different than it was in 1818. The "heyday" of the mainline Protestant church was 1965— those were our glory days, the height of church influence on society, the days when the pews were filled and the Sunday school rooms were overflowing.
But society has changed, and we tend to get nostalgic when looking back at our past. We think: once we were great and glorious, and now we are not. Things were better back then. But such romanticism keeps us from seeing the ministry right in front of us. Such pining for the past can keep us from being the church that Christ is calling us to be today.
As part of this interim time together, the first "task" is to look at our history and heritage. We appreciate where we have come from, we celebrate the accomplishments God has granted to us, we are honest in looking back on our failings….but we do all this so we can know where we are, right now, so we can better see what ministry God is calling us to join in. This January, there will be formal and informal groups to talk about and celebrate the history of this church—I hope you will join us— more information will follow.
The world will not be as it was in 1965, or 1909, or 1818. But God is here with us now. God, whose steadfast love is unchanging, goes with us and calls us into the future He is creating. God, who comes to us as Immanuel, "God with us", is here as we live in this interim time together.
Blessings,
Pastor Nancy
