When the council gathers at our annual retreat and sets out to create the Annual Roadmap for the next 12 months which will outline the specific goals we feel the Holy Spirit is calling us to pursue, and the metrics we will use to measure our progress, the first step is identifying four core values for the year.
These values are the groundwork for everything that comes next. They inform the entire retreat and the work of the council and congregation throughout the year. They are how I organize my monthly Pastor’s Report to council.
This year, one of those values is, “Helping members of Spirit in the Hills live out their faith in their daily lives.”
We’ve already been at work putting this value into practice. Our Lenten Wednesday worship focused on living out our baptismal promises to live among God’s faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s Supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth. Each week, those gathered wrote out and shared their response to what each of these parts of our baptismal vocation look like in daily life. The results have been on the wall in our sanctuary and are being compiled electronically to be shared with you again.
This summer, our Faith 2 Go initiative seeks to put this value into practice as well. We want to equip and encourage one another to live out our faith every day amid whatever and wherever that day brings you. There are resources for devotion and prayer and scripture study. There’s information on how to stay connected to Spirit in the Hills as you travel and/or when you cannot be physically present in worship. There’s “Flat Jesus” to remind you that Christ is with you wherever you go. Take a picture with Flat Jesus and send it to the church office (office@spiritinthehills.org) and we’ll share them, so we can see all the places and activities where you are out being the church and living your faith each day.
You can find all of this in our “Faith 2 Go” boxes and online at spiritinthehills.org/summer. At the end of worship lately, we have been sent out to live our faith and to be the church with the following words, “You are the body of Christ raised up for the world! Go in peace and serve the Lord!”
Thanks be to God!
Blessings,
Pastor Drew