On September 19, the Christian Century and Faith and Reason.org are combining efforts to present a webinar on “Faith and Democracy: Confronting White Christian Nationalism.” The webinar is free and I encourage you to look into participating:

https://www.christiancentury.org/faithanddemocracy?utm_source=Christian+Century+Newsletter&utm_campaign=34b3370eb7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_EdPicks_2024-08-13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b00cd618da-34b3370eb7-82373899

The subject line in the email publishing the event caught my eye: “What type of nation do you want to live in?” What a great question. What a great way to address anything that is important in our lives. What type of marriage relationship do you want to live in? What type of neighborly relationship do you want to live into? What type of relationship with myself do you want to have? And…. Here’s the church one… “What type of church do you want to belong to?”

With the upcoming elections just over the horizon, we are pulled into the reality of our involvement around the first question. Every season, every month, every week we have the opportunity to consider the last question and respond very tangibly by how we are involved in the church, how we share our time, our talents, our finances and our voices. In the church, there’s an additional question that we should be asking as well: “What type of church is God calling us to be?”

Churches are not just another nice organization filled with good people who do good things for one another, the world and the community. There are lots of organizations around town that fit that description. We get to be different. We are who we are, not just because it’s the cool thing to do or because it’s what we want to do. When the church is at its best, it’s because we are constantly asking the question, “What type of church is God calling us to be?”

Keep that in mind as we step into a new church year as we emerge from the summer; as our Sunday school begins; as we experience things in new ways because of the ongoing conversation we are having with Christ United Methodist Church; as we get ready for our Stewardship campaign; and as we consider what type of church we want to be a part of.

God has richly blessed this congregation for over 130 years. There’s all indication that blessing will continue for many years to come. Let’s keep paying attention to be the type of church God is calling us to be.

Have a blessed week.

Rev. Lynne