Today is the day the Lord has made! Are you rejoicing, glad, thankful, and/or grateful for this time and all that will unfold in it during this day? Do you take time to reflect on all the blessings that are poured extravagantly into your life … and have been? Do you wonder at what God has in store for you in days ahead and what God will do through you?
This month’s Ponderings has a singular, never to be repeated, anticipatory focus.
Alongside many gifted and committed planners, I’ve been thinking about the 50 years of Community United Methodist Church’s life and its past, present, and future with joyful gratitude for all who have who have participated in the work of Christ through this beautifully resilient community of faith.
The anniversary time we’ve set aside to celebrate is near … really near! Together, we will reflect, rejoice, and renew our love for each other and community that is the outworking of our living individual and collective walks in Christ Jesus. We do want to keep the main thing THE main thing as we celebrate, right?
The aspiration is that the November 3 – 5 events of the 50th Anniversary will be full of reflections, gratitude, laughter, reconnections — and fun! — that will ignite our spirits for the next steps for Community UMC.
Registrations for the events of the weekend are ready. You are invited. You are needed.
Your part is to join in, to invite friends who’ve lit our way to now, and to dream the dreams of a future with hope in what Christ’s revelation through this fellowship will be. So, sign up for any or all of the Friday and Saturday events: Community Golf, Family Movie Night, and the Celebration Dinner at Blue Dolphin with music, keynote by Rev. Chris Holmes, and much more.
And especially, make it a point to be here for the special 90-minute worship on Sunday, November 5, at 10:30 a.m.! We’ll wrap all our celebrations into gratitude and praise for God’s blessing us to be blessings not only in the community in which we are planted but also in the wider world. We’ll remember saints who are now in the universal church because it’s All Saints Sunday. We’ll recommit our lives to Christ, our Lord, as we receive communion together united in the Love who gave all for our salvation. We’ll make room for everyone to praise and sing and hear the words of life from Scripture, sung by a reunion choir, rung by bells and proclaimed for understanding. We’ll respond and be sent out, as the scattered church, to represent the Lord wherever we are and in all that we are doing and saying.
And, then … we will eat and make new memories together over a shared Celebration lunch in the Fellowship Hall after worship. Meals like this are a foretaste of the great banquet God has prepared for his whole family to share together when heaven comes to earth.
This church is alive in Christ. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
I’m indeed blessed to be living in my 40th year of membership here.
Faithfully, and with gratitude,
Barb Julian, Lay Leader
