Beginning February 17, Community will start a three-part worship series called “Canoeing the Mountains” loosely based on the book by the same name. The book uses the story of Lewis and Clark’s Northwest expedition as a metaphor for pioneering the church into an unknown future.
At this same time, 850 brave souls will be meeting in St. Louis to discuss, debate and discern the future direction of our United Methodist denomination – specifically on the issue of human sexuality. These representatives have been tasked through General Conference to decide if we will maintain a traditional sexual ethic, remove prohibitive language concerning LGBT+ persons or create affinity based jurisdictions that will function independently under one big UMC tent. (If you aren’t familiar with UM polity or this issue, you can read more HERE.)
But while our future denominational direction is largely unknown, Community Church can choose how we will “canoe the mountains.” Our series will speak to the vision, mission and unity required for our church to navigate new cultural and denominational unknowns. What will we need to jettison and what will we deem essential as we journey together into God’s new adventure for us?
