As we announced in last week’s newsletter and Bible study, I’m asking everyone to set aside this coming Saturday from 10a-11:30a CST for an important vision meeting. During this time, we’ll get updated on last year’s activities and business, as well as prayerfully consider what our next steps should be going forward. Obviously, the pandemic through a wrench in several projects we were just beginning to undertake. Despite that, we have been faithful and continued to grow in a variety of ways.
There are several questions before us at this juncture:
- How do we build on the community we’ve created during the pandemic to expand our reach in communities we’re called to serve?
- What kinds of relationships should we consider forging from a denominational standpoint?
- What connections have we made in social justice and activist circles and how do we strengthen or secure them?
- What kinds of additional support do we need to draw more people, talent, and resources into our community?
We also have some ideas we want to discuss about our next phases as a worshiping and learning community. How can we expand our reach, amplify our voice, and increase our frequency of engagement? What talents and ideas might you have to create new channels and outlets to help Gather usher in its new life after the pandemic? There’s plenty of room and opportunity for everyone to bring their best!
God has been so good to us. And we couldn’t have come this far without your faithful participation, creativity, prayer, and giving. It’s time to get ready for the next phase, when we throw our doors open and welcome many more into this great group of people!
I look forward to seeing you all at 10a CST on Saturday
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE VISION MEETING
THIS WEEK IN JOB
Our weekly discussions from the Book of Job have been enlightening and, rather surprisingly, uplifting! This week we get to know Job’s buddies a little better—the three neighbors who drop by to console him and accompany him in his troubles. What they’ve got to say will sound very familiar to our postmodern ears, because they’re traditionalists to a fault. (One of them actually says, “You need to be more like the old folks!”) So this week, we uncover tensions between what’s always worked and what needs to work now. It’s an age-old problem in religion, where the compulsion to get things settled once and for all clashes with honest confession that sometimes long-accepted notions about God and suffering and justice don’t work. Read Job 8-17 (it flies by) and come ready to have another lively conversation this Thursday evening at 7:30 CST.