Did you know that our church will celebrate its 200th anniversary in the year 2021? That is only ten and a half years away from now! Imagine that you are writing up the big news story announcing the anniversary: What would you like to be able to include? In your wildest dreams for our church, what might be a key accomplishment of A2U2 by 2021?
This fall, our church will engage in a process of reflecting on our mission and our ministry. Ministry is everything that we do to live our mission. Every member of A2U2 participates in the ministry of our congregation--that is, we all contribute to whether and how our mission comes alive. Our mission is stated in this way:
We are growing a community
that transforms lives through the power of love.
We celebrate diversity, encourage spiritual growth,
and promote social responsibility,
as we walk with care on this earth.
We empower our members to share their gifts
to build a world of compassion, equality, and freedom.
This fall we will be taking stock of how we are doing on our mission, and envisioning what we hope for the future of our church. What might we imagine for the next 5, 10, even 25 years? We can only see clearly when everyone shares their perspectives, their hopes, their fears, their dreams. There will be many ways to participate, from personal journaling and questions to think about in private, to small group discussions, to a large group event on Saturday October 23rd. Stay tuned for more information!
As part of this process of reflection, on six Sundays in September and October, I will devote our worship themes to the different elements of our mission. The titles and descriptions of all these Sundays will be posted on our webpage, so you can see them as a whole.
Here is the link: A2U2 worship-topics
I invite you to bring this process into whatever parts of church life have most meaning for you. Perhaps the Spiritual Enrichment groups would like to create discussion sessions on our mission statement? Perhaps RE leaders might have conversations in your teams about how this mission comes alive with our children? Perhaps committees can reflect on how their particular mission fits into this larger mission of the congregation? Our planning team would be happy to help make that happen. And everyone can submit their best ideas for the future--for the 2021 anniversary news story!
Thanks for being the vibrant, loving, wonderful people that you are! I hope your summers have been refreshing, and I look forward to seeing you all again in September.
Remember to bring water from your travels to our ingathering service on September 12th.
Love,
Rev. Myke
