We did it! On Sunday, January 29, 2012, we completed our goal for the year of having a different person during worship each week share how he or she is responding to God’s call to feed more sheep.  What is more remarkable than a church with a membership in the mid-30s having 52 different people share over the course of the year, however, is just how transformative the sharing that we did became.

Many gifts, one spirit.  Over the course of this past year, we were continually reminded of the myriad ways that members of our congregation are using their gifts in order to love God and neighbor.  Although the goal was the same for everyone, the way in which people responded was different each week.  We heard from parents who have committed to share their faith with their children, from members who see their vocations as feeding more sheep, whether they work in a hardware store, play in a band, or practice physical therapy.  We have heard students share how they see their studies as contributing to others’ ability to feed more sheep, whether they were studying theology or history. All of these have reminded us that we all have a part to play and we aren’t in this alone.

We have grown together.  Somewhere in the midst of listening to one another, in reflecting with one another about our faith, we have grown.  Not just in quantity, but in quality.  We have grown to be more faithful people.  With each person who has shared, we have each had an opportunity to consider how we might follow that person’s lead, about how we might feed more sheep in both big and small ways, about how we are each doing our part for something greater than ourselves.  And now we are ready to take it one step further.

Let’s take our fellowship outside of the church! Our goal is simple, during the course of the next year, we want you to invite someone from this congregation to share a meal with you outside of church.  This will require us to both make invitations as well as to accept them.  A few things to remember while doing this:

1. It should be a meal with someone with whom you have not previously shared a meal.  For instance, having dinner with your spouse doesn’t count (though that isn’t such a bad thing to do).  Along those same lines, it is a generally good idea to make sure your spouse knows when you are inviting someone to share a meal with you!
2. It can be either in one’s home or at a restaurant.  If it is the latter, then the person inviting should pick the place and make sure it is not expensive as the understanding will be that each pays for his or her own meal.
3. It doesn’t have to be with just one person or only with people from this congregation.
4. You don’t have to do this just once!

Remember the meal.  As a visual reminder of our goal, we have placed a life-size cutout of a sheep in the fellowship hall (thanks to Al MacIlroy).  Once you have shared a meal with someone in the congregation, we ask that you add some memory of that meal to the sheep. It could be a napkin from the meal, a picture taken, a word that was spoken, a poem written, anything so long as it can be pinned to the sheep.  Finally, we would ask that the person who made the invitation would sign the sheep.  Our hope is that by the end of the year, the sheep will be filled with memories of meals shared and memories made.

The goal is a bit risky.  The other person could turn down the invitation, conversation during the meal could be awkward, the other person could chew with his or her mouth open.  But as with most good things in life, it is worth the risk.  The truth is, we have no idea where we will be at the end of next year as a result of this goal, but at least we know that we won’t be there alone.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen