It’s the most wonderful time of the year! It’s a time for cookies, caroling, parties, gift-giving, family gatherings, (did I mention cookies?), but it is also a time in which we look with hope to the future. Sure, sometimes that hope is simply that we might get through this “most wonderful time of year,” but at our best it is more than that. Part of what we do as a church in both big and small ways is to look backward and forward. We look back to the birth of the Christ-child so that we might look forward to the coming kingdom, but we also begin to look back on the journey of the last year so that we might look with hope toward the future. Fortunately for us, as we consider even the last few months, there is much about which to be hopeful.

It’s been a big fall! We began this fall by debuting our new mission statement: feed more sheep. It was the result of many exciting and prayerful conversations with members of the church since the spring. The reaction of the congregation and community to this commitment has been amazing. It has been wonderful to see how individual members of the congregation have embraced this vision and have started to come up with creative ways to “feed more sheep” in both their daily lives and as a congregation. We spent three weeks looking at each word in the statement and listened together for how we believe God is calling us to live out this commitment as a community of faith. The administrative council has begun setting aside time during each meeting to consider how we are living into our mission to feed more sheep, but the ideas haven’t stopped there.

Practice makes perfect! One of the ideas that came out of our conversations together around our new mission statement was that in order to feed more sheep, we needed to be fed ourselves. As a result, we have decided to focus on a new spiritual discipline each month that is designed to help us find new ways of being personally fed. We began with the practice of prayer beads and will be looking at using a prayer labyrinth in the months to come. Not all practices work for everyone, but this is a simple way that we can help one another find the practices that do feed us so that we might be prepared to help feed others.

A new way of reaching out! One of the ways that we are feeding more sheep is through our new website. We launched it at the beginning of the fall and it has already become an important tool for both keeping our congregation informed as well as reaching out to the community. One of the features we added to the website in the last couple of weeks has been videos of our Sunday morning sermons. Already it has been a way for people both within and without of our community to be a part of our worship life when they can’t be present with us Sunday mornings.

We continue to share our gifts! In November, we held another Arts Night celebration for the church. This was the second time that we have held this event and it was just as successful as the first time around. There is something really amazing about inviting people to come together to share their creativity. We heard poetry, viewed paintings and bowls from people in the congregation, and even had a little sing-a-long led by Jim Carroll. In short, it was an evening which reminded us that when we create we come in contact with the creator.

There’s more to come! The good news is that there is much more ahead of us! We still have another couple of months in our commitment to raise our average worshipping attendance to at least forty people, but for the last few weeks our attendance has been well over fifty. We have continued to see growth in ministries like our Monday morning women’s group, but have also made plans for a new bible study that Ryan Krauss will be leading in the new year. Likewise, with the increased number of children now coming into our congregation, we will be starting a new Sunday School program in January. In short, we have much for which to be thankful and much to which we are still looking forward.

Let’s enjoy this moment. As Christmas continues to approach, let’s do our best to let go of some of the pressures that come from shopping, baking, wrapping, and worrying and simply enjoy this moment. The good news is that there is hope to go around and if this year was any indication, we have much to be hopeful about in the year to come.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

A statement of mission. On Sunday, September 26, 2026 we as a church made a new commitment to one another. After months of working together, listening to one another, and praying about both how God is working in our lives currently and who God is calling us to be, we rolled out our new mission statement as a congregation: feed more sheep. In the last conversation that Jesus has with Peter in the Gospel of John he commanded him to go out and “feed my sheep.” Today, we are responding to that same call in our own unique way.

It is not about the church. We remember the old children’s song, “The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is the people. I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together…” As we make a commitment to “feed more sheep,” we make it together, but we recognize that it will take each of us carrying it out individually to succeed. There will be projects ahead that will involve every member of this congregation, but there will also be ways that each of us is individually being challenged to feed more sheep in our own lives. Both are important.

What does “feed” mean? On a very basic level, we are making a commitment to meet particular hungers in the world in tangible ways. This may literally mean providing food for people, but we also recognize that the deep hungers of the world extend beyond food. As such, as a congregation we are committing to use our greatest resources to meet the greatest needs in our community and world. It will mean that each of us will need to prayerfully consider what gifts we have been provided that might help to feed some hunger in the world. It might also mean naming the gifts we see in one another. In short, “to feed” might sometimes mean sharing a meal, or providing clothing, or healing a wound, but it will always mean looking for ways to reach out to meet the needs of the world in love.

What does “more” mean? To make a commitment to feed more sheep, means that we should be careful never to become complacent as a church with the same faces around our table. Yes, we want to see the same people week after week, but we need to remind ourselves that there are enough spaces at our table for everyone. It doesn’t mean that we will judge our success by the numbers in the pews, but rather we will actively work to make sure that our circle is never closed.

What does “sheep” mean? Anyone who as actually spent time around sheep knows that they are not really the sweet and lovable animals that Little Bo Peep makes them out to be. They are rough and dirty and often have bad attitudes. For us, this is a reminder that we are not called to only serve those people with whom we get along, who think like us, or who will keep us comfortable. No! We are a church who believes that everyone is a child of God and that everyone deserves to know that. And so, we commit to feed more sheep with the recognition that we might not always be comfortable, but that we will never exclude someone from our fellowship, whether they be young or old, male or female, republican or democrat, gay or straight, tall or short. By “sheep” we mean everyone.

The statement has been made, now it is time for action! As one theologian put it, “the difference between belief and conviction is action.” We have made this new commitment as a congregation and have taken the time to set before ourselves a mission to “feed more sheep,” now is the exciting time when we begin to do it. Will we be perfect? No. Do we have to be? No. We just have to do our best to use the resources we have been provided in one another to respond to God’s call in our lives. The good news is that in God, every day is a day of new beginnings.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen