Posts from February 2025
Lamentations & Lent
February 26, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, This past week, I heard someone share a familiar story I’ve unfortunately heard many times. “My husband still associates church with ‘the place you go to be told how bad you are.’” Regardless of whether this was your story, the pervasive narrative of shame perpetuated in many Christian churches has woven itself into lots of places in our culture. Especially in the Season of Lent. The Season of Lent Next Wednesday,…
An Awesome Responsibility
February 19, 2025A Note from Jeff Rone Dear Friends, Constance Cherry is a United Methodist pastor from Indiana with Ohio roots. In 2012, she published an incredibly detailed book about planning worship services and events entitled The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services. When discussing the importance of selecting high quality worship songs, she says this: “Plato once said ‘Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its…
Sharing Meals with Gladness
February 12, 2025A Note from Beth Latella Dear Friends, Acts 2 says, “42 The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers…. 44 All the believers were united and shared everything…. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity.” (Common English Bible) This description of the early Jerusalem church warms my heart. It shows community and shared…
Living Through Times of Transition
February 5, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, What a start to the year we have had so far. Arctic cold temperatures, devastating urban wildfires, a national championship, a fragile ceasefire deal in the Middle East, a tragic airline crash, and an enormous shift in political power in our country. (All in one month!) I haven’t even mentioned the many things going on in each of our personal lives. If you are feeling a little out of sorts these…
