'God loves you no matter what' Tagged Posts
Vision & Values Gatherings
For the last three years, we’ve been journeying through The Great Story. Our goal at the outset was to understand the larger arc of scripture and the grand story of what it is trying to tell us. This is a God of relationships whose primary desire has been to connect with us and help us to connect with all of creation. As we near the end of this three-year journey, we couldn’t be more excited to share with you some of the…
Wesleyan Quadrilateral
October 23, 2024A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, A few weeks ago, I shared one of our core United Methodist frameworks, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. This framework provides a helpful tool for how we understand and come to know God I like this second image because it also helps us to see how they interact, and particularly how we read and understand scripture. Scripture provides a place to start from and to stand. It is the primary way the story…
For Equilibrium
October 9, 2024A Note from Pastor Jon Dear Friends, I was reading an article about human emotion and came across this phrase “paleomammalian cortex.” I thought theological terminology was difficult enough, but as I read I learned that this is how engineering types talk about the emotional centers of our brain. The emotional center of our brain For me, finding this emotional center can mean reading scripture or looking at an image and entering into the scene. It means moving…
Finding Wonder in the Mess
October 2, 2024A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, Adorable. I love all things adorable. Adorable small towns. Adorable cobblestone streets and squares. Adorable bookstores and coffee shops in said small towns and squares, preferably with adorable gardens and patios where I can sit and savor it all. It took me a while to understand how much the aesthetic around me impacts the way my body feels and the energy I have for my work. There is an intense amount…
Playing with Fire
September 25, 2024A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, You’re playing with fire. ~Parental words of wisdom to our teenagers The symbol of the United Methodist Church for the last 56 years has been the cross and flame. Behind the familiar Christian symbol of the cross, we see a red flame, a symbol of the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, seemingly floating in the air and providing a vivid red backdrop. The church could have chosen another image of…
Welcome to our new Chancel Choir Director!
We’re pleased to welcome Coshel Caudill (he/him) as our new Chancel Choir Director for the 9am Traditional worship service in the Sanctuary! He writes, “I have wanted to do music ministry for as long as I have wanted to be in music. It is a passion of mine, and giving back to God with what he has given me is my dream come true. My goal is to try and make singing in a church as accessible as possible for…
A More Excellent Way
September 18, 2024A Note from Pastor Jon Dear Friends, Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s hard to miss that election season is in full swing. We are just over six weeks away from the votes being counted in both federal and local elections. If there’s a season that I’m not too fond of, it’s this one. The divisive rhetoric, half-truths, and blatant fear-mongering for votes are not just disturbing — they’re often detestable. Personal attacks and sharp words…
Fall’s Invitations
September 11, 2024A Note from Lindsay Robinson Dear Friends, I was driving home the other day and noticed some of the trees that line the street had begun to change color. They were a lighter green with more hints of yellow starting to show. The leaves signifying to us that fall is upon us. This change in season coordinates with the start of the school year, and for me, it always feels like an invitation. Fall invites us to learn…
Liminal Space
September 4, 2024A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, I’ve always been fascinated by the moments in time when things begin to shift. A word spoken at just the right time, a diagnosis that no one saw coming, an unexpected opportunity, a chance encounter, and sometimes just an idea or inspiration that leads us somewhere we hadn’t foreseen. Most of the time, we see these moments only in hindsight, reflecting on the spark, energy, or awakening that jolted us from…
Solidarity in the Journey of Growth, Revisited
August 28, 2024A Note from Pastor April Greatest Hits: Revisiting some previous Letters of Encouragement, in celebration of all God has done during these last four years! Dearly Beloved, On a week when we hear the news of Russia’s bombardment of missiles and strikes across Ukraine, I am reminded of where we were at the start of the war. The letter that I share with you below was written in March of 2022, just as the war in Ukraine was…
The Flow of Grace, Revisited
August 21, 2024A Note from Jon Esala Greatest Hists: Revisiting some previous Letters of Encouragement, in celebration of all God has done during these last four years! Dear Friends, A lot has changed in my own life since I first wrote this letter in February 2022. The biggest change of course is my son Emmett was born in January 2023. Now that he’s a year and a half, it’s hard to believe that there was ever a time he wasn’t…
Getting into the Particulars, Revisited
July 31, 2024A Note from Pastor AprilGreatest Hists: Revisiting some previous Letters of Encouragement, in celebration of all God has done during these last four years! Dear Friends, As I re-read the letter I wrote to you over two years ago, I couldn’t help but see the incredible connections to the week I just shared with ten of our young people and five other adult volunteers up at Lakeside Institute (youth camp). As the chaplain for the week, I had…