The pictorial directory is in the hands of the folks at Owen-Mills and we wait for them to return a proof copy to us for some fine-tooth comb editing on our part before we return it to them, before they return them to us to distribute. This will be an aid to us all as we put names and faces together!

My book on our life as a Church, through the lens of the Anniversary Year, continues to be written, at times with speed and clarity, at times with painful perseverance. I am reminded, again, of sports writer Red Smith who once said, “writing is easy, you just sit down and open a vein”! I have finished, ignoring editing, with 3/4ths of the volume and believe that I am within sight of the last first draft on the final chapters. As I try to put aside a day each week, without distractions – no easy task in this electronic world, I thank you for your patience and encouragement.

But the most important lingering item is the “What Next?” challenge and opportunity that God is giving us, the results of all that we have learned about who we are and who we are becoming! As our 12th graders so eloquently said to us on Youth Sunday, it is time to push the reset button and take all that we have been and enter new, familiar and sacred experiences. The results will be there in our Easter celebrations, they will be there in our planning for the May 15 Warwick Work Day, they will be there when Chris Heitkamp’s report is received in the summer, but they will be most clearly brought into focus at our April 14 All Teams Night.

As a Consistory we are inviting each of our Church Teams (Congregational Life, Communication, Education, Finance, Property and Worship) to gather at 7:30, to receive a brief overview of the State of the Church, to break into Team Meetings, to talk with other teams as needed and then to close with a commitment, a blueprint for action and a prayer by 9:15.

And who is on which Church Team? Anyone and everyone who wants to be! I remember, decades ago, suggesting to a Consistory that we simply assigned every Church member to a Team (they were probably called committees back then) with the presumption that if we cared enough about being members of the Church, we would care enough to give our time to the Church. I was essentially patted on the head and told that I was unrealistic and naive. I’ve never accepted that. I believed, and I continue to believe, that every single person connected with our Church cares, far more than we show, about the Church and that I, and the rest of Consistory, simply haven’t found the right way to allow each of you to express your concern. At our All Teams Night we will all have a chance to define, guide and enhance the work that God has given us to do in the next few years.

We are living in turbulent times, changes are upon us and ahead of us in all corners of our lives, and it is more important then ever for us to keep God’s voice and presence clear and stable in our community so that we might be the refuge, the sanctuary, the anchor that we, and others, need. We can do that best when we work together. Copies of the various team responsibilities are posted on the Narthex bulletin board to help you decide where God is assigning you.

Shalom,

Jack