Musings From Behind The Pulpit
When we were dating, Marge told me that my favorite word was, "perspective." I would have preferred that she had identified a word conveying the passionate and romantic in me rather than one that accented the rational and detached, but I did not argue because having a perspective was then, and is now (28 years after we married), important to me.
Therefore I smile as I muse, knowing fully well that this issue is special to me because it is an attempt to provide perspective for the beginning of our program year. Marge's 30 year old observation is still right.
Because it is laid out differently and because I am hopeful most of you will hold on to it for a while, I wanted to call it a "souvenir edition," but it is more a "resource and reference guide" than souvenir. Thus, journalistic integrity requires me to avoid my initial appellation. Further, as some would point out, it would not be much of a souvenir if in early 2015, recognizing that its value had been fully depleted, everyone put it in the recycle bin.
I hope that this "resource and reference guide" in presenting a perspective of what we are going in the next few months, will also be an inspirational eye (and heart) opener.
This congregation is not perfect. That's obvious from the fact that I am the pastor. Likewise our service to Christ isn't perfect, but we do a lot and want to do even more.
It is time for each of us to commit ourselves to make us the best congregation of servants and followers that we can be. To do this we need to commit ourselves
to consistently give priority to our worship; to deepening our faith through devotion and Bible study; to increasing our role in mission and ministry; and to inviting others to join us in worshiping and serving through Christ.
We are holding opportunities in our hands right now.
- With "perspective,"
- Jim