New Here?Weekly Word for the Pastor 1-9-2018
Sean Roberds | Jan 09, 2018
Hello Church,
It was good to be back with you Sunday for Worship and I was happy to see so many faces on such a cold day. I hope you have had an opportunity to begin the New Year Devotional. If you need a copy there are still some left at the church. As we continue to move forward in the new year here’s what’s coming up.
First, let me remind everyone that we had to move the Planning and Strategy Meeting to Wednesday the 17th. The winter weather changed the Mayor’s schedule, but luckily she was available the next week. If the change in date changes your plans, please email me to let me know. You can still sign up if you have not done so and you can email me to sign up as well. The Mayor is very excited to meet with us and I am looking forward to what she has to share about Herndon and what is coming up in our town. I hope we can take what she shares and find creative ways to serve and engage this community.
Because we are changing the format of this meeting it means we will not have time to go around the room and add every ministry and event to the calendar. Instead I am asking each ministry leader to go ahead and plan your events from February through May and email them to Sharon. Sharon will place them on the church calendar and if there are any conflicts we will let you know and try to work them out. I am looking forward to this new way of planning.
During the Sunday’s Sermon, I mentioned that we have been invited to partner and participate with Hillendale Baptist Church in a conference on Race, Faith and Unity called Journey to Justice. Journey to Justice aims to be a resource to help the Church claim and live into God’s call to racial justice and reconciliation as disciples of Jesus. My friend and colleague Gareth Murray is the pastor of Hillendale Baptist. We both see an opportunity in the Journey for Justice conference to bring people of different backgrounds together and talk safely about race. The conference is led by Jim Melson who has been working on race relations in the church for years and happens to be the leader of our covenant group. Journey to Justice will be held February 10th from 9:30-3:00. We will meet at First Baptist at 8:00AM and carpool to Hillendale in Dale City. You can find out more information about Journey to Justice and sign up at https://hillendalechurch.org/events
As you continue to read your daily scripture passages this week I hope you will notice in the passages how God notices individual people. God noticed Samuel, Jesus noticed Nathaniel and he notices you too. In case you need it here is a link to this week’s passages. https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=61
May the Lord bless you and keep you this week,
Sean
