Pastor's Message
June 2010
To the people of God:
We use to call the Sundays following Pentecost “ordinary time” when it came to the long, green color of the church year. There were a few “tiny” festivals or special commemorations during the time between Pentecost and All Saints' Sunday. It was “just” ordinary. It seems as if we were tempted to think of summer and early fall as the same old thing week in and week out. However, one person once wrote this as he reflected upon the Trinity, “On the road of life there are innumerable occasions for us to stand at the corner of ‘Mystery” and “Mundane” and see God at work in the course of an ordinary day.” Simple experiences can provide powerful witness to God’s presence in our lives and in the world.
This summer the Transformational Team will continue its work within and through this community of faith as we seek to discover more about what it means to be a welcoming, worshiping, growing, relating, and serving congregation. The team will be putting together opportunities for small groups to discuss and help discover some specific ways in which we can fulfill God’s purpose and how we can put into practice some of the general strategies discovered in Phase I. TMT folk will be asking for members to host a small group gathering in the summer. We hope to accomplish several of the following:
- Gather at someone’s home for a time of fellowship in order to get to know each other differently than would happen in a regular church function held at Emmanuel.
- In a relatively relaxed environment review, discuss, and gain a deeper insight into specific ways to live as a community of faith in the community of Ypsilanti in particular, but not solely.
- Make final suggestions and tweaks to the purpose statement before the congregation will vote on it at the 2012 congregational meeting as we step out in faith implementing possible new ministries as well as enhancing current ministries whenever it is possible.
In all this some very extraordinary ideas may be experienced in very ordinary times. Does it not seem ironic that one reason people had a hard time believing that Jesus was the Messiah was because he was so ordinary? God seems to be able to take ordinary times and people and do something sacred and profound in them and through them. I think Paul was right that “...we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”
Remember we will need folks to host these “cottage” meetings this summer. We will try to have at least one in a neighborhood or an area close to where pockets of members live. Hopefully, travel will not be far from where you live. Like all things we will be limited to only a handful of meeting dates, but we will try hard to have such a gathering relatively near to you. God bless you in all your ordinary time.
One of Christ’s servants,
David A. Hendricks - CoG