It's a New Year!

We are already into the third week of the New Year. I'm still amazed at how fast time slips by me these days. I am looking forward to the coming year for many reasons. One of the most exciting is my ordination into full connection with the UMC, set for Wednesday, May 27, 2009. This is a great day for which I have prepared and waited a long time.

I am also looking forward to a new focus on mission and ministry outside the walls of our church. We are poised to answer God's call to look beyond our selves and look instead to the needs of God's people. This is the work for which we pray and study. This is the work God truly wants us to do in His holy name. Church isn't about me, or you, or the people in the pews; church is all about God and what God wants us to do in this life to bring His reality to a broken and hurting world. Church is about who we are and how we can demonstrate God's love to all people. And I truly mean ALL people...without regard to our differences, but only with regard to our similarities as human beings created by God, for God. It's not about what we think of another person; it's only about what God thinks...And, the thing is, we can't know what God thinks, so we ought to assume that God loves everyone - and we should love likewise.

Happy New Year - even if I'm a few days late - enjoy your life in the Lord and have fun doing God's work. Amen