It’s that time of year again.
Depending on what your day-to-day life looks like, a phrase like “it’s that time of year again” can mean different things. For us here at Fountain City United Methodist Church, it primarily indicates that we are gearing up for ministry in 2008. It doesn’t mean we are ready to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. In fact, sometimes it seems we are dotting t’s and crossing i’s because we don’t always get it right the first (or 101st) time when we seek to serve the Lord. However, we seek to “get it as right” as we can.
In order to do our best for the Lord, one of the things we need is everyone’s participation. We need prayers, presence, gifts and service. When possible, we need everyone doing each of these. All through the year we seek volunteers; we encourage attendance; and we ask you to pray. At this time of the year, we concentrate on the gifts part of it in order that we can do the other parts the rest of the year. Let us be reminded of our opportunity to respond to the Lord’s goodness to us as individuals and as a church.
Within the next few days, you will be receiving a letter and commitment card from our Stewardship Committee as we move toward Financial Commitment Sunday on November 11. I want to encourage you to consider prayerfully your response to this annual effort to help us “get it as right as we can” in the coming year. As humans, we never get it perfectly right; so I am grateful that it is a forgiving God whom we worship and serve. However, we strive to use the gifts and resources God has given us to serve God faithfully. I hope you will join us in this effort.
One thing (among many) that we have done right was the hiring of Rachel Duncan as our Director of Early Childhood Ministries. Rachel’s vision for that new ministry for our church enabled her to reach out to our youngest ones and their families to provide more than just childcare. From Sunday school through Wee Worship and other gatherings, our youngest children are cared for, nurtured, loved and offered the Good News in age-appropriate ways. We are grateful for the ways in which Rachel has worked with the staff to help us understand what the scope of that ministry can be and how it can help us serve our children and their families. She has been creative, care-“full” and compassionate in helping us provide safe and comfortable early childhood ministry. Our pastoral care team will probably need to work harder to keep up with the concerns of the families whom she served. She always kept us informed. I am grateful that Rachel was able to serve our church and our Lord through this ministry. Thanks, Rachel.
The early childhood ministry is just one of the ways our financial gifts help us to share God’s love. When we give as God leads, we are able to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and more nearly “get it right” in our 183rd year of ministry.
– Jim
