Here are some pictures from recent activities in the life of our church:
This is Who We Are:
We Lift High the Cross
Mosher-Pilgrim Presbyterian Church
2007-2008
The tall, distinctive cross on our property tells everyone who we are. The cross says we are a church, a community of people called out by the Holy Spirit to act as the Body of Jesus Christ. When a wind storm this summer knocked our cross down we did not dither about what to do. Across the board we were ready to lift high a new cross. This is who we are.
Our matter of fact response is a window into the life of mature Christianity. When storms strike people of faith don’t run and hide. They calmly respond. They ask themselves, how is it in this situation by the new inspiration of the Holy Spirit might I again lift high the cross of Christ?
This is just in the DNA of healthy churches and Christians. When challenge hits, when the unforeseen happens, when the unknown lies ahead, they calmly ask, OK, what next God? You promise to be here. You provide all we need. Like the prophet Habakkuk faithful ones stand on the rampart. They watch. They wait. There is no dithering about if or whether God will answer or act. Healthy ones instinctively know when they are calm, when they are prayerful, when they patiently wait until the Spirit aligns hearts and feet---then they move with ease into the next gracious chapter of God’s plan.
Across the 2006-2007 planning year our church has been in A Season of Understanding. This was (as we said in an October 2006 worship service), “not a program or an event, not a consultant or a set plan. A Season of Understanding is the name we put to our effort to capture our entire church’s resolve to better understand God, our neighbors, ourselves and God’s challenging call and claim on our church.”
Last night (8/23/07) at the Session meeting we celebrated the past season. We gave thanks for the overwhelming sense that across the past year we have moved forward together—a big goal of ours from a year ago. Last night we also sensed we were in a new phase of church life together—so we said thanks be to God for a fruitful Season of Understanding and we bid it farewell. Our understanding has borne fruit and we are ready to move on. We are ready to express our new resolve. And so we christen the 2007-2008 planning year. The new phrase that we offer is: “This is Who We Are: We Lift High the Cross.” Watch, wait, pray with us across the year. Jump into our new education season. Continue to pray and worship. We can hardly wait to see what God will bring, how the cross of Christ again will rise among us.
On behalf of the Session and in Christ, Pastor Sarah Dickinson
