Pastor’s Pen…

Without vision, the people will perish. Proverbs 29:18a

It is hard to believe that we have been on this shared journey of ministry for over two years now. As the Search Committee prepares to receive its first batch of profiles I have been reflecting on our time together and here are some thoughts about what you have accomplished in the past two years….

You have listened and laughed and cried with each other during two rounds of Cottage Meetings. What wonderful times you had sharing your stories about the Sharon Church! What great moments of dreams you shared as you began to imagine a new day, a new era with a new pastor.

I have offered and you have experienced a variety of new things in worship! You have learned new ways of praying, new music, a variety of bulletin formats, conversational preaching. You even got a chance to see what video projection might bring to your worship in the future!

You have experienced different ways of cooperating as leaders. We have tried an “All Boards” night that didn’t work for you but you have grown the work of the Council to be more of what it was imagined to be. Through this you have discovered that there are different ideas about how your current governance works.

This has led you to look at your structure and moved you to imagine something new that will support you in gaining wider participation from members and friends in accomplishing the mission and ministry of the church. Doing this will support growth into the future.

In your imagining a new future, the Lighthouse Task Team (LTT) was created to explore converting the Lighthouse back into a parsonage. This means that the Food Shelf will need to be relocated and the LTT has recommended a plan for this that, I believe, will bring new life to the church as the Food Self is temporarily moved back to Steele Chapel.

The more expansive idea that came from this work is a vision for a Community Resource Center! The dreams that began in your kitchens and living rooms has unlocked this vision of a place where people can be fed in more than just body. Through educational programs on cooking and nutrition, through having a space where people can gather for discussion, as well as share community meals, you are dreaming a new era of vitality for the Sharon Church.

This vision is one that powerfully evokes a community where food for body, mind and soul will continue to be the marks of the Sharon Church in the future. These ideas are reflected in the VISION AND MISSION STATEMENTS that a task team worked on over the winter. They are...

MISSION STATEMENT

The Mission of the Sharon Congregational Church, United Church of Christ is to practice inspiring discipleship that leads us to compassionate service, caring fellowship, and a willing openness to welcome all.

VISION STATEMENT

The vision of the Sharon Congregational Church, United Church of Christ is to be an inclusive community of faith which supports people as they grow in faith by offering hope to a world in need through worship, prayer, fellowship and service.

While these statements have not yet been adopted, they do express this new map of the future, grounded in your passion and the call that God has placed in your hearts to feed and care for each other and the community.

I would dare say that you have moved through a significant intersection and are now slowly gaining speed as you move down the road to becoming a people who spread the table of welcome, feeding body, mind and soul. What an exciting and powerful future is laid before you! I am proud of the distance we have traveled together and am moved by the possibilities of transformation that lay ahead.

There will certainly be bumps along the way and more trial and error, but trying things and being willing to fail is an important part of how we discover that we can get back up and try again – believing that God loves us no matter what!

And if God loves us no matter how many times we fail we can certainly offer this to one another. Your new pastor will need your love as you will need hers/his. By practicing that love we grow in faith, as individuals and as a congregation. By doing this we become, ever more, an inclusive community of faith, living out our mission to offer hope to a world in need!

May God continue to inspire, challenge and bless the Sharon Congregational Church, United Church of Christ now and into the future.

Peace - Pastor Robin