Happy New Year everyone! I pray your year was full of blessings and may the Lord continue to bless you all through the coming year and beyond! While pondering what to write for this month’s newsletter, I kept thinking of the scripture in Matthew chapter 13. “Therefore,” Jesus said to them, “every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom treasures new and old.”
I thought of it because I believe it is important to look back sometimes, and reflect. We tend to do this at New Year. We think about the significant moments during the old, past year. Many were good, some were not. But that’s how we learn. We take those moments, and hopefully not beat ourselves up, and grow from them.
Looking back on this past year, I can’t help but feel so proud of our church for all the good it has done. Yes, we made some mistake. I know I did. But there were so many efforts to serve our community and God’s Kingdom, I’m just blown away by everything all of you have done. And I mean all of you. We are the body of Christ. We are in this together. And we couldn’t do it without each other.
Beyond our regular efforts to serve, there is one recent example I want to quickly mention. A family reached out to me just before Christmas. It was pretty last minute, but the dad had such a hard time asking for help. When he finally did, I let our church know and in less than a day, we had $300 raised and several gifts collected. Amazing! Thank you everyone who gave their time and resources that day! I can’t describe the emotion and gratitude as well as relief on their faces.
So now the New Year has come. It’s time to continue to bring out the old, the ways we serve so well…AND bring out the new. What is the new? That’s what we need to figure out! As you all know, our church is in a bit of a financial crisis. I’d like to think of it as an opportunity. We get to pull out something new from the storehouse. The storehouse, in this case, is God. We need to go to God, and ask, “What new thing would You have us do, Lord? How can we grow? How can we help bring Joy and Love to our community in a new and unique way?”
We have some building to do! There may be some labor, but hopefully we can make it a labor of love. Happy New Year and God bless you all!
–Pastor Brian
First United Methodist Church, Hudson, MI 