This past Sunday we commissioned our first vestry, and four of those people helped me preach on how God shares his power among us (and how there’s always leftovers when we give what we have!).
If you weren’t there, I encourage you to listen to these powerful testimonies of God’s presence and movement among us. Each person shared about bad news they are tempted to believe when it comes to giving of themselves and their gifts to serve others, and they all shared the good news God has given them as they chose to step into this leadership role in our church.
Our church is still a little mustard seed (well, maybe a seedling now!), but over the past few weeks I have been beside myself with wonder at the transformative work God is doing in our midst.
As members of the Body of Christ, the good news for all of us is that we need not hide ourselves in shame, or hold back our gifts in fear, worried about whether we’ll have enough. As children of our Father in heaven, we belong to each other, and God’s power works among us as we offer ourselves and our gifts to each other in love, trusting in God’s abundance to meet every need in our midst, plus leftovers!
I wonder where God is calling you to give yourself and your gifts to serve others in love among us? Sometimes it’s simply being present when we gather, offering a smile, a word of encouragement, a hug or a listening ear.
It could also be serving in more concrete ways. Here are a few needs we have right now in our community for you to consider:
- Offer your time and presence with our children during worship. This is a real need for us right now. You don’t need to be “gifted” at being with kids to do this, and don’t worry, you won’t be consigned to serving every week. 🙂
- Offer your musical or artistic talents in our liturgical arts team. We are looking for more musicians, singers, and artists to help us worship through the arts on Sundays and set up the altar.
- Offer your technical or communication skills to work with our website and our audio/visual needs on Sunday mornings.
- Offer your home and hospitality in a Table group. Fr. Matt or I would love to help you
If you sense God calling you to serve and offer yourself in any of these ways, just email me and I’ll put you in touch with the person who can help you get involved.
Friends, when we learn to live in this way with each other, trusting one another, offering ourselves to one another, the abundance of God’s kingdom means that we all end up receiving what we need as a byproduct of our life together… just like the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of leftovers after Jesus fed thousands with their little sack lunch.
Thank you for your participation in our church. Fr. Matt and I are honored that you have taken the risks necessary to be part of what God is doing among us. We give thanks every day for your faith, which is producing a harvest of righteousness, peace, and joy for us and many others.
Grace and peace,
Fr. Ben
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