Here we are at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
We all live in different homes, work in different jobs, travel in a variety of friend circles, manage our own family lives, etc, etc. And yet here we are: a parish family. God's children, coming together in one house (and a beautiful one), hoping to connect.
During worship, I imagine our collective key interest is connecting with God. That's likely why we show up on Sunday morning. God is with us each and every day, no matter where we are. Yet those moments in church: quiet, prayerful, mysterious, comforting, in community - those are the moments that nourish us each week, leading us closer to who God calls us to be! What a beautiful thing, church! So that communication with God thing? We're getting that down! Good job, us!
How about the strength of our communication with each other? That may be a more elusive success. Think about it. We're from roughly four generations! Our collective time span includes everything from letter writing, and the early telephone, to the worldwide web and all that came with it. This is not a small gap between our customs and comfort zones.
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This spiderweb is a strong visual for making the point. God is the center, if you will. We are the strings coming from the center! Cool. Then look at the perpendicular lacing connecting each of us. Loads of lines of communication! None of them are unimportant to the beauty of the whole design, right? That's what forms the web! The spider's efforts are tireless until the web is complete. And so it goes with us!
As we go forward in Christian Formation at St. Paul's, my goal is to create a thing of beauty through the elaborate lacing together of our parish family. We will use all means available to us in getting the word out about opportunities at St. Paul's. Letters, postcards, bulletins, spoken announcements, websites, Facebook, Twitter, newspapers, blog, telephone, texting - heck, maybe we'll even engage a town crier!
Maybe more to the point: we hope you all will become active participants of spreading the word! If you start by being an active listener or reader, then pass what you've learned on to others, in the parish or outside our walls, more people will know more information and each of us will be fonts from which that information flows. Back to the web metaphor: keep spinning the lace, pulling the strings, reestablishing center, where God is. Let's meet there.
How about the strength of our communication with each other? That may be a more elusive success. Think about it. We're from roughly four generations! Our collective time span includes everything from letter writing, and the early telephone, to the worldwide web and all that came with it. This is not a small gap between our customs and comfort zones.
As we go forward in Christian Formation at St. Paul's, my goal is to create a thing of beauty through the elaborate lacing together of our parish family. We will use all means available to us in getting the word out about opportunities at St. Paul's. Letters, postcards, bulletins, spoken announcements, websites, Facebook, Twitter, newspapers, blog, telephone, texting - heck, maybe we'll even engage a town crier!
Maybe more to the point: we hope you all will become active participants of spreading the word! If you start by being an active listener or reader, then pass what you've learned on to others, in the parish or outside our walls, more people will know more information and each of us will be fonts from which that information flows. Back to the web metaphor: keep spinning the lace, pulling the strings, reestablishing center, where God is. Let's meet there.
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