Starting at the Beginning
Your weekly newsletter is popping into your inbox a day early, thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday. Whether your Thanksgiving will be with friends, family, or in cozy solitude, I hope that this week you will know that there are many who give thanks for you.
I will board the Amtrak Cascades this evening so that it can whisk us to Seattle. There, my siblings and I will continue to forge our own cooking and holiday traditions, as our parents and grandparents have all passed on or have lost their way. I’ll tumble around with my 2-year-old niece, and we’ll pop by the adult care home to give my mom a kiss on the cheek and pester her until she falls asleep in her wheelchair (usually within minutes of our arrival).
Then, before we know it, the holiday will have passed and we will be facing December head-on! For United Methodists, this also means that we will be diving into the season of preparation for the coming of the Christ child: the season of Advent.
Despite nearing the end of the calendar year, the season of Advent marks the beginning of the calendar of the church. On that first Sunday of Advent, the cycle begins again. A world in great darkness waits in anticipation for the light of the Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. We wait in eagerness for the assurance that God has always been with us, God is with us now, and God will continue to be with us. We get to flip all the way back to the start of the Gospel, all the way to the start of Jesus’ life and ministry. There, on the precipice of the start of the story, we return to that quiet anticipation, like we are watching a seed all but dormant in its wet soil.
We start at the beginning.
I love Advent for countless reasons. The season is as moody as it is joyful, as preoccupied with endings as with beginnings, as focused on the dreams of tomorrow as it is with the harsh realities of today. There’s something exhilarating about being at the very start of the Gospel, knowing that there are so many transformative, challenging, hope-filled, and quirky words of scripture that lay ahead.
There’s something about starting at the beginning.
The Advent mood is not unlike the one we take up throughout our visioning work. This work is part of the regular rhythm of the life of a congregation, just as Advent is part of the regular rhythm of the church year. It brings with it both a nostalgia for the foundational pieces of our identity that we joyfully carry forward, as well as a reminder of what we already know about ourselves – but expressed in fresh words that are true to how we live, pray, and act today.
We are still currently in the stage of our future planning where we are articulating the vision for the church overall, as well as our core values. These will help us make the small and big decisions we have ahead, such as how to organize our programming, what lay teams to build up, and how to maintain a vibrant campus. All those conversations are vision-dependent and have yet to take place. This means if you’ve heard that we have made a decision one way or another on any of those topics, someone along the way has misheard! There is also no concealed ‘we.’ These conversations either happen out in the open with the congregation, or in the administrative and program committees of the church (though it does sound more mysterious to have a Secret Council of Intrigue. Alas, none such exists).
The Vision Task Force has been thrilled to see so many folks participate in the visioning work. Our consultant suggested we pick one way to solicit initial thoughts from the congregation, as this would be the most manageable for the team. However, because we know that we have many kinds of folks who process differently and engage the church in different ways, we picked four ways to make sure our active congregation was involved in the initial step.
The next invitation to the congregation from the Vision Task Force is to an open house at the church on Sunday, December 22 where we’ll share the preliminary vision statement and core values that the larger committee has developed. You’ll have an opportunity to learn about the words the committee has chosen as well as provide feedback.
If you are an online churchgoer or not in town that day, we’ll have a virtual time-limited way to participate and share your feedback. More information on both the in-person and online opportunities will be shared by the Vision Task Force in December.
In January, the team will consider this feedback for potential edits and then will host a celebration of the final work.
And then we will have arrived- right at the beginning, with fresh words and a new year to begin the work that we have been doing all along: loving God and loving our neighbor. I can’t wait to get started together.
Have a safe and warm holiday. We will see you in Advent for worship and the Advent Palooza in Collins Hall after the 10:30 service!
In gratitude,
Pastor Karyn
