Happy New Year!
It is hard to believe that we are beginning not only a new year, but a new decade! It doesn’t seem possible, but it’s true.
The past year that I have spent with you has flown by. As I reflect on the past year and begin to contemplate the upcoming year at the church, I am counting the many blessings I experience every week serving as your pastor. I appreciate the support, encouragement, patience, and friendship that you have offered me this past year, and I am very much looking forward to this next year!
As we begin this new year, I encourage all of us to take time every day to pray for the church and for one another, trusting that God is at work among us. Our job as the church is to follow where Christ leads us, bearing witness to God’s love and grace in all we do and say. My guess is that we will do this in unexpected ways this coming year!
Prayer is an important spiritual discipline, as we open our hearts and minds to God’s presence and direction. As we pray for the church and for one another, let us ask God’s spirit to lead and guide us, so that we may continue to do God’s will in this world.
And let us rejoice in the Lord always! As Paul says in Philippians 4:4-9,
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Pastor Carolyn