A Lever, A Partner, A Vehicle

Aside from Jesus (if you can be), there’s a reason I do what I do in the way that I do it! Let me try to explain myself, here. I’ve said before, I’m a believer. I buy the story, the Jesus story, each movement of it, and I take that story as the guiding principle of my life. Thankfully, we come from a tradition that doesn’t diminish the story of Jesus by insisting that every part of it be taken literally.

And, (not but) I’m a grateful student of wisdom from other traditions and contexts and experiences. I have a keen interest in how humans seek to develop and nurture humans, so that they might make a positive or loving difference wherever they are. I’m particularly interested in how people like you and people like me take our aspirational values and turn them into lived values, ones that we take action on and practice a regular basis. How do ideas, particularly ideas that will help humankind flourish and prosper and heal and grow and develop, become reality?

Here’s what I’ve come to know about that part of our work or our lives as humans. It doesn’t happen in isolation. We need each other. We can’t practice God’s love alone, as I’ve said in the past. Communities, groups, churches are the lever of, the partner to or the vehicle for moving aspirational values to practiced or lived values. We need each other.

Don’t hear what I’m not saying! Do we need God? Of course we do. But, we need each other, too. We can’t do this alone, and we weren’t built or designed for it! This is why I’m so devoted to continuing to build and strengthen our church. We need it. We need each other. And, others need us, too. We’re a great church with a great tradition in regard to this work, and we can and will continue to do more. I believe in Jesus, and I believe in the church becoming the best it can be, so that more can be loved and nurtured and healed, and so that more of us will grow and be challenged and flourish and continue to serve. We’re in this together, and we’re in it right here in Jackson, Wyoming.

Love, Jimmy