A Time for All Things

Dear Church,

It was wonderful to see so many faces last Sunday. Those of us who live in Jackson year round are beginning to say goodbye to those of us who winter in other places. It’s a time of transition. We’ve begun to raise financial resources for the year ahead, and we turn our attention toward evaluating our love-spreading mission in 2019. Leaves will turn from green to yellow and animals will be making their annual pilgrimages to lower elevation to live out the winter with less hardship.

I love thresholds—the metaphorical ones. And here we are again, on the threshold of something new, something that holds the hope of being even greater than what once was. There’s some risk, too, I suppose. Some risk that something that was loving won’t be or won’t be what we imagine.

But I believe it’s at these times in our life together that we really build strength, and we are! Church, we are a strong church! (We’re not the only strong church, of course, there are others in our town, too, and other communities of faith tied to a parallel mission.) But these are our moments to get stronger.

We have a bold mission in front of us this coming year, and we’re not even finished with this one. Last week so many of you generously committed to an even stronger, more loving year next year by making a pledge on Stewardship Sunday. Thank you for your generosity and your leadership and your love. If you have yet to make a pledge, please consider it seriously. We need you. We need all of us to pitch in to the work of having An Extraordinarily Loving Year.

What a joy it is to lead among you leaders! And what a joy it is to love among you lovers.

Love,

Jimmy