Feeling Moved with the Seasons

I’m watching the snow beginning to fall outside my office windows. It’s still new enough in the season that I find myself in my chair sort of trying to will the snow to fall a bit harder. I’m eager to see it cover the ground, even the ground under the trees. I’m anticipating the possibility of snow boots peeking out from underneath Halloween costumes tonight. I love this time of year here. I mean, I love Jackson, but I especially love Jackson in the fall. It seems like it’s a time to get things done! Prep the yard. Store the screens. Blow out the sprinklers. Wax and tune the skis.

I can assure you it’s the same around the church office. We’re buttoning things up on our campus for the wintertime, but in regard to the mission it seems like we’re just reaching full speed. Just over the course of the last two weeks here we’ve reviewed all the dreams we collected over the summer. We’ve spent two long and incredibly productive days with a consultant, David Wilson, looking at how those dreams we dreamed together during the summer might form a strategic process that will give birth to a strategic plan. Just last Saturday the staff, vestry and I headed out to the Murie Ranch in Moose where we spent the day dreaming and strategizing some more. We’re making progress on and have created real plans to share on December 2nd, that first Sunday of Advent. (I hope you’ll plan to be here that day!)

In the midst of all this continued dreaming and strategizing, we’re still doing what we do around here. We welcomed over 90 men into a conversation last week about mutual respect and relationship. We blessed I don’t know how many beloved pets at the pet blessing, and five days later Brian and I blessed eight new Habitat Houses at the Grove. Eight families with permanent homes! We’re still writing sermons and making sure our Bright Beginnings kids get plenty of love. Today, I met with leaders of the Jackson Hole Jewish Community, as we are planning a service of Unity and Remembrance this Friday.

As you clean up the last batch of leaves in your yard and as you begin to watch the snowfall increase, I hope you’ll continue to feel moved and emboldened by our mission of making a love-spreading difference in this valley and beyond. The love of God is so vast, and it’s ours to share with others. I sure am glad we’re together in this work!

Love, Jimmy