06/11/2026
From the Pastor’s Note, June 11, 2026
“It's easy to assume that the work that goes into making church run is done primarily by a pastor, or pastors for the staff. And there's some truth to that. There are some things that the staff does that nobody else can do. Some things that pastors do that nobody else can do. But the truth is that the church works because of the amount of time and energy and the amount of love that a congregation is willing to pour into a church.
Church doesn't function without Session members. It doesn't function without Deacons. It doesn't function without people who are willing to welcome and greet. It doesn't function without Sunday school teachers and mission trip leaders and youth group volunteers and people to grow things in the garden, people to help serve meals.
A church is not a place where we simply come and get served, right? This isn't, this isn't like the rest of our world, where we, we come to this place and get to experience it as another consumer. This isn't a consumer product. This is a community, and that means that that everybody's got a role to play. Even you. It doesn't matter what sorts of physical limitations you have. It doesn't matter what sorts of mental limitations, you have. It doesn't matter whether you're strong or feeble. It doesn't matter if you're highly intelligent or maybe a little bit slower. None of those things matters. Everybody, we as Christians believe that every single individual, has been gifted by God, and that that gift is intended to be used by the community to edify and build up and strengthen the community.
I don't know what gifts you have. I don't. You might not know what gifts you have. But you do have gifts, you do have talents, and God has brought you to this place, God has brought you to this community, so that you can use those gifts and use those abilities and use that energy and use that love to invest in something bigger and beyond yourself.
Because the truth is the rest of the world wants us to just dump into ourselves and make sure that we get what we want, and that is a recipe for emptiness and loneliness. It's a recipe for disaster. And so I'm going to invite you, instead of thinking of this place as a place where you can simply just come and consume and be fed, to think instead of this as a community where you can come and serve and give and grow and become a better kind of person as you give all of those gifts to this community and help the people of this community become everything that they feel they are called to be. Friends, I hope that you understand how vitally important YOU ARE to the success of this church.“
