Last week we introduced that our vision for our Parish in this coming year comes from one of King David’s Psalms:
“What can I give back to God for the blessings he’s poured out on me?
I’ll lift high the cup of salvation—a toast to God!
I’ll pray in the name of God;
I’ll complete what I promised God I’d do,
and I’ll do it together with his people.
Oh, God, here I am, your servant, your faithful servant:
set me free for your service!
I’m ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice and pray in the name of God.
I’ll complete what I promised God I’d do,
and I’ll do it in company with his people,
In the place of worship, in God’s house…
Hallelujah!”
(portions of Psalm 116:12-19, MSG)
Subsequently, we questioned how, over the next several weeks and months we will live out this vision together. How can our Parish be in worship, prayer, praise, and service together? Too often I believe we still consider ourselves as separate churches, doing separate things; that the only thing we have in common is that we share the same pastor.
Yet, a Cooperative Parish is so much more – it is much more united than many other multi-point charges in our denomination. The purpose of a Cooperative Parish is to share these things in common – to worship together, to pray together, to serve together. What one church does, the other does also. We constantly participate together. We are one Body of Christ which cannot be separated, which needs all of its members in order to be most effective in ministry. We are one community, one church with two worship sites.
This summer and throughout the upcoming year, there will be multiple opportunities to do so. So, the real question is – how, when and where will you experience the togetherness that God has envisioned for us?
Always pondering,
Pastor Steve