​Our Unchanged Vision

​     This past Sunday in our services we had a “Family Meeting.”  Yes, the kind where everyone sits down and wonders if they are in trouble.  I can say with great confidence that it was less of a meeting about what we are doing wrong, and more of a meeting about what we can be doing right!  Just a couple months ago we all thought this pandemic was ending as life seemed to be getting back to “normal.”  We began gathering for fellowship, restaurants opened for indoor dinning, masks sightings were less frequent and it seemed even the news began to find a new topic to steal our focus for season.  Today we are yet again in a surge of new cases as the “Delta Variant” has brought new challenges to our county and has sent many people to the hospital creating insufficient help to those in need.  Our county has gone back a few steps by requiring masks in all indoor settings and seems to be tightening things back up again.  
     My warning to all of you as a church is to not throw stones.  It seems like every time something like this happens we all want to be right.  We are right by throwing stones at people who we think are wrong.  I seek to remind you that we are known as Christians by how we love others.  I also want to remind you that the vision statement of our church is to “Know Christ and Make Him Known.”  We are to “Love God and Love Others.”  How are you doing at that?  The challenges we face as a county do not change our vision statement or purpose as a church.  The fires, the pandemic, the political climate, the uncertainty do not change our vision and purpose as a church.  We are still to Know Christ and Make Him Known, and to Love God and Love Others, because this is what the Lord has commanded us to do.  Will you join me in keeping this our main focus as we press on to accomplish this bold task?
      Our plan as a church is simple, find ways to practically implement our vision.  If our goal is to be loving and we are to be known by how we love each other, then putting our rocks down is only part of the equation.  We must act in the opposite of hate and judgement.  For me, I want to be approachable to all people.  I will be wearing a mask on Sunday as I wish all people to be able to come and seek me out for prayer, guidance, encouragement.  I don’t wear it for myself, I wear it for others.  I want to be known as someone that people can come to for help.  How about you?  How will you show the world that you love them?  How will you carry out the vision of this church to “Know Christ and Make Him Known?”
 
-Pastor Paul Mollett