Mark 9:50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

As we head into a time of transition at the church, we will be met with challenges and opportunities. I will be filling the pulpit at least for the month of September, maybe longer if needed. I’m looking forward to sharing a joyful time of worship and prayer with you all this month. There are some ways that you can help with the worship service: volunteer to be a scripture reader, bring food for our social time, write down hymns that you would like to have included in the future (a chart will be located in Steele Chapel), and make any suggestions of things that you would like us to try during worship.

As was Pastor Duane’s practice, my messages will center on the Gospel readings found in the lectionary. During the month of September (and beyond) the readings will be from the Gospel of Mark. I find this series of readings to be very appropriate to the developmental stage that we are facing in our church. In the coming weeks we’ll read and learn about such things as good coming from bad situations, figuring out just who we say Jesus is and what it means to follow Him, what God is saying to us when He keeps repeating His messages in different ways, and continuing to trust and believe in the Spirit that lives in each of us, and working together to further the mission of our Lord.

Mark 9:50 says that if salt loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? This can be a key verse for us to remember during this transition. It could be very easy for us to become apathetic – to start saying, “I just don’t care what we do anymore. As long as there is someone preaching each week so that I can go to church, that’s all that matters.” But God has much richer things in mind for us, we just need to have patience to learn what those things are. This will be a vital time for all of us to show support for each other, our board, our church and our Lord!

I look forward to seeing many of you during the worship service. While it is true that we all worship wherever we are, coming together during this time of transition will be so very important. I am joyfully thankful for the time to worship and pray together each week! Being together and sharing in this delightful opportunity to worship helps us to maintain the saltiness and be at peace with each other.

God’s Blessings to All,

— Sunnie