Pastor's Comments

Our Visioning group has been meeting now for several months, gathered around the conviction that God is up to something at Holy Trinity, that the Spirit is at work in our midst, and that God has a future in mind for us.  We’ve met and prayed together and separately, asking “God, what is on your heart and mind?”  We’ve sought inspiration about our ministries, about programs, about who we’re called to serve, about the shape of our lives here as servants of Christ at Brick and Mayflower Road.  And, we’ve often been surprised by the answers.

One of the convictions we share is that God has a plan, God is up to something in the world.   We share that conviction with all God’s faithful, because the Bible shows us through history God at work on that plan.  Our calling as Christians is not to invent a purpose for our lives, nor is it our job to invent a future for Holy Trinity.  God’s already doing all of that – God already has a purpose for your life.  Our task, our calling, our great privilege as people of faith is to watch for what God is already up to, and then to get on board.

The Visioning group has become more and more convinced that the place for us to start looking is in our own faith lives as a congregation.  We have come to believe the Lord is fashioning himself a people, shaping us by his mercy and his grace, transforming us by his presence.  God is forming you into his child, and that’s where we begin.

It’s what I’ve recently been calling “thick faith” or “deep faith” – one of the joys of Holy Trinity, and the primary thing that has been drawing people into relationship with our community and with the Lord, is the vibrant, lively, transforming faith here.  This is a place where God changes lives, where being together changes and challenges and makes the rest of the week meaningful – and makes it go better.  Truly I tell you, I have heard story after story and have witnessed people being transformed by the work of the Spirit at Holy Trinity.  God has been changing lives within and through this community, because it’s a place that encourages and nurtures a thick, lively faith.

The interesting question then, is where that leads.  And that’s a question that can only be answered by all of us, by all of our eyes looking within our faith for what God is doing.  The Visioning group can’t answer that for us, we need your answers and listening as well.  That’s why, over the next couple months, we’re going to start a series of Cottage Meetings gathering in members’ homes to laugh and pray and listen together.  We want to listen together for what God is doing to your faith, what God is doing in your life, where your joy is, where your energy is, what gives you life.

So pray with us.  Laugh with us.  Grow with us.  Learn with us.  Listen and look with us for what God is already up to.  And join us in conversation at our Cottage Meetings, because God is up to something here.  Lives are being transformed by the Spirit here.  What a privilege to be part of God’s plan!

Peace,

-Pastor Tim