An honest picture of what our discipleship looks like...

Beloved of God,

    First, I am very pleased to announce that we may increase our on site worship attendance beginning this Sunday from 25% to 40%! If you have been graciously holding back to allow for others to come worship in person, now might be the time to come yourself! If you would rather join us online until things are safer still, we understand and will continue our online broadcast of the service.

    I hope you are all planning on attending/tuning in for our congregational meeting this Sunday. You will be able to virtually attend the meeting even if you are not able to be there in person. Please pray for God’s wisdom as we take up the proposals that the church council has prepared for us to consider.

    For those brave souls among you that you are continuing to read through the Psalms with us: I am maintaining a digital calendar with all the readings on it which you can access here. If you would like to have some conversation partners, or share what God is saying to you as you read, you can join our classroom page here.

    The gospel reading scheduled from the lectionary for this week is Matthew 16:21-28. It gives us an honest picture of what our discipleship looks like. It won’t be comfortable. It’s a daily choice we have to make. But there is also the promise that a life of discipleship ends in reward. The “dailiness” of it isn’t a fruitless pursuit, but dealing with the “dailiness” can be tiring. Our readings for Sunday from Psalms and from Romans are there to help us navigate the call to be disciples “daily”. At our weakest moments, the only thing that is demanded of us is to take the next good step: the next chance to be thankful, the next chance to forgive somebody even if you’re right, the next moment to live righteously even when it's harder than the alternative. God sees your good work.

In that spirit, I hope you’ll join me in praying for:
*     Our congregation as we meet this Sunday.
*     Our missionaries seeking to serve in uncertain times and with unprecedented challenge.
*     Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
*     Doctors, nurses, first responders and those who do essential work in harm’s way
*     Relief and release from this viral pandemic
*     Those who are lonely right now
*     Christians and their churches, near and far, seeking to live faithfully in these days
*     One another. Please contact April ([email protected]) if you’d like to be added to our prayer list.

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall