Grace and Peace, Bethesda!
Let’s get out the telescope and gain our bearings here. We’ve sailed through a beautiful Christmas season. We’ve traversed a week of icebergs. Our next destination is the Annual Meeting, now on February 25th.
Between now and then I will make a solo retreat to Mt. Angel Abbey, for prayer and processing. We are midcourse in our mission realignment. We’ve shared hopes and ideas. We’ve made commitments of “heart and harvest” toward the building of this ship. 70+ Epiphany Star Prayers hang in the entryway to commend our future into God’s hands.
We have a couple more Sundays in our “Who is this Captain? Captivated by Christ” series. Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day will lead us into Lent and a series on “Salvation in the Storm.”
After Easter on March 31 we will have April and May for “Sailing in the Risen Son.” I expect an emphasis on rallying the membership around new or renewed ventures. There could be new spiritual growth opportunities, new service opportunities, new committees or teams to make concerted efforts. God knows and has His people on a need-to-know basis!
My prayer in this is that all people – member and guest – find themselves “needed and known” at Bethesda.
Shalom, Pastor Tom