Senior Pastor Jill Duffield
On Sunday we kicked off this year’s annual stewardship campaign with the theme, “200 Years of Blessings, Imagine What Comes Next.” In the weeks leading up to the official start of our goal to raise $2.7 million to support next year’s budget, Ann Alexander, our stalwart director of communications, has been asking members and staff alike to write down and share one way our congregation has been a blessing to them. You accepted the assignment and seeing your blessings has been yet one more blessing to me! You’ve named everything from name tags to livestreaming, to the way others have surrounded you with care in times of grief.
Frankly, I had a hard time choosing which of the myriad blessings I’ve experienced through you to write on my sign. Being with four-year-olds for a week of VBS was an incredible blessing. Meeting in your homes to discuss the future of FPC during the capital campaign also a huge blessing. Seeing each of you serve in so many ways: collecting canned goods, providing hospitality at Hot Dish and Hope, delivering flowers, signing up to be a confirmation mentor, helping folks into the sanctuary on Sunday, ushering a memorial service, making hats and quilts, checking on each other, praying, teaching Sunday school, leading committees, blessings each and every one. I am grateful, inspired and heartened by the way you daily live your faith.
Thank you for so generously sharing your time, talents, and resources. It matters and makes an outsized impact. In a season when there is a constant barrage of tragic and frightening news, your willingness to see and be the good stands out in stark relief, a beacon of the light of Christ that the world needs to illumine God’s path forward.
The Scripture guiding our annual campaign comes from Philippians, “God began a good work in you and will carry it on.” We can trust this promise because we know that God’s abundance is limitless and our blessings too many to count. Thank you for being a blessing to me, to this congregation, to our community and to God’s beloved world. You matter and, for Christ’s sake, you are making an impact for good.
