Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, Lead Courageously

Mid-Summer already! I hope your summer has its opportunities for family time, fun, vacation, and a chance or two to simply decompress.  We’re halfway through 2025.  It’s been a year of blessing for our UMCGR family – even as we’ve shared the loss of loved members of our congregation.

I thought it a good time to celebrate some blessings so far and look forward.  Through this first half of the year we’ve seen a multitude of blessings!  From fun gatherings like Lumberjack Sunday & Dippity Doings, to the growth in “The Chosen” Bible Study and more new faces in our Youth Fellowship, to increases in folks watching our Live-Stream/YouTube ministries to more and more young families joining and participating in the worship and life of the church.  These are just some….there have certainly been more!

Looking ahead, there is Vacation Bible Camp on August 6th (we’ve seen increased attendance the past three years in a row).  This Fall will see the addition of a Families Ministries Coordinator added to staff, an additional Bible Study on the book, “Making Sense of the Bible” by Adam Hamilton.  Continuing “The Chosen” Bible study; we’ll be up to season 3, and hopefully before the end of 2025 – the new playground outside the Fellowship Hall will have been built.  Again, this is to name just some of what God is doing and completing amongst and through the membership of our faith family.

As we go forward as a faith family together, I’d like to put in our sights a threefold theme that was part of this year’s Annual Conference: Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, Lead Courageously.  I’ll be introducing these themes starting in August and our worship through the fall: September through November will be focused on these emphasizes.

Loving Boldly is a call to be intentional and taking initiative toward extending and expressing God’s love toward our neighbors and welcoming & including the stranger and sojourner amongst us.  Where can we be offering and extending God’s love in our community.  What would it mean for The United Methodist Church family in Grand Rapids to be a presence of the unconditional and relentless love of God in our community?  Who are the people(s) that are not included or are at the margins of the Grand Rapids area?  Who needs to feel, see, and hear about God’s grace?  We are to boldly (Oxford dictionary defines as “confidently” and with “the willingness to take risks”).

Serve Joyfully: It is a distinct blessing to serve our neighbor.  Ask anyone of our members who have been on one of our mission trips! Talk to those of our members who have helped on one of te local Habitat 4 Humanity houses, or were a part of one of the United Way Day of Action.  Listen to the experiences of those who volunteer and make happen our Open-Door Coat Rack.  The theme that is consistent in their stories and their experiences is how much joy in brought into their life! Service is central to a life in grace and being Jesus’ disciple.  How are we building disciples who serve Christ by serving their neighbor?  How do we intentionally infuse joy into the opportunities of serving through our missions and ministries?

Lead Courageously: The world is desperate for the leadership the church has to offer.  In a world of violence, greed, war, poverty, hate, and increasing disrespect for and destruction of creation the church must courageously bring the voice of Christ, the dictates of the gospel, and live with the fire of the Holy Spirit.  We must confront that in the world that is not of God, are antithetical to Christ’s gospel, oppose the work of the Holy Spirit and the ways of Jesus!  We are the people of The Way and we must demonstrate Jesus’ way in deeds of Love and acts of Justice!

There is so much to be joyful of and to celebrate in the activity of Holy Spirit amongst us!  There is so much to be excited about and look forward to in what God is building and creating through the missions and ministries of our congregation: The United Methodist church in Grand Rapids faith family!  I’m looking forward to us all working together in the life of grace that is being a Jesus Follower!

Be God’s,  Pastor Jim