Dear Friends,
During this Thanksgiving and church stewardship season, we have been invited to start thinking and praying about how the Christian life includes cycles of exile and return. We at Mt. Tam UMC give thanks for the tools that God has given us to connect, even in diaspora; to be together in Spirit even when we aren’t together in body. Namely, we continue to give thanks that we can carry out hybrid worship which allows for folks to attend either in person, via our livestream or to watch a recording of the service at a later date.
During the pandemic we have been reminded that there is exile, there is return, and then there is a third movement: being sent back out into the world for the sake of our neighbors and creation as a whole. As your new Pastor, I want to affirm that I have witnessed Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church as a community of return, a place of homecoming, and a place that also welcomes the newcomer fully and extravagantly. I affirm that this is a community of sending; a place that commissions us as agents of God’s love and grace, so that all may experience a sense of homecoming into God’s new world of compassion, dignity, and joy. What a joy it has been to see all of the ways this church continues to look towards the new and exciting future while still honoring the work and saints of the past!
This Sunday in worship, we will be setting aside some time to present and pray over our financial pledges/gifts towards the work of the church for 2022. If you lost your card or didn’t receive a pledge card in the mail, we will have them available in the narthex on Sunday. While no member or constituent is required to offer a pledge, we hope you will consider making one as it greatly helps us in our budgeting process for the upcoming year.
Christianity was made for this: building bridges of homecoming and commissioning, sending and returning, welcoming the stranger and being sent forth to visit the sick and imprisoned. Mt. Tam UMC is made for it, too, as is each one of us; a child of God who reflects the image of God. We were made to be in ministry together, offering up all our skills, our hopes, our ideas, our financial resources, and our hearts to answer God’s call.
May we all arrive remembering that we have a past full of grace and a future full of hope. Thanks be to God! Thank you for your generosity and leadership — and see you Sunday!
Blessings,
Pastor Luke
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