This Sunday marks the beginning of a six week series called Six Stone Jars: The Abundance of Jesus. John 2: 2-11, the wedding at Cana, the first miracle story is the scripture passage and a group of us have been busy turning some glass vases into ‘stone jars’ to have as our focal point over the six weeks. The theme of the first week is “Fill My House With Hoping.” We are painting this afternoon, so if you feel like joining us, we will be in the kitchen at 1.
This is part of what I wrote in my Minister’s Report: Have you noticed that there is a slight increase in attendance this fall… I want to share with you a few stories… as you know, last fall we started Wellness Wednesdays for Seniors; at the November event, we gave everyone a postcard with our Christmas events on it; one of those people came to our Christmas Concert, discovered that we have a Bell Choir and has since joined the Bell Choir! Another participant in Wellness Wednesday came to the Blue Christmas Service at Mattatall’s. At the Indoor Yard Sale, there was a lot of fabric for sale, someone had a conversation with an attendee about fabric and that his wife was attending NSCAD for fabric arts and has since started attending Sunday morning worship. Another person had been attending Tuesday Pause, but has since started coming Sunday morning, someone else used to drive by and see the rainbow flag and knew this would be a safe space for her. This is the way that communities of faith grow now… by one on one encounters, by relationship building, and then by encountering something meaningful on Sunday morning.
It’s been a while since I gave you up an overview of my week, so here goes:
Monday – I did some initial sermon prep, scheduled the daily Facebook posts, answered a bunch of email, in the afternoon, participated in the first stage of making jars out of vases, then in the evening, I attended part of a United Church webinar called Dreams and Visions, it was supposed to be about the growth initiative of creating 100 new faith communities and celebrating newly formed ones. In one respect, it was about that, but it was more about ethnic and migrant churches that were already in existence, but who have decided to join the United Church. Something to celebrate yes! But not what the webinar was billed as.
Tuesday – I created the bulletin, met with Cathy, in the afternoon I attended the first class of a course called The Intergenerating Church through the Atlantic School of Theology. This course introduces students to theories and practices for intergenerational ministry in local church contexts. Bringing different generations together in parishes is not as easy as it seems. It involves swimming against well-established currents and building relationships among people with different world views, assumptions, and ideas about what matters most.
Wednesday – Bible Study in the morning, some sermon research, created the PP for Sunday, in the afternoon, there was the monthly meeting of the Future Directions Committee, which is the regional committee I chair. In the evening was the first meeting of the new Leadership Team and I FORGOT to take a picture!
Thursday – I’m delivering the socks and gift cards to the Dartmouth Street Navigator, meeting with Dean about some upcoming anthem selections, creating the ‘Leaders Copy’ of the bulletin, then in the afternoon, some of us are painting the ‘jars.’ And since they won’t be dry, I’ll be in sometime before Sunday to arrange them… I also have to make a run to the Dollar Store for something I need for Sunday morning…
As always, this doesn’t take into account random things like drop in visitors, phone calls and the more than 60 emails since Sunday!
St. James United Church Dartmouth 