Dear Middletown Reformed Church Family and Friends,
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
One of the joys of serving MRC is watching how the amazing spiritual leadership we have in our congregation bears fruit. Last Saturday, our Christian educators Beverly, Denise, Jo-Ann, and Julie, along with Emma and Fleming, led a mini-seminar on the Children & Worship program for the educators at the Community Church of Keyport (CCK). CCK is adopting the program for their young ones that we’ve had in place for quite some time. After working in the Community Garden, I went down to the Lower Auditorium to say hello to our visitors and check in with our folks. Beloved, I can’t tell you how proud I was of our educators, and how very grateful for this collaborative work between our churches. Not only were the lessons helpful to our guests, but the welcome and hospitality that was shown to them reflected the welcome we are all given by Jesus. And such a welcome also demonstrated how dedicated and committed they are to the faith development of our children and youth.
At the end, our CCK friends said to me, “Your women are awesome!”
I replied, “I know!” (Caveat: they are not “my” women, they are God’s).
And here’s another instance of joy I have for the spiritual leadership in our congregation. As you may know, during Holy Week, I asked lay leaders to preach a homily on the Seven Last Words of Jesus. Every year we have done this, I half-jokingly say I now know seven people I can ask to preach for me. This is because each homily is unique, thoughtful, grounded in God’s word, coming from the person’s unique lived experience as the Spirit reveals to them what she does through Scripture.
As I said, half-joking, but that also means half-serious — we’ve got us some preachers!
The serious half will come to fruition as I’ve asked Elder Angela Hank to preach this Sunday.
So, come and worship with your church family this Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost and support Angela as she brings the word. Tom will lead us in our hymns and I am singing the Anthem “The Lone Wild Bird.” Angela is preaching from 2 Kings 20.8-10 and Matthew 8.5-10 and her sermon title is Modern Miracles. As it is the Second Sunday of the month we will receive our Deacons’ offering to help those in need in our community.
See you Sunday! And I am praying for your safety and well-being as the remnants of TS Debby enter our area.
In gratitude for the privilege of being your pastor and the holy call of loving you,
Pastor Trish