Church friends and family,

Curiosity. This is my word for the week. As the season shifts to Summer and quarantine regulations slowly relax; exploring and learning the world around me is a new blessing. As followers of Jesus, one of our greatest gifts is our ability to engage with people with an authentic desire to know and be known. When we engage with people around us, they too might want to learn our story. If our story is entwined with the grace of Jesus that shapes and transforms us, we naturally become storytellers pointing to Jesus.

In the picture below. You can see Bishop Elaine and members of her cabinet (District Superintendents) amongst others. We gathered recently to ordained and commission persons as clergy persons in the United Methodist Church. One of my roles in our conference is to lead a team, interviewing candidates who have finished seminary or are very close to. Candidates share their faith stories, talk about theology and we spend time getting to know them. One thread that is very common in the faith stories we hear is a desire to engage in the community around them and a desire to learn more about their faith. For these folks, the road lead to serving as clergy.

As we draw closer to this weekend, how are you engaging with people you have been around for the past year? How are you curious to learn more about the people you spend a finite amount of time with? In the Scriptures, we rarely know how long Jesus spent with people. We did know that He asked questions, told stories and met people where they were.

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I hope to see you all this weekend after our church service for our unplugged, unpotluck gathering. As we gather, please remember to maintain social distance.

See you soon!

Pastor DJ