Since December, the church has been in a strategic planning process. On August 28, the Servant Leadership Board approved the 3-year strategic plan that close to 50 people helped to create with many others giving great feedback during our listening sessions. The part of the plan that gives me the most energy and excitement (and many others have named it to be true for them) are our new values – curious, courageous, and connected and their definitions.
Curious – We invite and celebrate questions. We bravely embrace the mystery of God and remain open to how that transforms ourselves and our relationships.
Courageous – Our faith makes us bold, compelling us to do hard things. We honor our word, relentlessly advocate for justice, and remain thoughtful and compassionate, even in the faith of adversity.
Connected – True belonging begins with an experience of God’s grace. We extend God’s generous welcome to all, upholding integrity, practicing authenticity, and celebrating diversity across generations and cultures.
As a way to begin to roll out the strategic plan, we decided a sermon series around the values would be helpful. In this series, we will be studying the start of the early Church, specifically the story found in Acts 10 about Peter, one of the apostles, and Cornelius, a Roman military officer. We will focus on how both experience their relationship with God and each other to be one of curiosity, courage, and connection and what that means for us today.
In what ways is God calling to you be curious? It is my hope that this week we can think about this question a bit more for ourselves that can lead us to action as we explore how Peter and Cornelius embraced a curious faith.
Peace,
Pastor Kate