Words from the Pastor
Holy Manners
Recently I was working with one of our youth on her God & Church award for Girl Scouts. The assignment was to draw a diagram of the structure of this congregation. Organizational diagrams can be a bit intimidating. Instead of trying to develop the typical top-down flow chart, I knew instinctively that the structure of Pennsburg Untied Church of Christ needed a center. As a congregation of God’s people, how can our life together be centered on anything but God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
It is one thing to say that God needs to be at the center of our lives. It is indeed something else, to recognize and acknowledge God’s presence there. When we fail to do so, we miss an opportunity to say, “Thank you, God!”
The Sunday following the Peach & Ice Cream Festival, we thanked the good Lord for the great weather. Considering the day began with pouring rain, how wonderful that the festival was unaffected by stormy weather, except for some rather frightening streaks of lightning the last ten minutes. This was my 6th Peach & Ice Cream Festival, and each year in the lead up to the festival, there is much discussion about the weather, and just exactly who is responsible for it. Thanking the good Lord is certainly appropriate. However, I do believe that this year, the good Lord had a hand in far more than the weather.
Early in June I encountered a great deal of anxiety about the Peach & Ice Cream Festival. Would there be enough help? There was much concern expressed about the potential burden on our core workers. The decision was made to address that problem in consultation with the consistory. As a result of that meeting, we were able to identify areas of specific need, and then plan how to recruit volunteers to fill those needs. It was also a time to clarify roles and responsibilities, a time to take some of the burden from core workers and re-distribute it among key leaders, members of consistory and others.
The week after the festival, we had an evaluation meeting; a time to look at what went well and where we needed to make improvements for the coming year. The answer to the question “What went well?” came through loud and clear: “All the help.” Working together we had identified areas of need and recruited volunteers to fill those needs.
Reflecting on that whole process, it reminded me of our Holy Manners. You may or may not remember what they are. Our Holy Manners were developed two years ago as part of the revitalization process. For three successive months, we abbreviated the business portion of our consistory meetings and spent the remainder of the time working with the Revitalization Team to formulate our Holy Manners.
- Talk about misunderstandings in a timely fashion.
- Give permission for people to express themselves.
- Listen to one another—in all settings.
- Remember that God is present with us.
- Remember to pray.
When the consistory and the Fellowship Committee sat down together, people were free to express themselves and we listened to one another. Now you may say, “but there was never any discussion of Holy Manners.” And that is true. But let’s not forget manner #4: Remember that God is present with us. I do believe that God was present with us as we worked out the plan for this year’s Peach & Ice Cream Festival. Surely God was at the center of our plans this year. That may go without saying, but it is critical to acknowledge God’s presence with us so that we may offer our resounding thanks.
“Thank you God!”
Which brings me to Holy Manner #5: Remember to pray. As important as it is to thank God after the fact, we are to ask God to help us each step of the way. And oh how it warms God’s heart when we ask God for help. Thank you to those of you praying for God’s help with this year’s Peach & Ice Cream Festival.
And what a gift, that God was helping us to follow our holy manners, even though we may have been unaware of them. Isn’t that just like God; whose power is at work within us and among us, able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.
Thanks be to God.
Pastor Becca