A New Year of Wonders

A few days ago, God gifted us with a brand new year of wonders and opportunities to be the people of God in our corner of the Kingdom – what a wonderful gift! And, what a wonderful time to take stock of all we are grateful for during the past year of 2022.

In 2022, we set out continuing our quest to understand what it means to be a church in a post-pandemic world, even as COVID continued to threaten the usual ways we live. We certainly discovered that our work as disciples of Jesus Christ did not stop. In fact, the work seemed to multiply. Yet, we accomplished much.

Guided by the Spirit, we learned how to be multiple congregations within one, singular church. We are now four worshiping communities, two in-person and two online. We communicate via the internet with special videos, the Friday Fives, and multiple social media platforms. We launched new ministries, like the Gardening Ministry and family ministries materials. And, we continued to do many of the things we’ve done for years, but in new ways, adapting to the changing times. The WAVE Free Community Dinner, our missions support both locally and globally, WonderKids, and A Million Dreams Learning Center all thrived in 2022, even as illness visited nearly every household periodically. We were challenged by God to grow more deeply in our relationship with Christ through service, creativity, and commitment. The point is this: God was with us, blessing us throughout this past year and surely we are grateful.

Now, a new year is upon us, and we can trust that God is already blessing us into a future full of wonders. We do not know the details of any of it, but we do know that God’s guidance will equip us to greet each day, faithfully committed to whatever newness comes. We need only to be determined to trust in the future of God’s intention, committed to doing our part, even if it is something we have never done before.

Jesus once said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” If we go into the gift of this new year grateful for our past, its blessings and its lessons, but also allowing the past to be the past, we’ll be ready to fully greet the New Year. Indeed, we’ll be God's people, faithfully committed to the wonders that await us in 2023, and we’ll be ready to see, hear, hold and lift up everything God has in store for us in this corner of the Kingdom.

Blessings in all the Wonders of the New Year,
Pastor Steven