Thankfulness

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.“

Psalm 107:1

November is always a good time to be thankful for all that we have and all that God does. This month we are thankful for all of you! Our adjustment to Muncie is going well – it’s still quite the learning experience, though! Thank you for your patience! We are enjoying getting to know each and all of you, and the gifts and graces amongst our congregations. There’s been a lot of prayer, a lot of listening, and a lot of discovery on our part so far.

When we were newly married, we tried to go to every one of our families’ Thanksgiving celebrations. We would typically start the day in Terre Haute with breakfast with one side of Colin’s family, lunch with another side, and then dinner at yet another. And as if that wasn’t enough, we would then drive several hours to Heather’s parents’ to celebrate. It took having kids for us to see that we could not keep that pace any more. We started alternating year-to-year which family we were spending all of Thanksgiving with. Even though we don’t always see everyone, holidays are much more enjoyable now!

Quality is better than quantity. That goes for faith, mission, and ministry, too. As a congregation, we can’t do it all, but we can do a few things well. We aren’t called to be the best church in the community at everything, but we are called to do our best with our own mission, ministry, and place of service. Keep up the good work!

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the season of Advent. So many people jump straight to Christmas and that’s fine, but it’s not our tradition. We really enjoy focusing on Advent, and preparing well to receive Christ at Christmas. Our worship series for December will be about the season of waiting. We hope you can join us each Sunday. We will have many opportunities to gather this Advent, including a Bible Study. We will be leading a class titled, “Light of the World,” by Amy-Jill Levine. Levine is a professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt; she also happens to be Jewish, and she brings a rich perspective to the story of Jesus’ birth. You can join us for that study in the chapel on Tuesday afternoons at 1:30, starting on November 28, or on Thursday evenings at 6:30, starting on November 30th. The book is available in paper or electronically from many sellers, or you can pick up a copy in the church office for $15. We will read one chapter each week, so please plan to have Chapter One read by our first session. Of course, if you don’t get around to reading, don’t let that stop you from attending! You can sign up for the study in the narthex or the coffee bar or online starting November 12th.

With thankfulness and patience, with good preparation, and with God’s help, we are able to do anything. We want to begin 2024 wisely, and do what is best by our God and for our neighbors. Thank you for all you have done, for your present faithfulness, and for your commitment to Christ in our shared faith, mission, ministry. Let’s do well, rather than just do a lot, and give God our best.

Blessings,

Colin and Heather