From Pastor Kim …

Happy Gardening

The story is told about a church involved in a landscaping project.  The folks doing the work visited a local nursery to buy plants.  Their intention was to plant fruit -bearing trees, a symbol of their hopes for their church.  Imagine their surprise when God was the One who came forward to wait on them!   God said,  “How can I help you?”  And they poured out their hopes for their church:  “Oh, please, may we buy fruit trees that will yield the fruit of peace, wholeness, compassion and generosity!”  “My dears, God said very tenderly and gently.  “I think perhaps you have misunderstood.  We don’t sell full grown trees here.  We only sell seeds.  The rest is up to you.”   

Well, the story isn’t 100% true, but the idea is.  Our work as a church is to produce fruits that will nourish and bless our community and the world beyond.  And we have all that we need in order to be that type of blessing.  We have God and we have each other.  

In recent months, church leaders in the Church Council have revisited the goals, or seeds, we most want to tend here at Lynnewood.  We seek to be a faith community of vibrant spiritual growth and generous community outreach.  In taking stock of our goals we agreed that our community outreach is growing.  We are grateful for the work of all who are engaged in Ministries of the Heart.  Thank you to the Outreach Committee for their vision and organization! 

In the years ahead, we also want to become a center for vibrant spiritual growth.  Our church council approved the following initiatives in order to help tend and nurture that seed.   

1) A task force (Mark Oldaker, Danna Bayley and Mary Ellen Huey) is working with the pastors to define what “spiritual growth” means for our community.   How will we measure it?  How will we hold ourselves accountable to this goal?

 2) Church Council will be a place where spiritual leaders and ideas are born, nurtured and developed.  For the next two years, we will be intentionally building our spiritual leadership skills using a course of study used to train Bishops.  (We’re expecting great things!)  Please join us, anytime.  The first half hour of our meetings will be devoted to developing our spiritual leadership skills. 

3) And there’s room for you to get even more involved in this project!  Our church will send 2-3 people to a class in Berkeley this summer called, Developing Congregational Spirituality through Christian Practices.  The class will meet July 24-28, 8:30am-12:30pm.  Here’s your chance to ‘go to seminary’!  Class description:  While “spirituality” continues to thrive, it is most often conceived as individual and personal.  A growing body of research suggests congregations engaged in intentional Christian practices are healthier and more vital than other mainline congregations.  This course will consider how intentional Christian practices can contribute to the development of congregational spirituality.

 I imagine this class will be personally nourishing, as well as vital to our own growth as a church.  Would you like to attend?   Would you make a donation to the Spiritual Growth Initiative, so that others may go?   See Pastor Kim for more details.

 These are the seeds we are planting at Lynnewood.  Happy Gardening!

Kim