Pastor Chris' Letter July 2017
Dear Trinity Family,
As I sit to write this letter, it is the week after our annual rummage sale. It has been interesting that as I have seen many of you this week I get the same question, “How did we do (at the rummage sale)?” As I answered this question multiple times, I felt this letter might be a way to address this question more fully. But I warn you that my answer comes with a question.
The question is this. What does doing a good job look like in the church? How do we define success as the church? The place to start to answer this question is with our mission. The mission of the church follows Jesus command to “make disciples.” Our mission is to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And this is lived out in our vision, which is to connect to God in Jesus Christ, grow in our faith in Jesus Christ, and to serve in our world for Jesus Christ. The thing that holds all of these together is that they are built on relationships. We as the church are about making relationships with God, each other, and our community. Central to how we answer this question is, “How did this ministry help us make relationships so that we might be and make disciples?”
I may not start where everyone expects when I answer the question “How did we do?” I think our first thought usually goes to “How much money did we make?” We made $2500 for missions. This is good but it does not speak to the relationships we built. The second thought would be, “Did we accomplish the monumental goal of getting through this massive undertaking?” I.e. did we finish the task? Yes, with the help of many people we took a pile of stuff (If you saw the Gathering Hall the week before you know how much there was and that was just the tip of the iceberg) and we set up and ran a great rummage sale. We still had so much stuff at the end we filled a twenty-six foot Goodwill truck and still did not have everything out of the Gathering Hall. Yet with many hands we cleaned up and were ready for church the next day. Again, finishing the task does not speak to the measure of success. My favorite number (although numbers do not always speak to success) is 168. This is the number of hot dogs the ladies of the Dorcas Circle gave away —along with cinnamon rolls, water, chips, cookies, and other desserts. This speaks to the fact that we met with at least 125 people (seeing as some people, including the author of this letter and his son, had multiple hot dogs.) This speaks to the success of this ministry that we interacted in a way that showed 125 people that we valued them enough to serve them (not just to get them to spend their money). This is what ministry is all about: relationships. That is how we measure success. As your pastor I look forward to what God will do through us as we work together in ministry with our community.