Dear Church Family,
“Christ the Lord is Risen today, Alleluia!” What a joyous season this is as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! Hoffman was a wonderful place to celebrate Easter this year. Easter is the most important day of the year for Christians. The resurrection is why Christians worship on Sundays rather than Saturday (the Sabbath). So, every Sunday as we gather together in worship, it is a mini-Easter service. We celebrate each week because Jesus triumphed over the grave and lives and works in each of us through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
My family is doing well. It is hard to believe this, but on May 6th Wesley will be 2 years old. Time certainly does fly. It seems as though he learns a new word every day. On Easter Sunday, Wesley joined me in the choir and in the praise team. He is such a blessing in our lives. He even provided me with the foundation for my Easter sermon. It is hard to imagine what life was like before Wesley.
I am very excited about our Post Easter sermon series. We are beginning a new sermon series entitled "Why?” where we are asking the questions that we need God to answer. This series was created by asking people to submit questions that we would like to ask. From all of the questions, we have chosen the following questions to explore together:
· Why do bad things happen to good people?
· How can I know for sure that I am saved?
· Why do my prayers go unanswered?
· What is God’s will for my life?
· What do we know about heaven?
We will be wrestling with these questions and more as we discover what God might want to teach us in the midst of our questions. Now, I certainly do not claim to have all of the knowledge on these subjects; however, I am excited to explore them with you. I hope you will join us for this new series.
I am pleased to share with you that the Administrative Council has approved the initial proposal of the Maximizing Mission and Ministry Team. The proposal is concerning the leadership structure of our church. We are working on a model that we believe will help us focus more on mission and ministry rather than budgets, policies, and job descriptions. The team will continue to work on this plan, and it will be approved at our Charge Conference in October. Please continue to be in prayer for our work as we work out the fine details of this new structure. Once approved, we will operate under this structure on a trial basis for two years to determine if it is best for us as a church. I will share more details in upcoming articles.
One thing that I love about the United Methodist Church is that we are a connectional church. Local churches work together to support the national and global work that our denomination does around the world. We support this work through paying apportionments (each church is apportioned a certain amount). Last year, because of your generosity, we were able to pay 104% of the amount apportioned to us. This is an amazing accomplishment. Thank you for giving to our work that we may continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the WORLD!
Yours in Christ’s Service,
Pastor Justin
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