-I Corinthians 12:14 October 4th is our church’s charge conference date. Charge conference is a picture of who we have been this past year as a church and where we hope, with God’s help, to go in the new year. It is also an opportunity for our district superintendent, Sara White, to help us look at perhaps a different perspective on our life together at Aldersgate. At charge conference, we learn what the various arms of ministry at our church have accomplished. When it is all laid out, it is amazing to see what God has enabled us to do. I want to encourage all of you to come and listen, to meet Sara, and to celebrate how God has truly blessed us as a church.
I am so grateful to be here as pastor. My friends say I am more relaxed than I have been in years. Ministry is fun at Aldersgate. Don’t get me wrong, there are areas that concern me, but I am grateful we work together as well as we do. For God to truly bless us we have to always strive to put our personal agendas aside and listen to each other. And we are challenged by God to put the “Me” desires down for the greater good of the church. Remember Jesus said at one of the most crucial and trying points of his ministry, “Not my will but thine be done.” We have to do the very same ourselves to be in God’s will.
I am writing this looking out on the lovely Smokies. A haze of cloud lingers on the top of the mountains. Underneath, sun shines through as morning comes to the mountains. When I am in a twit about challenges in ministry, I have to remember the quiet, steadfast power of those ancient mountains. Over time, they have seen so much but continue to endure - worn by time, but still enduring. With God’s help so will we, if we continue to keep the faith.
Pastor Pam