A Message from Ellen 10-16-24
Do you need some good news? Yesterday I was sitting in a meeting of people all committed to The Decker Collective partnership. In that meeting there were people who live on both sides of Decker Boulevard, principals and school staff from the RSD2 schools on both sides of Decker Blvd, representatives from SLED and RCSD, mental health professionals, church representatives and more! We met to set goals and strategic plans to move forward on making the neighborhoods all around the church a better place for everyone. No one asked any questions about our political party affiliation! It didn’t matter in that space. The priority was defining how to “show up” for each other in ways that will change our local community for the better! That is good news.
Our congregation will be helping to sponsor a food packing event on Sunday, November 24th (the Sunday before Thanksgiving) at the Serve and Connect Hub [8131 Brookfield Rd 29223]. Be on the lookout for how to volunteer to help with this event. We may also be able to serve a meal to everyone who comes (still working on that possibility). I hope that happens, because we know that eating together changes how we see each other. In this highly divided and emotionally charged time, I think that one of the most profound things that Christians can do to be good news people is simply to show up for those who are not “like us.” When we show up for children that are not ours (mentoring or cheering at a high school football game where we don’t have a child on the field), when we show up to pick up trash in a neighborhood that thinks it has been forgotten, or when we take time to look a stranger in the eye and take a real interest, then we work FOR community and reconciliation and AGAINST isolation and fear.
Ed Black reported a statistic (from the Hartford Institute for Religious Research) that says that before Covid, congregations reported that 44% of their members were showing up to volunteer in some way. Post-pandemic the percentage of congregants who show up to volunteer has dropped to 20%. When we stop showing up for each other, the community withers and fear and isolation increase.
We are good news people. And good news people are those who show up for each other and for the world God has made. No one can “do everything,” but how and where do you want to show up? If you feel isolated or fearful, then that is probably your sign that you might need to show up for others. If you want to see God at work, then I encourage you to show up: in worship, in study, in service. Come on in. . . . . . God is already there ahead of us.
