Transformation . . . . . Into What?
The Officers of Forest Lake – Elders, Deacons and the Elders and Deacons elect all met together over the weekend of September 7 -9 for our second annual fall retreat. The purpose of the retreat was to focus our hearts and minds on what it means to be “transformed head, heart and hands in the service of Jesus Christ!” And to do that we began on Friday night by focusing on four values that Ellen Skidmore and Dan Holloway had chosen. The values – drawn from Scripture – were chosen because Dan and Ellen believe that when and where we are able to embody (live out) these values, we will both be changed more and more into the likeness of Christ, and we will be better able to reflect God’s love and purpose onto the world. The values that we chose are: Joy, Generosity, Reconciliation and Presence.
These are not the only values that we need to embody, but they represent a beginning place and provide a focus for how we want to continue to be transformed so that we may serve God’s purpose in our lives and in this congregation.
C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity that when Jesus said that we were to “be perfect”[Matt 5:48] that he meant it. “He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder – in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
Over the next four weeks, Dan Holloway and I intend to share with you what we think it could mean to be transformed into the image of Christ through the filters of these four values. Dan and I will be preaching on the values that were the focus of our Officers’ Retreat and posting our musings and thoughts here on the FLPC Blog. Please tune in! We invite you into the conversation.
The schedule for the Sermon Series is:
September 23 – Joy
September 30 – Generosity
October 7 – Reconciliation
October 14 – Presence
Now the Service begins!
Ellen
