At the July 18 Council meeting, the Live the Love mission plan was adopted, including most of the concrete proposals included. Thank you to all who gave feedback and participated in the process of imagining where God may be calling this congregation. The feedback was heard and discussed.
Now comes the exciting part of living out this mission plan. The goal of the plan is to inspire all of us to consider how our energies may be focused by the call to live out God’s love. Where do you see God’s love in the world? Are there ways that you particularly recognize receiving God’s love? God’s love starts our actions; we do not do it on our own. To feel God’s love in our hearts is to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Yet that kind of movement does not stay inside of us. The Holy Spirit urges us forward in deep love and care for others. Once we recognize how we receive God’s love, we begin to find ways to share God’s love. We do this in many ways, but our mission plan calls us to particularly pay attention to four ways that we express God’s love and live it out for the sake of others:
- Love within our congregation
- Love our local and global community
- Love all of God’s Creation
- Love through diverse inclusion
Let these four areas inspire you. How can we live out the gracious gift of God’s love in these different areas? What ways do we already do that, and where might God be moving us to do a new thing within these areas? We will begin implementing some concrete new ways to take part in God’s loving work over the next few months, such as through participating in “God’s Work Our Hands” Sunday in September. That is just the beginning, though. The excitement comes from the ideas that have not yet been formed that are inspired by the desire to live the love. All of us can imagine what might be possible and contribute our ideas. I can’t wait to see where God’s love takes us!