July 2024 Pastor’s Letter
Dear Friends,
Let me begin this message by sharing my gratitude for your faithfulness both as individuals and as a community of faith. it is not easy to live in a liminal time, that transitional space between one way of being and another.
General Conference has brought changes, the loss of congregants and churches has brought changes, sharing one Bishop with the Wisconsin Annual Conference of the UMC will bring changes as well.
We stand at the threshold of all that God is doing in us and through us and I trust that if we surrender ourselves to God’s will working that which is pleasing to God’s ways we will be fine.
Bishop Schwerin asked us to focus on the theme of “Yield”. His invitation was inspired by the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer which is often lifted in the beginning of a new year. He writes, “The core petition of the prayer is:
“I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.”
Bishop goes on to say that this is supported by the words of James 3:17-18, “For the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”
We are in a time as the church where we are moving from what was known to that which is emerging to be known. Our work is to make disciples for the transformation of the world in great and small ways so we must ask ourselves:
In your faith life, what wants to emerge?
What needs do we see emerging in our communities?
What wants to emerge at Cornerstone?
Recently, at the front of our church, a lovely tree was split in two by a storm. The damaged required the tree to be cut down. Volunteers took their chain saws and made quick work of the tree, but one of them saw something in the remaining trunk. He took the saw and carved a cross in the stump. What was a loss is now a testament to God’s enduring love.
Change is difficult but it is always happening. Transformation is always happening. God’s love is always happening. Whatever changes may come, remember this truth- “Best of all, God is with us!”
Pastor Melissa