Across the survey, we heard a congregation asking questions about belonging and difference, care for creation and care for one another, prayer and spiritual life, our United Methodist identity, the changing world around us, and what faithful Christian living looks like in the midst of it all.
Underneath many of those questions is one we think is especially important:
What does it mean to follow Jesus here—in this world, in this community, in this moment?
Not simply, what should Christians believe? But, what kind of people is Jesus forming us to become?
That is where commUNITY: Living God’s Dream Together begins.
Throughout Scripture, we catch glimpses of God’s dream: people knowing they are beloved; strangers becoming neighbors; the vulnerable protected and the hungry fed; creation received as gift; justice and mercy meeting; enemies discovering another way; every human life recognized as bearing the image of God.
God continually draws near—and continually draws people together.
Scripture does more than show us what a better world might look like. It tells us who we are and invites us to become the people Jesus is forming us to be.
Christian faith isn’t simply about having the right answers or believing the right things. It is about becoming a particular kind of people: people shaped by the love of God, learning to love God and one another more fully.
So, beginning this fall, our preaching, children’s ministries, youth ministries, and many of our adult formation opportunities will share a common theme: commUNITY. Together, we’ll explore what it means to be a people shaped by God’s love…not just as individuals, but as a community.
Our year will move through different expressions of community. We’ll explore human dignity and belonging, the sacredness of creation, generosity and economic life, relationships and justice, seasons of transition, peacemaking and civic life, and finally, the community right here in our own neighborhoods. The questions may look different depending on our age and stage of life, but the invitation is the same:
How is God calling us to live together?
Along the way, we’ll draw on the newly revised United Methodist Social Principles. Now, we know “Social Principles” may not be the phrase that makes you leap out of bed excited for church. But rather than treat them as a list of positions we are expected to agree with, we’re approaching them as a resource for faith-filled living. They help us think about what our Wesleyan tradition has to say about the world we inhabit and how our faith might shape the way we live in it.
Our starting point, though, isn’t, “What does the church tell me I have to believe?”
We are beginning with Jesus. As we ask: What does loving God and loving our neighbor look like here? What kind of people is Jesus forming us to be?
Scripture will root us in our God-given identity. Our United Methodist tradition and Social Principles will help us consider what faithful discipleship looks like when we step beyond ourselves and into the world around us; practicing belonging, becoming, and living as the people God is calling us to be.
Over the coming year, which will take us into some wonderfully rich—and sometimes difficult—territory. We will talk about the sacred worth of people and the gift of creation. We will consider generosity, stewardship, and economic life, and what it means to use what we have for growth and good. We will ask what it means to create communities where all belong, engaging questions of human dignity, race, gender, family, and relationships. We will make space for seasons of grief, hope, waiting, change, and transition, asking where we recognize God in the midst of them.
We will even talk about our political community. Not by telling one another how to vote, but by asking what peacemaking, justice, compassion, civic responsibility, and faithful public witness look like for followers of Jesus. And eventually, we will bring the question right back home:
What might God be calling UMCG to become next?
And perhaps the most important word in all of this is not social. It is together.
As Pastor Rob reflected in his note from the mountains, one thing we heard this summer was how much difference it makes to know we are not trying to live faithfully by ourselves. Courage grows in community. So does compassion. So does wisdom. Sometimes even faith itself needs the encouragement of another person beside us.
That is part of what we hope commUNITY can help us practice.
Our children are not simply learning a “kid version” of what adults are talking about. They are part of the same story. Children may be learning generosity while adults wrestle with economic justice. Youth may talk about belonging while parents and grandparents encounter the same Gospel invitation in worship. A sermon might begin a conversation that continues around a dinner table, over coffee, in the car, or between generations.
The language and activities may change with age, but the invitation does not: We are learning together what it means to become the people Jesus is forming us to be.
