Reaching Out by Reaching Up

For the last month, a group of us here at Shiloh United Methodist Church have been discussing the notion of how we can reach out to the broader Holts Summit community through the avenue of worship.  If you remember last month I challenged us to pursue a Christian life of reaching out through outreach and mission, reaching in via greater fellowship, nurture and education, and reaching up to God through the passion of our worship.  These are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  In fact, if we seek as closer relationship to God in everything that we do; these three areas will become much closer to one another.  At the September Administrative Council meeting, a group was given the task of pursuing two goals: the creation of a more complete Sunday School program, and the development of an additional worship service to reach those who are not part of our Sunday morning congregation.  With that goal in mind, a Monday evening group has been exploring what we might do in each of these areas.

The first task was relatively straight forward.  We have recently failed to hold on to two of our younger families because we had nothing to offer their children in the way of an educational program that teaches the faith to those who are not yet aware of many of the stories, principles, and beliefs that go with being a Christian, and which many of us take for granted.  With that goal in mind, we will be starting a Sunday School program designed to reach all ages on Sunday, November 1st.  In addition to our current Adult Bible study after worship, we will begin at least two Sunday School classes aimed at children and youth to meet during the same time frame after worship.  We hope that these offerings will enrich our educational program as well as our post-worship fellowship, by showing our commitment to learn what it means to call ourselves disciples of Christ beyond the current offerings of worship.

The second task presents us with more of a challenge, and will call upon all of our resources to create a worship environment for those who for whatever reason cannot join our Sunday morning service.  We have tentatively identified Thursday evenings as an alternative time of worship, and are shooting for the middle of January as a time to begin a second worship service geared towards attracting a different group of worshippers. We are planning to present to the Administrative Council at the November 15th meeting a proposal that addresses this need.  We hope to build upon some of the lessons learned during our Holy Week of Worship last Easter to reach out to our community through praise and worship.  Over the next few weeks we hope to open a dialogue and discussion of what this would mean and what it can be.  Our purpose  is not to change what we currently do, but to expand our  relationship with God, with one another, and with those who are “somewhere out there” as a way of fulfilling our mission of spreading the Gospel and making disciples of Jesus Christ.  I encourage all of you to engage each other in the passion and power of praising and worshipping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as we commit the coming Advent season to the sharing of the Christmas story just as the shepherds did so long ago.

Yours in Christ, Pastor Dave