Dear Friends and Family of RRUMC,
First and foremost, I pray that you, your family, and the ones that you love are all happy and healthy and safe.
Times are still most definitely strange, but our God remains the same in the midst of it. He is powerful, compassionate, full of grace, and filled with unending love for all of His people.
In the book of Isaiah, chapter 43, God says, “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?”
As we continue to forge our way through this pandemic that just won’t go away, I want you to hear those words of God from Isaiah fresh and new. I have watched our church live into those words in the way that we have had to learn new ways to “do church” since March of this year. It started with a parking lot drive-in service. Paul and I preach from the back of a pick-up truck. We have a new way of doing communion. There is blue tape throughout the church to keep us six feet apart. Car Cruise ministry all summer had to reinvent itself.
There are so many things that we are still doing that we did before the pandemic, but they look completely different. Our prayer is that the outcome will always be the same. We pray people are still meeting Jesus Christ in the midst of their story no matter how we do ministry now.
In Isaiah, God reminds us that he is always doing a new thing. He also says to quit looking back and instead look for what God is doing next, in the future.
Life is much easier to deal with when we look forward with great anticipation and expectation for what God is about to do. Our church has learned how to not only see the new things that God has for our church, but we have grabbed onto them with both hands and held on for the ride. It surely has and will continue to be an amazing ride.
As long as we keep looking forward knowing that God is about to do something new, we can deal with the here and now. I pray that you look into the future with great anticipation and expectation.
God is about to do something new. I hope and pray you can perceive it.
Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Dan