We are a Matthew 25 church
Recently, your Session voted to become a Matthew 25 congregation, joining with other PCUSA congregations who are committed to three initiatives: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty. From the PCUSA website, we see this call to action for all Matthew 25 churches:
We recognize Christ’s urgent call to be a church of action, where God’s love, justice and mercy shine forth and are contagious. And we rejoice how our re-energized faith can unite all Presbyterians for a common and holy purpose: our common identity to do mission.
In the coming months, you will hear more about how we can focus our efforts on each of these three initiatives and fulfill our calling to be a Matthew 25 congregation. Below, you will see ways in which we are already living out this call and commitment!
Watch this short video to learn more about our denomination’s Matthew 25 initiative.
Building Congregational Vitality:
Session Town Hall Conversations and Drive Thru Communion
Our Town Hall conversations continue for the next week or two. If you have not yet participated in one, contact me (pastor@pclt.faith) or Debi in the church office (admin@pclt.faith) and we will get you connected with a Session member leading a Town Hall Zoom meeting. In these conversations, we are asking you to share ideas about how we can build congregational vitality, during this time of sequestration and separation, and also in the coming months when we are able to re-gather in person. Thank you to all who have participated already and offered thoughtful and creative ideas.
This past Sunday, August 2, we held a Drive Thru Communion, and 16 cars came by to visit with Elders and me for a few minutes, masked and socially distanced, and to receive communion elements. It was so good to see people in this way, even if only briefly, and even from several feet away. We will be having Drive Thru Communion again on Sunday, September 6, so make plans now to come ‘see’ us! We long for the days when we can re-gather for worship in person.
Dismantling Structural Racism:
Conversations that Matter – The Bible and Racism
The Christian Education Committee has chosen to focus our monthly Wednesday conversations throughout the fall on Race/Racism/Anti-Racism and what we can do to bend the moral arc of our community and our congregation toward justice. Our next conversation will take place on Wednesday, August 12, noon-1:00 p.m., and we will explore ‘The Bible and Racism.’ Feel free to have your lunch while we talk.
Please email me (pastor@pclt.faith) to let me know you wish to participate in this important discussion, and I will send you the link to the Zoom meeting prior to our August 12 meeting.
In preparation for our conversation, please read the article written by Frank Yamada. Of course, I hope that many of you will be able to join me for this discussion, but if you can’t join me, please read the article anyway and spend time in prayer and reflection about what it says.
Eradicating Systemic Poverty:
Thank you Cookie Bakers AND others!
Our Saturday lunches delivery to our neighbors in Hudson Bend has gone through several iterations since the pandemic crisis began in March. First, our make-ready team ramped up to serve 840 lunches over four days every week for a month. Then, our team shifted to preparing and delivering grocery bags full of lunch fixings every Friday to 75 households. Along the way, we partnered with IAMLT and El Buen Samaritano to provide weekly boxes of non-perishable goods (rice, beans, canned vegetables, other staples) to those same 75households. The need for food has ebbed and flowed and we have tried to be responsive.
Along the way, so many of our congregation have helped with this effort. Some have coordinated the preparation of the groceries each Friday morning, and others have helped deliver the grocery bags to Hudson Bend. Thanks especially to Nancy V, Chrystie, and Katie S for consistent help.
A special thanks goes to those who keep making cookies! Just last week, the cookie bakers made 78 dozen! Many thanks to Terry: (20 doz. cookies), Malissa (28 doz. cookies), Peggy (15 doz. cookies), Priscilla ( 15 doz. cookies) Malissa enlisted help from her neighbors. Many thanks to them. Priscilla collected and delivered the cookies to the MLF kitchen to be packed in the grocery bags!
Peace,
Pastor Jack
