written for Julie Schoville by Laura Torgerud

When you open the Bible, the stories are everywhere: Jesus healing, feeding, providing. During this season of Easter, we have heard, and will continue to hear, how Jesus comes among the disciples and promises them peace. Fullness abounds!

During this season of transition at All Saints, it can be easy to lose sight of Jesus’ promises. Promises of goodness, grace, and provision. Anxiety and fear can sneak in, and try to overpower Jesus’ messages to us. Change is a regular part of our lives, but that doesn’t make it any less challenging. There are some ways that I feel can help us ride this wave of change and transition:

Stay connected – It’s such a beautiful gift, the ability for All Saints’ to worship as one family on Sunday mornings. We ARE this church. We are a relationship-based community, and a beautiful one at that. We do the work that God calls us to do, and we do it together. Our Sundays together are such an excellent reminder of this! Let us lean on each other as we walk this journey, knowing we’re walking it hand-in-hand, and with God right beside us.

Remain faithful – Our natural instinct may be to suspend some of our spiritual practices, when we don’t have a pastor shepherding us. God has a vital purpose for us! We can take comfort in His biblical messages and stories. Our eyes can be opened through His word! Let us remain faithful and engaged, so His work can continue to be accomplished through us. This church needs you, now more than ever.

Pray – We have all seen the power of prayer at work in our lives. When we pray together, we can overcome the anxiety, discouragement and fear we may have, knowing God can help bear the burden. We can find comfort in His listening and His presence. Prayer can help us solidify our faith: faith in God, faith in each other, and faith in our church home.

Continue to give – We must remain steadfast with our tithes and offerings, as they belong to the Lord. We can live out our faithfulness by bringing our offerings to Him, through the work of this church. To live in community means we put forward the resources to fulfill our mission, no matter how modest or extravagant our offerings may be. He will use them all to His glory.

Share the good news – God is good. Always. During times of transition or in times of stability, He will not abandon us. He does not want us to walk alone. He gave us His only Son, so that we may have eternal life. That’s an incredible gift! Let’s share the good news with those around us. And let us continue to ignite passion for Jesus and boldly transform our neighborhood with hope and love. That is His call for us, His servants.

I want you to know just how important you are: to God, to me, to this church family. Together, we will feel His goodness and grace. Through faith, we trust that He will provide us with the right servant to guide our All Saints’ family. Amen.