One of my Christmas joys is decorating our tree with my collection of vintage ornaments from the 1940’s and 50’s. The bright colors, glittery designs, and endless variety of shapes never fail to get me in the mood for Christmas. Most of the ornaments from this era are silvered (to give them that “shiny bright” look) like the photo below. Some of you may recognize these types of ornaments from your own childhood Christmas tree

As many of you know, I grew up Catholic. I first heard my call to the ministry when I was 12 while I was attending Mass with my family. As the priest presided over the Eucharist, I felt a draw—a pulling of myself—towards the priesthood. It is an experience that I have never forgotten. However, what sealed the deal was the hymn we sang a few minutes later “Here I am, Lord” where I promised to go wherever God sent me.

This hymn was written by Dan Schutte in 1981. Schutte was a Jesuit studying theology at Berkeley at the time. One day a friend knocked on his door on a Wednesday and asked him to write a song for his ordination on Saturday. To make matters a bit worse, his friend had a list of images that needed to be included in the song and Schutte had the flu.

This week, we’re talking about the process of finding your place in a new congregation. If you’ve been a member of Puyallup UMC for decades, you probably haven’t thought about this question in years! Similarly, if you were born into this congregation, you might never have had the experience of wondering where to sit in the sanctuary or how to go about meeting people. However, if you’ve changed churches in the past, you know that it can be a challenge to figure out where you belong and how to find meaningful connections with others in the church. When the former Summit congregation was considering the idea of a merger, this was one of their fears – would they be accepted in a new church? Would it ever feel like home?

People come to church seeking many different types of connection. Some connect to the church primarily through worship, while others look for opportunities to make friends. Some people won’t feel at home in a church until they have a role in leadership or a particular job to do. Others come looking to join a small group such as choir or bible study.

I am writing to you to express my sincere apology. Last week, prior to our communication with you about the Safe Parking Program that the Church Council has been discussing, some of our members learned about the program from their neighbors and social media. This was wrong as you should have heard it directly from me. For this, I sincerely apologize.

A little over a year ago during our Puyallup UMC Lenten Study, we explored different justice issues affecting our country and our community. At a soup supper at the church, small groups were asked to identify the justice issue they would most like to see our church commit to working on. Every group responded by naming the issue of homelessness, and ideas began to surface about how we might engage in that work together.

The 2020 Pandemic has provided many hurdles to overcome and opportunities to embrace. In my family alone, we have had to overcome the need for all of us to be on the internet at the same time, dueling schedules, and the conflict that arises when a family of five is stuck with each other for seven months.

Pastor Cara and I are also aware that in this merger, we are blending two different church cultures: the culture of a small church and the culture of a large church. You might not even be aware that churches have different cultures based on size…but they do! In an effort to highlight some of the major differences between small and large churches, Pastor Cara and I are making a short series of videos. In this week’s video, we talk about the different experiences of community in large and small churches.