Mission

Just Some June Thoughts

         Happy June!!! For years I have used the title Just Some (insert month) Thoughts for my church newsletter articles. I continue the tradition for your Congregational Life publication.

         I am an email hoarder. Yes, I admit it. I send some things to trash but err on the side of preservation for way too many messages. However, this week, I am congratulating myself on my habit. I received a devotional email called Enfleshed, created by the Rev. Anna Blaedel. These words, written by Anna, accurately sum up how I feel about matters. They write: “I believe in mystery. I believe in magic. I believe in miracles. I believe in intuition. I believe Spirit seeks connection, through stars and trees and soil and flesh and beauty blooming and every movement of freedom and mobilization toward liberation. I believe divinity is moments of felt connection, resonances that spark and open into Wisdom.”

         I believe all of this too!  And church provides the place where I get to regularly use words like “abide” and “blessing” and “lament”.  Where else am I going to do that? Church, at its best and worst deals in relationship and connection. You may wonder about that word – worst. Of course, there are times when faithful people, churchy people, are angry, annoyed, or awful…to one another. It is what happens next – or at least what Jesus had high hopes we could achieve – that illustrates church at it’s best. We take a deep breath, a step back, a minute to count, and remember the other is a neighbor, a sibling. If we consistently do this with one another – disagree in love and work toward understanding – we can teach it to others. We can gesture back to the community where we learned the miracle of cohesion.

         I am excited to see how you all connect – with each other, the neighborhood, and me! And I look forward to learning about you. Individually and as the body of Christ. My approach is observation and conversation. I’ll be asking you all what you like/love about the church service, the various ministries available, about Tomah. I will also ask what you might like to see happen.

         Adventure awaits – I have a t-shirt with this phrase on it – next to illustrations of mountains. I look forward to our climb together.

~Blessings, Rev. Beth Voigt