“The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community,
to their shared meals, and to their prayers.”
- Acts 2:42 CEB
July 17, 2023
Hi Christ Church and Friends,
I hope the summer finds you and yours doing well.
Here at Christ Church, we are in the middle of our Summer Together theme for Summer 2023. Throughout the summer, we are focusing on being together with one another and with our larger community. We are intentionally spending time together to get to know one another and to get to know our larger community and the people who are a part of it. This is the model offered to us by the early church in the book of Acts in the Bible.
As part of Summer Together, we’ve worshiped together in combined worship, had our first potluck in several years, enjoyed delicious food at an ice cream social, welcomed our new Associate Pastor, the Rev. Peytyn Tobin with a great reception (Welcome Pastor Peytyn. We’re so glad you are here with us)!, and gathered members of our online Christ Church community via Zoom. We also marched in the Pride Parade in Wilton Manors for the first time as a church. During the parade, countless people thanked us along the route and openly hugged many of us who marched. We are also preparing this weekend to host a mobile health clinic and lunch with our friends at TaskForce Fore Ending Homelessness.
In the coming weeks, we’ll also be putting our knowledge to the test at Trivia Night at Funky Buddha Brewery, playing at our game night with adult kickball on our Fort Lauderdale campus field, and enjoying a delicious churchwide dinner.
All of this is, of course, in addition to all of the other activities and ministries that are ongoing each week.
We are spending Summer Together intentionally for several reasons.
First, as I enter my second year as your Lead Pastor, one of the things so many of you have told me over and over again the past twelve months is that we don’t know each other well, and we don’t have enough opportunities to be together. Our Summer Together events are helping to address this directly.
Secondly, one of our priorities for our church is People. One of my visions for our church is that we will be a church that values people, especially people who have otherwise been devalued by other parts of society, including, perhaps, our church in the past. Diverse and inclusive aren’t simply buzzwords I and others say. They are descriptive of who we are and who we are becoming.
You’ve heard me say and will continue to hear me say that “relationships change everything.” Relationships help us to become more diverse and inclusive, which of course is reflective of God’s Kingdom and desire for our church and all of Christ’s followers. Indeed, it is hard to put into practice prioritizing people if we aren’t taking and making time to spend with one another intentionally. Summer Together activities are helping us to do this important work (and they are a lot of fun)!
Finally, Summer Together is helping us to be church.
Perhaps that sounds redundant, but hear me out. Summer Together and its various components are helping us to be church. I believe firmly that a church can do a lot of things, but who we are as we do those things and how we do them are as important as what we do, if not more so. When we say we prioritize People, it means we value people before other areas of our church, including our own preferences and even our own comfort. This is what the early church in Acts did. As it did so, it was Church, and it thrived! I believe God wants us to thrive, Christ Church!
So again, a church, including our church, must not simply do church, but it must also be church. Who we are as a church matters.
Part of my vision for our church and what we are creating together is not that we are simply a group of individuals who gather for various activities to do stuff that then disperses back to our individual lives. Instead, I see us becoming a group comprised of people (disciples of Jesus) who are earnestly seeking together to follow God through Jesus, to know and care for one another, and to do the same for our greater community. To fully be church, we must invest our time, talents, and treasures in following Jesus and in one another and our larger community. We are selling ourselves, our church, our community, and even God short if we do otherwise.
Many of you are already taking advantage of Summer Together. I’ve seen your smiles and heard your laughter. I’ve gathered around tables full of diverse people with you as we’ve enjoyed a delicious dessert and told stories of how we’re spending our summers. I’ve seen you step up to prepare and serve chili and offer a reminder that God loves everyone.
Summer Together wouldn’t be possible without so many of you who have generously shared your time, talents, and treasures. Thank you to our staff, Church Council, Rainbow Alliance, Staff Parish Relations Committee, Anti-Racism Task Force, choir, praise band, and so many others for helping us all to be church.
If you haven’t taken advantage of our Summer Together activities and gatherings, there are plenty more chances to do so. Again, we can’t fully be church without you! Click here to read about upcoming opportunities.
As always, thank you for being part of this diverse and inclusive community we call Christ Church. Together we are experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to one another and our larger community!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Nathan
Lead Pastor
