“I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes,

all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing: ‘Salvation to our God on his Throne! Salvation to the Lamb!’”

- Revelation 7:9-10 The Message

September 22, 2023

Hi Christ Church and Friends,

We hope you are having a great week!

We believe that God calls us to our mission as a church: to be a diverse and inclusive community that is experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to one another and to our larger community. We believe that our mission is helping us individually and collectively to fulfill and live into God’s hope for what we usually call the Kingdom of God. As described in the book of Revelation in the Bible, one day in the Kingdom of God everyone and all of creation will worship God with one another. At Christ Church United Methodist we are striving to live into this, our future reality, today and trying to help others to do the same.

This work is hard though.

It takes intentionality, practice, patience, humility, and a lot of prayer!

Because we know this work is hard, this past Sunday, we kicked off our new worship series: Multiethnic Conversations: Unity in Our Church. Our hope is that this series will help us to continue to grow into the church and people God is calling us to be. It is based on the book with a similar title by Mark DeYmaz and Oneya Fennell Okuwobi. This book functions as a workbook and facilitator for deeper conversations.

As such, we are asking all Christ Church members and friends to participate in a small group study of this book over the next eight weeks.

Members of our Anti-Racism Task Force studied the book together over eight weeks or so earlier this ummer. We found it hopeful, challenging, inspiring, and even humor inducing. We had rich conversations and forged new friendships. We became a little more like the Kingdom of God.

You can read more about the various times you can join a small group and how, below. Also below are details on the book itself.

We believe this worship series and these small groups have the potential to transform our individual lives and our church community. We believe, through the work we do and the way we live our lives, that our extremely diverse region of our state and country, which many of us call home, will also be transformed.

Join us on Sundays for this important worship series and join one of the many small groups studying this book. As your pastors, we are praying for you individually and our church as a we take this journey together over the next several weeks as we continue to strive to live into the people and church Christ calls us to be now and forever more.

We’ll see you soon! Have a great day.

Peace,

Pastors Nathan and Peytyn