Dear Church:

Last weeks' vacation was wonderful!  We went to Portland, Oregon, where my daughter, Beth, and her husband, Marcos, are raising identical twins – Jamie and Gabe.  The twins turned 10 years old last week on Tuesday, April 9, and are 10 years and 1 day older than our youngest grandson, Jonah, who arrived in Riverside, California on Wednesday, April 10.  Mom and new baby are well.  God has blessed us with two wonderful adult children, an amazing son-in-law and daughter-in-law, and six terrific grandsons.

As I reflect over the last twenty years of family life, I realize what a challenge it has been to raise a family that has the capacity to raise families.   But what got our family here – to what it is today – will not get our family into God's preferred future.  Change is real and constant.  Transformation is inevitable.  The question is what sort of transformation will we invite into our lives?

Blooming Glen is in a season of transformation.  When Debbie and I came to Pennsylvania one hundred and fifteen weeks ago, we met in you a lot of anxiousness about the future, a lot of division over then-present realities, and a lot of disappointment about the past.  Today, I see a congregation that, while it still has its struggles, is also beginning to chart a new course, embracing new strategies of shared ministry, team building, and community-making.  I see a congregation now more interested in emotional health, resilience, and agility, than simply continuing the programs of the past.  

It is a good time to be at Blooming Glen Mennonite Church!

Not everyone may agree with my upbeat assessment, but no one can say that the Blooming Glen congregation gathering this Sunday for worship is the same congregation that met on that last Sunday in January 2022. Amid imperfection and difficulties, we rejoice anew that God is at work.

So, now is the time to make our efforts in community care – through family engagement, in adult formation, and with pastoral visitation – the preeminent effort of our congregational life.  Now is the time to launch forms of worship that take us deeper and deeper into our commitment to being genuine Christ-followers.  And as a congregation renewed in commitment to loving one another and Jesus, it is also time to pivot towards loving our neighborhoods and loving our neighbors, across the street and around the world, offering peaceful practices that heal and offer hope in a time that can look quite bleak.

Thank you for the privilege it is to serve with you.  May this Paschal Season between Easter and Pentecost be full of the Holy Spirit's anointing in each of our lives.

Grateful that you are the church!

Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net

PS – I am missing our breakfasts and coffees.  I look forward to Friday, May 10, when "Coffee and Conversations" resumes at the Broad Street Grind, 3:30pm-4:45pm.  And I look forward to Monday, May 13, when "Omelettes, Oatmeal, and Observations" resumes at the A&N Diner, 7:30am-8:45am.