Greetings, Church Family!
By now, you have heard about the work of the Holy Conversations Team and our need for your prayers. Our desire and determination is to engage you in the conversations as the people of Chapel Hill discern God’s will for our church. Since our work is to “broadcast” what we are discussing within this team, we want to repeat the following guided questions for those who have not heard them before:
- Where is the vital intersection between the opportunities/needs of our community and our own gifts, talents, hopes and dreams?
- Who are our neighbors?
- What is breaking God’s heart in our community?
- What do we have to bring to the table and how are we limited?
Now we come to the part that we ask for your help. We have an assignment given to our team and we seek your participation. Would you help us to answer this question: “What is the biblical story in which Chapel Hill is currently living?”
Let us explain the rationale behind this assignment. We need to assess where we as a congregation and place ourselves in the greater Christian stories we have all heard. For example: Is the congregation wandering in the wilderness? Are there more “Martha’s” than “Mary’s”? Has the congregation been casting their net on the same side of the boat for many years?
These stories that you come up with over the next few weeks will help us to gain insight to continue the discernment process mentioned in the four bullets above. At times, these Bible stories may seem raw or may make us feel uncomfortable, but in going through this process, the Bible stories will help us understand ourselves as a congregation.
In the church’s “Advance” last Saturday, the Holy Conversations team members were present and helped facilitate this exercise. We had a very fruitful time and the results will be passed on to you from your leaders in Sunday classes, committee meetings, and weekly newsletters just to name a few.
You can turn in or email your stories to any of the Holy Conversations team members, Pastor Mai or Debbie Gross. We are looking to having these ideas gathered by 12:00 p.m. of Sunday, January 25, 2015, at the latest. We will use your stories to lead us into our second meeting with John Thornburg that same afternoon, January 25, 2015, at 4:00 p.m.
Thank you very much!
~ Your Holy Conversations Team
Chapel Hill United Methodist Church
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