Tea with the Pastor
On August 21 Pastor Laura invited anyone and everyone to afternoon tea in the church foyer. Fifteen people attended the event, which provided an opportunity for group sharing about what matters for the Emmanuel community. The consensus expressed was that everyone wants our fellowship to grow and thrive, and that the biggest threat to our community is a spirit of judgementalism.
All of us who belong to Emmanuel know that our fellowship is full of sinners — because we are sinners, and yet we belong here. Often we’re a little afraid of being known by, and maybe scorned because of, our sins. And sometimes the temptation is to focus on someone else’s sin as a distract our brothers and sisters from noticing where we ourselves don’t measure up. That’s a big mistake, because creating an environment of finger-pointing just makes it that much riskier to be a flawed human; that much riskier to admit to needing forgiveness. And it isn’t any better when we focus on the sins that we assume are “out there” in the world. We would never say, to anyone, “You’re not welcome here!” At least, I certainly hope none of us would say such a thing. But when we focus on pointing out how sinful the world is, instead of pointing out how welcome they are here, that’s exactly what they here. So it is a blessing that our community has come to recognize the big danger a spirit of judgementalism presents. Now it’s up to all of us to work on uprooting that sinful habit, both as individuals and as teams, groups, and in the fellowship as a whole. And we can rely on Laura to help us with that, trusting her to be as gentle as possible.
Pastor Laura doesn’t spend all her time enjoying tea, though. Since joining Emmanuel on August 1, our pastor has met with as many members as possible of our little church family. Laura has gathered and consulted with a group of our youth, visited shut-ins, met with the worship team; and dropped in on the community baking event! There are sign-up sheets on the bulletin board for anyone who wants to meet the pastor during office hours.