New Year's Message from Carla

​Dear Friends,
As I sit here and think about 2019, I think first about you. Yes, you. I think about how you have made an impact on my life, how you have formed and shaped me in ways that you might never know, and how your words and your thoughts and your actions have become part of my story, too. And for all of those things, I’m completely grateful.

I’m grateful that you choose to say yes to the call that God is ever offering. I’m grateful that you have decided to walk with Community of Christ in your journey of faith. I’m grateful that you haven’t held back when you have found something to be to your liking or not to your liking. I’m grateful that I have been able to walk with you, to talk with you, and to learn from you as we go together.

I also realize that our journeys, both yours and mine, haven’t been easy. I know that you struggle with life—with the disappointments that can come expectedly or unexpectedly, with the emotions that come from faith transitions, with issues from families and difficulties with friends, with health concerns, and the disquiet that can come from a myriad of other places. I know these things. I have seen you walk with these things loaded onto your back, and I hurt for you. I pray for you.

Please know that as your pastor, I care deeply for you. And I want the congregation to respond in ways that are helpful for you, not harmful or hurtful for you. So, I need your help in these ways:

1. I want you to be thinking about how the congregation can be a better support for you in the coming months.  What can we do that will help you know that you are loved with an everlasting love?
2. I want you to come to church on January 26, when we talk about the direction that the congregation will be taking for the year 2020. We need YOUR input in order to make this congregation exactly who it needs to be.
3. I want you to think about if you can commit to 30 days of spiritual practices. On January 26, I will be handing out a document that outlines each spiritual practice (just a few minutes a day), and I would love to have some members or friends of the congregation say yes to this and then see how life changes (because I 100% guarantee that it will). 

Okay?  Okay.​​
Thank you for what you do for the congregation and for Community of Christ! I am so blessed to call you my friends and family!
Much love,
Carla