As 2023 begins, I wanted to pause for a moment and reflect on where God may be leading us as a church family. 2022 was a wild ride, to be sure. But 2023 may be even wilder! A year ago, we were hoping that General Conference would meet and that the Protocol for separation in the UMC would have passed in the summer and by now we would be disaffiliated from the UMC. But, alas, General Conference was postponed again, and we have begun the more difficult process of disaffiliation individually as a congregation. Our hope is to complete the process by June, but we will see.
Regardless of what happens with disaffiliation, The Fount needs to retool and refocus our efforts so that we can go forward faithfully serving God into the future He has foreseen for us. This will require some changes to our expectations and some alterations in how we “do church!”
We cannot afford to wait for people to just show up. We MUST leave the comfort of our “four walls” and go out to where “they” are and meet them there. We’ve a story to tell, and we cannot tell it if we don’t go out. I have some ideas of what we can do, and maybe you do, too? People need to see us living out our faith so that they become curious and want to know more. Even more importantly, WE need to live our out faith in visible and practical ways for our own sake!
Let’s put our heads together and our hearts with God’s heart and see where He takes us!
In the meantime, let us be attentive to what God is doing in our midst. He is raising up a hunger for more of Him. Several people have remarked that they feel a spiritual revival coming! We cannot predict exactly what that will look like; we can only prepare ourselves, spiritually, to jump on once it comes. So, focus in your prayer time on what God is preparing to do. And ask God for a vision for The Fount. Let us test and see if He will deliver a common vision to us all! I invite you to share what you hear and perceive with one another and with me!
Whatever the New Year brings, if we are faithful in all our ways, it will be something amazing!
Let’s see what God is going to do!
Faithfully,
