We are nearing the half-way point of our 40 Days of Prayer, and this week (on Saturday) is the Special Called session of our Annual Conference for the purpose of voting on churches seeking disaffiliation. The Fount will not be on the list of churches to be voted on, because the $3 million required of us by the Conference Board of Trustees is untenable. There may be one or two churches that will be voted on because they chose to mortgage their futures in order to get out.
Most of our Prayer Prompts have been and will continue to be about our church’s future. The leadership of The Fount, as well as the full membership, has voted to leave The United Methodist Church, but the pathway of disaffiliation has been effectively blocked by the egregious amount of money the conference is requiring of us. The Church Council will research other options. But we must remain vigilant in our prayer-focus: God, please make a way!
While we wait on the Lord, it is so very important that we remain engaged in mission and ministry. We cannot allow ourselves to focus exclusively on disaffiliation. And we cannot rest on our laurels as a church, trusting that what we’ve done in the past is sufficient to justify our on-going existence! We need to seek the Lord in finding new and significant ways to serve our community and to share the love of God in Jesus Christ. We need to be in mission!
Several times in the past few years I have asked you to pray and to share with me what the Lord is saying to you. Frankly, I have not heard from many of you! This is not something I can do alone; we need to all be involved in seeking the Lord on this. I’ve put forth some ideas that the Lord has laid on my heart, but I have not heard from you. If we have no plan for ministry going forward, how can we expect God to make a way for us?
So, as we continue this 40 Days of Prayer, I’m asking you to double-down in prayer. Let God speak to your heart and give you His vision for The Fount’s future. Let’s see if God will be faithful and reveal His vision to all of us. I believe He can and He will!
In Hope,
