Dear Friends,

The church – like the rest of the world – changed in some significant ways during the pandemic. One of those changes that brought strength and growth to us as the Body of Christ living in the world is that we moved away from being so isolated from one another. There was a time when congregations operated like entirely solo entities. With that wild world change we all experienced, all across the church, we’ve started to recognize that we actually do need each other!

Honestly – it really does make sense. We are people of the Jesus Movement; the Body of Christ; the people of God’s incarnation in the world. So much of how we understand our faith is through our relationships with God and with each other. Of course being in relationships in our common life in the church would bring us closer to realizing the vision that we understand from God!

This week we have an opportunity to put that focus on relationships into action in a very small (though not at all insignificant) way. Since Jeep Fest is going to be keeping us from worshiping in our usual manner here in our beautiful downtown campus, we’ve decided to join our neighbors at St. Michael’s-in-the-Hills in Ottawa Hills. You may remember, some of them came to worship with us on the day of the Glass City Marathon – when they couldn’t get to their church.

We all benefit when we deepen our relationships with each other and when we learn about the ways that we’re the same and the ways that we’re different.

I do hope you’ll make it a point to worship with us at our neighbor’s place this week! It should be fun!

Blessings,
Jon+