Thank You
Dear Hope Family,
This week we met as a team to align our volunteer recruiting efforts for the fall. It’s always striking to me how many people it takes to do the work of the kingdom here at Hope. And it’s always encouraging how many of you are pouring yourselves out for the kingdom in ways that are clearly sacrificial. We’re mostly looking at the more programmatic needs of Hope at this meeting but so many of you are serving in ways that don’t “show up” on paper, as you shepherd, pray with, take meals to, and find a million ways to show the love of Christ to each other. And as the Hope for the City team has begun to dig into how Hope is already serving our community, we’ve seen that you are absolutely at work in the world, taking the love of Christ outside of our walls and our zip code. It’s been not only an encouragement but an exhortation to me. This year has been a particularly busy season of life for our family, but I’ve been challenged not to let that turn me too far inward. Not to stop serving at Hope and in our community because a life focused entirely inward, inside my comfortable home, will be anemic. We’re meant to be conduits, receiving the love of God and letting it flow through us, to those in the church and to the world. That’s how they’ll know we are His.
There’s a list printed in the bulletin this week of Children’s, Youth, and Sunday School volunteers. It does not even begin to encompass all of our volunteers who keep our worship, hospitality, missions, outreach, administration, pastoral search, mercy, shepherding, building, prayer, women’s, and men’s ministries flourishing. Thank you to each one of you! I personally experience the love of God through each of you because of your willingness to serve.
Sarah