From the Pastor - January 2017

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Dear Friends in Christ,

As we turn the page on a new calendar year, I am thinking about the gifts that I am bringing into the new year.

Two years ago, I began my academic studies in congregational leadership.  I have benefited from an interdisciplinary approach that combined courses at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.  As a bonus, I earned Kellogg’s executive education certificate in nonprofit management.

I deeply appreciate the gifts of time and resources for learning new lessons to apply in parish life.

Now that my coursework is finished, I am working on the final research and dissertation.  To that end, I am leading a workshop for members of the Church Council on Sat., Jan. 14 as part of my doctoral research.  The goal is to work with Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment and interactive group exercises to help people identify their “strengths” and imagine ways of using those strengths for ministry.

It is my hope that this research focus can be expanded at Trinity and beyond so that more people can explore their personal strengths as gifts from God for building up the church and blessing the world.

Indeed, the beginning of the new year is a good time for all of us to take stock of the new life that comes through Jesus Christ.

On Jan. 1, we will celebrate Epiphany, the celebration of Christ’s revelation to all people.  On Jan. 8, we will commemorate the Baptism of the Lord, including a congregational reaffirmation of baptism.

The following prayer speaks of the gifts of grace that God offers us in Jesus Christ through the church:

“By word and sign, O God, 
you identified Jesus at his baptism, 
that we might know him as your Beloved One, 
the vessel of your goodness.  
By that same grace, you have united us in Christ 
and called us your people.  
How dimly we understand such love!  
Deepen our faith.  Intensify our zeal.  
Unite the separated branches of your church, 
that we might bear an undivided witness before the world; 
through Jesus Christ, in whom you are pleased to dwell.  Amen.”1

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Brian C. Smith
_________________

1 Laurence Hull Stookey. This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2004). 118. 

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