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Dear Church Family,
The week sped by me. I am fairly good with time management, but this week it seemed like the number of tasks to complete didn't match up with the number of waking hours of the day. Some weeks are like that, aren't they? Sometimes when there are more things on the agenda than there is time to complete them, I usually react with feelings of stress or tension. But this week I have not - yet.
This week I am responding to the awareness of undone tasks with an understanding that we (our ministry) are attempting major changes in several areas all at the same time. We are 1) returning to live services with attendees on Oct 25, 2) updating our videotaping equipment, 3) changing our video offerings from sharing the Daily Word to original Daily Inspirations composed by the Ministry Team, and 4) preparing for a live crafts festival in our parking lot Nov 7. We didn't consciously plan this convergence of activity, but rather it all unfolded together. I'll call it divine order, and affirm it is Good.
We still have a few spaces (seatings) available for the Oct 25 service. Because of the State and County guidelines we are limited in the number of seats and the spacing of seats we can offer. Please send an email to admin@unityofelcajon.org to reserve your space. Each space can accommodate an individual, family, or friends who share space.
We understand not everyone will feel comfortable returning to worship in person, we also continue to offer our Sunday Morning Gathering on Zoom at 10 AM, and we plan to offer live broadcasts of our worship experiences the end of the year. Returning to live in person worship requires us to give up some of the activities that we love; hugs, singing out loud, mingling inside the building, just to name a few because of the guidelines issued. Some people want to wait until a time they can hug and socialize in a manner they feel comfortable. We understand and honor this. Whatever actions we take to participate or not - let us remember - like everything in life we get to choose how we respond to the changes. Hopefully we find space in our hearts to support the changes and be grateful for the opportunity to worship temporarily in this fashion.
Going through the process of offering daily videos has humbled me as I look at my reaction to video or worship offerings out in digital land. My past criticisms of others at their offerings has come into my awareness, now realizing the many times I was uncharitable or held energy that they didn't hold my attention or were boring. In other words, I found myself to be a bit of a snob because they were not entertaining me to the standards I desired. Now I see and experience the gifts of others differently - aside from production values, people are offering their understanding of Truth - I now choose to be grateful for their efforts, their courage to put themselves out into the world, and to know that their prayer, their gift, is just as precious as a large scale production. I choose to bless it. And we thank you for blessing our endeavors in ministry in person and via video.
So, as the week has flown by with things still on my "to do" list, I choose to bless it, affirm the good, affirm divine order, and above all be grateful that God is in the midst.
Many blessings,
Pastor Robert