The Summer of be(LOVE)d
Dear Church,
The pictures and links and text that you will find within the pages of this document tell the story of a church vibrantly, compassionately, and faithfully serving her people and her community. The stories you’ll read here for the first time or the stories you were a part of during the year aren’t here as a point of PRIDE—the deadliest of the deadly sins. The stories are told again as testimony to your loving work and as inspiration for “even greater works than these!” God is at work in our community of Jackson Hole, and you are God’s partner in this love-spreading, difference-making mission! Stop now. Breathe. And high five one of your fellow parishioners!
As I mentioned last Sunday, full steam ahead! This summer our intention is to increase our love work in the valley and beyond. Our theme for the summer is “The Summer of beLoved”. And together, all summer long, we’ll focus on building our capacity to love. Over the course of the last several months, I’ve become keenly aware that we talk a lot here at St. John’s about the fact that we’re loved. We talk about our mission to spread love and make a difference. It might help us if we became more specific about what that love looks like—the love we intend to feel and the love we intend to spread.
To that end, Brian and I will spend some time on Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. (you can find the schedule and topics here) over the course of the summer talking about how we might build capacity for love in our lives—the kind we feel and the kind we spread!
Finally, how will we know we’ve succeeded in living out our summer theme? There will be more stories about you giving away coats, supporting one another in your roles as mindful mamas, doing laundry with folks who need some help, praying together and working alongside one another as volunteers at your church, serving this community and especially, the people in it. We’ll see that we have a successful stewardship campaign because we know “money follows mission.” You’ll hear things from your friends like, “I don’t go to church, but if I did, I’d go to yours!” That’s how we’ll know.
We’re onto something here, Church! We have been for over a hundred years!
Love, Jimmy
Tags: Our History / Our Mission / Adult Bible Study / Events / St. John's Outdoors