New Beginnings…?

During Advent, we have contemplated a season of new beginnings. Season of hope, peace, joy and dwelling in God’s love given through the Christ Child. We are called to “Do the good that’s yours to do.” Our culture also calls us to consider and commit to resolutions, i.e. actions, for the New Year. Season of fresh starts. An annual ritual, a lofty idea. How do we do these New Beginnings as a congregation, here and now, this time and place? Some thoughts:

Our annual budget funds our vision of ministry for the coming year. We scale our priorities with dollars for mission, congregational fellowship, intergenerational faith formation opportunities, creative and relevant words, art and music that lead both individuals and the congregational community in worship; and so much more.

Invitations for teams and individuals to collaborate or serve. Elders in leadership, deacons in service. Volunteers to work the resale shop, front/retail or backroom sorting and distributing to those in need. Teachers for our church children, volunteers for our preschool children. Office help with proofing, collating, stuffing and stamping. Energy and talents for removing invasive plants from the Mediation Pathway. Refurbishing landscaping; and so much more.

Opportunities for individuals or our small groups to offer their hands and feet, hearts and minds, to be living witnesses as FPCV members involved in the community, whether with Hilltop Mission Kitchen or rocking babies in childcare at Hilltop or Project Neighbors or Opportunity Enterprises or Daybreak Shelter or We Make Indiana; and so much more.

Envisioning concrete, new beginnings in mission and ministry made possible by the generosity reflected in our Sharing Table Project. Environmental ministry? Green energy technology? Investments in affordable housing? Other opportunities to move toward identifying needs and acting toward social justice around systemic poverty and structural racism? Childcare that includes early learning for children of working parents?

For some of us, 2025 brings personal opportunities for new beginnings by vacationing in Florida, or seasonally joining family living in faraway places. We make new beginnings when we move into retirement centers or make new friends or develop new hobbies or rethink our personal values or “me vs. us” politics, when we ponder being truly a more inclusive community of believers in Christ’s message of love; and so much more. What does this time of New Beginnings really mean for you?

– Linda Long