Newsletter for the District for June 2019

Greetings from the Wyoming CRM!

I have been in this position nearly six months and it has been an honor to meet many of you from visits, phone calls and webinars. 

We offered 2 webinars recently: Single Board Governance and Staff/Pastor Parish Relations Committee training. Thank you to those who participated. Sometime this summer we should have video resources available for those who were unable to attend. We will let you know when these are ready.

One of my favorite passages in scripture is Isaiah 40. The first verses are sung in Handel’s Messiah. “O Comfort ye, my people! says your God.” It’s a passage of hope for people who have been living in exile, in a foreign land, and who have been wondering if God has abandoned them. The final verses in the chapter are just as familiar, as paraphrased in “On Eagles Wings.”

Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30-31 NRSV)

We are in uncertain times. Whether because of the decisions made by General Conference and upheld by the Judicial Council. Or we look around and wonder where everyone is. Perhaps we are concerned that our church will still be making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world in the next several years.

We don’t know what the future will hold.

But we know Who holds our future.

“Comfort ye, my people! says your God.”

“But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.”

The future is never certain or predicted. Instead, we walk by faith. We wait. We pray. We hope. And we trust that God is still at work in us, in our churches, and in our communities. May we discern the Spirit’s work and join in. That’s something to celebrate!

May God be with us, and may our Wyoming (and Walden, Colorado) summer be filled with new life.

Rev. Laura Rainwater

Wyoming Congregational Resource Minister