Pastor’s Message

Summer 2023

We need each other. It’s a simple truth worth remembering from time to time. It’s not just that “some people” need support— we all need others. Both the poorest and riches individuals on the planet were once helpless babies. I’m especially thinking about our interdependence after our area had heavy-duty storms pass through. As I write this: roads are blocked, waters are high, pow-er is out for so many. Thank God for emergency personnel, power line repair workers, and even for friends and family who check up on each other. I am also thinking of the 12 Baskets Food Pan-try our two congregations co-sponsor. The Pantry is housed in the Stirling church building this summer. This is an example of the power of neighbor helping neighbor. Community matters.

We need each other. It’s a simple truth worth remembering from time to time. It’s not just that “some people” need support— we all need others. Both the poorest and riches individuals on the planet were once helpless babies. I’m especially thinking about our interdependence after our area had heavy-duty storms pass through. As I write this: roads are blocked, waters are high, pow-er is out for so many. Thank God for emergency personnel, power line repair workers, and even for friends and family who check up on each other. I am also thinking of the 12 Baskets Food Pan-try our two congregations co-sponsor. The Pantry is housed in the Stirling church building this summer. This is an example of the power of neighbor helping neighbor. Community matters.Scripture celebrates that God made us to belong to and with others. Practically speaking the wisdom of Ecclesiastes tells us: “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed… A person standing alone can be attacked, but two can stand back-to-back and defend. Three is even better: a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” We don’t just need each other for the practical realities of living. Remember the invitation: “Let us love one another, for love comes from God. (1 John 4:7) God made us in God’s own image. God is relational. God desires a relationship with us. God loves us and calls us to love one another. We are just not our healthy, true selves when we are isolated and alone.

I don’t have to tell anyone that it is not always easy to be in a community. People are complicated. And people bring all their peculiarities and wounds into communities. But that is part of the messy beauty of families, neighborhoods, and communities of all kinds. That we can love one another, with all our human complications, is an amazing sacred blessing! So, in a world filled with division, I celebrate the beacon of care that our two congregations are. I admire the ways you practically care for our neighbors and the ways you simply love one another, as God calls us to do. I so look forward to inviting more people to know the blessing of being in the community of Christ. May we not take for granted the gift God has given us by bringing us together in worship, service, and fellowship.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Stefanie Muntzel
(aka Pastor Stefanie)