Off to a great start!

Today was the first meeting of the Partnership Committee of St. Matthews and First Trinity. We reviewed the elements that our Memorandum of Understanding outlined for our partnership: worship, education, fellowship, pastoral care, financial and building use issues.

We discussed what had worked especially well over the past four months, what we needed to work on and who would be responsible. We will be sharing the details shortly, but the most important thing about the meeting was the clarity of our mutual commitment to what we understand as our shared ministry.

We are only in the beginning of our journey together, and there is much we can do to meet our goals and seek to discern and live out God's intention for us. We are and will continue in a 'learning as we go' mode, building success on success, addressing issues forthrightly and remain focused on making our shared ministry all it can be. We are still getting to know each other, and we have and will continue to have challenges, but I am confident that we are doing - and continuing to seek - God's will for our congregations. We do not know where this journey might take us, but my prayer is that we do not limit our options, nor limit our God.

What can we do? We can pray. We can gather together as often and in as many settings as possible and get to know each other better. We can work together in all the aspects of our various ministries. We can seek to advance the kingdom of God in all we do. We can keep working, seeking, joining, praying, worshiping, teaching, building, growing, loving, serving, singing, and learning together.