Pastoral Letter: How Do We Walk the Life of Faith in a New Time?
Dear SUM family,
Last Sunday, we witnessed a quiet but extraordinary grace. A couple who had been worshiping with us through the Simsbury UMC livestream sensed that God was drawing them into the heart of this community. Through earlier conversations, phone calls, and shared moments of prayer, I had already felt the Holy Spirit gently stitching our journeys together. But in worship that morning, that sense became unmistakably clear.
This couple has been walking through illness and hardship, yet they continue to hold fast to their faith and to open themselves to the life of the church. Their trust, humility, and desire to belong came into focus during worship.
Our plan that morning was simple: when the Response Reading began, I would call them so that we could hear their voices as they spoke their part of the liturgy. The call did not go through at that exact moment. But afterward, I saw the message they had sent:
“We do.”
Later, when we spoke by phone, we shared how meaningful and grace-filled the service had been, and how grateful we were to be able to walk together in this way. That short exchange carried surprising depth—gratitude, courage, and a quiet affirmation of faith. It was a reminder that God builds the church not by our strategies, but by drawing hearts together, one life and one faithful “yes” at a time.
This moment offers us an invitation to reflect.
Standing at the Threshold of a New Time
We live in a moment when the shape of worship and community life is changing more quickly than we anticipated. People join us online from homes, hospital rooms, and far-off places. Some cannot enter the sanctuary physically, yet they are woven deeply into our life of prayer, worship, and belonging.
This is not merely a technological shift. It is a spiritual one. And it invites a deeper question: “In a changing time, how do we walk the life of faith?”
How do we remain rooted in the unchanging center of the gospel while responding faithfully to the world as it is—its vulnerabilities, its possibilities, and its unfolding ways of connecting people to God?
A Lesson from the Youth
This same question surfaced during our Wednesday evening Youth gathering.
As usual, we shared pizza and salad and caught up on life. Then I invited the students into a simple game I remembered from my own childhood—a race to find a Bible verse. “Let’s see who can find Genesis 1:1 first!”
The students looked at their Bibles, then at me, and asked sincerely: “How do you find it?”
As they fumbled through the pages, I suddenly remembered my younger self—uncertain, curious, eager to learn. But there was a difference. When I was growing up, I regularly held a paper Bible in my hands. Week after week, I learned to find my way through the Scriptures in the company of others—Sunday school teachers, pastors, and friends who guided me as we turned pages together.
Many young people today simply have not had those same communal experiences. They know Scripture from screens and apps, from verses shared online, but not always from the slow, tactile practice of turning pages with a community at their side.
So we stepped back, opened the table of contents, and talked about the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New. We explored, briefly, how the canon came to be. Then we found the Psalms, read together, and shared a short reflection.
That moment reminded me—and all of us—that faith is learned in community, not in isolation, and that each generation must be taught with patience, grace, and joy.
Opening Our Hearts to a Changing Church
Without realizing it, we sometimes treat our own familiar practices as the standard for others.
“This is how we worship.”
“This is how we read Scripture.”
“This is what a faithful life looks like.”
But as the world changes, people come to God in many different ways.
Some cannot attend at 8:00, 9:00, or 10:30, yet they worship with full hearts. Some have not yet met Jesus personally but are searching quietly for meaning. Some are learning how to open a Bible for the first time and need encouragement, not judgment.
If we can listen to all these stories—those in the pews and those online, those seasoned in faith and those just beginning—we will become a more generous and spacious community of grace.
SUM already holds many beautiful journeys within it. My prayer is that even more stories will emerge, and that our church will continue to create new pathways for those who have yet to encounter Christ.
The Question of Advent
Advent is, at its heart, a season of holy waiting. But we do not wait passively. Advent calls us to discernment—to look closely for the ways God is already arriving among us and to open ourselves to new expressions of grace.
So we ask: “Lord, in this world as it is, how do You desire us to live and walk by faith?”
This is the question that gathers all others. It invites humility: to release what is only habit or preference. It invites courage: to embrace what the Spirit is making new. And it anchors us again in the steady, unchanging love of God.
An Invitation to Worship
This Sunday—the second Sunday of Advent—you are invited to bring the small stories from your own life: the places where God whispered hope, the questions you carry, the gratitude and weariness you hold.
If you are able to be in the sanctuary, we will rejoice to see you. If you join us through our YouTube Channel, know that your presence is real and deeply valued.
May the grace of the Triune God flow freely among us—between those online and those in the pews, between long-time members and those just arriving, between the children learning to find Genesis and the adults learning again how to say “We do.”
With peace and hope,
Pastor DH