Pastoral Letter: In the Wind of Change
Dear SUM family,
Have you noticed a wind of change moving within SUM these days?
Of course, we know that God is always with us and guides us to bear fruit in its season. Still, the reason we are speaking about “change” now is that God is sending people, leading others into new places, and stirring new movements within our community.
Change is not simply about schedules and roles being adjusted. Sometimes, change is also the way God breathes new life into a community.
Last week, we blessed Deb Reid as she stepped into a new chapter of life after faithfully serving in the church office for seven years. Deb served faithfully, often in unseen ways, so that the ministries of the church could continue with care and steadiness. And now, through Deb’s transition work, Jennifer Lopez has begun serving as our new Office Manager. I look forward to seeing what new and unexpected grace God will open through the teamwork of DH and JLo.
There is also change in Youth Ministry. Erin Ott, who served as our Youth Group Director, has stepped down from her role, and we are prayerfully searching for a new director. Our youth have shared meaningful time together through weekday gatherings. Now we hope to build weekend ministry more actively as well, serve during VBS as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and prepare mission projects together.
I have also shared several mission ideas with the youth. We imagined a mission project where they could read the Bible in English with peers in other regions and countries who want to learn English, helping them grow both spiritually and in language learning. We also shared a prayer that someday they might visit Korea with me, learn about the obedience and dedication of the missionaries who crossed the ocean more than 100 years ago to bring the gospel to the land of Joseon, and see for themselves how God worked through that gospel witness.
I look forward to seeing how our youth will share and experience God’s Kin-dom. Please pray that a good director may be found. Also, if you are interested in Youth Ministry, or if you cannot serve every week but would like to meet with our youth a few times a year and share stories from your life and faith, please contact JLo or me.
Of course, mission is not only the story of our youth. Among our SUM family, there are those who support mission through VIM fundraising, and there are those who go directly to mission fields to share the love of Christ. Your prayers and offerings are used not only for our own community, but also to serve the needs of our neighbors. Through quilting and sewing ministries, the love of Christ is carried to nearby neighbors and even to people in places whose names we may never know.
We also have ministries among us that help those who, as God said to Abraham, have left “your country and your kindred and your father’s house” to go to the land God shows them (Genesis 12:1), and who now come to this country. God is still calling people, sending people, and teaching us to care for one another in unfamiliar places.
As I share all of this, I first think of those of you who are already serving faithfully within SUM.
SUM has not been built by the energy of only a few people. It stands on the many hands that have added love quietly, without their names being known, but faithfully. There are those who prepare worship, care for children, share food, watch over finances, care for the building, visit, pray, sew, attend meetings, give quietly, and build up this community.
When we speak of new things, I will not forget the faithfulness that has carried us this far. When we talk about change, I will remember first the dedication of those who have stood quietly in this season of change. Because of your prayers, your hands, and your love, we can receive this new season not with fear, but as a gracious invitation.
Thank you, truly.
This year, we are also holding Youth Confirmation Class. There are young people preparing to look again at their faith and confess it before God and within the life of the church. There are also those who are preparing for membership, praying and preparing to walk their journey of faith with our SUM community. There are families preparing for the baptism of their children, and parents who are also committing to join our church and live this life of faith together.
I cannot share every detail yet, but in ways we did not expect, Christ is gathering people into this community and calling them to follow with us.
I hope these stories bring joy and gratitude to your heart, as they do to mine.
When I think of God who is still at work, and of that amazing grace, my heart is deeply moved. Sometimes tears come to my eyes. Sometimes I am simply grateful. People often say that the church is not what it used to be. I also face that reality at times. But each time, I see again that God is still working faithfully for God’s children. And God is inviting us into that work.
On May 31, we will have our SUM Church Council meeting. I hope this will not simply be a time to handle agenda items, but a time to pray and discern together God’s will for what God desires to do through our church.
We will look back together and ask whether we are tending well the grace God has given us, and whether that grace is bearing fruit in love. What we need to hold, we should hold more deeply. What we need to release, we should release with gratitude. What we need to begin anew, we should begin by relying first on grace rather than fear.
We do not need simply to become busier. We need to discern more honestly what God is entrusting to us now. We will look together at whether there are things we continue without meaning simply because we have always done them, whether there are things we avoid because they are difficult and burdensome even though we should do them, and whether work that belongs to the whole community is being carried by only a few people.
This is not a time for blame or evaluation. It is a time for shared discernment. It is time for us to ask together what God is entrusting to SUM now.
Change is already happening.
God is breathing new life into SUM.
SUM family, in this wind of change, may we experience grace together with the Lord and with one another.
May we follow the voice of the Lord, our Shepherd, and journey together toward green pastures and still waters where we have not yet been. And when we face things we did not imagine, and sometimes things we did not want, may we experience the comfort of the Shepherd’s rod and staff.
On that journey, may we become a community that knows the Shepherd’s voice more deeply.
This Sunday, I invite you to come and worship with us in this grace.
Pastor DH