Pastoral Letter: Imagining SUM Together
A Second Pastoral Reflection as We Prepare for Church Council
What Kind of Church Might God Be Calling SUM to Become?
Dear SUM Family,
We had been waiting for spring, but these past days have felt strangely close to summer—with heavy air and rain falling as if the season had lost its usual rhythm. It has been a slightly disorienting stretch of weather.
During the difficult days of winter, a few church members told me, “Simsbury winters are not usually like this. This year has just been unusual.” Now it seems spring has also arrived a little differently than expected. Perhaps because this is my first year in Simsbury, every season and every change in the weather feels new to me, and in its own way, fascinating.
On evenings like these, my family gathers around the kitchen downstairs with the air conditioner running. One person reads a book, another works on homework, another writes quietly. We each do our own work, yet remain together in the same space. It is from that same space that I am writing this second letter to you.
Last week, I asked you to reflect on the kind of SUM we imagine together. I invited you to think freely about the church that lives within your memories and hopes—not through carefully prepared answers, but through the images, memories, and hopes that come spontaneously to mind.
Today, I would like us to place those images gently to the side for a moment and ask a slightly different question: What kind of church might God be calling SUM to become within this community?
Is the church we desire always the same as the church God desires?
There may be places where they overlap beautifully, and other places where they differ more than we expected. When I was studying theology, I also carried certain images of ministry and the church within me. Yet real ministry has continued to teach me new things. There is always some distance between the church I once imagined and the church I encounter in front of me. But that distance has not only brought disappointment; more often, it has become a place where God continues to teach me and shape us together.
So this week, rather than speaking too much about my own thoughts, I would simply like us to look together at some of the ways Scripture describes the community of God.
As we read Scripture, we begin to notice that the community God calls into being does not appear in only one form. In some passages, God’s people are called to seek the peace of their neighbors. In others, they are called to live lives marked by justice and mercy. Elsewhere, they appear as disciples learning to love one another, or as many different members becoming one body together.
Seeking Welfare: Jeremiah tells the exiled people to seek the welfare of the city where they now live, because their own welfare is tied to the welfare of that place. God’s people are not called to care only for themselves, but also for the peace and well-being of their neighbors and communities. (Jeremiah 29:7)
Walking Humbly: Micah speaks with beautiful simplicity: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Perhaps the kind of community God desires is revealed not so much through impressive language, but through lives shaped by justice, mercy, and humble companionship with God. (Micah 6:8)
Loving One Another: The sign Jesus left for the disciples was love: “Love one another.” The world will recognize the community of Jesus not first through buildings, programs, or structures, but through the way we love one another. (John 13:34–35)
One Body, Many Parts: Paul describes the church as one body with many members. Different parts are needed. The body does not become whole because everyone is the same, but precisely because each member is different. (1 Corinthians 12:12–27)
These passages may not answer every question for SUM, but I do believe they can help point us toward the direction to which we are being called. I hope you will spend some time with these passages and listen for what God may desire to form within the life of SUM.
Perhaps you may gently place side by side the SUM you imagined last week and the community you encounter within these Scriptures. There may be places where the two look beautifully alike. There may also be places where the differences quietly linger in your heart.
We may discover that the church we hoped for is not always exactly the same as the community God is shaping among us. Or, perhaps we may find surprising moments of gratitude as we notice how closely those hopes sometimes meet. I believe those discoveries matter.
As we prepare for Church Council, perhaps what we need most is not only agendas and reports, but hearts willing to listen together for the kind of community God may be calling us to become:
The SUM we desire.
The SUM God may be calling us to become.
And the ways the Spirit continues shaping us in between.
I hope you will carry those questions gently in prayer this week. In the next reflection, I hope we can consider what steps the Spirit may be showing us as we hold these Scriptures and hopes together.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor DH