Dear Friends in Christ,

In my house, we are preparing for the first day of school. My children are old enough that there is a lot of intentional conversation: Who do I want to be this year? What are my goals? What choices do I need to make to be the person I want to be?

As I look ahead to the year at Grace Church, I am asking the same questions of us.

I have some very specific, technical, and task-oriented answers to these questions. (This will be the year we get a handle on cloud-based file management! I just know it!). But as urgent as those answers seem, I know that they are small and incomplete. What really matters—and what is my chief hope for Grace Church this year: relationship.

Grace is already blessed with an established relational culture. In a world where so much interaction is transactional, we connect with one another in a deeply personal way. Belonging is one of our core values, and we understand that loving and being loved by God are both intertwined with loving one another.

My hope for us in the year ahead is that we can double down. My desire for us is that we renew and strengthen the bonds between us. I hope that we will continue to make decisions together out of conversations and mutual care.

We often talk about ministry as what we are doing—the bags of food that we pack or the games we play at youth night or the silver we polish. But ministry is also how we do what we do. It is the careful listening. It is the forgiving heart. It is the patience to put people ahead of productivity.

You can tell the difference in a community that puts relationship first. I believe we are that kind of community, and I hope we will become one even more so.

Yours in Christ,
Anne+