Dear Friends,
Have you hit the ground running in 2025, diving into projects and aspirations? Or are you taking this January at a slow pace, embracing a form of winter hibernation?
While there are times I wish I could stay snuggled up in my bed, especially on these frigid mornings, I know there are too many exciting happenings in the life of our church community to keep me tucked away (that, and I have two small children who don’t know the definition of slow-paced). As we enter into this year, I want to invite you to share in some of that excitement.
This past Tuesday, we gathered sixty of our leaders from our various leadership committees together for a Leadership Kickoff event. During that time, we heard a video message from our Lay Leader, Derrick Scott, reflecting on Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians where Paul writes, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). In that message, Derrick posed a question to each participant about the treasures, gifts, that are stored in each of us that we can offer to others, to the church and to the community.
Then, the group heard from our new interim District Superintendent, Reverend June Edwards, about Mary’s “yes” to God. June proposed that as Christians, our first question in faith should not be “why?” but “yes”. In that “yes”, we can then discern how God will work out whatever it is that we’re saying yes to, but we must take that first step of acceptance.
And that is a word to us all. You do not have to be a sitting member on a church committee to be in a role of Christian leadership. In fact, God has gifted us all in ways that calls us to disciple others on their Christian journey, but we have to say “yes”. We have to make the space to grow our own leadership and discipleship.
One of the ways that you can continue on that journey is by registering for and attending the upcoming Leadership Summit hosted by the Northeast District on Saturday, January 25th at Palm Coast United Methodist Church. At this summit, you will hear from and engage with Bishop Berlin as well as churches throughout the district who are doing good and exciting work throughout Northeast Florida, the Florida Conference and the world. This is a great way to build relationships with other laity and clergy throughout the district to find out how your gifts might be utilized within yourself and here at Memorial and the surrounding Fernandina Beach community. You won’t want to miss this, so be sure to sign up at the link by January 17th. If you feel the $10 registration fee is prohibitive for your attendance, please call the office and let us know, and we will be sure to cover your registration.
We hope to see you there! In the meantime, I encourage you to prayerfully consider the ways in which you might be called to say “yes” in this season of your life. The best part? If you need to, you can do that snugly from your bed!
With love and peace,
Pastor Rachel
