Nothing to Do? Ha!

            I’ve gotten to know a variety of people from a variety of places in my life.  Some of them are people who’ve spent all their lives living in large places.  When you talk to someone like that, and you tell them you come from Onida, or Agar, or Gettysburg, you’re likely to hear something like, “How can you stand to live there?  There’s nothing to do!”

            Well, pretty much everyone here knows how silly that statement sounds.  There are all kinds of things to do in each of those towns.  We may not have fancy restaurants or nightclubs or things like that, but if you’re looking for something to do, you never run out of it.  We have high school sports.  We have concerts.  We have programs at the museum.  There’s almost always something going on, usually more things than one person can possibly attend.

            There are all kinds of things going on in each of our churches, too.  Just in the month of September, each of our churches prepared a lot of kits for the Mission Fair, Each of them sent several people to attend that event, too.  The UMW in Gettysburg and in Onida each put on a luncheon as part of the festivities surrounding high school homecoming.  All of our churches put a float in the homecoming parade, too.  The Gettysburg and Onida churches each had a Sunday school kickoff celebration.  We’ve started confirmation class with eight wonderful kids.  We have youth groups.  We have church choirs.  We have Supper with the Pastor in Onida and Agar.

            And that was just in September.  In October, we have even more.  The Onida and Gettysburg churches are each planning a hunters’ breakfast for the first day of pheasant hunting season.  The Gettysburg church will also have its annual harvest festival.  The Onida church is planning a family night.  The Gettysburg bell choir will make its return.  And that’s all in addition to the Sunday school, confirmation class, etc, that continue from September.

            “There’s nothing to do”?

            The thing is, that’s the way it should be in the church.  An active church is a vital church.  An active church is a church that will grow.  After all, would you want to join a group that never did anything?  Of course not.  What would be the point?  An active church is one that’s attractive to people.

           

Thinking of all the things going on in our churches makes me proud to be the pastor of the Wheatland Parish.  I hope it makes you proud to be part of this parish, too.  I want to thank every person who participates in the life of the church in whatever way you do.  This is an awesome parish filled with awesome people.

           

Jesus gave each church a mission statement.  He told us to make disciples of all nations.  That’s a big job.  It takes time.  It takes effort.  It takes people who are willing to reach out to the people of the community, and who are willing to reach out beyond the community, to show God’s love to everyone they can.

           

It takes people like the people we have in the Wheatland Parish.  As we move into the fall, let’s find even more ways to make our churches active.  Let’s continue to reach out to our communities and beyond with God’s love.