Good day siblings in Christ,
We begin 5 weeks of bread beginning on August 28. Every 3 years, in the lectionary for Mark at the end of summer, there are 5 weeks devoted to The Bread of Life discourse found in the Gospel of John. It is a lot of bread talk and a challenge for preachers.
This year, instead of just preaching 5 weeks on bread, I decided to have a little fun with it and paired each week’s Gospel with a different type of bread. This bread will be offered during communion to mix things up a bit and have a little fun. Try guessing the bread this week from the Gospel.
In June, I became a Fellow at Berkeley at Yale which is a half year long experience. Part of my Fellowship is to create a project for the congregation to enhance worship life, preaching life, or the faith life of the congregation. This week, I met with my coach and shared what my idea was and received approval.
What I would like to do is every time there is a 5th Sunday, I would like a volunteer to share about their faith life. The volunteer will be in place prior to the event and will have plenty of time to think about their answer to 5 questions-
- When did you begin your faith life?
- Did you always consider yourself a Christian?
- When was a time you felt the most spiritually alive?
- What are ways you see God moving in the world?
- What brings you joy?
There is a little vulnerability involved here, which it is why it is a volunteer rather than being put on the spot. This will be presented as an interview, so the volunteer is not alone in this.
The first 5th Sunday will be in September and the next isn’t until March, so there is plenty of time. Any volunteers?
Pastor Johnson