What if… you shared your church with just one friend?

What if you shared your church with just one person?

What would be the impact on your fellow members? On your church? On your friend?

What if everyone did the same?

What if everyone invited a friend to church on Sunday? Or to the church picnic? Or bible study?

Sharing your love for your church and for God isn’t hard, is it?

What do you think will happen?

What if… we discovered the Messiah is one of us?

Thank you to Ivy Chapel Member Rod Hertenstein, who recently shared his personal “What if” reflection with the congregation during worship.

The “why” of these “what if” moments is to imagine what is not, but could be. To dream, of spirit filled ways we could grow. This is hard. There’s a cost—making dreams real means commitment, follow through. Hard enough, but there’s something else we need now to name, something even more daunting, because most visionary dreams require of us the thing we most seek to avoid, even dread, and that, brothers and sisters, is CHANGE. Big dreams demand new attitudes, sometimes a radically altered perspective.

We resist this because we already have perspectives and attitudes. Many of us, and I am included, have been sharpening and grinding our personal perspectives, our personal attitudes on all things, for decades. We live in this private zone of comfort– DO NOT DISTURB.

The thing is, my “what if” this morning may disturb your perspective. When you first hear it, you may choose to dismiss it out of hand as “ridiculous, unbelievable.”

Well, here it is: “What if we were to discover that the Messiah is one of us.”

I know, it does sound impossible, but humor me a bit by hearing a story. This is told by Megan McKenna: “Once upon a time there was a wise abbot of a monastery who was the friend of an equally wise rabbi. This was in the old country, long ago, when times were always hard, but just then they were even worse. The abbot’s community was dwindling, and the faith life of his monks was fearful, weak and anxious. He went to his friend and wept. His friend, the Rabbi, comforted him, and said “there is something you need to know, my brother. We have long known in the Jewish community that the Messiah is one of you.” “

What,” exclaimed the abbot, “the Messiah is one of us? How can this be?”

The Rabbi insisted it was so. The abbot returned to his monastery wondering and praying, excited beyond words. He would walk down the halls, past a monk, wondering, is he the one. Sitting in chapel, praying, he would hear a voice and look intently at a face and wonder, is he the one. The abbot had always been kind, but now began to treat all of his brothers with profound kindness and awe, ever deeper respect, even reverence. Soon everyone noticed. One of the other brothers came to him and asked “ what had happened?”

The abbot told him what the rabbi had said. Soon the other monk was looking at his brothers differently, with deeper respect, kindness, awe, reverence. Word spread quickly: the Messiah is one of us. The monastery was suddenly full of life, worship, love and grace. The prayer life was rich, devoted, passionate. The services were alive and vibrant. Soon the surrounding villagers came to the services, listening and watching intently, and many joined the community of monks. After their novitiate, when they took their vows, they were told the mystery, the truth that their life was based upon, the source of their strength, the richness of their life together: The Messiah IS one of us.

The monastery grew and flourished in house after house, and the monks grew in wisdom and grace before each other and in the eyes of God.” So the story ends. Could it be our beginning? Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God is within us. We proclaim the Messiah is among us, and the church is the visible Body of Christ on earth.

What if it became our joy to discover glimmers, thru words and deeds, acts of love and sacrifices, glimpses of the Messiah in each other– visible today in one person, tomorrow in another, but always present among us. Call me a dreamer, but what if we turned away from the faults, fears and failings of each other, and focused, like a laser, only on the moments when glimmers of the Messiah emerge in one another. What if this became our passion?

What then might we become, might we do together as Ivy Chapel, the Body of Christ, where the Messiah IS one of us?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

What if… we all smiled more?

It sounds kind of corny, especially as the snow starts to melt and we’re all feeling a little happier.

But what if we all smiled more?

What affect would this have on our lives? How would it make us feel? More importantly, how would it make other people feel?

Think about this over the next week as you go to church, to school, to work, to the store. What if we all smiled more? How would it affect you, and those around you?

During Ivy Chapel’s recent annual meeting, members of the congregation were invited to write their “What if” thoughts and challenges on paper leaves, which now decorate the Narthex. This post was inspired by one of those anonymous comments. We will be sharing more soon. Please feel free to share your own “What if” challenge in the comments below.

Do you check in at church?

Do you check in at church?

It’s a question that has many meanings in today’s ever-connected world.

Check in of course, has a virtual meaning. Today, people check-in on Facebook and other location-aware applications using their smartphones. It’s a way to share with friends, family and co-workers details about what’s going on.

Maybe you check in at the movies. Maybe you check in when you go out to eat. But do you check in at church, sharing the event with your family and friends on Twitter and Facebook?

What if we all checked in at church? What if we shared what we do every Sunday morning with those who matter the most of us?

What if we invited others to check in with us?

And what of checking in?

Are you checked in when you are at church?

Are you truly engaged, listening for God’s words and ready to take action?

What if we were all truly checked in?

What if we all said “YES”?

What if…

(A personal reflection by Ivy Chapel Moderator Sarah Heend, presented during worship on Sunday, January 30.)

What if we all said yes more often? To requests for help at Ivy, in the community, from our families and friends? From God? What if we looked at new situations as opportunities instead of obstacles? How much would we grow emotionally and spiritually? Personally, this is something that is very hard for me, but I have tried to do it here at Ivy. Or rather I have been pushed by God to do it, sometimes gently, sometimes not so gently.

Looking back to when we joined Ivy, 10 years ago, I never could have foreseen that I would have volunteered to speak today. Just making an announcement before worship used to make me lose sleep. Some of you know how much it cost me several years ago to lead the closing for Vacation Bible School, which meant I was talking in front of the parents as well as the kids. It took some hard praying and a lot of reassurance from many people for me to get up there. But I learned so much about myself, and what I could do that July week.

That led to opportunities to help with the fundraising dinners, to join the choir, and so much more, including accepting the role of moderator when I was asked last fall. It hasn’t been easy to listen to the voice that tells me to accept the challenge. I have spent lots of time praying and worrying, in the middle of the night and all throughout the day. But in the end I have overcome my hesitation, which has allowed me to get so much out of my experiences; it has been worth all the sweat and tears over the years.

If I had said, “No,” to these opportunities I would have missed so much. I would have never realized that I could really do it. I never would have joined the choir and had the opportunity to expand my spiritual growth through music. In the past my anxiety held me back from some things that I wanted to do. And other things I never had the courage to even dream about. When I said, “Yes” to these requests, these calls from God, I was rewarded beyond my expectations. No it hasn’t been easy, and no I am not free of my anxieties about new situations, but it is all a journey. A journey that I am glad I started. A journey I want to continue.

What if we all said, “Yes” more often? Yes to each other, yes to opportunity, yes to God?

What’s your What if?

Thank you for reading the Ivy Chapel “What if?” Blog. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be publishing thoughts and challenges, questions that, when thoughtfully answered, will help us become the people God wants us to be.

During our Annual Meeting in January, we challenged members of our congregation to pose “What if?” questions to each other. These challenges were written on slips of paper shaped like leaves, and now hang on the ivy vines hanging in the narthex. We’ll be posting a few of these to get the discussion started, along with other inspirational thoughts.

Feel free to comment. Join the conversation. Help us grow, and, in turn, grow your own faith as well.

Thank you.

Welcome to “Growing the Vine” Together

We are the “God is Still Speaking” Church!

We celebrate that God is continuing to bless our lives with daily grace.

Guess what we’ve discovered?

God is inviting us to go on a trip together.

No, it’s not a vacation trip.

This is a vocation trip!

Our vocation, our calling is becoming who God is asking us to be.

As the saying goes, “Life is not a destination.  It’s a journey!”

Our congregation is embarking on a Journey that we’re calling:  Growing the Vine Together.

We are travelling together.  And it’s exciting!

“Still-Speaking” God is saying:  “What If…”

It’s about potential.

The possibilities are limitless.

This “What If…” Journey is about our God-given potential as a community of faith.

There’s a world of difference between “living it up” and “living up” to who God would like us to be!

Our congregation’s “What If…”  Journey is a calling to “live up” to our God-given potential.

This is a process of calling on God to reveal ever more things we can do to support and enhance the life

of this congregation which is a vital instrument of God for carrying out Christ’s ministries.

Ivy Chapel UCC is our spiritual home.  God has provided us with this remarkable church home not solely

for our own benefit.   This is all part of God’s design:  We are blessed, so that we may offer blessing.

We receive, so that we may give.

We have been given much.  God has entrusted us with much.   Related to this, our Savior Jesus

proclaims, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and  from the one

who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”  (Luke 12:48)

“What If…” you and I trust God with abandon?

“What If…” we live with conviction that Ivy Chapel United Church of Christ is Holy Ground?

With the conviction that there are unique and crucial things God fervently wants to accomplish here?

Imagine what could come about!

Where can this Journey lead?

See for yourself.  We pray that you will come and see!

Let’s join together   -   Growing the Vine Together.

Rev. Dan Wilson

Pastor, Ivy Chapel United Church of Christ

“God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work…  Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the Gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with [the saints] and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that God has given you.  Thanks be to God for God’s indescribable gift!”

2 Corinthians 9:8,13-15

Trust these words.

Trust in God’s provision.

Trust God.

Our Church Home

No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here at Ivy Chapel United Church of Christ. We strive to provide an open, nurturing environment where everyone can strengthen their relationship with God.

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