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The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Cearley
Lead Pastor of Congregational Life
Dear friends,
As the New Year begins, I want to remind you about our fellowship time following the 10:30 service each week. I am hoping that many in the congregation will sign up just once a year to provide the food for that time of conversation and meeting other Montview folks. The energy and warmth in the Commons for this time after worship is really wonderful and I hope we can keep it going.
To be the community Christ calls us to be, we need to provide opportunities to learn each other's names, meet new people and check-in with folks we know at Montview. Sunday mornings are busy times, and often we move so quickly from place to place that we do not take a moment to stop and enjoy the bonds of friendship we share with each other.
I'm asking two things of you to begin this year:
1) That you find another person or family with whom to host a fellowship time and sign-up with them to provide 8-10 dozen bite sized pastries for one Sunday this year. We need one or two people/families for February 3rd and folks for each Sunday in March, April and May, September, October, November and December. The sign-up book will be on the food table in the Commons each Sunday during the fellowship time and you can sign up there, call or e-mail Diane Cooper at 303-355-2095 or cooper@montview.org or click here to sign up online.
2) That you take time each Sunday morning to meet someone you don't know, ask the name of someone you've seen before but don't know their name, or find someone who seems to be looking for someone to talk to or needs help finding their way through the Sunday maze at Montview.
I pray that we become the community Christ calls us to be.
With blessing,
Cindy
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The Rev. Ian Gregory Cummins
Lead Pastor of Spiritual Life
Dear friends,
As 2013 begins, we have come to the end of our "Year of Praying with Scripture" using Lectio Divina. Thanks to all of you who let us know that you participated in it and we hope it was a year of deepening and grounding for your prayer life. And thanks to all the committees who took part by beginning their meetings with a reading of the scripture and then praying together in silence. Creating space for a few minutes of silence in our noise-filled world is such a simple thing, but a radical one too. It is an act of resistance against the onslaught of voices demanding our attention. It declares an allegiance to a higher voice - the One Voice - that is the source of life and real meaning. Television shows can entertain us. Being productive at work can make us feel valuable. Filling our calendar with social engagements can send us the message that we are liked. But none of it lasts. None of it is complete. And, if I can say it boldly, none of it matters unless we have our priorities right and know to whom we belong. When we take time for silent prayer we remind ourselves of our home in God and of what really matters. Then, all those other things can take their proper place and be wonderful gifts in our lives.
Toward this end, we've decided to continue sharing a Lectio Divina passage in this Tuesday email each week. If you would like a reminder of how to do Lectio Divina click here. And even if you don't use it for your prayer time, we hope this little peek into the sermon text for the coming Sunday will get you thinking about it. Committees can, of course, continue to open meetings this way if they wish to, or explore new ways to bring an awareness of God's presence to the work we do.
Blessings for a peaceful new year, Ian
Here's the text for this week:
"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel; Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you."
Isaiah 43: 1 - 2
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