The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
– (John 1:5)
In the same way, let your light so shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
– (Matthew 5:16)
As the Epiphany came and we remembered the light of Jesus shining on us – we have begun a new year. There are lots of feelings about everything that is going on. I urge us to pray for our world, our nation, our church, our family and friends, ourselves.
But I also ask you to remember some marvelous good news in this season of light that is evidenced all across The Capital District.
When we professed our faith and united with the Church of Christ we promised that we would love Jesus and serve with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. Look at what those promises have produced:
Prayers – I read lots of church newsletters and see prayer mentioned. Prayer and prayer ministries were named at every charge conference this fall: listed as something we are about.
Presence – There’s the rub. We certainly are not present with each other as we long to be but overall attendance – via the web and in distanced physical ways – is pretty much where it was pre-pandemic! Almost 20% of our churches report an increase in online (or some other electronic form) of worship.
Gifts – It is a hard time for many. But, giving to apportionments from the Capital District was at 90.59% and will go up just a bit as some last gifts are recorded. That’s only a 2% decline from last year. Well done!!
Service – Feeding ministries of some sort are a part of life at nearly all the Capital District churches. That alone says something about our spirit to help our neighbors and response to relief work and service to others continues to grow.
Witness – You have made your witness with these actions and your words of invitation. Folks don’t go online to worship or give or serve or pray without invitation to do so.
Thank you!!
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Thanks be to God!
Gratefully,
[Harvey] Gray
If you would like to view past editions of Hello from Harvey, follow this link: https://capitaldistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/