Beyond the Pulpit 5.3.26

Good Morning Crozet UMC Family,

What a week we’ve had! It was a joy to welcome Rev. Doug Forrester and his family back to Crozet UMC last Sunday. I’m so glad we all had a chance to welcome him in worship. He was so complimentary of our current ministries, and clearly has a special place in his heart for CUMC. Thank you for extending such a warm welcome to him.

And Wow! Last Sunday evening’s Last Sunday Live event was quite possibly the highlight of my week! With 25 kiddos present, we encountered Paul, once again in jail, but still trying to share the good news about Jesus. We visited with other early Christ followers in the underground church. And we learned about the aqueducts in early Rome and we participated in Roman chariot races! I heard that some kids want to ride chariots EVERY time they come to Crozet UMC! Last Sunday Live has been a labor of love this first season, and we are SO THANKFUL for everyone who has helped out. We look forward to bringing it back in the fall! If you enjoy volunteering with VBS…try this too!

After all that excitement last Sunday, I made my way out of town for my bi-annual worship planning retreat with colleagues. Good news….now I have worship plans tentatively set through next January…all the way up to Lent 2027!! I have found that being “out of the office” for this kind of long range planning is extremely helpful in discerning the needs of the congregation and how worship can intersect those needs. This past week, we retreated in Ashland so that we could be close to one of our clergywomen friends whose father recently died. This also afforded me the chance to see our younger son at Randolph-Macon College…and celebrate with him as he received an offer to attend VCUarts next fall…which he accepted! He’s learned a lot this year at RMC…mainly that astronomy is a really cool career but requires more math than he wants to deal with! Art is his niche, and while we love RMC, we are also proud to join the “Ramily” at VCU next fall. Also this week, our older son completed his junior year at Emory & Henry University. Whew, what a week!

I know that many of you are anticipating significant milestones in this season. We have Confirmation and Graduation Sunday coming up on May 17. Please plan to help us celebrate CUMC’s young adults on this day. In lieu of Adult Grow Group, we will have a celebratory breakfast 10-11AM on May 17, to visit and greet those we celebrate. Please click here to provide special breakfast treats for this special celebration on May 17!

I look forward to seeing you this morning as we worship together. We’ll be launching a new worship series, “Embracing an Adverbial Faith,” which focuses on our denomination’s new vision, Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, Lead Courageously. See you soon!