Mutual Care Resources
Arvin Engelson
Mutual-Care | Life in God
For millennia our ancestors left caves and huts to venture into danger to procure food. These strange days reacquaint us with their risk taking. We are being required to learn new ways. We must take more initiative. We must seek nourishment for our minds and hearts as well as our bodies. When we are alive spiritually we take better care of others and ourselves. So, how can we enrich our souls and minister to others from our caves and huts?
First, I urge you to join our online worship service each Sunday at 9:30. It offers a surprising sense of connection. Pastor Bill is being most resourceful in his design of engaging services that allow us to participate in place. It is easier to join us than you might think. Go to our website: www.saratogafederated.org. Click on: Watch This Week’s Online Service. We look forward to being with you in those moments.
Second, our new Lead Pastor, Sean Miller, is teaching thought provoking messages. During Lent, he taught on Psalm 23. At the outset of that series, Sean provided a discovery journal for each of us. Many of us are using it to track the insights most relevant to our own lives. I suggest you add the practice of journaling so your shelter-in-place experience may be a time of sustained personal growth.
Third, when designing this guide, I thought you might be inspired in your life with God by fresh resources for independent study, meditation and prayer. So, I asked Sally, our Pastor of Adult Ministries, if she would select some online and in print guides to deeper faith. Find her selections here: Spiritual Growth Resources.
For millennia our ancestors left caves and huts to venture into danger to procure food. These strange days reacquaint us with their risk taking. We are being required to learn new ways. We must take more initiative. We must seek nourishment for our minds and hearts as well as our bodies. When we are alive spiritually we take better care of others and ourselves. So, how can we enrich our souls and minister to others from our caves and huts?
First, I urge you to join our online worship service each Sunday at 9:30. It offers a surprising sense of connection. Pastor Bill is being most resourceful in his design of engaging services that allow us to participate in place. It is easier to join us than you might think. Go to our website: www.saratogafederated.org. Click on: Watch This Week’s Online Service. We look forward to being with you in those moments.
Second, our new Lead Pastor, Sean Miller, is teaching thought provoking messages. During Lent, he taught on Psalm 23. At the outset of that series, Sean provided a discovery journal for each of us. Many of us are using it to track the insights most relevant to our own lives. I suggest you add the practice of journaling so your shelter-in-place experience may be a time of sustained personal growth.
Third, when designing this guide, I thought you might be inspired in your life with God by fresh resources for independent study, meditation and prayer. So, I asked Sally, our Pastor of Adult Ministries, if she would select some online and in print guides to deeper faith. Find her selections here: Spiritual Growth Resources.
Mutual-Care | Life with Others
Our present experience of social isolation is not altogether new. We have had a taste of it when friends and family have gone off to college or moved away from us. The phrase “away from us” captures the feeling. We experience a new physical distance from those we delight in. Yet, we’ve learned, if we take initiative––acquire new digital products and the skill to use them––than we can enjoy their real-time face-to-face company half way around the world.
Our 40 Life Groups are experiencing a similar growth curve. They are embracing the technology that allows them to gather and engage. Hear this reflection and report from Sally.
Our present experience of social isolation is not altogether new. We have had a taste of it when friends and family have gone off to college or moved away from us. The phrase “away from us” captures the feeling. We experience a new physical distance from those we delight in. Yet, we’ve learned, if we take initiative––acquire new digital products and the skill to use them––than we can enjoy their real-time face-to-face company half way around the world.
Our 40 Life Groups are experiencing a similar growth curve. They are embracing the technology that allows them to gather and engage. Hear this reflection and report from Sally.
We are made for connection and community. We see this clearly in the Trinity, the three-in-one, existing in perfect union; and we see it in the metaphor used by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, where he reminds us we are each part of one body, the body of Christ. We need one another! So, as we shelter in place, let’s find new ways to stay connected with our family, friends and Life Groups. |
Mutual-Care | Life for Others
You are on the front lines in our battle against despair, sorrow, fear and loneliness. I know because friends and neighbors report your kindness. I know because you’ve asked me to deliver you generosity so you can remain anonymous. I know because we are frequently loving the same lives. Clearly, you are the nervous system in this Body of Christ. Reports of your spontaneous creative heartfelt engagement of needs is an extreme pleasure to hear. Do what the Spirit asks you to do––no more, no less.
Some of you asked if we have a channel to help members with a stressful loss of income. The short answer is yes. I oversee the Sustenance Fund, an account separate from the church budget, funded by direct donation. It provides case-by-case one time grants for relief from temporary cash-flow difficulties.
When the pastors and ministers meet weekly, we take turns leading a devotion. I have often found Sally’s selection of sources rich. I especially enjoyed a prayer she found in the writings of Douglas McKelvey. In difficult days, when sorrows overwhelm, this prayer can order a troubled mind. I encourage you to go to a quiet place and own this prayer as you take your thoughts to God.
You are on the front lines in our battle against despair, sorrow, fear and loneliness. I know because friends and neighbors report your kindness. I know because you’ve asked me to deliver you generosity so you can remain anonymous. I know because we are frequently loving the same lives. Clearly, you are the nervous system in this Body of Christ. Reports of your spontaneous creative heartfelt engagement of needs is an extreme pleasure to hear. Do what the Spirit asks you to do––no more, no less.
Some of you asked if we have a channel to help members with a stressful loss of income. The short answer is yes. I oversee the Sustenance Fund, an account separate from the church budget, funded by direct donation. It provides case-by-case one time grants for relief from temporary cash-flow difficulties.
When the pastors and ministers meet weekly, we take turns leading a devotion. I have often found Sally’s selection of sources rich. I especially enjoyed a prayer she found in the writings of Douglas McKelvey. In difficult days, when sorrows overwhelm, this prayer can order a troubled mind. I encourage you to go to a quiet place and own this prayer as you take your thoughts to God.
A LITURGY FOR THOSE FLOODED BY
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Guard us then from shutting down our empathy or walling off our hearts because of the glut of unactionable misery that floods our awareness. You have many children in many places around this globe. Move each of our hearts to compassionately respond to those needs that intersect our actual lives, that in all places your body might be actively addressing the pain and brokenness of this world, each of us liberated and empowered by your Spirit to fulfill the small part of your redemptive work assigned to us. Give us discernment in the face of troubling news reports. Give us discernment to know when to pray, when to speak out, when to act, and when to simply shut off our screens and our devices, and to sit quietly in your presence, casting the burdens of this world upon the strong shoulders of the one who alone is able to bear them up. Amen. *Copyright © 2017 Douglas McKelvey |