Dear Sisters and Brothers:

The Cross Changes Everything.

As we come to Rally Day, prepare for consecration Sunday and the offering of our gifts and as we close out this Church Year, this will be our focus.

The Cross Changes Everything.

This was the theme of the Youth Gathering this last summer and it is an important center to how Christians understand everything in life.

The cross changes how we understand the world around us, how we understand creation and community and the Church.

The cross changes how we understand ourselves and our place in the world. It changes how we see ourselves in relation to one another and to the created order. It changes how we see our work and our play and every aspect of our life.

The cross changes how we see our possessions. The cross reminds us that all we are and all we have has the power to offer life and hope to the world because Christ is at work in all things. Even something as ugly as the cross has the power to change the world in God’s hands.

The two of us spent a lot of time in August thinking about what it means to be the Church. We thought about it because we can’t ask you to be a part of the work of the Church unless we can offer you a vision of what the Church is about.

The Church’s call is to proclaim the Good News of the coming of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. The Church is called to share that vision of love and new life. And here’s the challenging part – we are called to become a vision of what that new life looks like. We are called to embody the Good News that we proclaim. We are called, dare we say it, to become a beachhead for heaven here on earth. Or as we say in the traditional liturgy we are called to be a foretaste of the feast to come.

We were so excited about this vision of the Church. We realized this is our hope and dream for Trinity, and for the whole Church. We truly believe that this is that to which we are called.

We can’t do this alone. We need God at work among us. Only through the love of Christ can we be set free from sin to move into the new life God is offering us. Only in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Spirit, can we be inspired to be the seeds of new life in the world that changes the whole thing.

We need each other and the gifts that each of us bring. God needs us to become excited enough to offer all that we have and are to this work.

And so the question we need to ask this fall is are we ready to see everything differently? Are we excited about this vision of life in Christ? Are we ready to move into this new life we are offered? Because the truth really is…

The Cross Changes Everything.

Yours in Christ,

Pastors Cris and Dave