Love, Lent, and Leadership! If I were to title the Pastor’s Peace for this month, that is what I would call it. There are a lot of good things to talk about, and it is hard to decide which one deserves attention. Let’s start with the best: love! Love covers all. As we enter Black History Month, I want us to take a moment to celebrate the beauty our African American siblings have added to our lives. Maya Angelou was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. Her ability to weave words together in a way that brings hard truths in connection with human emotion and motivation has encouraged many to take up the banner for the fight against racism. She said this about love: “In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.” This captures the very essence of Jesus’s work in humanity. It was his great love that laid down everything for us so that we might be free. Yet what we discover is that often, we are the ones keeping ourselves in captivity, because we don’t choose to love freely. Let love be the choice you make to continue the fight against racism so that all may truly be free. Let love be the choice that drives you to experience a culture of music and art beyond your own. Let love be the choice that drives you to seek educational opportunities about black history. Let love be the choice that drives you to intentionally shape the present and the future, so they do not reflect the cruel past. Sometimes that takes being brave, but all the time, it is worth it.
February also marks the beginning of our Lenten journey, which will take our wandering hearts alongside Peter all the way to the cross and up from the grave. We will once again use a sermon series by A Sanctified Art. The series is called “Wandering Heart” and is based upon the disciple Peter. “In Peter, we see a person who is both steadfast and unsteady, a dear friend and a betrayer, a follower and a wanderer. In Peter, we often see ourselves. By following Peter’s journey, we watch the story of Jesus unfold through the eyes of a very normal human trying to figure it all out—just like us.” Let us join together as we wrestle with trying to figure it all out. Let us join together as a faith community at Sewickley UMC every Sunday morning to worship and support one another on this journey. Let us join together for a time of devotion on Monday morning at 5:30 a.m. over Zoom beginning February 19th, or on Tuesday Evening at 6:00 p.m. in the Simpson room beginning February 21st. Let us join together as a faith community with our siblings from St. Matthew’s AME Zion Church, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and the Sewickley Presbyterian Church. The schedule for our time together with our siblings over Lent can be found on page 2. We will begin our first gathering at the Sewickley Presbyterian Church on February 14th at 7:00 p.m. with our community Ash Wednesday Service. You can also receive ashes on this day by stopping up at the gazebo in the center of Sewickley around 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
We have covered love, Lent, and now it is leadership. I hope you notice the way love really is a part of this all. In January, we had our Leadership Retreat and our first official leadership meeting. In the month of January alone, we spent 13 hours gathered around a table to work out all the new details and gain a deeper understanding of each other, of where the church currently is and where God is calling the church to go. We have realized there are some administrative cracks that need to be quickly filled. Therefore, in addition to the time gathered all together, small groups of us have been gathering to care for our current administrative needs. Those needs include putting together a financial policy, an employee handbook, and a strategic plan for building maintenance and care. As part of this good work, we also took some time to pray, seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and come up with our church’s Mission, Vision, and Core Values. One of the things I can assure you of is the diversity within our group that is a solid reflection of our congregation. As we poured our hearts into this task, we felt all voices were well represented, and the church we truly are was captured well. You will begin to see this Mission, Vision, and Core Values reflected on our website, on social media platforms, and on printed materials. In the newsletter, there will be a page dedicated to the work that the Leadership Board is doing, so you can stay in the know. All of our minutes from our meeting will also be available by request in the church office or emailed to you. As a part of this newsletter, you will find what the leadership packets consist of, which are emailed out to each Leadership Board member ahead of time. You will also find the Mission, Vision, and Core Values. Please turn to page 2 for this information. Our next meeting is on February 21st at 6:30 p.m., and you are invited to join us. In the coming months, we will be hosting another town hall in order to check in with the congregation about how communication is going and offer more information about what is being done. We thank you so much for your prayers, your trust in us, and your patience.
As you already know, this is A LOT of information and things worth celebrating. I am overjoyed at the amount of good work that is being done. Sitting around the table this past Sunday with the leaders of our ministry team and meeting with each of them individually has fed my soul to hear the way God is moving through them and the ministry they are committed to. We all are the church. Whether administratively or through ministerial services, you all inspire me to be better and do better. Thank you for your faithfulness to God and to fulfilling our mission: “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
From one light to another,
Pastor Hannah Loughman
Photo by Paul Cross