This I Believe: making church, from church

Our pledge campaign this year is Work-in-Progress. Each week in service, someone from Bethany is sharing a core belief of their own, religious or otherwise. These beliefs are a snapshot of a moment in time when this is what at least one person currently at Bethany believes. But we are, as individuals and a church, a work-in-progress. We are on the journey. And there’s so much further we can go together. Please give generously, and we can keep making progress.

Rev. Rebecca Anderson kicked us off, on Sunday, Oct 24:

The first time I offered paper-making as an activity at camp, one of my favorite teenage boys, a ruddy-cheeked kid with a lisp, wanted to know more about it. When I told him the process, he was appalled.

“We’re going to make paper...from PAPER?”

I understood. I saw how it was funny. But I also said to him, yes, you know, like...recycling?

But he never got over his shock. Paper.  From paper. 

Here’s the thing, though. I believe in making things by hand, myself. 

I believe in making food from scratch, and I love it when the ingredients for a meal are also things I made, or grew. I like knowing how things are made. I like fixing things. I think there’s value in the stuff of the world, and putting my hands to it.

We’re kicking off our pledge campaign this year with an ambitious goal of $74,000. That’s the most we’ve asked of ourselves in years. And: it’s only a little more than we all together committed to give last year. 

You should’ve gotten a letter in the mail this week with a pledge card and even if not, you have one on your chair because Johnny and I put them there. Our theme this year is work-in-progress, the image featuring the front doors that Paul refinished, before taking on the side door. We are, and always will be, a work in progress.

We’re a church for people who believe in making things ourselves. Meals, and repairs, and community, and ministries, and friendships. We make those things with ingredients from the ones who came before us, and laid a foundation for us.  We make church...from Church. Because we believe in it.

I invite you to make your financial commitment to making church in 2022. Think about what you can give and then let us know. Drop it in the offering box or mail it in later. Help make more church. From church.