We recently had an opportunity to attend worship in a church outside of our conference and I found myself feeling quite at home because of our UMC connection.
One of my clergy friends told me about they had a friend from divinity school who was serving in the community we were visiting so we went to their church website and learned that they had 3 options for worship. We chose the traditional worship, knowing that the contemporary worship service was more likely to fit the clothes we had available to wear, but feeling drawn to what we hoped would be a familiar order of worship. I am sure Jesus appreciates all sorts of worship services, and I really do realize it’s not all about me and my personal preferences, but if given options, I’m gonna pick a more traditional worship service every time.
The church website made it clear where parking was available and when we arrived on the church campus it was pretty easy to find our way to the sanctuary where worship was held. The sanctuary was beautiful and they had a fancy organ.
We felt quite at home as we heard all of the ways that UMCOR had been responding to needs around the world over the last week or so, an important reminder as we are all called to support our UMC global ministries through our tithes and offerings in our local church that in part, go towards our connectional giving.
When I saw that the table was set, I was so grateful to see that it was Communion Sunday! I personally think that every worship service should contain communion, but no one typically asks me what I think about such things. It was certainly a welcome gift to me!
We were able to settle into singing familiar hymns and enjoyed that the lectionary text was read and preached on to tie in with our devotional readings of the week. And when the familiar Prayer of Confession and Invitation to the Table were offered, I felt right at home and could not wait until it was my turn to move toward the altar to receive the bread and the wine, knowing that this was nourishment for the journey yet unknown to me for the week ahead. This experience gave me one more reason why I love being a part of the UNITED Methodist Church.
Peace y’all,
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Claire – The Blessings of a Connectional Church
To read past editions – you are encouraged to follow this link:
https://capitaldistrictnc.org/claire-ificaton/
