My first draft of this letter included the sequenced events, meetings, decisions, balances, projections, accomplishments, changes, and outcomes of this last year. These details are necessary, important, and included in the pages of the annual report. We also need to consider a wider view and ask the existential questions:
Why are we here?
What difference does Mount Olivet make to you?
What difference does it make to our neighborhood, the city of Plymouth, and the connecting communities that Mount Olivet exists?
The Book of Acts chronicles the movement of the church after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It begins with the rush of the Holy Spirit pushing followers of Jesus from a closed room into the streets. The Spirit of God gave people the ability to speak of Jesus in different languages so all who were gathered could hear in a way they could understand.
There wasn’t a building for people to encounter God, people encountered God in people. Faith spread when people spoke and shared what Jesus had taught them. Talk about an inefficient, risky plan.
The first followers of Jesus took the next step, trusting God would help them find the next person, place, and opportunity. Other than Baptism and Holy Communion, practices that Jesus commanded and instituted, there was no set way of being church.
A community was formed uniquely by the gifts of the people and needs of the community. Each person offered what they could give, and the collective gifts were used to build a community to care for people, form faith, and extend it.
It was not easy; there were disappointments, death, interruptions, setbacks, and chaos. And the Holy Spirit, sometimes obviously and often subtly, led and walked alongside, somehow creating a way.
We are here because someone spoke of God’s love through Jesus, and it led to the next thing and the next thing after that. It is our call to do the same with the Holy Spirit walking alongside, in a way unique to Mount Olivet.
We have expectations that church should be without flaws, a well-run show that we can watch to find inspiration. But this is not what God calls the church to be.
Mount Olivet exists because the Holy Spirit moved within specific people to create a community nestled in East Plymouth. There was a need and call to be a place where people could gather to hear that God is alive and present in the world and invites us all to be a part of shaping the world in love and compassion.
Mount Olivet has grown as the community has grown, and we have a clear vision that we still want to be a community partnering with God in the world. We cannot do this alone; we need God to lead and to connect us with other people who are also doing God’s work.
Just think what you would miss if Mount Olivet was not here. Think of what the community would miss if Mount Olivet was not here.
We exist because God is present within all of creation and calls us to be a community where we can gather to hear again that nothing can separate us from God’s love and that we have a part to play to make this a just world where all people can flourish.
We have articulated our call to specifically feed, house, and walk with people in transition, to welcome and care for each other in all life stages, and create space where all people are welcomed just as they are.
What may be next for Mount Olivet because of these specific things?
God has a preferred future for Mount Olivet. It is found when we articulate why we exist, and then when we go and do just that, offering what we each have to make it happen, trusting that the Holy Spirit is still here, moving and breathing life into the tired lungs of this world.
We each have a place in this future to contribute and to receive. The details will change each year, but God is still present.
Why does Mount Olivet exist? ________________________________________
I am eager to hear your answer and to read the collective answers as a community. Our future will be found there, God promises that.
With you as we go the next place,
Pastor Beth