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I am excited to share that with support from the Worship and Music Committee and Council, we will depart from the lectionary readings to spend 13 weeks this summer with Faces of Our Faith, a new thematic series that focuses on “bold and untold” stories from the New and Old Testaments. 

Each week, we will focus on a new character (or characters) from Scripture. Some will be ones that are familiar, though not often preached. Others will likely be entirely new. All will reflect “faces of our faith” that will help us encounter God and ourselves in new ways.

This theme includes a study journal with 4 entries per week to consider each face of faith devotionally. My midweek e-news devotionals will also focus on these “bold and untold” stories. 

Summer is often a time of travel, the series—with its study journal, focused preaching, and opportunities for digital devotional material—can help us stay connected even from a distance.

While the series is about ancient faces of faith, there will also be opportunities for us to consider the faces of faith that surround us in the people we love and in strangers we meet.

  • Stephanie Ewing and some of the middle grade youth leaders from VBS have begun a special art project that the congregation will be invited into as well, yielding an art piece to adorn our worship space and call our hearts and minds to God’s presence through the witnesses of others.
  • Many of our children and youth are also providing the artwork for our bulletin covers throughout this season.
  • I am working on a special intergenerational Sunday school class/fellowship time for later summer where we will take time to interview one another across generations, learning about the faces of faith in our church family.
  • July also brings a special outdoor worship opportunity and picnic for connecting. Mark your calendars for July 21! There will be one bluegrass worship service that weekend at 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning followed by a picnic and games.

Through the summer, we will look at Adam and Eve; Shiphrah and Puah; the daughters of Zelophehad; the Ethiopian eunuch; Deborah; Queen Vashti; Shadrach, Meshack, and Abdenago; Mary Magdalene; Anna; Joseph of Arimathea; Lydia; Eutychus; and Philemon.

Come and meet (or meet again) these faces of our faith!

<><Pr. Nicole