Pastoral Team
By Pastor Steve
How have you seen God at work in your ministry over the year?
Our 150th Anniversary was a joyful remembering God’s faithfulness in the past and looking forward to newness in our future. While it was a year of “coming back” to the sanctuary in person and of “coming back” to church for very many people, it was definitely not a year of “going back” to former ways. Hear these words from the Prophet Isaiah, as translated in The Message version:
Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.
— Isaiah 43:18-19
God has moved us into a new day, a new season, and now a new year at Tokyo Union Church. Hallelujah! Praise be to God!
There is a new world to navigate. We need new structures for a new world. When we think of where God is leading us, where we are headed — we have to admit that what got us here will not get us there.
The “Pop-Ups” are good examples of creative new collaborative events. One “Pop Up” was the intergenerational movie night, it was not just a fellowship time – and not just a young adult night – it was a church family time of spiritual formation, and evangelism, and community life It was people from 20-70, having fun, eating together, talking deeply about life’s meaning. It was beautiful & fantastic, but it doesn’t fit our old categories.
We know things now we did not know a year ago. We face things now we had no idea of 2 years ago. We see realities now that did not exist 3 years ago. And so the Council is beginning to reimagine and reorganize itself and the church for this new world.
Communications has become essential – it was all we had when the pandemic hit, but basically all we had was email for a weekly Ltr. to the Congregation, and a website that we strained to make flexible and more user friendly. Now our oldest members connect by Zoom expertly. We have a new website with thousands of users. We are growing our social media presence. Best of all is our exciting team of new people, young and old, with expertise to design a new communication world.
Our current Council structure was designed years ago as the church was declining post-3/11. After the pandemic we are emerging as something new. Our former categories need to be rethought and made more breathable. We are rethinking a New Church for a new world!
As you enjoy this Annual Report, please join me in marveling at the new thing God is doing. God is making a new way through the desert. Thanks be to God!