"THE CHURCH OF HOPE AND DREAMS"

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

          -        1 Corinthians 12:27

Dear Friends,

When I was a kid, my two chief memories of fall and the beginning of school were: 1) the smell of new school clothes for that first day back to school and 2) the awful realization that those summer days of sleeping in were over. Whether I thought it was worth it or not, I had to get up out of bed and get going.

We are entering into the season of fall – a time of fresh starts as summer ends and school begins. Here at Trinity we begin a new year of Sunday School and return to our schedule of two worship services each Sunday (8:30 and 11:00 a.m.). It all kicks off with our annual Rally Day on Sunday, September 12 (the Sunday after Labor Day).

I always approach this time of the year with some prayerful pastoral hope and dreams. I hope and dream of seeing some familiar faces that I have not recently seen in worship as they return from summer vacations. I hope and dream of seeing some new faces as people who are new to our area or who are looking for a church home come to visit. I even hope and dream of seeing some folks who perhaps have, for whatever reason, kind of gotten out of the habit of coming to worship or have lost connection with the church or with their faith decide to come to worship with their own hope and dreams about renewing their journey of faith with Christ. Such are my annual hope and dreams for Trinity as I prayerfully seek to, like the hymn says, follow God and to hold God’s people in my heart.

But this year is a bit different. This year I am hoping and dreaming on a slightly bigger scale as well when it comes to the church, the Body of Christ. A couple of my clergy colleagues in our presbytery encouraged me to attend a conference this September 8-9 about the future of the church called “Big Tent Christianity” in Raleigh, NC. After some prayerful reflection, I am planning to attend.

The theme and task of the conference is what really caught my attention. And here it is. All participants to prayerfully ask and discern how God is leading us to answer questions like: What does ‘big tent Christianity’ mean to you? What are your hopes and dreams for the church? The thing is, I have been wrestling with these very questions for years and the opportunity to intentionally do so in the presence of some of the most thought-provoking Christians I know of seems to me to totally be a God-given gift. And so I am going to Raleigh.

But part of my own hope and dreams for the church in general – and for Trinity in particular – means that I don’t want to go alone. You see, I believe that, if Paul is right, (and I think he is) if we really are the Body of Christ and individually members of it, then we are all on this journey of Christian discipleship together, we are all together travelling with Jesus.

So, metaphorically speaking, I want you to travel with me to Raleigh by prayerfully asking yourself what your hopes and dreams are for the church. And what are your hopes and dreams for Trinity? What does the church of hope and dreams look like to you? And then, ask yourself one question more – one I am asking myself as well: How is God calling me to help make this church of hope and dreams a reality?

I can’t help but think that if we could all prayerfully ask such questions of ourselves this fall, Trinity Presbyterian Church might well begin to be the kind of church a colleague of mine envisioned, one that is “fearless, fun, and filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Now a church like that would be more than the church of my hope and dreams. It’d be a church that would definitely be worth getting up for …

Stephen Smith-Cobbs

The Rev. Stephen Smith-Cobbs