An Invitation In the Shadow of Tragedy

An Invitation In the Shadow of Tragedy

I apologize for the extra email in your inbox today (if you’re receiving this blog post as an email), but it seemed a greater sin to be silent regarding the recent tragedies you may have seen in the news lately. Sometimes in ministry and faith we can live in the tension of celebration and mourning, even as we did today with a car show in the midst of national tragedy. But we must acknowledge tragedy.

Tonight and tomorrow we will pray for the recent shootings in Dallas, Louisiana, and Minnesota during the services. We will pray for reconciliation, peace, and love in the face of violence. We will pray for our brothers and sisters in the black community who grieve, and for our brothers and sisters in the police force who grieve. And we will pray for these things as a community in worship.

But I also want to invite you to make a moment to extend your time of prayer on Sunday morning in our Prayer Chapel (the room on the far right of our sanctuary). It will be set up all morning long as a place to cry out to God for our nation and its people. There will be prayer guides to use, and an atmosphere of prayer. Will you please take a moment to do this tomorrow?

This is timely, especially as some of our youth return from Washington D.C. having spent the week thinking and working toward matters of racial reconciliation. May we join them in our own thinking and praying, and in our advocacy.