January 25, 2022

Dear friends,

On our sign out front, there is a line at the very top that started with our Christmas Eve services. It says, “You Are Invited.” I think I am going to leave this up all year. Any time we are announcing events or anything else, I want the sign to continue to say, You Are Invited. In February, I am going to do a sermon series on the invitation. There is a certain kind of thrill when we are invited to something.

It dawns on me that a lot of invitations are to celebrations. Not exclusively, but many invitations are to come to celebrate. I want everyone in the world to come to celebrate what God is doing in our community, and in our world. I want everyone in our neighborhood to know that they are invited, and no one is left out. We do not wield our invitations as pieces of power over who is in and who is out. Instead, we invite to come and see, just as Jesus did with his first disciples.

There are several parts to an invitation, and we will be going through each part. But I want us all to think about the invitations in our lives. How did it feel to be invited, and how can we invite our community to know the love and grace of God that we experience at Embry Hills UMC?

Peace,

Jordan