Hello Hopefuls!

I hope you all are well. It has been so fun engaging in our God On Film series with you over the past several weeks. Last Sunday, we talked about belonging. . . that we belong to Christ and that as members of the body of Christ, we belong to each other. I love the analogy of family and that we identify as children of God. Scripture uses that imagery multiple times in describing our relationship with God.

As I mentioned on Sunday, my hope is that everyone finds a real, true sense of belonging in the Church. And specifically, that Hope is a place of belonging for us. In the scripture we read from last Sunday, Galatians 3:26-29, Paul is clear that in Christ, the social distinctions we create and place on each other cease to identify us. We are all one in Christ!

There is both diversity and unity within the body of Christ. We are diverse in many ways. . . gifts, abilities, age, gender, upbringing, personality and thought. And this diversity is a good thing! This is certainly true of us at Hope. And yet, in addition to our diversity, we are unified in our identities as children of God and therefore we all belong in the body.

We belong to Christ, and we belong to each other. Let’s make belonging a hallmark of the Hope experience. We all belong and have purpose in the body of Christ. Yes, we may have differences and that is okay; but we all belong, and therefore we love all people and live in grace toward one another. 

We will wrap up this message series this coming Sunday, so I encourage you to join us in worship as we focus on a related theme: Identity. You’ll have to come on Sunday to see which movie we will reference. 😇 Bless you and see you soon!