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August 5, 2019 |
News from Flourish Mid-Columbia! |
Dear Faithful Friends and Supporters of Flourish, Summer is in full swing, and for some time we’ve been wanting to share an update with you about the growing momentum of Flourish Mid-Columbia. As you may know, Flourish’s tagline is Integrating faith, work, and everyday living. Many who hear this for the first time tell us, “That sounds great...but...what exactly does that mean?” We can best explain this with a few examples of how it has been put into practice in the year-plus that Flourish has been in existence. A growing and evolving board. I was invited to join the board in the fall of 2018, with my role focusing primarily on the area of communication. It has been a privilege to work alongside some remarkable people who have challenged me to truly integrate faith, work, and everyday living as we discuss and wrestle through Big Questions—what has God called us to? In every component of our living and being? What does that look like? How do we step more deeply into the story that God is authoring--for His glory and our blessing? How do we open our eyes more widely to the rich colors of His palette? And how can we encourage others to join us as we pursue seeing, savoring, hearing, smelling, touching, and actively participating in the Good News--who is Jesus Christ? Board members Dan Wodrich (Flourish executive director), Jim Morris (president of the board), Steve Ernst (vice-president of the board, and pastor of Richland Lutheran Church), and Melanie Saint James (missionary serving with Imago Christi) have been an enormous blessing to me personally not only as friends, but also as encouragers and motivators as we together seek the Lord’s heart for our community—and the role He is calling us to flourish His kingdom here! Spiritual Formation. Flourish Mid-Columbia is building a growing repertoire of spiritual formation activities, which include facilitating several ten-week gatherings around the Reframe video series, a course published by Regent College in Vancouver, BC. Reframe’s goal is to encourage participants to encounter Jesus by exploring God’s story in the world throughout history and inviting participants to see, perhaps in a new, fresh way, how they fit into that story. In addition, several informal theology study and discussion groups have arisen, and more formally, Dan Wodrich is using his unique gifts to coach members and leaders in a local church who are striving toward a deeper awareness of what it means to live a fully-integrated life as followers of Jesus, and hopes to do more of the same in the coming year Faith and... Among the goals of Flourish Mid-Columbia is to facilitate Christian community among people who share careers and callings in common. Our shorthand term for this effort is “Faith and…” groups. For example, we imagine groups like Faith and Engineering, Faith and Healthcare, or Faith and Education. The potential list of possible groups is nearly endless. What does it mean to integrate our faith and our work as engineers, scientists, retail and hospitality workers, students, stay-at-home parents, healthcare workers, religious workers, educators, lawyers, artists, caregivers, entrepreneurs, retired people, technicians, tradespeople, etc.? How do we come to appreciate and recognize the work we do—whatever it may be—as an integral part of what God is doing in the world? Because our region is home to a large scientific community, we thought this would be a good place to begin a “Faith and…” group. It is also particularly relevant because faith has a history of an uneasy relationship with science. With this tension in mind, last fall we began hosting a series, open to anyone interested, which we entitled “A Conversation on Faith and Science.” We began exploring questions such as: how do faith and science relate to one another? Must they be at odds with one another, as popular culture continually asserts? And how do we engage properly with the wide variety of perspectives…even among followers of Jesus? With a combination of video presentations and live local presenters, we have begun to carve out a safe place where these questions can be discussed in a spirit of cooperation and respect. Other Notes. We are pleased to announce that as of April, the IRS has officially recognized Flourish Mid-Columbia as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Up until the present, West Side Church as served as our “umbrella” organization, receiving tax-deductible donations on behalf of Flourish. While West Side continues to receive on our behalf, we are now able to receive (and appropriately receipt) tax-deductible gifts directly. Zechariah 4:10 encourages us to not “despise the day of small beginnings,” for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. As an organization, we still are in the early days of small beginnings. Our vision is still expanding and focusing, and there is much more to do. But we trust that it is God’s good pleasure to walk alongside us as the work begins, and what we’ve seen thus far gives us great cause for joy and encouragement. On a regular basis, we become more aware of those who share our yearning for a deeper integration of faith and life. Do you share this yearning? Does this resonate with you? Do you have any thoughts or ideas to bring to the table? We’d love to hear from you! Would you also consider praying faithfully for us, and supporting this endeavor financially? It would be our great pleasure to partner with you in this way, as well.
P.O. Box 2304 info@flourishmidcolumbia.org |