Witness
On August 15th the Hebron United Methodist Church partnered with the Harvard Senior Center for an evening of dance. This joyous celebration recognized the generosity of community members, the nurturing presence of our church, and reinforced our belief that a little faith can conquer all obstacles. Just ask anyone who performed the line dance straight into the cha-cha that evening! It can be done!
While we would like to thank everyone for their wonderful dancing, coordinating, and food prep we’d also like to take a moment to emphasize that this evening represented so much of how we believe our church does “Witness.” While the greater Methodist Church is undergoing discussions on how to create a new Methodist expression, it is our time as Hebron UMC to continue exploring our own identity as a church. As promised in our last article, here are a couple ideas on how to get started:
- The first, if you haven’t done so, is to go online to www. rmnetwork.org. This site is home to a network of United Methodists that has been working for years toward a more inclusive United Methodist Church. We encourage you to learn more about this group and consider how their expressions of justice, love and kindness relate with our own.
- The second, is to think about how HUMC will witness to others. Who do you say we are? We often hear from visitors that we are such a welcoming congregation. What does being welcoming really mean? Who do we welcome? Why and how? We
would like to invite all of you to think that over for the next week or two and then let us know. At Rally Day, we will have a large Welcome Mat in front of our church where you will be given the opportunity to write down your response to this question: What does “Welcome” mean to the Hebron United Methodist Church?
We look forward to learning more about who we are through this activity and throughout the rest of our journey as we learn how to be a more inclusive, more loving, more welcoming church of God.
-Stephanie Claussen and David Dickey, Witness Ministry co-chairs
