Eden Prairie United Methodist Church
Connect with Us!
  • Home
  • Being Church
    • Crops For PROP
    • Serving Our Neighbors
    • Fellowship >
      • Women's Retreat
      • Church Directory
  • Children | Youth
    • Nursery
    • Sunday School (Preschool through 7th grade)
    • Especially for Families
    • Rooted (3rd - 4th grade)
    • Vacation Bible School
    • Middle School Youth (Grades 7-8)
    • Confirmation (8th-9th grade)
    • Higher Ground (10th-12th grade)
  • Music
    • Adult Music Opportunities
  • About EPUMC
    • Worship
    • Staff
    • Notes from Pastor Becky Jo
    • Lay Leadership
    • A Reconciling Congregation
    • Tumbleweed Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Annual Report
    • Sermons
    • Calendar
  • Prayer
  • Online Giving
  • Contact Us

Weekly memo: home for christmas

12/27/2018

Comments

 
Picture
​There are many things that happen on Christmas Eve at EPUMC each year that are very moving. The children at the early service play their part at the manger scene. Their innocence calls each one of us back to a simpler time when we were angels flying up to the baby. Singing the familiar carols stirs each one of us to hear in our bones the message of God with us.  As candles glow on the faces around us, we experience the wonder God’s light coming into the world
 
Something else happened after the 10 o’clock worship this year. Just as our families gather together from all over around Christmas, so does our church family. This is a picture of a group that called themselves “EPUMC Alumni.”  They are all 20-somethings who are back home for Christmas and attended our service. Everyone in this Christmas Eve picture stuck around for over half an hour after the service was over. They wanted to be here.
 
It is so exciting to stand back and watch and listen to all of these now young men and women who were once all kids growing up at EPUMC.
Watching and listening to them helped me to understand what a church family is about. It helped me to understand in my bones the value of a faith community.
 
I was talking about this to one of these 20-somethings a couple of years ago when the same thing happened. What she said inspires me. I had expressed a sense of surprise at how many had showed up so willingly.  This young woman looked back at me with such a surprised look on her face, that I was embarrassed by my own comment. Then she said, “Pastor Dan! This is our home!”
 
In a time when so many question the validity of faith communities what that young woman had to say gives me cause to hope. And the hope is not that those pictured here will become active every Sunday attendees at EPUMC someday. No, the hope is that something about their time here has stuck with them and has become something worth coming back home for…
 
What makes something home is often very hard to put your finger on… maybe for a few of these folks it is the memory of being an angel standing by the manger on Christmas eve or a youth sitting in the back row of the van on a mission trip. Whatever it is, I am grateful to be a part of a church home like EPUMC that they can come home to…
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 


Comments

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2012

    RSS Feed

Connect with us!
office@prairiechurch.org
(952) 937-8781

15050 Scenic Heights Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Picture
Picture