Weekly Greeting - June 13, 2025
Greetings friends,
I have stood at the church entrance each day this week joining Kerry Crocker in welcoming droves of children, parents, and grandparents through those doors into Vacation Bible School. While wearing my “Pastor Terry” name badge, I have taken my cues from Kerry. He is probably the best greeter I have ever met. After the first day, the children come in and rush to be greeted by him. He truly makes every person feel seen, appreciated and loved.
I have also noticed that on Monday the children, parents and grandparents entered the church tentatively. Some had never been in our church before, but even long-time members entered the VBS “True North” world with new eyes. There was so much to see and explore, but there was a nervous atmosphere. Children met their guides for the week and it was like the first day of school. For some, there were “I want my mommy” tears. For some parents, I saw uneasy looks as they left their children in the hands of strangers.
By Wednesday, the children knew the landscape and rushed to where their guides awaited them. They were skipping and dancing down the center aisle of the church as if they had been doing this for years. Parents and grandparents confidently watched them go, and they scooped up their babies and toddlers who were too young for VBS and stood in the back to watch a part of the opening assembly. Some toddlers wanted to stay but parents told them, “next year.”
As I write about this, I have a vision of the future of our congregation on Sunday mornings. My vision looks like this week at VBS. Sure, we already have the ingredients for this to happen. We have great music, some you can even dance to. We are friends who enjoy talking a lot. We have classes for most age groups that offer challenging thoughts, activities and conversations. We will miss Pastor Craig Goff’s enthusiastic and thought-provoking sermons and his energetic presence. But we know that in a few weeks we will receive a very popular preacher as Pastor Mary Beth comes as our lead pastor.
So what is it going to take to have droves of people of all ages excitedly swarm into Bethlehem UMC each Sunday? I think we need to develop a culture of call. That means a culture where we all look at each other and at our community of neighbors the way Kerry does. This is not foreign to us. We do exactly that at Fish Fry – a culture of invitation to gorge on our hospitality. It is a culture of calling, feeding (physically and spiritually), loving, and going out together into a hurting world to offer Christ.
I know that this is my vision. But I think that it is a vision that most of us share. It is in us already. Let’s develop a culture of call that supports the energy of these young families who have come to VBS.
God bless!
Terry
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This week in worship: It’s Father’s Day! Terry Carty will preach “Good Good Father” based on John 16:12-15. We will hear music from the VBS children and commission our youth group for their upcoming mission trip. Big energy, big music, big church. Still plenty of room for more people.