With October coming to a close, we are in full fall mode here in Lancaster, Pa. Each fall, we take a Sunday morning to talk about the things that happened in the previous year and what we are looking forward to in the coming year. Here is our recap on 2024 and what we are looking forward to in 2025.
Pastor Greg Carey
Life Church has been in a steady season of growth and change for the past several years, and this year was no different. Starting in January 2024, we were thrilled to end our search for a part-time co-pastor and hired Dr. Greg Carey to join our staff. He has been a part of our church community for the past couple of years, and it was an answer to our prayers to have someone from within our church fill this role. Greg will continue to work his full time position at Lancaster Theological Seminary, but he has joined our staff in our weekly meetings, will be preaching 2-3 times a month, and is also involved in some pastoral care and a variety of other smaller projects as they arise. He is a gift to our staff team and our church community. Ten months in, we are still thrilled to have his partnership and leadership in our church.
Leadership
It was a goal to increase our leadership over the past year. I’m happy to report that we doubled our board with the addition of three more board members. In our process of expansion, we also found the board able and excited to take on a few extra projects to support the church! This included a “New Comer Sunday” lunch and support in the start up of a LIfe Church marketing team. New leadership opportunities also showed up in the Family Ministries Department and on the Worship team.
Social Engagement
Increasing our social engagement was also a priority at Life Church in 2024. While there is still so much we can do, we are happy we were able to support and partner with several local businesses, as well as adding Lititz Pride to the Pride events we participate in and support. We were also able to offer our building to host Pastor Greg for an important talk on Christina nationalism in his partnership with Power Interfaith Org.
Change
Finally, one of the big things that has changed and grown over this past year is us! We have welcomed lots of new people, and WE have changed—we’ve lost loved ones, walked through the changing of our families, celebrated new life and birthdays, had fears about the future, new jobs and new challenges, taken new classes, made new friends, bought new homes, and asked God new questions. We have all had new opportunities to learn what it might mean to TRUST God. To TRUST Spirit to be with us, lead us and carry us, confront us, comfort us. We have changed.
What’s Next:
In the coming year, we have many hopes and dreams for Life Church. For starters, we hope to continue to expand opportunities for leadership and involvement. We want to continue to partner with our community to create sermons that are relevant and useful to people. We also want to partner with our church community to determine and discern how we are being called to move forward financially. Just as we determined together how we will observe communion, we will step into new opportunities for spiritual practices and liturgy together, creating the opportunity to practice our faith in meaningful ways.
We hope 2025 also holds more opportunities for people to connect relationally with one another through small-groups, events, and service opportunities. One of you even suggested we host a dance party to give us the chance to hang out in a casual setting! Together, we want to continue to look for ways to make it possible for everyone to be a part of our church and our community.
And, finally, we are hopeful that as we increase our community involvement, we can find more ways to partner and be useful in our community and also to make an impact with our marketing effort. Our surveys last year made it clear that you all want to share Life Church with more people and connect with those that it may help.
This coming year is all about us continuing together to grow in our faith, develop relationships, reach out to our community, and find ways to serve and support the people in our community.
As the months go by, we are eager to partner with you to learn to love God more fully, to receive the love of God more openly, and love one another and ourselves well. It’s a gift to be in a welcoming community that does their best to love. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear what God may be calling us to this year.
Written by Mindy Wolfe