Dreaming Dulin Together

Hi, friends, and welcome to the Weekly Dulin Podcast, a brief weekly reflection from Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Here, we take time to think together about faith, community, and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus in today's world.

Hello, Dulin Church. It's me, James Henry, your pastor, and it's good to be with you today. I'm actually recording this on July 1, and July 1 is significant for me because it means I have been your pastor for one year. One year ago was my official start day of being the pastor of Dulin United Methodist Church. And I'm so thankful for the journey we've been on for this year.

You've been very kind, very welcoming. And I want to, first of all, say how much I appreciate the opportunity to serve among you here at Dulin. You truly are a caring church, as your vision statement makes out. And speaking of vision and mission and direction, after one year of working together with you And a number of you have said to me, James, what are you envisioning for us? What kinds of next steps are you seeing?

And what I'd like to do, what I'd like to suggest we're going to do beginning somewhere around August into the fall, is to begin to collect together some small groups of people to sort of vision and dream together. The prophet Joel speaks of, in those days, the spirit will be poured out upon all people and we shall dream dreams and see visions. And for us, I would love for us to dream dreams and see visions of what is next for Dulin. What is it that you want? Not just what I think would be good for us.

I have various ideas and various others of you have shared ideas, everything from bringing back karaoke night to more church dinners, which we've been trying to add in. But what are some other ways? We're already engaged in the community in ways that involve outreach. We do the Ministry of Hope on a monthly basis, and that impacts the lives of over 300 individuals who come to receive food and the gift card. We have been involved through the Falls Church City Public Schools in supporting some families who had food insecurity.

We send a team every year to Appalachia Service Project to do work in Appalachia to make homes warmer, safer, and drier. In the spring and the fall, we are involved in rebuilding together, which is repairing houses. And while I was away, I got a text from a friend that invited us to consider in some way, I'll find out more, partnering with Habitat for Humanity. But also, what kinds of things do we want to do inside? What are some of the ways that we want to help to grow ourselves as disciples for perhaps our children, for our parents with young children.

What are some ways that we want to engage our youth in ministry? What about adults? How can we engage in a way that makes our lives together one of deep discipleship. There are certainly some things I can imagine. Maybe there are some things you can imagine both as outreach and as discipleship, fellowship, upbuilding from within.

And so what we want to do is offer the opportunity. And we want to offer it in two different ways because let's just be honest with each other. Sometimes it's difficult to get together in small groups and have conversations and then take the transcripts of those conversations and discern what it is we're going to do moving forward, what commonalities, what threads seem to arise in that. So we're going to do some of that for those of you who can make the time and are willing to be a part of it. But we're also going to do some of the same exact questions as a part of a survey that we would use to reach out to you all.

We want to see, Dulin is a vital church. I see in you the desire to love God and your work at loving God and certainly at loving your neighbor. They're so closely tied together. But what might be emerging amongst us? What might be the spirit?

What might the spirit be stirring up in our midst? Because these are important things to be looking for, to be listening for, to be feeling for, and to see how God will lead us forward. I have some ideas and I'm willing to share those ideas, but I see our work together in ministry as a collaborative effort. I see that we are a team. I play a part on the team, but you also play a part in the team.

We all play a part in making things be about being Dulin Church. You know, that's sort of become for me maybe over the last several months. It arose in a sermon and I constantly, maybe not constantly, but regularly might say to you, go into the world and be Dulin Church. And how can we best be that? How can we empower one another to be Dulin Church in the world?

How can Dulin Church help you be a better disciple? Help you know each other better? Help you encourage one another and strengthen one another and have fun together. One thing I think that we overlook the gospels are not, don't say directly that Jesus and the disciples had a good time, but I just can't picture the son of God walking around totally and absolutely serious all the time. God is a God of humor as well.

I suspect Jesus and the disciples in addition to the important mission they had before them also had a good time together, enjoyed each other's company, spent time talking around the fire and connecting. And that's what I'd love to see us do at Dulin Church. So this week's Dulin Weekly Moment, Dulin Weekly Podcast is less about teaching you something as inviting you to begin to spend time when you're living into those vows that you made us when you became a member, to participate in the life of Dulin, supporting Dulin with your prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. As you think about those, what are the kinds of dreams that rise up in you, things that we might try and do together? Some things might work, some things might not.

From my perspective, no thought is outlandish. It might be an outlier and it might not have a common thread that carries through everyone, But for the ones that seem to really bubble up, I think they're worth trying. There's a lot of life, a lot of vitality here. And it's our call to live into that. There are plenty of things we need to do as a community that have to do with administration and maintenance of our building, which is a tool for ministry.

But how can we use that tool wisely and well? In what ministries do we want to spend ourselves and make a difference in the world? And are there things that perhaps we're doing that don't seem to carry the same weight that they once did? Or is it worth exploring? Do we let those things go?

Or do we do them differently than we've done before? Are we being the church God is calling us to be? That's all I'm asking us to wonder about together. Perhaps you have some ideas and you're dying to share them. There's nothing to stop you from doing that.

But I just want you to know we're going to be having a coordinated effort toward the end of the summer. I know that you're all off and resting and doing things for much of the summer. It's a good time to vacation and be other places. But as we enter into the fall, towards the end of the summer in August and as we enter into the fall, I want you to be prepared to share your thoughts, whether it's through a survey, whether it's in discussion groups, perhaps whether it's in both places. Perhaps there'll be some other ways as well that we figure out how to share our ideas and thoughts.

But we want to be dual in church. And to do that in a collaborative and powerful way that touches our community. We're already touching it. But are there ways God might be stirring up inside of you, inside of me, inside of us to do something different, more in some other way? Those are things worth asking and experiencing together.

So thanks for hanging with me for this Dulin Weekly Podcast Dulin Weekly Moment. Been great to be with you. I've enjoyed it. And I'll be back next week and we'll probably be looking at some summer topics to talk about. But I thought it was important having just come back from two weeks ago from annual conference, one week ago from Appalachia Service Project that I share with you these thoughts that have been kind of arising in me in my prayer life and journaling life.

All the very best to you. I look forward to seeing you, talking to you and connecting with you as we continue in our ministry together here at Ducalin, United Methodist Church in Falls Church, Virginia. All the best to every one of you.