Message from the Pastor: From Scarcity to Abundance”
November 2019
November is a month of our Thanksgiving celebration of the abundance of God’s creation. In the spirit of Thanksgiving and of God’s generosity, we will explore together how God is calling us to live by this Spirit of grace. We all long for financial freedom and peace around money. Yet, there is a pervasive sense of anxiety and fear in our culture around money. Even though we know in faith that God’s creation is abundant, in reality many of us live with a sense of scarcity. This is because the dominant story of our brains and of our culture is that of scarcity. We live in a world where money is seen as the standard for measuring our success, power, security, and worth. This often leaves us feeling like we have to keep pursuing more. Lynne Twist writes, “Regardless of where you live, how much money you make, or how successful you are, there’s a message you’ve been fed your whole life that is reinforced daily by the media, in television, magazine and internet advertising…And that message is that you don’t have enough, you are not enough, and there is always something more that you need to get or be in order to be successful, happy, and worthy of respect and love. And the worst part is that you’ve heard it so many times now, you believe it’s true.”
We will journey together through scriptures and stories to remember God’s vision for our world where abundance and sharing are the dominant themes. I am blessed to have gone recently to a stewardship conference where I experienced so much joy and faith by looking at my life and all of creation as gifts of God’s creativity and self-giving. I am excited to share some of what I learned with you. I hope that by our sharing about abundance, we will find new ways to live with a sense of plenty and to impact others to do the same. There will be several fun activities during worship to help us shift our focus to God’s priorities.
This sermon series will coincide with our stewardship emphasis in November with the invitation to all of us to support the ministry of our church generously. Giving of ourselves keeps the flow of God’s abundance going. Giving is one of the ways we practice the power of sharing to interrupt and replace the story of scarcity in our lives. This will culminate with a celebration dinner on November 24 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm in the Fellowship Hall. The dinner will be catered by D&R Depot and so it would be greatly helpful if you could RSVP to the church office by November 17.
My hope for our November sermons is to discover with you new paths of faith that will ultimately lead us to experience financial freedom not in the future, but here and now.
In Christ,
Pastor Roula Alkhouri
