THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR

I can hear it now.

We are three days away from the kick-off of the college football season, and I can hear the snare drum playing the ramp cadence – the cadence by which the Ohio State University Marching Band takes the field. A single snare drum starts this amazing motion – streaming out of the ramp in the north end of the stadium, onto the field,...

But I wax eloquent. And I don’t really want to talk about the band. But we are three days away...

Actually, the snare’s cadence has taken me back to my freshman year at Ohio State. Pathetically, I did not try out for the band (my life’s ‘greatest regret’). But, I was so excited to be a college student. I remember the sun was bright, the days warm, and a whole new world was in front of me.

A lot has happened since that day.

I wonder what that September was like fifty years ago when this little church prepared for its first year of Sunday School? I imagine that the freshness, the newness of it all lent a particular zeal to the moment. The people of this new congregation – that small core -- were ready to step together into a new world.

Fifty years later, we prepare for a new year of Sunday School (Rally Day on September 13!). We step together into yet another whole new world.

We have had a number of events to celebrate and ‘mark’ the years. Several more yet lie ahead, including the special banquet on November 21.

We’re also working on an event that wasn’t on the ‘original list’. After church on September 27, we will celebrate ‘St. Mark Through the Years’. (we acknowledge shamelessly stealing from the youth’s very cool t-shirts.)

We are asking people to bring a dish to share. If it has a connection to one of the past five decades, that would be fabulous – but if it’s just your favorite thing to take to a potluck, that will be great too.

We’ll have some games on hand that will call to mind these years. We are also asking you to provide a story or even just a sentence of a memory. You will find a sheet for this in your mailbox. We will share some of these that day.

This event is being sponsored by the “Re-Team” – a small group who are working with me to develop goals for the next five years – so that at the end of the year, will not simply have celebrated, but will have a goal for the years ahead.

The memories and stories you share will help inform that process – so bring as many as you can.

This will be a really fun event, so plan to stick around after church that day. It won’t interfere with watching that week’s college football games – and it will certainly be better than watching the Lions .

In Christ,

Pastor Julianne R. Smeck