Apr 12
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
Who knew that one little difference in Greek could be so meaningful for us today? But as Sunday's wisdom sharing explored, philia (friendly/sibling-ish) love and agape (sacred, self-sacrificing) love are really not the same thing. The good news, though, is that the author of the story of Jesus and Simon Peter on the beach got this much right: God meets us where we are now, wherever that is. Jesus may have wanted Peter to love him at the agape level (and said as much in his first two questions about whether Peter loved him). However, after Peter answered the question wrong not once but twice, Jesus changed his language and asked a question that Peter could answer with full integrity (if also with hurt feelings). Jesus asked whether Peter loved him at the philia level, and indeed, Peter did. In this sense, we might say that Jesus recognized Peter, seeing him as he was, acknowledging where he was, and then inviting him into the same program (caring for others) moving forward – and asking him to follow.
This coming week's Scripture also deals with recognition. We'll look at excerpts from two resurrection appearance stories: Mary at the tomb and the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Long story short: Mary recognizes Jesus when he calls her by name. The disciples recognize Jesus when he breaks bread with them. I'll have a lot more to say about both of those kinds of recognition on Sunday, because they are deeply relevant to us today.
I indicated in last week's eblast that I was planning a sermon series on how progressive Christians read the Bible for Eastertide (the period between Easter and Pentecost). After some thought, I'm going to switch that up. From April 19 until the week before Pentecost (a month), we will focus on goodness. Tentative wisdom sharing titles at this point are, “My Goodness Me!,” “Good God,” “Good as Gold,” and “Good Grief.” After the heaviness of the Lenten sermon series, a focus on goodness seems important – even with a topic such as grief.
Finally, just a reminder that I always welcome your input about how things are going for you at church, especially with worship, pastoral care, or any other aspect of church life over which I have control. You can leave anonymous notes in the prayer request box on my desk, or you can talk to our two Executive Council Members at Large (Dave Nath or Jessica Thomas) about things. Their role is to serve as a go-between for individual Covenantal Partners or friends who have concerns about church life or church leadership, but who do not feel comfortable approaching the Executive Council (or me) directly. Please be aware that they do not receive anonymous feedback; if you speak with them, your name will be attached to any information they pass on. It takes all of us to make Vista Grande what it could be, so please trust that I take your input very seriously.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Apr 5
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
It was a joy to celebrate Easter with you yesterday for the first time in my role as pastor. As we now enter the Eastertide season and move toward Pentecost, I want to bring three things to your attention.
First, just as we had a Lenten sermon series (Tidings of Discomfort and Joy), we will have an Eastertide sermon series. It does not have a catchy title (yet – I'm open to suggestions), but I want to focus on how progressive Christians read the Bible. The short answer is “seriously, not literally;” the longer answer will unfold between now and Pentecost.
Second, a handful of you have already RSVP'd for the May 2 congregational retreat at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church (9-3), and I hope plenty more of you will RSVP between now and April 25 (a week before the gathering). I want to be clear about what this retreat will and will not be. It will be a discernment retreat, not a planning retreat. Before we can begin to address concrete challenges and opportunities for Vista Grande moving forward, we need to ask some basic questions: Who are we? What is God calling us to be and to do? Who are our neighbors? And before we can ask those basic questions, we need to understand the role of discernment in our planning process, and we need to spend some time practicing listening to one another in low-stakes situations to be ready to listen well when the stakes get higher. The May 2 retreat will include an introduction to the process of discernment (which we can think of as listening for the leading of God as that leading will influence our discussions and planning) and will involve both some listening practice and some storytelling. More information will be available over the next few weeks.
Finally, the pastoral message will now go out on Monday nights in an eblast that covers all church and related community events and activities from Tuesday through the upcoming Sunday. I will send that eblast from the church administration email address. Joyce Michael will continue to send the Thursday eblast, which will include the order of service for Sunday (I can't send that on Monday nights because it is not ready yet). As we have gotten busier, the eblasts have gotten longer, which is both a good thing and a problem. We've decided to try splitting the eblast in two (something that has been done in the past) to shorten each version of it in hopes that everyone will read both eblasts completely. I'll also try to keep my pastoral messages on the short side moving forward.
Thanks for your patience and forbearance as we experiment with the best ways to communicate across the church and as we move into our season of discernment. May the week find you rich in joy, and may you have the courage to reach out for support if you need it.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Mar 31
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
What does it mean to be a Good Friday people? What does it mean to be an Easter people? Put differently, what does it mean to be a people who accept and embrace the reality of death and resurrection – not as a one-time historical event in the person of Jesus but as a regular, yearly, sometimes even daily event in our own lives?
You may have many answers; here is one of mine. I mentioned it briefly in the Wisdom Sharing on March 22, but it deserves more focus.
We are invited to die to all within us that keeps us from living fully and loving freely, all that keeps us from being in right relationship with ourselves, others, and the Holy. We are invited to die to our fear, our selfishness, our arrogance, our shame, our guilt, our addictions, our codependence, all the walls we have put up out of self-protection that no longer serve us, all the stories we tell ourselves about how innocent we are, and anything else that keeps us isolated, angry, and afraid.
This death is not a physical death; it is a way of talking about releasing what does not serve us, fasting from what does not heal us, refraining from worshiping that which cannot save us, resting when we are tempted to try to prove or earn or attain our worth – the topics we have talked about through Lent. Taking up our crosses rarely involves harm to our bodies; it always involves a recommitment to our values.
This may sound very individualized and psychologized (and yes, such death involves psychological healing and spiritual development), but it actually has social justice implications as well. We are also invited to die to our privilege, power-over, and unjustly gained social status, to understand ourselves humbly as equal to all other people no matter their social, economic, religious, or cultural status. This may sound quite abstract and academic, but it has daily implications for us in how we talk about one another, how we spend our money, who we interact with, whether we show up in solidarity with devalued communities, how we respond to unhoused people we encounter on the street, and more.
That's a lot of death. A LOT. The good news is that as we die to all that keeps us isolated, angry, fearful, and immobilized, we rise to new life, new capacities, new relationships, and new love. We might even say that when we, following Jesus, die to all that keeps us separate from one another and God, Jesus is resurrected in our own lives, reminding us of the divine spark we each carry and calling us into gratitude and celebration. The only way to Easter is through Good Friday, and the only thing good about Good Friday is that it is how we get to Easter – to resurrection, renewal, and rebirth.
May we live into our claim to be an Easter people and to bring the good news of Easter's goodness and newness to those who are still living in the death of self-hatred, oppression, self-destruction, cruelty, violence, and shame.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Mar 24
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
Decisions, decisions.
What sweatshirt should I wear today? What do I want for breakfast? Which movie do I want to go see with friends next weekend? Who am I voting for in the primaries?
Oh, yes – and who am I following?
If that last question seems way out of line with the others, it's because it is a more basic question and one that we may not ask very often. It may have very little to do with what we wear, what we eat for breakfast, or what movie we see with friends (though it may have a lot to do with who we vote for).
We may not ask the question because we don't think we're following anyone. We understand ourselves to be the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls (to quote poet William Ernest Henley). And to some extent, we are. We do make decisions about our lives – small decisions, large decisions, sometimes momentous decisions.
But those decisions don't exist in a vacuum. Many of them either serve the good or make the world a little smaller, a little more selfish, a little crueler, a little more disconnected. As Bob Dylan sang during his Evangelical phase, “you're gonna have to serve somebody. It may be the devil, and it may be the Lord.” As I've mentioned in the past, I don't find this phrasing entirely helpful, but I do think Dylan is on to something. Some of the things we do are genuinely neutral, but many of them serve good or evil. And the lousy thing is, we can be serving evil – disconnection, apathy, cruelty – without even being aware that we are doing so. Seems unfair, but there you have it.
As Palm Sunday approaches, we get to ask who we are following. Over the course of Lent, we have considered what it means to resist temptation, repent, release control, rest, and recommit to the way of Jesus. All of these actions and priorities are valuable in their own right; they are also part of the larger path of Christianity. That path is a path of following. However else we see Jesus, we see him as one whom we follow on the Way.
As we enter the last phase of Lent this year and head toward Holy Week, I invite you to consider what your values, priorities, words, and actions say about whose path you are on. Many of us are on the path of justice, kindness, humility and love at least part of the time, but it is an easy path to fall away from in small and large ways. The good news is that with every choice, every word, and every action, we can put ourselves back on the path of Jesus a little more. May we do so – and as we do so, may we never forget that this is also a path of joy.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Mar 17
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
It's the most horrible time of the (church) year. With Good Friday fast approaching, it's time to for us approach the cross.
I can hear all the objections. I have them myself.
Why do we have to focus on this? Life is so tough. The world is a nightmare. I'm afraid, lonely, angry, numb. I'm caring for sick relatives. I'm not doing so well myself. My bandwidth is limited right now. The cross is horrifying. I like Jesus and all, but do we really have to talk about this?
We do.
We don't get to enjoy the cool, fun, inspiring, controversial things Jesus said without remembering the way he died: tortured to death by the empire for offering an alternative worldview that they must have found profoundly threatening. (His alternative must have been nonviolent because they did not crucify any of his followers when they crucified him, to anyone's knowledge. A nonviolent alternative to Rome's violence could well have been enough to get him executed.)
We also don't get to enjoy Easter and the resurrection (however we interpret it) without going through the death part of the story first. We can celebrate the coming of spring, the lengthening of daylight, the newly grown grass and flowers, and we should. But that's not the Christian story of Easter. The only way to Easter is through Good Friday. (If you've heard that before, it's because plenty of pastors say it.)
So, we need to deal with the cross.
This coming week, I will propose some ways that we might think about the cross in our lives that completely avoid any mention of blood atonement. I will not propose that Jesus “had” to die “to save us from our sins.” I understand that many Christians have believed that and do believe that, including some of the Gospel writers. You may believe that; that may be how you make sense of the story. But we are going to take some other approaches. None of them are comfortable, which is part of why this Lenten sermon series is called, “Tidings of Discomfort and Joy.” But none of them require you to believe things that you may find ridiculous if not actually cruel. Instead, we will talk about the cross in ways that are relevant for our lives today independent of what doctrines we may or may not believe.
We will do this by building upon Luke's account of Jesus saying, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (9;23). Pay attention to that word “daily” – it's crucial here. Taking up our cross sounds impossible and miserable and (to go back to my first sentence) horrible. And there is no doubt that it is indeed uncomfortable. But even here, I think there may be some joy to be found among the discomfort. See what you think. I hope to see you Sunday.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Mar 11
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
Some of you are aware that our Pride flags get stolen regularly – so regularly, in fact, that we have a line item in our budget to replace the flags. Nothing will keep us from sharing the good news of God's wildly extravagant, gracious, and abundant love for all people as well as the good news of God's special care for devalued groups of people, which drives God's call to do justice. They can steal as many flags as they want. We will simply keep buying them and raising them.
We recently put up the latest Pride flag, but we are going to swap it out for a different Pride flag on Sunday, for an absolutely lovely reason.
During today's fellowship with the pastor time, Scott Young suggested that we add a message to the flags before raising them – a message that anyone stealing a flag would have to see. After a conversation among the four of us present, we tweaked Scott's original suggested language a little: the flag will have written on the white border, “We love you and God loves you.”
I cannot think of a better message to send to someone who is so full of fear that they feel a need to take down our Pride flag. That is definitely someone in need of the good news of God's radically inclusive love – don't you think? I have been praying for whoever stole the last flag, but they will never know that. This is a way to send a meaningful message to whoever steals this one.
We will add a little ritual to worship this coming Sunday, during which Katherine Fatica will write this message on one of the flags we bought. After worship, we will have a brief ritual at the flagpole during which someone will take down the flag that's currently up and replace it with the flag with the message. This will be brief, I promise. I hope those of you at worship onsite on Sunday will stay for a couple of minutes for the flag ceremony.
To paraphrase the Beatles: All we need is love.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Mar 3
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
Many of us remember hearing about the “three R's” of school when we were young: reading, (w)riting, and ‘rithmetic. (What can I say, I still find that amusing.) This Lenten season, we are engaging with five R's: resisting temptation, repenting, releasing control, reflecting and reconciling, and repairing what is broken. (I guess that's six R's, actually.) We have now made our way through the first two of these R's, and this coming Sunday we will think about releasing control as a way of practicing trust.
I know that I am personally most likely to try control situations (and other people) when I am anxious, unable to trust that things will unfold as they should (or unable to trust that God actually loves me exactly as I am no matter how things unfold). This kind of controlling inclination often goes with the hypervigilance that comes from having experienced prior trauma as well as with the catastrophizing that leads some of us to prepare for the worst possible outcome even when there is no reason whatsoever to expect that the worst possible outcome is actually enroute.
Control and trust, therefore, are opposites in important ways. Certainly, having control over certain things in life is important, and one of the tragedies of systemic inequality of any sort is in how it robs members of devalued groups of control over their choices and opportunities – sometimes even their abilities to stay alive. But there's a difference between the kind of control that each of us can reasonably hope to have over our own lives and the kind of control that can lead us to act domineering or to push an agenda or to win at all costs. The best antidote to that more problematic controlling impulse is trust: trust in our own best selves, trust in other people, trust in God.
We will continue to think about our broader Lenten topics of temptation and idolatry, repentance, and fasting and feasting this week, but with a different focus, asking less about what is worthy and more about what is trustworthy. We'll do this by considering the Exodus story of manna from heaven in light of Jesus's promise that if we seek the Kin-dom of God, we can trust that we will have everything that we need. We'll also throw in part of the Jesus prayer for good measure – the request for our daily bread.
I hope to see you on Sunday.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Feb 22
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
Having just spent two days at a Rocky Mountain Conference clergy retreat, I am thinking about the power of stories. What stories are we telling ourselves about the difficult things that we are carrying? Where did those stories come from? Are there other stories we could be telling ourselves? What transformative power could those other stories have?
This topic was the main theme of the clergy retreat, but it's also a central priority of Jesus. In his parables and aphorisms, he often tells new stories (or old stories with new endings or the wrong hero or…) as a way of getting his followers to begin to imagine a new world into being.
This Sunday, we will bring together two ideas relevant to Lent: first, fasting from that which does not serve us and feasting on that which does serve us (such as fasting from fear and instead feasting on love), and, second, reimagining repentance as reorientation (rather than shame-driven abasement and self-hatred). When I came up with this idea for wisdom sharing, I was not thinking about the stories we tell ourselves, but the clergy retreat theme actually goes quite well with this coming Sunday's topic.
We've long told ourselves a story about fasting during Lent as a matter of practicing suffering in preparation for our journey to the cross. I don't want to throw that story out; it has some value. At the same time, the idea of fasting from that which does not serve us and feasting on that which does is an interesting way to approach the whole idea of fasting during Lent. It touches upon my claim from last Sunday that idolatry is the worship of that which cannot save us, the trusting of that which is not trustworthy. Fasting from fear and feasting on love (for example) is a way to resist the temptation to idolize fear. In fact, it takes that idea further: not only are we going to resist temptation; we are going to take the yearning underlying that temptation and direct it where it belongs: toward love (or God). This is a new story with which to engage Lent, or at least an uncommon one. For people who have been emotionally and spiritually battered by inhumane approaches to Lent, this story might be somewhat healing and restorative. I certainly hope so.
How do we move from worshipping that which cannot save us to placing our trust in that which is trustworthy? How do we get ourselves to fast from fear and feast on love? We repent - but again, not in the wrongheaded sense of hating ourselves or seeing ourselves as loathsome, depraved worms. When John and Jesus invited people to repent, they meant that we should return to our best selves, “turn back, O man” (if you remember Godspell), or get a new perspective - in short, that we should reorient ourselves. I find the idea of repentance as reorientation very helpful. It does not require any self-loathing, only an honest answer to the question, are we being our best selves and doing our best as much of the time as possible? If that answer is “no” (which I imagine it is for most of us), if we could be better and do better, Lent is a great time to explore what that might look like. It could look (for example) like fasting from fear and feasting on love. But whatever else it looks like, it calls on us to tell a different story - about who we are, about what's important, and about the good news of God's unending and wildly abundant love.
Yes, repentance includes the commitment to resist the temptations of idolatry, to fast from fear and cruelty and harshness and judgmentalism, to soften and be vulnerable, to be curious about ourselves and others. These are not always easy things to do. But we are not merely to fast. We are also to feast. The reorientation of Lent is not just toward discomfort; it is also toward joy - the joy of connection, wonder, and gratitude.
Any version of Lent that leaves out joy is as incomplete as any version that leaves out discomfort. Yes, discomfort has a place in Lent. Yes, repentance is called for. But if we have always thought about Lent as a time of self-flagellation and misery, it's time to tell ourselves a new story. Like Jesus did.
We'll explore these ideas more fully on Sunday. I hope to see you then.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Feb 15
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
We just celebrated Ash Wednesday and have now entered the season of Lent. Our Lenten theme this year is “tidings of discomfort and joy,” and we will have reason to engage with both of these experiences in weeks ahead.
For now, I wanted to share the lyric of a worship song I wrote years ago that can be thought-provoking at the beginning of Lent. It is inspired by the writing of various other people, not least the progressive pastor and author Jim Burklo. This represents a different way of thinking about fasting and feasting, one that might still be a bit challenging but that is a lot gentler and more joyful than some of the fasting traditions with which we might be familiar. The song is called “The Fast that Love Has Chosen” and it is based on Isaiah 58.
Fast from fear and feast on love. Fast from violence, feast on peace.
Fast from hatred, feast on care. Fast from terror, feast on hope.
Fast from envy, feast on joy. Fast from judgment, feast on compassion.
Fast from despair and feast on trust. Fast from anxiety, feast on wonder.
This is the fast that Love has chosen: for us to bring the day of justice,
For us to free the ones in chains, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked,
To offer shelter to the homeless, to tend the sick and those in pain,
To welcome the lonely, lost, and least. This is our fast. This is our feast.
Fast from cruelty, feast on kindness. Fast from revenge and feast on forgiveness.
Fast from controlling, feast on patience. Fast from complacency, feast on justice.
Fast from aloneness, feast on connection. Fast from shame and feast on delight.
Fast from selfishness, feast on giving. Fast from defensiveness, feast on welcoming.
This is the fast that Love has chosen: for us to bring the day of justice,
For us to free the ones in chains, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked,
To offer shelter to the homeless, to tend the sick and those in pain,
To welcome the lonely, lost, and least. This is our fast. This is our feast.
Fast from resentment, feast on tenderness. Fast from arrogance, feast on humility.
Fast from worry, feast on playfulness. Fast from busyness, feast on rest.
Fast from bleakness, feast on beauty. Fast from chaos, feast on silence.
Fast from violence, feast on peace. Fast from fear and feast on love.
May we all fast and feast accordingly this Lent.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Feb 8
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
This upcoming Sunday would normally be Transfiguration Sunday, but we are taking a different approach this year. Since we have three Covenantal Partners joining the church, it will be Covenant Sunday instead. The United Church of Christ is built on covenant, that agreement and promise that keeps us in right relationship with ourselves, each other, the UCC, and the holy.
Here's what that looks like for our denomination:
“Within the United Church of Christ, the various expressions of the church relate to each other in a covenantal manner. Each expression of the Church has responsibilities and rights in relation to the others, to the end that the whole Church will seek God's will and be faithful to God's mission. Decisions are made in consultation and collaboration among the various parts of the structure. As members of the Body of Christ, each expression of the Church is called to honor and respect the work and ministry of each other part. Each expression of the Church listens, hears, and carefully considers the advice, counsel, and requests of others. In this covenant, the various expressions of the United Church of Christ seek to walk together in all God's ways.” (2000 revision of the UCC Constitution: Article III, Covenantal Relationships, paragraph 6)
Here's some information about covenant, pulled from the new member packet I developed recently:
In secular terms, a covenant refers to an agreement often grounded in a legal contract (think “covenant communities” for homeowners' associations). In the Jewish and Christian traditions, covenant involves a complex agreement between God, the gathered religious community, and each individual within the community built on relationship and connection. Religiously speaking, a covenant is a promise.
What does a religious covenant entail?
As we continue to live into the promise we have made to ourselves and one another, may we all find ourselves the richer and more blessed for it.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Feb 3
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
As we approach the end of our 2026 stewardship season, I want to leave you with the words of my stewardship worship song, “From Our Abundance We Give.” (If you were not at worship this past Sunday, it was used as the offering music.)
From our abundance we give, we who are blessed beyond measure
Grateful for all that we have, hearts overflowing with treasure
Humbled by joy every day that we live. From our abundance we give.
From our abundance we share freely without hesitation
Showing our hope and our care, gently restoring creation
Acting in faith and rejecting despair. From our abundance we share.
From our abundance we build, offering up our compassion
Bringing our talents and skills, called into prayer and action
Helping assure that God's dream is fulfilled.
From our abundance we build.
From our abundance we love, stewards of all we've been given.
We who have more than enough, we have been claimed by this vision.
As we go forward in wonder and trust, from our abundance we love.
From our abundance we love.
May we give, share, build, and love out of the abundance with which we have been blessed.
And please return your stewardship sheets by this Sunday, February 8, if you have not already done so. The financial intent sheet goes to Financial Secretary John Tinsley; the time and talents intent sheet comes to me. You may also send financial intent sheets to me, and I will get them to John (without looking at the financial details).
Thank you for all that you do. Truly, there is no church without “u.”
In faith
Pastor Amanda
Jan 28
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
So often we talk about stewardship mostly in terms of “treasures,” meaning financial support of the church. And it's true that we cannot have a church without money. That's just the world we live in. So, this week, you should receive a special email with a financial intent form attached. The form will also be available at church this Sunday. We need those forms back by February 8 in order to put a budget together by the time of the annual meeting, February 22.
But we also cannot have a church without giving of our time and treasures, so the financial intent form will be accompanied by a separate time and treasures inventory form. This form is where we ask you to indicate the way you will offer your non-monetary gifts – your energy, creativity, and time – to Vista Grande Community Church. We'd be grateful to get that form back by February 8 as well if possible, as it will help with all sorts of planning.
This Sunday is Communion Sunday and our Agape Meal, and we will have a special activity at the Agape Meal. I want to use this week's message to give you a heads up about that activity, both so that you can think about it ahead of time if you want and so that you can send me your ideas by email if you won't be at the lunch. (Everyone is welcome to contribute ideas, not just Covenantal Partners.)
There will be 15 sheets of butcher paper taped to the walls around the fellowship hall, each covering one of the following church areas: worship/music, technology support, usher/greeter/guest support, missions, outreach, religious education, planning/visioning, financial stewardship/fundraising, Covenantal Partner support (such as pastoral care), hospitality/refreshments/fellowship, other community building/fellowship organizing, administrative support, building cleaning, building maintenance and care, and outdoor maintenance.
You'll find pens and sticky note pads on the tables, and there will be a pause during the Agape Meal for people to write down ideas they have for how to improve each of the above areas. People will be invited to write down one idea per sticky note without including their names, and to then walk around the room and affix each sticky note to the relevant sheet of butcher paper. You can write down as few or as many ideas for as few or as many categories as you want.
What kinds of ideas for improvement? That's up to you. You might suggest something related to team development, communication, or administrative processes. Or, you might have some completely different idea. All ideas are welcome. Keeping the sticky notes name-free should allow you share whatever is on your mind.
If you want to contribute ideas but know that you won't be able to attend the Agape Meal, please consider emailing me any ideas you have. I will write them on sticky notes and affix them to the correct sheet. If you plan to attend the Agape Meal but don't manage to do so, you can always email me the ideas then. I understand that emailed ideas won't be anonymous, but I promise to take your constructive suggestions with good humor and humility.
(I also promise that Agape Meals are not turning into special activity Sundays permanently. There might be one more special activity in a couple of months but that should be it for the time being.)
So, once you receive your two forms, please fill them out and return them by February 8 per the directions on each form. (One form goes to the Financial Secretary; the other form comes to me.) Thanks in advance for your continued (or new!) support of Vista Grande. When I say we couldn't do it without you, I'm not being smarmy or cliched; I'm being honest. The little church that could, only can with your support.
Let's keep building up that new world to help make things a little more “on earth as they are in heaven.”
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Jan 21
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
While reviewing church documents from a few years ago, I came upon the 2021 pledge card. It had a fascinating section that, if memory serves, might have been inspired by materials from the United Methodist Church. The section reads:
“I (We) vow to support VGUCC with my (our):
During this stewardship season, you will hear plenty about supporting the church with your gifts (we are more likely to use the terms “treasures” or even just “money”) and your service (though we might use the terms “time and talents”). In this message, I'd like to consider those other three ways in which we each might support Vista Grande: prayers, presence, and witness.
Prayers: Whether we think praying for our congregation or the world more broadly is a real form of support will likely depend on what we think prayer is and how we think it works. Some of us may think that our prayer connects with supernatural action that has a direct effect on the world and some of us may not. For those who don't, here are several ways that prayer can work on the people doing the praying:
For these reasons and so many others, I encourage you to support VGCC with your prayers, now and all year long.
Presence: While we are in the process of shifting away from our three-way offering basket, I think it's worth remembering that when we would bless the basket as it passed us by we were lifting up an important truth: our presence in this congregation matters independent of whether we are giving money or how much money we are giving. When we show up at worship or in other contexts, our very presence is a gift to the congregation. Our kindness, wisdom, patience, compassion, and other ways of being together bring us all a little closer to the Kin-dom of God. We need one another, and there is not a single person connected to the congregation whose presence is not a blessing to at least one other person. Yes, we all have many competing commitments and plans. Yes, we all have at least some priorities other than VGCC in our lives. And yes, our commitment to VGCC is a commitment to showing up and being there, being part of this community. For these reasons and so many others, I encourage you to support VGCC with your presence, now and all year long.
Witness: This term may make us uncomfortable, especially if we come from an Evangelical background where we were expected to try to convert other people to our belief system. So let me be absolutely clear: witnessing does not need to be the same as proselytizing or evangelizing. Sharing God's love can be as simple as being kind to people or as complex as working for justice in a time of profound and extensive injustice.
A quote often attributed to Francis of Assisi (which he almost certainly did not say) reads, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” Though Saint Francis did not say this, I find it deeply wise. Our very lives can be a preaching of the gospel if they are full of the love, compassion, kindness, tending to those in need, and radical hospitality modeled and taught by Jesus. In this sense, our lives can be a witness to this beautiful vision we try to follow. For these reasons and so many others, I encourage you to support VGCC by your witness, now and all year long.
Prayers, presence, witness. No, these are not the same as financial support or service through the sharing of time and talents. But they are a deep part of our Jesus-following, to which we are always invited. May we take them seriously and pursue them energetically and with grateful joy.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Jan 14
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
We drew star words this past Sunday, and I was struck by the fact that the church star word, drawn by Colton, was “love.” How perfect is that? How much better can it get?
Jesus, of course, said that love was the greatest commandment – love of God, neighbor, self (by implication), and enemy (in a different passage). He did not mention ritual purity, sexual prohibitions, dietary restrictions, or any of the myriad of very specific laws about how to worship, wear clothing, or obtain restitution after harm. And there are hundreds of commandments in the Jewish tradition from which Jesus came. He did not, in fact, even mention any of the ten commandments specifically. When pressed, he lifted up love.
There are many ways we can understand love, but the prophetic tradition (and its extension in Jesus and the early church) encourages us to view love as a set of priorities for action. (As theologian Cornel West has written, justice is what love looks like in public.) In my book, Abundant Lives, A Progressive Christian Ethic of Flourishing, I define love as the work we do to help ourselves flourish in all aspects of our lives and to help others flourish in all aspects of their lives.
I mentioned on Sunday that we could define love as what we do and what we bring to the church to help this congregation flourish in all aspects of its communal life. I want to say a little more about that now, in keeping with our stewardship season theme. In the interests of space, I'll limit the topics, but, really, the sky's the limit in the kind of imaginative exercise that I begin below.
What would flourishing spiritually look like as a congregation? It would mean that some or all of us in the congregation are committed to deepening our spiritual lives (through faith formation/religious education/Bible study, among other ways). As we do this work, we would live into that commitment as a community, learning, growing, and celebrating each other on the path of striving to follow Jesus as we gain more peace, joy, gentleness, and other fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
What would flourishing materially look like as a congregation? It would mean that our building and property are not only well-maintained and in good repair but aesthetically beautiful and inspiring. It would mean that we have a paid administrator to keep all of our processes running smoothly (and to make sure that nothing and no one falls through the cracks). It would mean that we have more resources to provide to people and communities in need. It would mean a powerful expansion of our capacities, programs, and opportunities.
What would flourishing emotionally look like as a congregation? It would mean that we courageously train ourselves to sit with discomfort and navigate conflict, that we all cultivate the psychological bandwidth to be good supports to one another, and that we grow into a vivid, vital space that draws in new people who want the joy we have.
What would flourishing socially look like as a congregation? So many of you have indicated that the best thing about VGCC is its welcoming community; you also indicated that you want more of that and you want it to go deeper. We could develop a small group program that would focus both on spiritual development and deepening relationships. We could also put more energy toward church time that happens outside of Sunday mornings and away from the building.
What would flourishing intellectually look like as a congregation? It would mean rebooting faith formation/religious education/spiritual development opportunities, through book groups and in other ways including regular Bible studies. I personally have a long list of workshops and courses I would love to teach at church – everything from revisiting antiracism from a Scriptural perspective to the spiritual wisdom of Broadway songs. We don't have the finances or the person-power to do this quite yet, but we could work toward getting there.
What would flourishing prophetically look like as a congregation? Our missions support is magnificent, we fly a Pride flag, we march in Pride every year, and our Open and Affirming and Just Peace designations are something of which we can and should be proud. What else can and should we do to lift up just causes and support devalued and demoralized communities? The list of possibilities is endless, dependent only on our energy, creativity, and support.
As we live into our congregational star word this year, loving God, our neighbors, ourselves, and our enemies, let's not be afraid to love our congregation as well, especially in the practical ways suggested above. Such love will invite us to support the congregation with our time, talents, and treasure. May we do so joyfully and from a sense of abundance.
(As a reminder, I will be away this coming Sunday, preaching on one of my favorite Scripture texts (Mark 12:28-34) at Ascension Lutheran Church. Please welcome Rev. Dan Holt from Ascension, who will be speaking on Christian unity. I'll see you again on January 25, if not before.)
In faith,
Pastor Amanda
Jan 1
Dear Beloved Vista Grande Community,
Happy New Year! I hope 2026 brings each of us many blessings that allow us to be blessings to the world around us and to our religious community.
We engaged with Ecclesiastes a bit this past Sunday, specifically the famous passage that claims that there is a season for a everything and a time for every purpose under heaven. It certainly makes sense to consider seasons when they are changing around us, both in fall transitioning to spring and Vista Grande starting a new season as it enters its 50th year (our 50th anniversary will be December 24, 2026).
In the spirit of taking seasons seriously, I want to share with you how I am thinking about our process of moving into our time of visioning and planning. I am imagining the process as a seasonal endeavor – not planetary seasons but church seasons.
We began in Advent, a time of preparation and waiting. In keeping with both of these themes, I used the time to collect information and listen to stories, ideas, and concerns from Covenantal Partners and friends. If you participated in a small-group discussion or completed a questionnaire, thank you! (If you would still like to share thoughts, I'm happy to hear them, and if you have not completed a questionnaire and would be willing to do so, please let me know.) What I learned from you during this time will shape ideas I bring to Executive Council, ways in which I handle worship, and some specifics about our visioning/planning process.
Our Epiphany theme is “Home by Another Way” (also the title of next week's wisdom sharing), and my plan is to use this season to share ideas about how we will center our visioning process in biblically grounded relationship-building and spiritual formation. As I mentioned in Sunday's wisdom sharing, I've entered this pastoral role without an agenda about the ultimate vision the church will develop, but with a strong agenda about us having a robust visioning process in which we all listen to each other and collectively listen for the wisdom of the Spirit. We will have to be willing to be uncomfortable, to wrestle with change, and to hold some of the tensions and paradoxes I mentioned on Sunday while treating each other with respect and compassion. We will do all of this more effectively if we are spiritually grounded and relationally connected.
As we move from Epiphany into Lent, we will begin that spiritual and relational work and practice visioning around small, low-stakes issues. Expect the use of silence, prayer, music, and contemplative practices in tandem with our planning work. We will also use this time to understand the different kinds of energy that people may bring to this work so that we can be sure everyone's energy type is acknowledged and respected.
Around or soon after Easter, we will begin more concentrated planning sessions focused on larger questions about who we have been, who we are, and who we want to be. We are likely to use a modified form of Appreciative Inquiry in our planning, though I am still sorting through different models. The goal is to use much of the spring to get our planning underway, ease up in the summer (while hopefully moving small changes forward), and begin putting larger concrete changes into place as early as the fall.
Now, of course, many of you will have heard the phrase, “We plan, God laughs,” and it's quite possible that the above will change based on congregational situations yet unforeseen. That said, I think it's only fair for you to know how I'm thinking about this process. I welcome questions at any time and promise that this will be a collaborative process – because The Little Church that Can deserves no less.
In faith,
Pastor Amanda