At our Anniversary Celebration this past Saturday, Father Kevin shared vision for this next season of Savior's life together and invited us to join in prayer for wisdom and discernment (listen or read a summary). As the staff, vestry and clergy considered this summer, we are invited to prayerfully consider:
What are you thankful about in our life together?
Take some time to talk to the Lord about that.
What are some of the challenges you experience in our life together?
As you bring these before the Lord, do you sense any invitations?
As our leaders discerned a sense that we are being invited to go deeper that we might be stronger for others, let us pray together about both our Inward and Outward Journey.
Inward Journey:
What inward communal practices do you enjoy in our life together? Is God stirring something in you there?
What invitations do you sense for us as a body, in our continual formation as God's people?
Outward Journey:
Let us seek God's direction as we prayerfully consider these categories Father Kevin put before us:
Serve our Neighbor in Need: As you pray for our friends of the Savior and neighbors, does anything particular come to mind?
Sending Out People to Their Vocations: What vocation are you sent out to each week? Does God have something to say to you in this? Whom else at Savior can you pray for as they do their daily work?
Start Churches: Please pray for the Pachecos as they plant a church in East Garfield Park, and for the Richters, as they discern the first steps in planting a church in Oak Park, for the community of Oak Park and for God to raise up people to participate in this work. Pray also for others who might be sensing a call to participate in church planting.
Seek Justice: Let's wonder together about how God will lead us to seek justice in the world. Will it include:
C4SO Children's Ministry Leadership?
ACNA Women's Leadership Support?
Church-to-Church Partnerships?
Other outworkings of our gifts/passion?
As you pray, please feel free to share with Father Kevin and our vestry what comes to mind. We are eager to discern together what God has for us in this next season of our life together.
Sandy Richter, Savior’s Pastor of Adult Formation, grew up in the Church of God, but gravitated toward 'higher church' settings in college, making her way to the ACNA and Church of the Savior in 2013. Sandy and her husband love the liturgy and tradition they have found in Anglicanism, and the warmth and depth of spirituality at Savior.