"God, pick up the pieces.
Put me back together again."

~ Jeremiah 17:14 (The Message translation)

Finding Community in Church: The Missing Piece

In the busyness of our days, it can be pretty easy to miss special moments. Sometimes it seems that each day is a mix of a thousand moments colliding together so quickly that it’s hard to separate the important details needed to make the memories last. Honestly, just being asked to put these thoughts into writing for this reflection, it feels like the slowest we have moved in the last several years in order to focus on what we’ve missed. And even then, our first inclination was to look to ChatGPT to help us save time, but that didn't really work.

However, we have come to realize that Saint John’s fosters these much-needed opportunities for growth, purpose, support, guidance, and reflection. Our testimonies as liturgists this past Sunday, as we kicked off our October Stewardship focus, attempted to show how grateful we are to have a slower and steadier force in our lives like this inspiring church. At Saint John’s we are greeted by friendly smiles and genuine interest. This church fosters a sense of belonging that feels like family; people actually take the time to get to know one another.

We shared an anecdote about how, as a couple, one of the ways we attempt to slow down on our own is with the beauty and complexity of a difficult puzzle. We have had not one, but two moments where we had the puzzles come down to a single missing piece. Two puzzles, ten years apart, around 10,000 pieces, and two missing pieces. For us it was more funny than frustrating, but we definitely experienced both emotions at one point or another. It was really serendipitous, then, to hear Laura's Children's Time message describing how church community is like finding the missing piece together. It was one of those moments when life and church really resonated. 

This happened again in Pastor Hilary's sermon when she referenced various ways we can be “nudged” by the Holy Spirit.  It felt like she was reading a chapter out of our playbook! Time spent in nature, worship music, moments of silence, journaling — these are ways that we have consciously tried to create environments and opportunities to feel closer to God. Upon reflection, though, we can see the artistry of God's work regardless of our attempts to control these opportunities. 

These connections are not singular phenomena in our relationship with Saint John's.  In retrospect, we can see that there were some stages of our lives where this relationship was most needed, whether we realized it at the time or not:  as newlyweds, trying to merge two lives with different spiritual backgrounds yet overlapping opinions of the simplicity that love should conquer all; as young professionals, looking for fellowship despite a hectic and bustling schedule; as new parents, with all of the unexpected twists and turns that come with that amazing journey; during the pandemic, as we wrestled with so many new ways of doing things that it was sometimes hard to slow down and find goodness in rare moments of normalcy; and during times of loss, as we mourned the passing of Taylor's mother, Kassi's father, and close family friends all within the same year.

Through each of these stages, Saint John’s was there. Every Sunday. Bringing the slow breaths in that we needed (even online). These days, we frame a lot of things through the lens of our son, JC.  We are given much peace when we see positive developmental moments such as the stories he learns during Children’s Time and Sunday School, songs from Summer Bible Camp that he sings, or life lessons he learns while volunteering with Hope Food Pantry. 

In the end, we are simply grateful for the sense of belonging, calm consistency, and purpose that this church has brought into our lives. Just like that mosaic puzzle, it has filled the missing piece, creating a supportive space where we can grow and thrive together. We look forward to watching this puzzle grow alongside our church family. 

Tags: stewardship, community, church family