At our leaders meeting this week, we prayed Paul's prayer in Phil 1:3-11, giving thanks for many years of fruitful "partnership in the gospel" for Westville Methodist, and asking God for wisdom that we "may be able to discern what is best" going forward. We celebrated all that we have seen happening in our church over the last quarter and then spent time reflecting on where we go now, asking ourselves what we long to see at WMC. Two dominant themes emerged from that conversation:
1. Our leaders expressed a longing for a renewed passion in our worship services. With that in mind, we will set aside time this quarter to focus on praying and planning for our three distinctly different services.
2. We also said that we want to be a community that is welcoming to youth and children and we long to see more young people feeling at home at WMC. Good things are happening in our youth and children's ministries (at our Covenant Service next weekend, we will dedicate our growing group of teachers and helpers) but if you share this longing, please make an effort to connect with our young people - learn some names, start some conversations. A growing children's and youth ministry is not just about the programme - young people keep coming back to where they are known and loved.