Our Community Church

• Annual Meeting May 17th after Services; your voice and vote matters to the continued future of CCNOT. Pot Luck to follow.
• Strawberry Social on June 27th at 2pm.
• Discussion Circle is on the last Sunday after Church; this month we will look at the Sermon on the Mount. These discussions are here to to inspire, teach, guide, and challenge us–all are welcome to join us (this is an exploration of sacred passages, poetry, and words to inspire us toward freshness, surprise, and wonder).

Visit our Calendar of Events to explore our upcoming dates and times

All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).

This morning’s service includes a Membership Service. There is no written or recorded Reflection for this Sunday.

Remember that you Matter and are Welcome.

Gather for our Annual Meeting, it is a sweet time to remember who we are:

As our sign out front says, All are Welcome.  All Are Welcome is one of our statements of faith as a Community Church.  We believe all are welcome and we are called to actively make sure that all feel welcome.  It encompasses our belief in Peace, Connection, Community, Love, Forgiveness, and Acceptance.  As a group, we have our role to be sure that All are Welcome.  As individuals within this community, we have our individual roles to be sure that All are Welcome.  

We start this welcome by coming together as the UCC, the UUA, and our Nondenominational group.  I think better said, we are a Community Church.  A church for neighbors, friends, and a whole community. 

We come as United Church of Christ (Congregational) where we unite as a congregation, not to believe in exactly the same way, but to be in the presence of Grace to support, love, and respect one another.  UCC are led by the footsteps and Way of Jesus. Led by Love.  

We come as Universalist Unitarians, where we believe that there is a Universal Grace or (maybe) God…or put another way, an organizing Universal Love that leads us toward Universal truth, acceptance, and Love that guides us toward the work of truth and Love.   

We come as Nondenominational, which makes sure that there is a place for all of us to feel welcome and a part of this gathering together for the work of Love.  

Each and every one of us is unique and special and Loved.  Each of us carrying different ways of expressing deepest Love in this world.  All of us walking a way of Love and gathering together in community with an overarching theme of Love.  

We come together as Community. 

Together, these seemingly differing faiths, we seemingly different people, unite as a Call toward Love.  A call, perhaps, guided in differing ways: Listening to the footsteps of Jesus. Listening to the whisper of the Universal.  Listening to the breath of Spirit…but always calling us together as One people leaning into the Way of Love and Connection and Grace.  

We come for different reasons.  We come when we are hopeful and when we are struggling to find hope.  We come to lay down our heavy burdens at the feet of something bigger than ourselves and we come full of heaviness we are unable to shed.  We come to forgive and we come struggling to forgive.  We come lost and we come found.  We come in need of help and we come to be of help.  And everything in between.  

We come to a place of shelter and comfort.  A place where we can find a bit of respite from the storms of life.  A place to remember that we are not alone.  

Recently, I was talking to a dear friend, a soul friend, and we decided that among all the other reasons we come together here is that we come together as…Friends.  We express our love through deepest friendship.  We work well together because we choose to be friends with and for one another.  

It is another way of expressing a faith-filled love. It is another way of expressing our ministry.  

One of my favorite spiritual authors tells us that we need soul friends to be well in this world.  We need those who walk with us and talk with us and challenge us to think about our faith, our belief, and our work.  Those who help us, walk with us, and challenge us to act in alignment of our belief and choices.  Those who help keep us on the path, who help us  to find our path, and who guide the way and welcome us back to the path.  

Our friends.  Friends who care not just for our lives, but our souls and our spirit, our truest self.  Soul Friends who love us, and whom we love, on a deeper level.  

We need each other!  We need guidance and support for the most important thing in our life…our spiritual wellness (then tricks down into our mental and physical wellness).  Why would we do this alone?  Maybe we can “go it alone” (maybe), but I doubt it.  I would argue we need both spiritual solitude and spiritual community to be truly whole.  And…beside, why would we want to be alone on the most important journey of this life?  

As friends, we are beacons and lanterns for one another.  

We can do together what we could never do alone.  

I’m often asked, and membership time is a good time to reflect on: why?  Why join a church?  Why do we need church?

I am currently reading The Spiritual Brain, which explores the theory that human beings are “wired” for spirituality.  Our brains are hard wired toward spirituality.  That’s pretty amazing.  People who have faith, and gather in faith communities, who are supported, and believe in something bigger than themselves are better able to thrive in this world.  

This is a newer study than that one we have talked about before that people who go to church live longer.  This one says we are better able to navigate the trials of the this world in concrete ways.  Those who are spiritual, and have a spiritual home (friends; soul friends), are less anxious and depressed, and are more resilient in the challenges of life, than those who do not.  

That’s pretty good news.  

I think it’s not only believing in something greater than ourselves, a bigger purpose or plan, but also having deepest friendships.  Friendships of real love, support, and guidance.  A place and people to anchor us in a world that can sweep us off our feet with those sudden sneaker waves, wild storms, unexpected tides…

We have a Home; an Anchor.  We have Friends.  We remember.  We are guided and supported.  And we have a purpose…to be part of a home, to be a friend, to remember, to guide, and support.

We choose to seek the good in one another and our selves.  

We choose to seek the Light and we choose to continually kindle the light in ourselves, one another, and the world.  We are not alone.  

We come together as One Community of Faith and Love.  

Today, some of us are feeling called to join our minds and hearts and hands together to do what we cannot do alone.  A call to be more together.  To unite ourselves as a family of faith.  Brothers and sisters, Soul Friends, siblings called to love and minister.  To be of light in this world and hands of courage, gentleness, and kindness. Together; for we cannot live this life in isolation.