Thank you for being a neighbor! The fifteen minutes it takes to enjoy this message may forever change the way you look at our shore visitors! What makes a good neighbor? Are you one!? What kind of neighbor are you? Let’s consider the new neighbors we will welcome to our worship, our streets and neighborhoods, our beaches, this Summer!
Four Summer Conversations:
- Have you always lived here in Cape May? Awesome. If so, you’re a Remainer. How did you decide to stay in this neighborhood? Did you stay because of work? Maybe a family fishing business? Landscaping? Farming? Have you briefly lived in any other places? What keeps you here?
- Were you born somewhere else? Super. You’re a Relocator. Where did you move from? Did you move from an urban area? (Perhaps Philadelphia?) Or, did you move here from a Suburban, or Rural community? Why did you choose to move to this neighborhood?
- Or, maybe, you were born here, but moved away, but moved back later in life. That makes you a Returner. How old were you when you left our neighborhood the first time? Where did you first move to and why? What caused you to move back to this neighborhood? Before coming back, where did you move from? Would you characterize where you moved from as Suburban? Rural? Urban?
- Are you a seasonal visitor? Then you’re a Retreater, someone who is vacationing on a seasonal retreat for a day, weekend, week, or all Summer long. How did you choose Cape May as a place of retreat? Have you vacationed here before, or is this your first time? What are your lasting Cape May memories you take home to share?
Let’s create welcoming conversations at the shore this Summer. Engage people you meet with an open and inquisitive spirit. Have fun by discovering whether those you meet are a Remainer, Relocator, Returner, or Retreater. And this Sunday, find out something really amazing about Lydia, who most mistakenly regarded as the first European believer in Jesus. She wasn’t from Europe! With the Apostle Paul, we can become a strategic neighbor and improve our cultural humility as he did when he had Conversations At the Shore.
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Release Your Gifts! Easter Makes it Possible!
The Osborne 1, a popular portable computer at the time, weighed in at 23 lbs.! I still recall the memory of the Rev. Ronald Johnson every week lugging his Compaq portable up flights of stairs and placing it on one of the classroom’s tiny desks. Power cords were everywhere since none of these early “portables” had long-lasting batteries! As a class of ministry trailblazers, we helped each other learn how to use the best available tech and techniques to produce the best ministry outcomes.
In 1983, I referred to the intersection of theology and technology as TheoTech, and I believe the church now more than ever, needs to hang out at that same corner if the Good News of Jesus Christ is to widely seen and heard, and transform the lives of families and our neighborhoods!
On a sunny day in March, just before Easter, a new church was starting. Energy and anticipation were running high. Over two hundred people signed the charter documents and publicly pledged their resources of mind, body, and spirit to achieve the mission of the new congregation. Neighbors got together and agreed that God has challenged them to make a positive difference in their community. They were committed to each other and their town. Denominational leaders, community leaders, supporters, and neighbors crowded the site as ceremonial shovels were placed into the soil. The founding pastor read scripture and preached the first sermon. Afterward, the celebration continued in songs and stories of faith. For years to come, the community was blessed because of the great things God did in their midst!
