Thanks be to God! And, thanks be to you!
We received many written responses by late December as part of our Fall campaign for “Time and Talent” offerings to St. Paul’s. I intend to soon write followup letters to each responding member, to offer my personal thanks for your many offerings of help in many areas in continuing support of our parish.
We had a total of 14 written responses by the last week of December, 2025. And, I know of 6 other active members, while not submitting a written pledge of their time and talent for 2026, that have routinely demonstrated their commitment through volunteer service over several years. When I consider those 6 volunteers, in combination with the 14 written responses, the total represents 20 members. For me, it is quite an impressive number of volunteers considering the number of our active members. What a great testament and example of God’s teaching to us to “Love and serve the Lord.”
I am the first to admit that I am not a Bible scholar. But, just from listening over many years to the Sunday Bible readings, I learned from St. Paul’s many letters to the early Christian churches, that he often wrote encouragement and prayers to ask them to take care of themselves as they struggled to find a clear identity and direction after Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven.
I think Paul's many letters to the early churches of encouragement and “selfhelp” may be similar to the feelings we are experiencing now several years without a dedicated clergy person to lead us. And yet, just like Paul’s many letters of encouragement to the early church members to lead themselves in Jesus’s many teachings of how to love one another and build the church in his name, is perhaps where we are now at St. Paul’s Greenville. That is, we are first held to take care of one another and follow Jesus’s teachings. And, I think this very large percentage of our parish members that offered to help support our Parish needs, are listening to St Paul’s letter to us today. Granted, I also think we could be even more successful in taking care of ourselves and those in our local community, with an assigned regular clergy person. But even without regular clergy amongst us, let us never forget one of Jesus's first teachings to us to “Love and serve Lord.”