Back To The Future!

“Many people would define the ‘good life’ as one that’s free of pain, hardship and heartache. But I’ve learned that adversity is actually an opportunity. It’s a gift, though it may not look like it in the moment. The difficulties life throws at you can be a doorway to something better―something you hadn’t even dreamed was possible.”
Drew Brees, MVP of the 2010 Super Bowl

All things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes.

Romans 8:28

I guess it took 55 years for me to learn that life is best lived as an adventure - and this summer is an adventure! It’s a roller coaster adventure for the world, national and local economies. But, when faced with adversity, I love to see true grit in people. I met with a number of people last week who are going through tough times financially and I left not only determined to pray for them, but to make our church a better “inspiration station.” – It’s my goal that every week our church will send people out stronger than they were before they walked through the doors. But, not content with the immediate, Washington Cathedral is planning an uplifting breakthrough strategy for this coming fall.

This is the most exciting time of my life. Excitement always brings change and that’s usually unsettling. As a first step, because finances are a challenge, we are going to discontinue mailing the radiance (at least until fall). This will represent a sizable savings to the church. **So if you would like to continue to receive this weekly inspiration via e-mail, please make sure we have a current e-mail address for you. We will also be discontinuing the big weekly bulletin for the rest of the summer. You will still get a smaller version with a sermon handout, communication card and giving envelope; but it won’t be “chock full.” So in order to keep up on all the great summer and early fall activities available to you, you can pick up an events flyer from the information tables, carefully read the PowerPoint ads showing on the screens before each worship service, and regularly check out our website www.wacathedral.org. This again represents a solid savings to the church for the month of August which is the toughest month of the year for us financially.

You may have noticed that each one of our congregational worship services is becoming more and more of a family. Each service is unique and focused on creating lifelong friendships. This is a part of our long-term strategy you will be hearing more about. We are appointing Congregational Pastors for each congregation and Deacons to help with making each congregation feel more and more like family. Of course you can attend whenever is most convenient for you, but if you plug into one congregation on a regular basis you will find great opportunities for a deeper walk and deeper friendships. I will still be doing my share of preaching, but the focus is “back to the future.” Going back to the loving family that we started out as and moving away from a church which puts on a massive number of worship services. Each worship service or “congregational family” is developing a team of committed people to help us make this happen. In fact, next summer we are planning family camps for each congregation in our church and we will return a church on fire with the closeness that Christ wants us to have.

These are exciting times for this church which dreams of being a great caring network. Your friendship, support, and patience will be deeply appreciated.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White