Dear Glen Mar friends,

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes—today happens to be my birthday and I’m so grateful for God’s blessings in my life—and the people of our church are among the best blessings. I’m so proud to be the lead pastor of a church like Glen Mar!

It’s also an honor to be in ministry with our terrific youth and those who serve and teach and lead them. I’m so grateful for last week’s worship—and the way our terrific youth ministered to all of us! Youth are not (just) the church of tomorrow—at Glen Mar they are the church of today.

I was in a worship service earlier this week where we sang, “Here I Am to Worship,” including the line that God is “altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.” It got me thinking about how God’s vision for the world (and certainly our work as a church) is “All together” work. Our God is Triune (all together and altogether, actually—shout out to the grammar fans among us), and is therefore a sort of community in Godself (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). The Church is the body of Christ, where ALL are needed—all gifts, all parts, all people—to make the body work as it is intended. And when we are in worship, it works best when we are “all together”—including our online church family, and in our singing, praying and praise, the Spirit moves best when we are “all together.” The participation of so many Glen Mar folks, from the children to the youth to the “seasoned” among us, is a testimony to the way we are all needed, all called to be in ministry together, all called to serve Christ, all together.

I hope you’ll join us this week in worship as we learn from another Witness at the Cross—the Beloved Disciple.

See you in church,

Pastor Mandy