Church & Community

As we listen for God’s call together, one question keeps coming back to me: What relationships will define us as a church? Who will we share life with? Who will we learn from? Whose joys and needs will shape our prayers and our purpose? Because I’ve learned this much about God: God never creates in isolation.

Maybe that’s why the creation story has always been my favorite part of the Bible. And yes — I know that makes me sound like the guy in book club who only read chapter one and still tries to offer commentary… not ideal for someone in my line of work! But the beginning matters. In those first verses we see God creating, and God never creates just one solitary thing. Heaven and earth. Light and darkness. Sea and sky. Sun and moon. Everything made in relationship, each thing giving meaning and shape to something else.

It’s a reminder that God’s medium of creation is relationship. Life happens as things are drawn together — their differences, their harmony, their tension, their shared purpose. That’s how creation took its form. And honestly, that’s how we take ours as well.

When I think about my own life, I think of the people who have shaped me — folks who encouraged me, nudged me, challenged me, frustrated me, taught me, or simply showed up at the right moment. You probably have your own list. Those relationships didn’t just fill our calendars; they formed our character. They helped make us who we are.

And church isn’t any different. God forms churches the same way God formed creation — by weaving us into relationships that help us grow into the community God is calling us to become. The relationships we nurture today will help define who we are tomorrow.

That’s why moments like our partnership with Beaverdam Elementary mean so much. It’s more than delivering Thanksgiving meals — it’s one small way God is bringing two communities together so that something new can grow: compassion, connection, and shared hope for our neighbors.

I believe God is shaping Knightdale UMC through relationships just like that. And as we continue this season of listening, discerning, and dreaming, I’m grateful to be asking alongside you: Who is God inviting us to draw near to next? And how might those relationships help form us into the church God needs right now?

Will you pray with me?

Above is a picture of the great gift you at KUMC gave to some families at Beaverdam Elementary at Thanksgiving! What a blessed opportunity it was to lean on the relationship with their social worker and staff to support God’s children, our siblings. While we keep our eyes out for the relationships forming our church, we should stop just as often to pray for them even before we’ve met them.

Lord of creation, you paint the whole world around us with careful and thoughtful decision.

You have brought people into and out of my life

as part of my own creation.

For those that I have loved, it’s easy to say thank you.

For those that have hurt me, I sometimes still ask why.

Where there is still room to create in me

help me open my life to the people that will form me as a beloved child of God.

Even before I meet them, create in them an abundance of grace.

Let our relationship be called good.

Amen.

“Listening is the first act of loving.”

Steph