This Sunday is Confirmation Sunday, a significant and meaningful day in the life of any congregation, including Manchester. It is the day we celebrate with a group of young people who are professing their faith publicly for the first time. It is the day we celebrate their decisions to become full members of the Body of Christ.
This Easter season, we have been working our way through the book of James, thinking about what it means to be and build the church in community together. The theme of the entire series is that faith, without works, is dead. And one of the most important works we can do is inviting, welcoming, and celebrating new members in the community. On Sunday, we have an opportunity to do just that.
This year’s Confirmation Class has been meeting and studying and working together for weeks now, forming and deepening connections, becoming community, discerning their beliefs, and sharing with one another. And they have decided they are ready to become members of the church, and specifically members of this congregation.
It is a day worth celebrating!
People are created for belonging. God made us as relational beings, in God’s own relational image. Congregations that are growing are those who have figured out a way to meet that deep felt need, the need to belong. And while there are some congregations who meet that need through uniformity of belief, Manchester UMC takes the more difficult way of unity amid diversity.
The feeling of community and belonging that Manchester UMC fosters does not arise from an insistence that all think alike or look alike or dress alike, etc. The feeling of community and belonging within this congregation arises from love. The unconditional, eternal love of God.
And so I hope ALL Y’ALL come to worship this weekend. Confirmation Sunday should set attendance records every year, reflecting the congregation’s eagerness to celebrate our newest members. We need each other! I’ll see y’all in church.
