Grace and peace, friends.

I found it fitting that my Advent reading for this morning was from 1 Peter 1:3-5. In it, Peter reminds us of the gift of salvation that came to us all on that first Christmas morning. Through Jesus Christ, salvation has come and we are now a people who live with a “great expectation” that, even in the midst of the pains and hurts we experience in the world, it’s not in vain. We are a people who live in the labor pains of humanity with great hope.

Why? Because Christ has come.

Greater? Christ will come again.

Today we had the special called Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church where the disaffiliation vote was passed. Come January 1, 2023 we will officially be entering into a new season of ministry as The Woodlands Methodist Church. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect walking into the last gathering I will attend as a United Methodist. In many ways, it was hard and heavy, but I’m also leaving this conference and meeting today with such hope and expectation of what’s to come.

And thus is the season of Advent.

Thank you for loving the Church, for serving so faithfully, and I look forward to what God has in store for us all in the days ahead.

To God be the glory.

— Mark