Louie’s Guide to Barking, Belonging, and Becoming

As we enter the month of April, we welcome beautiful signs of spring. We emerge from out of our homes without hats and gloves to hear a new bird song and witness the budding of flowers and trees. No one is as relieved to find warming temperatures as Louie, our family terrier mix. The rumor is that his owner was reluctant to give him long walks in subzero temperatures, so he has been storing up his energy and enthusiasm for a spring time explosion of exercise. Now, with so much outdoor movement of kids on scooters and fellow dogs taking hikes, Louie is barking out his spring time anthem wanting to join the parade.

There are moments when his seasonal madness can become irritating, when it’s impossible for any human to match his energy, when his loud conversation makes it difficult to focus, when he tugs at your arm turning a morning sprint into a jolting fitness experiment. Even at four-years-old he abounds with puppy energy and we wonder if he will ever grow up. (Training from his owners might help!)

But we can also acknowledge and celebrate Louie’s signs of growth. He will sit and stay for an evening treat. He has stopped from nipping at your fingers in playful bouts. He does find ways to slow down and snooze at your side during an evening movie. He can find his way to the safety of his crate rather than hiding when we plan to leave the house. He will not develop any further from his tiny stature and strapping twelve-pound frame, but he is growing up.

The Christian experience is one of continuous growth. Regardless of age or years of church membership, we all find ourselves as students or travelers along a way of new discoveries in grace, maturing in our understanding of Christ, and growing in our practice of obedience to God’s Word. In preaching to new Christians across Asia Minor, Paul says, “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

Each moment is an opportunity to practice maturity, to test out our faith, and to place reliance on the spirit of Christ as it instructs, guides, replenishes, and protects. We draw upon the modeling of Jesus to approach situations in a new way. We bring greater assurance to arenas of fear. We embrace new opportunities with the confidence of God’s provision. We release impulses of anger to implement mercy. We opt against holding grudges and find instances to practice forgiveness. More than adopting new words, our actions do the talking as we grow up in service to Christ and one another. We find ourselves more mature when we unsurprisingly see God at work in all the places where we reside and in all the things we are doing, as we are moved by and moving with God’s momentum in the world.

There are prevalent signs of the spring season, newness and beauty emerging, activity returning, God’s wonderful companions and creatures bouncing and bounding. There is also the humbling of foot washing at the Last Supper in this season. There is commitment to remain at the cross when others have distanced themselves from the hardship of suffering. There is humility, self-giving, sacrifice, and brokenness in this season. There is grief, wrestling with the experience of the disappearance of the holy. These too are part of our seasonal story presenting a challenge for our growth in the Spirit. In the loveliness and the harrowing, in brightness and the dark, in the celebration and tears, God invites us to grow into a new way of life.

PUMC 2025 – A Vision for Doing Life Together as those on the Way of Jesus

As we move through this year, growing in our faith, learning the way of Jesus, and aligning with God for the transformation of the world, I invite us to do so with the vision of four priorities for our ministry together.

• Belonging: We are creating spaces where people are at home in the love of God with themselves and one another.
• Growing: We are encouraging and developing pathways for individuals and groups to take steps forward in their practice of faith.
• Leading: We are equipping and empowering individuals to step into the serving and leadership opportunities before them.
• Celebrating: We are telling the stories of God’s faithfulness and the fruitfulness of our ministry together.