As the great modern philosopher Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Those words have never felt more true than they do today. I feel like I can't keep up with all the things life throws my way. The inbox keeps filling up, family obligations... The news is constantly changing, rushing from one important story to the next... Okay, I'm tired just writing that list.

Let's face it, we live in a fast paced, on demand lifestyle. It can be exhausting. We keep rushing to accomplish the next task. This is nothing new. From the very beginning humans have had to be reminded to REST! No really, from the beginning. The first creation story is set up to show the importance of Sabbath rest. The third commandment is to keep the Sabbath, meaning rest in God, don't work. Jesus used to go up in the mountains to pray, away from the crowds and demands of society.

But I digress. We are great at doing and struggle to simply be. This month, we are offering you a chance to slow down and be. Be still. Be peaceful. Be restful. Be with God. Be with each other. Be with yourself. Every week you will have the opportunity to experience a different prayer practice. So instead of talking about God, you will have the opportunity to talk to God.

The hope is that you will take some time in the month of November to reflect on the theme Rooted in Love, and be nourished by the Holy Spirit. There will be a mixture of crafts, meditations, video discussions and labyrinth walks. You are encouraged to drop in and experience as many or as few workshops as feels right to you. You can find out more information about the November Interterm here: plymouthucc.org/rooted

My prayer is that these workshops will be a gift to you in the midst of your busy lives. I pray this will be an oasis of peace and calm in the midst of your week. May this be a time for the Holy Spirit to draw you in to Her quiet center. May you be rooted in love.

Thank you to the Rooted planning team for cultivating this month of spiritual experiences. Thank you Renae Matkins, Tricia Medlock, Denise Morrison, Joey Prows, Sharon Smith and Mackenzie Wiggs. Also thank you Plymouth! We are able to offer opportunities like this because of your generosity and financial support. Thank you. 

Grace and Peace,
Mandy :-)

It’s Stretch Time at Plymouth! We have a Big Stretch Goal in our 2020 budget! Let’s rejoice! Stretching makes us strong! This Sunday is Consecration Sunday, the day we bring our pledge cards to the communion table in worship and ask God to bless them. (If you won’t be here, you can pledge early online or by mail or in the office.) 
 
According to the Harvard Medical School website and David Nolan, a physical therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital: Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong, and healthy, and we need that flexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints......Regular stretching keeps muscles long, lean, and flexible, and this means that exertion "won't put too much force on the muscle itself," says Nolan. Healthy muscles also help a person with balance...
 
What does this have to do with our 2020 budget? We have grown as a church, built muscle strength in staff and programming. We built a governance structure that breathes life into our aerobic fitness as we agilely recruit volunteers who respond to the crucial issues of our times and develop the spiritual formation of our congregation. We are larger and stronger that we were  ten years ago with more professional staff that give us better infrastructure. 
 
Now it's time to stretch ourselves with a large budget goal for 2020 so that we maintain our muscular flexibility in our growing staff support of God’s work through Plymouth. We need to stretch so we can have a larger range of muscular motion in our extravagant welcome to the northern Colorado community and to CSU students, staff and faculty. With a larger congregation we need to maintain healthy balance in our programming and in balancing the work shared between staff and volunteers. Stretching keeps us flexible and agile, as well as strong and  balance, for the movement of the God’s Holy Spirit in our mission and ministry as a vital congregation. 
 
This past Sunday, our conference minister, the Rev. Sue Artt, thanked us for the great generosity of Plymouth as we are the largest contributor in the conference to Our Church’s Wider Mission that provides basic support to our conference and national staff. We also excel in our four other special UCC offerings and our own community-wide and international mission giving. Sue also challenged each of us to S-T-R-E-T-C-H in giving to our 2020 budget so we can continue our strong work for God’s realm. She quoted the late Joseph Campbell, who said, “Money is neither spiritual or non-spiritual. Money is congealed energy. Releasing it is releasing life’s possibilities.” 
 
The energy of money can release life’s possibilities when spent well. When our intention, integrity, and stretching toward a meaningful goal are aligned, we release the energy of our treasure, time and talent. Generosity is generated in surprising ways! (If you were not hear this past Sunday morning, I invite you to listen to Sue’s sermon.)
 
The strength and flexibility of Plymouth as an outpost of God’s realm in a troubled world will only be maintained through the willingness of each Plymouth member to take the risk of releasing our individual congealed energies of money. Where can you take the risk of stretch in your budget? Some of us can release large amounts of money’s congealed energy. Others small. Either way it’s the s-t-r-e-t-c-h that counts. 
 
Join me in this opportunity to stretch and release God’s possibilities through Plymouth.
 
Blessings,

Do you ever want to make a bigger difference in the world?  Are you overwhelmed at times with all the issues that need crucial action and wonder how you should take action? Me, too!
 
I often wonder what difference I make in the big issues of our times. I am not regularly on the front lines protesting. Though I vote each time I get the chance, my time seems taken up with everyday actions that while helpful to others, don’t shift political or economic policy. I am deeply moved by so many human rights issues, environmental issues, peace making issues. I pray for the people on the front lines of these issues – people in our own congregation. I pray for God’s mysterious healing action in these issues. Still I am at a loss as to how I can tangibly help.

This past Sunday night as I led our 6 p.m. service I had an epiphany about a way that I am making a difference of which I was not aware. This revelation came as I watched the most recent Stewardship video for the third time that day:

The video features Arpi Miller, one of the most active members of Plymouth’s Immigration Ministry Team. Arpi told of our Ministry Team’s involvement with a legal clinic for Dreamers after the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival in September 2017. I realized at a deeper level that through my yearly pledge to Plymouth, I had helped these young people. The termination of DACA broke my heart. So unfair. However, my financial support of Plymouth made a difference in the lives of people I don’t know, but care about deeply.
 
It came back to me that the pledge Hal and I make each year to support Plymouth’s mission and ministry has a ripple effect in ways that we may never know.  Not only do we support the obvious – our three worship services, wonderful music program, our Christian formation programming for all ages, our mission and outreach in the Fort Collins community and beyond, our numerous fellowship opportunities, our beautiful building and grounds and our staff – we also make a difference in the world in surprising and unexpected ways.
 
We have a big challenge at Plymouth this year as we pledge to support our 2020 budget. Some years our budget increases in incremental ways. This year we need to make a leap of faith for the future. We need to increase our pledge income 15.4% so we can continue to make big differences in the life of our faith community and in the wider world.
 
On Sunday, our guest preacher, Dr. Charles Buck, spoke to us about “heavenly economics,” God’s economics of abundance and plenty rather than human economics of scarcity, limitations and competition. (If you weren’t able to be in worship check out his sermon here.) Dr. Buck encouraged us to look around and recognize God’s abundance. Its everywhere! Then to share it! Like love multiplies when we share love, so does God’s abundance. In fact we see abundance better when we take the risk of sharing it, of working out of heavenly economics. And sharing multiplies abundance, multiplies the difference we make. Think of it. An abundant increase of 15%+ in our budget will make an exponential increase in the difference we can make.
 
Join Hal and me in an increased faith promise pledge to Plymouth in 2020. Click here to make your pledge. Let’s make a BIG difference in God’s world!
 
Blessings,

A wonderful hymn, “God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale” (NCH 32) poses couplets of questions for us: “How does the creature say awe…praise, grace…thanks, care…life, joy…home.” Think about those pairings and how they play out in your own life: Do you respond to an awe-inspiring sunrise by praising God? Do you answer God’s grace by saying thanks? Is your response to being cared for by God to regard the sanctity of all lives? Do you respond to joy by acknowledging that you are at home with God? I wonder if a prevalent sin many of us commit is taking it all for granted…as if we deserve it and that it will always “just be there for us.”

Our church home is at a crossroads, and we need your help. Because we don’t want to burn out volunteers, this year we hired a great business manager to do Plymouth’s accounting. And because technology is moving faster than any of us can imagine, we hired a great IT/Communications professional to manage our database, ensure our computers and networks are working, lay out the Placard and send you this Staff Reflection. The rub is that we, the members and friends of Plymouth, have to pay for the services of gifted staff members, and that is going to mean that all of us need to Go Deeper and ask how we can respond to God’s grace and say thanks in a tangible way: through our giving to Plymouth.

Stewardship means different things to different members of Plymouth. To some, it implies giving a tithe – one-tenth of one’s income – to support the mission and ministry of the church. To others, it is one financial obligation among many others. For some of us, considering our financial pledge to Plymouth provides an opportunity to reflect on God’s abundance and grace, and as God’s creatures, we say, “Thanks!”

This week you will receive in the mail a letter and brochure from our Stewardship Board with all kinds of inspiring and useful information. I invite you to read it, to look closely at the Graduated Giving chart on the back and calculate what your pledge for 2020 might be, relative to your household income. (Jane Anne and I did this, and we’re increasing our own pledge to Plymouth in 2020.) And I invite you to pray about how you, as a creature of God, will say thanks.

Gratefully,

P.S. At a special meeting of board chairs a few weeks ago, there was a suggestion that we emulate Heifer Project with sample giving opportunities…knowing that we aren’t actually giving a flock of geese or a water buffalo. So, I’m including some samples of what your pledge can help fund.

The United Church of Christ blends the advantages of governing systems from the churches that covenanted to form our denomination. The Christian Congregational stream gives us our emphasis on local control and the autonomy of local churches, while the Evangelical & Reformed stream helps us articulate the ways we are connected to one another to accomplish those things no individual congregation can do alone. “Covenant” is not only a foundational theme in the scriptures; it is the way individual believers relate to one another to form churches -- remember the Membership Covenant we shared with new members last Sunday --  and how churches, associations and conferences (“expressions of the church”) provide support to one another. 

The UCC Constitution describes covenant this way:
Within the United Church of Christ, the various expressions of the church relate to each other in a covenantal manner. Each expression of the church has responsibilities and rights in relation to the others, to the end that the whole church will seek God's will and be faithful to God's mission. Decisions are made in consultation and collaboration among the various parts of the structure. As members of the Body of Christ, each expression of the church is called to honor and respect the work and ministry of each other part. Each expression of the church listens, hears, and carefully considers the advice, counsel and requests of others. In this covenant, the various expressions of the United Church of Christ seek to walk together in all God's ways.  (Article III)
 
This Saturday is the Annual Meeting of the Platte Valley Association, of which Plymouth is a key partner.  Associations are the nearest level of covenant among churches. Our Platte Valley Association encompasses thirteen congregations stretching from Longmont to Casper, from Laramie to Sterling.  The Association is the body entrusted with nurturing and vetting potential clergy through the ordination process, discerning everything from school transcripts and internship experiences to psych evaluations and criminal background checks. It is the body called upon when there are allegations of clergy unfitness for ministry, and it helps when invited by churches riven by internal troubles. It pools resources from its member congregations to provide scholarship assistance to seminary students, continuing education grants for clergy, and support for mission trips and outreach. In a denominational system that often produces “Lone Ranger” ministers and congregations, it provides fellowship, trainings, connection, encouragement and support.
 
The Association, like the Conference (our Rocky Mountain Conference covers Colorado, Utah and much of Wyoming), the national General Synod, and the central offices of the denomination, is supported by its local congregations through Our Church’s Wider Mission (“OCWM”). In keeping with congregational traditions of financial freedom, each church determines its OCWM support. Declining membership in many churches has caused a decrease in OCWM support since the work of local, regional and national settings are often less visible and thus easier to cut when local churches have budget crunches. Yet paradoxically, it is often then that congregations need the resources those bodies provide. I was recently talking to a lay leader from a congregation in our Association that had a significant crisis a few years ago.  “We still exist because of this Association. If it hadn’t been for their intervention, we would never have made it. Things were going from bad to worse, and we didn’t know what to do. We are forever grateful.” They are still a very small church in a small community. They are also the only Open and Affirming presence, with ministries reaching far beyond their numbers. They provide a continuing UCC testimony there because of the generosity of the larger churches -- like Plymouth! -- that they are in covenant with. By the same token, systems supported by OCWM are indispensable to churches like ours when we search for new staff and ministers, have young people following God’s call to ministry, join with other churches for mission work, and provide resources churches can’t invent on their own.
 
A great example of the Association’s work is the keynote workshop for this year’s meeting, the Rev. Jane Vennard. Many of you are familiar with her from women’s retreats and prayer workshops she has led at Plymouth over the years. You might not be aware that a few years ago, she awakened to issues of racial justice in ways that went beyond traditional liberal thought to acknowledging her privilege as a white person in our society, and she answered a deep call to action. So she will be leading a workshop:

RACISM THROUGH THE EYES OF WHITE PRIVILEGE: A SPIRITUAL QUEST
 
White people have commonly thought that issues of racism are about people of color. We often overlook the fact that whiteness is a racial issue because in our culture white is the norm. This morning exploration will address our white privilege, our white fragility and our contribution to white supremacy. Through story telling and reflection we will take the reality of racism from our heads to our hearts. In this way, the study of racism becomes soul work opening new paths into our spiritual lives.

The meeting will be 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Longmont, followed by the installation of their Associate Pastor, the Rev. Amelia Dress. All are welcome, not just clergy and delegates; if you would like to attend, RSVP to our registrar, Linda Petit for lunch. (Jane Vennard’s program is 9 – noon, so you may choose to leave prior to lunch, after which we have the business meeting.)
 
We are blessed to be in covenant with such gifted people. Thank you for your generous support of Plymouth’s commitment to OCWM that makes these ministries possible.
 
Peace,
Rev. Dr. Mark Lee
 
Mark recently celebrated his tenth anniversary as Plymouth’s Director of Christian Formation for Adults. He also serves as chair of the Platte Valley Associations’ Committee on Ministry.