Dear Family and Friends of First UMC of Torrance,
A few years ago, I was able to experience a very powerful Pentecost Sunday worship service. The most inspiring and powerful part of the worship for me was the reading of the Bible in French, German, Tagalog, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, sign language and English. What a powerful witness of our diversity which we often miss to appreciate. That was truly a church moment for me. God gathered people with diverse backgrounds and lifestyles and formed a church. Although the language was a challenging part of the early church, as we know, the Holy Spirit came upon people and the language problem was no longer there. That was the beginning of the church which God specifically planned in that way.
We just celebrated our long-planned centennial celebration and worship service, which was an amazing experience when we recognized and celebrated God’s plan for us and God’s abundant blessings upon our church community for the last 100 years. Look at us now, our church community 100 years later: “We are a diverse and caring community sharing the promise of life with Christ, passing the faith to the next generation.” That’s our church now and in the future!
The month of June for the United Methodist Church is annual conference time. All the annual conferences in the United States gather together to celebrate all the abundant blessings of the ministry in the past year and set the new course for the upcoming year. The theme for this year for our California-Pacific Annual Conference is “Ending Spiritual & Physical Hunger: Nourish!” We’re going to learn more about our current conditions of spiritual and physical hunger and how to put our hands together to end this need of spiritual and physical hunger for the upcoming year. That’s what the church does. I often quote from John Wesley, “You are not saved until your wallet is saved.” We, the California-Pacific Annual Conference, appreciate our diversity and blessedness through the mission and ministry for the upcoming year.
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6, NRSV)
In Christ, Pastor Jacob