Hello and Goodbye!

One of our Senior Adults greeted me on a Sunday morning a few months ago after having been gone for several weeks visiting family. He told me a bit about where he had been and then let me know that I wouldn't see him for the next few Sundays because he would be away again. I smiled and said, "Hello and Goodbye."

August is a "Hello and Goodbye" month for many in our area. This morning someone came through the office and welcomed me home, only to tell me that they would see me again in September as they were going to be in Canada for a month...Hello and Goodbye!

Westwood is a very mobile community of faith, never more so than in this last month of summer. I do not begrudge this travel as I have just come from home from nearly two weeks away myself. It is tempting to just move along through our schedule as usual during this month of high travel, but when planning several months back, our staff and visioning council thought we would do something a bit different in August to change our worship and Bible study a bit for those who will be in town, and for those who may have family visiting or new neighbors they might want to invite. August Sundays at Westwood, as you have heard by now, will feature a 9 a.m. worship time and 10:15 Bible study with food and fellowship in between services, all in a more casual atmosphere. Youth and children will continue their regular Sunday School classes at 10:15, but adults will meet together in Whitten Hall for one class, focusing throughout the month on some of our favorite biblical characters, beginning August 7th with several folks sharing about a favorite character, followed by a study I will lead on Mary Magdalene. Some of our deacons will be available to assist those who may need help with the stairs to Whitten Hall so everyone can participate.

Twentieth-century preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick, once wrote, "Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it." My prayer is that these temporary changes will spark our worship and Bible study during these late days of summer causing us all to consider in new and challenging ways how the living Christ is at work around us.

It will be a month of hellos and goodbyes. Let's make it a month to remember in worship and Bible study at Westwood.

Jim Abernathy