– Kim R. Smith, Sound District Lay Leader
Sometimes I just stop and give thanks for the way God works things out in my life. One of the many things I give thanks for is allowing me to serve the Sound District in two different roles over the past decade or so. He knew, even when I didn’t…what I needed to grow in my faith and in service to him. He planted me in just the right gardens to grow. It has been a messy and complicated continuing process, but I am a different person in some ways than I was a decade ago and that is all God.
In my small hometown there are two United Methodist Churches. I was raised in one and my husband and I raised our girls in the other. I call both home at this stage in my life. Until I became involved in the workings of the District, I was disconnected from the connection in both churches. I don’t think it was necessarily intentional. I think the local and the greater church were just so intertwined they seemed one in the same through my lens. My understanding of being a United Methodist was a bit cloudy if I am being honest.
Then as C4C Coordinator and now as Lay Leader, light began to peek through the cloudiness. I could see the greater UMC pouring into the local churches who were in need. I saw firsthand the way the UMC supports local missions that were so beautiful in churches across the conference. I saw UMCOR serve and quite frankly, is still serving our community in spots due hurricanes and it changed my perspective on the meaning of connection. Connection for me has come to mean being able to do so much more TOGETHER than we could ever do alone. We are connected to each other and to the strangers we may never meet. We are an enormous vessel of his light in a very cloudy world.
I began to see apportionments differently as well. Let’s face it, in small churches that are struggling often apportionments begin to feel like another bill to pay right along with the light bill. Now when I hear the word, I see all the help and support behind the blessing of apportionments. Our giving helps our neighbors who are struggling in a million diverse ways.
Most importantly, I have been forced to explore what I believe at my core and what I am passionate about in this temporary home of ours. Each time I learned something new about the United Methodist Church and our areas of focus, I became increasingly more clear about why God planted me where he planted me for his glory and not mine. If we want to truly transform this world and I do…we cannot do it alone.
I know what I need now to answer the call and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. I need to not only be accepted but be affirmed by a people of faith who want to take church outside the doors. I need to be a part of sinners who recognize themselves as such and want to be closer to God tomorrow than any of us were today. I long to be a part of a congregation that welcomes all, recognizing no sin is greater than the other and that limiting access to anyone we deem unworthy…well the pews will eventually be empty folks. We ALL sin and we all need God.
When I close my eyes after prayer and listen to worship music, my mind imagines a place where the need to own property is replaced with the realization that the buildings belong to God…not people. In my mind’s eye…the congregation is as diverse as my community. People can acknowledge disagreement about one issue that sends them to opposite corners of debate but still celebrate with what some might call insane Christian love…the ninety-nine other things they agree on and do beautiful things in the name of God…OUR Father…TOGETHER.
Every personality test I have ever taken says in one form or another, that I am an idealist. I’ll take it! That means I have hope left in what this world CAN be…what we CAN be as a people…and what God WILL be. Some might call that idealistic…I choose to call it faith in the one true God who created us all…knowing we were going to make a mess of it and who is still waiting with outstretched arms for each and every one of us to push the clouds of this life toward the clarity of a life with him both now and forever.