“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” This is what Jesus tells those who want to know what faith is all about, what church is all about, what being a disciple is all about. It’s his commandment to us to love whole-hearted, to live whole-hearted, to serve whole-hearted, and to give whole-hearted.

As our Fall sermon series on DISCIPLE comes to a close, this commandment to love will be the Scripture text for Sunday, November 13. It’s the day of our annual Church/Charge Conference, holding ourselves accountable for the faithfulness of our ministry and mission across the course of this past year. Our new District Superintendent, the Rev. Mark Nakagawa, will be here to lead, listen, and no doubt challenge us to greater depths of faith and service. Whole-hearted!

It’s also Consecration Sunday, the day each year when we dedicate our financial pledge to support that mission and ministry in the year to come. We are asked to consider the manifold generosity of God’s gifts to us and, in return, to give in proportion to support Christ’s on-going work in the world. Whole-hearted!

The faith we share as disciples of Christ Jesus brings wholeness to our lives and transforming witness to our world. Nothing and no one is left out. Let us bring the fullness of who we are and the bounty of all we have in grateful celebration of all that has been and all that is yet to be.

Whole-hearted!