Pastor's Midweek Message

November 4, 2026

Beloved,

Earlier this year, we celebrated our 70th anniversary. It was a wonderful day and I know the memories of that will last with me forever! 

But we can’t stay just in the memories of a great time, we’re always moving forward. And so it is that when the Leadership Board expressed to me this spring its desire to have the church grow, it led naturally to the question of how that might happen. That, in turn, led to the creation of our Strategic Visioning Day, which we held in the middle of October as an offsite at Chester UMC. It was a four-hour session, led by the District’s Rev. Tim Beck, where everyone who came had a chance to begin to dream about what BHUMC might look like in a few years–and what we might do to bring that about.

In my Federal career, I worked for about ten years in strategic planning. I’ve seen how strategic plans can be actual tools that get used, or how they can become lovely shelf ornaments. I’ve seen plans that came together in relatively short order, and were pretty sound–and I’ve seen plans that took years and still meant nothing. I say all that to say, the last thing I want for BHUMC is for this time spent visioning with God to be wasted!

To make the most of it, we all need to be involved. In the hallway to Grundy Parlor are all of the flip-charts that the participants created on the day. These were efforts to identify what makes BHUMC special and unique, and what the unmet needs are in our community. The ideal state is where our gifts align with the great need in our neighborhood: where God has gifted us in a particular area and we’re able to invest those gifts in helping God bring about the Kingdom for people here.

What I love about what got put on our charts is that there’s a lot of overlap among the different tables that day. There are common threads and themes to what we discussed, which I feel might be the jumping-off point for a truly fruitful set of discussions.

Rev. Beck shared with us that when this truly works best is when we are able to identify some ministry that 80% of the worshipping congregation wants to get behind–to actually spend time and resources in doing. For us, with an average worship attendance (in person and online) of 62, that means finding something that 48 of us are excited about. Can we find that? Or, better still…will God show that to us?

What comes next for us is a lot of prayer. I invite you to join with your Leadership Board in a committed season of prayer, asking for God’s discernment on our best path forward. There will be more opportunities for us, as a family, to react to different ideas and through that sifting process, to identify the thing that we will be known for. And that means communicating! So when you have thoughts, please do share them with me and with your Leadership Board team! 

It’s exciting for us to begin a journey of listening for where God is calling us. 

So let’s go.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric