Friends in Faith,

The question comes to us in a thousand different ways each day. "How are we to offer Christ to a world that doesn't know....or in many senses even care who he is?" In the Bay Area only 3% of the population goes to any Church at all. And even within our Church communities we find those who wonder why we talk so much about Jesus. It could be...and is argued in certain places, that we live in a "post Christian" world.

It's a challenging concern, and an exciting mission.

And it rests on one primary reality for us as Christians. We are called to share the Gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ. This saving message of new life, hope, and justice awaits both the telling and the living. As christians we cannot avoid it and still claim the name of Christ.

In the coming weeks and months I will be sharing some ways that we already share this message, as well as some suggestons for new ways that we can sare and live.
What follows is a first effort in this regard.

This morning the sounds of eighty youngsters filled the halls of our Church facililty as we opened our new partner ministry with the West Portal Elementary School Parents Club. We are working with them to offer a Science Camp and Vacation Bible School for three weeks to kids who would otherwise have neither science nor religious traning.

Partnerships within our local community is a key element in how we reach out both in service and in evangelical invitation.

Whether it's our partnership with the Golden Gate Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, where we assure that eighty-five children receive musical tranining, or our Tutorial Ministry, where twenty-five elementary school kids receive help with homework from positive adult role models, we assume a partnership with those who may not be "Christian." And in so doing, we not only have a chance to lend a hand where it's needed, but we get to share! Our outreach efforts are rooted in the fundamental assumption that we must be serving the community in the name of Jesus Christ. We don't do it annonymously, or timidly, but joyfully because of our commitment to God through Jesus Christ.

And so we build on this.

From our partnership ministry with Gum Moon that gave rise to the Asian Family Resource Center to our commitment to the San Francisco United Methodist Mission, we reach out to young and old. From our Mission commitment to Wesley Methodist Church in South Africa to our shared work with church members as they support orphanges, build hospitals and provide fresh water throughout Africa, we reach across bounaries of nation and race. From our engagement in "The Edge" Campus Ministry at SFSU to my work with Homeless advocacy and social justice concerns here in the City of San Francisco, we claim our anceint heritage of solidarity with the poor and oppreseed.

This is all fundamentally evangelical work. In all of it we offer Jesus Christ.

There is, of course, more that we can and will be doing. But for now, think a moment. Pray a bit and give thanks for the opportunities that fall to us as we move forward and continue to build bridges of understanding and hope within our community and throughout this city and nation.

Peace,
Pastor Schuyler