Testimonial for Stewardship Season 2025

By Karen Emanuelson, Parishioner

What is so special about Christ’s Church? YOU! Each of you makes Christ’s Church special. The last I checked, there were 43 views from our online postings. Welcome, online family!

When I first walked into Christ’s Church in 1969, it was on the coattails of my future husband and in-laws, Ginger and Cliff. I had an immediate feeling of belonging. It is here that I can feel God’s nearness.

Christ’s Church makes it easy for all of us to serve the Lord and our community. There are so many willing hands to make our work light.

There are many opportunities that are offered to us. In order to support our church, it is not only our financial contributions but we serve by taking on the responsibilities that make our little church strong: those who volunteer their talents at giving a reflection during our services, our altar guild, signing up for coffee hours, baking for bake sales, committee work, gift cards, gifts of coats and socks to make bodies warm or diapers to keep bottoms dry, yard work and so many other ways that our talents can shine for the good of others and reflect the commands of our Lord. It is all these needs and more that makes me feel that kindness matters.

When my children were of Sunday School age, there was a need for additional teachers. We sat around a table to discuss how to serve our church children. No one was volunteering for the 3- and 4-year-olds. Those wonderful, squiggly, hard to sit down children. At the time, I was teaching just that age group at the Jewish Community Center, so I jumped in to the relief of those present and stay for 8 years. The experience was a gift to me that allowed me to deepen my own faith as I tried lead these children to understand what messages God had for all of us. How was I to help these little ones know and recognize Jesus.

This teaching challenge reminds me of a famous story when Richard Griffin was Queen Elizabeth II’s personal police officer for 14 years. Accompanying her on a picnic in the hills near Balmoral Castle one day they met two American hikers.

“Have you ever seen the Queen?” they asked, not recognizing the monarch in plain dress. “I haven’t” the Queen answered, “but Richard here meets her regularly!” Thrilled to meet someone close to royalty, the hikers then handed the Queen their camera, posed with Richard, and asked her to take a photo. I’m sure it isn’t the first time someone has been in the presence of an important person unawares of who they were.

In Genesis 28:16, Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it,” Jacob said this after encountering God in a dream at Bethel. And in John 14:9, when Philip asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father, Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Like the hikers, the disciples had not recognized He was the one they should notice.

Like the Queen that day, Jesus hasn’t always been recognized for who He really is. Beyond a “wise teacher” or “great leader, He’s God in the flesh and King of the world.”

And so it was with this attitude that I took on my young Sunday School charges that they would hopefully recognize the teachings of Jesus.

A couple of weeks ago Vicki got an email from God. Well, I have letters from Vicki, Jim and Amy. (Okay, so did you.) The letters remind us that according to the Gospel, we need to recognize that we have all received abundant gifts from a good and loving God, but in return for our many blessings, each of us is expected to show our gratitude by developing our talents and by giving generously of our time, talents and treasure.

So, when we walk up the path and up the stair to our church, whether we are on someone’s coat tails or travel by ourselves, as Deborah Swann would say, we need to Center ourselves, recognize our talents, give our time and treasures, feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, say “Here I am Lord” and not hand someone else the camera. Thank you for being my church family because you are very important to me.