Happy New Year! Today, we reflect on the previous year’s experiences and look forward to correcting, continuing, or creating new habits for 2023. For a review of 2022 at Snellville UMC, click here. 

For 2023, I resolve to substitute the word adapt for change, which has become like “a four-letter word” that strikes most of us as ugly, painful, and profane. Just because I’ve resolved to use adapt doesn’t mean that I will not need your help, as I’m prone to break New Year's resolutions as quickly as I make them. 

Change is hard! Oops, there I go again. I mean, adapting is hard. Adapting is about accepting new beginnings; we can’t begin something new until we end something old. Adapting is ultimately about loss: loss of identity, status, purpose, place, direction, and meaning. 

Speaking of loss, we have had our fair share of challenges with loss this past year, but we also have a faithful congregation who stepped up to those challenges we’ve faced. There's no quick fix to our challenges, but I remain hopeful and encouraged that our momentum from 2022 will carry over. 

I wholeheartedly believe that we will adapt by discerning and accepting our present reality, dreaming about God’s preferred future for our church, and developing plans to do life together. We can help people in our community to flourish through relationships of influence and impact with their families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

We have a long history of serving our community. To continue as God’s legacy-thriving congregation in Snellville will mean rethinking our actions for mission and ministry. We are invited to listen to what God calls us to be and whom to listen to in the local community where He has called us to serve. Instead of continuing to do things the way we've always done, we will have to grieve that our old ideas will no longer produce the results they once did. 

Here are three ways we’re adapting for 2023.

First, I have invited 12 people to participate in a 40-day discernment team (for information, click here). Together we will listen to who, where, and how God wants to lead us as we continue our story of becoming a legacy-thriving congregation that helps our community flourish. Here are the three questions we will dwell in scripture on to listen for God’s direction:

• Lord, what is Your future picture for Snellville UMC for the next 3-10 years (including the church’s relationship with United Methodist Church)?
• Lord, how do we use our facilities to generate revenue with ministry partners?
• Lord, how do we practice the 4 Habits of Doing Life Together with the people moving into The Tomlin at Grove and the surrounding areas?

Second, we’re also offering a new group study experience called Doing Life Together. Participants will comb through the Gospels to examine how Jesus lived out and applied the four habits through scripture. For more information or to sign up, click here. 

Finally, we’ll practice one of the 4 habits of Doing Life Together each quarter, starting next Sunday with our series on Nehemiah: Rebuilding for a New Start. 

I look forward to where God will lead us in the new year as we learn to adapt to life together.

At the Intersection,

Dr. Quincy D. Brown