WHO WE ARE…or… WHO WE WILL BE

We Encounter…the Living God
We Belong…To One Another
We Become…Into People Who Are Like Christ
We Proclaim…The Good News
We Demonstrate…Kingdom Work
We Are Faithful…We and We Steward

As we look back at 2025, we had a trajectory toward a Missional posture of not just learning about Jesus, but becoming his presence in the world – Incarnational ministry. We began with a foundation based on Theophany, God’s self revelation. How God revealed himself through The Wisemen, Baptism, Miracles, and Creation. This allowed us to base our foundation on the fact that God is actively present in making himself known. During Lent and Easter we explored Personal Encounters of Jesus. It was here that we explored the manner in which Jesus meets people, us, in our specific context and calls us by name. We spent the late spring and early summer exploring Jesus as Shepherd, Teacher, The Living Water, Physician, and even Gift then we immediately showed how The Early Church imparted these realities through Prayer, Community Life, and Storytelling. Again, this was a time in which we built upon the same foundation in theophany – the church lived out the Identity of Jesus in the World. The question was how do we do that?

From here we began to explore and perhaps see the Psalms in a new light. Our series in the psalms provided tools for spiritual depth – forgiveness, wonder, resilience, stillness. As we look at our own personal spiritual formation, we must realize that faith must be experienced and practiced, not just believed to practice and experience our faith, we must make sure we are on The Right Path, Going in The Right Distance, Sharing That Rhythm, that cadence, and being able to sustain that journey for the long haul. This is enables us to seek The One who calls us. It is during this trek or quest, that we find out who we are and even who we are not.

AN INTENTIONAL PATTERN

• Recognize God’s Presence
• Encounter Jesus personally
• Understand the multiple dimensions of Christ
• Understand how the early church lived this out
• Develop spiritual depth
• Respond to God’s Timing
• Actively follow and embody Christ’s way

For Emory Methodist Church to be The Church, we must be willing to take these rhythms of life and faith into our neighborhoods, where we work, and where we play.

THIS IS WHERE WE ARE GOING

Advent set the stage and the tone for 2026 as we turned our attention to the Good News: God Keeps His Word (promise announced and fulfilled).

• Epiphany: The Word Goes Forth (promise in action through Jesus)
• Lent: Shaped By the Word (Preparation through formation Shapes us)
• Easter: God’s Promise Cannot Die
• Pentecost: The Promise Poured Out
• Walking In The Word(The Promise, God’s Word, Shapes our daily life)
• The Promise Not Yet Fulfilled(Promise Points Forward)

The Year will be about God’s Faithfulness. With Matthew 28:18-20 as our Commissioning,
I say,

“This is our mandate. Go. Make disciples. And behold—I am with you always.”

The response I seek from you is,

“The Word has gone forth. Now it’s our turn to walk. To make Him visible. To be living letters.
Let’s go.”