Dear Friends,
Welcome to worship for Sunday, August 21, 2022. One of the projects Council has been working on this year is a redesign – rebuild – relaunch of our church’s website. This has come about primarily as a consequence of necessity. Like all things technological, a website can only work for so long before it is unable to manage the ever-increasing demands of the content. We ask it to do more things that it was not designed to do. The software that has upgraded and supported cease to be available. You may think (or at least I think) that the phone I have is perfectly fine and could be used indefinitely but eventually it must be replaced with a newer model. That is the nature of the information world we inhabit.
Originally built and developed by volunteers (for whom we are deeply grateful because it has served us exceedingly well) we have asked a website developer to work with us on the newest incarnation. In that process we have been made to ask some important questions about ourselves as a church. Who are we? What do we want to say to the world? Who are we trying to reach? The answer to the last question is ‘both/and’. The website project is a wonderful example of a ‘both/and’ scenario. On one hand the website has to serve you, the congregation and wider community of Charleswood United Church. You are its primary users. It is a place for you to get information about your church. It is a central element of our church communication strategy. If there is something specific we want you to know about, we will often post it on our website and then send you a link to the page by email. The website allows us to do almost the essential aspects of ministry. You can use it for worship, education, stewardship, outreach, and, to a certain degree, fellowship.
Our website is for you! But it is also the place where strangers find us. Or at least learn about us. The website can serve as the first point of contact for someone who has never been to the church. In this regard we want/need it to be inviting and honest and engaging. We want an experience of the welcoming community someone can find at Charleswood to be accessible through the website. Or at least a taste of it. Our website is for others!
So, you can see that when we ask who we are trying to reach, the answer must be ‘both/and’. It is for you and it is for the other. Those who know and those who do not. Those who have been and those who have not. Those who have found and those who are yet seeking. The familiar and the stranger. In this most modern of tools for ministry we find as aspect of faith that has been true forever. We are always a ‘both/and’ community. Israel was a chosen people with whom God made a covenant. And they were told to be a light to the nations. David sang of a God who leads besides still waters and is present in the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus called the faithful and the outcast to follow in equal measure. The Spirit invites us to love God and love neighbour as though the two were one and the same. Which they are.
Later this year we will be trumpeting the launch of our brand new website. It will be quite exciting, a fresh platform at the start of our second century. A contemporary way of sharing what has always been true.
Grace and peace,
Michael
