Views from The Ridge 08.07.2024
Sunset Ridge is a church that desires to follow Jesus, reach people, and radiate God’s love and hope to all.
This Week
Saturday, August 10 Second Saturday
9am Yoga
10:15am Storytime
Sunday, August 11
9am Worship in the Sanctuary (Riley Stirman preaching: John 6)
10am Farewell Brunch for the Stirmans in the Fellowship Hall
11am Worship in the Chapel (Scott Heare preaching: John 6)
Watch previous sermons here, and listen to this month’s worship inspiration here.
Upcoming
Sunday, August 18, 10am Join Scott Heare, Randy Rutland, and Jess Lowry for a discussion of plans for upcoming Bible study and discipleship.
Sunday, August 25, 12:15pm Preaching Minister Scott Heare Welcome Luncheon
Around Our Community
Camelot Elementary sends a huge THANK YOU for all of the uniforms purchased in the past several weeks. They have received 100 uniform pieces so far, which is going to help so many families.
Most kids in our community are headed back to school next week! Please encourage and support them and their families, as well as all our teachers and school staff, as they begin this new season.
With heartfelt love and gratitude we will gather together this Sunday to say farewell to Riley and Chelsea Stirman. The Stirmans have been a blessing to our community for the past two years and their presence will be missed. Please join us in praying for them and note their new address if you’d like to stay connected to them.
It’s Time…Maybe
Jess Lowry, Executive Director, Sunset Ridge Collective
A version of this was published Monday in Goodness Weekly.
We’re days away from Charis Park opening.
It is supposed to be this week, and hopefully it will be. And if not, that will be okay too.
You see, this place has been years in the making, and while it’s been in process we have learned much through the journey.
As the ground was turned up and reformed we too have undergone transformation.
If you know me, you’ll likely know I’ve held the sometimes-false belief that mostly any challenge can be overcome through sheer determination and unwavering will. No surprise that throughout my life’s journey I have been in circumstance after circumstance where determination and will could not control the outcome but rather the act of release, of letting go, was the best answer.
Converting the underutilized parking lot into a neighborhood park was a dream 12 years ago, then it was a possible community garden ten years ago, then it was something that just lingered in the background waiting to be unearthed. Each time we held a neighborhood block party or Fall Festival in the parking lot a little more hope surfaced of what might someday be. (insert Fall festival image here with caption)
In 2019 when our church’s Vision Team prayed around the facility and the campus, the park was one of the clearest images that came to mind of the majority of the team members. In 2021 when our small Collective team entered the Good Acres’ Make Good Fellowship it was to see if we really could bring this dream to reality.
We dreamed of a place where neighbors could meet and feel a little less lonely. A place where the peace of nature could be found under the shade of an old oak tree. A place where Sunset Ridge Church of Christ could open her hands to say to the neighborhood–you are welcomed and loved exactly as you are, you belong here and here belongs to you, too.
When you carry around a dream for so long and it is time to see it realized it can make you impatient. And I have been impatient. Many of us have. The park was supposed to be done last Labor Day, and that was incredibly late when we expected its completion the spring of 2022, and for others even the spring before was too long to wait. (insert sign image of kids here)
But you see, the journey has been about so much more than the opening of the park. It’s been about the neighbors that we’ve met along the way, it’s about the patience we’ve learned as the timing ebbs and flows. There is a rule in psychology called the 5x5 rule–if it won’t matter in five years, don't spend more than five minutes stressing about it. I like adding will it matter in five days, five weeks, five months? Some things in life can’t be pushed, they can’t be rushed, and no amount of determination will make them go faster.
So this week, as you go about your day, notice what is getting your stress going. If it’s outside of your control, release it. If it won’t matter in five years, don’t spend more than five minutes stressing about it.
This life is a long beautiful journey and somehow a blip in the grand scheme of things…
I can’t wait to see you at Charis Park–maybe this weekend
Love, Jess
Prayers & Praises
We express sympathy to Lou and Ron Kyle on the death of Lou’s sister-in-law, Ila Odom, on July 28th.
We also express sympathy to the family of former member Danny Wood. Services are as follows:
Visitation August 8th from 4-7 PM at Primrose Funeral Services in Lytle
Memorial service August 9th at 11AM at Devine First Baptist Church in Devine
