Deep Roots Capital Campaign Reflection by Sarah Cumba
As we continue to raise the funds required to build our new church with the Deep Roots Capital Campaign, members of the campaign Prayer Team will be blogging on subjects like gratitude and giving, Christian stewardship, and why St. Julian's is an important place in their lives and why then they are participating in the campaign. We hope this reflection will inform your own choice to participate in the campaign. Our success will come from everyone joining in together. Our first reflection is from Sarah Cumba. Enjoy!
When I started attending St. Julian’s five years ago, much of my adult life up until that point had been unchurched. Although God was part of my life, I had yet to find a church community where I felt comfortable and welcomed. And despite our culture’s insistence on the ideal of going it alone, making one’s own way, I knew in my heart that in order to continue to grow in my relationship with God, I had to do it with other people. When I walked in St. Julian’s doors, my story becomes one that I have heard from countless other members, one in which I felt immediately welcomed and at home. There was something special about the St. Julian’s community, and over the past five years I’ve been so grateful for the friendships I’ve developed, the opportunities I’ve had to serve, and the way I’ve been supported in my deepening faith.
As we look forward to the future of St. Julian’s, I’m most excited to be able to share our loving, affirming, and engaged community with others. Although we all know that Church is much more than a building, we also know what a great blessing it will be to have a larger space to be able to welcome more people into our growing family of faith, land on which we can serve our neighbors and each other, a building in which we can come together in worship and in work, in recreation and in rest. The love we have for Christ and one another will only grow as our community grows, and I can’t wait to see what that love will do in the world around us.
We will all have an opportunity to support that growth over the next several years through the Deep Roots Campaign, with our gifts of time, talent, and treasure. As I’ve considered how I will give to the campaign, I’ve been reminded of a poem attributed to St. Teresa of Avila that I particularly love:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
When we at St. Julian’s show up for each other and our community, we are the hands and the feet that will continue to welcome more people, serve others, and grow in love. We are the eyes that will look out with compassion and invite others in. In contributing to the campaign, I’ll be giving in the faith and hope that the deep roots we establish will sustain us in continuing our work as Christ’s body in our world.