Congregational Letter - Fall 2025
Dear HPF,
I’m still kind of dazed at all that has happened in the life of our church over the last couple years, culminating in the election of our own officers on May fourth. While the elders and the Care Team (women who have been nominated, trained, and installed in a complimentary role to the elders) are still figuring out how to work together most effectively, it has already been a fun and fruitful few months. We are now in a place to ask, ‘What does faithfulness and maturation look like for HPF over the next season of our life together?’
Because we are called to receive God’s grace and truth and also to reflect it into our community, we believe that our crucial next step as a church is developing partners in mercy and compassion for our city. We need to find organizations where Holy Spirit is already on the move, restoring royal dignity to his image bearers in our city. We need to support them with our resources and connections and time. That is an exciting next phase for me to contemplate. For the next number of months I will be meeting with organizational leaders in our city and working with our ECT (Elders and Care Team) to discern more precisely our call in our city and therefore with whom we ought to consider partnership.
As we begin to contemplate partnerships, it is crucial that we breathe before we exert ourselves in this new way. We will be far more prepared for that discernment and effort and the strength of faith required to get involved with troubled people if we make the space to hear from our Father. Therefore, I want to commit to using the remainder of this calendar year in that preparatory listening, to embrace a pregnant silence together. Our leadership will pray together, refine our embrace of our church’s unique purpose here in our city, and slow down enough to hear from our Father. We invite you to do the same with us. We’ll incorporate more times of gratitude and listening into our Congregational Prayer in Sunday worship as well as during our 2 weekly prayer meetings. I encourage you to make regular space this Fall to consider the last 2-3 years and how God has led you all along the way (Deut. 8).
Thank him. Reflect on how he used you in the lives of our church family. Listen to him tell you how much he likes you and how he enjoys partnering with you. And share those reflections with your small group and other friends.
If we move too quickly in compassion projects, then the humans we encounter in our efforts at mercy will become just that—a project. But if we will receive the freedom of our position as kings and queens under the High King, if we will become rooted and established in his love for us (Eph 3) and convinced of his delight in us, then we will be a people offering compassion to hurting image-bearers. We will be restoring royal dignity to his precious children. So let’s again be ‘joined-together’ (Acts 2.1) in prayer, asking the Lord to tune our ears to hear his singing over us (Zeph 3.17) and his guidance into our next season as a church family.