A Reflection From Pastor Heather

May 15th, 2025

Friends,

Just a couple of weeks ago we celebrated the Risen Christ in a beautiful, flower-filled, joyful worship experience! The Holy Spirit was embodied in us, as we sang with joy, prayed together, heard the Easter story, and cut the ribbon on our Little Free Pantry! Christ is risen and alive in our neighborhood! He is risen indeed!

Not long after our Easter celebration, your pastoral team, a young adult representative (funded by a grant from Parish Collective for Young Adult Leadership Development), and Pastor Heather’s husband, Eric, boarded a plane for Chicago where we attended the Parish Collective Inhabit Conference. Well, Eric, who paid his own way to Chicago, spent his time as a tourist. But the rest of us gathered at church in Lawndale Illinois (a church that runs medical clinics, job programs, and serves meals to their neighbors) to dream about the church being in the neighborhood!

We spent time in worship, heard sermons that were both inspiring and convicting, and listened for how the Spirit was speaking to us about our context - the Eastside Neighborhood of Olympia, WA. In the coming weeks you will hear more, but one take away from Inhabit centered around celebrating what we are already doing.

Pastor Alexa was able to share a story on the mainstage of Inhabit, talking about the impact our parking lot lights make to the neighborhood during the dark winter nights, our solidarity with Madison when its closing was threatened, and our new Little Free Pantry. Friends, I was so proud of our church (and Pastor Alexa!) as I listened to her share about the faithfulness of this church in following the Holy Spirit out into the streets.

While in Chicago, we were also able to worship at the two churches where Pastor Alexa was a student pastor led by Vince and Rebecca (you might have heard Pastor Alexa mention their names a time or two!). These two gifted humans lead a traditional-ish church in the morning(it is known as a Sondheim loving-church because they sing show tunes alongside hymns) that was celebrated by a member as a sanctuary in the storm of life and, and a Queer, Storytelling, Bar Church in the evening. The evening church, Gilead, is closing its doors and we stood on holy ground with the Gilead folks at their second to last worship gathering. We sang great music, heard true, and hilarious stories, and cried alongside these good people as they shared a good-bye around the Communion Table.

There is too much to capture in just one article about the experience. You will hear more in sermons, newsletter articles, and meetings as time goes on. But here is the word that wove through the entire adventure for me - the Church is alive and rising up to love the world, one neighbor at a time. Thanks be to God that this is who and what we are called to be!

Grace, Pastor Heather