7/31 Goode Thoughts - Expansive
The word “expansive” has been on my heart a LOT recently. I feel there’s something that the Spirit is stirring in me around it. In fact, it is turning into a bit of a lengthy series on my photo site as I feel it is speaking not only personally but also speaking into my calling here with ResoundingJoy. You can find the first two reflections on it at https://www.imagoscriptura.com
But this word also was the frame for my newsletter article that was part of the Northwest Community Church’s August issue. I’ll copy the article in full at the end of this post.
Before getting into that…a few updates on our coming together as RJC:
Finances – Feels like this is an every week thing. But it is important. Treasurer and Finance Team members from each of the churches met last week and will meet again the first week in August. We are finalizing the bank that we will be using as a combined congregation and that will get the ball rolling for how we will begin to officially combine our finances in August and in the months going forward. We also met with a representative from the Presbyterian Foundation to discuss endowment and investment opportunities with them. This also will be finalized in August.
Giving and Stewardship – We will share information in August about when to start transitioning regular giving from your specific congregation to ResoundingJoy. The online giving is up and running on the website and that can be used for one time gifts or for ongoing ones as well. Here’s the link if you wanted to take a look
https://resoundingjoy.church/give
Worship – Our next unified Sunday worship is on August 10 at Northwest. We will be centering on the first part of our new name (Resounding) after centering on J.O.Y. at our unified service in July. You can find the video of that message (as well as my message from last Sunday at Pleasant Run) here
https://resoundingjoy.church/media
Bible Study – I am working on an idea for the 2nd half of August of a Bible study of sorts for folks. It might not be an in-person one but instead one online either by zoom or on your own time (or both, or even all three if we can get a time scheduled). Around the idea of expansiveness, the book of Ephesians has been speaking to me a LOT. So look for more to come about this.
Church Sign – Some not great news here. It is doubtful we’ll have a new sign for when September comes. We have met with people from the city and there’s some hoops we are going to have to work through both with Hamilton County and Colerain Township to get a new sign installed. I have met with a sign company and I think we have some good options to consider but…hoops…
Expansiveness
Ok – onto what I feel the Spirit speaking into my life. Before sharing the article, here are two photos from Wednesday morning…they are a good reminder that the expansive love, beauty, wonder, awe of God can be seen anywhere. This was in the Kroger parking lot in Woodlawn…
But this word also was the frame for my newsletter article that was part of the Northwest Community Church’s August issue. I’ll copy the article in full at the end of this post.
Before getting into that…a few updates on our coming together as RJC:
Finances – Feels like this is an every week thing. But it is important. Treasurer and Finance Team members from each of the churches met last week and will meet again the first week in August. We are finalizing the bank that we will be using as a combined congregation and that will get the ball rolling for how we will begin to officially combine our finances in August and in the months going forward. We also met with a representative from the Presbyterian Foundation to discuss endowment and investment opportunities with them. This also will be finalized in August.
Giving and Stewardship – We will share information in August about when to start transitioning regular giving from your specific congregation to ResoundingJoy. The online giving is up and running on the website and that can be used for one time gifts or for ongoing ones as well. Here’s the link if you wanted to take a look
https://resoundingjoy.church/give
Worship – Our next unified Sunday worship is on August 10 at Northwest. We will be centering on the first part of our new name (Resounding) after centering on J.O.Y. at our unified service in July. You can find the video of that message (as well as my message from last Sunday at Pleasant Run) here
https://resoundingjoy.church/media
Bible Study – I am working on an idea for the 2nd half of August of a Bible study of sorts for folks. It might not be an in-person one but instead one online either by zoom or on your own time (or both, or even all three if we can get a time scheduled). Around the idea of expansiveness, the book of Ephesians has been speaking to me a LOT. So look for more to come about this.
Church Sign – Some not great news here. It is doubtful we’ll have a new sign for when September comes. We have met with people from the city and there’s some hoops we are going to have to work through both with Hamilton County and Colerain Township to get a new sign installed. I have met with a sign company and I think we have some good options to consider but…hoops…
Expansiveness
Ok – onto what I feel the Spirit speaking into my life. Before sharing the article, here are two photos from Wednesday morning…they are a good reminder that the expansive love, beauty, wonder, awe of God can be seen anywhere. This was in the Kroger parking lot in Woodlawn…
Its all around us, my friends. So let’s talk about this Expansiveness of and from God…
A few days ago (as I’m writing this on July 24), I saw a comment from a historian I follow online that really stuck with me. Heather Cox Richardson normally writes in-depth reflections on current events and their historical connections/parallels. But this day she instead wrote this as she shared that she just “got lost” in the beauty of an evening in her kayak on the water:
As I paddled under a bright blue sky with the sun setting beside me, it became clear to me that I needed a break from the cramped confines of our daily news.
(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-21-2025-monday)
…from the cramped confines of our daily news… That line got me reflecting a lot this week about expansiveness. She was kayaking in an expansive space and not getting locked into the news of the day. So I’ve been trying to attune my heart to expansiveness this week. And it actually started with a question asked when we were installing the new RJC session in worship on July 20. This is the question:
Will you pray for and seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love?
That is my absolute favorite of the ordination/installation questions in the PCUSA because they are about expansiveness. Drawing from Mark 12:30-32, they are about expanding our heart (love), soul (imagination), mind (intelligence), and strength (energy) of what the Spirit of God is up to in the world. There’s a beautiful expansiveness in this.
But one thing I’ve noticed in conversations with folks from the RJC congregations over these last few weeks is how expansive thinking has been a challenge over the last several years. There have been such limits on resources (financial, energy, people) that it has been hard to be expansive in thinking and acting. Scarcity and fear have such a powerful effect upon the ways that we think, feel, and act in the world. Physically, when we are faced with fear and scarcity, our bodies physically constrict. Our vision narrows, our breathing gets faster, our heart rate speeds up, and our muscles contract to be ready to respond to whatever “threat” is out there.
And the reality of this is that when this isn’t just a momentary thing but instead something we are doing over a long period of time, we get to the point that those things feel normal. But that’s not how God designed us to feel and to live in this world. Jesus said that he came to give us life abundant/expansive, not life constricted. Jesus wants us to breathe deep of the still-speaking Spirit of God. Jesus wants our hearts to beat in rhythm with others and with the world. Jesus wants our vision to be wide and seeing the breadth of the wonder and beauty of this world. Jesus wants us to see not only our own immediate needs but to be open to the needs of others with empathy, kindness, and love.
So, as we move into our new season of life and ministry together, I pray that you will begin to feel this expansiveness in our life together, in our times of worship, in the ways we serve and grow, and in how we reach out to the world with the transforming message of Jesus.
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Pastor Ed
A few days ago (as I’m writing this on July 24), I saw a comment from a historian I follow online that really stuck with me. Heather Cox Richardson normally writes in-depth reflections on current events and their historical connections/parallels. But this day she instead wrote this as she shared that she just “got lost” in the beauty of an evening in her kayak on the water:
As I paddled under a bright blue sky with the sun setting beside me, it became clear to me that I needed a break from the cramped confines of our daily news.
(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-21-2025-monday)
…from the cramped confines of our daily news… That line got me reflecting a lot this week about expansiveness. She was kayaking in an expansive space and not getting locked into the news of the day. So I’ve been trying to attune my heart to expansiveness this week. And it actually started with a question asked when we were installing the new RJC session in worship on July 20. This is the question:
Will you pray for and seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love?
That is my absolute favorite of the ordination/installation questions in the PCUSA because they are about expansiveness. Drawing from Mark 12:30-32, they are about expanding our heart (love), soul (imagination), mind (intelligence), and strength (energy) of what the Spirit of God is up to in the world. There’s a beautiful expansiveness in this.
But one thing I’ve noticed in conversations with folks from the RJC congregations over these last few weeks is how expansive thinking has been a challenge over the last several years. There have been such limits on resources (financial, energy, people) that it has been hard to be expansive in thinking and acting. Scarcity and fear have such a powerful effect upon the ways that we think, feel, and act in the world. Physically, when we are faced with fear and scarcity, our bodies physically constrict. Our vision narrows, our breathing gets faster, our heart rate speeds up, and our muscles contract to be ready to respond to whatever “threat” is out there.
And the reality of this is that when this isn’t just a momentary thing but instead something we are doing over a long period of time, we get to the point that those things feel normal. But that’s not how God designed us to feel and to live in this world. Jesus said that he came to give us life abundant/expansive, not life constricted. Jesus wants us to breathe deep of the still-speaking Spirit of God. Jesus wants our hearts to beat in rhythm with others and with the world. Jesus wants our vision to be wide and seeing the breadth of the wonder and beauty of this world. Jesus wants us to see not only our own immediate needs but to be open to the needs of others with empathy, kindness, and love.
So, as we move into our new season of life and ministry together, I pray that you will begin to feel this expansiveness in our life together, in our times of worship, in the ways we serve and grow, and in how we reach out to the world with the transforming message of Jesus.
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Pastor Ed
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