What is this?

Hello saints! Some of you may be wondering (as I have heard) what is the purpose of this newsletter? What is it about? What news do we possibly have to report? Well, the answer is: US! We will report all things pertinent to the First United Church of Jesus Christ – more specifically, 7901 16th street - and the surrounding body thereof.
This venue is, and will remain a voice of the people. As a spear header and overseer of this project, I have personally decided to make this as informal a newsletter as possible so not to deter anyone who is less “wordy” but interested in being a contributing writer. Of course not everything will make it to print, but this is not my sole project, it is ours. Thus, you shall be heard too! I just so happen to be the one with the red pen (wink).

The aim of this newsletter is as any other, which is simply to inform the people. We would like to keep the church updated on the inner and outer dealings of this immediate body as well as those of our fellow contemporaries. Maybe not so much of our contemporaries as our own, but you get the point (smiles). My personal desire is to have this newsletter serve as a an icebreaker of sorts. It has been our habitual tradition to quote that “we are a friendly church with a friendly pastor”, which is true, but how friendly to one another have we really been? How much do we actually know about each other? By no means am I suggesting that we begin to disclose life stories, but I am sure that there are some things that we all have accomplished or are hoping to accomplish in the future that we would like to share with someone besides the family pet. Furthermore, not everything is meant to be announced during Sunday morning service; so if you have something to announce, here is your proper forum to do it. Are you or your kids doing well in school? Graduating? Purchased a new house? Getting married? Tell us! I shutter to mention how absolutely no one responded to the flyers that were posted around the church asking “what are you doing?”. I hope and pray that its not foretelling of the saint’s future involvement and contributions to the newsletter, but that’s for another article. As for now, I must stay on track (more smiles).

So why One Accord? Well, the name was actually submitted as a suggestion for an event that is in the works, but I wasn’t too keen on running with it for that. I remember saying “I like it, but not for this”. So simultaneously, I’m running through names trying to figure out what to call this newsletter that I had been appointed to produce – a few corny titles like Family First and 16th Street Journal just missed the running – and it came back to me “One Accord”, it just seemed appropriate. So I looked up the word ‘accord’ and as a verb it simply means to bring into agreement, or to be consistent or in harmony. I figure since we are a “united” family that would imply that we are also in harmony, but I know better. Just kidding. However, we should at the least be working toward being in harmony and be consistent in doing so.

So that’s the brief rundown on the intentions of this newsletter. I pray that this will be a success and will in the long run draw us closer together as a family, and will allow us to get to learn a little more about each other. Perhaps –and this is just a thought– there will in the future be more involvement and submissions from the saints because I personally don’t have nearly enough information to report by myself. But, being that this is the first edition and not too many of you knew what was going on, I can set my personal feelings aside just this once. Just kidding. I have no gripes. I do however hold to my personal desire, which is to have this newsletter serve as the voice of the people; and quite frankly, you are the people.