ASBURY FIRST MONDAY READER | MARCH 3, 2025

CONTENTS: REAFFIRMED AND REIMAGINED VALUES STATEMENTS | LENTEN DEVOTIONAL

REAFFIRMED AND REIMAGINED VALUES STATEMENTS:

At Asbury First United Methodist Church, we believe God continually calls us to dream boldly and envision new possibilities. Our community values deep connection, radical inclusivity, and thoughtful engagement with faith—where all are welcome, questioning is encouraged, and critical thinking is essential to spiritual growth. These strengths have shaped Asbury First into a place of belonging and transformation. As we look to the future, we must build on this strong foundation while embracing opportunities for growth and new initiatives.

The 2023-25 Dream Team was brought together to create an updated vision for this congregation. What began as a traditional strategic plan evolved into a dynamic strategic framework for vision and decision-making—offering flexibility in a changing world while keeping Asbury First responsive to the needs of our congregation and community.

The resulting framework is centered on a reimagining of the values we at Asbury First hold dear, and a renewed commitment to those values, represented below. The framework itself is not a rigid blueprint but a guide—one that provides structure while allowing adaptability as we seek to live into God’s call. We hope this work will inspire meaningful action, encourage thoughtful discernment, and serve as a living document that shapes our ministries for years to come. To learn more, visit our video archive page HERE later this week to watch the entire Town Hall meeting.

Love: Love is at the center of all we do.

Worship & Arts: We are at our best when we connect to God together through excellence in preaching, prayer, music and the arts. 

Service & Justice: We serve our neighbors and work for justice because everyone deserves hope and fullness of life. 

Generosity & Vitality: We commit to provide the resources necessary to sustain all we do. Long term vitality requires growing the generosity of the Asbury First community.

Caring Community: We mirror God’s love in our care for each other in all seasons of life. Church is a place for fellowship, joy, support and fun. 

Embracing All: We invite full participation for all, no exceptions. We are all equal in God’s eyes. We are better together.

Faith Formation: We walk together on our spiritual journeys.

JOURNEYING WITH JESUS IN LIFE-GIVING RESURRECTION

As Donna E. Schaper writes in Calmly Plotting the Resurrection, “Living now with resurrected spirit is where we are headed. It is triune: a raised self, a raised church, and a raised society. It is interactive: I raise my body to raise your spirit, and you raise your body to help me raise mine. We raise each other for the sake of our world. We lift society up from the gutter so that society can lift us up.”

Each Monday for the next 40 days you will receive Asbury First’s Monday Reader email with a weekly reading and invitation for reflection.

May Ash Wednesday be your first step on our 2025 Lenten Journeying With Jesus in Life-Giving Resurrection.

Rev. Susan Shafer, Asbury First Pastor Emerita

Ms. Bonnie Matthaidess, Spiritual Director