Did you know that I have a twin brother - almost 55 years of 'togetherness'? As I move into the summer months and closer to my (our) birthday, I am reminded that I have a significant other who isn't my wife, but who has profoundly impacted my life. Think about it ... another Dan Horn ... scary isn't it! But the truth is ... he's not another Dan Horn ... he's Dave Horn and he is Nothing like me. Even though we spent 9 months in intimate community and then the next 20 years living, loving and hating each other, we still have totally different identities. Dave's got a sophisticated humor ... I'm earthy. Dave tended to develop a few good friends ... I tended to hang out with many friends. Dave is our 'PhD.' Horn ... I have my Master Degree (and that by the skin of my teeth). Dave is physically fit ... and I'm ... well ... physically relaxed. Dave is a theologian ... I'm a practitioner. And the list goes on - his successes are often my failures and my successes are where he may have fallen short. God placed us together for a season in our lives ... but he has moved us on. We had years of love/hate connectedness. At times we were the closet of friends and at times there were tensions. Our experiences together have profoundly impacted who and what we have become and we've evolved into totally different people with totally different lives.

I think that describes Christ and Stanton Churches. Years ago the two churches came together to form a kind of union in ministry. That yoking wasn't necessarily by your design, but it happened by, I believe, God's design. For years you've shared friendships. For years you've done ministry separately and yet together. For years you've loved each other .. and ... at times 'hated' each other. For years you've competed with each other, but also worked in cooperation with each other. But in all those years of togetherness, you have maintained your own individual identities. I've heard the old guard of both churches reminisce on the nicknames that each church had gained in the Methodist community and those nicknames definitely reflect the persistent character qualities of each church.

We need to celebrate who we are AND who the other is. We need to recognize that God has placed us together for the last several years so that we might create our own identity and celebrate the others. God has used this union to empower us to become the ministry he has designed for us to be. And now the time has come for us to move on to another phase of God's design. Reread I Corinthians 12 and apply the message of identity to not only ourselves but also to our community identity. Although Paul wrote these words to affirm our personal identity in Christ, I believe also the idea of identity has application to communities who are doing ministry. Each church has an idenity and a purpose to fulfill in the Kingdom of Heaven. Our goal is to identify our purpose and to purposefully live out our faith purpose in our world. God is at work within our individual churches ... are we celebrating each other and are we excited about what God is going to do in each other? Listen to Paul's words and apply them to us:

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differnet kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."
1 Corinthians 12:4-6

And also these words of Paul:

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head can not say to the feet, 'I don't need you!' But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lack it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."
1 Corinthians 12:14,21,24b-26

A new journey is about to begin in Christ Church and in Stanton Church ... let's pray for each other that God will reveal his design for each of us. I believe the more we pray for each other the more we will see God working in us. SO PRAY and God will be honored.

Pastor Dan Horn