FROM WATCHING TO TENDING
“You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” —James 1:19
“I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you” —2 Timothy 1:6
Beloved in Christ,
January often carries an expectation of new beginnings. We feel pressure to start fresh, set direction, or decide what comes next. Scripture, however, offers us a more grounded place to begin. Renewal does not always come from starting over. More often, it comes from tending what has already been given.
In December, many of us were invited to watch and pay attention to where God might already be at work among us. January asks us to stay with what we’ve begun to notice and to consider how we care for it.
James writes, “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.” These words name the posture required for faithful discernment. Before we act, we listen. Before we decide, we attend carefully to what is already present among us.
Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you” assumes something important: The gift is already there. Rekindling is not about creating energy or direction from nothing. It is about renewal that comes through attention, patience, and care.
Many of us recognize this moment: A conversation that keeps returning without resolution. A ministry that still matters deeply, even though it no longer looks the way it once did. A small group of people who continue to show up, carrying both commitment and questions. These are not signs that something has failed. Often, they are signs that something deserves to be tended.
Rekindling asks more of curiosity than certainty. It invites us to listen carefully to one another, to notice where energy gathers naturally, and to resist the urge to rush past what needs patience. This kind of work is rarely efficient, but it is faithful. It honors congregational life as it actually is, rather than as we wish it were.
This month, we might find it helpful to take one small step beyond noticing: Setting aside time to listen together without an agenda. Naming what feels life-giving right now, and what seems worth nurturing with care. Not deciding what comes next, but listening long enough to understand what is being entrusted to us in this season.
If we discover something meaningful through this kind of reflection, I hope we will share it. Stories of careful tending help the whole district recognize how renewal takes shape in ordinary, faithful ways. You may send them to the district office, to me, or share them in the ways that fit your community best.
December invited us to watch. January invites us to tend. May we approach this work together with humility, attentiveness, and trust that God is already present in what we are being asked to care for.
(2026 logo designed by Madalyn Metzger)
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