FollowHere at Elim, we’ve been asking ourselves some big questions over the last two years. As we embarked on the pastoral search process and prepared to enter a new season, we tried to discern who we were, our gifts, and how God had made us as a church. It was a time of serious introspection, getting at the heart of who we are underneath all our familiar traditions and practices.
There were some common answers. Elim is a warm and welcoming place. We pride ourselves on our hospitality to the new and old alike. We care about families and children. And of course, like any good church rooted in the Protestant tradition, we value the Bible. As one of the oldest churches in Washington State, we have a long and significant legacy.
Honestly, I’m happy to call Elim my home. And I know the same is true for others. But though I’m happy to be surrounded by such a wonderful spiritual family, I’ve remembered something sobering in recent weeks.
It would be really easy to look at Elim in the last 10–15 years, including our hospitality and other traditions, and take this on as my identity as a Christian. “This is who I am,” I might say. “I go to Elim, and we’re good at hospitality. We care about families, and we value the Bible.”
And that would be a mistake.
Aside from not everyone experiencing Elim the way I’ve described, it’s also not actually at the center of who we really are.
We’re marked not by Elim and its history, but by the work and purpose our Lord Jesus (Galatians 2:20) We are not merely a hospitable church; we are servants extending our Lord’s hospitable kindness (Luke 9:11). We are not merely a people who care about families, but we are a new spiritual family with Christ at the center of it (Matthew 12:46–50). We’re not just a people who love studying the Bible; we are a people who know our Lord personally (John 15:15) and seek to trust and obey Him (John 15:7–8).
So why does that matter?
Because the things we have in the past loved most about Elim as a community have come from earnest hearts seeking to serve the Lord, to trust His guidance, and to obey Him. And as this next season presents us with new and uncomfortable challenges, I think we’ll be helped in remembering where all the best parts of Elim have really come from—in loving, trusting, and obeying Jesus wherever He leads us.
Hang in there, friends. The Lord is, as always, doing a new thing.
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