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In our Advent devotions this week, on Day 13, there’s an invitation to color a black and white drawing called, “Flourish.” In the artist’s notes, she describes that she’s tried to express the poetic idea of the intangible measures we hope for in a leader. She compared those intangible qualities to the way that the sun and moon accompany the grass through “the endlessness of the cyclical day.” She described cultivating those leadership qualities in her own life as a classroom teacher by checking in with each of her students daily, focusing on engagement before compliance.

This weekend, I went to a celebration of the ministry of someone who is taking a leave from pastoral leadership after Christmas. When asked about how their pastor has led, the people in the church named that she has accompanied them well. She has listened to their needs and allowed them to discern what the Holy Spirit is calling forth for them.

I think we also have leaders like that at Haller Lake United Methodist Church, as well. As we get to the end of a calendar year and prepare to start a new one, I give thanks for the leaders of our church. It is through their faithful accompanying of our congregation that we have sustained interest and momentum in important congregational discernment processes that will help us seek out God’s guidance in 2026.

Perhaps the most obvious place our leaders have helped us to sustain our attention to God’s leading is in the discernment about how our church stewards the property in our care. We have listened for the better part of four years to the needs of our congregation and our neighbors and the community at large. Our leaders have sought out solutions that will meet those needs. More specifically, as many of you probably remember, our Faithland Team developed a Request for Information and Qualifications (RFI/Q) from potential development partners interested in helping us to further our mission and ministry through the innovative use of property to add affordable housing where we now have parking lot. That RFI/Q process was open through mid-November and one organization responded to it in a compelling, creative, and mission-aligned way. That organization is Habitat for Humanity/King and Kittitas County. Their 84 page response to our RFI/Q included all the components requested in the RFI/Q. Their team has thoughtfully responded to all our questions since then and several of our congregational leaders will meet with from Habitat leaders next week to hear more.

We don’t yet know whether we will move forward with Habitat as a partner in development or not. Their name is one of the organizations that has come up over and over as we’ve heard from other churches who are also discerning their own property questions. When we’ve talked with churches who are ahead of us in their timelines, who have worked with Habitat, we have heard nothing but positive comments and we will also do our due diligence to find out if they are are the right partner for us. We do not believe that we need to make that decision immediately so we will proceed with hopeful caution, knowing that God accompanies us also. Our Faithland Team will have more information in the new year, and we hope to be able to share what we know with all of you, in an after church presentation, tentatively set for February 15. With the information we need before us, we will take the season of Lent to prayerfully consider what we hear God inviting from us. As we have said repeatedly, a congregational vote will be needed before anything binding can be developed to formalize a potential partnership. If the conversations in the interim continue to be fruitful, a tentative date for that congregational vote will be Palm Sunday, March 29, in a specially called Charge Conference officiated by Rev. Mark Galang, district superintendent of the Puget Sound district.

My hope in sharing this with you now is not to distract you from Advent but rather to invite us all to take a deep breath of gratitude for God with us, Immanuel, in this season and the time to come.

Image credit: Desert Blooms by lauren wright pittman

inspired by Isaiah 35:1-10 | acrylic on canvas

Used with permission, copyright A Sanctified Art