I love cooking! I enjoy the everyday meal prep and the big party as well as the holiday feast preparation. I enjoy the chopping, the stirring, the simmering, and the end product. Cooking is not just my ‘being creative,’ it’s a way to bring people together. The bustle of people gathering - the greetings, the hum of conversations, sitting at the table, the laughter, even the cleanup - it’s a community coming together to nurture and build up (encourage) one another. Over time, you build a family or a community while gathered around a table.
As our Women’s Ministry (WM) Leadership Team met for the first time in June, we gathered around my dining room table. There was a sweet spirit of unity, with hands ready to seek the LORD and to work in building up our CPC women. In our conversations around the table, disconnection was a theme that continued to emerge.
In July, our team read through Ezra and Nehemiah. In these books of the Old Testament, the remnant of Israel is heading back from captivity to rebuild the temple and the city wall of Jerusalem. The Israelites endured all kinds of hostilities, interruptions, and delays. In the midst of these distractions, they started building their own homes, not God’s house, partly because of unbelief. But then, with clear instruction from Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest, the people turned back to God. The people mourned and wept. Afterwards, Nehemiah says in Nehemiah 8.10, “…Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
This verse is our focus for the Women’s Ministry this year as we also are guided by two other verses:
Psalm 51.18, “Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem”
1 Corinthians 3.10b-11, “Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Using these three verses, our team decided the Women’s Ministry theme for the 2025-26 year is “Rebuilding Our Covenant Community.” As a CPC family, we have endured changes within our church leadership, disruptions from Covid, and all manner of life has befallen us as sinners living in a fallen world.
The CPC Women’s Ministry invites you to “come to the table” and be encouraged and nurtured with God’s word and the sweet fellowship of believers through our studies and special events.
Christine Morrison
