Linden Ponds Community Church celebrates their 10th anniversary
On Sunday November 3, 2024, the members of the Linden Ponds Community Church will gather after worship in the Season’s Catering Room to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the Linden Ponds Community Church. We will also celebrate the ministry of its Pastor, Rev. Deborah Spratley, who will be retiring at the end of December 2024.
LPCC 9th anniversary celebration
This ministry is decidedly unique in the United Church of Christ. Following a number of meetings with the Pastoral Ministries Manager of Linden Ponds, the leadership of UCC Norwell and Protestant residents of Linden Ponds it was discerned that the residents deeply desired a Sunday morning worship service. Through a Community Engagement Fund grant from the United Church of Christ, Norwell, a pastor was provided for a two-month trial period. The God-wink moment was that 153 residents attended the first service. For those familiar with John 21, that is the same number of fish that Peter pulled onto the beach at one of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. How could God not be smiling on this endeavor?
The success was immediate, and a second grant was applied for to support worship for an additional year. It soon became obvious that folks wanted more than “just” Sunday worship: they wanted to become “church.” The community became financially self-sustaining, engaged Joan Nahigian as its Minister of Music, established a Mission and Outreach Program and sponsored a Bible Study, expanded its pastoral care ministry on campus, while continuing to offer Sunday morning Christian Worship at 11:00am. We’ve discovered that 11:00 works well for a senior community that takes a bit more time to get going in the morning.
Celebrating Advent, 2023
The relationship between Linden Ponds and UCC Norwell is cemented with a contract by which Norwell will continue to provide a Protestant Minister to the community. This means that the Pastor to Linden Ponds is actually a Missionary from UCC. The Linden Ponds Community provides all that is necessary for the ministry to succeed Norwell; office space, worship space, rehearsal space, space for Bible Study, and continued ongoing and enthusiastic support for the ministry that happens in the community. Norwell continues to manage the financial aspects of the Linden Ponds Community Church.
This relationship is beautifully unique throughout the United Church of Christ. In a spirit of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, the United Church of Christ, Congregational in Norwell reached out into the world and answered a call to offer Christian worship in a large senior community. While UCC Norwell is uniquely a United Church of Christ, the attendees at the Linden Ponds Community Church span the gamut of Christian traditions and somehow manages to do it with abundant joy and commitment to be disciples of Christ in the world. In a community in which the average age is 84, the aphorism “God is not done with me yet!” is lived out fully and enthusiastically, and most of all faithfully by this community of believers.
May their next ten years be rich with the blessings that only God can give.
Faithfully, Rev. Deborah Spratley