Hope Grows Here

Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes and Beth Young • October 2, 2024

Our 2025 Stewardship Campaign Has Begun

Dear Gardeners,


This is the time of year when we ask you to make a financial pledge to The Garden. We prayerfully hope that you will do so by joining our 2025 "Hope Grows Here" pledge campaign. As you may recall, we chose "hope" as our community focus in January 2024. With that focus, we have indeed seen that hope is growing and does not disappoint!


We have great reason for hope as we look forward to the future, as The Garden continues to grow and transform the world with the love of God. Hope is growing in The Garden through increased attendance, enhanced programming, and outreach. We continue to see hope come to fruition in our existing, firmly planted programs like our Big and Little Gives, Faith and Action, and participation in efforts like Soups’ On and Shalom Zone. 


This year, we brought on Betty Brandt as our Program Director. With just a few seeds, she has planted programming that has taken root and continues to grow with Together in 111 and the Art Gallery. In addition to those efforts, our Faith in Action team continues to grow, and The Garden has joined a team of churches on the north side committed to peace and unity.


Our worship continues to bring hope to Gardeners in-house and online. Our numbers are increasing on-site, and we have Gardeners watching from Montana to Delaware. Together, we all share in the spiritual connection of Shalom, Salaam, Namaste, and Peace. Doran Nash, our Music Director, continues to bring a variety of music and musicians that make Garden services deeply meaningful.


I give God thanks that Hope Grows Here in The Garden, and I believe that we are positioned perfectly to continue to grow wherever hope is planted in 2025. The Garden continues to be a dynamic, vibrant community that is committed to transforming the world with the love of God.


Please consider planting hope with a first-time pledge or planting more seeds by increasing your pledge in 2025. We hope to reach our goal of 70 family units pledging a total of $175,000. Last year we had 62 family units at $154,000. Will you please submit your pledge by Sunday, November 24? That way, we can include you in a special blessing. You will find all the information you need about pledging on the back of this letter. 


Thank you for believing that Hope Grows Here!


Peace,


Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes, Lead Pastor and Beth Young, Leadership Team Chair

Dear John

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • October 19, 2026
 In World War II, a “Dear John” letter was synonymous with breaking up. When The Garden was founded some 30 years ago, we sent our own “Dear John” letter to the United Methodist Church. We felt the path the traditional church had taken was too narrow, and The Garden wanted to champion “many paths and one purpose.” However, about 10 years ago, we realized we needed to co-parent this message of hope and love, so we reluctantly joined the Conference as a UMC congregation. This year, I’ve had the opportunity to get reacquainted with our Methodist roots and John Wesley himself. For me, it has felt like going to a class reunion and falling back in love with a high school sweetheart—realizing that even though we took different paths, we still have so much in common, and well, maybe it's time to get back together? This Sunday, we will look at how The Garden has lived into the very core message that John Wesley preached. We will consider how being part of the UMC connection can help us transform the world with God's love, and how The Garden can help the UMC see that there are truly many loving paths. Join us this Sunday for “Dear John.”

When Grace Overflows

By Jerry Zehr • October 13, 2026
What makes some people extraordinarily generous, even when they have so little to give, while others who have so much find it difficult to share? In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the Macedonian churches, whose poverty and hardships did not diminish their generosity. Instead, their joy overflowed into giving. Through personal stories and encounters with unexpected generosity, we'll explore what happens when grace becomes more than something we receive. It becomes something we share. Grace isn't something we hold on to. It's something we allow to flow through us. As The Garden reflects on its future, we have an opportunity to ask a deeper question: What kind of community do we want to create together? What would it look like to become a community where love, compassion, acceptance, and generosity overflow into the lives of others? Perhaps the greatest gift we have to offer isn't what we possess, but who we are and how we choose to share ourselves with the world. When grace overflows, generosity isn't something we have to do. It's something we get to do.

The Sacred Web of Life

By Rev. Richard Brendan • October 8, 2026
Indigenous Peoples Day invites us to pause and remember that we live on land with a story much older than our own. It is a day to listen to the voices, wisdom, stories, and resilience of Indigenous peoples and to acknowledge the painful history that is also a part of this land’s story. It calls us to move beyond simply remembering and to ask: “How might we live with greater humility, gratitude, and respect for the people and the Earth who have been here long before us?”

World Wide Communion

By Rev. Dr, Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • September 29, 2026
Although we define our world with borders, walls, and ideologies, World Communion Sunday brings us a simple reality: we belong to each other. This Sunday, we gather around a table that expands across the globe, a table of radical hospitality where all are fed, all are valued, and all are loved. Together, we commit to the collective work of peace, justice, and healing for our planet. Join us as we break bread and build bridges.

The Art of Living: The Art of Prayer

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • September 22, 2026
Be honest: When you pray, does it feel like a genuine conversation—or just another item on your to-do list? Sometimes, the most familiar things are the hardest to truly see. This Sunday, we continue week two of our series, The Art of Living, by stripping away the routine and taking a radical new look at the most famous prayer in history. Diving into the Gospel of Matthew, we're looking past the familiar recitations of the Lord's Prayer to discover what it actually takes to build a thriving spiritual life. Whether your prayer life feels vibrant, completely stuck, or non-existent right now, Jesus' words offer the reset you need. This week, we're digging into the setup, motive, and heart of prayer—moving past empty repetitions and performance checklists to find a space where true connection and forgiveness can transform our daily lives. Mastering the art of living doesn't start with striving; it starts with humility and silence in the presence of God. Join us this weekend as we discover how a simple shift in our prayer life can change everything. See you Sunday!

The Art of Living

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • September 14, 2026
A new two-week series exploring how faith connects to daily rhythms and habits — with a visual artist and writer bringing "The Art of Living" to life.

Hunger is Rising and God Calls Us to Respond

By Michael Ransom • September 13, 2026
You can make a difference with the power of the pen

Kissing the Leper

By Rev. Richard Brendan • September 7, 2026
St. Francis's embrace of the leper reveals a truth about love: it grows not by avoiding what frightens us, but by moving toward it.

Where Were You?

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • September 1, 2026
Remembering 9/11

It's the Journey.

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • August 25, 2026
Life comes with no map. We try to make our own and we set out, sometimes with excitement, sometimes with fear or grief, or just because standing still isn't an option. Sometimes we go not entirely sure where we're headed or what we'll find when we get there. In one of the most quietly beautiful stories in the Gospel of Luke, two travelers, heavy with loss and confusion, walk a road from Jerusalem. They meet a stranger, who falls in step beside them. They don't know who he is. They don't know what's coming next. But they keep walking. Somewhere in the walking, something shifts. The Road to Emmaus isn't really a story about a destination. It's a story about what happens on the way there: the conversations, the companions, the moments of unexpected recognition that change everything. Join us Sunday as we explore what it means to be on a journey full of unknowns. Do we fear that which we cannot know, or can we embrace the uncertainty as part of the adventure?