Pastor's Corner: GHAMA wrapping up school year's series of meeting and events

Thursday, May 12th, Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association will have its final monthly meeting of the 2021-22 school year. We will debrief from our most recent event – the National Day of Prayer on May 5th, 2022, at Havre's Town Square. Then we will move on to our election of officers for the 2022-2023 school year.

This past year, our officers were president, yours truly; vice president, Pastor Michael O'Hearn (Hi-Line circuit-riding Lutheran pastor); secretary Pastor Megan Howisch (First Lutheran's pastor), and treasurers, Father Dan Wathen and Deacon Tim Maroney (St. Jude's Catholic Church leadership team). After that, we will pass out a sign-up sheet so that participating pastors can choose to write religious articles for the Havre Daily News through the summer months. After the meeting is adjourned, this team takes a break from their monthly meetings for the summer months. We will resume again with our new slate of officers Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022.

John 17:20-23-(NIV) - Jesus Prays for All Believers

"20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - 23 I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

Here are just a few reminders of why GHAMA exists here in Havre. Jesus prayed: "that all of them (disciples) may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." Jesus called His Church to be a body, one body. As followers of Jesus, we do not always do so well at that. GHAMA endeavors to encourage the whole Body of Christ to meet together and to work together to see the name of Jesus Christ lifted up above all else. Jesus also prayed: "May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." Jesus connected our being one body to the convincing of the world that God the Father sent Jesus. That is a message we encourage everyone to believe. How can we best do that? By demonstrating the unity we have in loving and serving Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Jesus also prayed, "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me-so that they may be brought to complete unity." Jesus tells us that He has given us His glory for a specific reason - they we would be brought into complete unity. To endeavor to live this out in everyday life remains a high calling in the Kingdom of God.

GHAMA takes this prayer of Jesus seriously. It is why we do what we do. Finally, Jesus prays, "Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." Jesus indicates that the goal of this demonstrated unity in the Body of Christ is so that the world at large would know that God the Father sent Jesus the Son and that God loves the people of this world as much as He loves His One and only begotten Son. Do we want people to know that God loves them? Absolutely! It is why we are pastors and priests and deacons. And Jesus says we accomplish that best when we join our hearts and hands in worship and service to Him, before a world that is so in need of the love of God! Amen!

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Written by the Rev. Edroy "Curt" Curtis, president of the Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association, chaplain of Northern Montana Health Care and lead pastor of Havre Assembly of God Church.