"Faithful and Vital: Exhibiting a Spiritual Foundation"
Rev. Emily Labrecque, Westmoreland UCC
Psalm 46 and Phil. 4:4-9
June 21, 2026

[Pray.]

Today, we begin a series I’ve created, admittedly, mostly out of thin air. This first sermon in the series will provide a bit of context for the overall document we’ll be referring to throughout the summer, so there will be a bit of UCC mumbo jumbo, but try not to drown it out because it will be helpful! And if at any point, you or someone else says they’re not sure where this series came from or why it matters, refer back to the opening of this sermon. Let us pray as we prepare for the word preached.

This series, “Faithful and Vital” comes from an official document by the United Church of Christ called “The Manual on Local Church.” For those of you steeped in the UCC, you may know that there is a document called “The Manual on Ministry” which serves as a resource, a living guide, for shared expectations in the essential ministry of Committees on Ministry, thus also outlining how authorized ministers in the UCC can conduct their ministry in a faithful and effective way. After this document had been out for years, the national UCC office decided it was time that Local Churches also had their own manual for conducting local church ministry. The manual on Local Church is a resource for churches in the UCC to embody faithful and vital witness by recognizing themselves as part of the wider UCC, building on faithful and effective expressions of the Local Church through healthy governance, and equipping churches to maintain accountable relationships with their association and conference.

Within the manual on local church is a section titled “The Marks of Faithful and Vital Local Churches.” These marks “strive to describe the combination of practices, attitudes, and attributes that foster vitality in faith communities in the UCC.” What exactly is vitality, though? The UCC defines it as an “outward sign of an inner spiritual and communal work within a local church.” To be clear, vitality is not about numerical or financial growth, but rather a demonstration of “spiritual growth, healthy community, institutional well-being, and faith-inspired engagement in the world.” The role of these marks is to be a discernment tool for our church’s self-reflection and self-assessment. No one church will embody all of the marks but they give us something to strive for.

There are seven total marks that we will be exploring this

summer. The first, as Ron shared with us, is Exhibiting a Spiritual Foundation and Ongoing Spiritual Practices. Here’s where our scripture comes in.

Both Psalm 46 and Philippians 4 offer us glimpses of what it means to exhibit a spiritual foundation. Psalm 46 reminds us of the unshakable nature of God. A God on whom we can rely, a God who brings peace and justice, a God who walks alongside us even in the midst of chaos and tumult, a God with whom we are co-creating the Peaceable Realm. A strong spiritual foundation relies on loving and following this God. One of the ways we do that is through prayer and a diversity of spiritual practices. What I appreciate most about what Ron shared was the noticing. He noticed that scrolling the NYT was not working for him. It was taking away from his groundedness in God rather than adding to it, and so he found a new spiritual practice.

We all connect to God in different ways, and sometimes in varying ways throughout our lives. A while back I was reflecting with my clergy coach about how I was frustrated that I couldn’t seem to commit to reading an advent devotional every morning. I was frustrated with myself that I couldn’t stick to a habit, especially one so important to my spiritual life. She then asked me what my mornings look like. I shared with her about how usually Ruthie wakes me up at 6:30 and goes downstairs, then I make breakfasts and lunches and my coffee and get max up and let the dog out and get dressed and….

She looked at me with tenderness and a little bit of ridiculousness and said ... Emily ... how could you expect yourself to ALSO read a devotional and soak it in in the midst of all that?

Phew. I took a deep breath. “I guess that’s kinda silly, isn’t it?” So we then spent our time trying to figure out what my spiritual practice could be, one with a lot of grace and flexibility.

It may be that your spiritual practice might look like fervent prayer and bible study for a period ... then it might switch to engagement in social justice work ... or perhaps you’re laid up for a period due to illness or injury and your spiritual practice takes the form of reading a book by Richard Rohr, Fr. Greg Boyle, or Kate Bowler. There are all kinds of ways to engage in ongoing spiritual practice and the discernment is nearly just as important as the act itself.

In Philippians 4, Paul was writing to a people facing discord and disunity. There were squabbles among community members, conflict between gentile converts and the Jewish law, and people scrambling for power. And still, Paul emphasizes the need for connection to the same unshakeable God of Psalm 46. He describes a variety of postures that contribute to a healthy spiritual life: a posture of joy and trust in God, prayer as the response to worry, intentional discernment about what’s good and true, and practicing, not just believing what’s been taught. As we face our own challenging circumstances, in our lives and the world around us, I wonder how these spiritual practices land with you?

Perhaps you are a relatively anxious person… I wonder how a focus on prayer, for a time, might help you deepen your spiritual life? Perhaps you find yourself grumbling about the state of the world more often than not ... I wonder how practicing joy and thanksgiving might help bolster your spiritual life?

Perhaps you find yourself getting stuck in thinking about your faith instead of experiencing your faith ... I wonder how embodied practices like singing or walking might help deepen your spiritual life?

Perhaps you aren’t really sure what you believe these days and are questioning everything ... I wonder how conversations with church friends might help deepen your spiritual life?

The technicality of the practices themselves don’t matter as much as the commitment to lifelong spiritual development. That’s what this particular mark is about- both for us as individuals and in the church writ large. We continue to engage in our own spiritual lives — exploring, deepening, questioning — and as a church community, we offer opportunities for all people to explore, deepen, and question together. This is part of our call, part of what makes a faithful and vital church community. Vitality isn't a destination we arrive at — it's a direction we keep choosing. And we don't have to choose it alone. May these next seven weeks of exploration prove that to be true for all of us. May it be so.

Amen.