We invite you to take a peek inside our weekly Light for the Way devotional series provided for staff.
By Pastor Chris Wheatley, PHS Senior Director of Pastoral Care Services
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” —John 13:34, NIV
As a Christian ministry, Presbyterian Homes & Services holds Christ’s Great Commandment of primary importance. In all that we do — from creating policies to honoring the dead, from building projects to administering medicine — we recognize the opportunity and the duty to show love to all. When we think of how we interact with residents, families, volunteers and staff, we are reminded that in addition to everything else that we want to accomplish, we are called to love.
I hope that you see this all around you. Maybe you’ve already seen the new banner delivered to your community, timed with the annual retreat yesterday. (If not, you’ll see it soon.) The banner reflects a new visual design that will help us to remember the Great Commandment as we go about our days. New “Love One Another” notepads and lanyards are yours as well.
Or maybe you’ve read the new language on our website, that points to the Great Commandment as the reason that we celebrate differences while recognizing all that we share in common.
Bringing this scripture forward in ways that inspire action and transform practice is essential to our work at PHS. We want it to always speak to each of you in new and powerful ways, to move from a Christian Ministry theme to embodied experience.
Over the next year in our Light for the Way series, we’ll explore our purpose in a way that moves us to loving one another more deeply. Devotions will take us through reflecting on three key phrases: “Know God, Love God, Serve God.” And eventually I’ll even tell you where it comes from.
For now, it’s enough to say that in coming to know God throughout your life, you will come to love the people that he has given to you. In growing to love God, you will love people made in his image. And in serving God, you will begin to seek out those who need his love most.
There is more to come over the next year, and I hope you join us in learning how to more fully love one another.
Rev. Chris Wheatley serves PHS as Senior Director of Pastoral Care Services. He is an ordained Lutheran pastor and has served in hospice, eldercare, hospital, HIV/AIDS and congregational settings. He and his wife Nicole are perpetually outnumbered by cats and Dobermans.
The Light for the Way series provides staff with an examination of a biblical reading to deepen our focus on scripture. Thank you for engaging with this series as we seek wisdom through prayer and reflection as a Christian Ministry.
Find more in the Light for the Way series:
‘For he is gracious and compassionate…’
Get to know us: a Christian ministry
Introducing Light for the Way, a new devotional series
