Mission: Love Made Real

A lot of times we talk about “Missions” and “Missionaries” in the church.  Do we have any clue what we’re talking about?

I’ve asked people throughout my years in church work to describe for me what they think “missions” means.  I get varied answers.  Sometimes I get descriptions of big projects with big budgets to accomplish huge tasks in the world.  And sometimes that IS what mission is about.  Like for instance two years ago when we heard of the suffering being undertaken by the people of Haiti after their nation had been shaken by a strong earth quake.  The need was and continues to be just overwhelming.  I read this week that United Methodists have so far given over $44 million dollars to relief projects in this Haitian disaster.  Truly this is a form of mission.

But it doesn’t have to be large projects.  Mission happens whenever Christians find tangible ways to share the love of Christ with people in need.  Remember how Jesus went about touching the lives of people who were hurting?  The sick, the demon-possessed, the lame, and the blind were all healed by Jesus.  Jesus spent time with people like Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the man born blind, Lazarus.  Every person he met who asked for helped received it.  This is mission.

What would it take to be a church, a community of faith, that thought about and lived in ways that made mission happen in our community?  What would it take to be a Christian who shares love with people in the name of Jesus?  Would it take money?  Would it take time?  Would it take a serving spirit?  Would it take eyes of faith to see the needs clearly?

I hope you’ll join me in thinking about being a missional Christian and a missional church.  How can we take God’s love to the people around us?

Relay for Life

I want to say a few words to you about Relay for Life.  I had heard of this endeavor before coming to Giles County a few years ago, but I had never gotten involved.  It sounded like just one more in a long line of worthy causes.  But here, I met some passionate supporters of Cancer Research.  The American Cancer Society benefits from the proceeds of the funds raised in the Relay.  I was astonished to find out that Giles County had led the NATION in per capita giving to this cause.  Wow.

Then I found out that there is a huge rate of cancer in our community.  Wow again.  No wonder we grow passionate about this cause.  Our neighbors and friends are suffering the ravages of this disease daily.  Their lives are halted by its fearsome appearance on their medical charts.  Treatments are fierce.  Only a few survive to tell the tale.  My favorite part of the weekend event in June is the “Survivor’s walk.”  What strength we gain from seeing these valiant warriors of a dread disease walk in dignity around the track at Giles High School.  And then we look at the luminaries.  Visible reminders that all have fought, but not all have survived.  I am moved to tears just remembering this part of the weekend.

My hope is that you will rally around this cause and help support our community’s effort to ward off this disease through research dollars.  Our first fundraising event is a dinner after church this Sunday.  Even if you don’t stay and eat, come by and make a donation.  You will be glad you did.

Communion this Sunday

We’re still listening intently to Paul’s language about the Fruit of the Spirit.  Look for a bulletin board in the church hallway near the choir room where the fruit of the spirit is expertly illustrated for us.  If you like it brag really loudly about it because the person who put it up is really sad no one has sad anything.  Please look at it!

This week we will be looking at “Generosity:  More than charity–Selflessness”.  No act of selflessness is so great as Jesus’ giving of himself for us on the cross.  As you come for communion, remember the sacrificial giving he did for you and me.  It is such loving and such beautiful, generous living that the world needs to experience today.  That’s why we’re talking about “Old Fashioned Values for a New Fangled World.”  Come and spend some time thinking about this Sunday.

Ooh, and we’re moving Bible Study up to 5 p.m. so you can get home and catch most of the commercials during that over-hyped ball game!  It is the Lord’s Day, after all, so we’re still going to do thing for God, but we will adjust so we can practice some generosity.

Be loving, practice joy, find peace, and with it wait patiently, seek to show kindness, and be generous.  There is no law against that!  See you Sunday!

Love, Joy, Peace

We’ve looked at the first three “fruits” listed in Galatians 5: 22-23. I hope you’ve gotten a pretty good indication of what it means to be loving, joyful, and peaceful.

God wants you to know these things because God loves you. In the power of the Holy Spirit, you can be a person of love, joy, and peace. All you have to do is ask for it.

This coming week we will continue with the next set of “old-fashioned values” as we look at “Patience: More than a Virtue–a Witness.” I hope you will practice patience this week with the people in your life. You will be blessed if you do. Come join us Sunday if you’re in town, at 10:55 a.m. We’re looking forward to having you.

Love: It’s More than a Feeling–It’s a Commitment

We started our journey on the new message series today around the theme “Old-Fashioned Values for a New-Fangled World” with our installment on Love.

Have you ever wanted to experience a love so deep it couldn’t fail?  In the power of the Holy Spirit, that is available for us.  God’s love is a love that doesn’t give up.  Our own emotions change several times a day.  If love is just a feeling, it’s going to change as well.  But we learned as we looked at the scripture that the example of love shown to us in the New Testament is an example of commitment.  God is committed to us.  God’s love is deeper than any love we have known.  We can only hope to attain such love in our own lives as we strive to live up to the example God has set for us.  God has made it plain that love is more than the mushy, romantic thing we make it.

What does love look like in your life?  Are you reflecting the love of God?  Are you committed to the people in your life?

Read the list in Galatians 5: 22-23.  You can see it here.

Join us as we continue the journey of learning about the fruits of the spirit.

Who is Jesus? A look at the Gospel of John

In January we will begin a twelve week Bible Study looking at the Gospel of John. John’s account is perhaps the most widely read of all four gospel accounts in the New Testament. John departs from the other gospels by thinking deeply about the main question: Who IS Jesus? The answers will be the source of our time together. Bring a Bible, maybe some note paper and a pen, and come join us. 6 p.m. on Sunday evenings, beginning Jan 8!

Why Get Baptized?

We enjoyed gathering at the font this morning after the morning message to witness a baptism.  It always helps to talk about what we were doing.  The act of baptism is an act that Jesus asked his disciples to do.  He did it himself as reported in the beginning of each of the four books we call “Gospels” in the New Testament.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John talk about Jesus going to a man named John in the Jordan river and being baptized.  John’s account isn’t as descriptive as the others, but he talks about the meaning of baptism better than the others do.

The act of baptism has roots in the Jewish faith.  Jesus was Jewish, and the law of Moses, as reported in the books of the old testament, demand that people take a ritual bath, called a mitzvah, at different moments of their lives.  John the Baptizer used this tradition as a sign to accompany his message of repentance which he preached in the wilderness near the Jordan River.  Jesus, John’s cousin, came to John to be baptized in the river, submitting himself to this ritual bath to mark the beginning of his fulfillment of the purpose God had appointed for him to accomplish.  Jesus told his disciples in direct “orders” that we should go and baptize, making disciples of Jesus Christ.  This was the beginning of the practice of Christian Baptism.

Ever since that time, we Christians have taken Baptism to mark the beginning of the Christian life.  It became a practice of the early church to baptize people even before they were able to profess Christ as Lord.  Children were included from an early day, a practice that some in the church continue to this day.  We practice baptism for anyone, at any age, upon request.  Children need to be “sponsored” by a baptized adult, others can be baptized whenever they ask to do so.

But the act of baptism is symbolic of God washing away our sins.  This is an act God does.  We receive it.  It is not our doing, but God’s.  God washes us on the inside.  The water is the sign of that washing.  It is, in the words of the church, an “outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”  God’s grace is at work in us before we even understand what baptism is.  God washes us and cleanses our hearts and minds, taking away our guilt and setting us free to serve God as we share love with our neighbors.  This is the crucial, central meaning of this act.

I’m thankful that in my role as pastor of the church, I have had the opportunity to baptize people from infants to 91 year olds.  I have baptized at the font of the church, in baptistries built just for that purpose, and in creeks, rivers and lakes.  Whatever the setting, I have seen God at work in the act of baptism, and I am humbled and thankful to have been able to serve others in this way.

Do you have a question about baptism?  Send me an email at this link.

What’s This Advent Business About?

Advent confuses a lot of people.  As soon as we’re wiping the turkey off our chins from Thanksgiving, we have come to expect the “Christmas Season” to have begun officially.  After all, haven’t we heard Christmas carols in the stores since about three weeks before Halloween?  But when we go to church, the colors are purple or dark blue.  The songs are not the ones we like, and the scripture is all about some future fulfilled promise.  We have a hard time with this because we’ve been conditioned to expect Christmas to happen just as soon as the culture starts telling us its time.

Church is funny that way.  Christmas is December 25, and in some parts of the world, not really celebrated until January 6.  Advent is a season that calls us to spend some time with the meaning of God coming into the world in the form of a baby.  It’s a season of waiting, watching, yearning, hoping.  So that’s why things look different inside the church than they do inside the mall.  We mark time with the candles of the Advent wreath, remembering the long time during which God’s people, Israel, waited for Jesus to come into the world the first time.  We pause, we give thanks, we wait.  That’s not easy to do in the midst of the hustle-bustle world of frenzied shopping and party planning.  But, it is an important thing to do for the soul.  And since the church is supposed to be where we go to get our souls fed, Advent is an appropriate part of our preparation for Christmas.

Here’s what you need to take away from this:  1.  Advent is a time to prepare for Christmas.  2.  It teaches us to wait upon the Lord.  3.  It helps us get our priorities straight.  4.  It is a beautiful way to remember God’s gracious relationship with the chosen people.  5.  It is a gift God gives us to re-program us and help us find God’s love at Christmas.  So, please join us as we celebrate Advent!

Giving Thanks

This is our theme for this year’s stewardship drive to help us meet our ministry spending plan for next year. We’ll be turning in our commitment cards on Nov 20. We’ve heard several testimonies from people who have experienced good things from God at First Church. Hopefully you have some good things in your own experience from our congregation too. It is my hope that when people of faith consider all the good things God has done in all our lives, we will respond by trying to give back our time, our talents, and our money. That’s what makes the church effective. I’m thankful for all the ways you are doing that right now! God bless you as you give thanks this month.

Why Won’t People Come to Church Anymore?

Thank you for the question.

People won’t come to church nowadays because they are too busy doing other things, absorbed in the dizzying schedules of their post-modern lives. And, Christianity is more and more becoming just another option in spirituality and faith. People are trying a variety of things from a variety of traditions. Many are adopting a “non-faith” perspective as well.

Jesus once said that “many are called, buy few chosen.” By that he meant that though many people are seeking God, few will find what they’re looking for. On the flipside, though, God is seeking us. And when God finds us, or when God gets our attention, we are most blessed.

We are living in times that are difficult for the church. People are not as apt to drop in to a neighborhood church now as they were 15 or 20 years ago. Yet, people who believe in Christ, and pray, will find that God will still bless their church if they find ways to connect to people. Once a relationship has been established, I believe people will begin to ask questions and inquire about what faith has to offer them. I also believe the Holy Spirit is at work, drawing people to God. So, don’t be discouraged just because times are different. God is still at work. Be faithful, pray, and be willing to share your faith when asked.