A Pastor Ponders

I hate getting a head and chest cold in the midst of summer. It is beautiful weather…I could be out in the garden, but instead I am stuck inside hacking my head off with every cough and falling asleep every couple of hours. Oh well, I am getting caught up on some computer stuff. I set up a Facebook account today. (Several of our youth have been after me to do that for a while.) I am also sorting through about 400 pictures of our church’s Mission Trip to Tyrand last week in order to put together a presentation for worship on Sunday. If I ever get to the end of that task, well, I think I will have to take another nap.

In the process of doing all of this, I discovered a hidden talent in one of our church members. Alex Constantino is a wonderful videographer and editor.

Alex is bringing a unique and fun filled perspective to the lighter side of a Mission Trip and I really appreciate the work he did. Love the them music too!!

Okay, it is back to sorting photos and getting them in a movie format.

peace,

scott

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Man, my heart swelled with pride today. Yes, the little baby you see in this picture is my new grandson, Timothy Zayden Williams, and to a large degree the pride I feel is that pride which all grandfathers – especially the new ones – feel when they see their newest family member.

But I have even more pride when I look at the little one holding him. My girl, Leslie. She did such a fantastic job getting through labor and delivery. She did such a fine job finding a young man to spend her life with and building a family with that my heart just swells.

Today was a great day. I got to see my little girl all grown up holding her own child and showing the love that only a mother can show. I got to see God’s hand at work in re-creating life and bringing life into this world. I got to see the miracle that is birth.

I am proud to be serving a God who gives days like today. I only pray we can have more and more and more of them in our lives.

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Will you come with me when I need to go visit my dying friend who does not yet know Christ? Will you come with me when I want to drop off cookies to my neighbor who has just gotten into a scrape with the law? Will you come with me to deliver groceries to the people down the street who do not speak English? Will you come with me? (Rev. Amy Shanholtzer, WV United Methodist)

I have to admit that a good deal on my past Sunday’s sermon was something of an inspiration based on Rev. Shanholtzer’s article above. I highly recommend that you take some time to read it.

As you probably know, I have difficulty talking about either Mission or Evangelism on their own. I think a much more natural and Biblical approach is to look at Need Oriented Evangelism. When we focus on the needs of those around us, we will find the opportunities to share the Good News. I hope I challenged folks with the promise that Jesus will be with us when we undertake those endeavors. The trouble with sermons sometimes, though, is it sounds like the preacher is laying a “guilt” trip on us to do something. I certainly hope that wasn’t the case this past week.

We have an incredible mission field around us. There are so very many people just in need of a sample of the love we have received in Jesus Christ. And I know that if we pray together, work together, and Reach Out together, that work of Christ will be done.

Rev. Shanholtzer’s article was also discussed with our Bishop in a blog you can find here. (I also highly recommend this blog from our new Conference Communication Director – BTW, Welcome Back to West Virginia, Laura!!) I think you will see from the Bishop’s comments that he is certainly in prayer about our becoming more and more involved in what it takes to be evangelists.

Our congregation is registered for the Commission Possible event in September and I hope we will have twenty or so people willing to go and be a part of what promises to be powerful times of worship and preaching. I know that I am looking forward to it. If you want to take part, please let me know. I guess in a very real way, I am asking you, “Will you come with me” to get ready to go to others?

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The newsletter is not due out for another week, but my article is finished for it and I thought I would go ahead and publish it here. Hope you don’t mind!

“Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat…Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know…Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!!” (1 Corinthians 5:16ff, The Message)

On some deep level, I really like the summer season when I do not have to wear the robe that immediately identifies me as “the preacher.” I seem to be much more comfortable talking to everyone and I am especially more comfortable talking to those who may be guests in worship. I can connect with them as a person first and a preacher second. I think I also like this because it helps me cover up a fault that I have.

You see, I have to make a very sad and somewhat desperate confession to you. Some Sunday mornings, I walk into the sanctuary and look around at the people who are gathered to worship and then look directly at one particular person and say to myself, “Who is that person?” My heart is racing, my brain is on overdrive, I am searching for both a name and the information about whether or not they have been here a long time, short time or somewhere in between. Then I even begin to wonder at times whether they are first time guests or guests that I met the previous week. Sometimes, I come up with the answers and sometimes I don’t. To me, that is both a little sad and desperate.

However, I also know that I am not alone. I have had more than one member of our congregation tell me over the past few months that there are so many people that they just don’t know in the congregation. They have said one of two things: Either that they know we have received a lot of new members from another congregation and they don’t want to embarrass that person or themselves by introducing themselves when they may have already done so; or they say that being fairly new to the congregation they are afraid they are going to offend a long term member by introducing themselves.

Folks, first and foremost we need to praise God that we are all having these kinds of problems! It is a wonderful problem for us to be having here at Stout Memorial. Over the last year, we have received several members from other congregations as well as many persons by profession of faith. We have over 500 people active in our congregation and well over half of them are present on any given Sunday. For any one of us (including the pastoral staff) to know each and every person each and every week is next to impossible.

The Scripture passage above may help us all in dealing with the problems we may have on a Sunday morning when we are trying to determine how “familiar” to be with the people around us. This passage reminds us that there is only one identity that really matters when we get together and that is the identity that Christ gives us.

We do not come to worship on Sunday in order to be recognized by the people around us or to be singled out by the preacher. And we don’t evaluate people on how well they know us or how well they seem to fit in. What we need to be doing, Paul reminds us in Corinthians, is to be looking towards the inside and that way we can treat every single person who is around us as a Child of God.

God is sending us new guests in worship each and every week. Some of them come back and some of them do not. One of the main reasons people return to any worship service has to do with how many people speak to them during the first ten minutes of their arrival. Usually by the end of that ten minutes, they have decided whether to come back or not based on how much people are paying attention to the “inside” rather than the appearance.

I want to challenge us all over the coming months to really be intentional about greeting each and every person we see on Sunday. Yes, we may have to get up and move around a little before worship begins and yes, we may make some mistakes about people’s identity. But perhaps we can all focus on the identity Christ gave them and us, smile and say it is a good thing that God loves us all.

Peace

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Okay, over the past two weeks, I have managed to pick several gallons of sour cherries thanks to the generosity and help of Jim Bare and one of his neighbors. I happen to enjoy making jam and giving it away and I don’t believe that there is a better fruit for this purpose than the good ole sour cherry.

What I don’t like, however, is pitting the blasted things. Even if I sit outside and take every precaution in the world, it seems as if there is juice everywhere before I am done. Last night, I stood at the kitchen sink for close to two hours with my hand in a bag that was slowly filling with pits and juice. When I finished and pulled my hand out for the final time it was bright pink and sticky. (I wore a red shirt today just to cover up any lasting effect that this might have.) Today, I will pit the final gallon and a half and make some jam. Tomorrow…the process starts again.

I don’t know that I want to draw a whole lot of lessons out of this particular personal experience. However, I do know that I had a lot of good quality quiet time. Yeah, there was the occasional “squish” sound to interrupt my thoughts and prayers but mainly, I got to focus a long time doing a repetitive task and talk to God as well as listen. There were not any earth shattering observations during this time but it was good time none the less. Messy…but good. And there was one not so earth shattering observation.

I read this week that one of the most important things that spiritual leaders do is to take the extra time needed to “practice” spiritual disciplines. (Of course, this is not the first time I have ever read such advice…hang in with me.) I noticed late last night that my fingers were almost working on autopilot when I touched a cherry. My thumb would find the top and work with the pointer finger to rotate the cherry just the right way to squeeze it and I would feel the pit slide one way or another over those digits. I didn’t even have to watch to make sure by the time the night was over. (I guess those of you who receive a gift of cherry jam from me should consider yourself forewarned!) However, the thought that we need to continually practice spiritual disciplines really struck home as I saw how adept I became at pitting.

The more we practice…the more second natured things become and God knows that I want my first nature to be overcome by God’s nature!

There it is. I told you it wasn’t earth shattering. It was more of a squish against a plastic bag and a plop of an empty cherry but there it is nonetheless. Hopefully, in making the jam this evening I won’t learn too much. There is a lot of heat involved in jam making and lessons that involve heat…well, nevermind.

Peace!!

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