Reflections From Sunday Evening

Today was a special day in the life of Platte Woods UMC. We celebrated our 50th anniversary. Glen Wiggs, Jerrol Boehmer and John Breon were three former pastors who joined us and shared some of their experiences at PWC. Jeff Denton organized the event and shared from the time capsule. (We'll get the letters on-line soon.) Food was great - the day was great - Makes a fellow eager for the next 50 years!
While we were celebrating we also were looking ahead. Our past is wonderful but the future belongs to God! So today was also a bit of vision casting. Check out the sermon on our website if you want to hear what I see in the next few years. Hint - some building - lots of mission and ministry and a church that clearly understands our purpose, mission and vision.
To be the church (whether PWC or any church for that matter) God is calling us to be we MUST discover the joy and power of inviting others to participate in the life of grace through worship, learning and serving. To be the church God wants us to be we must increase our own commitments to being present and bearing witness to what Christ is doing in our lives.
Back on the inviting theme. I was recently meeting with a group of people and we were talking about the book, Simple Church. The question was posed; what would be an example of something we might stop doing if it was not matching our purpose? I mentioned one of our most successful ministries - the ladies Christmas Tea. My thought is that if this becomes a "members only" event and we do not invite our friends who do not regularly worship it would lose its value. I also mentioned the Men's Faith Breakfast - we need to be sure we invite folks who do not go to church to these events with the idea they will be introduced to Jesus Christ and the life of faith.
At that point a statemnt was made. "I did not know we COULD invite outsiders." You talk about something I assume that was not communicated! Then it was explained. The information about the event encouraged everyone to "register early" and signalled that space was limited. The person knew a number of people he thought would love to come but did not feel he could invite them. Wow.
Let it be known that we are REQUIRED to invite people. If we run out of room we'll figure it out. We need to invite.
Today we had roughly 550 people eat in the new dining hall. We were pretty nervous (Jeff Denton!) about what to do with the anticipated crowd. It went very smoothly. People came through the lines in a timely manner. It was relaxed and enjoyable. God has a way.
It's been a really good day. I hope you've had a good day too.
steve