Reflections From Sunday Evening

Thanks to Mara Andrews for showing me how to hit a basket on a PlaySchool basketball goal. The point was emphasizing Nothing But Nets. We've done this before. It's a program that got started a few years ago. Medically treated malaria nets are purchased for $10 and sent to Africa where they are distributed to families. Each net has the effect of literally saving scores of lives. It's amazing.

This year when people return their 2010 pledge cards indicating their financial support for the church we are going to buy a net. Everyone who pledges will have a net purchased in their name. I hope this is incentive for many people to be very intentional about their tithes and offerings for the coming year.

We want to communicate that Platte Woods UMC intends to be an outward-focused church. We want to communicate that we want to be a mission-minded church.
Tithes and offerings do more than pay operating costs, salaries and things like that. Your tithes and offerings change lives - save lives - literally.

When Mara made the basket I used that to illustrate a net bought and lives saved! Furthermore when she made one (she actually made 2 out of 3) she showed what God expects - 1 out of 10. A tithe. A miracle of what God is able to do in and through the people of God.

It's been a good day - now off to Trunk or Treat.

I hope you've had a good day too.

Reflections From Sunday Evening

It's been a good weekend. Busy day at church this morning - baptism of 7-year-old Ben. Welcome to the family of God. 27 third-graders received their Bibles - music, spirit - we sensed the presence of God.

Yesterday Cindy and I (among many others) walked in the Ian's Flu Foundation walk. It is an annual event. Glen and Julie Moise have responded in an amazing fashion to the loss of their son. I encourage you to go to the Web site and get acquainted more fully with their story. But what I want to say is this.

At 11:00 the walk was beginning. 200 people were joining together to support the effort to educate and vaccinate children so no other child need die from the flu. As I joined with others I thought of another event taking place at 11:00 a.m. yesterday.

Bishop Eugene Frank's memorial service was taking place downtown. Bishop Frank was elected bishop in 1954. He served 16 years as the bishop of Missouri. Everyone in the church knew Bishop Frank.

I remembered a time over 30 years ago when I was a seminary student. Cindy and I were home one weekend and we went with my dad to a one-day retreat and heard Bishop Frank. In his message he made the statement: "God plants the seed of redemption at the heart of every tragedy." I've repeated the insight many times.

Yesterday as we were doing the walk and Bishop Frank's service was taking place at the same time I thought of that moment. And I realized that what he said was so true. I found myself participating in the seed God planted at the heart of the tragedy of Ian's untimely death. Glen and Julie are truly being used by God to make a tremendous witness for the redemptive power and grace of Jesus Christ. It's been a great moment of finding ourselves in the midst of what God is doing.
Blessings.

Reflections From Sunday Evening

I love fast pased days like today. Sorry if I was talking too fast but we had lots to do and there were some things to say! When we have Christ in our hearts we are experiencing the transforming power of God. Part of the transformation is the peace of Christ in our hearts. The idea is we then are empowered to take the peace of Christ into the workplace and God will use us as agents of transformation. Pretty good news. So the peace of Christ molds our Attitudes (a get to attitude as it relates to the workplace) Ambition (do all we do as unto the Lord) and Achievement.
There was something else that happened today. It made me think of the story Jesus told about having 100 sheep and one of them wanders off. The Good Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes in search of the one that was lost. It is a great story that describes the searching and finding nature of God. God came to seek and to save the least, the last and the lost.
But I digress. As I was shaking hands with people on the way out of church and extending greetings a lady said something that stopped me. She indicated she expected a call from the church. I inquired as to what the call would be related to. She said membership. I said I'm sorry and I'll take a look but by that time she was past me. I did not get her name. I don't know if she was planning to join the church today but had a miscommunication. Maybe she checked something on a connect card and felt the folllow-up was lacking. I really don't know.
What I do know is I'm going to try and find the one that I allowed to slip away. If Jesus would go in search of the one that was missing and I am a follower of Jesus there is nothing else I can do!
It really has been a great day - in spite of missing one. Now I look forward to being the one who goes to seek and find - anyone care to join me?
I hope you've had a great day.
steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Today I had a different experience. Cindy, Bobby, Leslie, Andrea, Marcus and I all sat together in church. I remember a Christmas Eve service a few years ago when we had a similar family worship experience but those are rare for us.
The view from the balcony is pretty good. I loved the sermon. (Even though I had not heard about the bees.) The worship put us in a spirit to experience God's presence. Communion was meaningful as I was able to join with others in receiving. It was a meaningful experience of worship.
In the balcony you get to interact with people. Preaching makes a connection (on a good day) but it is different. From the balcony you get to see how others engage in worship. This is more difficult to discern from the front. In the balcony you can reflect on what is going on in people's lives as they gather in the name of Jesus to find a touch of grace for their lives.
It is a good reminder of why we do what we (preachers) do. Weekly we seek to hear from God and be able to bring a Word from the Lord that will encourage you in your daily lives. It is a tremendous joy to do so.
Next Sunday I plan to be back in the front. I doubt our whole family will be together then. But we will all be somewhere. And wherever we are the certainty is that God will be with us. God is with us when we preach. God is with us when we listen. (I believe God is even with us when we go to the Chiefs game - like we did today - but I'm not sure the Lord enjoyed it!)
The point is we seek to live our lives in the presence of the Living God. God is with us in and through all the experiences of life. But it is in church - whether the balcony or the front - that we give our most intentional focus on the purposes of God.
I was glad to be able to worship with you today. I hope you've had a good day enjoying the Lord.
blessings,
steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

This has been a mixed day. You realize I base this on our church services this weekend. There were some really great things happening. The music - Jubilante, praise team, choir, were really on it. They practice and come on Sundays and help us experience the presence of God. So much talent and so many gifts.

We highlighted some amazing things going on in the life of the church. When Ginger talked about the upcoming "My First Prayer Retreat" I was so glad we are taking the opportunity to help our youngsters learn the joy and importance of prayer. That is amazing.

There were good conversations going on all over the place. That is a great sign of fellowship. We had first-time visitors. A number of people indicated they planned to come to the new member orientation this afternoon. Should be good. These are great signs of life.

I'm counting on our youth to download John Mellencamp's new song "Forgiveness." It is a great message.

People were engaged. I am convinced that many who were there gained some fresh insights into God's forgiveness and our human capability of extending grace and forgiveness to others.

Here's the other side of the mixed day. There were an awful lot of empty seats today. Our attendance was significantly lower today than it was on the final weekend of September last year. It makes me wonder what we need to do. There are so many doing so much, so what are we missing?

I suppose the best thing to do is get back to praying and planning for next week. We'll have a wonderful worship experience next week. There will be all sorts of service opportunities this week. God is alive and well among us and we are going to keep on loving and learning and serving our Savior. In that light it's been a good day.

On another note I've been watching the Chiefs today. (I am and will always be a Chiefs fan.) I'm reminded of what Coach John McKay once said following another loss of the Tampa Bay team he was coaching. When asked what he thought about his team's "execution" he responded, "Right now I'm all for it." I don't know how Todd Haley keeps from going out of his mind.

So much for that - just scored a TD.

Enough of this rambling. Have a great day and God bless you in all you do.

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

Reflections From Sunday Evening

This weekend we introduced Curtis and Terri Huffman in our worship services. Curtis has been appointed to start a new UM church in the Northland. Church planting is so much different than when I had the opportunity in 1982. We were more neighborhood oriented then. Today Curtis is charged with finding unchurched people and gathering a launch team which will then develop the church, including the site where they will worship. It is exciting to see new beginnings. We at PWUMC have the opportunity to partner with this new work. We can all look forward to getting acquainted with Curtis and Terri.

This past week I had the opportunity to attend a "Changing Church Culture" seminar in Dallas. The event was sponsored by the North Dallas Conference and the topic dealt with changing the culture in a church to become more focused on reaching the unchurched. The seminar was held at the Southwest Airlines Corporate Headquarters. About half the time was spent with a leader from Southwest and included a tour of their facility and history. It was a great opportunity to learn more about setting priorities and developing the spiritual DNA of a congregation.

When it comes to applying the principles learned it simply becomes an issue of how we go about our life together. I have the privilege of setting the tone in many ways and definitely seek your continued prayers as I offer servant leadership here.

Worship this weekend was really meaningful. Things came together very well. I was truly blessed by Michael Short singing "I Can Only Imagine." The praise team and then the choir certainly made that time of worship heart moving. Thanks Michael and everyone who brought us to the throne of grace today.

Claim the moment of God's Spirit in and around you today. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too.