Reflections From Sunday Evening

Today I shared my story of the time when we were little boys that a friend of mine hit my hammer with his head! When that happened I knew instinctively that I was in trouble. Maybe him holding his head, crying and running home tipped me off -- but I knew. When I got home that evening I was waiting on dad to get home and see what would happen next. At that point I did what any good son of Adam would do. I hid. That is a great image in the Scripture. When "the man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of day, they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden." (Genesis 3:8) They had done something and it seems to me they must have thought, we are in trouble. I hid. When dad got home he called for me and that is when I came out of hiding. That is what happened with Adam and Eve. The Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9) That is when the man came out of hiding. If I had one word to those who find themselves hiding from God today it would be listen. God will call your name. When your name is called come out of hiding. I don't remember what was said to me or what happened. Evidently something took place because to this day I have not hit anyone else in the head with a hammer! I used that in the context of our Wesleyan Way of Salvation. There comes a moment when we realize "we are in trouble." We hide. God calls our name. We come out of hiding. Our life is changed. The good news is that we come out of hiding, step across the threshold of justification and new birth, and enter the heart of God. It's been a good day. I trust you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Cindy and I went to our favorite church today - Platte Woods UMC! Took the final day of vacation and sat in the balcony. (Frankly I like my regular view better.) Thanks to Curtis who did a great job with the "Grace Effect" series. I get to finish it up next weekend. After church we ran by a couple of stores before we went home. Generally I spend all Sunday morning at church. We always talk about everything that goes on Sunday morning that tend to keep people away from church but today I saw some things first hand. I wonder about the clerks who work on Sunday morning. Did they have much choice in whether or not to work on Sunday morning? Did they volunteer? Did they have "nothing better to do?" But there they are. What about all those shoppers? Were they on the way home from church? Is Sunday no more than a day off? It seems strange to enter into a different culture. That is what it felt like for me. My culture is a "church culture." Other things revolve around my church culture. Obviously not everyone lives in a church culture. As a matter of fact many live lives where church would be expected to revolve around most everything else. I like my culture better than the one I shared in today. I like my culture so much better I want to share it with others. There is some hopeful and Good News. Christ is the transformer of culture. That is something I remembered on vacation this year. Looking forward to being back "home." It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

It's been a busy vacation week for Cindy and me. Monday found us in Appleton City. Met brother John and his daughter and son to help load a piano. Thankfully there was plenty of help! Of course they needed me to "steady" the job. Tuesday to Kimberly City and our friends Clif and Dee Crockett. Pierce Arrow show that evening. The next day watched it rain and then toured the dam at Table Rock. Then a trip to Silver Dollar City. Ended the day at Lambert's for "throwed rolls" before driving back to K.C. Thursday evening went to dinner with friends at Cinzettis. Friday we went to Union Station for the Pirate exhibit. Saturday was a birthday dinner at daughter Andrea's. Today we went to church in Raymore where they celebrated their 132 year heritage. Good to see friends from our time serving there from 1990-95. We had to hurry from there to get to the New Theatre to meet Cindy's mom and sister for the Buddy Holly Story. This taking time off stuff is exhausting! Another week to "rest." Maybe I will catch my breath this week. Better catch the Royals while they are hot! In the midst of all this I have found some time to walk and pray and do some reflection. Emerging insights! Looking forward to further development regarding what God is up to these days. I am getting eager to get back to it - feeling the Spirit stirring! But first ...another week to relax. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

After early service today Cindy went to a wedding shower thing (sounds like a man/father doesn't it) while I met up with son Bobby and we went to Church of the Resurrection Downtown. A good experience to see what is taking place in the center of our city. The place was full and God was at work. Ministry takes place in context. One factor of context is demographics. COR downtown is obviously doing a great job in their context. I see other places doing very well in their context. Grand Avenue Temple does an amazing job of ministry in their context. Half of their congregation is homeless. Very good contextual ministry. Jacob's Well is a church meeting not far from KU Medical Center. This is the "emerging" church being attended by large numbers of young adults. They do a great job of ministry in their context. I think of the pastor's I worked with in July who are primarily serving small membership churches in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. No one talks about them like they do COR or Jacob's Well, but they are doing very significant ministry in small towns and rural settings. Context. It makes me think about our own church. (PWUMC) We are not an inner city church. We are not really a suburb but that it pretty close. We are certainly not a small rural church. One of our unique traits is that we have elements of a number of different type churches. We do great ministry where we are. Context. I will be taking some time over the next couple of weeks to re-charge as we gear up for the fall. There is a lot coming. I look forward to it. In the meantime I will probably be taking some time to think about current and future ministry in the context God has given. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve