Reflections From Sunday Evening

It is a joy to stand before the congregation week after week and see so many faithful followers of Jesus Christ. We may not always feel like it but the fact is we are God's people making a huge difference in the world. We should take heart and trust that God is using people like us to offer a redemptive witness in a needy world. When I think about culture I am convinced that God's people must stand for the best that God provides and against the worst the world produces. In our culture we witness some things that are far from the best God offers. We see a culture of violence. ...a culture of greed. ...a culture of all sorts of "isms". ...a culture of selfishness. ...a culture of death. ...a culture of confusion. ...a culture of exploitation. I could go on and you could list others that detract from God's best. There is good news. God has a people to be light in darkness, salt for savoring and hope in despair. Followers of Christ may be called to build bridges across our cultural divides. Here are a couple of thoughts about how to go about bridging the many divides in our times. First do not be threatened by people who disagree with us. To be non-threatened seek to understand (as best you can) others and be steadfast in that of which you are most convinced as being true. We do not have manuals for living is our specific times and cultures but we do have THE BOOK to lead us on the path of life. Just some thoughts as we rejoice in following, serving and loving Christ. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day as well. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening (actually Monday - Annual Conference)

Bishop Schnase annually reminds us of the earliest Methodist conference. John Wesley wrote; "In June 1744, I desired my brother and a few other clergymen to meet me in London, to consider how we should proceed to save our own souls and those who heard us. After some time, I invited the lay preachers that were in the house to meet with us. We conferred together for several days and were much comforted and strengthened thereby." My first experiences with United Methodist Annual Conferences did not fit that style. I was introduced to conference as a time of debate, discussion and division. It was more of a legislative session where the best organized ended up with more votes on a number of issues that left some happy, some angry and many confused. Times have changed. I just returned home from Springfield where the Missouri Conference met from Friday through noon today. There was never a debate or argument on the conference floor. The conference budget (which was decreased slightly) and an initiative to reduce the number of districts was passed in less than 5 minutes. In my early days this would take over 2 hours. Times have changed. We did worship. We had outstanding learning sessions. Adam Hamilton offered great teaching. We enjoyed fellowship with one another. We received our appointments for the coming year. Ginger Pudenz, Christine Tucker-Key and Jessica Richard were re-appointed to PWUMC. Jacob Schneider and Kyle Butler were also appointed to serve at PWUMC. And I was appointed for my 10th year to serve as the senior pastor. We represent over 850 churches. There are 1000 pastors, both active and retired. We agree on many things and strongly disagree with one another on others. But we find ourselves engaged in a common mission to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." I felt it was a good conference and furthered our work. My soul was encouraged and in the weeks ahead I trust that many of the ideas and things that touched my soul will be shared so as to touch yours. May we be strengthened and comforted. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Big welcome to Dan and Ashley Cook who joined our church this morning. We always rejoice to receive new people into this faith community. Besides the joy of new people choosing to be part of what God is doing in our church we also have the opportunity to re-think our own commitment and what it means to be part of the Church. We are reminded that we take our place in a historic movement. When we say yes to rejecting evil in whatever forms it presents itself we make a statement of faith that the earliest Christians made. When we affirm the Christian faith as contained in the Scriptures we take our place among Christians from every era of Church history. When we affirm our faith in Jesus Christ we stand in a holy line of faithful followers of Jesus through all ages. When we promise to uphold the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness we join with others to live our faith in Christian community. It is a great thing. Today we were reminded of this faith we profess. On another note...This evening at NEXT Dale and Nina Renee were baptized. We encouraged them as they made their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. New life is being celebrated. On yet another note...At the conclusion of our 11:00 service we recognized Dylan Cole. Dylan completed his time of active duty in the Marine Corps and got home to stay on Friday night. It was an honor to thank Dylan for his service and say welcome home. On still another note...Today was Curtis Olsen's final day to preach and share in worship at Platte Woods Church. He and Angie and the boys will be moving to Columbia to serve a great church - Community UMC. It seems like only yesterday I shared in welcoming Curtis to our staff but it has been 7 years! It has truly been a privilege to share in ministry with Curtis these past years and I wish he and Angie only the best as God opens new avenues of service. So it has been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. blessings, steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

I got to pick up in our "#" series. Frankly not too many years ago (and some of us still) looked at that symbol and thought "number sign"or 'lb". But now it stands for "hashtag." Clearly the pace of change touches many areas of life and communication. Anyway today it was #pwcAllin. That is "All in" as in totally committed. It continues to strike me how many of us have faith stories to share. Your experience of Christ is very meaningful to you and I assure you it will be very meaningful to someone else. Your experience of Christ and relationship with God is totally relevant to your life and I assure you it will be totally relevant to another. You are truly engaged with the Lord and your witness will be used to engage another in the life of grace. You need not reach all but you may certainly reach some. We use the idea of twitter because it shows how an idea or message "trends" in many directions and to many people even all over the world. Such is the message of the Gospel. As you share your story the Gospel "trends" to others and bears fruit. So don't forget #pwcAllin God's grace is for all through faith in Jesus Christ. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

It has been nice to have a couple of weeks off. This week Cindy and I got to go to three Royals games. Believe it or not they won all three times. Today was the Royals salute to the Negro League. The teams wore "throw back" uniforms. KC was dressed in Monarch uniforms. The fans even got into the act. This was "dressed to the nines" day. Back when the Monarchs played in Kansas City they were extremely popular with the whole town but especially the Black Community. Preacher's would move Sunday services up an hour so the people would be out in time to get to the baseball game. They went straight from church to the ballpark and would be dressed in their Sunday best. Today many remembered those days and the great ball players of that era by dressing up and enjoying Kansa City baseball. Times have changed. The Negro League is not more. But today baseball is a fully integrated game. Sounds like a good trade to me. Opportunity is extended to many more people than in the days of baseball's Negro League. This is a change that is for the best. Today people do not arrange their Sunday's around church schedules. This trend is not so good. Believe me if it would help I would encourage us to have services at times to make it possible for people to worship and get to the game. Oh, we already do that. So the times have changed. But there is still much joy to be found. There is joy in remembering the great baseball players of the Negro league. There is joy in watching a ball game on a perfect afternoon! There is joy in worship. Above all, there is joy in the Lord. I hope you find more and more ways to experience the joy of the Lord this week. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

I may have made a strategic error. While taking some time away from preaching I asked our "young communicators" to preach. Today Charles Smith brought the message and did an outstanding job. It was not just the "youth guy" teaching the congregation about social media. It was a timely word that lifts burdens from hearts and replaces anxiety with joy. Great job Charles! It says something about the staff PWC is assembling. We have high quality people filling the various positions in our church. I feel somewhat like Andy Stanley who I heard speaking about the high quality of the staff at the church he started and saying he didn't think he could get a job there! I am getting to that point! Truly one of the best parts of being pastor of PWUMC is the daily interaction and work with our staff. I try to surround myself with people who know more than I do. I am definitely not the expert in youth or children's ministry! I try to identify the things I do best and spend the majority of time and energy in those areas. I deeply appreciate various perspectives and encourage those around me to give their best ideas. I seek to encourage our staff as well as maintain accountability. I love to laugh with our staff. There are times when we share burdens. I totally appreciate our staff. On another note... Happy Mother's Day - to everyone who fills the role. In a bit Cindy and I will take my mom and dad to our son-in-laws parents (are you keeping all this straight?) for Mother's Day dinner. It's been a good day. I truly hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

When I was a kid I used to listen to the Kansas City A's on my transistor radio. I listened night after night. I did not ever want to miss a game since the A's would only win 2 or 3 games a week all summer long. I did not want to ever miss it when they won! I could continue this line of thought and report that I am now watching the K.C. Royals on my nice TV as they continue to be non-competitive this weekend. But I won't go there. I will note something else I want to do regularly because I don't want to miss the latest "win." I have been preaching most weekends since the first part of the year. In these days "post Easter" it seems like a great time to step back and let you be blessed by our "young communicators!" So today I was not preaching. On Sunday's like this I often visit another church. It is always good to get new ideas and see how others do things. I was thinking about where I would like to worship today but kept coming back to my favorite church. I wanted to hear Curtis launch our new message series today. #pwcsharpening got things started. Maybe I was just ready to hear from the Lord today but I thought things were great. I just didn't want to miss something really good. And I didn't. #pwcsharpening - do you have 2 or 3 friends who you could tell anything to and not be judged? #pwcsharpening - if you are not being sharpened you are getting dull #pwcsharpening - what sharpens you I trust many of you felt "sharpened" today. In case you are thinking about other ways to get sharpened...Pray - Bible - worship - witness - share It's bent a good day. -- Royals just got their first hit! I hope you've had a good day too. steve