Reflections From Sunday Evening

Today we talked about the difficulty many people have reconciling our belief in a good, gracious, kind, powerful and wise God with the reality of sin, evil and suffering in the world. There is no definitive answer to this issue. However there is a very real hope that we find in Jesus Christ. While I cannot give some secret answer to the problems encountered I can offer the hope of Christ with great confidence. We looked at an illustration from Leonard Sweet. It is always nice to adapt others illustrations to our own purposes! The idea centered on learning a second language. It is one thing to learn vocabulary and grammar but that does not make us fluent in a new language. The test comes when we "dream" in the new language. That comes when we go beyond vocabulary and grammar. This comes when we are immersed in a new culture. We learn to recognize the sounds, sights and smells of a new culture. We not only learn the language, it becomes part of us. Then we "know" a new language. We applied this to the Christian life. John the Baptist came calling people to repent. They were baptized in water and entered a new relationship with Jesus Christ. Sins are forgiven. Abundant life is experienced. Eternal life is promised. Coming back to the challenges of our day we wonder if this sufficiently empowers us to live a redemptive life in a world laced with sin, evil and suffering. Perhaps we should listen to John the Baptist again. "I baptize you with water for the forgiveness of sins. One comes after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." We can be immersed in the Holy Spirit and when we are we will emerge new people. To be immersed in the Holy Spirit is to enter a new culture and know the language, the smells, the sights and the sounds. This is when we dream the dreams of God. This is a way we know and experience a good, kind, wise, powerful and gracious God living in redemptive ways in the world of sin, evil and suffering. By faith, be immersed in the Spirit and emerge a new person. On a personal note... Cindy's mom, Ruth Ann Grizzell, passed away this weekend. She had battled cancer. She had two good years after undergoing treatments three years ago. She lived the faith and looked forward to heaven. We would love your prayers for Cindy, her brother and sisters and the extended Grizzell family as we share in the celebration of her life. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Tomorrow the college football season comes to a close. There will be a real national championship game played between Oregon and Ohio State University. Oregon and their high powered offense is favored to win. But I am going to make a prediction. (Someone tell Don Schriver I am picking Ohio State). Yes I believe OSU will win the game and take home the national title. Oregon is great. If they win it will be because they deserve to and they will have capped an amazing season. But here are some things Ohio State has going for them. Tradition. OSU has been a power for decades. Go to the "Horseshoe" and watch a game with 105,000 fans. They have great tradition. Coaching. Urban Meyer is a fantastic coach. He wins everywhere. This will be no exception. Players. It does not matter how much tradition there is or how great the coach, it all comes down to players. They have talent. Program. They have a plan. They have a way they do things and stay with it. It all adds up to an OSU National Championship. Tune in Monday evening or check the score later and lets see how my prognosticator skills work out. Before I move on I want to compare OSU to what we experience in the life of the Church. There are days and even eras of history where people wonder if the Church will last. But we do not affirm, "The Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of time" for nothing. The people of God make the Church and the Body of Christ is the leaven that God uses to change and redeem the world. We have some great things going for us at Platte Woods UMC. Tradition. We are part of the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells with us. Jesus lives in our midst. Furthermore we have engaged in effective ministry since the 1950's. We have a history of making a difference and seeing lives changed. Coaching. We have a great staff that is capable of inspiring and equipping people to serve and honor God in life changing ways. The lay leadership of PWUMC is as strong as they come. We have people who are deeply devoted to God's mission in and through PWUMC. Players (members/participants). This is what makes all the difference. You are the people of God who care for one another. You are the people of God who serve. You give. You share the faith with others. You are the primary reason we have a great church. Program. We have a plan. We are "building an outwardly focused Christian Community of full participants in the Life of Grace". That is a plan (vision). We are focused upon making disciples of Jesus Christ. That is a mission. It is an absolute joy to be part of our church. It is a double joy to serve as your pastor. If we were a football team I would certainly pick us to win the championship! It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Today we spent some time thinking about 2 types of people: The NONES and the DONES. These are people who represent a portion of the 40,000 plus people who live in our immediate area that are not part of a faith community. NONES are those who have never been baptized, do not have a church background, did not go to Sunday School or Bible School, or those who have left a childhood faith and now check the "No Preference" box on a religious survey. NONES. The DONES are those who have been faithful in church attendance. They have served in many ways. They give. Then one day they decide "I'm Done!" Both types of individuals present challenges to the church. It is clear that for the church to continue to do "business as usual" will not help the NONES move past the barriers that keep them from full participation in a faith community. Clearly "business as usual" has contributed to DONES. We can spend time developing strategy and plans. We could bombard people with all sorts of messages. But there is one thing we (the church) have to offer that is unique. We offer grace. I am sharing from Phillip Yancey's book, "Vanishing Grace: Whatever Happened to the Good News?" Could it be that the church has resorted to "standards", "expectations", "accountability" and "rules" and seen grace slowly vanish? We begin a new year and today I offer you GRACE. This is the free gift of God revealed in Jesus Christ. This year we anticipate the emergence of grace in our church and in our lives. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Embark

One definition of the word embark is to take the first step into a process. This seems like a good way to begin this new year - 2015. In our church we anticipate the "next" step in a building process. We are embarking upon something that stretches beyond the immediate. We are embarking upon something larger than ourselves. We embark upon a 40 year project! What we do in these next months will serve the church for years. These initial steps we take will continue to bless and encourage for generations to come. I am not sure of all the exact steps we will take. We may hesitate. We may stumble but we will not fall. We embark - take the first step - into a process to honor and glorify God. I am overjoyed to embark with you into this New Year.

Reflections From Sunday Evening (Christmas edition)

A very real God came to a very real world to very real people. That is the Christmas message. We dare to believe that God is much more than a human invention. God is! We dare to believe God steps to earth and gets involved with the whole of creation. We dare to believe that the characters in our story - Mary, Joseph, shepherds and many others - were very real people who experienced something divine that rocked their world. We dare to believe that our very real God continues to step into this very real world and into our lives. The continual appearing of God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit touches us and redeems us. We witness many signs of God's appearing in our world and in our lives. One sign. Over 2000 people joined for worship on Christmas Eve. Another sign. Over $33,000 was given to "feed Northland kids." Yet another sign. A teenager gave all his "Christmas money" to help others. (Generosity) Even yet another sign. People continued to gather on the weekend immediately following Christmas - worship. It has been yet another great Christmas at Platte Woods UMC. This caps off a very good year in the life of our church. I look forward to sharing details of our witness and ministry in the next few weeks. Now we prepare for the next step along God's path for us. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Next comes Christmas! Recently I had a brief conversation with one of our members who commented on being at a Christmas Eve service a couple of years ago. He said it made him feel like he was 8 years old again! I keep thinking about that. There was certainly nothing like Christmas when we were 8 years old. Many of us remember the traditions. With our family Christmas Eve started at church. We always had our children's Christmas program on Christmas Eve. I am not sure how many times I went through the Christmas Story as a shepherd or a star or some other character. Somewhere in that time we would have a visit from Santa! I would take with me the brown paper sack with some hard Christmas candy, some walnuts (they filled up the sack) and an orange. When we left our church family it was on to my grandparents for a meal of oyster stew. Then it was my job to crawl around the tree and distribute a present to everyone. Then it was home for what seemed like the "longest night of the year." By the way...As I write this we are embarking on the longest night of the year. Somewhere I read it is going to be the longest night in the history of earth! The sun goes down earlier and comes up later than any other day. It is the longest night - the Winter Solstice. But there is a good part of this. We are turning the corner. Tomorrow the days will begin to last a little longer. The first day of winter moves forward with the promise of spring coming back around. We are heading in the right direction! When I was 8 years old we had a way of shortening the longest night. We just got up ridiculously early! Then the joy would continue. Christmas. Make Christmas Eve service part of your Christmas. It is a time to sing our favorite carols. We will share the Christmas Story. We light the Christ Candle. We share at the Table of the Lord. We light a candle and sing Silent Night. We take the darkness of night and turn it into a night of joy where heaven touches earth and stirs our hearts. We have services beginning at 3:00 p.m. with our children/family service. We follow with 2 services at 5:00 and 7:00 and then a service at 9:00 and 11:00. I am stirring up the 8 year old in me once again. I can hardly wait for Christmas Eve! See you then. It's been a great day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

First of all I made up with Starbucks this week. Just a misunderstanding. Seems that when I updated my card with a new expiration date not everything in their records matched what I had put in my account. Oops. So it was really on me. The support people I talked to (yes, I did reach out) walked me through the process and checked everything. Now I am good to go. It helped that I decided not to be stubborn or petty. I was both when things were not working like I wanted/expected. There were people eager and waiting to help. Do you want an application to faith and Church? There are a number of points I could make but here is the one for now. The Church is filled with people who want to help. We want to help you walk through struggles and questions. We want to encourage you in your faith. We want to be there when you find yourself working through various issues. We want to be your church. We want to be your spiritual family. We want to walk with you in a life of discipleship. I am glad to be back with a coffee shop. I pray we all be in great standing with the Lord. On another point... The Wesleyan Choir shared the Christmas Cantata this weekend. It was great. We felt the Spirit in the message and music. Thanks to Walter Bryant and all the musicians and the choir members. Joy rang out. It's been a good day (I might say a very good day). I hope you've had a good day too. Oh, one more thing. Be sure to invite (and bring) someone to Christmas Eve services. We start at 3:00 and continue through the night. It promises to be a great time of celebrating the birth of our Savior. See you then. steve