Inspiring People

This is a copy of this week's edition of the regular pastoral message that I send out to the Discovery community via email.

When I consider the people in my life who have shaped my journey of faith, I am so grateful that they made an effort and took the time to share their wisdom and love with me. I am inspired by people who are intentional about using their lives to bless others with God’s love. There are many such people who are part of Discovery today. This Sunday, we will use our “heart cards” to celebrate these special people. I hope you will take some time this week to think about the people who have shaped your spiritual life. Do the blessings and wisdom they have shared with you inspire you to make an effort to reach out to others in a similar way?

People connected to Discovery who made a difference in my spiritual life…

· Sydney. Because he made me feel welcomed. He gave our church an identity for me. An identity that said “Discovery is different” – less about style and more about substance. I miss him standing barefoot at the back of the church. But the point of this is that when you feel comfortable and wanted in church (Sydney made me feel that way) the lines of communication with God are a little more open. Discovery is genuinely a place where I feel like I am worshipping – not “going to church”.
--Steve Pitts, Finance and Stewardship Teams Member

· Suzanne Roberson encouraged me to feel free to ask God questions.
--Mickie Goad, Staff Parish Relations Team Member

· The mission team members. On both mission trips I participated in over the last two years, I had the opportunity to meet different people within Discovery and was blessed to serve with them. We all created a lasting bond with one another. This experience changed my life! It’s true that you need to surround yourself with good people because it “rubs off” and creates a strong support team for life’s interruptions.
--Jami Glover, Lay Leader

· I believe it was early 2001 when I met a mom at Trace Crossings Elementary that I had seen at Discovery, and she mentioned a small group that met at the church on Thursday mornings and they were starting a new study. So I joined and met many wonderful women. One stands out among the rest. Her name was Becky Austin Hall and she was an older woman, a retired nurse, that had survived throat cancer and during her cancer and treatments her husband left her. Becky lost most of her tongue and the ability to swallow anything. She amazed me that she was such a loving and caring person and she always wanted to do things for others. One of the last exciting things she did was take a hot air balloon ride, which was a dream of hers. We lost Becky after she underwent a risky medical procedure. I feel blessed that Becky called me that night before her surgery and I got to tell her how much she had meant to me over the last several years that I had known her. What I got from her was her awesome belief in a good God.
--Sue Drennan, Finance Team Chairperson

· Terry Rogers—you would not go wrong following his good example. Each of our staff members. They each give so generously of themselves through their passion and experience and provide excellent guidance and spiritual education for each of us.
--Jill Pitts, Staff Parish Relations Chairperson

· I can’t call them all by name because there are many. I love seeing the teenagers worshipping, knowing what a difference God makes and will make in their lives. I love seeing men—husbands and fathers like me—worshipping, praying, giving God thanks, and asking for strength and help. I love seeing the kids so innocently singing and praying. People all around me in Discovery make a difference in my spiritual life.
--Perry Turner, Stewardship Team Member


Thank God for people who provide us positive examples of Christian discipleship and who are so generous in sharing God’s love through their lives! May we all be blessed with opportunities to do the same.

Sacrifice of Praise

People prefer different styles of worship.  We know that.  What can you do when you don’t easily connect with the style of worship where you are?  I think this is an important question as worship styles change all around us.  The reason for change in worship style is usually related to the work of reaching different people, drawing in a new population to connect with God in worship.  For those who are already settled in a particular worship service that changes in style, or for those of us who visit a church that worships differently, how can we continue to connect with God through worship when it is not our favorite style?  Here is an excerpt from “Common Prayer” that addresses this question, though mostly it seems in defense of traditional worship.  I am excited about this prayer book, by the way.  It is a great daily reading and is co-edited by a Duke classmate, Enuma Okoro.

“There is an old saying many Christians use: ‘Offer the Lord a sacrifice of praise,’ referring to Hebrews 13:15.  In many circles this notion of a ‘sacrifice of praise’ almost becomes cliché. (Perhaps because worship does not come at much cost, especially compared with the sacrifices of saints who’ve gone before us.)  But when we worship with folks of various traditions, there are times when we may hear a prayer that uses language we might not naturally use or sing a song that isn’t really our style.  That is part of what it means to be a member of a community as diverse as the church is.  And perhaps that also helps shed some light on why it might require some sacrifice for us to give up ourselves.

When a song isn’t working for you, consider praising God, because that probably means it is working for someone else who is very different from you.   Offer your worship as a sacrifice rather than requiring others to sacrifice for your pleasure or contentment.  There is something to the notion of becoming one as God is one; it doesn’t mean that we are the same; it just means that we are united by one Spirit.  After all, we can become one only if there are many of us to begin with.

Liturgy [ordered prayer, Bible readings, etc.] puts a brake on narcissism.  Certainly, there is something beautiful about contemporary worship, where we can take old things and add a little spice to them, like singing hymns to rock tunes or reciting creeds as spoken word rhymes.  But liturgy protects us from simply making worship into a self-pleasing act.  So if a song or prayer doesn’t quite work for you, be thankful that it is probably really resonating with someone who is different from you, and offer a sacrifice of praise.”

Summertime and the Living is Easy

Yesterday, I was scanning Facebook and saw lots of pictures of people on vacation, playing at the lake, relaxing on the beach, and just having a good time these last few weeks of summer break.  These are special times for families and friends to spend together and make memories that will be enjoyed for years.  Seeing all the pictures made me a little sad that our family has not had as much time as we would like to just play this summer. 

Today, I was scanning news reports and saw lots of painful images and stories: riots in England, families of Navy Seals mourning the loss of precious life, Hispanic families in our own state living in fear, and news of mass starvation in eastern Africa.  A particular headline caught my eye, “Which Child Dies? Famine Forces Impossible Choices” (http://news.yahoo.com/child-dies-famine-forces-impossible-choices-145356561.html).  Seeing all these things made me feel physically sick and very thankful at the same time.  I am thankful that the people in our congregation are not currently facing such heart breaking situations, but I am sick over there being people anywhere who have to face such conditions.

As we take advantage of these last weeks of summer, I want to encourage you to be thankful for all the enjoyable times you have spent with your friends and family this summer.  And I want to encourage you to make yourselves sick, so to speak.  Let’s not just look at the pictures, read the painful stories of others’ lives, and then turn off the computer or T.V. and go on with our easy living.  Let’s carry those pictures and stories with us and lift up the people we read about in prayer.  And let’s share the gifts and resources we have that make our lives easier to help make the lives of others more livable.

Helpful Links for Making a Difference Through the Ministries of the United Methodist Church

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/  United Methodist Committee on Relief (info and donation site)

http://www.northalabamaumc.org/pages/detail/1608  Alabama Tornado Relief Information

www.umvim.org  United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (global service opportunities)

Why did you stomp the ant?!

This morning on the way into Canterbury UMC to take my kids to their daycare classes, I saw a big ant scurrying across the sidewalk in front of us.  Then I saw my five-year-old daughter's foot come down on it with forceful intention.  I looked at her and asked, "Why did you just stomp the ant?"  She kind of shrugged her shoulders.  And maybe because I am a mom, or maybe because I am a preacher, I went into a short lecture on how the ant was just living it's life not doing anything to  bother us and then she just stomps it for no good reason.  I reminded her that it is a living thing too--that God made ants.  None of what I said seemed to sink in.  Maybe that is because she has seen me on numerous occasions smash, stomp, and slap various insects in our home--but that is totally different, right?

This memory from the morning has come back to me as I have been preparing the sermon this Sunday.  Psalm 8 speaks both of our distance from God and our closeness to God.  As creatures who are "a little lower than God, and crowned...with glory and honor" (vs. 5), we humans are in a particular role of responsibility.  Created in the image of a merciful and loving God, we are called to live like the One after and by whom we were created.  We have been "given...dominion over the works of [God's] hands" and have "all things under [our] feet" (vs. 6).  So what does all this mean when we are faced with the question of whether to stomp an ant walking across our path?  Is it wrong, or does it even matter?  What does/should our particular relationship with God and our responsibility for creation shape the small and significant decisions we make about how to interact and coexist with the rest of the world?  This question seems to apply to so many things going on right now:

• illegal aliens
• war
• "fracking" to produce fuel
• political disagreements
• making personal sacrifice to give to tornado victims

If we refuse to work with one group of people because they disagree with us, does it matter?  If we only damage a small portion of the earth, does that matter?  If we share the love of God our Creator with one person, does it matter?

If we just smash one ant, does it matter?

No Stupid Questions?

Growing up, my classroom teachers always said, “There is no such thing as a stupid question.”  Well, I disagree.  Consider these real-life examples.

o   standing in front of the open refrigerator and asking where is the milk when you are staring at it

o   asking a question of your New Testament professor who is reading from the Greek text of the New Testament that begins with “well, my Bible says…”

o   “when is the Fourth of July this year?”

We find in reading the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible that the disciples asked Jesus many questions.    Some of those questions did not receive full or direct answers from Jesus.  They may have not been stupid questions, but they certainly did not always come across as the ‘right’ or appropriate questions for the situation.  But when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus answered them directly with a description as well as an example prayer.  The prayer that Jesus taught them is the prayer we call “The Lords’ Prayer” or “our Father”.  You can find Jesus’ teaching of this prayer in both Matthew 6:5-15 and Luke 11:2-4. 

 

This prayer is more than something to be repeated verbatim over and over—which often seems like some kind of ‘magic phrase’ that will correct things in a poof of magic if said just right.  The Lord’s Prayer provides us with a framework around which to build our own prayers and serves as a window of insight into how we are called to shape our lives with prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer will serve as the focus of the July sermon series at Discovery.  Each week we will explore a different portion of the prayer.  Worship celebrations are at 9:30am and 11am each Sunday

July 3—Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name

July 10—Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as in Heaven.

July 17—Give us today our daily bread.

July 24—Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

July 31—Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

(11am worship only followed by a pot luck lunch)

Young Leaders in Mission

"Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity."  1 Timothy 4:12 (NRSV) We are blessed to have two beautiful stories of our young people leading us by example in ministry! Discovery sponsors Boy Scout Troop 23, who travelled to Pisgah, Alabama this Saturday to help with tornado recovery.  The adults spent the day cutting the downed trees into pieces, and the Scouts drug them into piles were they could either be burned, or used later. The Mayor of Pisgah came out to visit us along with a representative from the local unit of the Salvation Army. Troop 23 presented the Salvation Army representative with 165 - $25 Wal-Mart gift cards that they will distribute to local tornado victims, so that the victims can go out and get the specific new items that they might need.  That is over $4000 raised by Troop 23!  What a blessing this gift is for the many people suffering from broken homes and lives after the destructive storms! Turner, an 11 year old member of Discovery, heard that the RUSH program of Urban Ministries in Birmingham lost one of its vehicles in the storms at the end of April.  Without any prompting from his parents or anyone else, Turner came up with a plan to raise money to replace the damaged vehicle.  With the help of friends from school and two local churches, Turner raised over $1000 and purchased a new van for the mission group.  Over half of the money raised was donated by children 11 years old and younger!  What a great example of sacrificial giving these young children have offered us!

Trying Something New

A few months ago, a woman at Discovery told me about a friend of hers who asked her some questions about the Bible and God. He knew she was active in a church and thought she might be able to answer his questions. She called me and said, “I didn’t know what to tell him, Julie. I didn’t want to tell him the wrong thing.” I told her to invite him to worship or Wednesday night small groups so I could meet him. “He won’t come to church. He said he would burn up if he walked in the doors of a church.” I said, “Tell him we have air conditioning, so he’ll be fine.” She reported back that her friend liked my sense of humor, but that he still wouldn’t agree to come to the church building.


I have been thinking about this guy a lot. Although I know that we have to go outside the church to reach people, he made me see this truth in a new way. So I have been praying and trying to figure out how I can create an opportunity to meet and talk with people like him, people who have questions about Christianity, but won’t step foot inside a church building—not even for Alpha and other such programs.

Pastor Chick-Chat is what I came up with. I have published post-card size flyers and will be posting information in our church’s announcements about an opportunity for people like this man to come to a neutral site and ask their questions. Beginning this June, I will be at local restaurants (Cantina! in Patton Creek this month) two nights each month (June 9th and June 30th starting at 5:30pm). Anyone who wants to come eat or have a drink and hang out is welcome to come. My hope is that this setting will allow people to feel comfortable being themselves and have honest conversations about Christianity and whatever else is on their minds. I don’t know for sure that this will be an effective way to share God’s love with people, but it certainly gets me closer to it than waiting for people to come to the church building.

Celebrating Death?

I watched last night as the media shifted focus from saddened, devastated communities in a country grieving the loss of hundreds of lives in the wake of monstrous tornadoes to people in the same country breaking out into mass celebrations and holding loud street parties to celebrate the death/killing of one man. The contrast between these scenes struck me.


We moved so quickly from a “one for all” focus to a divided “us vs. them” mentality. But the dividing lines between ‘them’ and ‘us’ don’t appear as clear as we might expect them to be—especially with the déjà vu reflections of Middle Eastern street parties over the killing of Americans years ago now mimicked in the shouts, noise makers, and choruses of ‘God Bless America’ that rang out in Washington D.C. and New York, among other places through the night and into the next day.

It isn’t that I am sad to hear of the death of Osama bin Laden, but I am certainly not going to pull out the grill and invite the neighbors over to celebrate. I just question what lies within us that moves us to such behavior. Just yesterday I was part of a Sunday school class in which the leader focused on the example of Jesus in turning the other cheek and not seeking vengeance. So the irony of a ‘Christian nation’ bursting into impromptu parties to celebrate the killing of a man—even a murderous menace—is striking. Where were the party hats and noise makers last Sunday when we held celebrations of life?