Hello Spiritual Pilgrims
Here we are in the first full week of Lent and it has snowed for two weekends and on Ash Wednesday. What a way to start the Lenten journey. We are working on giving up Bad things for Lent, I'm ready to give up shoveling this snow. Please Stop, Whoever has the power to do that, cut it out.
Yesterday, Sunday Feb. 22, we decided to go ahead with worship at 11 am. The choir special on Gospel Music in Song was put aside because several key members of the choir were snowed in. We turned to the back of our hymnal and followed the Service for Morning Prayer and Praise. We sang some favorite hymns, we read from the Letter of James, encouraging us to pray and we prayed for our church and for people who were mentioned or written about on the prayer request forms.
I was blessed by the fellowship and the casual nature of our worship. I had not planned a sermon since the choir was singing. So we worked on the prayer list I had prepared for the congregation to begin this Lenten season. I had a two column page with the names of all our church leaders by day of the month. I asked for prayers for our staff. I asked for prayers for the fruitfulness of our congregation. And I asked for prayers for me during the week, that I might hear clearly from God to be able to lead this dynamic fellowship.
We were blessed with several visitors from other congregations that had called off worship. We found a couple of people who were looking for a church home that came because we were open and doing worship. They even stayed for our Coffee Hour, so that they got to know us a little better, and we got to know them. It was a real blessing.
We had 48 people all together and they were willing to sit in the front half of the sanctuary, it was nice and cozy and very spirit filled time together. We had several children among the visitors, so I did an impromptu children's message. Fortunately I had a baseball and a coach's hat in my office and we talked about the similarity of Lent and Spring Training. It's time to get ready to be able to play, and for us as followers of Jesus, we are working on doing a better job of following and living the Christian life. Giving up something bad for lent, is like getting ready for a full season.
I now ask each of you to pray for the coming of Spring. The week long forecast is calling for snow on Saturday night or Sunday morning. I say enough of that. Let's pray it waits until we are past the worship time.
The Lenten season is always special for me. Over the years it has changed, but still calls me to deepen my walk with God. In college I discovered Godspel and Jesus Christ, Superstar musicals, I would play those albums over and over to give me a wider and deeper appreciation for all that God was doing. When I served in Baltimore city, the pastors of the other denominational churches would study together during Lent, and we would offer a three hour Good Friday service based on the last words of Jesus from the Cross, or some Good Friday witness, like seven characters around the cross. It was always very meaningful.
I dig out old devotional books during this time, and try to do more prayer and meditation time, because I know my busy schedule takes that away from me. So let's pray we all get a season of preparation to be faithful followers of Jesus.
Blessings on all you do
Pastor Jeff
Monday, February 23, 2015
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Beginning of February
Hello Fellow Spiritual Travelers,
Well the Super Bowl is over now, the game was close, you can still argue about what happened and why, but I won't. The Commercials had a friendly, be kind to one another flavor to many of them, which is good. There were no costume malfunctions to worry about this year during the half time show, and there are people going to Disney World.
This is a transition month, we might be enduring more winter, or we might be getting closer to Spring. I like Spring, so that would be fine with me if the groundhogs were wrong this year. But what do they know? And one of the mayors got bit on the ear trying to listen to the groundhog give his prediction, there has to be a lesson learned in there somewhere. I don't think they were meant to be weather experts anyway. But we always look for an angle don't we?
Lent begins this month too. Ash Wednesday is on Feb. 18th, coming up much quicker than we realize. So we find ourselves wondering how do we make a spiritual commitment to grow this year? I found a devotional we will use at North Bethesda, written by a United Methodist Pastor, James Moore, about giving up something bad for lent. I like his premiss, why not get rid of bad things in your life during Lent, than suffer putting off eating dessert or something that you like. He suggests that we work on improving our spiritual life with good things, by working on giving up the bad things at this time. We will have a study on Monday nights, Wed mornings and Thursday afternoons if you are interested in joining us.
Rev. Moore suggests we work on giving up something bad for Lent. He recommends that we give up harsh condemning judgments for instance. Just stop doing that. He suggests that we give up enemies for Lent. He encourages us to give up our bad habits, and you know we all have them, for Lent. He goes on to suggest that we give up pettiness for Lent. All that time we spend on nitpicking and complaining could be developed into positive encouragement. I like that.
"It is my genuine hope and prayer that as we go through the pages of this Lenten Study and the accompanying Scripture lessons for each chapter together, we will be inspired and encouraged this year as never before to give up something bad for Lent and then be better prepared to wrap our arms around the good news of Easter." James Moore, from the Introduction to the study. I agree completely and would hope that would happen.
This coming Sunday Feb. 8 we will celebrate Scout Sunday. I am proud to say that the United Methodist Church has been a major sponsor for the scouting movement. When we first got to Africa as missionaries, one of the young students at our mission school asked my Dad to start a scout troop. He had not been a scout, but read the scouting manual in French and translated it to Swahili for the unit. He had to turn young men away who wanted to become scouts because they had not had the opportunity to be involved when they were younger. I was a scout for a while, then we moved and I didn't reconnect to a troop. But I wished I had, years later of course.
Both of my sons were scouts. I was active in the Cub Scout program and served as Chair of the Committee for many years. When they moved up to Scouts, I would go on the summer camp trips as a dad, when many other fathers could not take that much time away from work. I couldn't go on the weekend trips because of my preaching duties, so it worked out well. God has a great sense of humor. The troop was 95% Roman Catholic, and I got to be the chaplain for the troop during the summer camp trips. What fun. We had great fun going to Michigan, New York, Maine, Wyoming, and Tennessee. My oldest son is an Eagle Scout. The Bishop moved me just before my younger son could complete his advancement and didn't hook up with the new troop to finish his.
A Scout is Reverent, acknowledging God and appreciating the many ways scouts can connect their variety of faiths with the basic training the scouting movement can give them. So thank the leaders of the programs that have such a blessing and influence on so many young lives, both girls and boys.
I'll wear my uniform one more time, and encourage those who can to do so this Sunday.
Blessings on your spiritual journey, wherever the influences come from to help you pursue the dream to be the kind of person God wants you to be.
Pastor Jeff
Well the Super Bowl is over now, the game was close, you can still argue about what happened and why, but I won't. The Commercials had a friendly, be kind to one another flavor to many of them, which is good. There were no costume malfunctions to worry about this year during the half time show, and there are people going to Disney World.
This is a transition month, we might be enduring more winter, or we might be getting closer to Spring. I like Spring, so that would be fine with me if the groundhogs were wrong this year. But what do they know? And one of the mayors got bit on the ear trying to listen to the groundhog give his prediction, there has to be a lesson learned in there somewhere. I don't think they were meant to be weather experts anyway. But we always look for an angle don't we?
Lent begins this month too. Ash Wednesday is on Feb. 18th, coming up much quicker than we realize. So we find ourselves wondering how do we make a spiritual commitment to grow this year? I found a devotional we will use at North Bethesda, written by a United Methodist Pastor, James Moore, about giving up something bad for lent. I like his premiss, why not get rid of bad things in your life during Lent, than suffer putting off eating dessert or something that you like. He suggests that we work on improving our spiritual life with good things, by working on giving up the bad things at this time. We will have a study on Monday nights, Wed mornings and Thursday afternoons if you are interested in joining us.
Rev. Moore suggests we work on giving up something bad for Lent. He recommends that we give up harsh condemning judgments for instance. Just stop doing that. He suggests that we give up enemies for Lent. He encourages us to give up our bad habits, and you know we all have them, for Lent. He goes on to suggest that we give up pettiness for Lent. All that time we spend on nitpicking and complaining could be developed into positive encouragement. I like that.
"It is my genuine hope and prayer that as we go through the pages of this Lenten Study and the accompanying Scripture lessons for each chapter together, we will be inspired and encouraged this year as never before to give up something bad for Lent and then be better prepared to wrap our arms around the good news of Easter." James Moore, from the Introduction to the study. I agree completely and would hope that would happen.
This coming Sunday Feb. 8 we will celebrate Scout Sunday. I am proud to say that the United Methodist Church has been a major sponsor for the scouting movement. When we first got to Africa as missionaries, one of the young students at our mission school asked my Dad to start a scout troop. He had not been a scout, but read the scouting manual in French and translated it to Swahili for the unit. He had to turn young men away who wanted to become scouts because they had not had the opportunity to be involved when they were younger. I was a scout for a while, then we moved and I didn't reconnect to a troop. But I wished I had, years later of course.
Both of my sons were scouts. I was active in the Cub Scout program and served as Chair of the Committee for many years. When they moved up to Scouts, I would go on the summer camp trips as a dad, when many other fathers could not take that much time away from work. I couldn't go on the weekend trips because of my preaching duties, so it worked out well. God has a great sense of humor. The troop was 95% Roman Catholic, and I got to be the chaplain for the troop during the summer camp trips. What fun. We had great fun going to Michigan, New York, Maine, Wyoming, and Tennessee. My oldest son is an Eagle Scout. The Bishop moved me just before my younger son could complete his advancement and didn't hook up with the new troop to finish his.
A Scout is Reverent, acknowledging God and appreciating the many ways scouts can connect their variety of faiths with the basic training the scouting movement can give them. So thank the leaders of the programs that have such a blessing and influence on so many young lives, both girls and boys.
I'll wear my uniform one more time, and encourage those who can to do so this Sunday.
Blessings on your spiritual journey, wherever the influences come from to help you pursue the dream to be the kind of person God wants you to be.
Pastor Jeff
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