June already? How did that happen?
Time flies when you are having fun, and I
hope that you are having some fun. Jesus told us that he wanted us to know the
Joy that was in him, and I hope there is some joy rubbing off on you for
hanging around North Bethesda UMC. Joy that reminds us that Jesus is first,
Others are second and Yourself is third… J O Y!
I’m reading a fascinating book about the
work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. It’s called Sailboat
Church by Joan Gray. Her idea is that the church should be a sailboat, not
a row boat. A sailboat is powered by the wind, hence the Holy Spirit. A row
boat is powered by people rowing, hence limited to how well we can row. I am
enjoying the challenge of remembering that I am to be aware of the wind of the
Spirit and not by my own efforts or the efforts of people, but by the Spirit,
says the Lord.
So I am trying to find ways to help us pay
attention to the direction and the power of the wind of God. So for starters,
I’m preaching a series on the fruits of the Spirit this summer. We are going to
look at each of the fruits of the Spirit that Paul talked about in Galatians
5:22,23. “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness,
Gentleness and Self Control.” They are all qualities that were in Jesus and
that are available to us. It will bring us a level of joy, when we pay
attention to them. I’ll designate a fruit for each week and we will have some
fun getting our fruit intake for the summer.
I’ll be looking at returning to the
Lectionary that you all are familiar with when we are finished with the summer
series. We are currently in year B and the Gospel majority comes from Mark,
which our Sunday School has been studying. In December we move into year C with
the majority of the Gospel lessons are from Luke. I’ll put out a list of the
topics for the sermons for all to see, soon.
I am asking you all to start praying for the
new schedule. We are going to move to 10 am for worship on Father’s Day and
keep the 10 o clock time after Labor Day. This is because several of our young
families have asked us to be more sensitive to their hectic schedules and we
want to build up our reaching children and youth and this should help.
11 am was set up to help the farmers get
their milking done first and then they could come to church. We don’t need to
milk the cows, so we can come a little earlier. Besides we would like to try
having learning opportunities following Happy Hour to help you grow in faith,
if you can stay around for a while. We will have a Bible Class in the parlor,
much like we have had in the past and I will help teach that class.
We will also have a book study meeting after
Happy Hour and I would also like to have a discussion class meeting after Happy
Hour to look at current events in light of the Bible and it’s teachings. There
is a great resource for that called the “Wired Word” if that sounds interesting
to you, please let me know, I’m looking for some coordinators for that class.
The material is available to help and an email can go out to each class member
a few days prior to the class with Biblical resources. It too could be a fun
experience in tying the faith and the world together.
Jesus gave the disciples a charge to go into
all the world and teach what Jesus had commanded them, so this is continuing
what we were told to do. It can be a grand adventure, and learning new things
keeps the mind young and alive, besides helping you to grow in your faith.
Blessings
Pastor Jeff
