Thanksgiving in the midst of Challenges

 What challenges have you been grateful through?

Day 2

This is much harder to do, because it doesn’t generally fit in your grateful/thankful list. But as I look back and try to think of where I am today and how I got here, there are some challenges that have become moments of thanks.

One of them is what happened at the end of Vietnam War. I was drafted and my number was 005, automatic. I received a student different since I was already in school. The war ended and the draft was suspended in the second half of my senior year, well after enrollment in seminary had come and gone. I was going to do my two years of alternate service for my country and had put off seminary for that reason. Then all of a sudden, I needed enrollment in seminary. I made the call to see, since I had missed ALL of the deadlines. Surprise, they had several openings all of a sudden, when many dropped out because the war was over. Not only did they have room, they suddenly had scholarship money available too. And If I wanted, I could do a summer internship just before Fall semester for Scholarship help as well. So what went from a challenge, became a whole slew of thankful moments.

Another challenge related to my first appointment in ministry. I had 3 small country churches on a charge, as UMC folks call them. After 3 years, Number 1 wanted to vote me off the Island. Number 2 loved what I was doing and wanted me to stay, and the 3rd did not want to break the tie. My superintendent met with them, and then told me not to worry, they had a great place for me next. It turned out to be my grandmother’s church in Baltimore City. That developed into a Cooperative Parish and I thoroughly enjoyed my ministry there. I could ride a bus to Memorial Stadium to watch the Orioles play, when they were in playoffs and World Series.  Many other adventures, but they might not have happened had the churches not been able to come to a consensus about my ministry. We had seen a great deal of growth and the church that voted me off the island, that was afraid the church would change too much if I stayed.

Another challenge was the sudden death of my mother in an auto accident on our younger son’s birthday even. In the midst of the awful shock, I came to see far more how others feel in tragedy. In the long run, it made me a much better pastor, especially to the grieving people in my churches. I also learned how helpful having family and friends rally around when there is a tragedy. A gift I might not have discovered. When the Beltway Sniper killed a church member, I was able to provide a great deal of comfort to the family and to the church because of my awareness of the tragedy and its pain.

In my divorce, I learned that what I thought meant the end of my ministry became a feature to understand 1/2 of my community where divorce occurs. Suddenly members of my congregation returned because they knew I would understand. Many of my leaders offered help because they too were divorced and re-married. It also made me very aware of how precious family can be and I am very sorry that I wasn’t aware of that before this. Pastoral ministry, especially living in the fishbowl next to the church, can have a tremendous impact on family. I’m not suggesting pastors have to endure all the challenges and hardships, but simply recognize a roll they play in helping others. In the church world it’s an example of Incarnation. God is with us, in our messy situations. Jesus born in a manger under Roman Domination, and persecution, help us realize that God does understand us, in ways we may not be aware of when most of life is going well.

Portraying William Bradford, of Pilgrim fame, put me in touch with Of Plymouth Plantation, fame, which introduced a whole level of tragedy and struggle over come to come to America. The myth of Thanksgiving we live with now, needs to be recovered with a sense of reality. But there are many really helpful and worthwhile lessons in that story for which we can be thankful in the challenge. Did you know that Squanto, the Native American who was so helpful to the Pilgrims, was captures by pirates, sold into slavery in Spain, escaped, walked across Europe, was rescued by monks, became a Christian and was helped to return to his native land. All just before he wad able to speak the language and the spiritual heart of those who he was helping in Plymouth. Fascinating story. So is the adventures of the pilgrims in Holland before they migrated to North America. To them it was Egyptian slavery and deliverance just like Old Testament story. Great reading and a real lesson on how we can be grateful in challenges.

So thank you Diane Butler Bass, for pointing us in the direction of giving thanks through challenges and tragedies. May each of you find some places that can become sources of gratitude that weren’t there originally in the midst of the mess.

Blessings

Pastor Jeff

Thoughts for Thanksgiving

 I'm starting a set of thoughts for Thanksgiving today, leading up to next Thursday.

To whom or what are you grateful?
What challenges have you been grateful through?
Have you been grateful with others?
Where have you discovered gratitude within?
Has something in your life been changed by being grateful?
In what circumstances have you experienced thankfulness?

(Diane Butler Bass) from The Cottage

To whom or what are you grateful?

Day 1

Giving thanks to Diane Butler Bass for her suggestions about what to consider for Thanksgiving instead of the usual “what are you grateful for?”

First of all I am grateful to God for the whole set of blessings in life in 70 years of it. They include what everybody would agree are blessings, and would also include the adversity I’ve had to go through, but that brought new qualities for which I’m grateful for as well. I’ll bring up the challenges I’ve been through in the next day’s sharing.

I am also very grateful for people who have blessed me in a life time of encounters.

I would have to include an English teacher in High School who pushed me so hard, that it improved my SAT scores, that would not have happened had she not have been so pushy.

I would have to include a College professor, who enabled me to expand my understanding of people who have totally different perspectives than mine, and allow me to grow in appreciation for the diversity and made it possible for me to accept far more people in the rest of my life because of that.

I would have to include teachers who introduced me to the value of drama and theater. It turned out, the class was to fulfill a credit, but years later proved to be extremely valuable. I was able to develop a whole set of Biblical and Historical characters for preaching and other celebrations, from what I learned in those classes. Taking part in theatrical productions, was a great gift.

I would have to include a Seminary teacher who opened my eyes to a wider variety of worship styles that served me well in 46+ years of ministry and worship leadership. It was particularly helpful during the Covid Pandemic when we had to pivot to different forms of worship away from the sanctuary. Having a strong foundation of options, made that easier.

I must give thanks for a dozen or so church leaders, who supported my ministry in official and unofficial capacities in those 9 congregations I served. They offered understanding, wise advice, and often the kind of walking along beside me, that I needed.

I must give thanks to several church staff members, who understood what I was trying to do and added their talents and inspiration to help us move in new directions. There are so many components of church life, no one person can manage it all.

I must also give thanks to the agitators in those congregations. Some really taught me to see other components. Some were destructive in their fighting against what needed to be done. I’m grateful in a sense, that I survived those encounters and that it brought me some patience in tough circumstances. Like Peter sinking into the lake because he took his eyes off of Jesus and became aware of his surroundings, Jesus reached out and pulled me out.

There were moments and events to which I am thankful

I just happened to be at General Conference when Cooperative Parish legislation was being discussed in a legislative section. I happened to be in a Cooperative Parish setting. I was invited to help the section deal with the legislation and ended up being included in the UMC Discipline because of that, even anonymously.

Four years later, because of my historical character portrayals, I became Thomas Coke meeting Francis Asbury at the original site in Delaware, for the whole world council of Bishops before the historic General Conference in Baltimore in 1984. It was a thrill to be a key part in that celebration. Right time right place, I had no idea. Grateful for those memories.

There are also fun weddings, great moments in a congregations history, Volunteers In Missions trips and much more, that I am recalling in my quest to be truly thankful for with the help of other people. I never could have imagined starting out that these moments and people would be included in my life time.

Before leaving today’s reflection…

I am truly grateful for my parents, who blessed me on my way. Who taught me what is really important, and who showed how God is the primary mover and shaper of life. On this day of my mother’s birthday, I remember all that she blessed me with, thanks Mom.

May you be blessed and grateful for The Who that blessed you.

Pastor Jeff

An Occasional Rant

 Good Morning, I'm trying to keep this more upbeat.

   On Oct 18 Elaine and I were rear-ended in traffic on our way home. The young driver was trying to merge out of a lane that was soon ending, and I was stopped because of the bumper to bumper traffic in front of me. WHAM, and it was very loud. Elaine suffered a little whiplash and is still working on the recovery. She missed a day of work for the discomfort. Thank God there is insurance on both parties.

   But what if there wasn't insurance and even insurance works in an insulated and out of touch time frame. Our car was towed to the lot the police said it should be towed to. So we had to get our insurance company to tow it to the acceptable repair shop. If it's not on their list, they can't pay for it as quickly, they say, and we become responsible for the initial payments until reimbursement comes. What if you can't afford that big an outlay first?

   We got a rental car, but insurance doesn't cover the whole time you need it for. Parts are delayed because of Covid, of course, and it takes longer than anyone thought. But the clock stops on the rental anyway. WE have to pick up the tab for that, with the hope the other insurance company will reimburse us, someday, but in the mean time, our money goes away for this.

   Today we returned the rental car, because it's so expensive to keep, and we were promised our car would be ready. Well it's not, something else was discovered as they were testing it to return to us. so another weekend and another week to go, maybe. I'm glad my PT is done, following my hip replacement surgery, so I can manage without a car, unless something comes up. This is going to add to the diminished value of our car, should we decide that because the damage was more than they expected, we will be very nervous about driving it. More on our nervous system.

   In the middle of this 25 day car hassle, Elaine's cousin died of complications from Covid. Now we are trying to juggle that, and the service they have asked me to lead to bring them some comfort from a familiar voice, and juggling how we can manage the disruption of life again, one on top of another.

   Covid has had influences on life, far more than we anticipated when this began. The Covid pandemic has altered the way we live on so many levels, that we aren't recognizing until an auto accident or injury introduces into the mix. We human beings need personal touch and support and connections, and for the family, not sure if it's wise with Covid in the mix, to do the normal, gathering, comforting, hugging each other things. Even the Funeral is going to be a hybrid, some in person, many on zoom, in order not to add to the devastating numbers, in our family and in general. Early on, weddings and funerals were the biggest spreader events, and we remember that. How Long Oh Lord! occurs to many of us in the middle of all of this.

   My rant, or discomfort, or blurting out, is because life has become so more complicated as we move on. Being a child was so easy, Mom and Dad, handled everything. Food was there, Homework, but all our friends were doing that too, and life seemed to be normal. Now people we love die, routines are disrupted and it may take weeks for what needs to happen to actually happen. People are not in touch with each other as we used to be. Animated phone calls can't help explain the unique circumstances that tragedy can inflict, and so we wait for a real person who has some power to do something unique because the computerized system doesn't know what Covid does to delivery schedules. But the real people decided that this was all too crazy and the highest number of people who did work, are quitting than has happened in 25 years. The vacancies are keeping us from getting answers...

   Speaking of job hunting. it used to be said, it's who you know that counts, but the who you know has turned over the job hunt to an animated system like Zip Recruiter, or Indeed or many others. The computer looks for trigger words that might fit the criteria, but if your resume doesn't know to include the trigger words, because you have done a unique and effective job but can't translate that to computerize, you can't get past the long line of applicants to fit the right job. My parents and Grandparents on both sides of my family lived into their 90's, which means I may be going into 100, if you just take the average increase of longevity from one generation to the next these days. I would love to continue to contribute using my talents and experience as long as I can. Moses didn't start until he was 80 for Pete's sake, But computer reviews look at the Date of Birth and discount you, not knowing a thing about you. When will this begin to be reviewed and reconsidered. How desperate do we have to be to rage against the machine....

   Okay, I've sounded off enough. I thank God, I can pray about this, and find comfort in God's presence with me in the middle of all of this. I wonder how people without faith resources are managing?

   Until next time, may God Bless you in ways you can recognize.

Retired and waiting Pastor Jeff

Today is for This and That

Today is for this and that.

Several ideas are rolling around in my head today, so I thought I would share them.

Election & the importance of being good citizens

Watching the election results and seeing the see saw affect taking place, I wonder if we are going to be stuck in that for a while. Maybe, as some have suggested, our two party system is broken and we may need to find a new way to go about gathering together and supporting people we think can offer the best solutions for our multiple problems. I know going independent is almost a kiss of death for candidates, so they fall back into red or blue rather than being able to set up what should be a good platform of ideas. Somehow, we need to re read the inspirational writings of the Federalist Papers and other calls to democracy to understand how this might work going forward. I did run for Congress four years ago and learned several things, I just have not been able to focus on them given the system as it is. You might want to look into Citizens Unite, a third party idea for regaining some perspective in the process for going forward.

Church Vitality requires developing disciples

   Watching what Covid did to churches, and watching the election results, and hearing from my friends in the church world, I believe we need a new way to develop fully devoted followers of Jesus. As I think about what's next for me, Discipleship Development, or whatever you want to call it is going to be a necessary part of any plan to bring vitality to the church. We have fallen down on knowing Jesus well enough to do what he would do in our variety of situations. Maybe because there are so many ideas, we end up being confused, or only partially hearing the message. Information overload is very powerful, at keeping us overwhelmed and in-active. There are so many divisions in the life of the Body of Christ, that we need to find a way to move forward in that world. Today I read an article about culturally diverse congregations are stronger than single culture churches, especially for today and going forward. It reminds us of what St. Paul said, that the body has many different parts, and the eye cannot say to the ear, I don't need you. But how do we make that work? What can motivate us to work harder at getting to know Jesus so well, we know how to act. He was the example we are to follow. Maybe we need a renewed emphasis on Gospel reading and digesting. Some of the answers will lie in stretching our attention span, reading larger sections in order to grow in understanding. John Wesley sure had a good idea about gathering people together to reflect and grow.

All of the above need a village, a community for support

   This leads me to wondering how do we develop support groups for growing discipleship. Can we carve out time to get together in order to encourage each other to faithFULLness? I love St. Benedict for the reasons that he offered a support system that was a blend of study and work, He knew both were needed, and during a dark time in world history, his communities provided a way forward. We are in similar circumstances right now. As Rick Warren prepares to retire his Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church come to mind as great resources worthy of re discovering. Maybe every fifty years is about right, but most of us don't span the time to be able to recover the good stuff from long ago. Kind of like a generation (40 years in Scripture), who didn't remember what God was doing. I'm reading a One Year Bible again, and I'm in Judges chapters. May we cry out to God to send us a leader. Prayer for our faith to follow Jesus, and our hope for the world we live in, should be a good start. Then find something, or somewhere to plug into a support group, family, church, whatever that could make this work.

On Top of Everything Else

   Elaine and I were rear-ended in our car two weeks ago. When it rains it pours.... The shipping backlog is affecting parts availability. We have been two weeks in a rental and the repair shop called to say they need another week to get it fixed and ready to go. Our insurance covered 5 or 6 days of rental coverage, the other insurance company will refund our money but we have to put it out first. Patience is such a touch character developer. At least we have a rental, at least we have the promise of reimbursement, and that includes doctor's visit, missed work, and diminished value on the car. Even though it's fixed, it will never be the same.... Our minds will always remember the horrible sound of the crash and wonder if there is something unseen, that didn't get fixed. Modern life nightmares. Please drive carefully, don't text and drive etc.

   Well, I hope I have given you something to think about. Prayers and Blessings for you all.

Pastor Jeff 

(I may be retired, but I'm still trying to encourage faith)

St. Benedict to the rescue

 Hello Blog readers, wherever you are.

   I'm working on being retired, while I wait for my next appointment or church opportunity. This has given me a chance to do a lot of praying, about all kinds of things. It has given me my first break from the day to day work of a pastor for a very long time. My last Sabbatical was in the early 2000. Maybe God is giving me another one, unofficially.

   Any way, I've been reflecting on what would I like to do, but more importantly what would God like me to do. We Methodists with strong Wesley connections are used to quoting the prayer from the covenant renewal service about our work. "Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee," so this comes with our territory. So now I'm seeking God's direction for what's next.

   One of the ideas I'm wrestling with is the powerful influence that St. Benedict has had for me with his little book on Rules, that shaped the monastic movement in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has been proven to help in a variety of situations since then. Any time there has been a need for renewal in the midst of great challenges, this could certainly be one of those. St. Benedict stressed the importance of prayer so that we could love more fully, the way Jesus loved. There are several St. Benedict books in my Kindle at the moment.

   I was thinking with zoom capabilities, we could so a zoom version of the small support group idea behind the monastic movement, but allow us to stay where we are and do what we've been doing. There have been several versions of that kind of support system created over time. Maybe this is our time.

   If nothing else, I strongly urge you to explore St. Benedict.  A book that pushed me in that direction, The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher, got me started. St. Benedict's Toobox by Jane Tomaine, was a book I used with a study group in my last church and it is an awesome introduction. The Rule of St.Benedict in English is a good read just for the basic introduction. It's not that long. Joan Chittister has a couple of books about him too, The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century, & Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today.

   So, if nothing else, pray for me to find a good way to encourage others in this direction. You can always connect with me as well, if you have questions. macpastor@gmail.com

Blessings

Jeff Jones

Books Everywhere

 Hello Friends

   My mother was a librarian and taught me to love books. Growing up we were not allowed to watch TV during the week if it were a school night. When homework was done and you complained of being bored, she would also say go find a book or look up stuff in World Book Encyclopedia.

   My Doctor of Ministry program told us to keep our books, so that when it came time to defend our dissertation, we would have access to all the original sources for that. So in 47 years of ministry I have gained quite a library of books. Now that I am retired, I need to find good homes for my books. Any pastors out there who would love to begin their library for practically no cost, should get in touch with me. I'll be glad to help supply you with books.

   I'm trying to go through my collection now and get rid of books. Online research makes it easier and cheaper, but a book will be there for you. If I type in a question on Google, I'll get 28,900 answers, but before, I would know which book it was going to be in and find it. But, books are heavy, they grow out of date, ideas change and improve, and I can't keep lugging books around me any more. So I am giving them away, sorting through to keep the autographed ones, and trying to decide if I'll ever need what's in there again. But it's so sad, it's like pushing away friends, it's thinking I'll never have that connection to that book again. 

   Most of my books are work related. And, since I am not sure what comes next, it's hard to decide which books will be needed, if at all. So I grieve the loss of my books, I dropped off 13 boxes of books to a used book seller yesterday. My wife was glad I wasn't bringing them home, but it felt really weird to drive away from them. Lord have mercy.

   I have a crazy idea about a book lending giving away concept. I could rent a storage facility in a good location and invite all my pastor buddies, no matter what flavor of denomination, and arrange to meet them so they can have a chance to take away some books. Any ideas on how this might work? A library for pastors, where you don't have to bring them back. Maybe others would like to donate to the pile?

   Just a thought, thanks for reading this far in a reminiscing moment about books.

Until later

Pastor Jeff 

I Retire

hello followers of this occasional blog

   I retired on Jan 1, 2021, as a way to help my congregation weather the effects of the Pandemic on it's finances. The generosity of my Pension and Social Security, for reaching such a ripe old age, made it possible to cut my salary way back and help the church. The Bishop granted me six months following my retirement as a special arrangement to help the church come through this Pandemic we know as Covid. A new pastor starts there on July 1.

   I am not ready to stop being a pastor yet, and I have asked for an appointment of some kind going forward. I haven't heard anything yet, so I explore other options just to see what I could do while I wait. It is amazing how the church landscape has been changed by this one year and a half away from our business as usual. God is doing something new for sure. I am waiting to see what God is going to do with me and through me going forward. But waiting is teaching me patience.

   I'm going to post this and I promise I'll get back to you with some of the thoughts going through my head as I go through these last couple of months of winding down, packing up and getting ready for what God has in store for me yet.

   Blessings to you all, I'll be back soon.

Jeff (promising to Blog more)