I write this article in the middle of October with so many unknowns surrounding us. The stock market is continuing to ricochet up and down; reaction to the bail-out or ‘rescue plan’ is not what anyone anticipated, 6,500 homes in the St. Louis area are in some stage of foreclosure (1 in 188 homes), and gas prices are staggeringly high. Several families in our own congregation are experiencing challenging times with their financial situations, we have people who are sick in the hospital, and the uncertainty of who will sit in the Oval office in 2009 is still upon us. I should write about Thanksgiving because this is the November newsletter and ‘every pastor writes an article about being thankful in November, don’t they?’ J Yet you will receive this article in early November and some of these very transient situations will have changed several times since I have penned this note. You might say, “Pastor, what do we have to be grateful for – the world is in such a mess!” And yet, we do have so very much to be thankful for. We just have to look at all of the blessings in balance with the challenges that every day brings us.
In November we will start a sermon series entitled ‘Creating an Attitude of Gratitude.’ The first Sunday will focus on being grateful for our past, the second Sunday is for the present, and the third is for our future. My personal goal for the sermon series is for all of us to begin to look at everything with a new attitude, an attitude of gratitude. The Bible says in Habakkuk 3: 17-19 “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the field produces no food, though there are no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Sovereign God is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, God enables me to go to the heights.” You see, our gratitude shouldn’t be dependent upon the ever changing situations of our world. Rather, we are encouraged to focus on God our creator, the God who created everything, the God who loves us with amazing, overwhelming care. When we focus on God and the wonder of God’s love for us then all of the things that we normally think of as being important become less and less important.
You see, we each choose how to look at every situation in our life. We can approach these times from an anxious, waiting for the other shoe to drop feeling, wondering how long we will be able to avoid total disaster, or we can live life expectantly, trusting God, knowing who God is and remembering how God has acted so faithfully in our lives in the past. If we look at the stock market through these eyes, it doesn’t matter if there is fruit on the vine or not because God will provide as God has provided in the past. We are just walking through another faith adventure and you just never know when God will show up with one of those uncanny miracles.
So here is the challenge to us for November (and maybe for the rest of our lives) Let us try always to look for something good to come from any situation that we are currently experiencing. Let us live life knowing that God is active in our life and in our world. Let us approach each situation expectantly with the knowledge that God is not only still active, but is still doing miracles.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Kathleen
lppastor@sbcglobal.net
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sharing Time with Sharon: Fall Musings
Novmber 2008
November is a month of extremes. As the temperatures cool, the brilliance of life explodes through the colors of the fall foliage and apple harvests. Creation all around us is vibrant in reds, purples and golds. But then… the cold rains come, and the leaves fall. The trees are left utterly uncloaked. The apples are picked, the flower beds turned, and the lovely leaves curl up and turn brown. We go from abundant splendor to…grey. Humpf.
I’m a pretty visual person, so I am not particularly fond of naked trees and brown grass. Thank goodness for Thanksgiving! Here I am referring to more than the annual gathering of feasting until our buttons pop. I mean the whole season of time when our culture gives permission, no-- even encourages us, to stop and remember our blessings. In recalling how I am blessed to have a home (with naked trees in the yard), a family, and a job that brings me deep satisfaction, I am reminded that God has been so good with me. I have my mobility, plenty of clean water at the tap, and friends that insist that I get a flu shot. Yes, God is good.
The splendor of fall is stimulating. Yet, it is during the grey times that I get the most spiritual clarity. Perhaps because of all this talk of blessing counting, I take the time to reflect on what is right with my life. And so much is. With all the recent focus on economic gloom and doom, it is easy to forget that there is still much for which to be grateful. And so as I head out to my yard, rake in hand, I will use this time to remember that God’s blessings are abundant and generous, even when the world is grey. Perhaps even more so. For I know that the grey is but a season that will pass, and God promises the hope of new vitality to come. In a few months, tender green shoots will appear, the earth will put on a new wardrobe again, and thankfully, the trees will get dressed. Like the spring, many await new life to emerge from their lives of grey. Thank God for God’s promises of rebirth, renewal, and resurrection that awaits each one of us. These promises are as real and as faithful as the coming of another spring. For God is good.
God is good indeed.
Peace,
Pastor Sharon
lpassociate@sbcglobal.net
November is a month of extremes. As the temperatures cool, the brilliance of life explodes through the colors of the fall foliage and apple harvests. Creation all around us is vibrant in reds, purples and golds. But then… the cold rains come, and the leaves fall. The trees are left utterly uncloaked. The apples are picked, the flower beds turned, and the lovely leaves curl up and turn brown. We go from abundant splendor to…grey. Humpf.
I’m a pretty visual person, so I am not particularly fond of naked trees and brown grass. Thank goodness for Thanksgiving! Here I am referring to more than the annual gathering of feasting until our buttons pop. I mean the whole season of time when our culture gives permission, no-- even encourages us, to stop and remember our blessings. In recalling how I am blessed to have a home (with naked trees in the yard), a family, and a job that brings me deep satisfaction, I am reminded that God has been so good with me. I have my mobility, plenty of clean water at the tap, and friends that insist that I get a flu shot. Yes, God is good.
The splendor of fall is stimulating. Yet, it is during the grey times that I get the most spiritual clarity. Perhaps because of all this talk of blessing counting, I take the time to reflect on what is right with my life. And so much is. With all the recent focus on economic gloom and doom, it is easy to forget that there is still much for which to be grateful. And so as I head out to my yard, rake in hand, I will use this time to remember that God’s blessings are abundant and generous, even when the world is grey. Perhaps even more so. For I know that the grey is but a season that will pass, and God promises the hope of new vitality to come. In a few months, tender green shoots will appear, the earth will put on a new wardrobe again, and thankfully, the trees will get dressed. Like the spring, many await new life to emerge from their lives of grey. Thank God for God’s promises of rebirth, renewal, and resurrection that awaits each one of us. These promises are as real and as faithful as the coming of another spring. For God is good.
God is good indeed.
Peace,
Pastor Sharon
lpassociate@sbcglobal.net
From the Wilder View - October 2008
Early in my life at Lafayette Park, someone referred to me as their ‘crazy pastor.’ I am not exactly sure who it was that gave me this title, and I’m not even sure they might not have been right. It might have been the idea of the tower climb, or making the sign (and holding it up during a sermon) that said, “No Struggling.” Or it might have been the crazy idea of hosting a pumpkin patch…after all as one of our early customers said…”I saw your patch from my car as I was getting off ’44,’ and I called my brother and told him we had a pumpkin patch in our Hood.” I guess it really did seem like a tremendously crazy idea to host a pumpkin patch five years ago. We were a relatively small church then (averaging 82 in worship). We had never seen a pumpkin patch. We just knew that someone was going to ‘steal our pumpkins’ or take the pumpkins and throw them at our beautiful stained glass windows. Yet, there were a few people who said, “Why not? This could be fun.”
Well, we made it that first year primarily due to the dedication of Debra Crowe and Lynn Chrisler, both of whom spent countless hours in horrible weather, watching pumpkins, and wiping the pumpkins dry every day (no small task considering it seemed to rain every day that year. ) Each year, it seems like we have more help and more people play on our patch. It has become something that the neighborhood looks forward to each year now.
I was talking to a couple of people just last week and they shook their heads at me and said, “Why are you so excited about the pumpkin patch?” I told them, that while our original intention was to be a fundraiser for the church, we never have really made what everyone projected that we would make. However, we have accomplished something so much more important.
You see, the very first year, we hosted the patch, a woman from the Family Resource Center stopped by the patch, and looked at it with great big eyes. She asked if their children could come to the patch and play. The children that are served by the Family Resource Center are children who have experienced great tragedy in their lives at a very young age. She told me that they would have the appropriate number of adults to watch the children but they also mentioned that the children might have emotional reactions to being outside. When she realized that the pumpkins were for sale, she explained that they really didn’t have money to purchase the pumpkins. “Would it still be possible for them to come and play, even though we can’t afford to buy pumpkins?”
I will never forget the first day they came. The children and their caregivers got out of vans, and they were all huddled together. The children had a mixture of excitement and fear, as they wondered what strange place they were being taken to. Then a few moments later, they were playing with chalk, and running around the patch. The air was filled with laughter and joy. For one day, the pain of their past slipped away and they were happy children playing in a pumpkin patch. The best part was that we had talked to various groups in the church and they sponsored a pumpkin for each child! Each year, we reserve time for children who would not be able to go to a pumpkin patch, and we find sponsors to send them home with a pumpkin.
Yes, we probably will never make the kind of money that other churches do on the pumpkin patch. However, the memories we make are priceless. Sometimes it is good to be crazy. Who knows how God’s grace will show up? You just never know what seems absolutely crazy today could become something that is just a part of our everyday life, a few years from now. What crazy thing is God calling you to do?
Grace and Peace,
Reverend Kathleen
lppastor@sbcglobal.net
Well, we made it that first year primarily due to the dedication of Debra Crowe and Lynn Chrisler, both of whom spent countless hours in horrible weather, watching pumpkins, and wiping the pumpkins dry every day (no small task considering it seemed to rain every day that year. ) Each year, it seems like we have more help and more people play on our patch. It has become something that the neighborhood looks forward to each year now.
I was talking to a couple of people just last week and they shook their heads at me and said, “Why are you so excited about the pumpkin patch?” I told them, that while our original intention was to be a fundraiser for the church, we never have really made what everyone projected that we would make. However, we have accomplished something so much more important.
You see, the very first year, we hosted the patch, a woman from the Family Resource Center stopped by the patch, and looked at it with great big eyes. She asked if their children could come to the patch and play. The children that are served by the Family Resource Center are children who have experienced great tragedy in their lives at a very young age. She told me that they would have the appropriate number of adults to watch the children but they also mentioned that the children might have emotional reactions to being outside. When she realized that the pumpkins were for sale, she explained that they really didn’t have money to purchase the pumpkins. “Would it still be possible for them to come and play, even though we can’t afford to buy pumpkins?”
I will never forget the first day they came. The children and their caregivers got out of vans, and they were all huddled together. The children had a mixture of excitement and fear, as they wondered what strange place they were being taken to. Then a few moments later, they were playing with chalk, and running around the patch. The air was filled with laughter and joy. For one day, the pain of their past slipped away and they were happy children playing in a pumpkin patch. The best part was that we had talked to various groups in the church and they sponsored a pumpkin for each child! Each year, we reserve time for children who would not be able to go to a pumpkin patch, and we find sponsors to send them home with a pumpkin.
Yes, we probably will never make the kind of money that other churches do on the pumpkin patch. However, the memories we make are priceless. Sometimes it is good to be crazy. Who knows how God’s grace will show up? You just never know what seems absolutely crazy today could become something that is just a part of our everyday life, a few years from now. What crazy thing is God calling you to do?
Grace and Peace,
Reverend Kathleen
lppastor@sbcglobal.net
Time with Sharon: How to measure fruitfulness
October 2008
For several years now, we have been tracking our hours of service and prayer each week by filling out the brightly colored Stewardship Record sheets that come in our Sunday bulletins and dropping them in the Offering Plate. It has been a way to remind ourselves that our discipleship goes beyond attending worship and putting our check into the plate (two really important commitments), but that we have also pledged to support our church with our prayers and service.
With his emphasis on leading us to grow into more fruitful churches, Bishop Schnase has asked that we track the fruit of our ministries together, including hands-on mission and service, and intentional faith development through study, discussion, and learning. To do that, we have modified the Stewardship Record a bit so that we can name the time spent cooking and driving dinner down to Shalom House, or preparing and attending a Bible study class. These are two examples of the “fruits” of a growing, caring church. Gathering this information will help our bishop (and us) know how we are living out our commitment to God through LPUMC.
It may seem a strange thing to be doing paperwork at church. But I think this is a good thing. Ours is a connectional system, and it will be helpful to the Conference to know which churches in the connection are vibrant and alive, and which ones need some help turning in that direction. It also helps us stay accountable to God, to our church, and to ourselves. To be active in our faith walk is far more stimulating and gratifying than to be a passive participant. Every time I fill out one of those little record sheets, I am reminded that I did something this week (or I didn’t) that contributed to helping build God’s Kingdom in our present and in our future.
Churches that are learning and serving together are exciting places to be. And so I suspect the ultimate measure of our fruitfulness will be felt over time as others are attracted to come and experience God with us through worship and the bevy of great ministries that happen here. In the meantime, please help us with our record keeping. It only takes a moment and is anonymous, so if you’ve had a lousy week, no one will be wagging a finger at you. It will be good for the greater connection, good for our church, and good for each of us in our own walk with Christ.
God bless your walk,
Sharon
lpassociate@sbcglobal.net
For several years now, we have been tracking our hours of service and prayer each week by filling out the brightly colored Stewardship Record sheets that come in our Sunday bulletins and dropping them in the Offering Plate. It has been a way to remind ourselves that our discipleship goes beyond attending worship and putting our check into the plate (two really important commitments), but that we have also pledged to support our church with our prayers and service.
With his emphasis on leading us to grow into more fruitful churches, Bishop Schnase has asked that we track the fruit of our ministries together, including hands-on mission and service, and intentional faith development through study, discussion, and learning. To do that, we have modified the Stewardship Record a bit so that we can name the time spent cooking and driving dinner down to Shalom House, or preparing and attending a Bible study class. These are two examples of the “fruits” of a growing, caring church. Gathering this information will help our bishop (and us) know how we are living out our commitment to God through LPUMC.
It may seem a strange thing to be doing paperwork at church. But I think this is a good thing. Ours is a connectional system, and it will be helpful to the Conference to know which churches in the connection are vibrant and alive, and which ones need some help turning in that direction. It also helps us stay accountable to God, to our church, and to ourselves. To be active in our faith walk is far more stimulating and gratifying than to be a passive participant. Every time I fill out one of those little record sheets, I am reminded that I did something this week (or I didn’t) that contributed to helping build God’s Kingdom in our present and in our future.
Churches that are learning and serving together are exciting places to be. And so I suspect the ultimate measure of our fruitfulness will be felt over time as others are attracted to come and experience God with us through worship and the bevy of great ministries that happen here. In the meantime, please help us with our record keeping. It only takes a moment and is anonymous, so if you’ve had a lousy week, no one will be wagging a finger at you. It will be good for the greater connection, good for our church, and good for each of us in our own walk with Christ.
God bless your walk,
Sharon
lpassociate@sbcglobal.net
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