Sunday Preview

Sunday Preview
Sunday, December 31^th 2006 (First Sunday of Christmas)
Wesleyan Covenant Service

I have never been one for New Year’s Resolutions. I have never been very good at choosing things to resolve and I have never been very good at sticking with them. I am much better at New Year’s Rededication. I like to take time at the beginning of the year to think about what is important in my life and rededicate myself to that.

I believe what needs to be most important in my life is God. If God is at the center, all those resolutions that I don’t make have a way of taking care of themselves. Through the year, it is pretty easy for God to slip from that top spot, so I think it is important, at the threshold of a new year, to rededicate myself to God.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement shared this belief and developed a service for this purpose called The Covenant Renewal Service. It has been traditionally held on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

I hope you will join me at any of our three services this Sunday, 8:30, 9:45 or 11:00 to worship, give thanks, and rededicate yourself to God on the eve of 2007.

peace,

will

What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You?

I just read an amazing article from the Sunday New York Times Magazine by Peter Singer a professor of bioethics at Princeton. Singer combines some of my favorite subjects, philosophy, economics and the need to end extreme poverty in the world.

What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You?
By PETER SINGER
Published: December 17, 2006
A philosopher’s case for donating more than you’re comfortable with.

Here is an exerpt:

Few people have set a personal example that would allow them to tell Gates that he has not given enough, but one who could is Zell Kravinsky. A few years ago, when he was in his mid-40s, Kravinsky gave almost all of his $45 million real estate fortune to health-related charities, retaining only his modest family home in Jenkintown, near Philadelphia, and enough to meet his family’s ordinary expenses. After learning that thousands of people with failing kidneys die each year while waiting for a transplant, he contacted a Philadelphia hospital and donated one of his kidneys to a complete stranger.

The article is pretty long, but worth the read.

peace,

will

Sunday Morning

I am wondering as I prepare worship for the fourth Sunday of Advent, Christmas Eve morning, if I can expect many worshippers to join me. Christmas Eve is one of the biggest services of the year and John and I thought for a long time about what to do with the morning services. Some churches have cancelled or combined services but we opted not to. Here was our reasoning: First, we believe that the season of Advent is a really important time. We really need this time of preparation for Christmas to mean all that it can mean. We didn't want to skip the last Sunday of Advent. Second, a more practical reason, it is hard to get the word out when you change services. Say that our church decided to have one morning service at 10:00. Say that we spent weeks telling everyone in the congregation about it to make sure they would come at the right time. Then say someone we have never seen before wakes up on Christmas Eve morning and decides to go to church. Say she has been by the church before and thought about it and jotted down the service times. Perhaps she looked in the yellow pages. Maybe she even cut out our ad a few weeks ago from the newspaper when she was thinking about going to church. Say she decides to come to our 8:30 service and we were not there. We would like to think that she would go home and come back at 10, but realistically and statistically, she wouldn't. I would rather be here. Just in case she comes.

peace,

will

The Longest Night

We will be hosting a special service this Thursday night at 6:30 called "The Longest Night." The service is especially for people who may have trouble celebrating at Christmas. There are a lots of things that happen in our lives that make things especially hard at Christmas when everyone else seems to have so much to celebrate. Bring someone along and join us as we try to experience Christmas in a different way, looking for the word of hope in Christmas, even when hope seems far away.

peace,

will

Blog Slacking

Apologies to my regular readers. Two funerals and a one day trip to Austin have gotten me off my blogging track. I am now prepping myself for the week before Christmas. Christmas in the life of the church was a little odd last year with Christmas falling on a Sunday. It is even stranger this year with Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday. That means we will have three services Sunday morning and four services Sunday evening, which will make for sort of a long day. I believe it is totally worth the work though. We all know there is something about Christmas that inspires people who have been away for a while or who have never been to church to come and see what all the fuss is about. We want to make sure we have plenty of room.

Peace to you in this last week of Advent!

will

Live from my office... it's Monday night!

Monday night is not a time I usually spend in my office. It is either meetings or at home. But this is a busy week. In an unusual turn of events I am presiding over two funerals this week. Funerals take a lot out of me. They are hard, but not for the reason many people expect. I have learned to deal with the sadness of being around people suffering loss. I won't say that goes away but, as a pastor, you need to find some way to deal with it in a healthy manner.

What gets me is the pressure and the pressure comes directly from me. I believe that funerals and memorial services are part of an incredibly important process. It is not just the service itself. There is so much possibility of healing and reconciliation that takes place all around those moments that follow the death of a loved one. I get the honor of being a part of that and I take it about as seriously as I can without being either self-centered or completely burned out.

When it comes to the service itself, I ponder every word, every piece of scripture, every song. I never get it perfect, but I try to do my best. Those who have left us and those who are left behind deserve nothing less.

peace,

will

Sunday Preview

Sunday, December 10^th 2006 (Second Sunday of Advent)

Scripture: Jeremiah 33:14-16

Even for someone like me from Western New York, it is starting to feel a bit like Christmas. The cool weather and my neighbor'’s Christmas lights (mine aren'’t up yet) are helping me to get ready for one of the most joyous celebrations of the year.

The four Sundays of Advent are the church's way of preparing for the arrival of GodÂ’s most precious gift, Jesus Christ. This week, the choir is going to help us prepare by offering us the gift of music as they present, Night of Wonder, A Cantata for Advent or Christmas. At all three services, they will present this offering of choruses and readings that will trace the journey from the Advent prophecy to the annunciation of Mary and from the birth of Jesus to the heavenly host proclaiming, "“Glory to God in the highest!"” I hope you will consider inviting your friends and family to experience the wonder of Christmas celebrated in music!

peace,


will

The rough times...

There are times in life when things are just too much to bear. There are others when things are so good that we make up things to be aggravated about. As I was sitting at my desk working on a sermon series for January, I became aggravated when I realized that I left the house today without my iPod headphones and the Pop-Tart I had intended to snack on this afternoon. When something like that is the largest aggravation of the day, life is pretty good. Though I am still missing that Pop-Tart.

peace,

will