This Week's Sermon

Sunday's sermon is posted for review.

Sermon #18- Choosing Something More


peace,

will

Sunday Preview

Here is what is in store for worship this Sunday:

Scripture: Mark 8:31-38

Sermon Title: "Choosing Something More"

This Sunday we will take a look at one of those slightly odd and troubling exchanges in the Bible. Jesus is telling his disciples about what is on the road ahead. He tells them about his coming rejection, death and resurrection. Peter doesn't like this much and starts to reprimand Jesus. Jesus stops him in his tracks and says one of the harshest things Jesus ever says in the Bible, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

This is more than just a harsh reprimand; it is the beginning of another explanation of what is at the core of Gospel and the temptation we have to make it something else. It is a temptation that we all face as individuals and as a church. I hope you will be there Sunday as we continue our journey through Lent and explore this text together.

Remember that throughout these remaining Sundays of Lent, the Labyrinth will be available from 4:00-6:00 p.m. in the Grace church fellowship hall. A brief communal service will also be provided in the sanctuary each week beginning at 5:00 p.m.

See you Sunday!
peace,



will

Has anyone seen Will?

In case anyone has wondered where I have been, I spent most of the week in Kerrville. Monday and Tuesday I was at Mount Wesley in Kerrville for the annual Bishop's Convocation. In case you are wondering what a convocation is, it comes from the verb convoke, which means to cause to assemble for a meeting. Basically, the Bishop's convocation is an opportunity for all the clergy (pastors) of the Southwest Texas Annual Conference to gather to worship, study, meet in small groups and share fellowship. It is one of the only times that we all get to see each other since we are spread out from the valley, to Austin, to San Angelo and everywhere in between. It was nice to see some of my colleagues that I haven't seen in a while. Bishop Sharon Christopher of the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference also did a great two part presentation of the need for spiritual vitality among clergy.

I spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday at my Covenant Connection meeting. I didn't get back in town until last night. Sometimes I get frustrated when I have to be out of town a lot. However, it is truly a blessing to be a part of the United Methodist Church. Gatherings like these remind us that we are not alone as pastors or as a church, but are working together with churches all around the world. Together, we are able to do a lot more for God's kingdom than we can on our own.

I hope to see you Sunday!

peace,

will

Leadership and Vision

I had the true blessing of spending this past Saturday with the leadership of Grace United Methodist Church at our annual leadership retreat. I was so pleased that so many (I think we had around 50) of our leaders willingly gave up their Saturday and spent it considering the life, ministry and future of Grace United Methodist Church.

We spent the first half of the day working through a program called Developing Discipleship Systems, created by Dan Glover, Director of Discipleship at Greenville Evangelical United Methodist Church in, Greenville, Ohio. The program made it clear once again how important it is for us to be a place of radical hospitality. We must send a clear signal to everyone who even comes near our doors that they are welcome at Grace! Dan’s program also reminded us all about how, as a church, we need to be intentional about helping our members grow and develop in faith and spirituality. In order to truly help people to become disciples of Jesus Christ, we need to do more than simply get them busy doing the work of the church. We need to continue to provide opportunities for people to grow in their faith in small group ministries that attend to their educational and relational growth.

We spent the second half of our day thinking and praying about the future of Grace. Pastor John got us started by sharing a piece of his vision and then we all spent some time absorbing the beauty of creation at the Berry’s Lonesome Dove Ranch and listening for God’s gentle whisper of guidance.

Grace United Methodist Church is a vibrant, loving, dedicated community of faith. Churches like Grace can’t help but grow, but growth can be a difficult thing. If we are going to be truly open to the abundant possibilities that God may place before us, we will have to make plans that allow room for more ministries, more missions and a lot more people.

I hope you will ask some of our church leaders about what they learned and discovered in our time together. Their vision and excitement along with everyone’s faith, trust and hope will pave a future greater than even we can imagine.

peace,

will

The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437

I want to share an interested editorial piece from this mornings New York Times. Wherever you are on the issue of immigration, it brings up some interesting issues on our roles as citizens and our roles as Christians.

The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437

As always, I love to hear your comments.

peace,

will

Settling into Lent

We had an amazing turnout at our Ash Wednesday service last night. I don't know that I have ever seen the sanctuary that full. If you were there, I hope that you found the service meaningful and I hope it will add to the meaning of the entire season of lent.

Don't forget that all through Lent we will be offering a special Sunday evening experience Journey to the Cross from 5:00 to 5:45. It will be a time for prayer and meditation as well as an opportunity to walk a labyrinth, an ancient means of prayer in the Christian tradition.

There is more information about Journey to the Cross as well as a lot of great information about lent in this week's newsletter.

peace,

will

This Week's Sermon

This Sunday's sermon has been posted. You can read it here:

Sermon #17 - Come and See

If you read my sermons online, you will probably find a number of typos and mistakes. You may also find some minor or major differences between what was said on Sunday and what you read. I really like to get the sermons posted as soon as possible and if I wait until I get it perfected, it will probably never get done.

I have turned off comments on the sermon page itself. If you have any thoughts or questions, just come back to this post to comment.

peace,

will

Remembering to Rest

I am constantly talking about our need for sabbath, our need to take time to rest our bodies and be in God's presence. (Read my post - Sabbath? Is that Really a Commandment?)

My dogs take me pretty seriously, but sometimes I don't even get it right.

Jesus tells us in Mark that:

"The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath."

Jesus showed us that we shouldn't be too legalistic about sabbath rest. He healed on the sabbath and he let his disciples gather food when they were hungry. This was technically breaking the religious laws of the time, but he knew some things were more important.

We can be too legalistic and we can also go too far the other way. If we try, we can always find something to do and never find time to rest with God. This week I am a little out of balance. I gave up my regular sabbath on Friday to preside at a funeral of a woman who had no church of her own. I think that was a valid reason to give up my day of rest. But then, I spent today at a meeting in San Antonio. Tomorrow is Sunday, so there will be little rest. Then, the week starts over.

Sabbath, for me, is like any other discipline. Once I get out of the pattern, it is really easy to stay out of the pattern. My challenge for the week will be to find some real time to rest in God's presence. I hope you find some time as well.

peace,

will

Worship this Week

For those of you who don't get the e-mail, here is the worship preview for this Sunday:

Scripture: John 1:43-51

Sermon Title: "Come and See!"

Have you ever invited someone to church? Most people never have because it seems like such a complicated issue. In John's gospel, a man named Philip makes the simplest invitation on record. He says to Nathanael, "Come and see." Simple, yet effective, because Nathanael follows Philip to see Jesus. This Sunday we will talk about that "come and see" invitation and also what we, as a church, need to do in the event that people actually take us up on it.

Remember that the United Methodist Men will be ready to serve you and your family a tall stack of pancakes this last Sunday of the month, with plenty of butter and syrup to go around.

See you Sunday!

will

More from Mexico

Here is a shot of the library nearly done. This is from day 2. You can tell by the extra layers of clothes. It was quite chilly. The roof is on and the windows and doors are in. The guys are just finishing up some trim while everyone else cleans up the site.

Picture number two is our group in front of the completed library. Our local help, our mistros are also in the photo. They were a huge help is showing us what to do and also doing the really difficult parts of construction. Right there next to Kathy is also our wonderful cook!

This building will be finished off by the folks at DIF. It will be painted and stuccoed before the books are moved in.

Mexico - First Look

Thank you to Robert for getting me some photos so quick! Here are some pictures of the first day of one of the building projects. This team was building a library at Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (or DIF for short). DIF is the equivalent of a child welfare services. This library is to be part of the facilities that offer food, health services and education for children and families in need.

What you can see in the first picture is a stack of cinder blocks being loaded onto the slab. We took the blocks and assembled walls on day one. You can see the walls going up in the second shot.

I will post some more photos and details soon!

peace,

will

Back from Mexico

The whole crew is safely back from Mexico. We had a really great trip. I think it might be interesting (and actually possible) to take the laptop and the camera next trip and blog each day from Mexico. (Yes they do have internet in Mexico, it is just a little trickier to get online.)

If you are a faithful weblog reader, were on the trip and took digital photos, please e-mail them to me so I can post them here.

I will post some more details of the trip once I get some photos to go with them. Basically though, we had a very successful trip. Our teams built two small houses for families and one decent size library for a community center in Rio Bravo. We had decent weather (though everyone was a bit chilly on Saturday). We even have great food, especially the folks on the library project who ate better than they did at home.

I will share more as I have time and photos. I hope the trip was a blessing to the residents of Rio Bravo, it certainly was a blessing to those who went.

peace,

will

Off to Mexico

I have been slacking a bit this week in my blogging. I am trying to get ready to leave tonight for Mexico for Grace's annual Mexico Mission Trip. I wish I had more time to write about the trip and what we will be doing, but I have been putting together my part, the worship for the weekend. Most of our trip will be building small houses and a library in the small town where we will be staying. But, we will also have lots of time for worship and prayer and reflection.

I look forward to writing more about the trip and experience on my return.

peace,

will

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy glowed in the dark

If you have ever lost your pig in a dark parking lot at night, you will certainly be relieved to hear this. Scientist in Taiwan have bred fluorescent pigs. They have added genetic material from jellyfish to pig embryos to breed a pig that glows in the dark.

The point of this was not that we are in need of glowing pigs. It is an attempt to better understand genetics in hopes of helping to cure and prevent disease in humans. Anything we do genetically does, of course, cause us to pause momentarily to think about the moral, ethical and theological implications of such a thing and consider how far we should take such endeavors. But, in the meantime, enjoy the wonder of pigs that glow.

The full article is available here.

Taiwan breeds green-glowing pigs

peace,

will

This Week's Sermon

This Sunday's sermon is posted and ready to read.

Sermon #16 - "Servants of Christ: First Steps, Next Steps"

Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

peace,

will

Newsletter Column

The following is my column from this week's newsletter. I am posting it here for those of you who don't get the newsletter or think paper is "so 1900s."

This Sunday marks the final week of our emphasis on stewardship of service. As I said in my sermon on Sunday, the point of this time is not to find volunteers to fill all the jobs around the church. Just as we see financial stewardship as a spiritual response to the freely given grace of God, this is about considering the way in which we use our hands and feet to serve in the same way. We give to God in response to what God gives to us and then we trust in God to transform what we give into things greater than we could ever imagine.

Not only does our service hold the promise of transforming the world in God’s name, it can transform us as well. It is my experience that people who find ministries of service that connect their God-given gifts and talents with the needs of the world are forever transformed and drawn closer to God.

The very day I was baptized, I was asked to by a member of my church to help out with the Sunday School program by becoming the Sunday School Superintendent. All I had to do was collect attendance sheets and offerings and make sure all the children’s classes had graham crackers and icewater. I was terrified! I thought for sure I would some how mess it up. That first service opportunity turned out to be one of the most important things I have ever done. Not only was it important because it follows Jesus’ instruction to care for the little ones (see Matthew 18) it was also important because it drew me closer to God and helped me to better understand my role as a servant.

I really want to challenge you this week to think about what God is calling you to. I believe that every member of Grace can turn in a commitment card this week, whether you are stepping forward for the first time to try a new ministry or simply committing to continue in a ministry you are already involved in. If you are already involved in ministry at Grace, maybe you will consider taking on something else. Might I suggest that if you are serving in a ministry within the church (reaching in), you consider trying one outside of the church (reaching out)? If you are serving outside of the church, perhaps you will consider something inside the church.

I am really excited about this Sunday. I am looking forward to the number of people who will step up in ministry. I am looking forward to how God will transform our commitments and truly help us to bring God’s love to the people who surround us. I am looking forward to how we will be transformed as well!

peace,

will

Sunday Music

Our praise band did a great song during the offering in 9:45 worship this week. It is a song they were working on and I asked if they might do it during our stewardship of service emphasis. It is not typical worship song since it is somewhat confessional nature. It asks the question, if we are truly the body of Christ, why aren't we doing more?

For those of you who attend 8:30 or 11:00 service, or those at 9:45 who didn't quite catch the lyrics, I am posting them here.

CASTING CROWNS- If We Are The Body
Album : Casting Crowns (2003)

It's crowded in worship today
as she slips in
trying to fade into the faces
the girls teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
farther than they know

But if we are the body
why aren't his arms reaching
why aren't his hands healing
why aren't his words teaching
and if we are the body
why aren't his feet going
why is his love not showing them there is a way
there is a way

A traveler is far away from home
he sheds his coat
and quietly sinks into the back row
the weight of their judgmental glances tell him that his chances
are better out on the road

But if we are the body
why aren't his arms reaching
why aren't his hands healing
why aren't his words teaching
and if we are the body
why aren't his feet going
why is his love not showing them there is a way

Jesus paid much too high a price
for us to pick and choose who should come
and we are the body of Christ

But if we are the body
why aren't his arms reaching
why aren't his hands healing
why aren't his words teaching
and if we are the body
why aren't his feet going
why is his love not showing them there is a way

Jesus is the way


peace,

will

This Week's Sermon

This week is week two of our emphasis on stewardship of service. At Grace we will be talking about stewardship all year and talking about it in every form. Sometimes stewardship is limited to speaking about financial giving. However, when we join the United Methodist Church, we promise to support it with our prayers our presence our gifts and our service. Throughout the year, we will focus on each on each aspect.

You can read the sermon here:

Sermon #15 - "Servants of Christ - Reaching Out to Serve"

peace,

will

The End of an Era STOP

I guess the era was pretty much over since I had never actually sent or received one, but I was sort of sad to read today about the official end of the telegram. After 145 years, Western Union has stopped sending telegrams.

If you want to read more, there is an article on LiveScience.com.

It is not surprising. With cell phones, pagers, faxes, e-mail, instant messaging, fedex, ups, and a billion other ways to communicate instantly, it is hard to see where there would be a market for the telegram. I just always thought it would be cool to get a telegram. Had I known they were going to stop, I might have sent one to myself. STOP

peace,

will

Private Prayer and Home Worship

I was working on a devotional yesterday and I ended up getting completely sidetracked and thinking about private prayer and home worship. I started thinking about the fact that the corporate worship that we gather for on Sundays was developed with the assumption that those who attend spend some amount of time in personal prayer. In the Didache, believed to be one of the earliest set of written instructions on Christianity, Christians were instructed to prayer the Lord’s prayer three times a day. There are still Christians who follow this practice. There are other Christians who, while not being that rigorous or specific, take time for daily prayer. There are also Christians who are even more rigorous in their prayer life than those original instructions specify. Some pray for extended periods several times a day.

However, I know from experience dealing with Christians of different ages and at different stages of the journey that there are a quite a few people for whom personal prayer is not a part of their life. I have heard on more than one occasion from people who are faithful church members, people who come to worship nearly every week and who even have leadership roles in the church, statements like, “I only really pray when I need something.”

Now I am not writing this in an attempt to tell people to pray more (though that is a good idea). I was thinking about this in the context of the assumptions under which our model of corporate worship was developed. The things that we do on Sunday morning, the prayers, the music, the sermon, and the order of the whole thing are based in the historical tradition of the church. The way we worship was developed based on the assumption that most people had a serious prayer life.

Let me add something else to the mix. I was looking at my copy of the 1965 version of The Methodist Book of Worship, the predecessor to The United Methodist Book of Worship on which we base our worship services. The thing that was most noticeable was that the full name of the ’65 book is actually The Book of Worship for Church and Home. What is a little less noticeable is that within the pages of this book are resources for families to worship together, including “A Form for Family Prayer or Worship in a Small Group” and “Table Graces”. This book assumed not only private prayer, but family prayer and worship. Think about standing in a congregation and asking three questions. First, a show of hands for those who pray privately outside of worship. I bet there would be a lot of hands for that one. Second, a show of hands for those who pray as a couple or as a family. I guarantee there would be fewer hands for that one (especially if the pastor promised to close her eyes.) Third, a show of hands for those who worship as a family (as in read scripture, sings hymns and pray together.) Of course there might be some, but not a lot of hands for that one.

There may be a problem with the fact that since we still do worship basically the same way we have for years, we still assume that most people are doing those things. I think that this puts and awful lot of pressure on worship. Think about it. If Sunday is the only time that many people are worshipping and praying alone and as families, Sunday worship carries the whole weight and responsibility for the development of people’s relationship with God. All of that in one hour. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that worship issues are so emotionally charged. Large arguments and even church splits happen over the specifics of worship, which makes a lot of sense if people consider that time their only time with God. If Sunday morning were my only time with God, I would want it to be perfect too!

Well that is more than I have to say in my average blog post. But I hope it will get you thinking about your own personal and family prayer and worship life. Perhaps it will get me thinking about more ways to help people be more intentional about their relationship with God the other six days a week.

peace,

will