e-Soundings

How do we educate our hearts and spirits?

While most parents welcomed the start of school , the early start dates for our Antelope Valley area caught me somewhat unawares.

I'm used to a little more leisurely August in order to "ramp up" the fall season. This year, I've had no such luxury. 

What we must not lose in our "Back to School" activities is the need for all of us as adults to turn toward learning and new classes as well.

Our current sermon series is focused on a "back to school" approach to the Bible, but I hope and pray that it only whets your appetite for more spiritual study and growth.

Our inner spirit responds to the same kind of training that our minds and bodies need.  The regular, ever challenging thoughts and actions of love and reflection on God put our "faith muscles" into a "training cycle" that we need to truly live an abundant life.

The Christian movement has a long history of such activities and we as United Methodists are especially focused on education, mission and outreach in a combined and coordinated way.

It is my hope that we can develop a stronger

Through the eyes of another...

Have you ever wondered what a Christian fellowship looks like through the eyes of a new person?

May of us have been around church long enough that we know how to act, what to say, what to wear and what to do / not do.

Here's a blog entry that sums up a lot of feelings and experiences of people who show up to church for the first time.

Have you felt any of them?

Should I go back?

Posted in thought by nakedpastor on the August 26th, 2009

On my vacation I met with many people who have left the church. They are people I know and love. So from the start I want to say that these are generalizations. I do realize others might have more positive things to say. But what I hear from the people I talk with is pretty consistent. This is not my opinion. I’m not making judgments. This is just what I hear:

1. When they’ve been gone from church for a while and return they are all shocked by the strange lingo that people talk. It is a coded and getto-ized language that no one else understands but insiders.
2. When they go back more than once, suddenly there is a huge feeling of expectation that weighs down on them. They know that if they commit at all, they are going to have to meet certain expectations.
3. Although few admit it, shame is an important and powerful tool used to keep sins, weaknesses, struggles and differences concealed.
4. One quickly learns that although indulgences ended officially many years ago, money is still an effective means to earn rank, privilege and allowances within a community.
5. One discovers almost immediately what the belief system to be embraced is. Critical and inquisitive thinking is generally not welcomed.
6. Although it is rarely ever explicit, competition and the disdain for other religions and even other churches percolates through the attitudes, language and actions of the community.
7. Orientation, condition and status (examples: divorced, single mom, living together, gay, addict, etc.) are the equivalent of brands that are accepted or not.
8. If you come and go, in the end no one really seems to notice or care.
9. You are expected to grow only if it enables conformity.
10. Even though, if you keep going, you feel you are being knitted into the community, there is a strange feeling that there is something conditional about your acceptance and membership.

http://www.nakedpastor.com/archives/3680

Do you remember your Baptism?

This weekend we all get an opportunity to reflect on the time we came before the gathered body of Christ and either professed our faith in Christ or had our parents and/or God-parents say those words in our place.

Many of us renewed our Baptism at Confirmation and other times in our lives when situations and circumstances called us into a deeper relationship with Christ.

Many of us have never renewed our baptism. We have lived a good life, but not a fulfilled life.

In Baptism, we made visible what was going in inside of us, in the spiritual part of our lives.

A Meditation on Tithing

"And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land,

or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD."

Leviticus 27:30*

The “tithe” is that biblical tenth of our income that we give to God and it ties us to the numerous accounts in the Bible of people tithing. 

 

It’s our response to a graceful, giving God, who is the creator of everything that exists.

God owns everything and we are simply stewards, managers of what we have been entrusted with.

The tithe principle is this; "He gives unto us, we give back to Him one-tenth of all that He has blessed us with."

Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, Isaac tithed, His son Jacob and many others also even before the law was given.

Many Christians tithe with an “Attitude of Gratitude.” It's an act of grace that matches the grace of God in Jesus Christ and no longer a legal obligation. It's a faith discipline.

Simply considering a tithe and the sacrifice it entails, is to struggle with God.

Perhaps you may decide on 5% or 7% with a prayerful promise to move toward tithing next year. Or you may decide that 10% is really not enough and you want to

"10/10," Stewardship & Tithing

In a few short weeks we will be having our “10/10” Consecration Weekend.

At all the services that weekend we’ll reflect on how much God has blessed us and then in gratitude and love dedicate an estimate of our projected support of the year 2006 sealed in envelopes and placed on the altar.

After worship you’re invited to a meal hosted by the church as a way of saying “Thanks” for all that God has been doing in you.

This whole process is called “Stewardship.”

It comes from the same meaning a Steward on an Ocean Liner has.

Stewards carefully manage the provisions and look after those in their care with great dedication.
“Stewardship” is simply taking that idea into God’s kingdom.

Through God’s gracious love we are stewards of what we have, enjoy and use to provide safety and survival for others.

Our faith is based on this gratitude in that Christ loved us through death and resurrection so that we might break free of our loneliness and be surrounded by the love of God for all time.

So it’s with gratitude that we accept the challenge of being good stewards of all the blessings given us.
Gratitude is our deepest and most profound response to all that God has done for us.

And it’s out of gratitude that we ask you now to consider how God is leading you to support our fellowship here at Hope UMC.

As a church, we encourage “percentage giving.” That means that out of all the blessings, gifts, talents and graces that you have received, a self-chosen percentage can be returned to do God’s work.

Some start with 2% and 3% and then work every year to add another percent to their giving. Others are able to begin at 5% and 6% and advance from there.

There are some of us who are responding to the challenge of a biblical “tithe”: 10% as our goal in gratitude.

Each and every family and individual needs to prayerfully consider where God is leading them and how they can best respond.

We know that many are on a fixed income and others face unexpected demands.

But others have more than enough and can afford to be “extra-generous” and even exceed a tithe.
Where ever you are, your gift is welcomed and celebrated. And you can be assured that your gift will be used in a faithful and accountable way.

The result of this “Giving out of Gratitude” is that our Finance Team will put together a balanced 2006 budget, and our Council will work to live responsibly within it.

Our “10/10 Challenge” reflects the commitment our Church leaders have taken on themselves to increase our giving by 10%.

This is in order to fund a full time Choir Director as well as all the projected demands on our budget.
The second “10” is the prayerful challenge for some of us to commit to a year of tithing as a Spiritual Discipline.

God has blessed us with an awesome fellowship filled with many wonderful people.

This “10/10” Campaign is just one way to say: “Thank you, Lord. What a great God of Love you are.”

We hope you make plans to be with us on Nov. 5 & 6: Consecration Weekend.

How goes it with your soul? …and what scripture has stayed with you lately?
What would others around you say they learned about Christ from you this week?

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Terry

P.S. Your generosity has resulted in more than $30,000 being raised for those devastated by the Gulf Coast Hurricanes. We are also sending relief supplies to Pakistan and India. Please make out your checks to Hope UMC (www.hopeumc.com) and mark the memo: “South Asia Earthquake.”

New God-Wrestler blog

I've begun a companion blog called "God-Wrestler."

It's a place to wrestle with the daily ethical issues that we all face from a Jewish-Christian viewpoint.

Currently there are questions about "Spirituality in the Workplace," "Taxes," and "The Metering of Freeway Onramps."

Check it out! http://pastorterry.blogs.com/godwrestler/

Let us know what you think.......