BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

As I was visiting one of our resthome residents this week, he asked me how many people we, as a church, have who are in resthomes, who are shut-ins, or have health problems which prevent them from coming to church. As I started to name them, the numbers astounded even me:

Fred White, Red Jurney, Sue Dowdle, Glenn and Edith Boger, Mary Lea Sharpe, Naomi Wooten, Nina VanHoy, Lillie Blanche VanHoy, Jack Connor, Jack Templeton, Troy and Martha Watkins, LQ and Jean Thomasson, Gray Combs, Pauline Key, Jay Ireland, Myra Osborne, Mabel Stack, Amanda Wyatt, Sandra Wyatt, Steve Baldwin, Ann Campbell, Anita Harrington, Margie Goodin…that’s 26, and just the first ones that came to mind! I’m sure I’m missing one or two more!

Think of those 26, and their loved ones who stay at home to care for them, and it’s easy to see why our church attendance is not what it should be! Thank God for the many new families who have been visiting in the last few months!

The point of this, though, is not about why church attendance is suffering. The point is that my pastoral care load is the heaviest it has ever been, and next week I will add a Disciple Class and Wonderful Wednesdays. In fact, I often am overwhelmed by it…until I think of what a joy it is to visit these folks, and how they minister to my own spirit every time I am with them. They continue to be a blessing to me and many others, even though they may not be able to be active in the church as they once were.

Think of these folks often…pray for them…visit them…call them…send them a card. And pray for me, too, that I might have the time and energy to visit them all regularly! Blessings….sk

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From Brett McCracken:
If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.

It seems to me that UGUMC would be just what Brett is looking for!

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Found in my inbox this morning after a lively debate in Sunday School yesterday:

Steve,

SS has opened lots of conversation between my husband and me. Two things I wanted to share. I am constantly reminded that if God had wanted us all to be alike, he would have made us that way. He did not want “cookie cutter” people. I think He delights in our differences in the same way I treasure the differences in my children. Sitting in the back of the room at SS lets me view all the different people and personalities in a great light. I think God wants us to engage in a variety of people–how else are we to learn? We can find good in everyone, if we take the time to open our eyes and our hearts. That is how we grow not only as Christians but people, neighbors, co workers, friends, etc. We are so thankful to be envolved in a church that embraces differences but at the same time is working towards a common goal!! It has made us better parents, partners in our marriage, and hopefully better people!

The second thing is a sign that we saw this summer. We stopped the car, wrote it down and hung it above our computer at home. It read: Our love for God is only as real as our love for our neighbors.

Have a great day.

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From Jim Wallis in a recent issue of Sojourners magazine:

Arizona’s law is a social and racial sin, and it should be denounced by people of faith and conscience across the nation. Arizona is threatening to wage war on the body of Christ. We should say that if you come after one part of the body, you come after all of us. This law will make it illegal to love your neighbor in Arizona, and would force us to disobey Jesus and his gospel. We will not comply.

I like this because in saying “this law will make it illegal to love your neighbor in Arizona,” Wallis shows his understanding of love as action rather than feeling. Jesus commanded us to love, and feelings/emotions cannot be commanded…only actions. Jesus would not ask us to do what we are incapable of doing, so in his command to love, he is demanding that we do what we can. We can “love” the immigrants in Arizona by making our opposition known to those in power. I hope you’ll join me in this. It’s the Christ-like thing to do.

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After a wonderful two week vacation at the lake, Judy and I are back in UG and it feels good to be back in the saddle again. I began my day with an hour on the bike at 7 am, and I tried to focus on the beauty around me as I rode.
I was impressed this morning with the difference in the appearance of the corn in the fields. What I had seen lately was corn that was dried up and dying, curling at the edges, and apparently almost at the point of no return. Today was a different picture altogether.
Last night we had a refreshing rain that made all the difference in the world. Just a little moisture made a huge difference. The corn this morning looked luxuriant!
Made me think about the Christians I know who are drying up because of their failure to be in worship on a regular basis. One good “feeding” a week could turn most of them into healthy, productive followers of Jesus. If we miss too many opportunities for the food and drink for the soul, we start looking and feeling like the dried up corn. Some of us need to take a look in the mirror today….

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Hope you will enjoy this Q and A as much as I did. Very insightful!

Dr. Lennart Peterson of Gainesville, Florida, writes:
I am professor of physics, emeritus, from the University of Florida and I am a Unitarian. Several years ago, I had a conversation with a man who was doing some carpentry work for me and this conversation made a deep and frustrating impression on me. He asked me if I believed in the Bible. I gave the usual Unitarian type of “no” as a reply and proceeded to give an example. I related to him the story of the rainbow that God supposedly made as a promise never again to destroy mankind by a flood. I explained that, as a physicist, I can very easily deduce everything about a rainbow just by applying very basic physical principles. Therefore, if the story was true, then it follows that the laws of physics must have been different after the flood than before the flood. Since this makes no sense to me, the story can not be true. The man had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. This leads me to my question. Fundamentalism requires one to suspend logical thinking. But logical thinking, especially as it pertains to scientific knowledge, is a weakness in the U.S. and in underdeveloped areas. How can people who do not have this scientific knowledge and who cannot apply the logic of science be helped to understand the narrowness of their point of view? How do I as a scientist talk to them in a mutually constructive and humane way?

Dear Len,

Thank you for your questions. I enjoyed meeting you at the lecture series that I gave last August at the Highlands Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought (HIARPT) in the mountains of western North Carolina.

As a child of fundamentalism, I think the thing that you do not fully grasp is that fundamentalism is designed to enhance security rather than to engage truth. The tragedy is that its tenacious hold on peoples’ lives exerts political pressure that keeps education in some parts of this country captive to the religious power structure. The idea that any school board in the developed world would allow “creation science” to be discussed or taught in a science classroom in America only shows how deep this distortion is. This past year, a group of Texas Conservatives objected to the President of the United States speaking in a Texas school because they did not want their children subjected to “socialist propaganda.” That is simply another illustration of the same phenomenon.

In my recently published book, Eternal Life: A New Vision, I sought to show how all human religion was developed to help frightened self-conscious human beings cope with the trauma of self-consciousness. Until we understand that connection, we will continue to see fundamentalism as the “suspension of logical thinking.”

The cure for this tragedy in education is twofold. One side is that science, in all its persuasive power, must be taught in every classroom in America without compromise. That is the responsibility of the secular world of education. Not to do that is to relegate our children to lives of non-competitive ignorance.

The second aspect to the dilemma is for organized religion in general, and for the Christian Church in particular, to rediscover the necessity for educating their people about faith issues. That is simply not done in the vast majority of congregations. Part of the reason is that we do not know how to do it, but another part of the reason is that we fear the consequences of truth. Until we wake up to this challenge, however, we will force the Christian world to confront the ever-expanding learning of the scientific world with a fourth grade Sunday school Christian education. This will mean that our children will grow up thinking they have to choose between science and religion, not between science and bad religion. As long as churches don’t understand these issues and refuse to undertake competent education in our churches, the problem will continue. Because of our inability to confront this problem, we allow bad theology and dated religious concepts to continue to vie for people’s loyalty in the public arena. That is not a winning formula and the church will inevitably lose that fight. Indeed, if the Christian Church continues to choose that tactic, it will almost certainly mortally wound itself.

The Unitarian tradition does this better than most. The other parts of the Christian faith need to move quickly into this arena.

Thanks for your question.

– John Shelby Spong

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Taken as a whole, I really enjoyed my Memorial Day…particularly the annual concert from Washington, DC, presented by Public TV. But my day did not start off well…in fact, it started off with my being about as angry as I ever get. About 9:00 am, when I opened my email, I had one from a relative I had not heard from in a while. The subject line read, “The Crotch Salute Returns to Fort Hood.” The first line said, “Folks, what you are about to see is truly disgusting. There are no words to describe this scenario.”

That, of course, caught my attention, so I scrolled on down the page. On it was a picture of our President, Barack Obama, standing on a flag-draped stage, surrounded by military officials, all of whom were saluting, while the President stood with his hands together in front of him. The sender intended to imply that President Obama was standing idly by while everyone else was saluting the flag as the National Anthem was played by the band. In fact, the text below the picture said, “I’m sorry folks, but is this the turkey that was elected President of our country? You know, the United States of America ? I do believe that saluting the flag goes with that, and also to honor the servicemen who died, or is he above that? Shower us all with flowery words and dazzle us with B.S. but actions speak louder. This stinks.”

The last two words were exactly right. Tactics such as this do stink, because they are dishonest and misleading, and far too many people take this kind of email as fact, without ever bothering to see if it is truthful. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was a lie, and it took me all of two minutes to prove it. I found a CNN video of the event. The picture was taken just after the President took the stage. The military officers were saluting him as the band played “Hail to the Chief.”

This kind of falsehood and deliberate distortion simply cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. As followers of Christ, no matter our political persuasion, we have a duty and an obligation to truth, and this kind of stuff ought to rile up Republicans and Democrats alike. If we are going to fight each other, let the fight be over principles and ideas, not over lies and innuendo.

So let me challenge you: when you receive emails with content similar to the above (from either side of the political debate), don’t just pass them on. Check them out for veracity. There are several places on the internet devoted to checking out internet rumors: www.snopes.com, www.urbanlegends.com, and www.factcheck.org. We owe it to ourselves, our friends, and our Lord to be seekers, and purveryors of the truth…and that takes a little effort.

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A vote to keep ‘them’ away from ‘us’
By Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society

The bishops of The United Methodist Church have certified that the proposed amendment 1 to the denomination’s constitution has been rejected by a vote of 25,764-23,614.

The proposed amendment read:

Inclusiveness of the Church — The United Methodist Church is a part of the church universal, which is one Body in Christ. The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth and that we are in ministry to all. All persons shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, and upon baptism be admitted as baptized members. All persons, upon taking vows declaring the Christian faith and relationship in Jesus Christ, shall be eligible to become professing members in any local church in the connection. In the United Methodist Church no conference or other organizational unit of the Church shall be structured so as to exclude any member or any constituent body.

Imagine building a church advertising campaign around that vote. What might you say? How about the following:

•“You might claim to be a Christian, but that doesn’t mean you’re good enough to be a United Methodist!”
•“Jesus may accept you, but that doesn’t mean we will.”
•“You say you’re good enough for our church — prove it.”
My family has been United Methodist for generations. I was born, baptized and confirmed a United Methodist. My children were born and baptized in our denomination. My faith in Christ was shaped in The United Methodist Church.

I have always been proud to share with anyone I meet that I am a United Methodist. I still am. It was a sad day, however, when the bishops announced that amendment 1 had been defeated.

Prior to the vote, people and groups both inside and outside our denomination suggested that this amendment — that proclaims all persons are of sacred worth and welcomes people who declared the Christian faith and a relationship with Jesus — was really filled with code words that might result in “them” joining “us.”

And we all know that we have to be vigilant to keep “them” out of our denomination. “They” would try to destroy “us,” right?

Imagine the audacity of proposing that all persons can attend our worship services, participate in our programs, receive the sacraments, and be baptized in our churches. Who ever heard of such a concept?

Our denomination has overcome other similarly incomprehensible decisions in its history. 1939 was one such case. That was when three branches of Methodism reunited with the proviso that African Americans would be segregated from whites.

I’m relieved that I’m already a member of The United Methodist Church. If I tried to join now someone might think I’m one of “them.”

Despite the vote on this amendment, I still have hope for The United Methodist Church. I believe God is the God of history. In God’s unfolding plan all people are intended to live in peace and harmony.

Date: 5/12/2010
©2010

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This one is for the folks who, for good reason or bad, do not come to Wonderful Wednesdays. Let me just start by saying that, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, WW is one of the very best things we have going here at UGUMC. Last night after our Bible study on Psalm 148, during which we discussed the relevance of praise for our lives, I got some amazing comments.

One person said to me, “These sessions have got to be longer! I feel like we’re just getting started and the time is suddenly gone!” That’s after 45 minutes of pretty intense Bible study, so that’s pretty amazing all by itself!

Another said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do without WW during the summer! The sessions have been so helpful to me, they are really going to be missed.”

Finally, a young mother of several children said, “We started to stay home tonight because the weather is so beautiful…but I am SO glad we didn’t!”

OK….there’s my evidence for the the importance and success of WW. Last night we had a total of about 70 adults and children. WW is a life-changing, viewpoint altering spiritual experience. Don’t you owe it to yourself to participate? I promise you it will beat whatever else you find to do on Wednesday night.

There are only 3 WWs left. Hope to see you at all of them!

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U.S. membership in the United Methodist Church fell to 7.7 million in 2008, its biggest one-year percentage drop since 1974. Giving was also down in that first year of the recession, with our largest mainline denomination receiving only 89% of what was budgeted for domestic and foreign missions. To make matters worse, attendance at worship was down 2%.

2009 figures are not yet available, but the Church is reporting that ministry is being done on a tighter budget.

One area saw an upturn, an area which many UMs don’t even know exists: Constituent Membership. These are persons who are not church members but for whom the church assumes pastoral responsibility. Increases in that category were reported by 36 of the 63 annual conferences, resulting in a 1 percent increase over 2007.

This is worrisome to me: that many people who are “attenders” are reluctant to become “members.” What difference does that make? As a rule (there are some exceptions), attenders don’t come to Sunday School or other learning opportunities; they don’t usually financially support the church’s witness and ministry; they don’t participate in fellowship opportunities provided by the church; and they seldom get to know church members on a level at which they become friends and family.

Everyone suffers because of this…attenders and members alike. We were blessed last week when 4 families who had been attenders became members. I’m praying there will be more who will make the switch!

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