“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”
— Stephen Colbert
Winter Book Study
I’ve been considering different possibilities for our next book study. I like to make sure I’ve read a book before I recommend it to others. To that end, I’ve been reading Five Practices of Fruitful Living by Bishop Robert Schnase. He also wrote a book title Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations which is even better known, but I think we’ve recently been focusing quite a bit on life together as a congregation and it may be time to turn the spotlight on the individual lives that together constitute the congregation.
Because the response to Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations and Five Practices of Fruitful Living was so overwhelmingly positive, it seemed to me that it was probably all hype, but eventually (years later) I gave in and started reading. I wish I had done so sooner. So far the book is excellent. It manages to be engaging and easily approachable, while also drawing one deeper into life with God and discipleship. I hope to finish the book within the next few days. I’ll let you know.
Three Kings for Epiphany
Today is Epiphany, best known for commerating the visit of the Magi. The classic hymn, We Three Kings, is inaccurate (for starters they weren’t kings, and the Bible tells us only that they brought three gifts), but we’ll still be singing it this coming Sunday (it is a classic for a reason). In the meantime, here’s some Blondie to tide you over.
VBS 2012: Operation Overboard
This year’s Vacation Bible School theme is “Operation Overboard: Dare to Go Deep with God!” Dive in and discover God’s underwater universe! Swim with humpback whales and seahorses, scuba through a vibrant coral reef, and take a personal submarine to the ocean floor, where eels and octopi play. As they journey miles below the water’s surface, kids plunge into Bible stories of people with deep faith and learn to trust a God whose love is bigger than the sea. Participants will learn to “go deep” into God’s Word for their lives, exploring the meaning and application of Bible stories about people who exhibited deep faith.
Preparations are already underway with the first formal planning meeting now scheduled for Sunday, January 15 at 3 pm. If you’re interested in volunteering, contact Pastor Jenny Collins.
Voice of the Day: Anne Lamott
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace-only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”
— Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
I think that’s a very concise statement of an important theological distinction. All to often Christians have assumed that we have to be perfect to merit God’s acceptance of us. This is wrong, God loves us as we are. But on the other side of the coin, that great truth that God loves us as we are is all to often taken to mean that God is satisfied with us as we are, which is not true. God wants us to draw near, to become more like Jesus Christ, to strive, with the help of God’s grace, for perfection in love (loving God and our neighbor to our utmost capacity, a capacity that increases with practice).
United Methodist Youthville
Bethanie Frank shared their experiences working through Youthville for adoption at todays UMW meeting. We hope to highlight this United Methodist ministry this Spring during the premier production of The Adventures of Princess Atlantis. We’ll keep you posted.
Church Office Closing Early Tomorrow
The church office will close at about 11:30 tomorrow morning.
Trustees Meeting Tomorrow
The Board of Trustees will hold their first meeting of the year tomorrow at 5:15 pm. On the agenda: the election of a chair, property insurance, and the old abandoned natural gas well underneath Fellowship Hall.
Voice of the Day: Abba Poeman
“The nature of water is yielding, and that of a stone is hard. Yet if you hang up a bottle filled with water above the stone so that the water drips drop by drop, it will wear a hole in the stone. In the same way the word of God is tender, and our heart is hard. So when people hear the word of God frequently, their hearts are opened to the fear of God.”
— Abba Poeman
Hat Tip: Sojourners