A reminder that the church office will be closed, tomorrow, January 1, 2014, for New Years Day.
Youthville Special Offering
The special offering that we received for Youthville on Christmas Eve totaled $1,625. A special thanks to everyone who contributed.
Voice of the Day: J. I. Packer
This seems a particularly apt quote for the Christmas season:
“The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.” — J. I. Packer
Hat Tip: Sojourners
Lock-In a Success
Judging by the fact that no one slept very much, and everyone went home exhausted—last night’s/this morning’s lock-In appears to have been a great success. A special thanks to Wendy Robinson and Karlene Taylor serving as the adult sponsors. I enjoyed playing the role of a “senior pastor” a getting a good nights sleep at home.
Parsonage Open House
You are invited to an Epiphany Open House at the Parsonage next Sunday, January 5, 2014, from 3-5 pm. The parsonage is located at 1601 North Campbell Street. Jenny, Liz and I hope to see you there.
A Clarification About Pastoral Confidences
Please rest assured that my previous post on pastoral confidences was purely preventative. It was not in response to anything bad happening.
Hallelujah!
I’ve been waiting months to share this video. It’s a special version of Hallelujah.
Special Music for Christmas Eve
Tomorrow evening (Christmas Eve 2013) we’ll have not one, not two, but three pieces of special music at each service. At the 5 pm service God is With Us by Clark Williamson, Breath of Heaven by Mary Jo Miles and Angie Hoerner, and Away in a Manger by Darren and Jean Hendricks. At 11 pm we’ll have Welcome to Our World by the Chancel Choir, O Holy Night by Mary and Carly Graefe, and Ave Maria by Lori Mitchell. The special music alone will be enough to make these services wonderful.
A Note on Pastoral Confidences
Please note that Jenny and I strive to follow ¶341.5 of The Book of Discipline and “maintain all confidences inviolate, including confessional confidences, except in the cases of suspected child abuse or neglect or in cases where mandatory reporting is required by civil law.” However, please note that as a clergy couple we do not keep pastoral confidences from one another. Furthermore, it is always a good idea to alert us to the fact that something that you’re telling us is being told in confidence. (We both endeavor to exercise the utmost discretion, and so far we haven’t slipped, but the line between an upcoming surgery that you want everyone in the church to be praying about and an upcoming surgery that you want kept private can become blurry.)
Update: 8:15 and 10:30 Worship Services Cancelled
Because of all the snow Abilene has received, we’re cancelling both Worship Services this morning, Sunday, December 22, 2013. Please help us spread the word to those without internet access. I’m posting a picture of my driveway so you’ll know that this decision was made after I finished shoveling and not as an excuse not to shovel.
Rush Limbaugh Says We're Socialists
On his December 16, 2013 Rush Limbaugh expanded the scope of his inflammatory comments about Pope Francis to include my denomination:
“And yet all these churches are socialists. The bishops, the monsignors, the popes, they’ve all… Well, not all of them, but the Episcopalians, the Methodists, my church, they’re worse than ever — and why? Because they were able to get away with saying that the redistribution of wealth, socialism, was charity; that the only reason government was taking money was to give to the disadvantaged.”
First of all, I would like to address the statement that “all these churches are socialists.” The word socialism has a definite meaning. It’s not just an epithet to be cast upon anyone or anything you don’t like. To quote Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Secondly, Rush Limbaugh is a United Methodist? My first instinct was that anyone that hateful should be thrown out of the church, but then I reminded myself that the United Methodist Church is a broad church (Sandra Fluke is also a United Methodist), and that’s (usually) one of the things I like about it. After that I remembered that the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Rush and I both need that hospital for sinners.
Thirdly, and finally, I remembered the words of Jesus in Matthew 5.11-12:
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (NRSV)
Maybe my beleaguered but beloved United Methodist Church is doing something right after all.
Sermon — October 6, 2013
The sermon below was preached by Jennifer Collins on Luke 17.5-10 (the parable of the mustard seed). This sermon was preached October 6, 2013 at Abilene First United Methodist Church.
Link: https://soundcloud.com/revcollins/sermon-2013-10-06-jenny