Month: February 2022

Posted on

Worship — Sunday, February 27, 2022

If you want to see the Peppa Big clip, try this link: youtu.be/jil0WCh_UoQ

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do that by clicking on the link in the Vimeo logo above and then selecting download.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.

Posted on

The Peppa Pig Clip

The worship service from this morning is still uploading, so I can’t share that with you quite yet, but here’s the clip of Peppa Pig that I used as a sermon illustration for my sermon.

Posted on

2022 Ash Wednesday Service

Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday (March 2, 2022). We’ll have a service at 5:45 p.m. The service will include communion, but shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes.

Posted on

Bishop Saenz Asks for Prayers for Ukraine

Below is a letter from our Bishop, Ruben Saenz:

Today, Russia launched an unprovoked military invasion against the people of Ukraine. United Methodist Church Bishop Christian Alsted – of the Nordic and Baltic Episcopal Area – is asking for United Methodists to stand with the United Methodists in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in intercessory prayer for protection, reconciliation and peace.

We pray especially for Bishop Eduard Khegay, [United Methodist] bishop of Russia and Ukraine, for wisdom and grace as he shepherds congregations on both sides of the conflict.

Friends, the words of St. Paul encourages us to “suffer together with those that suffer.” (1 Corinthians 12:26a)

For the sake of your sorrowful passion, dear Lord, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Peace,
Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr.
Great Plains Conference

The letter above can be found at: https://bit.ly/3HnEa2j

A letter from Bishop Christian Alsted of the Baltic and Nordic Episcopal Area can be found here: https://bit.ly/358RgmI

Posted on

Funeral Services for Ivan Lahr

Ivan Lahr has passed away. His funeral service will be at 10 a.m. this Friday, February 25, 2022 at the Martin-Becker-Carlson Funeral Home with a graveside to follow at the Abilene Cemetery. Ivan was not a member of First UMC, but Pastor John Collins will be officiating.

Posted on

A Prayer In Time of War

If you’re like me, you prayed for Ukraine last night. Went to bed. Woke up. Read the news, and then prayed for Ukraine some more. I don’t know what else to do. Although plenty of people have opinions, I am quite certain that I don’t now how the United States should respond. So I pray. I don’t have a set prayer for this. But I do find myself repeating these four phrases: “Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Come Lord Jesus. Amen.” Please join me.

Posted on

Bible Study: The Book of Jonah

This evening (February 23, 2022) at 5:15, we’ll have a Bible study on the the book of Jonah. You can attend in person in room 200 or you can join us via Zoom at https://wp.me/P3IZ7l-nZ. You don’t need to read anything ahead of time to participate. (Most people don’t.) We’ll begin with a nine minute video introduction and then continue the discussion from there. If you want to watch the video or study the materials ahead of time you can go to https://bit.ly/3t6f4Qp.

Posted on

Your New Pastor

Yesterday, at both worship services, Jill Lang, the chair of the SPRC, shared the following letter from Bishop Reuben Saenz:

Dear Friends, 

The cabinet and I are pleased to announce that Mik King will be appointed as your pastoral leader beginning July 1, 2022.  This appointment concludes a thorough process during which the staff parish committee of your church has been consulted along with Mik.  We have prayed asking for God’s wisdom about the best available leadership for your church and this is our decision. 

As with all appointments, this one will be fixed during the annual conference closing session on June 11, 2022. 

I extend my best wishes and prayers to you all during this transition of pastoral leadership for your congregation.

Grace and peace, 

 Ruben Saenz, Jr.

As I told the congregation at both services, Mik is both a colleague and a friend. And not only a friend but also one of my best friends.* I believe she is an excellent fit for this congregation.

*If you dread another pastor like me—fear not; she’s my friend, not my clone. For example, she’s a little bit shorter and a whole lot nicer.

Posted on

Worship — Sunday, February 20, 2022

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do that by clicking on the link in the Vimeo logo above and then selecting download.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.

Posted on

Voices: “Thick Skin, Tender Heart”

Words of wisdom from Rachel Held Evan’s final book, Wholehearted Faith:

” ‘Thick skin, tender heart.’

You never want to toughen up so much that you lose your tender heart, the part of you that experiences and processes pain and compassion and love. . . . Sometimes you have to remind yourself that it is okay, and not just okay but normal and right and good, to feel hurt when someone calls you names or questions your faith. 

I’m just as uncomfortable with uncertainty and emotional exposure as the next person, but I also know that just about every sociological study on the subject shows that meaningful connection requires risk and vulnerability, and you can’t argue with that data.”

“Thick skin, tender heart.” I’m taking that advice to heart in hopes of becoming more Christlike and fully human.

[1] Rachel Held Evans and Jeff Chu, Wholehearted Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 2021), chap. 5, Kindle.

Posted on

A Few Thoughts on Baptism

There’s been a story in the news about a clergy person in another denomination who baptized people with the wrong pronoun (“we” instead of “I”). I don’t know enough about that other denomination to weigh in according to their theology, but in the United Methodist Church this would be a non-issue. Here are a few of the reasons.

  1. I may have baptized you, but God did the heavy lifting. And for this I am thankful, it would be really hard for me to screw up a baptism because God’s doing the majority of the work. To think I could do so by using the wrong pronoun would be to take too much credit for what is primarily an act of God.
  2. I do follow the traditional rubric of “Name, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”. But this is not a spell from the fictional world of Harry Potter that won’t work unless it is said in just the right way. This is a sacrament, the grace of God is at work and the Holy Spirit will not be turned aside by a simple mistake on the part of the pastor. Furthermore Jesus said to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)— but he never gave us an exact wording with the proper pronouns.
  3. What happens if more than one person does the baptism? Jenny and I have done a lot of them together. I don’t remember ever saying we, but it certainly would have been appropriate.

I’ve got more, but I’m going to stop there.