Month: May 2024

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Church Office Closed for Memorial Day

This is a friendly reminder that the church office is closed today in observance of Memorial Day. It’s a good day to remember those who died in service to their country and those who have gone before us in general. It’s a good day to pray God’s presence and peace upon all those who grieve and mourn this day. I also echo Scot McKnight’s call to “pray for the end of all war and the establishment of deep justice and an enduring peace.”

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Dry Outdoor Worship Today

Because of all the rain, I have blocked off a portion of the parking lot in front of the old main entrance. We can put our chairs on dry ground, our backs to the sun and use the beautiful backdrop of the bell tower and surrounding garden area for worship. Hope to see you all there.

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A Warm Welcome to Meri Thompson

Last Sunday, May 19, 2024, we welcomed Meri Thompson into membership at College Avenue UMC. Please take the time to let Meri know how happy we are to have her with us.

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Worship Outside this Sunday

We’ll worship outside on the front lawn this Sunday, May 26, 2024. The service will be at the regular time of 10:30, and we’ll also have a baptism. Please be sure to bring your lawn chairs! Following the service, there will be a potluck in the Fellowship Hall.

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What It Means For Us That God Is Perfect

From theologian Dallas Willard:

We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseparable from his infinite joy.

. . . We are enraptured by a well-done movie sequence or by a few bars from an opera or lines from a poem. We treasure our great experiences for a lifetime, and we may have very few of them. But he [God] is simply one great inexhaustible and eternal experience of all that is good and true and beautiful and right. [1]

In the words above, Willard gets as close as I’ve ever seen anyone get to explaining the joy that God has promised us. To be in the direct presence of God in the life to come will be to stand in this experience of all that is good and true and beautiful and right. We will be in a place where the sorrows and pains of this world will fall away in the presence of the perfect being, the God we sometimes refer to by the name of Love Divine.

[1] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God (New York: Harper One, 1997), Kindle Edition, 72-73.

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Janice Reitz has Passed

Janice Reitz died last night. This was completely unexpected and the family could use some time to gather themselves, but they would appreciate your prayers.

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On Vacation

I’ll start a week’s vacation tomorrow morning (May 9, 2024) and won’t return until Thursday morning (May 16, 2024). Whitney Weyeneth, our Parish Visitor, will be covering visitation. You can call the church office at 785-539-4191 to be put in touch with her.