There will be a service of Death and Resurrection for Rocky Welton tomorrow (Saturday, June 12, 2021) at 1:30. The plan is to livestream the service on Phyllis’ facebook page.
I don’t know why I had never thought of posting these before, but below is the slideshow we’ll be using for his service.
“Peter cut off the ear of a soldier because he feared his enemies were derailing his plans for justice. Jesus healed the ear of the soldier because he knew his plan for justice included the healing of his enemies.” — Dan White Jr. [1]
As always, the way of Jesus Christ is better than the way of Peter.
[1] Dan White Jr., Twitter post, April 14, 2020, twitter.com/danwhitejr.
Tomorrow, Sunday, June 5, 2020, we’ll be beginning a new online worship schedule. We plan to livestream the 8:15 worship service on Facebook and then record the 10:30 service and upload it on Monday. You should be able to watch the livestream at 8:15 or anytime after that.
This service was recorded Saturday, May 29, 2021.
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 so with this link.
Our Vimeo page is: vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.
You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.
Previous worship services can be found at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
I’m down here in the church office in Abilene, but I’m dialed into Annual Conference.(Which is currently being livestreamed out of First UMC in Lawrence, Kansas.) Since we’re not in person, I don’t expect any really important or controversial decisions to be made, but I’ll keep you posted.
I know that some of you will continue masking because you’re unvaccinated, but others will continue to wear masks even though they are vaccinated. Either way, if you’re wearing a mask, I’ll be wearing a mask with you (except for the sermon and other places where the hard of hearing need to be able to read my lips). We will continue to stream online and broadcast on the radio for those of you who feel safer worshiping from home.
The Church Council has approved a new policy for masks. It has three points:
Doreen Couture passed away on Thursday, May 13, 2021. She died in her own home, surrounded by people she loved. She was an introvert, so I imagine this was exactly what she wanted. I was honored to have the opportunity to go and say goodbye and pray with her. There will be no public services.
You can listen to the song I mentioned in the sermon, Hard to Get, at this link.
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 so with this link.
Our Vimeo page is: vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.
Previous worship services can be found at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
The Church Council is in the process of voting on a motion to modify our mask policy as follows:
1. No masks or social distancing required for the fully vaccinated, masks and social distancing requested of everyone else.
2. No inquiries to be made about vaccination status.
3. No enforcement.
But the church council is still voting, and I don’t think we’ll have all the votes in by tomorrow. For that reason, it would be best to plan on masking tomorrow if you’re going to attend in person.
Just a quick update to let you know that the Church Council is discussing how to respond to yesterday’s announcement by the CDC that fully vaccinated people no longer need to mask or social distances. I’ll let you know what they decide.
From C. S. Lewis:
“Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’ mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better; just as in an illness ‘feeling better’ is not much good if the thermometer shows that your temperature is still going up.” [1]
Lewis wrote these words in Mere Christianity in 1952. Some parts are dated or were never accurate in the first place (e.g., don’t take marriage advice from a single man writing during the Eisenhower administration). But what is remarkable is not what he gets wrong, but the great deal he gets right.
[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2001), 210.
