Praying for the Pews to be Packed

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

I hope you are well this morning. I am beginning to wonder if singing that anthem about rain pouring down was such a good idea or not! ;-) We do need the rain, of course. Cooler temperatures seem to be here as well! Maybe we will have fall after all!

I would like to hear thoughts from you about these two questions:

Who is this church?

Does the church reflect the community and the local schools? (Racially, economically, age, etc.)

I finally got around to reading the Red Springs Citizen this morning, since I had a busy afternoon and evening. L.A. had an article that caught my attention. She talked about how our church lost five people in one week to death. She mentioned our church by name multiple times which seemed to imply we are all dying off here at Trinity. She then talked about how churches in town are not reflecting the population of the world…that we are all grey-haired and dying. My take of what she says is that we are not open to people that look different than "we" do. While that critique has truth in it for mainline Protestant churches around the country, I am not ready to say that is the end of the story especially for us at Trinity. In my answer of the second question above that we must answer at Charge Conference next week, is that we are growing into the call to love our neighbor, all our neighbors. Our congregation is NOT all white or all elderly. We have plenty of room for growth in this area. L was exactly right saying that we have plenty of room in the back, front, right and left of our church pews. We have not yet reached standing room only.

So my question to you is, what are we going to do about this? In Matthew 28, 18"Then Jesus came to [the Disciples] and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'" Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all the world. I don't know about you, but the world is a pretty big place. I probably won't see all of it before I go on to Glory. However, I see Third Avenue a lot. I see Main Street. What are we doing to reach out to others and invite them inside our walls?

Feeding Jesus is reaching out to others who don't look like the majority of people here. Boy, Girl, and Cub Scouts definitely reach out to the people who are different than us in Red Springs. You should have seen the rainbow of colors of skin at Girl Scouts last week. It was a beautiful thing! How can we capitalize on what we are doing well to make our worship services look the same rainbow way? What might we have to give up? What might we have to modify? What will we have to do to be invitational?

I invite you to join with me in prayer about this opportunity for ministry that is before us. Let's pray until the pews are packed!

Have a blessed day and be a blessing!

Open our eyes

Hello to the Trinity Tribe!

Wow! We have had a lot of rain in the last several days. This is really the first rain that we have had while living in the parsonage. I had no idea of the pools of water that collect in the yard. I really hadn't noticed that there are multiple low places there in amongst the grass and moss growing. Isn't that funny how one thing makes you notice something that you have never seen before. I know that before I was pregnant with Kenna and Hanna, I didn't pay all that much attention to babies. They were cute and all, but they didn't really apply to my life. Now, I notice babies, especially twins or triplets.

Our Christian faith is that way too. We may not have noticed that sad looking person prior to believing in Jesus as our Savior. We may not have thought twice about littering the creation that God made. We may not have intervened in a situation without having the Holy Spirit nudge us to do so. Our belief helps us notice things that we were oblivious to before.

In Matthew 25, Jesus says this, 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Sometime we have to let our faith open our eyes so that we can see what God would have us do in the world. So, let's have our eagle eyes out to see who we can help this week. Let's be on the lookout for that hurting person. Let's be ready with a kind word for that person who has gotten kicked in the pants one too many times. Let's all be Jesus.

Bravery

Good Morning Trinity Tribe!

Happy Monday to you! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Our new Sunday School classes are going well. The Teen class doubled in size over the weekend. The new adult class had a lively discussion of Roman Catholicism. Adam Hamilton, the leader of our video series, suggests that we can learn things from the Roman Catholic Church: a renewed sense of reverence and an appreciation of ritual.

This morning I have been thinking about bravery. Cindy and Sean did something brave yesterday. They invited people who were visitors to our church to the home group meeting they hosted at her home last night. I am not sure I would have been that bold. But, what great fruit was born from that boldness! Judy and Jerry contributed greatly to our conversation. Plus, I now know both of their names!

Where can be do simple but bold things in our everyday lives to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Who can we spread the Good News to? In 1 Corinthians 1:17 Paul writes, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." How can we preach the gospel without using words? What actions of our everyday lives show what we believe in?

Please continue to be in prayer for those who have lost loved ones. Please pray for Terry's son, Trey, as he faces surgery tomorrow in Alabama (and he is nervous about it.)

Bobbie Lou has shared this prayer request: Would you please ask the congregation tomorrow to remember my sister, Brenda in prayer. She will undergo knee replacement(left) on Tuesday, the 21st, at Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst; then will go to Rehab before coming home. Also, her mother-in-law, Bobbie, who many will know, is critically ill at her home in Ocean Isle Beach, and Hospice is there. Brenda's son and his wife are living there with her. We will be away for a few days. Thank you!!

Thank you for your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness to the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Have a great Monday!

United Methodist Women

Good morning to the Trinity Tribe!

I hope you are all well! I got some good work done yesterday. I still need to plan some more of worship for the rest of the year and into next year, but I made a dent!

Today is the General Meeting of United Methodist Women! I am interested to attend my first one of these!

United Methodist Women is a community of women whose purpose is:

To know God and to experience freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ
To develop a creative supportive fellowship and
To expand concepts of mission through participation in the global ministries of the church.
Those are wonderful goals. The precursors to UMW developed in the late 1800s when women and children were legally classified as “chattel, legally dead, non-persons.” What a horrid thought: Women and children being non-persons. We learned in school that if it weren't for these women's organizations in all Protestant denominations, the church might have all but disappeared. Women typically attended church more faithfully than men in that time period. Women got excited for Jesus and helping others in their own areas and around the world! Women organized…women prayed…women raised money…and women proclaimed the Gospel! They did this even though they were "non-persons." Pretty amazing! These are all things we should all be proud of.

So, if you know a United Methodist Woman, give her a pat on the back and shake her hand for the proud tradition which she carries.

Why do you go to church?

Good Morning Trinity Tribe,

I don't know about you, but I am still mourning the loss of four of our tribe last week. Continue to keep all five of these families in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you again to all that cooked and cleaned and copied and folded and played!

I hear Aileen is making more and more progress! Keep lifting her and her family up in prayer too!

Yesterday in worship we talked about one of the reasons to go to church, community. We need community to be accountable to, to help us when the going gets rough, and to help keep our flame of faith burning brightly.

So, I thought I might ask: Why do you go to church? If you would either email me back or post your thoughts on our Facebook page, I would be grateful!

And I will be the first person to start.

Why do I go to church? I go to church for a lot of different reasons. I find church comforting. Things are familiar, even as new as I am in the congregation. I like getting hugs and handshakes. I enjoy the music. I feel God in the music. I need accountability. I truly need to have people ask how I am doing and how things are going with my walk with Christ. If I don't have a place to be accountable, I might just skip practicing my faith. I find worship fun as well.

I am working from home today. I am spread out all over the dining room table working on Advent.

Blessings to you all!

:)

September 11

Dear Trinity Tribe,

What a week this has been friends. We go into the weekend with heavy hearts and a few tears along with the rejoicing we are doing because some of our beloved have been reunited with Jesus. Continue to love and support the families who are missing important parts of their own tribe. Cards, calls, and other expressions of love are important in these days and will continue to be important in the weeks and months and years to come.

Please keep Aileen in your prayers. She is doing well, but I am sure she would appreciate prayers as her knees continue healing.

I wanted to share with you what our UMC Council of Bishops have to say about September 11th. The pastor of that non-denominational church in Florida has certainly grabbed his 15 minutes of fame by threatening to burn copies of the Quran. While Americans certainly have right to be angry with the terrorists who killed so many and destroyed so much on September 11, 2001, those terrorists are dead and past being targets of our anger. However, I can find no scriptural basis to think that Jesus would think burning copies of the Quran would solve or prove anything. Jesus said to love our neighbor, not to torment him. If a non-Christian group decided to burn lots of copies of the Bible, it would cause me to feel nothing but anger and hurt. Jesus lived a life of love and reconciliation not anger and hurt.

Therefore, I invite you to spend time in prayer on September 11th: prayer for the families that were affected on that tragic day as well for the peace so dreadfully needed in this world of ours.

UNITED METHODIST COUNCIL OF BISHOPS STATEMENT ON SEPTEMBER 11



As we approach yet another September 11, we are reminded that the world we live in continues to be fragile place where emotions and tensions run high. There are not many of us who will ever forget where we were on that September morning nine years ago. We should never forget those whose lives were taken away in the horror of just a few hours.

September 11 should be, for all of us, a day of prayer for peace in this world. It should be a day for quiet remembrance and reflection as we seek to find and live in the ways of peace. We think of Jesus pausing on his way into the holy city of Jerusalem on the day we call Palm Sunday. He wept over the city – not so much for what was about to happen to him, but because the people did not know the things that make for peace (Luke 19:41-42). We suspect he still weeps, looking out over the world we currently inhabit.

September 11 should be a day of prayer for rebuilding and restoring relationships, and for reaching out to find ways to work and live together in this world. It is not a day for burning the holy book of another faith tradition. Tragically one person has garnered headlines for advocating such a thing. There is nothing of Jesus in such an action. In fact, as we recall, there was a time when the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven on the perceived enemies for refusing to receive Jesus. No, Jesus said; in fact he “rebuked” those who advocated such a means. (Luke 9:51-55). Such an action is not the way of Jesus, nor the way of peace and love.

There was a meeting earlier this week in Washington, DC, of religious leaders of many faith communities. The United Methodist Church and its Council of Bishops was represented by its Executive Secretary, Bishop Neil L. Irons. The members of the group, in a formal statement, said: “We are committed to building a future in which religious differences no longer lead to hostility or division between communities. Rather, we believe that such diversity can serve to enrich our public discourse about the great moral challenges that face our nation and our planet. On the basis of our shared reflection, we insist that no religion should be judged on the words or actions of those who seek to pervert it through acts of violence; that politicians and members of the media are never justified in exploiting religious differences as a wedge to advance political agendas or ideologies... We work together on the basis of deeply held and widely shared values, each supported by the sacred texts of our respective traditions. We acknowledge with gratitude the dialogues between our scholars and religious authorities that have helped us to identify a common understanding of the divine command to love one’s neighbor. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all see an intimate link between faithfulness to God and love of neighbor; a neighbor who in many instances is the stranger in our midst.“

“We are convinced that spiritual leaders representing the various faiths in the United States have a moral responsibility to stand together and to denounce categorically derision, misinformation or outright bigotry directed against any religious group in this country. Silence is not an option. Only by taking this stand, can spiritual leaders fulfill the highest calling of our respective faiths, and thereby help to create a safer and stronger America for all of our people.”

We urge all of us to approach the remembrance of September 11 in prayer and hope for peace; and in resolving to do everything we can individually and collectively to live the way of Jesus. It is our prayer that this weekend be filled with prayers and not the fires of hatred and irrational rage.



Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster President, Council of Bishops

Bishop Neil L. Irons Executive Secretary, Council of Bishops

Saying Goodbye

Dear Trinity Tribe,

With all that is going on at the church, I did not get a chance to "Tribe" yesterday. I hope you are doing well. I am hanging in there, as they say. I don't look forward to tomorrow's services, and yet I am very much looking forward to them. Flora, Frances, and Dorothy were pillars of this congregation. They will be missed tremendously. However, I rejoice thinking of the reunions that have occurred in heaven with each of these fine women and their husbands and their family and friends that have gone one before. I am looking forward to celebrating Flora and Frances' lives tomorrow. I pray that God surrounds us with the strength of the Holy Spirit as we grieve for our earthly loss.

In John 16, Jesus says, 12"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
16"In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me."

We will not see Dorothy, Flora, and Frances for a little while. However, we know that we will be reunited with them when Jesus comes to take us home. I take comfort in that thought. Things will be different as we gather together in heaven, but they will be wonderful as we spend eternity worshipping the God that loves us so!

Continue to be wonderful and supportive to their families and to Doris and Roy and Paula and Lee. Terry Coe will be laid to rest tomorrow as well. It has been a rough week for the Trinity Tribe. However, we have each other and we have God surrounding us with love, grace, and peace.

Thank you so much for all that you are doing to love and care for one another!