Have you taken your MEDSS?

Good Morning Trinity Tribe,

I hope you are well! It is dreary outside, but I am feeling pretty chipper here inside the office. Sometimes when you go to a class that is required, you come away slightly disgruntled at how your time was wasted. Yesterday, I felt the opposite of that as I left the Clergy Ethics Seminar. I was educated. I was challenged. And I was a bit saddened about how stress impacts people to make poor choices that affect our proclamation of the gospel.

I learned a tool that will be helping me to stay balanced and healthy. I offer it to you as well.

Something we can ask ourselves every day is, "Have you taken your MEDSS?" Meaning:

Meditation (Devotional reading, meditation, and prayer)
Exercise (At least 30 minutes three times a week)
Diet (A balanced and healthy diet with at least 9 servings of fruits and veggies)
Sleep (At least 7 but adults need 8-11 hours a day)
Support (holy friends who keep you accountable and who are able to tell you things you don't want to hear)

Most of the acronyms are pretty self explanatory. However, I would like to talk about holy friendships a moment. We need to be in relationship with people that help us see the holy and see the sin in our own lives. To quote Greg Jones, former Dean of the Divinity School at Duke, "Holy friends are people who, over time, get to know us well enough that they can challenge the sins we have come to love, affirm gifts we are afraid to claim, and dream dreams about how we can bear witness to God's Kingdom that we would otherwise would not have dreamed."

I am blessed that I have a few friends that fit this bill. I need people to call me out when I am clinging to that sin that I like so much. I need people to push me to embrace God's preferred future for me, even when it is hard. I invite you to reflect on who your holy friends are. If you don't feel like you have anyone to whom you are accountable spiritually, emotionally, etc, how can we make that happen?

If you have been on a Walk to Emmaus, they encourage you to become part of a reunion group. If you haven't gone on a Walk to Emmaus, that doesn't mean you can't have holy friends to be accountable to. Let me know if you would like to join a group. Perhaps we can get one or two or more together here at Trinity.

Here are some good questions to start with:

Where am I growing? .
Where am I stuck? .
What step can I trust God with next?

I have also been in prayer about other small groups that might be helpful to our spiritual lives and personal lives. Let me know if you are interested in one of these or one that meets your personal needs. They might be for mutual support…sharing ideas about services in the area…bouncing ideas off…prayer…

Hebrews 10 says: 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

*Parenting children
*Parenting teens
*Caring for parents
*Caring for a spouse who is sick

Taking away time

Good afternoon everyone,

Sorry for the delay in today's email. I have been up to my ears in statistics that are due to the NC Annual Conference on January 31st. Thank you to all the people who have submitted information to help me get these numbers together!!!

The last several days I have had all sorts of strange phone calls to my cell phone and the office phone. One frightened me enough that I called the police (at the advice of the phone company). The police were here lickity split! I appreciate them! I have gotten prank calls in Spanish late at night. I have gotten telemarketing spam calls in Spanish. People send junk faxes trying to get us to sign up for a fake phone book at $30/a month. The list seems endless of ways people try to get money for nothing and take away time from me.

Interestingly, the God who created the world and each of us ask for nothing in return but faith. God gives us grace freely. We sin and God is still offering forgiveness to us. All we have to do in response is accept grace and believe. That is something that we get for nothing. Pretty cool!

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 1 we find this: 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Have a great afternoon!

I will be out of the office tomorrow at a Sexual Ethics seminar. Every four years every pastor in the United Methodist Church is required to be trained on how to keep proper boundaries, how we can best care for people who have been abused, and other topics in that vein. You can be proud that the United Methodist Church takes these sorts of issues seriously.

sleeping

Good evening Trinity Tribe,

I hope you have had a restful night! Kenna and I are spending the night in the Sleep Center at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center so that she can have a sleep study done. She has a terrible time staying asleep. So, the doctor wanted to know what is going on with her sleep patterns. She is hooked up to several machines with electrodes coming off all parts of her body and head. She looks somewhat like a science fair project gone bad. However, this will let the doctor know how deeply she is sleeping and if she suffers from sleep apnea or another medical condition.

Don't you wish we could do a spiritual study and could know exactly how our soul is at this very moment? Hymn number 377 in our hymnal says this:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

How can we know how our soul is doing? John Wesley took copious notes in his diary about when he sinned. He constantly assessed the state of his soul. As much as I respect and revere Mr. Wesley, I wonder if he spent too much time beating himself up. Because of God's abundant and never-ending grace, we can always turn back to God and repent of our sins. If we confess our sins, claim Jesus Christ as our Savior and turn towards God, we can be confident that it is well with our souls. We don't need to list our sins. We don't need to be hooked up to a sin monitor.
In 1 John 1:7, we find these words, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." We must walk in the life, have fellowship with one another, and share in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Let's begin the day by confessing our sins and turning back towards God. In that way we can be confident in the state of our souls.

Patience and blessing

Good morning Trinity Tribe,

On one of our last full days of vacation, we went to the lighthouse at Ponce Inlet near Daytona Beach. It was a very nicely kept lighthouse and museum. Kayla was a real trouper and climbed 203 steps up and most of them down. After we left the lighthouse we went over to the state park nearby. It was really neat as well. We went out on the pier and saw all the fishermen. It was cold, but the surf was beautiful! There were jellyfish everywhere! We left the beach and walked into the maritime forest area. Kenna and Hanna found a trail and we followed it. And followed it. And followed it In one bend of the trail we found a piece of a sunken ship. It wasn't very old since it had metal screws holding the porthole on, but it was still pretty cool. By this time, I was cold and had had about enough nature for one day. However, the girls still wanted to explore. They hadn't gotten to the end of the trail yet. I sighed and kept following the pirates on their quest for treasure. That is when we found the real treasure. We came out on the inlet into a cove area. Then we saw the first fin…and then another…and then another! There was a pod of wild dolphins in the bay! There were just yards away from us! They were BEAUTIFUL! And so fun to watch. They would dive…we were so close we could hear the air escape their blow holes! Then they would dive again! We watched them until they disappeared into the open ocean! What a beautiful sight! I will never forget it! I was blessed by the beauty of God's creation because of perseverance. I Corinthians 13:4 says, Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant." And James 5:8 says, You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."

When times are tough…you are tired….you are cold…you are "done" with whatever the task is…sometimes it is best to persevere. In the perseverance we can be blessed immeasurably.


Be on the lookout for God's little blessings today!

The Universe

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

We had a wonderful vacation, but it sure is nice to be home! I have lots of things to tell you, but I will start here…

One of my favorite things we did on our vacation was go to Kennedy Space Center. Mark had been there years ago, but none of the rest of us had. It was a neat experience! They have created a nice way to be educated about how our country is pushing the envelope into space exploration, rocketry, and pure human ingenuity.

Often people that are scientists do not believe in God. And I understand and respect that people who are very analytical need to see proof that God exists. However, I think that the images of beauty that we saw that had come out of the Hubble telescope prove nothing but the existence of God. I cannot believe that the sheer brilliant beauty of the birth of a star that occurred millions of years ago that I am just now seeing because of the speed of light, could be explained by sheer coincidence.

Next time you are up late, bundle up, go outside and marvel at the heavens. They are a magnificent creation of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 8
1 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?[

Funerals and prayers

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

I hope you are well on this rainy morning! I have signed up for the NC Conference walking program this morning. They will be mailing me a pedometer that you hook up to your computer. They will be tracking the miles walked by NCC pastors. I think we are competing against the other districts. So, if you see me, ask me how much I have walked! ;-)

The other day the girls were playing outside. They were in the field next to the parsonage playing softball. They stumbled across a carrot, several pieces of coal and some buttons. They found the remnants of our snowman. In the way that children do, they decided to have a funeral for Frosty. They prepared the grave…got a flower from inside the house…made a grave marker…and planned a funeral. They invited me and Kenya outside and we began our service. We had a solemn procession while singing "Frosty the Snowman" in a solemn and sad fashion (think funeral dirge). We then buried the remnants of our friend, Frosty.

That is the way that worship should be for us…part of everyday life. Worship isn't supposed to be separate from our lives, it is to be part of our lives, every part of our lives. I took a class on Jewish prayer during seminary. I was impacted by how worship is inlaid within the normal and every day. There is a prayer that a devout Jew will say after waking up…after putting his/her feet on the floor…before eating…after eating…even after things like burping. Prayer and thanksgiving is a part of everyday life.

Here is a prayer for washing hands before a meal:

Baruch atah A-donay, Elo-heinu Melech Ha’Olam, asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu al netilat yadayim.
Blessed are You L-rd our G-d King of the universe Who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us on the washing of the hands.

And one for eating food that is not bread:

Baruch atah A-donay, Elo-heinu Melech Ha’Olam borei minei mezonot.

Blessed are you L-rd our G-d, King of the Universe, Who creates various kinds of sustenance.

[From http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/278543/jewish/4-Mezonot.htm ]

Where can we add a sense of worship to our lives? We may pray before eating and perhaps as we crawl into our beds. Where else can we pray? Where can we weave a spirit of worship into our everyday lives? Can we pray before we drive to work? Can we pray when we arrive there safely? Can we pray as we type? Can we pray in all that we do?

Prayerfully yours,
Mary Frances

Nature vs. Nurture

Good Morning Trinity Tribe,

I have been thinking about Nature vs. Nurture today. Which is it? Which influence has the greatest effect upon us? Is it our nature…our DNA…what is down deep inside? Or does what happens to us in the world affect us more? As a person adopted into a family as an infant, I have my own opinions about the matter. I would love to hear what you have to say on the topic!

In Ephesians 1, Paul writes this about how we are adopted by God:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9he[d] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

So, are we more like the sinful nature of our DNA? Or do we try hard to emulate our heavenly father, God, and our brother, Jesus? How hard is that for us?

The Trinity Tribe needs your input! Please go to the following link and let us hear your voice! We need a new web address! We need ideas for our Trinity Tribe Trips! We need some ideas for activities for young and old! Be counted! Let us know what you think! Feel free to pass the link around to others that are not on this list!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DX25FDG

New Year!

Good morning everyone,

It was lovely to have so many people stop by the parsonage yesterday. If you didn't have a chance to come by, we have lots of cookies left so stop by another time. ;-)

When I took Kayla to Peterson this morning, it was neat to see her greet her friends. They hadn't seen each other in two weeks and were thrilled to be together again. Ms. McNeil had all the kids line up and do the "New Shoe Dance" since almost everyone got new shoes for Christmas! It was hilarious to see the Kindergarten dance moves! Kayla has good rhythmn, but some of the other kids just don't. They were all just adorable, though.

The kindergarteners greeting one another reminds me of how God greets us. No matter if we prayed 5 minutes ago or 5 years ago, God is thrilled to hear from us. We can whine to God. We can scream at God. We can tell God thank you. No matter the emotion, God wants to hear from us.

Let's all spend some time with God today sharing what is REALLY on our hearts. We don't have to be ashamed or afraid. God wants to hear what we have to say.

Blessings to you all!

Counting Down the Days

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

I hope you are all well this morning! I went to the fitness center, so I am tired already! ;-)

I used to be a huge news junkie. Now there is so much bad news, I don't pay as much attention to the news as I used to. However, I do flip through the paper and read some news online. In yesterday's Fayetteville Observer, there was an article that caught my attention.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/01/03/1059995?sac=

There is a gentleman in California, Harold Camping, who has studied the Bible and predicted that the end of the world will occur on May 21, 2011. He says the 2012 movie and the end of the Mayan calendar have nothing to do with it. Instead, he has studied the scriptures and determined through a mathematical equations, that May 21 will be when the rapture will begin. The young woman interviewed for the article in the Fayetteville Observer has this date and a website posted on her car. She will not get married since the rapture is so close. People in Campings organization pass out flyers and are spreading the word via media, billboards, missionaries and plain old door-to-door means.

Here is how Camping explains the date the Rapture will occur as found in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

By Camping's understanding, the Bible was dictated by God and every word and number carries a spiritual significance. He noticed that particular numbers appeared in the Bible at the same time particular themes are discussed.

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The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

"Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved.

"I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/31/BA8V1AV589.DTL&ao=2#ixzz1A4snc0GW

Here is what I read in my Bible about the end of time:

First from Matthew 24:
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

And Mark chapter 13:
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert[e]! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

It upsets me that people get press coverage because they believe something that someone thought up when wonderful things that the church does like say Feeding Jesus or the Walk to Emmaus or feeding all the hungry people in Red Springs Thanksgiving dinner gets little or no coverage. However, you must admire this groups gumption. They are buying billboard space…advertising on park benches…putting advertisement on their personal vehicles….telling everyone they know and people they don't know about how the world will end and that they better be saved and ready for May 21st.

So, are we willing to spend money on billboards to tell people about hope in Christ? Are we willing to wrap our cars with a message about how Jesus came to save the lost and if you feel lost this is what you do? Are we willing to head to concerts and pass out information about how much Jesus loves people? Are we willing to tell everyone we know and people we don't about how we have found family at Trinity?

If we are not willing to radically reach out to others who don't know about the mysterious powerful love of Jesus, how can we find the willingness to that? Who are we praying for to meet Christ? Who are we reaching out to? Let's not leave all the information sharing about Jesus to the radical fringe groups. Let's share the gospel of our lives with others today and everyday.

Doctrinal Standards

Dear Trinity Tribe,

Good morning! I am amazed at how much snow is still outside in the parsonage yard! I hope you are safe and warm this morning!

One of the critiques that the United Methodist Church has faced by some corners is that we do not have a doctrine. Now, the way that some people define doctrine, that would be a fair assessment. Some people use doctrine as a measuring stick to include or exclude people in church membership. Unlike some denominations, we do not have a list of items that we verbally agree to when we join the church. We do not have to memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism when we join a United Methodist Church. However, we do have doctrines that outline what we believe as United Methodists. They are not dictatorial and legalistic. And as Captain Barbosa says on Pirates of the Caribbean about the Code of the Brethren, "the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules." Our United Methodist doctrines sum up what we believe. However, they are living documents that we must continually reflect upon, interpret, and expand upon in light of scripture, tradition, reason, and our experience in the world today.

When John Wesley sent the first four bishops to the young United States, he gave them 25 articles to guide the church. These Articles of Religion explain what we believe about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and the Bible among other topics.

In Bible study this year, we studied these Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church as contained in the 2008 Book of Discipline. These 25 articles, along with the Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (the denomination that merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church in 1968), John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the New Testament and John Wesley's standard sermons form our foundation of belief.

Here is a link to our the documents that are our doctrinal standards:
http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?mid=1648

I invite you to poke around and discover what depth and breadth our doctrinal standards have. There, of course, is language that points to the context in which the documents were written. You will not find inclusive language in these statements of faith. However, we give John Wesley charity and understand the environment in which he lived. When you read the Articles of Religion in particular, you will see in black and white, John Wesley's disdain for Roman Catholic practices again pointing to the time in which he lived. This is where we use scripture, reason, tradition, and our own experiences as a lens with which to view the documents. We know that women are an integral and important part of the church and its leadership. Therefore, we see where Wesley wrote "men" and expand the meaning of "men" to include men, women, youth and children that are active members and participants within our congregations. We bring John Wesley's words forward into 2010, almost 2011.

Even with these cultural markers of John Wesley's time period, the doctrines of our faith are amazing statements of what we believe. They point to why I choose to be United Methodist and why I feel we hold the best expression of living out the Gospel in the world as the Church. I invite you to read and be convicted in why you choose to be United Methodist as well. And for those of you who are not United Methodist who read this, I invite you to see what we believe and push back using your statements of faith and doctrine. In that conversation, perhaps we can better understand one another and our own doctrines.

Have a blessed day!

Talking it out

Good morning Trinity Tribe!


The United Methodist Church launched a redesigned website aimed at spiritual seekers on December 15th. RethinkChurch.org invites visitors to question, discuss, get involved and make a difference. They advertised this website on cable TV channels like Comedy Central and MTV over the holidays. That subset of the UMC produced the videos that we loaded on our Facebook page as well as the dramatic readings we used during the worship services in Advent. I am glad that the UMC is using media that young people use in order to engage them in conversation. I was browsing through the website and stumbled upon this post on one of the discussion boards:

I don't know what I am or who I am; just that I want to help:
by lauragurl

I'm an agnostic teenager... I was raised a presbyterian but I no longer have faith in who I am or what I belive. I want to know who to belive in but I cant seem to find a single religion that mirrors my very beliefs. I want to help people though... I want to give back to the world, i just want to know how to do it... I'm so young I can't change anything, I have to sit here helplessly when there's people out there dying. How can I change the world before I'm legal? and through this can I find my faith that I lost so long ago


So, Trinity Tribe, what would you say to lauragurl? How would you say it? How can she change the world? If this was written by one of the teenagers in our church, what would you say? What can teenagers in Red Springs do to change the world?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lQJiRztNpc

Being invitational

Good evening everyone in the Trinity Tribe!

I hope you are safe and warm tonight! With the weather, Claire's flight got postponed until tomorrow. So, I will not be in the office until later in the afternoon. I will be doing the newsletter then. So, please get me any information you want included in it by afternoon.

If you want to make a gift to the church that will be eligible for 2010 tax deductions, feel free to call and I can meet you during the week or you can drop by in the mornings.

Lots of people make new year's resolutions this time of year. I know I have made resolutions about exercising and being better about sabbath in the past. Many people assess the state of their lives at this time of year as well. I had shared tips for increasing worship attendance several weeks back. The last two bits of advice seem very applicable at this time of year:

15. Know that personal invitations are the most effective method of increasing worship attendance. Invest sixty seconds once a week to invite someone to attend worship with you.

16. Continue to invite a person every two months even if they decline your invitations. Those invited may eventually come to a season of life when they are receptive to attending worship. Regular invitations are more likely to overlap one of these seasons.

What if we all had a short list of people that we are praying for to become Christian and/or visit our church?

What if we were also be on the look out for people who are in a season of their lives that would make them open to hearing about how Jesus can change your life? We never know what one kind word could mean to someone in a difficult spot. The fact that you or I got through a difficult time might give someone else the hope that they can get through a difficult time. The way we live our lives might make someone wonder how we can be peaceful when our lives are so hectic. We just never know how God may use us to speak to someone else. So, we always have to be ready!

Blue Christmas

Good morning Trinity Tribe,

Our family has spent a lot of time listening to Christmas music on the radio in the last month. It has been a lot of fun. However, one of our jokes is that there are just some artists that have no business making a Christmas album, at least in our humble opinion. Prince and Bon Jovi really have no business in the Christmas genre.

One of my favorite musical groups in college were the Indigo Girls, folksy melodic due out of the Atlanta area. They have great lyrics and a smokey vocal quality that I just love. It turns out that one of the Indigo Girls has a father who is a professor at a United Methodist Seminary (Candler Theological at Emory University). I offer this video to you as one artist's take on turning the struggles we face at Christmas with loss into something beautiful.

http://youtu.be/qGLA3QNEyVA

This can be a very difficult time for people. Christmas is all about family and cuteness and presents. What if people you love have died? That hole in your heart gets bigger this time of year. What if you are fighting with your family or friends or spouse? Having to put on a happy face could be a huge punishment and area of stress. Just imagine what the loss of a child feels like at Christmas…that might be almost too much pain to bear.

I invite us all to take a moment from our shopping and wrapping and decorating to spend time in prayer for people who are hurting this Christmas. Do you know anyone who is hurting? This might be the perfect opportunity to reach out to them and let them know that you care and that you are willing to listen to their pain. You could be that one friend that they don't have to hide what they feel around you. What a blessing that would be.

Added bonus:

One of my new favorite TV shows is Glee. It is an odd-ball show chronicling the lives of the high school glee club in Lima, OH. This YouTube video doesn't do justice to the song, but there weren't a lot of other options.

http://youtu.be/YilUKDhBxjE --

Standing in place

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

Update: Betsy is doing better and is now in room 725 at Southeastern in Lumberton.

One of the best parts about being the pastor is that you get to stand in place of the congregation when it is unfeasible for the whole congregation to show up to something. I got the pleasure of doing that yesterday. When I went to visit Betsy in the hospital yesterday, I brought the gifts that people gave for the children that live at the Methodist Home for Children in Lumberton and stopped by there on the way back to Red Springs. Thank you for letting me have that neat experience on your behalf! Everyone was SOOOOO appreciative of our gifts. I have a card to all of us to share at worship this week.

8-10 young people live at the MHC. Most of them have had truancy issues…poor behavior…issues at school…etc. Most of what brings them there could have been avoided if their parents were better at parenting. Therefore, one of the biggest things they do there is to work with the families. Tamara took me on a tour of the facility. It is VERY clean and cared for. They have a kitchen where all the food is prepared. A teacher comes in and teaches the students there at the facility. She was very nice and had just done a math lesson on measurement using Christmas cookies. They are going visiting at another youth home and are bringing cookies. Each child has chores to do every day. They are in school from 8-3. They can only watch TV for limited time a few days a week. They play family board games and cards and things on the other nights of the week.

I was impressed by the staff and the young people I met. The young people were polite. You could tell there was a lot of structure. We are doing real good and helping people in a profound way. I don't know what the statistics are like after kids graduate from the program. However, they have been given tools to succeed in the world during their stay there.

You can be proud that the United Methodist Church does good work in the name of Jesus Christ like this. If you want to read more about the MHC, please visit their website at : http://www.mhfc.org/home/ This is one of those things that an individual church just cannot pull off by itself. It takes the hundreds of congregations in the North Carolina Conference to put our hearts, heads, and offerings together to do something of this scale and depth. In Matthew 25:45, Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." We are certainly following Jesus' command in this way. Give yourself a pat on the back and send a prayer to God for each of these young people to be transformed.


Epiphany at the Parsonage
You are cordially invited to Epiphany at the Parsonage! Come on over to see the renovations that were done this year on the parsonage and visit with your neighbors and enjoy a Christmas cookie or two. We will have Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors from 3-5pm on Sunday, January 2nd.

Music in the air

Good Morning Trinity Tribe,

I pray that you are well this morning! I am busily trying to get three bulletins together for the next week. December 26th is done. I just need two for Christmas Eve! Yay for progress!

If your children are home this week and complain of boredom, I could use some more bulletin covers for Christmas Eve and on into January. Pen and ink works best but very dark pencil seems to copy well.

If you were not in worship on Sunday, you missed a treat! The Cantata was AMAZING! Thank you to Penny and the whole choir for all their very hard work! The music was wonderful and the words were meaningful! We especially thank Joseph (Penny's grandson) for setting up a sound system that enabled everyone to hear well.

Being able to hear something makes a big difference. I know as we grow older it is so frustrating to not be able to hear like we once did. Many people we know suffer…and I mean suffer…because they cannot hear certain frequencies or certain sounds or in certain places like ones with lots of background noise. Not being able to hear causes hurt feelings, sadness, and a sense of isolation.

Sometimes we have a hard time hearing God's voice as God speaks to us. I know it has taken God hitting me with a 2x4 sometimes for me to listen to God. I find it especially hard to hear God when there is a lot going on.

In Hebrews 4:12, we find this verse: For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

I invite us all to take some time to listen to God over the Christmas holidays. It might mean that we have to get up earlier than everyone else. It might mean that we need to take a time-out from all the chaos of wrapping and shopping and cooking. However, if we take that time to listen, really listen, God has many things to tell us.

Have a blessed day and be a blessing to someone.

Christmas giving

Good morning Trinity Tribe,

I pray that you are being careful if you have to be out this morning. There is certainly ice out there, so be slow and wear golf shoes today!

One of the things I like best about being United Methodist is our connection to other churches. We are not some island of a congregation. We, instead, are connected to other United Methodists all over the world and even in our backyard. We may not all do things the same, but we are connected at a deep level because of our theology and love for Christ. Because we are connected, we can do more good than if we were just one church by ourselves. I may never go to Africa, but money I have returned to God through Trinity United Methodist Church, is in Africa right now, caring for others, allowing people to be educated at Africa University, and helping orphans develop businesses that support them and their siblings.

While some of the money that the UMC collects goes around the world, most of it stays here at home. One way we can all participate in that, is the district Christmas offering. It is traditional for churches to give the offering collected on Christmas Eve to one worthy project in the District. For example, one year in the Fayetteville District, we gave the money to help one of the pastors pay for his daughter's kidney transplant. This year, our offering will go to the restoration of St. George's UMC church. The building has become unusable for worship due to structural issues. The entire Maxton community has rallied around this church….providing a place to worship and financial support to the rebuilding effort.

Here is what our wonderful District Superintendent, Leonard Fairley, had to say about our Christmas Eve offering this year:

The 2010 Rockingham District Christmas offering is designated for St. George United Methodist Church Restoration Project. This project has been embraced by the entire Maxton Ministerial Alliance. I have had the joy of being present at each of the events sponsored by the City of Maxton Ministerial Alliance, and have come away each time with a new appreciation of how the different denominations and races have partnered together to help restore this historic African American Church. I am asking each church in the Rockingham District to prayerfully give generously, and join this effort to restore one of the district’s historic churches. Please know that my prayers are always with each of you as we continue to partner together in kingdom building.

I wanted you to be informed about what a wonderful opportunity we have to do something meaningful for a church just down the road.

“Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others . . . .
You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!”
--Romans 1:5-6, The Message

Being a welcoming church

Good morning Trinity Tribe,

I hope you are well! We had a fabulous time seeing the new Narnia movie yesterday. It was quite good! If you have a chance to see it, I recommend it. Look for the themes of self-sacrifice and temptation. This would be a great movie to take someone you know who is not a believer in Christ. It raises questions of sin and forgiveness that might the perfect jumping off place for you to share why you believe in Jesus with someone else.

Please send in any announcements as soon as possible! I would love to have the bulletin done and printed early this week. I would also like next week's bulletin printed this week as well. If there are any announcements, I would love to have them extra early.

We do have one more name of a needy middle school student that needs to be adopted. If you feel called to help someone in this way, please let me know ASAP. Remember, all gifts and food items must be at church by Wednesday. Or feel free to drop them off with Becky or on the parsonage porch.

Christmastime is a time of year when people may walk through our doors at Trinity. People are searching for a deeper meaning to life. They may have fond memories of childhood from church. They may want to sing carols. Or they may just stop by on a whim. We need to be ready. I gave each of you an invitation to use to invite someone to worship next week. If you didn't get one, stop by the church office to get one or two or ten.

Knowing that we will have visitors in the next few weeks, I thought it was important to think about how we need to be prepared for visitors. How welcoming is our church, really? Every church thinks it is a welcoming church, even the churches where the people will yell at you for sitting in "their" seat. How can we make people that walk through our doors at Trinity feel welcome?

There are some people that I can count on speaking to a visitor during our greeting time in the service. Thank you for going out of your comfort zone to do that. I pray that God gives all the rest of us courage to do that. Most visitors sit towards the back. I usually don't get that far, so thank you to you back row people for your hospitality to visitors!

I know for a fact there will be visitors in the pews this Sunday. Several of Kenna and Hanna's guests are coming are from a different denomination that doesn't worship in the same way we worship. How can we make them feel comfortable? I have tried to put more information in the bulletin that would help a newcomer…for example not everyone knows the Apostle's Creed or the Lord's prayer. So, I am intentional about page numbers. I have tried to add directions to the restroom in order to be hospitable. I try in my welcome to extend radical hospitality and be visitor friendly. Holding hands and singing "The Family of God" could be a very uncomfortable time for a visitor. Therefore, I try to explain it in my welcome. What have I missed? What made you feel comfortable or even uncomfortable the first time you came to Trinity? Or what made you feel comfortable when you have visited another church?

I visited a church at the beach many years ago. They had the visitors stand up, introduce themselves, and then they gave us a loaf of bread. I appreciated the delicious bread. However, standing up and introducing myself was VERY UNCOMFORTABLE for me! However, that was one of the church traditions. THe members liked it because they got to know a little about the visitors. I can't blame them for wanting to know who was worshipping with them. However, it was not comfortable for me, the visitor.

Here are some easy yet solid ideas about being welcoming to newcomers. I invite you to share your ideas as well! What makes you feel welcome in our church or in another church you may visit? What else could we be doing to make people feel welcome?

Welcoming Ministry
TRAINING MANUAL and PLANNING HANDBOOK
Here are some ideas that might make it easier for you to welcome others to our church. Feel free to come up with other ideas or adapt these on your own. These are just to get you thinking about welcoming as a personal ministry, right there in the pew, and a lifestyle for our church.

Circle of 10: Greet anyone, member or guest, who comes within ten feet of you. Make a special effort to greet the people you don’t already know within your Circle of 10.

Rule of Three: Please do not talk to other members for the first three minutes after the service. Talk only to those you don’t know or people you know are guests. It takes guests about three minutes to exit the church after worship and we need to make sure someone has made contact with them before they leave.

Don’t know what to say to a guest? Here are a few conversation starters:
1. Offer a handshake and say, “Hello.My name is _____________, and you are ...?”
2. Wait for a response and repeat the person’s name so you make sure that you get it right and so you can more easily remember it.
3. If you think you know the face but can’t recall the name, try this approach:
“Hello, I’m ____________________. I believe I’ve seen you here before but I don’t know that we’ve had the opportunity to meet.What is your name?”
4. Don’t be embarrassed if you’re greeting a member and don’t know that person’s name—or be offended if someone doesn’t remember yours. We need to offer grace to one another, just as we would to new people.
© 2010 United Methodist Communications. Permission is granted to reprint and distribute for use within The United Methodist Church.

Young Clergy

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

On Tuesday, I traveled to the new North Carolina Conference denominational office for a meeting of young clergy. When something with the word "young" in the title invited me, I jumped on the chance to attend! Our BIshop, Al Gwinn, addressed us, then there was a time of question and answer. We ended the discussion portion of the day with a discussion of what the United Methodist Church is doing to encourage young people to answer a call to ordained ministry as well as to support them when they have answered the call.

Our Annual Conference has around 5.5% of its clergy under age 35. The median age of clergy is 54 in the whole UMC. Why does this matter? First, it is sad that the Church is not encouraging young people to enter ministry. What are we doing as local congregations that make being a pastor so unattractive? Are we being intentional about helping young people hear God's call in their lives (whether it is a call to be an ordained minister or a godly veterinarian or a business leader who is also a crackerjack Sunday School teacher.) Secondly, younger pastors bring things to the table that a clergyperson who is 60 cannot. Besides energy, young people tend to bring more creativity and new ideas to a local congregation. While some pastors with experience are continually learning and growing and are on the cutting edge of research in the field, other older pastors left their thirst for learning in Divinity School. New tools for evangelism and church leadership are necessary in this different time in which we live. Next, younger clergy are able to identify with younger congregations more effectively. People respond when they see someone who looks like them speaking from the pulpit or even singing in the choir or praying the prayers of the people. (That applies to lay leadership and lay worship leadership as well as clergy.) Lastly, if we do not have clergy who are under 35, what will happen in 10 years when they are 45? We will not have the next generation of seasoned leadership for the church.

I am not under 35, of course. But I do care what happens to the United Methodist Church in the future. I invite you to join me as we pray for the future of our congregation at Trinity as well as the United Methodist Church as a whole. Let's pray intentionally for the young people in our congregation. How is God calling each of them? How can we, as their family through baptism, nurture them to be the wonderful godly people God has planned them to be? Let's pray intentionally for Trinity. How can we better develop leaders in the present as well as the future? Let's pray for the Church. How can we nurture and help people hear God's call on their lives?

I have attached a proposal from the young clergy of the UMC in case you want to read it. Also, here is the study looking at ages of clergy in the UMC.

http://www.churchleadership.com/research/um_clergy_age_trends08.htm

Have a blessed day!

Direct Access

Good morning everyone,

I hope you are all well and warm this morning! It in warm in the office. It looks like a snowstorm of paper has descended on my desk. However, I will be working on that momentarily. I took the Trinity Tribe on an outing on Monday to the fruitcake factory. We had a wonderful time! Please join us next trip! Email or call the office with any suggested trips that we could take. I would love to go to Seagrove and look at pottery, but that would be more fun when it is warm. So, if you have an idea for an inside trip, please let me know!

Yesterday I joined the Young Clergy Council for a general meeting with the Bishop. We had a fruitful conversation. I will write about those discussions later. I have something else burning on my fingertips today!

I was going through the mail this morning and decided to take a long hard look at our phone bill. It seems so high, as do most bills these days. I found something interesting on page 10 of 10. A third party had billed us for something that I couldn't figure out, so I called CenturyLink. They were very helpful. It was indeed for a suspicious charge, but I have it all straightened out now. However, it took me talking to four people at three different companies to get it all straightened out. Isn't it nice that God doesn't work that way? You and I can go straight to God with our prayers. You don't need me to pray for you (though, I certainly do). Priests' prayers are no more holy that yours or mind. You don't need a saint to whisper in God's ear for you. Through Jesus becoming our brother, we have full access to God.

In John 15, Jesus says 7 "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." But we find instruction in the Old Testament as well like in Jeremiah 29:13, "13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Let's be bold today and pray what is on our hearts to God. We get direct access. We don't need third-party prayers. Through our brother, Jesus, we get direct access that is available 24/7. God is good!

Come, Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created
And you shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, who has taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that by the gift of the same Spirit
we may be always truly wise
and ever rejoice in his consolation.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Why do we take up the offering after the sermon?

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

Things are going well in our house this morning. I hope they are going well in yours!

Last call for Christmas at Camp!

Why offering in the place you put it in the service?

I had a great question posed to me last week. Why had I moved the time of offering from where it had always been to following the sermon? I don’t do anything related to worship lightly or without good reason. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to share with you the “why” behind the tweaking of the worship order.

When John Wesley sent the first Bishops to the United States, he sent them with an order of worship called the Sunday Service. The worship service, then and now, was to be focused on Holy Communion. However, that service could not be fully utilized in the young United States. There were not enough ordained clergy to officiate at Holy Communion at the Methodist Episcopal Churches. Instead, the ordained clergy would ride a circuit, often on a horse, and serve communion quarterly. Therefore, the tradition of having communion quarterly began. Because of the lack of ordained clergy, the service of worship focused towards the sermon because that happened every week.

That is where the discussion of where to put the offering comes in. During the communion service, the time of offering was not just a time to “pass the plate” so to speak. Instead of being placed on the Lord’s Table before the beginning of the service, the bread and the juice were actually brought in by lay people as an offering to God. Therefore, the offering time included the communion elements as well as monetary gifts. Both were brought forward after the sermon and just prior to Holy Communion. In the preaching services of the 18th and 19th centuries, there would be no time of Communion, so the offering began to be collected prior to the sermon. As time progressed, the clergy shortage ended. Seminaries were available in all parts of the United States. Therefore, an ordained elder served most congregations. Now, congregations could celebrate communion every week. However, as you know, when a tradition is engrained in a congregation, it takes time to change. At Trinity, I believe it was Peter Belec who changed communion from being quarterly to being on the first Sunday of the month.

If you turn to the front of our hymnal, you will notice John Wesley’s Sunday Service included. We gather. We hear God’s word. We respond to God’s word by an expression of faith and confession of sin. We offer of ourselves and our gifts to God. We lift up prayers of thanksgiving. We dine at the Lord’s Table. We are dismissed to love God and neighbor. Our worship order is based on century after century of Christian practice. In fact, the Early Church always included communion as well as preaching and discussion of God’s Word. However, our church and many others have kept part of the frontier style of worship for our worship order. If you compare our bulletin to that of the service in the front of the hymnal, you will notice that we do not celebrate communion every week as is suggested. And until the last couple of weeks, we collected the offering after the sermon. (I have to videotape a sermon and a worship service with communion to send to the Conference as part of my ordination process. So, I have moved the time of offering so that we are “by the book.”) I have enjoyed having the offering following the sermon. To me, it feels as if we are able to respond to God’s Word for us for the day. I would like to include elements of response to God’s Word in addition to our collecting of God’s tithes and our offerings that are linked to the scripture of the day. One day, I would like for us to carry the bread and the juice into the worship service during the offering as part of our response. I like that symbolism of us bringing God the ordinary things that God makes holy. It would be meaningful to have someone bring the water in when we baptize new members as well. I would love to know what you think. How do you best respond to God’s word? How else could we as a congregation respond to God’s word? What parts of the worship service are meaningful to you?