A United Methodist Pastor's Theological Reflections

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory (nikos) through our Lord Jesus Christ." - I Corinthians 15:57


Sunday, March 15, 2009

Sunday Worship Preview - March 22

Sunday, March 22 (8:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. Traditional and 9:45 A.M. Contemporary)

Sermon - “Risky Business”

Features - 4th Sunday in Lent

Scriptures - Numbers 21:4-9 & John 3:14-21

Theme - This is the 4th part of a five-part sermon series on our Lenten theme, “The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations.” On this Sunday, our focus will be on the spiritual practice of risk-taking mission. The story of Jesus and Nicodemus will help us to see the importance of stepping out of our comfort zones for the sake of God’s kingdom.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been thinking about how you're going to tie Risk-Taking M&S to the John passage. Sounds great and has caused me to re-read the passage. Thanks.

Robert McDowell said...

Hi Bishop Schnase. Thanks for pointing out the John scripture choice.

I'm going to focus on John 3:16 and how Jesus risked for us by dying on the cross and how we are to also take the risk (and risks!) to help bring transformation to the world through hands-on missions.

Since our church decided to use your your excellent resource during Lent, I wanted to include the John 3 passage in the lectionary.

You can hear the full sermon at my church's website, www.fcum.org beginning later in the day on March 22.

By the way, you and one of my head ushers could pass for identical twins! Thanks to you and Bishop Ough for focusing on the five practices, you are helping countless numbers of churches.

Peace,