Sunday Worship Preview - March 25

Sunday, March 25 - (9:00 A.M. Traditional Service & 10:30 A.M. Praise Service) & Wednesday, March 28  (6:30 P.M. Casual Service @ Crossroads, 2095 Fair Avenue)

Sermon - "Unbinding Your Heart: Faith Focus"

Features - 5th Sunday in Lent, Receiving of New Members, & Holy Baptism

Scripture - Proverbs 3:1-8 & Matthew 14:22-33

Theme - Jesus is always with us.  But that means we may wind up in places we wouldn't have gone on our own!
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Dougites vs. Davidites: Dave's Deep Thoughts

Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music Minister at Stewartstown UMC in PA.

 

Nowadays,

I think they call it identity theft.

Back in the day,

I just called it bad memory.

I must admit that I am not the greatest

at remembering names.

As a pastor, it is a skill that

I am trying to improve.

Over the years,

I have been called

Steve,

Dan,

and most of all Doug.

I must have a mono-syllabic face.

When I was in college years ago

in a far off city,

I went to a small group Bible study

with a couple of friends.

At the first gathering,

I introduced myself as Dave.

Since I was new to the group,

the leader, named Jim, asked me to share with the group

some information about myself.

It went something like this.....

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Doug.

I gently corrected him regarding my name

and went on with my story.

Later during the study,

as we were discussing a topic,,

Jim looked at me and said,

What do you think about that, Doug?

Uh, my name is Dave, I said

and then I am sure I offered

a deeply profound theological answer to his question.

At the end of the study,

we closed in prayer.

During the prayer, Jim said,

Lord, we are so grateful

that you brought Doug to this gathering tonight.

Trust me,

I felt blessed.

I was 3,000 miles from home.

I had just arrived in the city two weeks prior

knowing no one,

and now,

I had become Doug.

My two friends apologized to me

on the ride home.

A week later,

I decided to go again with my friends to the study.

Sure enough,

Jim warmly welcomed me back,

gave me a strong handshake,

and said,

It's good to see you Doug,

I hope you have had a great week!

Oh it was great, I said....

until I got here, I thought.

I reminded him that when

I had come out of the womb,

my mother uttered the name, David, not Doug.

Two more Bible studies came and went.

I was actually enjoying the study

and meeting new people.

But to Jim,

I was the nicest Doug that he had ever met.

My friends convinced me to go with them to the church

that was sponsoring this Bible study.

The next Sunday,

we went to this very large church

which had a college Sunday School class

with over 200 in attendance.

It felt a bit intimidating coming in the first time.

At the beginning of the class,

the leader of the class asked the Bible study leaders

to introduce any first timers.

Sure enough,

Jim stood up across the room,

looked across at me

and said,

I'd like for you to meet Doug.

He's from Pennsylvania

and he's attending school here.

The nomenclature virus had now just spread to 200 people.

Within seconds,

the hospitality squad converged on me

with the precision of a SWAT team,

and pinned me with a

Hi! My name is Doug name tag.

The group was then instructed to greet people around them.

Doug never felt so warmly greeted.

As I sat down in my seat,

I made a decision.

For one hour a week,

(well, two counting Bible study)

I was going to be the best Doug that I could be.

During the next few weeks an interesting phenomenon developed.

There arose within the class,

a large group or people

whom I now refer to as Dougites

because they knew me to be Doug.

There was however,

a small group of Davidites,

who were determined

to start a revolution

to convince the class and the world,

that I was David.

Occasionally,

the large class would break into small groups

to discuss the topic of the day.

Often, I would end up in a group

made up solely of Dougites.

Those were the easy days.

It was when one or two

Davidites infiltrated into the small group

that things got interesting.

At some point in the small group discussion.

I would answer to the name David.

The Dougites would register confusion.

Oh, he's not Doug, the Davidites would say.

He's David.

The Dougites would ask,

Is Doug your nickname?

Doug would answer No.

Your middle name?

Another no from Doug.

No, I'm just a Doug named David,

I would say,

not wanting to expose Jim's weakness for remembering names.

By the time we reached winter retreat,

the class was about 50% Dougites

and 50% Davidites.

This made for a very interesting two days up in the mountains.

I had become so used to answering to either name

that I didn't think about it anymore.

That was until we got to a group mixer

where all 200 of us had to form a single line

alphabetically by first name.

It was the point of reckoning.

I had to choose.

Was I Doug or was I David?

Let's just say in that moment,

I caused a great deal of confusion

in the D section of the alphabet line.

Dean was telling me I was in the wrong place.

Dina thought I was confused.

God bless Denny who tried to push me to another part of the line.

Finally I said,

I'm David!

The Davidites roared..........

Vive la revolucion!

It took awhile to convert all the Dougites

but it happened eventually.

It's important to know who we are.

We spend much of our early years trying to figure that out.

Some people never find out.

Perhaps the key in knowing who we are

is in understanding whose we are.

David means beloved.

I will never again dismiss that status in my life.

God loves each one of us so much

that He describes Himself in the book of Isaiah

much like a star crossed junior higher

who is in love for the first time......

I will never forget you.

Behold, I have inscribed your name

on the palm of my hands. (Is 49:15b-16)

 

In Jeremiah,

God says that he knows who we are

before we were formed in the womb. (Jer 1:5)

May you always know your name

and thus know the depth of the passion

that God feels for you.

As for Doug......

may he long live in the body for which he was intended.

As for Jim........

David says hi.

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Unbinding Heart Testimony - March 11

Here's the testimony that Clarence, McCoy, our Director of Worship Arts shared with the congregation on Sunday morning.  During these six weeks of Lent, several people in our congregation have been sharing their faith story.

A few weeks ago, during our weekly worship planning sessions, we began discussing the fact the planning materials from Unbinding Your Heart asked for a testimony this week from someone who began going to church as an adult. I told the group that if they didn’t find someone better, I am actually someone who fits that description. So, here I am.

I grew up in a home that was unchurched. In fact, both of my parents also grew up in homes that were unchurched. My parents displayed faith in God, but my entire church experience involved going to an Easter service once as a child with our neighbors, and being hired to play my trumpet for a few church services when I was in high school.

I headed off to college, and faith had an even smaller role in my life. I’m a fairly cerebral dude, and my world view was based on what I perceived as measurable facts. There was little room for faith. As part of one of my honors classes in school, I even studied portions of the Bible and compared what I read to other books containing philosophy. So, I learned some things about the teachings of Jesus, but I had no relationship with Jesus. At this point in my life, I would have to say I was at least an agnostic, and maybe even an atheist.

During the summer after my second year of college, I was hired to work at a band camp by a man named Jim Morgan, who many of you have known. He also hired a woodwind and flag corps instructor named Sandy Shaw. Sandy and I began to date, and a few months later we were engaged.

Sandy was a person of deep faith, and she had grown up in a churched home. She introduced me to various Christian books, including CS Lewis’s Mere Christianity, but I was a very tough sell. She didn’t give up though, and she just continued to be a good Christian example for me. When we decided to get married, she contacted a pastor who had been influential in her life to be the one to marry us. He asked about me, and when he found out that I was not a Christian, he reminded Sandy of 2 Corinthians 6:14 where we are told not to be yoked with unbelievers, and he refused to marry us. We found a more willing pastor, however, and we were married the next summer.

As a newly married couple, we again worked a summer band camp job for Jim Morgan. During one weekend, Jim had a camp for his church choir from Shalom UMC in Carroll. He needed a piano player for his rehearsals, and he invited Sandy and me to be a part of the weekend. She agreed to play, and we spent the weekend around some wonderful Christian people, including the Morgans and Bob and Marty Lambert, who are now part of our choir here at First Church. We had a great time, and I didn’t know it then, but I began to see Christ in these wonderful people. Through these and other Christians I would encounter along my life’s journey, I saw the evidence my brain needed to prove the reality of God.

Sandy and I moved to North Baltimore in northwest Ohio as we began our life together.  We were invited by someone at the school where Sandy was teaching to be a part of the choir program at Good Shepherd UMC there, and partially because of our experience with the Shalom choir, we agreed. Church was beginning to be a part of our lives. My faith was still very shallow, but it was beginning to develop.

A couple of years later, it was Jim Morgan (again) who invited me to be part of a weekend experience called Walk to Emmaus, which proved to be the next step in developing  my spiritual life. Sandy and I moved back to Lancaster, and we became part of the church and the choir at Shalom. That summer during the choir camp weekend, I was baptized in the band camp pool! Christ was finally becoming an important part of my life, an evolution that continues to this day.

More than twenty years later, I’m still a very flawed man, but my wife is still my Christian example. Bob Lambert and I still have a weekly time of sharing that dates back to our Emmaus experiences so long ago. There have been many other invitations along the way that have allowed my faith to continue to grow. I’m still part of church music, though I do the directing now. And I’m part of a wonderful church here at the corner of Wheeling and High Streets. None of this is because of some great conversion moment in my life, but it’s all because of a series of invitations from great Christians who were just like each of you. Thank you.

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Books I'm Reading

How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth, by Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart. (Have read 81%)
This is an excellent book to help people appreciate the several different genres found in the bible.  The authors go to great lengths to help the reader to NOT read the bible out of context and to know how to appreciate the different genres that we find in the bible like narrative, epistles, law, wisdom, poetry, etc.

Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide, by Michael Slaughter & Charles E. Gutenson with Robert P. Jones. (Have read 31%)
The authors trace how white evangelicals became closely associated with the Republican Party.  According to the research, this began immediately after the Reagan presidency.  This is not a book to promote one party over another but to caution the Christian community to not allow political worldviews to trump our theological/Christian worldview.  As pastors over a long period of time, they have noticed this change in their churches where church members are mirroring the divide that we are seeing in the present political landscape.

Books Waiting to Be Read:  As my church prepares for our bicentennial celebration events, I will soon be reading, Why I Am a United Methodist by Will Willimon and Recapturing the Wesley's Vision by Paul Chilcote.
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Sermon (March 11) - "Unbinding Your Heart: Catalytic Conversations"

A church used to have this as their web site address: www.transformedlives.com.  It’s a church that is growing and baptizing increasing numbers of adults into the Christian faith.

Their pastor asks for only one report at every meeting. He asks

one question at staff meeting, board meeting, and any other kind of meeting. The question is: tell me one life that has been changed this week because of our ministry.

Remember how you and I have given each other permission to put prayer

above other priorities during this series? At that particular church, their priority is transformed lives. They believe the main message of the gospel is that Jesus Christ changes lives. It's what they are all about.

Jesus certainly changed the life of the woman at the well. She came to the well at the hottest time of day, when no one else would have been there. Many have speculated about why she came at such a lonely time.

Maybe she had a bad reputation for being divorced 5 times. Maybe all of those husbands had died. Maybe it was grief. Maybe it was shame. But something kept her isolated that day. Who knows what? All we know for sure is she was alone that day. She would not have expected to have company at the well at that hour.

But Jesus was there when she got there. And he talked to her. Not just a simple "hello" as he passed by. It was the longest of any of Jesus’ conversations recorded in the gospels.

Jesus started out by making small talk. He merely asked the woman for a

drink of water. But that one request broke down barriers that had existed for centuries. Just a few simple words between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman violated social and religious rules about interactions between men and women and ethnic groups.

Once the barriers were down, the flood waters of conversation flowed. Jesus and the woman talked. They talked about spiritual thirst. They discussed her marriages. They talked politics and religion.

By the time the conversation ended, Jesus told her he was the Messiah. The woman was so moved by their conversation, she ran off. She went to tell her whole village about Jesus. She even left her water jug! She forgot her original purpose in coming to the well. She left with a new purpose. Jesus changed her life.

This woman once isolated herself from others. Now she went searching for people. She wanted to tell the world about what Jesus had done for her. What had Jesus done for her?  

In other gospel stories, Jesus did some pretty amazing stuff for people. He healed diseases. He gave people sight. He raised the dead.

 All he did here was talk to a woman. He reached out across cultural barriers to have a conversation. In that conversation, both Jesus and the woman revealed something about themselves to each other. In this, somehow, the woman was deeply transformed. "He knows everything about me!" she exclaimed to her neighbors.

A self-proclaimed liberal church held a class on World Religions. Their goal was to study the major religions of the world and compare them to Christianity. Someone in the class had a co-worker who was a Muslim man. She asked if the class would like her co-worker to come when they talked about Islam. Everyone enthusiastically agreed.

They thought it would be very helpful to have a firsthand expression of that faith.  One class member summed up the class' feelings by saying, "Please invite him. Tell him we don't want to convert him, we want to learn from him."

Kamal, the Muslim man, did come to the class. He spoke for a while about his faith. Then class members asked him questions. Soon, he was asking class members questions about faith. They hadn't planned on that! By the time class was over, they had discussed many things.

They talked about traditional Muslim dress. They talked about arranged marriages. They talked about why Christians pray "in Jesus' name." They talked about how Kamal felt when people treated him with suspicion. No one seemed to want the time to end. Then a class member said, "Could we have a prayer together?" They all agreed. The class circled, held hands, and prayed.

When the prayer was finished, Kamal had tears in his eyes. He told the class: "I have never felt God's love this strongly before. I cannot wait to tell my friends about this. We didn't know there were Christians like you."

It was just conversation. But it changed his life. It changed the lives of everyone in that classroom. Just conversation! God's power can make genuine conversation into a life-changing experience.

In the book we're all reading together, Unbinding your Heart, the author's research shows what brings people to church and what makes them stay.

What do you think brings people to church for the first time? Great sermons, good ads, beautiful buildings?

Nope. It's you. Almost 60% of people who join a church came because someone invited them. 60 percent! People come to church because someone asks them to come.

And what makes them come back? What makes them want to come again? Surely it's the pastor's fabulous sermons or the music program or the updated children's wing.

No. It's you. The number one reason people say they return to a church is because they received a warm welcome from the people there. Those others things are important, but they are not the main thing. The main thing is whether or not someone said hello to them, or remembered their children’s names, or went out of their way to get them a bulletin. New people can tell if the congregation actually cares about them.

Do you think this was the miraculous thing Jesus did for the woman at the well? Just conversation? Just caring? Yes, God's power can make genuine conversation into a life-changing experience.

Marta came to church because a couple she knew invited her. She had been cleaning their house for about a year. One day, the couple struck up a conversation with her.

They asked her if she had any family in town. She told them she had moved here to escape an abusive husband. She was raising her two boys on her own. Her own parents had died years ago. On impulse, the couple invited her to their church.

At first, she declined. She said she didn't have the proper clothes. "Oh, come casual!" the couple said, "We do! We’ll meet you at church about 10:30. Then we’ll take you and your boys to lunch afterwards."

They looked for her the following Sunday. Sure enough, she slipped in just after the service started. She had her boys in tow. They joined her on the back row.

The sermon that Sunday was on the woman at the well. Marta sat at attention through the whole service. The couple that had invited her kept her boys busy with crayons and bulletin airplanes. Marta was entranced.

When the sermon was over, she turned to the couple and said, "That story was for me. That woman at the well is me! I have been so alone!" As people greeted Marta warmly after the service, she beamed at the attention. Afterward, she commented to the couple who had invited her, "This is like a family!"

You know someone like Marta. You know people who need Jesus and this church in their lives. You know someone who needs a changed life.

In your bulletin you’ll find an invitation.  It’s an invitation to join us for Sunday worship and Sunday School, as well as several other events coming up in the life of our church.   We could just put this in the newspaper. But that wouldn't be nearly as effective as giving it to you.

All you need to do is pray over it and wait for God to compel you to give it to someone. Just hand it to someone.  Ask, "Would you like to come to my church with me this Sunday? I’ll pick you up and then we can go out for lunch together afterwards."

Yesterday, I invited two people to our church.  I had one of these invitations with me so I handed it to a nice lady who waited on me at a store here in town.  All I said was that I attended First United Methodist Church and to come join us sometime.  I wish you could have seen the look on her face.  She smiled and thanked me for the invitation.

I invited another lady and she said that she would need transportation but I told her that we offered transportation on Sunday mornings.  Who knows what a difference these little conversations and invitations might have?

It's really terrifying for people who don't go to a church to go in those doors with all the weird, holy people. They're scared to death. How would you feel walking into an AA meeting? Ever done that? It's about the same degree of threat.

Your invitation to be with them makes it so much less scary. This invitation and a little conversation is your ticket to changing someone's life.

After Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman, he preached to his disciples. He said to them, "Look around you! People are so ready for the gospel! All you have to do is bring them in."

Look around you. Who are you going to invite to church next

Sunday? Will you go and pick them up? Take them to lunch afterwards? Introduce them to a group of friends?

This week, talk to someone you’ve never talked to before. Or, talk to someone you chat with all the time, but this time, talk about your faith. You could start a conversation that will change someone’s life.

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Based on the resource, "Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism," Chalice Press, 2008

Sunday Worship Preview - March 18

Sunday, March 18 - (9:00 A.M. Traditional Service & 10:30 A.M. Praise Service) & Wednesday, March 21  (6:30 P.M. Casual Service @ Crossroads, 2095 Fair Avenue)

Sermon - "Unbinding Your Heart: Healing Hospitality"

Features - 4th Sunday in Lent & One Great Hour of Sharing Special Offering

Scripture - Genesis 18:1-5 & Mark 2:1-12

Theme - The church is the house of the Lord.  So how are we doing?
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Contraceptives Policy & The UMC

The United Methodist Church has a rich history of promoting dialogue in discerning our stance on various social issues.  One of the General Agencies of the UMC is the Board of Church & Society.  They seek to interpret our Book of Resolutions in light of the social issues that are facing us.  Like the Book of Resolutions, the stances taken by this board are meant to encourage further discussion and dialogue in a spirit of civility and thoughtful Christian discernment.

Recently, I was asked by a church member to share where the United Methodist Church stands on the contraceptive policy issue.  Below are the thoughts of the head of the GBCS.  This does not mean that every United Methodist has to adhere to this stance.  It does mean that we are called to have some understanding of the Book of Resolutions and to reflect on the issues that face us from the perspective of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, or what is known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

The Book of Resolutions is reviewed every four years by 1,000 lay and clergy delegates at General Conference.
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By Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society
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I’ve always appreciated that The United Methodist Church has never claimed to be a victim of religious persecution. Even though we imposed our religious views on others when we pushed through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting sale and manufacture of alcohol nearly 100 years ago, we did not insist our religious liberty was infringed when Prohibition was repealed.
We strongly oppose gambling and find war incompatible with Christian teaching. We don’t suggest, however, that the spread of gambling and the constant warfare around the world represent persecution of Methodism.
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Why is it that the liberty of those who are denied basic health-care services is not at issue?
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Yet, when the General Board of Church & Society agreed that religiously affiliated employers have an obligation to provide contraceptive services through the health insurance plans they offer to their employees, we have been accused of thwarting the religious liberty of various groups such as evangelical Christians and the Roman Catholic Church.
 
Why is it that the liberty of those who are denied basic health-care services is not at issue? Contraception benefits society. It reduces the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, reduces the need for abortions, and assists families to plan the number and spacing of their children.

Doesn’t make it so

Just because someone says their religious liberty is being infringed upon does not make it so. Just because the Catholic hierarchy says that birth control is a sin against God does not make it so.
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This is one area where The United Methodist Church is in clear disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church: “People have the duty to consider the impact on the total world community of their decisions regarding childbearing and should have access to information and appropriate means to limit their fertility” (United Methodist Social Principles, 162K, 2008 Discipline). “We affirm the right of men and women to have access to comprehensive reproductive health/family planning information and services that will serve as a means to prevent unplanned pregnancies, reduce abortions, and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS” (Social Principles, 162V, 2008 Discipline).
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This is one area where The United Methodist Church is in clear disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church.
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A compromise has been offered that enables religiously affiliated institutions to refuse basic contraception coverage to their employees by mandating that insurance companies offer these services to women who opt for them. Catholic leadership has rejected the compromise.
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Why? Because they don’t want women to have the liberty to choose to use birth control. They want to deny that freedom to women.

Wrong then and now

There were those who argued that racial segregation was biblically mandated, that keeping women out of church leadership was sanctioned by God, and that destruction of the environment is approved by God. All of these notions were and are wrong. Religious freedom is not violated by denying religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and other institutions the right to discriminate on the basis of race or gender.

Now, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri proposes that any employer — religious or anti-religious, for that matter — should have the “right” to refuse coverage to its employees of any services, treatments or medications it disagrees with.
 
Perhaps an employer may hold the wild idea that use of pain medication or anesthesia indicates some sort of moral weakness. Therefore, the employer excludes that from the health-insurance plan offered to employees. Or, maybe an employer thinks that people contract diabetes due to poor dietary and exercise decisions they’ve made. Therefore, the employer doesn’t want to offer treatment for the disease.

Notice, if you will, that in this debate it is the religious freedom of institutions and corporations that is being addressed, not that of employees. In a world where corporations are declared to be people —where corporations even claim religious freedom — is it possible that real human beings, employees, no longer will have the rights of human beings or the freedom to practice behavior they consider ethical?

We hold as a denomination the belief that health care is a basic right and part of that includes ensuring access for women to contraception. This is about the common good.

Date: 2/22/2012
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