Happy New Year church family!

We have begun our Advent journey — those four precious Sundays in anticipation of Christmas — and the beginning of our liturgical year. That’s right — the “church calendar” is different from our secular calendar. Yet they do have a heavenly thing in common.

Image by starfish235 via Flickr

Our “secular” calendar is built around the “many stars” of heaven — that will one day pass away. Our “church” calendar is built around “a star” that will not pass away. It’s a star of the glory of God shining upon “His hope” for our world. And that’s the thing I appreciate about calendars. One gives me hope for where I will live in eternity, the other gives me hope for this world I live in. They give me a window to look back, look forward, and special days and seasons to sort it all out.

Now these next few weeks will be busy for all of us. There will be the year-end obligations of work, social events to attend, making plans to host family and friends, a little shopping for seasonal attire, and a pile of other responsibilities. This is a busy time, true. Yet I hope you will not allow all this business to rob you and your family of this time of discovery during this time of waiting for the Christ child.

Advent has such sacred value for our lives because it calls us to remember God came out of heaven and into our history that we might have access to a different future. As we begin this “New Church Year,” my hope is you will therefore make personal time to evaluate the eternal value of the things you’ve done — are doing — and what you are planning to do for Christ in the year ahead. May you experience once more the birth of the Christ Child — who still gives rise to your deepest needs of hope, peace, joy, and love that the world has promised, and then taken back from you.

Your church has planned some special worship opportunities for you to come and experience the wonder of Christ’s birth and give meaning to your everyday life. We will come together as a church family these next two Sundays for one worship service.

On Dec. 5, we will be in our sanctuary at First Place (gym) at 10:30 a.m. for our Children/Youth Christmas Musical and my reflection upon the “Prince of Peace.” On Dec. 12, we will be in our Traditional sanctuary at 11 a.m. for our Christmas Cantata. On Dec. 19, we’ll receive our special Christmas Tree offering to support our ministry costs during this year. On Christmas Eve we will have candlelight services at 5:30 and 11:30 p.m. On Dec. 26, we will worship in the Fellowship Hall together in fellowship, song, and prayer.

It is indeed a special time. In the midst of all your obligations, make sure you make time for being in worship in the coming weeks. It will provide you with a perspective on our longing for hope, peace, joy, and love; but more importantly it promises to draw you closer to the miracle that is Christ’s birth.

Pumpkin time!

It’s October and for our church, that means pumpkin-mania! It all begins this Saturday, our pumpkins are scheduled to arrive about 3:30 in the afternoon, and “Pumpkin Patch 2010″ will start to take shape on our front lawn. Ann McCauley, our “Pumpkin Queen” is again heading this outreach ministry.

Image via Wikipedia

You won’t want to miss some of the really neat opportunities for our church and community to come out and enjoy an afternoon out on our “pumpkin farm.”

We’re looking at a church family picnic with games, painting pumpkins, the giant slide, and storytelling; the Royston Elementary children here on a field trip; and our Pre-School taking full advantage of our farm (which by the way has grown from about 15 children to almost 50 now under Chanice Jones’ leadership over the past couple years).

The other side of the coin to this ministry is the story of how this came to be in the first place. You see, our pumpkins will travel a couple thousand miles from a Navajo Indian Reservation in northern New Mexico by way of a farmer — also a United Methodist preacher up in Greensboro, NC. Some 35 years ago, on a handshake, this pumpkin farmer/preacher agreed to let his church sell his pumpkins as a fund raiser, sharing in the proceeds.

Soon they began to offer the fund raiser to other churches (no strings attached—in faith the churches were asked to simply sell the pumpkins, and share the proceeds. Today, over 1300 churches/non-prophets in 47 states are part of this “Pumpkin Patch” mission ministry.

But there’s more to the story. When Hurricane Hugo hit the east coast in 1989, it wiped out the whole pumpkin crop and almost doomed this wonderful ministry. The farmers reached out to the Navajo Reservation in Farmington, New Mexico for help. What they learned in this experience was how much this meant to the people there.

Today, what began in faith from a little farmer/preacher and a church fundraiser up in North Carolina, has continued to offer this wonderful no-risk mission fundraising opportunity; and at the same time give folks jobs and an opportunity that would otherwise not be available.

The farmers now lease some 1,200 acres on the Navajo Reservation, where their farmers grow and ship all their pumpkins, gourds, and ornamental corn. Between 5 and 6 million of those orange pumpkins are going out right now (enough if you piled them on top of one another, would reach the International Space Station orbiting 240 miles above the earth’s surface…and back).

And how are they measuring their success, simply in faith that God is will continue to use this ministry to impact upon congregations and communities across our country.

All that said, I hope you will avail yourself to making time in support of this ministry. So come on out Saturday with the whole family and give us a hand unloading our pumpkins, and sign up for one of the two-hour slots to work on our “farm” in October.

Let’s talk

I’m not sure about you, but these revolving 30-second point/counterpoint political ads on TV are becoming exhausting. So much so that I’m starting to appreciate the string of ads which normally intrude upon my favorite shows. At least they provide me with enough concrete and practical information to make a decision about whether I want their product or not. Yada—Yada—Yada, as they say on Seinfeld!

I wonder what it would look like if we took a page from those rote and boring commercial ads when it comes to how we communicate and listen to one another.  I wonder what would happen if we spent less time trying to get folks to “vote for us or our ideas” so to speak; and more time engaging one in an honest conversation that would allow everyone to be part of the solution. I mean, what good has ever come out of point/counterpoint bantering?

In my experience running businesses and meetings for 20 years and now pastor of a local church, when one follows the canon of our culture endorsing such methodology to defend one’s turf and position, it exhausts rather than refreshes. It’s the same with our marriages, raising our children, and relationships in general.

The good news is there is another canon that promises to turn our exhaustion into a time of refreshment and hope. It’s filled with pages and pages of really “old ads” with concrete and practical ways to deal with our concerns, our differences. It’s called the Holy Bible; it works because it meets us right where we are, gives us a voice and a place in the solution.

We need to attend to these “old ads” more often, particularly when it comes to our questions and understandings of God and denominational differences. I grew up Baptist, spent time as a Lutheran, and now I am a United Methodist. Many of you have had similar journeys and experiences and may have questions. I want to hear yours and share with you. Here are a few questions folks ask a lot:

Is a sprinkling of water enough to get the job done in Baptism, or do you need a whole tub full?

Can you really take the Lord’s Supper if you aren’t completely sure about the whole thing?

What about these vows we make when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, shouldn’t we call them guidelines since most folks seem to pick and choose?

Those big words like “justification,” “sanctification” and “prevenient grace” are way over my head, and sorta scary.  What do they really mean to me, in plain English, please?

When you say God’s grace in Jesus Christ covers all our sins, what exactly does that mean?

I understand repentance, but I’m not sure how practically the strict definition works out for me.

If you are not currently in a Sunday School Class — or if you have an interest knowing more about these kinds of questions and our United Methodist Biblical understandings, come join me for a few Sundays, beginning September 12. We’ll meet in our Contemporary worship area (Gym) starting about 10:10 am.

I pray you will make specific plans to come for two reasons.  One, we can get to know each other better in a relaxed atmosphere and have a meaningful conversation with Scripture and your questions about God and our relationship. And the second reason, when we gather and engage Scripture it refreshes our spirits, and gives us a way to “Sing to the Lord a new song!” (Psalm 96:1).  Always!

Getting better

According to the newswire, this week BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward will, amidst the pressures of an oil rig gone bad and his company’s loss of $17 billion, step down as CEO. Some are cheering, some say he’s just the fall guy. Some say this will make things better in the Gulf, some say it really doesn’t matter.

With every statement hitting the newswire about Hayward’s competencies (or lack thereof) and the promise of BP’s new savior Bob Dudley, you have to know that all this is really hard for Tony Hayward to chew.

Who is Hayward really? Is he just another one of those insensitive, high-roller CEOs whose purpose is to do damage control and appear caring when trouble comes? The fact that just days after showing some compassion to the people in the Gulf area, he escaped to his natural habitat of high society and the good life — does that really make Hayward such a bad guy?

After all, he did say when pressed that he wanted his life back. Maybe he was simply doing the job BP paid him to do and was taking a holiday from it all — much as regular people like you and me do after a hard week at the office.

No matter how we want to paint Hayward, his attitude and performance is a sore spot for Americans. Yet I must remember he is a fellow human being in need of grace. Maybe you and I are more like him than not. There are times in each of our lives when, like Hayward, reality hits hard and life closes in on us.

People talk about us — about what we could’ve, should’ve done to make things better. Moreover, some do the “Monday-morning quarterback” thing and say what they would’ve done better. It’s enough sometimes to make us want to just walk away. But escaping and moving in a different direction is the easy thing to do. It rarely makes us better or satisfies our desire to become better.

This is instructive about what we do here at church. Some believe the church’s purpose is to help them find direction for their lives. I suppose it sort of is, yet that’s not all we do here at Royston First as Christ’s church. I hope we help you resolve to live a better life. However, the real reason God created the church was not to necessarily help you to become better — any self-improvement program can do that.

What the church promises in Christ is to help you see who you really are and what God intends for you to be. The best way to begin is by simply by attending to God’s command (and your faith promise) to make Sunday worship a priority.

If you will simply change this one thing about your weekly schedule, it will enable you — and the whole church — to move closer to God. Will it make you “better”? Maybe, but the promise of God is that you will be satisfied.

It is the most important work in the world — and we’re at it here every week at Royston First UMC.

Avalanche Ranch!

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL: A WILD RIDE THROUGH GOD’S WORD!

Come and experience the exciting celebration of God’s love with us! Each day we will begin our Ranch adventure at the Sing-&-Play Stampede at 6:00 p.m. in our sanctuary.

From there each Ranch Crew will sample tasty treats at Chuck Wagon Chow, go on Wild Bible Adventures, make amazing Cowpoke Crafts, delight in participating in two KID-TO-KID mission projects, meet with Chadder Chipmunk on video, and have fun at Horseplay Games.

Our daily adventures wind down with a Showtime Roundup each evening at 8:00 p.m. back in the sanctuary. It’s a “don’t want to miss event” as the “stars” of our “Spotlight Drama” close our evening at the Roundup.

JOIN A RANCH CREW TODAY!

Registration forms available above or at the church office.

THEN AT 11 A.M. ON SUNDAY JUNE 27, BRING YOUR CAMERAS FOR OUR ROUND-UP CELEBRATION

Immediately following…

Hamburgers and hot dogs hot off the grill for everyone in our  Fellowship Hall!

The gift of Pentecost

This week’s worship planning has presented some real challenges. For one, this is Pentecost Sunday, the day in which we celebrate the birth of the Church. According to the Book of Acts this took place in a particular place (Jerusalem) and at an appointed time (50 days after Easter).

With power and presence, God was made known by the Holy Spirit’s descent, energizing a band of followers to make a faith journey that would bring hope to a troubled world. In a particular place and time, John’s Gospel reports Jesus “breathing” the Holy Spirit upon them; the Apostle Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit being “gifted.”

Therefore, growing in our appreciation of the presence of the Holy Spirit coming into our lives at Pentecost and what that means for our faith journey is vital to upholding Christ’s Church. That would be plenty enough to deal with by itself!

Second, this is the appointed time on our church calendar we celebrate and honor our Graduates. Like the disciples, we will come together as a church family, and then as a church family “re-gift” that which we received long ago at our own graduations — our commitment to pray for them, to stand with them, and to encourage them in all their pursuits as they step forward into the next chapter of their lives. It’s sort of a mini-Pentecost as we gather to pass on our faith, hopes and dreams for their future.

Lastly, this is the appointed Sunday (May 23) as a church family we have been asked to gather and respond to God’s blessings to attend to our financial responsibilities. I am grateful for your faithful financial contributions to Christ’s work enabling so many ministries to take root and grow. Just look around, and it’s easy to see the energy and God’s blessing our Youth, Children, Music, Sunday School, and other ministry focus areas.

Why are costs up? Simply, with God’s hand upon us and our ministry growing, it’s like having another child or two around I guess. So we have this family matter, and one of my roles as your pastor is to keep the children clothed and fed.

The way we do this best in the church is when every family commits to helping out. Therefore, I am asking each family member to make a faith contribution — meaning your gift should be made only in accordance to what God places on your heart in prayer. If you will do that, my prayer will be answered concerning the financial support of our ministry.

It’s time to gather in one place as a Church Family for worship celebrating…

• Pentecost: the coming of the Holy Spirit — God to live in us.
• Graduation Sunday & Our Faith Offering gift.

I have much more to say — typical preacher! But let me close by saying how grateful I am to be your pastor, and for your faith to the work of Christ at Royston First UMC. Remember your challenge to put together a good Youth and Childrens program—remember my challenge to you? Well you responded in faith and today we are blessed to be “beyond good”…… in our ministry to our most prized possessions.

So for now, let me say what a wonderful work you are doing in Christ’s name to make this a place of hope and grace and faith. If you have not found your place, call me or one of our leaders. No matter our work schedules, our physical limitations, no matter what, I promise God has something in mind for each of us to do to grow His Church.

Remember, His hands are our hands now. And that, my friends, is the “Gift of Pentecost.”

Mother’s Day

This Sunday in worship we will observe Mother’s Day. It’s a big deal in our church because it provides United Methodist congregations across North Georgia a way each year to celebrate and honor our Mothers by receiving a special offering for the ministry of Wesley Woods.

It is also a big deal for each of us, because it causes us to pause to honor and remember our moms. I hope you will make a special effort to be present with us in worship as we give thanks to God for the high calling of motherhood.

Mother’s Day is a big deal culturally, too. How do I know? Well, it has been reported by many surveys as being the third-most-popular holiday for sending cards behind Christmas and Valentines Day, and the second-most-popular for buying flowers.

Carlton Cards and IMRA explain (and this really hurts dads) that this holiday is much bigger than Father’s Day when it comes to gift-giving, cards sent and phone calls home. Some 80 percent of us will send over 22 million cards — and they won’t be one of those 99-cent cards we dads will probably get in June either.

All this adds up to a stimulus package of between $14 billion and $16 billion for retailers.

Mother’s Day has come a long way from when Anna Jarvis started this observance in a small Methodist church in Philadelphia back in 1908. And I think with good reason. It instinctively reminds us of primary things like tending to our relationships with one another.

Our Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is one story after another about the importance of our relationships with God and each other. Remember when Jesus was asked which of the commandments of God was the greatest, how he boiled all the laws of Moses down to the primary thing:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

What this means to me is our relationship with God and each other is the umbilical cord of the true life Christ has put forth. True, our relationships are seldom perfect, but they are vital to experiencing the grace and peace of God. A little hard labor for sure, yet the effort promises a place for God’s love to flow into us.

Appropriately that’s one of the reasons Jesus gave us the church. The church is the “umbilical cord” that feeds us, and gives us all that we need to engage one another in faith, and live out Jesus’ command in Matthew 22. “God is love,” and the church is the one place ordained by Jesus for us to know that fully.

We’ll look at this a little more on Sunday. In the meantime, let the cards, flowers and gifts of love flow!

Easter continues!

Like our beloved American pastime, baseball, Easter is much more than opening day. Easter is a season, much like baseball.

Resurrection Sunday is our opening day of course. The Easter season lasts for 50 days and has a “World Series” event we call Pentecost (celebrating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit — Hebrews 10:15-16).

So, there you go, our Easter Musical this Sunday is not out of place. It’s our “All-Star break” of sorts. We’ll gather like the disciples in one room (our FirstPlace crowd and our Traditional worship folks) and recall God’s blessings of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. One place to hear the great “Old, Old Story” of God’s grace and salvation.

All the fans of Jesus Christ are invited. Dress is casual. A nursery will be provided.

This is a great time to bring a neighbor and acquaint them with Royston First. It’s going to be a wonderful and blessed “All-Star game,” worshiping and hearing the Easter Story of God’s love and grace as one church family.

Details: Our FirstPlace praise-&-worship band will open worship for us and give all a taste of of contemporary worship. From there we’ll then enjoy our Easter musical, “Lord of Light,” performed by the Royston First and Chapelwood UMC chancel choirs, accompanied by an instrumental ensemble.

Come look back at Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday, as we remember together the work of God through His Son, Jesus Christ!

Easter is a choice

We are midway in the most holy and sacred season of our Christian year, Lent. As the flowers budding are reminders to us that spring is coming, so too, the symbols of crosses with purple cloth draped over them are reminders of Jesus’ journey and Easter morning before us.

The goal of Lent is simply to give us pause to consider our relationship to God and draw closer to that which we are called in our vows as Christians. Over these 40 days of Lent, we, like so many churches, have placed on our front lawn three crosses to symbolize the saving action of Jesus over life and death. Then on our church sign we have placed the words, “Jesus Came; Now It’s Your Move.”

Our hope is during this sacred season, they will give you pause to consider your eternal destiny.

We are days away now from joining Christian congregations all over the world in recounting the Three Days that changed the relationship between God and humankind. We will enter Jerusalem with Jesus in celebration on Palm Sunday (4/28), we’ll sit with Jesus and participate in His Last Supper on Maundy Thursday (4/1), and we will sit at the foot of the cross helpless on Good Friday (4/2).

Then, early at the Gandy farm, we’ll gather in the dark and remember as the sun comes up, how the “true and everlasting light” of salvation shone forth from the empty tomb.

During these days before Easter, I want you to consider the choice God made to empty himself and to empty that tomb. Then think about the choices you’re making in response.

God made a choice in sending His Son Jesus Christ into the world. And, by way of an empty tomb, He created a whole new destination for humankind.

In the same way, every choice we make also creates a new destination. It’s true for the foods we eat, the way we drive our cars, how we spend our time and spend our money. With every choice, good or bad, there is a particular destination that cannot be avoided.

Isn’t that what we say to our kids, our spouses, our friends and our family with conviction over and over? “If you continue to choose ‘X,’ you are going to end up…”

Unfortunately, most of us just aren’t very good at heeding the warnings of parents, employers, or even our most trustworthy friends. Like our ancestors Adam and Eve before us, we are much too open to the devil’s enticements, and end up taking the chance it’ll all work out in the end. We do it with credit cards, our love relationships, and the way in which we look after the earth.

Worse yet, we take the same stance when it comes to our vows to follow Jesus. We take the chance that when our hour comes, God will work it all out for us. And quite frankly, more days than not, I wish that were true so I could sleep better when I’m called upon.

The devil wants you to believe God will work it out no matter what choices you make. Folks, it’s a lie. God can’t work it out in the end anymore because he’s already worked it out ahead of time.

God removed the aspect of “chance” from of your eternal destiny, and made it fool-proof through the empty tomb. There’s only one catch to God’s Easter plan: you have to make a choice on this side of life to serve Christ’s work in the world — or not.

During these days look closer at the three crosses in the front of our church. Think about the choices of the two criminals crucified on either side of Jesus. One said, in effect, “If you are God, work it out man; get us off of here!” The other simply repented and said, “Remember Me.”

God made a choice, and Jesus gave us Easter! Now you and I have a choice of destinations.

What’s worth more?

The stars lined up a few years ago and our government actually admitted it made an error. The U.S. Treasury minted some coins without the inscription, “In God We Trust.” To boot, they had no account to identify just how many of these coins were manufactured.

As the news got out, hundreds of these coins began to show up on eBay. Now, coins people used to tossed on theirs dressers were being closely inspected. After all, a cheap coin might now be worth a fifty-dollar bill.

All of a sudden, these pieces of metal fragments were like little diamonds. Now think about this for a minute, theologically. These coins without the proper inscription were technically just fragments of metal, worth little more than a paper clip. Yet, our culture magnified their value percentage-wise into a better return than Madoff’s Ponzi schemes. All because “In God We Trust” was missing.

On one level we can understand the economics of the value of rare coins. Yet, it’s disconcerting to think taking God off anything would make it more valuable.

Remembering this story caused me to consider how the economics of daily living causes us to unintentionally leave out “In God We Trust.” Without any accounting, other things become more valuable than God in our lives. (Maybe that’s why the early Christian church began a season of Lent in anticipation of Easter?)

We can’t deny the economics of our culture. Our culture will always steer us into the notion that our lives become more valuable when they are lived unencumbered. Over time, what God has specifically revealed to us in the Bible about how we are to live (“In God We Trust”) is minted out.

Sure, we still hang a cross on the wall or around our neck. But we head out into our day doing “what I want, how I want, and when I want.” The concept of faith — of trusting God — becomes burdensome baggage, an unnecessary obligation.

In a sense, this is true. Faith in Jesus always requires something from us. Living in relationship with God will always call us to realize the life we live isn’t our own. If we’re not giving of ourselves to God in a way that cost us something, that may be a signal for us to look in the mirror.

We have made our vow in faith to Jesus, saying, “You are my Lord.” In that act of faith, we have been imprinted with the presence of God. Lent calls us to look into the mirror of our souls and remember the true value of our existence rests not in the world’s economics, but in God’s. Our lives become truly valuable when we experience this reality.

The season of Lent asks you and me to live the more valuable life. You can’t buy it on eBay, but you can mint it right where you are. The only raw material required is the willingness to stamp your life, “In God I Trust.”

Yes, you will be encumbered. But that’s a good thing. Peter says it will make you more valuable than gold or silver. Now that’s something!

I am grateful for all the expressions of faith you continue to make in the work of Christ here at Royston First UMC.