Creation and Advent

I am not a writer. So with that note... I give you this.

So... one of my "pre" New Year goals, is to write more. In about a year, I will be turning in over 50 pages of paper work to the board on Ordained Ministry to the North Texas Conference to be fully ordained as an Elder. To help me prepare and get more thoughts out (even though I know these thoughts can come back to bite me) I am going to try to blog once a week on different issues.

My blog for this week has to deal with the start of the Advent season. Advent is the time where the church prepares for Christmas. The four Sunday's before Christmas, we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. At Grace UMC, we did this by presenting a play called Creation Chronicles. In this play, myself and a good friend Allen played the role of Biblical characters. Allen played God, and Cain. I played Gabriel, Able and Jonah. It was a brilliant look of our human condition and how God extended grace for the creation God loved, in the words of the play... I have to make them (talking about human beings)

There is one scene where Jonah is talking to God and they play a role reversal game. Jonah is now God and shares that "I created you in my image, you and everyone else. This is my grand experiment." God replies "so you know what I'm thinking, how I feel" Jonah finishes with, "You are free... but you know that I am here with you."

We are free, we have been given an extraordinary gift of life. We have also been given the gift of Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven, to live like we live. Experience all we experience. The thought of that makes my head spin. The feelings I have, Christ has felt. Joy, Excitement, Loneliness. What a gift we have been given to live like Christ lived.

May God bless you this Christmas season and may you know that God is here with you.

Why I am Thankful

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. I'm sitting at home with a Turkey in the oven, watching "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" DVD with our 14 year old. The past week, has been a strong week of reflection. I guess that is appropriate with Thanksgiving being tomorrow and all of that. So I thought I would just list a few of the things, I am thankful for.

First I'm thankful for God who loves me even when I am unlovable. Who cares so much for me that he sent Jesus to live like one of us in order to feel and experience our lives. I'm thankful that he has provided for me my past 37 years and I am looking forward to enjoying God's provisions for a long time to come.

I'm thankful for my family! My wonderful wife Tracy. For her continued love and support, for her taking the often thankless job of being a clergy spouse. For her encouragement when I'm down, for her pushing me forward when I just want to sit and sulk. For our three kids, Deborah, Timothy and Jacob. They bring joy and light to my life and I absolutely love watching all three grow into young adults. I'm proud that I have been able to be a part of their lives and can't wait to see the wonderful things that lay in store for them.

I'm thankful for my church family. Grace UMC has been a blessing over these past 3 + years. They have allowed for creativity, passion and change both within the operation of the church and within myself.

I'm thankful that I have a nice home, car, clothing and food. I'm thankful that I'm able to help others. Since God has given me so much... I must share my blessings with others, and I look for every opportunity to do so.

May God bless you and you celebrate Thanksgiving Day and may you share the blessings you have with others!

Stewardship Paper

I had to write a paper on Stewardship. This paper is probably more of a rant than a productive paper, but here it is anyway.

The past two years at Grace, we have had two different Stewardship campaigns. With these two campaigns we had two totally different results. In 2008, we followed the Stewardship campaign titled “Treasure of a Transformed Life” by John Ed Mathison. In his campaign, he focused on the vows of membership and the responsibilities of total stewardship. Over the 6 week campaign, we talked about how as members of Grace UMC we are to support the church in prayers, presence, gifts, service and we also added the recent addition by General Conference of witness. We set up small groups to discuss Mathison’s book as well as preached on scripture from the campaign. When the campaign was over, we gathered up pledge cards that included not only how the members will support the church financially, but with their attendance, and prayers. We also passed out time and talent forms for the members to volunteer for different aspects of ministry at Grace. We had a tremendous response. Our pledged giving went up to 97 giving units from 68, we had more volunteers for mission and ministry and we ended the campaign with a positive push for 2009.

This year, we got the ball rolling on our stewardship campaign late. Our stewardship chair said he didn’t want to mess with all the hubbub and stuff we did last year, just get in… tell the congregation we need money… and get out. Our campaign consisted of passing out pledge cards, time and talent sheets and two sermons on stewardship. When the stewardship campaign was over, we were down from 97 giving units pledging to 79 and our time and talent sheets were also much lower.

Why the disparity? I believe we have three issues. The first is of course the financial crisis the country is going through. The second is we also have just completed a short Capital Campaign in which we were asking for over $150,000 to fix the foundation of the Celebration Center, pay off the mortgage of the Parsonage, and pay for the media upgrades in the Celebration Center. I believe that the main issue has to deal with the campaign being rushed and not focusing on full stewardship of the church.

As the church, we can no longer just ask for money and expect people to give, especially when the church has asked for help with capital improvements and with the economic downturn we are experiencing. I believe we received a huge increase in 2009 because we focused on the vows of membership during our campaign. We shared with the members the importance of our vows of prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness and through testimonies of members from the church, small group studies and sermons that reinforced the message of the week the membership of the church saw the importance of full stewardship to the church.

When we talk about stewardship, we do a disservice to our congregation if we just make it about the money. I had a chance to hear J. Clif Christopher from Horizons Stewardship at the recent NCLI seminar and he shared that the church must no longer expect people to give to the church, but they need to compete with an ever growing base of non-profit organizations. Three of the main reasons he gave for why people give were Belief in the mission, regard for staff, and fiscal responsibility. When you do a quick “blow-and-go” campaign you fail to effectively share the mission of the church and show the relationships that are built through the church. A church that just relies on a campaign to get the job done because that is what we do, will soon see that people won’t give, because the church doesn’t care about them, all they care about is getting money from the congregant. The, at the end of the year when funds are low, the church is low on credibility because they didn’t do the work to connect with the people.

By taking time to focus on the vows of membership through small groups, you have a chance to effectively share the mission of the church and build relationships between the members of the church through the small groups established. It is then up to the leadership of the church to show they are being fiscally responsible with the tithe’s and offerings given to the church.

Of course, as in any other place I am asking the congregation to go, I must be there as well. If I am expecting my congregation to tithe, I must tithe. If I am asking the congregation to be faithful in prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness, I must also lead by example and be faithful in all I do as a servant to Christ.

Let's Talk about Snakes

No… this blog isn’t about reptiles. I titled me blog this because I got this phrase from my wife. When ever she wants to change the subject or talk about something different… she will say, “Let’s talk about snakes.”

This blog isn’t trying to change the subject on anything, however I hope to use this blog to talk about many random things. Anything from what is going on in my life, what is happening in my ministry, and of course where I see God moving in my life through these things and in the world around me.

I hope you enjoy this blog and feel free to comment and add to the conversation. I can’t promise you answers, but it will be nice to share in conversation with others…

so without further ado… “Let’s talk about Snakes!