Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
A Challenge of Vitality
 
The other day Deb (our Director of Children’s Ministry) and I were talking and celebrating a great September at EPUMC.  We’ve had something of an influx of families with younger children.  This has meant enough new kids around that we had to add a Sunday School class.  This in turn means that Deb gets to find more teachers.  Deb is the best at this and so as we talked, both of us laughed because we realized that we were discussing The New Challenges of Vitality at EPUMC.
 
Each one of us on staff has talked about these new challenges of vitality at one time or another, and we think it is great. We feel it is what a lot of people call a blessing and that it is something to be celebrated…especially because we believe that along with the challenge of vitality will come a response from a sense of vitality.
 
A few months ago I was talking about this using the phrase “passion, not obligation.”  By that I meant that when any of us responds to even the most mundane need less out of “somebody has to do this” and more out of (what I’ve been hearing a lot of lately )…. “I can do that…”  then great things happen.
 
This acting out of passion, not obligation is contagious, and it is creating even more vitality at EPUMC.   Last night I saw someone I would have never dreamed of staffing the nursery along with Elicia.  By the way, did you know that we need at least two people in the nursery on WEDNESDAY NIGHTS because we have so many young families participating in choir. If that isn’t a challenge of vitality, I don’t know what is.
 
We’ve had to take more time in staff meetings to coordinate the use of the fellowship hall on Wednesday nights, because we have all kinds of people coming at 6 to hang out together.  If you haven’t checked it out…and have been around here for a while…it’s like the soup suppers, without the soup but with the people.
 
Here is something else…. Coffee in the narthex has been, forgive me for this, a HUGGGEE success.  Being a coffee drinker and knowing other coffee drinkers, my guess is that if we stop doing this we will have some questioning hearts during worship and it won’t be about the love of God in Jesus Christ. The coffee will be there this Sunday, but I’m still trying to figure out how and who will help make sure this keeps happening. 
 
Now I am not trying to say that we do not have some other, less appealing challenges in front of us….we certainly do. The point is that I want to encourage us to respond to them with the same sense of vitality as we face these other challenges. 
 
In the Bible Jesus is constantly reminding his disciples that they have all that is needed to be about the work of proclaiming the good news of faith. Its not just a few pep talks Jesus gives…Jesus isn’t a motivational speaker…he is a life giver.  And when we respond to our challenges in life with the faith that God will provided what is needed we experience the new life, the vitality in life…. Jesus promised.

Keep the Faith,
​Pastor Dan 

This Sunday is Bible Sunday in worship.  On Bible Sunday we present Bibles to 3rd graders and the confirmation class, which this year means 8th graders. After we present them with their Bibles, I’ll teach everybody a prayer I came up with a few years ago.  It’s the one where you take the Bible in your hands and then say.
           
            God help me to hear your word…. And touch an ear with the Bible.
            To understand your word…..And touch your forehead with the Bible
            To love your word……And touch your heart with the Bible
            And to share your word…..As you stretch your arms open wide.
 
I get a real kick out of teaching this prayer because after saying it once, the third graders will have it down.  And hopefully nobody has hit themselves on the forehead too hard. I like the physical motions of the prayer as they remind me that reading the Bible is not only an exercise of our mind.
 
Hearing the word… the process of our ears listening means that sometimes at least, we read what is in the Bible out loud…with others.  This reminds me that although the Bible is meant to speak to our lives individually, it is also a collection of different communities’ experiences with God.  Reading the Bible together is important, for in order to hear the call of God in our lives together, we must also listen to each other.
 
Understanding God’s word can be the place we need God’s help the most.  Understanding the Bible is not just about having a working knowledge of the stories and lessons it has to teach. Understanding the Bible is more than paying attention to context and the background of the Bible. Understanding the Bible is also recognizing that these 66 books put together have a particular intention. And that intention is to tell about God’s love and purpose, we Christians believe through Jesus Christ, for all of creation.
 
On Sunday we are going to hear from someone who has told me many times that he loves God’s word. I’ve heard that before, but I’ve not been around anyone else who is able to consistently express that in a way that is both genuine and relevant.  It appears to me that loving God’s word is for this guy also trusting that God’s word will provide what is needed in his life enough to pay attention to what the Bible has to say him.
 
Sharing God’s word is not just sharing “the words.”  We don’t all need to memorize the Bible or become Gideons.  Sharing the word is sharing how the scriptures have transformed our lives. Sharing God’s word is telling our story; it is living as if the Bible has within it something we have experienced that is worth sharing.
 
This Sunday try to remember to bring to church with you the Bible you read out of at home.  Say the prayer with the 3rd and 8th graders and me.  And if you don’t have a Bible to read at home….come and see me; I’ll make sure you get one.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

Together we took a major step on Sunday morning at worship.  We encouraged you to bring your coffee into worship without fear of retribution.  We provided coffee for those of you who forgot to get some on the way to church.  We even had someone serving it to help those who thought that bringing coffee into church was not something Jesus would approve of.  So many of you thought this was such a good idea that we ran out of coffee about half way through the sermon because you went back for refills.  (I’m thinking that is why so many more people were awake all the way through the sermon.)
 
Reports from Rick, our custodial engineer, are very good.  He said, “There was less of a mess than usual.” When we talked about the coffee at our staff meeting this week we concluded that maybe we should do this again, maybe even keep doing it.  And so, for at least the next three weeks of our “Learning to Tell our Stories” sermon series, we will. After that, we’ll see. For sure though, those of you who have your Caribou or Starbucks or homemade coffee in the car…don’t worry about bringing it in to church.
 
A lot of churches have been doing this for a long time and so to some, this is such a non-issue, that it is a bit odd for me to be writing about it. For others it is such a divergent practice that it makes you wonder if are we going to unplug the organ next.  We are not unplugging the organ. So why do I think it’s such a major step?
 
I think coffee in church is such a major step for us because it illustrates a willingness to bring who we really are at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning into worship.  Now of course you can do that without coffee, and there are some times when you should leave the little bit of comfort and distraction behind.  But if worship is a place you bring your real true self….and if you are a coffee drinker, that real true self often includes something a little warm that you can sip on as you think and reflect, then as one great theologian has said, “Why not?”
 
My hope is that our worship continues to be a place where those of us who enter into it together have put aside our pretensions and facades and recognize that we are all beloved children of God who are in need of his grace.  It’s that need that brings us together, not the coffee or anything else we have chosen as a measure of holiness.
 
So next week, bring your coffee or tea or whatever into church with you. And when you do, bring yourself also, bring your real 10 o’clock on a Sunday self. It is that daughter or son that God longs to touch, inspire, and send out.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 
 

​Sunday is what we call “Rally Sunday.” It’s going to be a great day at EPUMC. We’ve got just about every team or small group in the church preparing to be at tables around the fellowship hall….I think with all different kinds of treats. We’ll have a bouncy house outside along with our now famous playground for kids to jump and play on.  There will be music playing and friends meeting; a good time is sure to be had by all.
 
This Sunday we also will begin a new sermon series.  We’re calling it “Learning to Tell our Stories by Listening to God’s Story.”  Our worship design team, knowing that these days most of us tell the stories of our lives over coffee or some other treat at a coffee shop have created “The Small Enough to Care Café” at EPUMC. And so we’re inviting you to bring your Starbucks or Caribou coffee into church with you.  There will also be the amazing Small Enough to Care Café “Worship Blend” available at the welcome center. 
 
It is important for us to learn to tell our stories…even if it is just for ourselves to hear because when we do, when we listen to our stories we make room for the Holy Spirit to heal and transform, direct and lead our lives. Our stories can also be the place God reaches another.
 
The first thing about telling our stories is that you don’t have to begin with what is the most important thing in your life.  I’m going to suggest that we begin to tell our stories by telling something…. anything about your life…From there it is believing that the Holy Spirit will lead you to a deeper, more significant reflection when you listen closely. On Sunday I’m going to start off by letting you all in on the fact that I cannot stand tuna fish.  For how I get to something important, you’ll have to come and hear.
 
Now that may sound so very trivial, irrelevant, even disrespectful for the week in which we have heard the sad and disturbing story of what happened to Jacob Wetterling. And yet perhaps it can be just the right time.  I believe that the power of the Wetterling story has come from the courage and… the willingness of his mother to tell it. And though few of us will have to face anything as public and compelling, all of us have stories to tell that God will use to inspire and help others. 
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan