This weekend is the annual Women’s Retreat.  The Women’s Retreat is when about 30 or so women from our church gather for the weekend at a retreat center in Prior Lake.  Like most retreats, the women at our church retreat spend time relaxing, learning, talking, worshiping, and my guess is, one or two of the moms sneak in a nap. 
 
On Saturday morning of the retreat I go out to say a quick hello at breakfast. Last year…I don’t know how… but I forgot.  Beth Holland texted me, wondering where I was.  I got there in time to watch them clear the dishes, and so I asked if a guy could stick around for a part of their first session.  Deb Soderholm, who leads this great event, thought that would be ok. 
 
There were few things at the women’s retreat that were different from most other retreats I’ve been on with mixed company or with just guys.  First, there simply was a lot more chocolate in the room being passed around. (This was especially true, Deb tells me, the year their theme was “Chocolate.”) And second, about half of the crew was doing something with their hands -- knitting, counted cross stitch, and other things besides taking notes. However, like many of the retreats I’ve been on, there was that sense that everyone who was in that circle had spent the entire evening before and that morning at breakfast taking a big, relaxing breath. Now they were ready to do something completely different from what they do on most Saturdays.
 
Retreats are a place to be renewed, refreshed and rejuvenated.  They are something like a vacation in that sense.  Retreats also have the intention of opening ourselves to some learning or perhaps even a spiritual experience that we simply cannot have in the middle of the everydayness of life. Retreats are recognizing that we all need some time to let go, to put aside, to leave behind what we so often carry as burdens, and recognize that there is a big, bright, beautiful world out there that we cannot always recognize.
 
I want to thank all the women who have made the choice to attend this retreat.  I pray that you may have a time of letting go and opening your heart to God’s intention for your weekend. One last thing I’d like to share with you… in monastic orders, which is in some ways like a life-long retreat, the brothers refer to everything with different words.  My favorite is that when you take a nap you’re not sleeping; you are “Resting in the Lord.” 
 
May we all find a time of being with Christ…but especially this weekend, may the women of our church on this retreat be blessed with his presence. 
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

“Gracious God, may the passion of your Holy Spirit burn bright on Sunday at EPUMC.”
 
Many of you must have been praying this prayer last week before our Annual Meeting. I’m saying this because in a word last Sunday was a great day for EPUMC.  And let me be clear this is not a memo that is trying to say, “you should have been there.”  It’s just that so many great things happened, I want to tell you about it and remind those of us who were there that sometimes our prayers are answered in such an obvious way that it is important to claim God’s presence with us.
 
We had a great crowd on the coldest morning of the winter in worship. We began the day by singing, “I’m Going to Live so God Can Use Me.”  Although we said we’d learn how to clap later, somebody just couldn’t wait and those of us who could were clapping, as they say, on 2 and 4 pretty loudly by the end of it all.
 
Most everyone stayed for the potluck that followed.  Food is always a draw.  And at the meeting Don, Deb and I introduced our theme for worship in 2016 which is….
                FINDING OUR PLACE IN GOD’S STORY
                BY BECOMING SERVANTS OF CHRIST.
 
One way we’re having a little fun with this is banning the word “volunteer” from our church vocabulary. I believe volunteers choose to do things from their skills (this is a good and needed thing); servants respond to a need out of their gifts. (This is what we are called to be as the body of Christ.) We are planning to collect $1 for every time I or anyone else utters that little dirty word “volunteer” and give it to some mission project.  I already have a $10 bill in what somebody called the “cuss jar.”
 
If you’d like to read over the different reports, there is a booklet available in the church office. It has financials, information about our membership and our roster of elected leadership.  We only printed 50 so hurry up they may go quickly.  (smile)
 
Towards the end I encouraged us to change the way we measure ourselves this year.  I suggested we
Be attentive to the time we spend as servants of Christ.


Find ways to tell our stories of being servants of Christ that inspire others.

Develop and begin at least one new “signature ministry” in addition to the community garden.

And then… then… we heard from the Capital Needs Team.  The results of our Stewardship and Capital Needs Campaigns exceeded our expectations.  We unanimously approve a motion to proceed with our Capital Needs Project to continue to Make Great Things Happen here by: Raising the Roof, Chilling Out and Pounding the Pavement. Work is beginning very soon to repair our roof, install air conditioning in several places in our facility including the fellowship hall, and repair the parking lot.
 
Last Sunday was a great day!  Maybe we should keep praying before every Sunday…
“Gracious God, may the passion of your Holy Spirit burn bright on Sunday at EPUMC.”
 
 
               
 
 

Sunday is a big day at EPUMC.  Every Sunday is of course an important day at church, but this Sunday is an especially important one for this particular church we call EPUMC. 
 
On Sunday we will connect how this last year of “Becoming a Missional Congregation” is propelling us forward toward a new year of exploring how we will “Find Our Place in God’s Story by Becoming Servants of Christ.”  I want to encourage you to come in out of the cold and plan to spend some extra time beyond worship at the potluck dinner and the time of vision we call our Annual Meeting.
 
Last year was the most fun many of us have ever had at something called an Annual Meeting.  I think it was because of a few things we hope to repeat on Sunday.

• First, people showed up.I know it’s not about quantity but quality of the group that matters, but it’s just more fun with more people and we all feel better when more people come to an important event.
• Second, we had food; good food and plenty of it…. with dessert….and you could go back for seconds….even when I start talking.
• And third, we talked more about what’s coming up then we did reporting on what we did last year.In a couple of words, it was interesting and relevant.

 
This year in addition to everything else, we will hear encouraging news from our Capital Needs team about the next steps in the “Great Things Are Happening Here” project.  There will be plenty of time for questions and a chance for all of us to affirm this team’s continued work improving our ministry by improving our building. 
 
We are doing a lot of things to make attending worship/ fellowship/and this annual meeting easy, worth your while and for what it is worth….fun. 

• We’ll make sure the heat is turned up and the sidewalk shoveled.
• We’ll have a microphone so you can hear. There will be pictures, graphs, and who knows, maybe Sparky to perk things up a bit.We will even have a booklet you can read if you get bored.
• We’ll have extra help and activities for the kids to keep them occupied.
• The things we’ll talk about will be what you need to be aware of as an active and engaged member of EPUMC.

 
If you just cannot make it, please join me and begin today to pray for our time together.  I am convinced that so many of the great things that happened here in 2015 came from the energy and excitement to say nothing of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we experienced together at last year’s annual meeting.  If you are wondering what to pray, let me suggest the following: 
 
“Gracious God, may the passion of your Holy Spirit burn bright on Sunday at EPUMC.”
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

It was the first Wednesday night that I’ve been at EPUMC without Andrew, our now former Youth Director.  Oh, there have been a couple of times when he was away or I was away, but this was the first time I needed to do the things Andrew always took care of.  They are really very simple tasks:  Calling in the pizza order so kids showing up here have something to eat.  Getting the glasses and water ready.  Being present when the first youth arrives. Learning how to run the dishwasher in the kitchen and picking up before I left. I didn’t mind, and it moved me to say a prayer of gratitude for all Andrew has done here.
 
There is something soothing about being attentive to simple yet necessary tasks. I’ve experienced this often as I’ve prepared the bread and the juice for Holy Communion. Anybody can take bread out of a wrapper and pour juice in a cup.  And perhaps that is the “something.”   There are some things we do for one another when what matters is our attentiveness to our intention.  When you pour juice into a cup with the knowledge that others will very soon experience this as the presence of Christ, the simple act becomes well…sacred.
 
I once watched as someone who had prepared the bread and juice noticed that there were some rather large crumbs on the floor after every one was served the sacrament. She came to the front and without drawing attention to herself simply picked up the crumbs and put them on the plate I was holding.  I was so moved by that simple attentiveness that I’ve started pay attention to that myself.  I’m not trying to be “holier than thou”; it’s just I can’t abide someone picking up those crumbs with a vacuum cleaner.
 
This attitude of attentiveness does not need to be limited to the elements of Holy Communion. Any small act of kindness, courtesy or consideration we offer others can become sacred when there is something of an attentiveness behind it.  I’m not saying that we should always pause to reflect why we are doing something, just sometimes.
 
Take last night for instance, we didn’t have that big a crowd and yet all the pizza was eaten. Those glasses, although a bit of a pain, have the names of kids on them.  As I picked up and put those glasses in the dishwasher I thought: there is “something” about making sure that kids can feel at home in this place.

Keep the Peace,

Pastor Dan