It was a great Sunday at EPUMC, whatever you want to call what we did together last Sunday: our family reunion or our Annual Meeting or our worship service.  We did a number of very important things. 
 
We recognized what happened as we continued to be open to the presence of the Holy Spirit in 2017.

• Our Average Sunday Morning Worship attendance grew from 166 to 189!
• We celebrated 15 baptisms, not all of them babies.
• We grew 3,015 pounds of fresh vegetables all donated and used at PROP to feed the hungry of our community.
• We have grown as a safe and comfortable place for the GLBTQ community.
• We needed to repurpose 4 rooms to accommodate the growth in our Children’s ministry.

The list could go on but I only have so much space for the Memo every week.
 
We heard from and gave thanks to our wonderful staff: Deb, Don, Terri and now Jody about their work at and vision for our church. Wasn’t it good to see them all together? If you enjoyed that, come to one of our staff meetings at 10 o’clock on Wednesdays.  There you also get to see Rick and Becky.
 
And then we introduced our new worship theme for 2018; God’s Light: Seeing in a New Way.  This theme will be in worship and Sunday School, on Wednesday nights, in our music -- all around EPUMC.  We will be exploring how the light of God in our lives helps us to see the events, the people, the times of our lives, as a place where God is already present.  If you were here you heard that great story about neighbors Kay Wall and Jody Veatch who discovered they go to EPUMC together and saw each other in a new way.
 
We celebrated a brand new ministry that is being launched next week called “The Sheridan Story.”  This is a partnership we have entered with Oak Point Elementary School and a nonprofit called The Sheridan Story.  Our part is to fund and to pass out meals for the weekend for kids who are on school lunch assistance programs.
 
We spent some time understanding how most, if not all of our issues others might call problems, are for us at EPUMC challenges.  We call our issues challenges because most, if not all, come from the vitality we are experiencing. As such, our issues are “Challenges of Vitality.” We identified our financial status as a challenge of our vitality we need to face with some focus for this year. Last year ended with a deficit, which we covered using reserves. This year we are looking at projected deficit, too. 
 
One interesting way we have begun talking about our finances is in addition to looking at our accountant’s spreadsheet, we will also be reporting about our budget by using what we are calling an Activity-Based Budget.  This is a way of looking at our budget that includes only four areas:
1. Children’s Ministries
2. Worship
3.  Mission
4. Home (our facility and maintenance).
Reporting in this way on a regular basis is one way our Finance/Stewardship Team will be helping us to close this financial gap.
 
Finally, we claimed that we are a different church than we were even three years ago. In language that is familiar to some of us, we have begun a new life cycle. In the language of Jesus in the Gospel of John, as a church we have been “born again,” “born from above,” “born anew.”
 
It was a great day… great energy…great participation… now it is time with God’s help to make it a great year.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 
 

Did you hear what happened this past Sunday?  I’m not talking about the end of  Vikings game. Those 10 seconds or so more than likely had more people praying for the same thing than anything else last Sunday…at least in Minnesota.  No, I’m talking about what happened in the preschool Sunday School class at EPUMC.
 
Last Sunday, as we do every second Sunday of the year, our worship was centered upon the story of the baptism of Jesus and the reaffirmation of our baptismal vows. Now Deb Soderholm, our Children’s Ministry Coordinator, works very hard at coordinating the Sunday School lessons with what is going on in worship.  And so last Sunday’s lesson was all about baptism.
 
After Sunday School, Deb Webster, who taught the preschoolers, shared with me two lists.The first was how preschoolers…that means kids who are about 4 or 5 years old or so answered the question:  What is Baptism? at the beginning of their time together. Here are the responses:
            Get wet
            It’s a volcano
            Water Spills
            It’s a sea monster
            Front of Church.
Some of these are interesting as they dispel the myth that children have lost their imaginations to video games.
 
Deb then showed me the second list that asked the same question, What is Baptism? after class. Although these responses were not as creative, they certainly are instructive.
            Water on your head
            Water on a baby’s head three times
            Dad…I forgot…
            Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
            Family gets BIGGER!
            Everyone’s Family.
This list dispels the myth that preschoolers are not listening as they are running the teacher ragged.
 
When Deb Webster showed me the second list, and I looked at the responses and said, ”HALLILEAUAH!  Somebody gets it!” Baptism is a celebration of being a part of God’s family. It is a way we tell ourselves that God has called us together in community.
 
For lack of a better phrase, this coming Sunday is known as our Annual Meeting. Maybe we should listen to the preschoolers and start calling it a family reunion. This coming Sunday is going to be a day to celebrate just how we have experienced God calling us together as a family in 2017 and where we are going together in 2018. And I am hoping that everyone in the family which, means everyone who is reading this, shows up.
 
We will introduce our theme for the year: God’s Light: Seeing in a New Way. All year we will be exploring how a relationship with Jesus changes how we understand our lives, our family, our world. Like all the family reunions I’ve been to we will: Tell some important stories from the last year, talk about how our kids are doing and where we are going and we will also have a potluck dinner. 
 
Let’s make this family gathering something to remember.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 

Recently at Original Pancake House, our breakfast server was Lindsay.  I asked her if I could tell this story, and she was excited to share it with you. Lindsay has been our server a number of times. She is the one who pays so much attention to detail that she often puts her hand between the coffee pot she is pouring out of and the coffee cup she is pouring into to prevent any of what servers sometimes call “drippage.”
 
This morning with the snow and wind blowing outside things were a little slow, so a couple of other servers had gathered round our table to chat.  One of them asked if Lindsay had told us her news. We said, “No, what news?” Lindsay put down her coffee pot, gave up the biggest smile that you could possibly imagine, and then said, “I’m pregnant…. with triplets!”
 
I can’t describe what I felt at that moment. I really don’t know Lindsay that well, but still I felt a mixture of happiness for her and whatever it is that comes to our minds when we hear the phrase “with triplets.”  Of course, what matters is how Lindsay seems to be taking this. I’m happy to report that for being a pretty matter-of-fact kind of woman, she seemed very excited. It also seemed to me that she was looking forward to this unexpected adventure that awaits her.
 
I have no idea what it might be like to be pregnant, much less pregnant with triplets. One of the things I do know something about is the energy that surrounds Eden Prairie UMC these days; it is pregnant with possibilities that we cannot now fully anticipate.  Another way of saying that last sentence is that I have no idea what exciting, engaging, life-transforming experiences are going to happen next here at EPUMC. I only know that something is going to happen beyond my expectations. I am looking forward to the adventures both expected and unexpected that await us.
 
Just as there are no words to describe…”Pregnant…with Triplets…” I have no words to describe what we can expect in 2018.  But on Jan. 21 during worship, we are going to try.  We’re going to remember what some of our adventures have been in 2017 -- the dramatic rise in worship attendance, the ministry opportunities that literally came calling on us. There are several others, so be ready to celebrate.
 
And then I’ll take up most of our time in worship exploring as best as we can imagine, the direction of our adventures in 2018.  We’ll reveal our theme for worship in 2018. We have a great story to tell of recognizing God in your life. And an invitation to see God’s light shining in the challenges our present vitality is presenting us. I’ll have more to say during worship Jan. 21. For this week, I cannot encourage you enough to set that Sunday morning apart to be with your EPUMC church family.
 
By the way, if you go to OPH in the next couple of months and have the server who is a bit petite and goes by the name of Lindsay, tip her a little extra…she is going to need all the encouragement we can give her.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

​It’s a new year, and so like a lot of you, I will be creating some new folders for my computer for 2018.  This is a reminder for me that time is marching on and in addition to a new folder to save stuff in, there will be a few different experiences and changes in my life that I cannot now foresee or predict. However, I do know one thing that is happening with my family and it’s important that I share it with you today and some thoughts around it.
 
My wife, Katie is also a United Methodist Pastor.  She serves Excelsior United Methodist Church; this is a big reason why you don’t see her here on Sunday mornings.  We met in Graduate School, which for pastors has a special name called Seminary, in 1978.  We have always been what our church world calls a “Clergy Couple.”  When people ask us how we serve different churches, have a marriage that has lasted 36 years so far and raised a family, our answer is that we’ve not known anything different.
 
Well, something different is happening in 2018. This past Sunday my wife, Katie announced to her congregation that she will retire in June 2018. I’m not sure what all this means for us…we’ll figure it out.  What is important for me to tell you today is that I AM NOT retiring.  And further, I’ve not made a decision about when I will retire. I do know it will NOT be this year.  Knowing that many members of EPUMC have friends or family at Excelsior UMC, I thought it was important to speak about this new development in my life.
 
The why of Katie’s retirement in 2018 is Katie’s story to tell.  The story of why I am NOT is mine and it has a lot to do with the energy and excitement that being a part of EPUMC brings to my life. 2017 has been one of the most exhilarating and engaging years in my  35 now going on 36 years as a full time pastor. 
 
What God is doing through each one of us and all of us together has been amazing to see from my vantage point as the pastor at EPUMC. Sometimes I like to call this vantage point a “balcony view.”  From where I sit, I can see so many things working together for God’s good purposes. With all the rest of our wonderful staff, I am preparing for our Annual Meeting on Sunday, January 21. Then we will share with you the vision we have from our balcony views for EPUMC. 
 
This vision includes our new theme for 2018 worship, “God’s Light:  Seeing in a New Way.”  We’ll talk about some new areas of ministry including The Sheridan Story, a food ministry to kids and families, and the Vietnamese Faith Fellowship that is now meeting in our facility.  We are going to talk about the money in a new way this year. We will also elect our new leadership for 2018.
 
January 21, 2018 is an important morning for the life of our church.  It’s going to be like creating a new folder that holds the promise of being another great year!  I want to encourage you now to make it a priority for you and your family to be here to help start our new year at EPUMC.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan