For the last year and a half our worship has been centered on the larger questions EPUMC is facing.  Last year it was, “How do we become a more Missional Congregation?”  We came out of last year with the thought that EPUMC is a gift from God that is meant to be shared. 
 
This year we are exploring:  “Finding our Place in God’s Story….By becoming Servants of Jesus Christ.”  We are learning to replace the “V” word (volunteer) as we discover what it means to be servants of Jesus Christ.
 
Beginning June 12, we will start a summer-long sermon series entitled: “Leaps of Faith.”  “Leaps of Faith” is about how we grow into our experience of faith by being attentive to a few things that take us to a new… deeper level.
 
 I’m a visual person and when I tried to imagine what this might look like I began to think of different moments when people experience being suspended between heaven and earth.  When I started to talk about this with our worship design team, the most common thing we thought of was swinging on a swing. It’s that moment when you are not really going any higher but also have not started back down. It’s the moment when you give yourself over to something that you do not totally control and is not really predicable. 
 
We are going to spend most of June and July on this topic.  Today I wanted to let you know that unlike many sermon series, this longer one is not as sequential as others have been.  Just saying, I thought that might be a good idea for a summer sermon series. Leaps of Faith include: Reading Scripture, Prayer, Worship.  These Leaps of Faith are first of all not just things we talk about.  Leaps of faith are things we do, practices that we can develop and well… practice… like a golf swing or cutting the grass.
 
You can try out these leaps of faith yourself during the week wherever you find yourself this summer.  This is why a lot of people call these “Disciplines.”  I balk at that word every time I hear it, knowing that one reason I am hesitant is that there is something important God is trying to say to me. 
 
The point in practicing these disciplines is not how well or consistently we do them.  The point is that we attempt an intention to grow in our relationship with God. I hope this summer as we attempt to practice the important parts of our faith that we will more fully become the servants of Jesus Christ our community needs.

The 2016 General Conference of the United Methodist Church has been meeting in Portland, OR, since last Tuesday…. It doesn’t end until tomorrow.  We United Methodist use the word conference to refer to all sorts of meetings. General Conference is the world-wide meeting of United Methodists. It happens every four years.
 
At General Conference, delegates from all over the world gather to celebrate the ministries of our denomination, meet and network, discuss theological and social issues and conduct business. The decisions of this body then are codified in what we call “The Discipline.” The model for our General Conference, as it is for our Minnesota Annual Conference (that is the meeting of all the churches in our state), is the legislative branch of our government.  Bishops preside over this conference.
 
As you can imagine, all sorts of things happen at General Conference.  There is inspiring worship and uninspiring debate. There is a celebration of the faith in Jesus Christ that unites us and the disappointment of how we treat each other based on the views that divide us.
 
Many of us have been waiting to see what the 2016 General Conference will do about our denomination’s stance on human sexuality.  This is an extremely divisive issue. At EPUMC we affirm the sacred worth of every person regardless of their sexual orientation.  It’s not a surprise to us that not all United Methodists believe alike on this.  And let’s just say that, like all attempts to legislate what millions of people believe, the attempt to codify this issue legislatively is doomed to frustration and division. 
 
A report from our Minnesota Annual Conference tells us what has happened at this General Conference regarding what might become our denomination’s official public stance.
 
On Wednesday, delegates voted 428-405 to accept a Council of Bishops recommendation to delay a debate on human sexuality until a new commission can examine the issue. The bishops will name a special commission that would completely examine and possibly recommend revisions of every paragraph in the Book of Discipline that are related to human sexuality. The commission will represent the different regions of the global church as well as the varied perspectives of its people. Should the commission complete its work before 2020, the year of the next General Conference, the bishops would call a special two- to three-day gathering in 2018 or 2019 where human sexuality could be further discussed.
 
Everyone is frustrated that we are not at this time able to reach a decision.  Many of us reading this memo believe it is a lot of time, energy, and money spent on a subject that we have already moved beyond.  And to a point, for our congregation, this is true.  Being a part of a global connectional church, like being a member of a very different, sometimes dysfunctional family system, means that sometimes that connection is more than a little messy.
 
Below are some links if you’d like to find out more about the many more wonderful things that happened and are happening at General Conference.  And oh, the next scheduled General Conference is in 2020, right here in Minneapolis.  
 
www.umc.org/topics/general-conference-2016
http://www.minnesotaumc.org
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 

This morning as with most Thursday mornings, I arrived a little before the doors open at The Original Pancake House. The doors there open at 6:30 a.m. and I am always amazed that there are several people waiting, like me, in their cars. We watch for Jake to come and open the door and then file in like a herd of cattle.
 
There was a guy waiting for another guy standing right in front of my car, and when I saw him take his first step, I knew it was time to get moving.  As I got out of my car still awaiting my first cup of coffee, I pressed the panic button instead of the lock button on my car bob.  I’m not sure how high that guy in front of my car jumped, but it was farther than me.
 
I apologized and then as I sometimes do…to my detriment…I said the first thing that came into my head, which was, “Well, that’ll scare Jesus into you.”  The guy looked back at me and countered with what I thought was the perfect response, “He’s already there.”
 
This reminds me of the best story ever about a little girl at the doctor’s office.  The doctor is checking her heartbeat and says, “I hear Barney in your heart.”  The little girl looks at him and says with a straight face, “Jesus is in my heart, Barney is on my pajamas!”
 
The thought that Jesus is metaphorically in the hearts of others is something I need to be reminded of from time to time. It’s not so much that I need to know who considers themselves a Christian and who doesn’t.  It’s more about reminding myself that God is sneaky and will do what it takes to get my attention and prompt me to realize that however he has gotten there, Jesus is in me, too.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

Great Big Things are happening at EPUMC this week.  This huge crane was amazing… it lifted into place the new air conditioning unit for the office area.  I arrived  as it was finishing. This crane is really just the tip of the iceberg of the Great Big Things that are going on.  
 
Earlier this week work started on the roof right above my office. The air conditioning units are already in place to cool down the fellowship hall.  And the parking lot comes in August.
 
The workers right above my office have made it a bit challenging for me to do much this week.  But my jobs most summers during college and seminary were some sort of dirty or heavy work that often disturbed someone working in a office, so I understand people are just doing their job.  So when I was distracted yesterday, I just said to myself, “go ahead…..make all the noise you need to,  put the boom box up on the roof right above me….turn it all the way up…. that’s all Ok… I can take anything for a few days… even this country music …. but do you have to sing along?"  
 
This minor inconvenience highlights for me the excitement of seeing the great things happening that we have dreamed about for so many years. From the beginnings of envisioning what could be, to the courage of so many to respond so generously, and now watching it happen.  It has all been a lesson in trusting…trusting that we are participating in God’s vision for EPUMC and our community. 
 
 
 
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