Blog Archives

Weekly Memo: Expanding our Common Bonds

9/28/2017

One of the new things in my life is something called, “cardiac rehab.” Cardiac rehab is where you work out three times a week at the hospital. While you are working out, you are surrounded by nurses and exercise physiologists who monitor your blood pressure and heart rate. It’s a good thing.

On my first day there I ran into a retired pastor I’ve known for many years. We were friends enough for him to ask me, “What are you doing here?” I answered, “for the same reason you are.” Then yesterday Don Bates from our church surprised me by being there. He came over to say a hello and said, “It catches up with the best of us, partner.” Don is great…he always knows just what to say. J

These experiences have set me to wondering not only who will I run into next at cardiac rehab, but also what I now share in common with others that I really had not before. What I mean is an awareness of something in my life that must now be monitored out of necessity instead of choice. I used to monitor my heart rate as a way to gauge how fast I could go on my bike. Now I monitor it to measure if my heart is healthy enough to even get on my bike. And here is the thing -- I do not appreciate having to be aware of this.

This new awareness also introduces a new limit in my life that for some reason I didn’t think I would have to deal with. Of course the reason I didn’t think I’d have to deal with it has something to do with the idea that this stuff doesn’t happen to me or that I’m somehow different than everyone else. Yet, as Don so graciously reminded me, “It catches up with the best of us.”

One of the things that I’m finding out about life as I live longer is that we share a lot more of the stuff that catches up with us than we imagined. And when we share one of these limits, it creates something like a common bond or at least a sense of facing a common challenge. This can help us understand each other.

Like yesterday, there was this one guy. He insisted on having his monitor put on him ahead of me, he talked to the nurses in a tone that I thought was disrespectful, and to top it off, he hurried into the shower before me making me have to wait and then run late for my next thing. I mean, what makes him so special?

So I’m hurrying to make my next thing, when this guy comes to my mind. And what comes to my mind is not what a jerk he had been or what was his problem. No, I wondered how many stents he had in him keeping him alive and left it at that.

Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

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Weekly Memo: EPUMC Excitement

9/21/2017

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I invited Bart Reed to write the memo this week. He has an important message for our church in these exciting times.

For many people, back-to-school time seems like the start of a new year. And while the church year is technically ending soon, Celebration Sunday had the feel of a kickoff. The energy of the day reflected the vitality of our congregation and the presence of the Holy Spirit among us. Also among us were a number of visiting families!

Last Wednesday night featured the return of "The Huddle" and the kickoff for our youth programs. The strong turnout for Connect Club and BLT was matched by nearly a dozen high school youth attending Higher Grounds, an encouraging sign of the revitalization of that program. And last Sunday, we had the chance to witness and support the baptism of Hannah, daughter of a visiting family who felt comfortable coming to Eden Prairie United Methodist Church for that sacred event.

God is at work among us, fueling our church's growing vitality. We need to respond with our presence, our engagement and our service. And because increased financial needs can be one "challenge of vitality," we need to remain consistent in supporting the church with our financial gifts.

Please take a moment to consider the pledges and capital commitments you made to the church for 2017. We've fallen a bit behind on pledge fulfillment during the summer months, and we still have 2017 capital commitments outstanding. With the needed but unbudgeted addition of Jody Veatch as our Assistant Director of Children's Ministries and the bridge loan we took on to pay for our 2016 capital projects, it's important to have everyone stay current in their financial support of the church.

If you have any questions about your pledges, capital commitments or year-to-date contributions, please contact Dave Zuelke by email (davezuelke@msn.com) or mobile phone (612 810-7471). Thanks for helping make our church "Big Enough to Make a Difference" while remaining "Small Enough to Care."

Keept the Faith,
Pastor Dan

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Weekly Memo: Benefits of hanging out

9/14/2017

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Last night was the kick off for our Wednesday night programing. We have a fire down at the fire pit… which…. if you have not been down there, is not a bad fire pit. We had hot dogs and marshmallows and S’mores. There is no real rhyme or reason to what is going on… you just get in line and find place by the fire. The interesting thing about this is that all kinds of people show up. Youth… kids, young families with children… people who have been or will be working in the garden…this year there were even a few choir members…

Like gatherings at most fire pits… there is no agenda for this meeting. The agenda is “hanging out.” Hanging out is a phrase I’ve been hearing more and more often these days. It describes a time when you don’t have anything particularly important to do or accomplish but you’d like to be together. So instead of saying something like, “you want to go for some coffee?” folks will say, “you wanna hang out?”

I’ve been to my share of church meetings where I wish that we would have shortened the agenda to about 10 minutes or so of whatever we needed to talk about and then say we’re just gonna “hang out.” Now, I know this would drive a lot of you out there crazy, but the truth is it might remind us that when we are at church, whatever we may think we are talking about, our agenda is each other.

Church is a community of faith where we listen to each other… where we help each other see that we are not alone in this world… Church is a place where we hang out together and in the hanging out, we have the opportunity to experience the love God has shared with the world in Jesus Christ.

So last night I was walking around the fire pit, just well, you know, hanging out with everybody. I went over to talk to my buddy Raymond. Raymond is I think about 3 or 4 and just got new glasses, but he wasn’t wearing them. When I asked Raymond where his glasses were he said, “I just didn’t want to wear them.” This made perfect sense to Raymond. His mom just gave me a look.

So I’m talking to Raymond, and I know his favorite color is green, so I ask, “Raymond, do you like green beans?” And he says “no.” I ask, “Do you like broccoli?” He says “no” again. So I say, “Raymond I thought your favorite color was green, what do you like to eat that is green?” And without hesitating as if it were the most obvious thing to say in the world, my buddy Raymond says, “I like doughnuts with green sprinkles and frosting on them.”

Now that is what happens when you just hang out with people. You find out stuff that matters to them. And when we find out stuff that matters to others, we begin to care for each other more deeply. Lately, that has become much more important to me.

Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

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Weekly Memo: celebrating the presence of the holy spirit

9/7/2017

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This Sunday is going to be a great Sunday at EPUMC. We are going to celebrate and look forward to the Holy Spirit blowing life into our congregation. We do this every year on the first Sunday kids are back in school. It’s the week we also kick off a different sort of feel and schedule.

On Sunday after worship there will be a chance to explore all the different ministries of our church. Different ministry teams provide different munchies to lure you in, to talk about their ministry. It’s also a blast to watch the kids outside playing games, bouncing in the bouncing house because that is what you do in a bouncing house. And this year in the “I can’t believe it” category… Deb and Jodi somehow got somebody to bring ponies for pony rides. Oh, and you’ll also be able to help pick vegetables in the garden if you can.

On Sunday during worship, we begin a new sermon series that I’m very excited to share with you. In a moment I’ll tell you how excited. All year we have been using different images of the wind to illustrate how the Holy Spirit is blowing in our lives. This month we are going to use a windmill to ask not “What was that?” but “Where is that…” as we talk about the place of the Holy Spirit

A windmill works by converting the energy of the wind. The blades turn a shaft which is connected to some else that has a function. In the past most of the time, windmills were used to pump water. Now most windmills generate electricity. The point is that unless a windmill is connected, the blades are just spinning. The same is true for the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing into our lives… Unless we are connected to something actively converting and taking that God-given energy, we have just received somewhere in this world…we are just spinning. We want to help you discover where in your life you can be a servant of Jesus Christ.

This month we are going to hear from three people who are converting the energy of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We’ll hear how they took this energy and went to three places: We’ll hear about someone who was inspired by a family member to go help in the feeding homeless people at Simpson Shelter. A young father who grew up on a farm…who at his first visit at our church was out in the Crops for Prop garden. And a nurse who makes time to pack food at Feed My Starving Children.

It’s going to be a great Sunday!

Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

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