Recently the religions of Christianity and Muslims came into sharp contrast. Now, we  could also insert the religion of Buddhism, Shinto or any other religion that we wish for the discussion. Here is the contrast.

All other religions are based on the words, actions and in some cases actual burial places of dead people. Christianity is the only religion that is based on a live person, Jesus Christ. We have places to we can go to on pilgrimages throughout Israel where Jesus walked, talked, performed His greatest miracles. What we cannot do is visit His tomb. Even if we could find it, it would be just a hole in the ground.

Because we know it is empty.

 The unique claim of our faith is that God Himself, as the Son in the Trinity, came to earth in the form of Jesus. God Himself was crucified. God Himself was buried. God Himself was resurrected by God the Father Himself. There is no other religion that claims those facts.

While we all love the Christmas story, all the other religious figures have a birth story. It may not have the elements Jesus’ birth had. While we love the stories of Jesus’ life, ministry and miracles. We all love the stories, the sermons and the teachings. All religious figures have stories, sermons, teachings, lives, ministry, and in some cases miracles.

What we have and what they don’t is Easter.

You see, Easter is what defines us. It is the essence and core of our faith. It is so a ingrained in all that we do and all that we are, we even celebrate it every week. We worship on Sunday as little Easters. Easter Sunday is not just another celebration as a part of our religion, it is our religion.

I hope that you will reflect upon the meaning of Easter and its meaning to all of us.

Peace and Grace. Reed

Palm Sunday marked six weeks of worshiping in the Family Life Center while the Sanctuary was being refurbished. This was also the Sunday for palm branches and the Easter Egg Hunt on the playground. Scenes from Sunday’s events are shown below:

First United Methodist Church, the oldest congregation continuously serving Hill County (since 1856), has just completed a ceiling-to-floor renovation of the Sanctuary and will dedicate it at a special worship service on April 11. This building was built in 1914, destroyed by fire 14 years later, and rebuilt on the same site within about a year in 1929.  It has served as the worship center of the church for the past 81 years.  Today, the church strives to serve the young, the old, and those in between in a rapidly changing environment through a variety of ministries in this community.  

The dedication service will be held at 10:00 AM and will feature music from the Chancel Choir and The Living Proof praise band as part of the worship service. A covered dish luncheon will follow at 11:30 and all are invited to join in the festivities. For this week only, Sunday School will be held at 9:00 AM.     

Photos show the current building, a 1914 postcard of the building when it was originally built, and the stained glass   window on the the west side of the sanctuary.

Consider the following. A man and his closest friends decide to go to church one day. Upon getting there, he finds that the church was doing business as usual. It really gripped him. He saw people going to and fro. No one seemed to notice him or his friends. The place was just not that friendly.

Don’t get me wring, there was a lot of activity. Over here was a table with donuts and coffee and over there another table had crosses and books. Each of them would give you what they had for a small “donation.” There was a lot of talking, not all that bad in and of itself, but there wasn’t much talking about God, only about things like yesterday’s sports and occasionally someone mentioned who was (as in ‘Can you believe she’s here?’  or “You’ll never guess who’s in Vegas this week end?” After a few minutes, this guy had had enough.

He yelled out a few things most people didn’t seem to get. Something about God and then he went on a real tirade. He began kicking at tables and basically making a mess out of the whole place. He and his friends ran out just before the cops got there. However, with the descriptions, everyone knew it wouldn’t be long until they’d make an arrest. After all, churches are protected these days by the government.

So, at this point, what would be your reaction? Anger at the guy for disturbing your church? A little scared that this might be some real nut job? Indifference, after all it doesn’t seem to affect you? I suppose you get the idea. There could be a wide variety of feelings you could have.

Now, let’s change settings and a few details. Instead of our church and set in our day and time, imagine the church is the temple and the setting is Jerusalem and the man in question is Jesus. The point is He is trying to shake up our faith and get us to return to God. He has consistently upended the apple cart, preached a Gospel that we have and still are not hearing. He is in fact confronting us with our broken relationship with God and He just has to get our attention somehow.

Given this might get some of us, the real way to get our attention would have to wait a week or so. He’ll have to be crucified on a cross. These next two weeks will lead us through those last two weeks and culminate with the triumph of the cross. I hope you take advantage of this time and these opportunities.

Peace and grace. Reed

The Spring Festival is a one day event on May 15 that will consist of the combination of the traditional church-wide garage sale in the Family Life Center with a new wrinkle: a crafts/gently used items sale in the parking lot complete with children’s games/features and refreshments.  The parking lot sale is open to everyone in the community to rent booth space and sell their wares.

If you have crafts or gently used items and want to sell them for a profit, call the church office (254-582-2342) and register for a booth space. There is a modest rental fee and you are responsible for providing your own tables, chairs, free standing displays or awnings, etc.  Space is limited, so get your reservations in early.

The garage sale takes place in gymnasium-size room and usually attracts a large crowd.  Quality items of all kinds and sizes will be sold at bargain rates. Pictures of a previous sale are shown below:

Saturday, May 15 will be a really big day.  The festival starts at 8:00 am and continues to 3:00 pm. Make your plans to be there. First United Methodist Church of Hillsboro is located at 315 E. Elm Street, three blocks east of the square.

About this time every year I push Church Growth and Development Shares as a way to give a special offering and to help start new churches. Let me offer a couple of reasons.

The I-35 corridor between Ft. Worth and San Antonio is the fastest growing population center in America. We should have built churches like crazy in this area years ago. We didn’t for a couple of reasons. The first was we really didn’t realize how many folks would move in. The second was funding. It costs a lot to start up a new church.

Anyway, that is history. The reality is that we need to build new churches. The reluctance is to question  - Why should we send money off when we have so many needs here? Good question. Let me try and go about it in two ways. First, if you are a charter member of this church, you are excused from buying a share. Now for the rest of us: Someone else built this church so that when we came or when we were born this church was waiting for us to show up. I doubt that we would have enough cash to get it done.

Think about it this way. We are insured to replace the church if we have a total catastrophe. It comes to about $7,000,000. See why we may not have started the very church we enjoy so much? So too in areas where we need to start a church. A new church just can’t afford it.

Ergo, the first reason is that others started this church and paid for most of it so we have a church home. Out of gratitude, we should want to do the same for others.

The second reason is there are only three ways of looking at life. One way is to look with confidence at the future and to be a part of something greater than we currently are. Admit it, don’t you feel good when you can point to something you have done and say, “I did that!!” Imagine driving down a road and going past a new Methodist church and pointing at it and saying, “I helped to build that!!” It will be a legacy that will out live your mortal time here on earth.

Anyway, I want to challenge you to buy a Church Growth Share. I will do so by sharing something I got in an e-mail just yesterday. It may help you to decide. “SORROW looks BACK. WORRY looks AROUND. FAITH LOOKS UP…” Look up and see what God wants us to do and then act as you are led.

Peace and Grace. Reed.

The four week study entitled “ Out of Egypt”, led by Carolyn Gray, was completed on Sunday night. This series of lessons showed the parallels between the experience of Moses and people of Israel and the experiences of contemporary Christians. In a very real sense we are all recipients of God’s grace, we all have the wilderness experience and reach the promised land, only to find that there are still giants in the land (our lives) to overcome. We find that we can do nothing without God. We thank Carolyn for this thoughtful, inspiring series of lessons.

In the “just started” category we might include the launching of the Spring Festival.  This is a one day event on May 15 that will consist of the combination of the traditional church-wide garage sale in the Family Life Center with a new wrinkle: a crafts/gently used items sale in the parking lot complete with children’s games/features and refreshments.  The parking lot sale is open to everyone in the community to rent booth space and sell their wares. This is an opportunity for our church to bond with others in the spirit of fellowship and cooperation. Volunteers of all kinds are needed to make this event a success.     

The “in progress” subject includes the refurbishing of the sanctuary which is, indeed, “in progress”. See the picture. The Council approved the expenditure of an additional $4,300 to extend the work to include the north hallway and the east entrance. The project is moving right along and we are all looking forward to a return to the beautiful sanctuary for our worship services on Easter Sunday.

I have this book called “6 Habits of Highly Effective Bosses”  by Stephen E. Kohn and Vincent D. O’Connell. I thought we might share the the 6 Habits today but instead of bosses let’s just see how well they work for all of us.

1. Expand Self Awareness. The idea is to become more aware of who we are and what motivates us. Self awareness is not easy but essential because it helps us to realize how we approach others and different situations.

2.Practice Empathy. This means putting yourself in the shoes of others. Empathy in to connect with the humanity of another in a way that makes them feel like you understand.

3. Follow the Golden Rule. We are aware of that one. It is the basis of Christianity. “Do unto others what you want them to do unto you.”

4. Maintian proper boundaries. For work that means the boss is the boss but in life it might mean that others need their personal space.

5. Criticize Artfully. I take that to mean that when you need to criticize someone, remember they have feelings too.

6. Flexing to different People styles which means don’t become too rigid in how you approach things and be able to listen to others and let them have ownership and input.

You know those are pretty good ideas in all that we do. The Christian faith is all about all of those ideas. Self awareness comes form knowing we are God’s. Respecting others stems from recognizing their worth as God’s children. Over all those are pretty good rules especially the Golden Rule.

 Peace and Grace. Reed.

I am awed by the technology that is available to us in our world. Here I am in a meeting with annual conference leaders for evangelism while writing my article. Then in a moment I will post it and it will go out instantly.  Stop to think about it, this is all done in real time and instantly. However, there is a drawback to all this.

With e-mails, face booking, blogging, and now twittering, if you sneeze about 80 billion people know it.

Here is the problem: It means that we don’t often stop a reflect on the matters and depth of life and faith. We want instant answers and instant responses to life and life’s situations. When we don’t find easy answers and easy solutions, we can become easily become discouraged and disillusioned with those around us and with God Himself.

We don’t just think and reflect. Thinking and reflection and praying and conversing and waiting for God can lead to a profoundly deeper understanding of life and your role in life itself. It allows us to take time to ask the profound questions. One of which is WHY?

It doesn’t have to be in the greatest dilemmas like “WHY did my husband have to die?” It can even in lesser WHYS like why am I here? Why am I a dentist? Why do I have enough kids to keep me broke for the rest of eternity. That one may not concern you but I have been struggling with it but that is a different article.

I want to invite you to take time to just slow down and reflect upon life, your role in it and God’s plans and purposes. Let me suggest a way to do it. Begin by finding a favorite Scripture verse or passage and then spend an entire week of reading that same verse over and over again and then think about what it means to you. I think that be the end of the week you will find you are deeper in faith and life.

 Peace and grace. Reed.