Remember The 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations? You all studied the book as a congregation back in 2008. You had 5 committees – one for each practice — to study even deeper and come up with recommendations for how our church could be more fruitful. The Church council adopted many recommendations for implementation with the promise that they would get accomplished. Do you remember? Could you name these 5 practices?
Could you name the recommendations that were adopted and whether or not they had been accomplished in the last two years?
Charge Conference is coming up October 31, 2010. The district superintendent will be spending a time of discernment with those church members in attendance (the Council and the SPR Committee). Part of that time will be devoted to rating our church on how well it is practicing the 5 Practices. They will also be looking at our church’s fruitfulness in regards to these 5 items: Worship attendance; People engaged in mission; Professions of faith, Mission giving: and Small group ministries for spiritual formation.
How do you think we are doing? Are we being fruitful? Are you helping us be a fruitful church?
By the way the 5 Practices of a Fruitful Congregation are: Passionate Worship; Radical Hospitality; Intentional Faith Development; Risk-Taking Mission; and Extravagant Generosity. Has our church and have you as a member of this church been fruitful in 2010? Are you passionate when you worship? Are you involved in a Sunday school class, Bible study, or other small discipleship group? What have you done in mission and outreach? Have you been generous in giving to the church? Are you hospitable when guests come to our church – even guests who look different from us?
The church cannot be fruitful unless those who are the church are fruitful. Are you? If not, what is keeping you from being so?
By the way, I have to answer these questions about myself too, as will the Staff/Pastor Parish Committee. All of us need to consider how we can be more fruitful and therefore cause our church to be more fruitful.
In Christ, Pastor Donna
Yes, that’s right. The pumpkin patch is gearing up for October! It will be here before you know it and that is why things need to begin happening now.
The first Pumpkin Patch Volunteers meeting will be held on Monday, August 30th at 6:00 pm in the FLC. Anyone who wants to volunteer to help out (in any way) is encouraged to attend this meeting.
The Pumpkin Patch will be open and selling pumpkins of all sizes and shapes from 10 am to 6 pm Mondays through Saturdays, and 1 - 6 pm on Sundays, from October 16th through the 31st.
Volunteers are needed to “sit” in the patch and sell pumpkins for shifts through this entire selling period. If you are able to help, please sign up on one of the “sitter sign in sheets” (Say that real fast!) located outside both doors to the Sanctuary.
See you there!
I hadn’t seen my nephew Scott and his family in close to three years – not since the death of his mother, my sister. I spent a couple of days with him while I was in Colorado where he has lived for the past seven years or so. I discovered a lot of new things about my nephew. For instance, he paints! I had no idea. He paints big, bold, bright paintings of things like poppies, roosters and sail fish. I also learned he likes to do much of the cooking at home – from pancakes for breakfast to grilled chicken salads for supper. I also discovered he travels to Washington D.C. frequently for some big project he is working on for Veteran’s Affairs Office for whom he works in Denver. Scott is also a very involved dad with his 8 year old son. It was kind of strange being with Scott as a grown man; in fact, the first time he spoke to me I didn’t really recognize his voice – it was like, “Who are you?”
I’m glad I got reacquainted with my nephew if only for a couple of days. I was reminded that just because you are related to someone doesn’t mean you know them. To really know someone you have to be in relationship with them on a consistent basis. Having only seen my nephew at funerals and an occasional holiday gathering in the last 8 years, I really didn’t know him all that well any more.
That’s how our relationship with God is too, isn’t it? If we don’t spend time with God on a daily basis, we soon don’t really know him very well. If we don’t talk with him or read his word, we lose a sense of his presence in our lives. If we only relate to God now and then or only on Sundays, we soon forget his grace and love and acceptance. We often lose touch with God – not because he has moved far away from us (like to Colorado) but because we have moved away from relating to him. God tends to get lost in the busy-ness of our lives. You can be assured, though, that God is there waiting for us when we do finally take the journey to him.
I would invite all of us not to wait three years or even three days to discover God and who God is. I would invite us to be in relationship with God every day of our lives so that we truly know him.
In Christ,
Pastor Donna
After the early service this past Sunday, the Junior High Sunday School class went to visit our church family members who are residents at Town Hall Estates. Then the class went to eat at IHOP. One of the classmembers picked a family that the class paid for their meal. She picked a family with three sons and a daughter. The mother came over to the girl’s table and hugged each one of them and prayed for the girls. Then she prayed for the guys at their table and hugged all of them. She took a picture of the entire class and posted it on her Facebook wall telling what the class had done to bless their family. They were on their way home to Weatherford from Waco, where they had been at a swim meet. She told the class how much God had blessed them and how faithful He was.
Also at IHOP, the waitress was given a plate of cookies, a generous tip and a card thanking her for serving them. 
After leaving IHOP, the next stop was Wal-Mart. Each youth was given a list of supplies for Wesley Academy and food items for the Rosemont project. Then back at the church, a picture was taken of the class members with all the items they purchased. Since the class will be getting eight new members at promotion, the current classroom is too small. The youth then painted a wall with dry-erase paint in a larger room for Sunday School. It was a wonderful time with a great group of youth who blessed a family at IHOP and also provided much needed items for Wesley Academy and those at Rosemont. The funds for this ministry were from the extravagant generosity of those attending the church’s Valentine Banquet
Do you remember the 4th Commandment? It says, “Remember to keep the Sabbath holy.” Work and get everything done during six days each week, but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God.” We are supposed to rest one day a week just like God rested on the seventh day after creating the world the previous six days. When’s the last time you had Sabbath?
I remember growing up we didn’t do much on Sundays. We went to church, came home for lunch and then napped or took a drive in the country. Most businesses were closed on Sunday and the Texas blue laws prevented the stores that were open from selling certain non-essential items (like panty hose!). We didn’t do laundry or mow the lawn or other kinds of work around the house on Sunday. Some people worked of course, like restaurant and movie theater employees. Those days are long gone, aren’t they?
For many of us Sunday is the only time we seem to have for laundry, dusting, and vacuuming. Now of days, our kids play all kinds of sports or have other activities on Sundays. For most folks Sunday is just another day, nothing holy or restful about it.
God was actually trying to take care of us when he gave us this and the other commandments. God knows we need rest. God knows we need to spend time with him. It’s hard simply to be with God when we are multi-tasking seven days a week. We are exhausting ourselves, even killing ourselves, with work and play. One day a week we need just simply be. Be with God, be quiet, be still. Maybe we just can’t keep Sabbath for a whole day; could we keep it for an hour or so each day?
I go on vacation tomorrow. I hope to spend lots of quiet time with God. I hope to have a week of Sabbaths. Sounds good doesn’t it? Why don’t you join me this week and keep the Sabbath holy for a day or even an hour? In Christ, Pastor Donna
Sometime in the mid 1950s, my father bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He taped all kinds of things – including the multiplication table and Tennessee Ernie Ford; however he seemed to get the most enjoyment in taping my sisters and I singing or simply talking. When I was 4 or so, my father recorded me singing “Jesus Loves Me,” only it came out “Les, Jesus loves me” rather than “Yes, Jesus loves me.” I don’t even know a Les. The truth is I had a few speech problems back then including stuttering and being unable to pronounce certain letters. Anyway, on that same recording I am heard singing, “He is weak but we are strong.” Of course it is supposed to be “We are weak but He is strong” – just like it says in 1 Corinthians 1:25. As a 4 or 5 year old, I got it wrong. Or did I?
Of course Jesus is strong, but he became weak in order that we might become strong. In the second chapter of Philippians we read that Jesus emptied himself of his divinity, gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. He became a servant, humbled himself and was fully obedient to God even to the point of dying of the cross. He became weak. Why? So that he could empower us to stand strong against sin, to stand strong in faith, to live strong the new life he gave us. Jesus became a weak human in order to make us strong humans who would faithfully serve him, follow him, love him and become like him. We are not strong on our own; we are weak; but in his weakness and his strength, we have become strong.
So maybe the 4 year old Donna got it right after all, even if she didn’t know it. He became weak so that in his weakness we might become strong. Remember Les, whoever you are, Jesus does love me and you – so much so that he became weak and died so that we can be strong and alive and faithful.
In Christ, Pastor Donna
As many of you probably know, the church year begins with the season of Advent and continues through Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. After Pentecost, we enter the season of Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time is actually the longest season of the church year, lasting approximately six months. Nothing special happens, no big events are celebrated; it’s just plain, ordinary time—not sacred time.
Actually, Ordinary Time, in the church year, doesn’t mean common or mundane. Rather this term comes from the word “ordinal,” which simply means counted time. I’m not sure that’s any better than the usual meaning of ordinary– commonplace, run of the mill. If we are just counting time, counting days until the next big thing; it seems to me, it’s pretty ordinary time. I wonder, though, is any time really ordinary? Is any time not sacred time? Every day is a gift from God and thus is sacred. Every ordinary day is an opportunity to encounter God. Abraham and Sarah were just living their routine lives when God called upon them to go to a new land and become a holy nation. Moses was having an ordinary day shepherding his sheep when he came upon a burning bush. David was just delivering lunch to his brothers when he stepped up to face a giant in the name of the God of Israel. Mary was a common, ordinary teenager, when the angel told her she had found favor with God and would bear the Messiah. Andrew and Peter were making a living catching fish when they heard Jesus call them to follow. The woman at the well came near to draw water; she didn’t know on this ordinary day that she would meet Jesus who would change her life forever.
Who knows what may happen in our ordinary days and ordinary lives? If our eyes and ears are open to seeing and hearing, we just may encounter God and hear God calling us. We may never see a burning bush, but I believe God still speaks and God still calls us ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
May we be those who have ears to hear and eyes to see the sacred even in this Ordinary Time.
In Christ. Pastor Donna
Apportionments – that’s often heard and seen as a “dirty” word in local Methodist churches. One way of looking at apportionments is a – portion – meant for others.
That may not be enough of an explanation so I want to share with you something written by the General Secretary and Treasurer of the United Methodist Church:
Often clergy and lay church leaders are asked the question “why pay apportionments?” Many might respond: “That’s what United Methodists do!” But when the real question becomes “Why do we have to send money to the Conference office as apportionments?” the answer becomes more fundamental to being United Methodists. At a deeper level some actually are asking “How do United Methodist apportionments make a difference? Do they change lives, create missions, feed the homeless, build churches?” The practical response goes to the heart of stewardship within The United Methodist Church. From our earliest days, the people known as United Methodists have understood our life together as connectional. Whether parts of an urban congregation, a weekly gathering at a rural crossroads, or making a new church start become a reality, United Methodists are all interconnected. The gospel comes alive in the ministries in our individual settings, but we also know that we are called to witness in a larger, interconnected world.
That shared understanding empowers us to financially support outreach that no singlecongregation could do on its own. The connection allows us to effectively share programs that really work in our local area throughout the country and globally so that we can enhance the power of our witness everywhere. Our very existence as United Methodists engages us at the local, annual conference and worldwide level in ministries made possible by our shared commitments. For that reason, local congregations support annual conference budgets, and the annual conferences support the general church. The 2008 General Conference affirmed that the Four Areas of Focus for this quadrennium would be:
- Combating the diseases of poverty by improving health globally.
- Creating new places for new people and revitalizing existing congregations.
- Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world.
- Engaging in ministry with the poor.
Each day, local churches, conferences, individuals, and Church agencies are working toimpact the world in one of these four – and many other – areas. Connectional Giving is a major embodiment of Christian witness and a significant part of our faith journey. We give because Jesus taught giving as a basic aspect of discipleship. As a United Methodist, our heritage embodied in Wesley’s teachings further underscores the reasons we should give. Giving is crucial to our spiritual growth. Giving out of gratitude helps each of us individually and collectively grow closer to God. Shared ministries continue through your thoughtful and sacrificial giving, even during those times when we experience disharmony. It is part of what it means to be United Methodist. Our apportionments here at First, Hillsboro total $43,305 – about 13.5% of our 2010 budget. So far we have only paid $3040 of that – about 7%. We’ve got a long way to go. I encourage and invite each of you to put a little something extra in the offering plate this Sunday or any Sunday earmarked for apportionments. You don’t even have to wait until Sunday – you can stop by the church office to give your gift or even mail it in. Your generosity will be much appreciated.In Christ. Pastor Donna
My nephew Kyle came up Sunday afternoon to visit me for a week. He loves to visit state parks to hike and fossil hunt. So we’ve been to Lake Whitney a couple of times and yesterday found ourselves at Possum Kingdom State Park. We took on the challenge of the hiking trail that runs up one of the hills near the lake. It was 99 degrees and we left our water in the car! That was a big mistake. The trail was very rocky and went up and down a lot. There wasn’t a lot of shade along the path, which had mostly sparse cedar trees along its sides. Huge, biting flies attacked us and I ended up with a few cactus needles in my fingers.
We met a man just coming back from his hike as we headed out and up. He told us, “Make sure you go all the way to the top; it’s a fantastic view.” Even though we felt like we were baking and steaming all at the same time, we were determined to make it to the top. We were thirsty; our mouths were parched, but on we went. Of course I had to remind my nephew that I’m 40 years older than him so I was slow and a little unsteady on the rocky trail. He patiently waited and allowed me to stop occasionally and catch my breath. On and on we went – growing hotter, more exhausted, drained and wet (from all the sweat pouring out of our pores). Finally, we reached the top – the view wasn’t that great and we wondered if the journey had been worth it.
We headed back down the path; I gave my nephew the keys so that he didn’t have to wait for me and so that he could get back to the car and drink some water. He drank two bottles before heading back toward me to bring me some water; I was almost at the end of the path by then and wasn’t sure I could make it, but with the water in hand I knew I could. We both lived to tell about it. We survived our journey.
My experience reminded me of another one who made a long, difficult journey up and down a not so smooth path. Jesus traveled on foot during his lifetime and ministry. His journey eventually took him to Jerusalem and the cross. One of his early journeys took him to the town of Sychar in Samaria. He was tired and set down beside a well while his disciples went on in to town to get food. While at the well a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her for water, which surprised her because he was a Jew asking something of a Samaritan. They got into a long conversation about worship and water and Jesus finally told her, “Whoever drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.”
Water is necessary for life. The living water of Jesus Christ is necessary for abundant life, eternal life. During these hot days of summer when we are walking our life’s journey, don’t forget to take some water with you. And on this journey of life, don’t forget to drink in the living water of Jesus, so that you don’t just survive life – you live it fully, abundantly, joyfully and eternally. In Christ. Pastor Donna
