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PASTOR'S CORNER

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JULY 2008

The Psalm writer asks God, “Where could I go to escape from you?  Where could I go to get away from your presence?”  (Ps. 139:7)  He answers his own question, “Nowhere.  Wherever I might go You are there.”  God speaks through the ordinary “stuff” of life wherever we are, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.  Consider God’s presence in your life as you think on the following phrases of Praise and Prayer found on plaques on the walls of Old Coventry Cathedral.

 PRAISE and PRAYER

Hallowed be thy Name in Recreation.

                        God be in my limbs and in my leisure.

Hallowed be thy Name in Government.

                        God be in my plans and in my deciding.

            Hallowed be thy Name in Suffering.

                        God be in my pain and in my enduring.

            Hallowed be thy Name in Commerce.

                        God be at my desk and in my trading.

            Hallowed be thy Name in Homes.

                        God be at my heart and in my loving.

            Hallowed be thy Name in Education.

                        God be in my mind and in my growing.

            Hallowed be thy Name in Industry.

                        God be in my hands and in my making.

            Hallowed be thy Name in the Arts.

                        God be in my senses and in my creating.

 Pastor Daryl

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JUNE, 2008

WHY DO WE GO TO CHURCH?  Some Sundays I might feel like sleeping in – or going on a trip….  One person gave these responses when asked why he went to church:

             “To feel better

            To be with people whose company I enjoy

            To learn about Jesus

            To show which side I’m on

            To keep people from asking why I missed

            To sing my favorite old hymns

            To be inspired, taught, and challenged by the sermon.”

 But what if we asked, “WHY DO YOU WORSHIP?”     What is your response?

Annie Dillard, in Teaching a Stone to Talk, writes these comments about worship:

“Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? . . . It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets.  Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.  For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking God my draw us out to where we can never return.”

In true worship we expose ourselves to the power of God without any personal control over the outcome.  Sometimes it brings healing, peace, forgiveness, confrontation, or hope.  Always it calls us to move beyond the farthest point we have yet reached.

 Going to church is easy, most days.  (Many fail to do even that).  Worship is another matter.  “It is an awesome thing to know oneself fallen into the hands of the living God.”

 (Much of the above is adapted from an article entitled The Power We Invoke, by James E. Magaw, printed in alive now!  May/June 1988.)

 Pastor Daryl

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MAY, 2008

A couple somewhat related thoughts about the church…

 THOUGHT 1:

 Occasionally someone will ask me, “Why should I join the church?”  For starters, the scripture teaches that the church is the Body of Christ.  As a Christian one is a part of this Body.  The various denominations we have today represent different expressions of our Christian faith.  One would join a church as a commitment to living out the Christian faith as a part of the Body of Christ.  The church is not only a matter of believing – it also includes belonging.  The Christian life is not something we do as a solo act.  We are part of God’s family and we gain strength and grow in our faith as we participate TOGETHER in the Body of Christ.  One of the membership vows states:

As members of this congregation, will you faithfully participate in its ministries by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, and your service?

This includes regular attendance, whenever the church gathers:  for Sunday school, worship, special services, times of study, times of fellowship – and certainly the leadership needs to be committed to attending the training and planning meetings that help us keep our focus on what God is calling us to do.

 THOUGHT 2:

 What does God call us to do as the Church?

 What is your church’s mission statement?

 Our mission statement tells why we exist – why we do what we do!  You can find our mission statement printed in this newsletter and in our Sunday morning bulletins.  Everything we do as a church should be governed by our mission statement.  We should be able to look at any ministry program or activity that we do and identify how it helps to fulfill our reason for being here.  Our planning committee and other groups continually work to try to help us live out our mission to be faithful to God’s call to the church:  “Go into all the world and make disciples….”

Pastor Daryl

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 APRIL, 2008

Greetings in the name of the Risen Christ!

 Let me share with you a story – perhaps a modern day parable:
“A couple retired and moved into one of those lovely retirement communities in the Phoenix, AZ area.  The husband was enjoying his breakfast and reading the morning paper when he looked up and saw his wife hustling about the apartment, seemingly keeping all the appliances in the house going at once.  Feeling a warm tingle of love towards his wife, the husband said:  ‘Dear, I’m proud of you.’  With all the noise, she couldn’t hear properly.  ‘What did you say?’ she shouted.  ‘I’m proud of you,’ he repeated.  She snapped back, ‘Well, I’m tired of you, too.’  And the husband muttered under his breath, ‘I just can’t get through to her.’  There is so much noise and distraction, not only can we not hear one another saying, ‘I love you, I’m proud of you;’ we often can’t hear God saying, ‘I love you; I’m proud of you.’”

 Is this not what God was saying to Jesus when he said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”  . . . And when Jesus comes with the promise of abundant life He says, “I love you – I want My joy to be in you that your joy may be the best there is.  And I’m proud of you when you open your life to God’s redeeming love and grace.”  Don’t let the noise and commotion around you distort your hearing what God would say to you!

 Pastor Daryl

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MARCH, 2008

      Throughout the Lenten Season we’ve talked about listening for God’s guidance and call as we draw closer in our relationship with God.  Then someone asked me how do we know what is God speaking to us and what is not?  Well, that’s a good question.  With all the voices and distractions clamoring for our attention in today’s world – how do we know which is God’s voice?

     In the Old Testament we read of the experience of Elijah when he was seeking a word from God.  In the book of 1 Kings we find Elijah afraid for his life and God comes to him not in the might of a strong wind, or the power of an earthquake or fire, but in a “still small voice” (19:11-12).  And, earlier, we have God sending word to Abraham and Sarah about having a son in their old age.  Sometimes the Word of the Lord may sound strange or unbelievable.  In Matthew 7:7 Jesus tells us:  "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (RSV)

      These are but a few of the Biblical examples we can find of God speaking or promising to speak to those who believe.  But again, how do we sort out God’s voice (or message) from others.  It would appear that Sarah wasn’t too sure God really said, “You will bear a son.”  God continues to speak in a variety of ways:  certainly through the Scriptures, sometimes by thoughts He puts into our minds, sometimes through the words of other people, sometimes through experiences or events.  In our United Methodist Church we have long held to John Wesley’s formula of Scripture, Reason, Tradition and Experience.  If we are unclear as to whether or not a word is from God this still is a good way to test it.  Does it fit with our understanding of Scripture?  Would it be acceptable in the Tradition of the church?  Does it line up with your experience of who God is and how God works?  Does it seem reasonable? – uh-oh, remember Abraham and Sarah……..that’s why we can’t use just ONE of these criteria, but we need to check out all four – then step out in faith.

 Pastor Daryl

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FEBRUARY 2008

Our calendar year in 2008 is a day longer than the last three years as we come to a Leap Year and February 29^th is added.  However, in the church year calendar we have a VERY SHORT Epiphany season   (January 6^th to Ash Wednesday).  So the season of Lent is nearly upon us. 

 We will plan to celebrate the beginning of Lent with an Ash Wednesday communion service the evening of February 6^th.  Lent is always a special time in the church year.  As you may already know, Lent is a 40 day period of self examination and renewal reflective of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness struggling with the temptations before he began his ministry.  The 40 days exclude Sundays because each Sunday is considered a mini-celebration of Easter.  Therefore we refer to Sundays in Lent rather than Sundays of Lent.  The Lenten season calls us to again examine our hearts and our relationships with God and with others.  As we strive to improve these relationships we might ask ourselves such questions as:

•      What does it mean to claim the name Christian?

•      How do I respond to others and to situations around me because  I am a follower of the Christ?

•     What “attitude adjustments” do I need in order to see people and situations through the eyes of Christ?

•     How can I show people God’s love in practical ways that make a difference in their lives?

 Lent is also a traditional time of study and preparation for church membership.  This year we will have Membership Classes for Youth (grades 7 -12) and Adults on the first three Sundays in Lent (February 10, 17 & 24).  The plan is to hold these classes during the Sunday School hour.  If you are interested in attending, please let the pastor know or call the church office (867-3848).

 Who should come to these classes?

•      Anyone who is interested in joining the church.

•      Anyone interested in learning more about the United Methodist Church.

•      Anyone wanting a “refresher” course in what church membership is about.

 Our faith is strengthened and supported as we gather with one another for worship, study and fellowship.  Perhaps instead of (or in addition to) the traditional idea of giving up something for Lent you might make a commitment to be in church and Sunday school every week during the Lenten season (if the roads are safe to drive on).

 Pastor Daryl

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JANUARY 2008

By the time you are reading this 2007 will be history, or very close to it.  A new year is dawning – unfolding before us.  What will be new in 2008?  A new year seems always to bring new styles, new models, new “improved” products.  In our “throw-away” society we associate newness with progress.  If we’re able to acquire something new it means we’re getting somewhere.

 But at the same time “new” means “different”, it means “change”, and that can make us uneasy or even frightened.  Sometimes we choose to shed the old and take on something new; but often circumstances and experiences cause change we haven’t asked for and maybe aren’t sure we want.  A fixed year determines when we enter school, when we are old enough to drive or vote, when we have to retire.  There may be changes in our jobs, our family, our health over which we have no control.  These are the kinds of changes that are especially frightening – when we feel we have no control.

 At these times we need to be reminded that the scriptures assure us that God is changeless.  God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  We know that God won’t love us one day and throw us out the next.  We have no need to fear because “perfect love casts out fear.”  Therefore whatever changes take place in our lives, God is there.  Solid as a rock – overshadowing us with protection, undergirding us with support.

 And what’s more, even though God is changeless, this same God institutes change.  Not only can God change environment and social structures, but our Loving Creator can change you and me.  That’s the biggest, the best, and the most important change which can occur.  You can be changed!  I can be changed!  God can re-cycle our attitudes!  By wanting and allowing God to create the new from the old – trying to intentionally live in oneness with God – we begin to see things differently.  This loving changeless God gives you and me the security and stability to face any future.  God helps us accept changes, to sort them out, to bend with them – not because circumstances or events are changed – but because you and I are changed!

 Let us begin the new year with confidence and hope – expecting God to do great and wonderful things among us, in us and through us, as we allow our Loving Creator and Redeemer to change us!

Pastor Daryl

 DECEMBER 2007

This Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent, the season of the church year which leads us up to the celebration of the birth of the Christ.  The prophet Isaiah announced:  “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 RSV).  The footnote tells us that Immanuel (or Emmanuel) means “God is with us”.  Jesus is God’s promise always to be with us unconditionally.  We only have to accept God’s presence and power through our faith.

 Emmanuel:  God is with us when nothing goes right, when we think no one cares or understands.

 Emmanuel:  God is with us when the doctor says there is no hope, when our prayers seem to get nowhere, when no answer comes.

 Emmanuel:  God is with us when silliness and laughter provide the release from stress and anxiety that we need and we dare to be ourselves.

 Emmanuel:  God is with us “when we are so lonely our insides ache with the pain of emptiness and our skin craves to be touched by a gentle hand, when the phone doesn’t ring and no one knocks, and not a single person will look into our eyes.”  (alive now! N/D ’91, p. 8)

             May the words of Charles Wesley’s hymn be our longing this Advent Season:

 Come, thou long expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us

let us find our rest in thee.”

Emmanuel – God with me;

God with you –

now and forever!

Pastor Daryl

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NOVEMBER 2007

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.”  (Psalm 100:4)

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord.”  (Psalm 150:6)

 November is just around the corner.  Now that the spooks and goblins of Halloween are fading back into the closets for another year we are called to turn our thoughts in other directions.  November is a month for giving thanks from beginning to end.  We are reminded to give God thanks and praise for His bounteous provision and His steadfast love.

 November 1^st is All Saints’ Day calling us to give thanks for those who have gone before us in the faith ministering in the name of Jesus the Christ and through his church.  But Saints are not only those who have already departed this life.  Even the dictionary defines a saint as “one of God’s chosen people, one belonging to the entire company of baptized Christians, a holy or godly person.”  So we can give thanks for and to persons around us who stand out as examples of God’s servants.

 As we move through November we come to Election Day and Veteran’s Day.  We should give thanks for the freedom to vote for our leaders (even if the choices are not always to our liking) and for those who have willingly or out of duty given themselves to defend and keep these freedoms.  Our Bell Choir will play patriotic music on November 11^th during the morning worship service.

 November 18^th is noted as Bible Sunday and begins National Bible Week.  Certainly we would give thanks for God’s Word and its power for our lives and the lives of people throughout the world.

Then we come to Thanksgiving Day, proclaimed in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln:  “I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are so-journing in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

 The last Sunday of the month is noted as United Methodist Student Day.  We are called to give thanks for colleges and seminaries and for the students who gain skills and develop their gifts and abilities to take their place in God’s world.

 Among the celebrations and observances of the month you are invited especially to our Community Thanksgiving Service on November 18^th at 5:00 p.m., at the Chesapeake Middle School.  As I type this, with another planning meeting to go, it appears that Dana and I will plan the music for the service this year.  As in the past, an offering will be received to help with the ministry of the Chesapeake Community Mission Outreach.  I hope you will plan to attend.  This has developed into a very special community worship experience.

 Pastor Daryl

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OCTOBER 2007

Here it is Fall already – did you notice?  September is almost gone for another year.  We have a lot happening in the life of Chesapeake UMC this Fall.  There are the usual things like choirs and Bible studies resuming after a summer break – committee meetings doing the necessary things to prepare for Charge Conference (which is November 8^th for Lawrence County).  This weekend we will be making Apple Butter for sale at the Community Octoberfest and other places.  Last Saturday we held the All-Church Planning Meeting which brought together the ideas “brainstormed” at the small group session from the last weekend of August.  About 20 of our people attended the Saturday meeting.  Pastor Dale Lykins began the day for us with an informational and challenging presentation encouraging us not to be afraid to try new things to bring the church and community together as we seek to reach the unchurched people of Chesapeake.  It’s often a trial and error process – it’s O.K. to try something and discover it didn’t work.  We just need to re-shape it or try something else – NOT TO BE DISCOURAGED!

 As a result of the All-Church Meeting a “visioning” group was formed who, with God’s guidance, will begin to look at new directions we, as a congregation, should go.  You will be hearing more about this as plans develop.  Please be in prayer for our visioning group.

 The Doers of the Word and the Seekers Sunday School classes have put a lot of study time and planning into this process and we want to thank them for their work.  Also we want to thank everyone in our congregation for their support of our church’s ministries. Without your faithfulness in prayers, attendance, tithes & offerings, and service a lot of people in our community and around the world wouldn’t know God cares about them and loves them.

  Let us continue to be the body of Christ; lifting up one another in prayer, encouraging one another, always working to build one another up in the Spirit of Christ, forgiving the imperfections in others as God forgives ours.  Keep up the good work as this year draws to a close (only three short months away) and a new one begins – filled with opportunities for service through God’s church.

 Pastor Daryl

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SEPTEMBER 2007

When and where did you last see Jesus?

 The Apostle Paul describes the Church as the Body of Christ.  He says Christ is the head and those who follow Christ make up the rest of the body.  Just as our human bodies have many parts each with its own function and purpose, so it is with the church.  It is made up of many people each with his/her own function and purpose to fulfill God’s plan.  Especially we are likened to the hands and feet of Jesus, reminding us of God’s call for us to serve one another and others around us.  But I think it is another part of the “body” that gives guidance and direction to our service.  Certainly it is the heart of Jesus, full of love, forgiveness and compassion, that influences our lives as we strive to be faithful and obedient disciples of our Lord.

 Can you identify with the following story I received by e-mail several months ago?  There was no author listed.

"I SAW JESUS"

I saw Jesus last week.
He was up at the church building;
He was alone and working hard.
For just a minute He looked a little like one of our members.
But it was Jesus, I could tell by His smile.

I saw Jesus last Sunday.
He was teaching a Bible class.
But you could tell He believed what He said.
For just a minute, He looked like my Sunday School teacher.
But it was Jesus, I could tell by His loving voice.

I saw Jesus yesterday.
He was at the hospital visiting a friend who was sick.
They prayed together quietly.
For just a minute He looked like my pastor.
But it was Jesus, I could tell by the tears in His eyes.

I saw Jesus the other day,
He was bringing a covered dish over to me because I had been sick.
Just for a minute, I thought it was Him, with His gentle hands stroking my shoulder.
I thought it was Him, but it looked like my sweet neighbor.
But it was Jesus, because I could feel Him in my soul.

 I saw Jesus this morning.
He was in my kitchen making my breakfast and fixing me a special lunch.
For just a minute He looked like my Mom.
But it was Jesus, I could feel the love from His heart.

 I see Jesus everywhere,
Taking food to the sick,
Welcoming others to His home,
Being friendly to a newcomer

and for just a minute I think He's someone I know.
But it's always Jesus, I can tell by the way He serves.