E-pistles
"Our Life Together"
2/2/2012It is just two weeks away – the “Our Life Together” retreat for all of our clergy. Perhaps it is sneaking up on people, since this is our first time having it as a Pre-Lenten retreat, rather than a Post-Easter retreat. So, I am writing this E-pistle to remind our clergy to register, and I am also writing it to remind our lay leadership to encourage your pastors to attend. Our clergy need to be “fed” in order to be ready to “feed” the people they serve....
"A Storm Trooper in the Nativity Scene"
1/30/2012Sometimes I receive lovely notes from people about how well our churches are actually BEING the church. The most recent was a note about a mother who attended a Christmas Eve worship service with her 7-year-old son who had been ill. He was feeling better and had received a Star Wars Storm Trooper outfit for Christmas, which he insisted on wearing to visit church with his mother and grandparents. His mother wrote to me that she was concerned about how the congregation might react to a boy...
"Wow!"
1/23/2012I hope you don’t mind another story about one of my grandchildren. If you do mind, then stop reading now, because that is what this E-pistle is about. This past Saturday evening, Marsha and I cared for Austin (almost 18 months old) while his parents went to an important business dinner event. Austin is starting to say a lot of words, as I have mentioned before, and one of his favorite words is “Wow!” He utters that word with great enthusiasm, so maybe I should spell it...
"More Than a Dream"
1/17/2012Yesterday I attended the MLK Day observation at the University of Indianapolis. One of our fellow Trustees, Murvin Enders spoke under the title “More Than a Dream” and his presentation made the excellent point that we don’t remember Martin Luther King, Jr. just for having a dream. We remember him because he worked, sacrificed, and ultimately was martyred to bring his dream into reality. That message is more than a reminder about the greatest civil rights leader of the United...
"Asking for Help"
1/9/2012My 17-month old grandson, Austin, is learning a few words, and his mother (my daughter Laura) is also teaching him some sign language. It is amazing how many words and gestures he is learning. He knows how to signal that he wants to eat (by making an eating gesture), and he knows how to spread his arms and say something that sounds like “All done.” He has even learned how to say, “Abu” which is Spanish for “gramps” or “granddad.” He learned that...
"Praying for Vital Congregations"
1/2/2012During this year 2012, I am inviting all of us to pray for 5 congregations each weekday, and thus to pray for every United Methodist congregation in Indiana during 2012. Our prayer is for each congregation to be Vital, which I understand to mean being both faithful and fruitful. That vitality will happen when the pastor, lay leaders, and membership choose to be a vital congregation. That’s why we have asked every church to establish their Vital Congregations goals. So let’s pray...
"Make it a Happy New Year"
12/29/2011As we move toward January 1st and the launch of the New Year 2012, many will greet us with “Happy New Year” – almost as if were a wish, or a blessing, or a hope. All of that is nice, but I want to say to myself and others, “Make it a Happy New Year.” Don’t just wish for a Happy New Year – make it a Happy New Year. I believe that the year 2012 will be mostly what we make of it. We can choose to make it a new year, a fresh start,...
"Two Kings in the Story"
12/20/2011In Christmas Eve services in every church around the world, we will be reading the Christmas story from Luke 2. It is a beautiful story, and most of us can nearly recite the story or at least its basic elements: the census, Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem for the census, no room at the inn, the birth in the stable, the baby Jesus placed lovingly in a manger surrounded by animals and adored by parents and also shepherds, and the songs of angels, "Good News!" The story is set in the...
"Safe Travels"
12/12/2011Last Wednesday was kind of a sad day for me. I said “good bye” to my 2005 Buick Rendezvous and watched it be driven away from our home. It had 202,000 miles on it and so it was time for a change. Because the vehicle did not have much value as a trade-in, I gave it to our UM Children’s Home in Lebanon, which has a new program to receive donated vehicles to sell them and use the proceeds to help with their ministry. So it was a good choice – a kind of “no...
"The Word Became Flesh, and Asked Us Questions"
12/7/2011During Advent and Christmas we often read from the beautiful prologue of the Gospel of John which says, “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we have beheld his glory, the glory of an only begotten Son of the heavenly Father.” I love that poetic expression of the coming of Christ to the world, and I have often thought of the Word as a declarative word, a proclamation, a statement of the truth. Indeed that is accurate, and Jesus himself declares he is “the way, the...