All It Takes Is One

"They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, 'Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.' And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed."

--Mark 5: 15-20 (NRSV)

It is a great relief to finally come to the end of a time of illness or disease or other struggle. Sometimes we wait for years for that day, like the man who called himself 'Legion' because he was bound by a legion of demons. No longer suffering and alone, it's understandable that he wanted to go with Jesus who had set him free and gave him a new life! We read, however, in this account, that his healing was not for the purpose of taking him out of his everyday life, family or community – but it was a demonstration of God's presence and power that he was to share.

The healed become the transformers
It can be a challenge to go back into a community that has only known you as sick, disabled, drunk, crazy, different, or otherwise having something “wrong with you.” When we experience a miraculous change, some will celebrate with us, but surprisingly, others will either deny our new reality or be angry about it. To go back into the same unhealed setting requires that the healed one become a teacher who assists the community to understand and embrace the awesome movement of God.

God’s kingdom is built one helping hand at a time
As in an alcoholic or other addictive family, one person’s recovery can begin the healing process for the whole family. The same can be true in the work and ministry of the Church. All it takes is one person with a vision for mission, for ministry, for reconciliation or transformation. The love, diligence, enthusiasm of one can transform the whole body. Sometimes like the man who used to be bound by a legion of demons, our task is to be present, tell our story, share our faith and healing. The beloved kingdom of God is built one person, one conversation, one prayer, one helping hand at a time.

Is there a story of God’s healing you have to tell today?

--Bishop Linda Lee, WI Ann Conf

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
http://www.umcgiving.org/
lcarey@umcom.org

Teaching Children to Tithe

Teaching children to tithe is an important part of their faith education that we often overlook. Giving to God is a core value of our faith that should be taught early and reinforced often.

The most common way that I see tithing taught to children is simply by grownups giving children a quarter to put in the offering plate. This is okay for very young children because it gives them an opportunity to participate. But this may not send the right message to elementary school children. First, the money wasn’t theirs to begin with, so they do not feel the satisfaction of it being a personal gift to God. Second, it does not teach proportionality in giving or the idea of putting God first in our finances.

We want to teach children to be intentional about their giving. But our adult understanding of tithing can be too complex for children. For example, children are not generally taught to figure percentages until their middle-elementary-school years. So teaching younger children to calculate a percentage tithe is not age appropriate.

When our son was five, we started to teach him about giving using “money jars.” We have three jars sitting on his dresser that are labeled “Money for God,” “Money to Save,” and “Money to Spend.” He gets a two-dollars-per-week allowance. We give it to him as a dollar bill and 4 quarters; that way one quarter can be given to the God jar, one to the savings jar, and the rest in the spend jar. On Sunday, he takes the quarter from God’s jar, and takes it to church. He fills out the offering envelope and proudly makes his offering at church.

As we implemented the jar system we discussed the following things with him:

• God made everything, so everything is God’s. Even us. We are God’s creation. We are thankful that God created everything. God has given us so much that we want to give back to God, too.


• We want to think about God first. So, the first jar we put money in will be the “Money for God” jar.


• We give to God because we love God. We also show God our love by going to church, praying, and doing good for others. In fact, when we give money to the church, it helps the church do the things God has asked the church to do. It helps the church teach people about God so that other people can know that God loves them, too.

The jar method seemed to teach what we think is most important for a child to know about giving to God.

Dan Pezet is pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Opelika, Alabama. This article is adapted from Dan’s blog, http://www.churchandtea.com/.


God is Still In Control!


Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
http://www.umcgiving.org/
lcarey@umcom.org

It's the Relationships, Stupid!

During the second week of this semester I was leading a small group discussion with graduate students and I asked our group if we needed to do introductions. Since everyone in the group had been showing up at worship for at least the past two years, I was ready to move on to our scripture reading when three of them spoke up at once, pointing to someone else in the group and saying, "I recognize you, but I don't actually know your name." And all of the sudden I felt like the worst pastor in the world. How is it that these students had been a part of our program for so long and they didn't even know each others names?

I'm always the last person to find out two of our Wesley students are dating, sometimes many months after the fact. It's not that I need to know these things, however, I'm always surprised and I know I shouldn't be, because when college students get together these things naturally happen.

Every other Thursday I meet with a group of graduate students at a local bar. We like to eat, drink, and talk about God. When I asked them what they wanted to talk about this semester, they said "relationships."

If I've learned one thing, then forgotten it, then had to remember it again, it's that college students are looking to build relationships with one another. Yes, sometimes romantic, though, mostly, they are just looking to make friends.

Over winter break I prayed and thought a lot about what we needed to do to be in ministry with more students. Then, one day, it hit me like a ton of bricks: We needed to get back into the business of building relationships.

We decided to take a risk with worship. If most of our students were willing to give Wesley an hour or two, each week, then we needed to maximize our time with them.

It was time for me to stop talking to them. It was time for them to start talking to one another.
So, for our worship time, we kept the music and communion, but I scrapped my sermon.
Instead, students are now meeting in small groups for forty five minutes.

So far, the small group model has been a success and, in addition to our worship service, we're using it to grow an informal lunch gathering we have on campus during the week, another lunch gathering we do on Sunday afternoons, and with our graduate student group. This has already made it easier for students who have been on the periphery to find new opportunities to be involved with Wesley in a meaningful way. It's also made it easier for students to invite their friends to something less intimidating than a worship service. We plan to add back in a more traditional worship service, but only after we have built a strong relationship based ministry.

So, are we creating programs that we are trying to "attract" students to?

Or, are we creating space where students can be in relationship with God and one another?

We don't even have to create those spaces, we just have to be present in those spaces that have already been created on campus and in the community.

There's a phrase that we need to be repeating to ourselves over and over again: "It's the relationships, stupid!"

Rev. Rob Rynders is the UM campus minister at Arizona State University. He blogs at robrynders.com

God Is Still In Control!
Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer

http://www.umcgiving.org/

lcarey@umcom.org

Let us bloom where we are planted

Frost covered my front yard early one morning in late January when the trees were barren of leaves and the sky was gray.

As I pulled out of my driveway and started down the street it was a drab scene except for three sunny yellow daffodils that dared to brave the elements and bloom. They stood in sharp contrast to their dull surroundings. Their presence was an expression of hope.

Winter had not had its last say but the daffodils were proclaiming that sunnier and warmer days were just ahead. It was a risky venture for them to poke out their heads knowing that there would still be some cold and maybe frigid days ahead.

I was grateful for the courage of these tender plants and I was encouraged. New life was present. Spring was not far away.

A few years ago when Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly wrote about the United Nations fight against malaria. United Methodists joined with several national organizations to provide bed nets and many thousands of lives have been saved since 2006. The goal is to eradicate malaria by 2015.

Each of us has opportunities to make a difference. To bring hope and help to our world. What idea has God planted in your mind and heart? What need do you see that moves you to want to find a solution? Who in your circle of influence do you need to reach out to?

Just like those daffodils, all we have to do is bloom where we are planted. Act on our urgings with God’s guidance. The landscape may be harsh. The ground may be cold and hard but we are presented with an abundance of opportunities to make a difference. Let’s brave the elements and share the warmth of God’s love. God will bless our efforts. I believe that. Do you?

Jamie Jenkins, from the North Georgia Ann Conf

jjenkins@ngumc.org

PS: Are you blooming where you are planted. I would like to hear about it.

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey

Web Content Producer

http://www.umcgiving.org/

lcarey@umcom.org

Some Lenten ponderings from 1911: Seven Ways of Giving

First – The Careless Way: To give something to every cause that is presented, without inquiring into its merits.

Second – The Impulsive Way: To give from impulse – as much and as often as love and piety and sensibility prompt.

Third – The Lazy Way: To make a special offer to earn money for benevolent objects by fairs, festivals, etc.

Fourth – The Self-denying Way: To save the cost of luxuries and apply them to purposes of religion and charity. This may lead to asceticism [severity] and self-complacence [self-righteousness].

Fifth – The Systematic Way: To lay aside as an offering to God a definite portion of our gains – one-tenth, one-fifth, one-third, or one-half. This is adapted to all, whether rich or poor, and gifts would be largely increased if it were generally practiced. (1 Cor. 16:2)

Sixth – The Equal Way: To give God and the needy just as much as we spend on ourselves, balancing all our personal expenditures by our gifts.

Seventh – The Heroic Way: To limit our own expenditures to a certain sum and give away all the rest of our income. This was John Wesley’s way.

-by Dr. A. T. Pierson from Gems of Thought on Tithing, Published 1911 By George W. Brown, a Presbyterian laymam, WI Ann Conf

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey

Web Content Producer

http://www.umcgiving.org/

lcarey@umcom.org

What is in a name?

What is in a name? Sometimes it is obvious but sometimes it is hard to tell.

I have always been interested and am often amused at the names of churches. One survey of 95,000 churches shows that there are 11,852 “first” churches. 20,219 are named after “saints” (St. James, St. Paul). 6,749 carry names of various mountains and hills that include many biblical sites (Mt. Nebo, Mt. Bethel) and some are probably derived from the city or some other geographic designation (Pleasant Hill, Sugar Hill).

The name serves a practical purpose for many, such as Second Avenue and Tenth Street United Methodist Churches, in identifying the location. Then you have the churches whose name indicates some biblical or theological principle or concept. These include grace, faith, messiah, covenant, harmony, prince of peace, good shepherd, and others.

Most of the church names listed above are very ordinary and common place. There are others that catch my attention and pique my interest. For instance, I wonder if the Baby Farms Baptist Church is memorializing a particular infant or is it located where babies are produced in quantity.

There are many Methodist churches named after their founder, John Wesley. But I am curious about the theology of the John Wesley Baptist Church.

What about the Original Church of God #2? How do you duplicate originality?

Attempts to be creative and contemporary give rise to names like Church of The Way, Quest, The Well, The Bridge, The Vine, and Connection, just to name a few. Their names hope to project an image that will draw folks who might not ever venture into First Church. The Scum of The Earth Church (I am not making this up) presents itself as the “Church of the Right Brained and the Left Out” and invites you to “Come see the crazy bathroom and stay for a sermon.”

Every time I go to an Atlanta Braves game at Turner Field I pass The Perfect Church at the corner of James P. Brawley Drive and McDaniel Street. Their website proclaims that “Christians are perfect.” I have a feeling I would not be comfortable there and they might not want an imperfect person like me. I more easily identify with what is called a “Christian Under Construction.”

Whatever the name of the church I hope that the Gospel is proclaimed and people are empowered to more closely conform to the lifestyle that Jesus left as an example. If the mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, the name is not a real concern to me.

Mr. Jamie Jenkins, jjenkins@ngumc.org, North Georgia Annual Conference

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey

Web Content Producer

www.umcgiving.org

lcarey@umcom.org

What's in a name? - Romans 16:16

'Connectionalism is one of Methodism's greatest assests'

I was born and raised in Martin, TN, son of a college professor and member of Martin First UMC.

In 1983 I graduated from Westview High School, and in 1988 I received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and criminal justice from the University of Tennessee-Martin.

During my last year at UT-Martin, I also served the Lynnville-Poyner's Chapel charge in Graves County, KY.

Upon graduating from college, I attended the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and served as a student pastor in the North Georgia Conference, receiving a Master of Divinity degree in 1991.

I have served churches in Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky, being licensed for ministry in 1987, ordained a deacon in 1990 and an elder in 1993.

I have served in the General Church as a jurisdictional delegate and on the General Board of Discipleship as a representative from the order of St. Luke (a religious order in The United Methodist Church).

These experiences, along with my service in parish ministry, convince me that one of Methodism's greatest assets is our connectionalism, and one of my goals as superintendent of the Paducah District is to strengthen our connectional ties.

We are living in difficult times - for Methodism, as well as for Christianity in general. Yet I believe Methodism and the Wesleyan tradition have all of the tools necessary to be effective in being and making discples. We simply have to reclaim it and live into it, being willing to be formed and transformed by God.

That means that church pastors must be more than just congregational managers and CEOs; they must be spiritual guides and leaders.

I pray that I can teach and lead the clergy and laity in the Paducah District into being the disciples and disciple-makers that Jesus Christ calls us to be.

--excerpt of an article by Sky McCracken in the Memphis Conference UM Reporter


God Is Still In Control!


Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
http://www.umcgiving.org/
lcarey@umcom.org