Wrapping up 2012

I just looked on my blog to see when I posted last. When I got back from my first class in MN! Life has been pretty busy since then. Two more classes done online, serving the church full time, charge conference done, Christmas done, and the start up of a new ministry. About 5 weeks ago, we started a 12 step recovery program at the Hospitality House in Boone for people who are working an addiction recovery program. I am leading this new ministry with the help of two other women. It has been great ministry. Looking forward to meeting with our area pastors to get started with our new Missional Network here in  Watauga County early in January. We welcome Rev. Lory Beth Huffman as the new DS to the new Appalachian District. Our church has continued to work closely with the Wesley Foundation at ASU and Rev. Brad Ferrington continues to do awesome ministry with young people there. Our UM Men had their annual Christmas tree sale and it was a success. Lot's of work has been done to raise money for our missions in our community through the bazaar and Christmas tree sale. One sad note for Boone NC this year has been marked with the loss of life of several young people who are already greatly missed.  One tragedy after another has left our town hurting. Right before Christmas, we have grieved the loss of a teacher only 43 years old at Watauga High School that died with pneumonia. As a church, and as a community, we have worked hard to lean on the Lord and on each other during times of great loss. We have the hope of Christ within us, that the coming year will be better. One of the happiest times for our church over Christmas, was the Marvelous Magical Mondays Christmas program with the kids from our church leading in worship. We pray for those who are hurting in this Christmas season. Back at home in Stokes County, two United Methodist Churches from Rockingham County have suffered with the loss of a fire. Mt. Zion UMC in Stokesdale and Gideon Grove Church in Belews Creek. Having been through a fire at our church and parsonage in 2010, we are sure sorry for your loss and will pray for the church and community to pull together and help each other in this time of loss from the fire. Out of all the loss that our church has faced since that time, the Lord has done incredible work to help us love each other more, become more sensitive to the needs of the community around us, and the rebuilding within spiritually surely points to the redemptive work of a living Savior, Jesus Christ among us. We praise the Lord for helping us keep our eye on the heavenly prize before us, even when times have been tough. We thank the Lord for our salvation, and for giving us the charge to be the hands and feet of Christ to our community. Blessed are the feet of the one who comes to bring the good news! We will continue to serve a living Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!

It's Back to School time!

     When there is a slight chill in the air in early August, it has meant one thing to me for nearly 40 years; it's time to go back to school. This year, it really does mean back to school time for me as well. I have started on a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Bethel University in Minnesota. Most of the degree work will be online.  This summer I did my first residency in St. Paul, Minnesota to start the degree program.  Going back to live in a dorm room after 30 years of being out of a dorm room was quite an adjustment. The academic challenge of thinking about leading for the future of the church has been an area of interest to me for a number of years, so now I am officially pursuing another degree.  At night when I come in from a day of work with the church, and sometimes late in the evening after meetings, I still have homework. Going back to school has brought with it a lot of challenges.  Two nights ago as I sat down at the kitchen table under the brightest lights in the house to work, I still could not see the words clearly.  So the great search for the strongest pair of reading glasses in the house began. I had to lay aside my real glasses, and put on the stronger reading glasses to start on my homework.  My reality, I need new glasses in order to be able to read at night when my eyes are already tired. Yesterday, I went to the eye doctor to order new, stronger glasses that she had already prescribed. She told me I could try to get by with my old prescription as long as I could.  I figured out that if I have had to go buy a stronger pair of reading glasses from CVS just to be able to read to do my homework, I probably do need the new prescription.  Education is expensive.
     Spiritually, going back to school at the age of 47 to get another degree has been a life journey. I have always loved to learn, but I have not been at the place in my life to be able to start a degree for some time. One of the big spiritual questions I have had to address is why do I want to do this? Is it worth the money and the sacrifice it will cost me?  My faith based answer to those questions was not quick to come in the discernment process, but the answer did come. Peace came with the answer: do the degree because you can, even if you don't know where it will lead, God will take care of the future.  I have had to decide on my world view of life, and decide am I at a place of winding down, or winding up.  My choice is to wind up and to get all the education I can to make a difference for Christ in my community.  Somehow God has given my the understanding that lives deep inside of me that I can still make a difference. Borrowing a few words from Jeremiah Chapter 29, I believe we would call that a future with hope, and living into God's plans for us.
     So whatever the cool chill in the air of an early August morning may mean to you, for many it means going back to school. Our future is filled with possibility and with hope, new friends, new technology and stepping into whatever may be the plans God has in store for each of us. I am excited that God's plan for every person is to give us a future with hope, made possible through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Glad to have a new Mrs. Lemons in the family!

    Several months ago when our son Joey asked Katie Gordon to marry him, I had no idea that becoming a mother in law was going to be so much fun. Over the last couple of weeks as we prepared for the wedding, it was a joyful time and a sad time all wrapped together. Jeff practiced the piano at every chance so the house was filled with music. It was a joy to get to have the honor to officiate at their wedding in June, and at the same time it was a little sad to know he is moving out of the house and starting a new household of his own. So Joey and Katie set their minds to the task of preparing for a small family wedding. It was a beautiful summer day. So a small family wedding we did have at Davis Chapel, Stokes County NC. It is a small church located near the Dan River in Walnut Cove that started in 1793 when a traveling Methodist preacher, married a local girl with the last name of Davis. These two worked together to help form the first Methodist congregation there. The first building burned and was rebuilt in 1882 which was the building that we used for the wedding. The church now belongs to a historical association in the community as there has not been a congregation that worshiped there since the 1970's.
    A number of years ago there was another traveling United Methodist preacher that married a local Stokes County native. But this time, it was me that was the traveling preacher, and it was the father of the groom that I married. Because of the same practice of the United Methodist Church sending out preachers to itinerate, I connected with the history of the founding pastor of Davis Chapel where Joey and Katie were married.  I married a Stokes County native, and from there we have done our life, our faith and our family together. We celebrated our 8 year anniversary the day of Joey and Katie's wedding rehearsal. My personal story of moving to this community is directly linked with being a United Methodist pastor. Little did I know the day I had the honor to receive Joey into membership at Delta United Methodist Church that life would turn out the way it has.  I remember the day he was baptized in the Dan River, about a mile from the location of the wedding, all these years later. Faith in Christ to follow God's call on my life to be a pastor brought me to the Lemons family years ago as their pastor, and with God's help my role expanded to wife and mother. Christ brought us together as a family. Now the Lord has grown our family by sending us a new daughter. I feel so blessed.
   Standing in front of my son and brand new daughter on the happiest day of their life, was one of the hardest things I have ever done and at the same time, one of the happiest days of my life. To be wife, mother, pastor and think and feel in all those roles at the same time is crazy making. What a tremendous day! The love I feel towards my new daughter in law is beyond what I thought it would be, or imagined it could be. This is a marvelous time for our family, and it is uplifting to my heart to be able to honor Christ by sharing with you our good news. I have a Naomi for a mother in law and we share a tremendous love. Ruby Lemons is a fantastic mother in law. We just canned 77 quarts of beans together so you know that's a lot of love. On Katie's wedding day, I told her I hope I can love her like Naomi loved Ruth. I wish you could have seen the look of love in her eyes. It was precious time and I won't forget it. We give the Lord praise for a new daughter! We are so happy! Congratulations Joey and Katie as you start your life as husband and wife!

Bishop Goodpaster opens General Conference

     It is an exciting day for millions of United Methodists around the world, about 8 million of us in the United States and around the world, as we focus our attention on the opening of General Conference in Tampa, Florida. Our bishop, Bishop Larry Goodpaster from the Western North Carolina Conference preached today at the opening worship service at 4:00pm to encourage United Methodists around the world to follow Christ...immediately. Thanks to the live feed through the General Conference webpage, you can follow General Conference online as well when they are in session as some of General Conference will be broadcast over the internet live by streaming. The link to the General Conference webpage is gc2012.umc.org . When you get to the website, click on streaming and you will be able to follow what is going on as it unfolds. The meeting has about 988 delegates, about half clergy and half laity, and these delegates represent the United Methodist Church from around the world. For the next 10 days, these delegates will vote on over 1000 pieces of legislation that after approved will become our new 2012 Book of Discipline.
     Bishop Goodpaster urged each of us to remember how the first disciples responded as they worked by the sea when Jesus came by and invited them to come and follow him and he would teach them to fish for people. Unlike the first disciples, Bishop Goodpaster noted that some of us would want to first refer that to a committee for four years to study the idea and then get back to us. The tongue in cheek referral to a committee is a long standing practice in the United Methodist Church. It is true that we have a committee for just about every task in the life of the church. Sometimes ideas die in the committee and they never come to pass. The first disciples did not hesitate to drop their nets that they were mending and step right in behind Jesus and follow him. Bishop Goodpaster noted that these men were fisherman by trade and that they used their nets enough that from wear that would have to be mended. It is through General Conference that the United Methodist Church sets aside time to mend our nets, he noted. Likewise as the first disciples were busy doing their job, which was fishing, they cast their nets out into the sea and when they brought in the nets, they brought in an assortment of creatures of all kinds that lived in the sea. Bishop Goodpaster noted how differently we fish today for Christ, by fishing for people one at the time, and then for people just like us, whatever "us" looks like. Another point he made for the church today was that to follow Christ does mean that we will have to get off the pew to follow Christ and to be like the first disciples, our response should come with commitment to the cause of Christ, and to be willing to drop what we are doing as they did. Immediately.
     I hope that you will go to the webpage for General Conference listed above, make an effort to see what is being discussed and remember to pray daily for the leadership of the Holy Spirit to be with each person participating and voting on our behalf. Thanks to my laptop and my cell phone, I made a picture of the bishop as he was preaching to share with you today. The word he left us with regarding what to do about the invitation to follow Christ was an urgent call for response, immediately.

General Conference April 24 to May 4, 2012

     The time for General Conference is here to be held April 24 to May 4, 2012 in Tampa Florida. Tonight at Deerfield UMC we are hosting a Bible study to give information to the church on how to access information on General Conference. We are using the links from the Western NC UMC web page to click on the link for General Conference as our primary source of information to learn about how General Conference works, who attends, and what are some important pieces of legislation that will come to the floor. This meeting is extremely important to our church because what is decided at General Conference is the foundation for the new 2012 Book of Discipline that will govern the life of our work together for the next four years. I want to urge you to take the time to go to the conference web page and click on the General Conference link to learn about what is getting ready to take place.
     Here in our own District we are anticipating big changes to come with the restructuring. We will be welcoming our new District Superintendent Rev. Amy Coles when she takes on the new assignment at annual conference this year. Welcome Amy!  We offer a word of thanks to our outgoing D.S. Dr Fred Jordan for his faithfulness in serving our churches and we wish him well in the transition to come for him. The dates of annual conference have been moved to later this year. Please note the dates for annual conference this year will be June 20 to June 24. To get ready for annual conference, our church is asked to participate in a pre-conference briefing to be held on May 20th at Miller's Creek UMC at 2:00pm. The North Wilkesboro District will be de-commissioned and a new District will come online. We are going to be having a name change, along with some changes in the churches in our district. Our new name is going to be the Appalachian District. More details of the district lines and the restructuring changes can also be found at the conference website online. You can print out the new proposals to see exactly where the new lines fall for each district and which church aligns with what district, and also the new District Superintendents have been named. On the conference and general church front, much is on the line regarding our priorities and how we will be organized. Please take the time to read up and be informed about the coming changes. It is our prayer through General Conference and the changes to come here to our own conference and district, that the Lord will continue to be our guide through this process so that in the end, we can reach more people for Christ and remember that is why our church exists. Our prayers are with each church who is going through a time of pastoral change right now.  We pray God's hand will be on each new assignment that is being made. May the Lord hold the churches and the pastors and their families in the palm of his hand in this time of huge changes.

Transition time is here for the Western NC Conference

     Transition time is here for the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church. We are in the middle of figuring out how to move from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Since Annual Conference met last summer there has been a team of people working diligently on how to bring this change on paper into a reality. If you have not already been to the conference website, you can go there to look at the new district line proposal, the new district names, and the churches that will be aligned with each district. Some of you may be asking why are we trying to do this and what was wrong with the way things were? We are working to do the best we can to realign resources and energy to do the best we can to make disciples for Jesus Christ. Why does it have to be that the church is usually 50 years behind the times? Well, for some of the ways we do life together, the old ways of worship and singing and coming together, and making disciples and people getting saved are working great. I hope that for all the churches that are going through a time of prosperity and seeing fruit in ministry that this time of transition will not be seen as a negative dynamic that will pull you down in any way. I don't see any reason that the change in conference structure should slow you down even for one day. But, for the churches that are struggling, and in a real need of an extreme makeover from the top to the bottom, the model of what the conference is doing may help give your church the example it needs to go ahead and make some tough choices, realign priorities, and put all you have towards becoming more effective in putting resources behind making disciples for Jesus Christ.


     As a pastor, I am close to completing my 19th year of full time ministry as Elder in this conference. Having served several churches, I am not a stranger to times of transition. Every year this time of year, there are hosts of pastors and churches that are gearing up or gearing down because you are facing a time of transition because of a change in pastoral leadership. Having been through that a few times I would like to offer some words to both pastors and churches are in that time in the life cycle of your church or ministry right now. To the pastors, seek out other pastors who are going through times of transition. You are not alone in the feeling of being bombarded with a host of what if questions. You make the effort to find other pastors who are transitioning and offer support to pastors who are going through times of change just like you are. Remember, we are in this together, and you are not alone. To the churches, I offer to you the challenge to look for the strength that you bring to the table as the lay people of your church. What area of ministry are you doing well right now? This is a great time to focus on what you as lay people do well and go after your ministry! If you are in the middle of a building project, then keep on building. If you are in the middle of starting a new playground, then keep on planning and fundraising and gathering the volunteers to make it happen. The dance between the pastor and the congregation in who is taking the lead can shift to the congregation during the times of transition in pastoral changes. When the new pastor arrives, you will be in a great place of being focused on ministry and offer your new pastor the chance to see how his or her gifts will add strength to the ministry that your church may be missing.

     There is no way to escape that times of transition may cause some pain. As human beings we simply are not crazy about change, in whatever form change comes to us. We just have it in our bones to not want but so much change and at a certain pace. Life usually will bring us more change than we want and at a faster pace than we want. So we do what a normal human being does, we will adapt. We will grieve having to give up relationships and the security of the way things used to be, and in working through that get ready to embrace new possibilities. All that doesn't happen on the same day. Transition is truly a process. It's time to get our head in the gear that change is coming. Grief is part of acknowledging the good that may be left behind. In a healthy grief, that allows us to let go and get ready to embrace the new opportunities that the Lord will bring, both for pastors and for congregations. Our conference is currently right in the middle of its time of transition of structure. Change is coming. Many churches and pastors are also in a time of transition knowing that change is coming. It is our prayer together that God's hand will be on each change, and to work through every change the most good for the cause of Christ that is possible. My prayers are with the church and all those who are really feeling transitions right now. Remember, God is still in charge.

Not too cold here to go fishing!

     What a great January this has been in Boone NC! We were anticipating 10 below and lots of wind and rain and snow and fog. I am so glad to report the weather has been milder than usual. Everyday here in January where you can actually see the grass is like having another day added to Christmas. It feels like a real gift. We do anticipate the winter to still arrive, but we have enjoyed the warm days. It is a blessing to be able to share the good news that the work that we are doing to teach the children of our church about the good news of Christ on Monday afternoons continues to prosper. It is such a joy to set aside the cares of pastoral care with the grown ups I serve which can be serious and heavy some days, to laugh, spin the hula hoop, and teach the kids about how much Jesus loves them. Some how I believe in the life of the church and the pastor, we are supposed to care both for the elderly and for our members, and yet look for ways to tell the story of Christ to those who do not yet know the story, or know the Savior personally.
     This past Sunday we studied from the lectionary text in Mark where Jesus calls his first disciples. They were real fisherman. Jesus talked them out of doing that for a living with their dad and to drop what they were doing to come and follow him. In exchange for doing that, Jesus promised to teach them how to fish for people. No matter what the weather may be, fishing for Jesus Christ is always in season. I have reminded our flock to look for ways to tell the story of how much Christ loves them to the people they meet day by day. You are an expert on your witness. No one knows better than you all that Christ has done for you. So, we are a blessed people, yet afraid of offending or pushing people away, so we fail to speak up for Christ all through the day. We pray for God to give us open doors to the hearts of the people we meet, and for God to put people in our path who are spiritually hungry. We are trusting in His grace to give us the courage to speak up, and by the Spirit, we know God will give us the words to say to help get one more fish in his net day by day. Fishing is holy business. It is a ton of fun to work for Christ and the joy of knowing that another fish is securely in the net of Christ is the most rewarding work I can imagine. Sunday I gave the church an invitation to follow the example of the first disciples and I pass it on to you as well, "Go fish!" In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What a wonderful regular Monday!

     Yesterday during worship, I celebrated with the children that it was a regular Sunday at Deerfield UMC. No big deal to them. But when I told them I was really excited because that meant tomorrow is a regular Monday and what does that mean for the children at Deerfield? They quickly replied, "Marvelous Magical Mondays!" So today at 3:30pm, we were back on our regular schedule for our children's ministry that meets weekly to teach them scripture through songs, stories, and puppets. It was a wonderful day to share hula hoops with the kids, and to teach them the story of Noah's Ark and what the promise is that comes everytime we see a rainbow in the sky. So next week, even though it's a holiday, and a very special one, we will be striving to keep our kids in their normal routine by staying with our instruction time at 3:30pm on Mondays. It has been a ton of fun! We have about as many grown ups that stay and help us each week as we do children and that is also wonderful. God is using the children of our church to put a smile on my face each week, and I know the other grown ups helping organize and teach each week feel the same way. Regular Mondays for us are awesome, and we praise God for each child who comes through the door of our church. We want to love them and share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. Next week, we will be starting to teach the kids all the books of the Bible and I know this will be a challenge, but the kids rise to the challenge and work hard. Thanks again to Connie Goff and Katie Grady for such great leadership to pull together our children's Christmas program. We made cd's of the kids singing and now the kids are playing their cd's over and over again, continuing to sing the songs like "God is always with you." Praise God that on a regular Monday, we have something exciting, life-giving being breathed into us that is just too good to keep to ourselves, so we want to share some of the joy from the kids of Deerfield UMC with you. Come join us. God is up to something musical and marvelous every regular Monday. For this, we give the Lord praise.