How will you prepare for Good Friday?

     This morning, the Monday of Holy Week, I was determined to start my day in the word, and not in a rush. I wanted to just spend some time with the Lord and lean into what this week would bring. It didn't start off so smoothly. Early the phone rang and Treva our secretary called to say she was sick. Yes, it was going to be a crazy day, but even so, I really wanted to dig into the word. So, in the front room pictured above in the parsonage, I love to sit where I can see out the big window. I sip a cup of coffee and get still. That is the perfect invitation for my little dog to squeeze in as close to me as possible, her favorite thing to do. How sweet that she loves to be so close. She is such a great comfort and companion for me. When I sit down to read my Bible, if the chair is wide enough to hold both of us, she is right to my side on my left leg, snuggled into her own little piece of heaven. The time was peaceful and rewarding. The rest of the day was a pretty fast pace.
   So Holy Week started for me with a determination to read the word and to take the time to try to absorb something wonderful for the day. I prayed for a friend having a shot in her eye this morning, and for two people having surgery today.  I read the lesson for tonight's Beth Moore Bible study that I would be attending, and the scripture on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob actually brought tears to my eyes to watch chapter by chapter as God's plan unfolds. The day started on track, pointed towards the cross. We are in the last days of the week celebrating how God's master plan for our salvation unfolds.
   That's where we are this week.  A few minutes in the office brought an unexpected invitation from the local WATA station 1450AM. They called to ask me to come do the morning devotion. My reply was, "You want me to come right now?" No, tomorrow and the rest of the week. So I accepted and look forward to that opportunity. Of all the weeks of the year to get to tell the story of the resurrection and all it means to us, this is a tremendous opportunity for our church to have a voice to reach the lost in our community and to encourage the saved. We have a special service this Thursday night to celebrate Holy Communion at 7:00pm and we want to invite you to attend. God be with you as you observe a Holy Lent, and find your way sometime this week, all the way to the foot of the cross of the one who died in our place, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Please take a moment and forward this message to your friends. I hope Jesus is the most talked about subject in the whole world this week!

Four Year Old Little Girl at Deerfield UMC leads the church in giving

     As you read the title, how could this be? How could a four year old little girl lead the church in giving? By giving up her whole life's savings to Deerfield UMC this past Sunday. On my drive back to Boone on Saturday, her mother called to say her little girl had a special gift. She had been saving coins her whole life and she had decided that she wanted to give them to the church. She wants to give them to the church for the playground. So we made arrangements to give the gift and the giver a chance to be honored on Sunday morning as we were preparing to receive the offering. What church stewardship team wouldn't want this kind of a story to kick off a giving campaign?  We wanted to do a stewardship campaign during the season of Lent, but it got postponed because the church activity has been revolving around getting parsonage repaired and helping me get settled again after the fire. So even though we needed to press on with the stewardship campaign, life required our energies to be directed in other ways at this moment. But, by the grace of God, a little one was nudged, and I believe used by the Holy Spirit, to soften the hearts of a whole congregation and make each one of us think about our giving. When a little child knows that what they have to offer in worship is worth something, and valued by all who are there, God has a way of breaking down walls through the softness and innocence of a child. When children come to God in obedience, I believe with my whole heart that is makes God smile. It makes us grown ups want to be so willing to do as the Holy Spirit directs that a reverence comes over the whole congregation. We celebrated Holy Communion and dedicated four prayer shawls. Worship was wonderful. God was with us.
    Grown ups say, "Well I can't give my whole savings." God does not ask that of each of us, God only asks us for 10 percent. What she gave was all she had. Remember there is some scriptural precedent for this (the widow's mite). This little girl's gift came out of the blue. No stewardship campaign. No letter sent to each home from the pastor. No begging for money from the pulpit. She has heard people talking about getting starting with rebuilding the playground! Our United Methodist Men are taking on a great interest in working with the women's groups of the church to get the playground updated with new equipment. If I were her mom or dad, or grandma or grandpa, you couldn't stand to be around me this week. All you would hear about was her beautiful gift. I would be so proud and I know they are! I am proud of her obedience and I want to be so generous.
     I don't want to try to explain away the wonder of how God can use a little girl, to call her to give up all the money she has in the world and totally surrender it to the church for God's purposes. It was a beautiful gift, and we honored it. Our whole church was touched by the tenderness of her heart. Who knows what influence this gift may have on our adults? We are so grateful to have her with us.  Jesus calls us to radical obedience to be his follower. What she did was radical, even if she was four. What would it take for us to be so bold?

Hey, we are back in the parsonage!

It is with great delight that I share the news that we moved back into the parsonage last Saturday. It has been about 3 months since the fire in the parsonage and what a time of rebuilding this has been. One of the benefits since the fire is that the fire detection system has now been extended into the parsonage. For lunch today, I made some biscuits, yes from scratch. When I got done eating lunch, I made some biscuits with strawberry jam and took them over to the church. When I went out the front door there were three fire alarm security trucks and a truck from the fire department out in front of the church. I walked into the fellowship hall where they were working and said, "I did not burn the biscuits." That had been the joke while they were putting in the sensors that when I cooked, the fire department would come. It was a good laugh for all concerned. 
   The best thing that has happened to our church after the fire, is that the whole process of rebuilding has helped bring out the best in people. The companies that have helped us have been so kind, and helpful. From our insurance adjuster to the contractor, to all the volunteers from here at Deerfield UMC, the measure of grace has filled our cup to overflowing. It has been a spiritual journey for me in not being in charge, when I really like to have things in order around me. The last few days of putting things in order have been days filled with healing, as I have waited for the day to come when a regular day would come again. I think we are really close to a regular day, just around the corner, and for that, I sure do give the Lord praise. On an earlier post, I published a picture of the shadow of a cross that was left on the wall of the parsonage after the fire. Today, that same cross went back on the wall in the same place as it was before the fire. In all things, we remember, Christ is with us. I invite you to observe a Holy Lent.

Weeping Willow brings a sign of spring

     This past week I attended a session for clergy for the Clergy Health Innitiative. Duke Divinty School is working on a study to help pastors learn how to manage stress and live a more healthy lifestyle. Some of the statistics on clergy health for pastors in our conference were pretty shocking. One that stands out in my mind is that clergy in our conference are twice as likely as the general population to suffer from depression. There were several other areas like diabetes, asthma and arthritis that were high enough among clergy that there was also a statistical difference in the high levels in these health problems compared also to the general population for people in NC. If you are into scientific studies, these folks have truly done their homework on the book work to make sure that what we do is worth the time. So the bottom line for us this past week boiled down to learning how to do a better job in managing stress. Stress brings with it so many different kinds of sickness that if we can bring down the stress level among our clergy, our scientific data show us that we can increase health in our clergy. All this sounds good. To get started this week, in Ashboro NC at Camp Caraway, we launched the journey. Clergy from the NC and the Western NC Conferences. Very little cell phone service, and no T.V. in my room did a little to raise my stress while I was there. Monday night I went to bed at 7:30pm. No joke. Tuesday night I went to bed by 9:00pm. The schedule had a 30 minute break between activities, so all day long we were not at a rushed pace and it really felt weird to have that much time before I had to do something else.
    I tried to honor the spirit of being on retreat when I left home. I left my laptop at home and kept my phone cut off and when we were not in worship or in class, I would check messages. Like many pastors I did have a pastoral emergency while I was at the retreat, the death of one of our oldest members. His funeral service was today. There was a pastor here in Boone on call for me that was able to take care of the family until I could get back at the end of the retreat to be with them. Something good did happen this week as we had Holy Communion together, sang hymns, listened to sermons, prayed for our congregations. Today, even after doing a funeral this afternoon, I feel like some of my peace has been restored. I have had the opportunity to think about holy things and put my trust in God to hold everything together until I could get back to my post. I am not quite able to find the words to describe what it's like to have a burden lifted, but somehow I actually do feel less stressed, more rested, and looking forward to worship tomorrow. God wants to give us what we need each day, if we will slow down long enough to receive the gift of each day. At Camp Caraway, there was a beautiful weeping willow tree that stood above a lake. Not a big deal to most of the folks there probably, but to me, who left snow on the ground in the yard of the parsonage when I left to go on retreat, this tree meant something different to me. The weeping willow was in full bud. Spring is close at hand. New life is right around the corner. To me, it was the image of the retreat that means new life is right around the corner, hold on to that hope. God is sending you a message of hope today as well. Look for your own willow tree, and know that new life is just on the verge of breaking through.

Update from Deerfield UMC

     The work at Deerfield in the recovery efforts from the fire continues. Each day we can see more progress. Last week when we had some warm weather, they were able to replace the roof. The work inside the fellowship hall in pretty much completed. It is still going to be a couple of weeks before the parsonage is ready to move back into. The folks here have worked so hard. All the contractors that have helped us have been so kind, we really do appreciate people being so thoughtful.
   I hope that you had a great Valentines Day last Monday. Today, I was schedule to attend the clergy health inniative at Haw River State Park, but I was not able to attend because I have been sick for a few days with a sinus infection which took my voice with it on Friday and today it has returned to a small voice.  So over the last few days, starting Friday morning when I woke up and could not talk, life has been very different. I have had to be still, rest, stay off the phone, and didn't even feel like doing anything on the computer, and that is pretty bad. So the new Lay Leader at Deerfield, got a crash course in one to the job responsibilities of the Lay Leader, ready to lead worship on Sunday morning if the pastor is sick at the last moment. Well,  Friday was not last moment, but it still was not much time, and I thank her for her diligence to write a sermon and lead worship on Sunday.  We have some very capable lay folks here at Deerfield and I am so proud of them. Late Saturday afternoon, I got a call from parishoners that had cooked supper for me and were ready to deliver supper. How could you not love these people? God has had some time to speak over these last days of having to be still and quiet, whether I wanted to or not. The scripture speaks volumes when it says, "Be still and know that I am God." I figure, God may have nudged me that I was pushing too hard, and needed a break and in my own hard headed way, ingored that nudge. I don't recommend that. So, if a couple of days of peace and quiet and rest is what I needed, the Lord has provided, even though I would have picked a warm beach and long walks in the sand and sun if just a break was all I needed. I think a greater lesson of letting people be the best they can be was also a teachable moment for me and the congregation, like folks bringing me supper, and preaching with hardly a moments notice, are a couple of ways that our lay people had to shine, and be the best God has made them to be. So praise the Lord for every time we let God use us for good, and for the healing that God has brought already. We look daily for the hand of God, and give him the praise when we see a new miracle unfold. Already I am feeling some better and I have gone from no voice to now a small voice, and for that I am already so thankful. Thanks for your prayers. We are pressing forward.