How are you handling adversity? Jesus is with you too.

     I started out my first day back from vacation with a trip to the bank this morning. At 8:30 a.m. this morning on the way to pick up my dog from the kennel, I stopped in the drive through window at the bank. I saw a man standing at the drive through window doing his banking business, and should have taken a hint. As I pulled up to wait my turn, it was obvious he had a business account and a whole lot to say. If you know me, I hope you really LOL. Some of you are laughing right now, I just know it. I could hardly wait to get my dog from the vet and I found myself tapping the steering wheel and checking my watch, several times.  I thought, I sure am being tested early in the day today. It was obvious this was not going to be a quick stop as I had planned. I kept my cool, but I was so glad to see him walk back to his huge truck that he had parked near the bank that I shouted just a little bit on the inside. It was only 10 minutes but at that moment it felt like an hour. My adversity this morning was just a little bump in the road to start the day. Where was my patience?
    As we think about preparing our hearts for the holy time before us, one of the themes I have been reflecting on is how we handle adversity. At Faith UMC where I serve, there are a number of people who are facing adversity. Big adversities, not a little bump in the road like a minor delay at the bank. The life situations vary a great deal, but there is a common thread of faith, and that is trusting Jesus Christ no matter what comes our way. The world sees our witness in the face of adversity. I see the witness of these folks I serve and I give the Lord praise for their courage and their witness. Yes, we can give the Lord praise when everything in life is going our way. We are all smiles with a good job, a happy family that is getting along, good health, friends you can count on, safe communities, and security and peace on every front. But let the smallest inconvenience break into our routine and we get cranky. When we are at our best, do we stop to give the Lord praise for helping us be at our best? When we need him, we are surely quick to ask for his help. Christ proves to us his power when we are weak. The scripture teaches he is strong. Adversity helps us understand in a personal way the strength Christ will give us when we take our rest in him.
     Another thought about adversity is that you can count on it. Hardships are going to find everybody at some point in time. We cannot control "what comes our way, but we can control "how" we handle what comes our way. I know some people with the best attitude you can imagine in the face of really serious health issues among other challenges. I know that this is only possible through Christ our Lord. Who is the keeper of your peace? I know a young adult who is going through a time of great disappointment. Things have not worked out as he had hoped they would. But he is keeping his faith in Christ. I look forward to his testimony some day of how God is using this adversity in his life to be a building block. I know it doesn't feel like a building block for anything good to come for him right now, but our God is in the business of redemption. I am continuing to trust that God will bring something good from the present situation. I also talked to a grandpa tonight whose great grand daughter who is five years old had a brain tumor removed last week. She is doing well and making progress day by day. When the family stood around her before her surgery started, she told them not to cry because Jesus was with her. That is facing adversity with Christ if I have ever seen it!  We serve a Savior who knows all about adversity, real adversity, and he stands ready to help us in our day to day situations be overcomers, transformers, life givers, life lovers, motivators, optimists, real resurrection people. Christ is the source of our eternal hope.  Thanks be to God! 

Bishop Larry Goodpaster visits in the Winston Salem District

Bishop Larry Goodpaster was our guest at the Winston Salem District Clergy meeting on Tuesday. He shared some ideas with us about the state of the union of the church and new strategies to reach people outside the church. One way is through new church plants. We have between 28 and 32 spots that have been identified as areas that need new churches in our conference. Our hope is to start 7 to 10 new sites each year. Here in the Winston Salem District, we are looking forward to having a new church start come to the Children's Home soon, and we are working on a joint new church start project on the Hwy. 150 corridor with the Lexington District. Our hope is for that to become a reality sometime this year too. Part of the process of planting new churches is to have the right person to help lead each project with adequate preparation and adequate funding to set them up for success. As a conference we are looking to start some sort of funding that will become a permanent source of funding for planting new churches over time so that in 20 years down the road from now, there will be funds on hand to keep starting new churches. A great plan of sustainability. Bishop Goodpaster shared a shocking statistic with us. He said 74% of UMC buildings are located where 16% of the population lives. We as a conference are all about the mission of inviting people to follow Jesus, make disciples and transform the world.

The average age of our church is around 59. A new church is needed to reach a younger generation. New churches do new things to reach newer and younger folks. I kept thinking about the scripture about putting new wine in new skins because if you try to put new wine into an old skin, it will burst. That same truth goes a long way in thinking about making room for the next generation for our church. Those born after 1980 called the millenial generation believe in God more than their parents did at their age, but they don't believe in the church in the same way as their parents do. As a conference we are looking for new venues for the younger generation to plug into Christ. Our goal is to communicate the same good news of Christ in new and creative ways to reach the next generation.

As a church we will have to deal with change for the church to head in a new, positive direction. We pray that God will lead the way to let us hold fast to the gospel, give us the courage to change the things we can, accept the things we can't change, and lean on the Lord for the wisdom to know the difference.

You are invited to be in service on June 5 this year as a Christian with a heart for mission. Rev. Effie McClain invited the whole district to a community gathering on that day their church is hosting called Thunder on Thurmond. A block party to invite the community and this year sponsoring a health fair too.

It was great to have the bishop with us, to share his ideas, and to communicate to us once again that we have a spiritual leader. We praise the Lord for his leadership and vision for our conference.

WS District Plans Power of Three Plug In Event for May

Here are the notes from the Evangelism Task Force to promote leading people to Christ in 2010:

I. We see our primary task as that of offering training opportunities to support churches and individuals in their evangelistic outreach. Our immediate sense is to provide help to churches in meeting their Power of Three goals for professions of faith and membership increase. To do that we are planning a training event on Sunday, May 16, from 3:00-4:30 p.m., location TBA, called “Power of Three-Plug In.” With help from Amy at the District Office, I will receive and plow through the documents presented by churches at their 2009 Charge Conference in reference to the following questions that we were asked to respond to.

- What are your plans for helping the WNC Conference reach 300,000 members by the end of 2012?

- What are examples of things you do to welcome visitors?

- How are you making a difference in someone else's life?

- What are you doing in order to reach people with the love of Jesus Christ?

- Do you have a "plan" for evangelism? What is it?

- What steps are you taking to implement the plan?

The May 16, “Power of Three-Plug In” will seek to present a summary of what other churches are doing to reach their goals. This should be a valuable resource of creative ideas. Discussion would follow a presentation.

Thank you to Rev. Keith Bingham, the new Chair for the Task Force on Evangelism for the Winston Salem District for submitting this great news for us today!
Rev. Evelyn Lemons

Can you cut your computer off at night to think about spiritual things?

Many of you may have decided to take up a new practice or give up something for Lent. Realizing that most evenings I find myself working late on the computer, I decided for Lent to cut off my computer every night at 8:00pm. My hope was to use that time for a spiritual purpose instead of replacing it with more work. I haven't done too well with that part so far. It has only been a week and one day, and it feels like a huge change and limitation already. I had no idea how much I was going to miss it. I usually check emails at night when I come home. Now, if I don't check them before 8:00pm, it will be the next day before I can get to them. Last night, I found myself working on powerpoint for worship on Sunday with our power point person for the week in her home. After a delicous surprise bowl of homemade chicken stew for supper, and before I knew it, it was after 8:00pm. I didn't slam the computer shut and quit and rush the house before I turned into a pumpkin. I had worship stuff for this Sunday that I needed to work on that is special. Our confirmation class is being confirmed Sunday, and I had most of the pictures. We had to cancel confirmation class yesterday because of a threat of snow so that threw us a curve ball for the schedule yesterday. So yesterday my discipline was not that great, I fudged.  Wow, I was not expecting turning off the computer at night to be hard, but it is. It must be the right practice for me for Lent right now, and promises to bring me a challenge and the opportunity to seek the presence of the Lord. You can search for a new spiritual practice to adopt for this season of Lent, or you can also try giving up something. The point of a Lenten spiritual discipline is to allow God to use it in our lives for good, to draw us ever closer to the heart of God. I wish for you much discipline, the power to fight temptation, and the desire to observe a Holy Lent. God be with you.

Protect your right to pray in Jesus Name

I submitted a 250 word version of the article below as a Letter to the Editor of the Winston Salem Journal on Friday. Whether or not it prints, here is the full article for you.

I feel like my rights as an American are under attack. So I went back to the Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights, and I include here the words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” I have a reason as a pastor and as a Christian to be upset. A couple of years ago, I was invited to give the prayer before the Forsyth County Commissioners meeting. So I accepted the invitation and I gave the prayer. I don’t remember the exact words, but I prayed like I usually pray. No one told me what I had to say or what I could not say. Then in just a couple of weeks, one of the pastors in our community came under fire for using the name of Jesus Christ in his prayer. Our commissioners have been fighting over this issue since that time. The Christians in our community are not going to stop praying in the name of Jesus Christ no matter what the high court rules. We may not be invited to pray at the commissioners meetings anymore, but we are not going to budge on the issue of praying in the way we believe. That freedom is protected by the First Amendment and we do have a legal right to keep on exercising that freedom. If you tell someone how to pray that is directly violating the first amendment by prohibiting the free exercise of their religion. If someone believes differently than we do as Christians, as an American they have the right to have a different opinion. As a United Methodist pastor of Faith United Methodist Church in Rural Hall NC, I am willing to take a strong stand to support the First Amendment. When I pray, I am going to keep on using the name of Jesus Christ. If you find that offensive, then don’t ask me to pray, but I am not going to back down in being bold for my Savior. I urge the citizens of this county to let your county commissioners hear from you on this issue. I go with Christ, or I’m not going at all. I know I am not alone and our commissioners need to hear your voice too.


I urge the Forsyth County commissioners to appeal the recent high court decision regarding prayer before their meetings. I am not supporting the government to push one particular way of expressing religion on the people, but I am asking for the freedom to practice my faith as a pastor and as a Christian in the way I choose. I urge the commissioners to appeal. We the people, of this county, and of all of the United States, believe that our fundamental right to exercise religion and free speech are rights protected by the constitution and that these are rights that we are willing to fight to keep. Our country was founded on belief that you should be free to exercise your religious beliefs, and that freedom has been something that our nation has shed blood and sacrifice to establish, and our men and women in the armed forces continue to fight daily to protect that freedom. Please don’t let a vocal minority speak for all the people. We the people, still means all the people. Protect our First Amendment rights. It is worth the fight.