Because I'm a pastor I tend to keep my cell phone on at night and have lately gotten in the habit of using my phones alarm clock feature to wake me up in the morning. In fact, the only time I ever turn it off is on Thursday evenings when i try to take Friday as a Sabbath.
Well, I got a text at 4:51 this morning.
My good friend Derek McNatt, minister of music and worship at Christ UMC in the Woodlands, TX, is now a daddy! Andrew Charles McNatt entered this world at 4:14 a.m., weighing 7 lbs., 4 oz., and coming in at 20 inches long. Everybody is healthy. What a blessing!!!
I took the time this morning to give thanks to God for Andrew Charles and his parents, as well as my own wife and child, and all of the new children in the world (and those who are on the way).
It seems that this is a season rich in child-bearing for many. So many people in my life are pregnant! It is thrilling and awe-inspiring to think of the new life that is coming into the world.
On the flip-side, and there always is a flip-side in this paradoxical world we find ourselves in, my heart breaks for everyone who so desperately want to have children but are struggling to have them. I have a very close person in my life who is going through this and she and her husband are fostering three beautiful children right now. I am so proud of them, they are amazing parents and are doing wonderful things for the children they have! I know that the longing to have a biological child is still intense, however.
I thank God for folks like them, who are willing to step into the void and to love unconditionally: what a wonderful example for all of us! They are truly making a difference in the world!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Why does coffee taste better out of your own mug?
I'm really not sure about this, but I suspect there is a dissertation out there somewhere about the following topic:
Why does coffee taste better out of your own mug?
I LOVE coffee! Can't get enough (though my cardiologist thinks I should try to get enough a lot less frequently). In our lives at the moment, we are living with my in-laws until our house in San Antonio sells (and, seriously, THANKS BE TO GOD we have a contract on it!) and I've been drinking the same coffee I usually drink out of their coffee mugs. It's the same product (this week I've been rotating between finishing out my Starbucks Christmas Blend and the Dunkin Donuts original, which is today's choice), the same water, but the mugs are not my own. That is, until Christmas came and I got a mug as a gift from my folks. I don't understand it but the coffee tastes better! Obviously, there must be some sort of neurological issues at work here but I find it frankly fascinating.
The coffee was fine when it came in other mugs.
The coffee was better when it came in my own, new mug.
The new mug didn't even need a break-in period, it was just instantly better.
Hmmm.....
Why does coffee taste better out of your own mug?
I LOVE coffee! Can't get enough (though my cardiologist thinks I should try to get enough a lot less frequently). In our lives at the moment, we are living with my in-laws until our house in San Antonio sells (and, seriously, THANKS BE TO GOD we have a contract on it!) and I've been drinking the same coffee I usually drink out of their coffee mugs. It's the same product (this week I've been rotating between finishing out my Starbucks Christmas Blend and the Dunkin Donuts original, which is today's choice), the same water, but the mugs are not my own. That is, until Christmas came and I got a mug as a gift from my folks. I don't understand it but the coffee tastes better! Obviously, there must be some sort of neurological issues at work here but I find it frankly fascinating.
The coffee was fine when it came in other mugs.
The coffee was better when it came in my own, new mug.
The new mug didn't even need a break-in period, it was just instantly better.
Hmmm.....
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Lessons and Carols Order of Worship: 2007
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and Children’s Nativity
Argyle United Methodist Church
December 9th, 2007
Gathering
PRELUDE: Anastasia Markina, piano
WELCOME/GREETING/ANNOUNCEMENTS Todd Mead
LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT CANDLES Liz and Claire Edwards
Prepare the way of the Lord.
We light this candle in love,
the love that Jesus, our Savior, has for us.
Prepare, then, the way of the Lord.
Sung Response: Prepare the way of the Lord, prepare the way of the Lord, and all
people will see the salvation of their God.
PROCESSIONAL HYMN* No. 202 People Look East
THE BIDDING PRAYER* Rev. Kory Knott
Sisters and brothers in Christ, this Christmas Season, it is a privilege and a pleasure to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels, and to go in heart and mind to Bethlehem, and see God’s special gift of love that has come to us: the Babe lying in a manger.
Let us open our hearts, and our minds, and our ears to hear again from Holy Scripture the story, the message, of the loving will of God from the first days of our sin until the glorious redemption brought us by this holy Child; and let us make our church glad with our carols of praise.
Before we sing, however, because this of all things would rejoice Jesus’ heart, let us pray to him for the needs of the whole world, and all his people; for peace upon the earth he came to save; for love and unity within the one Church he built and for goodwill among all peoples.
Let us also remember in prayer those whom Jesus sought out, and who we are to seek out: the poor, the cold, the hungry, the oppressed; the sick and those that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; and all who don’t know Jesus.
Finally, let us remember the communion of the saints that has gone before us: all of God’s children, from throughout all times and all places, who rejoice with us this morning and always.
We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray, saying:
THE LORD’S PRAYER*
CAROL Of the Father’s Love Begotten
FIRST LESSON Genesis 3:8-15, 17-19
God announces in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve’s punishment for their rebellion and that the seed of woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.
CAROL Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus Chancel Choir Wesley/Davis
SECOND LESSON Genesis 22:15-18
God promises to Abraham that by his descendants all the nations of the earth shall obtain blessing.
CAROL/OFFERTORY Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel Chancel Choir & Alan Holley arr. Bandy
THIRD LESSON Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
The prophet announces the birth of a king to a people in darkness.
CAROL* No. 216 Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (st. 1,2)
THE CHILDREN’S NATIVITY
FOURTH LESSON Luke 2:1-7
Against a backdrop of emperors and taxes, Jesus is born.
CAROL No. 245 The First Noel (st. 1)
FIFTH LESSON Luke 2:8-16
The shepherds go to see the Savior of the world, lying in a manger.
CAROL No. 217 Away in a Manger (st. 1,3)
SIX LESSON Matthew 2:1-11
The wise men follow a star to find the child Jesus, the King of the Jews.
CAROL No. 245 We Three Kings (st. 1,5)
A MOMENT OF REFLECTION ON THE NATIVITY Liz Edwards
CAROL No. 234* O Come, All Ye Faithful
SEVENTH LESSON John 1:1-14
John unfolds the great mystery of Incarnation.
CAROL All is Well Chancel Choir and Emily Young Smith/Kirkpatrick
DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING* Rev. Joe Stobaugh
May the Christ who by his Incarnation gathered into One things earthly and heavenly fill you with the sweetness of inward peace and goodwill; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always.
Amen.
Go forth in peace and joy.
Thanks be to God. Alleluia!
POSTLUDE: Anastasia Markina
Argyle United Methodist Church
December 9th, 2007
Gathering
PRELUDE: Anastasia Markina, piano
WELCOME/GREETING/ANNOUNCEMENTS Todd Mead
LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT CANDLES Liz and Claire Edwards
Prepare the way of the Lord.
We light this candle in love,
the love that Jesus, our Savior, has for us.
Prepare, then, the way of the Lord.
Sung Response: Prepare the way of the Lord, prepare the way of the Lord, and all
people will see the salvation of their God.
PROCESSIONAL HYMN* No. 202 People Look East
THE BIDDING PRAYER* Rev. Kory Knott
Sisters and brothers in Christ, this Christmas Season, it is a privilege and a pleasure to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels, and to go in heart and mind to Bethlehem, and see God’s special gift of love that has come to us: the Babe lying in a manger.
Let us open our hearts, and our minds, and our ears to hear again from Holy Scripture the story, the message, of the loving will of God from the first days of our sin until the glorious redemption brought us by this holy Child; and let us make our church glad with our carols of praise.
Before we sing, however, because this of all things would rejoice Jesus’ heart, let us pray to him for the needs of the whole world, and all his people; for peace upon the earth he came to save; for love and unity within the one Church he built and for goodwill among all peoples.
Let us also remember in prayer those whom Jesus sought out, and who we are to seek out: the poor, the cold, the hungry, the oppressed; the sick and those that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; and all who don’t know Jesus.
Finally, let us remember the communion of the saints that has gone before us: all of God’s children, from throughout all times and all places, who rejoice with us this morning and always.
We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray, saying:
THE LORD’S PRAYER*
CAROL Of the Father’s Love Begotten
FIRST LESSON Genesis 3:8-15, 17-19
God announces in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve’s punishment for their rebellion and that the seed of woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.
CAROL Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus Chancel Choir Wesley/Davis
SECOND LESSON Genesis 22:15-18
God promises to Abraham that by his descendants all the nations of the earth shall obtain blessing.
CAROL/OFFERTORY Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel Chancel Choir & Alan Holley arr. Bandy
THIRD LESSON Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
The prophet announces the birth of a king to a people in darkness.
CAROL* No. 216 Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (st. 1,2)
THE CHILDREN’S NATIVITY
FOURTH LESSON Luke 2:1-7
Against a backdrop of emperors and taxes, Jesus is born.
CAROL No. 245 The First Noel (st. 1)
FIFTH LESSON Luke 2:8-16
The shepherds go to see the Savior of the world, lying in a manger.
CAROL No. 217 Away in a Manger (st. 1,3)
SIX LESSON Matthew 2:1-11
The wise men follow a star to find the child Jesus, the King of the Jews.
CAROL No. 245 We Three Kings (st. 1,5)
A MOMENT OF REFLECTION ON THE NATIVITY Liz Edwards
CAROL No. 234* O Come, All Ye Faithful
SEVENTH LESSON John 1:1-14
John unfolds the great mystery of Incarnation.
CAROL All is Well Chancel Choir and Emily Young Smith/Kirkpatrick
DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING* Rev. Joe Stobaugh
May the Christ who by his Incarnation gathered into One things earthly and heavenly fill you with the sweetness of inward peace and goodwill; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always.
Amen.
Go forth in peace and joy.
Thanks be to God. Alleluia!
POSTLUDE: Anastasia Markina
Advent Devotions
This past August I was given the opportunity to write several email devotions for The Fellowship of United Methodist in Music and Worship Arts national membership. I have placed them below.
Fellowship Advent/Christmas Devotionals
December 9th, 2007
Matthew 3:1-2
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:2, NRSV)
Well, we are now truly immersed in Advent! Amidst all of the extra (for Argyle we could change this to say, “demands on our time:”) services, the busyness, the hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose focus on why we do what we do.
The kingdom of heaven has come near! Stop. Read that again. What incredible, revolutionary, and beautiful words! The hope for the wholeness and healing of God’s Creation, the absolute love of God, has come near!
In this busy season may God grant us the vision and the strength to use our art (for Argyle, “lives”) to proclaim and further God’s Reign on earth so that all of God’s Creation can become what God wishes it to be.
Prayer: God of the eternal, and God of the here and now, renew in our hearts and eyes your vision for your Creation, so that we might play our roles in furthering your good work through the gifts you have given us. Amen.
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
December 16th, 2007
Matthew 11:2-11
“Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5, NRSV)
What good news, indeed! Jesus brings healing and new life to those on the margins of society. Praise be to God that our God doesn’t see the world like we do! Jesus has given us the responsibility and the privilege to proclaim this news to all! What are we doing in our (strike “worship” for Argyle) worship and in our day-to-day lives that radiates this good news to the world?
May God help us to lovingly proclaim the prophetic message of Christ for the world during this rich season of Advent!
Prayer: God of all, the One who truly leaves no one behind, thank you for loving all of us. May our worship glorify you and your desire for unconditional love and justice in all things, in all places, and in all times.
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
December 23rd, 2007
Matthew 1:18-25
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23, NRSV)
John Wesley got it right, didn’t he? Wesley’s last words in his earthly life were these: “the best of all is, God is with us.” Amen and amen!
May your entire being embrace this reality in new and deeper ways these next few days. Let us, (perhaps here we could say for Argyle purposes, “in our daily lives, with our friends, family, and in our work point to this reality for the world and ourselves this week.”) in our dancing, visual arts, preaching, singing, and playing, point to this reality for the world and ourselves this week.
Prayer: Gracious, living God, we recognize the enormous opportunity we have before us this week: an opportunity to demonstrate your presence, your grace, and your steadfastness to a world that is in desperate need of it. Give us the strength to push through these next few days, filled with your Spirit and faithful to the end! We pray this in your Son’s holy name, Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
December 30th, 2007
Matthew 2:13-23
“When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all of the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.” (Matthew 2:16, NRSV)
This passage from the Gospel of Matthew was enlivened for me two years ago, when my daughter, Eleanor Grace, was born in the early hours of Christmas Day, 2005. What a joyous moment that was for our family, friends and our congregation! In the midst of that joy however, this word from Matthew was juxtaposed powerfully on the day of mourning for the Holy Innocents. I can’t imagine the shock and grief of those parents, whose children were slaughtered to continue the work of the domination system.
In this time of great joy for so many, may we remember these children, and all the children of our world today, who live in fear and who die by the thousands each day from entirely preventable causes. May we remember that love is costly and that we all have a role and responsibility to alleviate the sufferings of God’s Creation.
Prayer: Holy God, in the midst of these days, may your kingdom come! Help us to claim our responsibility as your partners in establishing your empire on earth: an empire of love, and of justice, not like the empires of this world of violence and coercion. Empower our art for your glory and for your Reign! Let us not turn away nor shield our eyes from the hard things in this life but rather let us work to alleviate them, one person and one community at a time! We pray this in the name of Christ! Amen!
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
Fellowship Advent/Christmas Devotionals
December 9th, 2007
Matthew 3:1-2
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:2, NRSV)
Well, we are now truly immersed in Advent! Amidst all of the extra (for Argyle we could change this to say, “demands on our time:”) services, the busyness, the hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose focus on why we do what we do.
The kingdom of heaven has come near! Stop. Read that again. What incredible, revolutionary, and beautiful words! The hope for the wholeness and healing of God’s Creation, the absolute love of God, has come near!
In this busy season may God grant us the vision and the strength to use our art (for Argyle, “lives”) to proclaim and further God’s Reign on earth so that all of God’s Creation can become what God wishes it to be.
Prayer: God of the eternal, and God of the here and now, renew in our hearts and eyes your vision for your Creation, so that we might play our roles in furthering your good work through the gifts you have given us. Amen.
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
December 16th, 2007
Matthew 11:2-11
“Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5, NRSV)
What good news, indeed! Jesus brings healing and new life to those on the margins of society. Praise be to God that our God doesn’t see the world like we do! Jesus has given us the responsibility and the privilege to proclaim this news to all! What are we doing in our (strike “worship” for Argyle) worship and in our day-to-day lives that radiates this good news to the world?
May God help us to lovingly proclaim the prophetic message of Christ for the world during this rich season of Advent!
Prayer: God of all, the One who truly leaves no one behind, thank you for loving all of us. May our worship glorify you and your desire for unconditional love and justice in all things, in all places, and in all times.
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
December 23rd, 2007
Matthew 1:18-25
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23, NRSV)
John Wesley got it right, didn’t he? Wesley’s last words in his earthly life were these: “the best of all is, God is with us.” Amen and amen!
May your entire being embrace this reality in new and deeper ways these next few days. Let us, (perhaps here we could say for Argyle purposes, “in our daily lives, with our friends, family, and in our work point to this reality for the world and ourselves this week.”) in our dancing, visual arts, preaching, singing, and playing, point to this reality for the world and ourselves this week.
Prayer: Gracious, living God, we recognize the enormous opportunity we have before us this week: an opportunity to demonstrate your presence, your grace, and your steadfastness to a world that is in desperate need of it. Give us the strength to push through these next few days, filled with your Spirit and faithful to the end! We pray this in your Son’s holy name, Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
December 30th, 2007
Matthew 2:13-23
“When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all of the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.” (Matthew 2:16, NRSV)
This passage from the Gospel of Matthew was enlivened for me two years ago, when my daughter, Eleanor Grace, was born in the early hours of Christmas Day, 2005. What a joyous moment that was for our family, friends and our congregation! In the midst of that joy however, this word from Matthew was juxtaposed powerfully on the day of mourning for the Holy Innocents. I can’t imagine the shock and grief of those parents, whose children were slaughtered to continue the work of the domination system.
In this time of great joy for so many, may we remember these children, and all the children of our world today, who live in fear and who die by the thousands each day from entirely preventable causes. May we remember that love is costly and that we all have a role and responsibility to alleviate the sufferings of God’s Creation.
Prayer: Holy God, in the midst of these days, may your kingdom come! Help us to claim our responsibility as your partners in establishing your empire on earth: an empire of love, and of justice, not like the empires of this world of violence and coercion. Empower our art for your glory and for your Reign! Let us not turn away nor shield our eyes from the hard things in this life but rather let us work to alleviate them, one person and one community at a time! We pray this in the name of Christ! Amen!
Rev. Joe Stobaugh, O.S.L.
Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts
Argyle United Methodist Church
Argyle, Texas
Children's Music MInistry Philosophy
Hello!
In the next few months I am starting a children's music ministry program in Argyle and have outlined this as my children's music ministry philosophy. What do you think? What have I missed?
I hope to hear from you!
Joe
Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord: Come into God’s Presence with Singing!
--Psalm 100
Philosophy of Children’s Music Ministry
When Jesus asked for the little children to come to him, he meant it! Since the beginning of the church, children have had an active role in worship. Many of the great masterworks of Western art music were composed to be sung with and by children. At Argyle United Methodist Church, we seek to teach our children how to lead in worship through music and liturgy. We believe that a vital part of this process involves helping the children to grow in their faith by singing the hymns, anthems, and songs of the church as a way of deepening their understanding and engagement with their Creator. It is vital that the children understand both the words they sing and the musical language used to communicate them. Therefore we will create an environment that allows for both spiritual and musical expression and education. We desire to enable the church’s children in such a way that their worship participation is their best offering to God.
Goals for Children’s Music Ministry
1. Teach hymns, anthems, and songs of the church.
2. Teach about worship and participate in worship leadership.
3. Educate and develop musical skills.
4. Nurture growth through Christian education.
5. Instill an attitude of service, outreach, and commitment.
6. Provide social activities for fellowship for the purpose of creating community.
In the next few months I am starting a children's music ministry program in Argyle and have outlined this as my children's music ministry philosophy. What do you think? What have I missed?
I hope to hear from you!
Joe
Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord: Come into God’s Presence with Singing!
--Psalm 100
Philosophy of Children’s Music Ministry
When Jesus asked for the little children to come to him, he meant it! Since the beginning of the church, children have had an active role in worship. Many of the great masterworks of Western art music were composed to be sung with and by children. At Argyle United Methodist Church, we seek to teach our children how to lead in worship through music and liturgy. We believe that a vital part of this process involves helping the children to grow in their faith by singing the hymns, anthems, and songs of the church as a way of deepening their understanding and engagement with their Creator. It is vital that the children understand both the words they sing and the musical language used to communicate them. Therefore we will create an environment that allows for both spiritual and musical expression and education. We desire to enable the church’s children in such a way that their worship participation is their best offering to God.
Goals for Children’s Music Ministry
1. Teach hymns, anthems, and songs of the church.
2. Teach about worship and participate in worship leadership.
3. Educate and develop musical skills.
4. Nurture growth through Christian education.
5. Instill an attitude of service, outreach, and commitment.
6. Provide social activities for fellowship for the purpose of creating community.
Sermon for a Wesley Covenant Renewal Service
On the last weekend of 2007 I was given the opportunity to preach at Argyle United Methodist Church, where I am serving as the associate pastor/minister of music, worship, and the arts. I took the opportunity to lead a Wesley Covenant Renewal Service. Below you will find a manuscript of my sermon.
A New Day is Coming…Are You Ready?
Good morning! My name is Joe Stobaugh and I am the associate pastor/minister of music here at Argyle UMC. I am thrilled to be with you today for several reasons: First, I love this time of year, the week between Christmas and New Year’s and the opportunities it presents us to reflect on the year past to look forward to the year to come. Secondly, it’s National Associate Pastor Sunday! This is one of two weekends a year where senior pastors from across the country take a well-deserved break and give their associate pastors a chance to preach! Oh I do love this weekend! Our senior pastor, Kory Knott is taking such a break after having led us in two excellent Christmas Eve services but will be back with us next week. So for today, you are stuck with me! Let us pray:
God wants to be our God if we will be God’s people…
So yesterday, my wife Sarah and I took our two-year-old daughter, Eleanor Grace, to meet her new pediatrician. The visit was going really well and we were all grooving in nicely with the pediatrician, that is, until the doctor wanted to get some blood samples from Ellie to test her for allergies. Now, pediatricians are smart people: they know that when it’s time to actually draw the blood from the kids, they don’t want to be within a mile of them! So after ordering the tests and finishing up with us, our pediatrician vanished into the midst that is her office and in came two ladies whom I will lovingly refer to as “the baby goon squad!” If you are a parent, you know whom I mean: in our case it was two very kind nurses who came brandishing their weapons, I mean, needles and the little blue rubber tourniquet. They asked me if I would help to help hold Ellie so that they could extract the blood from her arm. I was a bit reluctant to do this because this wasn’t my first rodeo with the whole needle and baby thing and, if the pediatrician, who went to med school didn’t want to participate in this process, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to participate either!!! But, out of love for Ellie, I agreed and helped to hold her down so they could do their work.
We laid Ellie down on the table and I had to put my hand on her chest and hold down one of her arms. Needless to say, two-year-old Eleanor Grace was not a fan of this process. From the screaming and the crying you would have thought that she was being murdered. The worst part of it, for me, anyway, was when her beautiful, tear-stained blue eyes met mine and she gave me the look that said, “Daddy, you are supposed to protect me from these people, not help them!” Of course, my heart broke a little, like it does every time I get that look in the doctor’s office.
To make matters worse, the vein in her left elbow was too small to get all that they needed for her tests, so after a break and a flu vaccination, we had to repeat the process all over again with her other arm. All I can tell you about that was it was a “rinse and repeat” moment!
During the course of the rest of the day yesterday, I tried to be extra loving with her, but I felt like there was a bit of distance between us that hadn’t been there in the morning.
Then, last night, at 3:30 a.m., she woke up screaming that “I’ve had a real bad dream” scream; if you’re a parent you know that scream. So I went into her room and held her, and calmed her down. But, honestly, I wasn’t convinced that she was glad to see me when I came in. I think at that moment she would have rather seen her mom. I am sure her bad dream was related to her doctor’s appointment.
After she had calmed down and I got her back to sleep, I tried to go back to bed myself. But I couldn’t. I was thinking about our relationship and how, even though it was the right and loving thing for me to do, to help the nurses get the tests done, I wondered about the state of our relationship…did my holding her create some sort of weird distance between us.
I found myself wondering if it’s sometimes like that with God and us.
I helped the nurses with my daughter and got up at 3:30 in the morning to love on her because Ellie and I are in a covenant relationship. I have covenanted with her and with God to be her daddy, to be in a deeply committed relationship with her. And, though she hasn’t made the conscious choice to claim me as her father yet, I know that when middle-school roles around, she will start to make that decision. (It’s sad, but I already know that I am not near cool enough!) I will be her daddy, always and everywhere, until my dying day. And she, I pray, will choose to consider me as her dad.
You know, anytime God puts people together in a relationship that relationship can become covenantal.
What kind of covenantal relationships are you in your life? You will notice in your bulletin that there is a place for you to write down those relationships to help you enter into this idea.
If we look around in our lives a bit, we can find all manner of covenants, can’t we? (business, environmental, etc.) Where are some of the covenantal relationships in your life?
For our purposes today, let’s take a moment to define the word covenant from a theological perspective. Used in this way the word covenant is defined as an agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment between God and God’s people. So any relationship that has God at its center can be covenantal.
When I look at my life I find that I am that I am in several of these relationships: my life as a parent to Ellie, (and, I’m pleased to announce, Sarah and I will be new parents again in August of 2008! I tell you what, between Christina and Nathan, and Jennifer and Kory, there must be something in the water at this church!!! But our covenantal relationship has a family has already been renewed and enlarged) my marriage with Sarah is a covenantal relationship, my baptism is a covenantal relationship, my ordination is a covenantal relationship, and I can think of three deep friendships that are covenantal in nature. When I was going through the ordination process I was in a covenant group that met at First Denton every month for three years to talk about ministry. You know, being confirmed is a kind of covenantal relationship. What kind of covenantal relationships do you have in your life?
If we look to the Bible we can find many examples of covenantal relationships. Covenants are found all over the Hebrew Scriptures (or what we sometimes refer to as the Old Testament as Christians).
The concept of the covenant is essential to understanding the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish identity, which, of course, is the root of Christianity. The reason the concept of covenant is so important for us to understand is that the covenants that God has made, both with the Israelites, and later, through Jesus with us, are essential to who we understand ourselves to be.
Let’s take a moment and check out some of the major covenants that we find in the Bible. I would invite you to look for some of the patterns we will find in the establishment of these covenants.
Early in Genesis, chapter 9, verses 9-17 to be exact, we come across the Covenant with Noah. You remember this story, right? Noah and the Ark and the flood? Do you remember what God does after the flood? What does God do?... God initiates a covenant not only with Noah and his family but also with all of Creation to protect them from destruction. And God gives them a sign of God’s covenant: a rainbow. God says that whenever God sees a rainbow, than God will remember the covenant and keep it. Whenever we see a rainbow, we should do likewise. For you see God is offering to be the God of all Creation, if we will be God’s people.
As we move forward to Genesis 17:1-22 we find the Abrahamic Covenant. In this passage, God covenants with Abram that God will make Abram ‘exceedingly numerous’ and will make from Abram a ‘multitude of nations.’ God also promises the ancestors of Abram all the land of Canaan and that God will be their God. As for Abram’s and the male members of his houses part of the covenant, they must become circumcised as a sign of the covenant between them and God. It probably goes without saying, but, for this first generation of adult males in this covenant, circumcision was a pretty serious sign of commitment!!!!
Again, in this covenant, we find God offering to be God for Abram and his descendents if they will but respond and be God’s people. You see the pattern? God, in an attempt to restore relationships that are broken, initiates a covenant; God offers to be our God if we will be God’s people.
The third covenant we’ll look at is the Mosaic Covenant found in the Book of Exodus, chapters 19-24. In this covenant story, we find that the Israelites have escaped their slavery in Egypt with God’s help and, after wandering in the desert for approximately three months they come to Mr. Sinai, where God proposes to enter into covenant with the Israelites as God’s chosen people. God gives the Israelites the Law, including the Ten Commandments and offers to be Israel’s God, if they will be God’s people. We see this pattern unfolding again, right? God will be our God if we will be God’s people!
Later in the Hebrew Scriptures, we come across the Davidic Covenant in 2nd Samuel. In this covenant, God tells David that God will establish a royal lineage from David that includes Solomon and, as Kory taught us three weeks ago in his sermon on Joseph, that David’s royal line has it’s fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Though the word covenant is not specifically mentioned in the Hebrew, this story has all the markings of a covenant. God will do wonderful things through David and his descendants if David will be a man of God. As we know, David, like the rest of us, had his good moments and his not so good moments, but in the end, David’s first loyalty was to his God and it was from David that Jesus of Nazareth descended.
Here it is again, right? We find God initiating this covenant: God will be our God, if we will be God’s people.
Finally, in the Book of Jeremiah, we get to the covenant that is our text today. Let me read it to you. Here now what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church today:
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34
I will be their God and they will be my people.
This particular covenant, what is often called The New Covenant, is one of the most famous and most misunderstood passages of Scripture among Christians. This passage is a very important one: Paul quotes it in its entirety in his letter to the Hebrews, chapter 8, versus 8-13.
In order for us to get a good grip on it, we need to have some context for the Scripture itself.
Jeremiah lived and worked and prophesied in the time of the Babylonian Exile, which occurred from 597-582 B.C.E. This time was a terrible one for Israel. The nation of Babylon had invaded Israel three times and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Everything that was central to Jewish life, identity, and worship was in upheaval. It was a moment in their history when it appeared that all was lost and that God had abandoned them because of their sinfulness.
Jeremiah, in addition to calling the people to repentance and explaining to the people why events were unfolding the way they were, was also offering the nation of Israel hope through the promise of the new covenant. Jeremiah tells the people of Israel that a new covenant is coming and that their relationship with God will be renewed by it. This covenant, while having the same content would differ from the Mosaic Covenant in that the law would be in people’s hearts, and not on stone tablets, like they were when Moses was given them. The idea behind the new covenant was that by God’s love and grace everyone would know the LORD and that God would, by God’s grace, forgive Israel’s sinfulness and its relationship with God would be restored.
Can you imagine what great news this must have been to a conquered people: their God had not abandoned them! Their God was so filled with grace that God would forgive them even their worst transgressions! God would save them! And, even better, God would do all of this not out of a sense of obligation but out of love.
What a glorious word of hope! As people of faith these covenants should be a beautiful reminder to us of how deeply God loves God’s Creation and that God has always been actively engaged in restoring the relationship between God and God’s people.
Now, as Christians, where we have run into trouble when we apply a limited and self-centered world-view to this ancient text. Many of our brothers and sisters interpret this scripture as being for Christians only, thus isolating God’s chosen people, the people of Israel, and, be extension of their worldview, consigning Jews who don’t believe in Jesus to hell. Nothing could be more wrong, or more ignorant. Make no mistake about it: this word was originally intended for the Israelites, not for the Gentiles, like most of us.
As Christians, most us can and do, interpret Jesus as being the fulfillment of the new covenant and the offering of it to all of God’s people. In fact, Jesus speaks of himself as being the renewal of the new covenant in Luke 22:20 when he institutes The Sacrament of Holy Communion. God, through Jesus, graciously expands God’s offer of a covenantal relationship to the entire world. Jesus’ ministry, when viewed in its totality, was a ministry of inclusion, not exclusion.
In all of these covenants we find a similar pattern, don’t we? God initiates the covenant and tells God’s people that He will be there God if they will be His people. God is faithful: God will not turn away from the covenants that God has made. It’s important for us to note, that, unlike a contract, a new covenant never nullifies an old covenant, unless both parties agree to its nullification. The covenant that God has with Creation, the covenant that God made with the descendants of Abram, and the covenants that God has with the Jewish people are still valid. This shows us that YAHWEH has been at work trying to reconcile Godself with God’s creation from very near its beginning.
You might be saying to yourself, thanks for the history lesson on covenants in the Bible Joe, but how are we to be God’s people, here, in Argyle, Texas, on December 29th, 2007?
I think the answer is quite simple, really: we are to observe the two great commandments that Jesus gave us: the first being the Shema and the second one being that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The Shema comes from the Book of Deuteronomy and is the first prayer that a Jewish person, such as Jesus, learns. It goes like this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and, Jesus added, with all your strength”.
Seems straight ahead, right? Think about the implications of this prayer for a moment. To understand that the Lord our God is one, is no small thing, given all of the competing claims that we have in our own time for what we should put our trust in, right? Some of these idols include money, or fame, or security, or fanatical nationalism, or sex, or fashion, or music, or sports: the list goes on and on. It is hard to not be an idolater in the 21st century. To recognize and live as if the Lord is our God and the Lord alone is quite a difficult thing to do. In fact, without a living relationship with God, a healthy dose of God’s grace and a sense of our own humility, it is impossible.
The commandment continues that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The implication is clear, isn’t it: God wants all of us! Just having a portion of us does not satisfy God, God wants it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. God desires for us to live an integrated life!
I was blessed in my previous appointment to be in ministry with many addicts who were in the early stages of recovery. Over and over again they told me that one of the biggest relief’s that came from being in recovery was that they were finally living an integrated life: nothing was hidden from God anymore. They were finally living an integrated life! That is what God wants for us!
God wants our hearts, our souls, our minds, and our strength to be employed in loving God and doing what God would have us to do, which transitions, by the genius of Jesus, into the second great commandment that Jesus gives us: to love our neighbors as ourselves.
We talk a lot in the church these days about what it means to take worship outside the walls of the church and into everyday life. How do we put phrases like “to pray without ceasing,” “to live a worshipful life,” to “be the hands and feet of Christ” into practice. I submit to you that the first way that we live a worshipful life is that we make it our business and our passion to love other people. Mother Theresa was often heard to say, “if I judge someone I have no time to love them.” How true is that? One of the most important acts of worship that we can give to God is to love others. Loving God’s Creation is one of the best ways of loving God.
So, friends, a new day is coming. On Monday night and Tuesday we will celebrate the beginnings of a New Year. Are you ready? Are you ready to be God’s people and to have God be your God? Are you ready to put aside whatever idols may be in your life and to worship God alone and to love your neighbor as you love yourself? Are you ready for God to be your God and for you to be God’s people? Are you ready? Let all of God’s children say: Amen!
You are now invited to participate in a brief service of Covenant Renewal from the Wesleyan tradition. Methodists and others have participated in a service like this one since the 1750’s. There will be a bit of spoken liturgy by the pastor, a time of meditation and then you will be invited to say the prayer that you have in your bulletin insert and, if you choose, you may sign the covenant prayer as a sign of your commitment. Here now the proclamation and the invitation to the Covenant Renewal Service:
Liturgy for the Covenant Renewal Service
PROCLAMATION
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Christian life is redeemed from sin and consecrated to God. Through baptism, we have entered this life and have been admitted into the new covenant of which Jesus Christ is the Mediator. He sealed it with his love that it might last forever. On the one side, God promises to give us new life in Christ, the Source and Perfector of our faith. On the other side, we are pledged to live no more for ourselves but only for Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. From time to time we renew our covenant with God, especially when we reaffirm the Baptismal Covenant and gather at the Lord’s Table.
This morning, however, we meet, as the generations before us have met, to renew the covenant that binds us to God. Let us make this covenant of God our own.
INVITATION
Commit yourselves to Christ as his servants. Give yourselves to him, that you may belong to him. Christ has many services to be done. Some are more easy and honorable; others are more difficult and disgraceful. Some are suitable to our inclinations and interests, others are contrary to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves. But then there are other works where we cannot please Christ expect by denying ourselves.
Friends, Christ will be the Savior of none but his servants. He is the source of all salvation to those who obey. Christ will have no servants except by consent; Christ will not accept anything except full consent to all that he requires. Christ will be all in all, or he will be nothing.
So let us remember that God grants forgiveness of sins if we but repent and ask for God’s grace and seek to follow God. God requires us to put away all of our idols and to worship God and God alone with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God has given the Lord Jesus Christ as the way and means of coming to God and Christ reminds us that we must suffer with him. Let us not forget God’s holy laws as the rule of our lives. Finally, let us remember that the almighty God searches and knows our hearts.
Confirm this by a holy covenant.
Church, to make this covenant a reality in your life, listen to these admonitions:
First, set apart some time, more than once, to be spent alone before the Lord; in seeking earnestly God’s special assistance and gracious acceptance of you; in carefully thinking through all the conditions of the covenant; in searching your hearts whether you have already freely given your life to Christ. Consider what your sins are. Consider the laws of Christ, how holy, strict, and spiritual they are, and whether you, after having carefully considered them, are willing to choose them all. Be sure you are clear in these matters, see that you do not lie to God.
Second, be serious and in a spirit of holy awe and reverence.
Third, claim God’s covenant, rely upon God’s promise of giving grace and strength, so you can keep your promise. Trust not your own strength and power.
Fourth, resolve to be faithful. You have given to the Lord your hearts, you have opened your mouths to the Lord, and you have dedicated yourself to God. With God’s power, never go back.
And last, be then prepared to renew your covenant with the Lord. I invite you to read the covenant prayer that is on the insert in your bulletin while Ashley plays a piece by Massenet, and to carefully consider if you are prepared to make a covenant with God for the first time, or to renew your covenant with God again. I covenant with you that I will be here to help you sustain your covenant during this year. Following our time of reflection, you will be invited to pray the prayer aloud, together, as a community, for we cannot keep this covenant without help. There is no pressure here, you may choose to sign it and pray it or not, there is no judgment, for God never coerces, God loves. Let the Spirit guide you in these next few moment. Let us be in a time of reflection.
Let us pray:
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you,
Exalted for you or brought low by you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
To your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You art mine, and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Please strongly consider taking this covenant home with you, and putting it in a place where you will see if every day this year, to serve as a reminder of the covenant between you and God.
A New Day is Coming…Are You Ready?
Good morning! My name is Joe Stobaugh and I am the associate pastor/minister of music here at Argyle UMC. I am thrilled to be with you today for several reasons: First, I love this time of year, the week between Christmas and New Year’s and the opportunities it presents us to reflect on the year past to look forward to the year to come. Secondly, it’s National Associate Pastor Sunday! This is one of two weekends a year where senior pastors from across the country take a well-deserved break and give their associate pastors a chance to preach! Oh I do love this weekend! Our senior pastor, Kory Knott is taking such a break after having led us in two excellent Christmas Eve services but will be back with us next week. So for today, you are stuck with me! Let us pray:
God wants to be our God if we will be God’s people…
So yesterday, my wife Sarah and I took our two-year-old daughter, Eleanor Grace, to meet her new pediatrician. The visit was going really well and we were all grooving in nicely with the pediatrician, that is, until the doctor wanted to get some blood samples from Ellie to test her for allergies. Now, pediatricians are smart people: they know that when it’s time to actually draw the blood from the kids, they don’t want to be within a mile of them! So after ordering the tests and finishing up with us, our pediatrician vanished into the midst that is her office and in came two ladies whom I will lovingly refer to as “the baby goon squad!” If you are a parent, you know whom I mean: in our case it was two very kind nurses who came brandishing their weapons, I mean, needles and the little blue rubber tourniquet. They asked me if I would help to help hold Ellie so that they could extract the blood from her arm. I was a bit reluctant to do this because this wasn’t my first rodeo with the whole needle and baby thing and, if the pediatrician, who went to med school didn’t want to participate in this process, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to participate either!!! But, out of love for Ellie, I agreed and helped to hold her down so they could do their work.
We laid Ellie down on the table and I had to put my hand on her chest and hold down one of her arms. Needless to say, two-year-old Eleanor Grace was not a fan of this process. From the screaming and the crying you would have thought that she was being murdered. The worst part of it, for me, anyway, was when her beautiful, tear-stained blue eyes met mine and she gave me the look that said, “Daddy, you are supposed to protect me from these people, not help them!” Of course, my heart broke a little, like it does every time I get that look in the doctor’s office.
To make matters worse, the vein in her left elbow was too small to get all that they needed for her tests, so after a break and a flu vaccination, we had to repeat the process all over again with her other arm. All I can tell you about that was it was a “rinse and repeat” moment!
During the course of the rest of the day yesterday, I tried to be extra loving with her, but I felt like there was a bit of distance between us that hadn’t been there in the morning.
Then, last night, at 3:30 a.m., she woke up screaming that “I’ve had a real bad dream” scream; if you’re a parent you know that scream. So I went into her room and held her, and calmed her down. But, honestly, I wasn’t convinced that she was glad to see me when I came in. I think at that moment she would have rather seen her mom. I am sure her bad dream was related to her doctor’s appointment.
After she had calmed down and I got her back to sleep, I tried to go back to bed myself. But I couldn’t. I was thinking about our relationship and how, even though it was the right and loving thing for me to do, to help the nurses get the tests done, I wondered about the state of our relationship…did my holding her create some sort of weird distance between us.
I found myself wondering if it’s sometimes like that with God and us.
I helped the nurses with my daughter and got up at 3:30 in the morning to love on her because Ellie and I are in a covenant relationship. I have covenanted with her and with God to be her daddy, to be in a deeply committed relationship with her. And, though she hasn’t made the conscious choice to claim me as her father yet, I know that when middle-school roles around, she will start to make that decision. (It’s sad, but I already know that I am not near cool enough!) I will be her daddy, always and everywhere, until my dying day. And she, I pray, will choose to consider me as her dad.
You know, anytime God puts people together in a relationship that relationship can become covenantal.
What kind of covenantal relationships are you in your life? You will notice in your bulletin that there is a place for you to write down those relationships to help you enter into this idea.
If we look around in our lives a bit, we can find all manner of covenants, can’t we? (business, environmental, etc.) Where are some of the covenantal relationships in your life?
For our purposes today, let’s take a moment to define the word covenant from a theological perspective. Used in this way the word covenant is defined as an agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment between God and God’s people. So any relationship that has God at its center can be covenantal.
When I look at my life I find that I am that I am in several of these relationships: my life as a parent to Ellie, (and, I’m pleased to announce, Sarah and I will be new parents again in August of 2008! I tell you what, between Christina and Nathan, and Jennifer and Kory, there must be something in the water at this church!!! But our covenantal relationship has a family has already been renewed and enlarged) my marriage with Sarah is a covenantal relationship, my baptism is a covenantal relationship, my ordination is a covenantal relationship, and I can think of three deep friendships that are covenantal in nature. When I was going through the ordination process I was in a covenant group that met at First Denton every month for three years to talk about ministry. You know, being confirmed is a kind of covenantal relationship. What kind of covenantal relationships do you have in your life?
If we look to the Bible we can find many examples of covenantal relationships. Covenants are found all over the Hebrew Scriptures (or what we sometimes refer to as the Old Testament as Christians).
The concept of the covenant is essential to understanding the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish identity, which, of course, is the root of Christianity. The reason the concept of covenant is so important for us to understand is that the covenants that God has made, both with the Israelites, and later, through Jesus with us, are essential to who we understand ourselves to be.
Let’s take a moment and check out some of the major covenants that we find in the Bible. I would invite you to look for some of the patterns we will find in the establishment of these covenants.
Early in Genesis, chapter 9, verses 9-17 to be exact, we come across the Covenant with Noah. You remember this story, right? Noah and the Ark and the flood? Do you remember what God does after the flood? What does God do?... God initiates a covenant not only with Noah and his family but also with all of Creation to protect them from destruction. And God gives them a sign of God’s covenant: a rainbow. God says that whenever God sees a rainbow, than God will remember the covenant and keep it. Whenever we see a rainbow, we should do likewise. For you see God is offering to be the God of all Creation, if we will be God’s people.
As we move forward to Genesis 17:1-22 we find the Abrahamic Covenant. In this passage, God covenants with Abram that God will make Abram ‘exceedingly numerous’ and will make from Abram a ‘multitude of nations.’ God also promises the ancestors of Abram all the land of Canaan and that God will be their God. As for Abram’s and the male members of his houses part of the covenant, they must become circumcised as a sign of the covenant between them and God. It probably goes without saying, but, for this first generation of adult males in this covenant, circumcision was a pretty serious sign of commitment!!!!
Again, in this covenant, we find God offering to be God for Abram and his descendents if they will but respond and be God’s people. You see the pattern? God, in an attempt to restore relationships that are broken, initiates a covenant; God offers to be our God if we will be God’s people.
The third covenant we’ll look at is the Mosaic Covenant found in the Book of Exodus, chapters 19-24. In this covenant story, we find that the Israelites have escaped their slavery in Egypt with God’s help and, after wandering in the desert for approximately three months they come to Mr. Sinai, where God proposes to enter into covenant with the Israelites as God’s chosen people. God gives the Israelites the Law, including the Ten Commandments and offers to be Israel’s God, if they will be God’s people. We see this pattern unfolding again, right? God will be our God if we will be God’s people!
Later in the Hebrew Scriptures, we come across the Davidic Covenant in 2nd Samuel. In this covenant, God tells David that God will establish a royal lineage from David that includes Solomon and, as Kory taught us three weeks ago in his sermon on Joseph, that David’s royal line has it’s fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Though the word covenant is not specifically mentioned in the Hebrew, this story has all the markings of a covenant. God will do wonderful things through David and his descendants if David will be a man of God. As we know, David, like the rest of us, had his good moments and his not so good moments, but in the end, David’s first loyalty was to his God and it was from David that Jesus of Nazareth descended.
Here it is again, right? We find God initiating this covenant: God will be our God, if we will be God’s people.
Finally, in the Book of Jeremiah, we get to the covenant that is our text today. Let me read it to you. Here now what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church today:
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34
I will be their God and they will be my people.
This particular covenant, what is often called The New Covenant, is one of the most famous and most misunderstood passages of Scripture among Christians. This passage is a very important one: Paul quotes it in its entirety in his letter to the Hebrews, chapter 8, versus 8-13.
In order for us to get a good grip on it, we need to have some context for the Scripture itself.
Jeremiah lived and worked and prophesied in the time of the Babylonian Exile, which occurred from 597-582 B.C.E. This time was a terrible one for Israel. The nation of Babylon had invaded Israel three times and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Everything that was central to Jewish life, identity, and worship was in upheaval. It was a moment in their history when it appeared that all was lost and that God had abandoned them because of their sinfulness.
Jeremiah, in addition to calling the people to repentance and explaining to the people why events were unfolding the way they were, was also offering the nation of Israel hope through the promise of the new covenant. Jeremiah tells the people of Israel that a new covenant is coming and that their relationship with God will be renewed by it. This covenant, while having the same content would differ from the Mosaic Covenant in that the law would be in people’s hearts, and not on stone tablets, like they were when Moses was given them. The idea behind the new covenant was that by God’s love and grace everyone would know the LORD and that God would, by God’s grace, forgive Israel’s sinfulness and its relationship with God would be restored.
Can you imagine what great news this must have been to a conquered people: their God had not abandoned them! Their God was so filled with grace that God would forgive them even their worst transgressions! God would save them! And, even better, God would do all of this not out of a sense of obligation but out of love.
What a glorious word of hope! As people of faith these covenants should be a beautiful reminder to us of how deeply God loves God’s Creation and that God has always been actively engaged in restoring the relationship between God and God’s people.
Now, as Christians, where we have run into trouble when we apply a limited and self-centered world-view to this ancient text. Many of our brothers and sisters interpret this scripture as being for Christians only, thus isolating God’s chosen people, the people of Israel, and, be extension of their worldview, consigning Jews who don’t believe in Jesus to hell. Nothing could be more wrong, or more ignorant. Make no mistake about it: this word was originally intended for the Israelites, not for the Gentiles, like most of us.
As Christians, most us can and do, interpret Jesus as being the fulfillment of the new covenant and the offering of it to all of God’s people. In fact, Jesus speaks of himself as being the renewal of the new covenant in Luke 22:20 when he institutes The Sacrament of Holy Communion. God, through Jesus, graciously expands God’s offer of a covenantal relationship to the entire world. Jesus’ ministry, when viewed in its totality, was a ministry of inclusion, not exclusion.
In all of these covenants we find a similar pattern, don’t we? God initiates the covenant and tells God’s people that He will be there God if they will be His people. God is faithful: God will not turn away from the covenants that God has made. It’s important for us to note, that, unlike a contract, a new covenant never nullifies an old covenant, unless both parties agree to its nullification. The covenant that God has with Creation, the covenant that God made with the descendants of Abram, and the covenants that God has with the Jewish people are still valid. This shows us that YAHWEH has been at work trying to reconcile Godself with God’s creation from very near its beginning.
You might be saying to yourself, thanks for the history lesson on covenants in the Bible Joe, but how are we to be God’s people, here, in Argyle, Texas, on December 29th, 2007?
I think the answer is quite simple, really: we are to observe the two great commandments that Jesus gave us: the first being the Shema and the second one being that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The Shema comes from the Book of Deuteronomy and is the first prayer that a Jewish person, such as Jesus, learns. It goes like this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and, Jesus added, with all your strength”.
Seems straight ahead, right? Think about the implications of this prayer for a moment. To understand that the Lord our God is one, is no small thing, given all of the competing claims that we have in our own time for what we should put our trust in, right? Some of these idols include money, or fame, or security, or fanatical nationalism, or sex, or fashion, or music, or sports: the list goes on and on. It is hard to not be an idolater in the 21st century. To recognize and live as if the Lord is our God and the Lord alone is quite a difficult thing to do. In fact, without a living relationship with God, a healthy dose of God’s grace and a sense of our own humility, it is impossible.
The commandment continues that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The implication is clear, isn’t it: God wants all of us! Just having a portion of us does not satisfy God, God wants it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. God desires for us to live an integrated life!
I was blessed in my previous appointment to be in ministry with many addicts who were in the early stages of recovery. Over and over again they told me that one of the biggest relief’s that came from being in recovery was that they were finally living an integrated life: nothing was hidden from God anymore. They were finally living an integrated life! That is what God wants for us!
God wants our hearts, our souls, our minds, and our strength to be employed in loving God and doing what God would have us to do, which transitions, by the genius of Jesus, into the second great commandment that Jesus gives us: to love our neighbors as ourselves.
We talk a lot in the church these days about what it means to take worship outside the walls of the church and into everyday life. How do we put phrases like “to pray without ceasing,” “to live a worshipful life,” to “be the hands and feet of Christ” into practice. I submit to you that the first way that we live a worshipful life is that we make it our business and our passion to love other people. Mother Theresa was often heard to say, “if I judge someone I have no time to love them.” How true is that? One of the most important acts of worship that we can give to God is to love others. Loving God’s Creation is one of the best ways of loving God.
So, friends, a new day is coming. On Monday night and Tuesday we will celebrate the beginnings of a New Year. Are you ready? Are you ready to be God’s people and to have God be your God? Are you ready to put aside whatever idols may be in your life and to worship God alone and to love your neighbor as you love yourself? Are you ready for God to be your God and for you to be God’s people? Are you ready? Let all of God’s children say: Amen!
You are now invited to participate in a brief service of Covenant Renewal from the Wesleyan tradition. Methodists and others have participated in a service like this one since the 1750’s. There will be a bit of spoken liturgy by the pastor, a time of meditation and then you will be invited to say the prayer that you have in your bulletin insert and, if you choose, you may sign the covenant prayer as a sign of your commitment. Here now the proclamation and the invitation to the Covenant Renewal Service:
Liturgy for the Covenant Renewal Service
PROCLAMATION
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Christian life is redeemed from sin and consecrated to God. Through baptism, we have entered this life and have been admitted into the new covenant of which Jesus Christ is the Mediator. He sealed it with his love that it might last forever. On the one side, God promises to give us new life in Christ, the Source and Perfector of our faith. On the other side, we are pledged to live no more for ourselves but only for Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. From time to time we renew our covenant with God, especially when we reaffirm the Baptismal Covenant and gather at the Lord’s Table.
This morning, however, we meet, as the generations before us have met, to renew the covenant that binds us to God. Let us make this covenant of God our own.
INVITATION
Commit yourselves to Christ as his servants. Give yourselves to him, that you may belong to him. Christ has many services to be done. Some are more easy and honorable; others are more difficult and disgraceful. Some are suitable to our inclinations and interests, others are contrary to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves. But then there are other works where we cannot please Christ expect by denying ourselves.
Friends, Christ will be the Savior of none but his servants. He is the source of all salvation to those who obey. Christ will have no servants except by consent; Christ will not accept anything except full consent to all that he requires. Christ will be all in all, or he will be nothing.
So let us remember that God grants forgiveness of sins if we but repent and ask for God’s grace and seek to follow God. God requires us to put away all of our idols and to worship God and God alone with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God has given the Lord Jesus Christ as the way and means of coming to God and Christ reminds us that we must suffer with him. Let us not forget God’s holy laws as the rule of our lives. Finally, let us remember that the almighty God searches and knows our hearts.
Confirm this by a holy covenant.
Church, to make this covenant a reality in your life, listen to these admonitions:
First, set apart some time, more than once, to be spent alone before the Lord; in seeking earnestly God’s special assistance and gracious acceptance of you; in carefully thinking through all the conditions of the covenant; in searching your hearts whether you have already freely given your life to Christ. Consider what your sins are. Consider the laws of Christ, how holy, strict, and spiritual they are, and whether you, after having carefully considered them, are willing to choose them all. Be sure you are clear in these matters, see that you do not lie to God.
Second, be serious and in a spirit of holy awe and reverence.
Third, claim God’s covenant, rely upon God’s promise of giving grace and strength, so you can keep your promise. Trust not your own strength and power.
Fourth, resolve to be faithful. You have given to the Lord your hearts, you have opened your mouths to the Lord, and you have dedicated yourself to God. With God’s power, never go back.
And last, be then prepared to renew your covenant with the Lord. I invite you to read the covenant prayer that is on the insert in your bulletin while Ashley plays a piece by Massenet, and to carefully consider if you are prepared to make a covenant with God for the first time, or to renew your covenant with God again. I covenant with you that I will be here to help you sustain your covenant during this year. Following our time of reflection, you will be invited to pray the prayer aloud, together, as a community, for we cannot keep this covenant without help. There is no pressure here, you may choose to sign it and pray it or not, there is no judgment, for God never coerces, God loves. Let the Spirit guide you in these next few moment. Let us be in a time of reflection.
Let us pray:
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you,
Exalted for you or brought low by you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
To your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You art mine, and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Please strongly consider taking this covenant home with you, and putting it in a place where you will see if every day this year, to serve as a reminder of the covenant between you and God.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Christmas is nearly here!
I can't believe it's December 18th! Obviously it's been some time since I've posted but December is a tough time on church musicians. At Argyle we had a wonderful lessons and carols service two Sunday's ago and have sung some fun anthems and interesting congregational pieces. I'm still working on coming up with some more experiential pieces in worship. Tomorrow I'm headed to the Kimbell museum in Fort Worth to check out the new exhibit about early Christian art. it's supposed to be an incredible collection. I am so excited to see it!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
EPIC/Expereintial Worship
Today started so the wrong way...
I was supposed to go to the Kimball Art Mueseum in Ft. Worth with my good friend Evan Jones and check out the new exhibt of early Christian art. We were going to go, check it out, set-up some docent tours for our respective churches and brainstorm about how to incorporate the arts more in our churches. The exhibit is a landmark one and I was so pumped to go and then the text came. Evan could not make it, sickness was running rampant at his house. So, what to do? I could have gone myself but two brains are certainly better than one. Do I drive to Argyle and work up there, or do I work from home (thus somewhat reducing my ecological footprint today).
Hard to imagine, but I decided to work from home and I am so glad that I did! Not only did I get to get alot of administrative work done in the morning, I was able to spend the afternoon researching and thinking about worship in our context at Argyle, and the church in general.
My job description at the church where I am the minister of music, worship, and the arts, features Len Sweet's thoughts on the postmodern mindset as found in his acronymn: EPIC. It stands for Expereintial, Participatory, Image Rich, and Connected. In other words, the thought is that worship at Argyle needs to be moving towards a more EPIC way of being. I love it! It's a great idea...now...how does it happen, what does it look like...
I am struck that our worship is generally not expereintial, participatory, image rich, and it is only somewhat connective. On the whole, our people come to church, talk through a prelude, sing a hymn, greet one another, listen to a pastoral prayer, say the Lord's prayer, sing another hymn, listen to the children's sermon, listen to an anthem, give of their resources, listen to a thirty minute sermon, sing another hymn and go home.
Clearly, the majority of the service is spent sitting and listening. The participatory acts are in the singing, the greeting of one another, and giving back to God in the offertory....we've got a long way to go.
Worship, it seems to me is glorifying God and being connected to God and transformed. Bob Rognlien says, "worship is when God is glorified and we are changed. We give ourselves to God in such a way that God is glorified and we are changed." (Roughly, this quote is something of a paraphrase). He believes (as do I) that worship is bidirectional encounter where God comes to us and we respond.
In worship at Argyle, we are only using our limited senses in this respect. We are not using our full humanity in our ability to expereince and respond to God.
So this leads me to some questions...Rognlien states that the biblical directive of Jesus is worship is the Shema: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He associates the heart with volition, the soul with emotion, the mind with the intellect and strength with what we do physically. We are not doing this at the moment, though I believe it is unintentional. We tend to stick with the heart and the mind to the exclusion of the soul and the strength.
My quesitons are becoming these: How do we do this in our context? What does it look like, and sound like, and feel like, and smell like? How do we love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourself in corporate worship in Argyle? These questions are beginning to dominate my thinking in how we plan worship.
Unfortunatly, I'm running late for an evening appointment but, clearly, I've got some work to do! So, even as the day began in a way that I didn't plan on, it is ending wonderfully! God is so good! What a blessing it is to be able to begin to be asking the right questions! More to come later!
I was supposed to go to the Kimball Art Mueseum in Ft. Worth with my good friend Evan Jones and check out the new exhibt of early Christian art. We were going to go, check it out, set-up some docent tours for our respective churches and brainstorm about how to incorporate the arts more in our churches. The exhibit is a landmark one and I was so pumped to go and then the text came. Evan could not make it, sickness was running rampant at his house. So, what to do? I could have gone myself but two brains are certainly better than one. Do I drive to Argyle and work up there, or do I work from home (thus somewhat reducing my ecological footprint today).
Hard to imagine, but I decided to work from home and I am so glad that I did! Not only did I get to get alot of administrative work done in the morning, I was able to spend the afternoon researching and thinking about worship in our context at Argyle, and the church in general.
My job description at the church where I am the minister of music, worship, and the arts, features Len Sweet's thoughts on the postmodern mindset as found in his acronymn: EPIC. It stands for Expereintial, Participatory, Image Rich, and Connected. In other words, the thought is that worship at Argyle needs to be moving towards a more EPIC way of being. I love it! It's a great idea...now...how does it happen, what does it look like...
I am struck that our worship is generally not expereintial, participatory, image rich, and it is only somewhat connective. On the whole, our people come to church, talk through a prelude, sing a hymn, greet one another, listen to a pastoral prayer, say the Lord's prayer, sing another hymn, listen to the children's sermon, listen to an anthem, give of their resources, listen to a thirty minute sermon, sing another hymn and go home.
Clearly, the majority of the service is spent sitting and listening. The participatory acts are in the singing, the greeting of one another, and giving back to God in the offertory....we've got a long way to go.
Worship, it seems to me is glorifying God and being connected to God and transformed. Bob Rognlien says, "worship is when God is glorified and we are changed. We give ourselves to God in such a way that God is glorified and we are changed." (Roughly, this quote is something of a paraphrase). He believes (as do I) that worship is bidirectional encounter where God comes to us and we respond.
In worship at Argyle, we are only using our limited senses in this respect. We are not using our full humanity in our ability to expereince and respond to God.
So this leads me to some questions...Rognlien states that the biblical directive of Jesus is worship is the Shema: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He associates the heart with volition, the soul with emotion, the mind with the intellect and strength with what we do physically. We are not doing this at the moment, though I believe it is unintentional. We tend to stick with the heart and the mind to the exclusion of the soul and the strength.
My quesitons are becoming these: How do we do this in our context? What does it look like, and sound like, and feel like, and smell like? How do we love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourself in corporate worship in Argyle? These questions are beginning to dominate my thinking in how we plan worship.
Unfortunatly, I'm running late for an evening appointment but, clearly, I've got some work to do! So, even as the day began in a way that I didn't plan on, it is ending wonderfully! God is so good! What a blessing it is to be able to begin to be asking the right questions! More to come later!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The Perils of Living with Your In-Laws
Let me begin by first saying one thing: I have AWESOME in-laws. I don't use the term in the slang sense of it but they really are amazing people. They have very graciously let us live with them while we wait for our house to sell in Converse (please, please, please sell!!!!). My father-in-law and I played golf this morning and ate Thai for lunch. Really, they are great folks!
But they have a dog, a Daschund, to be exact.
And Sarah and I have two dogs, Jack Russel Terriers, to be exact.
And the dogs don't always get along very well...
While the men-folk were out losing their minds over their inability to put a little ball in a hole several hundred yards away with an acceptable number of attempts, the ladies were at home and Sarah was hosting one of her wonderful open houses for Mary Kay. So, the dogs thought that this would be an opportune time to get into a really big figtht. So much so that the daschund is now in surgery to close up the bites he recieved, though he asked for them, I'm told, and one of ours will probably need the same course of action soon.
Did I mention my in-laws are really great people?
They really are amazing, but wow, it's going to be great when we have our own space again. There is nothing they could do that would make this scene better. One thing that might, however, is finding a better place for our dogs to be (and I don't mean heaven). So far this idea has not gained a lot of traction with Sarah but I shall soldier on. Our Jacks are great: they are filled with life and love and vigor. I just don't know that they are getting what they need to fulfill thir exsistence with us any more and the fact that one of them is going to cause the other two to go into surgery is just a big problem for me. I am the only hard-liner in the group, apparently.
But they have a dog, a Daschund, to be exact.
And Sarah and I have two dogs, Jack Russel Terriers, to be exact.
And the dogs don't always get along very well...
While the men-folk were out losing their minds over their inability to put a little ball in a hole several hundred yards away with an acceptable number of attempts, the ladies were at home and Sarah was hosting one of her wonderful open houses for Mary Kay. So, the dogs thought that this would be an opportune time to get into a really big figtht. So much so that the daschund is now in surgery to close up the bites he recieved, though he asked for them, I'm told, and one of ours will probably need the same course of action soon.
Did I mention my in-laws are really great people?
They really are amazing, but wow, it's going to be great when we have our own space again. There is nothing they could do that would make this scene better. One thing that might, however, is finding a better place for our dogs to be (and I don't mean heaven). So far this idea has not gained a lot of traction with Sarah but I shall soldier on. Our Jacks are great: they are filled with life and love and vigor. I just don't know that they are getting what they need to fulfill thir exsistence with us any more and the fact that one of them is going to cause the other two to go into surgery is just a big problem for me. I am the only hard-liner in the group, apparently.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Yeah, it's been a while...
Seriously, I might be the laziest blogger in the history of the blog...
I pretty much am a loser when it comes to frequently posting...
I have no excuses, o.k., I have a few, but they aren't any better than anyone elses...
Long story short: I struggle with discipline in my blog life.
Whew...Confession is good for the soul.
Sarah, Ellie, and I have started a new chapter in our lives. After a two-week hiatus we have moved to Dallas (temporarily, God-willing) and I have started a new job as the Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts at Argyle UMC. I say we've moved to Dallas temporarily because our house in Converse, TX, has yet to sell and so Sarah's parents have graciously let us move the tribe to their place for a while. They have been very kind to us and the dogs but we'll all be ready for the Stobaugh clan to move to their own place. (Please, St. Joseph, if you are listening, aren't you tired of being upside down in my front yard?!?!? Do your thing, baby!!!!)
Here's a brief status report:
Family: Good. Sarah is doing well and Ellie is a riot!
Friends: Good (except for Ryan B., who's dad is recovering from having a golf ball-sized tumor removed from his brain. He is doing well except he has, temporarily, we hope, lost sight in his left eye.)
Church: Good! Lots of energy and excitment, which is very fun!
Gigs outside of the local church: Good! I am looking forward to serving as the 3-5 grade children's choir clinician at Lake Junaluska in 2008 and my work with the Fellowship is fun!
Things are going well! I was feeling extra blessed this morning. I was delighted to discover that the Starbucks Christmas Blend was on tap, so to speak at my local Starbucks this morning! Following my trip to "the third place" I was able to pick up my friend Ryan from the hosptial and take him to DFW so he could head home after being with his dad all week. On the way back I was able to listen to some of Brian McLaren's new book "Everything Must Change" in the car. Good coffee, beautiful weather, good friends and stimulating thought. What more could you ask for from a Saturday morning?
I pretty much am a loser when it comes to frequently posting...
I have no excuses, o.k., I have a few, but they aren't any better than anyone elses...
Long story short: I struggle with discipline in my blog life.
Whew...Confession is good for the soul.
Sarah, Ellie, and I have started a new chapter in our lives. After a two-week hiatus we have moved to Dallas (temporarily, God-willing) and I have started a new job as the Associate Pastor/Minister of Music, Worship, and the Arts at Argyle UMC. I say we've moved to Dallas temporarily because our house in Converse, TX, has yet to sell and so Sarah's parents have graciously let us move the tribe to their place for a while. They have been very kind to us and the dogs but we'll all be ready for the Stobaugh clan to move to their own place. (Please, St. Joseph, if you are listening, aren't you tired of being upside down in my front yard?!?!? Do your thing, baby!!!!)
Here's a brief status report:
Family: Good. Sarah is doing well and Ellie is a riot!
Friends: Good (except for Ryan B., who's dad is recovering from having a golf ball-sized tumor removed from his brain. He is doing well except he has, temporarily, we hope, lost sight in his left eye.)
Church: Good! Lots of energy and excitment, which is very fun!
Gigs outside of the local church: Good! I am looking forward to serving as the 3-5 grade children's choir clinician at Lake Junaluska in 2008 and my work with the Fellowship is fun!
Things are going well! I was feeling extra blessed this morning. I was delighted to discover that the Starbucks Christmas Blend was on tap, so to speak at my local Starbucks this morning! Following my trip to "the third place" I was able to pick up my friend Ryan from the hosptial and take him to DFW so he could head home after being with his dad all week. On the way back I was able to listen to some of Brian McLaren's new book "Everything Must Change" in the car. Good coffee, beautiful weather, good friends and stimulating thought. What more could you ask for from a Saturday morning?
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Big John Daly and a big sunburn
I got to give big props to my man Rob Jackson! Brother Rob got us tickets to the opening round of the Valero Texas Open today! We were able to get to the course early today, just in time to watch big John Daly tee-off at 8:33 this morning. In the heat of the day we were able to follow John's entire round and he shot a two over seventy-two for the day. I just heard from Rob that Daly is recovering from strep-throat and the flu. Not too bad, eh? I had a great time this morning but I forgot one very important thing: sunscreen. I now have a very nice purple burn on my face. I this I ended up scaring a bunch of folks at church, but dang it was fun!!!!
A night at The Landing
So last night I decided to finally make the pilgrimage to Jim Cullum's Landing. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band was laying down some great dixieland, though it was at times hard to concentrate on it because there was a group of six folks who were talking loudly about 80's music. It was more than a little distracting. At one point they were pointing at a picture on the wall (the wall that I was sitting next to) and remarking that they didn't know who the person in the picture was. As I was leaving the club I looked back on the wall and guess who was in the picture? Louis Armstrong! Seriously, it was Louis Armstrong! They had no idea who it was...that made Joe very, very sad..
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Been a while...
Once again, I have managed to neglect the old blog. It's been one of those months. I am preparing to leave my current appointment, Travis Park UMC on October 14th and start a new appointment at Argyle UMC (in Argyle, Texas, and yes, I do know you have no idea where it is!). The decision to take the appointment was a tough choice for many reasons, which I'll go into another post. I am very excited about the new opportunities in Argyle and sad to leave Travis Park. Well, I just finished writing some devotionals for The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts and I've got to head to the Apple Store to get some things taken care of on the mac and to get a power adaptor so I better hit the road!
Later!
Later!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Liturgy for this past Sunday
Scripture Passage: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Sermon Title: "Rekindle the Gift"
Some original liturgy for ya from Joe...
Call to Worship
Leader: God, in the mists of life our fire for you can often be extingushed.
People: We have come together to worship you and to have the gift of living faith rekindled in our lives in in our community of faith.
Leader: We worship through words and song,
People: Though acts of love, reconciliation, and justice,
People: May our worship of you, O God, give you honor and glory and may the gift of living faith be re-kindled in our lives!
Opening Prayer:
Loving God, who works for good in all things, we give thanks for this day. Open our hearts, ears, and our minds this morning that we might recieve the gift of living faith in our souls and in our church so that we may re-present your Son, Jesus Christ, to the world in new and powerful ways. Amen.
Confession:
Gracious God, you know us and you know our hearts. Forgive us, when we've used our doubts as an excuse to keep from doing and saying what you ahve shown us to be true. Strengthen us when we lose the fire of living faith and continue to grant us opporutnities to demonstrate your lvoe to our neighbors as we grow in our connection with you. Amen.
Sermon Title: "Rekindle the Gift"
Some original liturgy for ya from Joe...
Call to Worship
Leader: God, in the mists of life our fire for you can often be extingushed.
People: We have come together to worship you and to have the gift of living faith rekindled in our lives in in our community of faith.
Leader: We worship through words and song,
People: Though acts of love, reconciliation, and justice,
People: May our worship of you, O God, give you honor and glory and may the gift of living faith be re-kindled in our lives!
Opening Prayer:
Loving God, who works for good in all things, we give thanks for this day. Open our hearts, ears, and our minds this morning that we might recieve the gift of living faith in our souls and in our church so that we may re-present your Son, Jesus Christ, to the world in new and powerful ways. Amen.
Confession:
Gracious God, you know us and you know our hearts. Forgive us, when we've used our doubts as an excuse to keep from doing and saying what you ahve shown us to be true. Strengthen us when we lose the fire of living faith and continue to grant us opporutnities to demonstrate your lvoe to our neighbors as we grow in our connection with you. Amen.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
The Joy's of Choir Retreat
Today I led our adult sanctuary choir in our annual fall retreat. We rehearsed for several hours, fellowshiped over good coffee, donuts and a wonderful lunch (created by the incredible Connie Marshall) and then ended the day with a dedication and commiunion service.
After the retreat I offciated at a wedding at Travis Park. The wedding went really well and the couple was blessed! All in all, a good day!
After the retreat I offciated at a wedding at Travis Park. The wedding went really well and the couple was blessed! All in all, a good day!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
New and, so far, Good Music!
Yesterday I made a pilgrimage to the Christian music store, which is always hit or miss. O.K., it's usually a miss. Yesterday, however, was different! Israel and New Breed dropped a new album yesterday, Live from a Deeper Level, which I had to pick up! We do a ton of his stuff at Travis Park and so whenever he comes out with something new it's more a matter of responsibility for me to get it!!!
What makes his latest project so potentially impactful for me, however, is that it's a justice themed album! One of the biggest challenges I face at TPUMC is finding music that grooves, that's singable, and that matches up theologically with what our preachers (myself included) preach. The last point, of matching musical texts with the themes is pretty difficult. There's lots of social justice themed music out there but it's usually of the 60's folk genere (1960's, naturally) and our second service does primarily contemporary gospel. A fun challenge, but a challenge none-the-less.
All in all, I'm hopeful for this album to yeild useful fruit for TPUMC. I only had the chance to check out two cuts last night so we'll see what it has to offer soon!
I did experince a nice suprise at the Christian music store yesterday: a new Cademon's Call album that has Derek Webb reunited with his old bandmates! I've been out of that scene for a while but I really love Webb's current direction and focus so I'm looking forward to checking that out as well!
Love the first Tuesday of the month! Next Tuesday, kanye's new album comes out, so that will be interesting for sure (probably not as useful for church!).
What makes his latest project so potentially impactful for me, however, is that it's a justice themed album! One of the biggest challenges I face at TPUMC is finding music that grooves, that's singable, and that matches up theologically with what our preachers (myself included) preach. The last point, of matching musical texts with the themes is pretty difficult. There's lots of social justice themed music out there but it's usually of the 60's folk genere (1960's, naturally) and our second service does primarily contemporary gospel. A fun challenge, but a challenge none-the-less.
All in all, I'm hopeful for this album to yeild useful fruit for TPUMC. I only had the chance to check out two cuts last night so we'll see what it has to offer soon!
I did experince a nice suprise at the Christian music store yesterday: a new Cademon's Call album that has Derek Webb reunited with his old bandmates! I've been out of that scene for a while but I really love Webb's current direction and focus so I'm looking forward to checking that out as well!
Love the first Tuesday of the month! Next Tuesday, kanye's new album comes out, so that will be interesting for sure (probably not as useful for church!).
New and Good books!
Thank goodness things have slowed down a bit! I love having lots of gigs and work but I'm finding I'm really good at overextending myself! Lately, though, I've had a chance to read a bit more, which has been refreshing for the mind and the soul!
I'm in process on Dick Staub's latest book (which has a really long title) about the Christians can influence pop culture in an age (and I love this) of "Christianity-lite." Some good stuff! Martin Marty suggests in his review that Staub has a "rather worked-out worldview" which is certainly true but at least it's interesting! More thoughts on that as I get through it.
I'm also in process on Leonard Sweet's "The Gospel According to Starbucks": the title is frigthenting to me even though I love St. Arbucks coffee. Much like Staub, Sweet has something to say and a compelling way to say it! Plus, he always documents things very well. The statistics of the worlds use of coffee from the introduction is great! Did you know the world consumes four hundred billion cups of coffee a year? FOUR HUNDRED BILLION CUPS!!!! Good stuff! (I'm on my third this morning, so I'm doing my part, are you?)
Finally, I just finished Tony Dungy's memoir "Quiet Strength." I loved it! Even though he and I are in different spots theologically, I have incredible respect for him, from what I've seen and heard of him and now read, and the way he leads, lives his life, and conducts himself. A classy, classy, guy who truly has his priorities right. I learned a lot from this book about how to prioritize in one's life (faith, family, and work), how to priortize for success and also picked up many good quotes. After I read the introduction (provided by Denzel Washington) I got my pencil out and began to underline quotes and I intend to go back tonight and type up the salient points. I haven't done that since seminary and I've read lots of good books in the past four years!
Once I get through Sweet's book I am looking forward to begin Anne Lamott's new book "Grace Eventually" and finishing "Golf in the Kingdom." I've also recently picked up a collection of Christian Mystic writings that I look forward to diving into! Sermons from mystics with coffee: no better way to start the morning!
After I get done with those I think I'll check out Clinton's new book.
Happy reading!!!
I'm in process on Dick Staub's latest book (which has a really long title) about the Christians can influence pop culture in an age (and I love this) of "Christianity-lite." Some good stuff! Martin Marty suggests in his review that Staub has a "rather worked-out worldview" which is certainly true but at least it's interesting! More thoughts on that as I get through it.
I'm also in process on Leonard Sweet's "The Gospel According to Starbucks": the title is frigthenting to me even though I love St. Arbucks coffee. Much like Staub, Sweet has something to say and a compelling way to say it! Plus, he always documents things very well. The statistics of the worlds use of coffee from the introduction is great! Did you know the world consumes four hundred billion cups of coffee a year? FOUR HUNDRED BILLION CUPS!!!! Good stuff! (I'm on my third this morning, so I'm doing my part, are you?)
Finally, I just finished Tony Dungy's memoir "Quiet Strength." I loved it! Even though he and I are in different spots theologically, I have incredible respect for him, from what I've seen and heard of him and now read, and the way he leads, lives his life, and conducts himself. A classy, classy, guy who truly has his priorities right. I learned a lot from this book about how to prioritize in one's life (faith, family, and work), how to priortize for success and also picked up many good quotes. After I read the introduction (provided by Denzel Washington) I got my pencil out and began to underline quotes and I intend to go back tonight and type up the salient points. I haven't done that since seminary and I've read lots of good books in the past four years!
Once I get through Sweet's book I am looking forward to begin Anne Lamott's new book "Grace Eventually" and finishing "Golf in the Kingdom." I've also recently picked up a collection of Christian Mystic writings that I look forward to diving into! Sermons from mystics with coffee: no better way to start the morning!
After I get done with those I think I'll check out Clinton's new book.
Happy reading!!!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Been a while!
Wow! It's been over a month since I last posted! It's been a very crazy month, to say the least. What's new?!?!?! Since the post from Greensboro I've been to Fort Worth, St. Louis, Spokane, Dallas and finally, back in San Antonio. Not too bad for a month. Ellie and Sarah and I are glad to be back at home, at least for a little bit! This weekend I'm a clergy leader on a Walk to Emmaus, which will be interesting. In the mean time, I'm trying to prepare for the fall and all that will be coming! I'll post more soon, I hope!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Time to call it!
Well, it's 1:30 in the morning and the posts keep getting worse! I was taking a break from some work but now I think it's time to call it a night! May God grant you all a peaceful day tomorrow and deep rest tonight!
Wow, not the guy I thought I'd be in high school!
You know, ministry is a great privelage and a wonderful calling, but every now and then, certain moments are jarring. I expereinced this recently when I put on the collar for an "official clerical visit" and the sight of it was cause for much commentary.
Processing at a wedding!
Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to co-officiate a wedding of a friend of mine. Here's a picture of the processional!
Greetings from the Road!
Grace and peace to you from St. Louis! I write to you today (early Thursday morning) from my hotel room at the Millinuem Hotel in St. Louis, on the Mississippi River just 3-wood away from the arch. I'm in St. Louis for this week's 2007 National Convocation of The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts (better known as FUMMWA). It's been a great convocation this year, we've had lots of wonderful worship opportunities from jazz in a cathedral to an outstanding organ recital in the St. Louis basillica with organist Felix Hell. (Yes, you read the name right. As it turns out, 'Hell' in German means "bright light" sort of like the sun, he says.) I even got to play in a worship service this time around! I played in a little soprano sax in a small combo. The prelude music was done by Mark Hayes. The preaching has been good and there's been some really great clinicians. This week has been a blessing so far!
Monday, July 9, 2007
A busy summer continues
Whoa, what a summer so far! July looks to finish with a full travel schedule for me! On Thursday, I leave to catch up with the Travis Park Youth at SPLAT 2007 in Greensboro, NC, where I will return late Sunday night in order for church. The following Monday I head out to St. Louis to attend/work/play the sax at the 207 FUMMWA convention which will be great! From there I will head to Dallas for a day and a half before heading out TCU to teach a class on youth choir for the 2007 ADM convention and then I will head to Norther Idaho for two and a half days off!
Sweet!
Sweet!
A sweet picture of Ellie
Sorry about not titling the last post, it's a beautiful picture of Ellie, my daughter! I think she's the coolest!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Evan Jones Invitational Golf Tournament
Today the seond annual Evan Jones Invitational Golf Tournament was held, and what a tournament it was! This year's event was held at The Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas. Perhaps the most hyped course in San Antonio (the course has its own billboards around town and in the airport) the Quarry lived up to the hype! The course was beautiful and was in excellent condition. The Quarry is tough but fair. The front nine is a links layout while the back nine is set within an abanondend rock quarry.
Mr. Jones was an outstanding host: all of the arrangements taken care of (carts with names on them, range balls, free gifts and prizes) in style! What a gentleman!
I look forward to next year's tournament.
Mr. Jones was an outstanding host: all of the arrangements taken care of (carts with names on them, range balls, free gifts and prizes) in style! What a gentleman!
I look forward to next year's tournament.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The National Urban Academy
TPUMC is gearing up to host The National Urban Academy of The United Methodist Church. The Academy is a two year program desinged to help urban churches revitalize themselves through a seven-point plan known as The Holy Boldness Project. I am excited about the possibilities the Academy can offer to TPUMC and the urban churches of The Southwest Texas Conference.
Welcome to the Rev. Fred Kandeler
Travis Park UMC is blessed to welcome our interim pastor, the Rev. Fred Kandeler! Fred has served in the Texas, Southwest Texas, North Texas and Centeral Texas Conferences of The United Methodist Church. He spent the majority of his time in ministry in the North Texas Conference where he served on the staff at Highland Park UMC, served as the senior pastor of University Park UMC, and founded Christ UMC in Plano. My wife, Sarah, grew up at Christ Church and that is where we were married! Fred is on the advisory board of the group The Methodist Federation for Social Action. He was also one of the leading opponents of the drive to put the Bush Library at SMU.
Fred's first day was today and was amazing! I am very excited about learning from him and I know the church will be blessed by his excellent leadership.
Fred's first day was today and was amazing! I am very excited about learning from him and I know the church will be blessed by his excellent leadership.
Monday, June 25, 2007
It's hard to get ready to say goodbye...
My friend and colleauge, Evan Jones, announced to the church yesterday that he has accepted a position at another church. Evan serves as our minister to youth, program director, and media guru. The youth naturally took it very hard. I am working through the grieving process myself. Evan and his wife Jana, and I and my wife Sarah have become very good friends. While we are excited for their new opportunity, we are sad to see them go. The opportunity that he has is really exceptional, however. He is headed to Suncreek UMC, where the pastor is the amazing Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball. You can check out the church at www.suncreekumc.org
Godspeed, bruh!
Godspeed, bruh!
Choir Tour 2007
Well, it's all over! Choir Tour 2007 is in the books. We had our final home shows this Sunday in worship and were wonderfully well recieved by the congregation! The youth did an awesome job: they were simply incredible! Soon, we'll be gearing up for the fall!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
What a Wednesday!
Whew...todays' the tough day during the tour, the "hump" day, if you will! The morning started off nicely with an excellent breakfast at the hotel: waffles, cereal, fruit, bagels, eggs, etc.! We then loaded the bus and headed to Conyers, GA, where we performed for 36 people!!!! My bruh Ryan came through in a big way! We had all the pizza, salad, and watermelon we could handle for lunch and then hit the road to Savannah!
When we arrived at Richmond Hills (a bedroom community of Savannah that was started by Henry Ford) it naturally started to rain....:) The good folks at Richmond Hills fed us a great dinner of hotdogs and hamburgers with fresh fruit, coleslaw and ice cream! Hotdogs have become a ubiquitous meal for us on this tour. Nearly every stop has featured hotdogs in some capacity!
After dinner we performed for the church and had over 80 people in the congregation! The kids sounded great but you could tell that they were tired. Tonight we are going to get at least eight hours of sleep, which is great! The TPUMC group is currently mixing with the youth of Richmond Hills, who are quite boisterous! :)
All in all, we are tired but doing well.
Tomorrow, we load at 8:00 and drive north to Savannah, where we will have an excellent breakfast, have a devotional in Wesley's square (where the Wesley's actually preached and where the first Sunday School class in America was held). Following the devotional we will briefly check out Savannah, grab some lunch and head to St. Simmon's Island, where we will tour the Wesley museum, chill at the beach on the Atlantic and then we've got a gig that night. It's going to be a great day!
Take care and keep us in prayer!
Joe
When we arrived at Richmond Hills (a bedroom community of Savannah that was started by Henry Ford) it naturally started to rain....:) The good folks at Richmond Hills fed us a great dinner of hotdogs and hamburgers with fresh fruit, coleslaw and ice cream! Hotdogs have become a ubiquitous meal for us on this tour. Nearly every stop has featured hotdogs in some capacity!
After dinner we performed for the church and had over 80 people in the congregation! The kids sounded great but you could tell that they were tired. Tonight we are going to get at least eight hours of sleep, which is great! The TPUMC group is currently mixing with the youth of Richmond Hills, who are quite boisterous! :)
All in all, we are tired but doing well.
Tomorrow, we load at 8:00 and drive north to Savannah, where we will have an excellent breakfast, have a devotional in Wesley's square (where the Wesley's actually preached and where the first Sunday School class in America was held). Following the devotional we will briefly check out Savannah, grab some lunch and head to St. Simmon's Island, where we will tour the Wesley museum, chill at the beach on the Atlantic and then we've got a gig that night. It's going to be a great day!
Take care and keep us in prayer!
Joe
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
A Monster Choir Tour Post!!!!
Hey Everybody!
Well, the wireless has been hit and miss so I've been writing posts and saving them till we get to a place where we can connect! Below you will find several postings from the trip! All is well! Keep praying for us!
Musings from the Bus…
We are on day two of tour and have just entered the state of Mississippi. (Still have to sing it to spell it, what a sad story…) This morning we had beniegts at Café du Monde in the Quarter, walked through Jackson Square to St. Louis Cathedral. We went inside the Cathedral, which is incredibly beautiful and then some of us went to the gift shops and I took the youth who weren’t interested in taking that route to see the Mississippi River. (Dang it, I had to sing again!)
Following that, we met up with Cruz, our excellent driver and then drove through the Upper Ninth Ward. Seeing the “X’s” on the doors of the homes where they had posted body counts is pretty incredible. We were hoping to meet up with a former TPUMC Youth, Jacob Steubing, who now works in NOLA but he had to go to a conference for work in Baltimore, MD. Long story short, we couldn’t find the Lower Ninth Ward. Several of the kids were disappointed, even though I told them that the Lower Ninth at this moment is basically a big, grassy field. To see how tightly packed the Upper Ninth is with houses and then to see the Lower Ninth in all of it’s desolation is overwhelming. As we headed east out of the city the youth saw all of the abandoned apartment buildings, just miles and miles and miles of abandoned apartments. It’s incredible.
As we are headed out of the city I find myself thinking (even after my second trip to NOLA post-Katrina) “is this possible?” THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!! (I haven’t shared this with the youth.) But, really, it is just unbelievable. Perhaps the best course of action for the rest of the country to take is to write hand-written letters to their representatives demanding action in the gulf coast region, continue to send money to the people working here for good, like Catholic Charities, keep coming to the city and take lots of mission trips there.
Right now we are headed up I-59 towards Selma, Alabama so we are off I-10. We will be coming back on our way home on I-10 pretty much the whole way so it will be interesting to see the rest of the gulf coast.
I’m hopeful that we’ll have time to find the Lower Ninth Ward on our way back through New Orleans.
Man, I love that city! All of the culture, the great food, the incredible music, and the people are just great. What’s happening to NOLA right now is truly a sin.
Later today we are going to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, which should be a pretty amazing experience. The kid’s tour book has an article about the bridge and “Bloody Sunday” and it’s importance in American history. I hope they find it meaningful.
Well, I’m going to shut this thing down and try to get some sleep before our next big turn off, only 161 miles to go to I-20!!!!
A Morning in Montgomery…
Last night was an excellent example of the importance of faith! When we arrived at our host church in Montgomery, AL, we were informed that we would not be giving our performance that night: huge bummer! But, our church was very friendly and cooked some excellent hotdogs for dinner. We used our newfound night off to play Frisbee, soccer, and basketball (where I once again was reminded of the fact that I’m not 18 anymore). Some of the ladies created awesome art on the sidewalk with chalk. (I especially remember a very lovely bird from Emily Curry!) Following our free time and dinner, we tweaked the show up a bit and made some decisions about what we were going to do as a choir: more on that later!
Right now we are all waking up, brushing teeth, looking for coffee, etc. Our host church is bringing us donuts in a few minutes and then we’ll load the bus up at 8:00 and hit the road! This morning we are headed to the MLK National Park in Atlanta, then to lunch at The Varsity, the World of Coca-Cola, check in at our hotel (thank you Mike Bandor!!!!!) and then to the Braves v. Red Sox game!!!!!!
Yet One More Example of How Good God Is…
So, we roll into Montgomery and we find out our gig is cancelled. Everyone is more than a little disappointed…. (Several hours later) All right! We are on the bus headed to Atlanta and things just keep getting better! We are going to see MLK’s National Park this morning, then have lunch at the ATL establishment “The Varsity” and then we’re going to World of Coca-Cola, then the hotel and then the Braves game (we’ll trudge on, even though there’s a 60% chance of storms, figures…) So, back to the many examples of how amazing God is! Our gig last night was cancelled and there was a surprising amount of weeping and nashing of teeth (not literally, of course). This is where my (essentially) brother Ryan Baer comes in. Ryan and I met in middle school in the band and we also went to church together. We have developed an incredible friendship that has spanned four degrees, three states and different family situations and careers. Ryan is now a Presbyterian pastor in Conyers, GA. When we were in the initial stages of planning the tour, Ryan and I tried to figure out how the choir could sing at his church. We just could never find a way to make it work with all that we wanted to do in the ATL. Once our gig was cancelled I called Ryan to tell him what was up. As it turns out, he teaches a Wednesday morning Bible study class in Conyers (which is a suburb of the ATL.) He graciously invited us to come and play for his Bible study and then he even offered to feed us lunch! (Pizza and salad!!!) We put it up for a vote and the kids unanimously voted to do the gig!!! Their vote was a big deal because it meant we had to give up doing one of our fun activities. The choir voted to check out the MLK stuff instead of CNN and to do the gig. What an amazing thing! This choir is truly a special group of youth. We might not be big but our spirit certainly is! So, we’ve added a gig and a free lunch (singing for our supper, I suppose?) at one of the churches we originally wanted to sing at! Then, to make it all even cooler, our gig on Thursday got changed from 1:00 in the afternoon to 7:30 at night in the chapel at the retreat center, which will probably give us a much bigger crowd! The esprit de corp is doing very well right now!
Post-Braves Game…Let the rain continue!
We’re all back at the hotel in Buckhead (thanks, Mike)! As it turns out, the meteorologists in Atlanta are quite good. It rained all afternoon until about 7. We got about six innings of the game in (of which we saw three, the traffic in the ATL is terrible!) and then the rain came again! Fortunately, the youth got to witness one of the great miracles of sport at the moment: a homerun by the phenomenal David Ortiz!
Bottom line: Sox 4, Braves 0. We finally made it back to the bus in the rain, and barring one minor incident, we got back to the hotel, where we are all now headed to sleep. Be sure to ask your youth about Cruz and the traffic cone…
We are going to have a great day tomorrow but now it’s time to go to sleep!
God bless you and I hope to have more tomorrow!
In Christ,
Joe
Well, the wireless has been hit and miss so I've been writing posts and saving them till we get to a place where we can connect! Below you will find several postings from the trip! All is well! Keep praying for us!
Musings from the Bus…
We are on day two of tour and have just entered the state of Mississippi. (Still have to sing it to spell it, what a sad story…) This morning we had beniegts at Café du Monde in the Quarter, walked through Jackson Square to St. Louis Cathedral. We went inside the Cathedral, which is incredibly beautiful and then some of us went to the gift shops and I took the youth who weren’t interested in taking that route to see the Mississippi River. (Dang it, I had to sing again!)
Following that, we met up with Cruz, our excellent driver and then drove through the Upper Ninth Ward. Seeing the “X’s” on the doors of the homes where they had posted body counts is pretty incredible. We were hoping to meet up with a former TPUMC Youth, Jacob Steubing, who now works in NOLA but he had to go to a conference for work in Baltimore, MD. Long story short, we couldn’t find the Lower Ninth Ward. Several of the kids were disappointed, even though I told them that the Lower Ninth at this moment is basically a big, grassy field. To see how tightly packed the Upper Ninth is with houses and then to see the Lower Ninth in all of it’s desolation is overwhelming. As we headed east out of the city the youth saw all of the abandoned apartment buildings, just miles and miles and miles of abandoned apartments. It’s incredible.
As we are headed out of the city I find myself thinking (even after my second trip to NOLA post-Katrina) “is this possible?” THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!! (I haven’t shared this with the youth.) But, really, it is just unbelievable. Perhaps the best course of action for the rest of the country to take is to write hand-written letters to their representatives demanding action in the gulf coast region, continue to send money to the people working here for good, like Catholic Charities, keep coming to the city and take lots of mission trips there.
Right now we are headed up I-59 towards Selma, Alabama so we are off I-10. We will be coming back on our way home on I-10 pretty much the whole way so it will be interesting to see the rest of the gulf coast.
I’m hopeful that we’ll have time to find the Lower Ninth Ward on our way back through New Orleans.
Man, I love that city! All of the culture, the great food, the incredible music, and the people are just great. What’s happening to NOLA right now is truly a sin.
Later today we are going to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, which should be a pretty amazing experience. The kid’s tour book has an article about the bridge and “Bloody Sunday” and it’s importance in American history. I hope they find it meaningful.
Well, I’m going to shut this thing down and try to get some sleep before our next big turn off, only 161 miles to go to I-20!!!!
A Morning in Montgomery…
Last night was an excellent example of the importance of faith! When we arrived at our host church in Montgomery, AL, we were informed that we would not be giving our performance that night: huge bummer! But, our church was very friendly and cooked some excellent hotdogs for dinner. We used our newfound night off to play Frisbee, soccer, and basketball (where I once again was reminded of the fact that I’m not 18 anymore). Some of the ladies created awesome art on the sidewalk with chalk. (I especially remember a very lovely bird from Emily Curry!) Following our free time and dinner, we tweaked the show up a bit and made some decisions about what we were going to do as a choir: more on that later!
Right now we are all waking up, brushing teeth, looking for coffee, etc. Our host church is bringing us donuts in a few minutes and then we’ll load the bus up at 8:00 and hit the road! This morning we are headed to the MLK National Park in Atlanta, then to lunch at The Varsity, the World of Coca-Cola, check in at our hotel (thank you Mike Bandor!!!!!) and then to the Braves v. Red Sox game!!!!!!
Yet One More Example of How Good God Is…
So, we roll into Montgomery and we find out our gig is cancelled. Everyone is more than a little disappointed…. (Several hours later) All right! We are on the bus headed to Atlanta and things just keep getting better! We are going to see MLK’s National Park this morning, then have lunch at the ATL establishment “The Varsity” and then we’re going to World of Coca-Cola, then the hotel and then the Braves game (we’ll trudge on, even though there’s a 60% chance of storms, figures…) So, back to the many examples of how amazing God is! Our gig last night was cancelled and there was a surprising amount of weeping and nashing of teeth (not literally, of course). This is where my (essentially) brother Ryan Baer comes in. Ryan and I met in middle school in the band and we also went to church together. We have developed an incredible friendship that has spanned four degrees, three states and different family situations and careers. Ryan is now a Presbyterian pastor in Conyers, GA. When we were in the initial stages of planning the tour, Ryan and I tried to figure out how the choir could sing at his church. We just could never find a way to make it work with all that we wanted to do in the ATL. Once our gig was cancelled I called Ryan to tell him what was up. As it turns out, he teaches a Wednesday morning Bible study class in Conyers (which is a suburb of the ATL.) He graciously invited us to come and play for his Bible study and then he even offered to feed us lunch! (Pizza and salad!!!) We put it up for a vote and the kids unanimously voted to do the gig!!! Their vote was a big deal because it meant we had to give up doing one of our fun activities. The choir voted to check out the MLK stuff instead of CNN and to do the gig. What an amazing thing! This choir is truly a special group of youth. We might not be big but our spirit certainly is! So, we’ve added a gig and a free lunch (singing for our supper, I suppose?) at one of the churches we originally wanted to sing at! Then, to make it all even cooler, our gig on Thursday got changed from 1:00 in the afternoon to 7:30 at night in the chapel at the retreat center, which will probably give us a much bigger crowd! The esprit de corp is doing very well right now!
Post-Braves Game…Let the rain continue!
We’re all back at the hotel in Buckhead (thanks, Mike)! As it turns out, the meteorologists in Atlanta are quite good. It rained all afternoon until about 7. We got about six innings of the game in (of which we saw three, the traffic in the ATL is terrible!) and then the rain came again! Fortunately, the youth got to witness one of the great miracles of sport at the moment: a homerun by the phenomenal David Ortiz!
Bottom line: Sox 4, Braves 0. We finally made it back to the bus in the rain, and barring one minor incident, we got back to the hotel, where we are all now headed to sleep. Be sure to ask your youth about Cruz and the traffic cone…
We are going to have a great day tomorrow but now it’s time to go to sleep!
God bless you and I hope to have more tomorrow!
In Christ,
Joe
Monday, June 18, 2007
Day Number 1
Well, it's technically day number two (in the morning) but we've made it through day number one just fine! We got stuck in Houston traffic (which was very, very lame) for nearly an hour and a half so that through us off our game plan pretty badly. We ended up having to continue driving through our scheduled dinner break (because the driver was nearly over his legal time to drive) bu we pulled in to NOLA at just the right time, rehearsed for a bit and then had dinner. The youth were real troopers, I am very proud of their ability to be flexible and to roll with the changes that Houston traffic caused us!
Today we are getting ready to head out to Cafe du Monde for breakfast, a little bit of time in the quarter, driving through the upper and lower ninth wards, Selma, AL, and Montgomery, AL.
It's going to be a great day today!!!!!
No pictures to upload yet but they will be on the way.
Minot Pratt says hi!
Today we are getting ready to head out to Cafe du Monde for breakfast, a little bit of time in the quarter, driving through the upper and lower ninth wards, Selma, AL, and Montgomery, AL.
It's going to be a great day today!!!!!
No pictures to upload yet but they will be on the way.
Minot Pratt says hi!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Choir Tour is nearly here!
Man, I love this time of year! Tomorrow morning I leave with the Emmaus Youth Choir on tour! We meet at 9:30 tomorrow and the bus rolls out at 10:00 on the way to New Orleans, LA! Sweet! Monday, we'll be eating beniegts, checking out the quarter as well as the upper and lower ninth wards. Then, we'll head out to Selma, AL, and then Montgomry AL, to do a show. On Tuesday we head to the ATL for a little CNN, World of Coke, and a Braves game against my beloved Red Sox. On Wednesday we head to Savannah, GA, to check out some Wesley stuff and a gig in Savannah. Thursday we are on the Georgia coast at St. Simon's Island and then we begin to head back, stoping in Mobile for a show and then headed to Baton Rouge. All in all, we'll be back on Saturday night for two shows SUnday morning. I would love to figure out how many miles we'll be rolling this week.
The kids are great, the sound is good, the look is good, and we are ready to hit the road!
The kids are great, the sound is good, the look is good, and we are ready to hit the road!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
6/17/07 11:00 Liturgy
Travis Park UMC-Sunday Morning Worship
Sunday, June 17th, 2007
Third Sunday after Pentecost
9:00 a.m.
ENTRANCE
PRELUDE: Ken Freudigman, cello
*CALL TO WORSHIP Harlan Mohler
O Lord, we find ourselves experiencing change and looking for direction;
We come to worship knowing you will lead us with unfailing love and faithfulness;
O Lord, in whom should we place our trust?
In you, Lord, we will place our trust.
We come to you seeking the path we should follow,
You know that all too often we strike out on a path without you,
Come Lord during this time of worship,
Lead us into the Promised Land and give us faith to follow.
--Taylor Boone
*OPENING HYMN No. 529 How Firm a Foundation ALL
PRAYER OF CONFESSION:
All: Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will,
we have broken your law
we have rebelled against your love,
we have not loved our neighbors,
and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SILENT PRAYERS
WORDS OF ASSURANCE:
Leader: Hear the good news:
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners;
that proves God’s love toward us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
All: Glory to God. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
READING OF SCRIPTURE:
MESSAGE “Promised Land” Rev. Taylor Boone
TITHES AND OFFERINGS: And the Father Will Dance
Text and Music: Mark Hayes
Conducting: Caroline Bonner
(Please register your attendance in the red registration books.)
*DOXOLOGY (can be found printed on the back page of The Faith We Sing)
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
INVITATION
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
Leader: The Spirit of God be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: Lift up your hearts to heaven
People: We lift them up to God.
Leader: Let us give thanks to God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Leader: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth.
……………………………………………..
And, so with all the saints who have gone before, all the creatures of the earth, and all the faithful, we praise your name and join the unending hymn of praise:
SANCTUS #2257-b in The Faith We Sing ALL
WORDS OF INSTITUTION AND CONSECRATION
THE LORD’S PRAYER
All: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are your
now and for ever. Amen.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS
COMMUNION MUSIC: Lana Cartlidge Potts
PRAYER AFTER RECEVING
All: We thank you, O God, for this holy meal which you have prepared for us. We pray that it will nourish us as we go out, led by the Holy Spirit, to do your work in the world. Amen.
--Alison Boone
SENDING FORTH
PRAYER FOR THE YOUTH CHOIR
All: Loving and generous God, we pray your blessings on the Emmaus Singers and their sponsors as they give the gift of music and singing and joy. We pray your blessings as they receive the gifts of adventure and new places and time together. We pray for traveling mercies in the giving and receiving of gifts of the journey that they—and we—remain always in your care. Amen.
--Alison Boone
PRAYER FOR MEMBERS LEAVING THE CONGREGATION
HYMN OF INVITATION* No. 617 I Come with Joy ALL
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE: Ken Freudigman, cello
Sunday, June 17th, 2007
Third Sunday after Pentecost
9:00 a.m.
ENTRANCE
PRELUDE: Ken Freudigman, cello
*CALL TO WORSHIP Harlan Mohler
O Lord, we find ourselves experiencing change and looking for direction;
We come to worship knowing you will lead us with unfailing love and faithfulness;
O Lord, in whom should we place our trust?
In you, Lord, we will place our trust.
We come to you seeking the path we should follow,
You know that all too often we strike out on a path without you,
Come Lord during this time of worship,
Lead us into the Promised Land and give us faith to follow.
--Taylor Boone
*OPENING HYMN No. 529 How Firm a Foundation ALL
PRAYER OF CONFESSION:
All: Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will,
we have broken your law
we have rebelled against your love,
we have not loved our neighbors,
and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SILENT PRAYERS
WORDS OF ASSURANCE:
Leader: Hear the good news:
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners;
that proves God’s love toward us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
All: Glory to God. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
READING OF SCRIPTURE:
MESSAGE “Promised Land” Rev. Taylor Boone
TITHES AND OFFERINGS: And the Father Will Dance
Text and Music: Mark Hayes
Conducting: Caroline Bonner
(Please register your attendance in the red registration books.)
*DOXOLOGY (can be found printed on the back page of The Faith We Sing)
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
INVITATION
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
Leader: The Spirit of God be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: Lift up your hearts to heaven
People: We lift them up to God.
Leader: Let us give thanks to God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Leader: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth.
……………………………………………..
And, so with all the saints who have gone before, all the creatures of the earth, and all the faithful, we praise your name and join the unending hymn of praise:
SANCTUS #2257-b in The Faith We Sing ALL
WORDS OF INSTITUTION AND CONSECRATION
THE LORD’S PRAYER
All: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are your
now and for ever. Amen.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS
COMMUNION MUSIC: Lana Cartlidge Potts
PRAYER AFTER RECEVING
All: We thank you, O God, for this holy meal which you have prepared for us. We pray that it will nourish us as we go out, led by the Holy Spirit, to do your work in the world. Amen.
--Alison Boone
SENDING FORTH
PRAYER FOR THE YOUTH CHOIR
All: Loving and generous God, we pray your blessings on the Emmaus Singers and their sponsors as they give the gift of music and singing and joy. We pray your blessings as they receive the gifts of adventure and new places and time together. We pray for traveling mercies in the giving and receiving of gifts of the journey that they—and we—remain always in your care. Amen.
--Alison Boone
PRAYER FOR MEMBERS LEAVING THE CONGREGATION
HYMN OF INVITATION* No. 617 I Come with Joy ALL
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE: Ken Freudigman, cello
Sunday, June 10, 2007
"The Basics" Sermon for June 10th, 2007
Greetings Everybody!
I hope this finds you well! I preached this morning for both of our morning worship services. Today was our first service without our co-pastors, as they have taken another appoitment in another conference. So today I was rolling with the idea that, during times of transistion, we must revert to the basics of what it is to be the church. I utilzed Micah 6:6-8, Luke 4:18-19, and Matthew 28:19.
“The Basics”
Good morning friends! My name is Joe Stobaugh and I’m one of the pastors here at Travis Park and I’ve got some good news for you! Let us pray: pray extemporaneously…
There is a spirit in the air around here, isn’t there? It’s that time again. Time for something new! Can you feel it? I sense that something is coming, do you? There are memories of greatness mixed with an appreciation for the present moment and a foretaste of all the good things to come. I feel it, do you? You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s Spurs playoff basketball and the Spurs are in the finals!!!!
This a fun time of year, isn’t it? I love to watch Tony and Manu and Tim and the crew doing their thing! The Spurs are really something else: they are a great team on the court and fun to watch. I’ve got to tell you, even as a former ball boy for the Dallas Mavericks insert your boo and hiss here, the Spurs have been surprisingly easy to pull for!
I tell you, there is one Spur I really admire however, and it’s their coach, Greg Popovich. Clearly, Pop is a great coach. And one of the many things that set’s him apart from some of his colleagues is his commitment to executing the plan he has set and sticking with the basics.
I don’t know if you saw the game on Thursday night or not but in the second quarter, Pop called a timeout when things were getting a bit out-of-control. During the timeout ABC had one of those “sounds of the game” moments featuring Pop. As the team was huddled around him, Popovich reminded the Spurs of who they were. He reminded them of the basics that had gotten them to the Finals. Take it slow, he said, take it slow!
You know what happened, of course: it worked! The Spurs were trailing by a few points prior to the time out and after the timeout, with the team refocused; they changed their direction of play, got back to the basics and ended up with a decisive victory! (A few fourth quarter three pointers from Lebron excluded. Man, that guy is something else, huh!)
I remember thinking that that moment, that timeout, was an example of a master coach at work. He sensed the importance of the moment and brought his team back to the basics.
I was also struck by what a great metaphor that moment was for those of us worshipping here this morning!
You know, often in life we can shape situations to a degree, with the sheer force of our outlook and attitude. For those of you who are visiting with us for the first time, our co-pastors for twelve years took another appointment in The United Methodist Church and last Sunday was their last Sunday here. Depending upon how you look at it, it might seem that our church is in trouble: with our co-pastors having been given another appointment and without another to take their position of leadership, it might seem that our church is adrift and that we’ve been abandoned. That’s one way of looking at our current situation. But I would suggest to you that it’s not the only way and in fact, it’s not the best or most accurate way to describe what’s happening at this church.
As I said, friends, I am here to share with you good news! Sisters and brothers, Travis Park has not been abandoned and we are not adrift because Jesus has promised to never, ever to abandon us! Jesus is with us, right here and right now.
And all of you are here and you, my friends are what make this church! And, just so you know an interim pastor is on the way. We don’t know who it will be yet but the Bishop and his cabinet are working on it and through them God will send us a pastor to take us to the next level! And that’s because God is good, God is faithful, and God keeps God’s promises!
So let’s take a moment, friends, during this time of transition, and borrow a page out of Pop’s playbook. Let’s remember what our basics are as a church.
And I do mean we. I want to invite you to think about the basics of being Church, why are we here? Why are we doing what we are doing? What are the basics of being the church?
While you are thinking about it, let me share with you what some friends and I think the church is about and then I want to hear from you.
When I think of what the basics of being the church are I am reminded of a few pieces of Scripture. First, I think of the words of Micah that we’ve just heard. I think of the words of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, found in chapter 4:18-19 where Jesus says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And I think of Matthew 28:19, again, the words of Christ, “Go therefore into all the world and make disciples of all nations.”
All of this together tells me that the church exists for three reasons:
1. The church exists to announce and proclaim the (Reign) Kingdom of God.
2. The church exists to worship God
3. The church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation for the world.
To me, the church is the place, as pastor Doug Pagitt would say, “it is the home base for those committed to living in rhythm with God. It is a means by which we extend God’s hopes, dreams and agenda in the world.”
The church, friends, is a place where we strive to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. It is a place where we seek together to deepen our relationship with God through authentic spiritual practices and where we connect the needs of the world with God’s dreams for the world. These are the basics, at least as it seems to me.
Keep thinking, I am coming to you!
This week I had the blessing of attending not one but two Annual Conferences of The United Methodist Church. Early in the week I attended the North Texas Conference where I was ordained on Tuesday and secondly the Southwest Texas Conference, where the great Travis Park Sanctuary Choir sang in the ordination service, where our very own Paul Harper and I led to jazz communion services, and where our very own Byrd Bonner was elected as a General Conference Delegate! Being elected to serve as a delegate to General Conference is a really big deal. It is an honor and a sign of respect and trust. Travis Park: we are blessed to be represented by Byrd Bonner!
Since I was in essence, locked in a room full of preachers and laity for a week, I thought I’d ask them what they considered to be the basics of the church. While I tell you what they said I want you to be thinking about what the basics of the church are for you.
My good friend, the Rev. Terry Heislen, says that the church is called to be a blessing!
My old youth minister, the Rev. John Baldwin told me that the church exists to love.
Another pastor told me that he thought the church was meant to be a placed that nourished the communion of saints, helped them to grow and keep them accountable to living a God-filled life.
Linda Lowman said that the main reason the church exists is to help its members become more like Christ and help them minister to others. She also said that we must expand our circle of those to whom we minister.
Rev. Taylor Boone says we are to come to church to be filled with the Word, filled with the Spirit, filled with Grace and filled with Agape love. In turn we are to go and share that with everyone we meet, seeing the face of Christ in everyone and everywhere. The church is not the building: the church is the people who empty themselves of their own egos and replace the emptiness with Christ.
Rev. Dave Collett says that the church is to help you learn to love yourself so that you can love God and love those around you. “Salvation comes to you on the way to someone else.”
Rev. Willie Glaster says that the church exists in order to help people have a loving relationship with God and to help people learn how to hear from God.
Byrd Bonner says that the local church exists to bring people to Christ the way that Christ would have brought them to himself and to be an instrument of love.
Alison Boone says that the main reason for being the church is to provide authentic worship, because out of that comes the desire to be closer to God, the desire to learn more about God and the desire to serve God. Worshiping in the community is the most important thing we do.
So there are a few ideas for you to ponder on. But now it’s time to hear from you. What do you think the basics of the church are? What do we need to focus on so that we can be the church God wants us to be? I’m looking forward to hearing from you because we all can learn from each other. Please raise your hand and then I’ll call on you and you can stand and tell us a bit of what you think about the basics of the church.
Ask people what they think the basics are
TIE IT ALL TOGETETHER
So we see some common themes, don’t we? The church exists to make disciples of Jesus, to connect one another to each other and to God and to worship God.
Friends, during this new chapter in the history of this church, let us focus on the basics so that we can truly become a church of unconditional love and justice in action that makes disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The church has been around for thousands of years with these understandings of who, what and whose we are and it will continue to do the work that God has called her to do.
As I said earlier, I have been at annual conferences all week and I was ordained on Tuesday. When you are ordained you place your hand on a Bible as you take your vows for life and then that Bible is given to you. As I looked in my new Bible on Tuesday night (really, it as Wednesday morning) I looked at some of the signatures in it. As my eyes poured down the list I came to the name of Rev. Tyrone Gordon and he left a Scripture passage for me to read, it’s Jeremiah 29:11. Many of you know what it is. Jeremiah tells us, about the future of our church, and about the future of our individual lives, the following: Read Scripture. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
Friends, I know this is true for not only Travis Park but for each of us in our own lives as well.
Sisters and brothers in Christ, as I look at this stole that is hanging around my neck, signifying the yoking of the one wearing it to Christ, I see the hands of the children of this church, who very graciously made it for me. I treasure this stole for all that it represents and I know that God has big plans for these children who are being raised in the faith at this church. God has big plans not only for them but also for this church. The future for us is bright! Travis Park has a venerable and strong history, and God is not done with us yet, friends, God is not done with us yet. Christ is calling us to continue to be about proclaiming the Reign of God in our midst and to create a community that works for God’s Reign to come on earth! God is calling us to make disciples of Jesus and God is calling us to work for peace and justice for all of God’s Creation. Most of all, God is calling us not to be afraid! God is calling us to walk in confidence as the children of God out into the world to be in ministry with God. Let us continue to become the people of God, claiming our full humanity and becoming disciples of Jesus for the sake of transforming the world. “For I know the plans God has for you, and they are amazing!”
Let all the people say: Amen
I hope this finds you well! I preached this morning for both of our morning worship services. Today was our first service without our co-pastors, as they have taken another appoitment in another conference. So today I was rolling with the idea that, during times of transistion, we must revert to the basics of what it is to be the church. I utilzed Micah 6:6-8, Luke 4:18-19, and Matthew 28:19.
“The Basics”
Good morning friends! My name is Joe Stobaugh and I’m one of the pastors here at Travis Park and I’ve got some good news for you! Let us pray: pray extemporaneously…
There is a spirit in the air around here, isn’t there? It’s that time again. Time for something new! Can you feel it? I sense that something is coming, do you? There are memories of greatness mixed with an appreciation for the present moment and a foretaste of all the good things to come. I feel it, do you? You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s Spurs playoff basketball and the Spurs are in the finals!!!!
This a fun time of year, isn’t it? I love to watch Tony and Manu and Tim and the crew doing their thing! The Spurs are really something else: they are a great team on the court and fun to watch. I’ve got to tell you, even as a former ball boy for the Dallas Mavericks insert your boo and hiss here, the Spurs have been surprisingly easy to pull for!
I tell you, there is one Spur I really admire however, and it’s their coach, Greg Popovich. Clearly, Pop is a great coach. And one of the many things that set’s him apart from some of his colleagues is his commitment to executing the plan he has set and sticking with the basics.
I don’t know if you saw the game on Thursday night or not but in the second quarter, Pop called a timeout when things were getting a bit out-of-control. During the timeout ABC had one of those “sounds of the game” moments featuring Pop. As the team was huddled around him, Popovich reminded the Spurs of who they were. He reminded them of the basics that had gotten them to the Finals. Take it slow, he said, take it slow!
You know what happened, of course: it worked! The Spurs were trailing by a few points prior to the time out and after the timeout, with the team refocused; they changed their direction of play, got back to the basics and ended up with a decisive victory! (A few fourth quarter three pointers from Lebron excluded. Man, that guy is something else, huh!)
I remember thinking that that moment, that timeout, was an example of a master coach at work. He sensed the importance of the moment and brought his team back to the basics.
I was also struck by what a great metaphor that moment was for those of us worshipping here this morning!
You know, often in life we can shape situations to a degree, with the sheer force of our outlook and attitude. For those of you who are visiting with us for the first time, our co-pastors for twelve years took another appointment in The United Methodist Church and last Sunday was their last Sunday here. Depending upon how you look at it, it might seem that our church is in trouble: with our co-pastors having been given another appointment and without another to take their position of leadership, it might seem that our church is adrift and that we’ve been abandoned. That’s one way of looking at our current situation. But I would suggest to you that it’s not the only way and in fact, it’s not the best or most accurate way to describe what’s happening at this church.
As I said, friends, I am here to share with you good news! Sisters and brothers, Travis Park has not been abandoned and we are not adrift because Jesus has promised to never, ever to abandon us! Jesus is with us, right here and right now.
And all of you are here and you, my friends are what make this church! And, just so you know an interim pastor is on the way. We don’t know who it will be yet but the Bishop and his cabinet are working on it and through them God will send us a pastor to take us to the next level! And that’s because God is good, God is faithful, and God keeps God’s promises!
So let’s take a moment, friends, during this time of transition, and borrow a page out of Pop’s playbook. Let’s remember what our basics are as a church.
And I do mean we. I want to invite you to think about the basics of being Church, why are we here? Why are we doing what we are doing? What are the basics of being the church?
While you are thinking about it, let me share with you what some friends and I think the church is about and then I want to hear from you.
When I think of what the basics of being the church are I am reminded of a few pieces of Scripture. First, I think of the words of Micah that we’ve just heard. I think of the words of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, found in chapter 4:18-19 where Jesus says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And I think of Matthew 28:19, again, the words of Christ, “Go therefore into all the world and make disciples of all nations.”
All of this together tells me that the church exists for three reasons:
1. The church exists to announce and proclaim the (Reign) Kingdom of God.
2. The church exists to worship God
3. The church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation for the world.
To me, the church is the place, as pastor Doug Pagitt would say, “it is the home base for those committed to living in rhythm with God. It is a means by which we extend God’s hopes, dreams and agenda in the world.”
The church, friends, is a place where we strive to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. It is a place where we seek together to deepen our relationship with God through authentic spiritual practices and where we connect the needs of the world with God’s dreams for the world. These are the basics, at least as it seems to me.
Keep thinking, I am coming to you!
This week I had the blessing of attending not one but two Annual Conferences of The United Methodist Church. Early in the week I attended the North Texas Conference where I was ordained on Tuesday and secondly the Southwest Texas Conference, where the great Travis Park Sanctuary Choir sang in the ordination service, where our very own Paul Harper and I led to jazz communion services, and where our very own Byrd Bonner was elected as a General Conference Delegate! Being elected to serve as a delegate to General Conference is a really big deal. It is an honor and a sign of respect and trust. Travis Park: we are blessed to be represented by Byrd Bonner!
Since I was in essence, locked in a room full of preachers and laity for a week, I thought I’d ask them what they considered to be the basics of the church. While I tell you what they said I want you to be thinking about what the basics of the church are for you.
My good friend, the Rev. Terry Heislen, says that the church is called to be a blessing!
My old youth minister, the Rev. John Baldwin told me that the church exists to love.
Another pastor told me that he thought the church was meant to be a placed that nourished the communion of saints, helped them to grow and keep them accountable to living a God-filled life.
Linda Lowman said that the main reason the church exists is to help its members become more like Christ and help them minister to others. She also said that we must expand our circle of those to whom we minister.
Rev. Taylor Boone says we are to come to church to be filled with the Word, filled with the Spirit, filled with Grace and filled with Agape love. In turn we are to go and share that with everyone we meet, seeing the face of Christ in everyone and everywhere. The church is not the building: the church is the people who empty themselves of their own egos and replace the emptiness with Christ.
Rev. Dave Collett says that the church is to help you learn to love yourself so that you can love God and love those around you. “Salvation comes to you on the way to someone else.”
Rev. Willie Glaster says that the church exists in order to help people have a loving relationship with God and to help people learn how to hear from God.
Byrd Bonner says that the local church exists to bring people to Christ the way that Christ would have brought them to himself and to be an instrument of love.
Alison Boone says that the main reason for being the church is to provide authentic worship, because out of that comes the desire to be closer to God, the desire to learn more about God and the desire to serve God. Worshiping in the community is the most important thing we do.
So there are a few ideas for you to ponder on. But now it’s time to hear from you. What do you think the basics of the church are? What do we need to focus on so that we can be the church God wants us to be? I’m looking forward to hearing from you because we all can learn from each other. Please raise your hand and then I’ll call on you and you can stand and tell us a bit of what you think about the basics of the church.
Ask people what they think the basics are
TIE IT ALL TOGETETHER
So we see some common themes, don’t we? The church exists to make disciples of Jesus, to connect one another to each other and to God and to worship God.
Friends, during this new chapter in the history of this church, let us focus on the basics so that we can truly become a church of unconditional love and justice in action that makes disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The church has been around for thousands of years with these understandings of who, what and whose we are and it will continue to do the work that God has called her to do.
As I said earlier, I have been at annual conferences all week and I was ordained on Tuesday. When you are ordained you place your hand on a Bible as you take your vows for life and then that Bible is given to you. As I looked in my new Bible on Tuesday night (really, it as Wednesday morning) I looked at some of the signatures in it. As my eyes poured down the list I came to the name of Rev. Tyrone Gordon and he left a Scripture passage for me to read, it’s Jeremiah 29:11. Many of you know what it is. Jeremiah tells us, about the future of our church, and about the future of our individual lives, the following: Read Scripture. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
Friends, I know this is true for not only Travis Park but for each of us in our own lives as well.
Sisters and brothers in Christ, as I look at this stole that is hanging around my neck, signifying the yoking of the one wearing it to Christ, I see the hands of the children of this church, who very graciously made it for me. I treasure this stole for all that it represents and I know that God has big plans for these children who are being raised in the faith at this church. God has big plans not only for them but also for this church. The future for us is bright! Travis Park has a venerable and strong history, and God is not done with us yet, friends, God is not done with us yet. Christ is calling us to continue to be about proclaiming the Reign of God in our midst and to create a community that works for God’s Reign to come on earth! God is calling us to make disciples of Jesus and God is calling us to work for peace and justice for all of God’s Creation. Most of all, God is calling us not to be afraid! God is calling us to walk in confidence as the children of God out into the world to be in ministry with God. Let us continue to become the people of God, claiming our full humanity and becoming disciples of Jesus for the sake of transforming the world. “For I know the plans God has for you, and they are amazing!”
Let all the people say: Amen
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Annual Conference No.2
Well, here we go, my second annual conference since Sunday. Good times! I'm here at the Southwest Texas Annual Conference at the American Bank Building in Corpus Christi. We're having some great times right now! I was fortunate to be able to lead a jazz eucharist this morning with the guitarist Paul Harper and it went very well!
Well, we've been adjounred for lunch!
I'm out!
Well, we've been adjounred for lunch!
I'm out!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Jo is elected!!!!
Allright! For the first time in North Texas Annual Conference history, our delegation to General Conference has a deacon delegate!!!!!
Yeah for Jo Biggerstaff! This is a very, very exciting moment for the order of deacons.
So far the delegates who have been elected are:
1. Kathleen Baskin-Ball (who is awesome)
2. Jim Dorff (who is great)
3. Jo Biggerstaff
What a blessed conference we are!
Yeah for Jo Biggerstaff! This is a very, very exciting moment for the order of deacons.
So far the delegates who have been elected are:
1. Kathleen Baskin-Ball (who is awesome)
2. Jim Dorff (who is great)
3. Jo Biggerstaff
What a blessed conference we are!
Monday Afternoon at Annual Conference
Date: 6/4/07
Time: 4:11 p.m.
Location: The Plano Center, Plano, Texas
Event: The NorthTexas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
Today, I'm sitting in the Monday session of Annual Conference. This year we are voting for General Conference Delegates and the mood here at conference is quite good! Everyone is excited, treating each other in a Christ-like way, and behaving nicely! I am very hopeful for our deacon candidate, the Rev. Jo Biggerstaff. She is incredible and truly embodies the divine spark! We have been through five ballots and she is getting closer and closer to success. Our annual conference has the most deacons of any conference in our jurisdiction and yet we have never had a deacon delegate to General Conference. I am hoping that this year will be different.
The 2007 Annual Conference is extraordinarily important to me this year as I will be ordained a deacon in full connection tomorrow night, at my home church, Custer Road UMC. Tomorrow I will also have the opportunity to address the annual conference. I will post my remarks after I've said them. Perhaps it goes without saying but I am extremely humbled by this week and by the connection of pastors in The United Methodist Church.
Time: 4:11 p.m.
Location: The Plano Center, Plano, Texas
Event: The NorthTexas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
Today, I'm sitting in the Monday session of Annual Conference. This year we are voting for General Conference Delegates and the mood here at conference is quite good! Everyone is excited, treating each other in a Christ-like way, and behaving nicely! I am very hopeful for our deacon candidate, the Rev. Jo Biggerstaff. She is incredible and truly embodies the divine spark! We have been through five ballots and she is getting closer and closer to success. Our annual conference has the most deacons of any conference in our jurisdiction and yet we have never had a deacon delegate to General Conference. I am hoping that this year will be different.
The 2007 Annual Conference is extraordinarily important to me this year as I will be ordained a deacon in full connection tomorrow night, at my home church, Custer Road UMC. Tomorrow I will also have the opportunity to address the annual conference. I will post my remarks after I've said them. Perhaps it goes without saying but I am extremely humbled by this week and by the connection of pastors in The United Methodist Church.
Remarks and Prayer for the Texas House of Representativesh
Remarks and Prayer from Rev. Joseph Phillip Stobaugh
Pastor of the Day for the Texas House of Representatives
May 23rd, 2007
Greetings! It is truly a blessing and an honor for me to be with you all this morning, serving as the Pastor of the Day.
I am especially struck at this moment by what an incredible honor, privilege and responsibility that you all have in serving in this House. What a tremendous trust you hold! Because regardless of your party affiliation, or from which part of this state you come from, you all share together in a great calling.
Members of this House, your understanding of your calling is vital to the success of your work. Your calling is not a selfish one. You are called to truly be the House of the Representatives, the House of the people and this calling involves many things. So in the midst of all you must accomplish in these full days please always remember that you are called to be a voice for all people but that you are especially to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. You are called to restore hope to those who have lost hope and to help restore dignity and respect to those who have none. Your calling is a sacred covenant between you, God, and the people.
As a representative of the church it is a privilege for me to report to you that our calling as a church and your calling as representatives of the people have at times merged successfully in the past few years. I serve as one of the pastors at Travis Park United Methodist Church in San Antonio, where we have received funding from the state and federal government that has allowed us to develop a phenomenal ministry to those on the margins of society. Our ministry program will soon be merged with the new Haven for Hope Project in San Antonio. With the funding that you have recently authorized for the Haven for Hope Project the marginalized of San Antonio have been given a chance: a chance to reclaim their dignity, to gain respect, and have been granted new opportunities to become what God desires them to be. They now have a fresh opportunity to become fully human, engaged in good honest work, and a chance to be valued by their fellow children of God.
Truly there are times where the church and the state can work together for the common good without trampling over the very important wall that divides them.
Representatives of the people of Texas you have been called! You are called to work for the common good. You are called to help make the great state of Texas a blessing of a state that seeks to bless all of its inhabitants. This blessing looks like healthcare that is available to all, regardless of their economic background. This blessing looks like a healthy and sustainable environment where humanity works in partnership with the earth and not as its adversary. This blessing looks like quality education for every child in this state, regardless of where they live. This blessing looks like affordable higher education for all of those who desire it, not just for the wealthy and middle class. This blessing looks like the eradication of extreme poverty and of the HIV/AIDS virus. These things, brothers and sisters are for the first time in human history actual possibilities within not only my very young lifetime but yours as well! You have the possibility to change the world in ways the rest of human history has never known! Imagine the world that you can leave for our children, for my sixteen month old daughter Eleanor Grace, imagine what that world could look like. May she never know the trials and struggles that so many in this generation have known. So much of this is up to you.
Please remember this day and always the words of the prophet Micah: “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
As you go about your important work today, know that these words can serve to guide you. Know that as you finish this busy season that the people of Texas have great hope for you, we are praying for you to be wise, to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly.
Let us pray:
Eternally gracious and loving God, we come before you this morning seeking your presence in this place and striving to do the work that you have called us to do. Lord, as this body struggles with issues that affect all of us, we ask that you send your Spirit to be run amongst this House so that it’s inhabitants would be ever seeking to work for justice for all, towards dignity and respect for all of your Creation, from the smallest insects to the beasts of the fields, from the shallowest ponds to the deepest seas, from the plains to the mountaintops, guide these servants in taking care of your Creation. Yahweh, bring the concerns of your littlest ones to this body. Bring the dreams and hopes and visions of all who reside in this great state to the attention of these women and men. Inspire the hearts of all who legislate in this place to realize that we indeed are responsible for one another: we are our brothers keeper. Open our eyes to the greatness of this responsibility. As we search for security in this world, teach us the important truth that the fastest way to security is to have justice for all peoples. God, you called these your children to a great work: grant them your wisdom as they deliberate so that your Spirit of unconditional love and justice for all of your people might be made a greater reality, for it is we who are your hands and feet in this world. Be with these people today, God, give them an extra dose of your grace, your love, and your unrelenting passion for justice.
Let all of God’s children say: amen.
Pastor of the Day for the Texas House of Representatives
May 23rd, 2007
Greetings! It is truly a blessing and an honor for me to be with you all this morning, serving as the Pastor of the Day.
I am especially struck at this moment by what an incredible honor, privilege and responsibility that you all have in serving in this House. What a tremendous trust you hold! Because regardless of your party affiliation, or from which part of this state you come from, you all share together in a great calling.
Members of this House, your understanding of your calling is vital to the success of your work. Your calling is not a selfish one. You are called to truly be the House of the Representatives, the House of the people and this calling involves many things. So in the midst of all you must accomplish in these full days please always remember that you are called to be a voice for all people but that you are especially to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. You are called to restore hope to those who have lost hope and to help restore dignity and respect to those who have none. Your calling is a sacred covenant between you, God, and the people.
As a representative of the church it is a privilege for me to report to you that our calling as a church and your calling as representatives of the people have at times merged successfully in the past few years. I serve as one of the pastors at Travis Park United Methodist Church in San Antonio, where we have received funding from the state and federal government that has allowed us to develop a phenomenal ministry to those on the margins of society. Our ministry program will soon be merged with the new Haven for Hope Project in San Antonio. With the funding that you have recently authorized for the Haven for Hope Project the marginalized of San Antonio have been given a chance: a chance to reclaim their dignity, to gain respect, and have been granted new opportunities to become what God desires them to be. They now have a fresh opportunity to become fully human, engaged in good honest work, and a chance to be valued by their fellow children of God.
Truly there are times where the church and the state can work together for the common good without trampling over the very important wall that divides them.
Representatives of the people of Texas you have been called! You are called to work for the common good. You are called to help make the great state of Texas a blessing of a state that seeks to bless all of its inhabitants. This blessing looks like healthcare that is available to all, regardless of their economic background. This blessing looks like a healthy and sustainable environment where humanity works in partnership with the earth and not as its adversary. This blessing looks like quality education for every child in this state, regardless of where they live. This blessing looks like affordable higher education for all of those who desire it, not just for the wealthy and middle class. This blessing looks like the eradication of extreme poverty and of the HIV/AIDS virus. These things, brothers and sisters are for the first time in human history actual possibilities within not only my very young lifetime but yours as well! You have the possibility to change the world in ways the rest of human history has never known! Imagine the world that you can leave for our children, for my sixteen month old daughter Eleanor Grace, imagine what that world could look like. May she never know the trials and struggles that so many in this generation have known. So much of this is up to you.
Please remember this day and always the words of the prophet Micah: “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
As you go about your important work today, know that these words can serve to guide you. Know that as you finish this busy season that the people of Texas have great hope for you, we are praying for you to be wise, to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly.
Let us pray:
Eternally gracious and loving God, we come before you this morning seeking your presence in this place and striving to do the work that you have called us to do. Lord, as this body struggles with issues that affect all of us, we ask that you send your Spirit to be run amongst this House so that it’s inhabitants would be ever seeking to work for justice for all, towards dignity and respect for all of your Creation, from the smallest insects to the beasts of the fields, from the shallowest ponds to the deepest seas, from the plains to the mountaintops, guide these servants in taking care of your Creation. Yahweh, bring the concerns of your littlest ones to this body. Bring the dreams and hopes and visions of all who reside in this great state to the attention of these women and men. Inspire the hearts of all who legislate in this place to realize that we indeed are responsible for one another: we are our brothers keeper. Open our eyes to the greatness of this responsibility. As we search for security in this world, teach us the important truth that the fastest way to security is to have justice for all peoples. God, you called these your children to a great work: grant them your wisdom as they deliberate so that your Spirit of unconditional love and justice for all of your people might be made a greater reality, for it is we who are your hands and feet in this world. Be with these people today, God, give them an extra dose of your grace, your love, and your unrelenting passion for justice.
Let all of God’s children say: amen.
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