What's in a Name? (Welcoming Part 1)

This Sunday, June 29th, will be our new pastor's first official Sunday at our church. As we welcome him, we have to adjust to meeting a new person and saying goodbye to Brother Don. When someone new enters the church, there's always a transition period where we have to get used to things and learn what the new dynamic will be like.

I thought I would post a few facts about the new preacher to help our congregation get to know him, and the first question I asked was what would he like to be called?

He answered, "Brother Ken, Brother Jessee, Pastor Ken, Reverend Jessee, Ken. Any of these are acceptable. I've been called preacher, pastor, brother. Whatever people are comfortable with for their pastor." 

 

That got me thinking about what's in a name. No matter what names we give each other on Earth, God knows who we are.

 

Proverbs 22:1 tells us "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold."

 

Whatever we choose to call our new preacher, and whatever he chooses to call himself, I know that we will hold him in high regard, and I'm sure that he will enrich our church.

 

If you'd like to get to the know the preacher better, please see him in person on Sunday and stay tuned for a later post, where I'll be sharing more news!

 

Revive Us Again

In this transition time between pastors, I had the opportunity to speak to the church last Sunday. I thought that I would post the short version of my message for all those who didn't make it to church. In the wake of so many changes, I felt called to say a few words about our future as a church family.

According to Acts 2:1-4,

"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

 

The Holy Spirit came to the early Christians, our forefathers, as a flame, and we light that same flame today. We light candles in church and, as United Methodists, we surround ourselves with the Cross and Flame, on our hymnals, on our Bibles, and even in the stained glass window in the front of our church.

 

We describe ourselves with a good fire, a fire that cleanses and purifies. The good fire provides us with a source of power to change the world and ignite the same fire in others.

 

There are people at church who are good people and help others, but they don't let their light shine for God. They let their light shine for other people. They may help people they know or people they like, but not strangers or people they don't like. They may help people, but do it for show, and not for the Spirit. 

 

I have that problem, too. I'm a people-pleaser. Somehow, I missed out on getting the gene that tells you when to say "no." If someone asks me to do something, I will almost always say yes, even if I really don't want to do it. I will drag myself through it with a smile on my face, because in my head, I think it's the right thing for me to do. But in my heart, I don't want to be there, I don't want to be doing anything, and I don't have a good spirit. 

 

1 John 3:20 says that

 "If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

 

God knows that in our hearts, we don't always have a good spirit. When we do things to impress other people and not God, we don't give our full effort and we don't make as much of an impact. 

 

If you're not working with a good heart, and if you're doing something begrudgingly, then you're dragging everyone else down with you. It's like trying to start a fire without a match. You can rub those sticks together all you want, but it's just not the same. Using sticks takes forever, and you might get that fire started, but by the time you light the kindling, nobody's interested in the fire anymore. Lighting a fire with a match is immediate, it's hot and it's intense, and it's right there in the moment. Working with a joyful heart is like sparking the fire with a match. It makes a difference. 

 

People matter, but God matters more. If we treated God less like this distant figure that we can't see and more like someone who's sitting right next to us in the pew, we'd be on much better behavior most of the time. At least, I know I would. We all have room to improve, and if we let the Holy Spirit become the fire that drives our lives, we will grow as people and as Christians, and we will have nothing to fear from the fire that destroys. 

 

My favorite passage from Isaiah is 43:1-3: 

 

"But now, this is what the Lord says—

    he who created you, Jacob,

    he who formed you, Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

    I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

    they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

    you will not be burned."

 

As we go through our lives, we face danger. We risk losing everything if we don't do God's will. Like Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego, we must struggle to do what's right even when we're threatened with the fiery furnace, and even when other people pressure us and criticize us.

 

God knows what's in our hearts, and as long as we believe in Him, He will keep us safe from any danger. With God on our side, we will not be burned.

 

Summit has a long history with fire. We lost to it our original church building and we lost the 1957 brick building. But we're no strangers to the fire of the Holy Spirit. In the Great Revival, which the older members of our church look back on with reverence, 32 souls were saved, most of them in one night!

 

The Great Revival makes me think of a younger member of our church,  a child named Noah, who will be baptized on the 29th. I will never forget the day Brother Don announced that Noah would officially be joining our church. Noah, young though he is, was called by the Holy Spirit to make a commitment to God and the Christian life. There are people today that we can change, who need us to make an impact, and who need us to spark their fire. If Noah's family had not helped him seek a connection to the church and to Christ, he may never have known what it means to feel the Holy Spirit.

 

There is no reason, absolutely no reason, why the old fire and its old power cannot be revived. And it must be revived, because people like Noah are the future of our church, and the fire of the Holy Spirit has been given to us to share, not to hide under a bushel. The light of our church and the Spirit is not just for our church family, but for each individual we touch, within and without the walls of our sanctuary.

 

So let your light so shine before men, because God is waiting for us to do His work!

 

"Will You not revive us again so that Your people may rejoice in You?" Psalm 85:6

Reflections and Corrections

I have a couple of different topics to address today. 

The first is that I have made a mistake. In one of my previous posts, I discussed the stained glass windows of our church and mentioned that four were lost in the fire. That's actually incorrect: we lost five. One window was broken to allow the firefighters to reach the fire, and the other four were destroyed by the fire itself. Those four were on the front side of the building, and the broken one was the last one on the side facing the parking lot. Thanks to Forrest for the help! :-)

My second topic is our recently retired pastor, Brother Don. Today was his last official Sunday as our preacher, and today he delivered his last sermon. He talked about his favorite verse, the Parable of the Sower, which is Matthew 13:1-23. 

In the parable, the sower scattered his seeds in good soil, rocky soil, soil overgrown with weeds, and the hardened path. The seeds were scattered into four different places, and only the seeds from one place came up. The parable means that only a few people who receive the Word of God actually become Christians. Brother Don urged us to spread more seeds and call more people to The Lord, and to hope that, even though the sower only had a small number of crops that bore fruit, we can do better than the sower and touch more people's lives. 

Sometimes, when years have passed by, we look back on what we have done and the things we left behind, and the memories seem like just a reflection of the real thing, like light shining through a glass. But the light comes from God, and the lives we've touched will stay with us forever. 

Thanks, Brother Don, and Happy Retirement! 

Pentecostal Power

Today is Pentecost Sunday.

What is Pentecost? Well, it's kind of a big deal.

"Pentecost" means "fiftieth day" in Greek. It's the fiftieth day after Passover. In Exodus, Passover was when Moses and the Hebrews put lamb's blood on the doors and windows of their homes so that the Hebrews would be spared while the Egyptian children died. The result of Passover was that the Hebrews were freed from slavery in Egypt, and Passover became a Jewish holiday after that. Fifty days after leaving Egypt, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments that the Hebrews were meant to live by. Pentecost became a celebration of the Ten Commandments for the Jewish people.

Pentecost is a Christian celebration, too. Acts 2 tells us that the disciples were gathered together in a house in Jerusalem when there was a noise like a great wind that entered the house. Tongues of fire came down to them, and they began preaching in different languages. When people came to investigate, everyone in the crowd heard the disciples preaching in their own native languages, which amazed them, because all of the disciples were from Galilee. Peter preached the story of Jesus to the crowd, and according to Acts 2: 41, "Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." Pentecost was one of the most important holidays for the early church, second only to Easter.

When I was a child, the story of Pentecost was always my favorite in the Bible. I had no idea what the word "Pentecost" meant, and if you had asked me to explain Pentecost, I probably couldn't have. But if you asked me to tell you the story of the disciples and the tongues of fire, I'd tell you in a heartbeat. I remember my mama telling me the story and saying that each of the disciples had a flame lit on their shoulders that day, and that each and every one of us, as Christians, carry that exact same flame. I remember looking over my shoulders, picturing that flame sitting there with me. It was a source of great comfort, and I have never forgotten those words.

As Christians, Pentecost is important because it was the day the Gospel was spread to people of different nations. It was the true beginning of the ministry of Christ's church after His Ascension. Because of that day, and because of the Holy Spirit, we are here today.

But as United Methodists, Pentecost has, in my opinion, a special significance. The symbol of the United Methodist Church is the cross and flame. That flame is the Holy Spirit, the same flame that filled the early disciples and the same flame that calls to us. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, and it's also the day when we can look around and see the Holy Spirit in our lives. John Wesley said that his heart was strangely warmed, and it's up to us to spread that warmth to all people.

On Pentecost Sunday, United Methodists change the paraments on the altar to red. Red symbolizes the fire of the Holy Spirit. As Christians, what sets us on fire?

Transition Time

This week, we'd like to wish our pastor, Brother Don, a happy retirement. Brother Don has been our pastor at Summit UMC since 2004, and now he has decided to retire. He has served our church to the best of his ability and we appreciate his efforts and support through the years. 

Tonight, our Pastor-Parish Relations (PPR) committee will find out who will take over for Brother Don as our next pastor. We're very excited to meet our new preacher and welcome him even as we say goodbye to Brother Don. 

We'll certainly miss Brother Don, but we also hope for an even brighter future. 

"But we must always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 

He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter. 

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word." 

                                                           ------2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 HCSB