Pray For Unfinished Business

As a creative act of teenage rebellion one young man in a highly musical family would return home late at night and play the first seven notes of a scale on the family's piano. As the last note hung in the air, he would wait for one of his parents or siblings to come out of their bedroom and finish the scale. Someone always did. His family had trouble coping with unfinished business (Melander and Eppley, The Spiritual Leader's Guide to Self-Care, 55)

Unfinished business can consume a lot of our energy, OK a lot of my energy. Leaving matters open-ended or unresolved means they are still potentially volatile. Like not tightening the bolts on a swing set and hopping on the narrow plastic (blue on our home model) seat for a ride, further movement or activity threatens the whole structure which could easily collapse. Unfinished business is unreliable since it is subject to change in the next moment or by the next meeting.

But what do we assume about things that are finished or completed? Aren't they subject to being reconsidered or reopened based on new information or changes in relationships? The nature of daily life seems far more fluid than fixed for me. What if there were a creative way to take care of unfinished business, as unfinished business, without finishing it? Melander's and Eppley's book referenced above offers this suggestion:

"As you leave your workspace say this prayer: O God, into your hand I commend those tasks that I have not yet completed. Until I can return to them, I entrust these tasks and all whom they affect into your never-failing care."

What works for you in living creatively with unfinished business?

Peace, Pastor Jeff

Marked, Not Masked--Beginning the Lenten Journey

Worship has always been among the most satisfying and inspiring aspects of ministry for me. The sense of being in God's presence with others praying, preaching or singing has reliably sustained me through the years. The latest inspiring moment came at the end of the Ash Wednesday service at Rockford United Methodist Church this week. We all had oil-and-ash crosses on our hands or foreheads, placed there with the blessing, "Remember, you are a child of God and to God you shall return." I was facing the congregation to give the closing blessing.

I had preached about "Living Out From the Inside" using Jesus' Sermon on the Mount warnings in Matthew 6 about doing good deeds, praying and fasting for public admiration; and storing up treasures on earth. Jesus clearly contrasts public, visible expressions of these worthy actions with the greater reward of basing them on our secret, inner life with God; and storing treasures in heaven. Jesus criticizes the "stage actors" (the meaning of the Greek word for hypocrites) or mask wearers for seeking only the reward of public admiration. He warns against the earthly decay that comes from neglecting eternal life with God by ending our desire with material possessions.

I used the image of an iceberg to illustrate the vast difference between what is above and below the water, what is visible and invisible (or secret) in our lives. The potential lesson is that most of who we are is not visible, therefore only attending to what is above ground or showing above the surface, then making judgments, determining value or seeking recognition based only on that is misleading, inaccurate and dangerous.

It is helpful to think of Jesus' teaching about the public outer and secret inner life with God this way. Jesus wants us to take care of most of who we are and to live out from the inside of a strong foundation in God's love.

Standing before the congregation I gave a closing blessing that felt inspired, and upon further reflection I would say it this way now, "What we bear is a mark to identify us, not a mask to hide who we are. Similar to the waters of baptism, the oil-and-ash cross symbolizes the union of our life with Christ. (Pointing to the iceberg picture) This mark covers the big part of us and the small part too, our whole life. On this Lenten journey of discovery, when we may very well find anguish, anxiety and astonishment, be assured that God has got it covered in Christ. And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord smile upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and grant you peace, both now and forevermore. And together all God's people say, Amen."

Peace, Pastor Jeff

Sewing Up Life in 2009

You are thirty minutes late to the doctor's office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the bank because you were ten minutes late dropping the kids off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station--and you forgot your wallet. That is a picture of marginless life by Richard Swenson in his book, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.

We are a culture overrun with commitments, options, plans, choices and genuine needs. Coupled with our struggle to maintain healthy boundaries, to be able to say a positive NO based on a primary YES, it takes great intention to receive and be at peace with God, our neighbor and ourselves. The wisdom to navigate and advance our efforts in daily life is seriously at risk and seemingly challenged at every turn. There are no uncontested commitments or choices we make in the course of our days.

"We must have room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has the time to listen, let alone love...Doesn't (God) lead people beside the still waters any more?" (Swenson, Margin, 27).

The gift of Sabbath grounds us in a healthy, helpful and faithful way and allows us to "push back" a culture and pace of life that deny rest and renewal. It is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. Two reasons are given for observing the Sabbath depending on which version of the Ten Commandments you read:

For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy (Exodus 20:8-11).

Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out with amazing power and mighty deeds. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).

Sabbath is a reminder of God's acts of creation and liberation, and forms the basis for our rest and renewal. I hold two images for Sabbath, a warning track and a seam.

Yankee Stadium’s opening in 1923 introduced a new element into baseball: the warning track. Although designed as a quarter-mile track around the field, the barrier soon took on its more common usage and spread to parks around the league. A warning track's width varies from field to field. It is generally designed to give about three steps of warning to the highest level players using the field.

A warning track allows you to know where you are on the field. It is a source of orientation. If we only live at our outer limits, on the edge with no margin, we lose our sense of location. We cannot get a perspective on anything and become reactionary, not able to initiate any action on our own.

The second image of a seam comes from my mother-in-law who is a professional quilter, author and business owner. She says a 5/8" seam is standard in home sewing. A seam allows the garment to be adjusted for gains and losses in the one who wears it. It thus gives the garment flexibility. A seam allows for expected deterioration of the fabric. The garment will fray on the ends but they are folded under in the seam. If you really want a strong seam use a French seam where no edges are exposed. It is double stitched so that even the outer edge is folded under. A seam protects the garment in washing and makes it last longer.

If we are going to hold up under the pressure of our culture, we need Sabbath Seams in our individual and community lives. We can then more deeply appreciate the invitation of Jesus:

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light" (Matthew 11:28-30)

Walter Brueggemann, an insightful and formative theologian for me, writes "Jesus issues an invitation to an alternative existence, away from deeds of power, away from brick quotas, away from 'things too great,' away from control and domination and success. Away from the way the world wants us to be...into the life of well-being with Jesus who is one with the Father" (Brueggemann, Mandate to Difference, 42).

Garments have seams and God's people have Sabbaths, margins of rest and protection. Sabbath serves as a spiritual warning track that allows us to adjust the rate and direction of our movement for the sake of longer life and prevention of injury from crashing into boundaries.

We can only go so long without decent rest; no living creature just keeps working without interruption. In Sabbath we recover the healthy purpose and divine meaning of our life together with God and each other. In 2009 may we observe Sabbath in ways that honor God's design and freedom for us as we Grow, Love and Serve Together.

Peace, Pastor Jeff

Belonging to God at a New Address

Then the Lord told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1)

When Beverly, my wife, and I moved from Goshen College to Evanston, IL in the summer of 1985 (just in time for the Chicago Bears Super Bowl season) for graduate school I felt a familiar anxiety. Growing up I was a new student in a new school and community in 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th grades. Each move was at first scary and then became a blessing. Even knowing this after college and two years of work in public accounting did not lessen the anxiety. What I did was wait to tell my then current employer I was leaving until I had signed the housing agreement with the seminary. I needed to know the next place (address) we would be living before making the next move.

Addresses are important. They give us a sense of security. Addresses represent places we can be reliably known. We can be reached or found there. They are places of identity, and places to rest and be renewed. Even our computers have Media Access Control (MAC) addresses which are used for connecting to a network. There also are famous addresses: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC; Michigan and Trumbull in Detroit (Tiger Stadium) or Clark and Addison in Chicago (Wrigley Field).

Biblical addresses and place names are a little different though. They are more relational than geographical. In Genesis 26 there is a story about Isaac (Abraham and Sarah's son) and his people digging three wells. They named the wells for the interactions and experiences that happened there: Argument, Opposition and Room Enough. Jesus went to Simon and Andrew's home and healed Simon's mother-in-law. No street address is mentioned in Mark's Gospel.

When I did the Children's message on this theme, I asked the kids if they knew the street address of their grandparents. No one did. But they knew where their grandparents lived. They knew the house and its rooms and yard because of their loving relationship with the people who live there.

The call of Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12 (re-named in Genesis 17 in relation to becoming the parents of many nations) marks the beginning of historical faithfulness for Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is the beginning of people trusting in God's guidance and going to new places...without knowing the next address:

"It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith--for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent" (Hebrews 11:8-9a)

John Wesley reflected that "We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him apart for God." Abram and Sarai represent God's people who are willing to move to places of promise that may not, and probably don't, have definite physical addresses, at least at the beginning.

With the emphasis on their relationship with God and God's call or claim upon their lives, every place they moved was a place where they belonged to God.

White Pines UMC has had different addresses since our beginning in July 2004. We moved from 159 Maple Street in Rockford, the address of our parent church, Rockford United Methodist. Our first office was at 5359 Plainfield Avenue in a former gun shop and tanning salon, and we worshiped at 6895 Samrick Aveune Private, better known as Chandler Woods Charter Academy. Our next move for office space in December 2005 was to 2350 Belmont Center Drive, Suite 300; three doors down from BC Pizza. And as of Sunday, September 7, 2008, our new worship home address is 6555 Jupiter Avenue in Belmont, better known as the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA.

The move and expansion to two services has grown out of prayer, conversation, developing relationships, servant evangelism, and shared ministry over the last two and a half years. We now enjoy the benefits of the YMCA's strong commitment to healthy children, families and communities with a thoroughly equipped facility for child care, worship and fellowship.

We are at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA because out of our relationship with God and involvement in ministry we began meeting some wonderful people there, sharing ministry programs, and then actively wondering and planning for an expanded relationship. And what has come from all of this is our new address for worship.

We are in our next place of promise, a new place for us to belong to God and invite others belong to God there as well. I am even more deeply committed and want to be more faithful in this invitation:

If you are seeking a home for your faith and family, I want to be your pastor and invite you to let White Pines United Methodist Church be the next place where you belong to God.

Peace, Pastor Jeff

Pray to Look Like the Wise Men

In my 1/6/08 sermon "Finding Other Ways Home" I shared that radical change would happen for us in 2008. This change is due to the loss of a source of funding that allowed us to finish 2007 financially even. In facing this challenge I invited us to a month of prayer to listen for God's will and desire for the future of White Pines United Methodist Church.

To frame this month of prayer we look in the story of the magi (wise men) visiting Jesus in Matthew 2:1-12. We see at least three different ways they looked to get there and then home by another way. We are in the position of needing to find other ways home; other ways of being the Body of Christ as we seek to be self-sufficient.

The wise men looked UP, WITHIN and AHEAD in their risky journey to and from Jesus, and through King Herod's threatening and disingenous realm. When they looked UP, they found a star. When they looked WITHIN, they found purpose. When they looked AHEAD, they found another way home.

The star gave them guidance; guidance above all the distractions and worries that come with only seeing what is immediately in front of us; guidance that shines in the darkness. We have to lift our heads and hearts in order to see the star. Our Great Thanksgiving prayer during open communion includes the call to "Lift up your hearts."

The purpose of their journey was to find Jesus and worship him. Other motivations for risking such a journey or making a commitment to a new church will not provide the needed spiritual, physical, psychological and social energy to see the process all the way through. The misson of the whole Christian Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We interpret that mission locally to be that we are called to GROW, LOVE and SERVE together. Our vision for what life looks like when that mission is being accomplished is that we are becoming God's people in Christ who love with purpose, depth and passion; and practice faith as a welcoming spiritual community.

Looking ahead to find another way home came to the wise men through a dream. God uses dreams and visions to reach us when we struggle to overcome barriers or despair at the current conditions we face. In teaching about the motivation for starting new churches, and White Pines in particular, I use the experience of Paul and Silas recorded in Acts 16:9-10, "That night Paul had a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia in northern Greece, pleading with him, 'Come over here and help us.' So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, for we could only conclude that God was calling us to preach the Good News there."

Finding and developing new and other ways of being the Body of Christ are our responses to God's gift of insight and creativity. Who knows what the coming month of prayer will hold for us? We have faced and come through other challenges in our history. May we approach this current situation with a confidence in God's power to guide us, give us purpose and show us multiple ways to go into the future.

I like the Acts passage for another reason as well. The language changes from a third person account of the development of the young Christian church to a first person plural account, "we decided..." I am grateful for all of you who have decided this is our journey and we are in it together. We answer the challenge to grow with our personal commitment and resources. In so doing we are witnesses that White Pines UMC is a real spiritual home where seeking people find help, hope and health. I praise God for us and the difference we make right now.

Peace, Pastor Jeff

The Word: Eternal

Steven Colbert of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" has a standard feature each show called "The Word." During this segment he elaborates wildly about "The Word" which can range from a single word to a phrase. He goes all over the place during his comments but always returns to "The Word" at the end.

In contrast to wild, satirical ruminating between introducing the word and concluding with the word, we have the ancient spiritual practice called Centering Prayer. It was one of our "Paths of Prayer" in September. It is recommended that we take 20 minutes twice daily for Centering Prayer. In this practice, led by Erica McIlroy, we were encouraged to choose a word or let a word be revealed to us during an extended period of silence. That word would then be brought to mind when we felt we were drifting in our stillness. As much as I am comforted and confounded by Grace in my life, I thought that would be the word. But instead another one came to me: Eternal. I say it came to me because I did not choose it. I have lived with Eternal as a centering word since that time and have come to really like it.

Eternal calls to mind a dimension of time and enduring strength beyond the stress of any particular situation or time. To describe eternity I sing the last verse of "Amazing Grace" (in The United Methodist Hymnal):

"When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun"

Ann Spangler in her book, Praying the Names of God, writes that "Olam" is a Hebrew word that occurs more than four hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is translated as "eternal," "everlasting," "forever," "lasting," "ever," or "ancient." It refers to the fulllness of the experience of time or space. "El Olam" is the Hebrew name for the God who has no beginning and no end, the God for whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. His plans stand firm forever, plans to give you a future full of hope. When you pray to the Everlasting God, you are praying to the God whose Son is called the Alpha and the Omega. He is the God whose love endures forever.

Eternal also helps me relate to beliefs that are expressed in terms like "absolute" and "unchanging". I don't have positive associations with beliefs that are expressed with these words because most often they are used to support repressive and demeaning judgments against people who are different. My experience is that references to God's truth as absolute and unchanging are asserted during times of fear and change, not to enable people to consider and reflect on new ideas, but instead to shut down dialogue and halt interaction and even refuse community to people who hold different beliefs.

Absolute and unchanging are strong words to associate with beliefs and with the character of God. They express the power of God's truth and love. I accept Eternal, "The Word" that chose me, to declare that power in life-giving and life-changing ways. What's your word?

Peace, Pastor Jeff

Extended Thanksgiving

Two of my favorite holy days come in November: All Saints' Day (11/1) and Thanksgiving. Remembering those who have gone before us; holding an oil candle, speaking their names and hearing the congregation respond, "Absent from us. Present with God"; and singing "For All the Saints" (a most beloved hymn of Beverly, my wife) are profound acts of thanksgiving. I experience Thanksgiving as the most restful of holy days because it represents a healthy sense of dependency on God and each other. I say thank you to those people on whom I rely for help and hope and health and love. To say thank you is to value the relationships I share with other people and not strive to be independent of them. To rest in God's care for me and the world is an ultimate act of trust.

As a new church we rely on the greater faith community for some important worship services throughout the year: Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent), Good Friday (just before Easter) and Thanksgiving Eve. I enjoy these services because I get to hear other preachers and singers; I get to worship in other sacred spaces; and I feel a part of the extended family of faith. I also thank God for who we are as the unique Body of Christ called White Pines United Methodist Church.

In 2007 I was one of the preachers for the Thanksgiving Eve service at Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church. The "message" was a medley of characters in the story of Jesus healing ten people with leprosy, only one of whom returned to thank him (Luke 17:11-19). Four of us took the roles of a person who was healed but ungrateful, an onlooker who was excited that Jesus was coming to town but disgusted that ten of "those people" showed up, a person who was healed and did not return to give thanks but lived a grateful life, and the only foreigner of the ten who returned to give thanks. I was the third person. Here is my story...

I met Jesus on the border between Galilee and Samaria. You know how you associate a place with a memory? This place of my healing was more than a geographical boundary.

My condition defiled me. I had to stay away, on the other side of social and religious boundaries. In olden times I would be outside the camp where the LORD lives, in isolation. With torn clothing and loose hair I had to cover my mouth and announce my uncleanness to people wherever I went. I was outside of God’s presence, until Jesus came to the border. A group of us was there. You know how people who are rejected by the community have a way of finding each other. Something felt different that day on the border. We cried out to Jesus for mercy with our mouths uncovered, no longer declaring our uncleanness and he listened and he looked at us! That was redeeming enough, but then came the next surprise...

Jesus sent us away unhealed, moving through the village. We had not been able to do that before. Jesus regarded us differently than people we usually encountered who would try to get out of our way. I wasn’t about to stop walking, something compelled me to keep going. When I caught my breath enough to look at my hands and arms; to be aware of my body, I noticed they were clear, the disease was gone!

Continuing to look at my arms and hands, and trying to believe my eyes, I almost stumbled on the way to the priest. I did not notice the expressions and gasps of the people around me, or the turning around of the Samaritan leper who stood with us crying out to Jesus. I wanted to get to the priest to make my healing official; as official as my exclusion and isolation had been. I wanted to cross the boundary that I dared not cross with my former condition.

It’s funny, but I was almost embarrassed at my healed condition. Was it really OK to go anywhere? What would I talk about with my family? I was trading the clear rejection of others because of my disease for their skepticism of my healing, their hesitation at approaching me or having me approach them.

And I was grateful, with tears and sighs; grateful to Jesus who heard me and healed me. But I did not return to tell him. Surprised, embarrassed, bewildered at my new life, I did not know what to do. I felt the struggle within of trusting the new power of healing, and still feeling the power of rejection and isolation. Life changed so fast. With discouragement I had fashioned a life around my disease and now I was free.

I live out of that gratitude, truly living in community and reaching out, going near those who are currently rejected and isolated. I question boundaries now. The regret at not returning to Jesus is gradually fading each time I tell others of how he healed us. You know, the way telling a story helps you remember and be thankful.

Peace, Pastor Jeff

A Good Way to Be Alive for the Future

Anne Lamott in her book, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, gives this description of a frustrating, then redeeming encounter with her son, Sam:

He sat down in the dirt, and we talked in a stilted, unhappy way. I practiced being right for a while and he was sullen; then I practiced being kind. Things improved a bit. My friend, Mark, who works with church youth groups, reminded me recently that Sam doesn't need me to correct his feelings. He needs me to listen, to be clear and fair and parental. But most of all he needs me to be alive in a way that makes him feel he will be able to bear adulthood, because he is terrified of death, and that includes growing up to be one of the stressed-out, gray-faced adults he sees rushing around him.

I remember great advice for exploring vocations around the time I was graduating from college. I was encouraged to look at the people who were deemed to have "made it" in my potential profession and then decide whether I liked them or not. The ability, not to predict or control the future, but anticipate it and dream about our place in it is a wonderful and troubling aspect of being human. We remember the past, experience the present and anticipate the future. We act today, either consciously or unconsciously, based on what we think of the future--the expectation, hope or anticipation of what the coming days/weeks/years may hold.

Our anticipation of the future is not only for what may happen, but who we will be. In the Good Sense Budget Course I am currently teaching, a primary consideration for how we handle money is who we are and who we are becoming as followers of Jesus Christ. I appreciate Lamott's affirmation that we are to be alive in a way that helps others, especially younger generations, feel that they will be able to grow into the future.

In a recent sermon on saving money and resources, I commented that there are three futures into which White Pines United Methodist Church is living. The closest future is reaching self-sufficiency as a congregation. We will celebrate our third anniversary this July. We have come this far by faith; joyful, creative and exhausting work; and the substantial assistance of our parent church (Rockford United Methodist Church) and the West Michigan Annual Conference.

It is exciting to walk together through growing seasons of love, spiritual development, financial giving and service. The Lenten sermon series on John Wesley's sermon, "The Use of Money," (Gain all you can, Save all you can, and Give all you can), the current Good Sense Budget Course small group and our upcoming Consecration Sunday on April 29th all contribute to the importance of growing to financial self-sufficiency. The Shamrock Cookie Bake, our booth at the Rockford Community Expo, serving at the Children's Tent at the Rockford Start of Summer Festival (June 8-10), White Pines Music Fest (July 15), and the Children's Music and Drama Camp (July 23-26; July 30-August 2) are all evangelism contributions to the growth to self-sufficiency.

The second future is a bit further out. It was expressed by the New Church Establishment Committee of the West Michigan Annual Conference years before any of us were involved in the process. When initial plans were being made, there was a feeling that the south Rockford area could sustain a new United Methodist congregation of more than 500 worshiping members. It was also felt that this community would be receptive to traditional Wesleyan theological affirmations of the constant presence of God's grace, and the Christian life as faith and love put into practice.

The third future is all encompassing in the Kingdom of God. Our ultimate future belongs to God and is given to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rev. Brad Kalajainen, Lead Pastor at Cornerstone United Methodist Church, encourages us to always keep an eye on eternity. Be aware of the unfolding plans of God. There are few more beautiful words than those found in the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah:

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. I will be found by you," says the LORD. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land" (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

This New Church business certainly requires us to pray and seek the Lord. It also requires us, I feel, to act on the confidence that God is at work within us, giving us a future and a hope, and the desire to do what pleases God (Philippians 2:13). Living in these ways can be very appealing to those persons wondering if life with God is worth the risk or if they will be able to bear a life of following Jesus Christ.

I praise God for the witnesses to this Good News who live and grow in the congregation called White Pines United Methodist Church.

Pastor Jeff

The Risk of Living Out of Boxes

I am a slow composer. Much more often than not I choose to honor inertia instead of overcome it to actually write something. Writing a first word, like taking a first step in a new direction, is a risk. I usually try to figure out most of what I want to communicate before actually beginning to type. Then at least I have some cover or justification for not getting anything done. With this approach I can stay pretty comfortably within recognizable limits, also known as "in the box."

Some of us have laughed at this notion of staying in the box, especially in our journey as a new church. Our punch line is, "There's a box!?" So much of what we do needs to be new, fresh and not bound by what we think of traditonal ministry and organization. I have consistently spoken about the need for us to show up in unusual places and our leaders have created new experiences.

Our first Welcome Center was in a former gun shop and tanning salon, and now we are in a strip mall. We created a CROP Walk on the White Pine Trail and a children's musical at the YMCA. We build and launch rockets, and bake cookies that are delivered on time for St. Patrick's Day. Our vison song, and songs for baptisms and open communion are original compositions from our Music Director, Elsa Pfautsch Halifax. Actually, I really enjoy this flexibility of spirit and practice. A friend sent me a card that now sits on my bookshelf at the Welcome Center that reads, "Do not think in terms of 'on time' or 'late.' Think in terms of flexibility, fluidity, spontaneity." By default or design, I have adopted this as a practice and rhythm in my faith.

Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois, and author of "Just Walk Across the Room," assumes when entering a room or joining a gathering of people that the Holy Spirit is going to do something rather than nothing, so he looks for a way to be part of what God might be up to. One risk of adopting this approach is that we might be mistaken. Our timing might be not be quite right. The willingness to risk, and accept the misses and mistakes that come along with it belong to the adventure of faith.

Risk and mistakes are signs that we are willing to move ahead without fully knowing what the results of our efforts might be. DeWitt Jones is a former photographer for National Geographic magazine. In his video series, "Everyday Creativity," he shares that it takes 400 rolls of film to get the 30 pictures that are used in a feature article. You can't be thinking about making mistakes when you are composing a story.

As followers of Christ we need to be less concerned with doing things right and more concerned with reaching out in love, looking for what God may be up to in our life and the life of White Pines UMC, and being willing to venture in that direction. Steve Leipprandt, our "Dads of Destiny" leader, spoke in a recent worship service that one of his main insights from the Dads class is that God qualifies the Called, not the other way around. God does not call those who are already qualified, but transforms and equips the people who stand up, speak out, take a first step, or write a first word. God qualifies for ministry those persons who accept the divine offer of life and love through Jesus Christ. Sometimes all we can do in the face of such wonder is laugh and feel a little bit better about not finding any boxes. Thanks for sharing such an outlandish journey of faith.

Pastor Jeff

Ripples of Joy

In the middle of Black Friday 2006 I offer gratitude for God's blessings through the White Pines congregation.

Last Sunday part of my message highlighted Psalm 126:2-3, "And the other nations said, 'What amazing things the LORD has done for them.' Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What joy!" A theologian I studied wrote this about the verses, "Israel knows what a narrow vision forgets: that good news always creates a ripple of joy beyond the immediate circle of those to whom it is directed. Thus, one must ponder the larger marvel that Israel's confession is an echo of the prior confession of the nations about the great things God has done for Israel."

I then shared these echoes and "ripples of joy" about our congregation:

Broad ripple: spiritual ancestors who felt the joy and wrote, conserved and shared the words in Scripture

Recent ripple: those who dreamed of a new church in the south Rockford area long before any of us were involved

Current ripples:

• The most successful CROP Walk ever in Belmont
• A "Healthy Food Drive" in the absence of a coordinator for adopting a Thanksgiving family
• Six baptisms since Easter and the relationships with families arising from them
• Creative loving servant leaders, some of whom are new, who sing; play the flute; set up for worship; work the sound board and laptop; re-do web pages; take detailed notes on laptops and Palm Pilots; open their homes for small group meetings; are so inspired at finding a calling they create a Camping Ministry; lead Women of Wisdom and Dads of Destiny; risk becoming Sunday School teachers; compose Children’s Musicals; are Middle High students who make blankets for other kids in need; shape Pastor Chat discussions around Ethics and Values; push for strategic plans and ask where we see ourselves in five years

I recently wrote Advent/Christmas letters to eleven families who have been recent guest in worship. I closed those letters with this statement, "God is doing some wonderfully creative and compassionate things in the White Pines congregation. As we anticipate the birth of our Savior, Jesus the Christ, I invite you to share a journey of discovering God’s gifts, for us and the whole world." I will highlight Advent/Christmas ministries in future posts.

Peace, Pastor Jeff