Good morning and God bless you. September brings the familiar opening of a new school year and re-entry to lives committed to education. It also brings new, refreshing and challenging developments in our church and Hartford communities involving music, money and mission.
Music: Did you know there are Directions for Singing in our United Methodist Hymnal? The last of seven directions from John Wesley on page vii is "Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven."
Since arriving here in July I have appreciated the way we have been led in music by Pete Laman, Mikha Sitorus, Bob Lightner, and Lynne and Dan Farmer. On September 11 we welcome Jenna Johnson as our new Church Musician. She has most recently been a music leader at the Cedar Springs and East Nelson United Methodist Churches north of Grand Rapids. She is a first year student at Western Michigan University. One of the many reasons I am excited about Jenna is the spritual sense she has of the gift of music in the church and in her own life as a child of God. Part of our congregation's welcome for Jenna will be providing transportation and lunch for her on Sundays. We are asking a family or household to adopt her for a Sunday each month. Our plan is for her to arrive at the church by 9:30 AM to prepare for worship and rehearse with any musicians or vocalists. Let Cindy Kent (Staff Pastor Parish Committee Chairperson) know if you are interested in taking care of Jenna on a given Sunday each month.
Money and Mission: The economic landscape changed here on August 30 with the opening of the Four Winds Casino. The United Methodist Social Principles begin with an affirmation of our "long history of concern for social justice." The Social Principles call us to thoughtful and prayerful approaches to contemporary issues and are "intended to be instructive and persuasive in the best of the prophetic spirit." Under the heading of The Economic Community is this statement, "Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, destructive of good government and good stewardship. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice. Where gambling has become addictive, the Church will encourage such individuals to receive therapeutic assistance so that the individual’s energies may be redirected into positive and constructive ends."
I shared a prayer request with our West Michigan Conference Prayer Center on August 30: "I request prayers for Hartford and surrounding communities as the Four Winds Casino opens today, August 30, at Noon. I celebrate the strong community-related ministry of our congregation and pray for fresh strength to continue being the Body of Christ shaped by compassion, grace and justice." I also have talked with colleagues who serve United Methodist churches in communities with casinos, and had an initial conversation at the local Chamber of Commerce. What I appreciate about our United Methodist tradition is how seriously we take the community context of local church ministry. To only criticize the nature of the newest business in Hartford is to fall short of a faithful effort to understand history and economic realities.
The same Social Principles statement on Gambling continues, "The Church acknowledges the dichotomy that can occur when opposing gambling while supporting American Indian tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Therefore, the Church’s role is to create sacred space to allow for dialogue and education that will promote a holistic understanding of the American Indians’ historic quest for survival. The Church’s prophetic call is to promote standards of justice and advocacy that would make it unnecessary and undesirable to resort to commercial gambling—including public lotteries, casinos, raffles, Internet gambling, gambling with an emerging wireless technology and other games of chance—as a recreation, as an escape, or as a means of producing public revenue or funds for support of charities or government."
While the economic landscape has changed, our calling to be the Church has not. I am challenged to see the threat to community stability, to encourage people overcome by gambling addiction to seek help, to create sacred space for dialogue and education on the tragic history of the United States and Native Americans, and to promote standards of justice that reflect God's gift of abundant life to all of us. How do you see us responding to these changes? I want to walk together with a renewed commitment to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves.
