Pastor’s Blog for the Week of May 16, 2010

EXTRAVAGANT GENEROSITY

Any church is built upon extravagant generosity. Increasingly in United Methodism, a large church will fund the founding of a daughter church and watch her grow. During the years Marianne and I lived in Greensboro, we were the beneficiaries of the work of West Market Street UMC, which in the late 1950’s helped to found Christ United Methodist, which we attended and participated in for many years. In the early 1990’s Christ UMC help to found St. Timothy’s UMC. West Market Street now had a granddaughter. In 2 Timothy 1:5, we read, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, then in your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, dwells also in you.” St. Timothy’s UMC took its name from this church.

Though we were not born from another church, we have been the beneficiaries of the extravagant generosity of many members over many decades. I am sure that a good number of these members have practiced the Biblical tithe, giving ten per cent of one’s earnings to the church. Although in the Bible, the tithe represents the norm, for most folks today the tithe represents really upper end giving. Our best statistics tell us that only about 4% of United Methodists tithe. If we could increase that number to 10% (I realize the irony in that percentage), not only would the church be able to do well financially, it could also greatly expand its mission and witness.

People have some misconceptions about tithing. Many people think that tithing is something that only the wealthy are able to do. In reality about the same percentage of the wealthy tithe as do any other socio-economic group within the church. Others think that tithing is difficult for the middle class and impossible for the poor. The reality is that anybody who has any income at all can give 10 per cent of it for God’s work in the church. Again, statistics bear this out. Tithing is more prevalent in lower income churches than higher income churches. Tithing is more prevalent in African-American churches than in white churches. Tithing is far more prevalent in Pentecostal churches than in Episcopal churches. Another misconception is that tithers are often be self-righteous about it. To be sure, Jesus spoke against the self-righteousness of some Pharisees who tithes. In my own experience as a pastor, I have never known any tithers who were self-righteous about it. I don’t know how much anyone in our church gives and who are the tithers, except for some people who have told me about their tithing. To person they have all considered it joy to give in this extravagant way.

Tithing does require some planning. It does require some budgeting. But the benefits far outweigh the liabilities. When you tithe, you know you have done your part financially for the church and for God. You never have to feel guilty about your giving again. Although you know that you will be accountable for your sins when judgment comes, you also know that greed will not be one of those sins.

If you thinking about tithing or about more gradually increasing your giving toward a goal of eventually tithing, I would love to talk with you, offer encouragement, and maybe even give you a few good financial tips.

In Christ,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of May 9, 2010

RISK-TAKING MISSION AND SERVICE

The fourth of the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations is “Risk-Taking Mission and Service.” This practice focuses primarily on what Adam Hamilton calls “Leading Beyond the Walls.” With a smaller percentage of American society attending weekly worship than in the last six decades, it’s more important than ever for the church to extend its ministries beyond the church building. This often involves taking some risks and getting outside our comfort zones.

We have begun some new risk-taking mission efforts this year. We have had a hugely successful tutoring program for underprivileged children at North Wilkesboro Elementary. Many thanks to Norma Walter for organizing the program and to all the church members who have been tutoring and helping the tutoring program in other ways.

We have been involved this year with the Circles of Care program to help eradicate poverty. Our involvement has been primarily providing space in our church for the program, but we have also had several of our members directly involved in various aspects of Circles. We hope that more of our folks will volunteer to help.

We have joined with First Baptist and North Wilkesboro Presbyterian for the building of the Trinity V Habitat for Humanity House. We have built four Habitat houses with these two churches in the past. Our particular risk-taking with this mission right now is raising the funds for it. Our share of the cost is $21,666. We have raised a little over $15,000 so far.

Our senior high youth will be going on a weeklong disaster-response mission in Gulfport Mississippi, where damage from Hurricane Katrina still needs much work.

We continue to support Samaritan Christian Ministry (“Samaritan Kitchen”), through our Missions Committee, our First Food Sundays, and packing and delivery a few Saturdays each year.

Our church is involved in many other smaller mission projects as well, things like the “love-knits” group, which knits prayer shawls for shut-ins and others, numerous children’s and youth day mission projects, and Stephen Ministry, which provides one-on-one Christian care for people in various sorts of personal difficulties or crises.

There are so many mission efforts within our church that I need to apologize in advance for those that I did not specifically identify.

On Saturday, June 5 we will have another opportunity with the nationwide United Methodist “Impact Community Day. Four impact community projects that day need volunteers from our church, as well as nine other United Methodist churches in our county who will be working with us. The Impact Community Day will include Habitat for Humanity work, Samaritan Kitchen packing and delivery, a children’s health promotion in a Second Street housing project, and an “Amazing Race” car rally/scavenger hunt to benefit Samaritan Kitchen. You will be receiving more information with opportunities to volunteer over the next couple of weeks.

One area in which I think our mission could improve is our sharing Christ, our witnessing in mission to our faith. For many of us who work on various ones of these mission projects, our efforts are more time consuming than risk-taking. Very few of us use our mission work as an opportunity to share Christ with people who really need Him. For some reason faith sharing is for most of us a personally higher risk activity than any of the hands-on mission work we do. So many opportunities are missed. Think about sharing your faith.

In Christ,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of April 25, 2010

5 Practices

Intentional Faith Development

Some folks think that faith in Christ is all of one piece. You believe in Him or you don’t. Methodism, since the days of its founder, John Wesley, in the eighteenth century, has always thought of Christian faith as something that is developed, strengthened, and deepened. A deepening faith draws us closer to God, enables us to withstand any temptation, and pushes us into the world to do God’s will and advance His kingdom.

Intentional Faith Development begins for most of us at the earliest age with the prayers our parents say with us when we go to bed. Here at First, we begin developing the faith of children when they are barely three years old. Our children’s programs and youth programs, along with confirmation classes bring that faith much farther along.

We have an exciting adult faith development program. Our best development tool has been the Disciple Bible Study series. These in-depth Bible studies meet for 30-34 weeks, two hours a week, with considerable daily readings in between. The ideal number of students for a Disciple class is 12. Jesus had twelve disciples. We have twelve in our current Disciple IV class, which meets on Wednesday nights after First Feast. We have also been offering short-term Disciple studies. This year Matt has led the 8 week Old Testament and New Testament Disciple studies.

Our five adult Sunday School classes are all Bible based and offer social and service opportunities as well as Biblical learning.

We are looking toward some new studies in the fall along with a few Pastor’s Book Studies this summer. Keep tuned to the Grapevine and the website to learn about forthcoming opportunities.

In Christ,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of April 18, 2010

PASSIONATE WORSHIP!!!

Last week our church wide emphasis, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, focused on the practice of Radical Hospitality. This week’s practice is Passionate Worship.

What Is Passionate Worship?

Passionate worship is not any particular style of worship. Any style of Christian worship can be passionate. Classic, traditional, contemporary, ancient, emerging, charismatic worships styles can all be passionate. Passionate is not how you do it. It’s how you feel it.

Participation, Not Performance

In Passionate Worship the members of the congregation are not an audience. They have not come to see and hear a performance. They are participants. They have come to worship for two reasons: to give and to receive. They have come to give God the love that He deserves. God loves to be worshipped. God loves for His people to feel very deeply about Him and to show what they feel. They have come to receive from God blessing after blessing. God reveals Himself to us in worship. The Holy Spirit energizes us. God makes us better people through worship. He strengthens us to go forth into the world to do His work in our work, to be His family in our families, to find His joy in our joys.

Sing, Speak, Pray, Praise

And Do It Together

You don’t have to sing well in order to sing. Many have noted that Psalm 100 does not say, “Sing with a beautiful, professionally trained voice” to the Lord. If you have a good voice, that’s great. But the Psalm says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!” The choir or the early worship band will do the good voice stuff for us. For the rest of us, it’s sing with gusto. Both services—Up the volume.

We speak in saying the creed and in speaking to one another, especially during the passing of the peace. The historic Christian church, inspired by God, tells us what to say in the creed. In the peace, we say a word of peace then many more words to those whom we share it with. We pray the Lord’s Prayer. We pray during prayer time. Add one to it. Say a prayer as soon as you come into church and take your place. If you’re bold enough, you can even come to the chancel rail and say a prayer kneeling. The word “doxology” literally means “a word of glory.” Give glory to God in worship. He is more than worthy of our praise.

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of March 21, 2010

HOLY WEEK

It was the week of Passover, the festival commemorating the angel of death’s “passing over” the Hebrew children in the tenth and final plague that brought death to Egyptian children. Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims coming for the festival. Among them were a multitude from Galilee who were followers of Jesus.

Jesus chose this time to launch his mission on one major step forward. He entered the city to a cheering crowd. He entered riding a donkey. He was quite intentionally fulfilling the little known prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. “Your king is coming to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey.” The crowds were delighted; the authorities, befuddled. Who is this guy? What are his intentions? He looked around the grounds of temple mount, scouting it all out. Then he returned for overnight on the Mount of Olives, just a few hundred yards away.

On Monday he returned. He overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the sellers of sacrificial birds in the temple courtyard. Whoever he is and whatever his intentions, the authorities now knew he was a threat. But they did not arrest him, not yet.

He taught daily in the large open space of the temple mount. The priests, in charge of the temple, did not like his teachings.

On Thursday evening he ate the Passover meal with his disciples in an upper room in the city. He told them that the bread was his body; the wine, his blood.

From there he and his disciples descended the temple mount into the Kidron Valley, then started up the Mt. of Olives. They stopped not far on the ascent at a place called Gethsemane. There he prayed. There he anguished. He knew by now, if he had not known from the beginning, that he would not be accepted as the messiah in Jerusalem. He had strong inklings, if he did not know completely, that the priests, in collusion with the Roman governing official and the Roman occupying military force, were plotting against him. It was the time of decision. He could leave, head north, and vanish easily into the countryside of Galilee, or he could face whatever might happen in Jerusalem. “Not my will, but yours,” he prayed.

The temple police arrested him and took him away to a rump trial late at night. The priests handed him over to the Roman army Friday morning. The high priest Caiaphas persuaded the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to put him on trial for treason, for claiming to be the king of the Jews, when there is no king but Caesar.

He was tried, convicted, scourged, and made to carry his own cross most of the way through the streets of the city to a little hill outside the city walls, a hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull. The Roman soldiers crucified him. His disciples were not there. Only his mother and a few other women who had followed him from Galilee, stayed to the end. Their sorrow was overwhelming. He died in a few hours that Friday afternoon. Virtually all thought that his dream had died with him.

He was laid in a tomb and left there until Sunday, when two or three women came to anoint his body before it decomposed. They could not come Saturday, for that was the Sabbath.

The stone was rolled away. His body was not there. They were told by a stranger (a man? an angel? two men? two angels?) that he was risen. They returned to the upper room to tell the skeptical disciples.

He appeared to them. He appeared to the disciples. He appeared to a couple of the road to Emmaus. He appeared in Jerusalem. He appeared in Galilee. They touched him. They ate with him. They talked to him, for forty days. They returned to the Mt. of Olives. They saw him ascend to heaven.

Even later, he appeared to a man on the road to Damascus, “as to one untimely born.”

“Christ is risen.” And yet he is here. As to ones untimely born, he appears even unto us, not in the visible and tangible, but in the Holy Spirit.

“Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of March 14, 2010

NEW HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOUSE

At a meeting on March 16 at First Baptist Church plans were laid for the construction of a new Habitat house. Jerry Eldridge and Chris Wilson represented our church at the meeting. The House will be called Trinity 5. This is the fifth house that three major North Wilkesboro churches have build together. The churches are First United Methodist, First Baptist, and North Wilkesboro Presbyterian. Although the location of the house has not been finally determined, it is likely to be in North Wilkesboro. Tentative date for groundbreaking is May 1.

Each of the three churches is expected to provide money, labor, food, and devotions. The financial contribution of each church will be $21,667. Our church has almost $11,000 of this money raised so far. We need to raise the rest by May 1. If you would like to contribute financially for the Habitat house, please make out checks to First United Methodist and mark them in the memo with the word Habitat. You may send them to church or put them in the offering plates at worship services.

Jerry Eldridge will be leading our church’s Habitat work. There will be many opportunities for church members to help with the construction of the Habitat House. You’ll be getting progress reports as we move along.

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of March 7, 2010

CASUALTIES IN THE WORSHIP WARS

No sermon I have preached in my 5+ years here got as much reaction as my sermon two weeks ago on Psalm 27. In it I spoke in detail of my experience in the worship workshop at the most recent District Leadership Conference. The leader of the workshop was an advocate of the “emerging worship” style, a style neither contemporary nor traditional. Emerging worship goes along with the emerging church movement, which has been going on for a decade now, and is most associated with the writings of Brian McClaren, a former Baptist pastor.

Emerging church is non-denominational to the point of being anti-denominational. It tries to be completely decentralized. It is anti-megachurch, preferring instead very small communities of Christians who worship in houses, storefronts, warehouses, anywhere that is not a church building. Emerging church keeps no membership roles or attendance records, does not even have members.

It has been hailed by the well known writer on Christian spirituality, Phyllis Tickle, as the greatest movement in the church since the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. Our bishop has been vocally supportive of the emerging church and emerging worship. Some aspects of emerging church are reflected in the Re-Think Church website of United Methodist Communications.

As a child of the post-modern philosophical movement, emerging church intentionally defies description and categorization. Lots of folks know about it, but nobody can explain it. What self-definition it provides is much more along the line of what it is not than what it is. I went to a workshop on emerging worship four years ago led by a district superintendent from Wisconsin, who couldn’t explain it because she didn’t seem to understand it.

I have never attended an emerging worship service, but from the reading I’ve done I would offer just a list of words and phrases that would be apropos: hard Christian rock at high decibel levels, candles, ancient/modern mystical liturgy, worship in the round, incense. At times I have thought (and even written—see jchristiansperspective@blogspot.com) about doing one emerging worship service in our youth arena. Now I feel like I need to see one before I do one.

Emergent church people tend to be disaffected evangelicals. They are anti-doctrinal, anti-hierarchical, highly experiential, and highly missional. Emergents consider contemporary worship to be terribly out of date. They consider themselves to be deep theological thinkers, while they regard contemporary worship as shallow. They love to quote Derrida. They love Starbucks. They like tattoos and body piercings. They are not bikers.

Is it a fad or is it the new wave of Christendom? To me the most amazing thing about the emergent church is its ability to garner huge publicity while producing very little. Scores of new books on emergent church and emerging worship come out every year. Every Christian magazine and journal has articles on it. Websites abound. But not much happens. Do you want to go to an emergent church. They’re not easy to find. They tend to appear quickly and dissolve quickly. There was one in Winston-Salem, but it seems not to be functioning. There is one in Raleigh.

Like everything else in life, worship is always changing (unless your Eastern Orthodox). Sometimes it is the extremes that can lead the complacent middle to move a little. Our worship at late service First is classic. But classic does not mean stultified. I believe that God loves to be worshipped and loves any kind of worship that is from the heart, and loves worship from the head as well.

In Christ,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of February 15, 2010

Walking the Labyrinth

I have offered during Lent to give church members a tour of the labyrinth and then their own time to walk the labyrinth. So far no one has taken up my offer, but I am hopeful. I had never walked a labyrinth until we got ours when the Youth Arena was put together. At first I thought of the labyrinth as being a spiritual experience for those who were attuned to that sort of thing, I not being one of those. I did not have a spiritual experience the first time I walked it. Nothing happened, or at least nothing I was aware of.

I did not walk the labyrinth for many months after that. In those days I was having my prayer time on my knees in the chapel. As I gradually found myself praying a little less, as my knees got a little worse, I decided to move to the Youth Arena. One day, while not having a very effective prayer time in the Youth Arena, I decided that since it was there, I would try walking the labyrinth again. I relaxed. I did not focus on anything. I just followed the path. I’ve been doing it ever since.

One of our parishioners once in my hearing referred to our labyrinth as “the maze.” I jumped to correct her. A maze is the opposite of a labyrinth. A maze is something you get lost in. A maze abounds in wrong turns, confusing paths, and creates the fear that you will never get out. A labyrinth has only one path. You can’t get lost. The one path leads to the center every time. All you have to do is follow the path. All the turns are the correct turns. You always end in the center.

A light with a separate switch and rheostat is directly above the center. I turn off the Youth Arena lights and turn on only the center light. When I reach the center, I close my eyes and bow my head, then I gradually lift my head toward the light. When my head is bowed and eyes closed, it is very dark. As I lift my head, my closed eyes perceive more and more light. It is the light of Christ shining into the darkness.

For me the labyrinth is not so much a spiritual experience as it is a spiritual discipline. Every time I walk it, which is usually twice a week, I feel His presence more and more keenly.

Would you like to try it?

Faithfully,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of February 7, 2010

A Passionate Worship Service

Passionate Worship is one of the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations that we will be involved with in our upcoming church wide study.

Yesterday, February 7, we had a passionate worship service here at First UMC. So many things were different from what we were expecting and what we had planned for. On Friday, I was lamenting what seemed to be a fairly sure weather forecast that would necessitate our canceling services Sunday—for the second consecutive Sunday. By Saturday morning conditions looked good enough that we would be able to have one service, although I expected very low attendance. Norma and George had much more snow than we did. I told Norma that it was best for her not to try to make it through to church Sunday. With no organist and what was likely to be a very small attendance, I decided to have the service in the chapel. Wiseman’s View graciously accepted my invitation to provide the music. We postponed Boy Scout Sunday for a week. Since my sermon was geared to Boy Scout Sunday, I had to construct another sermon on Saturday afternoon. Although I didn’t have nearly as much time as I normally use to prepare a sermon, I figured that it would be okay, since it would only be a small, informal gathering.

Weather got better Sunday morning. The chapel started filling up well before the time of the service. People started cramming into the pews. We were not in a position where we could move to the sanctuary. Just as it looked like no more people could be crammed in, another family would show up. I prayed that God would not let us fall into a situation where we had to turn someone away. People brought in chairs. Everyone got in. I was afraid some would complain or even leave because it was so crowded. Then I quickly saw that people were loving being here and loving the service, even loving the packed chapel. Singing was really good. There was a sense of warmth and love among us, and sense of God’s love among us that was palpable.

Sermons are part God, part Bible, and part preacher—but another important part is the hearers. I’m not sure whether the sermon was very good (the Duke Institute of Preaching Congregational Committee will tell me that tomorrow), but the listening of the congregation was great. Everyone seemed to really want to hear a word from the Lord.

Afterward I had numerous people tell me how much they loved the service, and I heard no one complain. It had been a wonderfully serendipitous blessed-by-God hour for us. I heard two women, who are neighbors, talking about how they loved worshipping together, something they had not done in a long time, because one of them is an early service attender; the other, late service. I had several people tell me how much they enjoyed the warmth and closeness they felt in the service. I think we all felt good to be back worshipping together, after having missed last Sunday because of the snow.

Lenten Devotion Books

This year we have a book of devotions for Lent, all written by our church members. They will be available at various places in the church this Sunday. The devotions begin with Ash Wednesday, which is February 17. There are a lot of beautiful thoughts and stories in these devotions. Read them every day as a part of your Lenten discipline. Not only will they help you know God better; they will help you know your brothers and sisters in our church better.

In Christ,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of January 17, 2010

Being with Younger Pastors, All Techies: Can I Adjust?

I was in Orlando Monday through Wednesday with the Duke Institute of Preaching. We have 21 UMC pastors and two leaders, both of whom are clergy in the Institute. I’m the oldest person there. Jim Harnish, one of the leaders, is 62; the rest, much younger. I noticed that Jim and I were the only people who had regular cell phones. All the younger pastors had either Blackberrys or i-phones, most of them i-phones. Now, the Florida pastors have to do both Facebook and Twitter. I learned that any church without a Facebook page is doomed to become young-adultless.

First NW does have a Facebook page with currently 56 fans, a good number of whom are out of town, but most are here and most are young adults. I am on Facebook, though I normally look at it only about once every six weeks or so. I have about 130 friends, but I’ve never friended anybody. I have written messages on Facebook only a few times on the church’s Facebook page. I had concluded long ago that I was too old to grasp Facebook, but my preacher friends in Orlando convinced me that I’d better make a stronger effort.

My puzzlement comes at several points: First, I don’t understand why anyone would want to know what I’m doing at this moment, or what I ate for lunch, or any of the other day to day things of my life. Second, when I read my Facebook page, I sometimes learn more about a person than I want to know, or that they probably want me to know. I think they may have 600 Facebook friends and forgot that I was one of them. I’m asking myself, “why would they want me to know this?” I feel as if I’m invading their privacy. Third, I have trouble thinking and writing a complete thought in two sentences. Facebook is hard enough for me. I think the 140 character Twitter tweet would be impossible for me. Blog writing, however, works very well for me. Fourth, on the few occasions when people I haven’t seen in forty years have friended me on Facebook, I’ve found it a little frightening.

I should note that during the entire Orlando meeting I did not reveal any of these Facebook misgivings to any of the other pastors (I also kept my simple cell phone hidden from their view). They were favorably impressed that someone as old as I was actually on Facebook. I even impressed them with one observation. I said that Robert Estienne, the French printer who in 1554 divided the entire Bible into verses—the verses that we still use today, was ahead of his time. My guess is that if we took the tens of thousands of verses in the Bible and found out the average number of characters per verse, it would probably be about 140.

I did come away from the meeting with the resolution to write something on the church’s Facebook page once a week. I wrote something on it earlier this afternoon. Within seconds one of the 56 church fans instant-messaged me. That was a little scarry. We chatted for a few minutes on IM. It was the first time I’ve IM ed with anyone in five years.

I also resolved that my self-denial practice for this upcoming Lent will be read my Facebook page every day throughout Lent (excluding Sundays).

So, people who are younger than I, I need for you to educate me as best you can about Facebook. I think I would be embarrassed to go to B & N and buy Facebook for Dummies. I do realize that, like a lot of things in life, the only way really to learn it may be just to do it. Still, I have so much to learn:

I’m not sure what a “wall” is. Can someone explain?

I don’t understand why I no longer get the comments of some people who have friended me. Have they unfriended me?

I used the word comment in the last question. I know that for Twitter it’s a tweet. What is the word for Facebook comments? I feel sure that it is not “comments.”

I got Happy Birthday wishes from some Facebook friends. Two of them are not close friends and probably have over a thousand Facebook friends each. Did they have something that automatically popped up my birthday and sent a generic birthday greeting?

I do like the pictures, but would I need a 25 inch monitor to be able to see them well?

Do people with a thousand friends read all those comments every day? How much time must that take?

The Facebook etiquette appears to me to be that you write only a couple of sentences. Is that correct? What would happen if I were to write a whole page?

I asked my 39 year old son whether he thought anyone my age could learn an i-phone. He thought for a few seconds and said, “No, I don’t think so.” Do you agree?

Is i-phone spelled I-phone?

Faithfully and Hopingly,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of January 11, 2010

FIVE PRACTICES OF FRUITFUL CHURCHES

At our Church Council Retreat on January 9, Council was introduced to Five Practices of Fruitful Churches, both the book and the church wide program by Bishop Robert Schnase. Council voted to adopt the program for a church wide study. The study will be for the six weeks of the season of Easter. Adult Sunday School Classes will be invited, but not required, to join in the program. We will also provide another six week class during the Wednesday evening 6:45-7:30 time slot. The worship services during Easter season will revolve around the five practices. I will be preaching a series of sermons, one on each of the practices.

The Five Practices are: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity.

You will be hearing a lot more about the program during Epiphany and Lent as we look forward to Easter. It’s a program whose ideas could powerfully strengthen our church for years to come.

PASSIONATE SINGING

When Church Council was presented with the Passionate Worship section of Five Practices, I asked Council members whether they as individuals would commit themselves to singing more passionately in worship in 2010. About 75% of the Council members made that commitment.

At 10:55 service, when I came down the aisle at the end of the choir procession, I was struck by our congregational singing, which was clearly better than I had heard it in quite a while. I should stress that I was not listening specifically for such an improvement. As usual, I had a dozen other things about the service and the sermon running through my head during the processional, but our singing really grabbed my attention.

Thanks to Councils members who made the commitment. You can make that commitment too!

Faithfully,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of December 20, 2009

Snow

I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas. I’m one of those relatively few people who really dislikes snow and would be happy never seeing it again. Last weekend’s snow was the first measureable snowfall we have had in N. Wilkesboro since January of 2005.

In our blended family the Saturday before Christmas has always been the time of our family Christmas dinner. Not so good, this time. My mother told me early Friday she would not be coming. Our son, John drove Jessica, Madeline, and Jack through the worst of it late Friday afternoon. They made it in Friday night about 7:00. Our daughter April was supposed to fly in from her home in Philadelphia Saturday morning. Obviously that did not happen. Philly had 23 inches of snow. It was the first time that April has ever missed a Christmas dinner. Then we had to call off church Sunday, for what is usually one of our biggest attendance Sundays of the year. The Phone Tree was down. Despite my punching in all the right phone codes, I don’t think my message ever made it to WXII. I was getting depressed.

John and Jessica left Sunday afternoon. They called when they got home to Carrboro. No snow there at all. The kids wanted to play in the snow. Marianne didn’t. I, who haven’t played in snow for at least 25 years, had to take them. It wasn’t fun for me, but—it was fun for them. I thank God for the joy on the faces and in the voices of children. Their joy far outshines my grumpiness.

Christmas is about the joy of a child. It is a holiday and a holy day. It is for children and is for that one child who began our faith, a baby in a manger. Think of Him in the joy of His season.

In Christ,

Chris

Pastor’s Blog for the Week of December 6, 2009

Joseph, Husband of Mary: A Historical Monologue

For the past couple of years I have been doing one or two sermons a year that are technically not sermons but historical monologues. The first three were what I called the Caesarea series, set in the city of Caesarea Maritima, the Roman provincial capital of Judea, 35 miles west of Jerusalem. The three monologues were on Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, and Paul.

On Sunday, December 20, at both services I will be doing a new historical monologue, this one on Joseph. The basic text for the monologue is Matthew 1:18-2:23, with additional information from Luke 1-2, and smatterings of information from other sources, Biblical and non-Biblical ancient writings.

Although there are numerous stories in apocryphal literature about Joseph and Mary, there is little reliable historical information to be gleaned from them. I have sought to be judicious in my use of them. I have focused on the Matthew texts, because Matthew tells the story through the perspective of Joseph. Luke tells the story through the perspective of Mary. I have sought at every point not to claim more than history and the texts can justify. I have prayerfully sought to get into Joseph’s mind, to think what it seems most likely that he was thinking, and to write it and act it.

Joseph’s story, as I tell it, may be a bit shocking to some folks who are more accustomed to happy nativity scenes and the sweet romance of Christian legendary lore. The real story is stark and scandal laden. Matthew tells it sparsely but with gaps that are easy to fill. Luke’s story is fuller but avoids the scandal and avoids the horror of slaughter of the innocents. Popular Christian imagination uses both but prefers Luke. The monologue will reveal a Joseph whom, I hope, accords more closely with the Joseph of history.

In Christ,

Chris