• 22Apr

  Spiritual Discipline of Prayer

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  The most basic definition of prayer is, simply, a conversation with God.  We directly engage God in prayer, whether the mode of communication is spoken language or silent meditation.  Importantly, prayer is a dialogue, which means that listening is necessarily involved.  For prayer to be truly effective, we must be willing to still ourselves and hear what God is trying to do in our lives.  Unfortunately, many of us have a tendency to bubble over with requests and complaints.  It is important to realize that conversation is a two-way street.

  Prayer is not just an ordinary conversation.  It is a special mode of communication, because it is reserved for and given wholly to God.  Yes, God is always present.  But through prayer, we place ourselves deep within that presence by turning our full attention to it.  During the conversation of prayer, we surrender to the moment and rise above limited notions of time and space.  Everything else takes a back seat to the very important discussion with God.  As a result, a strong relationship is formed.

   

  Some Resources:

   

  Prayer:  Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster

  Space for God:  Study and Practice of Spirituality and Prayer by Don Postema

  The Way of the Heart:  Connecting With God Through Prayer,

  Wisdom and Silence by Henri Nouwen

  Daring to Draw Near by John White

  Jesus Man of Prayer by Sister Margaret Magdalen

  Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton

  Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ by Mme. Guyon

  True Prayer by Kenneth Leech

  The Celtic Way of Prayer:  the Recover of the Religious Imagination  By Esther De Waal

  Seek My Face:  Prayer as Personal Relationship in Scripture  By William Barry

   

• 22Apr

  What’s All This About Apportionments

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  What’s All This About Apportionments?

              It’s not all about apportionments but also about our ability to do ministry.  In a nutshell:  the United Methodist Church is a connectional church—that is—all the churches join together to resource our local, national, and worldwide ministries that none of us could do alone.  Our share or portion (so the word apportionment) is figured on our expenditures so the amount is fairly portioned out to the churches according to their ability.

              Now here’s the deal:  As we stand now our pledges and anticipated income falls short about $50,000 of what we need to be fully budgeted.  So what do we do, we don’t fail to pay bills, we don’t fail to pay salary, we don’t fail to do repairs, but are failing to carry our share of the mission ministry of the United Methodist Church.

              For the size of our church and budget $50,000 is not an insurmountable amount.  Perhaps you heard Ed Odom explain that it comes out to around $7 a week from our supporting members.  I have responded to this need by increasing my pledge $100 a month toward the General Fund and $50 a month to the apportionments.  I have also determined that I need a spiritual discipline of stewardship that will include setting aside $1 every time I eat lunch—not so much for the $7 but for the discipline I should have to be a good steward.

              I hope you will prayerfully join me, first in creating a spiritual discipline of stewardship in some way and secondly prayerfully helping comes reach the point where we’re not worrying about keeping our commitments but are assured we can.

• 22Apr

  How to Meditate

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  • HOW TO MEDITATE

  A. Find a quiet time and place…

   

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    1. For Isaac, it was in the field at evening – Gen 24:63
    2. For David, it was in bed during the night watches – Ps 4:4; 63:6;119:148 –
    3. A time and place free from distraction

  B. Contemplate something of value…

   

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    1. David focused his meditation on three things:  
    2. The Lord Himself – Ps 63:6
    3. His wonderful Works – Ps 77:12
    4. His revealed Word – Ps 119:15, 23, 48, 97-99, 148
    5. Paul mentioned things that possess virtue and are praiseworthy – Php 4:8
    6. Whatever is noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report
    7. Which could include devotional writings by uninspired authors –
    8. A subject or object worthy of mindful contemplation

  C. Let the Bible be your primary focus…

  Read it contemplatively every day – Ps 1:2; 119:15

  Read it with a prayer in your heart – cf. Ps 119:18

  As you read, occasionally read it aloud to yourself

  The Hebrew word in Ps 1:2 for meditate means “to mutter”

  Reading slowly and audibly helps to focus one’s mind on the words

  As you read, you might ask yourself the following questions:

  Is there some truth I should know from this verse?

  How does this passage affect a previously held conviction?

  Is there something I should stop doing in light of this verse?

  Is there a practice I should change?

  Is there a habit I ought to begin? 5. You might end with a prayer such as David’s – cf. Ps 119:10 –

  “Hold the Word of God in your heart until it has affected every phase of your life…this is meditation.”

   

• 16Apr

  Renewing a Personal Discipline

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  Renewal of a Personal Discipline
       Those of you who were in church last Sunday saw a tin church bank that was at my meal place in my grandmother’s home from my earliest days there.  In it I placed a penny at each meal to help feed the needy through its contribution to our church.  Sunday Carol Kreamer told me that there are many places in the world where seven of those pennies would provide a meal.
         Ed Odom did the math and showed us that if each of our giving families would share seven dollars a week more we could pay our apportionments in full thereby assisting all to whom the United Methodist Church ministers.  His discourse set me to thinking that I need to renew the spiritual discipline my grandmother had so loving taught me.  So….
         I commit to Webster Hills and the United Methodist Church through her apportionments to set aside one dollar every time I eat lunch and that I will pray for the wellness of those who, though unknown to me, are also children of God and who will be touched by this additional gift.  This I do in addition to the $50 a month additional commitment I made to the apportionments last Sunday.  I hope you’ll join me in this spiritual discipline.  If you do, would please tell me so we may share in the joy of this kinship?

• 12Sep

  Reading List

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  I’m involved in several study and support groups that has led to a lot of reading this past year. I want to take this opportunity to share books that I have found helpful and would be helpful to members of the congregation to read. It would be helpful for you to add to this list as you read books that you feel are helpful to our congregation. I am glad to make my library available so if you would like to borrow rather than buy, I would be glad to loan. If you do buy, and if you buy from Amazon.com please go to our website first and hit the Amazon.com button and we will receive 4% of your purchase!

  We should all be reading Bishop Robert Schnase’s Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations – Radical hospitality – Passionate worship – Intentional faith development – Risk-taking mission and service – Extravagant generosity. Sara has already used the book with two Sunday school classes and it is an ideal study for all classes and small groups.

  If you are one of those many who hear Christ’s call to share your faith but are unsure has to how to just become comfortable and confident in doing it a couple of books are extremely helpful: Bill Hybels’ Just Walk Across the Room- Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith is excellent. The Joyners Class has used this as a study and it should be used by other classes, small groups and individuals.

  Another great book for becoming comfortable with sharing your faith and inviting others to Christ is an older book by Paul Little called How to Give Away Your Faith-A Key to Witnessing Today. I just checked Amazon.com and find it is still in print and available though it is no longer the $2.50 I paid in 1978 it can be had for $10 now and well worth it.

  Martha Grace Reese’s book Unbinding the Gospel-Real Life Evangelism is a must read. Reese openly examines the main line church, of which we are a part, and clearly understands how the main line church has lost its passion for evangelism. She seeks to bring us back on the path of being eager disciples of Christ.

  Another book that looks at the mainline church is Recreating the Church-Leadership for the Postmodern Age by Richard Hamm. I truly wish and pray that each of our church officers and leaders would read this book. There have been many outside influences and changes in society the have affected the church. We have no control over these changes but we have refused or all too slow responded to those changes and so are no longer seen as a relevant force to many folks. Hamm challenges the church and the church leadership to see how the church must change if it is going to make a difference in lives today.

  A neat little book – a one hour read – is John Kotter’s Our Iceberg Is Melting-Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions. (You might remember Kotter from Who Moved My Cheese. His books are written for business but they also reflect whats happening to our churches. Its a real wakeup call to us that we can’t keep doing things the way we have always done them and think we will survive. I have bought a dozen of these and am constantly loaning them out to folk, I’ll be glad to loan one to you–just ask.

• 11Sep

  80%!!!

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  I heard a very interesting statistic the other day from a former funeral home director.  He said that 80% of those families who come in to arrange a funeral have no connection to a church and need the funeral home’s help in finding a minister to do the funeral.

              This caused me to think about a couple of things:

  1.      Even though these families have no church connection, they have a spiritual need which is reflected in their desire to have a minister do the funeral—even if they don’t even know the minister.

  2.      This means that 80% of the families who are living around us have no connection to a church and will some day need the help of the funeral director.

  3.      Now I’m thinking about what each of us need to be doing to help these families get connected to a church—perhaps Webster Hills?

  4.      What do you think?

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