Why the Church Community is so Important!!!!!

     Today for the first time in over a month, I got to worship at my husband's churches - East Anchorage and Anchor Park UMCes.  I have been traveling and attending meetings.   Many of the meetings have been discussing the future of the UMC and much of the conversation is depressing.  At the same time I have been taking classes online through Drew and our conversations there have been about preaching and church models for this new time.   I have to admit I have been feeling a bit discouraged..


     Today I was at two churches where I once served.  They know me well and I am vividly reminded of why the church community is so important.  People are happy to see me and hear about my adventures and to tell me about their lives.  After Anchor Park there was a potluck and I sat and talked to a lot of people and even held a month old baby.  I felt as if I was basking in God's love.


     I was reminded by my church communities that I am a child of God who is valued and loved.   I felt that I had a safe place to come to worship and fellowship.   I have to tell you I am revived and ready to chase after revitalizing our churches and making new places for new people.   My passion is stirring again because I got to be with God's people who know me, accept me for who I am and encourage me to embrace the person God wants me to become.


     The church community is God with skin on and I am sad to think there are some who do not know that community.  We need to change that.  I am alive again to God's calling.  Thank you to my church communities.

Finding the Light in Unexpected Places

This is written by a seminary friend and colleague in Iowa, Rev. Dr. Denny Coon.   I copied this from an e-publication called:  Thursday Memo for Preachers put out by the Iowa Annual Conference.  Awesome witness to thinking we are bringing light to the world and we find the light already there.

"It’s still Epiphany. We’re looking for light references. There’s a plethora in the texts for this week: Psalm 112: 4, Isaiah 58: 8 & 10, and Matthew 5: 14-16. The Isaiah 58 passages offer cause and effect. If you loose the bonds of injustice, undo the yoke, let the oppressed go free, share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house, cover the naked, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light breaks forth like the dawn and your light shall rise in the darkness.

Knowing one of the areas of focus for the United Methodist Church is to engage in ministries with the poor and wanting to put these Isaiah expectations into practice, the St. Mark’s UMC in Iowa City decided to engage in a Christmas Carol Conspiracy. A member had read about a suburban church in Philadelphia bringing gifts to inner city families. The suburban church sang carols and gave gifts of currency buried under the cookies.

St. Mark’s duplicated the conspiracy at the Regency Mobile Home Court written about in the local and state newspapers frequently during 2010. The renters were living under deplorable conditions in run down mobile homes with impure water. After receiving the names of families in need of assistance from a social worker the church went with cookies, currency, and carols.

At one home, with a picture of the Last Supper hanging on a wall, a Hispanic mother unexpectedly invited all the caroling strangers into her mobile home. When she realized the carolers would not all fit, she swept up a box of apples from her table and walked among the surprised middle class congregation offering gifts. Her hospitality was a light to the congregation and helped melt away any prejudices that may have existed.

The congregation thought they went bearing the light. What they received was a surprising beacon from a poor immigrant renter who knows the love of Christ. The church realizes the charity they offered begins the journey of relationship building leading to a better understanding of the systemic issues of poverty.

Let your light so shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven

Rev. Dr. Denny Coon, Director of the Bidwell-Riverside Center" 

Models of the Church

A long time ago Avery Dulles wrote a book:  Models of the Church.  In more recent years Aubrey Malphurs wrote a book:  A New Kind of Church:  Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century.


Do you see the difference in the two titles?    Models of the church versus models of ministry.   When I first read Dulles' book it was intriguing and helped me to figure out if I approached the church as institution, mystical communion, sacrament, herald or servant.  What I appreciate now about Malphurs' book is his use of models for ministry.  It sounds so much more active and relevant.  When I think about model of the church I can't help but think about a building.


Even more important is when you actually read Malphurs book he lays it all out for the church in this day and age.   The world does not understand what the church is about and has a host of negative images of us.    We are dying and unless we make some dramatic changes in how we do ministry the end is near.


I highly recommend this book as a good read for those who are struggling to be in ministry in 2011 when the church is stuck in the modern world and the rest of the world has moved on to postmodern.   The beginning is a bit of a downer with all the statistics but he has some good things to think about.