Keep Moving

   Prophecy is defined in the Holman Bible Dictionary as "reception and declaration of a word from the Lord through a direct prompting of the Holy Spirit and human instrument thereof." We have reduced it to being able to predict the future. But is more than just the future. It can also be a word about the present. Will all of that in mind, I offer two words: Prophetic and Timely 
   Those are the words I would use to describe Bishop King's message to Epworth on Sunday. As we celebrated the 52 years service to the families of our church and our community, his word went beyond the typical 'Well done church' message that would have easily and comfortably applied. He said keep moving. My favorite illustration was that of a parent standing over a child who has stumbled and fallen. We would never say, "It's Okay, you can stay there. No need to get up, just stay there." No! We would tell them to get up and keep moving, because life is about moving forward and staying active. His words were prophetic, as he spoke to our future and our present.
   I thought his message was timely, too. It is matches what our very own leadership has been talking and praying about for some time. We have continued to maintain and improve our buildings and grounds, but that is only one step. We knew another important step was to make our place in the community known. Our people voted for that very thing in February, and after careful movement forward we have agreed on the purchase of the Manchester property with a tentative timeline of March 2013 as the date we might close. This is exciting for our church, to be able to bring to reality the plans that were started over 30 years ago, but it is not the end of our journey. We must keep moving. So we are asking the question, What is next? Where is God leading us, and how can we answer God's call to serve and reach the beautiful people of God around us? This was exactly the message Bishop King preached to us. 

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   It was certainly a high day in the life of our church. Along with Bishop King, we were joined in worship by Rev. Dr. Buddy Cooper, our Columbus District Superintendent, and Teresa Tomlinson, the Mayor Columbus and one of our esteemed former pastors, Rev. Dick Reese. Each of these four, and truly every person in attendance, experienced a great morning of hospitality. From greeters up front, prayers in worship, photo albums on display, tables and chairs moved all over, and amazing amounts of great food...it was a day that our Epworth family shined brightly. Lots of people deserve credit, but Michele Thurman's role as Homecoming Chairperson needs a special word of appreciation. She recruited great help and never wavered...even when the power stayed off for 30+ minutes before our first early service. She is to be commended - drop her a note or speak to her in church.

History, Homecoming, Our Future

   Our church celebrates homecoming this Sunday. It is both an event and a word that implies movement back to a place that is important to us. We are invited to come home. It is really the stuff of the Gospel, as Jesus came to show us the way back to the Father. I also think it's the stuff of our history and our future here at Epworth. 

   Let's consider locations that are important to the overall story of God's work in the world.

• The first that comes to mind is Capernaum, on the northern beaches of the Sea of Galilee. Matthew 4:13 labels it the home of Jesus. In addition to being a place rich with people who knew the Hebrew Scriptures, it was also on a very busy trade and travel route, the Way of the Sea or Via Maris. It is referred to in Matthew 4:15, and predicted as important in Isaiah 9:1.
• The second that comes to mind is Golgotha, where the Gospels locate the crucifixion of our Lord. It's well known and documented that the Romans who killed Jesus would have chosen a spot just outside of town on a busy highway so that everyone could see it. John 19:20 supports this.
• Finally, travelers to the Holy Land learn that the very site that Revelation 16:16 says will be the final battle of Earth (Harmagedon in the Hebrew) is in the Jezreel Valley where, it just so happens, the two busiest trade routes in all of ancient times crossed. 

   Do you see a pattern? These places where chosen to host critical episodes in history. But notice that in each instance they are located along a significant travel route. When we think about going back, or returning home, to the places of our faith they just so happen to be places well known and heavily traveled.

   We want people from our history to return to Epworth for Homecoming. But we want more than that. We also want new people to arrive and call this home in the future. One critical piece of such hope is our location. Thanks to our leadership and our congregation, we are getting even closer to taking our place out on one of Columbus' busiest routes. 

   From the earliest parts of the Church's story, location has played a role in getting Word about the Way spread quickly. Epworth is taking a page from that same good Book.

   See you Sunday, Scott

A Story Worth Telling

   Our people made the news, yet again, this week. I hope you caught it, though I imagine you might not have immediately connecting the story with Epworth UMC or our legacy.
   Timothy Mescon, PhD, President of Columbus State University, wrote a special piece in the Ledger-Enquirer last Thursday. It told about a new initiative rolling out this month in Columbus, and highlighted both the story and the players involved. Read a section of it:


The Circles in Columbus initiative is part of a national movement to end poverty. The National Circles® Campaign is a high-impact community strategy to end poverty one family at a time through intentional relationships built across economic class lines. Columbus is the second site in Georgia to participate in this national movement. Rather than targeting specific needs of low-income people in our community such as housing or job training, Circles in Columbus seeks to expand social capital by fostering and providing a structure for relationships across economic class lines. Circles in Columbus is designed to assist families in creating their own personal paths out of poverty while at the same time expanding opportunities and connections and eliminating barriers in our community that make it difficult for families to thrive.

Circles in Columbus aims to move 10 percent of the current population living in poverty into economic self-sufficiency in 10 years, thus reaching a tipping point toward eradicating poverty in our community. The National Circles model must be implemented on a small scale in a community first and then naturally grow and expand to include a variety of community partners who facilitate Circle Leader Training and feed into Circles in Columbus. 

Open Door Community House, a vital United Way partner in Columbus and the Valley, has taken the leadership role in launching the Circles Program. Meg Olive is the gifted coordinator overseeing this essential effort. Read more here. 

Did you catch it? Did you catch the Epworth connection? Open Door has agreed, with overwhelming support from its Board of Directors, to take the lead in what could be one of the most important new offerings to the Chattahoochee Valley in our generation. Imagine enough people out of poverty, by their own efforts and relationships that help advise and steer them, that their influence changes the entire community. This is the vision Open Door bought into.
   It is also the vision that a little Methodist church bought into about 80 years ago, when it started the ministry that would become Open Door. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those visionary sisters and brothers. While none of them are still with us today, we do have in our midst folks from Hamp Stevens that brought with them that vision of investing time and resources into the lives of others to make a difference. This is the kind of mission Jesus sent us out into the world to carry out. Every Sunday these who carry the Hamp Stevens UMC DNA into our worship and our classrooms, we are made better. It might not make headlines in the paper, but it is a story I think is worth telling.
   Grace and Peace, Scott

Why I Am Going Back To School

   I start my first class in a Doctor of Ministry program next week. I was accepted to study at Columbia Theological School, located in Decatur, Georgia, and the first class starts September 10. Columbia is the second largest Presbyterian seminary in the US, only after Princeton. The schedule for this Introduction Class is Monday afternoon to Wednesday at Noon, on the second week of September, October, November and December. If you are wondering if a DMin program is rigorous, consider this as an answer: I am to complete two papers, totalling 10 pages in length, and read 78 pages from a theology textbook...all before I arrive on campus. There will be seven classes in all and they’ll require around 48 nights away over three-four years. Yet, despite the time away and the extra work, I am excited about the opportunity. Let me explain...
   I am not going back to school because I didn’t get enough of college the first time around. Did  you know I was in college or graduate school eleven straight fall terms from 1992-2003? While I received a BS, an MBA and finally a MDiv in that span, I was thoroughly done with school at the end. Since then, I have loved reading books that are not required and have loved attending conferences and classes that don’t finish with an exam or a grade. I am not going back to school because I have missed taking tests or writing papers, that is for sure!
   I am going back to school because I know I have a lot to learn. I first heard Bill Gates, the brilliant founder of Microsoft, refer to the necessity of being a lifelong learner back in 1997 and the idea stayed with me. I want to study and read and process from the great minds throughout Christian history, and sit at the feet of today’s scholars and professors who challenge me to excel and dig deeper.  
   One primary reason for starting an advanced professional degree, different than the Master’s 
degree required to be ordained a UM Elder, is how practical it is. Every class and every assignment is intended to translate directly to ministry in the local church. Going back to school helps me to better lead Epworth. You see, we are very close to hurdling one of the biggest obstacles to our future, namely a lack of visibility in this community, with the property purchase on the expressway. When that happens, we need to be already moving on the next steps and next actions. It is one thing for people to know where we are. We are soon going to want them to know who we are. That is where our leadership is headed next. I want to be prepared for the great things ahead.
   I first shared my thoughts with Wayne Morris, our church’s Staff-Parish Relations Chairperson, 
back in April. He actually assisted me in the application process with a letter of recommendation. He and I shared it with the SPR Committee in May, and with the Church Council last month.  Both groups offered warm feedback and encouragement. To be honest, I have been surprised at the number of people who have popped their head in my door or written me notes to wish me luck. It is so awesome to feel loved. The feeling is mutual. We love Epworth. I am excited about the chance to study with Epworth in mind! I covet your prayers...and is anyone interesting in proofreading?

Read, Ponder, Pray

   John Wesley wrote to John Trembath in 1760, "Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a petty, superficial preacher." Don't be petty and don't trifle away your days.

   I believe Wesley was correct, but on Sunday I extended his word of counsel far beyond the preacher's in the room. These words are true for every person who has uttered the prayer asking Jesus to be Lord of their life. Reading from the Bible each day, or close to it, is required of those who are striving to be like Christ...which is what the very name Christian means.

   A classical spiritual practice, grounded in the Word of God, has become the way I begin most of my days. It is called lectio divina, and is available to every person I know. As an indication of the small number of items needed to get started, I brought in the end table and lamp from the front room of our home; it doesn't take much! A place to read and reflect, a Bible, and possibly a devotion guide to help you get stared are all that is required. As for time, I sometimes read and pray for 12 minutes and other times an hour passes. It honestly depends on my day and how I am led.

   Father Luke Dysinger offers this concise method of practicing lectio divina:

• Read. Turn to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the “still, small voice” of a word or phrase that somehow says, “I am for you today.” Do not expect lightning or ecstasies. In lectio divina, God is teaching us to listen, to seek him in silence. 
• Ponder. Take the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories, and ideas. Do not be afraid of distractions. Memories or thoughts are simply parts of yourself that, when they rise up during lectio divina, are asking to be given to God along with the rest of your inner self.
• Pray. Whether you use words, ideas, or images—or all three—is not important. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. Give to God what you have discovered during your experience of meditation and found within your heart.

   It is my deep prayer that this model, once practiced by every Christian in the world, would draw you closer to His Presence. Grace and Peace, Scott

A Difficult But Golden Rule

  In Matthew 7:12, Jesus says, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” We commonly refer to it as its new name, the Golden Rule.  While that title might have only been attached to it for around 400 years, the concept itself dates back probably 3000. 

   A maxim similar to the Golden Rule is found in the teachings of various sages; Socrates among the Greeks, Buddha and Confucius among the Orientals and Hillel among the Jews 
in the period of wide-spread rabbinic tradition before the time of Jesus. What is interesting, though, is that many of the other teachers do not shape this ethic of reciprocity in the same 
direction as Jesus. Their maxims are often written in a negative and passive voice. They say: “Do not do to others what you would not have done to you.” It is a rule of not doing, rather than of doing (Peoples New Testament, 1891).
   Can you see the difference? While both lift up the need to consider others in your interactions, the negative commandment is asking you to do no harm. The positive commandment, however, asks you to do good, as well. While they sound similar, and in many ways are, they can also be very different.
   This was the scripture that we talked about on Monday at our Youth Bible Study. The High 
Schoolers seemed to get it immediately. It is one thing to pass by the person in the hallway, clearly having a bad day, and not contribute any more to their grief. It is an entirely different thing to stop and seek to come to their aid. Jesus’ version of this universal commandment places the burden on us to take the initiative, not passively watch and keep separate. This makes the rule more difficult to follow. The pace of our modern world, with demands and agendas and expectations that never seem to abate, instead only seemingly increasing, adds the the challenge of taking the initiative in the lives of others to do good.
   With all of the attention paid on the first phrase, it is easy enough to pass right over Jesus’ last words in this sentence. What is that part about law and prophets? If you consider that for a Jew at the time of Jesus, and still today, the law and the prophets were the center of the authority for living and ethics,  Jesus is making a bold statement. Jesus is suggesting that this Golden Rule somehow captures the essence of God’s Word to humanity. That is a big deal. We should  pay attention. 
   I think Jesus elevates this singular verse above many others because it is a brilliant, yet subtle, reminder that the whole world does not center around us. There are others here, too. We must live together. We must take second sometime and we must sacrifice often. We must think of others because we want to be thought of. This is opposite idolatry, so talked about and put down in the Old Testament, at a time when too many of us idolize self. It is not about ‘me’. Very often, this is a very difficult rule to follow.
   Grace and Peace to you, Scott

the Bible challenge

   This past Sunday I preached on the ways that the Bible does not gain authority. Its it not perfect for science, it forgets some of the details of ancient history, it contains any number of errors on the geography of the ancient world, and the manuscript copies of the Bible contain literally tens of thousands of errors that only further push it from the ranks of somehow perfectly composed and translated into our modern world. As for theology, there are even a few sections in which is seems to compete with itself: Paul's writings on the value of marriage and later on women participating in worship both immediately come to mind.

   I continue to read good books about the Good Book as I am preparing for the teaching series this month on the authority and place of the Bible. This week I learned about its great value as the only existing document of colloquial Greek from 2000 years ago. Yet, that in itself is not enough to gain its place as a document worth granting highest status of authority in our lives and in the church. Surely, the Bible gains its power to speak words of truth to us more than just being a great resource for how the world of Alexander the Great would greet each other on the street. Right?

   Of course, it does. The Holy Scriptures holds a place of authority in my life, a sinner in need of redemption, and in the life of every saint and sinner for 3000 years precisely because they tell the story and point the way to God and the work of God through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The Bible is not perfect in any number of ways, but it tells the story of one who is perfect in love and mission to redeem the world. The Westminster Confession of Faith says it this way, the authority of Scripture "depends wholly on God." The Bible has authority from the ultimate authority. The God who made heaven and earth.

   William Barclay, the popular Scottish author, minister and theologian of the 20th century, literally finished his 142 page primer on the Scriptures with just such a thought:

1. The Bible is the word of God, because it is the place where the broken relationship between man and God is repaired. 
2. The Bible is the word of God, because it was written by men who new God, because they loved him and obeyed him. 
3. The Bible is the word of God, because it tells the self-revealing, saving acts of God, culminating in the event of Jesus Christ. 
4. The Bible is the word of God because in it and in it alone we are confronted with the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.

I am excited to go even deeper in the coming weeks around how the power of God's Word is available to shape and increase our very lives. 

   Grace and Peace, Scott

Epworth People

   Sam was smiling, and nodding his head like a person who wants someone to see notice them. When my eyes landed on him, he flashed his smile and then proudly held up the note he had scribbled to me. I had to squint to make out the words: "We didn't go ice skating with Talon and Gavin." We had kicked around plans to go down to the rink at the Civic Center for one of their public sessions last week with some boys we have met through Little League baseball, but both families got busy and it never happened. What was most note-worthy about Sam's remembrance of this omission on his social calendar was its timing. This is what he was thinking about at 11:25 AM during worship this past Sunday morning.
   Sam is funny, loves to laugh, and is smart. He never forgets anything. He has an uncanny ability to remember song lyrics and, of course, conversations with his parents! He is respectful of his elders, but he also wants to contribute. Epworth has encouraged participation by young people of all ages in worship and small groups like Sunday School and Children's Church. They know they will be heard and that their opinions are valued. This is so important and Christ-like. 
   So, if Sam is thinking about what he did not get to do on Thursday, what is everyone else thinking about on Sundays? 

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   A truth that can get lost when we gather for worship at our appointed time is that the one hour of worship at Epworth is only one hour - our members and our guests approach our sanctuary filled with thoughts and emotions. Some carry hurt. Some carry the excitement of what will be. Some are holding on to grief or loss. Some have had great weeks and others not so good. I promise you that these truths are not lost on me. I want the part I play to be one that of encouragement and building people up. I want Epworth to be a place where the truth of God's Word are shared with a kind spirit. But I only play a small part in the overall experience that people have when they arrive here. 
   Epworth people are the first to greet guests and long-time members in the parking lot and at every entrance. Epworth people are the ones who extend a warm handshake and a kind word to those sitting in the pews. Epworth people stand as ushers and sing in the choir. Epworth people are the ones who lead Sunday School classes and invite others to join them. [And if you are not inviting others to join you, what does it say about your excitement about what you are doing for that hour?] Epworth people are those who after departing worship go out and come into contact with literally thousands of people and can influence them for good with their witness. Epworth people make up Epworth. 
  What a blessing to those who arrive at our church with a host of thoughts and emotions and burdens that they are met by Epworth people. Grace and Peace, Scott