August 17, 2008

It's ready. We are ready to move into the parsonage. You have no idea how excited we are to finally be in the community (and how excited Amanda and the kids are to not get up at 4:30 am to get to practice on time). Probably the most exciting part of the entire experience was watching the church come together in a united effort to make this happen.

My dad told a story about a person watching two men laying bricks. It was a sweltering hot summer day like we have been having here in Central Texas. One man was carrying bricks and mortar up a ladder to a scaffolding where another man was carefully placing them into the wall that they were building. One of the two whistled and smiled while he worked, the other frowned, grumbled and cursed the heat. The observer decided to chat for a moment with the two, so he climbed up the ladder to the mason on the scaffolding and asked him how things were going.

“Are you kidding?” came the reply. “It's 102 degrees out here, I'm trapped on this scaffolding laying these stupid bricks. How do you think it's going?”

Unscathed, the observer climbed down to the other man stacking his next load of bricks. The same question met a different response this time. With a twinkle in his eye, he said, “Oh, today is a beautiful day! I'm building this cathedral. Won't it be beautiful!”

The people who worked on the parsonage were not just laying bricks—they were building a cathedral far grander than just a place for me and my family to reside. How about the rest of us? Are we showing up for our obligatory hour on Sunday morning? Or are we part of something bigger? Something that has the ability to transform our community and our world? Something bigger than Bruceville-Eddy United Methodist Church?

The mission statement adopted by the General Conference is “…to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” The Council of Bishops has advocated this change for quite some time, and the addition of “for the transformation of the world” serves to make clear our commitment to “the transformation of the world” as an end of Christian discipleship. Bruceville-Eddy United Methodist Church won't be satisfied with the transformation of our community. In the words of John Wesley, “I look upon all the world as my parish”.

So how will we transform the world? By making disciples of Jesus Christ, starting right here at home. By practicing the means of grace: “chief of these means are prayer ..., searching the Scriptures ..., receiving the Lord's Supper” and by looking beyond the bricks to the cathedral.

God bless,

Pastor Brad

August 10, 2008

So where were you again last week, Brad? I was at Local Pastor Licensing School in Ft. Wort at Texas Wesleyan University. I thought, “Great! I will get a chance to see some people in Ft. Worth this week.” NOT! We went from breakfast at 7:30 am every morning until 10:00 pm or after every day with a two or three 15 minute breaks. I will never complain, because it was an amazing experience.

If the path to ordination and the distinction among those of us who serve in our church's pulpits every Sunday is confusing, you are definitely not alone. The General Board of Discipleship describes some of the servant leadership of the United Methodist Church (to explain, not compare) as follows:

An Elder is a clergy member of the annual conference ordained for Word, Order, and Sacrament. Under the guaranteed appointment (placement) of a bishop, an elder has usually completed seminary training. His or her sole livelihood comes from a church.

A Licensed Local Pastor is a clergy member of the annual conference who provides pastoral leadership in a local congregation. He or she is appointed (placed) by the bishop for nonitinerant ministry in a local congregation. His or her training includes attending a conference licensing (or pastors') school and completing the course of study program available from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

A Certified Lay Speaker:A certified lay speaker is a layperson who has completed the basic course in lay speaking ministries and an additional advanced course. His or her certification is renewed every three years upon completing another course.

Although lay speakers are intended to serve in the ministry and mission within the local congregation where they are members in good standing, certified lay speakers may serve beyond the local church. They may provide temporary pulpit supply for pastors who are away from the church due to vacation, a mission project, or a family crisis. Traditionally, lay speakers also speak on Laity Sunday.

I am currently a Certified Lay Speaker, am in process to become an ordained Elder and have completed training and am awaiting appointment as a Licensed Local Pastor here at BEUMC. So what does all this mean? For the time being, expect to see Dennis (an ordained elder) with me during Holy Communion. For more complex answers, I'm going to need some coffee.

God bless,

Pastor Brad

August 3, 2008

What is a church? First let's discuss what it is NOT. It is not a lifeless building made of brick, mortar, shingles and stained glass thrown in for good measure. Often times we say something about “meeting at the church” when what we really mean is that we will meet at the church building.

So what is the church? The church is the people. It is a living, growing, active being within the community. You may remember the children's song, “I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together.” We are the church together. Everyone one of us defines who Bruceville-Eddy United Methodist Church is. We are not the same without all of us.

So what is the church? It is a support group for sinners. It is a group where all are welcome and all are accepted. It is a gathering of this bizarre type of people known as Christians. People who give of themselves without expecting anything in return. It is people who volunteer their time to work on a home next door to the church building, not so that they can live there, but so that someone else can. They are people who donate desserts to a Senior Citizen Barbeque. They are people who pray for one another. Who trim trees who don't belong to them because they need it. They are people who give up their Wednesday evening to discuss the exciting topic of non-profit liability insurance.

So what is the church? In short it is a group of people who through the wonderful grace of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, do everything they can to go and make disciples of all nations by their prayers, their presence, their gifts, their service and their witness. THAT is what the church is.

God bless,

Pastor Brad

July 27, 2008

So here's the scene: you are at the shopping mall, walking from one store to another. In the breezeway are more “mall rats” than you knew were in this time-zone. As the first group approaches, you hear language that would embarrass a sailor. As you go past them to another group you encounter more language that would have made your mother wash your mouth out with soap. You frown and hurry toward your destination.

On your way you encounter teenagers and young adults, at least you assume they are by their appearance. You can't tell by their language because it is no more refined than their younger counterparts. Again, you frown and hurry toward your destination.

Next it's a middle aged person at the customer service desk. Apparently they are trying to look sound younger. They drop a few “F-bombs” and generally foul the auditory air as you pass. It's no wonder the younger population's vocabulary averages 4 letters per word. That is what they have been taught. You even detect a stench from the language of a few of our senior citizens before you run screaming to the sanctuary of your automobile with your purchases.

Several cities and businesses have instituted no-smoking policies. What about no-cursing policies? I would like the air that I hear to be as clean as the air that I breathe. It's not okay. Now I'm not promoting a return to scarlet letters and Puritan dress codes. I just want a little bit of freedom. I would like to have the freedom not to hear language that I find crude and vulgar.

Great Brad, how are we going to do that? If I knew that I would have written a book and my tithe would more than cover our electricity bill for the year. I know that acting like “the Church Lady” on Saturday Night Live (a “holier than thou” character) does nothing but harm the credibility of Christians. Reporting offensive behavior to security or business management or the occasional confrontation (e.g. “Can we clean up the language a bit?”) may be in order. My dad used to say, “Your right to swing your fist stops at my nose.” Does your right to curse stop at my eardrums?

God bless,

Pastor Brad

July 20, 2008

You are probably aware that Amanda, the offspring and I spent the week at Disney World. I have this habit of talking with just about everyone that I encounter (e.g. wait staff, custodians, ticket takers, photographers, etc.). I hear a lot of stories from some fascinating people. While waiting in line at Disney World (I know you are all surprised that we actually had to wait in line occasionally ☺), I struck up a conversation with a photographer.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that later, we hit upon the fact that being a Disney photographer was not his first job after retiring. His first job was as a cameraman for a local TV station. His assessment of that station was that only bad news was newsworthy. He felt that he spent his entire day looking for and recording the bad things in our world for a film at 11:00.

He decided a change was in order and took the photographer position at Disney taking pictures of mainly children and Disney characters. He shared with me that there is a special place in his heart for all the “Make A Wish” children that he sees with terminal illnesses. He recalled one special little girl. He said that he took over 60 pictures of her, mainly with Ariel the Little Mermaid. He said that normally, photographers only take about 6 pictures of any given child. So he expected a reprimand from his manager—it never came. Two weeks later the little girl died. Those pictures that he took were the last taken of her.

If you are curious about what I mean by an “extra crispy life” in today's message, this retired photographer at Disney World who wanted more out of life than just looking for bad things summed it up much better than I ever could. .

God bless,

Pastor Brad

July 6, 2008

As I progress through the ordination process, I study a lot of things that truthfully I would just rather sweep under the carpet. This past week one of the discussion topics with my mentor Rev. Debra Crumpton was, “Discerning Your Fruit through Successes and Failures” (see Galatians 5:22-23). The successes we all like to discuss, the failures, maybe not so much. However unless we have achieved perfection, failure is as much a part of life as eating and drinking.

Some of the things that we discussed included:

1. What is the definition of success?

2. What is the definition of failure?

3. How do I react to successes? To failures?

4. What do the successes and failures tell me about the fruits of the Spirit in my life?

None of us like to fail; we all like to win. None of us like to lose; we all like to win. None of us like to strike out; we all like to hit the home run. We all think of Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson as a winner, but did you know that he is also the all-time strikeout king, having struck out 2,597 times in his career? The question isn't if you will strike out. It is how will you allow God to work in you and others through your failure? What will you learn through your failures?

If you are sitting on the bench, you are not going to strike out. You're also never going to get a hit. God calls us to get in the game. He knows what our strengths and weaknesses are (he gave them to us). So if he calls you from the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth with 2 outs and the tying run on first, do your best and leave the rest up to God (he's pretty good at managing the game).

God bless,

Pastor Brad

June 29, 2008

I cannot imagine a better welcome than Amanda, Katie and I received this past week at Bruceville-Eddy. Not only was everyone friendly and appeared genuinely happy to meet us, many persons checked on us throughout the week. Amanda and I both thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

As we move forward in our journey here at Bruceville-Eddy, I would like to meet with as many of you as possible to understand your hopes and dreams for our church. How can our church best reach out to our community? Where is there a need that is crying out for us to meet? How can we better meet the needs (physical and spiritual) of our members? What can we do to enhance our worship, our study, our prayer time, ... so that we are closer to God tomorrow than we were today? These just a sample of the many areas that I would like us to explore. Last week in the message, I quoted Lewis Carroll who said, “If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” I have yet to meet anyone at Bruceville-Eddy who would be satisfied with just “any road”. Send me an email. Give me a call. Let's do coffee or lunch.

An additional part of our journey will be finding the center of God's will for each of us and collectively as a church. God has uniquely gifted each of us with abilities commonly known as “spiritual gifts”. In the weeks to come, we will examine these and in the process learn how to say, “No” when needed so we can say, “Yes” to those areas where God has equipped us.

Finally as we celebrate Independence Day later this week, let's remember the sacrifice of those who gave us (and are giving us) our freedom. Thank a veteran. Say a prayer for those currently serving in the armed services, especially those in harms way. Thank God for allowing us to live in a country where we can live and worship as we choose and give Him all the glory.

God bless,

Pastor Brad