Today, I’ve heard two different speakers talk on giving – not of our money – but of our talents and time. The first was Seneca UMC’s pastor, Deb Hanes-Nelson when she called us to give of our time in worship, prayer, spiritual development and service.

The second was the youth pastor at NewSpring as he discussed the giving of our tithes and offerings during their June 21st service. In discussing the ‘Parable of the Talents’, he pointed out the following:

1. We all have different gifts
   • Can’t compare self to others
   • Has nothing to do with equality
2. Awarding of talents wasn’t about merit
   • Servants did nothing to earn these talents
   • God has blessed us with a gift
3. Requires a response
   • Did we bury it?
   • Did we advance the kingdom with it?

Based on this parable, I need to answer the question,

“How will I respond to God’s gift of my talents?”

Yesterday, I received an email from COR stating that they had to release two of their young pastors from their staff.  Reading the blogs on this issue, I was moved to tears for these talented young individuals and their families. They and their families have been a constant part of my prayers since receiving that email.

Satan has succeeded in attacking COR and the United Methodist Church. And, God is conficting me for my role in this matter — my prayer life. I don’t personally know these individuals, their families or their friends. My primary connection to them and to COR is via the Internet. That said, God is still saying I share in the  guilt.

On many occasions, I’ve heard a request to pray for my church and my pastor. Unfortunately, God would not give me a passing grade on my prayers for my church and pastor, nor for my prayers for COR and its pastors because I’m not consistent in those prayers. God is also telling me I’m failing in my prayers because I don’t pray for the assistant pastors of a church or for the young pastors throughout the denomination. Not only is God calling me to pray for these future leaders of our church, but to pray for them by name.

Lord, please forgive me for my haphazard prayer life. Please forgive me for my lack of spceific prayers on behalf of the young clergy. Lord, help me to become consistent in my prayers. Please, help me Lord, to remember all pastors but especially the young pastors in my prayers. Amen.

I just got my copy of the book, Killing Cockroaches, by Tony Morgan. Although I haven’t thought of change as the need to kill cockroaches, I can see the connection as I read this book. In the section on Embracing Change, Morgan quotes Sir Francis Bacon,

“If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted.”

Thus, we have to kill those cockroaches before we can embrace change. Morgan goes on to state that God loves the fresh and the new. God shows us this love every spring as life begins to sprout anew to glorify God. God even tells us of his love in Isaiah 43:18-19:

Forget the former things;
Do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new Thing!
Now it springs up;
Do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
And streams in the wasteland.

Are we willing to embrace change?
Are we willing to let God show us something new and wonderful?

Many young clergy in the United Methodist Church are taking action to renew the denomination. Part of that action is their 40 days of prayer campaign to coincide with the annual conferences. Another aspect of that action has been to host booths at annual conferences asking attendees to dream about the future of the denomination.

Although I haven’t visited one of their booths, I would like to add my thoughts to the discussion.

1. Keep faith centered on Jesus
2. Keep church centered on Jesus
3. Don’t compromise on 1 or 2
4. Teach us
   • Who God is
   • What God’s word says
   • What God expects of me
   • How to apply God’s word to my life
   • Importance of tithing
   • Importance of small group participation
   • Ways to pray — providing examples
   • Importance of daily scripture reading and reflection
5. Touch our hearts
   • show us the need for mission
   • show us the results of our missions
6. Do it all again – every year – because we tend to forget
7. Lose environment of competition
   • size of church doesn’t matter — all have strong / weak points and jealousy hinders sharing of ideas
8. Continue developing your network of clergy – it’s open, sharing and supportive of each other
9. Find joy wherever you are
   • realize that God has placed you in a position to do his work in that geographical area
   • be willing to do your best for as long as God wants you there
   • remember the grass is not greener elsewhere
10. Find a faith partner to encourage each other in faith and share challenges
11. Be open to teaching of others – both inside and outside of the denomination — look for ways to apply to own situation

I just read Adam Hamilton’s post on “General Motors and UMC” along with most of the comments. This post along with the tweet, “In the state of Kansas, 47% of UM churches had 0 professions of faith” quoting Bishop Jones from the Kansas West Conference reinforces my feelings that the church needs to prayerfully consider both the issue of discipleship and small churches.

Unlike most of the people who commented on Hamilton’s GM post, I am not a pastor. Nor do I attend a large UM church. I am a member of a small rural church in Kansas that is part of a 4 point charge. Even though we average between 40 and 50 in church each Sunday, we are the largest church in the charge.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe closing the churches will be successful if evaluated on the basis of advancing the kingdom of God. Most of these communities still remember school consolidation and see their church as an essential part of the community. They are linking the loss of the church to the loss of the community. I sincerely doubt that they would drive to my community for worship. Nor, would the members of my church be willing to drive to a neighboring community with a larger church for worship.

Thus, I think the denomination needs to find a compromise. I totally agree with most of the comments about the need for excellence in worship leadership. I also agree with Sam Fisher’s comment about the need for a personal connection with the pastor. With technology, it is possible to deliver the excellent worship experience. Would it be possible to utilize the ‘tent maker’ concept and technology to deliver worship in small settings while having the regional pastor to provide the human link? This would require a willingness of that regional pastor to “give up” some of the preaching in order to become more of a shepherd for the flock.

Perhaps the young clergy movement has the answer – PRAYING for the church!

The Church of the Resurrection will start a new sermon series on Sunday: Confessions of a Struggling Parent.

As I was reading 1 John 4:1-7 and the study notes for tonight’s Bible study, I was struck by the relationship of these verses to the conversation during church today. Due to the illness of the pastor, a local member had about 10 minutes notice that he was leading worship – including the sermon – this morning. Instead of a formal sermon, he opted for a congregational conversation about what the role of our church should be in respect to the current economic times. This conversation identified the need for hope, the need for action, and that we as individuals can make a choice to not be ’sucked’ in by the media by choosing to not live in fear.

In 1 John 4:7, John exhorts us to love one another. The study notes for this verse point out that love is more than a feeling. When we love as God loved us (by sacrificing his son, Christ, for us) our love will involve a choice and an action.

Lord, help us to do your work and thus show our love to the world that everyone might see your light.

Let us continue to love one another

notes from sermon by Clayton King, NewSpring Church March 22, 2009

Fasting –> Freedom –> Giving –> Praying

We do not know how to do without

Jesus assumes fasting is part of life – a religious practice (Mat 6:16-18)

Fasting – a time of denying self of something valuable in order to get something from God or to be set free by God

• Sacrifice
• Way to show religious devotion
• Shows repentance
• Appeal to God for a great need — not a tactic to manipulate God
• Reward is God himself

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

1. Restores our hunger for God
2. Reminds us of our weakness
   • Increases humility
   • Increases sensitivity
   • Fasting / prayer must start with being honest with God
   • If addicted to nice things — be careful — or the tables will be turned and you won’t just have nice things, nice things will have you
   • If in financial trouble – fast from things
   • Part of our financial problem is that we don’t know how to say ‘No’ to our desires

2 Cor 12:7-10

3. Variety

• Fasting doesn’t need to be from just food
  • TV
  • Internet / Facebook
  • Texting
• Ask self – what is it that I feel like I can’t live without?

1 Cor 6:12

Lord, I pray we practice the spiritual discipline of fasting
and become disciplined to things of God
and learn to do without things of the world.

Notes from sermon preached by Perry Noble, NewSpring Church, March 8, 2009

Bailout will occur when our bondage to bling is broken

Ask self 3 questions to get finances in order:

1. What does Jesus expect?
   • Mat 6:1 – warning from God – If we belong to Christ, our lifestyle should show it
   • Mat 6:2 – Jesus expects us to give – if we put God first with our giving, he will take care of our needs
   • Jesus pays for church – it belongs to him – don’t put names on anything since the church belongs to Christ
   • Followers of Christ don’t expect recognition for their gifts
   • Jesus expects his people to take care of his house – i.e. give to church before giving to other charities
   • It’s time God’s people come back to God’s house and take care of it
   • Don’t use web campus as an excuse to not plug into a local church and give to that church
   • Malachi 3:10 – bring whole tithe
2. Where’s my heart?
   • Don’t say Jesus is valuable to me if I’m not willing to give to him
   • Mat 6:19 – where put money, that’s where heart is
   • 2 top problems in US – consumer debt and obesity — this nation is in trouble because we don’t manage what we have
   • Our problem is we put our eyes on the things of the world
   • To store up treasures in heaven – do God’s work
   • God can’t have my heart if he doesn’t have my treasure
3. Who do I serve?
   • Mat 6:24 – cannot serve God and money
   • 1 Tim 6:10 – money is the root of all evil
   • Mat 6:22 – eye is the lamp of the body – key to winning with money is to overcome what eyes see
   • We tend to let greed consume us
   • God wants to be 1st in our finances – he gave his best (his son), he just wants us to do the same

Video Interview of ‘devil’ about money:

Lord, help me to meet your expectations by serving you with both my money and my time.

Yesterday, I attended the ‘listening’ event for Kansas East Conference. These events are being held throughout the South Central Jurisdiction with the purpose being to gain input on how to realign the Bishops within the jurisdiction. Prior to this meeting, the College of Bishops had already obtained input from the Jurisdictional level and posted the results of that process at http://www.churchleadership.com/research. (Another statistical source is the U.S. Congregational Membership: County Reports by the American Associatin of Religion Data Archives.)

During yesterday’s event, each table of participants was asked to discuss what they felt should be the most important principle to guide the decision making process. Below are the highlights from these discussions:

• Bishop’s role should primarily be that of a visionary enabling him/her to help church plan for future
• Technology could be utilized to help overcome challenges of geography
• May need to look at rural ministry differently
• Need to approach decision by asking everyone throughout jurisdiction to change and utilize concept of shared sacrifice
• Need to consider decline of small churches in next 20 years and what impact that may have
• Need to figure out how to develop relationships over long distances without requiring travel
• Need to take theological approach — what does God want us to do?
• What’s the purpose of a conference?
• Utilize house churches to reach rural areas
• Realignment provides more exposure to people of differing cultures
• Utilize technology to develop relationships
• People and policies within church need to support the use of technology
• Geography may become an issue — length of travel time
• Will this decrease the access of youth to the Bishop?
• Is the current cultural divide separating communities within the older generations as compared to younger generations?
• What would Jesus do? We are the living body of Christ.

As I sat listening yesterday, my primary concern was how this would affect my small rural church. After reflecting on this, I now realize that my feelings yesterday were selfish and that the decision should focus on what would position the church to assist areas of growth. Once those areas of growth are identified determine how to use them to assist the areas of decline so that all regions can be a viable vibrant church doing God’s work.