This is the year ...

I know the older I get the thought that another year has passed blows my mind. Tomorrow is 2010. This was the year that the Lord had made. And 2010 will be the year that the Lord will indeed make one day at a time.

Christmas

Wow! It was grand to see the increase in attendance this past Christmas Eve ... double what it was the year before.

May God give us the grace necessary to empower our words and deeds to lift the human hearts and lives to God's presence.

a Christmas Eve prayer for each of us ...

As I think of those who have lost lived ones or faced various difficult moments such as job loss, facing cancer, or serving our nation in war, to my attention came this prayer in this morning's liturgy:

God our Father, great builder of the heavenly Jerusalem,

you know the number of the stars and call each of them by name.

Heal hearts that are broken,

gather together those who have been scattered,

and enrich us all from the plenitude of your eternal wisdom.

Turn to us, LORD, make haste to help your people ...

Wow! tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Again, you are invited to be our guest. Christmas Eve services at 3:00 PM and 11:00 PM.

Blessings ...

I want to thank those who 'remodeled' our commons area. My early morning devotional time there this morning was full of song, readings, and praise. Thanks be to God at work through God's people.

Prayers

Prayers for you during this season when we can too easily get too busy to slow down and take time to listen to God.

May you surprisingly discover such a time. By the grace of God, I was given a pause for coffee and reading.

Blessings ...

Reflections on 2009

The ‘support, guidance, and training to the lay membership’ that I have seen at AUMC in 2009 has continued to revolve around two areas:

(1) the general mission of the Church which, in our own words is ‘to make disciples of Jesus Christ’; and,

(2) our God-given Vision for Arlington UMC which is ‘Changing your world by loving your neighbor.’

For now, this process is in the establishment of our visionpaths whose overall objective is to set all our goals and actions of all our work areas and committees based upon our vision.

Here are some of the observed effects of “changing your world by loving your neighbor” as of December 15, 2009:

· An average of 32 persons per week have been fed through our food closet which is a lay-led effort of local churches and businesses;

o Those assisted are also invited to be a part of our community of faith by being told of our worship hour and meal times;

· And, as necessary, people are eating free at both our Wednesday night supper and Sunday morning breakfast;

o The Wednesday night supper (6:00 PM) has intentionally moved to a more inviting scene for our guests by moving from an educational series that builds off of each other to a stand-alone Christ/guest-centered midweek worship time at the table using resources such as “Evening Prayer” or “Night Prayer” in the United Methodist Book of Worship or The Liturgy of the Hours;

§ And a separate educational time for children and youth has been established by our children/youth director;

o The Sunday Morning Breakfast (8:30 AM), presently known as “The Gathering”, begins with a meal, and after about 25 minutes, is led into singing, prayers, readings and testimony. Honestly, we don’t know yet if this will become more like ‘worship’ or ‘Sunday School’; or a mixture of both. In the last month the average attendance at this event is 30. This is becoming another means of God's grace reaching the community through the gifts of members and non-members.

· In 2009, by the grace of God, a child has entered as a baptized member, and twelve persons have united with AUMC. Of the twelve, eight have come as ‘professing members’ making decisions to unite with a local church, the body of Christ, for the first time.

· Organizations outside AUMC continue to receive our financial and/or volunteer support such as 61^st Ave UMC; Habitat for Humanity; Room in the Inn; and Community Care Fellowship; and,

· We are coordinating the work of our Child Development Center with the work of bringing people to Jesus Christ.

Thanks goes to God and the people of God for doing the impossible.

Wow!

Wow!

This week I am just grateful to God for his work through the laity of AUMC.

More to come ...

looking forward ...

"The virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall be living in curds and honey by the time he learns to reject the bad and choose the good"
Isaiah 7.14b-15

the psalm-prayer ...

The psalm-prayer for this morning after the reading of Psalm 65 began with this phrase:

"Lord God, hope of all the earth ..."

Indeed, such is true: God is the hope of all the earth. God is hope for the end of war; hope for the feeding of the hungry by providing humanity the means to do so; hope of people putting down their own lives of control to servanthood of the good of all.

And my prayer continued: "Pour out your Spirit on us so that our lives may bear fruit abundantly. To you, O God, our praise is due ..."

Amen ... so be it.

Let all ...

Let all who thirst come; let all who desire it, drink from the life-giving water (Revelation 22:17).

The life-giving water is Jesus, the Son of God. All one must do is ask that Jesus quench one's thirst.

Further reflections

The vision of AUMC, "Changing your world by loving your neighbor", for me has a ring to it that is for real and motivating.

The "for real" part refers to the "loving your neighbor" for this can refer to loving one neighbor in the name of Jesus Christ. That love can be expressed in varied ways of friendship from listening to eating together to being empathetic. Such are things already occurring.

The "motivating" part is in "changing the world". Such includes changing the world one person at a time as well as changing the world through our apportionment ministries. Honestly, AUMC has overall been resistant to this second portion of loving the world but there are signs that this resistance to doing so may be weakening. A couple of months ago our Church Council voted to commit a tithe of our 2010 weekly offerings to pay apportionments. Such will be a beginning of doing so. And such is a part of changing the world.

And, of course, "Changing your world by loving your neighbor" is walking down the road of life with Jesus who 'loved his neighbor as himself'.

just a bit of journaling ...

The first 2.5 years at Arlington UMC have been years in which we have done two basic things.

The first was to write the mission of the universal church after reading both Acts and section IV of the UM Discipline on the mission and ministry of the Universal Church. Our wording of it is "to make, or followers, disciples of Jesus Christ".

The second was to write what we believe God's vision of Arlington UMC is after researching both local church and community demographics, community leader interviews, congregational questionnaires and interviews with persons who have joined or left AUMC in the last five years. From that came our vision:

"Change your world by loving your neighbor",

A couple of weeks ago the chairs of our various leadership groups met together to rejoice ways our vision is coming to life and to begin the further process of setting goals and activities based upon our vision. This was a little bit more of changing our world by loving our neighbor.

Thanks be to God.

Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh—
my adversaries and foes—
they shall stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.

One thing I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.

Now my head is lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,
be gracious to me and answer me!
‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me up.

Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they are breathing out violence.

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

May it be so ...

This morning I was reading from Psalm 33. One short line jumped out of the psalter and grasped me. It was this:

"May your love be upon us, O LORD, as we place all our hope in you"

Such is always true.