Celebrate at Christ Church United on February 15, 2020
Leadership Event
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I hope you are having a good day If you are not, I hope there is strength and comfort. I hope that strength and comfort comes from your church family. There is nothing more powerful than people in connection in prayer. We all need our combined efforts to adapt and meet new challenges. Let us come together in celebration with some terrific music. Our opening worship will also include prayer and scripture, then we have some great resources to help you personally, your congregation, and all of us. Feb 15 at Christ United East Moline – celebration starting at 9 AM.
Share my email, share the documents with info announcing this event – share the Facebook Event.
Invite a friend or church neighbor to this event. My 91-year-old mother has invited her new neighbor to her small congregation. She has come to church and United Methodist Women – even though her background was once Roman Catholic. Adding a new person in attendance in her church is sometimes a 10% increase. It seems my mother still believes in this denomination and is working for it to grow. She does think we should bring back Temperance Sunday. Maybe, it isn’t the hottest suggestion for church growth. Inviting people, living grace, offering kindness, acts of generosity, connecting our souls in prayer these are good habits for growth. Come celebrate with us, find a discussion topic in which you want to participate. Enjoy the coffee, cookies, and rolls. OK a few health oriented items.
I end with this thing I wrote after reflecting on my Fall trip.
In the morn take breath with blessing
In the drift to sleep reflect gratitude
For within lies all love and grace
The spark of life is within us
In our soul the image of God
In connection we share our wellspring
Small courses combine to a whelming flood
In self-soul lie the sufficiency of all love
We walk in a land of lost souls, but we are grace
Grace present to counter absent souls
All calm lies in the self-soul
Joy in each breath assurance in each rest
In the morn take breath with blessing
In the drift to sleep reflect gratitude
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We still have a mission to fulfill
On February 15th I invite you to come to Christ Church East Moline for a leadership event. It will be a meaningful event and, as with all good United Methodist gatherings, I will provide good food. Sessions will be held in the morning starting at 9. Then may we all part in common Spirit, or at least, part with empathetic Spirits around 11:30. Attached Sheet has details --
When I told my wife I needed to plan this event, she asked, what’s the point? The disillusionment is pervasive and cannot be ignored, but that is why we need leadership. We need leaders to be involved to commit to aid our journey into the unknown.
Few of you are as old as I am, at least that is how I often feel. I am still buzzing around with feelings and memories others may have forgotten, or more likely, occurred long before their time. I wanted to use Route 66 as an analogy. Immediately I realized I would have to explain; it was a TV show, also a great song and now a nostalgia tourist promotion. It was one of my favorite shows. It began when I was in second grade; it ended after four seasons. This show was two guys driving around the country in a Corvette convertible, a 1960 Corvette in the first season. Every year Chevrolet provided a new Corvette; no one questioned how Martin Milner (Tod) vagabonding around the country could afford a new Corvette every year.
It was a really great show wedged in between Rawhide and Twilight Zone. Possibly that is where the United Methodist Church currently is, stuck between a mythical reality and a surreal future. The Route 66 show was well written and wrote a concluding episode. In the final episode Tod finds “the girl”, Barbara Eden before she was a genie. They offer his buddy Linc a ride. This was before seat belt laws and requirements everyone had to have their own seat. Linc grabs his suitcase, strapped atop the back hatch and says, “No it’s a two-seater.” Linc then mysteriously disappears to hitch hike home; we don’t really know. Apparently, our denomination is a two-seater. No room to wedge in a compromise. Now that we have all found “the one” we want to go home with, it is time roll on down the road.
It is reported that Route 66 was produced because of the popularity of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. I read that book not in 1960 but in 1972. It captures the reader with the thrill of going - going without a defined destination other than down the road. The book is a joy ride, until the end. It struck me as a sad disillusioned end. The going and the road had been all consuming no joy left for the destination and life in a place. How often in the moment of the struggle do we lose our normal perspectives? We just push on.
Route 66 can be streamed, not on CBS Access like one might suppose. It is on Amazon Prime. Watching now with my future eyes my all-time favorite shows Route 66, Twilight Zone, and Star Trek seem less than my memories. I am forced to confront the tacky sets, anachronisms, sexism, and prejudices. Now all the rivalries, exploitations, decisions of money over art, and other under the hood details are known. I just want to remember the ride, the dream, not the gritty reality. A convertible in an open scenic land where it never rained. I prefer the misted vision of memory.
The Route 66 dream may have caused me to want a sports car. It may be origin of my cruises across country to tent and hike, as I do today in my Crossfire. I do not drive a convertible. I have no wingman. My wife does not come along, she’s not crazy. I live with the reality of the journey but find peace and joy at the destination. One day we may look back on this time in our denomination and wonder why? We do not have our future eyes, yet. We have begun the journey as United Methodists. We are still in the same car, let’s write a good end. Come help plan for road ahead. Even in a cramped sports car there is still room for the Spirit of Jesus.
Route 66 Corvettes were blue or tan as B&W TV captured those colors better
Leaders Needed
Here is what I propose:
A worship service at 9 AM
Breaking into discussion groups -10ish
I will make coffee and stuff. I may make my homemade cinnamon rolls starting at 8:30. If we attend as our churches need us to, that would get out of hand. I will have snacks, cookies, grapes, or other stuff. It is Valentine Day’s weekend, and many will likely be out to dinner over the weekend. Actually dragging a spouse along for a nice Valentine's Days lunch after would be a great outing.
Times are also changing; I am creating a different format. I think each group should be focused on discussion. Questions of the group documented and forwarded to the conference. A leader will need a secretary. One unlike me who types fast enough to keep up.
Luke 9 23 – 27 NIV
“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
From Message - “self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself your true self.”
Music and worship experience with Mark Graham - Tom Hayes – Dave Plunk and Roger Perry would likely assist
A discussion session after worship focused on enhancing worship with music, presentation software, other hardware needs, and alternatives for small churches losing pianists.
I have worked through my period of mourning. I will always believe; if we in the United Methodist Church had been more filled with Jesus and less blinded in our righteousness, we would have found compromise. I am in the position of staying as a friend with both spouses in a marriage now proceeding to a divorce. I have committed to stay kind, patient, and loving. I will smile and try to be helpful. I genuinely care for people on all sides of this schism.
We definitely need leaders. Steve Davis Spoon River District Lay Leader
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