What Mom Taught Me
When I was five years old in Independence, Kansas, distances seemed enormous to walk—especially when the neighborhood kids had bikes. So, I wanted a bike. My mom and dad were agreeable to this and said if I saved up my “chores” money, I could get one.
Mom gave me a brass piggy bank about the size of a softball, complete with eyes, ears, a curly tail, and a slot on top. I was eager to put in my pennies, nickels, dimes, and the occasional quarter (a huge amount!) that Mom gave me for doing tasks around the house. I had my eye on an orange Schwinn Stingray, complete with a banana seat and wide handlebars. I could picture myself riding—rather than walking—the mile to school with my friends each day.
I was more than happy to skip 5-cent candy and 12-cent comic books for a season so I could get that bike more quickly. My postponed gratification was rewarded when the bank was full, and I was able to go to the Schwinn store with my parents to celebrate my triumph.
Fitting for the Easter season, there is a lot of triumph in our church’s future: becoming debt-free; creating a perpetual revenue stream through a funded endowment; enhancing our worship and online experiences; and upgrading our building systems.
So far, 148 families are postponing some purchases in order to help us reach our $2,000,000 goal. The commitments have been inspiring. Surpassing our goal is well within reach as more families respond to the prayer, “God, what do you want to do through me?” About 50 more commitments will get us where we all want to be. You can make yours HERE.
Will you be one of those families?
Will you remember what our mothers taught us?
Will you be part of the triumph?
See you Sunday as we celebrate our mothers,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
Personal Piety + Social Holiness = Easter Season
It is neither accidental nor incidental that we hold our Mission Together after Easter—in this case, this Sunday with ONE WORSHIP SERVICE at 10 a.m. followed by acts of service (come in your work clothes!).
John Wesley insisted that, for the people called Methodists, “personal piety” (prayer, scripture reading, Christian fellowship, communion—like this Sunday with ONE WORSHIP SERVICE at 10 a.m. followed by acts of service) must go hand in hand with “social holiness” (feeding, educating, healing, and creating just systems). Wesley insisted on both faith and works, just as Jesus did—both in his teachings and in his life.
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his followers over the course of 50 days before Pentecost (Pente = 50). One of those appearances included a memorable conversation with Peter following a fish breakfast Jesus had prepared after they returned from their boats. Three times, Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. Though Peter answered “Yes” each time—nearly in tears by the third—Jesus was making a point: loving him personally was not enough. Peter, who would become “the rock” of the Church, had to actively love, feed, and tend the sheep in Jesus’ care—in other words, the world.
We United Methodists have a long and proud history of engaging both the people and systems of the world to love, feed, and tend toward a better world for all—not just some. That kind of engagement isn’t always popular, but it is the gospel of Jesus. As our blue FUMC Plano t-shirts say on the back: “It’s what we do.”
So, wear your jeans and blue t-shirts (we still have some for sale—see Mardi Bowen or Stacy Spears), and come ready to practice both personal piety in ONE WORSHIP SERVICE at 10 a.m. and social holiness afterward. After all, it is the Easter season: He is risen; alleluia!
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
What, Another Celebration?!
Hard to imagine—after Easter and after Palm Sunday, the Egg Scramble, and Celebration Sunday the week before that! But this Sunday, April 27, we celebrate what we can do together as the body of the risen Christ.
Our Free to Grow Campaign Co-Chairs, David and Cindy Boatfield, announced on Palm Sunday that 67 families have already committed $1,538,969—77% of our $2,000,000 goal! In this Easter season, the rest of us have the power to push the campaign over that goal.
It’s important to remember:
Every three-year gift matters—from every person who considers FUMC Plano their church.
Our gifts may not be equal in size, but they are equal in sacrifice.
The outcomes will reshape the financial future for the next generation.
Keep praying: “God, what do You want to do through me?”
The new flooring is in, and the new maintenance building, driveway, and parking lots are being staked out for construction. Yes, there’s a lot to celebrate—especially knowing the risen Christ is going before us.
Bring your Commitment Card to the prayer rail this Sunday, if you haven’t already, and let’s see what God can do through all of us!
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
I Dare You
It wasn’t always smart—but it was (and still is) an essential part of growing up. You were dared to do something you’d never do on your own because of fear. But then someone pushed you—sometimes literally—and suddenly, you were going where you'd never imagined going.
Jumping off the edge of the pool into a parent’s waiting arms.
Jumping off the high dive for the first time.
Maybe even leaping from a cliff into a lake 30 feet below—between the rocks.
You remember. We all have those stories.
What’s common in all of them is facing the thought, “I’m going to die.” And the exhilaration afterward is that you didn’t. In fact, you felt more alive—vital, energized and exuberant—in a way you never could have without accepting the dare. I think that is the relationship between Good Friday and Easter.
Easter without Good Friday is like easing into the shallow end without ever jumping from the height of sheer terror. The water feels good and everyone is having a good time splashing around—but there’s no real risk or cost for the experience. Maybe that’s why so few churches lean into Good Friday—not for their members, and not for their guests. We’re afraid to face the dark places of our fears. Yet, this is precisely why God came to earth in Jesus: to help us face all of our worst fears (mostly internal) especially the fear of dying, so that we can experience the exhilaration of overcoming them and live a vital, energized and exuberant life.
This year, we’ve tweaked our Good Friday experience. It will feel different—especially at the end. If you’re bold enough to come, you’ll have the chance to sit in silence and face the worst fears you hold onto so tightly. But if you’re brave, you’ll go one step further. You’ll jump past your fears, and trust that our God will catch you and bring you to the surface Easter morning—bubbling, buoyant and alive as you have never experienced before.
So, go ahead.
Friday at 7 p.m.
In the Sanctuary.
I dare you.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
The Alignment of Hope This Sunday
As we were planning for our Free to Grow campaign last fall, a good question was raised among the staff about the timing of overlaying a capital campaign on top of Lent and Easter. Our consultant, former UMC pastor Don Smith, said it was actually the best time. I’ve pondered that response and found meaningful parallels between these two journeys toward Jerusalem:
Both begin with the proclamation of good news that a new age is coming.
Both are future-oriented, yet bring hope and excitement now.
Both start with a few believers and grow in numbers as the word of hope spreads.
Both have doubters and dissenters around the whole proposition.
Both unfold in the midst of great uncertainty.
Both persist faithfully in the face of that uncertainty.
Both succeed in the end in ways that amaze and inspire.
This Sunday, our children will process and wave palms as we commemorate Jesus and his small band’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem—an entry that anticipates his glory through the cross and the tomb. At the same time, we will celebrate what a small group of Jesus’ followers have already faithfully committed toward a future hope that will be realized over the next three years and free our church to grow.
Onlookers of this faithful parade will be surprised, inspired, and want to join the movement, and that is worth celebrating—right alongside a donkey carrying Jesus into Jerusalem. It’s an alignment of hope.
So make every effort to be here this Palm Sunday! There will be specialty morning foods and coffee personally served, followed by hot dogs and sliders for everyone—a picnic on the grounds. Bounce houses and games will be available for the kids, and fun for the whole church family.
It begins our Holy Week journey to Easter; it begins the home stretch toward our hope-filled future as First United Methodist Church Plano.
See you there,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor, FUMC Plano
Grounded and Open
I have been an evangelist for NBC’s The Americas on Sunday nights at 7:00. It is a mesmerizing blend of my childhood favorites, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and The Wonderful World of Walt Disney, both of which also aired on Sunday nights. Narrated by the everyman Tom Hanks, The Americas explores a different ecosystem each week, from the Arctic north to the tip of South America. The technicolor, camera sophistication, and captivating storytelling about our planet’s beauty and its creaturely inhabitants will leave you gaping every week, unable to comprehend, “How did they do that?” At the same time, you’ll find yourself inspired by the detail and beauty of God’s imagination. It is a “wilderness” experience of a completely different kind, yet connected to what we traditionally mean when we talk about being in the wilderness—like the people of Israel, like Jesus, and like us during this Lenten season.
In both The Americas and our individual wilderness experiences, we are given the opportunity to re-ground ourselves in the awe and wonder of God, who is ever-present all around us—dazzling us and beckoning for our attention. In both instances, we are given the opportunity to see a much bigger picture than the small worldview that too often dominates our sight, hearing, and emotions.
In The Americas—as in our prayer time and places, wherever they are—we are given a different vantage point, one that enlarges and inspires us by reminding us that our creating and re-creating God is always our starting point. But how do we attain and sustain that perspective?
St. Ignatius of Loyola, the 15th-century Basque Catholic priest and theologian who helped found the religious order called the Society of Jesus, gives us a tool to center our prayer lives on God rather than ourselves. Known as the “Surrender Prayer” or the “Emptying Prayer,” St. Ignatius invites us to pray:
“Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will.
All I have and call my own, you have given to me. To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace; that is enough for me. Amen.”
As we enter the home stretch of this Lenten journey toward Jerusalem, I pray that you empty what needs to be emptied, ground yourself in God, and open yourself to being filled with God’s technicolor love and peace. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Matt Gaston, Lead Pastor
Still Maturing? Yes!
Checking in with Cammy, who is on a four-day retreat with her covenant group of 30 years, I paused when I heard her say, “The work we do helps me in my maturity.” I thought that sounded so odd! Cammy is a 60-something, master's-educated, experienced pastor with broad experience as a youth minister, church planter, chaplain, district superintendent, and director of leadership development for an annual conference. I think of her as incredibly mature. Yet here she was, confessing that there is still room to grow in that maturity—and of course, she is right.
Our journey as Christians is one of lifelong sanctification, of growing more and more into the image of Christ, into the image of Love. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, insisted that we could even become “perfect in love” in this lifetime. That puts “maturity” into perspective.
We often hold a false notion that maturity is marked by a particular age or stage of life in which we have acquired enough education and experience to have attained maturity with the implication that there is little room for additional growth. How egotistical—and how limiting of the possibilities that God so clearly sees for us! “Come on, come on!” God calls to us. “You can do it. You can learn a new way of thinking, a new skill set, a new way of seeing the other person, and a new way of putting yourself in their shoes.”
If we are to mature—as individuals and as a society—we must always be listening for that voice, pushing ourselves beyond our supposed “maturity.” That is what Lent affords us: a built-in spiritual opportunity to be lifelong learners. It’s what the people of Israel experienced for 40 years in the wilderness. It’s what Jesus experienced for 40 days in the wilderness—and he was the Son of God!
Cammy’s remark reminds me of all this and of the intentional discipline required to push ourselves to new levels of maturity—levels we might otherwise never reach because of the law of inertia: things at rest tend to stay at rest. What is true in physics is also true in spirituality.
We have three weeks until Easter—three weeks to push ourselves beyond what we already “know” in order to think, feel, and experience something we have never considered before. It is a question we should always have in the back of our minds: “Am I continuing to mature, continuing to grow?”
Come Easter, may our answer be an excited, “YES!”
Not yet grown up,
Matt Gaston
Led Pastor, FUMC Plano
Singing a Sermon
It is rare that I yield the pulpit when not on vacation, but I am doing just that for the next two weeks.
Mark Miller will be with us this Sunday morning, in addition to a concert on Sunday evening. As creative and outstanding a songwriter as Mark is, he is an even better person—a Christian with something meaningful to say. For these reasons, Mark is in high demand across our United Methodist connection. He has been the featured artist and speaker at dozens of Annual Conferences over the years, including our own, and he performed at General Conference last year. Most UMC choirs have sung his music. Because of our modern worship leader Griffin Shoemaker’s friendship with Mark, we are blessed to have him as our special guest.
Six area UMC choirs have eagerly joined in the opportunity to sing with Mark in our Sanctuary on Sunday night—140 voices in all. When asked if he would also like to preach on March 23, Mark said, “Yes.” He will expound on his song I Dream of a Church. In this Lenten season of prayerful reflection and reformation, I believe this is an excellent topic for all of us. I hope you will make an extra effort to attend in person; you will be blessed.
A Special Note: Because we will have so many people with us, especially on Sunday night, I ask that we all park on the grass in the rows marked with flags so our guests can find spaces closer to the doors. Thank you for this hospitality—it will go well with the warm welcome at the doors and the pie and ice cream after the concert!
Afterward, if you can stay a few extra minutes, your help will be greatly appreciated in moving chairs and furniture so the installation crew can begin work on the new flooring first thing Monday morning. It takes a village … or, in this case, a church family!
Grace and peace,
Where Are You Going?
That’s a question that gets asked a lot this week before spring break for both Plano ISD and Allen ISD. The common assumption is that physically going somewhere—Padre Island, Gulf Shores, Big Bend, the Ozarks, etc.—is what defines a "break." Those destinations certainly make for great getaways, but they are not the only definition or destination of a "break."
A break can also be an interior journey, one that takes us away from the mechanical, extraverted, planned, productive, and sometimes exhausting movement of our lives. A break in this sense means pausing for a moment, being still, and remembering that God is God (Psalm 46:10). This is the gift of daily, focused prayer—perhaps especially in this Lenten season. Breath prayer, Lectio Divina, and contemplative prayer are all methods that allow us to journey with the Holy Spirit alongside still waters. Sometimes, this kind of break can evolve into a new pattern in our spiritual journey.
Member Dorothy Cline shared how she and her late husband, Rick Cline (I miss Rick a lot), came from Church of Christ and Baptist backgrounds early in their relationship. By happenstance, they found themselves at FUMC Plano. It was a break from what they had always known—one that allowed them to experience the grace that is central to our Wesleyan theology and lived out by the people of FUMC Plano. This was a noticeably different Christian experience from what they had always known as “church.” Coming to FUMC Plano on a break ultimately became a new path for their spiritual life together. I told her how surprised I was to hear that because, to know her and Rick was to know nothing but grace and graciousness. That’s what an interior break—an inward journey —can do to a person!
So don’t despair if you’re not physically traveling somewhere for spring break. In the quiet of a favorite outdoor spot or an indoor prayer chair, there is a journey waiting to be taken with an unknown destination, except that it will bring you closer to God, to others, and to yourself.
Where are you going?
Breathe peace,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
My Challenge to You: The Pause that Refreshes
Cammy and I just finished painting our primary bedroom and bathroom, and now we have our sights set on the backyard — it’s looking a little tired. After our Ash Wednesday service last night, I told Cammy how much I looked forward to refreshing that space so that, during Lent, our patio, especially in this springtime, can become our daily “porch time.”
That’s our code phrase for prayer time — an intentional moment to pause for 15-20 minutes, be still, listen to the birds, watch the squirrels, feel the breeze, and see the trees sway. To simply be still and know that God is God.
I take my prayer journal with me for porch time, but I often begin in silent contemplation, soaking in the wonder of God and His creation before reflecting with gratitude in my journal. It can also be a space to practice lectio divina with a passage of Scripture or to recite a silent breath prayer, for example, “Lord Jesus Christ” (while inhaling), “have mercy upon me” (while exhaling).
In all these moments — especially when sitting in your favorite porch-time place — you can feel the tension of the day ease as God’s peace fills your soul and body. “If God is with us, who can be against us?” Paul rhetorically asks. He was right, but we need reminders of that divine presence.
So, I challenge you to make this a holy Lent by setting aside 15-20 minutes each day to retreat to your own porch-time place, whether outdoors or in, and spend time with the God who always longs to spend time with you. You’ll find it is indeed the pause that refreshes — and strengthens — you for the day ahead.
Here’s to a holy Lent.
Breathe peace,