“I have submitted to be more vile.”
This is what methodism’s founder, John Wesley, wrote in his journal in 1739. It was a decision made thoughtfully and intentionally by one of the most educated persons of his time, having graduated from Oxford University. It was a decision made thoughtfully, intentionally, and faithfully by a pastor, the son of a pastor. The decision was to step beyond the walls of his Anglican church building to preach. This simply was not done nor condoned. It was radical, heretical, and “vile.”
Yet for Wesley it was an essential step that those who could not attend a church on Sundays might hear the saving grace of God for themselves. I wonder if we are in such a different place all these years later. Could it be that we have become too building-centric in our thinking about “church”? Could it be that, while we think of meeting people where they are with the grace of God through Jesus Christ out in the world, we unconsciously think that the endgame is for them to be in our building with us?
Wesley came to the conclusion that persons who had to work in the fields or in the coal mines or as indentured servants simply did not have that luxury. So, he decided that he and his brother Charles would take the good news to them – where they were – and a Protestant revival began in England and spread to the American colonies and across our continent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Circuit-riding pastors like Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury, and Freeborn Garrettson rode their horses taking the gospel to the people where they lived, before a church building was ever constructed.
I think there are lessons for us more than 200 years later. Our “frontier” is our neighborhood where new people move in, at the local pubs where people gather for drinks and discussions, and in the homes of people who cannot get out due to health reasons or who live great distances – even states away from FUMC Plano. I am convinced that it is to these places that we submit to be more “vile.” Our Futurist Team continues to learn and dream out loud of what our changing world and mission field will look like five and ten years from now and what we must do now to meet people where they are and not where we wish they were. As you think of the ways and places that we might consider taking the gospel, let us know. You can send your ideas to the church (office@fumcplano.org).
In the meantime, we will be celebrating Father’s Day with the always popular John Wesley Ramblers from the Wesley Foundation at Texas A&M and the reception of a new father and his baptized family into our church family at the 9 a.m. service. It’s going to be a great day. Blessings to all our fathers and especially our heavenly one!
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
The Depths of Discipleship
Left: Rev. Melissa Helms was ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church this week at Annual Conference. Right: Matt Gaston donning his scuba gear illustrating how God’s friendship is for everyone at VBC this week.
It is a long way between standing in a robe and red stole laying hands on the head of a woman ordained by our bishop as a new Elder in the United Methodist Church and “swimming” in some scuba gear against an underwater backdrop for Vacation Bible Camp. Yet, the distance, apart from the clothing, is not as far as it might seem.
Both events had to do with discipleship under the call and lordship of Jesus Christ. Ever since God called Abraham, well into his Medicare years, to birth a great people, God has been calling people with what John Wesley called “prevenient grace.” It’s that nudge, that prod, that unexpected awareness of something beyond ourselves and deep within ourselves that compels us toward a greater awareness of God and God’s great love for us and all of creation. This is the first step of a lifelong process of being made more into the image of Jesus. That never-ending process is discipleship – the same process Jesus called his friends to be about:
“Go into all the world, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
For a few, it entails the call as a pastor to set-apart ministry. For many, it entails learning experiences like Vacation Bible Camp, mission trips, retreats, choir tours, and summer camp. For all, it involves regular worship, scripture reading, prayer, communion, the giving back to God with our financial gifts, Christian fellowship, and service. These are the essential elements for a vital Christian life just as surely as oxygen is for a scuba diver.
We had some 400 laity here for the Laity Session of Annual Conference on Sunday.
We had over 1000 people attend Annual Conference at FUMC Richardson this week.
We have been blessed to reach some 160 children this week with our SCUBA Vacation Bible Camp.
We will reach another 300+ in worship this Sunday and twice that many online.
The common denominator of all these is God’s lifelong call upon each one of us to grow in grace and grow more into the image of Jesus and what Jesus would have each one of us do – today.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Broken Branches, Broken Hearts, and the Cross
Driving around various neighborhoods and churches, like you, I have been struck by the damage done by the storm of this past Tuesday. The branches and leaves litter front yards and streets. Sometimes a whole tree is uprooted or snapped in half, but more often it is branches that have been broken and strewn. When it’s a tree that has been part of your home or other special place for years, it breaks your heart to see the damage. But after the storms have passed and the chain saws have been put away, we witness new growth that we would never have seen otherwise – sometimes more beautiful than the original tree. The cross reminds us to count on that truth. A storm blew Jesus into the hands of angry religious leaders and a frustrated procurator landed him on a cross where criminals legs were sometimes broken in order to speed up the death by asphyxiation. But from that damage, that death at the top of the cross, came the new life we could not imagine through resurrection.
My study group is reading Turning Points by Noll, Komline and Komline. It is a very good primer about the turning points in Christian history that I can recommend for our library as it is not academically stuffy. Speaking about the brokenness of papal leadership within the Catholic Church in the 16th century, the authors state, “Later Protestants would also come to learn from their own experience that failures at the top, however discouraging, are never fatal to a church.”
I think that line is prophetic. It speaks a great truth about the resilience of Christ’s body, the church – you and me. Beyond broken hearts over broken trust at the top, the church rises with new hope and new growth from the strong roots and trunk below. I think we are in such a time as that now in the United States.
This Sunday begins the last Annual Conference of our over 100-year-old North Texas Conference. The pandemic and disaffiliations have broken branches and hearts in our churches and conferences nationwide. It has hurt. Yet out of that comes the opportunity to begin again as we vote whether to unite with the remnants of the Northwest Texas and Central Texas Conferences to form a new Horizon Texas Conference. Your elected Annual Conference members – Jill Stoel, Kevin Clanahan, John Shell, Gavin Cox, Joyce Craig, Gayle Landis, Judith Reedy, and I all have the opportunity to pray, discuss, and vote on this historic decision. We will vote for hope and new life, just as we did as a local church to sell property and right-size FUMC Plano to be nimbler and more sustainable in God’s next chapter for Christ’s church. I am counting on it because I count on God’s saving grace through the brokenness of branches, hearts, and the cross. Amen.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
P.S. We will have a Town Hall Meeting on June 9 following the 11 a.m. worship service to answer all of your questions about the land sale, next steps, General Conference, Annual Conference, and anything else that is on your mind.
Blow Spirit, Blow
When people came to worship this past Pentecost Sunday, many expected the rightful honoring of our high school seniors and even a witness from Sydney Anderson and William Messer. But few outside of the planning team knew what to do or think when they heard a babble of voices processing in as red banners soared above. You couldn’t make out what anyone was saying; it sounded like loud gibberish coming from a collection of people with smiles on their faces. They were, in fact, praying as they came in. I bet our congregants asked the same question as arose with the believers in the upper room on that first Pentecost when they asked, “What does this mean? (Acts 2:12)”
It became only a little clearer when the people approached the altar and stood in a line. Each spoke a portion of Psalm 23 in her/his native tongue with the closed caption in English on the screen. A total of ten members of our church spoke in their native language across no less than six cultures. It was a perplexing and powerful moment in worship.
This beautiful variety of people and cultures – all members of our church – represented the kingdom of God and our future well as we become gradually more diverse. And as different as we are, we are all linked by our relationship to God through Jesus Christ and Christ’s love for all persons everywhere. It can be a little perplexing at times, to be sure. But it also can be reassuring as we come to realize that our witness of love and inclusion can move observers to say, as the church Father Tertullian said of the early Christian church, “See how they love one another.” Blow Spirit, blow!
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
The Flame Still Burns
It began at Jurisdictional Conference a year and a half ago in Houston when three new bishops were elected and without any acrimony.
It continued when Bishop Saenz Jr. was assigned to the head both the Central Texas Conference and our North Texas Conference with joint fanfare.
We felt it at Annual Conference a year ago when it was evident that everyone there wanted to be there and move forward together in mission for the gospel.
We saw it again at General Conference just completed when global efforts passed by 80% and 90% margins.
We have experienced it locally as new faces, families, baptisms, and hope populate our growing optimism.
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit ...”
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and we will, in some special ways, be made aware of the Spirit’s presence among us:
An increasingly diverse people will gather to praise God;
Different languages among us will be heard;
Young women and young men will dream and see visions of grace and possibility (Joel 2:28).
It is, I think, what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ. As it was in that upper room, the presence of the Spirit disrupts as it energizes until the community finds its new footing and its way forward together. Much like a flock of birds starting to fly quickly in several directions before finding formation and a flight path forward – together. These are exciting times for our young people, for our church, and for our denomination because the flame of the Holy Spirit still burns.
Blow Spirit, blow. See you Sunday in FUMC Plano’s “upper room.”
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Trusting Mom, Trusting the Spirit
With my dad working on the marketing side of the oil and gas industry, we moved a lot when I was a small child – five times across three states by the time I was in third grade. For me it was always an adventure: new house, new school, new play places, new friends. The central reason why I held that optimism was my mom, who held that optimism of possibility. While Dad was on the road 3-4 days a week, Mom was the anchor and loving constant who gave us dependable grounding for the next new thing in front of my sister and me, so we were always hopeful.
Mom died nine years ago but I still carry with me that sense of grounding, optimism, and hope which I now name the Spirit of the living Christ. To listen to Cammy and other returned delegates from our General Conference, that same Spirit of grounding, hope, and optimism was palpable in Charlotte at our concluded General Conference. Take a look at Bishop Saenz’s Conference Wrap-Up below.
Jesus was clear with his disciples that he would be leaving them, but not alone. He would send another, which would be the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit we will celebrate on May 19, Pentecost Sunday. But before we do that, we will remember and celebrate our mothers this Sunday who, more often than not, are the incarnation of grounding, optimism, and hope for most of us. With all of the changes and movement ahead into new territory by our denomination and our local church, I am extraordinarily grateful for the Spirit who is moving ahead with us.
Thank you, Mom, for personifying that grace ever so well.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
And the Wind Blew ...
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8
When Rev. Cammy Gaston addressed about 100 people in our Sanctuary two Sundays ago, she explained how General Conference works and the emphases of “3 Rs” that our North and Central Texas delegations would be focusing:
Regionalization
Removal of the restrictive language around sexuality
Revision of our Social Principles
Few thought confidently that all three could be achieved in one General Conference given that we had been unsuccessful in four previous General Conferences spanning 20 years. Now we are one vote away from affirming a whole new set of Social Principles. That vote is expected to be as large as the votes were for regionalization and removal of the restrictive language (see Bishop Saenz’s video below) – about 90% in favor! How do we explain this tsunami of sea change? Disaffiliation of churches and delegates who would have voted, “nay” explains some but not nearly all of that shift of position by our United Methodist Church. I believe it is the movement of the Holy Spirit.
In John’s text above, the learned clergy Nicodemus is befuddled by how in the world a person can be “born again.” He knows – really – that you can’t crawl back into your mother’s womb. So, if not that, then what? That is where Jesus teaches Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit, who is forever beyond our ability to predict or control – just like the wind – but you sure know it when you feel it!
It was amazing to hear from Cammy that starting the very first two days of Conference last week, decisions both small and large were being made by an 80%+ margin that seemed to keep building on itself with shocked surprise, positivity, and growing momentum. Now there are two days left and those present would tell you that the Spirit has most startlingly been blowing in ways that have brought numerous gasps and tears of joy that we are finally acting like the church of Jesus Christ with “faith, hope, and love” (1 Cor. 13) instead of the alternatives our culture too readily offers up and even celebrates.
This first Sunday in May we gather for the same holy communion that we did in April, but when we say that ALL are welcomed at this table, we now mean it ... officially. As our Church Council stated after our church-wide discernment process a year and a half ago around the issue of human sexuality, “We are proud to be a United Methodist Church.”
Blow Spirit blow.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Never Underestimate the Power of Prayer
As we grow in Christian maturity, we come to understand that prayer to God is not transactional or quid pro quo, though there is no shortage of preachers of a prosperity gospel that would have you think that is the case. If you pray the right prayer with the right words to the right person of the Trinity, then blessings of all kinds will be yours, especially the material kind. History is strewn with disappointed and disillusioned believers who discover that God does not work that way. As a seminary professor told us years ago, God is not a “cosmic gumball machine” in which you put in your prayer and out comes your blessing. There is no power in that kind of prayer, only disappointment ultimately.
On the other hand, healthy power in prayer begins with the daily recognition and confession that God is God, and we are not. It starts with a stance of humility that recognizes and thanks God for our daily life and opportunity to be in relationship with the God who loves us unconditionally, stands with us steadfastly, and works for all good in the world (Romans 8:28). God is the rock upon which we can confidently build our daily lives, trusting that the carpenter helping with the construction takes great pride and delight in his work. With him we stand on a sure foundation, able to withstand and prevail through the wind, rain, storms, and death that blow through our lives. That is our resurrection hope and reality – a different kind of power, and power indeed! My daily work is to ground myself through scripture and contemplation with the prayer to stay in the presence and mindfulness of Christ throughout my day and then pray the same for a world that needs that same presence and mindfulness.
In speaking to Cammy, General Conference has begun with an overall positive hopefulness of what can be accomplished this time around. The Spirit seems to be moving as so many have prayed. Cammy herself has been moved to tears by emailed prayers that several of you have sent her. She has felt the love and the encouragement for that arduous work. If you would like to bring a smile and maybe a tear to my wife’s eyes, you can email her at cammygaston1221@gmail.com.
For everything that so many are praying for in this General Conference and in our world, thank you. I join you in that, and I will leave it to God to decide which prayer gets which gumball.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Keeping the Arms of Love Open
One emerging point of focus for our new Futurist Team is what to do with our southeast lawn and future main Sunday entrance to say that we care for you, and we care for our planet. Architecturally, the angled walls on either side of the three doors can be seen as open arms of welcome – for all. How do we leverage that? How can we build on that in clear and inviting ways, especially for rising generations who embrace the call of Christ better than their preceding generations? We must care for one another and our planet better than we have.
Similarly, our General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina next week will work on new ways to care better for one another and our planet. There is good movement to give regions around the world autonomy to care for others better within their context rather than fashioning a “one size fits all” that is U.S.-centric. The Catholic Church has set a good precedent creating over 60 variations of the Mass tailored to the cultural context in which it is shared. We have a proposed new edition of our Social Principles and Resolutions that has been written by United Methodists from the Philippines, countries in Africa, Eurasia, and Central America in addition to the United States, representing our global peoples’ concerns and not just American concerns. This is right and just.
Because our polity was patterned in the 18th century after the American government model of legislative checks and balances, the process for getting to these ends is messy as together the 862 delegates (half lay people, half clergy) prayerfully discern God’s will for our church. By organization, they are the only ones who can do so.
I ask you to pray for our Futurist Team as it peers into the future and seeks to discern the mission, structure, and strategies to get there.
I ask that you pray for Rev. Cammy Gaston and the other 861 delegates to General Conference as they peer into the future and discern the mission, structure, and strategies to get there.
At the end of the day, both groups want to keep the arms of love open for all persons and for our planet, for the sake of the risen Christ and his call upon all of our lives. Amen.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Birds Flock – United Methodists Conference!
From April 23 to May 3, 862 delegates (half laypeople and half clergy) will flock from around the world in Charlotte, North Carolina, to address a myriad of issues that affect all of us in the United Methodist Church. Because of Covid and the canceled 2020 General Conference, it will be our first, full General Conference since 2016. It stands to reason there is a lot of work for them to do. But really, it is simply a scaled-up version of what we do every year in our Annual Conference locally as well as our local Charge Conference – we conference!
Since the (Protest)ant movement began with Martin Luther in 1516, we have stood firmly on the belief that God speaks through all of God’s people and not just some, like a pope or a bishop. We believe that all people are called by God through their baptism to serve alongside others in the church for the sake of Christ’s mission. Some are called to lay ministry, and some are called to set-apart ministry (clergy), but all are called to work together for the health and mission of Christ’s body, the church, at the local, regional, and global levels. We believe this system makes us a stronger connectional church. Now to be certain it is messy, as collaborative human processes are, but they are also creative, synergistic, and even inspired, especially if the Holy Spirit is present (see Acts 2).
Every four years, every United Methodist conference nominates and elects an equal number of clergy and laypeople to represent us all at General Conference. One of my proudest moments in 2016 was when my wife, Rev. Cammy Gaston, was the third person and the first woman elected to our Conference’s delegation. It spoke to the high regard with which she is held in our North Texas Conference, having served five years as a District Superintendent and six years overseeing leadership development with the Bishop. Consequently, I am very proud for her to be able to educate us at FUMC Plano on Sunday, April 21, about the larger issues facing them and us when they begin their work in Charlotte on April 23. I invite you to come on April 21, right after the 9 a.m. worship service in the Sanctuary, to listen and learn about how our church works on a global scale and how that impacts our work at the local level.
Moreover, I ask that you pray. There is so much hurt in the world and so much good to be done. Pray that the Spirit comes mightily upon that General Conference and surprises us all with the Spirit’s grace and movement, that the delegates might hear one another and act with one voice as that first conference did in Acts 2.
In the meantime, I look forward to our flocking together this Sunday to praise God in these Easter days. It’s what we do!
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,