One More Week

Hello Emmanuel,

As mentioned in recent MMP’s, I will be going on sabbatical (July 1^st-August 11^th) to rest and be renewed.  I will also be visiting other churches to see what I can learn from them and apply to us as we continue to grow at Emmanuel.

Many have asked me where I’ll be going.  For those interested in my itinerary, keep reading.  If not, skip to the end:

Delaware – 1 week – I will be visiting with 2 different churches and pastors.  One is called The Connection, a United Methodist Church that started from 0 and grew to over 700.  The 2 lead pastors are a married couple.  Sound intriguing to me.  I will also be visiting with a pastor who led a church from 50 to 600 worshippers.  I went to seminary with him many years ago.  It will be good to catch up with him.  The rest of the time I’ll likely be on sand or in water.  Sounds horrible, I know.

L.A./San Diego – 1 week – There is nothing churchy about this week.  I am going West with my brother to watch the Reds.  A religious experience?  Yes… but only if you think baseball was created by God.

Columbus, Georgia – 4 days – My kids get to see their cousins twice a year.  This is one of those times.  I may go golfing.  There is nothing religious about golfing.  If anything, it will test my perseverance and my temper.  I may stop in to see St. Luke United Methodist Church for confessional.

Home – 2.5 weeks – Yes, I will be home at times.  Kim and I will have 2 Sundays to visit other churches to renew our minds about ministry.  We don’t know which we will visit, but it will likely include a Saturday worship experience.  I also hope to talk with Rev. Doug Johns (who will be preaching July 7^th) about his experience at Church of the Savior in Montgomery.

Other possibilities include a bicycle trip with Joey to Columbus, Ohio and/or a drive to Chicago.  Given the established itinerary, we may just not have time.  I will also be reading a book called Start This, Stop That by Jim and Jennifer Cowart.  It looks like an easy read about what to do and what not to do in a growing church.

I know that some of you will wonder what to expect from me when I get back.  I wish I could tell you.  I expect to have new ideas, but whether they will be ground-breaking or earth-shattering will remain to be seen.  I will say that, in terms of disciple-making, Emmanuel has a big hump in front of it.  We need to figure out how to get over it while we still have the momentum.  It won’t be easy for us.  It will be easy for God if we can just listen and do.

I want to thank Emmanuel’s leadership for allowing me this opportunity for a sabbatical.  It has the potential to be an enlightening time.  My wife does not know me apart from being ‘Pastor Joe’ and I have always had to balance ‘Pastor’ with ‘Dad’.  To have 6 weeks to do otherwise will be interesting. 

I will be ‘off the grid’ during the 6 weeks.  If any emergencies come up, please contact:

Vicki Hensley (Lay Leader) – sewblessed@fuse.net – 732-6641

Bill Maskiell – (SPRC Leader) – wmaskiell@cinci.rr.com – 752-7838

Shawn Young – (Director of Connectivity) – shawn.young@emmanuel-umc.com – 937-725-3339

Or you can call the church at 732-1400.  Lori, the administrator assistant, will be in the office to return your call.  Or you can email lori at lori.upham@emmanuel-umc.com. 

See you this Sunday as we spend one more time considering renewal….  If I don’t see you then, I’ll see you in August.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

Cold Fingers and Free Food

Hello Emmanuel,

When was the last time you had a taste of home-made ice cream?  You know… the kind that is made by cranking the handle until your arm is sore.  I have memories of such.  My grandpa would make ice cream a couple of times every summer and invite me down to help him.  My job in the process was very important (or so he said).  My task was to keep my finger in the hole of the bucket so that the ice water didn’t run out while grandpa cranked the handle.  The feeling of being needed gave me a sense of importance.  So I stuck my finger in the hole of the bucket and waited….

…..and waited…..

….. and waited….

I tried hard not to complain about my finger getting cold and then numb.  I wanted to do my task well and without grumbling about it.  But boy was that ice water cold!!!  And it took grandpa forever to crank. 

In the end it was all worth it.  I got ice cream and my finger never fell off.  Good for me!!!

This Sunday, June 23^rd, from 2:00 until 4:00, you will have a chance to share ice cream with us.  Everyone is invited to the Young at Heart event, sponsored by the Small Groups Ministry Team.  You are also invited to make a home-made pie if you so desire, and share that as well.  We are going to play bingo too!  (and rumor has it, maybe a little euchre).

But wait!!!!   There is even more!!!!   We will be talking about the launch of an exciting new ministry.  We are calling it ‘Family and Elder Care Ministry’.  Tiffany McGuire and other healthcare workers are feeling the Call to use their gifts to help families of the church.  We feel it is important to find ways to care for people of all ages within the church. This new ministry expands how we can care for our Senior Blessings and for the caregivers as well.

We will be speaking more on this new ministry this coming Sunday on June 23^rd during the Young at Heart event.  Please come!!  It will be a good time of fellowship (and cold fingers).

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

Sabbatical, part 3

Hello Emmanuel,

If you pay too much attention to the road, you might forget where you are going.

A couple of weeks ago I shared what I would like to learn while on my 6-week sabbatical (July 1^st-August 11^th).  This week I want to share with you that I want to be reminded what I already learned.  The busyness of church has its ebbs and flows for everyone, but especially for pastors.  I have seasons of the year when I know my calendar will be packed with meetings and conversations which brings with it a certain degree of stress and pressure.  I also have seasons when I know my calendar gets a bit lighter…. Giving me a chance to prepare myself for more meetings and conversations… which bring with it a degree of stress and pressure.

Sabbaticals are often times used for rest and refocus.  This will be my major goal for those 6 weeks.  I don’t want to pay so much attention to the road that I forget where I am going.  My journey in ministry has been interesting and, at times, rather intense.  The road has seen many different terrains:  smooth and fast; bumpy and slow; twisty and curvy; straight and narrow.  But in the midst of the journey, I don’t want to forget that God is Calling me…. And why He is Calling me.

Another analogy many of you may be familiar with is ‘not seeing the forest for all the trees’.  In other words, sometimes being up close and personal keeps one from seeing the big picture.  My 6 weeks away will be a time for me to stand further back and look at the big picture.  My intentions are to disconnect from my job and reconnect with my Call.  You might see this as a conflict because my job and my Call are seen as one in the same.  However, my point is that I don’t want to see it as a job (a tree).  I want to see it as a Call (a forest).  A job gets me a paycheck.  A Call gives me purpose and connection to the Divine.  The fact that they run parallel with each other is neither here nor there.  I want to keep hearing God say ‘serve Me’.  Sometimes it’s difficult to hear when my job gets in the way.  I hope I’m making sense.  If I don’t, then it isn’t the first time.

So I will be disconnecting for 6 weeks starting July 1^st.  This may seem an impossible task because my personal AND professional life is so intertwined with church.  However, my intentions are to turn off my google mail, refuse to log-on to facebook (though that might prove challenging) and unglue my phone from my hand.  I want to reconnect with Joe Royer without the word ‘Pastor’ in front of his name.  I want to be reminded that God doesn’t call me ‘Pastor Joe’.  (He sometimes just says ‘Hey you!’).

So there will be a strong spiritual component to my sabbatical.  I appreciate all the support that I have already been given by Emmanuel.  Not every congregation would understand the concept of a sabbatical.  But as usual, Emmanuel isn’t a typical congregation. 

In totally different news, the new website is up and running, though it has many bumps to smooth over yet.  You can go to www.emmanuel-umc.com to register and see something new.  Many are registering without incident.  However, if you have issues, you can email Shawn Young (shawn.young@emmanuel-umc.com) and he will help you out.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

From a Frustrated Pastor

Hello Emmanuel,

No need to beat around the bush:  I’m frustrated.  I wish I could point to just one thing, but that would be too easy.  If it was just one thing, then I can either fix the problem or focus on something different that is good and right.  A half a dozen things hit me even before I left the house this morning and none of them good.  Ever feel like a day is simply going to be a no-win proposition?

As I type this, I don’t even know if you are going to get it (unless you read this via the facebook link to blogspot.com).  The google email is down for anyone that has Emmanuel-umc email.  I evidently cannot send or receive emails.  For anyone that knows me, that is a huge issue in how I make contacts and keep church stuff moving.  Now I feel like I’m in a boat in the middle of the ocean with no motor, let alone an oar.

So how do you cope when you have such days?  Here are some ways I cope, in no particular order.  Warning:  these methods are not necessarily constructive.  Don’t copy what the Pastor does:

1.  When I get these kinds of days, my mind regresses to a place of survival.  In other words, I think about the stuff I have to get done and figure out a way to cope the best I can.  For example, I think about going old-school and actually using a phone.  It slows down how many contacts I can make, but again it’s about survival.  I can’t imagine how long it would take for me to read my Monday Morning Pulpit to all of you, one at a time (though maybe a conference call is in order?).

2.  What I also do is get things in perspective.  I try to see my work as just work and not the life and death of the existence of Creation.  I look at the big picture and try to be thankful that my ups and downs don’t really have a major impact on functioning of the Universe.  If I can minimize my importance, I won’t get so stressed out about my failings.  But this coping mechanism isn’t really constructive.  It leads to low self-esteem….. something I don’t like to revisit. 

3.   I get dangerously sarcastic (as opposed to my normal irritating-but-perhaps-a-bit-humorous sarcasm).  Some would define it as grumpiness.  My wife has another word for it, but this is a ‘church document’.  However, if you have some time, look up Numbers 22:24-31.  Sometimes people can be worse than a talking.. uh.. donkey (NIV version is nicer).  I’ve preached it before.  I may again.

I think I’ll stop my own personal list there.  The rest is reserved for my counselor.  Now let me share with you what actually works for me without dragging people down with me. 

4.   You can only control what you can control.  The reality is that you can control very little.  You can control what you say and what you do.  You can control how you react to the uncontrollable things around you, including the many things you don’t know or understand (like Google email).  The rest is either up to other people or up to God. 

Now you might say, ‘that’s it?  That’s all you got, Pastor Joe?’  But what it reminds me is what God calls us to be and do.  God calls us to love when and where we can.  That’s all.  There isn’t anything more in life that God wants us to do.  It’s really simple.  To think that we have the responsibility or Calling to do more is to make life more complicated than God intended.  Making life more complicated is what many of us are really good at.

So hopefully you receive this document someday.  If not, maybe I will have the opportunity to love you at a different place and time.  If not, I will do what I can for whenever I cross paths with someone else.  I invite you to do the same.  Why?  Because it’s really so simple.

God is Good (but Google isn’t)

Pastor Joe