Lakeside Again.... Yea?

Hello Emmanuel,

As I prepare for another West Ohio Annual Conference at Lakeside, my feelings are mixed as usual.  Certainly, from a personal standpoint, there are the traditional family things that we do:  ice cream, shuffleboard, ice  cream, kite flying, ice cream, throwing rock in Lake Erie and the ever-popular ice cream. 

However, conference is more than that.  It is meeting together as 1,100 churches and deciding on what God wants us to do.  And if history is any indication, we will agree some and disagree a lot.  Yes, we will worship and, yes, we will pray together.  And, yes, we will debate.  It’s the latter that I often do not look forward.

It isn’t that I don’t like to debate.  Indeed, I really like to debate…. But only when it is for constructive reasons.  Most of the reasons to debate don’t necessarily entail construction.  People sometimes debate because they want to be right or want to gain influence/power or just like the rush of winning an argument.  These things don’t excite me.

It’s no huge secret that my attendance at legislative session is… ummm… inconsistent.  This isn’t an arbitrative decision on my part.  After about 10 years of my 20 years of conferencing, I decided that I was doing to spend my time debating things that directly impact what God wants me to do.  If the session isn’t going to impact how I am a leader in the Church, then what other constructive reasons are there to sit for 5 hours listening and considering?

I invite you to pray for conference this year.  Pray that our time is wisely spent.  This does not include spending 45 minutes figuring out what kind of letter to send our congressman or spending an hour debating who we should love or thinking over the difference of a 17 million dollar budget versus a 16.8 million dollar budget.  Constructive conferencing should include how to create and sustain a process/organization that is called to help people follow Jesus more closely and make more disciples that follow Jesus more closely.  Constructive conferencing should entail how to enliven a Church that has been dying for the last 40 years.  How do we stay culturally relevant?  How do we rid the gap between apathetic agnostics and faithful believers? 

When I call a meeting at church, I don’t do it lightly.  People are busy doing important things.  So the meeting better be important.  Likewise, I hope that this 4 day meeting is important.  I will gladly sit and listen.  Otherwise, I just might go fly a kite.

Be in prayer for West Ohio and the United Methodist Church

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

The Privilege of Being Your Pastor

Hello Emmanuel,

As I walk with you in a faith-filled journey, I have the unique perspective of watching your stories unfold, even when few others see what is happening.  I see it as an honor and am humbled by it.  I also don’t take for granted the trust that is involved in allowing me the privilege of walking with you. 

I get to see your joys.  One of the little rewards of my Call is to see your authentic smiles when they appear.  The birth of a child; a baptism; a graduation; a bill of good health; a thank-you—these are moments that fuel me and help me have a glad day.  Some of you are having good days right now.  Cherish them.  I believe God sends them to us for reasons beyond just the reasons themselves.  He helps us build momentum to get over the next mountain.  Take full advantage.

I also get to see your sadness.  The story of Emmanuel is never one-sided.  I know many of the struggles some of you are having on this very day.  At times it even goes beyond sadness to angst…. Or a sort of a deep heartache that seemingly no one can fix.  Perhaps worse are those moments that could be fixed, but perhaps will not be.  I pray for you today.

I also see your anger, comfort, frustration, relief, hope, embarrassment and love.  I know I don’t see it all, but I am still honored when you trust me and let me be a part of your faith journey.  And while I, too, have my various events in life, I am content to continue walking with you.  For me, that is the essence of community for which we were all made. 

So whether you are happy or sad today, consider the big picture and now that you are loved.  No single event in a person’s day defines them, even if it feels like it at the time.  What defines us is how we walk our journey and with whom we walk.  Over the course of time, that is how we are defined.

May God walk with you.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

A Wonderful Yucky Day

Hello Emmanuel,

Happy rainy, yucky Monday.  I admit, I don’t relate with a lot of people and their perspective on Mondays.  My work week doesn’t start on Monday.  I’m not sure when it starts.  Sunday?  Wednesday?  I guess it depends on what my week entails.  Either way, I know most normal people see Monday as the beginning of another week of working to pay off bills. 

Still, that doesn’t mean it can’t be a happy one.  Consider that, on Monday, the week is still a blank slate.  You have some influence on how it will go.  By Wednesday or Thursday, you will have already decided how your week has gone and there is no changing that.  But today?  Today you get the opportunity to try and make your week go as well as you can.  Be optimistic.

Optimism is something I had to learn.  It wasn’t a default in our home or community growing up.  If I were honest, I’d admit that I initially decided to be optimistic in order to rebel against the negative status quo.  Once I learned that optimism had its own perks, I stuck with it.  Then I became a pastor…. Hmmmm…

I saw in a recent blog that pastoring is a highly discouraging career.  I won’t disagree, however I don’t think that is so unlike other professions.  It’s too easy for many working people to become the abject pessimist around their work for various reasons:  people don’t think; the job doesn’t pay; there is no room to grow; it’s boring; the boss is bossy; the work place is a mess; someone stole my lunch….. blah, blah, blah.

But it’s Monday.  No one has yet decided how your week will go.  And while you may not have much to say about what happens around you, you have everything to say about your attitude.  Think like God has been good to you.  Walk like God has been good to you.  Talk like God has been good to you.  Live like it.  You might be surprised.  You might become someone’s ray of sunshine on a gray, wet, yucky Monday. 

Besides, God HAS been good to you.  Isn’t that all the reason you need to be the optimist?

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

6 x 6 x 100

Hello Emmanuel,

The word for the day is ‘empower’.

I used to think that one of my many tasks as a pastor was to empower people.  It was enjoyable for me to help someone help themselves.  And then I found something even better.  I discovered the enjoyment of empowering people to empower people.  When I was able to help people help other people to help themselves, I found I could multiply the ministry of the Good News.  Wow!

And now I’ve been trying to add another layer:  empower people to empower people to empower people.  It really isn’t as complicated as it sounds.  I just help people to help people so they can help other people help themselves.  The effects of such a task can be incredibly rewarding.  For example….

If I invite you to buy a pencil and bring it to church on Sunday and then we take that pencil and give it to a teacher.  And then that teacher gives it to a student.  Then that student can help themselves by doing their school work and learn how to learn. 

And what if it wasn’t just 1 pencil, but a pack of 6 pencils?  And not just 1 pack, but 6 packs (of pencils, that is).  And what if we don’t just give 6 packs to 1 teacher, but 6 packs (of pencils, that is) to 6 teachers, who can then help 36 students each to help themselves.  That’s 36 x 6…. Ummm….  216 Students????

And what if it wasn’t just you, but 100 people who did this…. And helped not 6 teachers, 60 teachers?  Let’s see…. 100 people x 6 packs (of pencils, that is) = 600 packs or 3,600 pencils. 

I wonder how many pencils are used in a typical elementary class.  How many classes does 3,600 pencils help?  How many teachers does that empower? 

True, it’s just a pencil, but ask a teacher how important a pencil is.  They’ll tell you.

I invite you to bring a pencil to church.  I want to empower you to empower others to empower others to help themselves. 

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

Word For The Day Is....

Hello Emmanuel,

The word for the day is ‘blah’.  Ever have those moments when you just feel like you are going through the motions for no apparent reason other than there is nothing else to do?  It sort has that feel of ‘Groundhog Day’, for you Bill Murray fans.  I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I have those moments and today is one of them. 

Every time I have this feeling, I find myself asking the all-important questions of my existence (is this a mid-life crisis thing?).  Who am I?  What is my purpose?  What is God’s intentions for my life?  These questions always bring me back around and I, once again, start feeling like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.  I don’t always know why, except to say that I know what I know and I don’t know what I don’t know.  Therefore, could my conclusion be anything else?

Now maybe some of you don’t want such a deep philosophical MMP to start your week.  I would like to avoid it myself.  However, my ‘blah’ days give me little choice.  I am driven to find deeper meanings in life and I hope you are too.  We are not just creatures with instinct only.  We have the self-awareness to go beneath the surface of just surviving and delve into the realm of things like progress and fulfillment and productivity.

And then there is our faith in a high power.  At worst, we think there might be a possibility that we are not alone in the universe.  At best, we believe it with our whole soul.  And believing in God prompts us to ask those big questions that transcend any blah day and take us to a divine place that refuses to let us ever think life is just a bunch of motions.

Think deep.  Believe deep.  What you might think is a normal, average, blah day is a day that is full of life and opportunity.  God has something for you today.  Don’t let your apathy keep you from seeing it.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

Holy Headaches

Hello Emmanuel,

I have a headache.  I’m sure it is no fault of any of you.  That isn’t to say that pastors don’t get headaches because crazy church people.  It’s just that all of you are rarely… I mean… never crazy.  Still, my head hurts.

I can’t always identify why I get a headache.  They say that stress can play a big role, but I find that, for me, it is often the weather.  Specifically, rainy and cool weather will do it.  I think it has something to do with the barometric pressure.  I don’t know.  I’m no scientist.  I just know when my head hurts.  (and, by the way, my knee aches in late October too).

I wonder if God ever gets a headache.  Not physically speaking, but metaphorically I wonder if he puts His hand to His forehead, squeezes His eyes closed and massages His temples.  And, if so, are any of us to blame?  Does God get stressed?  And from whence does His stress originate?

Adam and Eve ate the fruit.  Ever since then, we have our moments when we might get a little overly ambitious or think we know better when we don’t.  Then we play the ‘oops’ card and that is when I imagine God massaging His temple. 

As we continue the Easter season, it continues to be a season for resurrection.  Living new life is more than just starting over, it is learning to live more godly lives based off of all our ‘oops’ moments.  It isn’t just getting a fresh start.  It is getting an opportunity for a fresher life.  Learn from your mistakes.  Be intentional about doing better next time.  Say ‘thank you’ to God by saying more loving words; being gentler with your actions; having more awareness that God is sitting next to you; planning for a more godly future.

What can you do today that will make God’s headache a little less painful?  Go do it.  There is a good chance you’ll help someone else’s headache too.  And it might be mine.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

New Life on Opening Day

Hello Emmanuel,

Today isn’t a national holiday, but it is a local one.  The Reds start a new season, albeit without a super positive outlook.  Opening Day, however, is a day that I have always looked forward to, dating way back to my childhood when I would run home from school to catch the last 3 innings or so (skipping school was always a secret option of mine, but not one I dared to risk).

Baseball has always been a big part of my life.  The diamond was a sanctuary for me, of sorts.  It was a place I could escape all of life’s other complications.  To be able to only focus on the game was a breath of fresh air.  And ever since then, baseball has been a reminder of sanctuary.

The Easter season is a season of sanctuaries.  It starts with the empty tomb, a place where you can escape the grasp of death and hope for life.  However, Easter doesn’t stop at the tomb.  As stated in the current sermons series, hoping for life should turn into pursuing life.  Witnessing resurrection should turn into being resurrected, not for some future event, but starting right now.  Where is your sanctuary now?  And how are you taking advantage of new life in Christ?

There are many ways to live into resurrection.  We have already discussed community and spiritual wellbeing.  I invite you to attend throughout April as we discuss other areas of livelihood that, for some, need resurrection.  I invite you to come to Emmanuel’s sanctuary and focus on the Christ.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

P.S.  For anyone who may be interested, the Care Team is looking for someone to visit the Senior Blessings in April.  Contact Bonnie Honchel at 752-4052 or 259-6995.