LOVE NOTES

The universe looks different when you receive a note saying "I love you", doesn't it? The note may have been crudely written and full of misspellings when it was passed to you by the little girl with the curly brown hair in 4th grade, but it made your heart dance. Or it may have been perfectly said, beautifully put together, in the middle of life and it changed the way the world looked to you.

Ella colored a picture for my birthday, and she printed out the word "love" and spelled out "Grandpa." You can imagine what it does for me each time I walk past the refrigerator where the picture and note are displayed.

God sends notes our way. The Bible says the rainbow is a note. The bread and juice of communion are a love note from God. The Bible itself is -for all the passages that are puzzling, so filled with the violence of human armies and the stories of dysfunctional families where siblings don't trust siblings- a love letter from God to the world. Step back from the individual verses a bit, look at the great themes of scripture, and you'll find it is a love letter to the world. "God so loved the world that God gave the world God's Son," the Bible says.

This Sunday morning we will each have an opportunity to leave God a love note. And it's not a "one time" note. It's not a dozen roses that go brown in a week. This love note gets "re-sent" each time you and I make out a check to God's work, or each time an automatic withdrawal is made from our bank account so children are introduced to Jesus, so that teenagers are coached and encouraged in their journey, so that people are nurtured and disciple in small groups, so that persons in the hospital are visited, so that the Wednesday food ministry goes on, so that the Interfaith Winter Shelter keeps happening, so that counseling resources are available to those who are struggling towards new life, so that the world is transformed by worship that is real and beautiful and shaped by the Holy Spirit.

I've learned something along the way of life. Love means showing up. And love means saying it. Don't swallow it the words or the thought...don't keep silent. Don't leave someone guessing about where you are in relationship to them. Put it out there. Make it clear. Be unambiguous.

At the end of worship we'll all be invited to come forward and leave our estimate of giving card (I like calling them "faith promise" cards) in baskets along the communion rail or stage. It's not just a money thing, you know? You're leaving God a love note. And God will get to open that note every week or two throughout the year, and read again of your love...your gladness...your thankfulness.

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Join us in worship this Sunday as we again are blessed by great music, as we rejoice in the grace of God, as we look at the way Jesus turns the world upside-down and as we each have the opportunity to bring our estimate of giving/faith promise cards for 2014 forward at place them in the baskets in the front of the room. Note: we need to hear from you in the next two weeks. At that point we begin putting together our 2014 budget based on your response.

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Sunday school students recently sent notes to people in the church. One child, along with his family, sent me a note that said, "Pastor Mark - thank you for pushing us." I keep that in my Bible so I am always reminded that preaching and leading means loving, and it also means pushing people towards God's preferred future. "Thank you for pushing us."

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark Fenstermacher
Lead Pastor

THE QUESTION LINGERS

Every now and then I pick up a book I read long ago and begin to flip through the pages. It's interesting seeing what notes I wrote in the margins or what questions I scribbled at the bottom of the page.

This afternoon I picked up Richard Foster's book from 1985, Money, Sex & Power: The Challenge of the Disciplined Life. The pages are now yellow at the edges, and I can hear the back of the book creak as I turn the pages. The question Foster asks on page 42 "sticks" now the same way it did long ago when I worked through the book with a group of friends.

Foster points out that the Biblical witness says God owns all things. Everything we have belongs to God. We have it to use for awhile, not just for ourselves but to bless others. The Bible says a portion of the harvest is to be given to the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). Every fiftieth year the economic order was turned upside down during the Jubilee as all debts were forgiven. The land is mine, says God. So the house we live in is God's house, the car we drive is God's car, and the garden we plant is God's garden. Everything reminds us of God.

God's ownership of everything...changes the kind of question we ask in giving, Foster writes. Rather than, "How much of my money should I give to God?" we learn to ask, "How much of God's money should I keep for myself?"

How we ask the question changes how we see "our" money, "our" stuff, and how we give, doesn't it?

How is it that during a children's sermon, when the children are told God gives $1 to us and only asks that we return 10 cents, we smile and the lesson makes perfect sense, but when we look at applying that very same lesson to the income we receive of $25,000 or $50,000 or $145,000 the ten percent looks outrageously large? Why do we smile and nod at the perfect rightness of the lesson of the dollar, but we struggle so to live out the lesson with our resources as adults?

The pages of the book are yellow and brittle, but the question lingers: "How much of God's money should I keep for myself?"

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Join us in worship this Sunday as we again are blessed by great music, as we rejoice in the grace of God with the Lord's Supper, as we explore how God can help change the way we view tough times ("Adding Muscle"), and as we celebrate those saints who have died during the past year.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark Fenstermacher
Lead Pastor

GOING FISHIN' (for servant leaders)

When I read the stories about Jesus taking the disciples fishing, I wonder how the Nazarene feels about people who aren't into fishing. One night on our way to DC I spent an hour wandering around a Cabela's store in West Virginia. I felt like an intruder. My ride of choice is a Miata and not a truck. When I go hunting, it is for a book or an obscure rhythm & blues record or the world's best pork, hard shell taco.

Jesus and his friends went fishing every chance they got, but my last real fishing trip in Alaska ended with a buddy taking shots at salmon with his .22 as we stood by the river. (Should I be telling you this?) I've caught some bluegill, a smallmouth bass, and even helped pull in a whale, but I'm not a fisherman.

And yet...and yet...I'm still fishing. The last several weeks I have been-along with some others on the Lay Leadership Team-making phone calls to people in whom we see a passion for Christ and leadership gifts. I've been sitting down with people asking them to tell me their story. I want to know what they are good at, what strengths they have, and what kinds of Kingdom tasks would energize them.

These have been wonderful conversations! Every single last one has been a blessing. Each and every one of us has an amazing, unique story, you know?

Some say "yes" right away. Some say, "Can I give you an answer later?" One friend said, "I'm not so interested in what you're asking me to do, but I love to bring people together. Create moments where people can connect and become a community." I sat back, sipped my Diet Coke, and then said, "I believe God wants you to help us form a 'Party Team' that will organize a couple of big events each year when we all can come together!" And some say, "This conversation has been so good...but I need to say 'no' right now." So you never know how these conversations are going to go!

You see we're not trying to push people into a "slot." We want to know who people are, we want to know what people care about and we want to know where people's strengths and weaknesses are so that the serving/leadership place is right.

People have asked why we are doing it this way at FUMCB/The Open Door. My response is always the same.

First, we want people to be engaged, proactive leaders. Not reluctant servants who don't really have a passion for their area of service and need to be nudged forward.

Second, we want people to be doing something that energizes them and brings them joy. (Serving as a leader or team member in the church should not drain people of joy, steal their faith, and cause them to love Christ's church less!)

Third, what we are trying to do in the world is important. Lives, communities and nations hang in the balance. As imperfect as it is, the local church is the hope of the world. So God's people deserve creative, gifted, committed, engaged lay leaders!

If we haven't gotten to you, and you would like to see where God could use you in this world-changing, community-blessing community, please call us.

I'm not a fisherman. But I love-love!-inviting people into the adventure of servant leadership. So maybe in my own way I'm standing knee deep in God's mountain stream, reading the water and the light and the rocks, and trying to catch the brown trout....that is you!

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION

"He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ."  

-(Ephesians 4:11-12, The Message)

Dear Friends,

Whether we think about it or not, each of us has the opportunity to contribute every day to God's kingdom. In small ways and big ways, at home and at work, with our friends and with our family, we can act on our faith in accordance with God's gifts to us.

In fact, putting faith into action is a distinctive part of our Methodist tradition and is woven into the fabric of First Church/The Open Door. The Interfaith Winter Shelter, Habitat builds, youth mission trips, and the Wednesday Food Pantry are all examples of our church putting faith into action. But, we know such good works are only possible because of the individual commitment of each and every one of us.

Paul talks about this with the early church. In Ephesians 4:12, he says that God gave each of us different gifts "for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." Paul understood that for the early church to grow, each of Christ's followers would need to grow strong in faith, and work together, to build up Christ's body on earth. That's still true today - we're called to be bodybuilders for Christ!

On Sunday, October 20th, we will kick off this year's annual stewardship campaign - Body Building - with a four-week sermon series about building up the Body of Christ: Keep At It (Oct. 20), All Together Now (Oct. 27), Adding Muscle (Nov. 3), and Forget the Competition (Nov. 10). Through this series we'll be exploring how to strengthen our personal faith and build up the ministries of our church.

On November 10th you will be asked to support building the Body of Christ by pledging your annual financial commitment to the church's work for calendar year 2014. Based on these pledges, we will develop our calendar year 2014 budget, and thus map out the scope of our work through First Church/The Open Door for the coming year.

Thank you in advance for your prayerful consideration of this important decision in your spiritual life, the life of the church and in the lives of all those we serve.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark 

BIG "G" or little "g?"

 

There is a part of the Joshua story in the Hebrew Bible that should be "R-rated" for violence. Some of it is, truthfully, tough to stomach.

However, there is a moment in Chapter 24 that haunts me. Joshua's life is coming to an end and he calls the people of God together. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness they are now settling in the Promised Land.

The veteran leader starts telling stories about how the LORD God YHWH has been with them. Good leaders are, generally, good story tellers. Joshua tells the people how God was with Abram and Sarai on the journey to Canaan from the Euphrates. He reminds them that God sent Moses and Aaron to lead them out of Egyptian bondage. Joshua recalls how God gave the people strength when they faced the entrenched fortress city of Jericho.

Joshua then asks the people to choose which God they will follow. This isn't a "both/and" moment. This is an "either/or" moment. He tells the people to throw away the familiar gods their ancestors worshiped so they can serve the LORD "with all faithfulness."

Our tendency is to want to add the LORD God to a life filled with other loves and allegiances (career, family, power, control, money, nation, religious tradition). We want to have a god (little g) who fits in with the other priorities and likes and fears and addictions we already have. We don't want an upper case God who insists that life is best when we shape all of life around that God's will and way. Life can become a kind of "theological fruit of the month club" where we exchange one god for another based on the date and time and situation. But God has this irritating habit of insisting on being first. "You shall have no other gods before me," Exodus 20:3 says.

The reason God insists on that, I would dare to say, is not because God has ego issues, but because God knows when we worship a golden calf (or golden family, golden career, golden 401.k, golden religion, golden empire, etc.) we wreck ourselves and others.

Someone sent us a question and asked this: "Will our church budget be a 'upper case G God' budget or a 'lower case g god' budget?" I think they are asking if we will be a community that has a God-sized reach, that is robust and strong and reaching out and serving and transforming the world, or will we just try to maintain what we are doing...serving only the people already here?

How that question gets answered is up to you...it's up to each one of us. Because, you see, how we give to God will determine what kind of budget we will have, what kind of outreach we will have, what kinds of people we will reach for God.

The Bloomington Sandwich Company fills up with college students for Jubilee. That's great...and it will cost more money as we reach more students. The Wednesday Pantry will be feeding more people, and that will cost more money. The Emergency Assistance will be key in the months to come, and that will cost more money. We are offering more growth opportunities to our leaders, the FCJ experience is moving on, and both will cost more money. Our Trustees are beginning to look at long deferred maintenance issues with this historic building, and that will cost more money. There is a United Methodist ministry to the poor in Nome, Alaska...and I would love for us to help, but that will cost money. A friend has told me about a great need for clean water wells in Africa. I may join him on a mission trip in February. If we start drilling wells in Africa, that will cost more money.

Who are we?

What will we do?

How will we give?

And will our god be a "lower case g" god or will we throw our hearts and lives and minds (and money) behind an "upper case G" God?

Somehow all those questions are tied together.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark