Category: Newsletter Articles

Grace

On March 24, 2016

In Church Life, Navarre UMC, Newsletter Articles, Theoloical Thoughts, Uncategorized

Later this month, I will have the privilege of teaching at our Conference Licensing School. This is a multi-day school which prepares people to receive their first appointments as pastors in our Conference. In fact, Navarre will host one day of the school.

I will be teaching the class on Wesleyan Theology. In preparing for that class, I was reminded of one of the significant contributions of John Wesley to Evangelical theology; the doctrine of grace.

To be sure every denomination and system of theology has an understanding of grace, but Wesley’s unique contribution has stood the test of time and continues to inspire people.

Grace has been popularly defined as “God’s unmerited favor toward us.” That definition deserves to be pondered over and over. By unmerited we mean that this grace is given without regard to any action or achievement on our part. To merit something is to deserve or be worthy of something. God’s favor is bestowed with complete disregard to the recipient’s worth; you might even say, in spite of the recipient’s worth.

To have favor is to show kindness toward someone. When we stand in someone’s favor we stand in a
privileged position. We could be in that position because we have supported the person or because we have benefited the person in some way.

The idea of grace is that through no worth in ourselves God has bestowed his favor on us. There was (is) nothing in us or about us that would cause God to owe us anything. I like to tell people grace means God likes us and there is nothing we can do about it. John Wesley put it this way:

All the blessings which God hath bestowed upon man, are of his mere grace, bounty, or favour; his
free, undeserved favour; favour altogether undeserved; man having no claim to the least of his mercies.[1]

The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, which is the one official guide of United Methodist doctrine says,

“By grace we mean the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through
the ever-present Holy Spirit.”[2]

That, however, is only the first aspect of grace from a Wesleyan perspective. Wesley said that grace give us the ability to respond to God as well. In other words, God’s favor gives us the ability to do what God requires. Randy Maddox, of Duke Divinity School, calls this “responsible grace.” God gives us the ability to respond and that in turn makes us responsible before God.

Some of the more popular aspects of Wesley’s understanding of grace are found in the ways we experience that grace.

Wesley said that God’s grace works in our lives even before we are conscious of him. We experience this as God’s prevenient grace, the grace that comes before salvation. This grace restores a measure of our free will and a measure of conscience as well. It gives us our first desire to please God. As Randy Maddox would say, it gives us the ability to respond to God.

When we respond to this grace in repentance, God’s grace continues to work in our lives as forgiveness and moves us to accept his pardoning love. Responding to this justifying grace produces a real change in our hearts, we are born again and begin a new relationship with God. We are also given an assurance that we are, in fact, God’s children.

Immediately after the reception of this grace, the Holy Spirit begins to work in our lives leading us to grow in maturity through sanctifying grace. Our experience of grace from this point on leads us to do good works and serve God’s mission in the world with the aim of becoming mature or prefect in
love.

Grace comes to us through many different channels, but some of them Wesley deemed “ordinary means of grace.” These were the normal ways God uses to convey his grace. They included prayer, reading scripture, Holy Communion, Christian fellowship, worship, and fasting. God uses these ordinary means to convey his grace to us. To be sure God is limited in the ways his grace can come to us, but these are the ordinary ways.

We shortly celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, so what do afterwards? I would urge to settle into the ordinary pattern of life by drawing on God’s grace to be come a fully developing follower of Jesus Christ. Seek God out, for if we do he his promise,“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord…” (Jeremiah 29:13–14a [ESV]).

Pastor Alan

[1] John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, Third Edition., vol. 5 (London: Wesleyan Methodist
Book Room, 1872), 7.

[2] United Methodist Publishing House (2013-01-01). The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2012 (Kindle Locations 1806-1807). United Methodist Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

Promises, Promises

By admin

On October 3, 2015

In Church Life, Navarre UMC, Newsletter Articles, Sermons

We are all know about promises. Promises we made or that were made to us. Promises that were broken or that we broke. If our kids or grandkids want to make sure we will do something they will often ask, “Do you promise?” But what is a promise?

Webster’s Dictionary says a promise is, “a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified’” or a “reason to expect something”. When someone promises us to do something or to refrain for doing something we have an expectation that it will happen just as promised.
Often a promise is all that is needed to settle a conflict.

To make a vow is similar to a promise, except it is a much more formal and public way of doing so. We
are all familiar with wedding vows. Those vows are public promises to act in certain ways toward the person we marry. Such promises should not be taken lightly; vows are like that. In our marriage vows we promise to love, honor and cherish our mate as part of our obedience to God.

God and Promises

We really love God’s promises us. He has promised to care for us as he does the birds of the air. He has
promised to welcome us into heaven. He has promised to never leave us.

But what about our promises to God? When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we made many
implied promises. We promised singular allegiance to God. We promised to be faithful and obedient. We promised to give Jesus full reign and veto power in our lives. Wait, what?

In the scriptures, vows made to God are taken very serious indeed:

When a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. — Numbers 30:2

If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not postpone fulfilling it; for the Lord your
God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt. Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your own mouth. — Deuteronomy 23:21–23

When you make a vow toGod, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill whatyou vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and notfulfill it. — Ecclesiastes 5:4–5

God takes vows seriously. But as humans, we often do not. We make promises, give our word, and then back out of those vows if they become difficult or inconvenient. We often break promises and
commitments without a regret in the world. In Psalm 15, one of the marks of a righteous person is that they, “who stand by their oath even to their hurt” (Psalm 15:4c). righteous people keep their promises even when doing so causes them difficulty.

In Disciple Bible Study, Bishop Wilkie gives us the definition of a covenant, a formal vow; it is choosing to be bound in a time of strength, so that in a time of weakness we can not be unbound. That is the way it is with marriage. In front of our friends and relatives, on the happiest day of our lives, we make
promises which many people give witness to. Truth be told, anyone who has attended our wedding has the right to call us on the carpet if we violate our vows, because they witnessed the covenant.

When we baptize our children or become members of the church we make vows to God and the rest of
the congregation reaffirms the vows they made. This is not a light thing; we are making promises to God. In these promises, God has every right to expect us to fulfill our vows, and so do our brothers and sister.

So it is with our vows of membership in the church. First, we declare that we have renounced evil
and sin in our lives. We confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and promise to serve him all our days. We also promise to faithful the the universal church, the body of Christ in every place and represent Jesus everywhere we go. We promise that our loyalty to Christ will be lived out in the context of the United
Methodist Church, as specifically the congregation we are formally joining.

Finally, comes the five vows we take to live out our membership covenant in specific ways; by our
prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. In other words, we are not free to define what church member is, our vows have done that for us. We have promised God and the other members of the church that we will uphold this local expression of the Body of Christ through our heartfelt prayers, our faithful and frequent attendance, our financial gifts, our service, and by bearing witness to the world about the good of God.

So how do we find the strength to fulfill the vows we made? We find that strength in the vows themselves and in our brothers and sisters around us. Every time we think about our church and our vows; every time we hear others take those vows we are reminded of our promises and that gives us strength. Our sisters and brothers in Christ are there to help to, because they also made vows. They can be our source of strength when our is waning.

We also draw strength from God’s grace. In fact it is only by God’s grace that we can keep any of these vows and, as the membership vows state it is all, “according to grace given” us.

In the month of October, we will take a look at these vows in particular and discover the strength and grace they offer to us as we live out our connection to Christ.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alan

“THE CHURCH IS ACTING TOO MUCH LIKE A BUSINESS.”

By admin

On October 18, 2014

In Church Life, Leadership, Navarre UMC, Newsletter Articles

That is a phrase that I hear often in church circles. As I have listened to people who make the statement I usually hear a few different concerns.

The first concern usually happens when accountability is inserted into the culture of the church. When someone expects the church to hold people and groups accountable for their actions or in-actions, some do not like it and want to say the church is not a business.

A second time when this statement is heard is when the church gets so serious about its mission that it deliberately plans for growth. Some believe that ideas like leadership, strategic planning or goal setting belong in the boardroom and not in the church.

Another time when this accusation gets bandied about is when the church institutes processes or policies that people are not used to. For example policies about room use or procedures for scheduling meetings.

Another situation that could prompt someone to make a statement like the above is when church leaders begin to learn best practices from others and try to adapt the principles in their own church.

All of these complaints could be boiled down to two primary ideas: the business card is usually played when a church tries to use it resources to best of its ability or when the church gets purposeful about its mission.

People everywhere have come to expect efficiency and great customer service in every area of their lives. When they go to a department store, they expect to be treated with courtesy and get a fair price on the articles they purchase. Of course, that would not be possible if the store did not expect its employees to be courteous and knowledgeable of the items they stock. If the store did not take care to plan and create a strategy for providing its wares, the customers would nit find the items they had become accustomed to and they would shop somewhere else. If the store did not make efforts to learn from other retailers and nurture its suppliers, its customers would wind up paying much more for their items.

Retailers (and other businesses) work tirelessly to create efficient, well-managed and pleasant environments in which people could buy their stuff. Imagine that! All that work and effort to make money and provide things that will decay and fall apart.

Shouldn’t the church put at least as much effort into making sure the world sees, hears and experiences the greatest news every before heard? Of course we should! Secular businesses spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars just to make money. Church should invest all it can to ensure that people have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and grow in their relationship with God.

I don’t think I could say
it any better that Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. One of Hybels’ senior staff members once presented a case study to the Harvard Business School. As part of the defense of the case study, Bill was invited to come answer questions from the students. During the question and answer session a student made the remark that he didn’t think pastors should blend business practices with spiritual things. Bill took a deep breath, uttered a silent prayer and said:

“You know, I find it very interesting that you’re here in one of the best schools in the history of education, learning the very latest and greatest leadership and management disciplines so that you can graduate from here and join a secular company to help them set records manufacturing and selling widgets, soap, or software. There’s nothing wrong with that. People can benefit from using all that stuff so you might as well do your best to get it into their hands. But still, it’s only stuff. It isn’t going to transform anybody’s life in a deeply significant way. It isn’t going to change the world or determine anybody’s eternal destiny.

“What you have to understand is that some of us church leaders believe to the core of our beings that the local church is the hope of the world. We really believe that. We believe that the church is the only God-anointed agency in society that stewards the transforming message of the love of Christ. We believe that the church addresses every human being’s deepest need. We believe that the church can lead people into a whole new way of living and loving and serving, and can thereby transform society.

“You also need to realize that some of us church leaders live daily with the realization that the eternal destinies of people in our communities hang in the balance. That’s why we are so determined to get our visions right and live out our values and come up with effective strategies. We truly believe that it matters that we attain our goals . It matters that we align our staffs and leverage our resources. We believe that the success or failure of our churches directly affects people’s lives here today and for eternity. We believe this to our depths. We’d take bullets for it.”

I continued, “That’s why we make no apology for learning and applying best practice principles as God leads us in our churches. How could we do otherwise? The church is the hope of the world.” Courageous Leadership (p. 69-70)

Indeed! The church ought to learn all it can about the best practices of the best organizations on the planet and then deploy them for God’s use. Even Israel plundered the Egyptiansas they left for the promised land (Ex 12:36).

The Apprentice

By admin

On October 23, 2010

In Discipleship, Newsletter Articles

I have never watched a full episode of the reality TV show, The Apprentice, but I can imagine the pressures the people are under to perform well. They are each competing for a promising business position. However, being an apprentice was never about competition, it was about learning.

Typically, in medieval Europe, a master craftsman agreed to instruct a young man, to give him shelter, food, and clothing, and to care for him during illness. The apprentice would bind himself to work for the master for a given time. After that time he would become a journeyman, working for a master for wages, or he set up as a master himself. ^{^[1]}

In today’s world an apprenticeship has given way, for the most part, to Vocational Schools, however some highly skilled occupations still employ a modernized version of the system.

Dallas Williard in his book, The Great Omission, says that in fact every Christian should be an apprentice of Jesus. Just as medieval peasants would bind themselves to a master to learn a trade, we are to bind ourselves to Jesus to learn (the meaning of “disciple”) what it means to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God in a fallen world.

Sadly, Willard goes on the say, for many professing Christians today “the assumption is that we can be ‘Christians’ forever and never become disciples” (p. xi). This happens when we talk more about forgiveness than obedience and stresses making a decision for Christ over becoming disciples.

The first disciples were apprentices of their Master, Jesus. They spent time with him every day for about three years and learned who he was and what it meant to submit to the Father in heaven in every area of life. They learned to incorporate the practices of Jesus’ life into theirs. On the day of the Pentecost, those disciples who lived with Jesus and learned from him, were filled with the same Holy Spirit which energized them to act Jesus. They, then began to do what Jesus did.

But how does that happen? It’s not like we can move to Jerusalem and take up residence with Jesus and allow him to teach us. It happens because we do what the first disciples did – spend time with Jesus, incorporate the disciplines of his life into ours and choose obedience over comfort.

In short, if we are to become disciples in deed, instead of disciples in name, we must plan for it. Being a disciple does not happen automatically. Discipleship happens when we deliberately incorporate the disciplines of Jesus’ life into our own lives and grow in obedience to him.

Let me encourage you to not to live the normal Christian life, but to become a disciple, an apprentice of Jesus Christ. Then, go another step and ask, “What can I do to help others do this as well?”

Pastor Alan

^{^[1]} ̌ Paul Lagass and Columbia University, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (New York; Detroit: Columbia University Press; Sold and distributed by Gale Group, 2000).

Back to Basics

By admin

On September 29, 2010

In Newsletter Articles, Woodbine Methodist Church

According to an often repeated story, legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi, once expressed his frustration by stopping practice and saying to his Green Bay Packers something like, “Let’s start at the beginning. Gentlemen, this is a football. These are the yard markers. I’m the coach. You are the players.”

Imagine that. The coach gathered his whole team of professionals who prided themselves in their knowledge of the game, and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Apparently their intimate knowledge of the game was hindering them from actually playing the game.

The same thing can happen in church life. We often get caught up in doing more and more in “ministry” and forget the primary mission. I once heard Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church, say, “Church will naturally drift toward complexity.”

Every now and then we need to return to the basics of following Christ and ask, “What are we to do as a church?” Here it is in a nutshell. And Jesus came and said to them:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make 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. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:18–20)

This passage, known as the “Great Commission” is the primary task of every local church. The United Methodist Church echoed Jesus when it said, “The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” At Woodbine we have characterized that mission as, “Reach out in the name of Jesus, Grow in the likeness of Jesus and Live all for Jesus.”

In Jesus’ words we find not only our mission, but how we are to accomplish that mission as well. We are to make disciples by baptizing and teaching. This means that

disciples are made when people are lead to the point of conversion, where they repent of their sins and confess Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives. It also means that as a church our job does not end there, we are to teach them to obey everything Jesus said. By any standard this is a daunting task. The mission is clear, we are to make disciples.

In the business of church life, however, we can forget our primary mission. We can become so caught up in the various programs of the church that we forget the point of it all: making disciples.

A good number of the leaders of the church have been reading a book entitled Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. This book is all about helping the church stay focused on it’s main mission,– making disciples. If making disciple is the mission of the church then everything the church does should be purposed to move people toward that goal.

I would urge every leader, every member and every person who calls Woodbine home to begin thinking about our primary mission and what it means for us to actually accomplish it. You can begin by reading the book or by coming to our next Leadership Gathering on Friday October 22.

At this gathering we will begin the conversation about what it would mean for us to deliberately focus everything we do on the mission of the church. I will present the basic points of the book, Simple Church, and lead discussions around what it would look like for Woodbine to focus on the mission of the church. Join us for what promises to be one of the most important conversations in the life of our congregation.

Call Sharon in the church office, 995-0007 and put your name on the confirmed list for this gathering, you don’t want to miss it.