United Methodism 101, Week 2

In the month of January 2013, I'm leading a class on United Methodism 101.  Thank you to the Fairhope UMC Foundations Sunday School Class for hosting me.   

We had a great week 2.  Here are the links for this week:
2. UM Theology, Part 1.  God works in us and through us.  It is God who works in and through us.  We respond to His invitations and His work in the world.  The link to this week's Prezi is here.



Here are the links I mentioned:

• More information on the threefold understanding of Grace--Prevenient, Justifying, Sanctifying--is here.
• More information about Scripture, Reason, Tradition and Experience can be found here.  Remember, Scripture is the central to all these.  The others can be described as ways we interact with Scripture, not superior to Scripture.
• Read the Foundational Documents of The United Methodist Church here.
• You can find the Google eBook version of Ted Campbell's Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials here.

In case you missed it, here are the links for week 1:
1. The People Called...Methodists.  This is a history of who we were, so we know who we are.  We look at the theology in our history.  You can find a link to the Prezi here.
Some other links you might find helpful:

• The United Methodist Church's links about our history arehere.  You'll find expansions on each stage.
• Learn more about our theological heritage here.

Stay tuned for more each week of the class.  I look forward to seeing you Sunday.



I welcome your questions and comments.  Keep them coming!

Social Networking Christmas

I pray that worship at Christmas time has been meaningful for you.
Like me, you may enjoy a look at what the first Christmas may have looked like through Social Networking.  Here's a link to the video we used on the 23rd and 24th.  Merry Christmas, friends.  And on Earth, Peace and Goodwill.

Together at the Lights

Photo from Press-Register

One of my favorite events of the year in Fairhope is the Lighting of the Trees.  If you're new to the community (as many people in our church are each week), you are welcome to come to the event with me.  I'll be the guy with the big, goofy grin on his face.  Here's the way it works.  On the Thursday before Thanksgiving, the city closes the downtown streets.  Large crowds congregate at "The Clock" at the intersection of Fairhope Avenue and Section Street.  The school bands play and the mayor makes a speech.  As the clock strikes 6:00 p.m., he flips a switch and the darkened streets are illuminated in a moment.  A million Christmas lights, which have been carefully placed in the trees alongside the streets, warm the night.  A loud cheer goes up from the crowd and the music begins again.

To some, that may sound like a rather silly thing for all those people to get excited about.  But I guess the thing that I like about it is just that: we all get excited about something together.  A divisive election season will be over.  It will be a few weeks before the Iron Bowl.  And for one evening, we can all come together to get excited about something--even though it may seem silly to some.  We put aside our differences and unite for a small celebration.  People cheer with wonder and awe about the same thing at the same moment.  I'll admit that I don't even look at the lights at first.  I look for the light to shine on our children's faces as they react to the spectacle.

As we head into the holiday season, I wonder if we could find more things like this to get excited about.  What if we came together in the Unity of Christ in the midst of Thanksgiving?  What if we shared that same wonder as we anticipate the coming of the Christ Child?  What if we put aside the competition of gifts and parties and instead celebrated the purity of the Hope of God?

The Lighting of the Trees kicks off the Holiday Season in Fairhope.  Maybe I'll see you downtown that night coming for the same reason I am. Then let's be in worship and study together throughout the Season as we pray that we will let God bring us all together for His purpose today and forevermore.

Hurricane Living

Inland friends sometimes ask what it is like to live on the coast, where we experience hurricanes.  I’ve lived in Kentucky and Illinois and seen floods, ice storms, tornadoes.  I’ve lived in northeast Ohio and seen blizzards.  Each area has its own unique challenges.   I’ve lived on the Gulf Coast for 21 years, over half my life.  Living in an area where hurricanes are a possibility leads us to prepare, much like living in other areas require you to prepare.  We don’t buy rock salt to cover the driveway and snowblowers.  We buy plywood to cover the windows and generators.

My family and I live at least ten miles inland.  We live near woods and fields of cattle and row crops.  Some of those living inland have said that we on the coast get what we deserve when we get a hurricane.  They say that only the wealthy have their second homes on the coast and that it is okay to let them blow away.  I haven’t always found that to the be the case.  Storms (hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes) occur all over the country.  Our neighbors use their homes as their primary (almost exclusively ONLY) residence.  Our neighbors are firemen, teachers, WWII vets, farmers, and landscapers.  They are hardworking, caring, good people.  Hardly would we consider our homes expendable.  Living in a hurricane area is just a part of life for us.

Over the years you accumulate things.  One year you buy a generator.  Another year you buy some plywood to cover the windows.  Another year you actually cut them to fit the doors and windows.  You keep your stash of flashlights, lanterns, and batteries handy.

With each storm you accumulate stories.  You remember the places you rode out the storm, the times you evacuated, the times you WISHED you had evacuated and that times you wished you had stayed put.  You remember the storms by how old the children were or when Grandma came over to ride it out with you.  These events become a part of our family history.  

Hurricanes are often large and unpredictable.  Forecasting their landfall and intensity is difficult.  When one enters the Gulf of Mexico, those of us living on the hundreds of miles of coastline must be prepared.  Even small changes can mean a big difference.  Isaac had rain bands some 350 miles across.  We were on the outside edge of those bands.  If Isaac moved 25 miles to the east, it would mean that several more inches of rain fell upon our homes and land, not Mobile Bay.  So an adjustment of less than 10% can mean the difference between a drizzly, breezy day and downed trees, power lines, and significant flooding.

Therefore, we prepare.  For Isaac we were expecting a storm with winds of at least 115mph.  A week ago, the forecast was for it to go far to the east of us.  That would put us on the “good” side. When you’re on the west side of the storm, the rains and winds are much quieter.  As the week progressed, the forecast track moved west.  For a day or so, the forecast track put the eye of the storm passing over our home.  But the forecast track kept moving west.  That puts us on the “bad” side.  When you’re on the east side the rain, winds, and possibility for tornadoes all greatly increase.

At the church, we put our plan into action.  We secured the facility.  We called our “sensitive” populations.  The governor declared a state of emergency and ordered evacuations.  Schools closed for three days.  People move into a strange state of motion.  The stores are quickly emptied of bread, water, canned meat, peanut butter, paper products, batteries, and snack foods. (As a side note, our family always buys ice cream at this point.  That way if the power goes out, we have to eat the whole carton immediately, lest it should melt.)

The news people tell you to fill your car with gas.  On your way to fill up you see several boats on trailers headed inland.  You may find stations out of gas.  When you find gas, you may wait in line behind someone filling up several cans.  Maybe it is for their generator or maybe it is for peace of mind.

Our family seeks to move with calm through the process.  We clear the yard and porch of lightweight items.  We help our neighbors and friends.  We get the animals settled.  As we work, a foreshadowing breeze creates a whisper through the surrounding pine trees, and we take one more look around before we head into the house.  Later we will poke our heads out between bands of rain coming on shore, when the wind the will howl through those same pines.

Despite all the ills of the storms, I love the family time the storm creates for us.  It is almost as if we are being pressed inward, from all sides, to be together.  We do those projects we’ve been meaning to get ‘round to for a while: we clean out a closet or two, I get that old reel cleaned and reassembled, we play games together, we watch classic movies, we go splash in the puddles.  The space of family time is our calm in the storm.  
We don’t really turn on the television very much.  The repetition and the hype seem to steal something from our solace.   This solace remains constant in the time between the bands when the winds and rain is calm or when the rain blows horizontally through those pine boughs.

Kevin Stokes and Tony Wood wrote a song that reminds us that sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes He calms His children.  No matter where we are, storms will rage around us.  I pray for one or the other for my neighbors and for all those affected.  Sometimes, late at night when I hear the winds blow from inside may warm and dry home, I close my eyes and I see the children I met in Haiti.  I see the tent and tarps they lived in and hear the winds blow around me.  This is the same storm they saw but a few days before I did.  Did they pray that God would calm them or calm the storm?

When the storm is over, like turtles poking our heads out of our shells, we take a look around.  We check on one another.  We see how we can help.  Storms are a part of life.  Jesus reminded us that troubles will come.  However, he never leaves us nor forsakes us before, during, or after those storms.  He calls us to be the arms of compassion to those affected: firemen and farmers on the Gulf Coast, or orphans in Haiti.  When we are affected by the same storm, it seems like the differences between us fade away a little more.  He calls us to remind them all of His promise, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”