Expecting

Dear Partners in Ministry,

          EXPECTING "And now, you will conceive....How can this be? .... For nothing will be impossible with God .... Here I am, the servant of the Lord." These snippets from Luke 1 remind us of the wild, amazing, unbelievable conversation between Gabriel and Mary. She was "expecting!"
          Three of our daughters have been expecting since last spring. On December 1 our daughter Sarah delivered our third grandson, Isaac. In the next ten days, Meredith is expected to deliver our seventh granddaughter and in the next twenty days Megan is expected to deliver our eighth and ninth granddaughters (pray for us...and them!). It's great .... if you're a grandparent. But our daughters (and their husbands) have been reminding us of the challenging process of "expecting" .... waiting, preparation, waiting, growing, waiting, excitement, waiting, things changing shape, waiting, birth pangs, waiting, changes of routine, waiting, waves of joy, uncertainty, "letting go and letting God" .... Oh my, the baby is coming! .... WAIT!
          What "new life" are you expecting in your journey, in your church, in your world this Christmas? What has God conceived within your mind and heart...that will change the shape and routines of your life or your church life? What amazing-grace stirrings within you cause you to ask, "How can this be?" .... "Is it possible?"
Is this the time to embrace the work of preparation, the openness to growth, the sense of excitement, the pain of birth pangs, the "Letting go and letting God," and the saying, with Mary, "Here I am, the servant of the Lord," as you and your church expect new life in this Christmas and New Year? It all begins with expecting it to happen and then patiently partnering with God in the New Birth God has for you and your congregation.
Are you expecting?

          NEW BIRTH is wondrously happening in many of our congregations. This fall I visited seventy-five of the Vermont congregations that are now a part of the "new and improved" New England Conference. The Vermont DS (Brigid Farrell), and our conference Lay Leader (Oscar Harrell) joined me in these eight days of visits and the Vermont Lay Leader (Evie Doyon) has also been with us some. What a great adventure .... most recently in the winter wonderland of Vermont snow. There are so many dynamic things to share .... so I will spread them out over the coming e-mail....but here are two for now.

1. HANG OUT A BEDSHEET....At Monkton UMC they have a sheet out in front of the church with spray paint lettering announcing the "Fall Family Program...Let Your Light Shine!" which started in November and is running through December. Casual attire and continental breakfast are included in the invitation for an 8:30-9:45 a.m. family program that features crafts, children's stories, music, and worship .... every Sunday has a different theme. Before hanging the bed sheet out, they had 12-15 average attendance on Sundays, and no Sunday School. Now they are averaging 50 with a great mix of adults and kids...and growing. NOTE: Do not use your same old church sign to promote things .... people will not "see" it unless it is different and stands out. They also put a "sheet sign" about this program on their Scout Troop "Bottle drop" bin near the elementary school in town.
2. BIG SCREEN FOR BIG MISSION....At Mendon UMC, a growing church with about 44 average attendance now, they have put a big flat-screen television on the wall on either side of their lovely 1876 sanctuary. When I saw it I wondered .... are they watching "soaps" or what? No .... they have a big mission of reaching the hearing impaired and deaf. So everything is printed (plus great videos and pictures for everyone) on those big screens. Plus, they are now getting the voice activated software so that the pastor's sermon will be instantly turned into script....and available on laptops for the hearing impaired to read, as the pastor preaches.

          SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING AFTER CHRISTMAS The most effective churches prepare to have great things happening in January (new small groups addressing people’s real needs...unemployment, parenting, grief support, etc ...a sermon series addressed to "seekers"....a creative Sunday School theme for kids). Have an attractive brochure, posters around, and announcement about all of these during the Christmas Eve service(s) when there will be many seekers in worship with you. Have your best greeters, music, preaching, childcare, and parking spaces for the visitors coming Christmas Eve. (And make sure the bathrooms .... if you have them .... are clean and ready.) Invite people to sign in with names and addresses .... and then follow up the week between Christmas and New Years with a note or call. After Christmas is not a "down time" .... it should be an "up time," .... one of our best times as we follow up and give our best to those folks who have been interested enough in spiritual things to come on Christmas Eve.

          WINTER SPA IS COMING Just a reminder, Winter Spa, for pastors and spouses and their kids will be held January 18-20 in Manchester, NH, with Marcia McFee and John Edgar .... and some great fellowship and renewal times. So far there has been an excellent response .... over 125 so far. Even though the deadline has passed (yesterday) you can still register until December 23 at www.neumc.org\winterspa or call Rosemary McNulty at the Conference Center (978-682-7555, ext. 201).

MAY THE BIRTHDAY OF JESUS OPEN THE GIFTS OF REBIRTH-DAYS FOR YOU!

Grace and Peace,

Pete

Imagine

Dear Partners in Ministry,

          IMAGINE NO MALARIA Last week I returned from a meeting of our United Methodist Council of Bishops, Latin American Methodist Bishops, and Bishops from the "Methodist family", but not United Methodist, from around the world.....we now number about 77 million world-wide. Many of those Bishops serve in areas where the majority of Methodists (and others) live in extreme poverty, on less than $1 a day. And many of those areas face severe hunger, undrinkable water, lack of education and health care, and the killer diseases of tuberculosis, HIV-AIDS, and Malaria.
          Many of you have participated in giving to Nothing But Nets ($10 per net) and Imagine No Malaria (providing medicine and treatments) that we United Methodists have been leading in partnership with the National Basketball Association, “Sports Illustrated,” the United Nations, and now many other organizations. Thank you. Thank you......was what we heard from Bishops all over the world.
          Is it making any difference?
          YES!
          The latest report from the UN is that, for the first time, the number of deaths from malaria is declining. Children are being saved. And one Bishop told me that people who are receiving nets from us are asking....."Why do you do this?"...."Because we serve Christ who loves you, and calls us to love each other as ourselves." People are coming to believe in this God of Love and want to be a part of such a community of caring.
          We had this discussion just a few miles from the Panama Canal which symbolizes both a bold project that many thought impossible, as well as the injustices that surrounded tens of thousands of workers who died of malaria in the process of building the canal. Sometimes eradicating malaria seems like an impossible task, but the "project" to save millions of lives is succeeding because, in part, of the bold vision and generous giving of United Methodists like you. Our collective goal as United Methodists is to raise $75 million to combat malaria .... IMAGINE NO MALARIA....will you do your part?

          IMAGINE NO BUILDING....or at least not the building you're in right now. Sunday I had a great time worshipping with our congregations in Williamstown and North Adams, MA. After praying and imagining God's future for them, they have voted to come together as a new congregation and sell both of their existing buildings in preparation for a new future.
          Radical? Well, checking their histories, I discovered that for the first twenty-five years of their history the Williamstown congregation never had a church building! They moved around meeting in homes, the schoolhouse, and the "hall over F.H. Sherman’s store." The North Adams Methodists were also very "movable." They started in one building, moved to another 19 years later, moved to another 28 years after that, and to another 56 years after that.....four different buildings in about 100 years! And why did they move? Most of the time it was to enhance their ability to do ministry in their area. What about your building? Is it the best fit and the best stewardship of resources for ministry today?
          Oh, I know how we ( I ) can get attached to our buildings. They are full of sweet memories. I've lived in seven different houses over the years (not counting the fraternity house which was more like a barn) and had some sadness every time we moved.....but it was the people in our family who really made the "house a home".....and we all moved together.
          In the Williamstown newsletter there was a great quote: "The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we can become." "Behold, God is making all things new."
This can be tough, I know. One of the members of the North Adams church reflected on sitting in the old sanctuary many Sundays and thinking about how wonderful it was.....and how empty it was.....and all the heat that was escaping. She wrote, "I wondered what it was that God wanted us to do. Did He want us to keep pouring money into this building, into heat, etc. or did He want us to be using those funds to be doing His work?" They have made the decision to move into a new future, trusting God, focusing on "God's work." And several said to me Sunday, "It feels good....even though it will be tough in some ways."
          What do you imagine God is saying to your congregation about your building? We have many buildings that are great tools for God's work in our communities....let's keep them, care for them and use them fully as launching pads for ministry and mission in our communities. But then we have some other buildings that......well......you know.......that have become more of a burden than a help for God's work in the 21st century. If you would like to talk about ways to evaluate the usefulness of your building...and options that other churches have found good....at least start the conversation with your District Superintendent and with your congregation. God might surprise you with a new future, too.

STICKER SHOCK: THE FOOTBALL TEAM AND THE LIQUOR STORES While at the Williamstown/North Adams worship Sunday, I met the High School football coach and his wife who are helping in a great effort to address underage drinking in their area. Operation "Sticker Shock" is a project of the Northern Berkshires Communities Coalition "mobilizing for change on alcohol." The coach and members of the football team go into the area liquor stores and ask to put stickers on the bottles and cans that say "HEY YOU! IT'S ILLEGAL TO GIVE MINORS ALCOHOL." It's working. And interestingly, many of the owners of these stores are very cooperative. You may want to try it in your community. Get more information at www.nbccoalition.org/CMCA.
          Because of the devastating effects the use of alcohol can have for so many people in so many areas of life, the United Methodist Church continues to "affirm our long-standing support of abstinence from alcohol as a faithful witness to God's liberating and redeeming love for persons." (2008 Discipline) For the sake of our youth and those millions who are subject to addiction, I invite you to consider an alcohol and drug-free life style as a part of your witness.

ARE YOU ONE OF THE 100% MISSION SHARE CHURCHES? It's amazing how faithful so many of our churches are to Christ's mission throughout New England and around the world through their Mission Share giving. As I looked at the end of October report of our mission giving, here are some amazing things:
Every District is doing better this year that it did last year

• 76 of our churches have already sent in 100% of their Mission Share for 2010....including our church with the highest Mission Share ($73,694) and many of our smallest membership churches.
• 5 churches have already sent in more than 100% of their Mission Share
• 1 church has sent in 946% of its Mission Share....and it's a federated church related to three denominations!

          I continue to be grateful for every United Methodist and every United Methodist Church that does the best they can to be "partners in ministry" through our Mission Shares, which have such a great impact for Christ around the world. Thank you for your faithfulness.

Grace and Peace,

Pete

A Full Fall (Nov. 1, 2010)

Dear Partners in Ministry,

It has been a "fantastically full fall" (say that three times to loosen your jaw)...I have not had an "office day" to do things like Partners in Ministry since Oct. 4th. But the fall has also been full of fantastic experiences of God's ways and wonders. This month's travels have taken me to our denomination's Global Ministries Board meeting, visiting twenty two churches in Vermont, another amazing District Day with laity and clergy doing a "John 3:16 mission walk" out into the community, a District "Alleluia Sunday" with 400 plus in attendance singing, dancing, and testifying to God's transforming work in their lives and churches, preaching in five alive churches in three states, and spending ten days on a Holy Land journey with 55 laity and clergy from the conference (plus, we worked in seeing all eight of our grandchildren one weekend....whew). But "God is good all the time....All the time God is good." Here are just a few highlights:

THE CHINA GIFTS God's Spirit is moving throughout China. Some predict that by 2050, China will have more Christians than any nation on earth....in spite of severe restrictions still imposed by the government on Christian churches. Most "churches" are house churches and cannot be larger than 25 members....but, then maybe that's why the Christian movement is growing so quickly! It's what Wesley did, small groups, primarily led by laity supported by periodic visits from circuit riding preachers, multiplying quickly, with no church buildings to worry about....they met wherever (that's our early history in New England,...and maybe our future, too).

Among the seventeen new missionaries we commissioned at the Global Ministries Board was a Chinese missionary, Fuxia Wang. What a gift she is. Then, while we were in the Holy Land visiting the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, I was preparing for a service of remembering our Baptism using various modes of sprinkling, wading in the Jordan, and immersion. Our guide, who is a Palestinian Christian, was approached by the guide for a Chinese group that was touring the Holy Land also. She said that three of the Chinese tourists had been so moved by what they had seen and heard of Jesus during the touring, that they had become believers and wanted to confess their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and be baptized. Would I be willing to baptize these three men, she asked. The three Chinese men shared with me their faith and their commitment to join one of the Christian house churches when they returned home. With prayers and singing and tears of celebration, they were baptized in the Jordan along with us New Englanders remembering and celebrating our baptisms. Three of our group gave their Bibles to these new brothers in Christ. The Spirit descended upon us all....connected in Christ....one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4). God's gifts are amazing!

THE VERMONT GIFTS Our Conference Lay Leader, Dr. Oscar Harrell, the Vermont District Superintendent, Rev. Brigid Farrell, and I had a great time visiting twenty two of our United Methodist congregations (some federated) in Vermont. The weather was wet and cold (it was snowing in the mountains) but the welcome was "sunny" and warm. Here are just a few of the creative ministries that are happening in these churches:

• An anglo church has started having prayer time at 5:30 a.m. every morning at the church....it has turned their church around, they say.
• One church has a beautiful hand made banner with Jesus, the good shepherd, on it....for each child/adult who is baptized there, a lamb with the person’s name on it is added to the "flock" of lambs around Jesus.
• Several churches offer a free meal to the community every week....and build relationship with those who come.
• A large plant is growing in the sanctuary of one church which is the "family plant".....clippings from it are given to new members or for special occasions.F
• ollowing Jesus' and Wesley's concern for physical health, as well a spiritual health, one church has a multifaceted "health care ministry.".....physical and spiritual.
• Four congregations in one area are doing Disciple Bible Study groups together that draw from all four churches....and strategizing on how to work together more.
• Several other churches are working together on "NIGHT LIGHT", a lively youth gathering one Sunday a month with worship, study, fellowship....youth designed and led. A lot of young people from those churches....and outside the church....are involved.

I continue to be convinced that God has given us abundant gifts of talent, creativity, faith, and passion for the Gospel in the laity and clergy of so many of our churches in the "new" New England Conference. What we need to do is connect more with each other as "partners in ministry" and, as I like to say in these church visits, "listen, learn, and love God together." May God bless you and your congregation as you serve Christ in your community.

I'm "on the road again" from Nov. 1-11 in Panama for the Council of Bishops meeting and meetings with Methodists Bishops from around the world. Pray for us....even as I will continue to pray for you. This is God's work...not ours. Let us trust God to guide and sustain us.

Grace and Peace,

Pete