Keep Away from Our Church!

                                                                          

I was driving down the road several months ago when I received a phone call.   I took the call wondering if it was something important that needed my attention, and I was right.   I am not very good at doing well more than one thing at a time, so I pulled into a driveway leading to a local church  that was on my route home.  Once I had completed the call, I made a u-turn in the church parking lot and began heading down the road toward home.   About an hour later, I got a call from our local police department.   They asked if I was driving through that church parking lot earlier that day… gave me a description of my car… and asked me what I was doing there.   I  calmly explained to the officer that I had gotten a phone call and wanted to give my full attention to it.   The officer then shared with me that someone had gotten my license tag number and had called the police department reporting that a suspicious car and person was in the church parking lot.   The officer seemed satisfied with my explanation that I had no ill will against the church and we ended the conversation. 

The substance of that phone call has lingered with me perhaps because I pass by that church often as I make my way around our community.   I know for a fact that members of that church invite people to  attend that church regularly because I have received an invitation to attend from some of its members.   I can tell you that the chances of me visiting that church for any event now are probably remote because of that experience with a well-intentioned church member/citizen who was suspicious that I  was sitting in their parking lot for less than 5 minutes.    I certainly do not fault that local police officer who called as he was only doing his job for a concerned citizen, but I do feel hurt that someone would have eagerly wanted me to come into their church parking lot on Sunday morning  but was unhappy or suspicious that I was in their parking lot on a Saturday morning. 

One of the things that I hope Ann and I do when anyone comes to our home is that we greet them warmly and make them feel welcome.    I hope that we bother to take their coats in cold months… offer them a drink or snack… show them a place we can sit and chat…and truly make them feel like we are glad they are there.   On a Saturday morning a few months ago,  I was made to feel that I was not welcome in the parking lot of a local church much less in the building of a church.   Do you and I make people who we do not know welcome into our church building and into our Christian community?   If your church and community of faith is not growing, perhaps the problem is not just “those people” not coming to church but perhaps it is “those people” at the church.  Have  a joy-filled week-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   O God, forgive us for the times we fail to show your love and care to others.   Help us to love one another in not only  what we say, but most of all in what we do;  through Christ our Lord.   Amen. 

Will Our Children Have Faith?

 

What a joy it is to me a grandparent:  to be with grandchildren… to witness their discovery of things in life that so often I take for granted… to  share with them about my life and to have them teach me stuff of life that I had forgotten or have never known.  

Recently, some of our grandchildren attended an event at their church that was not called Vacation Bible School, but it certainly sounded like Vacation Bible School as I knew it as a child.   For several days, our grandchildren went to their church and had fun with friends… enjoyed snacks and play time… and learned more about what it means to follow Jesus.   I was around them shortly after the event and asked them what they had been doing.   One told me how that she learned that God loves her no matter what and there is nothing that we can do that can stop God from loving her.   One of the other grandchildren told us that she had been reading the gospel of Matthew and she was learning a lot about Jesus and it was so fascinating.

As both pastor and grandparent, their experiences at this childrens event gladdened my heart and it reminded me of how important they are in the life of the church and the lives of children.   I can still remember how Vacation Bible School was in my  learning about Jesus as a child.   Though I cannot say that I gave my life to Christ at Vacation Bible School,  I can say that it was a foundation for that commitment to Christ that came a few years later.   I know from experience that it is often hard to recruit volunteers to work with children at events like Vacation Bible School.  Yet, those interactions with two of my grandchildren recently reminded me of how important it is to the spiritual health of children and of future generations.

Years ago when I was in seminary at Duke, one of the professors at Duke, John Westerhoff, wrote a book titled Will Our Children Have Faith.      Often times, their faith is formed not through what takes place in a church sanctuary, but  in a children or youth event like Vacation Bible School.   My grandchildren are worth the effort, and I believe the faith of your children and grandchildren are worth it too.  For their sake and for Christ’s sake, let us teach the children.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER

    God, I thank you for the gift of children in my life and in my community.  Help me to tell them the stories of Jesus in word and deed that they might know you;  Through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

Investing your Time

 

One thing is a book written by Geoff Woods.   If you have not read the book, I encourage to do so.     I had the chance to hear Geoff Woods speak (not in person, but via video) a few months ago.     One of the things Geoff said is that there is a difference in how we spend our time and how we invest our time.   

Time.   It is one of the few things in life that we can spend, but we cannot buy.     This “pandemic time” over the course of recent months has given me a lot of time to think.    As I have mourned the death of people that died related to COVID and the death of people who died from other causes, it has reminded me how precious are people in my life, the time with them, and how precious is the gift of time in general.      

How are you spending your time and how are you investing your time?    All of us may not have funds to invest monies in the stock market, but all of us have the gift of the time right now.   How will you invest your time on this day?     What one thing will be your focus and  your aim this day, this week, and in your life?     We do not get a “do-over” on this gift called life and even in this day.     Psalm 90: 4-6,12 puts it this way:  

⁴ A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.
⁵ Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
    they are like the new grass of the morning:
⁶ In the morning it springs up new,
    but by evening it is dry and withered.
¹² Teach us to number our days,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

How will you invest your time in the gift of this day?    Make it count for the glory of God.   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER

    God, I thank you for the gift of this day and for my life.   Lord, help me to use the gift of time wisely and do it all to honor and glorify you;  through Christ our Lord.   Amen. 

The Missing Leg

 

 

There was an interesting story in the newspaper and on the television news several years ago  about a fella named John Wood.  It seems that a man in Maiden, NC bought a BBQ smoker at a storage facility.  When the man looked inside the smoker, he found something wrapped in paper.  Inside the paper, the man discovered the leg of John Wood.  Reports say that Mr. Wood lost his leg in a 2004 plane crash and saved it because he wanted to be buried a full man.  

That “lost” part of the body is important to John Wood, and parts of the body are important in Christ’s Church.  In I Corinthians 12: 12-20, the apostle Paul compares the church to the human body:   12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.    You are important in the life and ministry of your church.  Without the involvement and ministry of all persons in the body of Christ, the ministry of the church is crippled.   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER

    O Lord and God, I thank you for the gifts and graces you have given me as a part of the body of Christ, the church.  Help me, O Lord, to never think that I do not matter to you and do not matter in the ministry of my church;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.