The Fall Festival

Last night Catawba UMC held a fall festival for the community.  We had free hot dogs, games, hay rides, trunk-or-treating, door prizes, a silent auction, Bingo, a costume contest and whole lot of chaotic fun!

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment!  I'm so glad the "Holey Ghost" decided to show up at our fall festival!

In the Dust of the Rabbi

We have been doing the Ray Vanderlaan Faith Lessons Bible study called In the Dust of the Rabbi on Wednesday nights at Catawba UMC and I have really enjoyed the series. 

The idea up to this piont is that discipleship is all about being like the rabbi.  It's not enough to know about the rabbi or to learn the rabbi's teachings or to be with the rabbi.  The whole purpose of discipleship is to be like the rabbi.

Jesus is a different kind of rabbi in that he chose fisherman and tax collectors and doubters and betrayers to be his disciples.  He chose people that didn't have what it took to be the disciple of any other rabbi.  Jesus chose his disciples and said in essence "I believe and trust in you enough to be the kind of disciples that make other disciples who are like me."

It's nice to know that Jesus believes in me even when I don't.

Images of God

We think all kinds of things about God.  Each one of us may use similar words to describe God but we each may mean something a little bit different by those same words.  If you had good parents, your image of God may be different that if you had abusive or distant or altogether absent parents.  Your image of God will be affected by whether or not you were raised in the church and just as much by what church you were raised in.

Our image of God is absolutely essential to knowing God.

C.S. Lewis said "I don't want my image of God, I want God."

This message series will be based on the book by Jarrett Stevens The Deity Formerly Known as God.  Which Stevens intends as an update to the book by J.B. Phillips titled Your God is too Small.




The idea of the series will be to take a look at the kind of pictures the Bible paints of God.  To get biblically accurate and faithful images of God so that our God is not one we create in our own minds, but one He presents to us in His word.  The irony of a series like Images of God is to discover not just images of God, but God himself.

Finishing a Series

I always have mixed feelings when we conclude a sermon series.  This Sunday is the last message in the series Pastor's Favorites: Movies.  This Sunday we will be looking at a children's animated movie.  The text will be from Luke 15:1-10.  Can you guess the movie?

Anyway, the mixed feelings are due to the sadness of being done with the series and the excitement over the next series. 

I think our next series will be an excellent pre-cursor to our Christmas celebrations.  Our next series will be called Images of God and center around unhealthy and unbiblical images of God and healthy and biblical images of God.

I look forward to it and I hope you do to...but first, we have to talk about the final movie in Pastor's Favorites: Movies.

Current Series

Every year I will plan to do a message series called Pastor's Favorites which will give people a glimpse into my little world and give me a bucket-full of ideas to choose from.

Last year the series was Pastor's Favorites: Scriptures.  This year we are currently in a series called Pastor's Favorites: Movies.  The first two movies were The Matrix and Remember the Titans.

I have found that I have a lot energy around these messages.

I've enjoyed re-watching the movies and paying attention to themes and messages that connect to our faith. 

The next movie in the series is a comedy.  It was not nearly as successful or as inspiring as The Matrix or Remember the Titans, however, it is just as relevant to our faith.

Vacation

I was on vacation from the 8th to the 14th of this month.  We spent two days in Colonial Williamsburg and two days at Busch Gardens and two days between the beach and two museums.

The weather was perfect and we had a blast.  The hilight for me  (besides spending time with the family of course) was the roller coaster The Griffon at Busch Gardens.

 

When you get on the Griffon there is a floor under you.  Before the coaster pulls out, the floor drops and your feet are dangling.  It creates a thrilling and frightening feeling.  The first drop is straight down and before you drop you dangle for 5 seconds.  The coasters momentum carries you it at speeds of over 70mph.  Also, because it's newer, it's a smooth ride. 

The most important thing about family vacations is the memories.  I know we made some good ones and I look forward to talking about it with my wife and children as the years continue to go by.

 

Bucket or a Pipe

We are in a message series at Catawba UMC called The Three.  The idea of the series is based on what makes a person a person. And if you think about it, the three things that makes a person a person is thinking, feeling and doing.   The series has focused on what it would look like if we submitted each of these areas of our lives (our thinking, our feeling and our doing) to our creator.

Yesterday the message was titled "Doing."

The scripture was James 2:14-26 where James is communicating clearly that faith is about more than just what you believe.  Jame's point is that faith is equally about what you do as well.  Maybe one way to put it is that faith in Jesus Christ saves you and good works done in His name keep you saved.   

The illustration I used was the contrast between a Bucket-like faith and a Pipe-like faith. A bucket's purpose is to hold something. It just sits there. A pipe's purpose is to carry something from one place to another. I asked the question, is your faith a bucket-like faith or pipe-like faith?

Water in a bucket either evaporates or it just gets nasty from just sitting there. Water that is moving is fresh and clean and drinkable. Is your faith like a bucket? Do you just hold to the good things God has done:

-You know God's love...but you aren't showing it to others.
-You believe God has forgiven you...but you aren't willing to forgive when you've been done wrong.
-You have hope for all of eternity...but it's your hope and your not about to share it with others.

Paul says that kind of faith is dead. It's like water in a bucket. It either evaporates and the bucket no longer has a purpose. Or it gets nasty and unuseable.

God is good at resurrection. So if your faith is dead, God can use a pipe and syphon out that hope, that love, that forgiveness and all the other good things of God and allow you to become a conduit of His goodness so that your life honors God and blesses others.

So may your faith be a pipe-like faith and not a bucket-like faith.

If you want to hear the full sermon, you can check it out in the sermon player at the bottom of this blog.