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7/27/2015 0 Comments The Lighthouse - July 27, 2015 The Right People at the Right TimeCourtney and I are celebrating our tenth anniversary. This month also marked my tenth anniversary in pastoral ministry. In fact, Courtney and I began our ministries just a month before we got married. Sometimes we are asked how it feels to go separate directions on Sunday mornings and not to be able to worship together. Our answer has always been that we don't know any different - that's how our marriage began, and it's what we've been doing since! I still remember starting out at our tiny little churches ten years ago. I pastored a small, dwindling, but loving and faithful congregation in a declining small town, and Courtney pastored a four-point charge in crossroad communities in the neighboring county. I have always suspected that the bishop figured that she was four times as good as I was and gave her four times as many churches to serve! As I look back, I am thankful for those five little churches and their patience and grace with us. We were learning how to pastor, how to be married, and how to balance it out all at the same time, and I am sure we made many mistakes along the way. Oh, those poor folks, what they must have endured! Those folks, however, forgave us our missteps and taught us how to be the pastors we have become today. I am thankful to God for them and for the patience God gave them in ministering to us. God has a way of bringing the right people into our lives at the right time, and I believe that God put the two of us in a place to be surrounded by loving people right when we needed it. May God lead the right people to share the grace and love you need into your life today! Blessings on the journey, Jim Meeting Jesus - A New Worship Series This Sunday, we begin a new series in worship - Meeting Jesus. Over the next few weeks, we will hear stories of a wide variety of people from the Gospel of Luke as they meet Jesus for the first time. As we hear their stories, we will reflect on how we ourselves first met Jesus and times when we met Jesus again as if for the first time, and we will explore how their stories help us to understand our own. First up this week we travel to the banks of the Sea of Galilee to see Jesus' first disciples - Peter, James, and John - as they meet this stranger who shows up unexpectedly. They are simple fishermen going about their business of washing their nets after an unsuccessful outing when Jesus jumps in their boat, teaches a crowd, and then calls them to fish for people (Luke 5:1-11). What does Jesus call us to do when we first meet him? How should we follow him? Join us this Sunday as we meet Jesus who "Called" us along life's journey!
Living in Community
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7/22/2015 0 Comments The Lighthouse - July 22, 2015ConnectedThis past week, we had a large number of boys (in addition to one girl serving as counselor in training) who spent the week at Camp Overlook. Zach and Hunter were among the ones who went, and they had a fantastic week. On the ride home from picking them up, we, of course, got the run down of all the fun things - and a couple of not so fun ones, too - that had happened over the course of the week. The stories were filled with the names of new friends that they had made at camp. To my surprise, the boys were even able to tell us what the home church of several of their new friends were. As I heard them name several congregations on the Harrisonburg and Augusta districts, I thought of the pastors of those churches who are my colleagues in ministry, my brothers and sisters, and I gave thanks for this connection we have in the United Methodist Church. This connection is a wonderful thing. We are never alone in ministry, and together we are able to accomplish so much more. There are times, certainly, when we may not be as keen about this connection we have. There are times when we disagree with our brothers and sisters over decisions to be made. There are times when we may wish we weren't expected to support the denomination's ministries because things are tight here in our own church. Despite these, however, the connection we have with our fellow United Methodists is a good thing. What great things have been accomplished day by day through the power of congregations working together in the name of Jesus Christ. Through our cooperation, we have created and maintained Camp Overlook, a place for our kids to meet God on the mountain. Through our connection, we have built many fine colleges, universities, hospitals, and retirement homes that are places of peace, healing, and growing in this world. Through our combined resources, we have missionaries working around the world in our name to bring the love and grace of Jesus into some of the most impoverished, hopeless communities. Thanks be to God that we are connected with other brothers and sisters all over the world for the ministry of our Lord! Blessings on the journey, Jim
Living in Community
7/14/2015 0 Comments The Lighthouse - July 13, 2015 Taste and See Taste and see that the Lord is good. - Psalm 34:8 For some, it's the juiciness of that first ripe, red tomato sliced and salted for a sandwich; for others, it's the simple deliciousness of an ear of corn grilled to perfection and coated with butter; for still others, it's the delightful sweetness of a tree-ripened peach or a vine-ripened watermelon dripping down your chin. Whatever form it may come in, it is the taste of summer! As for myself, I enjoy all of these flavors of summer, but I would add one more to the mix. It may not surprise some of you that it is the earthy flavor of a pot of fresh green beans, seasoned only with a bit of salt, with a few potatoes thrown in for good measure. There's not much like it - certainly not store-bought cans but not even home-canned comes close to the freshness of beans picked, snapped, and cooked all in a day. Today, we enjoyed our first pot of green beans of the summer, and what a treat it was! The Lord is indeed good to us to give us not only the food we need to live but also the delight in the simple tastes of summer to enjoy. As you enjoy the harvest of your (or your kind neighbor's) garden this summer, taste and see that the Lord is indeed good and rejoice! Blessings on the journey, Jim
Living in Community
7/7/2015 0 Comments The Lighthouse - July 7, 2015 Vacation Bible SchoolIt is difficult to find the words to sum up how awesome Vacation Bible School was this past week. Again this year, we had a fantastic group of kids eager to learn and to have fun, and we had a fabulous team of volunteers who pitched in wherever it was needed to make things happen. Thanks be to God for this opportunity to show so many the love of Jesus! I expect that we have a lot of tired folks this week catching up on chores and such at home (and maybe even a little sleep). So many of you not only gave your time and your talent to VBS but also sacrificed your ability to rest, to enjoy the summer days, and to simply take care of your own business. Your sacrifices for VBS do not go unnoticed or unappreciated. I pray that, even as you made your sacrifices last week, you were blessed by your time with the kids and with other volunteers. I know there are moments that I spent teaching the lesson to the kids that I will remember for a long time because they opened my eyes and taught me even more. Likewise, I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I had to talk with many of you as we passed in the hallway or chatted in gym. I am exhausted this week, but my cup still runneth over with the blessings of a week well-lived. To see some of the highlights of our VBS, check out our VBS 2015 page. To see even more of the wonderful happenings of this past week, check out our picture album on Facebook. As always, blessings on the journey, Pastor Jim
Living in Community
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