Why is Church important

Often these days we hear people say that chuch is not important, because it is enough to be an individual Christian. They say that the week is so filled with activity that Sunday morning is often the only time they have to rest or have "family time." So why is Church important?

First of all we need to understand what we are talking about when we say church. It is not a building, although we do call our building church. Church is you and me, it is people, it is people who believe in the one, but triund God.

We often say that we are going to church and while that may be true in the sense of a building as a destination, when we say that we are going to church what we really should be meaning is that we are going to worship. When we go to worhip we are setting aside time for God, it is one of the ways we give to God. We demonstrate what is important to us by what we spend time on and if God is important we ought to be able to routinely set aside Sabbath worship. But some folks say they can worship by themselves, when and where they want. So why is church important?

Well, individual worship is like anything that we try to do individually, it is hard to stay committed and do it regularly. And if worship is important we want to do it regularly. And the best way to stay committed it to do something with an accountability partner. Jesus understood our propensity to wander and our need for support and that is why he sent his disciples out two by two. So we need church to hold us accountable and to encourage us at the appropriate times.

While others keep us accountable, church has another function that helps. Church reminds us what is important and keeps us focused. Jesus was forever teaching lessons that made no earthly sense (it is in giving that you receive, love your enemies, etc). And often Jesus asked his disciples to do mundane things like donkey detail. And Jesus asked that we give up our life to save it. None of those things are easy, but all are what God calls us to do. Let on our own, we do not gravitate to those kinds of things, we want the comfortable or the easy. So, church keeps us on track.

And while all thest things are important, perhaps a more compelling reason that church is important is that God created it. Yep, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth and spread of the church is what the Book of Acts is about. The last part of the Book of Acts tells how the church spread and you and I are the final chapter of Acts. Today we are writing Acts, chapter 29 as we witness to others and "prepare the way" for others to come to the Lord even as we grow in our own discipleship.

Finally, to those who say I need a family time, I would like to offer an alternative: what better family time is there than to put God in the midst of your relationship and come to worhip and study on a weekely basis?

Blessings for the journey!

Marty

Letting the secret out

Kurtis Braun reminded me this week that I had not let everyone in on the secret about Lent this year. What secret? The one that has the potential to spoil the self-denial of Lent. The season of Lent has more that 40 days. What? We always talk about the 40 days of Lent, so how can that be, what is right? Well, there are 40 days of self-denial in Lent. BUT every Sunday is a feast day! So, Sundays do not count! Therefore, no fasting is required on Sunday! AND if you take out the Sundays during the season of Lent, guess how many days are left? Right, 40!

It is not a question of trying to get over on your own self-denial. It is a recognition of God's grace even in the middle of self-denial. And Sundays should not be interpreted as an opportunity to gorge yourself with the very thing you give up Monday through Saturday, even though that can be a temptation.

I do not know if you have chosen self-denial during this Lenten season or not, but if you did, I pray that it was a meaningful time for you. And if you were attempting a lifetime change with something, I pray that by God's grace you are successful. After tomorrow, just six more days left.

Blessings for the Journey!

Marty

What ya gonna do about it?

          I remember when I was young and learning how to play sports.  Often I would struggle to do things well and get frustrated.  Then my dad would ask me what I was going to do about it?  Was I going to quit, or was I going to work at it and try to get better?  He would always ask if I had done my best.  I hated that question because often I had not practiced like I should have so how could I ever say I had done my best.  And if I said I had not done my best, I knew I had let him down (and I had let myself down even though I did not want to admit it.) and I knew I ought to do something about it.  I ought to try again and do my best.

          Recently we watched the movie Courageous at church.  And I have heard that the response of some of our dads was: "I guess I am not such a hot dad."  Well, in the words of my dad adjusted for the times, "What ya gonna do about it?"
          It is easy to realize you have not done well at something and mope or quit.  But it takes a little something extra to realize you have not done your best and commit to doing better.  At one time, I did not think I had been much of a dad and I decided to do something about it.  I believe I got better at it and think I am seeing some of the fruit of my labors and my love in the young women my daughters are becoming.

          In the words of a TV fitness instructor: "You can do it!"  The question is:  will you choose to?

Blessing for the journey --

Marty

How do they do it?

How do people who do not know the Lord deal with death of a loved one? As I deal with people in the midst of the crisis of a family death I see many different reactions, but often I get asked if I know where their loved one is or will be after they die. The short answer is that I am not the judge, so I do not know. BUT I do know that Jesus promised for those who believe, eternal life awaits. So the real question is: did the one who died believe? In the case of people I know, like Irving Thorpe or Millie Wilkes -- people who I have seen live their faith, love unconditionally, give with extravagant generosity, and forgive with grace -- they are indeed heir to Jesus' promise. And I know that even as modest as Millie was and Irving is, I heard both of them say that they lived with the assurance of where they were and are going.

But what if you do not have that assurance? Well for them, there is hope that our merciful God will intercede and bring them eternal life, or there is nothing and this life is all there is. I have not encountered anyone who is satisfied with the nothing option. So where does the hope come from and how can that hope bloom into assurance? Well, that is pretty easy -- open your heart to the life Jesus is calling you to and believe in him. And I know that is easy to say but the proof is in the doing and that is much harder.

I will never forget the day my grandfather died and my Aunt Sallie was deleriously joyful and praising God. That was the day I thought I knew why they called her crazy Aunt Sallie. But I was oh so wrong. She knew where my grandfather was and even though she hurt for his loss, she rejoiced in the assurance that Jesus had prepared a place for him. I did not understand that then because I had no relationship with God at the time. Oh, I had gone to church and I know all the stories and knew about God but I did not know God. And I hung out with folks who were just like me, so they really could not explain what was going on with my Aunt Sallie either.

One of the great values of church is to have people that have a relationship with God around to support you and encourage you in the good times and in times of crisis -- people like my not-so-crazy Aunt Sallie. Somehow people who know God can find the right thing to say in our times of crisis. They say things that give us hope or keep us from ending with this life being all there is. But without that kind of support, there are too many questions and not enough comforting answers. So the kind of folks we hang out with make a difference too.

So I pray that each of you who may read this will seek a relationship with that will help you through life's difficult times.

Blessings for the journey!

Marty

Do You know the Joy?

I was recently asked about the joy that God brings to our lives and how you know you have it. It seems to me that it is obvious when you have it and I know it comes from opening yourself to a relationship with God and with opening yourself to being a vesel of God's love. I see that joy often. I see it when I see folks like Earl Kemper and Mike Jamison working together on a project for the church. I see it in our youth as they do things like the 30 hour famine. And this past Sunday I saw it in Rosanne Williamson and Gayle Ferrell when they unveiled two new sets of paraments they had made for the sanctuary. That joy carries with it an energy that just makes you glow. If you have not discovered that joy or have not felt it in a while, open your heart and share your gifts and see how that works for you. Lent may be a season of introspection and denial but even in those two actions there can be joy. I pray you will seek it.

Blessings for the journey!

Marty

Rights and Choices

In a recent devotional I read that in our culture we empahasize rights to the point that we have come to insist on them. We insist that our rights are inalienable and God given. And in our rights based society, we seem to have adopted a sense of entitlement. Rights are important in a democracy, but in the Kingdom of God, rights are almost irrelevant.

Those rights based thougths often translate into a right to go to heaven or to be forgiven with no obligation on our own part. It is as though we deserve God's grace, no matter what we believe or what we have done. In other words, we become self-centered instead of God-centered.

We like our freedoms. They are good and God has blessed us with them. But God does not guarantee them as our rights. Our freedoms are gifts from God. And the greatest freedom is our freedom of choice. We can choose to believe in God and live as though we do. We can choose to make God the most important thing in our lives. And we can choose to focus first on ourselves and what we want. But as we choose, we need to remember that our choices will make a difference.

In my experience if we choose to love God and do what he would have us do, then our lives are filled with joy and peace even in the midst of very difficult circumstances. And that is a choice that can make a significant difference in the quality of our lives.

Blessings for the journey!

Marty

Faith -- It is not an occasional sprint, it is a marathon!

If you were going to run a marathon, would you show up on race day without ever having run a race or practicing? If you did, you would not do very well in the marathon. If you were on a sports team, how well to you think you team would do without practicing? If we want to hone our skills in anything, we need to practice. That is the way it is with our relationship with God and with discipleship as well.

Casually working at something or trying to fit it in after all the other things of life are done is not going to get us very far. The Christian life is meant to be something that is practiced, something we dedicate ourselves to, it is something that demands our attention and our focus. Spiritual growth, discipleship, and our relationship with God does not happen by accident. Gotta stop now it is devotional time.

Blessings for the journey!

Marty

Trusting God

In our study on Wednesday we were discussing the question of trusting God and entrusting our lives to God. And the quesiton was: how does that work in your life? The easy answer to the question is: It works well? So I asked: how do you make trust in God work in your life? And it seemed that was another matter.

I think that trusting God has the same issues as trusting another human being. If you are desperate, you will trust almost anyone, anytime. So when life is in turmoil we are not only willing to trust God, we want him to take control and fix things. So what is it that lets us trust God, or anyone for that matter, all the time?

I think it is just like how we begin to trust another person. We don't immediately trust anyone. We get to know them and the more we know them, the more we are willing to tell them until the time comes that we know them so well that they may even know us better than we know ourselves. And I think it works the same way with God. We have got to know him and have a strong and personal relationship with him.

So, when I asked how we do that, several of the people in the class said simultaneously, we get to know God in Bible study. And I think that is exactly right. In Bible study, we hear how God and Jesus encountered humanity and we find ourselves in the story. It is in those times that we begin to understand what God wants from us. And the more we study, the more we pray and as we do those things, we draw closer to God and are therefore more willing to trust all of the time, not just when we are in trouble or things are out of control.

So then how do we literally put our trust in God and entrust our lives to God? Perhaps a way to do that is to start each day seeking God's guidance and asking God to guide us in all we do. Then as we encournter the challenges each day presents, we first seek God's guidance before we do what we think best. We can't anticipate all the possibilities, but God certainly has all the answers if we will just seek them.

Then as we are willing to entrust our lives to God we find that the Holy Spirit begins a transformation in our lives. It is then that we have given our will to God and been willing to be the people he created us to be instead of the people we have fashioned of our own ideas.

So do I know this is right? No, can't say that. But I can say that I have seen it work in many lives, so I am thinking it is a pretty good bet. But the challenge is this, getting to know God is a lifetime thing just as getting to know a member of your family is. So I pray that you will put your trust in God and see what God can do with, through and in you.

Blessings for the journey --

Marty

Are You on Track

When I was young I had an HO guage trainset. I loved playing with my train and had a whole city set up and the train ran in and out through the city. If I ran the train too fast, it jumped off the track. And sometimes I was running to train at the proper speed but it jumped the track because two pieces of the track had gotten separated. For the train to work right, it had to stay on track.
It is the same way with us and our faith. For us to feel the joy and know the peace of life in Christ, we need to stay connected to God's plan and purpose for us. Proverbs 3:5 reminds us to put our full trust in the Lord and not lean on our own understanding, and the Lord will make our paths straight. Sometimes we know what we want to do and we just do it before we even consider what God might have us do. And when we get going that fast, we often find ourselves off track and we wonder why God has abandoned us. Sometimes we tune in and have an idea what God wants us to do, but in the midst of trying to follow what God wants of us, we sometimes have an idea to improve on what God has asked, so we disconnect from God and set our own course. And when we do, we find ourselves getting off track and again we wonder why God abandoned us.
Several times in the past week I have been involved in conversations with folks who have said "I want to do this or I want to do that." In each instance, I have said I understand want you want to do, but the question in my mind is what does God want. We need to listen for God's direction, trust in his plan, and the obey with unquestioning loyalty. And when we do that, God will make our paths straight and we will experience the joy and peace of the life offered in Christ. So, stay on track. Listen for God's direction. Put your full trust in God and trust with your whole heart. And follow God's plan with sincere commitment and obey God with unquestioned loyalty.

Blessing for the journey --

Marty

Awesomeness of God

There is a popular contemporary worship song titled "Awesome God". It is a fun song and it is a great thought. But as much as we might like to sing it and as much as we know that God is awesome, I think as we go through the routine of each day, the awesomeness of God escapes us. I was reminded of this during our Sunday school class this week, during the Disciple class last night, and today during our devotional time.
The wonder of creation with its intricacies and majestic nature is awesome in and of itself, but to think that God created all of it is just beyond my comprehension. Even people who do not believe in God are awed by the miraculous nature of the known universe.
Our devotion today suggested that we try the following exercise when God's awesomeness escapes us. Contemplate the vastness of this creation; then contemplate the amazing details of it; then consider all the things God has done in redemptive history and also in your life. Then realize the awesome truth: The God of all that power, who has done all those things, and who continues to sustain it all, is the God who is watching over you.
Our God is an awesome God!

Day of Reflection

          Today I had the opportunity to reflect on how God has intersected with my life and taken me to places that I did not want to go but places that made an extreme difference in my life.  I wanted to be an orthodontist but ended up as an army officer then a pastor.  I wanted to be a father but that did not work out and I had to settle for being a dad.  I wanted to go to Hawaii and he took me to Misawa, Japan where I adopted my daughters.  I wanted to teach third grade, he wanted me to listen.  I thought my life was ruined when I was divorced and he showed be a new life beyond my wildest expectations.  So many times when I was in the Army he put me in the right place to use the gifts he gave me.  He sent me to Bethel to use the gifts he gave me and to pass on the lessons I had learned in my faith journey.
          Today I wonder how many of us go through life trying to do things our way and being satisfied with what we can forge for ourselves.  It took me a long time to realize that my vision for myself was so limited and so self-centered.  Life is so much different today.  I do not try to please others, or even myself; in what I do I try to please God.  And you know what -- it may seem a daunting task but it is not.  I have begun to realize that there are some things I can do and some things I am not so good at.  And if I can just focus on doing the best I can at all that I do, God will not ask any more of me.
          I wonder how many of us try to be the best persons we can.  I wonder how many of us focus on being the best spouse we can be.  I wonder how many of us focus on being the best parent we can be.  And as we do all that, I wonder if we realize how God is leading us AND how we resist!
          Stay tuned, there will be more to come.

What's up with the discipleship and the relationship with God thing?

Many of us who grew up in church were encouraged or required by our parents to come to Sunday school and church every week and perhaps to even be a part of a youth group.  Our parents were serious about the vows they took when they had us baptized.  They tried to set an example and follow through so we would know about God and church when the time came for us to be in confirmation class and join the church. 

In those days, there were no Sunday children and youth sports.  The stores were all closed because of the “blue laws”.  Sunday was a day when families went to church together in the morning and then enjoyed some time together in the afternoon.  Sunday was set aside for church and family, so we did church and then had family time.  It all seemed to go together quite well.

We learned about the disciples and we were taught that Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.”  In those days, I remember being encouraged to do activities with the church to help people who were less fortunate than we were.  But I am not sure I understood I was supposed to be a disciple, even though my teachers did teach us that we should learn from and do what Jesus did. 

Given all that, I am not so sure why I was surprised a few years ago when I preached about discipleship and several of our members asked me why it was not enough to just be a member.  I equated the vows of membership to the task of discipleship and for some that did not equate at all.  So is it the case that prayers, presence, gifts, service, and now witness were things only to be done on Sunday?  Or are they the essence of the work of a disciple who is following, learning from, and emulating Jesus?

And given all of that it is not surprising when people ask me when things changed such that we are expected to have a relationship with God.  Going to church and Sunday school was what we were taught so why would we think anything more is required?  But the fact is as you read the Bible there is no mistaking what God is wanting and that is a relationship with us.  And in Jesus that relationship became very personal.

So what is up with being concerned about discipleship?  Well, that is what Jesus called us to do.  He said to make disciples in all the world and the fact is: to make one you need to be one.  And as disciples, we are to follow, learn from, and emulate Jesus.  When we do that we grow in our relationship with Jesus. 

Why do we need a close and personal relationship with Jesus?  I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that they have prayed and prayed and not heard an answer from God yet.  First, it is hard to recognize a voice or nudge unless you are familiar with the person.  With God there is no caller ID, you have got to know the voice.  And just one other question.  How would you react to someone who only called on you when they wanted something from you?  The good news is that God is not like us and he keeps reaching out and hoping we will take him up on the offer of real relationship.

So, discipleship and personal relationship are interrelated.  And whether we were taught that or not as young persons, it is what God wants.  And in God’s grace he keeps reaching out to each of us and hoping that we will respond.

Blessings for the journey –

            Marty

What is going on around here?

During my evaluation this year, your Pastor Parish Relations Committee and I examined some statistics concerning our church.  One of those statistics was average worship attendance.  For the last four years our worship attendance has been about the same – right around 155.  That raised the question, are we stagnant?  And the answer is: in some ways we have been.

We wondered what is going on.  Well, it seems to me that many of our longer term members are getting older and are unable to attend regularly.  Because they attend less frequently, they know fewer and fewer of the persons attending, so Bethel has taken on a new feel that they are unaccustomed to.  It seems that our younger couples with children have had their children grow old enough to engage in activities that occur during our worship times.  And it seems that we are all feeling the pressure of the lack of time so, Sunday morning becomes for some a time to sleep in and rest.

Beyond worship there are other indicators that something is adrift.  Many of our studies begin with 12 or 20 participants and have ended with only a handful.  To some of our leaders, it seems that the same people are engaged in everything.  It is almost as if as the church has grown in membership that people have felt like they are not needed so they do not participate.  And there is more talking about people than with people going on.

It is as if we have reached a plateau.  And that is precisely what was described to our leaders two years ago at a leadership retreat.  The leader of that seminar posed that we were standing on the edge and we would either take a step forward or begin a decline.  He posed that thought from the experience of churches our size who have experienced growth like we have and reach the point we have.

But all the news is not bad by any means.  Our youth group has grown by leaps and bounds and is postured to have an increase next year too!  Our worship attendance has grown significantly this year so far.  Our missions team remains aggressive in calling us to serve others.  We still support many local organizations.  And our fiancés have not been in this good a shape since we began our building program a few years back.  By all other measures we are still doing better than most churches our size or bigger.  But God does not ask us to be better than most, he has set us apart and asked us to live a life of love.  Most of us know that if love stagnates it is not good. 

So what do we need to do?  We need to recommit ourselves to becoming disciples.  We need to study – it is a lifelong pursuit.  We need to engage in acts of service – everyone is not called to do everything but everyone should be engaged in something.  And most of all we need to open our hearts to hear what God is calling us to do and be in this community and then set our goals to achieve that calling.

When things are stagnant, people take what could be productive time and use it to worry or to grouse about things.  When things are stagnant, new energy is needed.  This summer we are going to have an offsite meeting to revisit the vision of Bethel and to discern where God is leading us and how we will get there from here.  If you are interested, stay tuned and come join with the church leaders so your voice can be part of what helps us achieve the future God has for us.

Blessings for the journey –

            Marty

What motivates your faith?

I have been noticing that more and more, anger seems to be the emotion that is motivating our society and our individual lives.  As a result, we are becoming more and more polarized as a society and as a church.  Having just preached a sermon about not compromising on our faith, my guess is that some folks are using my words as a reason to strengthen their position regarding their beliefs.  But is that is what is meant by not compromising our faith?

Life seems to have become black and white.  Things all seem to be good or bad, right or wrong.  Shades of gray have faded to white or darkened to black.  Political pundits demonize their opposition.  People search for something wrong with others instead of something right.  It is almost as if people want to fight and want to be angry. 

Freedom of speech seems only to be tolerated when the person speaking agrees with me.  When I was in seminary, I had a few instructors that challenged me because they seemed convinced of positions that I do not hold.  Instead of getting angry and saying they were wrong as many others in my classes did, I chose to research for myself.  So I have learned to appreciate persons who think differently than I do because it is an opportunity to revisit a subject and make up my own mind.

Just listen to the television or the radio.  The words the reporters, commentators, and talk show hosts use are meant to incite, to polarize, or to put a “spin” on the subject matter.  There is little or no balance.  The whole story is rarely portrayed.  And sensationalism rules the day.  It is as if they are trying to create anger that will push people to action.  It as if they are trying to tell you want to believe instead of giving you facts on which to decide what you believe.

Polarizing people and inciting anger, seem like backward strategies to me.  Instead of anger, I am thinking more along the lines of Jesus’ commandment to love God with our whole being and love our neighbor.  Yes, instead of anger, what if love motivated us.  What if thinking like Jesus motivated us?

Jesus sought out the marginalized.  He associated with lepers, Gentiles and yes, even sinners.  He turned the rules of society upside down.  And when he did all those things, he was not trying to create anger, but he did.  The anger was about change; it was about unfulfilled expectations; it was about not having it my way.  The people did not want to compromise their faith.  But what was their faith in?  It was in the established ways of doing things, their own understandings, and in what they wanted for themselves.  Their faith was not in Christ.  So, to say we should not compromise our faith is to say that we should not compromise Christ.

Ask yourself what would Jesus have me do in any given situation?  That is what I think God wants of us and one of the reasons Jesus was incarnate in the first place.  Ask yourself if you have considered both sides of any given situation?  Jesus certainly did and that is why he made so many decisions contrary to society or individual desires.

Perhaps it is time for us to think for ourselves.  Perhaps it is time to read or research to discover both sides of an issue before we let some other influential person make up our minds for us.  Perhaps it is time to pray for discernment before we go off half cocked and angry.  Perhaps things would be better if we just tried to act in love.

Blessings for the journey –

 
            Marty

What is all this "social media" stuff anyway?

Bethel Church has been "online" for over 10 years with our website. We've recently begun to venture into the technology front even further with email mailing lists and having the second service every Sunday available to watch live online. All of these services are great, and will continue to be used here at the church, however a new type of communication has also begun to emerge that can supplement our current communications.

Over the past few years, we have been presented with a lot of new information courtesy of what is known as "social media", which includes things like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter (for detailed descriptions of each, please see the appropriate section below). At their core, all of these things are websites that provide people and businesses with a place to share their thoughts and interests online. These websites disseminate information, whether it be a personal account of someone's latest vacation, or the promotion of an upcoming event at a restaurant and they each foster communities of their own, spurring discussions and comments on what people have shared.

So why am I blogging about this? At my job in Creative Services at the College of William & Mary I work daily with the technologies I mentioned above, we use these social media outlets to share the mission of the College with our community and the general public. Additionally, I have been using these social media sites personally for quite a while. Since I am in Williamsburg, but still want to help out my home church, I volunteer to run and update our website and now I'm starting to explore our church's presence on social media and determine how we can utilize it to the best of its capabilities.

How can we use it?

The church has had a website for many years, way before any of these social media sites were around, and Facebook, blogs and Twitter are the next step in our "online presence." The content shared via social media should supplement, not replace, what is currently offered on our main website.

Since not everyone who is interested in coming to church is able to attend in person, offering a virtual community where folks can learn about our church is a great outreach tool. Through our interactions with each other on these sites we offer a glimpse of the welcoming and loving atmosphere that we strive to offer.

Venturing into these new forms of communication also helps us to keep the church community vibrant with new members, as this is another avenue to explain and explore what we do. With over 500 million users on Facebook, 190 million on Twitter, and an unlimited audience for the blog, this is a huge community of people with whom we can communicate. When you share something on Facebook about the church, it goes to all of your friends (by appearing on their Facebook wall). If your friends find it interesting they will share it with their friends and so on; with just one post we have been able to reach hundreds, even thousands, of people.

Facebook and Twitter are also a great way to provide quick updates within our community. If it's decided the church is closing due to inclement weather, or we want to remind everyone about the UMW breakfast coming up, you will find out that information as soon as it is released, since you can receive updates from Twitter and Facebook on your mobile phones as well as on your computer.

What are they?

Blogs

In the case of blogs, like this one, the author writes an entry, known as a "post," explaining their thoughts on a topic (the term "blog" came from combining the word "web log"). The readers of the post can then share their thoughts by leaving comments, which can spark further discussion and ideas.

There are blogs and blogging communities for just about every topic and interest, and the way that you can keep up with the latest posts on a blog is using what is called "RSS" (which stands for Real Simple Syndication). What RSS allows you to do is to be automatically notified when a new post is made available on a blog, you find out about these new posts by "subscribing" to that blog's RSS feed.

There are many different ways to receive the notifications of the new posts, most popular is what's called an "RSS reader", that acts as your own personal customized newspaper and pulls together all the RSS feeds from all the blogs that you have subscribed to and presents them to you in one place. Popular RSS Readers include Google Reader, iGoogle, FeedDemon, and Bloglines.

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular and wide-spread of the social media "platforms". With Facebook, a person creates an online profile and can indicate other profiles on Facebook that belong to their friends and connect with that person by "friending" them. Facebook users can share photos, videos, website links, and more on their profile and that activity will show up on their friends "Facebook Wall" amongst activity from all the other person's friends.

Businesses, community organizations and non-profits may also create online profiles, but since they are not tied with a particular person they are known as "fan pages" and other users of Facebook can indicate that they support that organization by "liking" the page. Organizations with a fan page communicate with their fans by posting status updates, photos, videos, etc. just like a personal profile, and these updates will show up on the "Wall" of anyone who likes the page. Fan pages can serve as a community-based supplement to an organization's website. We just started a fan page for the church this weekend.

Facebook also offers what are known as "Facebook Groups", which are like "clubs" in the real world, they require you to "join" and then members of that group can interact directly with each other. Any activity on the group's "wall" comes from individual members, and communications within the group are done with Facebook messages. Groups are best for small-scale, personal interactions. Our church Facebook group has been around for over two years.

Twitter

Twitter is similar to blogging, however each of the posts from a person is limited to 140 characters and these posts are automatically shared with other Twitter users who "follow" them. When people post on their Twitter account it is known as "tweeting," these little posts (called "tweets") can range in topic from what the person had for breakfast, to their opinion on the latest news story, or, if the account is a company, advertising a last-minute sale. Twitter has become the fastest way for news to travel, as "tweeting" can easily be done using a mobile phone. We've just started a church Twitter account as well.

What's next

As for how these new social media tools will be featured our current website, you'll see these three logos at the bottom of each page as well as featured on the homepage:

These link to Facebook, Twitter and this blog respectively.

Feel free to explore this crazy thing called social media, check things out, "like" them, leave comments, and sign up for these new services if you are interested, it's a great way to share, connect, and learn from others in a completely new way.

Living our faith, sharing God's love,
Tiffany Broadbent

They Are Playing on Our Fears

More and more I am beginning to understand about the false prophets that the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and then Paul warned about.  Whether it is the sensationalism of news media, persons with a political agenda, or the radicalism of people claiming a biblical mandate, some folks are doing their best to foster their personal agenda by playing on our fears.  And sadly many of us succomb and I believe that happens for a couple of reasons but the main reason is that we don't really know what is right and we are being conditioned to let others tell us what we should believe.  And then there is the issue of who is right if we do listen to all the voices clamoring at us.

We have begun to rely on the news media not only to tell us what has happened, but to interpret it for us.  We have begun to rely on preachers and especially vocal tele-evangelists to tell us what the Bible says and how it applies today.  In both these instances we are getting what is currently called a "spin".  It seems to me that a "spin" is more than an interpretation of events, it is a willful attempt to sway an opinion using events and circumstances to justify an agenda.  It is as if we can no longer think for ourselves, or as if we do not have appropriate knowledge to interpret events for ourselves.

I am reminded of what Mickey Efird says about our knowledge of the Bible.  The Bible is not about what we thought it said, or we wish it said, or that we hope it says.  We need to know what it says or we are at the mercy of those who would interpret it for their own purposes.  Remember, in this country not too many years ago, we used the Bible to justify slavery.  The Bible taken out of context can be a dangerous practice and that is one reason why we need Bible study so that we can not only know what it says, but also begin to understand the context.  When we understand the context and the content, we can better apply the scriptures to our own lives.

I have had people tell me that Mickey Efird is scary because he teaches things they have never heard before.  But I have not heard many folks complain that the "Left Behind" series is scary.  So, what is the difference?  Mickey is trying to bring context to what the Bible says and giving us that information to add it to other teachings to decide for ourselves.  The "Left Behind" series appropriates scripture and tells us what is says for today and we buy it because it is what we have always heard; the agenda -- to sell books!

So, name your fear in this day and time.  Is it a perceived move from democracy to socialism in our country?  Is it acceptance of homosexuality as an approved lifestyle?  Is it terrorism and all that it represents in its many forms?  Today there are a whole lot of folks "spining" those issues and we don't know what to believe.  The purveyors of "spin" play on our fears and advance their own agendas.

John Ortberg's book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have Got to Get Out of the Boat and Max Lucado's book, Fearless are two attempts by Christian writers to get us to address our fears.  In neither of those books is there a spin on an issue.  Both name fear as the reason for our paralysis and suggest we need to address our fears so that we are not ruled by them.  Great idea and no agenda, no "spin"!  

I believe it is time to reclaim responsibility for our lives and our thoughts and our opinions.  But to do that, one of the things we have to do is stop letting others dictate our thoughts and understandings of the circumstances that surround us.  Name your fear and decide to do something about it.  Learn what the Bible says and the context in which it says it.  Stop being lazy and accepting what your favorite news commentator tells you to believe.  Reclaim life, the life God is calling you to not the one "spun" by the world.

Blessing for the journey --

     Marty

Troubled By God Hardening Pharoah's Heart?

God told Moses to tell Pharoah to set his people free.  Moses did what God asked but Pharoah refused.  Then God sent the plagues to try to help Pharoah understand who really was God and therefore to let his people go.  Plague after plague the scripture says that God hardened Pharoah's heart to no avail.  Many folks are troubled that God would harden Pharoah's heart.  Why would a God of love do that?

So what was going on?  We in our day and time can't see beyond the obvious.  What was happening was a competition to demonstrate who really was God.  But even understanding that we are missing a couple of things that people in that day and time would have understood.

The first key is a better translation of the Hebrew word that was originally translated as hardened.  That translation is heavy.  So God made Pharoah's heart heavy.

The second key is an understanding of the Egyptian process of how to get to the afterlife.  (Having lived in Egypt for hundreds of years, the Hebrews knew all the Egyptian customs.)  The Egyptians believed it was a two step process.  The first step was a "justice examination".  The Egyptian god of Justice was symbolized by a feather.  The examination required putting your heart on the justice scale opposite of the feather of justice.  If you had lived a good and just life, your heart would be lighter than a feather and you would go to the next step of getting to the afterlife.

So, God's actions were making Pharoah's heart more and more heavy as he was unjustly holding the Hebrews in Egypt.  And because of that Pharoah was not going to make it to the afterlife.  Therefore, God wins!

So it was not about making Pharoah's heart hard, it was getting heavier.  And all to prove who really was God.  Hopefully that helps!

Have a blessed day!

     Marty

Invitation to Share

This is the first post in what I hope will be a new sharing ministry of Bethel Church.  My intent will be to post thoughts several times a week (some about what is going on and some about thoughts from some of our studies) that might help us to share, grow in faith, and help one another as we move ahead in our faith journey.  My hope is that you will engage in the conversation to get your questions answered and to help us connect more closely with one another.

At convocation last week, one of the ideas that captured my attention was the idea of being consumers or citizens.  Consumers are people who take advantage of what is going on around them for what they can get out of it.  Citizens are a part of what is going on around them and do thier best to contribute.  That is exactly what we are trying to foster at Bethel, a citizenship mentality where people engage by using their gifts to live their faith as a part of the body of Christ, Bethel.

So if you find yourself being invited into something new, give it a try.  As you do, you will engage in ministry, get connected with others, and share in the life of joyful obedience.  Worried about burn out?  Nobody is going to ask you to do everything and those who do are the ones who burn out.  If you are using the gifts God gave you and not tring to be the energizer bunny for God, you are giong to find a new life.

Often what will be asked of you will make no earthly sense but that often happens with God.  But sometimes we wait for the right time or for things to make earthly sense and in the meantime, we are no earthly good.

Come join in ministry and conversation.  Tomorrow's topic -- why did God "harden" Pharoah's heart?  Got another topic you are interested in, just let em know.

Have a blessed day -- Marty

Welcome to the Bethel UMC Blog

Thanks for stopping by our new blog! Here you will find messages from Pastor Marty and other folks in our church family, more information on special events coming up on the church calendar and news from around the church.
If there is something you'd like us to discuss here please leave a message in the comments!
Living Our Faith. Sharing God's Love.
Bethel UMC