Your Help is Needed

Last week as I went into the post office I witnessed something, I had never seen before.

A man was half way in the garbage can. After he came out of it he began to eat half of a sandwich he had found. My daughter and I looked and wonder how could this happen in America.

Jalisa, my daughter, reached in the back seat and gave me some food to share with him. I later thought about the food I left out overnight, the leftovers we threw away, the $102.00 for football tickets plus food and travel and so many others experiences. I realize that God has truly blessed my family and to those who have received much, much is required.

We, as Mississippi United Methodists, have been highly favored by God. I ask you as a part of that blessed community to join me in supporting the struggling community at Africa University. Most of the African American churches apportionment for Africa University is less than twenty dollars. Middlebrook UMC, where I serve as pastor, is a small membership church but we have given our thirty-six dollars to Africa University. The third verse of the African American national anthem is,”..., may we forever stand, true to our God, true to our native land.”

This Christmas let us give a gift in our apportionments to our, native land.

What's Love Got to do With It?

2008 Advent Calendar

Do you remember that old Tina Turner song “What’s love got to do with it?” As we begin our third week of Advent, we find ourselves exploring this very question – what does love have to do with gift giving and receiving, chocolate and candy and other decadent sweets, decorations that glitter and shine, and music that seems to inspire everyone in the ways of merriment and joy?

The truth is, love has everything to do with it! If it were not for love there would not be Christmas. “For God so LOVED the world, that he gave His only beloved Son so that anyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ, was given to us out of God’s love for us.


In this Advent season of waiting and expectation, how are we anticipating this love that comes to us from God above? How are our words and actions motivated by this godly love that has been given unconditionally and freely to us? In what ways do we go out of our way, stop in all of our busyness, and change our course of direction in order to give love to those who are hungry, naked, homeless, in prison, and on the fringes of society?

What’s love got to do with it? You are encouraged to use the daily devotions and activities found within the 2008 Family Advent Calendar offered by the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church to explore this question and its multitude of answers.

More Diverse People

This past week (December 4-7) a training event took place in Mississippi that provided training to pastors and lay missioners who want to be more involved and intentional in helping get started small communities of faith/churches and community programs geared specifically towards Hispanic people currently living within our conference.

Over a long weekend at a camp retreat 18 folks were involved in an intensive 30 hour program designed to teach pastors and lay missioners basic ministry skills in how to carry on mission and outreach with Hispanic people in our communities. Language, cultural, leadership, worship and other specific subjects dealing with ministry in this environment were explored .

People participating in this bi-lingual training event represented 7 nationalities and some of these folks also reported having spoken 5 native indigenous tongues as their first languages (not counting English or Spanish). This is a witness to the great diversity of backgrounds and cultures with whom anyone dealing with this population will be confronted (education and economic diversity notwithstanding).

Both the pastors and new lay missioners were greatly pleased with the things learned as were the GBGM-trained workshop leaders and conference representative. These highly motivated people expressed not just great commitment and passion, but also the desire to do God’s will.

Remember … In mission and Outreach Pray, Give and Do!!! Sunday, December 14 will be a special offering day for the Children’s Home at your church. Please Give … Generously!!!

Call me, Jorge.

Hopeful or Hopeless

An article I read this week included these words, “one way to appreciate the hope of Christmas is to envision a world devoid of Christmas, a world with no Christ, no hope – just hopelessness.” As I read this, my mind began to imagine what our world would be like without Christ, without church, and without Christmas. In those moments, I tasted hopelessness and despair.

As we move into the second week of Advent, our calendar focus will turn towards hope and the excited anticipation that the season of Advent brings to us. As Christians, we celebrate and proclaim hope each day because Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem! He grew up among us, redeemed the world and showed us what God is like. God is essentially a God of Hope, a God who makes all things new. Therefore, the excitement and expectation that children of all ages feel at Christmas is altogether appropriate. When we imagine for a moment a world without Christ, it causes us to decorate our homes, give presents, and sing carols in such a way that celebrates the hope of Christmas with passion and joy! Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again – this is the kind of hope that we cannot live without!

As you consider our hope-full and hope filled world, I invite you to use the Family Advent Calendar to discover some ways that you and your church may partner with Moore Community House and Methodist Children’s Homes in offering hope to children and families throughout our state. This week you also find ways to share and explore, in Bible study and song, what hope means for us today.

Need a copy of the Family Advent Calendar? Go Here...

Fundamentals of Mission & Outreach

Whose Mission Work is it?

Mission and outreach are fundamental to the health of a congregation. They provide the foundation for all the rest of the church’s work in making disciples, building up the church, alleviating suffering, and promoting justice, freedom, and peace.

Central to any mission and outreach effort is the recognition that we all are participants in a work that begins with God, belongs to God, and is being fulfilled by God now and unto the end of time. So while we may be God’s hands and feet, it is God who empowers and sustains the work and the workers.

Who is our neighbor?

Jesus taught us in the parable of the Good Samaritan that anyone in need becomes our neighbor; Jesus’ call for us is to share our material and spiritual bounty with those who are spiritually or materially needy, whether they are next door or across the globe.

What about leadership?

Leadership is an essential element in the success of any group, including the missions and outreach group at the church, however, not everyone is gifted to be a leader. But, while we may not be called to be leaders, some of us can take responsibility for the selection of leaders, and everyone in the church is responsible with supporting the leaders and keeping them accountable.

Experts on the subject of leadership have identified 4 characteristics of good leadership: vision, character (or integrity), empowerment and passion. In our Christian context a dimension of the mission and outreach ministry is that it must have servant centered leadership which is rooted in love. It is not surprising to observe that all leadership characteristics modeled by Jesus to his disciples are recorded in the gospels and should be the model of leadership which we all need to follow so that our praying, giving, and doing are effective.

• His vision was and is redemption for a lost, needy, and wayward people.
• His character was and is mission-driven and people-centered; he was and is a teacher and a friend. He was, is, and always will be God; yet he modeled servant-hood. He was and is forgiving. His character was tested but he was always the same; he acted with integrity.
• Jesus empowered his disciples with the power of the Holy Spirit to make more disciples and equipped them to perform miracles of healing and compassion.
• Jesus taught, ministered, and served with passion. He displayed righteous anger toward the money changers, washed his companions’ feet, fed the hungry and healed the sick.

Yes, it is His mission, we are all called, if we are not the leaders we must choose and support the leaders and … Yes he will empower and equip us to do His will!!!

Call me and we’ll talk mission and outreach at your church.

Jorge.

FAITH

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

How would you define faith? How do you live out your faith in your home? Your office? Your community? How does faith prepare you for the season of Christmas?

Utilizing the 2008 Family Advent Calendar developed by the Office of Connectional Ministries of the Mississippi Conference, our devotional time this week focuses on faith - the faith of the shepherds long ago, the evidence of faith in our own lives, the faithful journey of Abraham and Sarah, and the ministries of faith that are evidenced in the work of the Good Shepherd Center, Edwards Street Fellowship Center and Wesley House.

Yesterday we began our journey through the season of Advent. As we walk forward toward Bethlehem to welcome the babe in the manger, I invite you to find ways to share this calendar with others in your congregation. It can be used as a tool to explore the sacred meanings of the chosen Advent words in your worship services, bible studies, personal devotions, and Sunday school classes in the days and weeks to come. It is my hope that these words will help aid us in living in the Advent season even as we anticipate and prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Downloadable and printable copies are available on the conference website at 2008 Advent Calendar.

Blessings to you as you walk by faith into a new season of our church year!

Babies, Disciples, and Advent

Yesterday we had the perfect celebration of Advent at Forrest Hill UMC. We baptized little Matthew. It had been a long time since we had shared in an Infant Baptism. The family stood proudly by and covenanted to provide him with a faith filled home and the congregation promised that they would do the same. Big brother Ethan stood there proudly beaming. It was so powerful. Why?

It is really simple. “For God so loved the world that he sent his Son.” I was reminded that God chose to save the world through a baby. That God entrusted that baby to normal people to raise and love. In a sense Infant Baptism is the Advent story. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” This story is the model for all discipleship.

Our mission is to “Make disciples for the transformation of the world.” We do that one life at a time. It happens best in the context of faithful families and faith communities. We…no one else are charged with the rebirthing process of God’s children. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I know God does the saving, but we are entrusted with the birthing.

Did you know that 4 children are born every second?( That is over 128 million a year) They are born into all kinds of circumstances, but they are God’s children. God has asked us to take care of them and to help them know who they are and how God would have them live. (make Disciples) In short, our families and congregations should be constantly “expecting” and Baptizing God’s children. Are we? Some of God’s children have been born a long time and are waiting to be reborn. Are we ready to adopt them into our families and to love them to Christ?

Statistics say no. Half of our congregations did have a profession of faith! But a lot of those babies are going un-reborn! What if we put the energy and effort into raising God’s kids as we did into our buildings? What if we understood we were all trustees of these lives? What if all 4 of the kids born this second were born into the power of our Advent community? Are your families ready? Do they know their responsibilities as Christian parents? Are your churches ready with Sunday school and confirmation classes? Are our people prepared to share their faith in Jesus? This is our trust!

Making Disciples is simply loving the children of God all their life and into eternal life. Remember your Baptism! Be the community of the” Holy Family”. What better gift could we bring the “Christ Child” than a new brother or sister? What better gift to give than the life changing love of Jesus. We are the community of Advent…the King is coming…so are the children…are you expecting? I am! I am expecting the Mississippi Annual Conference to remember their baptism and to begin the work of being the family of God in the world. I am counting on you to share in the rebirthing process. By 2012 I believe we will welcome more professions of faith than we have in the last decade. In January we invite you to let us know every time you baptize a child or adult. We want to know every time there is a profession of faith. We will post on the web site a running total of these numbers each week…our “Human Life Exchange”! We will celebrate together the gift of the coming of Christ into the lives of people. I cannot wait to see how we embrace this challenge.

We are the community of the baptized!

We are becoming the Kingdom of God!

Let the children come unto us.

Please join me in prayer about this…but more than that, become the answer to those prayers!

Let us lead them to Christ. That, my friends is true Christmas!