We Have Been Given a New Commandment: Love One Another

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

—John 13:34

Our church word for the holy Thursday evening of Holy Week, "Maundy," comes from the Latin, "Maundatum," which means "mandate" or "commandment." There is a verse from John 13:34 that reads "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." Jesus showed His love for us by being willing to take that love all the way to the cross.

This service tonight begins our observance of the church’s most special holy nights and days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter. These days remind us every year that God’s love is so profound and great that God made a sacrifice for us. Such love! There’s no other love in all the universe like God’s love for God’s creation and God’s people!

To observe these days, I invite you to sacrifice, to pray and to worship and praise.

The sacrifice may be a meal you skip and donate the proceeds to the local food pantry or another cause that helps the hungry. Or it may be an act of service to someone you know who is in need. The prayer may be to spend a half-hour at church from noon on Good Friday to noon on Holy Saturday, or to find another time and place to thank God for all your blessings and ask God to bless those less fortunate than we are. The worship and praise will be tonight, Thursday, at 7 PM and Easter at either 7 or 10 AM.

Pause to remember why this is one of the holiest and most profound and beautiful nights of the entire year.

I’ll see you in church or in other places where we do ministry together!

Paul

REFLECTIONS ON INSTALLATION SUNDAY: God Is Our Champion, We Are God’s Leaders

^“But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin;
but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand,…”

—1 Samuel 17:45,46a

God was active in our lives on Sunday afternoon, April 3, here at First Christian in Trenton.

Danny Stewart, Mid-America Regional Minister, preached his sermon, based upon 1 Samuel 17:1-52 – a unique perspective and a fresh look at a familiar story: the tale of young David defeating the Philistine giant, Goliath. He titled his message, “Who Is the Champion?” He took us from a traditional understanding that God's chosen king-in-waiting, David, was the "hero" to a different viewpoint: that David was a leader but not the hero. "God called forth a leader to show them that their champion is already present with them and has never left them alone," Stewart proclaimed. "Their champion is God."

Referring to me, the man on the "hot seat" that Sunday afternoon waiting to be installed, he went on: "We are here to celebrate that God has appointed a leader to face his own particular Goliath in our midst and to show the community of faith that who you are and what you have inside you is more than enough..." to face the challenges of our present age of transition, uncertainty and danger.

Having so many "witnesses" to this event, including ministers from Trenton and Bethany, Plattsburgh and Carrollton, and also our honored guests, the Mayor of Trenton, Cathie Smith, the CEO of Wright Memorial Hospital, Karen Cole and the new President of the Chamber of Commerce, Debbie Carman, caused me to see myself as others appear to see me, as a leader who is called to draw people into partnerships, building unity through new alliances among different aspects of the community. Too often, churches are pushed to the side as lacking relevance to the work of renewal and transition that is taking place in a community. On that Sunday, the vision God showed us is of a united community of business, civic and spiritual leaders developing a common vision and plans for the good of all. The congregation of First Christian Church has much to offer to that conversation, in years of experience and in the quality of their faithfulness.

I look forward to continuing this conversation with you at the church or in other places where we share ministry together!

Paul

Hoping to Share in the Glory of God

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we^* have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access^* to this grace in which we stand; and we^* boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we^* also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. — Romans 5:1-5

The Service of Installation and Reaffirmation of Our Covenantal Partnership will take place on Sunday, April 3 at 3 PM in the sanctuary. This is an opportunity for everyone who is a part of the First Christian Church family to consider their relationship to God, to this congregation and to the ministries we are called to share: worship and praise, care and prayer, service, outreach and witness. To bring joy and inspiration to our time together, Glory Road Gospel Quartet, from Council Bluffs, Iowa will be presenting a concert of gospel and southern gospel music at 2:00 PM and, following a brief intermission, with share in the service of installation and reaffirmation. In addition to the afternoon concert and service, Glory Road will also be providing special music for the 10:30 AM morning worship service. The group was formed in1998 when the original members discovered they had a common interest in the southern gospel style of music and a desire to develop a music ministry to spread the message of God’s love, power and grace through song. I consider them to be personal friends and partners in the Gospel.

The Rev. Danny Stewart, Regional Minister for the Mid-America Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will preach that afternoon and members of the Trenton community, Trenton Area churches and the churches of the Northwest Area will take part. The 2:00 P.M. concert is open to the public without charge, although a free-will offering will be received. Folks may come for either or both of the concert and service.

I invite you to save the time to be a witness for the great things God is doing, as God’s love is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. If you are unable to be present, please lift up a prayer that afternoon.

I’ll be watching for you at the church door or wherever God’s ministry leads us!

How Can We Give Thanks Enough?

“…Brothers and sisters, during all our distress and persecution we have been encouraged about you through your faith. For we now live, if you continue to stand firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you?”
—1 Thessalonians 3:7-9

In a bookstore last week, inspired by Martin Copenhaver's devotional on the ucc.org web site, I was looking over a new book by John Kralik, entitled 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life. The premise is simple enough: during a discouraging period in his life John decided he would spend an entire year writing and sending at least one thank-you note a day. At first he wrote to family members and close friends, but later on in the year (somewhere past Day 100) he had to expand his list to folks he had met casually. So one day he wrote a thank you note to the barista who served him a coffee at Starbucks: a young man who had particularly kind and enthusiastic at a time of day when most people would rather still be in bed. The barista almost didn’t read the note: he expected it to be a letter of complaint. But he was delighted to receive the note and the writing of it made a difference in at least two lives, and perhaps in many more.

Simple acts of kindness can often do so much good for our attitude, our relationships, the practice of our faith and the reorientation of our lives from quiet desperation to, as Martin Luther King, Jr. suggested, “the daybreak of joy.” I have decided to practice this discipline during 2011.

I would be interested to know what actions you have chosen for a personal discipline or a new faithful practice that is aiding you in staying focused on your life goals and keeping the faith. Please send your ideas by postal mail to me at P O Box 301, Trenton, MO 64683. Email may go to PaulSFraser@hotmail.com. Facebook users can find me at: www.facebook.com/PaulSFraser. At any time, you may call my Trenton direct phone line: 660-654-2736.

Or, you can find me on Sunday mornings at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Trenton, Missouri, where I look forward to greeting you at the church door or in other places where we share ministry together!

Grace and Peace! Paul

Posting a Year-End Status Update

I often begin my mornings by “visiting” family members and friends who have written a “status update” or a newsy “note” on “facebook,” the popular computer application that allows us a window into the lives of some of the people we love and care about. This morning, my sister Lindsley, who is an executive leadership coach, posted a great question for December 28:

“28, 29, 30, 31...How will you use these last four days of 2010? Why not take time to reflect? What do you want to bring into 2011? What do you want to release and let go of? Take time out for yourself today and discover. Then share.”

My response reveals my priorities as well as my burdens – of what I struggle to let go. These last days are a time to tie up the loose ends that might “trip me up” as I try to go forward: the required reports and weekly writings that become a burden if left undone too long. These days are also a time to "unpack the boxes" of my new life: not only to take out my possessions from the cardboard boxes that protected them on their journey from Iowa to Missouri, but also to unpack my talents and my spiritual gifts, many of which have gone largely unused and unexpressed during the stressful months of seeking this new call and preparing for the move. Now I am here in a new place, and after tying up the ends and unpacking the real gifts, I am going to simply revel in the new creation I am becoming with God's help.

What are you doing in these “last days?” What do you need to release? What do you want to protect and cherish? What gifts and talents do you hope to share in 2011?

I would be interested to know any responses you wish to share with me. You may send postal mail to P O Box 301, Trenton, MO 64683. Email may go to PaulSFraser@hotmail.com. Facebook users can find me at: www.facebook.com/PaulSFraser. Or just post a comment below!

Or, you can find me every Sunday morning at First Christian Church in Trenton, Missouri, where I look forward to greeting you: at the church door, or in other places where we may share ministry together!

Grace and Peace! Paul

Speechless in Bethlehem

“15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.” —Luke 2:15-16 (NRSV)

This weekend, when Christmas comes to us, we, like the shepherds long ago, come to our journey’s end … and discover it’s just the beginning! However we come to the nativity, the birth of God – and God’s promised wholeness – into the midst of a fragmented world is a show stopper. There are no words for it, at least, not at first. “How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given,” the poet wrote. “So God imparts to human hearts the joys of highest heaven.”

"10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

—Matthew 2:10-11 (NRSV)

The magi – astrologers and sages – who followed a star for a long journey across borders and through time, also found themselves without words. We do not know if they spoke any quiet words to Mary and Joseph, or to the baby, but we do know that God spoke to the depths of their beings, imploring them to return to “their own country by another way.” (Matthew 2:12b)

So when we get where we’re going, after the last package is wrapped, the final card is mailed, the final cookie baked, the Christmas dinner prepared, will there be time for silence? Will we be able to silence the voices of the noisy, fragmented world around us long enough to become aware of the magic and the mystery of God coming to us, and dwelling among us, as one who is vulnerable unless we act? Will we pause and let our selves be filled with awe and wonder?

If you are in Trenton on Friday evening, please plan to come to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at First Christian Church at 6 PM: for a time of singing the favorite carols of Christmas when we will commune with Christ and light a candle in His honor. Wherever you are this Christmas, take time to pause, be silent and remember … that God has come for us and lived among us, in order to promise us…the wonders of eternal love.

I look forward to greeting you at the church door...or wherever we share ministry together!

Merry Christmas! Pastor Paul

A Time to Harvest and Move On

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted... —Ecclesiastes 3:1,2b

Across the farmland around Boone, and indeed, across most of Iowa, the soybean and corn crops have been harvested.

As the 19th Century hymn writer Henry Alford affirms: “All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.”

Here in Boone, this is my sixth harvest season, and in the varied seasons of ministry, I have seen the “harvest of souls:” children brought for dedication, young people entering the waters of baptism, couples getting married, friends and family gathering to commemorate the passing of a loved one. And most especially, I have witnessed individuals coming into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer, Bible study and activities of service, mission and ministry. But unlike the annual crop harvests, the harvest of souls is ongoing, so discerning when to “move on” is made more difficult.

Such a time has come for me to retire from the ministry here in Boone. My decision to announce this retirement has been made for personal reasons: as I reach the age of sixty in mid-December, I will be able to annuitize my denominational pension, gathered over thirty-five years, in order to accomplish some important financial changes for myself and my family. Among the possible changes will be the opportunity to develop my ministry coaching practice, and expand the joint ministries of music and prayer partnerships with my wife Karen, while pastoring a congregation that is poised for transformation and rediscovered vitality. In order to prepare professionally for these changes, Karen and I attended a week-long training event last week, “The Art of Transitional Ministry.” This program trains both “settled” and “intentional interim” pastors to be sensitive to the issues congregations face in times of transition.

The final details of my departure from Central Christian and the directions of the new courses of my ministry are still being revealed even as I post this entry. I leave Central Christian with a deep spirit of thanksgiving in my heart for all the gifts of love, support and care which this amazing congregation has shared in the past sixty-five months, and for the many ways our lives have intersected: in times of joy and grief, physical endeavors and times of play, great celebrations, small group classes and retreats, and hour upon hour of spiritual conversations. I am even grateful for the lessons learned in the times of congregational conflict. I will be the preacher there for two more Sunday worship services. Appropriately, my final day of ministry service in Boone will be Sunday, November 21, which we call “Thanksgiving Sunday!” In the liturgy that morning, the congregation and I will release one another from this ministry covenant and I will move into a three-week period of vacation, personal renewal and much packing!

But for the next eleven days, I will continue to look forward to greeting the good people of Central Christian at the church door or in places where we have shared ministry together. And after that time, I will hold them all in a special place in my heart.

Pastor Paul

P. S. Stay tuned to this space for important developments in the coming weeks!

What About Love?

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. —Luke 6:35a

Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven;
hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little. —Luke 7:47

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your strength,
and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” —Luke 10:27

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity,
we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then,
for a second time in the history of the world,
humankind will have discovered fire.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

So much of the “noise” we hear on “Talk Radio,” and the commentaries on the television, encourage us to be suspicious of those who are different from us, or even to be outright hostile. The movement Jesus founded was about love, not violent confrontation. Jesus offered his hearers a challenge and a choice: because we have been forgiven, we may choose to be loving, even to our enemies.

How does Jesus find you not being loving: have you gossiped about a former friend or church member who annoys you? Have you spoken negatively of those in an opposing political party who vote differently than you do? Have you turned your back on someone who is poor and has a greater need?

Jesus invites us into mission and service, to bring all people to Him, by showing greater love.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. —John 15:13

How can we show greater love this month: as we invite seniors to our "friendship luncheon" or urge our neighbors to sit with us at the next church supper? Can we show greater love in our worship services as we greet visitors and welcome back people who are returning?

October included a denominational program, “Week of the Ministry,” sponsored by our Pension Fund, on October 17 to 24. It's still timely to ask, can we show love and support for those who perform ministry amongst us, our lay leaders, committee and group members and many faithful volunteers?

I look forward to greeting you at the church door or in places where we share ministry together,

Paul

Praying for Harmonious Work

The past few years have been a challenging time to be the church. Amid growing financial anxiety, we have endeavored to maintain the structures and staffing that worked for the church decades ago when resources were more plentiful.

In such a time as this, it is as imperative as ever that we put our lives, and the lives of our church leaders, in the hands of the one who calmed the sea, and who can calm our anxiety and move us to offer our praise. A great prayer to use to begin this would be the prayer for installed officers, taken and slightly adapted from “Installation of Officers,” in the resource book, Chalice Worship:
Almighty God, we rejoice that you have called us to be your people in this time and place. Help us to fulfill the mission to which you call us as we seek to know what faithfulness requires of us. Strengthen the resolves that have been made within our congregation. Uphold your leaders with hope and encouragement that they may endure every frustrating difficulty. Fill this congregation with your loving Spirit that each person may work together harmoniously so that all members may work together for the common good and to your glory. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.,

Imagine if fifty people, or even twenty, committed to pray this prayer daily. I wonder…if God will do something in each of us, and in all of us together, just because we have prayed this pray of intercession for our leaders. Actually, I know God is already doing it, even as we consider this request.

I look forward to greeting you at the church door or wherever we meet to share ministry together!

Pastor Paul

Doing It All in Jesus’ Name

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. —Colossians 3:16-17

Today, June 1, I quietly mark the accomplishment of thirty-five years of ordained ministry. It is amazing to me as I look back upon the many ministry settings where I have been privileged to serve, and the significant number of people whose lives I have touched. I have been the pastor or on the staff of thirteen churches in four mainline denominations. I cannot begin to count the total baptisms and confirmations, weddings and, yes, funerals at which I have officiated. And being in ministry has brought me to homeless shelters and county jails, to college campuses and public school classrooms, to nursing homes and hospices and hospitals, all places where I have been challenged to express the gospel in words and actions that could be readily understood, even by those without any previous experience of Christianity or attending a church.

Indeed, my role as pastor has opened doors that have brought me to encounters with presidents and prisoners, street thugs and business leaders. I have held the hands of the dying and the grieving, prayed with the impoverished, the desperate and the abused, and plotted transformation and renewal with people of passion and privilege.

And the past five years have given me some unique opportunities in Boone, Iowa, where I am currently called to minister: among a group of people who love their community and have a tremendous loyalty to the men and women who have grown up beside them as their friends and neighbors.

But at Central Christian, as in other local church settings through the years, it has been clear that the ministry is not a privilege belonging to a few privileged pastors but a responsibility belonging to all the people who consider themselves to be living members of Christ’s living body, the Church!

If we follow Christ, we are one of Christ’s disciples. We may ask ourselves: what is my responsibility within the body of Christ? Who has God called me to care for, to empower or to support? With whom am I called to witness to my faith and live out what I believe?

Each of us has an amazing life story to tell about our own journey of faithful living and serving. I invite us -- through our writing, posting, tweeting, status updates, or most especially, through our face-to-face encounters with one another -- to share those stories and learn from one another what God is calling us to do and to be!

I look forward to greeting you at the church door or in places where we share ministry together!

Grace and Peace!

"Pastor Paul"

If Not Now, Tell Me When

In response to a question from Facebooker and Disciples pastor, Guido Climer, I wrote the following back on August 6. Guido's question to all: Where did the Holy Spirit move at GA?

"If not now, tell me when."

There were many Holy Spirit moments in Indianapolis. But one happened "beneath the radar" of most GA participants.

In a pre-Assembly event intended to take the place of the National Evangelism Workshop that failed to materialize in '09, four keynoters and several workshop leaders challenged participants to develop their own evangelism story based upon the particular "face" of Jesus that they see most in their walk with the Lord, and to consider strategies for survival, renewal and transformation...God's way. "Ministry in Hard Times," held at Geist Christian Church -- North Campus in Fishers, IN on July 28 and 29, was filled with "Holy Spirit moments" for participants to evaluate and respond to.

Another Holy Spirit moment at GA happened at the other end of the week when Carrie Newcomer took command of the entire General Assembly stage and with one melodious and penetrating voice, one guitar and one piano for back-up, asked us all, "If not now, tell me when." As she ended that final song of her performance, there needed to be at every microphone people prepared to pray with participants who were ready to answer that question with the answer, "The time is now, and we are the ones we have been waiting for." At that moment each participant could have written or spoken a commitment to one change he or she hoped to implement in the world to make the vision of General Assembly 2009, "becoming a movement for healing in a fragmented world," one small step closer to reality. We needed a moment of personal accountability and we needed a witness: to hear us make and promise to keep our commitment. Instead, in one of the more awkward and jarring transitions of the entire week, we were taken back to loud volume music and a shouting preacher performer, Mr. Lawrence, who clearly did not share that same vision, as he didn't appear to have been actually listening to what had gone before. I and all the other Assembly participants were "off the hook." I didn't have to tell anyone what I would do "for the healing of the nations," and we all left Indianapolis with only thoughts that, like dreams upon waking, quickly slipped back into our subconscious. Many of us may have ended up praying for "revival" and hoping that God will do all the work.

I am one of those people who agrees that you need to pray as if everything depends upon God, but then act as if everything depends upon us. As we return to our homes and ministries with nearly two years until the next extraordinary expenditure of resources known as General Assembly, we need to ask, "Who will hold us accountable?" Let us who follow this blog pray that God will place us back on the commitment "hook" and ask us daily, "What are you doing today to make my vision a reality in your corner of my creation?"

"If not now, tell me when."

Making Disciples, Two By Two

"(Jesus) called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority

over the unclean spirits. ⁸He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff;

no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; ⁹but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

—Mark 6:7-9

Summer is now here…in all its heat and humidity, and many of us are considering a trip to a place that’s cooler, or drier, or at least where there are family whom we miss seeing during the year! But could we go on the journey Jesus invited His disciples to undertake?

I know when I plan a trip I usually fill a large suitcase and then also carry a smaller duffel. The disciples were urged to take nothing except a walking stick. It’s hard to imagine going on a trip of unknown duration to places you’ve never been without a map or a compass to guide you. The disciples were simply sent out, two by two, and they expected to be guided by the other person and by God’s Spirit.

This summer, whether you are “sent” one-by-one or two-by-two, consider how God wants you to behave: as someone who listens for God’s voice, and then responds fully to all that God commands.

Jesus commanded his first Disciples to go out to proclaim, heal and anoint:

¹²So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. ¹³They cast out

many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (Mark 6:12-13)

So if you are able, please consider the open invitation Jesus gives us.

And be “a remarkable disciple of a remarkable Savior.”

I look forward to greeting you at the church door and in other places where we meet for ministry,

Pastor Paul

Pentecost 2009: Be the Church

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability." – Acts 2:1-4

In my travels, I often pass a rural church with a sign out front whose message often changes. This week, it read “Don’t go to church! Be the church.” This got me to thinking about Pentecost, and how the Holy Spirit descended upon everyone of the believers who had gathered. First, I went to church in my mind. I thought of our congregation and my mind moved from pew to pew. I recalled a couple who are both faithful sixty-plus year members and who still come to worship every Sunday. I saw a young family with small squirming children of various ages who sat near the front, hopefully, expectantly, waiting and seeking the message that will enable them to carry on in a time of financial and personal crisis. I saw choir members getting ready to sing their anthem. Someone preparing a story for the children. Elders praying. Deacons serving. Trustees unlocking doors and turning on lights.

I am grateful for all who go to church, and who share fellowship with me and one another every Sunday. The presence of each person refreshes and encourages me.

Then my mind expanded to envision people being the church in a variety of places. I am even more grateful that our ministry doesn’t end at the church door but extends to all the places we go during the week. I thought of people who prepare a meal, or wait a table, or serve homebound communion, or make a visit, or call a friend who’s absent, or pray with a special person who is despairing or hold the hand of one who is surrendering at the end of life’s journey in a hospice room. And I thought of Rosamond Kemmerer, whose week is not complete unless she has visited at least a dozen people in the nursing homes and called many others, attended at least two Bible Study classes, and perhaps baked some brownies for a church event. Recently, Rosamond, who is only ninety-five years young, was hospitalized, yet she spent her hospital days talking to the nurses and attendants about our church, inviting them to visit church, and encouraging and complementing them in the caring service they were doing.

I let my mind wander a little more, and I imagine an entire congregation who all share Rosamond’s passion for bringing the gospel to someone every day, for being the face and hands and heart of Jesus. That would truly be Pentecost. May it be so for us.

I look forward to greeting you at the church door, or at one of the many places where God invites us to be in ministry together!

"Pastor Paul"

Letting Our Giving Live

“The world of the generous gets larger and larger.”
—Proverbs 11:24, The Message, The Bible paraphrased by Eugene Peterson

We are living, as a gospel songwriter suggested, “in perilous times: each day brings new distress.” As I write this, I am mindful that the Congress of the United States has just passed legislation responding to the Treasury’s proposal of a massive “bailout” of the financial industry, claiming that, in a larger and very real sense, they are attempting to save the global economic system, as we know it. And now that we have commited $700 billion for this "quick fix" of "Wall Street," it doesn't seem to be restoring the confidence of jittery investors. At least not yet.

And what will happen to us back here on "Main Street"? In all likelihood, prices for goods and services, for gas and heating fuels and for other necessary services will continue to rise. And, quite possibly, our “buying power” may drop. It will require more, to buy still less.

But what of our “giving power?” In belt-tightening times like these, Christians roll up their sleeves, dig deeper into their pockets, and get busy! We find ways to do more. We find ways to give more. I met with the World Outreach Committee of the congregation I serve recently, and this group, composed of three returning members and three who are new to the committee, spoke energetically about doing more to help the hungry and the homeless in our community. Building upon our proven success of gathering donations each month for the local food pantry, they will propose creative and “fun” ways to encourage more varied and energetic participation in our donating food...and dollars to feed the hungry.

This fall, I proposed the stewardship theme, “Let Your Giving Live” to describe the response God wants from each of us. God wants our giving to live...and to thrive. Our giving needs to remain at the center of our lives. Our generosity, as the writer of Proverbs suggested, will cause our world to become “larger and larger.” The more we give, the more we will see opportunities to give. The more we are generous, the more God will reveal of God’s plan and purpose for our world. The more we respond to God’s generous heart with our hearts, the more our hearts will grow, and as our generous hearts become larger, so will our world.

These are perilous times, but for the Christian, these are also opportune times. Let us, like the Apostles of long ago, share the bounty of the Lord’s Table with “glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46c) and let us free our giving with glad and generous hands!

Yours with a grateful heart,

"Pastor Paul"

I'm encouraged by David Plouffe's strategy report for Barack Obama's presidential campaign that was posted on the web today.

But I believe that Barack needs to win back the daily news cycles to sustain the advantage he had. Here is my "grassroots" advice: have Barack announce a member of his Cabinet or one of his Senior Advisors each week; one or two each week. Since I and other Obama supporters are expecting that that will be a "rainbow" of highly qualified women and men, of various backgrounds, ethnicities and orientations, we need to seize back the excitement of McCain's choice of a woman as his running mate (however inappropriate or unqualified we may think she is.) This has never been done before, to my knowledge. From where I sit in rural Iowa -- one of the battleground states, as we all know -- I believe that we need people to get over their "Palin-fatuation" and realize that much more qualified women and men who truly possess the skills and the character to govern, will be standing with our next President in his administration from Election Day forward.

So, why keep it a secret? We need to invite Barack to reclaim the spotlight by his announcing, for example, one of the outstanding women that he intends to appoint to his administration. Then he can follow that up with, say, one of the outstanding Hispanics that he intends to choose. And then follow that with the names of the amazing array of qualified people, representing a variety of opinions and skill bases, that will comprise the Obama administration.

The Democrats need to reclaim the spotlight. We can do this. Yes we can.

Be Transformed — Discern the Will of God

[Jesus] said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” —Jesus Christ in Matthew 18:3

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,

so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

—The Apostle Paul in Romans 12:2

I need to confess something to you: I don’t really like change. I like to save stuff. I like to enjoy the familiar. I enjoy living in the same place for years, knowing the same people.

But something funny has happened while I have believed that. I have moved twenty-four times in my fifty-seven years! But I do know about “not changing” because I lived from Kindergarten until my High School graduation in the same house in Connecticut: thirteen years. And my family and I have owned our own home in Urbandale for just over seven years. So most of those moves happened in the middle thirty-seven years. Change did not always feel good to me. But nearly every move, every change to a new school, or a new call to ministry, offered a bright side: a chance to sort, rearrange or discard my possessions, an opportunity to make new friends, new bike paths to explore or challenges to meet in a new work setting.

Lately my visits have brought me into conversation with a number of families who are making changes, especially by “downsizing” their household from their family home into a much smaller apartment. These people are discovering that they can not only survive with less material possessions, but many actually feel unburdened and relieved to have made the change.

Jesus Christ, and his earliest apostle, Paul, both challenge us to make change, or transformation, part of our plan. Jesus wants us to become like children, to recover innocence and wonder, an openness to sharing and, as the French would say, a certain “joie de vivre” – the joy of living! Paul invites us to renew our minds, presumably through study, service, travel and prayer, and to allow ourselves to be transformed.

At Central Christian, where I am called to serve, each worshipper is invited to be open to the changes that the Spirit of God is calling us all to make: to renew our minds by choosing a new Sunday School class or by attending a fellowship group, to stretch our attitudes by adjusting our personal or family budget to increase our generous response to those in greatest need, to be open to meeting different people, making new friends and changing our response to those from whom we have turned away.

Let us all be transformed...by the Spirit of God.

James Dobson Doesn't Speak for Many of Us!

On June 24, James Dobson came out with his literalistic and limited view of scripture and his strict conservative view of the Constitution, and then labeled Obama's views as "distorting" the Bible and a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution. Does Mr. Dobson really take a Constitutional scholar such as Senator Obama and try to reduce his years of study, research and scholarly teaching to "a fruitcake interpretation?" Apparently, Mr. Dobson claims the audacity to do that and thinks he can get away with it. But is his criticisim of Senator Obama a "christian" response?

I believe that the Christian community has to learn to agree to disagree amicably. Some of us take the Bible literally. Others take it seriously. How we interpret what we read determines the priorities we choose: personal salvation or justice for the the poor and the oppressed. Some would say we need to have both viewpoints in our vision. Clearly, I need an inclusivist to speak for me. Barack Obama, like many believers I know and serve, tries to claim an inclusive vision of God's justice, judgement and grace.

A Time for Grace

Today, on the eve of the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, it is increasingly clear that the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate will be Senator Barack Obama. By tomorrow evening, he will have a clear majority of pledged delegates. And soon he will have a majority of all delegates, elected and appointed.

But we as progressive people of faith and conviction are missing an opportunity whenever we tear down the Democratic candidate that we have not chosen to support. In my case, that's Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. I've admired her for years, and in fact, went to hear her speak in Washington County, New York when she was first running for Senator from New York State. And yet, sometimes, I find myself reading the pundits and bloggers who want to criticize Senator Clinton, or worse, hurl epithets at her.

She is a great woman of faith and conviction and has done a great deal in the past seventeen months to prove that a woman can run for the highest office in our nation and be taken seriously. She has earned the passionate support from people in every state and from every walk of life. She has campaigned with vigor and determination.

And yet she will probably not win the nomination. This is a time that calls for everyone, across the political spectrum, offering an olive branch of grace: appreciation for the sacrifice she has made and for the conversation she has started. Let us thank her for her contribution to the national dialogue and express our anticipation that she will be making significant contributions in the future, as a United States Senator, or in the Cabinet, or as a member of the Supreme Court.

And then let us come together as progressive people of faith and conviction who love our country and want to get back our moral standing in the world and return to an agenda of protecting the earth, the poor and the children.

Where Faith and Politics Come Together

We live in a northwest suburb of Des Moines, Iowa. Just ten miles from downtown which was "center stage" for all the candidate speeches on Thursday evening, January 3. Our precinct is one of eleven in our suburban city, a neighborhood of apartments, condominiums and smaller single-family homes, nestled against much larger "McMansions" a little further west.

Our city is served by a Republican in our state legislature, so I assumed that we Democrats might have one of the smaller caucuses. In 2004, we had about 200, which was my point of reference. Maybe we would have 250 if it was a very good night, I thought. So imagine my surprise, shock and ultimate pride and joy as my neighbors just came pouring in to the elementary school gymnasium that the Democratic Party had assigned to us for the evening. When the registrations were complete, at 6:56, the precinct chair announced that 374 had registered to caucus.

After the required preliminaries, we had our first count. Each interest group, for Biden, Richardson, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama, plus a group that were still undecided, counted the number of people who were standing up for their choice. At that moment, my candidate, Barack Obama, had 39 per cent of the caucusers support, with 20% for Edwards, 18% for Clinton, 13% for Richardson, 7% for Biden and 3% undecided. A hush fell over the room as the percentages were announced. We Obama supporters could see that we had a big group, but packed together like that, it was hard to tell where one group ended and another began without reading the campaign sticker on people's clothing. What many people who have not been to an Iowa Caucus do not understand is that the party has set up the process to "winnow" out those candidates that will not be "viable." In our case, we were going to send nine delegates to the county convention, and 15% was the cut off. That's why some candidates (such as Biden and Dodd) appeared to receive almost no support in Iowa, because all the Biden people and the undecided's had to go find another group, and the Richardson people welcomed 18 of them to join their group, making Bill Richardson "viable" for the second and final round that would be reported to the party headquarters. I smiled to myself, since Bill, whom I met in an Iowa State University bookstore some weeks earlier, was my second choice. But Barack also picked up eight and the rest scattered among the other two candidates' groups.

Senator Obama actually had almost twice as many delegates as his closest competitors: Barack had 147, Edwards 83 and Clinton 77 and Richardson 66 after the caucusers whose candidates who were not "viable" shifted their positions. So if the caucus in my precinct had been an actual election, Senator Obama would have been even further in front of the rest of the pack. By the rules of the caucus, a delegate can only support one candidate, so there was some more complicated math that ended up giving Obama three delegates and the other three candidates two each. This tends to level the playing field somewhat, at least in our case we would have needed one or two more people to come over to our side to get the fourth delegate. When all is done and the results are called in, the Associated Press reports the percentage of delegates each candidate received, and the number of people present.

I was never prouder to be an American than I was that night in that elementary school gym, for all of us, hot, uncomfortable and crowded together, were exercising our right as citizens to choose our President! And as a Christian, I took particular delight in sharing what I knew to be true: that Barack Obama is an active participating member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. I had heard him speak to a statewide denominational gathering, so I also shared what I remembered from that day last June: that his faith and his politics belonged together because what he had learned from Dr. Jeremiah Wright, the esteemed pastor of that very large congregation, was the "audacity to hope" and the importance of service in acting out one's Christian commitment. In Barack's case, he gave his time and legal expertise to helping people organize in Chicago's south side. His life's work was then, and is now, a living out of the meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even though an evangelical Christian might not hear him say the familiar "buzzwords" that would convince them in the way I am convinced. For me, and for a growing number of Americans, together with millions of onlookers around the globe, people are impressed that Senator Obama can integrate his faith and his politics in such a way that he paints a picture of an inclusive nation, a nation in need of being healed, in which all people are welcome at the table.

Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover, or Politicians By Their Borrowed Pulpits

An article in the May 6 Chicago Tribune suggests that "Democrats find religion on the campaign trail."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070506dems-story,1,3287326.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true&coll=chi-news-hed

I am not so easily convinced.

I realize that many politicians will attempt to use a pulpit as a platform to prove their religious conviction. It would be better for an inquiring electorate to ask the more challenging question of each candidate: how do your religious beliefs affect your moral code? Do your beliefs draw you toward helping the poor and the least fortunate among us? And what sacrifices are you willing to make to demonstrate to this nation that all of us will need to make sacrifices so that more of the least fortunate have access to drinking water, healthy food and the means to thrive?

Hearing a candidate answer these questions would tell us so much more than the captions, sound bytes and slogans we hear that pass for campaigning.