Ministering to Each Other

by Ken Kelley

This coming June, Colleen and I will celebrate the 40th anniversary of our marriage in the sanctuary of KPUMC.  I will always remember, as I readied myself to see Colleen walk down the aisle, standing in awe in our beautifully decorated sanctuary filled with our family and friends, including many from KPUMC. 

I hadn’t been a member long, and most of those from our congregation were friends of Colleen and her family. But, as I had experienced many times at KPUMC, this congregation welcomed and embraced me as part of the church family that night, and you continue to support and inspire me even now.

I, along with Colleen and our daughter Shannon, feel the blessings of your care and concern when we struggle with life’s difficulties and feel your joy when we celebrate our milestones and victories. That’s what congregational care is all about, and I pray that I can find a way to equip and nurture you as we continue to grow this important ministry together. 

But to minister to each other, we must first have a way to communicate with one another. I’m available to you at any time by email - ken@kpumc.org or cell - 214.707.9605.  To facilitate our members contacting each other, we will soon all have access to an online directory. You’ll receive an email next week with additional information.

At the times in my life when I’ve had my act together, when I strive to get right with God, one of the most important hours in my week is 11:00 on Sunday morning when we worship God together. In worship, we do more than just celebrate God. Worship has the ability both to inform us and transform us. When we worship, we remember who God is and who we are to be as God’s people.

As another opportunity for worship, on May 16 we’ll have dinner church at 6:00 pm. In this service, we’ll share a meal, read scripture, have informal discussions, sing, and have communion. Please plan to join us for this informal worship service.

Besides worship, our church offers many other opportunities for our spiritual enrichment and development. Rev. Kay Ash, our new Director of Christian Education, tells us of her plans for our children’s department: “During Summer 2018 our Sunday School children will explore the Grand Narrative of the Hebrew Scriptures beginning with Creation in interactive, creative, and outside-the-box ways.  Then, starting the last full week of July, our VBS children will go on a rolling river rampage to discover that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Look for us to start each morning of July 23 - 27 with music in Roberts Forest!”

Our youth and their parents will meet this coming Sunday 4:00-6:00 pm in the youth room to discuss the future of this important ministry with Kay and Wes.

Our last Wednesday Night Live will take place next week, but we have several other opportunities to serve and be served.  If you aren’t already attending one, I invite you to try a Sunday School class. The adult classes gather in the Fellowship Hall and conference room at 9:45 each Sunday morning, and they’d love to have you. We have a women’s Bible study group that meets on Wednesday nights at 6:30 and a pastor’s Bible study group that meets with Wes at 5:00 on Sunday afternoons to discuss the following week’s worship service scripture. Both groups meet in the conference room.  Our Chancel Choir and handbell choir always welcome new members. Feel free to contact me or one of the other ministers if you have ideas for other small groups or would like to volunteer in one of our existing programs.

A task force composed of some of our newer members will present to us their ideas for the future of KPUMC at the all member Church Council meeting on May 20th right after church. I strongly encourage you to join us for lunch and to hear this report. Plans for later in the year include a Grief Share grief support group, new catalyst groups, and other opportunities for fellowship and enrichment. 

When we have our act together and, more importantly when we don’t, I pray that we will continue to grow and enrich our ministry to each other. I hope to see you in worship Sunday and leave you with a prayer I discovered last night: 

“My prayer today is that we remember, and seek out each other intentionally, asking what we can give one another that will cause the quickening of each other’s hearts to subside in relief that we are not forgotten, but rather cherished and loved.” (Ana Lisa de Jong)

Oh, Crud, Am I a Spud?

We are blessed to have many different personalities in our congregation and on our staff at KPUMC, mostly just garden variety Christians. I recently read about the Tater family and am amazed at how much they resemble our church family. Let me introduce them to you:

Dick Tater He’s the self-appointed potentate who feels everything should be done his way.  He never serves or works; he just bosses others.

Emmy Tater She’s the member of the family who follows all the latest fads.  She’s never really discovered her own identity because she’s always busy trying to be like someone else.

Hezy Tater When Hezy is asked to help at church, he knows he should, but he always puts it off.  He’s sure he’ll get around to serving God someday.

Carmen Tater Carmen has an opinion about everything, and you never need to ask what she thinks because she’s the first one to tell you. 

Speck Tater Speck’s favorite phrase is: "I love work; I can watch others do it for hours."  He doesn’t get involved, but he’s a great observer.

Agi Tater When Agi was in school, she got poor marks on "plays well with others."  Agi is continually in conflict with others, and always seems to be involved in strife and division.  No matter what the Pastor or church does, it’s never good enough in Agi’s eyes.

Sweet Tater This is the only cordial and cooperative member of the Tater family.  Sweet Tater is the ideal member of the church.  She has a great attitude, is faithful, committed, supportive, and involved.  She doesn’t dictate, imitate, hesitate, commentate, spectate, or agitate!

Every member of the Tater family is a minister; as Christians we’re all in ministry. The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church puts it this way:

“This ministry of all Christians in Christ’s name and spirit is both a gift and a task. The gift is God’s unmerited grace; the task is unstinting service”…. “There is but one ministry in Christ, but there are diverse gifts and evidences of God’s grace in the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:4-16). The ministry of all Christians is complementary. No ministry is subservient to another. All United Methodists are summoned and sent by Christ to live and work together in mutual interdependence and to be guided by the Spirit into the truth that frees and the love that reconciles.”

As ministers, we’re always in search of facilitators who are looking for rehabilitators to find resuscitators to breathe new life into our church. As Christians, we know where new life originates. Are we a (com)passionate, Christ centered, congregation or just mashed taters, bland and leaving others searching for something more substantial?

Where do you fit as a minister to God’s people? What gifts do you have to share with God’s children? 

I’ll close with excerpts from 2 prayers written by Carol Penner, a Mennoite Pastor and member of the faculty at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, teaching Practical Theology. 

“Help our churches to be communities where we live in peace,

not the peace of differences pushed under the rug,

but the peace of discussion and dialogue and mutual respect.

Shape us into people of prayer, whose first thought in the morning is praise,

whose watchword is kindness, and whose last thought at night is peace,

the deep peace of God.”

“Help our congregation to be an incubator of hope,

a blessing in our community, and in our city.

We want to join with you in your kingdom work,

as your hope grows,

pregnant with possibility,

ripe with promise.

In the name of the resurrected Jesus we pray,

Amen”

Other U2 Songs You Should Know

On Sunday, I had the joy of talking about my favorite song of all time, U2’s 1987 hit, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and how it relates to I John 3:2. But it’s certainly not the only song by the band that touches upon faith matters. In fact, here’s a (too) short list of some other U2 songs that are worth listening to and reflecting upon:

“Gloria”: U2’s second album, “October,” released in 1981, is the band’s most overt evangelical Christian album. The biggest hit on the album was “Gloria,” which is not about a woman named Gloria, but rather a song of praise in Latin. In the chorus, Bono sings, “Gloria / In te domine / Gloria / Exultate / Oh, Lord, if I had anything, anything at all / I’d give it to you.”

“40”: The last song on the 1983 album, “War,” is simply Psalm 40 put to music, with the haunting refrain,“How long to sing this song?” This song became the tune that U2 closed most of its concerts with for many years, typically by leaving the stage one at a time until only drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. was left, keeping the rhythm. On the live album, “Under a Blood Red Sky,” when Mullen departs, the crowd continues to sing the plaintive refrain until finally fading to silence.

“Drowning Man”: Also appearing on the album, “War,” this song sounds like something the Psalmist would have written. If I were drowning in the ocean, these are the words and tune I’d want to have in my ears: “Hold on, and hold on tightly / Rise up, rise up with wings like eagles / You run, you run / You run and not grow weary.”

“Grace”: This beautiful song is found on 2000’s comeback album, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.” These lines are priceless: “What once was hurt / What once was friction / What left a mark / No longer stings / Because Grace makes beauty / Out of ugly things.”

“Yahweh”: On 2004’s “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb,” this closing song acts as a kind of one-word answer to the question posed by the album title. It’s also a prayer to Yahweh (the Hebrew name for God), who is asked to “Take this soul / Stranded in some skin and bones … And make it sing.”

“13 (There Is a Light)”: Last December, U2 released “Songs of Experience,” a kind of companion album to “Songs of Innocence,” which came out in 2014. The band meant to release this album earlier, but Bono had a serious motorcycle accident, as well as another separate health scare. These two events put him in a melancholy mood, reexamining his mortality and relationship with God. He wrote brand-new songs for the album, and the result is a  God-drenched collection of songs. The last song is “13” (literally the 13th track on the album), and contains a hard-earned hope and trust: “There is a light you can’t always see / If there is a world we can’t always be / If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt / And there is a light don’t let it go out.” Light is a major theme on the album, and Bono sounds like John the Gospel-writer as he urges the listener to believe that the light will not be overcome by the darkness: “I know the world is dumb / But you don’t have to be / I’ve got a question for the child in you before it leaves / Are you tough enough to be kind?  Do you know your heart has it’s own mind? / Darkness gathers around the light / Hold on, hold on.”

Truth be told, every single one of U2’s songs are informed by a deep, questioning, challenging faith. In case you’re interested in exploring some of these songs, I’ve put together an Apple playlist here.