A Grateful Neighborhood

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

I’m going to somewhat contradict last week’s sermon.

I know, I can be confusing that way. Telling you one thing on one Sunday, and perhaps backtracking later. That is the gift and burden of a faith that is well examined and considered; to be constantly re-evaluating and re-assessing what we believe.

For the past two Sundays, we’ve talked about how our calling as Jesus’ Disciples is to simply “do our duty,” and to not be concerned as to whether or not we ever get “thanks” for what we do. We’ve unpacked the challenging parable of the ten healed lepers, and only ONE of ten who ever apparently express gratitude.

The overarching theme of Jesus’ teachings here are:
Be a Disciple.
Do what you’re called to do.
And don’t *expect* thanks.

There is one piece of to this to consider and that is what we do when genuine and sincere thanks DO come our way. That’s what I’d like to talk to you about today.

So, I suppose I’m not so much contradicting what I’ve said these past two Sundays, but I would like to qualify it just a bit.

Because you all need to know of the gratitude of our Kessler Park neighbors. Specifically, you need to know of the gratitude of neighbor parents for our “Wednesday Night Live” program.

Every week, as that program begins or ends, I try to take some time in Roberts Forest, greeting the parents as they pick up their children.

I wish you could all be there.

Because what I am hearing is PROFOUND gratitude for Wednesday Night Live and our overall ministries. Parents are telling us how much the kids enjoy the ministry, how it’s becoming the highlight of their week, and how they even organize other activities, such that their kids can always attend.

They are deeply grateful…to Pastor Kay and Taryn…and to all of you.

Further, I had a long conversation with one parent who urgently wanted to tell me even more. She said she was from another faith tradition that she has since left. (I gathered it had been a challenging exit…)

She said that while she hasn’t attended Sunday worship, she *has* been watching KPUMC online. And she told me how profoundly grateful she was for our worship, music, liturgy, and social witness.

She said, “It’s all the good things I remember from church when I was a kid…”

I’ve been telling you for some time that our path back to “doing church” in person again would be rocky and perhaps contain small victories that we needed to embrace, rather than “grand slam” gestures and programs.

In the near term, we’ll likely try many new ministry ideas and it is likely that many of them will fail. And, as Jesus reminds us, even if we never gain the thanks and gratitude of the whole world, our calling is to still do our duty.

But every now and then, friends, we DO get thanked. And when it happens, take it in with gratitude. Whether or not it’s always apparent to you, what Kessler Park UMC does, it makes a difference to our neighborhood.

And our neighbors are grateful.

Visioning Our Future

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Friends,

The past few weeks at Kessler Park are revealing the hope and optimism possible for our church community. As you’ll see elsewhere in this newsletter, we’re currently hosting many “live” in-person events and we have more still to come this fall. It is so good and hopeful to be gathering in events, big and small.

Wednesday Night Live is drawing 25-35 neighborhood children every week!

It’s so exciting to see this “normal” neighborhood ministry return. Parents and children alike are thrilled to be back…as is Pastor Kay!

We hosted a powerful training titled “Confronting Christian Nationalism” created by the folks at “Vote Common Good.”

Our Sunday night book study on “Do I Stay Christian?” is also drawing a nice crowd.

And Sunday worship continues to bless us with new and many visitors every week.

Coming October weeks will bring a large Halloween event (Trunk or Treat, Movie Night, Haunted House), and a special concert in Roberts Forest.

All these are incredibly hopeful signs.

A few weeks back we shared with you the beginnings of our “Phase One” renovations to our roof and to our day school.

In moving forward with these important Phase One building renovation steps, we “protect our house,” (the roof) and “build our foundation” (ground floor school and playground expansion).

As all this happens, the Campus Vision Team of KPUMC has met twice as they consider how we will use and utilize our space going forward. I expect that there will be much to share with you regarding their work in coming weeks.

But as a part of that process, we will soon be soliciting your input too. The primary three questions our church must answer are:

1. How should our building be organized/structured in order to serve KPUMC for the next 50 years?

2. In order to grow, what space will KPUMC need now and in the next 50 years?

3. Are there parts of our building that can be utilized to serve the greater community of Oak Cliff and Dallas, beyond KPUMC’s internal ministry?

The order of these questions is essential, but they are all important.

We want to hear your dreams and vision for the KPUMC Campus. We’ll soon craft a survey for members to offer their input. We’ll also invite you to write, draw, and clip out ideas and place them on a “vision board” at the back of the sanctuary. And we’ll likely communicate with you via mail as well.

Additionally, I strongly urge you to plan to take a building tour with us after worship. Starting very soon we will host brief tours of the building following every worship service. It has become very clear to me that many of us —even long-term members— do not fully understand the scope of our space. A walking tour will make this plain and hopefully get your own creative space-use juices going.

Continue to pray and meditate on your dreams for the “middle” of our building; the middle and upper floors. However our space will look in the future, we cannot do this important ministry without YOU.

I hope you are excited by the signs of life at KPUMC and the hope for our future together.

Eric Folkerth

Camp Bible 2022

by Rev. Kay Ash

I missed seeing all of you in worship last week as I spent the weekend at our North Texas UMC campsite in Bridgeport, Texas.  I am so thankful to be part of a congregation that participates in our beautiful United Methodist Church in a variety of different ways and at different levels.  Last weekends’ Camp Bible invited all children in grades 3rd, 4th and 5th from North Texas United Methodist Churches to come to Bridgeport for a camp specially designed for children who have never been to camp before.  Most of the kids and most of the adults who attended Camp Bible had no idea what to expect, where to go, what to do or how the camp would function.  We walked all over the campsite to show folks the layout such as where to find their cabin, where to find meals and most importantly, where to play!  Bridgeport never fails:  everybody was in awe of how big (200 acres) and how beautiful (breathtaking) the campsite is. 

Many of the children were in 3rd grade and were proudly carrying their brand new 3rd grade Bibles!  Every lesson gave the children chances to learn how to find a scripture and read, as well as discuss, what they discovered.  You may not know this, but Bridgeport Camp is much more integrated than it has ever been before.  For example, the curriculum for summer camps 2022 revolved around the theme:  “Created to be . . .” All the camps (Children, Jr. High and Sr. High) use the same curriculum, which is designed for multiple ages.  Kids learned that everyone is created to be 1) a child of God, 2) curious, 3) part of a community, 4) a caretaker and 5) different than others.  Then, when the curriculum writing team got together to write lessons for Camp Bible 2022, we dovetailed off of the summer curriculum and created the similar theme of “Wonderful Me.”  Last weekend we talked about bravery, our unique gifts, where to focus and that God does not underestimate us.  Our hope is that families who have children and youth that attend different summer camps and even Camp Bible can still share a conversation around common themes. 

More than anything, Camp Bible is amazingly fun!  Kids get to run free in wide open spaces and we even had a few crazy dance parties! Nothing could be better than waves of laughter from a large group of relaxed children; Camp Bible is magical that way.  Most importantly, Camp Bible often proves to be a very powerful experience as well.  More than a few new parents told me how amazing it is to be in an environment where our entire focus is centered on how to love each other best with no competition, no snarky language, no pressure.  We just look for ways to intentionally love each other for the entire camp.  Maybe all that love is why Camp Bible so often changes people.

As an example, I shared this story in our closing worship and want to share it with you.  A number of years ago I was a cabin mom at Camp Bible.  We had kids in our cabin from several different churches.  There was one young lady in our cabin who was the only child from her church, she knew nobody.  She was a delightful girl, short hair, very tiny, truthfully almost looked younger than a 3rd grader.  The other girls in the cabin seemed to know each other and had a hard time inviting our solitary camper into their conversations.  As a result, our solitary camper spent a lot of time with us counsellors instead of the other kids.  I remember she had a hard time getting to sleep at night and would spend hours chatting away with us grown-ups while her hands always busy doing something.  In fact, I did not even pay attention to what kind of craft she was putting together since I was so exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open!

When it was time for Camp Bible to be over the next day, we gathered our cabin of girls together for prayers and blessings.  It was at this point that our solitary camper gave gifts of prayer beads to each and every one of the other girls in our cabin.  So, that is what she was doing all those hours when she could not sleep!  As she passed out the gifts, the other girls started to cry.  Our solitary camper and every other girl hugged.  They exchanged phone numbers and promised to come back the next year for summer camp so they could be together again.  Somehow, a tiny, brand new 3rd grader overcame her awkwardness by making gifts for the other kids.  She changed everything with her radical act of goodness.  It was a wonder to witness.  After all the kids went home, I slowly made my way back to the cabin to pack up my bags and there on the foot of my bed I found a thank you note from our solitary camper!  She told me that Camp Bible was the best camp ever and that she could not wait to come back, wow!  It was such a powerful experience, I still remember it all these years later and I’m telling you the story now. 

We had no shortage of radical acts of love at Camp Bible 2022:  youth leading worship, parents with never ending patience for wiggly children, teachers pouring their hearts into every lesson, children hugging and talking and praying together.  Again and again people are changed for the better by camping ministries. 

Please know that the schedule for all ages of camps has changed slightly for the summer of 2023.  Registration will fill up quickly beginning January 4th at 10:00 a.m.  Here is the link to get camps on your schedule:  https://www.bridgeportcamp.org/camp-schedule/.

I will miss you again this coming weekend as we kickoff Confirmation at Camp Bridgeport.  Several boys from our church and from Wednesday Night Live will be there.  I wonder what God has in store for us?  I know it will be good. 

 Blessings to you all.

Pastor Kay