FLASH FOCUS…November 27, 2011
November 22, 2011
FLASH FOCUS
Fairmont United Methodist
2501 Clark Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
Hello, Friends of Jesus!
Three “Thanksgiving” Things:
1) Thank you for your estimates of giving, both giving and in the mail!
2) Community Worship is Wednesday, 7:30 pm, Holy Trinity Lutheran, Brooks & Clark avenues.
3) Happy Thanksgiving!
Now – to Advent! We begin Sunday, November 27, the first of four before Christmas – also a Sunday! Our young people will assist in lighting the Advent Candles as we support them in song.
The meditation is, Yearning Anew.
In the “Day in the Life” are a few thoughts about where we’re headed this Advent.
In Advent Peace,
Pastor Steve
A Day in the Life… Ready for Advent?
November 22, 2011
Advent?! Are you kidding?! Wasn’t it just Thanksgiving?! Those are my thoughts – and not just this year. The acceleration of my age has matched that of time’s passing. No? Am I the only one for whom Christmas took forEVER to get here?!
The culture around us has covered the requisite alerts we need to be “ready” on its terms. If we haven’t been sufficiently enticed by sales, enthralled by products, or otherwise drawn into the maelstrom of “Merry Consumeras,{ it’s not their fault. The church is actually left with the alerts that matter to our spirits – the good stuff! Even though this is every preacher’s annual diatribe, we get to rehearse the stories, sing the songs, pray the prayers, remember with joy and anticipate with hope. All the best stuff.
Advent is the first of our two great seasons of preparation, the second is Lent. The two great cycles that occur each year are centered on Incarnation and Resurrection. Both seasons of preparation include the theme of “penitence,” wherein we repent of the ways we have broken our relationship with God and with one another. I don’t know about you, but I welcome that.
So we begin to “ready” ourselves, through
- Worship – in space enhanced by Advent’s symbols (Advent Candles, Nov. 27 and Chrismon Tree Dec. 2, 6:30 pm), Hanging of the Greens Dec. 4, 6:30 pm), we ready ourselves as the saints before us, embracing anew the sacred texts, ancient , ever new.
- Study – lunch times on Wednesdays, four weeks: bring your sandwich! Led by Kirk Oldham and Pastor Steve.
- Music – our hymn singing is enhanced, our choir is at its peak, the December 18 performance of “Gloria!” (6:30 pm) is a can’t miss! The Fairmont Gospel Revue does the Christmas Set, Dec. 11, 11:00 am.
- Drama – our young people will lead us at “White Christmas,” with a fresh look at the nativity, “Dude! You Hear What I Hear?” (Dec. 11, 6:30 pm)
- Outreach – Christmas support for thirteen families and our WIHN adopted family; Robeson Co. Church & Community Christmas Store; Christmas Eve dinner; Raleigh District Christmas offering.
- Generosity – It’s not our birthday! How we will we give a gift, then, to Jesus himself?!
In a restaurant, I sometimes look at a menu and say aloud – it all looks so good, I want to taste it all. It is my hope and prayer that the above “menu” stirs the same sense: come, taste it all! In so doing, we will be ready, not just for Advent, but for the coming of Jesus – Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and he shall reign forever and ever!
Pastor Steve
LIVE ! LINE…November 20, 2011
November 18, 2011
LIVE ! LINE
Sunday Night LIVE!
Fairmont United Methodist Church
2501 Clark Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
Hello, LIVE! Friends!
It’s almost Thanksgiving – and that is the theme of the next Sunday Night LIVE! as in, how’s YOUR “attitude of gratitude?!”
Liz Danielian will be our musician of the night.
Holy Communion will include a liturgy geared toward this gracious theme of giving thanks.
The meditation is from Luke 17:11-19, “With Grateful Hearts.”
Will I see you?
Pastor Steve
FLASH FOCUS…November 20, 2011
November 18, 2011
FLASH FOCUS
Fairmont United Methodist
2501 Clark Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
MORE THAN ENOUGH!
Hello, Friends of Jesus!
We’re almost here – Consecration Sunday! This is the day we gather to prayerfully make our financial commitments for the year to come. We will have the opportunity to bring these “estimates of giving” to the altar, and to pray before leaving them there. I hope you will be in prayer before the service as well! Whether or not you plan to be present, please read this week’s “Day In The Life” column.
Those who have NOT made reservations for dinner afterward, take heart! Gene says there will be enough.
AND, if you’ll be in town on Wednesday, November 23, our 7:30 pm Community Thanksgiving Service will be at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, at the corner of Clark and Brooks avenues. I have the privilege of preaching that night, our combined choirs will do two anthems together.
Praying for you!
Pastor Steve
A Day In The Life… Sharing is Good
November 18, 2011
In recent weeks, we have claimed that in God’s economy, there is “More Than Enough.” The entire sweep of biblical salvation history proclaims the providence of God, both directly and through human agency. We can accept that intellectually, but we struggle to live as if that were true. Day by day, we live the too-truism, “It’s a long way from the head to the heart.”
From our earliest days, we’ve learned the lessons of life. When we have absorbed them and done something about them, we’ve done well. Robert Fulghum took us by storm with his 1988 book, All I Ever Needed To Know I learned In Kindergarten. How simple! Being kind to one another, cleaning up after ourselves, don’t take what isn’t yours, and this: “Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.” Are you in, so far?
Maybe it didn’t take kindergarten to learn that Lunch is good—and so is a Nap, as saith Fulghum. He also says, sharing is good. We’re born to share—did you know that? Yes, we get over it! Who has not been approached by a diapered infant with a proffered, albeit pre-owned, cookie? One owner notwithstanding, we’re not always ready for such a gift! Ah, but then there comes that fateful moment (Terrible twos? Me threes?) when we want to share in what the other has, but lose interest in sharing of what we hold in our hands.
Thus our humanity locates us squarely midstream in a dilemma of biblical proportions. People of faith wonder aloud, why would I have all this stuff unless God wanted me to have it? Why indeed?
The God revealed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was calling a people, a people to bless. The generations that followed claimed that as God’s central purpose. It would take prophets of the stature of Isaiah to remember the rest of God’s promise—they were blessed so that they would be a blessing, a veritable “light to the nations,” that all peoples might know God.
Do we think when Jesus said, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly” that the abundance was all about us? If that were true, he could have taken the loaves and fishes and had a couple of fine fish sandwiches—and then taken a nap.
We are but channels for the abundant resources God has committed to our care and keeping. Today is the day we can do something about it. Sharing is good. So share the blessing to be a blessing to others, share the abundance that the lives of the many may also abound in the goodness of what is shared. God has given us enough—enough for us, enough to share, enough that others may be blessed.
May our commitments, our estimates of giving, reflect what we believe of God’s good gifts.
Pastor Steve
LIVE ! LINE…November 13, 2011
November 10, 2011
LIVE ! LINE
Sunday Night LIVE!
Fairmont United Methodist Church
2501 Clark Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
Hello, LIVE! Friends!
What glorious days of autumn.
From time to time, you have the opportunity to hear not only other musicians, but other preachers! Sunday is such a time, when our friend and campus minister, Rev. Kirk Oldham, will be preaching–Luke 18:9-14; What’s Wrong With Religious People?
Our musician will be here in a first time performance, Alexander Brower.
I look forward to seeing you at the next SNL!
Peace and Prayer,
Pastor Steve
FLASH FOCUS…November 13, 2011
November 10, 2011
FLASH FOCUS
Fairmont United Methodist
2501 Clark Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
Hello, Friends of Jesus!
The countdown continues… Sunday, November 20, is our Consecration Sunday. Have you made your reservation for lunch, to enjoy Gene Lowrimore’s locally world famous lasagna? Many have, many more will! You may do so by return email to me.
Sunday is Laity Sunday. Our Lay Leader, Gene Lowrimore, and Assistant Lay Leader, Laura
Bottomley, have designed an intriguing service of worship. Also featured will be recognition of
Fairmont’s “Lay Person Of The Year.”
The Sunday (Nov. 13) Luncheon is sponsored by Fairmont Parents Morning Out, “Families Feeding Families.” Help them learn generosity by bringing canned goods to share!
This Sunday’s “Day in the Life” is posted. Hope you’ll read it!
Looking ahead:
* Wednesday, November 23, 7:30 pm, Community Thanksgiving Service at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Combined choirs, Pastor Steve, preaching.
* November 27 is the First Sunday In Advent.
In Peace and Prayer,
Pastor Steve
A Day In The Life… More Than Enough?
November 10, 2011
In this season of our ‘fall campaign,’ dozens of us have been reading Mike Slaughter’s book, Upside Living in a Downside Economy. If you haven’t read it yet, fear not—there are a few copies on the book table in the sanctuary. No, I do not have any plans for a quiz—yet. No worries, at less than 100 pages, it’s kind of a test crammer’s dream.
As the countdown moves toward November 20, our Consecration Sunday, it seems good to highlight some of the book. As indicated in the title, Slaughter’s premise is that these are hard times. Together, we’ve been discussing how we can live generously in times like these. His approach is pretty straightforward—his readers might have found new information alongside what is already known.
First, he calls us to seek God’s perspective. How does God regard money and wealth? Not as a god! They are the means, the tools for us to do much good. Why? God loves us, and answers our love for God with blessing. Remember how Jesus said to those anxious over the basics (food and clothing), “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). God invites us to keep the kingdom, the eternal realm of God made real in our midst by Jesus, in first place.
Second, Slaughter challenges us to rebalance our life investments. In our small groups, we observed with him that 27 of Jesus’ 43 parables concern money or possessions. Sounds like an area for prime teaching for Jesus! It’s in the heart of this chapter Slaughter claims the text from James, where we are to be wary of being “double-minded.” While we live in the kingdom of this world, that is not the kingdom that captivates our spirits—is it? The hard example is about Christmas: he bluntly says, “It’s not your birthday.” He’s got a point! Can we become “single-minded,” and invest in a life that is kingdom-centered?
Third, he charges us: do it today! There’s no happy way someone living under conviction can delay action to which he/she is called. He says if we want a different harvest in the future, we need to change what we’re planting, and how we’re planting, now—not in the future. Plantings take time to be watered and nourished, until they are finally ready for harvest. Serve, give, live—now.
Last Sunday, we shared in the challenge to “invest in God’s kingdom.” Slaughter says we do that in a way that “invests in God’s future harvest.” Like many a sermon, he says it in three points.
- Live and give thankfully, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. The book of James makes the case for such trials sharpening our faith. How will we know our faith is any good unless we give it a try?
- Live and give faithfully. Slaughter cited Jeremiah, who heard God telling him in the face of the Babylonian onslaught, buy land. He could do that, because his faith freed him from living in paralyzed fear of the unknown.
- Live and give sacrificially. What do you think of this? “We are the living, breathing body of Christ. We are the only hands and feet that God has to do God’s work in the world. You and I are God’s economic delivery system. We are God’s bank account.” Would you put it like that? Then how would you say it?
My goal here has been to offer something to think about, to chew on and digest. May it offer you a way to sharpen your own thinking. Will there be” enough?”
Pastor Steve
LIVE ! LINE…November 6, 2011
November 4, 2011
LIVE ! LINE
Sunday Night LIVE!
Fairmont United Methodist Church
2501 Clark Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
http://www.fairmontumc.org/
Hello, LIVE! Friends!
Think of it: fourteen years ago this month, the Fairmont Gospel Revue formed – and had the first rehearsal. The first performance would not be until late January. FGR will be at SNL!, so, “People Get Ready!” Note the early starting time of 6:45 pm, so the band can get in a few more tunes. Can you name the five “originals” still playing FRG style gospel jazz?!
The meditation continues our thinking on St. Peter (or Simon, or Simon Peter, or Simon Bar Jonah, or Cephas!) from the gospel, Matthew 14:22-33, “Water Walker.”
See you LIVE! and in person?!
Praying for you,
Pastor Steve
FLASH FOCUS…November 6, 2011
November 4, 2011
FLASH FOCUS
Fairmont United Methodist
2501 Clark Ave, Raleigh, NC 27607
Hello, Friends of Jesus!
With November, we enter one of the most exciting seasons of the year.
* Morning Worship – All Saints Celebration. We remember those God has blessed us with for
the season of their lives.
* Sunday Night LIVE! – 6:45 pm, the one and only Fairmont Gospel Revue. November marks the
14th anniversary of FGR’s formation!
Henry reminds us to bring our cans to church - our monthly offering of food for our neighbors.
If you have not made your November 20 Sunday luncheon reservation for Gene Lowrimore’s
locally world famous lasagna (MmmMmm!) you may do so by return email!
And – Sunday, daylight ends… well not exactly. There will be daylight, just no daylight savings
time. I trust, I know, I believe you’ll spend that extra hour at Fairmont!
Peace,
Pastor Steve