This opportunity is open to all interested and is an inexpensive mission possibility for your youth this summer.  From Sunday, August 1 to Friday, August 6 youth will visit different service sites all over the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.  Breakfast and Dinner will be provided and sack lunches will be packed for lunch.  The youth will return to First Presbyterian Church, Mesquite each afternoon for a time of reflection led by college students from Austin College, take a break to go home and shower, and then be back at FPC for dinner, games and vespers.  As a downloadable filel, find 1) the Registration form, 2) Covenant of Conduct, 3) Medical Release, 4) Liability Release, 5) What to Bring, 6) Schedule of events, 7) Service Organization Descriptions, Informational Letter, 9) Photo Release form, 10) T-shirt design, and 11) Video Project flyer.  If this is something you or your youth might be interested in, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can get them registered.  The cost for this event is a whopping $35 unless you would like a drawstring bag with the Youth Mission Initiative logo on it which brings the total to $50.  The cost includes a t-shirt and sack lunches for the week and pretty much everything else except for Town Day on Saturday, August 7.  This day is a day of fun on the town of Dallas.  The group as a whole will decide what to do as a group.  A good amount to bring on this day might be $15 minimum.  The amounts you bring will be pooled together and will fund the day of fun.  There will be an informational meeting about this event on Sunday, July 25 at 12:15 in the First Presbyterian Church of Mesquite in the youth hall at the north part of the sanctuary building.  If you cannot come more information is available via email.  Have a great summer and we hope to see you at the first ever YMI!!  The Registration Form will explain how you can register.  Click on the “Registration Packet” link below for more information

YMI Registration

Different preferences in clothing, dwelling decorations, food, clubs/organizations, ideas, religions – we have opinions a plenty about everything. Opinions primarily made on data and sound bites we here from those people and groups we find to be trustworthy – scientists, celebrities, Republicans, Democrats, our neighbors, our churches. With so much information available on google and wikepedia, do we dare take the time and energy to assess and think about this information on our own since, let’s face it, we have very little time each and every day to devote to this kind of behavior? I mean we work, we clean, we eat, we socialize, we raise a family, we sleep, we entertain ourselves, we do the few things we can that we hold to be of value. Perhaps this description is a bit simplified, but perhaps not.

Do we question ourselves and our decisions enough? Do we take our responsibility as informed and rational human beings seriously or are we comfortable with our “definite” opinions and justifications? Do we really want to live up to the imperative to “love our neighbor as ourselves” understanding that our neighbors are in fact different than us and perhaps interpret love a bit differently?

Homosexuality. A much-blogged-about topic. The New York Times is littered with news stories of churches all over the world dividing over this topic. It is much easier to divide when there is inner conflict than to work towards reconciliation and understanding. It is much easier to divide a community than to unify and to build one. But I am not sure about this biblical imperative to divide when interpretations vary. I seem to remember the apostle Paul quite adamant in his attempts to unify the followers of Christ.

And why would we want to build communities? People will not always agree with us? It is better to stick with those who completely agree with me, right? Living in developed places throughout the world affords us these kinds of privileges and powers. I can make up my own da** mind. My opinions and decisions are “what Jesus would do.” This is a very dangerous claim to those who always seek to be God but find themselves a bit fallible.

As Christians, we see churches splitting and starting all over the place, with older Christian communities dying. Where is the Christ-centered community building taking place? Where is the Christian dialogue between Christian communities? One can belong to a Presbyterian church next door to a Baptist church and never have any communication with that church. It happens every day. Why do Christians allow the smaller interpretive issues to dwarf the central message of Jesus dying so that all may live? Our cultural understandings (as Americans) of freedom and powers and privilege are not necessarily what the church offers. “The first will be last and the last will be first.” We say this, but do we internalize it? So I ask again, should we not devote time to truly be the rational human beings we were created to be or should we merely be content with our ignorantly clandestine laziness?

Jesus Messiah – Chris Tomlin

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

Lead Me To The Cross – Hillsong

Sea of Faces – Kutless

In Christ Alone – Geoff Moore

Call My Name – Third Day

You Raise Me Up – Celtic Woman version

I got it wrong. Don’t know if it was the late night homework helping, the text messages, hugs from the youth, or the random drives to Wal-Mart. Somewhere in between, it dawned on me. I got it wrong. Here I was thinking I was volunteering to “help” with the youth. Who helps whom?

Daily, I am amazed by the youth leadership of Emily. I am humbled by Laci’s willingness to love, despite my shortcomings; every time I see Blake, I smile…because he smiles first. Taylor’s hugs are so precious; she gives with no expectations of return. Heather’s gentle heart touches mine deeply. Blake B. walks to church just to sing in the choir to spend time with those he enjoys.

Like most, I had hundreds of valid reasons why I couldn’t volunteer at FPC. I was too busy, I didn’t have the energy…countless reasons popped in my head, and out my mouth. It wasn’t an over night change. I figured if I was going to take up space in the church, it might be a good thing to actually do something, instead of nothing which looks stupid. (After all, nobody wants to look stupid! J)

It cost me 20 cents per text, (did I mention, I hate texting), a few nights of pounding my head trying to remember Biology from high school days, and a bit of gas to head to Wal-Mart. Who helps whom? If hugs and love from my friends were measure-able…

I got it wrong. Come help with our youth. You don’t have to know how to text, remember your biology, or even drive. You just have to be there!

- Amy

Bring Trashbags

Bring Gloves

Bring Energy and Enthusiasm

Bring Love

The report is rather lengthy and addresses the issue of same-sex unions/marriages making sure to define terms carefully.  It sketches biblical interpretation, traditional and historical interpretation, and then modern research and present-day happenings.  In other words, it is very Presbyterian – very well thought-out.  The committee was deeply divided on this issue and in the end could not resolve their interpretations of Scripture to come to a consensus on the issue of same sex unions.  That said, there was a point of unity that stuck out embracing the reality that same-sex unions exist in many churches nationally and internationally:  To love others unconditionally as Christ when they visit and attend churches and leave the judging up to God.  A clear decision could not be made on biblical grounds and thus the committee had no grounds to lay an absolute claim on God or God’s will.  But my friends, as Presbyterians our theology and Book of Order allow us to disagree with each other and still be Presbyterians.  In no way should this seemingly divisive issue break the PCUSA asunder – if we split from the larger whole, what are we doing except claiming that our church over all others knows the will of God better.  Are individual churches comfortable with making absolute claims on God?  May we seek to keep the larger conversation going and may the Spirit of God give us insight.

final-report-civil-union-christian-marriage-jan-2010

After watching this video, despite the accreditation to Central Christian Church, is there a church that would argue with many of these points?  Kudos to a succinct video with a Platonic kind of conversation that assuages hesitation.  In other words, nicely done.  As our church looks to 2010 and beyond and undergoes a visioning process, may we take into account these worries and considerations.

Sometimes, what can be said about a person never seems to resonate true – something is missed in the description.  But every so often there are works of art and phrases or words or smells that remind us of people or of times past.  And for some reason, the following poem reminds me of Bill – the hope he held on to in the person and work of Jesus:

Hope Abides

Hope abides; therefore I abide.
Countless frustrations have not cowed me.
I am still alive, vibrant with life.
The black cloud will disappear,
The morning sun will appear once again
In all its supernal glory.

Bill, you are loved by many whom you touched with your faith.  We’ll see you again.

Christmas has come? What traditions do you have for the holidays? Going to the homes of family members? Visiting with those that are closest to you? Sharing/exchanging gifts? Traveling? Time off of work? What do you think about at this time? Do you have time to think? to reflect? At the cusp of celebration for the birth of hope, I invite you to reflect on your life, on who you think you are, how you perceive yourself to be? What is meaningful to you? What makes life worth living?

For me, I value positive relationships above all else – forming and keeping them.  Easier said than done and in most cases a delusion of grandeur and a beauty-queen notion of world peace.  But, as an education director at a church, I have to embody a bit of delusion to do what I do – 60+ hour work weeks that stem from the very hope that is born this season.  Among the trials, the stress, the exhaustion at this time of year may we all find room to crack a smile and marvel in the hope that is to come and to be refreshed by it.

My prayer this season is that we be reminded that “we are what we do” rather than what we say, preach, and proclaim.  Our actions in many cases tend to deviate from our moral perception of ourselves and the words that escape our lips.  It seems that the wealthier nations become, the more the message of the gospel is lost: wash the feet others.  Even in churches across the nations. Don’t be surprised that if you do go around serving others as the gospel instructs, not only governments and organizations will shun you, but people in churches as well.  Some might not their heads in approval, but will leave the feet-washing to you – the freedom that opportunity yields.  Don’t “buy” into the message of Christmas – that’s a cultural notion.  Live it. That’s my prayer this season.  It might threaten, it might insult, it might hurt, it might guilt, it might comfort – but it is the Word for the season.  Jesus LIVES as one of us – he does what he preaches.

May this Christmas be a feet-washing Christmas of helping others and hoping that even small acts will change the world.  Find joy in making sacrifices that benefit others and lead to positive relationships with others.  I encourage you to do something unexpected for someone you don’t even know and think about what you’ve done…given someone, perhaps more than one, a chance that maybe he or she will find and hope for better days.

“Even a small person can change the course of the future” – Gandalf in Lord of the Rings

Tim

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Here’s the Flyer one last time: