This is the internet blog for Jim Droste, pastor of the Oakfield & Tabor United Methodist Churches. I will be updating this blog daily hoping to cover: events, ideas, sermon introductions and other issues pertinent to the two churches and the greater Methodist community.
I received a package in the mail today. It came from Amazon.com. It had two items in it:
A Video Game: Mass Effect 2 A Book: Adventures in Missing the Point
Christa has had to hear me all week talk about my excitement to be receiving these items. I am excited to read the book, but with all the reading I have ahead of my for Course of Study, I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to read it. Mass Effect 2, however, will be a wonderful stress reliever for me. It has been a game I have been looking forward to playing for years.
What makes this special is that this book and game were free. I was able to purchase them using gift certificates that I earned through points I accumulated through the Virgin HealthMiles program. It is something that I do as part of the United Methodist Church. The running and walking that I do to keep healthy is also paying off!
Last night's Confirmation Class focused on our heritage. We talked about our Jewish, Catholic, Episcopal and Methodist heritage. I had a lot of information on all of this, but it would have been pretty dry without something to break up them just listening to me talking.
Not having any videos on hand, I checked on the web. I found a video on YouTube for a movie that was published by United Methodist Publications. It is called Clayride: A Gallop Through United Methodist History.
Although now obvious to me from the name, I didn't realize it was a claymation video until it started. That took me back to the days of Gumby! After you get over the cheesy music as well, you will see that there is a lot of good history packed into a 4 minute video. I especially liked how it touched on Methodist stances on various social issues. It also mentioned our Evangelical and United Brethern backgrounds.
I hope you check the movie out. It's fun and educational! :)
This week, I am sending out letters to members of some committees of the Oakfield and Tabor churches. I am trying to schedule a meeting with the Lay Leadership Committees of both churches so that we might address some things related to the leadership positions of the church. I am also hoping to have a gathering of members of the Ministry Initiative Teams at the Tabor Church. I am hoping to get these committees meeting on a regular basis.
I feel as though when we can get committees to met regularly, we are able to look at things proactively, rather than having a reactive approach to what is going on in the life of the church. Here's looking to a productive February!
It's official: Tabor UMC and Oakfield UMC now have a website. It is: http://oakfield-taborumc.org/. We purchased the domain name through godaddy.com. I plan on utilizing a service where they will both host and help in the construction of our website. They provide these services for a very reasonable price.
Please know that for now about all that we have on our website is a title and some information about how the website is coming soon. Please keep checking as I am able to get information uploaded onto our new site.
If you check today and tomorrow, you will go to the website, but you may not find the page yet. They say that it can take a day or two for the information to be uploaded.
I am excited. This is a project that I have been working on since I became a pastor for these two churches. To know that we can start putting information on our own website is exciting news!
At tomorrow's worship service at Tabor we will be welcoming two new members to the congregation. They have been attending our worship services over the last few months, but recently decided to have their membership transferred to our church. They currently are members of a church in Fond du Lac, but live in Eden. It makes sense for them to make the change and we are excited to have them as a part of our church!
These are the first members that have joined either church since I have been pastor.
Typically, if I was part of a 2-hour meeting, I would tell you that it was a waste of time...or that we talked too much. Last night Oakfield Church Council meeting was an exception to that. There was a lot on the agenda, but I thought there was some incredible news to report:
Our apportionment payments went up significantly in comparison to last year. We are close to paying about 80% for 2009, whereas we were at about 50% for 2008.
We approved the creation of a website for the Oakfield and Tabor churches. The cost is very low and we will not have to worry about hosting the site. We will simply need to upload the necessary information onto the pages. Hopefully this will be up and running soon.
We had a good discussion about advertising. We are hoping to utilize the Oakfield Gazette more, as well as be more intentional about submitting press releases for upcoming events.
It was a lively meeting with good discussion. I hope all of our meetings continue to be like this!
Tabor Ministry Initiative Teams Next week, letters will be going out to some members of Tabor United Methodist Church regarding our Ministry Initiative Teams. I am hoping to get current members of the these committees together along with some other individuals who I think would be good on these committees. These groups work specifically with nurture (Sunday school, youth, etc.), missions and witness (worship services).
With the excitement of the new addition growing and additional facilities soon at our disposal, I think it's important that we think about new ministries and new opportunities at the Tabor Church. Stay tuned for additional information and updates!
Over the first few weeks of my appointment, I was trying to get settled in. I was taking decorations from my offices before and trying to incorporate them into the office at the Oakfield Church. This meant also trying to incorporate items that were already in the office.
I inherited a plant. The plant was doing OK, but I assumed that it was lacking water during the pastoral transition. I was pretty good at watering it at first. But, soon I started to forget to water it. My mind was occupied with other things...my plant was starting to die.
I thought all was lost. One of the members of the Oakfield Church noticed that state of my plant. She cleans the church regularly and she added a watering of my plant to the rotation. She said it would grow back quickly. It did. It is now very green and even has a beautiful pink blossom on it.
I am preparing a sermon for this Sunday about the many parts of the body of Christ. There are no small tasks. Sadly, watering the plant got lost. It wasn't important. To someone else, who loves taking care of the plants of the church, this is very important. We all have skills and talents. We all must use them for the betterment of our church. It's good to know that my plant is in good hands.
In Christ, we are all in good hands. We need only think about the way we can contribute to the growth of His church.
I will be the first to admit, that as much as I try to be at the leading edge of technological trends, that is not always the case. Since I began as a pastor in July of 2009, I have trying to think of ways that we can move the Oakfield and Tabor churches forward in the areas of technology. In talking with the Oakfield Lay Leader, I got connected with a young man who does technology work for the Oakfield School District.
We met for lunch today and he provided me with some wonderful information as we look at website hosting opportunities and possible ways to network the office. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we can get a new website started for both churches. Linda and I will also hopefully be able to share files on a server as well as share the same printer. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.
I have written about how cleaning is a relaxing thing for me. So, for my Sabbath Day, it actually felt good to get some cleaning that done. :)
Anyway, yesterday I tackled the project of cleaning our home office. The office still had some church papers in it. When I arrived as the pastor for Tabor and Oakfield, I decided that I wanted most of the office work that I did to be done out of the church office. I felt better about that. The transition of materials was a slow process, but yesterday completed the project.
The papers were moved over to the office, but a bigger transition was completed. The Oakfield church line also rings to the house. The fax line is also the church line, so we had that in the house as well. This does offer some advantages:
People can easily get a hold of me for urgent or crisis situations.
I can field calls at times when the church office is typically not open.
I can return call quite quickly.
I can work at home and still easily be able to handle church calls.
But,it also posed some challenges:
Fax calls are made at strange hours, like 3:00AM. When you hear the phone ring and you rush to get it, expecting an emergency...you are saddened (and frustrated) to hear the fax beeping on the line.
You feel compelled to answer the phone, because it's there. So, when it rings on a Saturday or a Monday, I don't want to ignore it.
So, yesterday I moved the fax machine to the church office and the church answering machine to my church office in Oakfield. I have one church line still in the house that we will have removed on February 1.
Now, our home office is for the home. Christa will be using it primarily, but it does provide a place for me to work when I need to also be watching over the dog. I do appreciate the flexibility that comes with being a pastor.
I also realize that you can not draw a clear line between when you work as a pastor...it was no different when I was a Residence Hall Director. For my own well being, however, I felt like I needed to create some kind of a line for when I am not working at the church. Parisioners can still call our home line or my cell phone if they need to get a hold of me right away. We'll see how it goes.
Not too long after Christa and I settled in to our house, we thought it would be important that we each have a flashlight or lantern in our mightstands in case the power went out. I suppose it was good preparations, but it never seemed to serve its purpose. It got in the way when I was trying to put my book down at night. I got in the way when I was trying to clean. But, it was right there if I needed it. Why did I need to have this thing around? The power never went out.
Earlier this week, we lost power in Oakfield. In fact, we lost power quite a few times in about an hour's time. We heard strange beeping sounds and we were trying to figure out why this was. I believe it was our answering machine resetting. Finally, the power went out for an extended period of time. We were both awake now. Since is was at night, there was no light.
Christa said, "Hey! It's nice that we have those flashlights by our bed." She was right! We could turn them on and see throughout the house. After all that time without being used, after all that time when they got it the way...they were useful, very useful.
That's how we see God sometimes. Until a crisis comes, God can lost or forgotten in a mountain of other things. We may know that He is there, but we don't think about Him. That night helped me to remember that we need not only look to God during times of crisis. We should look to God at all times and realize that he is always with us, in moments of crisis and in the moments of normalcy. It wonderful to know he is always helpful for us.
Reaffirmation This Sunday, we will be celebrating the Baptism of the Lord. As a part of this worship service, members will be reaffirming their baptismal vows. They will not be baptized again. As Methodists, we believe in infant baptism so that our brothers and sisters are brought into the Christian family early in their lives. It certainly doesn't mean that if someone is not baptized as ababy that they can't be baptized later in life. Once someone has been baptized, we do not have them baptized again. Even if someone may have strayed from the faith, and comes back, they may be "born again," but it wouldn't involve another baptism. Christ welcomes us all back, no matter how long or how often we might stray.
I think it is important that we remember the vows that we took, or more likely, the vows that were taken for us. It helps us to remember what we are asked to do as members of the body of Christ. I hope you can make it for this!
Guest Speaker
This Sunday, we will also be having a guest speaker. His name is Jerry Wallendal. He will be preaching. Here is his bio:
Jerry Wallendal currently serves as the Director of Ministries for YFC/Fresh Start, a division of Youth for Christ. He and his wife Pastor Leota Wallendal also head up Kingdom Harvest Ministries International, a ministry which shares the uncompromised word of God and reaches out to our community. Jerry was delivered from 25 years of addiction to drugs and alcohol in 1996 when he became a born again Christian. God quickly started to use Jerry as he has ministered from the young (teaching in Sunday school) to the old (preaching in nursing homes). God has blessed Jerry with the gift of evangelism and used him to bring hundreds to a relationship with Jesus Christ and the ministry of YFC/Fresh Start has seen over a thousand commitments to Christ. Jerry has spoken to youth groups, ministered in the several prisons, as well as preached at churches of various denominations. Jerry has a vision for unity in the body of Christ, for revival to sweep across this land, and for the church to truly fulfill the Great Commission by going outside our church walls to reach the lost. His messages are challenging, thought-provoking, and are packed with the Word of God.
I have met with Jerry before, and I am amazed about his ministry. He has really made a difference in the lives of many youths in the area. I hope you are able to hear him speak.
I read an article from the Wesley Report about some mega-churches that are affiliated with the Methodist Church, but do not display anything having to do with the Methodist Church.
The United Methodist church is sharing a similar fate to many other mainline denominations. Numbers are shrinking. Churches are consolidating or outright closing. Yet, you also see churches that aren't affiliated with a denomination with huge buildings and lots of people coming on Sundays.
This article seems to indicate present a situation that is doubly helpful for the church listed. They can utilize the resources available from the United Methodist Church, but yet can model themselves after the hipper, trendier non-denominational church. Is it possible that more churches will go this route? Will they attempt to seem not be a Methodist Church so that they can tap into a new demographic looking for a different church? Thoughts?
This afternoon, I have placed in the mail my application to begin Course of Study. You might ask, "What is Course of Study?" That is a good question.
In many denominations, pastors attend a seminary to attain a Masters of Divinity before becoming a pastor. In the Methodist church, there is a another path to ministry. I have the opportunity to be a licensed pastor. As someone who already has a Master's Degree in another field, I appreciated the opportunity to not have to go back for an additional Master's.
My education for licensing began two summers ago when I went to the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary for License to Preach School. By passing all classes, I became eligible for appointment to a church. I waited one year to allow Christa to finish school and was then appointed to the Oakfield and Tabor United Methodist Churches beginning in July 2009.
This only began my path to official licensing. I will need to attend classes for the next five summers, in which I will take four classes each. Two classes are taught in a week in a half. From July 11 to July 30, 2010 I will (hopefully) be at the Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary taking my first round of Course of Study classes.
Registration is just the first part. I am in the process of printing out the syllabi and taking notice of the books that I will need to purchase for these classes. It's quite a list. I am also looking at the assignments that are ahead of me...wow. Later in the spring, I will need to pay for room and board costs as well.
This is something unique that comes with being a Licensed Local Pastor. It will be interesting...I am sure you will be hearing more from me about this over the next few months.
At Sunday's service I expressed that Christa and I would like to have a gathering for the Packers playoff game. We were only waiting to find out when the Packers would be playing. That has been set, so the party is now set.
Packer Playoff Party Sunday, January 10, 2010 3:00-7:00 PM Pastor Jim & Christa's House (109 Filby St.; Oakfield, WI)
Members of both Oakfield and Tabor church are encouraged to come! Kickoff is at 3:30, but we'll be ready a little bit before that. We will have some snacks and beverages available, but we encourage, and hope, that you bring your own to augment what we have. We have two TVs and a decent amount of seating space. We will bring in extra chairs to accommodate the possibility of a big crowd!
We will still be having Youth Group that night...we may start late if the game would happen to go to overtime.
