Tales from Two Meetings

Oakfield Visioning Team

Byron Pegram is heading up a group of folks from Oakfield UMC that are working toward developing a mission and vision for the church. The Staff/Parish Relations Committee and the Lay Leadership developed a list of folks that they thought would be good for this group.

This group will be meeting for seven consecutive Mondays using Dan Dick's Vital Signs as a guide. The first meeting was enjoyable to attend. It was nice to hear about people's experience in church, as well as their dream for where they would like to see the church be.

Hopefully when we're done...we'll have a mission and vision for the church to unveil at our upcoming Charge Conference in December!

Confirmation

Last night, Confirmation class was the first class in which we actually worked through the CREDO curriculum. I can't speak for the confirmands, but I had a lot of fun. Those 90 minutes seemed to go by pretty quick. We even had the opportunity to do some drawing of God's creation...the results were mixed ;).

Where Two or Three Are Gathered...

We have had evening worship services at the Oakfield and Tabor church for the last month or so. These services have had mixed results as far as attendance goes. At the Oakfield church, we have had ten and 11 folks at the first two worship services. I feel as though we are gaining a relatively consistent group of folks that will attend this service. It still makes singing difficult with such a small group, but I appreciate the atmosphere and community that we have with a small group.

At Tabor church, our attendance has been less. Our first service had three folks and last night I had two folks. I had a young person from confirmation and her mother come to worship. As the three of us moved from the spacious sanctuary to my office, I couldn't help but be reminded of Matthew 20:18: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am with them."

It would be easy to be discouraged by the lack of attendance at the service. What pastor doesn't want to see large attendance at their worship services. It was easy to get discouraged by only having two people come to worship. As we began to read from the Bible, and study together the importance of Sabbath rest in our lives, I realized that Christ was present with us in worship. We read the Word and shared the Cup together.

Although more brief because some parts of the service would not work with three people, we still spent 30 minutes in worship. From now on, I won't mind smaller church service. In fact, they can be just as, or more, meaningful than a larger service.

First Confirmation Class for 2010-2011

Last night was the first Confirmation class for 2010-2011 at Oakfield and Tabor. We have grown to a class for four 8th graders! I was warned that they were going to be quiet group. ;-). After our first class, I think they were doing just fine!

Last night we took some time to get to know each other better and we took a little "pre-test" about what we knew about Christianity and the church.

Next week we will dig into the first lesson of the CREDO curriculum: Creation. If you are interested in learning more about this curriculum, you can see it HERE.

I am excited for what this year holds. Last year was my first attempt at Confirmation. I thought some things went well and some other things didn't go so well. I like this new curriculum and I think it offers opportunities that I did not have last year.

Stay tuned for future Confirmation updates!

Pastoral Pride

I realize that I have written about Confirmation for the last two entries. Forgive me for writing about it again! :-)

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to preside over two different confirmation services. There was an energy and excitement in those services that I have yet experienced in my brief time as a pastor. I truly felt the Spirit moving in both churches during those worship services.

At Tabor, it was wonderful to see Sarah step up and take on the responsibilities of liturgist during the worship service. I think it can also be heard to be the sole Confirmand where all of the focus is on you. I think she had some wonderful things to say in her Faith Statement and I hope she will continue to grow in the faith and grow as a member of Tabor UMC.

At Oakfield, Morgan, Maddy, Buddy, Hunter and Justin did a great job during the worship service. With just a few exceptions, they led the entire worship service. They stepped up to this role with many members of the congregation there, as well as parents and sponsors. A few folks asked me if I coached them as they prepared their Faith Statements. I did provide some guidance, but what they said was from their own thoughts and experiences. I am hopeful that they will live up to what they shared on Sunday.

I am excited for this first Confirmation Class. I am hopeful for them. They can represent a rebirth of the youth groups. They can represent a new wave of youth leadership in church. They represent role models for future Confirmands!

They were a great group to work with and I hope to stay connected to them throughout their Christian journey.

Confirmation This Sunday

On Sunday, April 18, 2010 we will be celebrating Confirmation Sunday at both the Oakfield and Tabor churches. We have six individuals who are ready to affirm their baptismal vows, professing their Christian faith and taking on full membership in the United Methodist Church. At Tabor, Sarah Demler will be confirmed. At Oakfield, Morgan Post, Maddy Post, Hunter Godfroy, Buddy Godfory and Justin Holz will be confirmed.

Last night, we had our final meeting together. At that meeting, we shared some pizza! :-) Then, we went through the service so that they became a little bit more familiar with the role that they will play. I am having the Confirmands take a major role in doing the service. They will also be reading their Faith Statements for the congregation as well.

I am very proud of this group of Confirmands. They brought a lot of energy into each meeting. They showed a desire to learn. They showed growth in the faith and show a desire to continue that growth. They made Confirmation a lot more fun than I thought it would be ;)!

I am looking forward to this service and I hope you will be able to attend as well.

Reflections on Lenten Service

Last night, we had our second Lenten service. Again, we had a more informal worship time. I thought the service went very well. Instead of sermon, we had more of a Bible study. I felt that after awhile it turned into a sermon, but it was different. It was something like an...interactive sermon. I would ask questions, get some thoughts and preach on it. I liked the spontaneity of it. I could feel the Spirit working through me as people's heads were nodding as we interpreted and meditated on God's Word. I am still trying to find the right balance of straight preaching versus making it a Bible study...my guess is that by the final Wednesday service, I'll have figured it out.

More than anything, I am excited when I know everyone at worship comes away with something to think about. I am excite when I know folks come away feel more confident about seeing the meaning in God's Word.

I realize that as a pastor for two churches, my time is limited. But, I would really like to explore the opportunities in an alternative-type worship service during the week. I think we could rotate it between the churches and have a similar format. I think there is a real ministry opportunity here. We'll see what the future holds.

Another Thought
Wednesdays, for many churches, are a popular night for programming. It is a common night for choir practices. Some churches have a programming night. Some even offer a meal beforehand. At our churches, we have Confirmation on Wednesday evenings. During Lent, we had to move Confirmation, which has become quite difficult to re-schedule. In speaking with another pastor in the Fond du Lac area, he said they moved their Lenten services to Thursday evenings.

This may be a little non-traditional, but this is something that I may put out there as an idea for our Lenten services in the future. I am realizing that 2-hour Confirmation classes can test the attention span of both and the students and the teacher. I am envisioning classes that are 60 to 90 minutes. This would mean more classes. I like having the classes on Wednesday nights, so I am going to explore the possibility of moving our Lenten services to Thursday nights. That's a year away, so we can hold off on that for now :).

Unique Look at Methodist History

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! :)

Confirmation Class Update

Even though we already had introductory confirmation class a few weeks ago, we had our first official meeting in which we dug into the curriculum. Last night, we talked about God, sin and grace.

I really appreciate how comfortable this class is with asking questions. They ask some pretty good questions, ones that I think adults still wrestle with. They were also very willing to participate and I think they learned how to look verses up in the Bible.

I had fun! I hope they did, too. I am hoping that over the course of the year, this trend continues. I also hope to see them continue to take a more active role in our worship services.

It was wonderful to see the Holy Spirit in action in that room last night!