Exercise Continues to Be Rewarding

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!

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! :)

Committee Meetings

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!

We Have a Webpage!

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!

New Members!

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.

Productive Meeting

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 have shown a great deal of initiative to get a group together to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
• 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!

New Growth: 1 Corinthians 12

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.