Here Are the Answers!

   Guy Noir, Garrison Keilor's detective character, is always,"seeking answers to life's persistent questions." Truth is we'd all like clear, quick answers to questions like: What should I do next? Is this the right time and place for this? What does God want? What should my church/community/group do next/now?

    In truth there are few easy answers. Psalm 62 starts, "For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation."  Psalm 121 begins, "I lift up my eyes to the hills--from where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth."  Answers come in waiting, working, things bigger than ourselves--all the places that take commitment and time.  Answers come from things, the One, bigger than ourselves.

    Along the way on this Study-Renewal journey I have met a seminary student, several pastors, church interns, people of all sorts and all seem to rejoice in the time to renew, listen for God and to learn.  One pastor said "I'm jealous."  and another reflected, "It's important to have that time as we serve longer pastorates."  Although there seems to be a broad recognition of the need for renewal, listening and learning (the stuff of prayer), there is also a confession that few people of faith and congregations take time to meet the need.  We have a great start!

   Having seen the sites of John Wesley's first mission work in Georgia and reviewed his assessment of the effort as a failure,  I'm reminded that answers come with time, work, waiting and needing help. I expect to come home with new questions, ideas and conversations to hold.  (See previous posts.)  I suspect that I will come bearing no easy or quick solutions to our congregation's struggles to make disciples and grow.

    So, if we want answers, then we prepare for holy conversations with Holy Spirit redirections.  If we want new possibilities, then we commit to time with God and one another in fresh ways.  In September we're planning to have a dinner (I hope covered dish) and a time for representatives from Palmyra First to share learnings & insights from the summer.  Also I'll share a few learnings and insights.  I anticipate that from there we'll continue the conversation around tables (food tables, the Lord's Table, meeting tables, kitchen tables, restaurant tables...), maybe even a monthly food and conversation around a lunch, dinner or dessert!

   Yes, I'm seeking answers to life's persistent questions!  It will take effort and require persistent patience.  We'll do it together and the report of 2000 years of followers of Jesus Christ is that God has never let us down!

   I trust you will keep praying, learning, resting and sharpening one another, while I commit to doing the same.  I look forward to seeing you soon.

10,000 Joys in Christ
Student and Disciple Pastor Dave

6 Promises to Young Adults -- An Open Letter

Dear Friends,  I want you at the table.  I'll admit that I don't always know how to say that well. I humbly ask for your help.   Let's talk!

This letter took shape in my mind from an impulse, "I want to encourage Young Adults to Vote!"  Sitting down to write, I realized I was thinking of something far bigger than simply voting. Voting is only one small piece of exercising your vision in this world.

We share a future, and in that unfolding season my time of leadership is setting while yours is rising.  I need to lift you up and make space at the head of the table, if I am to lead responsibly.  I'm interested in your ideas, partnership and directions.  My deepest wish is to be an advocate for you; to be an cheerleader for you; and if you desire, a mentor for you.

As a pastor, I could frame my hope of passing the mantel, and for strong community, with the stories and convictions of  my faith.  Indeed that's my personal foundation.   But, I don't need to share my faith in order to offer my hope and invitation.  I can just as easily call to you from a framework of vital community, making the point with best practices from many disciplines.  My interest is not based on you agreeing with me!  No matter how I slice it, your voice is necessary.  Without you in the conversation around the table, the future is dim.

Here are my commitments and intentions:

1. I'll listen to you.  (And if you think I'm not listening, I want you to tell me.)
2. I'll honestly share my thoughts, especially if you ask.
3. I'll be as transparently me, as I know how.
4. I'll give you genuine encouragement and feedback.
5. I'll get it wrong sometimes.  When I mess up, I will make amends.
6. I will welcome your help on all these things and more.

When I was in my twenties, I remember serving on an regional education team that generously mentored me. Within two years, that group risked inviting me into leadership as chairperson. Looking back, I could not have filled that responsibility well without support and encouragement.   I am deeply grateful for that trust, model, and mentoring.  I am richer for it.

I seek to share that gift offered to me, not because I want you to do what I prefer, or to vote for the candidate that I like.  My wish is to celebrate your gifts.  I desire your participation, listening, and leadership. I have a responsibility to you, helping you to accomplish important and world sustaining things. I'd love to hear your insights and ideas.

So... I thought I'd start by asking.  Maybe we can pull up a chair for coffee or a meal and talk?  I'm looking forward to your reply.

10,000 Joys -- Dave Harris

4 Easter Tips

     Celebrate Easter making friends with these great tools--four acts of Love. (Read Here  last month's encouragement "Don't Be Friendly!") Thom & Joani Shultz share these in their book "Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore." (Harsh title, great book.)
     Easter is a time to celebrate & share new life. How? Well the first approach is friendship that matters. What's that? It's those four acts of Love, lived as friendship that is:

1. Generous with radical hospitality (go out of your way to make a stranger feel at home);
2. Honest with fearless conversation (dare to talk about things that make you feel uncomfortable trusting God can handle it.);
3. Open up with genuine humility (allow God to surprise you with new things, ideas and people); and
4. Hope-filled with Divine Anticipation (trust that God is doing something exciting even when you aren't or can't).

     God took the sting out of death, put the power in relationships and radically entrusted those gifts to you and me--ordinary people. It doesn't demand special status or skills, just a special God with our willingness to learn and serve.
     At Palmyra First we say Everybody's Welcome, Nobody's Perfect, & Anything's Possible. I believe that. I try to live it. The invitation for us all is to live it.
     Bring a friend to Easter worship. Make a friend at Easter worship. Connect throughout the life of the community as a friend of God in Christ.

10,000 Joys Living as a Friend of God, Pastor Dave

Don't Be Friendly!

Don't be friendly!  Instead make new friends.

Each year three things grow in my backyard: 1) gourds in the compost pile, 2) A tomato plant from a lost seed, and 3) raspberry plants.  None of these yield an abundance of fruit.  All do better with intentional action.

For me, and maybe you, it's now time for getting ready for Easter, reflecting on Jesus' life... and my own.  I know that Jesus goes to the cross, and that Easter is coming.  In that light you & I  nurture God's seeds, in us.

Making disciples of Jesus is the most important gardening you and I do as followers of Jesus.   We tend that garden by making new friends.  It's easy to say, "I'm friendly," but a fruitful follower of Jesus isn't just "friendly" but is always making new friends.

Jesus said, "a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat." (John 12:24CEV) He was giving us a picture of Easter power!  Jesus lived that power making new friends and encouraging others making new friends.  Listen:  "Go into all the world & make disciples...;"  and also see his example with the woman at the well;  and  hear as he tells of the Good Samaritan lifting up an instance of making a new friend in the role of neighbor; and watch as he makes his own new friends gathering the 12 disciples.... Jesus wasn't just friendly, he was making new friends!

All of life contributes to making new friends.  Making new friends isn't about public speaking, or sales, or being extroverted.  It's about intentionally being God's person who purposefully nurtures the seeds we see in other people.

At Palmyra First UMC, in our last ministry audit, Bill Easum, said that if we invited 6 new visitors every week, and they made 6 new friends during their visit (met new people & found something in common), then likely half of them would follow Jesus in this place and we would grow in faithfulness and attendance.  Fewer new friends than 6 would mean little growth.

It's like my garden.  A few things grow without intention, but not much.  Bob & Jane Bauer, disiciples who passed away this past year,  knew this.  They have many friends here in our church who can tell you the story of how they were intentionally befriended by Bob & Jane.

Easter is coming!  A great time to plant seeds that blossom into new friends!

Tell me some of your "new friendship" stories!