December 2006

Why worship?

Pastor Devon and I spend a lot of our time on worship planning: preparing sermons, ironing out details, choosing and rehearsing music. And as if it weren’t enough, we’ve decided to add a third service every week—an early Sunday morning communion service at 8:30. We also have a monthly youth service in the evening, and a weekly prayer time on Wednesdays at 5:30. We’ll have five services on Christmas Eve, because it falls on a Sunday this year (8:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 6:00, 7:30, and 11:00 p.m.).

All this effort around worship is just the way it ought to be. For many of you, your only contact with church is around Sunday morning worship. For newcomers, Sunday worship is the front door to experiencing our whole church. It’s the first thing that most people check on, and usually it’s the reason why people either do or don’t come back to find out more. It’s also the only teaching opportunity we have for people who don’t take part in studies or Sunday School.

But there’s more to worship than trying to pull people into the church; there’s even something more important than teaching. It’s right there in the word I’ve been using: worship. Worship means doing things that give honor and praise and love to God. Notice all the things we do that are specifically for that purpose. We stand, we sing, we thank God in prayer, we pay attention to God’s Word, we give an offering, whether out of respect for God (like a tithe), or out of thanksgiving. Some people do more things that also give honor to God: dance, sing in choir, play instruments, hold hands up, kneel at the rail, pray silently during the offering, and more. We have people who make banners and decorations, whose purpose is to give glory to God.

Of course, even while we’re doing these things to honor God, we’re being watched! First, there are always some people in the room who don’t know what’s going on. They’re our visitors (remember that this is the front door of the church’s life?). They’re watching us, and they want to see whether the things we’re singing and praying and claiming in worship ring true with how we act when we’re not in worship. And above all, God is looking on our worship too.

That’s why we want to be sure that we’re not just saying that we love God during this one hour, and then living a different way when we get up and go in the narthex, or when we drive away to go home, or when we go to work the next day. God and the world are watching, to make sure that we are worshiping, as Jesus promised, in spirit and in truth!

Pastor Jeremy

October 2006

Once upon a time I had a two-month job as a driver for UPS. I had one of the bigger vans, and it took some getting used to, not to go over curbs when turning, and how to gauge the width of the van when backing into a parking space.Most of all, I had to learn to take curves gently. I started my drive with my packages arranged on shelves in the truck, hopefully according to the order of the route. If I hurried around a turn, all the packages would end up in a heap on the floor, and I’d have to sort them all out before making my deliveries.When we combined two congregations to form the Traverse Bay Church, we went around a big curve. There have been times when we’ve felt like the packages inside my old truck—all out of place and running into each other. We’ve all had a little bruising and denting along the way.

I believe that this big curve was the ramp onto a new highway. I believe that we have moved closer and closer along the path to where God wants us to be. And now, as we shift gears and merge into traffic, I really do believe that God is calling us to explore a new future together. I’m excited about seeing so many new faces around the church, including seeing people step into roles of responsibility and leadership. We’re still challenged to pay all our bills. We still have a struggle making space for our ministries and our offices. But first gear is past, and it’s almost time shift into third.

God bless you!

Pastor Jeremy

Compass-checking

September 2006

Dear sisters and brothers:

I write this before leaving for Latvia, so that it can make the deadline for inclusion, and so that I don’t have to write it when I have jet lag in a couple of weeks. It’s been a crazy summer for many of us! The older youth going to Mississippi for a mission trip (if a hurricane doesn’t change that plan); the younger youth going to Luther for their mission trip; four of us from this church going to Latvia on yet another mission trip; both your pastors leading camping opportunities. I went to Iowa to be with my family for a week, celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. And I know that many of you have also been driving and flying here and there throughout the summer, visiting grandchildren, going to weddings, and hopefully having some fun.

There’s something really good about coming back home, seeing familiar faces, and finding some routine again. Make sure that church is part of that routine. Not just Sunday morning for one hour. If you haven’t done it before, this fall make Sunday School a part of your routine. Become part of a mid-week study group. Get involved in a regular service project.

In all the coming and going, it’s hard to catch our breath. If you work full-time, if you raise kids, you constantly put all your energy into those things, and it’s no wonder if you look around in bewilderment once in a while, and ask what you’re getting out of it, or whether you’re really making any forward motion in your life.

For me, that’s where church comes in. Church is the place of connecting and rooting. A place to belong, where you have the best chance all week to check your spiritual compass, and figure out once again where God is in your life and your story. That’s why it’s so important to make church a regular part of your life. As you settle into the routines of fall, don’t let them be routines of thrashing around in the thicket of endless busy-ness. Stop every week and get your bearings.

We’ll be delighted to welcome you back home.

Pastor Jeremy

July 2006

July marks the beginning of my fifth year here, and the end of my fourth. It’s not a remarkable anniversary, but it is another chance to thank you for giving me the privilege of being your pastor. There are always a couple of temptations in looking backward. One is to pat my own back for things that have gone well. Another is to obsess over all the things that have gone poorly. But a church is not a one-man show, so it would be foolish for me to take either all the credit or all the blame for the water that we together have seen go under the bridge. I thank you because we have been in this together, for good and for ill. And though you may not agree with all the things I list as positives, I want to share with you some of the good things we’ve accomplished together as a church over the last four years. And I want you to see how many great leaders we have, who have owned all these ministries:

· We’ve become leaders in the conference, in mission giving (Thanks, Marilyn).

· We were half-partners in building a Habitat for Humanity home (Thanks, Dan).

· We welcomed homeless people into our church buildings (Thanks, Jeff & Gene).

· We sent one youth to camp three years ago, and this year we’re sending at least nineteen (Thanks, Jessie and Eric).

· We welcomed a second full-time pastor, Devon Herrell (Thanks, Leta).

· We decided that we could dedicate the entire Emmanuel building to youth and community ministries (Thanks, Trustees).

· We renovated the sanctuary (Thanks, Donna).

· We replaced the ventilation system in the kitchen (Thanks, Dick).

· We welcomed new people into Christ’s family (Thanks, Gordon & Marilyn).

· We reached out to more children than ever through Vacation Bible School and the Harvest Party (Thanks, Dawn).

· We’re going to have two separate nurseries, separated by age group (Thanks, Kris).

· We united two congregations and gave ourselves a fresh beginning (Thanks, everyone!).

The trouble with this list is that it doesn’t name the hundred or so other leaders and committed servants who give their very best to God through this church, day after day: those who teach Sunday School, sing in the choir, prepare and serve dinners, deliver communion, organize picnics, write checks, count offering, fix lights, mow grass, help youth groups, and on and on and on. Thank you for making ministry happen here at Traverse Bay every day. And thanks for letting me stay another year.

God bless you all!

Pastor Jeremy

June, 2006

Annual Conference time!

When you receive this newsletter, several people from our congregation will be heading off to the West Michigan Annual Conference in Grand Rapids. Pastor Devon and I are going, and also Mike Windover, Nancy LeValley, and Marilyn Erickson. Please keep the thousand or so people of conference in your prayers, June 1-4.

Conference is a lot of things to United Methodists. For pastors, it’s like an annual family reunion: a time to catch up with lots of people we don’t often see. It’s also a time when we can experience different kinds of worship from what we do at home, and hear some great (and, sometimes, not-so-great) preaching. But our official reason for gathering is to do business, in legislative sessions. This year we have before us two big votes regarding our organization. These decisions may not be visible to the local church, but they make a huge difference to people who work for the conference, and to pastors.

One question is whether we should reduce the number of districts within our conference from six to five. The main reason for this idea is to save money; we would be paying for one less district superintendent and secretary. The downside is that every district superintendent would have to take on about ten extra churches. Most districts already have about fifty churches, and our superintendents work very hard to keep up with their needs. The conference recently went through a major cost-cutting process, and most churches (including ours) saw a significant drop in our apportionments. The conference is trying to work their way down to asking each church for a simple tithe of ten percent to support our connectional work. This year, we’re down to about twelve and a half percent. Reducing the number of districts is a way to help get to that goal.

Another issue this year may be much more divisive. For the third time in the last fifteen years, the conference is being asked to merge with the other conference in Michigan, which is called the Detroit Conference. Don’t let the name deceive you: that conference includes the whole UP, and almost half the lower peninsula, including everything from Alpena and Gaylord to Ann Arbor and Detroit. If we vote yes this year, we would not officially merge until 2009. The Detroit Conference is not terribly different from our own conference in the mix of rural and urban churches, size of churches, and so on. But it is very difficult and complicated to merge two large organizations with separate histories and traditions (and politics). Merging conferences would also mean that pastors could be appointed anywhere within Michigan. There are certainly pastors who have strong preferences, and would rather not be appointed to Iron Mountain on one extreme, or to Detroit on the other. Our hope is that we will listen to God and to reason, rather than to our own desires.

As for me, I go to conference this year undecided, hoping to receive a lot more information before I have to make a vote!

(Note: both annual conferences did vote to move toward a final vote for union in 2008. We did not approve the redistricting proposal.)

May 2006

Forgiveness

As I write this, we are about to begin a series of sermons about forgiveness. Forgiveness is the very essence of the Christian faith. Why? Because forgiveness is Jesus’ answer to sin.

Sin sounds like such an old-fashioned word these days, maybe because we have focused too often on the trivial side of it. We think about swearing or speeding or eating too much chocolate as sin, and we pay little attention to the sins that destroy the world. Sin is the fundamental human problem: without it, we wouldn’t have war, global warming, poverty, hunger, homelessness, or hopelessness.

Jesus came to overcome the problem of sin by offering forgiveness and unconditional love. But he also said that if we don’t forgive other people, God won’t forgive us. He says this over and over again, but for some reason we keep choosing to forget it. Matthew 6:14-15 says this: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

I know that it can feel as though it’s impossible to forgive someone who has hurt you deeply. Perhaps they’re also angry at you. It’s hard to imagine forgiving. I know people who intend to go to their grave carrying grudges. Those are some very unhappy people, and every day they’re further from God.

Jesus’ thinking was the opposite. He would rather die than hold our sin against us. Can we have the mind of Christ in us? Can you learn to forgive freely, and so receive forgiveness just as freely from God?

I said a moment ago that sin was the fundamental human problem. Forgiveness is the solution. What an amazing thought: forgiveness is the solution to the world’s problems. If we could become a people who let go of pride and open up to God’s love, we would be able to overcome anything together. It may be too late for the world; our sins may have pushed beyond the point of no return. But if you’re reading this, it’s not too late for you.