Pastor's E-letter 11/15/19

As we continue this week in our “Taking the Next Step” generosity campaign, I hope you are using the prayer cards we have made available each week to guide you in praying over the central question of this message series, “Lord, where would you want me to be in my giving?” I also hope that you are using these prayer cards to pray over our mission and ministry for Christ in our community and our world. This week’s prayer focus invited us to not only ask for guidance in our own spiritual journey, but it also invited us to pray for our community and our missional outreach to those in need, the students and teachers at Harbor City Elementary, our Suntree UMC School, our new ministry partnership with Zoe Empowers in Rwanda, and a host of other concerns and needs.

The theme verse for this week comes from Psalm 116:12, “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?” It’s kind of the perfect verse for our prayer focus during this time because, first, it begs us to stop and reflect on all of God’s goodness and blessings in our lives. This is something we need to do often. We need to stop and remember, take stock and give thanks to God for God’s goodness. Then this verse begs us to consider, “how will I respond to those blessings?” We know that we can never repay God. But we can express our gratitude to God. We can honor God by the ways that we use the gifts that God has entrusted to us. And we can seek to grow in our generosity as a reflection of the generosity that God has shown to us.

Prayer is an essential part of that growth. Prayer helps us to remember God and to celebrate God’s presence and blessings in our lives. Prayer is a means of inviting God into our very practical and concrete decisions about how we will use well and wisely the gifts poured into our lives. Prayer can serve as a lens to purify our vision and our desires. It invites Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to speak into our lives and to shape our hearts after the likeness of Christ.

God works through prayer, not only in us as individuals, but in us as a faith community. As we unite in prayer together, we give the Holy Spirit room to move in us and grow us as a people. In prayer, we are shaped for loving and serving and seeking God’s purpose together

Next week, in addition to receiving a new prayer card for use in your prayer time, we will also be invited to pray together as part of our Taking the Next Step Prayer Vigil. The vigil will be on Tuesday, Nov 19 from 9am -4pm and Wednesday, Nov 20, noon - 8pm in the Worship Center. There will be four prayer stations available to guide you through a personal prayer experience or you may simply spend time in prayer at the altar or anywhere in the Worship Center. We will pray for the generosity campaign and for our own personal, spiritual growth in generosity as we ask God to show us where He would have us be in our giving. We trust that as we pray, God will be at work to grow in us the desire to be a church that is committed to making God’s Kingdom real in all that we do in this place and beyond. We will pray for our church, our community, and our world.

One of my favorite quotes about prayer comes from Alfred Lord Tennyson, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day.” There is no end to what God can do in us and through us as we pray together. There is no end to what God can do through a people who are being shaped and formed to reflect the extravagant generosity of our amazing God. I hope you will continue to pray about your answer to the question of where God wants you to be in your giving. And I hope we will all join in this very focused time of prayer and thanksgiving over the next week. Who knows what miracles God might do in us as we seek God together?

See you in worship this week as we continue the “Taking the Next Step” journey.

Grace and Peace,

Annette

Pastor's E-letter 11/1/19

This week in worship we begin a new message series, “Take the Next Step” which is the theme of this year’s Generosity Campaign. If that term seems different to you, that is because it is! This year, instead of our traditional Stewardship Campaign we are shifting the focus from what folks often associate with the word “stewardship” to a focus on generosity as a response to all the gifts that God has so lavishly poured into our lives. It’s not that stewardship is a bad word. It’s a great word with deep, biblical roots. But for some, it is loaded with expectations and connotations that lead us away from the heart of the matter when it comes to giving – our joyful response to the goodness of God. 

Too often our thinking about giving goes quickly to the bottom line and how will it impact or fund our budget. But honestly, God is less worried about budgets and more concerned with our hearts. So this year, we are seeking to keep the focus where it belongs, on the extravagant goodness of God and how God is calling us to take the next step in cultivating a generous heart and lifestyle in response to and in imitation of God’s generosity towards us. 

Hopefully, you picked up your copy of our series devotional guide, “Practicing Extravagant Generosity” by Robert Schnase. We hope that you will use this guide as part of your daily devotions and prayer time throughout this series. You should have also received a bookmark/prayer card with the book. Each week you will receive another prayer card with a different prayer emphasis and scripture to meditate over. We hope that all Suntree UMC will be united in praying over the question, “Lord, where do you want me to be in my giving?” and in praying over our church and its many ministries. 

This week we will begin our generosity journey by digging into the story of Abram (later Abraham) and his father Terah and their different responses to God’s call as found in Genesis 11:31-12:4. We will begin to think about what it means to cultivate generosity over a lifetime by saying “yes” to God’s invitation to “Take the Next Step.” 

We will also be celebrating the saints of our lives and how their lives have reflected a generosity of heart, faith and giving that still blesses us today. When you come to worship Sunday, I invite you to look around you and ponder the legacy that the saints in our lives have passed on to us. The sanctuary and worship center where we worship, the classrooms where we meet for Sunday School, the Memorial Garden where we inter our loved ones, the baptismal fonts where we celebrate the sacrament of baptism, the stained glass. All of it was a gift that we have inherited from faithful saints of God, many of whom have gone on to glory. Think about the hundreds, the thousands of lives that have been touched, blessed and changed because folks before us gave generously to the work of Christ at Suntree UMC. Think about that legacy and say a prayer of thanks to God for them and the faithfulness of their witness to all of us. And then, begin to consider how God is calling you to carry on that legacy by cultivating that same generosity of heart and life that we see in them, and even more, that we see in the extravagant generosity of God, his son Jesus Christ, and the life-giving Holy Spirit. 

I look forward to seeing you in worship Sunday as we begin this generosity journey together.

Grace and Peace,

Annette