| February 12, 2010
Volume 156, Number 41
|
| Mission leader remembered for ‘big’ life
Hundreds attend the funeral of
the Rev. Clinton Rabb in Austin
 Bishop Jim Dorff speaks during the funeral of the Rev. Clinton Rabb, who died from injuries sustained during the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
Managing Editor
“This is my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine. This is my home, the country where my heart is…”
-Hymn 437, United Methodist Hymnal
Sometimes there looms a life so big, so good, that a family is led on a path of righteousness, a road of rough, blessed, beautiful travel.
Sometimes there looms a life so big, so good, that an organization watches its hands and feet moving to the farthest corners of the world, to the dimly lit places no one else would dare go.
Sometimes there looms a life so big, so good, that hundred, thousands—maybe even millions—of the poorest of the poor, the weakest of the weak, the most hopeless of the lost, find their lives irrevocably, unimaginably changed.
Friends and family of the Rev. Clinton Rabb, who died Jan. 17 from injuries sustained in the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, said, in eulogies delivered during a Jan. 23 funeral at University UMC, Austin, that he lived that life.
More than 700 family members, friends and fellow mission workers from across the globe shared their grief, occasional laughter and reverent worship during the two-hour service celebrating Rabb’s life.
“Clint was a big man in stature, in spirit, in faith, in advocacy, in his challenge to the entire church to reach beyond our walls,” said Bishop Bruce R. Ough, president of the General Board of Global Ministries and former bishop of the San Antonio Area. “He was big in hope. He was and remains a beacon of hope, even in death.”
His life was so big, in fact, that many will not forget him, Ough said.
Passionate advocate
Rabb, 61, was remembered most significantly for his advocacy for and work with the most needy of God’s children, particularly in his role as the director of the Mission Volunteers program at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Bishop Juan Alberto Cardona of the Methodist Church of Columbia presented a plaque to the Rev. Suzanne Field Rabb, Clinton Rabb’s wife, saying the church wanted to honor the man who “loved all people, especially the smallest of this world.”
“No one has love as big as those who give their life for their friends,” Cardona said.
Even his death was a measure of advocacy, said the Rev. Jim Gulley, an UMCOR consultant who was trapped under rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince with Rabb and the Rev. Sam Dixon, top executive of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, who also died from injuries.
Rabb, Dixon and Gulley were in Haiti to discuss ways to help the impoverished island nation. They and two other colleagues were on their way to a dinner meeting in the hotel when the Jan. 12 quake struck.
At times, Gulley could not control his emotion when recalling the tragedy that killed two of his colleagues.
“My last walk together with Sam and Clint was a tragically short one,” Gulley said, his voice breaking. “No more than 20 meters inside the Montana Hotel. We were going toward the restaurant when the earth moved beneath our feet, and in the third second, the ceiling collapsed.
“They (Dixon and Sam) were irretrievably pinned to the floor.” Tears streamed down Gulley’s face.
Dixon was in great agony, Gulley said. Demonstrating great strength, Rabb helped Gulley provide a makeshift bed for Dixon, using plaster and Gulley’s laptop bag.
“I can’t imagine the strength it took to do that,” Gulley said. “Clint was a man of great strength. He said very little about his pain. After 55 hours together, I said to him, ‘Clint, you’re a really tough man.’ He said, ‘Really? I’ve never thought of myself as tough.’
 The Rev. Suzanne Field Rabb, wife of the Rev. Clinton Rabb, who died from injuries sustained during the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, spoke to attendees during Rabb’s funeral Jan. 23 at University UMC, Austin. Rabb admitted that her grief makes it feel as if nothing “can ever be right again.”
At some points during the rescue, Rabb told workers, “Tell my wife I deeply love her.”
“We did all we could to comfort each other,” Gulley said. “I cannot answer the question of Job, why some people suffer and some people die. My path with Clint came together and parted in Haiti, but we will meet again.”
Lover of life
Clint Rabb was remembered as a “lover of life” who never wavered from his commitment to the poor, regardless of the countries in which they lived.
“I feel lucky to have loved him,” said Claire Payne, Clint’s stepdaughter. “I will go, trying to love the world as deeply and unconditionally as he did.”
But amid words of celebration and resurrection and hope, mourners also shared the profound grief of Rabb’s family.
“There is deep, abiding grief, one that would extinguish the stars and dismantle the sun with the knowledge, ‘My beloved Clint is dead,’” Suzanne Field Rabb said. “Stop all the clocks. Silence the pianos with muffled drums. He was my north, my south, my east and my west. He was my noon and my midnight. I thought my love would last forever, but I was wrong.
“Nothing now feels as though it can ever be right again.”
After Suzanne Field Rabb’s words, her son, Matthew Payne, led the congregation in a spirited guitar version of “Peace Like a River.”
The legacy
Rabb was raised in Hunt County, which is northeast of Dallas.
“We grew up in a home where we were expected to be aware of the larger world,” said Joel Rabb, Clinton’s brother, “to participate in a larger world and to know we had an obligation and the ability to make a difference.”
Clinton Rabb served the Southwest Texas Conference as a pastor and a chaplain before joining the Board of Global Ministries in 1996. He founded the “In Mission Together Church to Church Partnership Program, linking annual conferences, churches, mission personnel and volunteer efforts.
The Rev. Bob Huie, a friend and colleague of Clinton’s and a retired minister in the Southwest Texas Conference, said Clinton always loved the image of the Methodist circuit rider.
“I think that’s how he saw himself,” Huie said. “He was 50 percent circuit rider, 50 percent scholar and 50 percent MacGyver. And I would add 50 percent Indiana Jones. He was handsome and dashing and larger than life.
“He was a witness. He would say that he had not only been called by God but recalled by God. The truth was clear. Christ had recalled him, and he became an evangelist recalling people to Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
Joel Rabb said his brother had a heart what never questioned to what God had called him.
“Clint never wavered from his commission from God,” he said. “He met challenges, successes, desperation, elation, dead ends and open doors. He achieved great things, not because it was easy but because he had the strength of character,” Joel’s voice caught, but he continued, “to listen to God’s call in the high points and the low points of his life.
“What is his legacy? The churches that were multiplied, the volunteers that were created? To me, his legacy is his ability to create community. That’s what enables us to carry out Jesus’ command to love. He created community in the most desperate of places. We here today are witnesses of the community Clinton created.”
The family has started a charity, www.clintonclarkrabbcharity.org, in memory of Rabb. Memorial contributions should be designated to The Clinton Clark Rabb Charity. Checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 721115, Dallas, TX 75372.
|
| United Methodists must learn to evangelize more
By Jay Brim
Conference Lay Leader
I hope you, my friend and reader, are aware of the wonderful history of the Methodist Episcopal Church back to 1784, when Mr. Wesley’s emissaries, Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, met with a few, good followers at the Christmas Conference in Baltimore, beginning a movement that, running parallel with that begun shortly thereafter by Phillip Otterbein and Martin Boehm, and another begun by Jacob Albright contemporaneously, would cover the United Stated with congregations.
Led mostly by lay preachers and circuit-riding elders, our movement was dynamic and vital—until the 1960’s, when the three churches merged into the United Methodist Church. No one is blaming the merger itself, but it did coincide with the beginning of a downward slide in membership that continues to this day.
Our leadership at the general church level has begun to identify some factors for that: one is that we just got too successful in the 1950’s, when our churches were bursting at the seams with new members, without any real effort on our part; a second is that as a denomination we took on the brave fight against segregation in the 1960’s, which created conflict in many congregations and countered growth across America, especially in the South; a third factor, which was much more subtle, is that our seminaries moved away from teaching evangelistic fervor through passionate preaching and toward teaching care-giving and nurture as the primary skill sets for new pastors. Although we still have great preachers, as a denomination we are more concerned with “managing” our home bases (church plant, music program, Sunday Schools) than with reaching out to the unchurched.
And most importantly, we as the laity have embraced nurturing by our clergy and have failed to seek and support prophetic preaching. Ask yourself when the last time was that you heard someone say he liked the preaching because it made him uncomfortable.
The result is that we are fabulously wealthy as a denomination in terms of bricks and mortar, including our churches, schools, hospitals and other charitable institutions here in the United States (ahead of our Baptist brethren only because they are congregational and don’t hold their property in trust together as we do), but we are down by more than 3 million members in the United States and Western Europe since 1968, out of 11 million back then.
There is a clear reason. We don’t evangelize. You and I don’t say what we feel and what we know to our friends, co-workers, neighbors, or sometimes even to our family members. Even though, arguably, the Methodist DNA was (emphasis on the past tense) to invite joyously all to enter worship with them and learn the story, it is no more.
Our UMC leadership wants to change that. I want to change that. I ask you to join me in that desire.
This week would be a good time to exercise your voice; invite someone to come with you to hear your preacher, meet your friends and stay to talk awhile. It will be a good thing, for you and for the Church universal.
|
| Youths enjoy true discipleship at Midwinter retreats
As a part of the Body of Christ, the Conference Council on Youth Ministries is being intentional about making disciples. It’s not always easy, nor is it popular. But it is who we are, both as the Church and as believers.
During our Midwinter retreats and other events, we try to do just that by making disciples of Jesus Christ. But what does this mean? Let me see if I might explain our methodology and remind you of our mission.
First, we tell people about Jesus. In telling the story of Jesus, we are given an opportunity not just to hear but also to respond. When we tell about the life of Jesus, who he was and how he lived, we are praying students will catch hold of the vision of Christ and be a part of his mission of love, grace, forgiveness and salvation.
Second, we empower people to live like Jesus. As we know, Jesus didn’t camp out in a synagogue his whole life. He went to where the people were. He offered both physical and spiritual bread. He offered healing and hope, salvation and redemption. We want students not only to hear about Jesus but also to become like him in every day life.
Third, we send people forth to be the hands and feet of Jesus. During our Midwinter retreats we always have a mission and ministry emphasis. This year we were able to make some 500-health kits for Haiti through the support and provision of supplies from the Southwest Texas Conference Office of Communications. We are intentional about sending people forth to the far reaches of the globe to share the love of Jesus Christ with the world. We were also able to continue our tradition of the Youth Service Fund “Penny Wars” with several hundreds of dollars in proceeds going to the “Imagine No Malaria” campaign.
Fourth, we honor Jesus. Let me just tell you, the worship service at these retreats is not watered-down or half-hearted. Part of honoring Jesus means worshipping him with all our might. Imagine a room filled with 300 teenagers focused upon God, filled with the Holy Spirit, giving their hearts and minds to whom Jesus is and what he’s called them to be. The highest call of the Church is to worship the Lord, and we strive to do just that.
This is who we are. We are the Church. We are not the Red Cross, the Boy or Girl Scouts or UNICEF. We are clearly agents of both service and salvation. As we continue our mission, empowered by the Holy Spirit of the Living God, we will walk forth in a proud and bold proclamation of Christ’s love for all humanity. For to do anything less would be untrue to our Master’s bidding!
|
| Haiti’s immediate needs addressed by many organizations
 A young surgery patient flashes a smile following her leg surgery. Hundreds of surgeries have been and are still being performed following the Jan. 12 earthquake.
President of the Methodist Church of Haiti
On behalf of the Methodist Church in Haiti and the Haitian people, we thank you. Thank you all for your outpouring of love, support and Christian brotherhood in our great hour of need. Haiti has suffered a great tragedy, and to rebuild, recover and strengthen, it will take us all.
You have kept us in your prayers and we are grateful. You have sent donations through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). We thank you for your generosity. You have expressed your selfless interest in volunteering your time to come to Haiti to help with the recovery effort and we look forward to welcoming you.
In the coming days and weeks, the Methodist Church in Haiti will complete an assessment of the damage and communities impacted by the earthquake, and will prioritize areas for relief and rehabilitation in partnership with UMCOR. Teams of United Methodist Volunteers in Mission will be integral in the long-term recovery of the church and communities in Haiti, and opportunities will soon be available to come and help in meaningful ways.
In the short-term, the immediate needs of providing emergency aid of food, water, shelter and medical care are being addressed by UMCOR and a host of national and international relief organizations and technical specialists. Soon, the work of clearing debris in preparation for rebuilding will be done by teams of locals in cash-for-work programs led by these same aid groups and local community groups, including the Methodist Church in Haiti. The participation of international volunteers is welcome after this initial emergency phase is complete, at which time the Methodist Church in Haiti will work closely with UMCOR and UMVIM to identify rehabilitation projects which match the needs prioritized in the country.
With great appreciation for the outpouring of support and offers to come in person to help volunteer in Haiti as quickly as possible, the Methodist Church in Haiti, in partnership with UMCOR, requests that volunteer teams consider delaying their arrival into Haiti in light of the following:
The Methodist Church in Haiti and UMCOR are still undertaking assessments and evaluations in the six circuits most impacted by the earthquake, to determine the extent of the damage in church communities and beyond. Suitable projects and assignments for volunteer teams wishing to contribute to the recovery effort will not be identified until this process is complete.
The Methodist Guest House is currently being assessed for structural integrity and will undergo some rehabilitation and reconstruction of the security wall before being brought to full capacity and security to host teams of volunteers.
Commercial flights into Haiti are currently suspended, and all travel into Haiti must be done via the neighboring Dominican Republic. Once in Haiti, transportation and logistics are further complicated due to the influx of international aid groups and the reality of debris and closed roads.
The emergency relief and debris removal phase may last at least another one or two months, depending on the severity of the impact to the communities. Volunteers wishing to work on the programs identified as priority by the Methodist Church in Haiti and UMCOR can begin to schedule trips for late March and April, once this initial emergency response and recovery phase is completed.
Volunteer teams with pre-existing travel plans to Haiti are urged to reconsider the timing and nature of their trip, in order to allow for re-assessment and prioritization of earthquake recovery programs.
Please continue to communicate with us your interest in volunteering for the recovery effort, and we will connect you with recovery projects and rehabilitation programs as soon as possible.
We thank you again for standing by us in this time of great need, and look forward to working in Christian partnership to build a better Haiti.
|
| VIM teams waiting on invitation from Haiti church
By Debbie Vest
UMVIM Director for South Central Jurisdiction
Debbie Vest provides an update on what those interested in traveling to Haiti with a team can do.
Volunteers in Mission, GBGM and UMCOR have worked together to launch a National Database www.umrespond.org/Haiti for volunteers wishing to go to Haiti. There will be specific requirements that must be met to be invited to be on a team. You will need to have ‘Haiti experience.” Once a week the database will be forwarded to me and then to each annual conference coordinator. We will form teams once the invitation is issued from the Methodist Church of Haiti.
Please remember many UMVIM teams will be needed for years to come. While the desire to offer immediate help is universal among Christians, please understand that at this time prayerful waiting is the most faithful witness we can offer. Please read an updated memo from Bishop Joel Martinez, interim general secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/media/pdf/haitivolunteersjan10.pdf.
At this time a volunteer assessment team is being formed. The team will go to Haiti for a preliminary site visit. Mission Volunteers is also working to develop staffing requirements for sending and receiving of teams. More information will be sent as it becomes available.
The United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR) and the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) are asking those who wish to help those impacted by the earthquake in Haiti to do so in four important ways:
- Donate money. It’s the quickest, most effective way to support.
- Assemble health kits to be distributed by UMCOR.
- Plan on sending UMVIM teams as soon as teams are allowed into the country.
- Continue to offer up prayers for all those impacted by the Haiti disaster, and for those who are providing stabilizing first assistance within the country.
Gifts to support UMCOR’s Haiti relief efforts can be made to Haiti Emergency, UMCOR Advance #418325. Checks can be made to UMCOR with Advance #418325 Haiti Emergency in the memo line. Checks can be put in your church’s offering plate or mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087.
Or to speed your giving to those in need, go to http://secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations/umcor/donate.cfm?id=3018760&code=418325.
|
| United Methodist youths assemble health
kits for Haiti during Midwinter retreats
When an earthquake crumbles a home and everything around it, basic necessities like a toothbrush and soap can bring a sense of normalcy and comfort. Hundreds of youth from the Southwest Texas Conference took time during their Midwinter retreat in January to assemble health kits for the people of Haiti.
Using donated hand towels, washcloths, combs, fingernail clippers, soap, toothbrushes and bandages the youth put together 475 kits, which will allow the people of Haiti to maintain their personal hygiene in the face of tragedy. The health kits will be sent to UMCOR and supplied with toothpaste before making their way to Haiti.
The middle school and high school students created the kits while in a learning area focused on sharing the movement of Christ through missions with those in their neighborhoods and around the world. Each kit was hand assembled and lovingly packed with the hopes that the people of Haiti would find comfort in the items and would know of God’s love for them.
|
| Blanco County responds to Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti
The hands of God moved through those of two dozen students from Hope School at Liberty Lighthouse Church, who worked at First UMC, Johnson City, to assemble personal health kits for almost 500 survivors of the earthquake in Haiti. The kits they put together were taken to San Antonio on the first leg of their journey to Port-au-Prince. Their bright orange vests were donations to the Blanco County Disaster Response Group from the Johnson City Lions Club and Hochheim Prairie Farm Mutual Insurance.
|
| Kerrville UMW donate supplies for health kits
by Schatzie Norris
Kerrville District UMW President
Kerrville United Methodist Women, on a four day notice, contributed to the Haiti UMCOR relief effort enough money to provide more than 200 health kits. Monday morning Schatzie Norris, the district president, and Pat Hoffpaur, a member of Gaddis UMW, delivered 32 assembled kits that the Gaddis UMC youth had assembled on Sunday evening and supplies that had been purchased over the weekend with money that had been pledged by UMW units to Johnson City. Boerne UMW—Lucy Saxon Circle assembled and delivered 20 kits to the Southwest Texas Conference office.
George Barnett, Kerrville District Disaster Relief Coordinator, said UMCOR had indicated that they could probably count on 100 health kits from Kerrville District. More than 500 were assembled.
|
| San Antonio District news
CNN lied to me unintentionally, to be sure
The Rev. Clint Rabb, member of our annual conference, died of injuries sustained in the Haiti earthquake. Clint’s job was volunteer coordinator for UMCOR. Sam Dixon, Jim Gulley and Clint were in Haiti to facilitate UM relief efforts for needs that existed prior to the earthquake. Their driver dropped them off at the Hotel Montana five minutes before the quake flattened the hotel in less than five seconds! Fifty-five hours later a French Fire Rescue team reached Sam, Jim, Clint and four others trapped with them.
Like many of you during those 55 hours I listened to any and every news source available. One day, driving along with CNN on Sirius radio, I listened intently as the news shifted toward the means of making donation for emergency relief in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The reporter directed listeners to a CNN Web site from which to connect to various other Web sites on which the inquirer would find a listing of emergency relief organizations and ratings as to how much of each donation is designated for overhead and administration of the relief agency. The reporter cautioned that “ALL” relief agencies must withhold a percentage of every gift for overhead and administrative costs expenses. The news then shifted to another item.
That word “ALL” kept resonating in my momentary recall. Hmm, I thought, guess CNN and its evaluative Web sites are not familiar with UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)! No matter how unfamiliar CNN might be, certainly there is no United Methodist who has not heard that UMCOR is our avenue for emergency relief and that not 1 percent of the gift goes anywhere other than the destination designated by the donor.
This remarkable attribute is possible because all overhead or administrative expense for UMCOR is already paid through our apportioned giving, faithfully rendered by thousands of UM congregations across our nation and around the world. In other words, by the time the need for relief crosses my compassionate heart, my UM Connection is already in place to see that whatever amount I give is promptly and fully rendered to the need I have noted! Not only that, but because UMCOR has funds available and has experience in disaster relief and subsequent compassionate response, UMCOR has already sent the first relief aid because they have estimated the compassion of UM people around the world. In other words, before I sent it, it has already gone! Tell me another relief agency that can pre-schedule my gift for relief before I have even considered it!
No reduction for overhead; no reduction for administration; sent before I have even sent my gift; capable of online donation or through any of 10,000+ local mission outposts. Too bad CNN – as informed as a news organization can be – does not know about UMCOR. Thank God you and I do!
William Abraham shares about campus ministry in San Antonio
 Everyone enjoyed not only Dr. Abrahams, but the music and fellowship.
He shared with those in attendance that the Campus Ministry within the colleges and universities of San Antonio has been provided a quality foundation through the work of Dr. David Semrad. Rev. John Feagins has continued to provide significant leadership in the spiritual and theological development of our higher education student population. Campus Ministry has “Hot Potato” topic lunches, worship services, service projects, theological conversations, student-led Bible studies and fellowship that continue to shape and build leaders for the church for today and into the future. They are leading the way in the Southwest Texas Conference toward our goal of encouraging young Christians to listen for God’s call in their lives that might lead to ordained ministry.
The evidence of the fruit of the work that Campus Ministries is doing in San Antonio was evidenced by the announcement at the close of the Epiphany Celebration made by one of students that he will be exploring a call to ordained ministry upon graduation.
Step-parents invited to Bible study in Bulverde
Are you a step-parent or you aren’t a step-parent but your own children are part of a blended, step-family situation. Typical parenting education programs and ministries are often not sufficient for stepfamilies. Dynamics such as co-parenting, loss, step-parenting, expectations of both children and adults are just a few issues unique to the blended family situation and can be tough but not impossible.
Beginning March 7 at Bulverde UMC starting at 5:30 p.m., a new class, “Tying the Family Knot, Meeting the Challenges of a Blended Family” (authored by Terri Clark) will provide Biblical wisdom, compassion and practical, tangible instruction to help couples and families build strong, functional blended, step-families. Cost for the book and study guide is $17. The class will be facilitated by Dawn Baird and she can be contacted at dawnbaird@att.net or (210) 421-1142 to sign up for the class.
|
| Victoria District news
Rip is living alone! Part one of three
For those who call themselves to be Christian I believe that the 21st century will have other issues than that of racism and elitism. Elitism is racism turned inside out in a particular culture. However, we as Christians may end up like Rip. Rip was a “good” Christian church-person. He is clergy! He is lay!
Rip Van Winkle is the story of a man who went to a mountainside and slept for 100 years, and when he awakened he found that he was old, and the people that he had known and loved were either old or dead. His children were married, the community had changed. The African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics and the Asians were now living in his neighborhood; and because of the population explosion since he went to sleep there were no suburbs and no places to run. The only thing that seemed to stay the same was his little social club that he used to attend, whose parking lot was being rented on Sunday morning by the large multi-denominational interracial church (which his children attended). I did not know Mr. Van Winkle personally. He was probably a regular “A1 Sunday type” of guy who lived in a dream world before he went to sleep. The man probably lived in the ‘50s when people knew their places and children were respectful and Gen. Eisenhower was president. He probably read Harry Emerson Fosdick and listened to his radio program which came on just before Ozzie and Harriet’s radio program. He probably thought all was right with the world because the community in which he lived was perfect and in his own mind he was Jim “Ordinary” Anderson, a father who knew best. He lived next door to Donna “Read’s” family. Who knows what the man was thinking when he went to sleep for all of those years. Who knew that his wife would leave him for a younger man? Who knew that one of his daughters was gay, who knew that the other daughter would leave the Methodist Church to become a Buddhist? Who knew that his son would lead the young Aryan Party and secretly marry an African American woman? Rip was sleeping through a storm and did not even know it. Rip’s life went before him and when he woke up he probably thought that he was in hell. He was too old to work. There was no social security. There was no welfare. And the only work he could find that had a small hospitalization package was either at Hardee’s or McDonald’s since they hired seniors. Rip needed hospitalization. Because sleeping outside all of that time had hurt him. He had developed severe allergies because of a polluted environment. He had blotches of skin cancer that needed to be removed, the ozone was completely gone. He needed to join THE HAIR CARE CLUB FOR MEN because the acid rain had burned his hair away. Rip was messed up!
Rip was physically okay, and mentally okay except for a growing depression. You see before Rip went to sleep he had good vision and good hearing. But he had no insight and he did not listen to the changing world around him. He thought that life would always stay the same. You see he considered himself to be politically correct and Elvis did not bother him and Marilyn was a fascination.
But when he woke up in a world of MICHAEL JACKSON, THE BEASTIY BOYS and rapping Christian groups he realized that he missed something.
Victoria District happenings
Revival Sunday at First UMC Gonzales to be Feb. 21-23
First UMC, Gonzales, is hosting a REVIVAL Sunday, Feb. 21 through Tuesday, Feb. 23, and we invite you and your congregation to attend. This is not your parent’s revival. The Rev. Mark Winter of “One Man Show Ministries” will be conducting a JUBILEE REVIVAL (based on Leviticus 25). Winter uses a mix of humorous sketches, inspirational messages and programs designed to help people discover strength, hope, and joy in God. He simply brings a refreshing approach to revival. The Jubilee Revival begins at our Sunday morning services (8:30 a.m. & 10:45 a.m.) and continues with evening services at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights.
Glory Tones Bell Choir to perform at Flatonia UMC
Sunday, Feb. 21, the Glory Tones Bell Choir from the LaGrange UMC will perform two songs, “How Majestic Is Your Name” and “The Wondrous Cross” for the prelude at the 9:30 a.m. service at Flatonia UMC, 403 E. North Main Street. Director, Nancy Hajek, and 11 experienced musicians, varying in age from teens to older, have been ringing the brass bells in concert since 1996. Some of the recent performances have been at Schmeckenfest in La Grange, various nursing homes in the area, combined community Thanksgiving services, the Kreische House Trail of Lights and monthly at the First UMC, LaGrange, services. Some of the members have also participated in the Texas Conference Choir Clinic with the advanced bell ringers as well as with the Brazos Belles of Brenham in their annual “Ringing in the Seasons.” One of the pieces they will be playing also includes hand chimes which have their own unique sound.
Following the Glory Tones’ prelude, the worship service music will be lead by Strings Attached Praise Band, Stuart & Dianne Raef and Ray & Ann Vann. Flatonia UMC is a ‘Welcoming Church’ and invites visitors of all denominations to come and join the service. The Third Sunday of each month is designated ‘Praise Team Music Sunday’ and various musical groups perform. For more information contact Pr. Rob Clopton, (361) 865-2622 or Administrative Assistant, Amy Jones.
|
| Austin District news
The night my home church burned
I began to rethink ‘Rethink Church’ the night my home church burned. Not the church where I have my charge conference relationship, not the churches I attend, not any of the churches I’ve served. I mean my home, home church. The church I grew up in, passed notes in the pews to my friends, where I preached in high school, my brothers were married, my nieces and nephews baptized and confirmed. The church where my father was buried. My HOME church, Mercedes, Texas.
I am not the only person who has said and/or heard these words – ‘what we need is a good fire’. By that we usually are being flippant about a sanctuary that has real problems from aging or deterioration or bad design or just plain ugliness and we are being flippant about how ‘a good fire’ would make it possible for us to start over. To go in a new direction or even fix up what has lost its luster. Probably with a little cash on hand.
Well, friends, my home church was not whispering about or wishing for ‘a good fire’ and the fire they got sure feels like bad news. A structural engineer will soon be telling them if the beams can support the structure into the future.
Oh can’t you imagine the conversations already in Mercedes Texas?
Person A: “We have to rebuild exactly like it was. People gave money for those pews, and those windows and that pipe organ and we have a responsibility to honor their memory and their gift.”
Person B: “These last few weeks since the fire, worshipping in the Fellowship Hall we can hear each other sing, it feels full, you can smile at your neighbor and the new folks that are coming find it more inviting.” Mind you, the new folks that are coming are younger, Hispanic families now drifting away from generations of Catholicism or, because their parents had already drifted, the new folks have no real experience in church at all. They too bring gifts – although not a pew to sit in or a pipe organ to play.
A good fire. Really? When my family asked what I thought I told them of another church in our conference that burned, and who now has money in the bank. This church membership is about the size of a small SS class. Not going to rebuild because they don’t need a building until they figure out who they are going to be and why they would need one! Jesus said, more or less: The church that seeks to save its life will surely lose it, and the church that loses its life for my sake will surely find it.
It should not take a fire to get these conversations burning in our hearts. Why are we here? Who is our neighbor? What is our mission? It is time, friends, to discover if we are able and willing to be the ‘pillars’ and beams God needs to rebuild our churches. And pray for the folks in Mercedes.
|
|
|
|
|
