General Conference - Day 5

I got sick last night and was able to have Jim Doepken sit in my seat this morning so I could sleep in. Am feeling much better. Attended my legislative committee dealing with superintendents and bishops. Then some of us in the western jurisdiction heard about a petition to have each jurisdiction pay for their own bishops. If passed this would mean we would go from 6 to 3 bishops in the west. It would no doubt weaken our connection and lessen our leadership potential.

We were entertained tonight with the Texas Boy's Choir and food. I told Rev. Kay Shock that if she got on the bull to have her picture taken I would give $100 to Nothing But Nets. She actually did it!!! Gotta find my checkbook!

God is good!
dave

General Conference

Third day and sleep deprivation is definitely setting in. More inspirational worship and sermons. Most of our time is spent in legislative committees. I'm in the Superintendency Committee interested in defeating a proposal to reduce bishops. We voted today to raise the mandatory retirement age of a bishop from 66 to 68. We'll see how it progresses through the system. Lots of positive energy. Hopefully it will last throughout the conference. I'm also getting some new ideas for St. John's future and worship life.

Still glad to be here.

Dave

General Conference in Ft. Worth

Opening worship for the 2008 General Conference was unbelievably powerful for me. Usually it is hard for preachers who lead worship to worship themselves. I found myself weeping throughout this two-hour worship service. The mass choir, dancers, visual images, procession of the bishops, and holy communion helped to move my spirit into the holy presence of God. With over 6500 worshipping United Methodists from all over the world I was given a glimpse of what heaven must be like when God's people come together to experience God.

The communion table, altar table, and pulpit were crafted from buildings destroyed by hurricane Katrina. These were powerful symbols that God can and will redeem suffering. From death comes resurrection.

Thank you for your prayers. Keep them coming.

Dibbles for Lent

I was privileged to do the children’s sermon last Sunday and talked about a dibble. I showed them a green wooden dibble and talked about how it is used to poke holes In the ground for planting seeds. Lent is a great time to allow the ground of our being to be poked! What new or old practice is a dibble for your spiritual growth? Could it be reading the Upper Room every day during Lent? Could it be writing a care note every day to someone who needs encouragement? Could it be kneeling in prayer every night before you sleep?

Sometimes people are “dibbles” to us. Who is your dibble? Perhaps it may be a family member or close friend. Maybe it could be a person who regularly irritates you. What can you learn from giving permission for someone to poke a hole in your soul?

Lent is a time for our souls to become aerated, to make room for a green plant to grow in our lives. As we make this journey together I invite you to consider such a “dibble” in your life.

New Year's Resolutions

We preachers tend to think about what we preach about. Yesterday's sermon was on resolutions. I've been thinking more about the notion of failing at how we want to improve our lives. When it comes to the growth of our soul, that which needs our attention will continue to present itself to our awareness. In other words, the development of our spiritual lives will not be solved by a one-time resolution. The issue will keep coming at us over and over again. Part of the spiritual solution is to not expect easy or final answers.

Someone once defined maturity as "realizing the most important lessons in life are the ones we thought we already knew." So why are we surprised when an issue we thought was solved comes back? We also are tempted to seek new solutions to these old problems thinking it is like other problems in American life: it must need a new solution since the old solutions don't work! What a trap! The answers always lie deep in the heart of God's grace.

Grace and peace,
Dave

Christmas Silliness

Here's a silly elf cartoon featuring the four professional ministers at St. John United Methodist Church in Anchorage, Alaska. Would you want to have pastors like these?

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9633101184

Dave

What are you waiting for?

We don’t know how to wait! Everything in our techno-culture is screaming towards efficiency. Saving time is one of the basic criteria in new product development. Cell phones help us use “down time” productively. Internet innovations promise more features that help us be more efficient with time. I am shopping for a pressure cooker which promises to cook food quickly.
There are two kinds of time. Chronos is the ticking of the clock; sequential time. Many of today’s products actually do save us chronos. But there is also Kairos which signifies "a time in between", a moment of undetermined period of time in which "something" special happens. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature. We could say that kairos is God’s time. I’m not sure that modern technology is helping us to save “kairos” time. So what are we to do with Advent? It is a time to wait, a time to prepare. I would ask that we all DO something to help us nurture kairos time. Maybe it is to sit down each day with the Advent devotional and our Bibles. Maybe we will want to volunteer serving meals at Bean’s Café. Perhaps we will be able to put more kairos into our Christmas, toning down the spending, and giving alternative gifts.
This is a request that each of us get in touch with the power of waiting. In doing so may we each discover our God in the midst of kairos moments.