“The person who doesn’t love a brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen.” 1 John 4:20 (NLT) We find ourselves in another election year and the rhetoric is heating up. One of the things that has been a part of the political arena since I have been voting is partisanship. In my experience partisanship can be good, especially when it means having strongly held convictions about something. However, partisanship has become more about tearing down the person who may believe differently and less about the belief itself. Those who disagree with us are idiots, not intelligent, or just plain wrong. We have lost the art of disagreeing with someone’s belief without disliking them completely. I know I have friends who I disagree with on issues and beliefs. We can have open and honest discussions, and even debate, about our strongly held beliefs. I also know that I still love my friends dearly. You may be surprised to know, or maybe not, that not all United Methodist pastors have the same political beliefs. So it is increasingly more important to cultivate the art of discussion within the context of a loving relationship. We are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbor, to love others. We need to be cultivating our ability to obey this command. Obeying this command is both a matter of the heart and head. Our motivations and intentions are important when considering loving others. Most people love others because of what the other person has to offer them. Disciples of Jesus love others because God loves others. This is a matter of the heart. If we love God, the first and greatest command, then we will have a heart for others. If we love ourselves we will have a heart for our own needs. Our actions follow our beliefs. This is a matter of the head. If we say we believe that we should love others, we need to make the decision to love them. Truly loving others happens when our heart and our head are radically united. We are all keenly aware that loving others is far easier when we like the other we are called to love. This is precisely why John writes that disciples who do not love other disciples can’t love God. We serve a God of selfless reconciliation. God loves us while we were yet sinners, that proves God’s love for us. We are commanded to love our neighbors. The ones we like and the ones we don’t like. The ones who believe like us and the ones who do not. The ones who treat us well and the ones who treat us horribly. We are called to love others. The one who does not love others cannot love God. In 1 John 4:19 John writes, “We love each other because he loved us first.” God loves us and demonstrated that love to us through his only Son, Jesus Christ. This is the love that we are to demonstrate to all others in our life. A selfless, sacrificial love for others. This is the 5th mark of a Methodist. I look forward to sharing more about this with you in worship this week. Keep loving others. Can’t wait to see you in church!

“I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.” 1 Timothy 2:1 (NLT) All People! The Apostle Paul urges Timothy to pray for all people. What a telling remark by the Apostle chosen to bring the Gospel message to the Gentile world (translation: the rest of the world). Paul is essentially telling his protege, “Don’t leave anyone out.” All are worthy of God’s grace, love, and mercy. Theologically speaking, Paul is making a statement of God’s pervasive grace for all humanity. There is no one worthy of God’s grace, not one, and there is no one excluded from God’s grace, not one. The global United Methodist Church sent representatives (delegates) to meet in Portland, Oregon from May 10 through May 20. There was a lot of contention and disagreement in the proceedings. The United Methodist Church around the world is not completely of one mind on all issues. It is at times confusing and at times unsettling. However, there was at least one thing that I witnessed through the General Conference proceedings with which I was impressed and which brought hope. There was a true spirit of prayer that pervaded the conference at different times throughout. Methodists are people who pray constantly. This is a clarion call by the Apostle Paul and, more importantly, by Jesus. We are called to pray for all people constantly. People we agree with and people we disagree with. People who are similar to us and people who are different. People who are a part of our church and people who are apart from our church. People who have a voice of their own and people who have no voice of their own. People who know Jesus and people who do not know Jesus at all. Methodists are people who pray constantly for all people. In The Book of Discipline it is written, “… (we) acknowledge that all persons are of sacred worth.” We are to pray constantly for all people. A Methodist prays constantly for all people everywhere. We are a praying people and there is power in our prayers. I urge you to pray for all people. As I write this, I urge you to pray for my friend and colleague Pastor Bridget, her husband Kevin, her mother-in-law Jeanne, and her sister-in-law Krista as they grieve the loss of Kevin’s dad, Greg. It is in times like this that the constant prayers of our Methodist brothers and sisters in Christ support us. May God’s grace, strength, peace, and comfort surround the entire Thornton family. I look forward to sharing more about this with you in worship this week. Keep praying constantly. Can’t wait to see you in church!

“Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church-- about three thousand in all.” Acts 2:41 (NLT) When I was a kid in elementary school I loved magicians. I remember going to an event for kids at my dad’s store and seeing a live magician for the first time. I was absolutely amazed. I couldn’t imagine how he was doing all of the things that he was doing. How did he make something disappear and then reappear? How could he turn one thing into another? It was fascinating to watch. That Christmas my parents surprised me and gave me a magic set. It was full of magic tricks that I could learn to do myself. At first, I was excited to learn to be a magician. However, something happened. As I began to learn the tricks in my magic set, it became all too clear to me that the magician was just learning tricks. He hadn’t truly done anything magical at all. He just learned some tricks. That was the end of my magic career. I didn’t want to learn magic tricks, I wanted to be a part of some amazing. This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. In Acts chapter 2 there is a story of something truly amazing that took place in human, and church, history. It wasn’t a magic trick, it wasn’t something learned, or even something practiced. God broke into human history in the power and person of the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the Church. The Holy Spirit fell upon all the believers gathered there. The Holy Spirit even was given to those who heard Peter’s first ever sermon and believed (about 3,000). What an amazing day that was! This is a part of why I love being a part of the Church. The same God of Pentecost is the God of this Pentecost Sunday. God is still sending the Holy Spirit into the heart of those who believe in Jesus Christ. God is still giving the power necessary to see hearts and lives transformed through the sharing of the Gospel message. God is still using the Church to bring hope to a hurting world. God is still offering peace and reconciliation to those who live in a chaotic and broken world. There is something amazing about the way God moves, but there is nothing magical. I have learned through my study of Scripture, the traditions of the church, the counsel of those who have journeyed with me, and my personal experience of faith that God is that amazing something that I longed to be a part of as a young kid. Magic had given me the illusion of something amazing. God has proven to BE amazing. This Sunday we will talk about how a Methodist gives thanks. What a fitting day, Pentecost Sunday, to reflect on what it means to give thanks for all God has done. I look forward to sharing more about this with you in worship this week. Take a moment today to give thanks for all God has done in and through you because the Holy Spirit is in you. Can’t wait to see you in church!

Many people memorize Philipians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Easy to understand – rejoice! But it can be difficult to practice. This week we look at the second of the five marks of a Methodist – A Methodist Rejoices in God. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking this week about how often we rejoice. To rejoice means, “to feel or show that you are very happy about something.” (Miriam Webster) When was the last time you were very happy and showed it? When people examine your life do they see someone who is very happy and shows it? To be honest – if this is the mark of being a Methodist, I, a Methodist Pastor, do not always show this mark. There are MANY times my first reaction is not to rejoice. My default mode is not happy. When I get a flat tire, I don’t shout, “Oh happy day!” When someone I know faces loss, I don’t immediately rejoice. When someone I love is sick, I am afraid. But the reality is: these are first reactions. We must choose whether or not we remain in those initial reactions and emotions. We all have bad days. We all have things that happen that will not immediately elicit within us joy – BUT as a Methodist we know that’s not the end of the story. Nowhere is this more evident for me than in a Celebration of Life service. Nearly every time I meet with a family they apologize for not knowing how to plan a service, but they also nearly always want it to be a true celebration of the life that was lived before us. Of course there’s no need to apologize in that circumstance. We want to celebrate in those moments because we know that we do not mourn as those without hope. We face difficult circumstances but in the midst of those circumstances we are reminded that there is HOPE and THAT causes us to rejoice – to celebrate. I have been to or participated in many, many celebrations of life and you would not think that that would be a place where there would be laughter, but always, amid the tears there are stories that provoke from us laughter and rejoicing in the time we had to spend with the one we loved and who God is in the situation. We can choose to rejoice even in the most difficult of circumstances because “overwhelming victory is ours through Christ.” (Romans 8:37) If we return to this – to the HOPE we have in Christ, we really can find cause to feel and show happiness. A Methodist rejoices in God – it’s a choice based not on our circumstances but on who God is and what God has done for us. We have the strength to rejoice in God because the joy of the Lord (the joy we find in the Lord and what He has done for us) is our strength.

"Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’" Matthew 22:37 It seems like there are a lot of things in life these days that are optional. Driving through my neighborhood each day it seems like the 30mph speed limit is mostly optional. Recently I was at a movie where one of the movie goers decided talking on your self phone during a movie was optional. It seems that more and more things in life are becoming optional. I love the words of Jesus. In what is known as The Great Commandment, Jesus does not give options. If you want to follow God, you must love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. There's no other option. There's no fallback position upon which to rely. You either love God with everything you have or you don't. This Sunday we will start a new message series entitled 5 Marks. It is inspired by a little book titled "The Five Marks of a Methodist" by Dr. Steve Harper. The first of these marks is that a Methodist loves God. It's not optional for us. God is the Creator of everything seen and unseen. God is the One to whom we owe our very existence. In a world where God is relegated to a distant place in most people's lives, we Methodists love God. I hope you will join us this Sunday as we begin the discussion. May we better understand and more faithfully follow the command of Jesus, "you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind." See you in church.

"Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works." Hebrews 10:24 Have you ever needed a little encouragement? If only someone would come beside you giving you the spark of positive support you need. We've all had those moments where a little encouragement goes a long way. So what if that happened every day? If we always sought to motivate, encourage each other to new heights ... how would things look. Here's the reality, the world has enough discouragement. There are people in our communities feeling discouraged by life. There are brothers and sisters in Christ in our community of faith experiencing discouragement. What if we motivated each other to acts of love and good works? What if we took those acts of love and good works out into the communities we serve? What if our encouragement was contagious? There is a world around us that needs to be encouraged. Let's go encourage them! Just this week I experienced what a little encouragement can mean to someone. It can take an overwhelming situation and offer a spark of light. We can be those purveyors of light in our family, our work place, our neighborhood, and our community. We need to be intentional about finding places where we can motivate one another to acts of love and good works. It can be a game changer for the people in our life. I hope you will be in worship this Sunday. We will all be encouraged to be people of radical encouragement for each other. See you in church!

“Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.’” John 4:42 (NLT) In my last church one of the members of the church was serving in The Coast Guard at the Clearwater Air Station. He would tell me about his work as a mechanic on the HC-130 aircraft and then as a Flight Navigator on the same aircraft. I was always very interested in his work as I have been interested in planes all my life. I enjoyed his stories because they were a part of who he was and conveyed what was important to him. Then one day he invited me to come over to Tampa and join him for his last day of training in the state-of-the-art simulator. My experience alongside of him in the simulator that day brought all of his stories to life. It gave them new meaning and gave me a greater depth of understanding and connection. The passage of Scripture we will be looking at this Sunday is a little bit like that. Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well is a very important story. As soon as the conversation with Jesus is over the woman goes to tell her story. No hesitation, no questions, no filter, she just tells her story. We do this when we are excited about something in our life. We want to tell people what our experience has been. We want other people to be interested in our story. So we share it. As the woman at the well went back and told the story of her encounter with Jesus, people were interested. They went to see for themselves what she was so excited about. That’s what good stories do to us. It was when the people went and saw Jesus, heard him speak, and experienced him for themselves that they declared, “Now we believe!” You see there was something that took place when the woman’s story mixed with their own experience of Jesus that led them to believe. This is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People first experience Jesus through our story. They hear what Jesus means to us, what the Church universal means to us, and what our local church means to us. Because they experience our story and hear what Jesus has done for us, people are more receptive to what Jesus can do for them. Jesus uses our story to tell His story. I look forward to sharing more about this with you in worship this week. As you pray for your none or done this week, ask God if they are ready for you to share your story with them. Maybe they are ready for you to invite them to church? Can’t wait to see you in church!

Have you ever had to describe one person to another person? If you have to describe someone you know well, you can describe not only physical attributes but also habits, characteristics, you will have stories that go along with the descriptions. Try to describe someone you don’t know well or have only just met and you may not get their description right, let alone be able to add all the other things about a person. It’s the same when we are asked to share our faith with others. If we cannot answer some key things about Jesus and the church then our attempts will fall flat. But if we have a relationship with Jesus, if we are sold out to Christ and his church we can share not only what it looks like but what it’s like to be a part of it. We’re continuing our new series, “Beyond” this Sunday. We’re exploring what it is like to widen our focus beyond ourselves to see the world around us. This week we’ll be looking at the three key things we need to know, not just be acquainted with, but really know as we try to engage those who are outside of the church, those beyond our walls. Pastor Tim encouraged us to identify one person who is a “none” or a “done.” “Nones” are those folks who have checked, “No religious affiliation” on census and other survey information. They do not identify themselves as any religion and have no church affiliation. “Dones” are those folks who once went to church but for one reason or another have stopped going. They are done with church. Pastor Tim encouraged us to identify one “none” or “done” and begin to pray for that person. I thought I’d share with you a story from college. While I was a student at FSU our pastor at the Wesley Foundation encouraged us to write out a list of people who did not go to church. They very well could have been “nones” or “dones” but most likely they may be students who grew up in the church and were taking a break from church. I wrote down two names – girls that I lived with. I lived in a Scholarship House with 28 girls but I picked two girls that seemed to have no interest in church whatsoever. I began to pray for them. My pastor at the time said that if you were too afraid to talk to the people on your list about your faith that you should pray that God would have them bring it up. So I did. I prayed, “God, you know I’m a chicken. If you want me to share with these girls about my faith then you will have to make it abundantly obvious. Make them come and ask me.” Well, wouldn’t you guess it? Within a day of saying that prayer the first girl came in to where I was studying and said, “I just don’t get why you go to church. What is it about God any ways?” There it was. The door was open. I shared with her my answers to the three key things I will share about on Sunday. That same day the second girl came up to me in the kitchen and said, “So, what is the Trinity? I don’t get it. How can God be 3 and 1?” After I picked my jaw up off the floor that God would answer my insolent prayer, I did my best to share what I understood of the Trinity. One of the girls became an active church member, the other didn’t. But I did what I could to share with them all that I knew about this Jesus that I knew so well. Come on Sunday or watch online to find out what three key things we need to really know before we can effectively engage those beyond the walls.

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection…” Philippians 3:10a (NIV) Growing up I remember seeing pictures of the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, The Smokey Mountains, The Pacific Ocean, The Atlantic Ocean, Africa, Ireland, Great Britain, Cuba, Costa Rica, Panama, The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Canada. As a kid I could only dream of being able to see all of these places, and more. They seemed so far away and so wonderful. I dreamed of knowing what it would be like to experience them first hand. I am very blessed to say that I have been able to experience them all and know what it is like to be in each of these places. I am sure that we all have had this type of experience in finally knowing what it is like to be somewhere new. Paul is someone who experienced this both physically and spiritually. Paul experienced a complete turnaround in his spiritual life. Jesus personally called Paul from a life of persecution of Christians to a life of producing Christians. Paul knew the power in being called, equipped, and sent into ministry by Jesus Christ. Yet, Paul still wants to know more of Jesus. Paul wants to know the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power that takes sinners and makes them saved, that makes broken people whole, that causes those without sight to see, that frees those in captivity, and that makes all things new. The power of Christ’s resurrection does not come without the pain of the crucifixion. The darkest hours of Friday and Saturday of Holy Week help us understand this. The suffering of Christ is something Paul desires to know as well. Without the suffering, the joy that comes on Easter morning would be out of context and powerless. However, together the suffering of Christ and the resurrection of Christ hold tremendous power. This power is not just for then… it is for always! This Good Friday we remember the suffering, agony, and passion of Christ AND this Easter Sunday we celebrate Christ, the risen Savior. I want to know Christ and to know the power of His resurrection. Will you join me tonight at 7 p.m. for our Good Friday service and this Easter Sunday at 8:15, 9:45, or 11:15? May we all want to know!

"So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless." James 2:17 Nobody wants to be deemed useless. In a world that prizes busyness and success, uselessness could be the most feared label possible. We are supposed to be busy and operating at a feverish pace to be useful, right? I'm pretty certain that our idea of busyness has very little to do with what James was writing about. There is a simple dichotomy that exists in what James is writing about. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Yet, we are called to do good deeds in life as people of faith. We do not do good deeds in order to have faith and our faith is not complete without good deeds. So why does James need to address this with the early church? Some in the early church were confusing the reason for doing good works. Others in the early church were saying that faith was all you needed. James reminds them that good works are not done in order to produce faith, but faith without good works is useless. James understands that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. James also is teaching that out of this faith comes good deeds. When we love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength it is naturally expressed in our love of others. Faith and good deeds go hand in hand. As people of faith we are to express our faith through works of mercy toward others. This is when we are found most useful in God's economy. So as James writes, "...faith by itself isn't enough, unless it produces good deeds..." That's when we know that we are truly loving God and loving others. I can't wait to see you all in church this Palm Sunday. Be sure to invite a friend to our Easter Cantata at 8:15 or 11:15. Remember that our 9:45 service will be in the Family Life Center this week only.

Have you ever been or felt lost? When I was a young child my family went to Cedar Point – an amusement park in Sandusky, OH. Cedar point is a large place and often is on the forefront of having some of the craziest and fastest rides. At some point in the day I stopped paying attention to what everyone else was doing. [Shocker, I know.] When I looked up I saw my dad walking away from me, so I hurried after him. Only, once I reached up to grab his hand I realized that I had not been following my dad. I’d been following a stranger. Like any seven year-old girl my immediate reaction was to sit down right where I was and bawl my eyes out. Thankfully a nice theme park worker noticed that I was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk bawling and stopped to see how she might help. I told her I lost my family. She took me to the nearest office and they began to work to find my family. As it turns out they had noticed I had wondered off long before I realized I was going in the wrong direction and so finding them and reuniting with them was easy. Last week, Pastor Tim preached a powerful message on how God can use our failures and our crisis of faith to do incredible work. It was after a crisis of faith that John Wesley had the most powerful breakthrough of his life – his heart being strangely warmed at the Aldersgate meeting. So often once we have experienced failure or a crisis of faith our temptation is to give up. We tend to kick ourselves once we’re down – I know I do. I can be very hard on myself. When we’ve experienced a crisis of faith or a failure – when we feel lost and unsure of what to do next, one natural reaction is to want to withdraw – from friends, from family, and even from God. But what if we were able to discover, as John Wesley did, that it is not in fact about what we do or how good or bad we are? Instead it is about God’s love for us and God’s grace available to us. No matter how lost we are, our heavenly parent is seeking us out – searching for us. No matter how far astray we’ve gone, God’s grace is there ready to bring us back. And then God’s grace is there to help us stay on the right path. In theology we talk about God’s Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying grace. But, at the end of the day – grace is grace and it is a free gift of God available to all of us no matter how lost or found we are. What if, instead of just giving up, sitting down, withdrawing, or bawling we could stop and accept and trust God through that process? What would we find? The answer is grace. Grace is a word that I hope you are familiar with– and not just in the dictionary definition sort of way. Grace is a word that you should hear often in our church. It is THE defining principle of United Methodism and all other denominations that have been influenced by John Wesley. Grace is a free gift of God – it enables us to believe God, accept the salvation God has worked out for us, and continue to shape us for righteous living. We need grace no matter where we are in our lives. And once we have this understanding of God’s work, God’s grace is free to us because God paid the price, then suddenly it’s not so scary to share our faith with others. Then, instead of having to convince someone or persuade them to believe as we do, we can simply point out to them that God is already at work in their lives. We can, like the theme park worker did for me, simply work to reconnect them with their Father who is looking for them and has already done the work so that they can be together. Grace, grace, God’s grace – it’s freely given and available for each of us.

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand." Romans 5:1-2 When I was a freshmen in high school I experienced failure. The first semester of my freshmen year I had Algebra 1 with Colonel Firehawk. (I know, what a great name, right?) I really liked Col. Firehawk and did pretty well in his class, remember math is my nemesis. Then right before Christmas break he announced he was retiring and we would have a new teacher when we came back from break. The new teacher was nothing like him. She was strict, downright mean at times, and insisted that you do ALL of your homework. I did not like her. Now, to be clear, it was not her fault that I did not succeed. However, I failed my second semester of Algebra 1. I was embarrassed and humiliated. All of my other classmates were going on to geometry and I was not. I failed. This was a valuable lesson for me to learn. I never failed another class after that, nor had I before that. I didn’t like the feeling and I believed that I was more capable than that. The even more valuable lesson was the one I learned in the class I had to take in order to get back on track in math. The teacher in that class had every right to be hard on every one of her students. We all had failed Algebra 1 in order to be in her class. Most of us had failed because of not applying ourselves. This teacher was not hard on us. In fact, she offered what I would later understand to be grace. We had not earned the right to be treated that way. We did not deserve her graciousness, but she gave it anyway. She encouraged us, built us up, and helped us go where we could not go on our own. This was a more important lesson. You see John Wesley is lifted to a very high and prominent position in Methodism, and rightfully so. In light of this we sometimes forget that he failed. He experienced a measure of failure when he came to Georgia to share the Methodist movement with America. When he returned to England he felt the weight of this failure. It was the grace given to him through a group of Moravian Christians that he understood for sure that he was justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In the words of Adam Hamilton, “This man who was trying so hard to prove himself to God (or to himself) discovered that God offered freely what Wesley had worked so hard to attain.” Grace gives us what we cannot earn and what we do not deserve. God gives this grace freely if we will humble ourselves, repent, and accept God’s offer. I pray that we all fail, or have failed, in our attempt to prove ourselves to God (or each other). I pray that we all experience the abundance of God’s grace in our failure. I pray that we all will receive the heart-warming swell of God’s grace being released in us and through us. It may take a crisis of faith to move us to this point. If so, I pray we all experience that crisis of faith. See you in church this Sunday.