Storms and Chaos
Not having any power last Sunday, was super stressful. Not only were we here trying to check the building for wind and water damage from the storms, none of us had slept through the night due to the sirens going off. Our offering didn’t come in (since we didn’t have service) and that put us twenty thousand dollars down for income. We discovered that lots of people still had power and never thought to even check if the church was down. Despite our best efforts, we still couldn’t alert everyone that we couldn’t have church. It has been suggested by several people that we text everyone instead of email but we don’t have that technology figured out yet. We are working on it! My initial thought was that we could have candlelight service but then I was reminded that we wouldn’t have any microphones either. Then when I saw how dark the sanctuary was, I knew it would be dangerous to have people in there. It was one disappointment after another. I drove to OKC yesterday to teach a class and saw a barn that had been hit by a tornado last weekend. It made me thankful and reminded me how much worse that it could have been.
Despite all the stress, we had a wonderful Charge Conference that was well attended at New Haven UMC. The pastor there agreed to let us host in their space. Our leadership team did a wonderful job setting up tables and hosting the over seventy people that attended. We had to rush people out at the end because more storms were headed in.
The other significant storm this week was the very close election of our next president. Our Bishop and Cabinet sent out a statement referring to this event. You can read it here. It seems that every presidential election season gets worse and worse. The lies and accusations get louder and louder. The fear mongering seems unstoppable. I pray that you will treat each other with kindness and grace on Sunday as we gather to remember those from our congregation who have gone to heaven. We will be taking communion at both services and honoring our saints. We are very excited that the Bell Choir will be playing as well. They are looking for a couple more people to serve using their musical gifts by playing in this choir. You can reach out to Michael Utesch (our director) and let him know that you would like to play.
We will be starting a new sermon series this Sunday. It is preparing us for Advent. We will be focusing on the lineage of Jesus that is found in the first chapter of Matthew. As we know, the Bible is full of these types of lists but what is so unique about Matthew’s is that it names four women plus Mary in the lineage. We are asking the question, “Who are these women?” and “Why would Matthew put them in the lineage?” It is very compelling to deep dive into these scriptures. I hope that you can join us!
Peace,
