Pastor’s Corner – January 2019

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First Christian Church

It’s a New Year! New years can bring new things into our life’s and some of the new things can be good even if we don’t think so at the beginning. As you may know or will read elsewhere in the newsletter, changes are coming to First Christian.

The congregation decided that in order to maintain the presence of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Warner Robins, the church needed to make a radical change. The decision was to seek a Planter (Pastor/Developer) to come and create a new congregation. This means that if the decision succeeds, First Christian may cease to be and become something completely different, but will continue the story begun in April, 1957.

The Planter will serve the existing congregation 25% of the time and devote 75% to building a new church. The new church will be able to utilize the existing facilities and resources to help get started. In most cases, a Planter is given a budget to use for starting a new church and has 3 years to reach a self-sufficient capability. All the resources will help support this new vision.

This also means that I will be leaving as the pastor of First Christian. I will remain in the area in a new job outside traditional pastoral ministry. I will be available for the Planter as she or he need, but will not interfere in any way. During any gap between my last Sunday and the arrival of a Planter, I will fill the pulpit and be available for congregational needs.

I encourage everyone to pray for the new work beginning in Warner Robins and the life of this congregation. I encourage everyone to support and encourage the Planter when he or she arrives. This is NOT the death of First Christian, it is the rebirth of what God will build on the foundation created so long ago.

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – December 2018

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First Christian Church

December can be a real challenge. Many of your neighbors and friends may invite you to a holiday party, there may be an event at work, there will be family get-togethers, how to do all of that within 24 days? Plus, you may have to travel to be with children or parents so what to do about pets, weather, fly or drive, etc. No wonder this can be a very stressful time of the year. Thank you, Madison Avenue.

Remember, that all of this pressure is a product of advertising and our willingness to buy into it. Even the nonsense of taking Christ out of Christmas by saying “Happy Holidays” is created. We allowed that to happen when we responded to “Black Friday” on Thursday afternoon, not by recognizing the variety of faiths in our community and wishing them a holiday greeting that doesn’t isolate them.

In the story of the birth of Jesus, no one who comes to see the infant rush out to spend a lot of money on gifts for Mary, Joseph, and the baby. The Wise Men brought gifts, but it took them nearly 2 years to find them. Fortunately, the gifts wouldn’t spoil or be outgrown.

We can still share gifts, but we don’t have to go crazy trying to outdo last years gift that was given to you. My sister gave me a gift valued at $????, so I have to spend more. My children need more gadgets and gizmos that take them away from spending time with people. It is about spreading joy, not fortunes.

Try selecting gifts that are guided by your heart, not advertising. Share gifts that have a depth of meaning, not the depth of a bank account. Let your love for the recipient be the reason for the gift, not the desire to outdo someone.

Take back the meaning of Christmas from the advertisers, the marketers, the broadcast people, and the spinoff products of TVs and movies. Let hope, joy, and love be gathered higher than the pile of gifts under the tree this year. Make the prime event on your calendar this year be a Christmas Eve service. Invite friends and families and share the best gift you can ever give, you!

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – November 2018

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First Christian Church

November is an interesting month. Early in the month we are reminded to be grateful for the veterans who helped defend this nation and therefore ourselves. Toward the end of the month we are to gather and give thanks for all that we have come through, succeeded in, was able to do, the people in our lives, and everything else that comes to mind and heart.

Yet, as I write this in late October, we are learning of bombs mailed to people because of their political stance. We have groups belittling other citizens because they are of a different race. We are bombarded by political ads which denigrate the character of the opposing candidates. We are also preparing to spend ridiculous amounts of money for things that the person who receives them may or may not have a use or desire for.

We are challenged this month to stop and remember all the gifts we have been given. Gifts from the men and women who step into the path of terrible danger to defend those of us who cannot. We are dared to give thanks, not for things, but for relationships, families, blessings received, people who have touched us over the course of this year. To share this time of Thanksgiving with others and encourage them to be grateful as well.

There are all sorts of things that divide us, but our faith teaches us to push through the divisions and restore community in thanksgiving. We don’t have to agree on everything, we don’t have to support the same teams, we don’t have to come from the same economic class, ethnic background, religious practice, or sexual orientation. We can all be grateful to God for the chance to share community around a table and break bread together.

In spite of the divisions created by society, politics, class, ethnicity, and sexual identification, we can stand together, united, in gratitude for those who risk their lives for us, for those who give time and life to rescue us, to those who offer us hope for healing, for those who stand with us when we need them the most. Refuse to be torn apart by those that tell us our personal beliefs are more important than someone else’s. Take the hand of the stranger, the outcast, the rejected, and break bread together.

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – October 2018

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First Christian Church

I know that I am writing this on Sept. 25 and there are other events occurring over the next 2 months, but I am still going to point out that we are 3 months away from Christmas! Oh my!!!!!!

Our Tuesday morning group that eats breakfast at Cracker Barrel has watched the Christmas display creep from the corner near the checkout counter until it spread to other sections today. We are sold the idea that we must be prepared to shop early and often for Christmas because the measure of a successful Christmas is the latest and greatest products under the tree.

According to our Christian history, Christmas isn’t the big holiday of our faith. Easter used to be the major celebration of Christianity. While our consumer industry has managed to create products for Easter it doesn’t come close to what we are inundated with by the marketplace for Christmas.

Christmas is the story of a Middle Eastern family forced into migration by an occupying European nation. The woman is very pregnant by the time they arrive at there destination. They don’t have the resources to secure a place to live and are left homeless. Out of pity or compassion, an innkeeper offers them the use of the barn out back. It is here that the child is born. According to the stories in Matthew and Luke, no one except some shepherds showed up to celebrate this new life.

The family stayed where they were for about two years before they needed to flee from the ruler’s order to murder all the boys 2 and under. Traveling scientists informed the family of the threat to their child. They go to Egypt as refugees where they remain for a number of years at which time they return to there original home in Nazareth.

Over the centuries we have added traditions from other nations and cultures to the celebration of Christmas which is fine, however, we have also polished the basics of the story so we don’t really imagine a baby born in a smelly, animal filled barn where the newborn is put in a feed trough. We don’t picture this family as homeless or refugees. We don’t think about the challenge of traveling a great distance by foot and donkey while pregnant and poor. Nor do we think about an infant to toddler in danger of being killed by a fearful government leader.

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – September 2018

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First Christian Church

This weekend, Aug. 24-26, there were three men who passed away, two I respected and one taught me a lot. Sen. John McCain and Neil Simon, I respected deeply for different reasons. The third, Loren Broadus, one of my professors at Lexington Theological Seminary (and the person after whom my youngest was named).

Sen. McCain defended his country and served as a member of Congress. I didn’t always agree with his politics, but he was an honorable man who spoke with passion and dignity. He didn’t call people names, he pushed people to make wise decisions and to consider various views.

Neil Simon wrote two of my favorite plays, “The Odd Couple” and “Barefoot in the Park.” I know that both were made into movies, which I remember watching on TV, but I read the plays before I saw the movies. They dealt with people facing challenges when life changes. It lifted up hope and love especially when we don’t get exactly what we want and when others push our buttons.

Loren Broadus taught courses in church administration and authored many books that have helped me. He also became a friend along with his wife, Catherine, who watched over Marsha and I while we waited for Lauren to arrive in the world.

Loren wrote several books, which both Marsha and I have read and still keep, including How to Stop Procrastinating & Start Living, Ethics for Real People, Responses to Suffering; Yours and Mine, and Play; It’s not just for kids! co-authored with Catherine. They both led weekend clergy couples retreat while we were in Kentucky and always made sure that it wasn’t about getting work done, but about spending time with your partner and friends.

In a world where caring for others seems to depend upon if we like the person; that they agree with us; that they support the same things we support. If they don’t, then we are allowed to insult, deride, and castigate those people.

As Christians, we have to remember that Jesus taught us to love others, especially those who are a challenge. We are taught that we are not to judge another because we are also to be judged. We are taught to guide others in love and support, to help those who are the most in need.

We, as Christians, are not encouraged to insult and call names. We are not encouraged to reject people because they are not like us. We are not encouraged to dismiss people because they are troubled or struggling or different; rather we are to love as we have been loved by God.

In honor of these brothers of earth, we should seek to live as people seeking to bring others together, regardless of differences. We should seek to let others know they are loved and welcome in our communities. We should forgive, for we have all been forgiven much.

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – August 2018

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First Christian Church

Remember when the summer didn’t end until Labor Day? We had a whole month left when we reached the end of July. A month of leaving as soon as breakfast was over and returning for lunch and then again in time for supper with maybe a bonus time of play until dark. Oh, for the good old days.

Today, you can drive around Houston County and see bands and football teams practicing. Vacations have to be over by the end of July or else timed with the breaks the school system puts on the calendar.

But then again, we are called to serve in the world that is, not in the world we would wish it to be. We cannot roll back the clock to the “good old days” because if we are truly honest about those days, we will see that they had just as many problems as there are today. We just didn’t see the world with the eyes of adults.

We still have some of the same problems today that existed then. We still have prejudice against other people and in some ways, we have expanded the people we group into labels that deserve less then we deserve.

We still fail to see women as capable of performing tasks as we do men. We also have the problem that women are seen as the goal for a man. Especially if we are successful, it is more acceptable for a man to practice serial monogamy than it is for a woman.

We draw more lines between the rich and the poor even though the number of poor is greater than it was when we were starting our teen years. We label the poor as lazy and uneducated. Yet some of these same “poor” are graduates of high schools, colleges, and even graduate schools who work multiple jobs for minimum wages because they graduated in deep debt. We have grandparents working past what many think of as the age of retirement, not because they want to, but because they need to.

As Christians, we are to truly see each other not as labels, but as brothers and sisters in the world. We are to care for those who are scorned by society. We are to assist our elderly and our children. We are to pay more attention to helping others than we are to measure ourselves on society’s measure of success.

We can recall the great times of summer when we were children, now we are God’s adult Disciples called to serve and love one another. Are we Disciples or are we still playing in our past’s summer sun?

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – July 2018

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First Christian Church

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (people) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” These were the words that still inspire us from the Declaration of Independence. This document is 242 years old this month.

Alexander Campbell, one of the founders of what became the Christian Church, the Church of Christ (non-instrumental), and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was an admirer of Jefferson. One of the traditions of the college he started, Bethany College, was to read the Declaration on the Fourth of July which was also the day of graduation during his lifetime. (I am grateful that graduation was relocated to Memorial Day weekend.)

We are the only mainline denomination to be founded in the United States. As we celebrate the Fourth this month, let us reflect on how much of this document is reflected in the practices and structure of the Disciples.

We ordained the first woman as clergy in the late 1800’s. We ordained African Americans before that. We expect the congregation to be self-governing. We encouraged education of all people, including the members of the church as all of us are to be able to study and read Scripture, not just the clergy. Our clergy are ordained elders who preach and as such hold no more authority than any of the elders of the congregation. This is reflected in our General Assemblies where every congregation gets 2 congregational representatives plus an additional representative for every 100 additional members. If a church has 200 members they get 3 votes and so on.

We, as Disciples should cherish this understanding that our church reflects the power of equality for all people in the nation and in the church. Yes, we have historically bent and broken this covenant of equality, however, we can repent and recall that all of us have been created in the image of God and that all of us, regardless of societal, ethnic, racial, and creedal distinctions, are brothers and sisters with Jesus.

May your Fourth be blessed and may you be a blessing to the people around you.

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – June 2018

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First Christian Church

This past Saturday, May 19, I got to hear a wonderful sermon. I didn’t get up early enough to actually watch the Royal Wedding, but with the benefit of the Internet, I was able to select segments to view. I heard the gospel choir sing “Stand By Me” and I listened to the entire sermon of Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Rev. Michael Curry deliver a powerful message to people from around Great Britain and other countries who came for the wedding as well as millions who watched it all on TV and online.

He spoke of Love. He chose a passage from the Song of Solomon. I hope everyone knows that this is a book in the Bible. If it has been a while since you have read this book, look at it again. This is the passage he read, “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flames of fire, a roaring flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.”

He then moved on to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way.”

Love has the power to bridge and remove the chasms that seems to exist between people. We are in a world that holds fast to the concept that it is all about “us against them.” We fear those who look different, speak a different language, practice another faith, wear unusual clothing, or hold a different world view. We seem unable to grasp that we must discover the commonality that can bring together all of our brothers and sisters, the commonality that our faith dares us to LOVE EACH OTHER, and to LOVE GOD WITH OUR WHOLE SELF.

Love is stronger than fear. All we have to do is trust that love is stronger than anything we may face. In our current world, fear is the driving force. We have to get our own before we can risk loving others. This is not the way that Jesus taught us to live. It is the way of the world. Let the flame of love kindle a fire in our hearts that can bring people together to build wholeness for everyone, (SHALOM).

There is another place that is watched Rev. Michael Curry. HE starts off a video of religious leaders challenging us to reclaim the name of Jesus and his teaching of love for our brothers and sisters, not to use His name to claim worldly power or advancement, but to lift up those most marginalized in the world. Rev. Curry is joined by other names that we might recognize, Rev Sharon Watkins and Rev. Cynthia Hale. Go online and look for the video produced by Sojourners titled Reclaiming Jesus. Watch it in light of the sermon on love and pray for the strength to love as Jesus loved us.

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – May 2018

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First Christian Church, GAMHI

This month there is an interesting coincidence taking place. On May 20 we will celebrate Pentecost within Christianity and within the Disciples of Christ we will mark Mental Health Sunday. This struck me as I prepared worship material for the month of May and prepared for the work of the Mental Health Initiative workshops that take place this Saturday at the Regional Assembly in Columbus, GA.

The Mental Health Initiative is a pilot program of the National Benevolent Association partnering with the Georgia Region for 2 years. The second year ends at the end of this year. We have constructed a framework for the MHI team in Georgia to continue to work and prepare new participants to become involved.

The Mental Health Initiative seeks to “cultivate welcoming, educated and inclusive congregations by countering the stigma of mental illness and raising awareness of mental health. By providing care and support for clergy and seminarians. By providing resources and educational support for Disciple congregations, clergy, seminarians, and community members. Encourage collaboration, sustainability and innovation of mental health ministries in congregations and the Georgia region.”

Within the life of a congregation we always remember those who need prayer for health crises. We pray for people fighting cancer, heart problems, injuries of the body and many others. We are more reticent to mention family and friends who struggle with depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety issues among others. We pray for the health, total health of people and acknowledge that we need God’s help in our health care, physical as well as mental. Let us set aside our discomfort regarding mental health and acknowledge that discomfort so that we may offer true welcome to people who seek God’s presence in their struggle for full health.

Pray for the Georgia Mental Health Initiative. If you would like to become involved in this work, email GAMHIteam@gmail.com. We need clergy, laity, mental health professionals, and anyone passionate about helping in this mission. Currently we have 6 teams composing the GAMHI team; Executive Administration, Clergy Care and Renewal, Events, Resources, Mental Health Justice, and Communications preparing to carry on this mission within the Disciples of Christ in Georgia.

Shalom, Darrell

Pastor’s Corner – April 2018

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First Christian Church

This past Sunday we heard from Denise Bell, our Regional Minister, as she shared possibilities for our next step as First Christian in Warner Robins. She encouraged us to seek our vision for how we want to minister in the name of Christ.

To seek this vision we need to recall the reason for starting this church as well as looking at our community and discovering how we can offer grace and hope. This will need all to be in prayer and investing ourselves to looking around the community and talking to people to discover the real needs in Warner Robins. We also need to share our thoughts and visions with each other. This also presumes that we will speak honestly and listen gracefully.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) claims to be “a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.” Our vision should bring to life this understanding of our Church.

Since the Lord’s Table is the heart of our faith and worship, let us start at the Table to seek our vision. At the Table we are called to share in this meal as we are, not as we hope to become. We come with our stains and injuries, our pains and our joys, our fragility and our weaknesses. None of us have approached the Table whole. Only in receiving from the Table do we begin the journey to wholeness.

Will our vision reflect this understanding of the Lord’s Table and allow any and all who want to come and receive be permitted to do so? Can we be open and affirming to everyone who needs this gift? Let us prayerfully consider what our new vision will be and as brothers and sisters of faith, work to make the vision visible to Warner Robins.

Shalom, Darrell