Word on the Street

For the past several weeks we have been very excited to see the progress on the outside of the new building. It is beautiful outside and we are thrilled with the way it looks when people drive by or onto the property. You may, however, be wondering about how things are progressing on the inside. This weekend at church you will have an opportunity to see firsthand the great progress that is being made on the inside of the new building.

The building committee of Grace Avenue United Methodist Church will be hosting tours of the inside of the new building this weekend. Tours will be Saturday night before and after the 5:30pm service and Sunday morning continuously from 8:15am-12:30pm. The tours will be guided by members of the building committee. Please check in for your tour in the learning center lobby. Each tour should last around 15-20 minutes.

While on your tour, you will have opportunities to see the various rooms in the new building, ask questions about the new building and continue to see opportunities of furnishings that the new building will need. If you have not yet made your from the heart commitment, brochures and commitment forms will be available. Please be reminded that on many of our furnishings, we have several weeks of lead time for ordering those items, therefore, the sooner we can get commitments for our furnishings, the sooner they can be ordered.

I want to thank the building committee for their hard work on this great project and for volunteering to lead these tours. What you see on the outside is just a glimpse of how great everything is and how wonderful it is on the inside. Join us for guided tours of the new building this weekend!

Word on the Street

Last week in worship we continued to talk about The Divine Check Up. Proverbs 3 offered us a "prescription" for spiritual health. The prescription included: Trust God, Honor God and Keep the commandments.

We were reminded that trusting, or leaning on God is not a crutch, but instead is the thing that gives us true freedom and wholeness.

Dave Nash offers Seven Beatitudes of a Growing Faith. They are:

Blessed are those who have daily dialogue with God.
Their faces will shine like the sea.
Blessed are those who depend upon the Lord.
They shall throw away their crutches.
Blessed are those whose faith moves them to compassion.
They will warm our hearts and teach us to love ourselves.
Blessed are those who persevere.
Their courage will give us hope; their patience will calm our fears.
Blessed are those who trust in the living God.
Their joy in worship will light our path.
Blessed are those whose love of the church reveals deep faith.
They shall see the living God.
Blessed are those whose faith erupts in mission.
Their witness will show us the power of God.

Have you filled the prescription yet?

Word on the Street

Wisdom is the application of knowledge. In some respects wisdom comes with work. Wisdom is not a magic potion or something you buy off a shelf. It is a desirable commodity but it is not a pre-packaged instant mix product.
Migan McKenna tells this great parable about the wise process of getting the things we desire.
"Sometimes, good advertising is a matter of planting good seeds, as did the woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read the papers and get depressed.
One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. She finally got up her nerve and asked, Excuse me, are you Jesus?

I am.

Do you work here?

No, I own the store.

Oh, what do you sell here?

Just about everything, Jesus said. Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want and then come back and we'll see what we can do for you.

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources. She wrote furiously. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled. No problem. And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out the packets. She asked, What are these?

Seed packets, Jesus said. This is a catalog store.

She said, You mean I don't get the finished product?

No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits."

What are you doing with the seed packets Jesus is offering you?

Word on the Street

The signs of growth are everywhere at Grace Avenue. Our beautiful new building is a constant reminder that things are changing. In the last four weeks we have received 51 new members to our congregation. At our last Discipleship Council meeting it was confirmed that we would move from four to six worship services in 2013 once the new building is finished and the current Worship Center is renovated. New Bible studies and increased mission opportunities are springing up everywhere and right around the corner our Pumpkins on the Prairie will celebrate its 10^th anniversary.

The companion to this kind of growth is also the addition of new staff members. The Staff-Parish Relations Committee of our church has been working for almost a year to prepare for these important new additions. I would like you to help me in welcoming these newest staff members to Grace Avenue UMC.

Bill Ball is joining our staff as the Adult Minister. Bill is currently a first year seminary student at Perkins School of Theology and will be working on our staff part-time. He has experience in a variety of great churches including Tarrytown UMC in Austin, Highland Park UMC in Dallas and Suncreek UMC in Allen. Bill is a graduate of Centenary College and has a masters from SMU. Bill has a son who is in the third grade. Bill will be working to coordinate aspects of our GROW ministries as they relate to adults. This includes Adult Sunday School classes, Bible Studies, small groups and other adult education opportunities. Bill started at Grace Avenue September 4.

The Rev. Joe Stobaugh is joining the Grace Avenue staff as the Minister of Worship and Arts. Joe is a graduate of University of North Texas and Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He is an ordained deacon in the United Methodist Church and is currently serving at Argyle UMC. Joe is married to Sarah Stobaugh and has two children who are in PreK and 2^nd grade. Joe will be working to design and oversee the six worship services that I mentioned above. He will be working with a variety of groups and ensembles including vocal groups, instrumental groups and worship implementation groups. Joe will begin working at Grace Avenue on October 8.

I am asking you to do two very important things as these changes occur: 

1. Please pray for our new staff members and welcome them in the wonderful spirit of Grace Avenue.
2. Please take time to say thank you to our current staff who continue to do a fantastic job of helping us fulfill our mission to "make disciples and make a difference through Jesus Christ." They continue to lead us as we move into the future of Grace Avenue.

As we move into this new era of the church, the SPRC will continue to examine and fulfill future staffing needs. I am grateful for these wonderful new additions, but most importantly to be part of such a great church.

Word on the Street

This weekend we begin a new message series based on the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Proverbs is considered Wisdom Literature in scripture. This creates within me the question: "What is wisdom? And how do we acquire it?"

The philosopher Socrates once said: "Wisdom begins in wonder."

Hundreds of years later Ralph Waldo Emerson conjectured: "The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."
 

Proverbs 9:10 declares that, "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

I've come to believe that we cannot experience true spiritual health without wisdom. Maybe it is time for a check-up. That is what we will be about the next 4 weekends at Grace Avenue; "The Divine Check-Up." Plan to join us as we take and intriguing look at the book of Proverbs.

Are you ready to get healthy?

 

Word on the Street

On a Labor Day weekend it is worth asking: "What is my vocation?" The question is not; "What is your occupation or what do you do for a living?" When God created the first human beings, He gave them a job(Genesis 3:15). It was a calling with purpose. Their disobedience, fear and sin turned it into toil. There is a great story worth considering on this Labor Day weekend.

 

Once upon a time, two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch. Then the long collaboration fell apart.

It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's toolbox. "I'm looking for a few days work," the man said. "Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there. Could I help you?"

"Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor, in fact, it's my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee, and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll go him one better. See that pile of lumber curing by the barn? I want you to build me a fence - an 8-foot fence - so I won't need to see his place anymore. That'll show him."

The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger, and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you."

The older brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day.

The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing.

About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job.

The farmer's eyes opened wide. His jaw dropped.

There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge - a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and all - and the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming across, his hand outstretched.

"You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done."

The two brothers met at the middle of the bridge, taking each other's hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. "No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother.

"I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but I have so many more bridges to build."

 

We are called to work for a bridge-building carpenter from Nazareth. Is your labor a calling or a toil?

Word on the Street

Our friend and brother Tom Graves, who served at Grace Avenue 2007-2009, passed away on Wednesday. His passing, like his life, was peaceful and gentle. His daughter Lauren and close friend Mike were at his side along with the music therapist who was singing a collection of his favorite hymns. He was joyful, faithful and worshipful to the end. It is easy to imagine that his wonderful wife Linda who passed away in 2001, was there as one of the first to greet him as he arrived to his eternal home.

I'm sentimental about Tom. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for him. That's probably because he was never anything but gracious with me from the first time he met me as a freshmen in college to the last time I visited with him a week ago. Last weekend in church we talked about Joseph who the early church renamed Barnabas (Acts 4) because he was an "encourager". Tom Graves was one of the most important Barnabas' in my life.

Late this week I found myself being drawn back to Tom's writings. He was a great author and I, like many of you, are blessed to have the collection of his four published books. In the first chapter of his book; From Sunday Conversations, he talks about his calling into ministry. Tom writes: "The driving force inside my journey as an Ordained United Methodist Minister is the heartfelt conviction that ministry is a privilege, a gift of grace, and the overwhelming sense of gratitude I feel because I have been, and still am, given this privilege."

Tom is not just speaking of ordained ministry. He is speaking about all ministry; the ministry of all believers that is mentioned in II Peter 2: 9-10. Ministry (Gathering, Growing, Going and Giving in the name of Christ) is a privilege. This is Tom's legacy. Now it is our calling.