Archive for March, 2010
The Excitement of Change
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sunday morning in worship at St. Peter’s our Senior Pastor, Dan Miller, shared with us that the sermon he was going to preach was not the sermon he had planned to preach. As he woke early Sunday morning, he said, it was clear to him that the Gospel reading for the week, John 12:1-8, the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, had a different meaning than the one he had intuited earlier in the week. So, at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning, the sermon changed.
Sitting in the pew (yes, the same one where we always sit) and listening to Dan, I was struck not only by the richness of his message, but also by his ability to change at the last minute. Most clergy whom I know spend many, many hours praying, planning and working on their sermons before we ever hear them preached. Knowing Dan, I know that he does this, too. On the few occasions when I have preached, I am constantly amazed that our clergy brothers and sisters can do this every week. The Bible, of course, tells many stories and there are probably as many interpretations of the stories as there are readers. So there is always good material to start with. I know that I can read the same stories at different times in my life and take away different thoughts and lessons, depending on what is happening with me. Not only do many of our clergy spend lots of time and energy preparing sermons every week, the energy it takes to deliver them well is something I never appreciated until I had to do it. Exhaustion is what I usually feel following my times in the pulpit. Yes, I do feel an incredible sense of accomplishment when people tell me afterwards that I did a good job or that they really appreciated my words. But after that, I’m tired!
Thinking about Dan changing his message literally at the last minute Sunday is astonishing to me. But then this morning, laying in bed before my alarm went off, I had a sense that I needed to change the content of this blog entry for this week. Usually I write these after writing them in my mind before I every sit down at my computer. The final product gets worked on as I drive, walk my dogs, and even sometimes as I exercise. For this week, I was getting pretty close to finalizing my thoughts before writing them down.
When I sat down with my devotional this morning, I finally got the message. Part of it read, “You can feel secure, even in the midst of cataclysmic changes, through awareness of My continual presence. The One who never leaves you is the same One who never changes. I am the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The scripture reading was Hebrews 13:8, “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
There are no cataclysmic changes in my life or in the life of St. Peter’s. But there are lots of changes! Our Senior Pastor, Dan Miller, is retiring. Being a part of the United Methodist Church, a new Senior Pastor has been appointed to come be in ministry with us. We have other changes happening as well. As Methodists, we know that these things happen, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it, right?
Now that I have the opportunity to work with the Cabinet, I understand much better how this appointment process works. Having been through the process twice before at St. Peter’s I have grieved with the rest of the church watching well-loved pastors go and unknown pastors come. But never before have I seen a change of appointment happen with so much excitement and anticipation. And here is why.
Please understand that I do not participate in the appointment process. I never know who is going where until the formal announcement is made. But I do know that our Bishop and Cabinet members work incredibly hard to send the right minister to the right church and mission field to do God’s work. And they don’t do this work in a vacuum! All of their work is clothed in prayer. Never are decisions made precipitously. Appointments are considered, discussed, prayed about and then considered again! Although the whole process is complicated, it is a process carried out with God at its center.
So why am I excited about the changes coming to my church and other churches welcoming new clergy leaders? Because every time we have had a change at St. Peter’s, we have been blessed by the gifts that person brought to us. Each of them has been different, each has become well-loved in their tenure with us, and we have grown in our faith as a church with each new appointment. All of their preaching styles have been different, their leadership styles have been different, their personalities have been different. But their commitment to God, the United Methodist Church and St. Peter’s has been deep. And each of them has shared their spiritual journeys with us as we have walked that road together.
As Dan leaves us to move into his next phase of ministry (no, just because he is retiring I don’t think God is finished with him), I am sad that I won’t see him regularly anymore. But I know that with the impact he has had on my life, the life of my family and St. Peter’s, he will remain a part of my life.
As we prepare to welcome Don Smith and his family to St. Peter’s, I am confident that we will find spiritual adventures ahead of us as we walk together down this road.
Change has never been something I have done easily. But as I woke this morning thinking about Dan’s flexibility on Sunday, feeling moved to change my focus, reading the words of Hebrews 13:8, I know that I can change because God never does! In this season of change within our church, I hope you will find comfort in those words as well.
Showers of Blessings!
Leah Taylor
Next Week in Cote d’Ivoire
Saturday, March 13th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
My plan was that when next you heard from me I would be in Cote d’Ivoire. Tomorrow, Sunday, March 14, at the Jubilee church in Abidjan, the new radio station will be consecrated. The radio station is one of the projects that has been worked on jointly between the Ivorian Conference and the Texas Conference. Some of you have raised money to buy the hand-cranked radios that can be used in the bush where there is no electricity.
Then, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the newly formed Boards of the Dabou Hospital and Schools, as well as the radio station, will be trained and have their first official meetings. Bishop Huie and Rev. Rick Goodrich, Assistant to the Bishop, have been planning these meetings and training sessions with Samuel Koffi, the Assistant to Bishop Boni, in Cote d’Ivoire. The thought of serving on the Board for the schools had me flying high, emotionally that is.
For weeks, I have been planning this trip. What would I wear, how should I pack, what kinds of souvenirs would I bring home for which friends… I’ve been trying to brush up on my limited French. I went and got my shot record checked and started taking my anti-malaria medicine. My wonderful husband, Tom, made all my travel arrangements. He booked my flights and set up a car to pick me up yesterday afternoon.
Thursday and Friday morning were a frenzy of activities. Had I done everything on my “To Do” list? Making sure that Tom knew where the cleaning coupons were, had the name and phone number of the dryer repair man, knew where our new vet is; all of those things that happen in our everyday lives that would continue in my absence.
When I got into the car yesterday afternoon, I had the most fascinating driver. He shared his stories with me from the time he spent in the army in Orleans, France, during the Viet Nam war era. He was in communications, a cryptographer, and described a time for me when the troops went on a worldwide alert. We talked about our travels and shared family stories. His two grand daughters, who live in Dallas, are coming to spend Spring Break with he and his wife. They are planning to spoil those little girls mightily before sending them back home. He is planning outings to the zoo and Children’s Museum, Galveston and Kemah. Sounded like great fun!
When I got to the airport, the young man at check-in was just great. He helped me figure out how to make sure my bags got checked all the way to Abidjan which was a little tricky since I was flying two different airlines. Somehow we started talking about Abidjan and he told me he grew up there! His mom still lives there and she teaches school. He gave me her name and said if I needed anything just to call her. He let me practice my bad French as we talked. Of course the airport was packed with Spring Breakers, but in the midst of that crowd, he was just such a blessing. What a great way to start my trip!
The trouble started when I got to the gate. Boarding time of 2:40 was pushed back to a status report on the plane at 3:00. At 3:30 we learned that the plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties and diagnosis was still underway. At 5:00, the gate attendants gave out meal vouchers and at 5:30 they wheeled out a cart of drinks and snacks. The time for making my connection in Paris to the Abidjan flight was getting very tight. I hiked over to the Air France desk, in a different terminal, to see about moving to a later flight. No, they said, the ticket that I had to Abidjan was a 30-day advance ticket and allowed no changes. No, if I paid for the new ticket to Abidjan I could not use the ticket home from Abidjan to Paris. No, they would not give me credit for the purchase price of the ticket. No, they would not work with Continental to fix this situation. No, there was no way to use the ticket on the trip to Abidjan if I agreed to go on the flight with the six hour layover in Tunis.
When I got back to the Continental gate, the gate agent announced that the mechanical difficulties were continuing and there would be another announcement at 7:00. At 7:00 it became clear that the flight to Paris was not going anywhere. There was talk of putting people up at hotels and bringing in a new plane in the morning.
I don’t know how the situation was ultimately resolved. When it became clear that there was no way I would make my flight to Abidjan and that a last minute ticket to Abidjan the following day was cost-prohibitive, I asked to have my bag retrieved and Tom came to pick me up. Eight hours later, I was back at home, unpacking my bags, never having left Houston.
What a day! We, the Taylors, love to travel and we do it as much as we can. Never in all of our trips has this ever happened to me before. The good news for me is that I live in Houston and I was able to just come home. Mary Beth is home for the beginning of Spring Break and we will all enjoy our time together. The weather here today is perfect. We will do some yard work, take the dogs for a walk and have a great day.
In the meantime, I will be praying for God to work wonders in Cote d’Ivoire this next week. The consecration of the radio station will happen tomorrow during worship. The training and meetings of the boards will go on as planned, in my absence. I’ve always heard the saying “God works in mysterious ways.” Yesterday was certainly a mystery to me! Please join me in prayers for our Bishop and Bishop Boni, for Rick Goodrich and Samuel Koffi, for all the people in Cote d’Ivoire who are training and working on those governing boards, and for all the people who will be touched by the work going on in the radio station, hospital and schools.
Showers of Blessings!
Leah Taylor
The Laity of the Texas Annual Conference
Living our faith, sharing our hope
Common Language Enhances our Connection
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Countless times in the past two weeks I have written this post in my mind. Unfortunately, my fingers never found the keyboard at the same time. Now I’m home after much travel and there are lots of thoughts I want to share with you.
Two weeks ago I spent four days in Philadelphia at the meeting of the Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders. Although I have attended this event before, never has it contained such a rich volume of information for me to bring home, think about and share with you. Several wonderful things have emerged from this group. Although we talk often about the United Methodist connection, I have really felt it at work with this group of people. A strong bond has been developing between those of us who are Conference Lay Leaders in the South Central Jurisdiction. Last summer, we started a weekly email prayer. Each of us took a week and prayed for each other by name. We wrote the prayer and emailed it to the whole group. As a consequence of our meeting in Philadelphia, we have enlarged our prayer commitment to pray not just for the lay leaders but for one Bishop a week by name. Also, we have adopted the Conference Lay Leader from Zimbabwe as an honorary member of the South Central Jurisdiction team. Betty Skatiyo was the only Lay Leader from the Central Conferences who attended the meeting in Philadelphia. So Betty and her Bishop will become a part of our prayer bond.
It was just amazing to hear from so many jurisdictions and conferences about what they are working on and where their efforts are focused. Because of the work of our Council of Bishops and the 2008 General Conference, there is a common language seeping into our conversations. The common mission, “Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” permeates all discussions. The Three Simple Rules; “Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God,” undergird all that we are about as a global church. And, discussion of the Four Areas of Focus provide a framework for us to look into the future — as a denomination, jurisdictions, conferences and yes, local churches. Just as a reminder, the Four Areas of Focus are:
1. Developing principled Christian leaders
2. Creating new churches and renewing existing ones
3. Engaging in ministry with the poor
4. Stamping out killer diseases of poverty by improving global health
All of our meetings in Philadelphia took place in the context of great change which is occurring in each and every aspect of the United Methodist Church. In the wake of the 2008 General Conference, each US jurisdiction is reducing by one Episcopal area. Many conferences are in the process of redistricting and going through reorganization processes similar to the one we embarked on here in Texas in 2005. And many, if not most, of the conferences have embraced and are teaching and living into the Five Practices of Fruitful Conversations.
Then, last week, I spent two days at the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Wow, what an amazing place! We went on a tour of the two large buildings (an extreme understatement) and saw the incredible ministry happening within and outside of the church. As we toured the facilities, Rev. Adam Hamilton stressed several times that nothing is built for just one purpose. Part of the tour was a look backward at what certain parts of the buildings were used for in the past. Part of the tour was how the rooms are currently being used and part of the explanation was the future plan for each space. Not only does Church of the Resurrection have thousands of members who attend one of the many church services occurring on campus, there is also a growing group of people who attend church faithfully over the internet. When I left the meeting, my shuttle bus driver to the airport was a member of the church. He told me about his sister-in-law who now lives in an assisted living community not far from the church. She is a member of the church and started a group that attends church, each Sunday, from the assisted living community. They attend together and then discuss the service — just like a Sunday School class might in many of our local churches. Pretty heady stuff!
Finally, last Friday I traveled to Fort Worth for Mom’s Weekend! Can you hear the smile coming through my fingers? What a joy it is to spend time with my beautiful daughter as she grows into a lovely young woman. Part of the weekend was Mary Beth’s sorority Fashion Show. A number of years ago, the Alpha Chi Omega chapter at TCU decided to focus their philanthropic work on the Fort Worth Women’s Center. Each year, they raise money by selling tickets to the fashion show which is supported by many retailers in the area, raffling off prizes donated for that purpose, and a silent auction of a cornucopia of unbelievable baskets of goodies. The women of Alpha Chi Omega do all the work. They start in the fall when the entire chapter spreads out across Fort Worth businesses looking for sponsors to supply in-kind gifts, sponsorships and support of every kind. This year the sorority raised more than $34,000! Quite an accomplishment for women aged 18-22. At the end of the fashion show, the representative talked about what a difference the contribution of time, money and talent these young women make in the work of the Fort Worth Women’s Center. There was hardly a dry eye in the house.
As the events of these past two weeks have unfolded, I have been continually reminded of how God is at work in all of these things! The meetings, the discussions, the efforts of young women to reach out to others…what a world we live in. God is good…Everyday!
Showers of Blessings,
Leah Taylor