Pastor Gifford's Blog
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 16:42 |
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I have found that those who experience the events of Holy Week also experience Easter. Easter is just another holiday for those whose experience is out of the context of Lent and especially Holy Week. For those who experience it in that context of the passionate betrayal, denial, trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus, Easter becomes a Holy Day of resurrection and renewal. I invite you to come to these services of worship so that your faith may grow and your experience of Jesus' love for you be renewed.
Our Combined Holy Week Services will shift this year. We will begin Holy week with our Choral presentation of Near the Cross on March 28. Services will be at 8:45 and 11:00 in the Sanctuary. I believe this is the most powerful service of the entire year. Invite anyone you can to come and experience the choir, and the cross. Maundy Thursday will be at the Woods with a special communion service. It is on the north side of Bardin just east of the creek between Robinson and Matthew. Good Friday will be in the Sanctuary with our other United Methodist friends in Grand Prairie. It will be at 7:00 and will have a special time for each of us at the cross, and end with a service of darkness as we read the story of the Passion. Our Easter services will be at 8:45 and 11:00 in the Sanctuary with communion at 8:45 and a traditional service at 11:00.
I remember the first time I ever really experience the death of Jesus at a Good Friday service. It was in the majesty of Duke Chapel and I was a part of the team that put the service together. As one who carried in the cross I remember being changed by the thought of Simon being asked to carry the cross for Jesus. It was a profound change in me. I also remember singing Low in the Grave He Lay from a whole new perspective, as my heart leapt for joy when the words finally came, “Up from the grace he arose...” I hope to have that experience again this year and I hope to have it with you.
I hope you have received a blessing from the sermon series we have done during Lent. It continues this week with a scene from the trial, and the 21st with Jesus carrying the cross toward Calvary.
Grace, peace, and love,
Gifford  Read 0 Comments or Add Your Own... >>
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Wednesday, 30 December 2009 11:31 |
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Thanks to your faithfulness and generosity we are going to finish the year in good shape. We are close to breaking even as of December 30th depending on how much we spend in December. It has been an eventful year with many ups and downs, but the Lord has seen us through, and you have responded to his grace. Many of you have lost jobs, and most of you have gotten new ones. Keep praying for those who have yet to find employment. Many of us have lost loved ones during the year, and this has been a time of reflecting on how we have been blessed with their lives. Many new faces have started attending our church and have become active. It has been a great joy seeing an ethnically diverse children's choir program in which I saw Texans of all shades singing their hearts out. We have begun to reach our community which is very diverse, and church is beginning to look like the people who we see in our stores and parking lots. I am so impressed with the growth of our staff in its abilities, gifts, and graces. Our church is as strong as any United Methodist church I know in similar circumstances. We are an inner city church that serves a vast area of the metroplex. Our new year is before us with many opportunities to seek out the unchurched. I hope that we will begin to see more and more professions of faith this year, and my goal is that there are more professions of faith when people join our church than transfers from other churches. God calls us to seek out the least, the last, and the lost. I believe what we do on Wednesday nights is a portal for the unchurched in our community. Once again thank you for your faithfulness and generosity. It is good to finish a year in so much better shape than we began it. Grace, peace, and love, Gifford Read 0 Comments or Add Your Own... >> |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 17:15 |
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There is one thing that people would flock to if they ever found out the other side of being "like us." I remember my first church at Stevens Park. The church was filled with retired folk. In fact there were only three couples in the church in which a member of the family did not get a Social Security check. One was in their late 50's, one in their late 40's, and Cathy and I who were 23 and 25 at the time. "How can we get people to join our church," I was asked at a meeting one afternoon. We had a sign. We had ample parking. We had just painted the church. I finally said, "Pray. Pray that God will send the right people to us." "How do we keep them?" came the obvious question. "If you love them the way you love Cathy and I they will stay," I answered. Sunday came and right at time for the service to start the doors opened (which was unusual, because these folks came early to get their seat), and a young couple walked through the doors. There had not been a rush of sound ripping through the sanctuary like that in years, for every member of the church got out of their seats and moved to meet the new couple. They never lacked for a Sunday lunch. They never tired of being loved, and a year later they moved away. But when it came time to have their first born baptized they came back and invited the whole church to stand with them. You know how to love like that. Now will you join me and pray that God will send the right folk to our doors? People will want to be like us when we love them into being like us. After all that is what we claim we will do, right? We will love our community into becoming followers of Jesus Christ. I really believe Jesus can take it from there. Gifford Read 0 Comments or Add Your Own... >> |
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Wednesday, 04 November 2009 10:56 |
Doesn't everybody want to be like us?
No.
In fact "us" as White Anglo Saxon Protestants (wasp) becomes a smaller part of the pool every year. Most of the people who live in Grand Prairie are not like the people this church has had in its make up over the 129 years of our history. Truth is there are one third the number of people in our zip code that look like us traditionally as there were 30 years ago. Our neighborhoods have changed and the people living here have different traditions than we have. I remember sitting next to a man who was flying home to Atlanta from Dallas to attend the New Years Eve service at his church. He was black and it is his tradition to be in church for the coming of the new year. Every niche of our community has its own set of traditions, and most of them are not like ours. Christmas Mass is the tradition of Catholics, Las Posadas is the Hispanic tradition of going from house to house telling the Christmas story. We have been collecting European traditions over the years and think they all just came to be, but they are a mixture of English, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, French, Italian, and even Russian. They have become so much a part of who we are and what we do that we sometimes think they are really just Texan. But Texan is becoming so much more diverse. We have so many other cultures to assimilate.
Do we want to be like everybody else?
Probably not, unless we want others to be a part of our church. If we expect Hispanic folks to join our church, we need to take on Hispanic traditions while blending them into our own traditions. It is not that we would do away with what we have, but rather we would incorporate new (for us) traditions into our year.
I am looking forward to this cultural melting pot. I enjoy seeing the way others have built their beliefs into traditions. It is going to be fun finding new ways to celebrate our faith. And to think that we would be the ones to make a place for others to feel comfortable here is exciting.
I have noticed that places that want Americans to visit go out of their way to make sure Americans are at ease. The staff speaks English, if they want an American to spend dollars. I found English speaking staff in Moscow book stores , Mexican shops, French bakeries, and even signs on highways in English. What are the signs we put out that say, "You are welcome. You may not look like us, speak like us, or even think like us, but you are welcome, and we will try to understand you first, in order for us to love you into becoming followers of Jesus Christ." Read 0 Comments or Add Your Own... >> |
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Friday, 16 October 2009 10:49 |
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I love quilts. My memories of them start at an early age, because we had no other kind of blanket when I was young. I slept in an up stairs bedroom with a space heater that was turned off at night, and quilts were my best friends. A stack of five to six of them on top of the sheet kept me warm all night and there has always been a different smell that a quilt has. It takes on all the odors of the home, from pine sol to spices from the kitchen. It was always a race to light the stoves in the bathroom and bedroom, then jump back in bed for another 10 minutes of shuteye, until the room warmed. I guess in a way that was the first snooze button. I now have cedar chests with old quilts that were made in other churches, or by aunts, grandmothers, and friends. One of my favorite new ones hangs in the narthex of the church. It is a Jerusalem Cross quilt that I designed and was quilted by the Quilting Queens of Lake Dallas. It is one of my fondest treasures. A little known fact is that Jack Adkinson's (Fritz von Erick) mom was one of the quilters. I hope you will come out and enjoy the quilt show at our church on Saturday October 17. I have been helping a bit with getting them spread out, and I must tell you they are beautiful, unique, and worth the price of adimission. All the proceeds go to the Grand Prairie Food and Clothing Coop. Quilts are a bit like churches. Every piece is made to fit. Every one is unique. Every piece is as important as any other, but no piece is better than any other. All the pieces are only as good as the stitches that hold the together. It is the stitching of the Holy Spirit that holds us together, and when we become church we provide warmth for those who live in a cold world. Grace, piece, and love, Gifford Read 0 Comments or Add Your Own... >> |
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Friday, 09 October 2009 16:37 |
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"All the scans are clear," were Dr. Ruxer's first words. It is a joy to tell you that this part of our life is past. Thank all of you for your prayers and concern for our family and especially for Emily. I can't tell you how relieved we are and how good it is to watch her relax. Thank God for those who have gone before us to make this day possible. Grace, peace, and love, Gifford Read 4 Comments or Add Your Own... >> |
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Friday, 25 September 2009 14:32 |
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Many of you have asked about Emily, so here is the latest. She has finished chemotherapy, and will have a PET/CT scan on Monday October 5. Her appointment for the doctor to tell us about the scan will be the following Friday. We expect for her to be cancer free, but a few hundred prayers would sure help. I believe she will feel them, and she will grow less anxious. The chemicals will be in her system for at least another six months, and she will be getting scans every three months, but the good news is that this part of her life is almost concluded. Emily has grow through all of this, and is a much stronger woman than she was when this started. She is tough, and she can take a punch to the gut and get back up. I am very proud of her. A special thanks goes to our prayer ministry. They have really lifted her as well as our whole family. If you have time on Tuesdays and want to make a difference join that wonderful group. They pray and write cards at 9:00. Grace, peace, and love, Gifford Read 2 Comments or Add Your Own... >> |
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Wednesday, 02 September 2009 11:07 |
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Remember to keep those who are out of work in your prayers. We have quite a list here at the church, many who are in their 50's and many who are young. I just read that only one in five college grads from last May have gotten jobs. That has got to put a a strain on families here and all over the country. I know, because technically Emily is unemployed. She was told by her doctor yesterday that she can go ahead and begin the application process again. She is ready to get out on her own and spread her wings. (Her last treatment is September 15th and scans will be two weeks later.) But the hardest hit have been those with families who have one or both bread winners out of a job. There is also the stress that hits those who are constantly being told they still have a job, but further lay offs are coming. My brother-in-law was laid off two years ago, and has decided to retire early at the age of 57. My sister-in-law said that her job is still there and the company has business, but all her coworkers are picking up the work of those who have been laid off. No wonder productivity is at a high. She worries that even though she is doing good work even her job may go away, and then what will they do? I have spoken to many of you who have seen that large portions of your retirement funds disappeared, and what you thought was a steady income had become an intermittent trickle. What do we do? Pray. So often it seems like a powerless answer, but it is the answer that has power. God will do His will in the world. It is not that our prayers will change God, but they will change us. God already knows where Emily needs to work and why. God already knows what will be open for many of you and when. Prayer gets us in touch with what God knows. We miss out on opportunity when we forget to pray. God is the all time net-worker of the universe. He may need you to guide another through dark waters. We never know who God will bless through us, if we do not pray. Prayer is more than caring. It is doing. God moves us through prayer. So pray for those who seek employment. Pray for those who are entrepreneurs to create new jobs. Pray for those who lend, to set free assets in order to bring life into our economy. Pray for those who are afraid, that they may boldly do the work to which they are called. Pray. Grace, peace, and love, Gifford Read 1 Comments or Add Your Own... >> |
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