Lent is a unique and often difficult season to walk through. It’s a season that invites us into self-examination and repentance. We are led to take a long, hard look at ourselves and to name those things that keep us from loving and trusting God. Given the events that have happened in our community and in our world over the past few weeks, we are deeply and painfully aware of our own brokenness and our need for God’s mercy and grace. This is part of our Lenten journey.

As we go through this six-week season, we will continue on Sunday mornings hearing from the Gospel of Mark. The lectionary calendar actually moves into the Gospel of John, but our worship team here decided to stick with Mark and to let him continue telling us about Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem. Through Mark’s gospel, we will be asking ourselves, “What do we need to turn away from in order to turn toward God?” Each Sunday we’ll hear a story that invites us to ask that question in different ways.

In addition to worship on Sunday, there will be lots of opportunities for reflection, prayer and growth during Lent. I’ll be teaching a special six-week Sunday School class down in room 109. We’ll be looking at the last 24 hours of Jesus’ earthly life, based on a study by Adam Hamilton. For those of you not currently involved in a Sunday School class, this might be a good way to explore this season and what it means for you.

The Spiritual Formation Committee is putting together a book table with suggested readings during this season. They’ll also have devotional guides for us based on the writings of Henri Nouwen as he reflected on the story of the Prodigal Son.

Lent invites us to find more time in our lives for prayer, silence and reflection. Sometimes, it’s hard to find that space in our lives, so on Wednesday nights the Sanctuary will be open after dinner for you to come and pray. Of course, throughout the week the Sanctuary and the Prayer Room (across from the kitchen) are always open for you. Personally, I like the Quiet Room just outside the Sanctuary. You can see the cross and the altar, but you’re also enclosed in a quiet space apart from the world.

Often, we think of Lent as a time to “give something up,” and that may be just what God is calling you to do. If you find that your hurrying keeps you from God, then you might want to give up driving over the speed limit. If you find yourself preoccupied with food or videogames, you might want to give up snacks or Angry Birds. But whatever practice you choose, it should be about you and your relationship with God. This is a time to open ourselves fully to the loving gaze of God and ask, “How is it with my soul? What is getting between God and me?”

Let’s walk through this season together. Call me if you want to talk or pray together. Come to worship on Wednesday and on Sundays. Pick out a book. Read Nouwen’s devotional guide every day. Start a new prayer practice. Let us keep a holy Lent. Together.

Christ UMC is a congregation that is open in so many ways: open to new ideas, new ministries, new people, and new ways of worshiping. We are open with our hearts, with our minds, with our hands…and even with our building. Did you know that there are ministries going on in our building every day of the week? Did you know that there are 12-step groups, watercolor classes and a home school band that meet here every week? There are community groups and Bible studies and prayer groups and scrapbooking groups. The list goes on and on.

Last week, I ran into a cousin of mine walking through the halls. She was here to help organize a debate tournament that’s taking place in our church in a few weeks. She went on and on about how gracious everyone had been and how she felt the spirit of Christ so powerfully in this place. I was glad to hear that this congregation’s hospitality was real and alive.

One of the benefits of being open and sharing our building and ministry with others is that we get unique opportunities to
connect with others in the body of Christ. I want to tell you about two upcoming events that highlight our “connectedness.”

As you may know, there is an Anglican congregation that worships in the sanctuary on Saturday afternoons. For the second year in a row, we will join with them in an Ash Wednesday service. This year’s service is on February 22. We will share in a simple meal of beans and rice beforehand in order to remember the poor across the world whose primary diet consists of rice and beans. Then at 6:30 we’ll move into the sanctuary. Rev. Kenny Benge, pastor of the St. John’s congregation, will be preaching. He and I will preside together at the communion table, and our congregations will join together in receiving communion and the imposition of ashes. I hope you’ll plan to begin the 40-day season of Lent with this powerful experience of worship.

Then on Sunday, February 26, at 6:00 pm our congregation will join with the Wesley Foundation at Tennessee State University in hosting the second annual Black History Celebration. We will gather in the sanctuary to worship and honor five “Living Legends,” African-American leaders who have made a lasting impact in our community. This was an amazing and powerful service last year—just ask the members of the choir! I hope you’ll mark your calendars and plan to be there.

Having “open hearts, open minds, and open doors” gives us so many opportunities to worship, learn and serve. I thank God for your openness, and I look forward to sharing God’s love and ministry with you and all of God’s people over the next few weeks.

What do you love about Christ UMC?

• Feels like home
• Worship
• Diversity of many kinds
• Community service
• Empowered to follow your passions
• Open and honest about our faith and struggles
• Authentic discipleship lived out here
• Wide-range of ministries
• Grounded in the real world
• Music
• Active ministries with young people

Why are you active and engaged here?

• Involvement brings life
• This is not a Sunday only church
• Blessings received
• I was asked
• Spiritual nourishment comes from many sources
• Congregational life is moving forward

What do we value and prioritize as a church?

• Relationships
• Outreach
• Doing (not spectating)
• Growth in faith
• Getting new members plugged in
• Family feeling
• Teaching
• Shared Leadership
• Diversity

What do we do well as a church?

• Integrate new folks
• Leadership equality across genders
• Making people feel needed
• Evolving, moving forward
• Open to new things
• Don’t lose sight of the important things
• Hospitality
• Self-care and family-care
• Great staff
• Communicate care for others
• “Govern” ourselves well
• Outward (rather than inward) focus
• Discerning God’s will
• Leadership is unpretentious
• “Staying power” with our ministries

What are some areas where we could improve?

• Keeping up with missing members
• New member assimilation
• Content to know who we already know
• Welcoming new folks into our lives
• Older Adult Ministry
• Singles Ministry
• College Ministry
• Sharing our faith (through words)
• Broadening leadership base

Who from our community is missing from our church?

• Non-English speakers
• Other races
• Lower income families

What challenges do we face as a church?

• Size (transition from medium to large)
• Financial
• Hospitality
• Plugging folks in
• Communicating opportunity and accountability
• Christmas Eve
• Moving away from a consumer mentality

Where are we headed?

• Deeper in Christ
• Out into the world in new ways
• Being in real relationship with all people

Our time together was uplifting and encouraging. Christ UMC is a wonderful church, and God is doing amazing things in our midst. But, like with any church, there are ways we can be more effective in our ministry and mission together. Overall, we are a healthy, vibrant, growing, and vital congregation. I hope this sharing will spark new ideas and conversations that lead to new ministry opportunities as we grow together in our knowledge and love of God. What do you love about our church? Where can you help us to make a difference?

After the sermon, John Hill led us in a time of prayer. But instead of speaking the Prayers of the People, he ushered us into three minutes of silence. Three minutes doesn’t sound like a long time. It’s hardly enough time to walk down to the mailbox and back. But three minutes of sitting and doing nothing? That’s challenging.

In fact, those three minutes were more challenging than I thought they would be. In my prayer time at home, I often spend time in silence. I try to practice clearing my mind and my heart in order to listen more attentively for God, and I’m getting more used to it, more comfortable with it. So, sitting in silence for three minutes in worship seemed like a no-brainer. (Pardon the pun. Get it? Clearing your mind? No-brainer?) Anyway, I thought the silence in worship would be comfortable and easy and refreshing.

But as soon as everything got quiet, I felt anxious. I was overcome with a feeling of uneasiness. I wanted it to be over. Then I started to worry, “What’s wrong with me? Why am I feeling this way?” Over the course of the three minutes, I began to realize the source of my anxiety: time. I was worried about the service going long. It was communion Sunday, after all. And I was worried that people were getting restless. I was anxious that people would think we were wasting time by doing this, by “doing nothing.”

Eventually—and thank goodness we were given so much time to be silent—I offered all of that anxiety up to God. I realized that God was showing me some things about myself, far too many things to fit into one newsletter article. But I began to see that I carry these worries into worship with me, and they can get in the way of truly communing with God and with you.

Now, don’t get me wrong. All my thoughts and scattered feelings didn’t get resolved or figured out in three minutes. I got a glimpse, a brief revelation. But it was a gift, and it made me want to return again and again to the silence to see what else God might reveal.

The whole experience reminded me of a quote from Romano Guardini about contemplative prayer: “If at first we achieve no more than the understanding of how much we lack in inner unity, something will have been gained.”

I’m curious. If you were in worship on Sunday, what did you experience in those three minutes of silence? I would love to hear from you—in person, by email, by phone. Or, since you are here at our new website, you can comment below! If you feel led, share with me and with one another what this little taste of contemplative prayer was like for you. Maybe we can help each other move more deeply into the silence of our loving God.

One of my favorite things about the retreat is that it was made possible by the love and care of so many people in our church. We work together, offer our gifts, and voilà! a retreat is successful and we walk away refreshed from being together and sharing together. This year our theme focused on resting in who we are. Sherry Cothran Woolsey, Senior Pastor of West Nashville UMC, led us in worship and song. We spent time in small groups to discuss the barriers that keep us from resting with God, and how to rest in who we are. Our afternoon breakout sessions were focused on relaxing through writing, gardening, designing, creating, stretching, and sharing. The day was full of women discovering new talents, new friendships and new connections.

Thank you to the 104 ladies that gave their Saturday to meet together. Thank you to the five men and a pirate willing to be part of Carol Sullivan’s Catering Team for lunch. Thank you to Brenda and Butch Malone going beyond the call to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s for registration, promotional, financial and multi-media areas. Jan Phelps helped again in developing the day and communicating our theme. Kristi Brown pulled all the small group leaders together to show participants weekly ways to connect to others at Christ UMC. The breakout leaders gave of their time and talents to offer an enjoyable afternoon. Others made soup and baked cupcakes for lunch.

Refreshment was experienced in so many different ways.

Thank you, Marne’ Price

To be perfectly honest, at first glance, I was a bit underwhelmed. You know how it feels on Christmas morning. There is all this unwrapped potential – you simply can’t tell what kind of fortunes lay there awaiting your feverish, opening excitement. Could it be an ipad? A two month cruise around the world? The fountain of youth?. . . (dramatic pause)

No, it’s a blank picture frame.

Granted, this was creative, and it took a little effort. But with all the latest technology, I get an ongoing assignment to think of ways to tell my wife how much I love her – just my luck! Now that a month has passed, I can honestly say it’s one of the best gifts I have ever received.

Everyone enjoys hearing they are loved. And sometimes having a frame of reference provides a deeper assurance. You are doing the right things. For example: I love you because… you took out the trash; you spend time with our children even when you’re tired; you cooked dinner; you did the grocery shopping; you filled up my car with gas. There are thousands of ways to finish the sentence.

What if God had one of these message boards? What would it say? “I love you because: you served food to the homeless; you only cussed twice today; you gave ten percent; you called your mother-in-law to wish her luck in surgery.” NO. The refreshing truth is that God loves us without condition. God’s message board would be more apt to say,

I love you because…
you are mine.
I know you.
I created you.
I understand your pain.
I know why you feel so alone.
I said I would.
I am love.

Remember, God loves you today and every day, for no reason at all. And there’s nothing we can ever do to change that. Spread the word; we all need to be reminded.

As I reflect on the day that we had together—and as I remember John’s sermon from Sunday morning—I’m wondering if we need to find a new name for the retreat. If you were here on Sunday, you heard the story of Jesus’ calling his first disciples to him. He found Peter, Andrew, James and John working on their fishing boats, and he called out to them: “Follow me.” So, maybe instead of a “leadership” retreat, we should call it a “followership” retreat.

Now, this is not an original idea. I heard Dr. Leonard Sweet speak about “followership” at a clergy gathering not long ago. And Dr. Howard Olds, who was the senior pastor at Brentwood UMC for several years, actually wrote a book with Cal Turner about this very thing entitled Led to Follow.

What these pastors and thinkers are reacting to is the fascination that the church has had with the leadership movement. Leadership is a popular topic in the business world and in other arenas. You can go to seminars and workshops on leadership. You can find any number of books on how to lead an organization, a company, a family. I’ve even read a few of them and found them helpful.

But there’s a difference between leadership as the world understands it and leadership in the church. Usually, when people talk about leadership, they assume that the ability to lead comes from someone’s skills, personality, charisma or vision. A person is a good leader because of who he or she is or what he or she does. A leader has a vision. A leader has charisma. A leader is a good communicator. You get the picture.

When it comes to the church, though, we see things from a different perspective. We are not called to lead. We are called to follow. We do not have a vision, God has a vision. We do not lead from our own power, we follow where God leads through the power of the Holy Spirit. The great “followers” in the Bible (Moses, Esther, David, Jeremiah, Simon Peter, etc.) were all flawed and “in over their heads.” None of them really knew where they were going or understood fully what God was up to. But they listened and followed, one step at a time.

So, what does this mean for us? What does “followership” mean for a member of the Administrative Council or the chair of the Outreach Committee or for any of us? It means that we remain open to the movement of the Spirit. It means that we pray and listen more than we plan and talk. It means that we seek God’s vision for our work, knowing that the vision may not come from the chairperson or the pastor or the elected officer. It could come from anyone who is listening, anywhere, anytime. May all of us be listening, praying, discerning and waiting for God’s vision to unfold before us.  May all of us be the best followers we can be!

As we begin our new year together as a church family, I thought it was important to let you know how we are doing financially. The Finance Committee met on January 8, and we are glad to bring you a positive report!

Because of your generous giving, we finished 2011 right on target. No deficit! That in itself is something to celebrate. (Cue the confetti and the balloon drop!) But wait, there’s more! The Outreach Committee wants you to know that you gave over $150,000 to outreach ministries in 2011. Most of our missions and outreach giving does not run through the operational budget, so it didn’t show up in some of the graphs that you saw during our pledge campaign. So, almost 15% of our giving in 2011 went directly to help the poor, the marginalized and the needy.

But wait! There’s even more! Because of the hard work of our Finance Committee and, most especially, because of your faithful giving to the Rock Solid Capital Campaign, we were in a good position to renegotiate the terms of our mortgage loan. We are able to get our interest rate lowered to a level that will save us more than $40,000 a year.

Looking ahead to 2012, our pledges as of Sunday, January 15, have reached $912,000, which means we can move ahead with our 2012 budget as planned. The Administrative Council and the ministry teams of the church have lots of plans for an exciting year, plans that will move us further into ministry and deeper in our relationships with God, with each other and with the world.

As I reflect on all of this good news, I am so astounded at the goodness of God. Last fall, I must confess, I was a bit anxious about our finances. I worried that we would finish 2011 with a deficit and that the pledges for 2012 wouldn’t come in like we’d budgeted.

But, once again, God has hit me over the head and reminded me that worry has no place in the kingdom of God. Of course, we’re human and we can’t help ourselves sometimes, but worry is a sign that we’re not trusting God. I thank God for reminding me that God is faithful, and, no matter what, God can and will work through the church to spread God’s love in the world. For my part, I’m grateful to be alongside all of you all in that work. Thank you, and thanks be to God!

During the Season After Epiphany, we are back into Ordinary Time following the Christmas cycle of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany and the color of the paraments changes to green, which symbolizes life and growth. The lectionary Gospel passages focus on the early part of Jesus’ ministry, and this year we will be spending our time in the first chapter of Mark. This season begins with the Baptism of the Lord (we do a congregational reaffirmation of baptism each year) and runs through the Sunday before Lent begins, which is always Transfiguration Sunday.

As we spend time together in Mark, our prayer is that you will catch a sense of the urgency that Mark communications when writing about Jesus, his ministry, and our response. During this season, may we all grow in our understanding of Jesus’ work among us and God’s call on our lives to join in on what God is doing.

But I left the quiet of the office on Thursday to make my annual trek to Asheville. Every year at New Year’s, David and I travel there to spend three nights with a group of friends from my seminary days. If we counted right, this was our seventeenth year. I’m grateful for this tradition for so many reasons, one of which is that it helps me actually mark the beginning of the new year. If it weren’t for this annual gathering, we’d probably treat January 1 like any other day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But I appreciate the fact that we go out of town, have a chance to reflect with friends on the year that has past and get a fresh perspective on the year that’s ahead.

I don’t know how each of you marked the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. Maybe by celebrating with friends. Maybe by watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Maybe by putting on your pajamas and sliding into bed before 10:00 pm. Maybe by coming to church on Sunday morning and celebrating a Love Feast.

Of course, as Christians, there’s no reason we have to celebrate New Year’s Day. It is not a high holy day. It’s not even a holy day. It doesn’t mark an important moment in Jesus’ life or in the life of the church. The only thing that made it holy this year was the fact that it fell on a Sunday. January 1 is just a marker of time.

Having said that, there’s something about New Year’s that gives us an opportunity. It does invite us to reflect on the year that has past and look toward the year that’s ahead. Traditionally, it’s a time when we make new commitments and resolutions to “do better” than we did in 2011. We commit to eating more healthily, praying more regularly, exercising daily, etc., etc. And that’s a good thing.

So, while we’re all in the mood to improve ourselves, I’d like to issue an invitation. I would like to invite all of us to read the Scriptures more in 2012. And, if you’re not sure how or where to start with that, I’d like to suggest we start together with the Gospel of Mark. On most Sundays of this year, our gospel readings will come from Mark. From now through Easter, we’ll be working our way through this startling, urgent, earthy and gritty gospel. In the Wednesday night Bible study, I’ll be focusing on Mark. It will just be Mark, Mark, Mark all over the place!

So sometime in the next couple of weeks, sit down and read the Gospel of Mark from start to finish. It won’t take long. You might even try reading it outloud! Then, watch for what the readings will be each Sunday. (We print them in the newsletter each week.) If you take the time to do this, hold on to your hat because Mark will take us on a wild ride! See you at church on Sunday!