Perspective

Scott Parrish, Associate Pastor at Greensboro First UMC, and a great friend of mine, just returned from a mission trip to Togo.

Where?

Togo. You know, Togo. As in, “I’d like togo to the game, but I’ve got togo to work instead.”

Sorry about that, couldn’t resist.

Togo is actually a developing, West African nation, but in some very real ways, it might as well be on another planet. Other great friends of ours, Revs. Kirk and Nicole Sims, are placed with The Mission Society in Ghana, another West African nation. While places like Ghana and Togo are on the same Earth as Douglasville, we really do live in very different worlds.

Here’s a part of the description of the trip that Scott shared:

“Togo is not your typical tourist destination. In the mid 1990s figures show more than 60% of Togolese were living below the poverty line and that almost 30% of the population die before age 40. Togo has little industry, is primarily agrarian and roadside/small stand marketplace economy. 65% of the population practices subsistence agriculture. It is a labor intensive culture and a survival sort of society where each day is spent in finding food or making a little money for present needs...
The mission team visited the majority of the 17 lay evangelists (Christian preachers in Northern Togo) and were awestruck by the life on the frontier these evangelists are living as they are in predominantly Muslim and animist locations (voodoo culture with idols, witch doctors, and a traditional religion which influences everything!). It was a powerful reminder of the early days of Methodism as common people responded to the call of God and gave up much to go share the gospel…
The team experienced many astounding visits to lay evangelists who live in very modest one or two room huts or shacks. Some lived in 100% Muslim towns, some in remote villages ruled by a chief, and many in indescribable poverty. They often only had a straw bedroll, a pot and pan, and a Bible in their home. A few lucky ones would also have a bicycle for transportation. At one stop in the town of Sokode the evangelist offered us a prayer and then gave the team peanuts and bananas he had just bought for himself. These men and women of God have little but give much!”

As I sit in my office, writing this blog on my laptop computer, wearing my clean clothes and shiny shoes, sipping a fresh cup of good, smooth coffee, I think about my car parked out front, and the brick home that houses my family just down the road and around the corner.

I think of the clean, well-lit, well-supplied school that my oldest will soon be leaving for the day. He’s been safe there, surrounded by books, computers, and a professional teaching staff.

I am amazed at my ability to grow cynical and ungrateful in the midst of so many blessings.

I am reminded that even though my lunch today came from a cardboard box, frozen solid and cooked in a microwave, I share a big common denominator with the Togolese evangelist whose food was cooked outside over an open fire (if there was a meal to be had at all).

We both believe in Jesus. We both say that we have staked our lives on the reality of the gospel, the power of the message, the truth of the resurrection.

We are both different than we used to be…and moving toward a more perfect knowledge of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

We are both motivated by a simple truth: Jesus Christ, the messiah, the anointed one…is not dead. He is alive. And that changes everything.

I don’t know all the challenges that evangelist faces, living in the bush of West Africa. I can imagine that his obstacles are clear: hunger, health, survival. His faith is not theory, it is a way of life.

Our challenges are real, but I’m thankful for the times that they are put in the right perspective. The odds are good that we will all eat today. There is a roof over our heads. But there is faith-danger all around us.

Life in our world can make us think that God only happens when we check in with him on the occasional Sunday morning. Because we don’t live in close communion with God on a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment kind of basis, the “problems” of our lives can overwhelm us. When things don’t go as we've planned them, our own sense of control is threatened, and we can easily make Mt. Everest out of the proverbial “molehill.”

Our church faces big decisions in the coming months. Some of you reading this blog today must no doubt feel as though the weight of the world is on your very shoulders. For all of us, the odds are good, that if we really looked in a new way, a sneaky truth might emerge. The things that matter...the things that last...are right in front of us, waiting to be enjoyed.

SOTH has incredible opportunities ahead. Nobody knows the answers just yet. We’re crowded, challenged, and sometimes seemingly limited by the realities of space and budget.

What incredible problems to have! We are not heavy-laden, we are blessed with abundance. Sometimes, we just need the right perspective, and a reminder of our purpose. Togolese faith is a good reminder for me today.

May God use his disciples at SOTH to build his kingdom in the world.

He is alive, and that changes everything.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

See you tonight at 6:30, in our worship space for Lesson 2 of our study, Good to Great: First Who, Then What.

Forward

Bill Clinton was still president, and nobody but her parents had ever heard of Monica Lewinsky.

This internet thing looked like it might just make it, but you were probably still going to use a card catalog if you went to a public library.

People hadn’t even started worrying about the Y2K disaster they eventually would find out they didn’t need to worry about in the first place.

We didn’t know what a “hanging chad” was, and September 11th was beyond our wildest and worst imaginations.

We shouldn’t even mention what gas cost. "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls had just been the #1 song in the country. Not kidding.

And Shepherd of the Hills was officially 6 weeks old.

Where were you 9 years ago today?

I’ll never forget the sound of the massive pipe organ that pumped out the greatest hits of Bach and Handel, filling the sanctuary and setting the mood. Big bass notes rumbled through the wall behind those pipes, jostling my jumpy stomach, counting down the moments until our lives would change forever.

I stood with my dad and a flock of other robed clergy who had been very important in my life. Deep in the holding pen, my best friend told jokes to break the tension. Then, the moment arrived.

Chimes marked the hour, ringing slowly, one on another. The heavy oak doors at the far end of the long center aisle cracked open. And there she was, the most beautiful woman I will ever know.

I hope you can forgive the deeply personal nature of today's entry. I'm being mushy, and can't help it. Generally speaking, I really try to stay away from this kind of subject matter, but the calendar of blog and life have intersected perfectly today.

Anniversaries bring pressure -- to have just right party, or to buy just the right gift. This year, for us, our anniversary is a "Wednesday." Wednesday means a full day of church stuff, school for our oldest, playgroup for our youngest, and more good church stuff tonight. Wednesday means Thursday comes tomorrow and there will be ever more "stuff" to do.

It's so easy for us to get frustrated with our lives, if we can't make each special day and occasion stand out over and above the rest through some artificial means of imposed celebration. There will be time yet for celebration, but most of all this day has made me look back over the amazing course of my seemingly average life and feel a deep gratitude for all the ways that God has taken care of me and those I love.

Special days bring special memories, and those memories should push us to take stock, give thanks, and rest in the peace of God's goodness.

So much has come and gone in the time that we have shared together since that wedding day nine years ago. The mangy little puppy that took up residence in our apartment has grown into a graying family matriarch. The tiny newborns that came home with us from the hospital (I remember thinking, "seriously, you're going to just turn us loose with this baby?") are now rolling and tumbling little boys. They are learning what it means to be brothers, and occasionally, even now, we can see the future when flashes of the young men they will become shine through the wonderful, sticky dirt of their childhoods.

We’ve been through five houses in four places. We’ve made life-long friends from Ripley, Tennessee to Roopville, Georgia, and from Augusta to Douglasville.

Nine years later, we now know firsthand what it means to witness the birth of new life, and how it feels to stand at the graveside of a loved one. In between, there is this mysterious gift from God. We are given life, by the God who loves us. It’s a gift that's got to be lived.

Here’s what I know, and all I can really tell you today. God is good. No matter where you are, or what you’re facing, I believe that you can look back across the chapters of your life, in all of the good, but maybe most especially in the hard and painful places, and you'll always (or eventually) see the hand of God at work.

There are moments that push our faith beyond its reasonable limit. There are days when God’s presence can seem lost, when he seems absent from our perspective.

He is never absent. He loves you, he's your Father, and he is all good, all the time.

Look back and remember. Look forward and believe. I know that we are blessed beyond all measure. And I’m so thankful for that one who chose to share her life and the blessings of the last nine years with me.

The best is yet to come.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

Tonight’s study – Don't forget that we begin our detailed study of Good to Great, tonight at 7pm in our worship space. Childcare will be available, but if you read this blog today and want to let us know how many kids you have coming, that would be great. Kathryn@sothumc.net

Don’t forget your milk money! Remember, the "Milk Money" offering to support UM Children's Home, Wesley Woods and The Bishop's Initiative for Actions Ministries continues throughout Lent. Put in a couple of dollars every day to help our congregation meet its $2000 goal.

Welcome New Members! Welcome to David Pearson, to Mike, Ashley, Steven and Trey Bedoski, and to Shane, Tammy, Luke and Erin Meador, all of whom joined SOTH this past Sunday!

RACK Update: Send us your stories! Sandi@sothumc.net

We decided to give the $20 to one of the custodians at my office. We usually give clothes to him that our kids have outgrown. He and his wife have 7 or 8 children -- toddlers to teenagers. He doesn't have transportation to work -- he walks. He works very hard each and every day -- always with a smile and always ready to help in any way he can.

When I handed him the envelope, he wasn't quite sure what it was. He thought maybe a card of some sort. I told him to open it -- he did -- and when he saw the money inside, he didn't say anything. He thanked me and walked off. Later on in the day, I passed him in the hallway. He stopped me and said "I just want to say thank-you for the money -- it's so nice to know that people actually think about you -- and, you always do that -- I really appreciate it".
What a great feeling!

Leader

Darwin Smith.

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins details the professional life and times of one of his most outstanding heroes: Darwin Smith.

An in-house lawyer for Kimberly-Clark paper company, Darwin Smith doubted the choice that his company’s Board of Directors had made in their new CEO. They had chosen him.

Over the next 20 years, Kimberly-Clark would out-perform the market by over 4 times, shredding Scott Paper (did you like that?) and even leaving companies like Coca-Cola, Hewlett Packard and 3M in its wake.

Darwin Smith was an unlikely corporate superhero, to say the least. Collins says, “He never cultivated hero status or executive celebrity status. When a journalist asked him to describe his management style, Smith, dressed unfashionably like a farm boy wearing his first suit bought at J.C. Penney, just stared back from the other side of his nerdy-looking black-rimmed glasses. After a long, uncomfortable silence, he said simply: ‘Eccentric.’”

“But,” says Collins, “if you were to think of Darwin Smith as somehow meek or soft, you would be terribly mistaken. His awkward shyness and lack of pretense was coupled with a fierce, even stoic, resolve toward life.”

Darwin Smith reminds me of some long-lost Biblical character, buried way down in the cramped, stale, children’s-Sunday-School stacks of my theological brain.

He has the eccentricity of a prophet, and the backbone of a true leader. I can almost see him, black-rimmed glasses and all, screaming at the top of his lungs across the banks of the Jordan River. “Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”

Passionate about the message, caring only about the fulfillment of the mission, it was a Darwin Smith sort of charcter who wore camel’s hair clothing and ate grasshoppers with wild honey.

Darwin Smith and John the Baptist: “Level 5 Leaders,” the both of them. Jim Collins calls those corporate CEO’s who blend “extreme personal humility” with “intense professional will,” “Level 5 Leaders.” They are the kind of people who can move organizations from good to great.

But what could move our lives that direction?

John the Baptist carried intensity of will to the extreme. His only goal was the proclamation of the gospel, no matter what the cost. In comparing himself to the one who was to come after him, the Messiah…Jesus, John simply said, “I’m not worthy to untie his sandals.”

And yet, this “unworthy” one was chosen to baptize Jesus Christ himself. It always seems to be that way…the first being last and the last being first. That’s what Jesus tells us. Better yet, it’s what he always shows us.

Real leadership resides in unlikely places. We expect to find it when the package looks right. Leadership looks confident, composed, blow-dried and “slick,” right?

Our eyes aren’t very good at seeing leaders, but our hearts know them every time.

And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. John 13

“The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes,” Collins says. “They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.”

What could a church full of Level 5 Disciples bring about?

“So if I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” John 13

Darwin Smith. John the Baptist. Jesus Christ.

May our names one day be added to the Level 5 honor roll of humility and will.

Grace & Peace,

Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

Tonight at 7pm, we will discuss the intersection realignment that will impact our church, slated for 2007. If you’d like slides of tonight’s power point show, give us a call in the office and we’ll send you an e-mail or disk.

RACK Update: Send us your stories! sandi@sothumc.net

When do you know if you have done the right thing or if a person is

really in need? I went to the post office this morning and saw an

older gentleman standing around looking like he was contemplating about

something. I was driven to watch and after about 15 minutes of seeing

him pace and bite his nails, I got out of my car and asked if he had

any breakfast this morning. He said no, but he'd like to. I handed

him a RACK envelope and told him to go eat a good meal. As I walked

back to my car, he called after me and said he had not opened the

envelope, but did I say it was for breakfast. I said yes, and he said

Bless you and asked if he could give me a hug. I hugged him and said

God Bless You. And when I left, I felt like I did the right thing.

Green

So, even though Spring does not arrive officially for a couple more weeks, I can already smell it in the air.

And it’s clogging my sinuses.

But apart from that little problem, there are some wonderful signs of new life that I seek out and long for every March. Life is good when you catch the first gleaming branches of “yellow bells,” and the bright, straining heads of “buttercups” breaking forth from their winter sleep (that’s forsythia and daffodils for you un-country folks out there).

Since our move to Douglasville last summer, my family and I are blessed to have taken up occupancy in a great, new neighborhood close to the church. And, as much as I’m thankful to live there, there is one big drawback.

Apart from the ubiquitous willow oaks in our front yards (every house got one planted by the builder), we live in a mass of humanity where nothing green seems to grow. Such is often the way with new construction.

We all have our patch of front-yard Bermuda grass, clinging as best it can to the hard-pan clay that lies beneath it, and that’s about all there is. And even those little patches are brown right now.

Although it seems for all the world as though nothing is even considering a “bloom” anytime soon in our little piece of earth, I know that the potential is still there. Or, at least, I think it is.

I know that God’s creation has incredible power to grow, produce, flower and multiply. It happens all around us, all the time.

But then I remember the rich, loamy soil of the woods where green life seems to flourish with only God as the gardener. All that good stuff got scraped away when our neighborhood was made fit for human habitation last year. Admittedly, the brick-red modeling clay left behind in our back “yard” does push my faith toward its horticultural limit.

If I have any ability to understand agricultural metaphors of life and growth, the people of Jesus’ time surely possessed an infinitely deeper connection to the world and clearer understanding of life’s ebb and flow.

They understood the principles that cause a tree to grow and produce. They often times had to, if they wanted to eat and survive. On a daily basis, they lived, first-hand, creation’s cycle of life, growth, death and decay that leads to the possibility of new life.

Jesus once told them, ““A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6-9)

Often, as I’ve read that parable throughout the course of my lifetime, I’ve wondered whether God is the landowner with an axe, or the gardener ready to fertilize. Sometimes, it’s depended on the day, or my mood, as to which I’ve believed him to be.

Today, I’m feeling pretty sure he’s the gardener. We live in a world where it’s easy to “throw away.” Our first reaction to disappointment, often, is the elimination of that which has disappointed us. It’s not the norm in our world to take more time…to stick it out…to stay the course…to invest time and energy and faith in what might yet be.

Is it possible that Bible tells us that God is a farmer, spreading manure over the roots of an under-achieving tree?

Maybe so. Isn’t the Bible great?

Sacredspace.ie today reminds us that:

“…there are times of disagreeable growth. We can…feel the pain when our roots are struck by the spade. We feel useless, past our best, no good to anyone, a failure in the most important things we tried, whether marriage, vocation, rearing children, our job and career. Life loses its savor. We cannot pray. We sense that some people think the world would be better off without us.

St Ignatius called this state desolation; and he advised: remember that it will pass. Remain firm and constant in the resolution and decision which guided you before the clouds gathered. Make use of the grace God gives you, and you will be able to withstand your enemies. In consolation, think about how you will conduct yourself in time of desolation. And insist more on prayer (SE 317 ff). Then you come to see – gradually – that this same ground, however stinking, is holy, and we can find God there. He is wielding the spade, spreading the dung.”

March is here. Easter is coming. The same ground that is brown today will be a healthy, deep shade of green…very, very soon. God is with us in this garden, and no matter how unseemly the task, he will give us what we need for growth. Remember.

Grace & Peace,
Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

We celebrate with the Fountain and Davis families in the baptism of Cierra Fountain and Brina Davis this past Sunday. What a great moment in our worship!

RACK MINISTRY UPDATE: Our Random Acts of Christian Kindness ministry, made possible by a donor from Wesley UMC in Evans, GA got off to a great start this past Sunday. Each family was given an envelop with a RACK card and a $20 bill. The task is simple – have a face-to-face experience of giving and helping someone who is in need. We ask that you share your giving stories with us so that we can publish them in our blog, and in our newsletter. Here’s the first one from this week:

“Our RACK envelope was given to a fellow that we’ve been praying for in our church. He is a co-worker with me, the cutter operator in our plant. He has left his condition in God’s hands to direct the doctors for the cure that he knows will come. When I told him that there are 300 Christians at SOTH praying for him, he started to cry and he said thank you to all the people at SOTH. I told him to thank God for bringing this member into his prayer chain. He also told me that the cancer has reduced in size, and he stated that now he knows why this is happening.”

We look forward to hearing more stories. If you didn’t get a “leaded” envelope, we’ll do our best to have a few more available this weekend. There are “unleaded” envelopes with cards that you can put your own money in if you’d like to give again.

SOFTBALL NEWS: Congrats to our Co-ed softball team, off to a great start under the direction of Kristi Haffner. They defeated Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in their season opener, 14-10. Our Men’s Church League team will begin play on March 23 against West Metro.

BOOK STUDY: Seismic Shifts book study continues tonight, with two more installments, total. 7pm in our worship space.

IMPORTANT MEETINGS: This coming Monday, March 13th, our Douglas County Board of Commissioners will hold a town-hall style meeting at SOTH, 7pm. We are looking forward to hearing about all the great things happening in our community, and to getting more information about the proposed intersection realignment through our church property. We will follow this with a congregational meal and time of discussion, Wednesday night, March 15th.

GOOD TO GREAT: Our next worship series will bring together scripture and the best-selling business book, Good to Great by Jim Collins. We will stay with this book through the Lenten season and culminate on Easter Sunday. All church leaders and members of SOTH will be encouraged to attend an in-depth study of the book on Wednesday nights – 7pm, starting March 22nd. Copies of Good to Great will be on sale this Sunday for $16 each.

MILK MONEY: Our special Lenten offering, "Milk Money" will get underway this week. Look for a special milk bottle for "Grade A Giving," this Sunday during the children's moments. We will ask each household in our church to give $1 or $2 for each day of Lent, and return the bottles on Easter Sunday. We believe that we can raise at least $2000 through this effort, to be divided between various United Methodist ministries, including the UM Children's home in Decatur, Wesley Woods retirement facilities, and the Bishop's Initiative for Action Ministries. Thanks to the good folks at Cannon UMC for the great idea and doing all the legwork on the really cool milk bottles (you'll see this Sunday).

Ashes

John 12:24-26 (NRSV)

"Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour."

Every year, I am especially privileged to stand in the pastor’s “spot” on Ash Wednesday.

From where I stand, at the end of the annual Ash Wednesday service, I behold a sight that few other mortals witness on this side of the veil.

I see dead people.

Everywhere. Lots of them.

I’ll never forget that Ash Wednesday nine years ago when I first spread the ashes of penitence and mortality on the foreheads of those who came to “celebrate” this initiation of the Lenten season.

“Repent, and believe the Gospel,” I would tell them as they received the sign of the cross. Or darker, and more attention-getting, “From dust thou art, and to dust thou shall return.”

Ash Wednesday is a big time party, huh? Only Good Friday stands as a more sombering day of awareness on the Christian calendar. Ash Wednesday doesn’t have bunnies, or colorful eggs. There’s not even any of that stringy, green plastic “grass” stuff that goes in the bottom of Easter baskets. There aren’t even any baskets for that matter.

Instead, there is prayer, and scripture, music and ashes. When you get right down to it, there’s death on Ash Wednesday, and that’s a big part of the point. Do you know what’s amazing about all of this? Christians often come out in droves to experience the Ash Wednesday worship experience.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Few of us Protestants will have Ash Wednesday attendance numbers that surpass or even equal our Sunday worship attendance. But our churches will be far from empty.

SOTH is the very kind of church that should theoretically “shun” a service as “dark” as Ash Wednesday. We’re “contemporary,” after all, and most of us have allergic skin reactions to any whiff of the traditional, right?

We’re upbeat – I don’t think there will ever be a time that you could stand in the building at SOTH and not hear laughter coming from somewhere. We are Easter people, resurrection people, through and through. Why would Ash Wednesday draw a crowd?

Because even though we’re Easter people, we’re also mortal people. Because nobody gets out of this alive. Because we need some perspective on this “life” thing that our culture is never going to give us. Because “dead,” isn’t all there is. But mostly because somewhere in our reptile brains, we’re scared it might be.

We don’t live forever. Worse yet, we often fall short of the mark set before us while we’re here. Know what’s even worse than that? Sometimes churches sell (and people willingly buy) the idea that the good folks who comes to church every Sunday are done with all their problems.

That’s not exactly right.

The good people who come to church every Sunday are recovering, growing, being redeemed and transformed by the love of God in Jesus Christ every single day. But even when we know that, it’s still hard for us to be really honest with God and one another about our needs.

Tonight, we get to be honest. We will worship in a way that acknowledges our sin, our need for repentance, and our inability to secure our own eternity. The Gospel tells us that God waits to take care of all of those things, when our hearts are open and willing to receive.

And so…tonight, the ashes. The ashes of our sins that stain us and show our need for redemption. The ashes of mortality that symbolize what this world will one day become. All things are passing away, even our own bodies. The ashes that represent the sacrifice of Christ, and his own entering in to death on our behalf upon the cross. The ashes that point to our need for something greater than ourselves.

That something greater is coming. In fact, it already is. Our Easter celebration 40 days from now will be all the sweeter because we have remembered why we need it and what it means.

Sin and death do give way. Holiness and life are real. Tonight, we remember our need, and hear God’s invitation.

Grace & Peace,
Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

Our Ash Wed. service will happen tonight in the worship space, 7pm.

Softball signup has gone incredibly well, and the response has been overwhelming. SOTH will field two teams this year (the first time?) one Co-ed church team and one Men’s church team. We’re going to have a blast. If you still want to play, both rosters are almost full and will be turned in by the end of this week. Let us know a.s.a.p if you haven’t been able to sign up but would still like to get involved: sandi@sothumc.net

Do you get “The Staff,” our monthly newsletter? It mailed this week, and should be in your homes by today. If you don’t receive it and would like to, please e-mail us at Sandi’s address above and let us know that you’d like to be on our mailing list. The March issue is absolutely covered up in stuff that will be happening in our LIFE AT SOTH. Make sure to check it out or let us know and we’ll get you a copy. Very shortly, you should be able to download the March edition at our website, http://www.sothumc.net/