May 2, 2010---Potluck dinner (12:30) & Board Meeting following Worship Service (9:30) and Sunday School (10:45)
May 2---Lawton District Youth Mission Trip Meeting at Cameron Campus Ministry (6:30 p.m.) See Patrick for details.
May 5-10---Patrick will be in Nebraska attending his nephew's High School graduation. Greg Schulz will be preaching on May 9th.
May 15---Town Clean Up (Trash Off) in conjunction with the annual cemetery clean up.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Big Fun Thing
United Methodist Youth and Family Day
July 11, 2010 @ Whitewater, Oklahoma City
White Water hours of operation:
10:30 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Campus Ministry Pavilion 4-7 p.m.
$25 for each ticket
(include park entrance, parking and dinner)
Once payment is received,
tickets and parking entrance can be mailed.
Money and registrations should be sent to the Campus Ministry Office,
ATT: Cheri Grunow
1501 NW 24th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73106
email: cgrunow@okumc.org
405-530-2013
Registrations are due by July 2nd.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A Sermon and A Book
"Enough Breath for Thomas and for Us" was Patrick's sermon title for today's message. The theme was get out of your comfort zone and serve God. He talked about when he worked at the youth homeless shelter in Denver. Picture a dorm full of smelly socks, sweaty bodies, noisy voices, unrefined manners - not what you would call a comfortable environment. Don't just come to church to hear a sermon and sing some songs. Get out in the world and tell God's people about the risen savior. What Jesus wanted the Apostles to do, he wants us to do to.
The book is CURE FOR THE COMMON LIFE by Max Lucado. It might seem to be in direct contrast to Patrick's message. Patrick says God wants you to get out of your comfort zone, Max says God has a sweet spot created for you. You get to that spot by using the equipment that God gave you to do the work that you were created to do. The equipment is your personality, talents, disposition, interests, strengths, the things you like to do... When you are using your equipment to do God's work you are in the zone.
So which is it, get out of your comfort zone or live in it? I think it's a blend of both. God wants us to stretch and improve the strengths he gave us. Like the scripture passage where the master gives his three servants varying amounts of talents (I believe a talent is a year’s wage). He wanted the servants to use and improve what he had given them. So, you have to step out of your comfort zone to use your equipment to the fullest.
Maybe you love to ski. . God gives you a mountain and you ski. Or you love to cook. God gives you a kitchen and you create wonderful dishes. Then God calls you out of your comfort zone. "Go, take a group of children whose parents are in prison and teach them to ski." "Go, put on a banquet for the hungry people."
Think of the work Mother Teresa did. Could you do that? Me neither. But she loved it. God equipped her for that job. A reporter once saw her treating people with open oozing sores and said to her, "I wouldn't do that for a million dollars." Mother Teresa smiled at him and said, "Neither would I."
What equipment has God given you and how are you using them to get his work done?
The book is CURE FOR THE COMMON LIFE by Max Lucado. It might seem to be in direct contrast to Patrick's message. Patrick says God wants you to get out of your comfort zone, Max says God has a sweet spot created for you. You get to that spot by using the equipment that God gave you to do the work that you were created to do. The equipment is your personality, talents, disposition, interests, strengths, the things you like to do... When you are using your equipment to do God's work you are in the zone.
So which is it, get out of your comfort zone or live in it? I think it's a blend of both. God wants us to stretch and improve the strengths he gave us. Like the scripture passage where the master gives his three servants varying amounts of talents (I believe a talent is a year’s wage). He wanted the servants to use and improve what he had given them. So, you have to step out of your comfort zone to use your equipment to the fullest.
Maybe you love to ski. . God gives you a mountain and you ski. Or you love to cook. God gives you a kitchen and you create wonderful dishes. Then God calls you out of your comfort zone. "Go, take a group of children whose parents are in prison and teach them to ski." "Go, put on a banquet for the hungry people."
Think of the work Mother Teresa did. Could you do that? Me neither. But she loved it. God equipped her for that job. A reporter once saw her treating people with open oozing sores and said to her, "I wouldn't do that for a million dollars." Mother Teresa smiled at him and said, "Neither would I."
What equipment has God given you and how are you using them to get his work done?
Friday, April 9, 2010
Easter Sunday
We have a traditional Easter children's sermon. There are a dozen plastic eggs, each containing a symbol of the Easter story. The story unfolds one egg at a time. There's a loaf of bread, a coin, a crown of thorns, a piece of cloth, a nail ... but the last egg is empty just like the tomb. Jesus isn't there any more. He is alive!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Good Friday Service
Upon entering the sanctuary with somber reverence each person was handed a bulletin, a small envelope and an equally small piece of paper. The paper contained these instructions:
"On this piece of paper we want to allow you to write down any issue in your life that is keeping you from growing closer to Christ, maybe it is a past sin in which you seek forgiveness or maybe it is some issue in your life which you feel walls you off from Christ. Whatever the issue we want to offer you the chance to confress it on this piece of paper, and place it in the sealed envelope and offer it over to God, seeking God's love, grace and forgiveness. No one will see the contents of your envelope; this issue in your life is between you and God. When you are done place it in the bowl at the foot of the Cross of Christ."
Patrick burned the envelopes with their personal messages inside. He brought the bowl of ashes to church on Easter Sunday letting us know that when he was carrying the bowl in, the wind blew everyone's sins in his face. Well, not all of them.
"On this piece of paper we want to allow you to write down any issue in your life that is keeping you from growing closer to Christ, maybe it is a past sin in which you seek forgiveness or maybe it is some issue in your life which you feel walls you off from Christ. Whatever the issue we want to offer you the chance to confress it on this piece of paper, and place it in the sealed envelope and offer it over to God, seeking God's love, grace and forgiveness. No one will see the contents of your envelope; this issue in your life is between you and God. When you are done place it in the bowl at the foot of the Cross of Christ."
Patrick burned the envelopes with their personal messages inside. He brought the bowl of ashes to church on Easter Sunday letting us know that when he was carrying the bowl in, the wind blew everyone's sins in his face. Well, not all of them.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Maundy Thursday Service
Come and seek the mysteries unfolding.
Squint your eye and bend your ear to those deep things of God.
The son gathers with his followers, celebrating the ancient sacrifice of blood, the coming of death, of the Passing Over of the Angel of Death, foreshadowing what is to come...
The son gathers with his followers, showing them the extent of his love.
The son gathers with his followers, instituting a new covenant.
All things begin to come together here, here in the upper room.
Lord, let us look on and listen in to these mysteries. Draw us deeper still, Spirit of God, into the depth, the significance of this celebration.
Squint your eye and bend your ear to those deep things of God.
The son gathers with his followers, celebrating the ancient sacrifice of blood, the coming of death, of the Passing Over of the Angel of Death, foreshadowing what is to come...
The son gathers with his followers, showing them the extent of his love.
The son gathers with his followers, instituting a new covenant.
All things begin to come together here, here in the upper room.
Lord, let us look on and listen in to these mysteries. Draw us deeper still, Spirit of God, into the depth, the significance of this celebration.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Palm Sunday Parade
Our tradition on Palm Sunday is to get a palm branch as you enter the church.
When the service begins,we sing "Tell me the Stories of Jesus" and march around the church waving our branches. As the song comes to an end, everyone places their branches at the foot of the cross.
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