And, We're Done!

I have the great pleasure of reporting to you that we are finished with the parsonage renovation!  The building inspector signed off on the work, and I've been moving back into my kitchen!

Here are a few pictures for you:

The hall bathroom

The laundry room

The beautiful kitchen

I forgot to take a picture of the refinished screen porch, which is also quite lovely!  Soon to come.  

Thank you all again for your generosity toward me, and toward all the pastor's families who will be blessed in the future.  Thanks especially to the Trustees and to the Parsonage Committee, to Brad Wesley Construction, and to all the subs who did such a great job!

I look forward to our society beating this COVID-19 virus so that we can gather, breaking bread and sharing stories, praying and laughing together!

Blessings!
Ed

Generosity From A Distance

Friends,

Grace and peace!  I have missed you all so very much!  Perhaps like many of you, I am a very relational person, and I need our connections just like we all do! I pray that God will show us new ways of being together, and will deepen our relationships with God and one another in ways that we have never imagined during this time of anxiety and physical separation.  

Our church is an organization which relies on the generosity of its friends.  We try our best to be good stewards of that with which God has entrusted us.  We know and affirm that "all good things come from you, O God" when we give of our tithes and offerings.  

We know that this outbreak has, is, and will affect the economy in very significant ways.  For many people, income during this COVID-19 crisis will significantly decline.  Others may be blessed to see no change in our income.  Some have nest-eggs to help weather the storm, but the stress of using what they had planned to use in other ways is real and feels traumatic!  Some may be moved by the Spirit to share possessions, time, or finances in ways they have never considered before.   For some, in order to survive, it seems that we must carefully ration the little that we have and trust that God will see us through.  Still others will need to depend on God working through the generosity of strangers.  We are all sharing in this great unknown; may we do so with faithfulness.  

It is on my heart to remind you of two principles of Christian sharing.  One is that God's direction for God's people in the Bible (and in millennia of Christian tradition) is based on proportionality and faithfulness: we strive to give a portion, a fraction of what God provides.  There is precedent for giving a tenth of income or harvest, but there are examples of many other proportions of giving (all the way up to 100%!).  The second principle is that offerings are always an act of faith. In times of plenty or times of seeming scarcity, sharing is an act of trust that we are participating in God's larger kingdom.  With all acts of trust, we are choosing to take a risks.  Our faith is that God will take care of us. 

It is good to remember that God works through so many faithful people in so many ways.  I believe God is at work in every teacher tasked with handing out drive-through lunches at public schools, every work team that helps hurricane victims, every EMT who rolls into unknown situations during every emergency call, every parent who is doing their best to teach their children at home, every elderly person who is staying home and praying for grandchildren and neighbors.  The church is but one (very important) way that God accomplishes God's purposes in the world.

We should pray, together, for God to show us how and how much we are to share.  We believe the Holy Spirit is who empowers every act of love and generosity, so we ask for the quietness to listen, the wisdom to discern, and the faith to follow where God leads us.  

As we continue to support the church, so that the church can continue to minister to its staff and through its staff to the community, I am aware of several possibilities for financial giving to the church that may be new to you, since we are not gathering in communal worship in the sanctuary for the time being.  Other people may have other ideas, which we welcome.

1) At present, our church office remains open as usual.  We are cleaning all of our public spaces regularly, and our staff is practicing physical distance.  You may choose to bring your gift to the church.  If you ring the doorbell while the office is open, we can come and collect your gift at the door.  Please call before you come so that you can make sure someone will be there.  The church office number is (336) 599-1193.

2) You may choose to mail a check to us. The church address is Long Memorial UMC, PO Box 310, Roxboro, NC 27573.  Many people have long chosen to use this means of regular giving.  

3) The church office can help you set up regular electronic drafts from a bank account.  We have offered this for a number of years, and a number of our members have long taken advantage of this method of church giving.  In order to do this, we need you to fill out and sign a form and return it to us.  You can pick up a form from the church, or we can mail you one. Please call or email the church office if you need assistance.

4) You can use the app on your smart phone called Church+.  It's a free app.  You find and download the app from the app store, then you can use the app as a guest, or you can create an account for recurring transactions.  The app allows you to search for and select Long Memorial in Roxboro as the designation for you gift.  This app allows you to enter a debit or credit card number, and the funds are sent directly to the church's operating account.  

5) The North Carolina Conference UMC has set up a service on its website where you can make donations directly to Long Memorial or any other church in the conference.  This service enables you to include a memo line with your donation if you wish to direct your gift to a specific cause within our church ministries (E.g. "Parsonage" or "Capital Projects."  The link is https://nccumc.org/giving/church/.  Donations made in this way will be collected by the conference, then forwarded on to the church via direct deposit twice a month.

May God bless all of us as we dwell in God's presence and seek God's direction.  We will all need to offer help to others, even if it is in the form of prayer; and we will all need to receive help from others, in ways that perhaps we have never needed help before.  May God be at the center of it all.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Ed
(919) 274-8061

The Home Stretch - Parsonage Improvement Project

We are almost to the finish line!  The work remaining on the parsonage renovation is more or less a punch-list - just a few more items.

✅Appliances installed - just a few more wires to connect on some outlets and the kitchen sink disposal.

✅Lighting is installed and looks great!

✅Front storm door installed; the rear porch door is delivered and will go on after painting.

✅Back porch railings up; painting is happening today

✅All the plumbing finished

✅Grounded outlets were installed upstairs; the entry hall, stairs, and upstairs hall were painted (no more red!); the front guest bedroom was painted.

✅A few more this-n-that details, and the work will be finished!  

It looks like a whole different house.  I can't wait to get back to normalcy, although I will miss the steady stream of early morning friends helping me wake up each day to the sound of paint sprayers, hammers, and saws.!  Here are some pictures of the progress.

Continued thanks to the Parsonage Committee for overseeing the work and answering the many little questions that come up from time to time, and to Brad and Tony Wesley, and to Jamie, Jason, Francisco, Gustavo, and all the folks that have made this such a smooth and beautiful project.  Thanks too to all the generous folks from Long Memorial who have supported this project for the benefit of future pastoral families and me!

I can't wait to have you all over to share the beautiful space - but now, less than 10 at a time and 6 feet between everyone, with plenty of hand sanitizing, tissues, and disinfecting wipes!

Blessings,

Pastor Ed

Month 2: Parsonage Improvement Project

Greetings!  It's been awhile, and I know you are eager to see the great progress that Brad and Tony Wesley have been overseeing. I can't impress upon you enough how thorough and thoughtful the whole team has been along the way.  This work will well serve the pastoral families and guests of Long Memorial long into the future.

✅Second Dumpster almost full!

✅Drywall Installed, taped, mudded, sanded

✅Crown molding and baseboards in place

✅Tile floor and shower in bathroom

✅New front door, new laundry room door, new bathroom door

✅Shelves up in pantry

✅Painted Cabinets have been delivered and installed!'

✅Flooring delivered

Continued thanks to the Parsonage Committee for overseeing the work and answering the many little questions that come up from time to time.

 Some of the next steps will include:

-finishing light fixtures, switches, outlets

-painting the ceiling

-installing countertops

-remaining cabinet hardware

-installing floor and finishing baseboards

-painting walls and doors

-installing sinks, faucets, appliances

-installing new screen railings/walls on back porch

-move back in!

Those that know approximate a little more than a month of work remaining.

Here are some pictures:

Fireplace?  What fireplace?!

Dust finds a way:

Preparing to grout with tile spacers:

The finished shower tiling

Finished bathroom floor

Baseboards:

Pantry shelves.  Notice no more water heater!

View from the future commode
(more lighting coming):

Cabinets arrive!

New laundry room cabinets installed:

New kitchen cabinets waiting for dishes!

The kitchen view from the laundry room:

The kitchen island and a sample of flooring:

The bathroom vanity:

Another view of the kitchen island, looking toward pantry:

Crown molding:

Thanks once again to every church member, and to every donor and laborer who is investing in the future pastoral families of Long Memorial!

Please direct any questions or comments to Pastor Ed, George (Trustee chair), or Tonya Gentry (Parsonage Committee).

Week 3: Parsonage Improvement Project

Greetings!  Sorry I didn't get an update out for Week 2.  The crews continue to do great work on the Parsonage!  It's a little dustier than it was, but new additions are going in every day. 

✅Install New Energy Efficient Windows

✅Install New Kitchen Sink Window

✅Lay Down New Subfloor

✅Prepare brick fireplace wall to cover with drywall

✅Upgrade Master Circuit-Breaker Electrical Panel

✅Install Plumbing for new fixtures in bathroom, kitchen, mud room

✅Install Wiring, switches, receptacles, and housings for new light configurations

✅Install new bathtub

✅Prep ductwork - make adjustments for new cabinets

✅Empty first dumpster load

Continued thanks to the Parsonage Committee for overseeing the work and answering the many little questions that come up from time to time. 

Here are some pictures:

Old windows come out for new ones to go in.  This should help us care for the planet and save some money on heating bills!

Rub a dub dub . . . we have a new tub. . . 

 

The ceiling doesn't look like it used to . . .

Best attempt at dust-proofing.

Laundry with a view - temporarily.

Our attempt at one of those online hidden object games.  Or a new radical multipurpose room.  The carport is now a 1) marina, 2) bathroom, 3) barbecue, 4) dishwasher, 4) kitchen, 5) washroom, 6) lumberyard, 7) clothes rack, 8) entertainment center

The mudroom begins to take shape

The new kitchen sink window

Week 1: Parsonage Improvement Project

Greetings!  At our Council meeting this week, it was reported that at least 25% of the funds for this project have been given already.  We have loans secured for the entire value of the project, but the less we have to borrow, the better!

Wanted to post some pictures of the parsonage improvement project, week 1.  Brad Wesley's crew is doing a great job!  We moved the water heater from inside the pantry to a gas water heater located in a small hut near the outside gas pack a couple weeks ago.  The theme of this week has been demolition.  

✅Receive dumpster and port-a-John

✅Move out of spaces to be remodeled

✅Set up kitchenette in Dining room

✅Remove kitchen appliances and cabinets.

✅Remove vinyl flooring and plywood subfloor

✅Remove washer/dryer and laundry flooring

✅Remove hall bathroom fixtures, tile walls (including breaking tub in half!!)

✅Remove bathroom closets and widen bathroom entryway so that future families and guests will have better accessibility for people who may have mobility limitations

✅Widen kitchen sink window

✅Remove brick hearth and wooden mantle and ceiling fans

Today or Monday - replace front single pane windows with energy efficient windows

Everything’s been moving along swiftly!  I am still living here - I’m not cooking any gourmet meals but the front of the house and all other bed and bathrooms continue to be accessible.

We, The Ordinary People of the Streets

"Mission is the intersection of God's love and the world's rejection. The Christian is penetrated to the core by the one just as by the other, and the two converge in him. Because it is a trial that belongs to life, there is no way he can avoid suffering from it. But this trial is a participation in the apostolic trial of the Church; the Church is armed to overcome it; the Church is equipped with the strength to resist it and triumph over it."

--Madeleine Delbrel, We, the Ordinary People of the Streets, First published in 1966 in French under the title Nous autres, gens des rues by Editions du Seuil. English translation copyright 2000, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids.

Madelieine Delbrel, a poet by nature and an atheist by conviction, underwent a radical conversion at the age of 20 that led her to found, in 1933, a "gospel" community of lay women dedicated to poverty, chastity,and work among the poor. The photograph is taken of Madeleine in Septemeber 1964, three weeks before her death.

The Leadership Lid

A friend of mine just gave me a book that millions of others have already read: John C. Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In it, the first law is known as "The Law of the Lid", in which Maxwell asserts that a person's leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness. I wonder how that applies not just to individuals, but to churches and ministries? I don't think our churches are called to manage the disciples, but to lead the world to Jesus, and to lead the people into discipleship as Jesus leads the church into the kingdom. So the church's ability and willingness to lead will, under Maxwell's assertion, determine the effectiveness of the church. Now, the effectiveness of the church is different than the effectiveness of God, who will find a way to save the world even if the church is not effective (even the rocks will cry out, after all). That said, God's way is to work through the church, so it's time to blow the lid off. And we as a church will blow the lid off only when we increase our ability to lead.

No Matter What You've Done

When I was a kid, my family would travel a few hours away from my home in Detroit to my grandparent's farm in the middle of Michigan. Remus, Michigan to be exact. You can find it on google earth at 4403 Ten Mile Road, Remus, Michigan. There on the farm, we were able to do stuff that you couldn't do in the sprawling concrete jungle of metro Detroit: shoot bb guns, ride minibikes, jump out of haylofts, pet cows, drive old pickup trucks in great big fields. It seems that out there, parents kind of let you roam a little further - further into the woods, further into silence, further into maturity.

I remember one summer I was walking around with a bb gun. It was a bad summer for me and the bb gun. I shot a blackbird that I was just trying to scare, and I shot out the window of my grandpa's 57 green chevy pickup. Both were bad choices. Both were discovered soon after by my elders. Both left me (and them) with this sinking feeling of "uh-oh; why on earth did I do that?" The bird later died. The glass was never repaired. The world was changed by my poor judgement. Sound familiar? These are the cute-"everybody's got to learn"-coming of age stories. Unfortunately, we homo-sapiens don't learn very well. As I've shared with select people over the years, there are many more sordid tales of damage to property and hearts, caused by my hands, my words, my 'momentary lapses in judgement'.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one out there who has experienced this. Where do you go when you've let them down? Where do you go when your actions wound? In the ancient story of a king who used murder to conceal a sordid affair, the king laments to God, "Against you and you alone have I sinned, Lord God." But I don't think the sin against God hurts near as much as consequences of harm done to one another, which throws mankind collectively and individually into what some have termed the 'dark night of the soul.'

What I want to know is: when and how, under what circumstances, does dawn break onto such a dark night, no matter what you've done? Some would say that time heals all wounds. I hope there is a more powerful potion than the passing of time.

More to come . . .don't lose hope.

No Matter What You Believe

I want to talk to you, no matter what you believe.
I am a pastor, a Christian pastor, even a United Methodist pastor; mainline denomination, on the northern edge of the Bible belt, and I want to talk to you, no matter what you believe.

I won't condemn you, I can't possibly convert you, I probably haven't thought about some of the things that you've thought about in as much depth as you have. But I want to talk to you.

If you're like most, you'll be able to ask me something I can't answer. You'll compare me to others in the same category as me (whatever that might be) and find I'm different, or the same, but I still want to talk to you.

I want to hear about you, and what you think, and what you believe, and what pops you out of bed in the morning, and what keeps you up at night. I believe you've got a lot to offer the world. If you're anything like me, you're probably good at a couple of things, not good at a lot, and wish you were better at some. No matter what you believe.

I won't use your story as an illustration to make my point. I won't go looking to exploit the conversation. It might take me a few moments to fully tune in to what you're saying. You might catch me at just the right time and place, or we might need to set a time. But I want to talk to you.

No matter what you believe, I believe something too. My beliefs compel me to want to find out about you, to listen so carefully that something in you helps me understand the world, our place in it, and where we might be headed in this life or the next. I hope that what I believe is worth sharing, but that's not why I want to talk to you. If you want to know something about what I believe, you'll ask.

And that's good enough for me, no matter what you believe.

No Matter What It Takes . . . Part 2

To all of you who came out to Another Level Sunday night at Oliver Twist, I say thank you. To those of you who couldn't make it, I say we missed you! We did indeed talk about the mistakes we make in life, and how they drive us apart. The night's conversation ranged from the not-very-personal celebrity-caliber mistakes (like those by the golfer who shares his name with a feline), to the slightly more personal mistakes made by companies and service providers and churches that annoy the ((&&*(^ out of you, to the oft-painful 'deal-breaker' mistakes. We talked about how sometimes those mistakes really change your life, and how sometimes you carry around their long-lasting-legacies as baggage and haunting thoughts.

I've met a lot of people who share with me a propensity for learning about life the hard way, often one mistake at a time. I've also met a lot of people who have an ability to move on. As a friend of mine named Kurt once said, "it's not whether you fall that matters in life, it's how well you bounce." I agree; but bouncing ain't easy, and in a very real sense, it can't ultimately be done alone. Often times, the more we try to bounce, the less we succeed.

Take the case of most anyone struggling with addiction. The addict consumes their drug (or porn or whatever) of choice. It gives a high or some other form of positive feedback. The high leaves. The rational thought appears, condemning the behavior and illiciting shame. The shame leads to a resolution: Never again. The resolution leads to an obsession on avoiding the 'drug'. The obsession with avoidance quickly allows the obsession with the drug to return. The vow of abstinence is sabatoged by the power of the thoughts and the drug itself, especially if there is a physiological addiction/withdrawl. So the addict consumes again. And again, and again.

The power of the mistake over life that must be broken, through humility, accountability, repentance, honesty, vulnerability. Ultimately, a price must be paid. The good news is that God has made a way out. There is a higher power. For the Christian, there is the forgiveness and justification that comes with a commitment to Christ and connection to a Christian community. For the agnostic or otherwise religious, there's at least a 12 step program.

Ultimately, we are freed from our obsessions, freed from the destructive power of our mistakes, by a redeeming God who pursues us, no matter what it takes, and a community that embraces us in love. But it's not easy. Nobody said life would be easy, but it's worth it, no matter what it takes.

No Matter What It Takes

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Oops. Well, he's not the only one to ever make a mistake . . .


Mistake makers, you're in good company!

When I first moved to Atlanta, I moved in next to a girl that I heard was single. That raised my eyebrow. I remember the first time I actually saw her, she was taking some trash to the curb. I ran out the door and introduced myself as the new guy that was now on the other side of her duplex. "Great timing," she said, "I was just taking out the trash!" Oops.

The next night, my friends from work wanted me to go out with them; "Nope," I said, "I think I'm going to just happen to be playing my guitar on the front steps tonight when a certain someone gets home." Well, I was there when that certain someone got home, and that guitar playing turned into a long evening conversation. I'm happy to say that it's about 15 years later, and that first awkward and modest pursuit of the girl next door has resulted in some 12 years of wedded bliss.

Of course, anyone who's experienced the 'wedded' part knows that it's not all 'bliss.' There are plenty of screw-ups and stumbles along the way. And don't get me started on all of the mistakes that get made on the journey through single-hood. The faintest memory of them still makes me cringe! From moments of indiscretion, like talking it up a bit too much with a girl who's not your date,

to absent-minded ignorance, like buying candy for someone who's diabetic,

to failures to communicate, like not telling your loved one you'll be working late, there are plenty of opportunities for simple mistakes to boil over into major ordeals!

One day I was looking through the pages of the Bible, and I got to thinking about the great mistakes that it contained. Adam and Eve eating the apple, Moses killing an Egyptian in revenge, a king name David scandalizing his reign with an affair and a murder, Jesus rising to influence and then being killed for stirring up the religious authorities . . . who knew that a book so sacred would contain the record of so many mistakes?

I wonder what we can learn from that

Bending Over Backwards

This past week I sat in on a great discussion about a Max Lucado book. Courteousness was the central theme, and quickly the conversation turned to public displays of rudeness - in line at the bank, unreasonable customers, bad customer service, and the like. There were several small business owners in attendance, who were quick to share stories of customer service 'challenges' (i.e. horror stories!)that they'd encountered.

The fundamental problem was conflict between the Christian ethic of 'turning the other cheek' and the pragmatic responsibilities of running a viable business. Where is the line? When a customer expects a business to address a problem for which the business is not responsible, how is the Christian businessperson to respond? By extension, it's not just business owners who are caught up in this ethical dilemma. If I have a spare bedroom, or even space on my couch, and I encounter a homeless person, am I obligated by my Christian faith to open up my home to the person with no where else to sleep?

So that frames the question. I'll share some thoughts and perhaps resolutions in a couple of days. In the meantime, what do you think?