In the midst of preparation for Holy Week and Easter the Rambo family has received some sad yet exciting news. We all know that this time every year there is always the possibility I will get the call from our District Superintendent that Bishop McAlilly has projected that we will move to a different church. No such call has come the last 10 years and we have been able to enjoy season of ministry at First Church that is longer than you normally see in a Methodist Church.
Did you know that Lent is upon us? This Wednesday night, March 6th, we will be celebrating our Ash Wednesday service to mark the beginning of the season of Lent. It is my prayer that you start this Lenten season off with a new focus and commitment to allowing God to refine you in a special way during this time.
I love coming home! No matter where I've been it is really fun coming home. Even before Thomas was able to respond to my arrival, coming home and knowing Molly and my boys were excited to see me always gave me a burst of Joy. Now that Thomas is 14 months old, he is very much aware of my arrival and coming home has become even more fun. Thomas get really excited.
Greetings from ministry in the midst of a hot and steamy Downtown Memphis!
While it still seems like yesterday, it has been almost been 3 years since construction was completed and we opened the new sanctuary. So much prayer and work went into that entire journey from the fire to our first Sunday worshiping together in the sanctuary. None of us could have fathomed that we would spend almost a year unable to fully gather together in that space. Although the pandemic is not fully behind us, we have started coming back together in worship with our eyes to the future seeking to discern what God will be building in us.
While we don’t yet now what First UMC will look like moving forward, I am confident life and ministry together will look different from before the pandemic. As we start down this new path together, I am reminded of the theme of our campaign to re-build the sanctuary. Build Up. Once again we have a challenge before us as we discover all God is building in us for the future. When I came across this passage from Ephesians 2:22, the phrase “God is Building us Together” has resonated in my heart. What does this mean for us the people of First Church? _
“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:22, ESV).
God is building us together : Ephesians 2:22 says the church in Ephesus was “being built” it was not building itself. It is God who is responsible for the plans, purpose, and re-building of our church community. It is not myself as pastor or our leadership who can build together all God desires for us. Our responsibility is to be faithful disciples not seeking our own desires but constantly yielding ourselves to all God desires to do through us and in us.
God is building us together : Just as it took many years to build the beautiful new sanctuary, what God is building in us together will take time. “Building” implies on ongoing process where each step is built on the one before it. It will be tempting to become impatient and even discouraged because what we are today is not yet where we want to be. We need to inhabit what Eugene Peterson calls “a long obedience in the same direction”. Our primary question we will need to continue to ask ourselves as a church and as individuals is “are we being faithful and obedient to what God has set before us to do today?”
God is building us together_ : When we were working so hard to build the new sanctuary, one of my greatest concerns as pastor was that we would become so focused on the building that we would forget the new sanctuary(as beautiful as it is) is merely a tool God is using to continually build his masterpiece, you and me. As we move forward out of this pandemic, we must always keep before us the reality that what God is building at First Church is not a calendar of programs and events. God is not building a nonprofit organization who exists to oversee a large facility so others may do good things. God’s desire is to build up a missional community abiding in Christ where others come to experience the radical and transforming love of Jesus. God is not building up an organization named First UMC. God is building a people. He is building you and me together!
God is building us together : All too often we tend to view our faith in Christ as if it is merely a private and individual matter. We do not often feel as if what God is doing in and through me greatly impacts our community of faith. Throughout the New Testament we witness God building up people together in a way that the faith and faithfulness of each person matters to the entire community. It matters to the community when you are not praying faithfully. It matters to the community when you decide not to worship on Sunday morning. It matters to the community when you are not reading scripture regularly. It truly matters to the community of faith when each of us are not seeking to be transformed each day into the image of God.
I truly believe God is going to build in the people of First Church an amazing missional community in Christ who is being built daily into a community where people are transformed by Jesus together.
Grace and Peace,
Andy
Greetings from my Quarantine Headquarters in an undisclosed location in that part of Memphis east of Highland us Mid-town/Downtowners are not very familiar with.
In all seriousness, many of you have heard of my trials of this past week and have reached out with encouragement and love and it has truly encouraged me.
