Archive for November, 2008

Giving God Thanks!

November 27, 2008

It is with great thanks to God and those around me that I post today!  We (my family and I) are truly blessed.  This past year has been a one of much chaos and great blessing and so I take this time to reflect and say thanks. 

We were blessed with the birth of an amazing little girl, who continues to be healthy and a joy – thanks be to God!  We are blessed to have great family who support us, challenges us, and love us – thanks be to God!  We are blessed to have had a great journey with Grace UMC these past 2.5 years – thanks be to God!  We are blessed to begin now a new journey with Goodland UMC – thanks be to God!  We are blessed to have had a great home in Olathe, and now a great parsonage in Goodland – thanks be to God!  We are blessed to have Shelly graduate from Drew with her D.Min. degree – thanks be to God!  We are blessed to have such great relationships with our clergy peers throughout Kansas and to be connected in so many different ways – thanks be to God!  We are blessed to have ministries where we can grow our walk with God and deepen our understanding of what we are called to do and be and pastoral leaders – thanks be to God! 

We are blessed.  Thanks be to God.  Thanks be to those who shape and form our lives.

For what do you give thanks?

Posted in Family, Ministry | 4 Comments »

Grace to Goodland – 6 of 6

November 14, 2008

Today I offer my final reflection in this cycle where I have sought to name my grief and hope in this transition.  I actually need to get packing (not a figure of speech, but literally!), so I may have only a few posts for a few weeks.  First, here is our schedule:

  • Last worship services at Grace (all five) – Nov 22 & 23
  • Loading our stuff onto the truck – Nov 24
  • Unload in Goodland – Nov 26
  • See family for Thanksgiving – Nov 29-30
  • Start at Goodland – Dec 1

One of my joys (along with being able to teach classes as part of the Lay Academy, organize the Lay Academy, work on the new website, and learn more about ministry and visioning in a large church) has been working on the Site Planning & Expansion Task Force.  Since I arrived in 2006 we have been looking at and reflecting on our current space and the ministry to which God is calling Grace.  It has been a joy to help bring together statistical data to describe and illuminate our situation.  It has been a joy to hear of people’s visions for ministries. 

I see Grace moving forward in a building project within a few years, if not in the coming year.  I have been able to learn about and work through the capital campaign and initial drawings of the space we seek.  My grief is that I won’t have the blessing of learning and helping to lead through the whole process.  I am a guy who likes numbers, visioning, imagining spaces, conceiving of ways to bring transformation to people’s lives, …oh and blueprints!  Especially blueprints!  I will miss the difficulties and joys of seeing this possible project through and then helping Grace reach out in ministry and discipleship with this new tool.  Blessings on the team who has been working on this for these past years. 

Who knows, maybe building space for ministry is still in my future!

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Grace to Goodland – 5 of 6

November 13, 2008

Today’s reflection is one of joy for being in Goodland, KS …in two weeks!  I love Western KS.  I love the open spaces.  I love the wheat fields.  I love the general tenor of the people that live there.  They are my people!  I am excited about being in the smaller community and going to the local sports events.  I look forward to maybe participating in harvest – I used to drive a combine during harvest you know (an 860 Massey-Ferguson with a 30′ header)!  I look forward to living closer to my extended family – my mother’s side from Cheyenne County, my wife’s father’s family in McDonald, and even my family in 2-3 hours away in Hays, McCracken, and Russell.  Finally, I am excited to live closer to the Rockies (this is the joy that many people of Olathe highlight for us!).

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Claim the Name 2.0

November 12, 2008

I am excited that Shelly is in Nashville for a few days meeting with people of the United Methodist Publishing House regarding their new confirmation curriculum. This is a great opportunity for Shelly and I hope one that is bringing and will bring her much joy! Shelly loves to write. She loves to help young people connect with their faith – ask questions, explore the tradition, and connect with the larger body of Christ. I am so proud that she is connected to this new curriculum journey.

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Grace to Goodland – 4 of 6

November 11, 2008

As I continue this back and forth engagement with my hopes and griefs, I turn today to name a grief of mine as we leave Olathe.  It is really tied to the blessing that Shelly and I have connected well with a group of younger united methodist clergy in the KC Metro area.  Across the denomination the number of younger clergy is very low, about 4.5% of all elders, yet in the KC Metro area there is a higher concentration of us.  Shelly and I have been able to share meals, travel to local clergy and church events, travel to the Holy Land, and really connect with our peers in ministry in this area.  Thus I am grieving that we will soon be further from them.

One of our friends offered a rebuttal that even though we will live across the state from each other, that doesn’t mean we cannot be connected.  Most of us subscribe to one another’s blogs.  Most of us are on Facebook and are friends with each other.  Technology today allows people to be connected in new ways, not possible before.  Plus we will still be able to reunite at annual meetings – either KS area professional seminar or annual conference! 

Finally, this new opportunity will allow Shelly and I to connect with and support the more scattered younger clergy in Kansas West.  We may have further to travel, but there is great potential to be bound together for life and ministry! 

Thanks to the many people who have supported, loved, challenged, and called us to greater depth in faith and greater heights in vision!

Posted in Church Leadership, Clergy Couples, Family, Kansas, Ministry, Theology, Young Clergy | 1 Comment »

Grace to Goodland – 3 of 6

November 10, 2008

I am excited to have the opportunity to lead the Goodland congregation into God’s vision for us. I enjoy thinking and visioning about what opportunities of discipleship and ministry are possible, and then to equip, encourage, and lead the congregation into that preferred future. The ministry of vitalizing local churches has at its heart going deeper and going out – going deeper in our relationship with God, and going out to engage the community and invite others into relationship with God and being disciples of Jesus Christ. From the learning I have gained at Grace and especially through the Lewis Fellows (via the Lewis Center for Church Leadership) I hope to help the congregation name and claim a vision for their lives and ministry to both make disciples and transform the world!

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Grace to Goodland – 2 of 6

November 7, 2008

One of the aspects of Grace that I am grieving and will miss in this transition is found in two parts:

  1. the powerful ministry of the Center of Grace, and
  2. the preaching and worship leading of Rev. Nanette Roberts (see her blog or via Grace website)!

The Center of Grace, where Shelly has been the director for these 2.5 years, is so cool! From 1959 until 1999 it was the facility for the congregation. When Grace moved to the Ridgeview campus, and when suitable buyers were not located, we discerned that God had something even great in play. It was then that it became the Center of Grace, offering mission and outreach opportunities to the Olathe (and southern Johnson County). This Center provides opportunities for service and justice like I have not encountered or witnessed elsewhere (except for the United Methodist Frankford Group Ministries in Northeast Philadelphia). Thank you to Grace and God for having vision of servant leadership and taking risks on this Big Harry Audacious Goal!

Check out this video (via Google) about the Center of Grace!


Nanette is blessed with a love and great passion for preaching. She loves being in the mix of worship and especially the preaching moment, pulling together different images, concepts, and Scripture texts that speak truth to God’s work and presence in our lives and world. I have cherished being able to learn more about preaching, how to connect with people, hand ow to communicate better. It has also been good for me to be pushed to preach without a manuscript. I am one of those learners that needs to witness and experience another person with skills that I want to emulate, and thus it has been great to be here and learn from Nanette. I will miss her creativity and spontaneity! Thank you Nanette!

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Grace to Goodland – Reflection 1 of 6

November 6, 2008

One of my excitements about our new placement at Goodland UMC is its context. The community and congregation are more intimate than Grace in Olathe.  I look forward to getting to know and growing in relationship with the people of Goodland.  Simply the fact that Goodland is a smaller rural community affords the opportunity to have closer relationships with the people.  Two summers ago I noted to Shelly that it would be cool some day to serve in a community where I would be able to know so many more of the people, something not as possible in Olathe (population about 120,000).  We will be able to connect with schools, local government, employers, and other churches in a way that is not easy to do in a larger metro area.

At Grace I was blessed to connect with many people, however, given that we have five worship services, with approximately 1,600 different people who worship with us at least twice a month, it is more difficult to develop that same intimacy.  Both contexts have their blessings, and I look forward to the connections at Goodland!

How do you find ministry and life being different in smaller communities as with larger communities?  Do you think people’s personalities are geared to certain sizes more than others?

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Shaylin for President!

November 4, 2008

How cute is this?  Today is probably the only day I could invite you to consider this graphic as you go to the polls.  Please exercise your opportunity to Vote! 

Posted in Family, Kansas, Ministry | Leave a Comment »

Grace to Goodland – Reflections on Our Transition

November 3, 2008

I have learned that part of my grief work happens as I name excitement and hopes as well as sadness and loss.  I was able to preach this past Sunday, All Saints Sunday (link to sermon), and voiced the change and transition for Shelly, Shaylin, and I from Grace to Goodland. 

In reflection I have decided to make six posts – three naming aspects of our new placement that excite me, and three naming the loss and grief of leaving Grace.  I hope that this will be a healthy means for me to celebrate the ways we have been blessed at Grace and to anticipate how I hope Goodland will also be a time of blessing. 

What do you do to make healthy transitions?  What ways of ending and beginning bring healing to your change?

Posted in Church Leadership, Family, Kansas, Ministry | Leave a Comment »

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