Bishop's Column: A Star, a Gift and Slide 59

By Bill Dobbs, Clergy Assistant to the Bishop

This is the season of Epiphany.

It is a time marked by our remembrance that wise ones of old left home to follow a star and to honor a king.

I’ll not retell the story; you likely know it well.

It is enough, I think, to remember that these learned astrologers caught a vision that changed their lives. It inspired them to set out on a journey that took them far from home, far from their “comfort zone.” It was a journey that may well have cost them as much as four or more years out of their lives.

All because they believed that God was doing something special in history and they needed to respond, to “pay homage.”

They brought gifts – precious gifts – and gave them as a witness that God’s sign had been seen and responded to.

People are still seeing signs of God’s activity in our time, signs of God’s saving grace at work in our world. And wise ones are still responding with gifts – gifts that are precious to them – as a witness in our day and time.

Gifts like time and treasure and even their very lives, all because they have been captured by a vision that will not leave them in their comfortable places. A vision that summons them to leave home and even safety to go and tell others what they have seen.

To be captured by a vision of Jesus, and Jesus’ great commission to all who call themselves disciples, is to be invited – even compelled – to leave the places where we have become comfortable in order to give our witness to what God is doing now and in the New Year.

Our routines are, for many of us, comfortable. They are “the way we have always done things!” The day-to-day business of our ministry – wherever that is – can lull us into thinking that we are following Jesus. But then something happens that causes us to look again or, as was said to young Simba in Disney’s great movie The Lion King, “look closer” at what we are doing so that we become uncomfortable with the status-quo.

For me, it was a presentation by Jim Salley, General Board interpreter for Africa University, to the area appointive cabinet.

He was speaking about recent research examining the reasons why people do and do not give to mission projects in the United Methodist Church. It was interesting information, but it was not until he got to slide 59 in his presentation that the “wake-up and pay-attention” call arrived.

Read More

Adrian College Chaplain: We Are Seldom Ever Prepared

By Adrian College Chaplain Chris Momany
As published on the General Board of Higher Education & Ministry website

This year I heard the best Advent sermon in more than twenty years of ministry. It was preached by one of my college students, and his message underscored the way we are seldom ready for God’s majestic love.


Joseph and Mary were hardly prepared for the reality given them. Are we any better prepared? If Advent is all about preparation, let’s be honest. We are seldom ready for the wonder of Christmas.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Preparation can be little more than a way to control our environment.

It is a splendid irony that the best preparation opens our hearts to the possibility that life is not about controlling our fate. I do not say this to excuse purposelessness. I know myself better than that. I am a certifiable control freak most of the time, and I bear a deep anxiety about disorder.

I like the rationale of cause and effect, especially when I possess power over the former. Christmas can seem like a tidal wave – the obligations, family pressures, and cultural demands. Yet the problem has more to do with my desire for control than with the event itself. We are never really prepared for the majesty of God’s love, but grace comes from a realm beyond expectation. That is why we call it Good News.

Seasons like Advent and Christmas make me ponder many things about our church. At the risk of speaking heresy, I question our increasing obsession with models of ministry that worship power and control. Many of these approaches are borrowed from the business world. There is nothing wrong with being intentional about mission, but in an attempt to remain “relevant” we risk swapping the inheritance of grace for a mess of pottage.

Especially dangerous is the conditional nature of many popular “leadership” models. There are always strings attached to the relationships involved. These approaches portray the church’s challenge as a matter of offering better services in an increasingly efficient manner. This may inspire some, but do we really need to be more like the cable company or other self-interested commercial ventures? 

Read More

Church makes skullcaps to go in military stockings

By Pam Mettler, UMC of the Dunes

Members of the United Methodist Church of the Dunes (UMC-Dunes) in Grand Haven recently knit and contributed nearly 100 hand-made acrylic and wool skullcaps as part of a nationwide effort known as “Operation Shoe Box Skullcaps for Our G.I.’s.”

The skullcaps will help fill Christmas stockings for all branches of U.S. military members currently on duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“These skullcaps have been made by a number of people in our congregation. They supplied both the yarn and the labor, which takes approximately two-to-three hours to make just one hat,” said Joy Shimp, UMC-Dunes Skull Caps project coordinator.

Each skullcap contributed by UMC-Dunes members had a scripture tag attached from Psalms 91:15, which read: ”He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”

The idea for the church members at UMC-Dunes’ involvement arose from Shimp’s interest in and attendance at cribbage tournaments throughout the country.

In Green Bay, Wisc., a cribbage friend told Shimp that she had made hats as part of “Operation Shoe Box Skull Caps” and asked Joy if she was interested in bringing back the idea to her local congregation.

Shimp brought the idea back, made the pattern and put out a plea to church members for help in making the hats. All conform to the pattern, which calls for four-ply yarn in acrylic or wool ― and there are both knit and crochet patterns available.

“The idea for making hats just blossomed. Our members have made all 91 of the hats, which I am shipping to my contact at The Villages, Florida. From there, the hats will go to our active G.I.’s in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Shimp said.

All hats were blessed and prayed over by senior pastor Dan Duncan and the UMC-Dunes congregation members at a Sunday service.

“As I knitted the hats I made, I also blessed them,” Shimp said, adding, “I feel the idea of adding the scripture tag will help military men and women want to hold it in their pockets as they go about their active duties.”

Anyone interested in receiving further information about “Operation Shoe Box Skull Caps for Our G.I.’s” should contact Donna Miller, Wisconsin project coordinator, at 715-832-8934 or via e-mail at dcmiller2104@hotmail.com.

Read More