Ushering in a Season of Purpose and Hope: Michigan Area ministries go outside 'the box' to touch lives, share hope

By RJ Walters, Editor

Advent by Candlelight
Think of “ladies night out” — with a little time for much-needed reflection, some soulful singing and of course dessert and plenty of female hysterics.
Ten years ago women at the FUMC of Birmingham decided they wanted some type of festive, non-threatening evening that would appeal to a broad range of women and invite in the spirit of Advent and Christmas.
They have struck gold.
On Nov. 29 and 30 the church celebrated the season with nearly 1,000 attendees total at two evenings that included Christmas music and carols, several testimonies and beautifully decorated tables in the Christian Life Center.
Each table had a host, who was responsible not only for adorning the table where the ladies shared dessert, but also for making sure the seats were filled by the way of invitations.
“Clearly the prime purpose is to gather people evangelistically and to invite women from across the community and to hopefully, invite women who might, if they don’t have a home church, be interested in this one,” Birmingham Pastor Rev. Jack Harnish said. “One of our goals is radical hospitality and we work on that in many different ways. I see this as one of our primary, kind of flagship events.”
This year’s theme was “And the angel said…” focused around when angels visit mortals in scripture.
Emily Everson, part of Birmingham’s programming steering committee, said each year the event also raises money for a charity. This year’s beneficiary is HAVEN, a crisis and recovery center for sexual assault.
While it’s a night away from the men in their lives, the male influence is not totally ignored.
“You know what the clergy do?” Harnish quipped. “We work in the parking lot — we manage the traffic in the parking lot. We’re out there with flashlights and everything. It’s great.”
So great that Birmingham members have initiated smaller services of a similar purpose at city churches like Conant Avenue UMC, Central UMC and People’s Church.
Harnish said churches of all sizes can benefit by “setting the tone for what quickly becomes a hectic time of year.”

“Christ Inspired Christmas”
Are you looking for a bit different perspective on gift-giving this Christmas season?
Or something that doesn’t include the words “black” or “Friday” and doesn’t require four-hour long lines of agitated pedestrians?
Then try an idea of the UMC of the Dunes on for size.
In December the Grand Haven church is hosting “Christ Inspired Christmas” where 20 human service agencies from around west Michigan will be displaying goods and services from the organizations they represent.
The agencies will provide visitors with an opportunity to take tags from their booths and supply items needed by the organizations.
Attendees can also purchase gift cards, which will be sent to persons in need in other countries where they can purchase basic living items.
“These gift cards will be used by people in third-world countries to purchase the things that will simply help them start up their own businesses, share basic necessities with others, or help send their children to school,” said Sondra Metzler, member of the UMC of the Dunes.
SERVV has a booth where people can purchase fair trade crafts and gifts, and coffee and cookies are provided by the church.

Read More

Clergy Corner Column: 'Y'all come on home now'

By Rev. Jack Harnish, FUMC of Birmingham

Over Labor Day last year I read a lovely book called The Big House.

Lest you assume it has to do with my preference of college football stadiums, it’s actually about a family’s long-time summer home on Cape Cod.

The author describes it as an extraordinary four-story, shingle-covered house with gables and dormers, 19 rooms, seven fireplaces, and a warren of closets and crannies that four generations of children used for hide-and-seek. The house had been through five weddings, four divorces, three funerals, several nervous breakdowns, an untold number of conceptions and countless birthday parties and anniversaries.

Even though the family is now scattered coast to coast, they always came back.
After 42 of his own summers at the Big House, author George Howe Colt concludes: “I have always thought of it as home, if home is the one place that will be in your bones forever.”

And I thought, “That’s church. That’s God’s Big House, the place that will be in your bones forever. “

Now shifting my geographical metaphor from New England to my one-time home of Tennessee let me offer the invitation: “Y’all come on home now, ya hear?”

“Y’all” really is a wonderful plural form of the word “you”. It certainly beats the plural form I grew up with in rural Western Pennsylvania: “you’ns”. And it is more inclusive than the Midwestern “you guys” or even worse, the East Coast double plural “you’s guys,” but wherever you are from and however you say it, Jesus’ invitation to all is: “Ya’ll come.”

In Luke chapter 14-15, Luke tells the story of a Sabbath sunset dinner party. During the pre-dinner cocktail hour, much to the dismay of the hostess and the other guests, Jesus heals a sick man. Now first you have to ask, “who invited a man sick with dropsy (probably edema in the legs, due to congestive heart failure) to the party, anyway?” It was embarrassing.

And second, it’s the Sabbath and everyone knows you can’t touch sick people on the Sabbath. That would mess up the whole party!

But Luke, the physician, records that Jesus took note of this man. Jesus healed him right there — at the party, even on the Sabbath.

Read More