Trying new things
I spent all day Friday and Saturday of last week down at the Hampton Convention Center for the Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church here in VA. Every year we United Methodists gather for a couple of days with about 1400 clergy and 1400 lay folks from United Methodist Churches all across VA in order to worship and to do some yearly business of our denomination. We elected folks to serve on committees. We voted on what mission work to support with our money. We approved new men and women to serve as ministers in the church. Truthfully, most of the meetings we had to attend were extremely boring, but the worship services with the music and preaching were really good and inspiring again this year.
Annual Conference
The annual conference is also the time when each pastor is assigned to serve a church for another year. In the pastor circles I hang around in I always hear lots of stories about churches and church people. The pastors are usually complaining about how frustrating and stuck in their old ways their church and church people are. Pastors commonly complain about their churches not wanting to do anything, not wanting to reach out to new people. I’m sure in the lay circles, they are talking about us pastors and how frustrated they are with their pastor and how he/she is so stuck in their own old ways.
I’m not saying I don’t ever get frustrated as the pastor of Wright’s Chapel. Sure I do. (Just ask my wife Amy what I’m like on a Sunday evening if worship attendance was low for the day) And I am also aware, all to well, that there are folks who get frustrated with me. (Probably for good reasons, even though I can’t think of any really good reasons. Please don’t ask my wife for any)
What I never complain about though is you all not wanting to do something. I never complain that you don’t care about reaching out to new folks. One of the things I have loved about this place and all of you for the past 26 years is our willingness to try something new, our willingness to take a risk and to reach out in new ways in order to share Christ. I love that there are people here who come up with ideas and that there are others who are willing to say, “let’s try it. It sounds like something God would want us to do.”
I think about our new Hotel Ministry where we are trying to build relationships and ministry with those in our community who are having to live in a local motel. You all have been so generous in your donations. I think about our new ministry starting this fall of Building Better Moms and providing a supportive place for moms at all stages of motherhood. This weekend I will head off to Haiti on a mission to continue to build relationships and a home for disabled women. Our Haiti mission is really a new mission, less than 5 years old, that you all have embraced and supported in such amazing and generous ways. I’m thankful that several years ago there were some folks who said we should try having Stephen Ministers and we did it. There are now people being cared for and relationship being built in ways we would have never had. Billie and Stephanie are headed out to Dallas this summer to get even more training as Stephen Ministers. I’m thankful that we had some folks who said, lets try holding a new worship service on Sunday evenings and that they then stepped up to support it. I’m thankful that we had some folks who said, lets raise some money and get our parking lot paved and spruce this place up a little bit. It is important that we care for our property and make it an attractive place in order to draw more people towards Jesus. I so appreciate all of your efforts to try a new thing for Christ.
I am glad and excited to being coming back to serve as pastor at Wright’s Chapel for year 27. I’m not saying that I won’t ever get frustrated. And I can’t guarantee you that some of you won’t get frustrated with me. (Although I can’t imagine over what) What I am looking forward to is all the new ways we will discover to reach out in our community to share the love of Christ. And I am thankful that we’ll do it together. Peace Charles
