Church Blog

Morning at the Beach

Submitted by jmorgan@guilfor... on July 19, 2010 - 4:30pm
The ocean is absolutely amazing. Yesterday I couldn’t help but notice how many people had left their footprints in the sand. Then a storm blew in last night leaving debris all over the beach. It wasn’t a pretty sight. But this morning as I watched the sun rise with the morning tide, there was no evidence of the prior day. The waves had come ashore and washed the beach clean. It was refreshed and ready for new people, new adventures, and new memories to be created.
   Nature reminds us of God’s power. No matter how many footprints have trampled on our souls leaving their mark - or how much debris has accumulated on our beach, God has the amazing capacity to wash us clean and give us a fresh beginning. The hymn says “morning by morning new mercies I see.” Every morning as our eyes open, the grace of God is already waiting for us with power to wash away the sins and mistakes of yesterday… and then open an extraordinary day where his compassion and mercy give us greater joy than we could ever imagine.
   I know the folks in the Gulf Coast would like a clean beach. Sometimes man’s mistakes or failures can be so severe the entire environment around us is affected. That’s where the church comes in. Our powerful God continues to wash into the lives of his children daily – desiring to cleanse and renew – but many times God also invites his children to join in the work of cleaning and redeeming lives. The radical call to the church is to join God in reclaiming the beauty of the beach and renewing the adventure God has placed in the heart of every individual. It’s not an easy call. Sometimes the storms of life have left a huge amount of debris on the beach!
   Our devotional readings over the last couple of weeks have reminded us how God hates complacency. This morning as I walked on a clean beach at sunrise, it was a holy moment to remember how God calls powerfully to the church every day to join him in healing the broken-hearted, giving sight to the blind, and power to the lame so they might walk.
It’s a new day. I hope you’re ready, because the oil spill is spreading. Thankfully, God has given you some extraordinary gifts to share and a passionate work to join in. May you answer his call and find the new mercy that waits!     
 

Staff Blog

The Big Risk

Submitted by bcarson@guilfor... on November 18, 2009 - 3:54pm

Reflections, Risk Taking, and Leaving a Legacy

 

            Recently I had the opportunity to hear Tony Campolo speak on several different occasions at my home church in Rutherfordton, N.C.  It was a great opportunity to hear one of the leading Christian speakers preach from the pulpit where so much of my early spiritual development occurred.  As I reflect on all of the things he said, one thing stands out above the others. 

 

As a professor of sociology at Eastern University, Campolo is quite familiar with surveys.  He quoted one of particular relevance in which 95 people over the age of 95 were interviewed.  They were asked one simple question: if you had to live your life over again, what would you do differently?  Without fail, the responses came back into three major categories.  They said that we would take more time to reflect, we would take more risks, and we would take more steps to ensure that our legacy lived on after we passed away.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Campolo went on to suggest that all three of these tasks can (and should) be lived out by being followers of Christ.  The one that hit me the hardest was about risk taking. 

 

By most accounts, Jesus was a risk taker.  In fact, his entire life was a risk.  He risked the comfort of communion with God in order to commune with humanity.  He risked his earthly family and home in order to spread the message of the Kingdom.  He risked his life by submitting to the will of God.  He risked the comfort of popularity by hanging out with those who were the least and the lost.  He challenged his disciples to risk losing their careers in order to follow him.  He challenged the rich, the righteous, and the religious to risk losing their lives if they wanted to inherit eternal life. 

 

To say that I am being convicted by this would be an understatement.  What am I risking in order that God’s Kingdom might reign?  This is not a call to live irresponsibly, but instead a call to challenge a safe and secure lifestyle.  Loving the unvloveable is a risky endeavor.  Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked requires some amount of risk-taking.  Sharing God’s love with a world that is far from God is challenging.  Are we pushing ourselves closer to a risky lifestyle or are we satisfied with being comfortable? 

Ben (bcarson@guilfordcollegeumc.org)

God Is With Us!

Submitted by bcarson@guilfor... on December 15, 2009 - 6:21pm

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:14)

 

            This Advent season I have spent a great deal of time meditating on the practical significance of the incarnation.  That is, what does it mean for us that the God of eternity chose to become one of us?  The more I think about it, the more fascinated I am with the mystery of it all, which is both encouraging and frustrating.  The logical part of my brain wants to be able to comprehend everything, while the rest of me appreciates the transcendent nature in which God chose to be revealed.  But the story of God acting in history was meant to be a mystery.  That’s what makes this such a special time of year.  During Advent we are called to ready our hearts for the long-expected Jesus so that the world will be ready for him to burst forth onto the scene. 

            I love the way that Bishop Goodpaster talks about the season, “The Incarnation signals the grand announcement that God will indeed take up residence in our world, renewing all of creation, transforming hearts and lives, and proclaiming grace and freedom. The coming of the Christ brings hope and healing to humanity, and restoration to a broken world. The season of Advent invites us to pay attention to what is happening around us and to be alert to the many ways God chooses to be revealed among us.”

            This season is filled with reasons to lose sight of the reason to ready our hearts.  There are presents to buy, cards to send, relatives to see, and parties to attend.  After all, this is one of the busiest times for most Americans.  It is my challenge to you during this season that you turn all of this busy-ness into a time of worship.  Try to see the sacrificial symbol of giving while you are wrapping your presents.  Attempt to realize Christ’s love for humanity when you are writing your cards.  Be sure to focus on the “humanness” of Jesus birth and life as you mingle with friends at parties.  In doing these things, we won’t lose sight of a God that loved the world so much that he sent his one and only son to bring light into the darkness. 

 

Reflections on Kenya

Submitted by bcarson@guilfor... on October 27, 2010 - 2:15pm
While I was Kenya, I found myself uttering phrases that I never dreamed would come out of my mouth. Like telling Bernard, our driver, "hey watch out for that giraffe." Perhaps even better, "how are we ever going to get that football out of the toilet?" But looking back on these events, I am starting to see that it is when confronted by new opportunities that the field becomes ripe for learning... and learn we did. Our theme for the trip was living the life of a servant, or as Jesus puts it, "just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). We saw the truths of this verse unfold time and time again, even learning that we are called to be a servant to people, not to a program. I think we all knew this in our heads before we left, but seeing it play out left a mark on us bigger than we ever could have imagined. One of our trip goals was to help the people in the village of Maelini construct a new church. None of us are contractors or carpenters, yet we showed up with our gloves and hammers ready to work. But the people of Maelini had other ideas. Were they in the process of constructing a church? Yes. Was the new church going to transform the entire community? Undoubtedly so. Did they need our help with the labor? Not in the slightest. Instead of fishing for fish, they were going to make us fishers of people. What they realized in advance, and what we came to understand during our time there, is that the people are indeed more important than the program. The church would get built and it would leave a tremendous mark on the entire area, but if we would spend time our time visiting with the people in the village, the mark would be of eternal significance. Kenyans have an idiom that says, "A visitor is a blessing." And it's not just a cliche, it's a lifestyle. When we took the time to visit with the remote households in Maelini, they realized that something big was happening in their community. If Muzungos (white people... literally "travelers/explorers") were going to take the time to come visit them in their homes, it meant that they were people of great worth in the Kingdom. We weren't just "explorers" passing by their village in a van, we were their brothers and sisters in Christ. We didn't have anything special to offer them other than God's love (and time!), yet they received us with open arms as if we were indeed a blessing. When we felt like we weren't getting any "work" done, God was showing us that the work of the Kingdom is accomplished through people, not through buildings! And to our surprise, the biggest mark of all was the mark that they made on us. We learned that hospitality begins with the acknowledgement that nothing we have belongs to us in the first place. What little food they had they were willing to share with us, not because of who we are, but because of who we are in Christ. They taught us that church is not something that happens on a Sunday morning. It is instead a community of believers living life together as the body of Christ for the purpose of building God's Kingdom. This means that the church is the hub of activity in the community. Everyone contributes, and everyone grows. And perhaps most importantly, we learned from them what it really means to trust God. It is hard for me to fully understand God as a provider, but for the people of Maelini, if it doesn't rain, they don't grow corn. And if they don't grow corn, well, God will provide another means of food. That is the kind of trust God is calling us to. I think we all learned more from our friends in Kenya than we ever could have imagined before we left. The mark they left on our hearts will impact the rest of our lives. The lessons we learned and the relationships we formed will help us build bridges that seemed impossible even a month ago. And the football? Well, let's just say that it left a different kind of mark all together.