Vol 2 No 19 - A New Week, A New Life

Sunday morning, Palm Sunday, was a celebration that I still get the chills thinking about today. What a wonderful time of worship with over 138 in attendance at the special service. It is always a humble and holy blessing to celebrate the Lord's supper with you all. Speaking of eating, the fellowship we had over lunch immediately afterwards was simply outstanding. To see the people of the church dining together, visiting, laughing, and carrying-on - what a joy! The children had a wonderful time with the Easter Egg hunt and all the prizes that went along - and we even had a visit from the Easter Bunny. Thank you to Gina, Dana, & Thelma for helping organize the day's events.

As wonderful as last weekend was, we are entering into the crux of the Christian year. Tomorrow, Maundy Thursday, we will encounter our Lord at the communion table as we re-visit his last supper with the disciples. We will hear again the story of what occurred on that fateful night when they came together to celebrate the Passover feast. Dining together at our Lord's table, we will once again be brought into the presence of the universal church as we celebrate the breaking of the bread and the passing of the cup.

Then on Friday we will come face-to-face with our Lord's last hours as our choir leads us in a service of tenebrae (literally, shadows). Through this special worship time we will be coming in to the realization of Christ's passion, suffering, and death. This service is unique in that, like all Good Friday services, everyone leaves in silence, beginning a time of stillness in the life of the church.

Easter Sunday will be a glorious celebration of the resurrection of our Lord! It will be especially celebratory at our 8:30 service, where we will be commissioning the youth and adults going to Heifer International on a mission right after worship. What finer way to observe the resurrection than to send a group of dedicated people to spread the word?

I look forward to seeing you Thursday, Friday, and Sunday - don't miss the importance of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday; Easter Sunday makes little sense without them!

See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 2 No 18 - Coming to Order

This Sunday, we get to experience several excellent things in the life of our congregation. First, we will be worshiping as one this week at 10:00AM (ONE SERVICE ONLY), and that is always an exciting time. Our sanctuary holds between 130-150 comfortably; my hope is that we will be pushing the limits of our seating comfort. Secondly, after worship, we will be dining together in fellowship hall (with an Easter Egg Hunt to follow), and it is a blessing when we not only can worship together, but also dine together. Finally, and most importantly, we will be marking the beginning of our Holy Week observance with Palm Sunday worship.

In his excellent work on the Christian year, Ancient-Future Time, Dr. Robert Webber notes the following about Palm Sunday:

We should not look on Palm Sunday simply as a day to recall the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is that, but it is more. It is our own entry into the most solemn yet the most glorious experience of spirituality. For Jesus, Palm Sunday was his gateway to the culminating events of his earthly life. As we enter that gate with him, our spiritual lives are being ordered into the most sacred moments of the history of the world and of our own experience with the meaning of human existence.

This, my friends, is my prayer for each of you as we enter into Holy Week 2007 on Palm Sunday. May your lives be ordered into the most sacred moments of the history of the world and of your own experience with the meaning of human existence.

See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 2 No 17 - The Overlooked Commandment

As we read the Scriptures, from the times of the prophets to the letters of the New Testament, we encounter many occasions where the people of God went away to be refreshed and renewed for the work of the Kingdom. In a society where work-a-holism is celebrated by many as one of the primary indicators of a successful person, we very easily make excuses for not stepping away from life to be refreshed and renewed in the Spirit through prayer, study, worship, and Christian conferencing. This week has been a true blessing for us at Epworth-by-the-Sea on St. Simon's Island, GA attending a retreat sponsored by the World Methodist Evangelism arm of the World Methodist Council. Through the first two days we have had here, we have been in renewal groups, workshops, and worship led by world-class teachers and preachers. It is truly amazing to see how God is using the people called Methodist all over the world to spread the Good News. At lunch today (Tuesday), we broke bread with friends from Canada and Ireland, and we were blessed by hearing what God is doing in the midst of those lands. This evening (Tuesday), we heard testimony from a medical evangelist in Brazil. I also have had the great joy of running into friends that I have not seen in years that I had no idea would be here. God is truly amazing - and it is an honor to be here.

We have only been here a couple of days so I cannot make a definitive report on the week, but I can tell you that I am convinced more than ever that we must be intentional about setting aside time for prayer, study, and the edification of the body. When was the last time you set aside time for God to speak to you?

See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 2 No 16 - Planning Ahead

Time marches on in life, more so everyday. If you don't take time to plan ahead, you'll wind up paying a price for it at some point. Sometimes, when you think you are on top of things, something else hits you out of the blue. Late last week, I thought I was on top of things. I have gotten in the habit of backing up my computer once a month (more when I can remember) and was just thinking I needed to back up some things when my hard drive crashed Saturday afternoon. I do not mean it got corrupted and I had to re-install everything - I mean it physically locked up. Fortunately, I have lost only 2 weeks of data. However, the one thing I forgot to back up at all was my calendar program, which is probably the one thing I rely on most (outside of Firefox.) The reason the calendar is on my mind so much is that I announced to the church council on Monday night about worship for this summer, and I am going to need all of you to help me plan this summer's worship schedule, for we will be doing a series on "Favorite Scriptures of Pharr Chapel".

In your bulletin for the next three weeks will be a survey where you will be asked to list your top 10 favorite scriptures. As the entries come in, I will tally them up and the ten getting the most points will be the text for our worship this summer. We will start this series on June 10 and conclude August 26. Many of you know that I ask you to participate weekly in the sermon process by praying for me as I prepare - now I am asking you to go one step further and give input on this summer's worship.

I look forward to this being a great time of fellowship and fun, as well as an opportunity for us to explore those sacred scriptures that mean so much to the people of our congregation.


See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 2 No 15 - Shortcut or Prime Cut?

Ever been tempted to take a shortcut in life? Ever been tempted to take the easy way out? "C'mon, preacher, you know we all have. Why are you asking such a STUPID question?" I must say that after a very busy morning and a short night last night due to an early-morning speaking engagement, the thought crossed my mind to use the ol' cut-and-paste option every computer has and give you Rev. Erin Oliver as your guest columnist this week (since she's already sent out her mid-week e-mail). When I hopped on IM to ask her about this possibility, it came to me how utterly ridiculous that idea was. If I cannot sit down and come up with something relevant and meaningful to write, then just say so and be done.

Well, this is where we find ourselves during Lent. We are faced with a world that gives us every possible convenience there is to take shortcuts. Often, it seems there is a quick-fix for pretty much anything. I've even heard of parents who use surrogate mothers to carry their baby so that the genetic mother won't have to deal with the physical and hormonal 'inconvenience' of pregnancy. That's pretty sick, but it is the level at which we find ourselves.

Here's the good news - Lent is preparing us for that Good Friday where Christ refused to take the shortcut. He refused to take the easy way out. He did what had to be done - not for anything other than restoring a fallen world to a loving God.

Next time you think about taking the easy way out, take a moment to pause and reflect upon a man who did not take the easy way out, and as a result you live a life of hope and joy instead of death and despair.


See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 2 No 14 - The Perfect Church?

It was a pure joy to spend Monday-Wednesday of this week at our Conference Center in Woodworth with all clergy under appointment in Louisiana. I was reminded once again of the importance of our connectional system in the United Methodist church, catching up with friends and colleagues from across the state, and hearing about the many wonderful things God is doing in so many congregations. Too often, I don't know that we are aware of just how much ministry the people called Methodist are doing in this great state of ours; instead we get so caught up in what is going on in our local setting.

I was also reminded that every church has its difficulties, its church politics, and other struggles - and that we have an obligation to lift one another up in prayer, not just individuals we know, not just the congregation of which we are a part, but other congregations, pastors, and laity, as well as our bishop and other conference leaders.

There is no such thing as the perfect church, perfect denomination, or perfect congregation. However, we can do our part to make sure that they can always say of us that we are a prayerful people. May it be so.

See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 2 No 13 - Lenten Objective

Thank God Lent has finally arrived! I cannot wait for our Ash Wednesday service this evening, for Ash Wednesday, as our Book of Worship reminds us, "...[E]mphasizes a dual encounter: we confront our own mortality and confess our sin before God within the community of faith. In a world where is is ALL about us (and if you don't believe me, then simply observe the way people behave over simple beads and trinkets being thrown from a Mardi Gras float), Lent puts squarely in our face that indeed, this is NOT AT ALL about us, but is about God.

Be sure to join us tonight @ 6:00 PM for Ash Wednesday! Our complete Lenten Calendar will be posted on our website later this afternoon.

See you Sunday!
Lamar