Honor Graduates

This Sunday we recognize and celebrate our High School graduating seniors, Jeni Peterson and Sydnie Hooper. I look forward to standing with them and our scholarship committee and awarding them a church scholarship for their studies beyond high school. Joined by their families, we will have a lunch after worship in their honor.
This Sunday is also the first Sunday with Jimmy Robertson who returns this summer as our youth director. Stephen Gehrings also joins us as our summer pastoral intern. Please be in prayer for both of these young men as they lead and learn about ministry here in Woodville. Stephen and I will be attending an orientation for that internship on Thursday and Friday of this week in Galveston.
Church life experiences seasons just as we do in other parts of life. Worship Attendance fluctuates through the year, giving fluctuates through the year and so forth. Summer is one of those seasons. Children are out of school, family vacations are planned, summer camps are attended, and long weekends are enjoyed. Routines and habits are more fluid during the summer. I mention all of this to say that I hope for your walk with Christ that you will do two things this summer: When you are in town, make a commitment to be in worship and make a commitment to fulfill your giving to the ministries of the church. Our summer ministries like Vacation Bible School, Bible studies and youth ministries will be as strong as ever and in some ways more active. I have found that summer time often allows for more time, not less, to devote to the Lord. When you see Bible studies and fellowship opportunities advertised and announced, take advantage of them; your life will be blessed because of it and you will be a blessing to somebody else.
Thank you for your faithfulness in every way to the ministry of the church. The doors of the church opened, lives transformed, calls to ministry are heard by people because of the gifts you give and the time you spend with God in your church family.

Church Conference Date Set!

It’s with excitement that I share that our church leaders have scheduled a May 31st Church Conference to have the final vote on our building plans. Our plan is for that church conference to take place after worship on that Sunday. Sunday May 31st, is Pentecost Sunday, the day when God gave the church the Holy Spirit. That Sunday we will also have our annual MusicFest which will feature music from our Joyful Ringers, Chancel choir and others.
Most will remember that last July, a called Church Conference voted overwhelmingly to approve a preliminary building plan for a multi-purpose building to serve ministry needs for adults, youth and children. It would be built on the current site of the Youth Building. That is Phase One. Phase Two and Three include moving the church offices to the current fellowship hall, creating new bathrooms where the current fellowship hall kitchen is located, expanding the narthex and adding parking outside. Full members of the church will be voting on just Phase One at the May 31st Church Conference. Led by our District Superintendent, Dr Jerry Pennington or a pastor representing him, we will vote once on the following items:
1- A Final building plan
2- A Final cost estimate (from the best bid recommended by the Building Committee)
3- Financing Option (from the best option recommended by the Church Finance Committee)
On May 19th, our Building Committee will bring before the District Committee on Buildings, our final plans, the results of our very fruitful “Embrace our Heritage, Build our Future” Capital Stewardship Campaign, and our Financing Option. With their approval the May 31st Church Conference will be on schedule. On Thursday evening, May 28 we will have an open information session to answer any questions. Representatives from the Building and Finance Committees will be present. You will also receive information in the mail prior to this about the final proposal.
Thank you for the vision for ministry that you have already supported so strongly. Thank you for your generosity during our Campaign and of course new pledges and gifts are welcome. Thank you for your prayers as we move forward. I truly believe that this project will propel Woodville UMC even more into the future that God has in store for us. It will prepare us for even stronger ministry by creating space for persons to participate in God’s family here. Please make every effort to be in attendance on May 31st and be a part of this dynamic phase in the church’s history.

The Blessings of New Life

Thank you all for your prayers for our new boy Samuel and for our family. We are blessed to have him and he is blessed to have you as a church family. We look forward to bringing him to worship in a few weeks. Thank you also for the cards, phone calls, emails, meals, kind words expressed. We have been so loved through it all by you.
Bethany and I have been particularly moved by the words that have been said or written to us on the occasion of Samuel’s birth. Many of these have come by way of email or card from friends and family. We’ve been touched by these words of grace and truth and I want to share some of them anonymously with you here.
“New life is God’s opinion that our world is good. Congratulations!”
“Welcome to the world Samuel!”
“This is the first congratulations from Cote d’Ivoire (Africa). Welcome Samuel Fuller to the world. God bless your family now and in the future. – Sent from a pastor friend traveling on a mission trip.
“What a joy and blessing! The world is a better place because Samuel is here.”
“Hail the day that Samuel Fuller Williams entered the world – the newest sign of God’s love and promise towards creation.”

I agree with all of these of course! These words of grace are true for Samuel and they are equally true for each new child, each new life born into God’s world. Every life is sacred and holy.
Bethany and I are going to print these off and put them in Samuel’s baby book. I think I’m going to start passing these words on to others when they have children. They touched me so much and I hope they do you.

Holy Week

I know that you have already noticed some changes in this weekly newsletter; we are having fun trying a new format in hopes of communicating the ministry of Woodville UMC in an increasingly attractive, vibrant and spirit-filled way. We will continue to work on it being done well and used as both a tool for ministry and a ministry itself. I hope you enjoy the color photographs here, we won’t have color every week because of cost but we will fairly often. We have also moved some things around and hope to prioritize our “front page” items as those articles that meet the most current needs and the back page items focusing on the long term and the reports we are now calling our “evidences of fruitfulness.” This includes our worship and Sunday school attendance, our giving and our budget figures.
Last Sunday was as moving a Palm Sunday experience as I have ever experienced in my ministry. Thank you to the choir, soloists, instrumentalists and all who offered their gifts to God. You’ll also see highlighted in this newsletter the wonderful confirmation students that committed their lives to Christ and the church on Sunday. I look forward with great anticipation as I know you do, for the worship services this week on Thursday and Friday and of course on Easter Sunday.
I want to share a little about a special portion of our Maundy Thursday service that is new. We will of course celebrate the last supper Jesus shared with his disciples and this year we will also emulate another act that occurred in those last days Jesus had with his disciples – a foot washing experience. After the last supper in the Gospel of John, chapter 13, Jesus turned and began washing the disciples’ feet. Peter protested and said, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus said, “you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Jesus’ response reminds us that all of us are called to be servants and share in the ministry of Jesus.
Our Emmaus group will lead us in a foot-washing service. All preparations are being made for there to be sterile cloths, hands and basins for that experience. It will be completely voluntary; you can observe and not participate. More will be said at the service about this but having participated in one before, I will tell you, it can be very powerful, after-all, Jesus did it and I am sure feet and hands were dirty then too. To allow your feet to be washed is a humbling experience and to wash someone else’s feet is also humbling. Again, your experience with Christ in this Holy Week/Lenten/Easter will be increased by the more you intentionally stay close to Christ.

Palm Sunday and staff news

This Sunday, April 5th is an exciting day in the life of our church. Palm Sunday will be a glorious day filled with music and celebration. This year our children will lead us in a full processional from the back of the sanctuary to the front waving palm branches along with the congregation. We will hear our children’s choir sing and enjoy listening to the story of Jesus’ last entry into Jerusalem before the events of Holy Week.
This Sunday is also Confirmation Sunday. We have three youth who will be confirmed Sunday. Riley Shaw, Sana Moran and Madison Griffin will make professions of faith and become full members of Woodville United Methodist Church. I hope you will make a special point to be in worship this Sunday
We have exciting news also to report on our staff ministry team. Our Staff Parish Relations Committee has met and consulted with others and has begun to shape our staff in dynamic ways. We have decided at this time to focus on our summer ministry especially with youth. Jimmy Robertson will return to Woodville for a third summer but this time as our summer youth director. We are thrilled to welcome Jimmy back this time to lead our youth ministry for the summer months. Jimmy’s ministry has produced fruit in his relationships with youth and his leadership of Bible studies and participation at camps and retreats. In addition to her responsibilities as Children’s Ministries Director, Yolanda Griffin has agreed to take on additional responsibilities in youth ministry from April-August. Yolanda is going to work with volunteers and get us prepared for all the summer camps. I and the SPRC decided to focus on the important summer youth ministry and wait on hiring a year-round youth director until after the summer.
The third staff announcement is the exciting addition of a summer pastoral intern. Through the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, Stephen Gehring is being sent to us for a 2 month period from mid-May through the end of July. His stipend salary is fully funded by the Texas Conference. Stephen is currently a sophomore at Southwestern University. He grew in College Station at Christ UMC and has been involved as a youth in many camp experiences. Stephen is discerning a call to pastoral ministry and participated in this program last summer at a different church. I’ll share with you more about his internship in the weeks to come but we are privileged to have this dynamic ministry team in place for the summer. Join me in thanking God for these blessings.

The Week of Prayer

In this Lenten season, we are engaged in acts of love that have the power to reconcile us with God and neighbor. This week is the week of prayer. Frederick Buechner, one of my favorite writers, in Listening to Your Life, asks a series of questions designed to help us think about where we have been and where we are going. I am thinking these questions over, and I pass them on to you, hoping that one or more will spur your thinking.
When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?
If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be, in twenty-five words or less?
Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?
Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?
If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?
Frederick Buechner goes on to say: To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are failing to become. It can be a pretty depressing business, all in all, but if sack cloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end." That is the hope that can be found if we walk this journey with Christ. My prayers are with you as you pray intentionally this week.

Poll of United Methodists

Thank you so much for your generosity at our Samuel’s baby shower last Saturday. As always we are overwhelmed by your love.
I want to share with you some interesting numbers from a recent poll conducted by the U.S. Religious landscape survey. The following is a sampling of responses from United Methodists. See where you fit in these questions.
• 42 percent say they attend church at least once a week; 14 percent say they seldom or never attend church.
• 59 percent say they pray at least once a day; 15 percent say their prayers are answered at least once a week; 28 percent say their prayers are seldom or never answered
• one-fourth believe the Bible should be taken “literally, word for word;” 21 percent say it’s written by men, not God; 44 percent say it’s the Word of God but probably shouldn’t be taken literally
• 82 percent believe there is more than one way to interpret their religious teachings
• 42 percent believe the U.S. should be active in world affairs; half said we should focus more on problems here at home
• 29 percent say stricter environmental laws would hurt the economy; 63 percent say it would be worth the cost
• 47 percent lean toward or are Republican; 42 percent lean toward or are Democratic
I find all of this interesting but not real surprising. United Methodists are a diverse people and I find that diversity in the right places is a strength. Overall as a denomination, we want to be a people who are every color and economic background. We want to be a people who challenge each other in community about interpreting the scriptures. The question becomes, what unites us? The answer is Jesus Christ. As United Methodists we unite around central doctrine related to the beliefs spelled out in the Nicene and Apostles Creed. We are a people that practice Open Table Communion. We are a people who offer the radical grace of Christ to everyone and believe that the doors of the church are open to all. We are a people that believe in service and public witness and involvement in the community and the nation.
This last piece is clear from this survey. Methodists are people who are concerned with society. In other words we are not a people who don’t care about the community or the world in which we live. Our founder, John Wesley, was fond of saying “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.” The essentials and non essentials can be found above.
In the spirit of public witness, I’ve been invited to say the opening prayer for the start of Monday’s State Senate Session in Austin, Texas. Ironically I’ve been invited by Senator Tommy Williams of Conroe. Pray for me as I offer prayer for the leaders of our state.