February 2012

The WalMart Prophet

Last week I had so many different items on my "Things to Buy" list that I decided that WalMart was my best one-stop option. Dressed in my usual day-off garb of an oversized sweatshirt with a big CIA emblem, front and center; blue knit pants with several small white dots near the hem due to a bleach related mishap; wool socks; and well-worn athletic shoes….there was absolutely nothing about my appearance that might lead anyone to even suspect that I was a pastor. But, when I pushed my half full cart toward a waiting cashier, she pegged down my true identity in a few seconds. Christian. This WalMart Prophet spoke truth. Here is our conversation:

The cashier stood waiting for the next customer and as I approached, she motioned for me to roll into her assigned lane. I smiled, thanked her and started to place the refrigerated items on the conveyor belt. Her cell phone jingled. "Excuse me," she said as she pushed several buttons on her phone and then put it aside.

She apologized for the interruption and began the scanning process. When she came to a small roll of goat cheese, she said she never tasted goat cheese before and asked what it tasted like. I trust that my description of the flavor did it justice. I added that I was introduced to this delightful delicacy by a woman at church. (You know who you are!)

The Prophet spoke. "I knew you were a Christian. You are different. You are nice." She asked if I wanted the milk in a bag. Then she continued, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but the cashiers who work on Sundays often talk about the people who come to the store after church. You can tell by the way they are dressed – in their church clothes and all. But what is so strange is that these people are anything but nice! They yell at their children. They are rude to each other. They are rude to us. I just don't get it. Isn't the whole point about being a Christian that you are a Christian all the time? Not just in church?"

“Ah!” I said. "We call them SMO Christians. Sunday Morning Only Christians."

The Prophet continued: "I think most of them stop being a Christian even before they pull out of the church parking lot! You can share this with your pastor if you want. He might find a good sermon in this! If you are a Christian you need to be a Christian all the time! What church do you go to? Are there Sunday Morning Only Christians at your church?"

"Middleburg United Methodist Church….and I suppose every church has some Sunday Morning Only Christians. But you are right. Being a Christian is a full time job – no exceptions!"

"Like I said, you can tell your pastor about this. Just don't say you heard it at this WalMart."

"Well, I am the pastor….." I smiled. As she picked up the item that fell out of her hand I continued, "…and believe me, I preach that sermon all the time. Following Jesus is a full time job. During Lent I like to challenge the church to make sure that every time they go to a store or anywhere there is a person wearing a name tag, to greet the person by name, to look at them – really look at them – and do or say something that will make them smile and be thankful that you came their way."

The WalMart Prophet concluded, "Well, Christians should just be nice all the time to everybody."

Friends, Lent is a few weeks away. Take seriously the challenge from the conversation above: Every time you see someone with a name tag, greet him or her by name. Show interest in that person. Be compassionate. Smile. Be nice. See Christ in them. And let them see Christ in you.

~ Pastor Leah

Lent begins with an Ash Wednesday observance, February 22. Gather in the sanctuary with others who came from dust and will return to dust at 7 p.m. as we ponder who we are and whose we are.

~~~~~~~~~

Evangelism 101

When my children were in elementary school, I became frustrated with the "school-ese" that the teachers and staff spoke. IEP, SOL, VAP, PTO (I understood PTA, but what in the world was a PTO?). Yikes! What does it all mean?! When I became more focused on the church I realized that there are many "church-ese" words and phrases that are thrown around as if everyone knows what they mean. I confess that it took a while to master basic church geography. Sanctuary, I understood. But nave, narthex, chancel? And what's a deacon anyway? And why is a UMC deacon so very different than a Baptist deacon? What's the difference between a commissioned elder and an ordained elder? And do they really expect an 86 year old to call a 28 year old an elder? Yikes, indeed!

A headline recently reported that a presidential hopeful was making a pitch for the "evangelical vote." What do you think of when you hear the word, "evangelical?" Conservative? Right-wing? Fundamental? Literal Biblical interpretation? Sadly, the media and politics have altered the true meaning of the word "evangelical." And I have to wonder if we have lost the true meaning of the word, "evangelism" as well.

Evangelism comes from the Greek, "euangelion" – which means Good News, or Gospel. An evangelist is someone who has a passion to share the Good News, a messenger of the Gospel. The Good News, or Gospel message, is that Jesus Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, proving God's love for us – and "us" is the world!

To be engaged in evangelism, one must first know the Good News and then be committed to share it in word and action. To be engaged in evangelism is to share and live the Word of God – talking about Jesus and doing what Jesus did – things like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, comforting the sick, the imprisoned, the poor, the lonely.

Going back to the word "evangelical," can an evangelical be liberal, left-wing, radical, and focus on the larger message of the Bible as opposed to focusing on specific verses? I think so – as long as the Good news is proclaimed in word and deed!

~ Pastor Leah

From Our Evangelism Chair

By Reggie Dawson

A spiritually healthy church will be focused on spending its energies and resources working disciples for Jesus Christ. A spiritually unhealthy church will be focused on self.

We need vision of where we are going, how we get there, where we get new followers to join with us and a passion to make it happen.

Vision is goals, plans and purpose
Passion deals with feelings and the heart—passions push vision into reality.
Passion grows when attendance is strong and growing ---when new people are attending church on a regular basis, when new studies are being initiated.
Passion deepens when finances are strong.

We have to grow our congregation by inviting new people in. We need new families and friends.

Do we have anything to offer? YES we do! Number one—Jesus is spoken here. We have a very good musical portion of worship. We have a very strong, dedicated pastor, one who is energized and ready to lead us. The question is, are we ready to follow?

All this comes back to a relationship with God and our willingness to give over ourselves to his goals and principles. He sacrificed his Son for us. Are we willing to sacrifice for a God who loves us so much?

Are we willing to roll up our sleeves and get to work? It takes sacrifice on our part---time—energy—prayers---talents---money

Maybe the first step of evangelism is to look in the mirror and see who is looking back at us.

Based on Evangelism in the Small Membership Church by Royal Speidel

Prayer List:

Forrest Allen
Paula Bangle
Hardy Burton
David Carter
Virginia Cutchin
Sam Deane
Savannah Dutton
Joseph Eddleman
Jason Gage
Peaches Gordon
Jane Hannah
Coleman Hanover
Katie Herndon
Jane James
Jack Lanham
Judith LeGros
Joseph Nesmith
Thomas Parker
Dolly Prince
Derrick Pulman
Nina Ramsey
Nancy Soave
Michael Tate
Margaret Taylor
Sonny Underwood
Ed Vesperille
Eliza Zehmer

Our church & church universal

Please notify the church office if a name needs to be added or removed from the prayer list.

February Birthdays
Blessings on Your Birthday!

Leah DeLong

Wally Bonnewitz

Courtney Michaels

Harold Phelps

Evangelism Via Social Networking

Last month Jan, our Administrative Assistant, attended a district training workshop about "Social Media." She learned that the best way to get out the Good News is by word of mouth – talking about and sharing your faith and your church life with others. But there are other ways to reach people and keep in touch.

There's Facebook. Do you know that we have a Facebook page? Check it out! Pastor Leah has been linking daily devotionals through our Facebook page.

There's Text Messaging. Pastor Leah's children recently told her that they would be using email less often and will be relying on Text Messaging as their primary way of communicating. Guess what Pastor Leah did? She changed her cell phone plan and is working on perfecting the fine art of Text Messaging! (540-219-4727)

Our pastor also has a Blog. We hope to have this linked to our church web page very soon. And.. she "tweets!" As of February 1, 2012, she has one follower, a clergy colleague who has encouraged her to move into the 21^st century for some time! (search:GoodNewsLeah)

Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". This would be a good way to let parishioners know if the church would be closed due to inclement weather. It would be necessary to set up account with twitter at no cost. (Go to twitter.com )

Be sure to check out middleburgvaumc.com to view

the church web page.

We are making an effort here at Middleburg UMC to take advantage of opportunities for evangelism and communication through social media. Join the effort!

Seven Loaves Thank You and Update

Seven Loaves Food Bank wishes to thank all the churches, schools, and organizations who participated in our annual 2011 Christmas shop. This year’s shop was a great success- thanks to your generous gifts we were able to provide Christmas gifts for 167 families with a total of 433 children.

We are deeply grateful to all who worked together in this wonderful community outreach program. Needy families in our community were able to have happier Christmases because of you. Many thanks.

George Lengauer

President Seven Loaves Services

Shrove Tuesday: Pancake Day

Gather in the Social Hall for a simple pancake dinner and plenty of good company! Pancake Day is February 21 starting at 5:30 p.m. Fresh off the griddle pancakes will be served till 7 p.m. Come early! Come late! Stay a few minutes or stay the whole time! Bring your neighbors and friends!

Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving, when the faithful confessed their sins to the local priest and received forgiveness before the Lenten season began.

As far back as 1000 AD, “to shrive” meant to hear confessions. (Trivia note: the term survives today in the expression "short shrift" or giving little attention to anyone's explanations or excuses).

Historically, Shrove Tuesday also marked the beginning of the 40-day Lenten fasting period when the faithful were forbidden by the church to consume meat, butter, eggs or milk. However, if a family had a store of these foods they all would go bad by the time the fast ended on Easter Sunday. What to do?

Solution: use up the milk, butter and eggs no later than Shrove Tuesday. And so, with the addition of a little flour, the solution quickly presented itself in... pancakes. And lots of 'em.

Today, the Shrove Tuesday pancake tradition lives on throughout Western Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia, but is most associated with the UK where it is simply known as Pancake Day.

In France (as well as here in the US - or more famously - in New Orleans) it's known as Fat Tuesday which kicks off the Mardi Gras festival with wild celebrations just before the austere Lenten season.

Recipes!

We need your recipes! Jan Beakley is collecting all of your recipes for the scrumptious dishes you bring to our fellowship meals. She will compile all of them into a booklet so that everyone can make these recipes at home. Please get those recipes to Jan ASAP!

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the start of the Lenten journey of 40 weekdays (Monday through Saturday) that takes the church to the eve of Easter. Sundays are not included in the count of 40 days, as Sundays in the Christian Year are always "little Easter" celebrations.

The Ash Wednesday Service is about penitence. It is about confronting our sinfulness and our mortality, confessing the former (through confession and pardon) and embracing the latter (through the imposition of ashes). It concludes with Holy Communion. Plan to begin your Lenten disciplines by attending this service: February 22, 7 p.m. in the sanctuary.

Conference News: Apportionments

As the financial books for 2011 are closed, Virginia Conference apportionment receipts exceeded estimates and reversed an eight year trend of downturns. Funds received by the conference Treasurer’s Office totaled 86.83 percent of the budget, up 2.43 percent from last year, according to the treasurer, David Dommisse. That represents the second largest increase in the past 30 years, he said.

“It was well beyond what I was hoping for,” Dommisse said.

The increase was primarily lead by late receipts. “More that $3 million came in after December 31,” Dommisse said. He said there were several factors in the positive financial news from the conference office.

“The Cabinet started paying more attention (to churches paying their apportionments),” he said. “Plus the economy has stabilized, or at least we’ve had a period where it’s not gotten worse, there were no major disasters in third world countries ... and we had good weather late in the year. But pastoral leadership, at both the local church and DS level, is most important.”

Director of Connectional Ministries the Rev. Marc Brown said that United Methodists in Virginia have also responded positively to conference efforts to reduce spending. Keeping the conference budget relatively flat has allowed churches to catch up,” Brown said. “People are sensing that we on a conference level have made adjustments that reflect the economic reality we are living in.”

The conference office laid off several employees in 2010, and has cut back on most all of its programs. Brown also credited Bishop Charlene Kammerer’s emphasis on stewardship during 2011. She mandated that each district superintendent meet with the conference Treasurer