Wednesday, September 2, 2020

One spiritual writer offers this: “To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We say, ‘I no longer hold your offense against you.’ But there is more. We also free ourselves of the burden of being ‘the offended one.’ As long as we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us, or worse, pull them as a heavy load. The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being offended and wounded by them. Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

Basil Pennington writes this: “It is contemplation that leads us most powerfully into compassion. It is true that, because of the solidarity of the human race and the more profound oneness of the baptized in Christ, whenever any one of us rises through contemplation to new levels of consciousness the whole human family is raised. Any bit of leaven will leaven the entire mass.”
Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

A mid-week message from Pastor:

Emily Landon recently said this: “You know the five stages of grief- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance? I think the American people are in all five of them- but different parts of the country are in different stages.” I think she is right, but I would take it a step further. Every community has individuals who are at a different stage in the process. Not all of us are in the same place whether it be on the topic of COVID-19 or something else. Let’s be sure to show patience and grace to those different from us.

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

A mid-week message from Pastor:

Henri Nouwen writes this: “When you pray, you profess that you are not God and that you wouldn’t want to be, that you haven’t reached your goal yet, and that you never will reach it in this life, that you must constantly stretch out your hands and wait again for the gift which gives new life. This attitude is difficult because it makes you vulnerable.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Pastor John was on vacation the weeks of July 15 and 22 so our Administrative Assistant sent out Wednesday messages. He is back now and ready to share!

A mid-week message from Pastor:

In his book Money, Sex and Power, Richard J. Foster writes this: “There is a power that destroys There is also a power that creates. The power that creates gives life and joy and peace. It is freedom and not bondage, life and not death, transformation and not coercion. The power that creates restores relationship and gives the gift of wholeness to all. The power that creates is spiritual power, the power that proceeds from God.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

A mid-week message:

Henri Nouwen wrote this:  “Sometimes we have to ‘step over’ our anger, our jealousy, or our feelings of rejection and move on. The temptation is to get stuck in our negative emotions, poking around in them as if we belong there. Then we become ‘the offended one,’ ‘the forgotten one,’ or ‘the discarded one.’ Yes, we can get attached to these negative identities and even take morbid pleasure in them. It might be good to have a look at these dark feelings and explore where they come from, but there comes a moment to step over them, leave them behind and travel on.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

A message from our Pastor:

Dear Friends,
This week the governor has changed the guidelines for Kansas and is now requiring masks for all public gatherings. The Session voted to follow these guidelines so we are now requiring masks at our worship services beginning this Sunday, July 5. You may either bring your own mask or one will be provided to you at the doors entering the sanctuary. The Session also voted to cancel the worship service and cookout at the park scheduled for July 12. Instead, we will have our regular worship service in the sanctuary on that day with no meal to follow. COVID-19 cases have increased in our county over the last few weeks. We want to do our part to keep everyone safe so that things don’t get any worse. Thanks for your participation in this new guideline.

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

A mid-week message:

Christopher Bryant writes this: “I believe that, as a general rule, the weight of my prayer when I turn to God to acknowledge my failure should rest neither on self-blame nor on petition for forgiveness but on my overarching need for divine help, for wisdom to see and strength to do what is right. An old but familiar prayer
perfectly expresses this need: ‘O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee, mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts.’”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

A weekly message from Our Pastor:

Thomas Merton once wrote this: “One of the most important features of the liturgical renewal is insistence on listening to the Word of God…and then participating in a corporate reply. For this listening to be effective, a certain interior silence is required. This in turn implies the ability to let go of one’s congested, habitual thoughts and preoccupations so that one can freely open the heart to the message of the sacred text.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

P.S. Wasn’t it great to be back in worship together this past Sunday?

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

 Message from the Pastor:

As we approach Pentecost Sunday, I would share these words on the work of the Spirit from Rufus M. Jones: “You cannot command or compel people into holiness; you cannot increase their spiritual stature one cubit by any kind of force or compulsion. You can do it only by sharing your life with them, by making them feel your goodness, by your love and sacrifice for them.”

Have a blessed week, 

Pastor John

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

A message from the Pastor:

Henri Nouwen offers these words: “Hope and faith will both come to an end when we die. But love will remain. Love is eternal. Love comes from God and returns to God. When we die, we will lose everything life gave us except love. The love with which we lived our lives is the life of God within us. It is the divine, indestructible core of our being. This love will not only remain but will also bear fruit from generation to generation.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

A message from the Pastor:

Dear Friends,

By now you have probably heard the new guidelines for Kansas from our governor. Based on these guidelines the Session has decided to continue with online worship service only through the month of May. We are hopeful that we will be able to gather again on the first Sunday in June, but this hasn’t been determined yet. The month of May will tell us a lot. Will the best-case scenario work out or the worst-case scenario or something in between? We won’t know for a while. We are all certainly hoping and praying for the best
outcome.

Thank you again for your contributions to the One Great Hour of Sharing for this year. We sent a check for $440 to Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Hamburg, Iowa, to help with their recovery efforts from flooding last year. Also, thanks for keeping up with your giving to the local church. Our treasurer tells me that overall the giving has been good.

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

A message from the Pastor:

Dear Friends,

One of my favorite quotes is: “Lord, give me patience…and give it to me right now!” It is hard to be patient these days. We’re used to instant gratification so we instinctively feel that since we’ve done our part by social distancing for six weeks, then the Covid-19 pandemic should be over. I wish it could be that simple and that the decisions of when to re-open society could be easier. I am reminded that God never promised us easy times, but did promise to be with us every step of the way. That’s something I can rely on even in my impatience!  

Have a blessed week,

Pastor John

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

A message from the Pastor:

Dear Friends,

We are starting to look ahead to the time when we will be able to gather in the sanctuary for worship. Some people have expressed an interest in continuing to provide a worship experience online. In order to do this we need to change how we do it.

We are asking two things from the congregation:

1. Do any of you have any experience with doing Facebook Live?

2. Would any of you be willing to be a part of a team that would be in charge of Facebook Live?

Let me know of your experience and interest and we’ll see if we can’t keep our online worship going.

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

A message from the Pastor:

Dear Friends,
How are you spending your time? Have you found something new and interesting to do or are you a little bored or a little of both? What new things are you learning in order to do your job in a different way? For those
comfortable sharing, I would invite you to “Reply All” as a way of staying in touch with one another. I’m trying to exercise more and have tackled War and Peace as a way to spend evenings without sports. I hope to finish it by the start of football season if there is a football season. So, what are you doing? Don’t be shy. Let us know.

Have a blessed week,

Pastor John

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

 A message from the Pastor:

Dear Friends:
In recent years some people have often lamented the lack of community. Fewer people know their neighbors. Fewer people join service clubs or organizations. There is often a feeling that more than ever we need to pull together. That is why this Covid-19 pandemic is so strange. We are being asked to come together
as a community by staying apart. From a public health perspective, I get it. Yet, by protecting our health we are giving up something vital- each other! I will continue to follow the guidelines set by our public health officials in the hope that this will be over relatively soon. Our first Sunday back together will not be Easter, but it will sure feel like it! Until then…keep the faith…pray…call…give…worship.

Have a blessed Holy Week and Easter,
Pastor John

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

  A message from the Pastor: 

Dear Friends:

             There are a lot of emotions that have come out during this Covid-19 pandemic—fear, anger, boredom, anxiety.  For a moment I want to focus on grief.  This interruption of normalcy has caused us to lose a lot.  As a congregation, we have lost the opportunity to gather for worship each week.  That is especially difficult as we approach Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter.

There are many losses we share with the general community.  We are unable to visit the sick and the dying in the way we are used to doing.  We are unable to have funerals right now.  We can no longer attend school, go to prom, have concerts and athletic events, and walk across the stage for graduation.  Some of us are no longer able to go to work because of severe effects on our economy.  All of these and more cause a great sense of loss, strong feelings of grief.

        Earlier today, I was lamenting that all of this was happening around Holy Week.  Perhaps, if something like this had to happen, Easter is the best time for it to happen.  Easter is the great annual reminder that grief does not have the last word.  God is the giver of new life and resurrection.  That gives me hope and helps soften the blow of what we have lost.

         We will get through this.  I am looking forward to seeing all of you again.  In the meantime, I hope you stay well, and if you have any needs we can help with, please give us a call.

            In Christ, 
Pastor John

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

A message from the Pastor: 

 Dear Friends,

               Perhaps we don’t learn how valuable something is until it is taken away from us. This past Sunday felt so strange to me. I am used to the rhythm of weekly worship. I start each week with one of our short-term study classes and then move into worship. I miss the faces, the greetings, the conversations…some
short, some longer…the music, the time in prayer. It is all a part of who I am. So, to have that taken away was difficult and even more difficult to think that it could be this way for an indefinite time. I know that many of you may be feeling the same way.

Rather than focusing on what’s missing, I want to make a few suggestions on how
to still be the church even when we are not meeting together:

1.     Pray. Pray for our health care workers and the government leaders making difficult decisions. Pray for those who have lost their jobs or whose businesses are threatened. Pray for those in hospital and nursing homes and their family members who are prevented from visiting. Pray for our educators and students.
This list could go on and on. Add to it as led by the Holy Spirit.

2.     Call. Call not only your circle of friends, but find someone outside that circle that might be neglected. Depression is a prominent health concern during such times. Let’s be sure to look out for one another.

3.     Give. Give of your time even if it is just over the phone. If possible, give to the One Great Hour of Sharing. As a reminder, we are giving money directly to the United Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hamburg, Iowa, which experienced a devastating flood last March. I understand the food basket ministry is running
short of food. You can take your donations to the Community Access Center on Pecan St. by Woods Lumber, but call before you go since they are closed to general public traffic (331-5115).

4.     Worship. Worship with us online if you can or watch a service on television (Boston Avenue Methodist Church in Tulsa at 11:00 on Sundays is one of the most easy to access from here).

I hope you have a blessed week and stay well,

Pastor John

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

A mid-week message: 

Corona Virus response…For the next couple of months we are going to take some precautions to do our part in trying to prevent the spread of the virus.  A bottle of hand sanitizer is in the Narthex.  Please use it when entering the Sanctuary for Worship!  Also, we will be doing “elbow bumps” instead of handshakes during the greeting time.  The most vulnerable people to this virus are the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions.  Guess what?  That includes a lot of us.  Let’s keep each other healthy by taking these few precautions.

Have a blessed week,

Pastor John