Home

Calendar

Core Values

Location

Favorite Links

Take a DEEEEP breath.
No. That wasn’t deep enough. Try again.
Breathe in slowly while counting to 5. 1…2…3…4…5.
Hold it.
And release.
Ah! Doesn’t that feel good!!!
Maybe you’ll want to do that exercise one more time before I tell you that it’s November.
November, the season for:
All Saints Sunday… Election Day…Veteran’s Day…
Christ the King Sunday…Thanksgiving… The First Sunday of Advent

Ohhhh! And did I mention…DEDICATION SUNDAY!!! You know, the day when our Stewardship Campaign culminates in a celebration as we dedicate our financial gifts to God.
In Matthew 22:21 Jesus says to the pesky Pharisees, "Give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God." Oh, we know about paying taxes to the emperor. We HAVE to do so whether we like it or not!!! But why give to God? Well, for one thing, God can do so much with our gifts.
We see a line in the budget for missions, but we never meet the homeless men and women who are fed at Manna House or the home that was made livable by a VIM team in Kentucky.
We see a line item for a mortgage, but we cannot look down the generations and count how many will find healing here, or belonging, or salvation.
We pack a bag of food or send some money to a local Food Pantry and we don’t realize that our help was just enough to get some family over the hump and keep them off the streets.
There’s a line item for our music ministry but we don’t hear the story about a woman who was giving up hope until she heard the choir sing and, for the first time in months, her heart was filled with inexpressible joy.
We understand the line item for “education.” After all, our children attend Sunday school. But we can’t see that child standing before the Bishop giving her life into God’s service as an Ordained Minister in the United Methodist Church.
Rarely is it granted to us to see the fruit of our giving, but what I have seen convinces me that God can—and does—make so much of our gifts.
A second reason we give to God is that the more we give, the more we receive. I’m not talking about dollars and cents, of course. Peace of mind and hope of heart, strength for the journey and brothers and sisters to share the road, a community to help raise my children, a place to sing and weep and work for things that matter. I don’t know how to put a price on those things. A tithe seems cheap for all of that. In the economy of God, the more we give ourselves to God, the more room we make within ourselves to receive from God.
Jesus said, give God what belongs to God! ! In our baptism we gave ourselves to God. When we joined the church we confirmed that we were sealed with the mark of Christ’s ownership. You belong to God! I belong to God. Have we given God what belongs to God? Have we given our time, our talents, our gifts our service, ourselves to God?
If we have, then the numbers will add up, the percentages will work out. If you start in the right place, you’ll end up in the right place. The right place to start is not with your calculator, not with your check-book, not with your budget. Start with God, and go from there.
Breathe in slowly while counting to 5. 1…2…3…4…5.
Hold it. That’s God’s breath filling your lungs.
And release.
In God’s Service,
Pastor Karen