"Midweek and Grace is Looking for Us" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 07/31/2019

Why Methodist?  Part 2

Last week I wrote about grace, this overwhelming love of God that is at the core of the Methodist way of being the church.  One young friend told me that God loves us and there is nothing we can do about it.  That is grace. The love we don’t deserve or earn.  God loves us and we, in turn, extend that love to others.

Of course, on any given day, I may not feel very loved.  (Or loving for that matter.)

So if grace is such a big deal, how do we get a hold of it?

I am glad you asked.

We are Methodists.  So we have “methods.”   Really, we have methods for opening ourselves to grace.  Sometimes they are called “means of grace.”  They are things we can do that make us receptive to grace.

For example:
Praying daily.  Do you have a habit of prayer?  When I wake up in the morning, I like to linger in bed and think about the day ahead.  That’s become my prayer time.  In some ways, I welcome God before I welcome anything else.  Is there a time of day that works for you to talk and listen to God?

Worship.  Worship is an opening to grace, a time to gather together, set down whatever we have been carrying, give our souls an opportunity to reset in the possibilities of God, and then launch into the world and the week refueled.

Baptism and Holy Communion.  These are sacraments, holy moments when we do what Jesus did during his life.  Water on our skin, washed in grace.  Bread and juice in our mouth, nourished by grace.

Serving.  Nothing turns our lives inside out like serving others.  Our youth have just returned from a mission trip and for a week they set aside what they might have wanted to do to make life better for others.  Each Friday teams of WDMUMC folks are going to local schools and the parks to hand out food.  They are serving and through their service, grace is finding its way to them.  You can hear it in their voices as they share their stories. 
 
Reading scripture.  First let me just say, I think reading scripture alone by myself is hard.  I have been studying scripture for more than 20 years and I still think that.  Scripture is really God’s story among people like us and it is a treasure—but for me, it is still hard.  I like to read scripture with other people.  I like to talk about what we are reading, hear different perspectives.  If you want to read the bible and you don’t know where to start, I suggest the book of Mark.  It is the story of Jesus’ ministry.  And then Philippians.  Read it like it is a love letter to you and your family.  And if you are like me and you don’t want to read the bible by yourself, you are invited to #JustRead in my office on Tuesdays at 4:30.  (No preparation necessary.)  And if that time doesn’t work for you, let me know and we can start a group at a time that does work for you.  Honestly, there is so much good stuff to wrestle within the bible.  Which leads to the next way we can welcome grace….

Holy Conversation.  Meeting with others and talking about our lives and our challenges and God.  Here at WDMUMC, we have created lots of covenant groups and that’s what they do.  Our Stephen minsters do this too.   Our Sunday school classes are places where good conversation happens and where friendships are formed.  Pastor Trevor is our new associate pastor and a big part of his job is talking with his peers, people his age who so often have not found a place in the church.  Sharing, listening, responding.  Loneliness is rampant in our world.  A good conversation can be filled with grace.

Holy Stopping.  Sometimes people call this fasting.  I like “holy stopping.”  It means to step away from something that might be absorbing all our time.  A friend of mine gave up reading books for a while—not that books are bad.  She just came to realize that reading was absorbing all her time.  Another friend realized that Facebook was consuming hours and hours of her life.  She gave up all social media one day a week.  I holy stop on Friday.  (That’s why you never get an email reply from me on Friday.  I am holy stopping.)  Holy Stopping makes time for God.

These are our “Methodist methods”—I think there are probably dozens more.  Sitting quietly.  Taking a walk.  Preparing food with love.  What do they all have in common?  They open up time in and space in our lives for God.  Grace finds a path to us when we give grace an opening.  And once we experience grace, our lives begin to fall in place.  Remember the peace that passes understanding?  That’s the gift of grace.  Pastor Russ used to say that he could do anything if he knew he was loved.  Grace assures us that we are.

Honestly, we spend most of our lives acquiring something.  Money?  Lots of material things?  Some sense of stability or privilege.

What if we spent our lives in the pursuit of grace?  I think grace is the only economy that can really sustain us.

Pardon me for going on so long.  I like being Methodist because I love grace.  Maybe because grace tells me that God loves me.  I need that.

Blessings,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

WDMUMC: pass this on to people who might need it today!

Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org to find out what is happening around the church!
We worship on Sunday mornings at 8:30 in a traditional way and at 11 in a casual way.  You are invited!

This week at WDMUMC:
Parking Lot Progress Means Parking Lot Mess!  As I write these trucks and bobcats and a big piece of equipment that rumbles a lot are tearing up our parking lot.  If you come to the church today, please park at Hillside Elementary and enter the church through the narthex doors by the sanctuary.  And wave to the paving crew. They are working hard.  Does anyone want to bring them cookies today?

State Fair Food Stand!  There’s still time to sign up for our state fair food stand!  Go to wdmumc.org to sign up.

Root beer bartender needed!  On the first Sunday of each month at 3:30 our pastors lead a worship service at Edgewater Retirement Community.  We also serve root beer floats.  This Sunday our regular root beer team are on vacation.  Would you be willing to serve root beer floats?  Reply to this email!

God has given you grace.  Pass it on.  The world is hungry for grace. 

"Midweek and Why Are We Methodists?" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 07/24/2019

Hello friends!
On Sunday a guest at worship told me they had been looking around for a new church.  They had tried several churches representing several different denominations, and they kept coming back to the Methodist church.  What was it about being Methodist that kept drawing them?

Is there something distinctive about being Methodist?  I have been Methodist so long, I may have lost sight of what makes us, us.  Her question prompted me to think again.

There are many approaches to faith.  The Christian faith is a broad faith.  Each denomination seems to have its separate “on-ramp.”  For example in the Roman Catholic Tradition, the church and its rituals are at the core of the practice of Christianity.  For Baptists, the Bible is at the core. (And Baptists know their bible!)  Lutherans confess lots more than we do.   Each tradition has its place of emphasis.   

What is distinctive about us?

Grace is our core doctrine.  That’s our on-ramp.  That’s where we begin.  God pours out grace, the love of God that we don’t earn or deserve and we receive that grace and share it with others.  Our theology is formed around grace.  Are the rituals of the church important the way they are in the Catholic Church?  Yes.  Should we read our Bibles like the Baptists?  Absolutely.  Should we worry about our sins and confess them to God?  For sure.  But in the Methodist church, grace is our foundation.

“Because God so loved the world….”  That’s where we begin.

We are so immersed in grace, we have come know and feel its nuances.  There is prevenient grace, the love of God that comes to us before we even are aware of it.  God is pouring grace on my six-month-old grandson and he doesn’t have a clue.  Grace can come to us in the form of justifying grace, a sense that we are worthy of God’s love.  God accepts us.  Sometimes we experience grace as sanctifying grace—God’s love filling us up and overflowing into the lives those around us.  All of this moves us closer to the perfect love of God.

Grace is love and when you begin with love, it can take you amazing places.  It rearranges relationships.  It makes us eager for violence and conflict to end.  Love manifests itself in all sorts of ways:  mercy, compassion, respect, acceptance, commitment, courage, forgiveness, sacrifice.  Begin with love and God can move mountains.  As Methodists, we are called to speak up and speak out in places where grace is in short supply and people are suffering.

I suppose we can be criticized for this.  Grace can seem too easy.  One theologian warned of “cheap grace,” a sense that anything goes.  I don’t believe that anything goes.  I do believe that we have a responsibility to look for God’s grace in every aspect of our lives and in our community.  We repent when we have turned our backs on grace.  And we stand up for grace when grace is being denied.
This is all theology.  It is actually better to live it than to dissect it.  

Why does the woman who spoke with me on Sunday keep coming back to the Methodist Church? Why do you?  I think its grace.  When we are at our best, grace floods our lives and spills into the world around.

Today, hold out your hands, open your heart, and look around.  Drop your defenses.  There is love and God blankets the world and us with it.  You are worthy of this love.  Let the grace of God flow into your life until it overflows into the lives of others.  Living grace is an exciting adventure.  

Blessings
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org

We worship on Sunday mornings at 8:30 in a traditional way and at 11:00 in a casual way.   You are invited!

This week at WDMUMC:
Pray for our youth mission team and their adult leaders.  Our youth are serving in Pittsburgh this week.  Keep them in your prayers as they grow in faith.

State Fair!  We open our state fair food stand in just 13 days!  If you haven’t signed up to volunteer and join in the fun, go to our website wdmumc.org and see how you might help.  The funds we raise at the state fair support our mission work.  (Mark your calendars!  We will be building panels for a Habitat House in our parking lot on October 5th!)

Everybody eats!  We have made a commitment to ensuring that our neighbors have the food they need this summer.  The local schools provide hot lunch at the schools and in the parks this summer Monday through Friday.  We supply food for the weekend.  So far we have handed out 991 weekend packs.  Thanks be to God for the gift of generosity that makes this possible.  This is grace in action!

Reception for Robert Bayse This Sunday between worship services we will celebrate Robert Bayse’s work at WDMUMC. 

Looking for a Director of Music Susie Holman, our director of music has accepted a position with the United States State Department teaching English to non-English speakers.  She will be moving to Israel in August. We are grateful for the service she has provided for us!  Now we are looking for a new music director.  This is a half time position.  If you know of someone who might be interested in this position, contact Pastor Cindy.

The church building will be closed on Friday, July 26. 

"Midweek and an Early Morning Prayer" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 07/17/2019

Good morning God,

Thank you for greeting me when I wake in the morning.  I begin to stir, sleep slipping away, and I know you are already listening.  You have been with me through the night. I, the sleeping child, you the watchful God.  As the day begins, you are still with me.

It is still dark outside my window. A full day is ahead of me, but I don’t need to get up just yet.  I have time to think.  I think about the unfinished business from yesterday, relationships that are unsettled, things I said or failed to say, things left undone.  A new morning comes and I wonder what I should let go and what I need to turn back to, re-do.

As I move through this day, teach me about my life.  Help me to better understand the past.  Where I have sinned, or hurt someone, or failed to love as you would want me to, guide me.  I pray that today I can grow a little.

The sun is coming up.  There is something about the sun coming up that fills me with hope.  An old friend, one of those blessed people you curiously set in my path, my old friend used to say “the day is full of potential.”  I love that.  The day lies ahead, adventure, conversation, hope shared.  You give us this amazing freedom to create our own path.  To delightfully do as we please and at the same time, I believe you are always hoping we will choose grace.  You love us too much to program us to behave as you want us to. Instead, you trust the power of love.  Teach us, Lord to trust in that power too.

I review what is on my calendar for today.  Several meetings and a long to-do list.  Dozens of emails.  A sermon I am thinking about.  Important work.  You have given me a church love and lead.  I pray that my heart is open enough, I am wide awake enough, to sense your presence in all these things.  Remind me often that the ground beneath my feet is holy.  That the moments of my life are sacred.  That the people I meet carry your image.

Time to begin my day, thank you Lord, for this morning.   You have sent me into the day with renewed hope and fresh energy.

Yours,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Ave
West Des Moines Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Like us on facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org.
We worship on Sundays at 8:30 in a traditional way and at 11 in a casual way.  We would love to worship with you.  This Sunday our intern Priscilla will preach.  Come and hear what she has to say!

Making a Difference Ministries at WDMUMC
Everybody Eats!  Continues on this Friday.  We are committed to addressing hunger in our local community this summer.  One way we are doing that is by partnering with the West Des Moines Schools.  The schools provide lunch for children throughout the week.  We provide weekend packs of food.  Last week our volunteers handed out 192 packs—that means 192 families had food on their table throughout the weekend.  Good news!

State Fair Stand!  For 71 years WDMUMC has been operating a food stand at the Iowa State Fair.  It is a great way to meet people!  The proceeds from the fair state support our missions work, things like our Habitat for Humanity build.  We are always looking for volunteers.  You can sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080a4da5a82ea0f49-2019.

Vacation Bible School!  75 children and dozens and dozens of volunteers are blasting off on a faith adventure this week.  Please pray that we all grow in faith this week!  A big thank you to our volunteers!

BTW:  If you have articles for Pathways, our monthly newsletter, the deadline is Friday.  Send those articles to hstreeter@wdmumc.org.  Thanks!

"Decisions and Houses and God's Plans for Us" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 07/10/2019

Jeremiah  29:11

“I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord.”

Yesterday, I walked through the two houses the church owns.  They are just to the east of the parking lot.

Fifteen years ago, the church was expanding and the church bought a number of houses with the plans to increase the church building and expand the parking lot.  The world changed.  The church changed.  What people are looking for in a church changed.  A year ago we owned eight houses.  Two were sold to the tenants who lived in them.  Three were sold to a private individual.  One was sold to Habitat for Humanity.  Two remain and later this summer they will be torn down.

The two houses are made of brick. Inside they have three bedrooms and full basements.  Kitchens where thousands of meals were prepared.  Living rooms where families gathered.  Bedrooms where people laid down to rest at night.  There is no denying, a house is a sacred thing.

The houses are in need of repairs and the church does not have the funds to continue to make the needed repairs.  We are a church and we are not experts in property management.  Our property is landlocked with very limited green space. 

We make decisions.  It would be very presumptuous of us to think that we make perfect decisions.  We try always to make the best decisions for our church family and our church home.  If you reviewed the abstracts for these two houses and you would discover that we have owned them three times and sold them twice over the last 70 years.  I believe each time these decisions were made, the leadership of the church was making the best decision they could at the time.  I believe every decision was made with a great deal of prayer and holy conversation.  Now it is time to demolish the houses. 

Still, people need housing.  Polk County has a housing shortage.  We are not housing specialists.  We are working to be faith specialists.  I think we can faithfully work with Habitat for Humanity (they are housing specialists!) to address the housing needs in Des Moines and West Des Moines.  A few months ago we dedicated one Habitat House.  Our next Habitat for Humanity panel build will be October 5th and that day we will build the walls of another Habitat Home.  

We make decisions.  We decide what job to take, who to share our life with, what to spend our money on, when to buy a new car, whether we should send our children to camp, how we will spend our day.  All the while, we pray that our plans in some way align with the plans God has for us, never being certain, praying that our good intentions count for something.    

May God bless the wood and the bricks and all the natural resources that went into these houses.

May God bless the carpenters who built these houses.

May God bless everyone who ever lived in them.

May God bless the church members and leaders throughout the years who did their best to manage and finance and oversee the houses.

May God bless the future for this property and our church.

May God bless the homeless and those struggling to find a home.

May God bless our ministry in providing homes for others.

And may we bless God as we make decisions and seek to live faithfully,

Pastor Cindy

Pastor Cindy Hickman

West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org.

We worship on Sunday mornings at 8:30 in a traditional way and at 11:00 in a casual way.  You are invited.  We would love to worship with you.

This week at WDMUMC:

Welcome Pastor Trevor!  This Sunday Pastor Trevor will be preaching and we will hear what he has to say about his life, and church, and God.  Our youth mission team will be commissioned at 8:30 and at 11:00 we will celebrate a baptism.  It is a good day to be the church.

Painting Party!  Like bright colors?  Want to make the 3rd floor more welcoming for our children?  Today from 4-6:30 Morganne is hosting a painting party on the 3rd floor.   (I think this includes pizza!)

Vacation Bible School!  Begins this Sunday!  Dinner is at 5 pm and VBS runs from 6-8!  We will be blasting off for Mars to learn about God! Bring your children, grandchildren, and the neighbor kids!  You can register at https://wdmumc.org/education/vacation-bible-school/?et_fb=1

Guidebooks!  Our church directories have been mailed out.  We have discovered some glitches in the system.  (Computers talking to computers!)  If you did not receive your guidebook, please call the church at 515-279-0826!

Pastor Cindy is in!  Next Monday, Wednesday and Thursday during vacation bible school I will be in my office from 6-8pm.  If you would like to stop by and talk.  (If the weather is nice—I will be out front on a lawn chair.  Let’s chat.

Parking Lot Update!  Good news!  We met with the paving contractor yesterday.  The parking lot will be paved in two sections, so we will ALWAYS have access to the parking lot in some way.  Construction will begin in 2-3 weeks.  We will do our best to keep you informed.