Ever been lost or left behind? I have and it was terrifying. The first memory I have like that I was eight years old and my parents and I went to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. My parents thought I was following them, but I guess I stopped to do something. I turned around and couldn’t see them anywhere. I looked around and saw a big ship at the end of the street. It wasn’t on water; it was just for a fun pirate theme. My little eight-year-old brain thought… “Oh, I can climb up high on those ropes and then I’ll be able to see them!” I started climbing and shortly I felt a tug on my ankle. It was my Dad, and he and Mom were mad that I ran off to play by myself! I know now they were just as scared as I was, if not more.

As Jesus followers, we don’t want other folks to get lost in their journey. When Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, he didn’t only say to “Go and make disciples.” He also said to baptize them and teach them all he had commanded the disciples.

Teaching is what a Jewish Rabbi did. His disciples would follow their Rabbi constantly for several years before they would take on their on students. It wasn’t like a weekend class and you were done. It was a lengthy process, and for good reason.

Have you ever been shown how to do something once or twice and then left on your own? You don’t feel very confident and there is a lot of winging it going on before you really get the hang of things. Sometimes it’s necessary, but it’s not the best way to learn. As Jesus followers, we should work to do better. We should come alongside people, walk through life with them and teach them. They will likely also teach us something on the way also.

You may be wondering about the title of this blog. I read a question lately that I think we all need to ask ourselves. Is our church a holy huddle or a serving community? Do others think we are a group that gets together for a pep talk every Sunday to then go out and just try to live ethically? Or do they think we are a group that gets together to worship God and then work together to be good neighbors who serve our community?

Coaches don’t have their teams huddle and then do nothing. They huddle to plan, and then they take action. We should too. So, how will you serve someone in your community this week?.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy

It’s always interesting and sometimes amusing to me to see God at work. As we have recently
begun the Autumn season, I think of the lessons nature can teach us. There are rhythms to the
annual seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. There are also rhythms to the seasons of our life:
infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood. We can fight the rhythms, or we can flow with them.
There have been many seasons of my life where God uses a variety of mediums to teach me
something. I read an idea or concept and then suddenly it’s as if I see or hear something related
to it all over from completely different sources: social media, authors I follow or the radio. It’s as
if I take notice of something, and God says, “She needs to hear that umpteen times to really get
the idea.” I think of it as him weaving different colors of threads from different places to make a
solid picture.

Currently, the idea God is weaving threads of is to examine what the world considers heroic vs.
ordinary. I studied this idea first in the book Holiness in a Restless World by Joshua R. Sweeden
and Nell M. Becker Sweeden. The Sweedens speak of how the idea of heroism has negatively
affected how we think about living a holy life. “In contrast to the heroic impulse, it is time for
Christians to recover what it means to be placed in the commonwealth of God – to locate
ourselves faithfully in the daily interactions and transactions of life with God’s creation.” (p. 12)
Secular heroes often have no real home or family connections to help guide them. In contrast,
Christians are to find their home among God and his people. Christians are not to isolate
themselves but rather be part of their communities.

So, imagine my surprise, when just a few weeks after reading about heroism in that way, I see
Pastor Todd’s title for September 29 – “Blessing Our Community: The Greatest Hero of All.”
Jesus is a hero. But not in the sense the people of his day wanted him to be. He never called
himself great. He often tried to avoid public attention.
Jesus said whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Jesus said that he came to serve.
Consider that a moment. Jesus, God’s Son, King of Kings, one who could command us to bow at
his feet…came to serve?!

Yes, Jesus was a hero. Just not in the way we were expecting. He was a hero because he engaged
and blessed those who needed him. Jesus spoke with and touched the lowest members of society,
the “untouchables”, and spoke harshly to those with wealth or standing who ignored the needs of
others.

If we are to be heroes in a positive way, we must follow Jesus’ example to bless and care for
those around us. Often that means caring for someone’s physical needs before we address their
spiritual needs. It’s difficult to ponder God’s love for you with an empty stomach.
If our hearts are really broken for lost people who need Jesus, we will befriend them. We’ll listen
to them with curiosity instead of condemnation. You never know where a conversation that starts
with kindness might lead! Author L.M. Montgomery said, “All things great are wound up with
all things little.”

I think that relates to another quote from the Sweedens. “Holiness is an encounter that occurs in
the improvisation of daily life. Scripture testifies to a God made known most commonly and
consistently in simple and ordinary ways. God comes to us in our humanity.” (Holiness p. 13)

I pray we will heroically bless our community in simple, ordinary ways!

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy