Ministry Moment October 15, 2017

(Christine LeBel is the Vice Chair of our Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC), and Eric Weber is the Chair.  They assisted with this ministry moment.)  

Today Christine/Eric and I want to talk a little about staff …

Let’s review …

The mission of the United Methodist Church is transformation … it is our very why … we exist so that we can help transform the world … ourselves, our neighborhood, our world …

Transformation of the world begins with the individual … (repeat that)

Our staff is a very important element of that transformation …

Let’s start with how our staff contributes to this transformation story  …

SPRC Rep:  We have a great staff.  They care for and about each other.  Truly, pain for one, is pain for all.  Joy for one, is joy for all. 

Very often, when we say “the church” our staff is the living church – the embodiment of you, of me, of all of us -- throughout the week and they prepare and provide us with many things, not the least of which is meaningful worship each Sunday.  

Further, our staff is, through their work, an outreach of discipleship from our congregation out to the larger community.  They do this day in and day out.

Shaw:  What you want us to understand about what we are trying to do with our staff?

SPRC Rep: 

For too many years, we have underappreciated our staff in terms of compensation.  The level of responsibility that they have is much greater than their compensation levels.   All of them work for more hours than we pay them, and we pay them less than market wages. 

The staff has more responsibility than their compensation would suggest. 

We have an excellent staff and we are trying to build financial bridges to improve their compensation. 

That bridge building is not complete, nor will it end on December 31, 2018.  We have some catching up to do here.  Across the board. 

Shaw:  Anything concluding thoughts?

SPRC Rep:  Yes, we need to support our staff with a competitive compensation program that helps support and expands their responsibilities plus recognizes their expertise. 

Many of our initiatives start with development by our staff.   Better support helps to move all of our initiatives forward….. The staff is over half of our budget and some of the ideas we have suggested here, and more not stated but hoped for, will require us to step up with our giving so that we can realize our goals ….

Shaw:  We could go on for quite a while here.  (Lift up the handout) … more details are here. 

But the fundamental question is “does the world need more or less of your staff’s contribution to a message of God’s free and unconditional grace?”  Thank you …

Gifts of the Spirit

1^st Corinthians 12: Verses 4–7: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Galatians 5:22-23: By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Galatians 5:19-21: Now the works of the flesh are obvious:…impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.

 Scripture is NRSV

Paul is big on the idea of the Spirit. The Spirit is clearly an important theological idea for Paul. References to the Spirit fill Paul’s letters as he coaches his far flung flock. Three are quoted here. Paul was having trouble with both Corinth First UMC and Galatians Community UMC. Things had fallen apart after he had left.

 

Things are not falling apart at Hilltop UMC, let me assure you. We are doing well.  We can do better. 

I personally like to think of the two Galatians readings in terms of car dashboard lights. When we are in proper relationship with God, our fellow co-laborers in the church and ourselves, our dashboard lights are green. Love, joy, peace and other good things are displayed consistent with what Paul enumerates in Galatians 5: 22-23. The machine should work well when the lights are all green. However, we need to check our spiritual engines when the dashboard lights are red with strife, anger, factions, envy and the like. In the car dashboard world, green is normally good, red is normally a problem. Fruits of the Spirit are good; Works of the Flesh are not. Galatians 5 helps us understand and measure how we are doing with this relationship stuff. The passage is an indicator of relationship.

 

If Galatians 5 is about how we are doing, 1^st Corinthians 12 helps us frame what it is we should be doing.

 

Paul’s specificity in Galatians is largely absent in the Corinthians. In Galatians Paul gives us the names of lights we can read as green or red. In Corinthians Paul resorts to an illustration of the church as a body and points to body parts as how the body should function. An ear listens but it does not see. His illustration is very good.  I augment the body illustration from Paul in terms of team, and as a baseball fan, I see it in terms of baseball. You need a variety of different skill types to play baseball, and a team made up of Yogi Berra’s, a Hall of Fame catcher and pontificator, might be a good one for providing pithy quotations, but it might have trouble pitching effectively. 

The church, like a team, like the human body, needs different skills, as given to us by the Spirit, to be put to labor on behalf of the Kingdom of God.

 

What are your God-given gifts? Sometimes we know what they are: I am good at numbers, and I am not particularly good at small engine repair. But I didn’t know I was good at numbers until I got dropped into a position in 1973 that called for me to be a numerical analyst. I struggled for a while but mentors and coaches helped me and turned that struggle into strength. What we now see as a gift was at one time not a gift. It was honed and developed by others, enhanced by my own willingness to be coached to success. I had to be a numbers disciple, a student, for a while. In reality, I am still a numbers disciple, constantly looking at web sites and articles about how to better display data so that it becomes information, but I digress.

 

I had to trust others to see that gift in me that I didn’t know that I possessed. 

In my learning and growing here, I didn’t become angry or exercise poor self-control. In fact, this endeavor became an object that lead to joy. When it comes to being a numerical analyst, my dashboard lights here were never red, always green.

 

Here are some thoughts:

• Gift Assessment Axiom: When you don’t think something is a gift, you might be mistaken. 
• The Converse to that Axiom: When you think something is a gift, you might be mistaken. 
• The Corollary to that Axiom: Listen to others about your gifts. Another might see your gifts more clearly than you. 

Look to the dashboard lights and crosscheck them against Galatians 5.  Green is good.  Red is not good.  Listen to your heart.  Listen to others.  Listen for God.  Remember that God sometimes speaks in a small, still, voice, except when small, still isn’t working. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Kickoff Sunday!

Kickoff Sunday!  We circulated a handout for our Christian Education Offerings a few weeks ago.  This is a reprise of that theme.  I am showing below the adult offerings.  The children and youth will also kick-off in their usual locations. 

The Sunday classes all start at 9:00 AM, Sunday, September 8th.  The others are available Monday through Thursday.  Notice the “Invitation to the Old Testament” Class on Thursday night concurrent with Choir, a wonderful opportunity for spouses of choir members.  Child Care provided at that class. 

Sunday Morning

Christian Builders in FH 305    Led by John Davison & Bryan Hendrickson

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The early Christian Church in Jerusalem by 40 AD had grown to several thousand members (almost all Jews). Sixty years later Christianity had hundreds of thousands of converts, and 999 out of every thousand were Gentiles. We will discover how this happened in our study of Paul's three missionary journeys.    

Transitions to Christianity in North Room                 Led by Bill Strickland

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Transition To Christianity is designed for those whose spiritual background (formal or non-existent) is not mainline Christianity, and who wish to step into the world of Jesus Christ as we understand it today.  We study such things as Faith, Grace, Salvation and many others.  Our current text is “The Gospel According to the Apostles”, which is exactly as Jesus taught it.  We apply our learning's to daily life and endeavor to avoid heavy duty scholastic theology. 

Introduction to the Bible in Upper Room    Led by Pastor Dennis Shaw

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The human emotions expressed in Psalms rise to peaks of joy and descend into valleys of despair. In the Psalms, the promise of the reign of God meets the historical experience of God's people. Faith in God's faithfulness collides with human experiences of pain and suffering, enslavement, oppression, and exile. God's people struggle to make sense of who God is and who they are, and in so doing they have composed a collection of moving testimonies of grace, glory, sorrow, and beauty unmatched in sacred literature. For students of the Psalms today, this study offers greater understanding of how these ancient texts of praise, lament, worship, and prayer can still speak to us and for us. Cost of materials will be $20 per attendee.*

Wesley Class in the Wesley Room    Led by Barry Welliver

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Surprise! The Wesley class will begin a study on John Wesley. We'll review Christian history before and after the Reformation and discuss various social, political and religious influences on the formation of Methodism. The class will also explore the influence of the Wesley heritage as well as the other contemporary movements. Finally, we'll study the four foundations taught by John Wesley - Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason. If you'd like to understand or revisit some of the roots of Methodism, this is the class for you! 

*Scholarships are available. 

Weekday Classes

Introduction to the Bible

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The human emotions expressed in Psalms rise to peaks of joy and descend into valleys of despair. In the Psalms, the promise of the reign of God meets the historical experience of God's people. Faith in God's faithfulness collides with human experiences of pain and suffering, enslavement, oppression, and exile. God's people struggle to make sense of who God is and who they are, and in so doing they have composed a collection of moving testimonies of grace, glory, sorrow, and beauty unmatched in sacred literature. For students of the Psalms today, this study offers greater understanding of how these ancient texts of praise, lament, worship, and prayer can still speak to us and for us. Cost of materials will be $20 per attendee.*

Mondays at 7:00 pm in the Upper Room

Led by Pastor Dennis

Women’s Bible Study

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New Women’s Bible Study begins Tuesday, Sept 10 at 1:30. It will be a 7 week DVD study  titled  Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted. What do we do when God interrupts our lives? Many times, like Jonah, we run! This study redefines interruption and shows how it can be God's invitation to do something beyond our wildest dreams. The workbook is $12.* To order a book, contact Connee Schoon at 801-942-7675.

Tuesdays 1:30 to 3:30 pm in the Wesley Room

Led by Connee Schoon

 

Diggin’ the Bible

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We watch educational DVDs from the Biblical Archaeology Society, PBS, Nova, etc. presented by Biblical Scholars and Archaeologists from Colleges and Universities around the world. We have covered topics ranging from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus, Honor and Shame, The Evil Eye, Text Detectives, Who Really Wrote the Bible, How Archaeology Illuminates the Bible, just to name a few. There are no books to purchase or studying to do, this is a way to learn and discuss the topic presented that day.

Wednesdays at 1:00 pm in the Wesley Room

Led by Claudia Bilbao

Invitation To the Old Testament

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Explore the Old Testament’s story of God and God's calling of the people of Israel through the many “voices” of the Biblical text. Hear the magnificence of a creation hymn, discover the law and wisdom teachings, listen to the warning of the prophets and explore the poetry of the Song of Solomon. Study book is $15.*  Child care provided. 

Thursdays  7:30-9:30 pm in FH 305

Led by Marilyn White-Shaw and Jason Wilden

 

*Scholarships are available. 

 

Renewing Hilltop -- April Pastor's Musings

Renewing Hilltop

Because Christianity grew from roots that were Judaism, it should not surprise us that Jesus was firmly rooted in the Jewish tradition.  Examples abound:  his followers acknowledge him as “rabbi” (teacher) and his preaching is drawn from material in the Hebrew Bible.  The Passion narrative is best understood within a context of Passover.  Pentecost is a spiritual “first fruit” built on the idea of a Jewish “first fruit” festival.  Jesus’ ministry was a renewal movement, not one to create a new religion, but one to introduce spiritual renewal among God’s chosen people.   Our calling here at Hilltop is about spiritual renewal to all who come through our doors.

I talk at times about “The New Hilltop.”  I wrote in our annual church conference report as a goal for 2013:

  

Define The New Hilltop:  Acknowledge that a “new” Hilltop is being created before our eyes and we are creating it with God’s help.  How do we use the various metrics of Vital Congregations augmented by our own metrics to measure that vitality?  We will, as a community, identify what it means to be a church that wants to grow through an intentional and concerted focus on families with children and youth?   This time next year we should be able to align our resources, i.e. building, people, and budget with that identity. 

While those words focused on the idea of “families with children and youth,” the idea was in reality more than a “New” Hilltop; it is about a “Renewed Hilltop” full of people of all ages and backgrounds who are renewed in the Spirit.  I want to focus on one result of the “The Renewed Hilltop” -- the need to add a second worship service.

 

How can we best provide meaningful, spiritual worship as our faith community expands?

For many years Hilltop had three worship services.  Hilltop made an important decision last year to move to one.  This decision was bold.  Part of the covenant to consolidate into one service included revisiting that decision at a future date.  At the March Church Council a proposal to create the paradigm for a second service was presented by the Worship Committee and me.  The simple idea of the proposal was that when a six-week moving average (not including Easter or Cantata Sunday) reached more than 275 worshippers and when we had 100 members in covenant to support the second service, we would launch at a future, yet-to-be-determined date (but not immediately.)  

Discussion from the council encouraged us to go back and re-think some basic assumptions.

It is always important to ask: “how do you know what you know?”  When that question emerged this past month, we were not precisely sure what we knew, why we knew it, or how we knew it.  We did know facts, e.g., attendance at the three services, attendance since the merger.  Even though the leaders have talked to various groups about going to a second service, we do not know exactly what the congregation as a whole thinks.  We agreed that it would be good for us in our continuing attempt to “renew” Hilltop to take some focused time to ask the congregation very specific, directed, and targeted questions about worship and, importantly, Christian Education.

 

We plan to discuss some of this following worship on April 21^st if at all possible, and between April 21^st and May 19^th present a questionnaire (or survey instrument) in which the congregation can express their wisdom and insight.  I heard loud and clear during last summer’s “ice breakers” that we had done enough “surveys.”  That said, I think the critical element of that lament was the congregation saw little relationship between any survey and direction of the church.  Your church leadership believes for us to understand renewal at Hilltop, we need to receive congregational feedback about options and potential directions of renewal at Hilltop first.

 

Paul in his 1^st Letter to the Church in Corinth focused on an idea of “the body” and how each part of the body was important to the whole.  It was an entreaty to the idea of “oneness” and an appeal for genuine appreciation of the other.  I pray that our need to go through the process of discussion and planning for expansion to another service at some future date enhances the “oneness” we have felt since going to one service.  I pray that our quest for “oneness” produces fruit for Hilltop’s spiritual “renewal” and our own.

Selah.  Pastor Dennis

Fellowship -- A Component of "The New Hilltop"

[This was written for the October, 2012 Newsletter.  I post it to my blog so I can reference it easily in other articles I may write/create.]

In March, key Hilltop leaders made several bold decisions aimed at recreating Hilltop. The belief was that unity would be realized by moving to a single worship service and using elements of the national church’s Vital Congregation elements to focus on Christian education and fellowship. When we talk about it, key leaders use the image of a three-legged stool to remind us that the elements—worship, Christian education, and fellowship—are to be understood in unity. If any leg of a stool is too long, or too short, the stool is improperly balanced and is less than it can and should be.

I was not here to witness the three different worship services that existed before the current unified service. Reports I hear are that bold moves by your leaders are proving fruitful in bringing a new energy to Hilltop worship. The New Hilltop will continue to seek avenues for us to experience in community through worship all that God plans for us.

In last month’s newsletter, I invited you to explore a deeper relationship with God through intentional growth as disciples. Some accepted that invitation, and I hope and pray that from those seeds we will experience a thirty, sixty and hundredfold harvest. This will continue to be a regular and focused priority with your leaders.  We will now turn our focus to fellowship which has received the least attention in our three-legged stool paradigm.

I believe fellowship and small groups go together.

Through the end of August, nearly four hundred different Hilltop people had participated in a small group of some kind this year. That is nothing short of fantastic!  That is about half of all who call Hilltop their spiritual home. Even with that success, I still want to invite those not part of that number to find a small group of some kind and participate on a regular basis.

We have consciously increased the small group opportunities that focus on our development as disciples. But small groups also include our music ministers, the men at Britton’s on Wednesday, the women in their regular meetings, the card crafting, and our ministry opportunities at Crossroads and with Family Promise. That list is illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive. We get to know each other by taking part with others in Hilltop activities. Jesus brought together twelve men from disparate backgrounds, and they transformed their world and ours. I strongly endorse our gathering together to fellowship across age and gender, for example, fellowship at 10 or 11:30 on Sunday morning or during pot-lucks.

 

I re-invite all to find and connect with a small group at Hilltop. That group might be one that is growing in discipleship, but it might be one that is in service, provides music, or gathers by age or gender.

I have recently challenged key leaders to ask themselves who is not a regular participant in the life of Hilltop and to discern what they might do to invite those not at the table to be part of the oneness of Hilltop. Jesus did not stand in the synagogue and invite the broken of his time to find their way to him, he rather went out looking for them. Those we invite to join us on our spiritual journey will be blessed and enriched through our three-legged paradigm of worship, discipleship through Christian education, and fellowship of fellow sojourning Christians.  That’s our prayer, our call, and part of our mission and vision.

Pastor’s Musings – October 2012

Hilltop highly resolves to … what?

There is a lot of energy present in the sanctuary when we have nearly 300 people present. As I stand in the middle of that gathered body I feel like I am at one with you. It is often extremely uplifting.  Why can’t we just keep it like it is forever?

Does anybody really believe that something that is not growing can hold a level of energy indefinitely? I would suggest that one of our New Year’s resolutions is that “Hilltop highly resolves to … keep growing.” Product innovator Robert Cooper sounds like a theologian when he writes, “Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity.” Paraphrasing a little what Jesus says in John 10: “I came that [you] may have life, and have it abundantly.” We have an enormous amount of untapped capacity at Hilltop to extend God’s Kingdom in the South Valley and share the abundant life that comes of knowing Christ.

We have begun the conversation necessary to start framing what a second service might look like. Here is what we are thinking:

· The current multiple musical groups and styles will be the framework at 9:00 am.

· Sunday School is retained for now at the 9:00 hour because we know there are parents who want to worship while their children are in Christian Formation.

· Launch in September.

· Make the decision if we are going to Launch in September, in May.

We would like to see attendance targets of about 275 as an average achieved for non-Easter Sundays in March and April along with clear covenants by enough, about 100, to make such a service well attended and have energy.

I believe we need to continue to grow. Yes, retain elements of our history but also to grow. The product innovator I quoted earlier, Cooper also writes that such thinking “…turns conventional thinking upside down…As … people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood.”

I believe that our Triune God calls us to constant and continued growth.

 

I suggest that one of our community resolutions be “Hilltop highly resolves to launch a second worship service in September, 2013.”

 (Pastor’s Musings – January, 2013)

Leadership 201

Last night, at the church, twelve souls gathered and we talked about leadership.

(I can send you a copy of the presentation if you would like to see it ... click  here and send me a note ..and let me know if you have PowerPoint or not.  If yes, I will send you the PowerPoint version.  Otherwise, I will send you a ubiquitous link that will allow you to see it in a continuous run mode you will have to start and stop if you want to slow it down.)  

We reviewed what we had said was important six months ago.  We went to John Kotter (Kotter Change Principles) and reviewed his Eight Principles of Change.  Finally, we came back and went over the areas of people, programs, building, and finances.

What did we "learn"?

• Most important, we have people who desire that Stratmoor be a positive force in the Community.  Ideas of branching out into the community and sustaining programs we have were blessed by the group.  
• We embraced Kotter and Jim Collins (Good to Great) in our quest for understanding and insight.  We went over the eight principles, and repeatedly we tried to engage their guidance on the quest we have in front of us.  For example, we are swimming in a river of information.  We must use every opportunity and medium possible to tell our story.  Clearly, communication was an area that has so many answers and so many challenges for us.  More work here.  
• Key elements of Collins are 'getting the right people on the bus, the right people off the bus, and getting the right people in the right seat on the bus' and the idea of foxes as opposed to hedgehogs.  Collins says companies, and by implication churches, that went from Good to Great are led by hedgehogs -- rock steady and diligent in the central idea that is the key and essential core of the change paradigm.
• We are following the Collins/Kotter model of getting the right people (i.e. coalition) together before the key issue of exactly where we are going to go is formulated.  That is not to remotely suggest that we are not moving:  we most assuredly are.  Some of our moves now are a combination of obvious and intuitive (i.e. community focus) along with pragmatic (i.e. air conditioning) that our precise end-state is secondary.  
• A continued core value is that we are reluctant to mortgage ourselves very much, if at all.  It is not off the table as an option, but some kind of combination of grants, potential sale of land, and internal fund raising is the preferred approach.  Debt is an option, but one we have to get to after some other things are done first. 
• We all got excited about an opportunity for ministry expansion w/in our demographic and community that warrants exploration.  Details to follow.   

The group was left with a homework assignment -- look over the landscape at Stratmoor and decide who is a hedgehog, present last night or not, whom we need to provide leadership:  talk to them and then talk to our Lay Leader -- Nell Grindstaff (Nell Email).  The role of Church Council Chair comes open in November/December time-frame and getting the right person on that seat in the bus is key and essential to us moving ahead.  But leadership opportunities exists in multiple areas

Good food complemented our conversations:  Ms Marilyn provided us a repast that was quality and quantity.

Selah.    

Henri meets Forrest

My time with the church yesterday could almost be characterized as Henri Nouwen meets Forrest Gump.

My chosen scripture was Psalm 30 where my focus was on the idea of how the psalmist has gone down into the pit but has been transformed from “mourning” (King James Version) into “dancing” and “joy”.   It seemed to me that part of the message was that the psalmist had been transformed by his own acknowledgement of "mourning" that he could help others with their own transformations.  

My approach was to talk to an element of the human condition, spiritual brokenness, and see how Nouwen and Gump simultaneously speak to us.

The chosen Gump scene was Jennie and Forrest encountering her home where she was exploited and abused by a father who knew no boundaries.  As she sees the house she remembers and in anger confronts her demons and starts to throw rocks at the house, and eventually she runs out of rocks.  Forrest as narrator tells us that sometimes “there just aren’t enough rocks.” 

My big idea was that at times we are all Forrests (healers) and we are all all Jennies (the wounded).  Nouwen calls us “wounded healers” and he posits the idea that it is from our woundedness that makes us better healers.

Nouwen writes:  What we see, and like to see, is cure and change. But what we do not see and do not want to see is care: the participation in the pain, the solidarity in the suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness. And still, cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart.

The issue is in part the seeing.  It is in the seeing, through our own life experiences, that we become healers. 

Forrest is a simple soul.  He operates off wisdom like proverbs, i.e. “stupid is as stupid does” and “life is like a box full of chocolates.”  Our spiritual maturity often pulls us from this world of “do this and that will happen” simplicity into the more Job-like world where we don’t understand why we suffer. 

Our journeys requires both:  simplicity in conversation with complexity.  Forrest Gump meets Henri Nouwen.  Forrest throughout the movie is an unapologetic care provider:  to his mother, to Bubba, to Lieutenant Dan, to Jennie and finally to little Forrest.  He lives a complex, care-providing life framed in a vision of simplicity.  This isn’t a simple story.  But he helps people move from despair to a joy where they can metaphorically dance. 

Forrest is an instrument of God’s Grace.  He is touching people, Jesus-like.  Don Bubna writes:  Jesus didn't have to touch lepers. He could have been just as effective from a hundred yards away. But he touched them.   

We are all called to be Forrests:  touching care providers.

We are all called to be Jennies:  prepared to be touched by others when it is necessary for our healing. Letting others touch us in love requires letting our boundaries down, maybe just a little., maybe a whole lot.  

Sometimes, as healers we are asked to be a quiet presence when those who are compelled to throw stones at old memories just need someone to hold them in love, at least until they decide that there aren't enough stones in order to make them whole.  I wonder if that isn't moving from mourning to dancing?  

Selah.  

David and the Giant

Yesterday's sermon was on David facing his giant, and attempting to ask others what about David's experience might be helpful to them in facing their own.

I started this endeavor by planning to speak on the Five Smooth Stones David picked up in the stream-bed ...

I morphed into instead talking about how David knew those stones were the right stones ...

The 1st Samuel 17 passage seems to be clear in that David:

o Knows God ... David is outraged in that the living God is being disrespected by the Philistines and their champion ...
o Knows himself ... he turns down Saul's equipment, because it wasn't what he was used to ...
o Knows his experience is of value ... which is admittedly, the flip side of knowing himself ...
o Knows that his brother in his negativity is full of "it" ... what ever "it" is ...

Yes ... I think it changed to being a sermon about "knowing" or in philosophical terms ... how do we know what we know ... or epistemology.

This knowledge helps us to frame how we know what our own smooth stones might be as we face the Giants in our collective and individual lives.

This passage speaks to all of us ... it's very timeless quality is that the message is so powerful to people as we try to figure out what life is all about ... 1st Samuel 17 tells us a lot about us in our human condition ...

I have already had one member of the church tell me that the direction he had planned for Monday morning was changed as a result of the words he heard yesterday ... in my best, 'tripped-out Flo' from the Progressive commercials ... I can only offer a "wow" on that ...

Peace ...