Dealing with Disappointment

If you are reading through the Bible this year and following the Thematic Plan, you have just finished Matthew’s Gospel. If you are behind, don’t stress. Hang in there! Try reading an extra assigned passage each day until you catch up. Above all, keep at it.

As we were finishing the Gospel of Matthew, I was, yet again, struck by Peter’s denial of Christ three times during Jesus’ trial. I can’t imagine how Jesus must have felt to have his closest disciple and star pupil turn his back on him not once, but three times.

All of us have faced disappointment in our lives. We may have stories of times when people let us down or failed to follow through on promises. Your story may be one of a co-worker who didn’t pull his or her weight or a spouse who forgot his or her marriage vows. Countless times, we have been in situations where we felt defeated and let down. Sometimes, our anger or hurt led us to sever relationships with others. Other times, the hurt may have been so deep that we turned to God and asked why God allowed the situation to happen.

Situations of hurt, abandonment and disappointment can be either opportunities for spiritual growth or destructive blows to faithful discipleship. The first thing we might need to resist is the natural tendency toward bitterness. Be slow to judge the other person. We can never fully understand what is going on in another’s life or the motivations that may have influenced the behavior. A second step is to seek God in prayer for direction on how to respond. One of the blessings of familiarity with Scripture is the number of examples of how Godly wisdom and righteous responses help pave the road to reconciliation and/or healing. God has all the facts. I believe that if we seek to love others as God loves us (remember this past Sunday’s sermon), we will respond in a way that not only honors the pain of others but helps us act with dignity and integrity. Third, seek to be faithful to what you know is the right thing to do. Sometimes, our tendency to want to inflict the same pain and reprisal is difficult to control. God’s way always contradicts the flesh’s desire for revenge. The knowledge that we are called to act as Christ will often contradict our own desires and even the advice of friends. Finally, keep your focus on God and the higher purpose for your life. We are prone to dwell on our hurts and how they negatively impact our lives. Remember, all things work together for good for those who love and trust the Lord and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

There is really only one healthy way to deal with disappointment in life – pursue God’s way and God’s will. Our human plans can be derailed, but nothing alters God’s ultimate purpose for our lives. No matter how badly you are hurting, God will heal you and bring you through sorrow and setbacks; you will grow in faith and be the person God is calling you to be.

A Culture of Generosity

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will begin its annual Stewardship Campaign next Sunday, November 4, 2012.  Our theme for this year’s Stewardship Campaign is Creating a Culture of Generosity.  As a part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we are greatly influenced by the practices and faith of the early church.  Around the year 112 AD, an early Roman administrator named Pliny the Younger wrote back to Emperor Trajan about the Christians in a province in Asia Minor, which is present-day Turkey.  He remarked in his letter that the Christians gather weekly to celebrate a meal of bread and wine and sing the Psalms throughout the service.  In 155 AD, an early Christian leader, Justin Martyr, wrote a letter to the Emperor explaining how Christians worshiped.  In his defense, he mentions that each week the deacons of the church would bring wine, bread, oil and money to the leader of the congregation to be blessed.  The gifts of treasure would be put aside for the support of widows and orphans and for the support of promoting the Gospel.  The oil would be used by the elders to anoint the sick.  The wine and bread were then blessed and used for the celebration of the meal of Thanksgiving, the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper.  These gifts were essential in reminding the people of God’s gift to us.  Psalm 104:15 was a hymn that many early Christians would have sung. “(God) brings forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.”

Our Campaign logo reminds us of the early church’s culture of generosity.  The work of the church has not changed.  Today, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) continues the ancient tradition of celebrating the Lord’s Supper as the central act of our worship.  Like those early Christians, bread and wine are used to remember the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  We still anoint the sick with oil as a prayer of confidence that our God is a healing God. Likewise, we still gather the treasure of the saints for the support of the Gospel and the mission of our congregation.  Even though our congregation does not have any vineyard owners, farmers or olive grove tenders, we still use these gifts from God to celebrate the gift of salvation and to heal the sick.  The treasure you give to the work of First Christian Church is used to celebrate salvation, heal the world and proclaim the Gospel.

Our Stewardship Department reported to our General Board that First Christian Church remains a tithing Church.  I believe tithing is an essential discipline that reminds us that God is solely responsible for all we have. God has blessed this community and the world through your spirit of generosity.  This culture of generosity is found in every facet of our congregational life.  Our Disciples Women’s Ministries is nationally recognized as a top supporter of missions.  Our Youth Group tithes 10% of all their fundraisers to missions.  Our Men’s Fellowship Breakfast is a generous supporter of many of our outreach ministries.  Everywhere you turn in our congregation you will meet people who have been blessed by a generous God, and consequently, are a generous people.  It is who we are. It is in our DNA; it is our culture. We are a people who are creating a culture of generosity.  Thank you!

New Website

After months of work, the new website for First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will go public this Monday.  Our new website address is www.firstchristianchurch.org.  The new website is a cleaner site which should be easier to use for visitors and seekers wanting to learn more about First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Ashland.  Our old website, www.fcc-ashland.org, will redirect you to our new website.  In our evaluation of how our old website was used we discovered that the main pages viewed in order of popularity were the staff, newsletter, bulletin, calendar, prayer requests, DWM and sermon pages.  The website has from 800-1000 hits per month from between 400-700 unique users.  These results suggest that our website is primarily used by people familiar with our congregation who are looking for specific information.  About 200 hits a month are from users who have come to browse the website, most likely potential first time visitors, looking for information about our congregation.

Our goal for the new website was to, first, have a name that is recognizable.  Our old website had a dash (fcc-ashland) in the name, which is not universally recognized.  Our staff emails, like RevIke@fcc-ashland.org were not universally recognized by email trailers which would hinder emails or cause them to be returned as “undeliverable.”  Our new web name and email addresses, RevIke@firstchristianchurch.org, RevLarry@firstchristianchurch.org, should improve both our email services and increase our church’s website in search engine results.  These improvements will greatly increase our online traffic and make our website easier to find for people looking for a church home in the Ashland area.  Old emails will remain active during our period of transition.

Second, the new website retains the most popular features used by what we can assume are members who are looking for specific information.  Our newsletters, bulletins, calendar and prayer requests remain key features of the new website and have been redesigned for faster use.  Our staff page has been expanded to help visitors get to know our staff and primary programs featuring profiles of our staff and quick links to established programs.

Third, we have added more complete information about what visitors might expect on a Sunday morning.  One of our most common requests from first time visitors has been information about childcare and what they might expect in a typical worship service.  Information about our congregation’s history and organizational documents like our Constitution, By Laws and Board Members has also been added.
Overall, the website has a more contemporary design, other new features (e-cards, email lists, recommended links for Bible study), QR reader codes for smart phone users and direct links to our Facebook page.  The website goes live on Monday, October 15. Visit us at www.firstchristianchurch.org.  If you encounter any problems or see any mistakes, please give our Office Manager, Kathryn, a call at 324-5335 or email her at Office@firstchristianchurch.org.

Welcoming God: Part 2

The second in a two-part series looking at how God is welcomed by the world:

As a child, I dressed up, along with my classmates, as a pilgrim or Native American while our class learned about the desire for religious freedom of our nation’s founders.  The Pilgrims became icons for religious liberty, but this view, although popular, is not historical.  The Pilgrims disagreed with the established Church of England.  However, their goal was not freedom of religion, but a desire to establish their own context where they could, like the Church of England, enforce adherence to their own doctrines by the community.  Thus, in the early years of this nation, the reality was that a legal relationship existed between church and state in the individual colonies, which were soon to become independent states.  It wasn’t long before states became indentified by faith as well as commerce.  From Episcopalian Virginia to Congregationalist New England, Roman Catholic Maryland to Baptist Rhode Island and Delaware, states were identified by the particular faith practices of their citizens.  Pennsylvania was itself divided by eastern Quakers, mid-state Anabaptists and Western Presbyterians, while New York City was a hotbed for the Reformed Church.  In the midst of the diversity of doctrine of these states, they would find a common ground that ultimately led to the American Revolution.  Professor and author Hunter Baker noted, “Unlike the French Catholic church, the American church was a major force in the revolution, rather than a target of it.”

Predominantly Protestant, the early framers of the Constitution were influenced by Christian worldviews.  The belief in the depravity of the human condition is credited in having influenced the checking, limiting and balancing of power.  The idea that humans are created in the image of God influenced the idea that human beings have “inalienable” rights that are guaranteed not by human institutions but by “their Creator.”  While certainly not perfect, with the institutionalized discrimination of women and slaves, these doctrinal positions welcomed God’s authority in every facet of human interaction.  The Bible, as both a cultural force and an accepted revelation of God’s will for personal conduct, organization of families and communal laws functioned as the foundation for both criminal and civil law.  The Bible was understood as the great equalizer.  With Scripture in hand, the stable boy could stand in the presence of a monarch and discern together as equals since, before God, one was no more important than the other.  Such is not the case with all religions where cast systems separate rulers from untouchables, as in Hinduism, or where one group works while the other only prays, as in Buddhism.

In its original understanding, secularism was an idea that though government is influenced by religious worldviews, its application of particular viewpoints by the government must be neutral.  This was first introduced to our nation by the Baptists of Rhode Island.  Unfortunately, secularism has changed throughout the years.  The foremost research center on secularism is housed at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.  In a recent study of secularism, the center concluded that today’s definition of secularism is the total absence of religious influence in the organization of not only government, but culture. Unfortunately, we are all influenced by something. What is the end of a people who no longer welcome God? We shall soon see.