On May 20, 2012, we will recognize and honor the graduates of our church.  Jessica Hebenstreit, Kyle McReynolds, and Forrest Schultz will graduate from high school.  Matt Thompson will graduate from college.  If you know of any others, please give their names to Darrell Vandervort.  As these young people prepare for the next steps in their lives, let us join together and pray for them and ask God’s guidance and protection into the future.

Last summer I invited people to offer suggestions (topics, Scripture passages, or themes) for the sermons of summer.  Once again I am asking for any requests you may have.  Please email them to pastor@fcc-wr.org or write them down and give them to me on any Sunday.  I would like to have any suggestions in hand by the end of the month so that I can prepare them for sermons in July and August.  You had some very good ideas last summer.  Can you do it again?

On the last Sunday of May, we will celebrate the holy day of Pentecost.  This is the day that the disciples were powerfully visited by the Holy Spirit.  It is also considered the birthday of the church.  Before this day, the followers of Jesus were mourning and considering going back to their old lives as fishermen, merchants, and other jobs.  Suddenly, they dropped any consideration of going back to their old lives and committed themselves to traveling the known world telling everyone about their time with Jesus.  Most often they cared for the people they met before they ever told a story about healing some first.

They found the motivation to not be shy and fearful, but confronted all those who wished to silence them and shared hope with all those who were on the outside of the society.  Philip met with a eunuch.  Paul and Peter met with Gentiles.  Thomas traveled all the way to India.  These people had traveled less than 100 miles from their homes until this point in their lives.

Pentecost might be a time to consider how much our faith has changed our lives and where we might have been.  We have encountered the presence of the Holy Spirit.  We have been guided, prodded and occasionally smacked upside the head with the Divine 2X4.

The same word that we translate from Hebrew as "spirit" is also the word as "breath".  God breathed the breath of life into each of us, breathed his spirit into us.  We have the same potential as the Apostles, the potential to share faith and bring wholeness to the people we meet.  We have the potential to take the same risks that they took and thus bring the light of hope to people living in the darkness of despair and hopelessness.

Happy Birthday to the church and Happy Birthday to the power that turned ordinary people into Apostles.

Shalom, Darrell

Since it is Easter, the church season of Easter, not just the day, I thought I would share some small “eggs” with everyone.  By the beginning of the month our “Seeds of Hope” gardens will be in place and planted in the back yard of the church.  These gardens are 10’ x 6’ and will be planted with beans, greens, black eyed peas, and herbs.  This project is the Eagle project of Jesse Moffett with the help of his scout troop and our congregation.  The vegetables harvested will be donated to the food pantry so that fresh produce will be available to those in need.  It is hoped that these seeds scattered and sown will  produce 10 and 20 fold and maybe even 100 fold, or at least provide for those in our community most in need.  If you have time during the summer and want to check the garden and pull a weed or two, please feel free to do so.  We can all do a little bit to reap, and come harvest time, may we have workers enough.

Disciple’s Men are having their national rally this summer at Bethany College, a really great place that is worth the trip.  The name of the event is “Xtreme Faith, Bold Action” and runs from July 13-15, 2012.  The speaker for Saturday evening is Derek Maul and Sunday morning Dr. Frank Thomas, the senior pastor of Mississippi Blvd. in Memphis, TN will deliver the sermon.  During the event, you will have opportunities to tour Historic Bethany and the sites associated with Alexander and Thomas Campbell.  There will also be workshops available.  Registration and full information is available at www.gadiscipples.org.  The deadline for anyone wishing to go is early May.  Check out this opportunity.  Wives are also invited to attend.

Registration for summer camp at Camp Christian will be due on Sunday, April 29, 2012.  Forms are available at www.gadisciples.org and will be available at the church.  Camp is available for children and youth from kindergarten to college ages.  Last year we sent 25 to camp as campers, counselors and one director.  We already have one director and several who have applied to be counselors.  Join the fun.  When we have all the applications in and know who will be at which camp, look for the list of names and send a card or a letter to them at camp.  The information on those at camp will be shared the week before they go so you can be sure that mail will arrive while they are at camp.  Fun things will happen.

Shalom, Darrell

During March we journey through the season of Lent, a time of self-examination and preparation for the wonder of Easter.  Usually we talk about giving up something for the period.  We try to focus upon walking closer to God and improving our understanding of what it means to live as a Christian.  Unfortunately, our focus tends to be directed only upon our inner self.  What would happen if we began to look upon how we live our lives in relationship with others?  Who might we meet?

Maybe we would meet the man who thought the only way he could have control over others was by taking advantage of them.  He needed to climb down out of the tree to find true control.  How about the woman so desperate to be loved that she jumped from empty relationship to empty relationship.  She needed to offer water to a stranger from another religion to find real love.  Or maybe we will find the foreign woman in a foreign land daring to confront national prejudice to ask for justice for her children and because she set aside her fear she found true justice.  What about the man rejected by his community and was so disturbed that he lived in a cemetery and found wholeness in the approach of a complete stranger, who spoke to him and touched him.

There may also be the political leader who knows all about wielding power, yet finds he has no power when his daughter dies.  The woman who has reached nearly the end of hope fighting a lifelong disease risks one more chance in a leap of faith.  Maybe we run into grieving travelers who lost all their hope and then discover that hope never dies.

All of these people can be found in the ministry of Jesus recorded in the gospels.  But then we might also run into them in the reflection we encounter in our mirror.  They could appear as our family or friends.  We might work next to them or even be the stranger standing in line with us at the grocery.  Show them the wonder of the Gospel by offering the same love that Jesus offered the same people during his life.  This will become a Lenten journey that we will want to make every day of every year, whether it is Lent or not.

Shalom, Darrell

Wow!  In 2011 we got a lot done.  We finished the Fellowship Hall, sent our largest groups in many years to Camp Christian and to Youth-a-palooza, supported our Christmas family and provided a lot of canned goods for the Salvation Army and the Christian Social Ministries food bank.  So what can we do this year?

Here is one thing that began last year that we can put into action this year.  During 2011, several people talked about planting a garden to provide fresh vegetables to the food banks that we help.  We talked about how big, location, and other details.  The board accepted the idea, and we had hoped to put it together this year.

In November I was told about a young man seeking to build a community garden for his Eagle project for the Boy Scouts.  We got together and he is drawing up plans for four raised beds for the front yard of the church.  The beds would be about 6’ X 12’.  Our “Seeds of Hope” gardens would be out front to make it easier to tend as there is a water supply out front.  It also makes it more visible for security as well as promotion of the idea of gardening for others.  We would plant vegetables that would be tolerant of our dry climate and do well in full sun.  Different groups in the church from children to adults could take turns caring for the crops and harvesting them as they ripen.

This would be an outreach ministry of our church.  Helping a Boy Scout achieve his Eagle, feeding the hungry in our community and challenging others to do the same.

Another challenge before us began during the early summer and resulted in a program at the November Fellowship Dinner.  The organization, Family Promise, came to Warner Robins to guide a desire to minister to the homeless in our county.  The way Family Promise would be set up here in Warner Robins is to get churches to agree to host and/or support the care and sheltering of four homeless families with children in this county.  Carolyn Schomer reported in November that according to the Houston County Board of Education, there are 315 homeless families with school-aged children in our county.

Family Promise would provide week long housing in a church for overnight, a center where the families could come during the day to bathe, go to school and receive the guidance and support needed to get back into safe and affordable housing.  Host churches would supply overnight accommodations in the church for four families.  Support churches would be partnered with a host church to provide transportation, preparation of breakfast, participating in evening and overnight fellowship and participating in special activities.  This commitment would be for seven consecutive days not more than four times per year.  We would make a one year commitment.

If we were to do this, we would need one person to act as coordinator.  Others could volunteer as drivers, cooks or spend a night at the host site, volunteer at the Day Center, serve on Network Committees, such as Recruitment, Transportation, Day Center, Finance, Publicity.

This is an opportunity for us to truly practice Hospitality as described in Matthew 25:31-46.  Prayerfully consider this and if you would like to be involved, please let me know.  We need to make a decision about this soon so that we can start serving those most in need.

Shalom, Darrell

How much do you spend on Christmas each year?  Are you afraid to total it up?  Does it take most of the next year to pay for it all?  Is this a Christian Christmas or a commercial driven Christmas?  Now don’t take this wrong, I think that giving special gifts to loved ones is a wonderful expression of our love, just as we received that special gift from God on Christmas Day.  But what if we did something different.

Remember those special homemade gifts that you gave your parents when you were in school, or the gifts that your children gave you?  Most parents still have those plaster of Paris hand prints, construction paper cards, clay sculptures, and the like.  When we see these, our hearts go back to the faces of those tender children watching us for our reactions to the gift they worked so hard to make.  We remember the glow of their smile when we gushed with gratitude.  We didn’t gush because we held the creation of the next great artist, sculptor, or poet, but rather because we knew the love that was invested in those simple items.  That love is why we still have these gifts.

Whether you create your own gift or purchase something, take the time to find a gift that expresses the love you hold for that person, Make sure that when it is opened, that the recipient knows that they are loved and that this is an expression of your love.

It may take some re-education for some of us.  We have spent so much of our lives immersed in the commercials that gifts are measured by their financial value rather than by the loving intent of the givers.  The worth of the gift is not in how much was spent, but rather by how much love was invested.  The grandparents and the aunts and uncles who gave us gifts of clothing (I know that as children it really wasn’t what we wanted or hoped for) may have truly and loving selected these items for our real needs, not our commercially inspired wants.

Maybe give a gift of taking over a chore around the house that someone else has, for a day, for a week, for a month.  Make a recording of a song or a book that the person loves, not by some famous reader or singer, but by you!  Compile a slide show of photos on DVD of family and memories spanning a life.  Do something to pamper the person you love.  It does not have to be expensive.  It only has to be genuine and loving.

May your Christmas be a blessing and the New Year be rich in the presence of God.

Shalom,  Darrell

During my first Thanksgiving with Marsha and her family in Maysville, KY in 1979, I ate my first and last of oyster dressing.  It is similar to a lot of traditional dressings one has at Thanksgiving, but it was not part of my experience growing up.  It was wonderful.  It was my last taste because before the next Thanksgiving I had discovered my severe allergy to shellfish.  When the whole family gathers, there is still oyster dressing, but I eat the regular dressing.

We all encounter differences in the food that is “traditional” in one family and completely different in another.  Change means tasting new dishes, and experiencing new ways to give thanks.  It can become a real blessing to allow for our traditions to grow and change.

This November, we will celebrate our church family’s Thanksgiving fellowship dinner in our remodeled Fellowship Hall.  This will be our first regularly scheduled fellowship time in the renewed facility, and will be a time of remembering and giving thanks.

This November there will be many families in Warner Robins, who may get little for their Thanksgiving dinners.  There are many in Warner Robins who will be hungry on Thanksgiving Day.  Hunger is a major problem, not only in places like Africa and Asia, but also in our neighborhoods, in our backyards, or across our streets.  We need to give Thanks for our blessings, but we also need to be a blessing to others!

Therefore, this Thanksgiving Fellowship Dinner will be a different ”tradition.”  We need to remember to be thankful for all of the gifts God has provided, even the simple gifts.  The dinner this November will be a soup and corn bread meal.  Beth Bickley and Ann Von Almen will be sharing information on how you can help with the meal and what to bring.  But there is something we should all bring, food for others!

During the month of November, bring in canned goods, bring in the fixings for your favorite dish, bring in your “traditional” Thanksgiving foods and we will get it to the food pantries in town.  A basket will be in front of the Communion table for the month, and it will be brought down to the Fellowship Hall on the night of the dinner.  We can give thanks for all that our church family does to help each other in our church, community and beyond.  We can also celebrate the opportunity to make sure that other families will have something for which to give thanks.

It will be different.  Rather than stuffing ourselves with turkey and dressing on a Sunday night, we will give thanks for different soups and corn bread and fixings.  We will rejoice that we are blessed and that we can be a blessing to others.  Make plans to attend the Thanksgiving Fellowship Dinner and start sharing the thankfulness.

Shalom,  Darrell

After what seems to have been years, the Fellowship Hall is nearly ready to be used.  We sacrificed some storage space for a room large enough to hold everyone for events like our Homecoming, and other large gatherings.  Our kitchen can hold more than three people without being crowded and it is possible to wash dishes and still get to the sink for water as there are now two sinks.  We have two refrigerators in the kitchen as well as a stove with an oven and a double oven.  Food can be kept cold, reheated or cooked all at the same time.

No more trying to find counter space to prepare plates of food, counters run around all four walls, plus the new pass through window to the fellowship hall saves having to run into each other coming and going from the kitchen.  There are also two large windows over each sink to let in light and when the kitchen gets too hot, the windows open can be opened.

New flooring in the main room looks fantastic and will be easy to clean.  New lighting will allow us to have a brightly lit space for events.  Everything looks clean and nice.  New chairs and tables will allow us to be creative in seating arrangements so as to provide for greater fellowship and better function for meetings.

We owe a large thanks to the work of the 2010 team for developing the plan for the renovation and overseeing the design and work.  Take time to thank David Von Almen, Denny McReynolds, Charlie Hebenstreit, Mike & Gidget Hurlbert and all the people who helped with color selection and design details.  They have done very well!!

Now at about this point, most people would anticipate some sort of statement about the need to keep this facility in pristine order for years to come.  This is the first renovation done on this building since it ceased to be the sanctuary for this congregation.  We should care for it with regular cleaning and service, but I hope that we wear it out from repeated use through our fellowship events, programs, and special gatherings as a congregation.  I also hope that we can add to the wear by continuing to allow outside groups to use this space for meetings.

The Fellowship Hall is one of the first places that many people will encounter our church family.  We need to treat it as God’s kitchen and dining room, but also remember that according to the Bible, God wants us to welcome ALL into God’s spaces.  We have a place to welcome and feel and fellowship and share the unique character of this congregation.  We have a space that truly reflects our understanding of identity of “Come and Be Embraced.”

May this space be a place for feeding, for fellowship, for growing families, for service, and for welcoming others in God’s name for decades to come.  May this space be a blessing to all who enter and find the love and presence of God.

Shalom, Darrell

This month we will mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11 on the second Sunday of the month.  How can we commemorate this memorial in a manner that reflects our faith as well as our national identity?

Rather than recalling the hate that caused these people to turn commercial airliners into weapons, we need to memorialize the innocent victims of the attack.  These men, women and children were from all races, economic levels, social status, and religions.  They were the targets merely because they were in the place chosen as sites because the planners decided that these places would devastate our national psyche.

We need to make a determined effort to remember the men and women who gave their lives in the effort to prevent further violence by overpowering the hijackers and preventing their flight from becoming another weapon.  We read that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.  The people of the flight that went down in PA gave their lives for people they may never have met, let alone ever be able to call friends.  Their love encouraged them to make the ultimate sacrifice of love.

Another group that gave their lives in an effort to save others were the police, fire and rescue crews, and EMTs.  They set aside the natural tendency to preserve their lives and entered into the burning towers.  They were following their training to bring aid and assistance to all those who were injured and attempting to escape the towers.  They were not the targets; they were heroes responding to brothers and sisters in need.

The final group that we should honor and remember are the crews that went into the destruction to seek the dream of survivors and recover bodies so that families could grieve.  They did not know that entering the area for extended periods would harm their health.  The dust and particles were inhaled and may have caused serious health issues for those who worked to clear and recover.  They now are beginning to pay for their sacrifice.

The Hebrew Prayer book offers these words so that we can keep the events of 9/11 in proper perspective.  “When God created us, He made us in His own image, in the likeness of the divine.  Both male and female He created; He blessed them, and at the same time of their creation He called them Human.  Therefore was a single human created to teach you that to destroy a single human soul is the equivalent to destroying an entire world; and to sustain a single human soul is equivalent to sustaining an entire world.”

The hatred that led these men to hijack planes and turn them into weapons did not destroy our world.  The sacrifices of the men and women who gave their lives in efforts to save others preserved our world.  We claim a faith based upon a single individual sacrificing His life to the power of hatred so that the world of God’s love could survive and grow.

Pray for those whose hatred continue to lead them to destruction.  Pray for those who still struggle with the losses of that day.  Pray for the workers who are suffering from health problems that may relate to the dust and debris of that day.  Then go out and work to save the life of one person and save an entire world.

Shalom, Darrell