Links to SOLM mp3 Audio Files! (See Right Panel)

Missouri Conference School of Lay Ministry, "Transforming Congregations through Spiritual Formation in the Wesleyan Tradition," led by Rev. Tom Albin, Dean of the Upper Room was a (let's use the work again) a transforming experience. Awesome really. We were fortunate enough to video the event and have a four DVD set available for $25.00. Drop me a line at rmatson573@aol.com.

What a great way for you and your church leadership groups to review, renew and launch transforming ministries for your congregations! Some just don't have time to spend eight hours in from of the TV, but would have time in their cars or on the jogging paths or sidewalks while walking their canine friends.

You're in luck! The sessions are now available for download and use on your iPod or mp3 player or you may burn a CD to use in your car. Take a look in the right hand panel of this blog. The files are available for immediate download. They are large files so be patient. If you are on dialup, or just need a more convenient way, drop me a note and I'll send you a CD.

Audio and Video are different experiences. You'll learn something different in each format. If you have formed a team at your church, here's my recommendation: Then during the week, listen to the audio session. Send emails to each other with the ideas that God has placed on your mind.

And may you be blessed!

A Living Memorial

(1 Samuel 7:7-12)

Below is a the Memorial Sunday sermon at Smith Chapel, how we can become an Ebenezer, a living memorial to God's help. After listening to Bishop Schnase describe the Wesleyan approach to salvation and sanctification through Grace, I thought it important for us to hear my take on friend Dorothy's story, part of the sermon below. The hymn of preparation was "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and the Scripture reading was 1 Samuel 7:7-12.

Introduction

Ebenezer, in our song and our Scripture, “stone of help,” but also stone of remembrance for it helped them remember. Last Tuesday, we visited our stone of remembrance, the memorial stone of our son Jeff. Jeff would have been 48 on June 30^th, one month from today. August 13^th will be 30 years, but he will always be 18 to me. Jeff was Rosemary’s best friend. He was Curt’s constant companion. He was our son. In his short life, he had experienced more than most. He had a job that he loved, he had a girl that he loved, and who loved him in return. He had friends that he loved who cared about him. He was passionate about life. He loved life and it loved him in return. How do we memorialize a life so precious to us? How do you live in response to the love that he had given us? A stone of remembrance yes, but our best response is a life of remembrance, a life lived as a memorial to life of love that he lived. Our lives as a stone of remembrance.

Sometimes when tragedy happens, we have trouble even getting on with life, let alone living our lives. We have the question in our hearts continually, the question that has plagued humankind since the beginning, the question that in so many cases drives people away from the Christian faith. The question of course is “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Body

You’ve all asked that question. Certainly Ilene has asked the question. Certainly Cecil has asked the question. When we think of Julie, I think we all ask the question. My hunch is that every single one of you have asked. Many times with unsatisfactory answers, many unsatisfactory answers from good, well-intentioned people. They say, “It was all part of God’s plan.” Or “God takes the very best for his own.” Or “God loved him the most.” Well, then, I don’t want God to love him. In fact, I don’t want a God that had it in his plan to snatch Jeff from us. How can we have faith in such a God? How can we raise a stone, a memorial to such a God?

It’s the kind of thing you might have heard from your friends. It’s the kind of thing you might hear from the more vocal of the Christian community today. “God has a plan. It was all part of God’s plan.” It’s the kind of thing that drives many away from the faith. You might have heard it, but you won’t hear it here. It is not Methodist. It is not Wesleyan. It’s not part of our DNA.

John Wesley had a running battle with friends of his who followed the French theologian, John Calvin, who believed that all things were predestined by God. Even those who are to be saved and those who are not to be saved are predestined by God. That was unacceptable to Wesley who believed in a God of grace. A God whose grace was available to all, not just some. God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace is available to all. O, we have the free-will to refuse it, we can choose, but God’s grace is available to every one of us.
How does this address the question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The world is fallen, evil exists, bad things happen because of the choices we have made from the beginning. Choices made by both people and spiritual forces. Paul called them “powers and principalities”; they make choices too. Choices result in accidents. Choices sometimes result in evil. Bad things happen to good people not because God chooses them, but because people do. Choice gives us the freedom to love, to experience joy. It also gives us the freedom to do harm.

Or because that’s the way a fallen world is. We choose to go certain places. We choose to go at certain times. We live in certain places. The hurricanes that provide water for thousands of square miles, provide devastation at the seashore. The same thunderstorms that water the plains spawn tornados. The wild beasts that provide food also are a threat to life and limb. We live in a fallen world, but someday we know that the lion will lie down with the lamb. That is yet to come. For now, bad things do happen, but we know that God is there.

The important thing for John Wesley was the understanding that God’s grace was available, not just available, but working in each and every one of us even before we know it. Wesley was not alone in his understanding, but was following in the footsteps of a Dutch theologian, Jacob Arminius, who had set forth certain principles in opposition to John Calvin. Wesley embraced Arminism, as it came to be known, and our own denomination as well as many other Wesleyan denominations, such as the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, Assemblies of God; and many others like the Disciples of Christ have followed and others, most all flowing from Wesley’s teachings.

And how important is this understanding? It makes understand that God’s love is for all, not just for some. We don’t have a God who picks and chooses. We have a God who loves all of his children and wants all to believe in him and love him in return. By the way, that should influence the way we view others.

It makes us understand that we are immersed in God’s grace that is continually nudging us, but that we have apart to play, we have to accept the nudging of God’s grace. Understand there is nothing we can do by ourselves to save us. It is grace. But what we must do is make the choice to accept it.

It makes understand the power of prayer. What good would prayer be if all things were predestined, even the prayers we say tonight? We choose to pray because we know we have a God who loves us, and God who hears our prayers. Not that all are answered to our satisfaction. Evil forces exist in this world that resist grace and bad things can happen.

But it makes us understand that nothing can happen that cannot bring God glory, even the most tragic of circumstances. Tragedy happened in Jesus’ life. His friend Lazarus died. Jesus used it to bring glory to God. Bad things happen in our lives. If we will allow God, he will take those tragedies and bring glory out of those too. I praise God today because he has been at work in my life.

Yes, I think the Wesleyan understanding of God’s grace, God’s love, makes our lives much more important because we have choices to make. What we do with our lives matters. It matters to us. It matters to others. We can choose to make our lives a memorial. We can choose to make our lives a difference. And I would submit that we make a difference best when we follow the teachings of Jesus.

We are the body of Christ. Jesus is our head. We are to have the mind of Christ. Paul called Jesus the pioneer and perfector, perfector, of our faith. It is Jesus to whom we look. It is Jesus who we follow. It is Jesus in whom we believe. It is in following Jesus that we build our lives into a memorial for Him and for those we love. Our lives become an Ebenezer when we choose to follow Jesus.

Making choices is not always an easy thing. We are immersed in a world of bad options. It’s easy to make bad choices when we are surrounded by bad options. Fortunately, Wesley had some things to say about that too. He taught us too how we are to live our lives in following Jesus, how we can best make choices. We talked of that last year when we did our sermon series on Wesley’s Three Simple Rules.

First, do no harm. Recall that we said that this was the first rule because in so many cases it is so difficult to undo harm. We can be forgiven, but the consequences of harm remain.

Then, do good. Do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, for as long as ever you can.

Finally, stay in love with God. We do this by immersing ourselves in grace and saying yes to God’s nudgings. We immerse ourselves in grace by doing all those things associated with the devotional life: We pray, we read and hear Scripture, we study, we partake in Holy Communion, we fast, we gather in community to enter into holy conversation. In so doing, we hear the love of God proclaimed and we respond in love.

This week I read a facebook note from my friend Dorothy in Springfield. She had attended a Joyce Meyer event this past weekend where Joyce had talked a lot about, “what you think, you become.” She was challenged to spend some time each day thinking about what she was thinking about. It struck a chord with her.

On Tuesday morning, her Bible opened to the following verse, one of my favorites: Philippians 4:8 "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." NIV

Wow! Dorothy thought about in the shower, then on the drive to work. Then she thought about what she thought about. When the day was done, she wrote this:

What goes into my head, thoughts, judgments, etc., can be pretty scary sometimes… Man, are my eyes wide open now. Here are a few examples that will bring me to a place that is noble and just and lovely and admirable:

1. I will not shade any of my thoughts with deceit or lies.
2. I will think about others with respect and honor.
3. I determine to think on what is virtuous and decent.
4. I will keep my thoughts focused on good things.
5. I will look for the inner beauty in the people I meet - after all God created them.
6. I will focus on the best qualities of people I know.
7. I will avoid sloppy attitudes.
8. I will recall those things that cause my heart to praise God!

She concludes: These are the biblical teachings that will better shape my day to help me better shape the world where I am.

Dorothy is becoming a memorial, a stone that will help others remember who and whose they are. How does this come about? It is grace. God’s grace. We can do nothing apart from God. But there came a time from God’s nudgings (Wesley called it prevenient grace—grace before we know it, grace before it’s convenient) there was a time Dorothy responded and said yes to God. God forgave her of her sins and brought her into a relationship with Him. She became a Christian. She was justified, she was made right. She was brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We call this justifying grace. You see grace is God’s love continuously poured out for us. God continued to pour out his love, to continue to work in Dorothy’s life. He nudged to go to the Joyce Meyer seminar. She said yes. Through the voice of Joyce Meyer He placed an idea before her. She said yes. On Tuesday morning he nudged her to read her Bible. She was again immersed in grace. She said yes. He placed Paul’s letter to the Philippians before her. It shaped her thoughts to which she said yes.

How do our lives become a memorial? Wesley believed that God does not leave us alone. Through our immersion in grace, our immersion in God’s love, from our saying yes, day after day, God moves us from where we are towards where he wants us to be. Wesley called this sanctification. Moving on to Christian maturity with God’s help. Yes, I would say on to becoming an Ebenezer, a monument a stone to God’s help.

Stones are a big deal in the Bible. (Note: Small stones are passed out to each in the congregation.) A search will reveal almost 400 occurrences, depending on the translation you might be using. Some notable remembrances of stones in the Bible:

Jacob used a stone as a pillow the night he dreamed of Jacob’s ladder and angels ascending and descending from heaven. In the morning he set it upright as a pillar, pouring oil on the top of it and saying, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it…. How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.”

Stones. The Ten Commandments were given on two tablets of stone.

Joshua had the Israelites take 12 stones out of the Jordon River after they had crossed over and set them up as a monument to God so that anyone who asked in times to come they would know they were a monument to God’s mighty acts so that they might fear the Lord forever.

There was the Ebenezer stone, the stone of help.

There was the stone Jesus commanded be removed from Lazarus’ tomb, and the stone that was rolled away on Easter morning.

Then, there was Christ, the cornerstone.

Finally, we are to become stone of remembrance, an Ebenezer, a monument to God’s help for those around us to see.

Close

One more thing, we become a memorial, a stone of remembrance, when we live a life of gratitude.

As we drove away from the cemetery, from Jeff’s grave last Monday, I asked Rosemary a question I’d heard another time. “If you knew, if you knew the pain, the suffering, the anguish that you’d have gone through because of the loss of Jeff, because of the bad things that had happened to this good child. If you knew, would you have had children?”

Her response was the one that I know you know: “I’m grateful for the time I had with him. I wouldn’t trade a moment, not a second of that time.

The time we have with one another is precious. A precious stone, more precious than gold. You see that precious stone is hope. And that too is grace, an undeserved gift of love from God. The hope that we will join again with those who have gone before, join with them in the presence of Jesus Christ who is our stone of hope.

Our hope is in Jesus Christ, the answer to our deepest longings, and our most difficult questions. When we ask, “Why?” We need not know the reason. Reasons may never be satisfactory to us. What we need is our stone of hope. We need gift of Jesus Christ.

With a gift like that, how can we not live our life as a stone of remembrance, as a memorial to all that God has given us.

So may you all be stones of remembrance, carrying in your hands the precious stone of hope to the glory of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is our help and we are his stones of remembrance, his Ebenezers in a world that desperately needs his help. Become a stone for all to see, and as Dorothy said, to shape the world around you. Amen.

Strategy #4 "Create Momentum"

The Strategy Themes discussed below were presented by Bob Farr, Director of Congregational Excellence, Missouri Conference UMC, as part of a presentation “Renovate or Die: How to Become an Outwardly Focused Church.” The following discusses Strategy #4 of 10.

Strategy #4 Create Momentum

Or how to break through resistance and lead change!

Leaders motivate. Managers channel that motivation. In the case of “Creating Momentum” both are clearly needed. Channeled activity without motive is doing the same old thing. Motivation without direction is simply chaos. Momentum mathematically is a “vector,” ie it has a direction as a component. In other words, it is channeled energy. So the leader’s task is to achieve channeled energy that moves the congregation toward his or her vision.

So how does a pastor create momentum? What does he or she focus on? Buckingham and Coffman, First Break all the Rules (pg 57) say emphasize your strengths. Jim Collins, Good to Great, says select something you can do world class, that you are passionate about, that makes the biggest difference (he says “economic denominator”; I say that produces the most "extravagant generosity" or the most "radical" participation by your congregation.)

What can you do world class, better than anyone else? Everyone has something. Our little church does Vacation Bible School (VBS) world class. We have an average attendance of 19 that includes two children. Yet we had 18 kids in VBS last year with a teenage dancer leading awesome music, in a multipurpose barn a half mile from the church, with a neighbor mom, home schooler, as a wonderful Bible teacher. To be world class, we didn’t just depend on our own resources, we used the community. And we had fun! Three years ago it rained. One of the mothers rounded up 10 plastic water bottles and tennis balls, and we did VBS bowling down the church aisle. The first one to 153 (the number of fish caught in John 24) won. And we had fun. (Two years later, Cokebury used the same game as one of its recreation programs.) Did I say 18 kids?

The intersection of what you are passionate about, what you can do world class, and what radically maximizes participation should be the fruitful ministries that are your focus. Then Collins says the best achieve success over and over again creating an accumulation of visible results that energize their companies (congregations). Momentum builds and bursts through resistance to change!

Success is best visible in PRAY-PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT cycles. Rick Warren says, “[Practices] must be put into a sequential process [to] be acted on every day.” Bishop Schnase says, “Exemplary and repeated practices.. are the means congregations use to fulfill their missions with excellence and fruitfulness [changing lives in Jesus Christ].”

Create momentum by doing what you are passionate about, what you do best, what brings extravagance and radical participation and do it in an exemplary and repeated manner… Changing lives in Jesus Christ!

Bob’s Farrism: “Successful churches do what unsuccessful churches refuse to do.”

Strategy #3 Begin With the Basics

The Strategy Themes discussed below were presented by Bob Farr, Director of Congregational Excellence, Missouri Conference UMC, as part of a presentation “Renovate or Die: How to Become an Outwardly Focused Church.” The following discusses Strategy #3 of 10.

Strategy #3 “Begin with the Basics.”

“May a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!”

Bob suggests “Start with great worship, great music, great children’s programs, do the Five Practices well.” That would be quite a report card. Even Adam Hamilton says Church of the Resurrection gets a “B” in worship. (That’s enough for the rest of us to revise our report cards.) So where in the world do we begin? I would suggest with what you do well and make it better.

Edward Deming is the Father of total quality management that revolutionized the Japanese automobile industry. The heart of it is the simple “Deming Cycle”: Plan, Do, Check, Act (and I would suggest immersed in prayer). Again, Adam Hamilton reports that the worship team meets every Monday to review how the worship weekend went and how they can do better. Not only that, Rev. Hamilton has an associate monitor his Saturday night sermon to make recommended changes for the Sunday services. Would we be so bold? Pray, then Plan, Do, Check Act, and Pray. By the way, without a team accountable to make what the activities better, your church will not be intentional or successful in your effort. The best team is the team of doers. James was right, “Be doers…, not merely hearers.” Then the gospel according to Deming says, “Then do it better, one step at a time. Plan, do, check, act.”

Small churches believe they are strapped from doing great things by limited resources. God uses others; we should too. There are talented people in our communities who are just waiting for our invitation to make a joyful noise or to lead Vacation Bible School (VBS). Want to have a great VBS? Find a teenager in your neighborhood who loves to dance and sing. Give her the Cokesbury CD and Music Director’s book a month in advance and watch your VBS blossom. Young girls will admire her, and well, boys will be boys.

Children’s programs, VBS, Sunday School, Youth Programs need to be fun. Kids learn and are attracted to the faith in fun environments. Jesus called himself a “bibber.” Can you imagine what He might have been like as a child? Make fun foundational and you will have the beginnings of a great children’s program.

Then Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice (that’s five). And “Make a joyful noise.”

Strategy #2 "Understand Your Present Realities"

The Strategy Themes discussed below were presented by Bob Farr, Director of Congregational Excellence, Missouri Conference UMC, as part of a presentation “Renovate or Die: How to Become an Outwardly Focused Church.” The following discusses Strategy #2 of 10.

Strategy #2 “Understand Your Present Realities”

The house closest to our 175 year old country church is a fairly new modular home where a single dad, his child and girl friend reside. He is one of the 80 plus percent of the people in our neck of the woods for whom church attendance is not important. Chuck does not look like our church. The neighborhood has changed. Rather than a farm community, it more closely resembles suburbia with residents traveling to a half dozen communities for their labors instead of making their living off the farm. There are few ties to the land. So not only Chuck, but most of our neighborhood does not look like the church.

Some of our church members live on 100 year old farms. Many, many of the neighbors are new and younger and living on smaller parcels of land. Because of that, the church doesn’t know their neighbors. The church members were high school classmates of 1964 and their parents. The neighbors don’t do 4H or woman’s groups with the church members. They don’t go to the sale together, because the neighbors don’t go. Most are not sure who’s behind the new mailboxes.

(By the way, if asked, most of the members would say there’s nobody around here anymore (that looks like them). Yet, a missioninsite listing within a six mile radius returned 800 mailbox addresses!)

In the book Stones into Schools, the story of Greg Mortenson planting girl’s schools in Afghanistan, he tells of visiting a US Army fire base where the operations center tracked not intelligence on the enemy but the culture of villages, the clans, the households, everything imaginable about the community the battalion was trying to secure. Mortenson gave them high marks for their efforts to know those they were sent to serve. What if we were to strive to know as much about the communities in which we live?

Just this week, I had an Edward Jones broker knock on my door, telling me (I’m sure his tongue was in his cheek), “I’m not here to sell anything. I’m just trying to get to know the neighborhood.”

It’s easier if we have a reason to talk to people. We need to continually make reasons for invitation, reasons to knock on doors, reasons to start conversations, reasons to ask neighbors to participate with us. Adam Hamilton says that today the reason may more likely be a means of service, in a food pantry, at a Habitat work site or other work project. Some rural churches piggy back with bigger churches to offer Angel Food Ministries to their neighborhood. Servant evangelism does work. Whatever it is, we need to be searching for reason for invitation. Rick Warren calls them “bridge events” into the neighborhood. How many, how often? As many as the resources of your congregation will allow: three, five, seven times a year.

And teach your congregations they don’t have to be a theologian, they don’t have to be an evangelist. All they have to do is be able to say is “I go to church. Church is important to me. Church makes a difference in my life. Won’t you join me this Sunday.” Then make sure you give them something to take away.” (Rev. Ross Reinhiller, who grew his church from 175 to 350 attendees in 2 years in a town of 3500 people.)

Get your thinking caps on. What is your church’s reality? What do you need to do to bridge to the new reality? How do you become missional? What do you need to change to give them something to take away, something important to them?

PS. Bob’s Farrism is “Connecting to context is everything.”

Remembering Emma on Mother's Day

Mother’s Legacy
(2 Timothy 1:5)

A. Introduction

There always seem to be the need for disclaimers for Mother’s Day sermons. Because

-Some are. Some are not.
-Some were. Some were not.
-Some will. Some will not.
-Some are chosen. Some chose not.
-Some are good, have experienced good mothers. Some have not.

So with every Mother’s Day sermon, there seems to be a need for a disclaimer.

For all the smiles mother or motherhood might bring, there may be tears.

For all the joys that mother or motherhood may remind us of, there may be sorrow.

3. I like smiles. So here goes.

A mother of three notorious kids was asked if she had to do all over again, would she have kids? She answered, “Sure, but just not the same three.”

An overzealous little boy describing excitedly all the wonderful thing he was going to get for his mother for Mother’s Day may her life easier, said, “I’m going to get her electric can opener; I’m going to get her an electric stove; I’m going to get her an electric chair.”

Then there were the three highly successful sons would tried to outdo one another with gifts for their elderly mother. Getting together, the first said, “I built a big house for our mother.”

The second said, “Well, I sent mother a Mercedes.”

The third said, “I’ve got you both beat. You know how Mom enjoys the Bible and she can’t see very well any more. Well, I sent her a parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took 20 monks in a monastery 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute 100,000 a year to the monastery for the next 10 years, but it was worth it. All she has to do is name a chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it.”

Soon after Mother’s Day, Mom mailed her letters of thanks. She wrote the first son, “Michael, the house you built is too large. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house.”

To the second son, she wrote, “Marvin, I’m nearly blind so I can’t drive. I stay home all day, so I really don’t use the Mercedes.”

And to the third son she wrote. “Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the sense to know what your mother really likes. The chicken was delicious.”

Finally, there were Six-year-old Johnny and his four-year-old sister who Suzy presented their mom with a Mother’s Day present; a small, spindly house plant. While it wasn’t the finest looking specimen, they had bought it with their own money and Mom was thrilled. She hugged and kissed her children and told them she loved them for thinking of her.

Johnny said, "There was some other flowers we wanted to buy for you, Mom, but we didn’t have enough money." "Yeah," said sister Suzy, "they had a real nice bunch of flowers at the shop that we were going to buy."

"But I love this plant," said the happy mother. "I know, Mom," said Johnny, "but these flowers would have been perfect for you. They were in a wreath and they had a ribbon that said ’REST IN PEACE’ on it AND YOU’RE ALWAYS ASKING FOR A LITTLE PEACE SO YOU CAN REST.”

B. Body

1. Mothers don’t always have it so good. I have to say that not even the mothers of the Bible (May they rest in peace) did not have it so good.

-Eve lost her sons.

-Sarah waited in anguish while Abraham took Isaac to the mountain and bound him

-Hagar was fearful that she would have to watch her son, Ishmael, die in the desert sun.

-Rebekah lost her two sons. When she conspired to steal the blessing from Esau she lost his affection and lost her son Jacob who had to flee for his life.

-Rachel, the mother of Joseph, died giving birth to Benjamin and never saw the greatness of her son.

-Moses’ mother gave him up to Pharaoh’s household.

-Samson’s mother had to be mortified by the things he did.

-Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, lost her husband and two sons.

-Hannah dedicated her child Samuel to the Lord.

-And then there was Mary the mother of Jesus.

2. But there were joys:

-Elizabeth, like Sarah and Hannah, gave birth in her old age. There was joy in the family. I think grandmothers can appreciate that.
-Bathsheba saw her son Solomon become King.
-Mary was blessed with a remarkable child, we call him Jesus.

The bible has good things to say about women. Women get the last word in the Book of Proverbs: (Please Read Proverbs 31:10-31)

When a remarkable woman, a remarkable mother is mentioned we all have someone we know come to mind, someone we would tell about. For me, it might be Rosemary (but that’s too close to home). It could be my next door neighbor, Lorraine, who prayed 40 years for her son and her prayers answered at the close of her life. But the woman I would like to tell you about is my grandmother Emma Matson.

Emma was born in 1885 in Stoughton, WI. Her dad rose to Superintendent of Stoughton Wagon Company. Stoughton trailers are still made today. Her mother died when she was six and her dad remarried, no necessarily a good thing for Emma and her brother Oscar.

Emma graduated from Whitewater Normal College, now a branch of the University of Wisconsin with a life-time teaching certificate.

She and my Grandpa Hakon were married on Aug 30, 1906. Their first child was born 10 months later. Not able to find good land at an affordable price in Wisconsin, the young couple sought their future in South Dakota just two years later. Rather than homesteading, Hakon found an existing farm they called “Hilltop” just outside of Burke, South Dakota.

In 1914, Hakon started a farm implement business in Burke and they moved to town.

Eventually they moved into this small two-bedroom, one bath home. From front to back on the left side, it had two bedrooms with a bath in the middle. On the right it had a living room, dining room and kitchen.

I saw of the dining room this week at my cousin Charlie’s. Spacious, a dining set that seated eight that I could see. The dining area in those days was the center of the household. Hospitality was important.

I remember the kitchen when we returned to Burke following WWII. It had a wood cooking stove. My Uncle Keith told me she cooked everything from scratch. There was no store-bought bread that came into the house. I remember too wringing the necks of chickens in the backyard and cleaning them. Grandma brought out the boiling water to have them plucked, but I think she did most of the plucking. I wasn’t very good at it. And there was always a big garden to the side of the house that played a major role at the table.

I remember the center heating grate between the living room and dining room. The furnace was coal fired and for most of her time did not have a stoker. It had to be started each and every morning.

She raised five children in that two bedroom house, having the last one, my Uncle Keith, when she was 43 with her oldest, Uncle Carroll, off to college.

As a young mother, she had taught school at a one room country school, Rembrandt School, near Hilltop.. Later she would teach and substitute teach in High School. Carroll had reported that Grandma Emma had taught him Latin. She served on the school board the final 16 years of her life. When she passed away, the senior class dedicated their annual to her.

She and Pop her founding members of the Burke Methodist Episcopal Church, formed in 1917. It was built with a large fellowship area and kitchen. Just as the dining area was the center of the house, the chuch was to be the center of the community. She was active in every facet of the church. She played piano for the Sunday School, taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, was always a part of the Woman, and Women’s circles, part of the Women’s Temperance League.

And she taught me. In my earlier grades, I stayed every Saturday night at their house. After the 10:00 news (Whitey Larson, WNAX, Yankton with studios also in Sioux City), she opened the Bible read to me and to Hakon, and we prayed. We were up in time of course to get me off to Sunday School and to church. Little towns are neat, we were a block and a half from the church, and Grandpa’s business was only two blocks away.

Grandma Emma had good years and bad. Hakon, at least, had influenza in 1918. I know because he lost most of his hair. Surely Emma was nurse at that time.

Let’s see, my Dad was three at that time. My Uncle Carroll had been born in 1907. They had moved to South Dakota when he was one year old. Picture that trip. That may be why my Dad didn’t come along until 1915. Aunt Ruth was born in 1918, in the midst of the flu epidemic. My Uncle Dean in 1921.

The 20s were prosperous as Pop was recognized in 1928 as having the most sales in South Dakota by McCormick-Deering. So prosperous that Uncle Keith came along that same year in 1928 when she was 43.

And then the 30s. She persevered while Pop strived to keep the business going while two kids went off to college. The family marvels and still wonders how they were able to pull it off.

In the 40s she saw two of her sons go off to war, one of them in the thick of things. Her youngest son, Uncle Keith, enrolled in the Naval Academy, but she unfortunately never lived to see him graduate.

Emma had suffered from goiter problems her entire life, giving her weight problems, then suffered from diabetes in her later years. She died January 31, 1950, a year before her second grandchild, Michael was born. You remember Michael. He’s the anesthesiologist at Shriner’s hospital in Sacramento.

She never saw Mike. However, I remember her encouraging Uncle Dean to meet the new nurse that had come to town who would eventually be my Aunt Lovella, my favorite aunt and Michael’s Mom. My Aunt Lovella, there’s another Mother’s Day story.

C. Close
Emma, Grandmother Emma, Mother Emma. Here’s her Bible. One of my treasures. I doubt that I would have served you these past six years if it were not for Grandma Emma’s faith.

Emma, you might say that she followed Hakon as the Biblical Ruth had followed Naomi, “Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” From the comfort of a life in Wisconsin to the wild and unforgiving west. “Where you go, I will go.”

Emma went and was a witness to her faith in every circle she traveled. And that includes mine.

“A good woman, a good mother, where will you find? She is far more precious than diamonds.” Happy Mother’s Day. Amen.

Strategy #1 "It All Starts with the Pastor"

The Strategy Themes discussed below were presented by Bob Farr, Director of Congregational Excellence, Missouri Conference UMC, as part of a presentation “Renovate or Die: How to Become an Outwardly Focused Church.” The following discusses Strategy #1 of 10.

Strategy #1 “It all starts with the pastor.”

The pastor is the congregation’s visionary, whether his or her own or derived from the congregation. The leader’s role, sorely needed in the church today, is to be a CHANGE agent. (Maybe we ought to respell it “chng” because it is certainly thought of as a four letter word!) The leader, the pastor, is causes change. Unfortunately, it often takes conflict and chaos to get change started and perseverance to push through the resistance.

I like Thomas Hawkins’ model for overcoming resistance. We’ve talked about it in past years at School of Lay Ministry:

D*M*P>R.

• Where “D” is Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction drives urgency and motivation that are essential to change.

• “M” stands for Model. Without a vision, without a clear picture of a new state of being, the church cannot move. Last year we talked about the “Missional Church,” an Acts 2 church steeped in the Commandment (Matthew 22), Compassion (Matthew 25), and Commission (Matthew 28) of Jesus Christ, undergirded by the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, a Congregation with a purpose of making new disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!

• “P” stands for Process. The congregation needs to see a way to get there or frustrations will remain. Here’s why the Healthy Church Initiative is so important. It is a visible process that gives hope that the church can really move to a new place. Change can happen!

Now note that the left side of the equation is a product of the three parts. As any one goes to zero, so does the whole left hand side!

• And the “R” is Resistance. The product of “D*M*P” must be greater than “R,” the resistance, or you and the pastor will never push through!

Yes, it starts with the pastor, but without a supportive laity, the vision will be lost. That’s why I think the Laity Leadership Development (LLD) program that our Conference Lay Leader, Brian Hammonds, has championed is so important. Laity need to be equipped to work side by side with our pastors in moving congregations to make new disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Ask your pastor what his or her vision for the congregation is. Be ready to help make it happen, to push through conflict, to move forward.

PS. Bob’s “Farrism” is “If you are going to lead, you are going to bleed.”