A Letter from Pastor Derek- May


Summertime, And the Living Is Easy
Are you singing along to the rest of that song?  Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess was known for lots of great music and groundbreaking musical theatre innovation.  But it is probably best known for that song.  “Summertime.”  “Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high / Your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’ / so hush little baby / don’t you cry.”

I don’t know what your summer is like.  But I hope it has time of relaxation and renewal. And that you keep connected with your community here at Southport as well.  We’re still here.  We don’t close down for the summer, just so you know.  In fact, we are planning to dig into some very important topics this summer.  The topics you have chosen over the course of the past month or so. 

In case you forgot, I submitted a survey before Easter, asking what questions you all had about the Bible and about your faith and faith practices.  I got back an amazing number of responses.  Thank you for that!  There were some common themes, but also some unique, one-of-a-kind responses that really made me stop and think.  We will publish the whole schedule and make it available to those who might be interested.  But I thought I’d give you some highlights here.

In June we will wrestle with some of those troublesome passages (like women keeping silent in the church, for example) and with a whole book that troubles some of us (Revelation).  In July we will tackle some of the big social issues that bedeviling the church these days (homosexuality and guns, to name two), but also examine liturgical and denominational practices that make us United Methodists stand out from the crowd in certain ways.

If you want to know more, be sure and pick up the summer preaching schedule and see if your question got on the calendar.  And if not, be assured that I am keeping all these responses close at hand for future use.  Again, I thank you for taking this process seriously.  And anytime you have a suggestion or want to know more about why we do what we do, just ask!

This is not, of course, the whole of the summer experience.  Read through the rest of this newsletter for a glimpse of the full range of programs and events and opportunities to serve.  From VBS to Summer Camps, from United Methodist Women events to mission opportunities of various kinds, from Annual Conference to Course of Study (OK, that last one is for Pastor Doug, who continues his training for ministry this summer – but we’ll cheer him on!). 

Summertime isn’t easy because we don’t do much, at least at Southport UMC anyway. 
And to launch our summertime experience, we have the month of May.  This month we celebrate confirmation, graduation, baptism renewal and Pentecost – all on the same Sunday (May 20th, don’t miss it!).  And then Memorial Weekend is the end of our “Walking in the Way” series.  So, lots to do. 

We’ll need a break.  As will you from time to time, and I understand that.  I’ll be taking some vacation time this summer too (my wife is insisting!).  So, it is understandable that there might be some time when we won’t see you.  But trust me when I say you’ll be missed.  And I hope you can return, renewed and refreshed and ready to jump into all that is going on here at your church.


Join us this summer!
Shalom, Pastor Derek


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