A Letter From Pastor Derek - May

Mayday!!

Panic stations!  Not you, me.  Well, my household.  There is just a lot to be accomplished in the next month or so and the time is slipping away.  Plus, I am on the road some significant time this month.  So, it is a month of travel and transition, as well as a month of focusing on how I can be a better disciple of Jesus Christ.

We’ve just begun our Disciple’s Heart series to end April, and now we’re ready to dig in and ask some serious questions about what it means to be a disciple.  There is a part of us that thinks that this is something we can set aside for a calmer time.  When we have time to focus on the things of faith.  When the busyness of this life occupies our thinking and our doing, we tend to put our walk with Jesus on a back burner.  It’s only natural to deal with what is right in front of us.  Once that is handled, then we can get back to the important things of life – like relationships with God and others.  We’re not saying they aren’t important, are we?  Of course not.  But they don’t demand our attention like this other stuff we’re dealing with.

Except, that’s exactly when we need to focus on our walk with Christ.  In the midst of our busyness, we need that strong center, that reminder of whose we are and what that requires of us.  We need to hone our faith responses so that when the crisis hits, when the deadlines loom we have a resource we can draw upon in order to sustain us.  A Disciple’s Heart is about exercising our heart so that our faith becomes a part of our nature, a part of who we are.  We pump the blood of faith through our being always so that we can live fully as Christ intends us to live.  And so that we can be an example and a witness to faith to any and all we encounter along the way.  So, I hope you’ll join us this month in worship and study.

So, where am I off to this May?  First, I’m heading to Mission u training in order to lead our Indiana United Methodist Women in a Spiritual Growth Study on the Gospel of Mark.  I’m excited about working in Mission u (which used to be called School of Christian Mission), because these women and men are in tune with the mission of the church in powerful ways, and they come to be energized in their faith.  I’ll invite any and all to join us this summer in this experience.  It will be held at UIndy, so we don’t have any excuses about location!  Check with our UMW for more information.  It’s in July, so I will be coming back from Nashville to lead this, and it will be a powerful study.

OK, where else?  A couple of weeks after that, I’m heading to Minneapolis for the Festival of Homiletics.  This is a week long experience and reflection on the art and craft of Preaching. I have gone for many years because I am a preacher and needed the inspiration and the motivation to preach my best week by week.  This time I am going as I transition to a position with preaching in the title.  It will be my task to inspire and motivate other preachers in the months and years ahead, so I need to continue to do so myself.

Which is the core of a Disciple’s Heart, to be honest.  We are called to make disciples ourselves.  It is our mission and our reason for being here at Southport UMC.  But we can’t really do that if we aren’t in the process of being made into disciples ourselves.  We all need help on this journey.  The cry of “Mayday” comes from the French word maider (or maidez) which to our English ears sounds like “Mayday” and means “help me.”  Central to our faith is the idea that we all need help.  First from a Savior who loves us into life, and then from the community of faith who bear the name of Christ.  But asking for help isn’t a weakness, but a sign of a disciple.  So, mayday one and all.  Help me as I help you.  In the name of Jesus.

Shalom,

Pastor Derek