Pastor's Page

This month:
I heard it in the Homecoming sermon, "One Body, Many Members, Abiding in Love." I was sitting in the lectern, listening to the Rev. Hugh Parsons speak. The Vice Moderator mentioned a "pillar in the church." The trouble in my mind came because I didn’t hear a "p-sound" but I heard a "k-sound". Some of this gets hard to write, as in this newsletter, it is much easier talking. It is the print vs. speech issue, but it is all communications, so bear with me as I share a word. Anyway, I didn’t hear him say, "pillar in the church", but I heard "killer in the church" because of the switch in letters in my hearing. There is a big difference between the two, isn’t there?

It took me awhile to recover and make the necessary corrections in my thinking. For awhile, I was thinking, "this is going to be some kind of Homecoming sermon. Who on earth would have the nerve to come in a preach such a message about 'killers in the church'? No wonder they call him the "Vice" Moderator." My dictionary defines vice as: an immoral habit or practice or conduct. I was ready to stand up and call him "out of order." At that point I couldn’t wait to hear what the "Vice Chairman" of the Texas Historical Commission had to say.

At just the right time, God answered the prayer to add to the "richness of the Word" in my hearing. But you wouldn’t believe where I went in that short time of misunderstanding. Paul talked about a man going to the "third heaven"(2Cor.12:2), but I don’t think that is where I was. After the whole day’s events, I felt like I had visited the "third heaven" though. It was great!

I want to thank everyone for everything that was done to make it a very special celebration of homecoming. The worship service was awesome! Sometimes, as worship leaders and preachers, we don’t get to experience worship. This might sound odd to you, but we have to be so busy with "leading" that we don’t get to experience God’s presence. The music was inspiring, thanks to Sara and the choir. The congregation was singing loud, giving thanks and praise. The dedication of the marker was wonderful! Thanks to Wayne, Jim and Dianna. They worked on this for nearly two years. Thanks to the color guard for standing in the bright sun holding the flags. Thanks to Ruth, Maggie, Christopher and Josh for your parts.

And then the luncheon, did you ever see so much delicious food? The room was decorated so colorful and festive. Each of you have my thanks and appreciation and love, you are truly "pillars and not killers." 127 people registered, someone counted close to 200, and there was seating for 150 to eat, so your guess is as good as mine to the total attendance. People came and went to all the different activities.

I got more out of the sermon about the Body of Christ after experiencing everyone’s spiritual gifts that were used in so many ways to make this a great event. Another word for gifts is presents, isn’t it? And another way of spelling, speaking, and hearing the word presents is presence, isn’t it? And as we all use our gifts we present them to God to be blessed, don’t we? August’ theme is Homecoming, and September’s theme is Servant Recognition. I’ll combine everything and thank everyone who gives (present tense because it can only be done in the "here and now") of themselves in the past, present, and future because "God’s presence is present as we present our presents." I will let you think about that for awhile. May God add to the blessing in the "reading and hearing" of His Word.

Grace and Peace,
Mark