The New Year is well under way and planning is going on all
around me. I see people planning their
vacations, upcoming education events, and even doing their tax planning. I actually have all those on my list of To Do’s
these upcoming weeks, as well. But for
now, I am planning this year’s teaching series here at Concord United Methodist
Church. The Worship Team and I sit
around and ponder what is it we are really in need of learning? What areas have we, as a faith community, struggled
in this past year? What teachings of
Jesus, or even God’s stories from the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament), could
really have an impact on our daily living today? And then we begin planning.
We decided to start the year with prayer. Duh!
That was a no brainer. In year’s
past, I have taught on different forms of prayer, the importance of prayer, and
how to become a devoted pray-er. This
year I’m offering up a few familiar prayers (to many) but going a bit deeper. It’s easy to rattle off a prayer like the
Lord’s Prayer and really not even know what you said. Se we’re walking line for line, word for word
through four prayers this month in hopes of bringing their meaning back to the
surface, thus empowering them to be all they were intended to be in our faith
lives.
Then we’ve planned a couple of teachings on love. What
better thing to have swirling around our heads the first two weeks of
February?! Love God and Love
Others. Now there’s a novel
concept. After that… (sit down… you
won’t believe this…) we will start our journey toward Easter. Yes! Easter!
I know. My Christmas trees aren’t
taken down yet either. My great
grandmother used to leave one up so she could put hearts on it for Valentine’s
day, shamrocks for St. Patty’s and then eggs for Easter. Always a good Plan B if I don’t get to them
soon.
This year’s Lenten (the 40 days prior to Easter… excluding
Sundays) Series will be on spiritual disciplines. We do a great job at CUMC reaching out,
taking care of our widows and the poor, repairing homes, and even caring four
our community’s youth and children.
Among all that serving though, it can be easy to forget our internal
state, our holiness. So I’ll be teaching
some wonderful tools like fasting, solitude, and meditation as ways to bring
ourselves back to the One who can keep us centered. Satan is real folks and all it takes is a
busy Christian to give opportunity to fall on our face. Pornography pops into our lives. Adultery is more than tempting. Lying to an employer, cheating on our taxes
or stealing a song offline without paying the rightful artist can easily become
cracks in our holiness. Instead of
relying on God, we come crying to God as we live out the consequences of a less
than holy life. Should be a great
series.
We’ll also spend some time teaching on money, missions, and
even humor. But as spring turns the
corner to summer, we’ll be heading back into time, back to some of our mothers
and fathers of our faith. We’ll be
sitting at the feet of Mother Teresa, St. Francis of Assisi, and John Wesley. We’ll read some of C.S.Lewis’ work and ponder
deep into the writings of Teresa of Ávila.
We’ll even jump forward to the current century and take a listen to some
contemporary voices still speaking in the darkness like Shane Claiborne.
I’m getting excited just writing about it! Planning: it’s a great way to look ahead and
pave a path toward goals worth achieving.
If you haven’t done any planning yet this year, you might want to slow
down long enough to do so. You know how
it is… it’ll be 2014 before you know it.
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