FAITH CONNECTION – FARMERSVILLE UMC
Ministry Updates for Friday, May 29th, 2020
Worship—Sunday, June 7th, at 9:30 a.m.
Please join us as we again worship through Facebook Live. Use this link to watch the service, and pass it along to a friend.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2678391232487055/
Return to In-Person Worship
We are planning to return to in-person worship on July 12th. The service time will be at 9:00am. We will continue our Facebook Live Worship indefinitely, but it will be moved to 11:00am on July 12th. This return date decision was based on the responses we received from the survey many of you participated in.
Scripture for Reflection – 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Reflection – Keep On
Paul was writing to the Thessalonians, who thought the second coming of Jesus Christ was imminent. Paul’s message was not to tell people to run for the hills, or to build a bunker, or to store up provisions. Paul’s message was to just keep on doing the good you are doing.
One charity my extended family supports is the Brunner Literacy Center in Dayton, a cause we came to through my sister-in-law. This paragraph appeared in a recent e-mail update.
‘Voices are raised this week to call out racism and discrimination- and to call for a more just future for people of color. In this moment, many ask what we can do to create a more equitable and peaceful nation. Let’s remember that the work we do at the BLC helps break barriers to success for everyone who walks in our door, including those whose success has been deterred by racism and discrimination.’
What an important reminder. Our church also works toward a more equitable nation, through the food pantry, and a more equitable world, through Determined To Develop in Malawi, Africa.
There is certainly a valid call to take a hard look and examine our biases and discriminatory practices. I for one am in. But we should not do this at the price of forgetting the good we are already doing in the world.
I do not think the world is ending, though I am sure it feels that way to some. As an antidote, please remember the good you have done, and we have done as a church, and keep on doing it. And strive to have faith God is in charge.
Prayer
God who created all races, God who created this nation where we welcome the ‘poor and huddled masses’, God who loves the lost, the least and the sinner, we pray for our nation in this time of civil unrest and our world in this time of pandemic. Give us the strength to keep doing the good we are doing, and the faith to believe what we do will matter to you, and to the people we serve. Amen.