Thursday Daily FC

FAITH CONNECTION – FARMERSVILLE UMC

Ministry Updates for Thursday, July 16^th, 2020

COVID-19 Re-Entry Challenge from West Ohio Conference

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) has asked The West Ohio Conference for assistance in providing hygiene items and face masks to our returning neighbors. If you would like to arrange a drop off at church, please call 937-696-2502. If you would like someone to pick up please contact Donna Thie. Please see attachment for more information!

 Scripture:

Matthew 28:19-20 – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you

 Reflection – Baptism and Teaching

Baptism

By now you may have seen the photograph of the pastor baptizing the baby being held by his father on the altar of their church. The pastor is standing six feet away, has a mask on and a rifle-sized squirt gun. I think Jesus would suggest we do whatever it takes to baptize, but he probably hopes for a little more reverence than that.

 Baptism starts with God’s love for us. And though few if any churches are performing baptisms right now, it does not change the fact the God loves us, just like a couple whose wedding has been postponed continue to grow in love for each other.

 Teaching them

If the squirt gun baptism photo seeks to provide some comic relief from the stresses we are enduring now, it also provides an apt metaphor for Christian Education. This weekday Faith Connection is pretty much it unless you are doing something additional on your own.

 We have waited for a ‘return to normal’. And it seems no closer now than it did at the beginning of April. If we are to ‘teach them’, or teach ourselves so we can ‘teach them’, it seems like we need to stop waiting and figure something out.

 I would be interested in knowing how satisfied people are with this Faith Connection as a means of Christian Education, and what more might be needed. Is it enough until we can do more? Or can we do more right now on-line? Is there a subject you would like to hear more about?

 We are baptized children of God. I like to say that makes us disaster-proof. Bad things can happen, but nothing God cannot overcome. That is the message of the cross.

 Prayer

God you have given us this ‘Great Commission’, to take the Good News of Jesus Christ into the world around us. God, wherever we might be today, renew our commitment to remember our baptism, to be forgiven our sin, to be healed of our sickness, and to be filled with enough faith, hope and love to share with the world around us.  Amen.