Bryant's Weekly Thoughts

Bryant's Weekly Thoughts For April 2008

On Fridays, Rev. Bryant M. Oskvig sends out his e-Pistle - thoughts, comments, and expressions of what's on his mind.

To read previous e-Pistles by month, please use buttons below.

Friday, April 4, 2008

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10:24

How many times has someone provoked you to love and good deeds? I have been provoked on many occasions to anger, frustration, or irritation; but provoked to something positive, provoked into living out our faith? The power of the Gospel message, the story of the cross and the Easter we celebrate in this season, is its provocation to love and good deeds. God has reached across the chasm of our own human despair to offer hope, to provide light to our darkness, to provoke us into being the holy people called the Church.

This then is one of the great descriptions as to the work of the congregation, to be provocateurs for the Gospel. By opening our congregation to the children of our neighborhood for our Easter Festival, we sought to provoke others in love and good deeds through our hospitality. By witnessing again in worship to the joyous triumph of the Easter story and naming the courage it gives us to live out our faith, we sought to provoke each other in love and good deeds through our celebration of hope. By attending to the needs of Carpenter’s kitchen, providing a meal and eating with the guests, we seek to provoke one another to love and good deeds to compassion.

We are called to be provocative, to risk moving others to the hope we know in Christ, and to do so with courage.

Over the last month, we have named the financial struggles of our congregation. The situation has required some difficult decisions as we respond to our needs, and we have more decisions to make. The blessing of the situation is the opportunity to name for ourselves how we, as a congregation, seek to provoke one another to love and good deeds. We must identify to what God is most calling us, so that we can move forward with fidelity through the difficult chooses that lay ahead of us.

To this end, we are having a Church Leadership Retreat on April 19th from 10am – 3pm in the Great Room. All who are on a committee are encouraged to attend, and everyone in the church is invited to attend. Bring your own lunch and soda (we will make the coffee) for the day, as we will take time to fellowship during lunch. At the Retreat, we will together name how God is calling this congregation to live out its call in this community, and we will begin to chart our way forward into the future together.

While we look forward to gathering together for a discussion of our call as a congregation, we continue to make necessary decisions so the church can continue its ministry of provoking. These decisions are painful to make, and we have sought to include all the necessary people in the decision making process and as many persons as appropriate in the final choice. It has been apparent for a little while that some staffing changes would be needed to address our financial state. After much prayer, thought, and conversation, the first of those decisions has been made.

On April 15th, Alicia Vanisko will transition from a full-time position to half-time position in the congregation. This position change will be possible through Alicia’s continued focus on Children’s Ministry and the Loud Program; I will be transitioning into the responsibility of the Youth Ministry of this congregation. Alicia has wonderfully supported all the Children and Youth Ministries through this year; we thank her for those gifts, and we look forward to her continued ministry with our Children.

As we reflect upon our present situation, let us remember our call to be provocative. Let us surround each other with love, to provoke each other to that love; let us maintain hope, to provoke each other in the truth of hope, and let us seek to be compassionate in our actions, so that we may be recognized as people of faith.

In Grace and Hope,

Bryant

Friday, April 11, 2008

Outside of my office window is the playground for Hilltop Child Care Center. The beauty of this day had been such that it demanded my office window be open, and as I opened my window my office was invaded by the joyful chorus of children at play in the sunshine. It was a cacophony of sounds, a chaos of voices yelling and laughing, a truly joyful noise. Over the past year, I have spent chapel time with each of these voices coming into my window, and as I shared in their happiness, I reflected upon the delight of knowing each of these children through this community of faith. I recognize each child by face, if not by name as well; we have sung together, heard scriptures together, and we have prayed together. They are, even if they are only here during the week, a part of our community, a joyful part of the body of Christ.

As the children sing their songs of praise to God for the glory of a fine day, we are reminded of the wonder of Spring and the hope of new life. We see flowers open up and trees come into full blossom, and as the world awakes from its sleep, we are called to new life as a community as well.

This Spring invites us to gather together in celebration of our fellowship. We also have sung together, heard the scriptures and prayer with one another; we together are the body of Christ. We are being called at this moment to mix our voices together into the joyful noise of the abundant life we know in Christ. We are to name the new life beginning to blossom around us in our church.

We have been enduring a winter of sorts in our community. The Finance Committee shared with the Church Council that while we have made some progress toward addressing the church’s current financial strain, we have more work to do. The Board of Trustees and the Finance Committee are evaluating options with regard to our mortgage; as the Staff-Parish Relations Committee continues its compassionate and difficult task of evaluating the staffing needs of the community. Some difficult decisions have already been made; there are more tough choices yet ahead of us.

But, there is new life appearing amongst us; the Spring is coming. The Senior High Youth are gathering this Sunday to complete their plans for funding their Mission Trip to New Orleans, and they have created a Facebook community to share their ideas and encourage each other. Our twenty-five Confirmands are coming quickly to the conclusion of their studies, and they are preparing for the celebration of their full membership in our congregation. Our Christian Education Team has already received many registrations for Vacation Bible and is in the process of recruiting teachers for the summer program. We have a team gathering for Rebuilding Together Howard County to go and offer compassion through home help at the end of this month. New life is appearing all around us.

Like your garden, your church community also needs careful planning and tending to encourage this new growth. On April 19th from 10am – 3pm, I invite everyone to come and join us for a Church Planning Retreat. Bring your lunch and come and share in our chorus of joy, as we tend to the planning of this congregation for encouragement of our ministries and in celebration of the new life blossoming around us. This retreat is open to everyone, and I hope that you will bring a lunch and share with us.

I hope that each one of you has the opportunity to open a window this week and be met with the sound of joy. The grace of God surrounds us every single day in every single moment, and we are invited to open our eyes to this grace and share it, even in the midst of most difficult winters. In the words of John Wesley, “Best of all, God is with us.”

In Grace and Hope,

Bryant

Friday, April 18, 2008

Who are you?

This existential question is one with which we spend a lifetime wrestling. Who am I? How will I be remembered? What is my legacy? In the midst of this quest for identity, we make decisions about our life based upon how far our journey has taken us and our limits of space and time. In response to the question some of us may respond, I am a parent; for our journey has taken us to the point of having part of our identity defined by that experience. Others may respond, ‘I am a doctor’ for education and vocation have resulted in this identity.

When asked, as a congregation, “Who are you?” we have our one true identity; we are the body of Christ in the world now. The challenge for us, as a congregation, is what does that mean? As the body of Christ, the incarnation of God who called us together as one people to provoke one another to love and good deeds, how do we understand that identity?

These are the questions and the conversations with which we be engaged when we gather tomorrow, April 19th from 10am – 3pm for our Church Planning Retreat. (I have included a rough agenda for the retreat at the conclusion of this email.) The impetuous for our gathering stems from our financial concerns, but the purpose of our gathering is to name who we are in Christ. With that identity, by naming the call we have in God, we can then can move forward with confidence that we are being faithful in our discipleship.

Some have asked me what I hope to accomplish with the retreat, or what end product to I hope to have by 3pm. My goal is that as we share with one another and listen we hear the Spirit calling to us. I hope that by 3pm on Saturday afternoon, we have a sense as to what it means for us when we say we are the body of Christ. How does Linden-Linthicum minister to our community? How do we proclaim the Good News of Christ? How are we provoking one another to love and good deeds? As we discern together, I hope the call of God becomes clear.

This discussion will lay the ground work for the budget that we will prepare as a congregation in the next couple months. Who we are as the body of Christ impacts how we are going to be in ministry as a community in the future, our budget. Our current financial situation requires that we are very focused with our spending in the next year. By naming our mission and vision, we have the perspective necessary to have that focus. While we will spend some brief time discussing the finances, our real purpose together is finding that focus.

I hope that you will come and join us on Saturday. I pray that you bring your bagged lunch and the joy you have in this fellowship and you share how you have heard the voice of God calling to us in this congregation. I ask that you come prepared to share from your discipleship and open to the spirit moving us. After we have spent the day together, I am confident that when people ask, “Who are you?” We will be clear and confident in answering, “We are the body of Christ!”

In Grace and Hope,

Bryant

Church Planning Retreat Agenda
10:00 Who are we? Why are we the Church?
11:15 What are our ministries? How are we needed in the community?
12:15 Lunch
1:00 How LLUMC has impacted our lives?
1:30 What is our legacy?
2:15 If we started tomorrow what we would do?
2:45 What are the common threads? Where do we hear God?
2:55 Our Finances

Friday, April 25, 2008

I have the great opportunity of participating in the celebrations of life, in baptism and in marriage. In this week, I am getting the blessing of participating in both. It is hard not to be affected by the hope that comes in the celebration of new life at baptism and in the joy of two persons starting their life together as husband and wife. Part of that joy is a reflection of the memories of my own wedding. Our sanctuary lends itself to such moments, as it has been a place that we celebrate our lives together Sunday by Sunday, and we know the fruits of the Spirit together.

St. Paul told the church in Corinth that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Last Saturday, a group gathered to share about their perspective and vision for our congregation. They named what they loved about this community of Christ, and they dreamed of our future together. We were called together because of our need to name of ministry priorities so that we are able to maintain fidelity with our call as a congregation as we respond to our current financial need.

Much was named in the gathering, of experiences from being comforted in loss to finding the church through its celebrations of the Strawberry Festival and the Ham and Oyster Dinner. Each person shared of that moment when they found this spiritual home. Those stories continue to roll through my memory, and each time I open the door to our sanctuary I am reminded of another person who has been touched by this community.

When we are faithful to our call in Jesus Christ, then we shall see the blessing of the Spirit, the fruits, in our midst. As you think of our own faith journey that brought you to this community, think of those blessings you have received. I also invite you to take a moment and ask a friend how they found this church, how they came to call this place their church. Perhaps you too will hear what I heard, that the fruits of the Spirit, that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are experienced through our ministries.

In Grace and Hope,

Bryant

For more information:
Linden-Linthicum UMC
12101 Linden Linthicum Lane
Clarksville, MD 21029 US
Email: llumc@l-lumc.org

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