The Power of Powerlessness

12th Sunday after Pentecost
Just these lines, my friends …

… to say that I hope to see you at Hug-A-Cop this Saturday (4:00-7:00 at Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, 381 Crestdale Rd, Matthews). It’s a no-charge, come & go event, and we’ll enjoy food & fellowship with our friends at Mt Moriah while expressing gratitude to first responders.

I loved our time together this past Sunday. We continued our summer worship series, High Maintenance Relationships, by offering ourselves to God and examining our careless speech. The relationship we studied was The Gossip. If you missed it, you can worship with us by clicking here.

I concluded our services on Sunday reading from Bishop Reuben Job’s wonderful book, Three Simple Rules. In the book, he outlines three simple rules that John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist movement asked us to live by. One of those rules was do no harm. Bishop Job makes a statement in the book that I’d like offer as our sending forth. Let’s pray it together: I will guard my lips, my mind and my heart so that my language will not disparage, injure or wound another child of God. I must do no harm …

At the 9:30 worship hour we shared in the baptism/profession of faith of my new friend, Tony Spicer. If you’ve had a chance to meet Tony, you know what an incredible man he is. Tony, we are so excited to join you in doing life in the Way of Jesus.

The next few weeks have been called “the most wonderful time of the year!” While that phrase was initially coined to reference Christmas, for the last however many years, many have used it to refer to the “Back to School” season. Teachers are renewed and refreshed (at least we hope and pray so!), students look forward to reconnecting with friends they have not seen since school let out for the summer, and parents are grateful for a return to routine and schedule.

But admittedly, the schedule can be a struggle. We have to get children up, dressed (I still recall dropping MacKenzie off at school and seeing a child exiting a car wearing pajamas with his school clothes flying out the door behind him as his mom tossed them!), fed, and hopefully in a pleasant mood. Afterschool activities create new schedule challenges, nighttime dinner routines require adjustment with homework and practice schedules, and on it goes.

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but let’s face it, friends–this is also one of the more stressful times of the year.

If you are out of the school-year routine–as I know many of you are–please join me in praying for the moms and dads, the children and youth and college students, teachers and administrators, bus drivers, etc., who are facing the return to the routine.

Speaking of new beginnings, we are on the cusp of one here at MUMC; we will start a new fall season of church life and I have two invitations:

First, an invite for you to participate all through the fall in a new Sunday morning worship series we’re calling Pathways to Discipleship. To live into our faith and values, we need to bring intentionality and purpose to every day. This is our way of creating tangible habits that support our heart’s intentions. John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist movement calls these purposeful actions, the means of grace. Join us in a Sunday worship series on biblically-rooted, time-tested core practices for people seeking to do life in the Way of Jesus. We’ll get started on September 10. I hope you’ll join us for every single Sunday through the fall.

Secondly, I invite you to join me for 10 consecutive Wednesday nights, beginning September 13, in The Commons as we study James Bryan Smith’s book, The Good and Beautiful Life. We’ll be looking hard through the Sermon on the Mount, looking behind our characters flaws and replacing our false beliefs with Jesus’ narratives about life in the kingdom of God. Connor Johnson will be leading this same study as an intergenerational online study on Tuesday evenings. You can sign up here.

Wednesday Devotional

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch my devotional for the week titled, The Power of Powerlessness.

Upcoming Events

• Hug-A-Cop – Saturday, August 19, 4 – 7 pm at Mt. Moriah. More info here.
• United Women of Faith (UWF) Annual Celebration – Saturday, August 26, 8:30-11:30. More info here.
• Back to School Carnival – Saturday, August 26, 5:30 – 7 pm. More info here.
• Back to School Blessing – Sunday, August 27 in all Worship Services. More info here.
• New Studies – Disciple, The Good and Beautiful Life (In Person & Intergenerational Online Study), Luke: Gut-Level Compassion, and The Anxiety Opportunity.  View all opportunities.

This Sunday in Worship

We invite you to join us this Sunday at 8:15 am (Traditional; in person only), 9:30 am (Contemporary; in person or online here), 11:00 am (Traditional; in person or online here) or 12:30 (Spanish; in person or on demand here).

Our Spanish-speaking community will be inspired by Pastor Roldan this Sunday. He will be preaching from Acts 16:24-31 with his sermon titled, Don’t Allow Anything to Imprison You.

On Sunday, we will complete our summer worship series, High Maintenance Relationships, and we’ve saved the best for last – the category of human behavior, that, according to research, tends to generate more havoc with more people than any other. Most of us know well the sting of relating to a pervasively critical personality. This final relationship is known as The Critic and our scripture lesson will be Romans 14:1-23.

Also, I have a very special recognition to make of one of our outstanding staff community persons. You’ll want to be there to celebrate this remarkable leader and gift to us.

By the way, you do know God is for you, right? I hope you’ll consider inviting someone to church with you on Sunday who may need to know God is for them, and not against them.

And now, as always, during these strange, uncertain, but hopeful days, remember … God does God’s best work in moments like this.

Following Jesus Together,
Dr. Charles (Chuck) W. Wilson II

Did you know that Keshava Parthasarathy of Boy Scout Troop 39 installed three new composting bins in the Genesis Garden at MUMC as his Eagle Scout project? He led a team that replaced old bins with three that will be more functional for future composting needs.

Did you know the Servants Heart (UWF) Circle packed 86 backpacks for 6-12th graders on Saturday at the Matthews Help Center? They donated 10 bags of school supplies and organized all the donations they had received. This circle meets to give back to the community on a regular basis. To learn more about this circle, or to attend or volunteer for the Metro District United Women in Faith Annual Celebration on August 26 at MUMC, click here. The Hands-on Project for the Annual Celebration will be to collect School Supplies for the Alliance Center for Education (AC4Ed) from the supply list. Please bring items to the Celebration or place them in the designated Gym Reception Area cabinet from by August 27th.

Did you know that Will Little was presented with a Golden Thumb Award for his photos captured during Rainbow Express Camp? The Communications Ministry recognized Will for his gift of capturing real-life ministry at the heart of the action. If you missed our social post and previous feature with Will’s photos, here are a few highlights! Congratulations, Will!