Change Someone
We have all been in situations where we wish someone would be different or make better choices:
- An irresponsible person who does not do what should be done
- An employee who is not performing up to standards
- A person who is not investing in a relationship
- An adult child you wish would grow up and make better choices
- A coworker who is not matching your effort
We want people to change and wish we could change them. So, we try. At first, it’s subtle, an encouraging word here, a mild criticism there. When that doesn’t seem to do the job, we step up our tactics with nagging, manipulation or passive aggressive schemes. And guess what? Nothing changes.
We Try to Change Them
We see what needs to happen. We know it would be in their best interest. So, we try to change them, motivate them to do things the way we think they should be. There is only one problem; they have a will of their own. We get frustrated because we can’t control them.
It’s impossible to get someone to change who does not what the change for themselves. We may be able to manipulate someone into some temporary behavior modification, but for change to take place, the other person must want the change.
God endowed us with free will, the ability to choose for ourselves. God made us that way so we could freely love and serve God. The downside of that wonderful gift is that we can also use it to turn away from God – and we do so often. That gift of free will is not only exercised in our relationship with God but every relationship. That is why it is impossible to change another person.
As much as we want another person to change, as much as that change would be good for them and us, we cannot make it happen. We must respect their, God-given ability to choose for themselves.
Acceptance
Once we have accepted that part of their make-up we can help them decide for themselves. We can influence, but not control. We can influence them through incentives, exposing them to opportunities, and setting consequences in place. John Maxwell once famously said, “People change when they hurt enough that they have to, learn enough that they want to, or receive enough that they are able to.”
We cannot make an employee or co-worker do their jobs with greater effort or passion. But, we can outline our expectations and put consequences in place that will clearly show that they have or have not met those expectations. Then allow them to choose their path.
That is what Jesus did in the Scripture cited above. Jesus told the man what would be required for him to inherit eternal life and left the decision to him. Jesus looked at him, loved him and placed the matter in his hands.
When we love someone enough the give them a choice and the consequences of that choice, we respect them and honor their God-given free will. And, by the way, save ourselves a lot of grief.
Blessings,
Alan
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Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
Big Game Parties
Reaching Out in our Communities
The "Big Game" is known for consuming the lives of football fans and even reducing church attendance. Even the commercials have become something to look forward to, with America voting on which was their favorite, taking the advertising ranks to a new level. One blog has even made a game out of the commercials. Every cooking blog known to man starts posting the perfect spread for snacks from healthy to everything filled with bacon.
But, there's more to the big game than football, food, and games. It's an opportunity to spend time with people. Specifically, it's an opportunity for us, as the Church, to reach out to those around us in our community and neighborhoods that we may not know very well.
Why Use the Big Game as an Outreach?
You might have noticed, but we've been focused a lot recently on getting out into our community and connecting with others. Boo at the Zoo and Take it to the Streets are two examples of how we have been shifting our mindset to step out of our comfort zone and connect with people around us in our neighborhoods and community.
Our goal as a church is to reach those in our community who don't know Christ. That starts with us building relationships with people and loving them for who they are and not trying to change them.
I can't think of a better way to create relationships with people then over football and food. So, as you're thinking about how you're going to spend the "Big Game" this year, I encourage you to pray about inviting people from your neighborhood who you don't know well or your work. Just get to know them.
Remember, "Be the Church" in everything you do. That means, represent Christ and be yourself at the same time. You may be the only person they've spent time with that lives a Christian life.
I'm Praying for you!
Faith
Want an invitation like this? I'd be happy to edit the text and either email you an image or print the invitations for you. Just fill out the form below so I can have the information I need to print.
Faith Parry serves as our Associate Pastor, and has been at the church since 2015. When she's not preaching and teaching, she enjoys documentaries and TV. Read more about Faith here.
Redo
Mulligans and redemption
In golf, we have the concept of a mulligan. A mulligan allows a player to replay a stroke, even though this is against the formal rules of golf. In some tournaments, you can even buy mulligans ahead of time. The concept is the same in some other games and sports.
Wouldn’t it be great if we got mulligans in life! If we made a wrong decision, we could call a mulligan and take another shot. But it doesn’t work like that. Often the bad decisions we make in life have consequences that cannot be undone by simply making a different decision later. When we make those bad decisions and learn from them, we call that experience. We suffer the consequences, learn and move on. Even though we make a better decision the second time around, the situation is different because of the prior decision.
In biblical terms, we don’t get mulligans; what we do get is redemption and opportunities for renewal and recommitment. That is what we will experience this coming Sunday.
This Sunday
This Sunday we will participate in two special acts of worship: A Reaffirmation of Baptism and Covenant Renewal. When we reaffirm our baptismal vows, we go back to the beginning of our journey as followers of Christ and remember and reaffirm the commitments we made or that were made on our behalf. We once again renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness in this world and renew our pledge of allegiance to Jesus above all other commitments.
In Covenant Renewal, we go back to a Puritan tradition that began in 1663. John Wesley adopted the practice and celebrated its many benefits. The Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church says the following about the service:
“Wesley found the service rich and meaningful, as expressed in his Journal: “Many mourned before God, and many were comforted” (April 1756); “It was, as usual, a time of remarkable blessing” (October 1765). “It was an occasion for a variety of spiritual experiences ... I do not know that ever we had a greater blessing. Afterwards many desired to return thanks, either for a sense of pardon, for full salvation, or for a fresh manifestation of His graces, healing all their backslidings” (January 1, 1775). In London, these services were usually held on New Year’s Day. Around the country the Covenant Service was conducted whenever John Wesley visited the Methodist Societies.
After the time of Wesley several versions of the Covenant Service were developed, gradually giving Wesley’s material less place in the total service. [Our current] service follows our Basic Pattern of Worship, enables the congregation to participate more fully, and updates language. Most significant, the liturgy beginning with the Invitation is taken directly from Wesley’s service of 1780.”
The service will be a little more formal than people may be familiar with, but such is the nature of covenants. As we go through the service, pay attention to the commitments made, these form the basisof a true Christian profession of faith and promise of allegiance to God and the Lord Jesus Christ; anything less is not a genuine commitment to Christ at all.
At the beginning of 2017, it is fitting that we remind ourselves of what God requires of our responsibility as followers of Jesus Christ. Long ago I learned a definition of a covenant from Disciple Bible Study; “a covenant is choosing to be bound in a time of strength so that in a time of weakness I cannot be unbound.”
So, this Sunday, let us come and deliberately choose to be bound to Christ at the beginning of this year.
Blessings!
-Alan
Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
New Music: Wesley Prayer (Come Like a Fire)
“I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, Exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
Thank God it's Over
Well, this year sucked. I know that's not exactly an unpopular or unbelievable statement, but it's probably not what you expected to read on a church blog. I hope you manage to disagree with me - maybe you had the best year ever! And if so, that's awesome.
If not: whether you point to celebrity deaths, the election, or your own personal tragedies to agree with me, I pray that 2017 is a better year for you, filled with happiness and prosperity.
(Here's 2016 reimagined as a horror movie trailer. You're welcome.)
That being said.
"Let me have Nothing"
The prayer at the beginning of this blog has been weighing on my mind all week. It's part of a traditional Wesleyan covenant renewal service we'll be celebrating together on Sunday morning - based by John Wesley on a prayer long since lost to time.
To be very, very honest - I struggle with that prayer. Despite what pop theology suggests, I don't believe that God is a micromanager of humanity, nor do I think that the members of the human race are glorified lemmings. That's clearly not Wesley's original intent here, but the popular notion of God as a glorified programmer writing the code of our lives could skew the concept for someone unfamiliar with Wesleyan theology. It certainly colors my initial understanding
Rev. Jeremy Smith, the Minister of Discipleship at First United Methodist Church in Portland, puts it this way:
"It is clearly commendable to begin the year with renewed commitment and dedication regardless of what the future may have in store. But the Methodist liturgy goes much further. Taken at face value in traditional form it strongly implies that our misfortunes may arise at the divine behest (‘Put me to what thou wilt, put me to suffering’ etc.) Would we suggest that to a friend in distress or to someone entrusted to us for counselling? I hope not. Rather our conviction is that God is our comforter in time of trouble rather than the author of life’s woes."
He continues, with a revision of the above prayer:
I wonder if the ancient language could be revised and the theology tweaked to better bring Wesleyanism again to a generation and context that needs a robust counter to Purpose-Driven Best Life Now Lifeway theology.
To address these concerns for my congregation and for post-Christian or non-Christian newcomers, this is my revision of the short version of Wesley’s Covenant Prayer. It’s more in the spirit of the Message translation of the Bible: it’s a paraphrase in common language, not a word-for-word replacement. Here it is:
I am not my own self-made, self-reliant human being.
In truth, O God, I am Yours.
Make me into what You will.
Make me a neighbor with those whom You will.
Guide me on the easy path for You.
Guide me on the rocky road for You.
Whether I am to step up for You or step aside for You;
Whether I am to be lifted high for You or brought low for You;
Whether I become full or empty, with all things or with nothing;
I give all that I have and all that I am for You.
So be it.
And may I always remember that you, O God, and I belong to each other. Amen.
The paraphrase cleared some things up for me, and I hope it clears them up for you as well.
I was told there would be music.
Ok, ok. What does any of this have to do with music? I was told there would be music.
Like I said earlier, this Sunday morning we'll celebrate a covenant renewal service using a modernized version of Wesley's prayer (don't worry, you won't have to say "wilt"). We'll also be singing Mark Swayze's fantastic arrangement of that same prayer. Watch the lyric and acoustic videos below, enjoy your New Year's Eve celebrations, don't party too hard (I'll be going to sleep early to get the year over with), and come commit 2017 to serving God this Sunday morning.
Happy New Year!
-Matt
Matt Dailey serves as Worship Director at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2013. When he's not leading worship and designing graphics, he enjoys baseball, comic books and team trivia (his team is nationally ranked. #micdrop). Read more about Matt here.
Good News!
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,
the good news of peace and salvation,
the news that the God of Israel reigns!
The watchmen shout and sing with joy,
for before their very eyes
they see the Lord returning to Jerusalem.
Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyful song,
for the Lord has comforted his people.
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has demonstrated his holy power
before the eyes of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth will see
the victory of our God.
Isaiah 52:7-10, NLT
“Because Jesus is good news and Jesus is in me, I am Good news.”
It's easy to forget what the purpose of Christmas is. We think about the presents and the parties, and of course, Mary having to give birth in a stable. But how many times have you really sat down and thought about Christ being born? God came down to earth in human form.
Take a moment and watch this video about one woman's thoughts about Jesus's becoming the Incarnate God, or God becoming human.
The reason Christmas is the second most important day in the Christian year is because of God, the most powerful and most holy, made himself like us and came down to earth to be with us. He celebrated birthdays like us, ate like us, and slept like us.
We go through all of the craziness of Christmas and sometimes miss the whole point of it. God gave himself to us as a gift. It started when he was born as the baby Jesus, and it ended when he died and resurrected Easter morning.
This Christmas morning, I hope you'll enjoy your time with your family. If you come and worship with us, we will spend some time look further into this idea of the Good News of Christmas and what that has to do with the God who was born on Christmas morn.
Merry Christmas,
Faith
CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S FAITH NOTES.
Faith Parry serves as our Associate Pastor, and has been at the church since 2015. When she's not preaching and teaching, she enjoys documentaries and TV. Read more about Faith here.