From the Pastor's Study
February, 2025
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Greetings,
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I shared this message two years ago. But as I sit here on one of the coldest days of the year, I want to share it again because there is another aspect to being together in church that we do not get when we are alone at home. That is the warmth we feel when we are together. Not only the physical warmth, but the warmth of being in each other's company. There have been a number of studies on the complex topic of nonverbal communication with varying results. However, most experts agree that 70 to 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal. It is wonderful that as a church we can put our Sunday morning services online and on the phone. It is a way to stay connected for those who cannot physically come to church. The unfortunate part about attending church online is that we are missing 70-93 percent of the communication that occurs on Sunday morning. We miss seeing the smiles on the faces of those around us as they greet us and are genuinely glad to see us. We miss tears that are shared as grief is shared amongst us and that burden grows lighter in the sharing. Our children miss that feeling of being asked to be a part of the service during the children's time or by lighting candles. We miss the feeling of sharing music and feeling the vibrations of energy as people come together in singing and praising God.
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Don't miss out! Plan now to come to Sunday morning worship and Sunday School or weekday activities at the church. Get the full message!
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In Christ,
Pastor Pat
January, 2025
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Greetings,
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I recently read an article written by someone struggling with addiction. The upshot of the article was that two words had changed the attitude toward the excuses being made in this person's life. Excuses were being made for using drugs or alcohol to cope. Have a bad day? Have a drink. Work was rough? Take a pill. The words this person began to use instead were "so what?". In other words, there will always be those things that are hard in life, there will be bad days, rough days, hard times, or good times, so what? It is how we react to them that makes the difference. Everyone has them and everyone has a choice.
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For us as followers of Christ, we also have two words we can use this time of year, or all year really. Those words are "Now what?". We have celebrated the birth, we have welcomed the ing in the manger, "now what?". What difference will it make in our lives now? What will be different because of it?
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Whether it is "so what"? Or "now what"? It is up to us. It is in our choices that we define who we are and what we are about. What choices will you be making in this new year? Now what?
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In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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December, 2024
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Greetings,
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It started even before Halloween. The putting out of the Christmas decorations for sale in stores. Then the day after Halloween it was a full-blown assault on the aisles, all the wrapping, all the ornaments, all the candy, all the decorations. On the TV all the ads!! Nevermind that Thanksgiving was still three weeks away and hadn't happened yet, we were on to Christmas! It is so easy to get caught up in all the excitement and the hoopla surrounding Christmas. But we aren't there yet. As I heard someone say to a child who was heading headlong into something they needed to think twice about "slow your roll."
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We need to slow our roll a bit. Take a beta. Take a breath. Remember that before Christmas there is the four weeks we have set aside to prepare our hearts, our souls for the coming of a savior unlike any the world had or has ever known.
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Growing up in our house we had an Advent log instead of a wreath. We had a candle for every day of the four weeks of Advent that we lit, plus a candle for Christmas Eve and one for Christmas Day. As a family we sat down and had a time of devotion every day, lit our candle and it was a reminder of that for which we were preparing.
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Take a beat, take a breath, slow your roll and prepare your heart and mind for the coming of the Christ child.
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In Christ, Pastor Pat
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November, 2024
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Greetings,
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November is well known for the Thanksgiving Holiday. A time we set aside as a nation to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy here in the United States. But November is also a time we set aside in the church to give thanks for those Saints who have gone before us. The great cloud of witnesses who have died and gone ahead of us.
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Both of these events, Thanksgiving and All Saints' Day, are times of remembering our past, recognizing what we have been given and looking toward our future knowing we have a solid base upon which to build. Both of these times are for remembering God's work in our lives and giving thanks for the people who have led us in faith and for the bounty we enjoy on a daily basis as our needs are met.
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There is a song that always runs through my head when I think of Thanksgiving - Give Thanks With a Grateful Heat . . .May this November be a time for your grateful heart to give thanks for the Saints in your life and for the blessings you have received.
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In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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October, 2024
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Greetings,
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October has always been one of my favorite months. Probably because it is the month of my birthday. If you follow astrology at all it means I was born under the sign of Libra. The sign of the scale. It is supposed to mean I like things balanced in life. I do find that to be somewhat true. I am not convinced that it has anything to do with the circumstances or time of my birth. But I do like things to be balanced and fair. Which also means in this current season of political fighting I get distressed at the ads that call names, the rhetoric that is untrue or only partially true that throws shade on another person. The backbiting, the name calling, the general feeling of unfairness in our political world today I find very unbalanced and very distressing. Maybe some of you feel the same way.​​
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So how do we restore balance? One way is to remember where to keep our focus. I was a P.E. and health major in college. One of the classes I had to take was gymnastics. I had to learn how to teach all the apparatuses, which means I had to learn how to do all the apparatuses. That included the balance beam. Four inches wide. We started on the floor and worked our way up to the full height of a balance beam, 4 foot above the floor. One of the best pieces of advice I learned about walking on the balance beam was where to focus my eyes when walking on the balance beam. It wasn't on my feet, it was straight ahead, out in front of me. Where my focus was, my head was and my body would follow.
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Where is your focus? Is your focus on one side or the other? On the various positions and opinions that are floating around? Or is your focus on the one thing, the main thing constant, God as shown in the person of Jesus the Christ?
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If you are feeling unbalanced, feeling off kilter with all that is going on, maybe it is time to shift your focus.
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In Christ, Pastor Pat
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September, 2024
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Greetings,
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I wrote the following article last year at this time. I forgot about it. When I reread it recently, I found it to be a good reminder and thought maybe you might too, so I decided to rerun it.
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Every once in a while, when I am working on the computer and using the internet, I will lose the connection. It is a random occurrence and I often do not have a good explanation for it. I attribute it to gremlins in the system sometimes! Sometimes I do know why the connection is lost. For example, when a storm rolls through and knocks out the power, I know why connection is lost. The loss of connection is usually short lived and then it is restored pretty painlessly with nothing done on my part and I am back to work at whatever was interrupted. But there are times when it is longer and I may have to put in extra effort to reconnect.
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Our relationship with God can be like that sometimes. We can be sailing along, feeling strong in our faith and something causes us to lose connection. Sometimes faith is restored without a lot of fuss, but sometimes we have to struggle with our faith to restore that connection.
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One of the ways we stay connected in our faith life is by attending church and Sunday School and praying worshipping and studying with others of faith. If you are feeling like you have lost connection in your faith life, maybe you need to reboot the system - so to speak - and plug back in to worship on Sunday morning in church or begin attending a Sunday School or Bible Study class.
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In Christ, Pastor Pat
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May, 2024
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Greetings,
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Someone was saying recently that this is the year for lilacs. As I am writing this I can look out my window of my office and see three lilac bushes that agree with that statement. Two of them covered in darker purple. For those who are unclear, purple is one of my favorite colors. It does seem as if the lilacs this year are more abundant. Which led me to another conversation about apples and the conversation that this year would be good for apples as last year was not as good and it seems apple crops show up in abundance on an every other year schedule.
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All of this to remind myself, and you, and anyone struggling with not always being perfect, or producing what they deem perfection, all the time, that there may be off times in our lives. And that is by design. God makes time in our lives for us to recover. Times for us to produce as much fruit. Like the lilacs, or the apple trees, or like many other things in nature that take time off in production, we need that time so that we can then shine brighter, show better, produce even more abundantly.
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If you are in that fallow time, it's ok. Rest. Be easy in the sight of God. Know that your time will come again and God will give you the strength you need when it is needed.
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In Christ, Pastor Pat
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April, 2024
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Greetings,
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I recently described an event I was in charge of as an event that was like "herding cats while riding turtles". There were a lot of moving pieces and it felt like they were all going in different directions at once. Sometimes our lives can seem like that. Hectic and out of control, too much going on at once, too many cats and we are riding on a turtle too slow to catch up! It seems counterintuitive that it is the exact time when we need to slow down and take a beat and connect with God. Take a minute to pray, to center ourselves on the one who is really in control.
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I did that. It wasn't my first thought, but it did happen. Amazingly enough, once I did that the pieces all came together and everything went as it should have gone.
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When the chaos is swirling around you do not become a part of it, step outside of it, center on the creator and the ruler of all the chaos and you will find the chaos becomes much more manageable.
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In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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March, 2024
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Greetings,
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Artisans of the cross. We don't think of those people who made the actual elements involved in the cross. We certainly may not think of them as artisans, artists, professionals in their craft, but someone had to craft the physical objects - the cross itself, the nails, the leather of the whip used to flog Jesus, the crown of thorns woven for Jesus to wear, the grave carved from stone. These things are all a part of the story, but we often do not think of how they came to be. During our worship this season of Lent we have been hearing some of the stories (as imagined by Jeffy Ingold in his book Artisans of the Crucifixion) of those who contributed to the crucifixion of Jesus. Some with no real awareness of to what they were contributing.
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What would Jesus do? Was a popular phrase several years ago. Meant to cause us to stop and ask in difficult situations, or even everyday situations when making a decision, "what would Jesus do?". During this season of Lent as we hear from the artisans of the crucifixion a more difficult question might be what have we done to contribute to the crucifixion of Jesus? To the persecution and the humiliation he endured on our behalf? That's not an easy question to answer and not a comfortable one to ponder, but we have all had moments when we were in the crowd shouting "crucify him" through our words and our actions toward other people.
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But here is the good new, for those artisans, and for us, when we know better we can do better, and we can receive forgiveness for our part in the crucifixion. What Jesus did, he did for each of us, that we might have life, that we might have forgiveness, that we might know God's great love for us.
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In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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February, 2024
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Greetings,
The middle of February this year is the beginning of Lent. It is also Valentine's Day. February 14 is Ash Wednesday this year. Lent is one of those times in the church year where we find ourselves in a time of waiting. We are waiting for the reveal of God's great love in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that comes on Easter.
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There is a commercial currently running on TV and one of the lines is "No one likes waiting". There is a picture of a woman waiting for clothes in a laundromat in the commercial. I have a confession to make. I see that commercial and I hear that line and I have to disagree. I don't mind waiting, and in fact, there are times I actually like waiting. Because for me, it is usually a quiet time. I have spent several hours of my life waiting in a laundromat. I didn't mind it because I was prepared to wait. So, I came prepared. I brought a book to read. Waiting time gives me time to stop and think, to ponder, to read, to prepare for what is next.
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Lent is just that, a waiting time, a time to stop and think, to ponder and to wonder and to prepare for what is next. The key is to be prepared for the wait and ready to make use of it so when the waiting is over we are ready.
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In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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January, 2024
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Greetings,
It is interesting to me that at this time of year, when the days are still fairly short and darkness still has a strong hold on each day, in the church we are celebrating the coming of the light. Epiphany, or the season of Epiphany, runs from Epiphany Sunday, the closest Sunday to January 6th, until Lent begins. It is a season when we recognize the coming of the light in the birth of the child Jesus.
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It is a time for us to remember the hope that comes with the birth of Jesus. That even in the darkest of times there is a light that will come and shine in our lives. Sometimes that light may be reflected light from someone we encounter. Someone who enters our darkness and lightens our lives. Sometimes that light might be the shining brightness of the beauty that is God in the form of humanity, in the form of Jesus. In whatever way the light comes into our lives we are reassured that there will be light. The light has come and will continue to come. Even in the darkest hour, the light that is God's light in Jesus Christ cannot be overcome. It is that which brings us hope in even the darkest times.
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
December 2023
Greetings,
Advent is upon us! I look at the word Advent and see a longer word. Adventure. In Webster's Dictionary the meaning of adventure is stated as follows:
1: an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks: the encountering of risks
2: an exciting or remarkable experience
3: an enterprise involving financial risk
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This definition could easily be applied to Advent. It is a time of danger and unknown risks as we journey to the manger with Mary and Joseph. It definitely is a time for exciting or remarkable experiences as we recall the story of the birth of Jesus and prepare to celebrate that event that happened so many years ago yet still impacts us daily. Even in some ways, there is an element of financial risk as we commit once again to a life lived in the shadow and imitation of Christ who calls us to give of ourselves and our resources.
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It would be easy to be ho-hum about Advent and want to skip the four weeks leading up to Christmas in the church. But I encourage you to see the adventure, take the risks that involve changing our lives and priorities, getting us out of our comfort zones. Make this Advent a true Adventure!
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In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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November 2023
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Greetings,
Gratitude. Live a life with gratitude. It is appropriate in this month of celebrating Thanksgiving and All Saints Sunday that we refresh our commitment to living a life of gratitude. What does that mean exactly?
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In everything, by prayer and supplication, give thanks. Sounds pretty simple, right?
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Give thanks for everything in our requests to God and in our prayers. Sounds simple, but being that we are very human and flawed, simple isn't as easy as it may sound. We like to complain, sometimes a lot. We find fault with things around us, sometimes a lot. We see the negative things in our world and we despair, sometimes a lot. Sometimes finding those things for which we are grateful, for which we are filled with gratitude, is difficult.
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But the amazing thing is that once we start seeing those things, no matter how small they may be, we start seeing other things and then more and more until we are no longer able to focus on the negative, the faulty, the complaints, because we only have room for the thanks and the gratitude. It is a snowball effect, the more we find to be grateful for, the more there seems to be.
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May you find all the things to be grateful for in your life this month and always!
In Christ,
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Pastor Pat
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October 2023
Greetings,
October is probably one of my favorite months. You may have even heard me say “all the best people are born in October”. It is not a coincidence that both my husband and I have birthdays in October, as do several of my family members. But aside from all the birthday celebrations I like October because that is when the leaves are changing ad so colorful. October is when the temperatures are cooler ad there is a crispness to the air. There is something special about a crisp Fall day when the sun is shining through the gold and red and orange of the leaves on the trees that makes it almost impossible not to stop and admire God’s handiwork.
October is a reminder of the awesome creation of God in which we get to live. I hope you take time to smell the crisp air and enjoy the beauty of God’s world this October.
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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September 2023
Every once in a while, when I am working on the computer and using the internet, I will lose the connection. It is a random occurrence and I often do not have a good explanation for it. I attribute it to gremlins in the system sometimes! Sometimes I do know why the connection is lost. For example, when a storm rolls through and knocks out the power I know why connection is lost. This loss of connection is usually short live and then it is restored pretty painlessly with nothing done on my part and I am back to work at whatever was interrupted. But there are times when it is longer, and I may have to put in extra effort to reconnect.
Our relationship with God can be like that sometimes. We can be sailing along, feeling strong in our faith and something causes us to lose connection. Sometimes faith is restored without a lot of fuss, but sometimes we have to struggle with our faith to restore that connection.
One of the ways we stay connected in our faith life is by attending church and Sunday School and praying, worshipping, and studying with others of faith. If you are feeling like you have lost connection in your faith life maybe you need to reboot the system, so to speak, and plug back in to worship on Sunday morning in church or begin attending a Sunday School or Bible study class.
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
August 2023
Greetings,
As some of you may know, one of my hobbies is pottery. Specifically wheel throwing pottery. Forming pots cups, plates, etc from clay on a spinning wheel. If you have visited my office at church or visited the house, you have no doubt seen some of the results of this hobby.
One of the main things to learn in wheel throwing pottery is how to center the clay on the wheel. When the clay is centered everything else is much easier. When it is off balance, everything becomes infinitely harder. It sounds pretty simple. Center the clay on the wheel. Just put it in the middle, right? But that isn’t how it works. Because s the wheel turns it begins to push the clay out from the center. What this means for the potter is that you must continuously work to keep the clay centered. Again, doesn’t sound too hard. But I have found that if I am not centered—if I am distracted and paying attention to anything else than what I am doing—it is much harder to center the clay.
In many ways, working with clay and working on a potter’s wheel are a mirror for our relationship with God and our faith life. We too need to stay centered on God and when we do it is much easier to get along. In our faith life there are many distractions that want to pull us away from center, from God, and we must always work to stay centered.
The best news, with clay or with our faith life, is that when things go completely off center and everything collapses, we can always start again.
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
July 2023
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Greetings,
“Knee high by the fourth of July.” If you have been around farming at all you may have heard that statement. It refers to the growth of the corn crop and how it should be knee high by the fourth of July to be a good crop. It is an old statement as advances in farming have made it somewhat obsolete. But in this current year it rings in my head as we wait anxiously for rain!
Waiting anxiously. It seems many times we wait for something we need with an anxious feeling. Unsure about the future and how it will all come about. In dry years we wait anxiously for rain, in wet years we wait anxiously for sunshine. We wait anxiously for test results. We wait anxiously for loved ones to call or come home. We wait anxiously to hear about a job interview or buying that new house. There are
many things for which we wait anxiously. But we also know as faithful people that God is in charge of all things. We don’t need to be anxious.
There is assaying in Alcoholics Anonymous “Let go, Let God”. We too need to remember to let go and let God. Let go of our anxiety, let go of our anxious waiting and rest in the promises of letting God be in charge.
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
June 2023
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Greetings,
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“Summertime, and the living is easy! Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high.” This is the first line from a song in the musical Porgy and Bess. But it is the line I hear in my head when I begin to think about Summer starting. I remember school days as school winds down and those three months of summer vacation loomed before me with all the possibilities away from school. Or as I graduated out of school days the change in tempo that seems to happen during the Summer. Life slows a little and days are longer and filled with the possibilities of things to do and places to explore. Gardens are blooming and growing and there seems to be an endless parade of nature’s beauty.
Not only is Summertime a great time for vacations and getting away from home, but Summertime is also a great time to connect with God in a deeper way. Spend some prayer time on the back deck or the front porch as the birds sing and there is the early morning quiet. Take that evening walk and listen for the quiet voice of God whisper in the breeze in the trees. Come to church on Sunday morning and share the experience of faith shared among others who also are finding connection with God.
May this Summer be a blessed and fruitful time of faith and rest!
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
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March 2023
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Greetings,
My Grandmother was a rock hound. Not just a collector of rocks here and there, but a serious rock hound. This meant whenever we were on vacation she would be picking up rocks and stone from the places we traveled. In fact, one year she picked up so many, my father insisted that the car weighed at least 500 pounds extra. To prove his point, he drove us through a scale to weigh. I don’t actually remember if he was right, but I know there were a lot of stones and rocks collected over the years. She and my grandfather would even go on rock hunting trips and bring back the specimens they found. I have what is left of her collection.
There is a certain weight and solidity about many rocks. They can also tell a story if we know how to read it.
So why am I going on about rocks? Because in worship during Lent, which begins February 26, we will be taking a Journey of the Stones. Each Sunday as you enter the sanctuary there will be stones for you to pick up and hold during worship. These stones are representative of things in our lives that can weigh us down, hold us back or are used to hurt or harm others. We will hear about stones of rejection, hearts of stone, stones that go with sticks, crying stones and others. I invite you to take the journey, consider the weight of the stones you carry and perhaps lay some of them down at the foot of the cross.
In Christ,
Pastor Pat
