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Finally United
Throughout my entire life, I have been involved in the Methodist Church. In April of 1968, we became the United Methodist Church. But just a decade earlier, churches like the one I grew up in were segregated and did not welcome the black community. It took the Civil Rights Movement to eventually unite us.
Then as United Methodist, we claimed to be “a welcoming church”, but our Book of Discipleship stated that homosexuality was incompatible with Christian teaching. We would not ordain or marry gay people. We have been divided on this issue since the 1970’s.
At our General Conference in May of 2024, we revised the Social Principles in the Book of Discipline, removing the previous language that was harmful. What a celebration it was! Now, we can be called The United Methodist Church and be proud of it.
It’s a freeing experience to follow God’s plan to be the Church. We are finally united and can move ahead, growing and fully becoming God’s instrument of love for all.
WHO I AM
When I was young I would hear the teaching of being Christ-like. It sounded good, but I didn’t believe a person could be like Jesus; good like Jesus; serve like Jesus; faithful like Jesus.
As I grew and learned God sent Jesus in human form to teach us that we can be imperfect people and still be Christ-like. It is the Holy Spirit that fills us with the drive to do good, to serve, and to live by Faith. It doesn’t make us perfect, but it does give us that hunger for righteousness and discipleship.
I recently wrote a song entitled “Who I Am”. In my song, I express the feeling of wanting to be like Jesus. Not perfect, but living life the best I can. This is what God is calling us to do. This is understanding what it means to be the Church.
I just want to be like Him
Living life the best I can
I just want to walk the road
Helping others lift the load
I just want to spread the News
God is love and justice too
Chorus:
Trying to understand
Where I must stand
Knowing who I am
Who I am
Could I be just one small light
Shining in the cold, cold night
Could I help just one lost soul
Share the way to make them whole
Marching in the big brass band
Holding on to Jesus hand
Every morn I wake and pray
Asking God to show the way
And I feel the strength to be
What the Lord requires of me
Now I know God knows my name
Child of God is my claim
Firm and Loving
The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome,
“God is kind, but God is not soft. In kindness God takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life change.” (Romans 2:4 ~The Message)
We like going to church and hearing God is kind and God is love. It is comforting and soothing, but to hear God leads us into a radical life change is unsettling. Most people hear the word ‘radical’ and think of being an extremist or fanatic. Radical comes from the word “radix” which means rooted. Having a Christian radical lifestyle means being rooted in the teachings of Jesus. Teachings that are not always comforting but are challenging and call us to change our lifestyles.
All of us who are parents know that there are times when we must be firm as we discipline our children. We do this because we love them and want the best for them. God is our heavenly parent and offers to firmly take us by the hand and guide us.
My mother was a perfect woman to be a single parent of two boys. She loved us so much, yet she was strong and firm when we needed it. Although there were days she needed to be firm with us, at night she would let us get out of our beds and go down the hall to her room. We’d climb up on her bed and lay our heads on her as she sang and told us stories and taught us her favorite scriptures.
Not soft, but firm, and oh so loving.
Things We Agree On
I get tired of writing about and commenting on what divides our country. Jesus teaches understanding and unity, but it seems like we’re not listening. I’ve been thinking of things that we agree on. Things that brighten our lives and help us realize we do have common feelings, hopes, and dreams. Here’s my shortlist:
I would like to add God’s list to my list.
PEACE – HOPE – LOVE
Make your own list ~ then read it several times ~ it will lift your spirit!
What Will Bring Us Back
I think it is about time. It’s about time we start filling up our churches again. The pandemic has kept our churches only half full, and sometimes less. There are those who predict that this will be the way from now on. They’ve shown that many of us have grown accustomed to watching our worship services at home on demand.
As comfortable as it is worshipping in pajamas, it will never take the place of being in community with friends and singing the songs to live music. Even though many churches are still wearing masks and not touching each other with hugs, kisses, or even holding hands, there is an undeniable connection when we’re together in the sanctuary and worshipping with each other.
When Pam and I are leaving and fellowshipping in the narthex, we can’t help but share some hugs and shake a few hands. I know we probably shouldn’t be touching others, but we miss it so much and find it difficult to hold back. I’m not saying it’s the healthy thing to do. What I am saying is it shows how much we miss it.
The Church is not an institution, a club, or an organization. The Church is the instrument of God. It’s the personal warmth and bond of faith that is the glue binding us together. We are a community of love that builds God’s Kingdom come, God’s Will be done. This is what will bring us back to Church.
Agape, Kimball, S.E.
I Just Want To Hug Somebody
This pandemic has put a hold on our ministry for two-and-a-half years. I miss being in your churches. I mostly miss the personal touch, I miss preaching to you, singing with you, and hugging you.
I realize why we had to stop hugging each other these past years, but I hope we never have to do it again in my lifetime. Being the Church is being in community, and being in community is a feeling you cannot have without the freedom of being together in worshipful dance, song, and touch.
Not only have we not hugged each other in church, we haven’t even held hands in a friendship circle. We haven’t been able to face each other without masks and joyfully lift our voices in song.
The scripture is true, “If we keep silent the stones will shout out” (Luke 19:40). I don’t believe for a minute this pandemic will stop the Church from being what she is called to be.
The Church is not a body that can be blown away by the winds of disease. We are built on a foundation of faith. We are filled with the Spirit of Christ that brings us together in a community of love, and nothing can stop us from hugging each other.
Agape, Kimball, S.E.
A Joyous Easter from the Coburn Family
We have experienced the joy of Easter in the city, the country, the desert, and the beach, but experiencing Easter in Mt. Baldy is one of our favorite memories. We lived there for eight years, and it quickly became a tradition for our five young grandchildren. They came up from the cities below and spent part of Holy Week with us preparing for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter.
They helped Granddad build the cross from branches found on the forest floor our first year. They climbed the hill and planted it firmly. Stones were placed around it to keep it steady. Sometimes repairs were needed, but most of the time the cross seemed to withstand the forces of wind, rain, and snow.
Kimball draped the cross with a purple cloth. It stood humbly on the mountainside above his study that we called the Servant’s Quarters. The children would run up the hill and place fresh wildflowers that grew alongside the creek beneath the cross. We had our daily meditations during Holy Week in sight of the cross.
On Good Friday he removed that cloth and replaced it with a black one. The children’s flowers lay wilted and decaying ‘neath the cross, but when they joined us for this day of quiet, they surprisingly seemed to understand its significance.
On Easter morning just at daybreak, Kimball climbed the hill again and took the black cloth off the cross, and draped it with a white one. He buried the dead flowers and replaced them with Calla Lilies from our flower garden. Having done this, he began yelling to all of God’s creatures, “He’s alive! Christ Jesus has risen! He has risen indeed! Hallelujah! Thanks be to God!
Throughout the day our family would pause and look up to the cross and feel the love and sacrifice it represented. ~ May you, also feel the joy of Easter!
Agape, Pam Coburn
A Feeling I’ll Never Forget
It was 1968. I was sitting in the library of my college when I went into a dream state. I dreamed about the possibility of serving God in a way that would change the world. I felt it so deeply it brought a warm feeling of God’s presence in me. Tears welled up in my eyes and dropped on the page of a book on my desk. They startled me but I didn’t want to wake up and lose that feeling and the vision I was experiencing.
My tears were of sadness because we were losing 58,000 young men and women being killed in the Viet Nam War. Sadness because prejudice and discrimination were rampant throughout my southern homeland. They were also tears of joy that I could be a part of God’s plan to make a difference in our country and world. I had the privilege of preaching the confronting and challenging message of Christ in two little country churches on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky. They weren’t what you would label liberal, but they listened, and gradually over time, began to be changed by the teachings of Jesus.
That day was a feeling I’ll never forget. It was a feeling I don’t want to forget. It was a feeling I wanted to carry with me for the rest of my life. Those tears gave me the blessed assurance my decision to follow God’s call into ministry was my center and destiny.
My wish for you is to have a moment like mine when you feel God’s guidance to use your talents to change the world.
Agape, Kimball, S.E.
Knowing God
I sit here with a blank sheet of paper in front of me hoping I can write something that will help people to know God. With all my years of having a relationship with my Lord, it seems it should be easy to communicate this feeling and this knowing about God. The more I think and the more I write, I realize you can’t define God or know God through words. Knowing God can only come by faith, and faith can only come by believing.
I think the best way to move toward this feeling and believing is experiencing. Experiencing opens your mind and starts you thinking of the possibility of something bigger than self. If you’ve never had a spiritual experience, I can promise you it will be the most wonderful experience you’ve ever had. Life will take on new and meaningful directions. Hope will lift you up and love will be your ever-present guide.
I am a praying man. But how do I suggest to people who don’t believe there is a God, to talk with a spirit that doesn’t exist. Although you don’t feel God exists, God knows you exist. God is watching over you and loving you. This is called prevenient grace. Simply be still and God will talk to you. How will you know it is God’s voice? You’ll know … you’ll know.
Agape, Kimball
Imagining
Pam and I have four children, two boys and two girls. The younger brother, Collie, at the age of eight, told us one Sunday morning that he did not want to go to Church. After some thought, we allowed him to stay home that Sunday.
He didn’t mention it all week, neither did we, but come Sunday morning he was dressed and ready for church. One week was a long time for our young son to realize it didn’t feel right to stay home while his family went to church. He missed his friends, the children’s choir, and Sunday School. It just didn’t seem like a Sunday without going to church.
For the past 15 months, the Christian community has missed going to church. And like Collie, Sundays haven’t been the same. Our children have missed their friends in Sunday School, hearing the stories of Jesus, and singing songs that help build their foundation of faith. The same goes for all ages in our churches. We miss celebrating communion, baptisms, and weddings. We’ve felt stifled in our ability to reach out to the lost, sick, and hurting. We’ve missed the joy of celebrating holy holidays together. This lack of connection has reminded us that the church isn’t merely a building, the Church is the people who gather together with imagination and the strength of God’s Call. Are you looking forward to getting back to church? Have you missed being together physically in worship with your brothers and sisters in the spirit of Christ? As soon as it’s safe, I hope you and your family will be back with the family of God to, once again, enjoy the fellowship that can only be felt when two or more are gathered in His name.
Due to the Covid crisis, technology has begun playing an important role of encouraging us in our faith. Many believe it will continue to do so in the future, not as a replacement of the local church, but as an enhancement to help us reach people where they are. It’s been exciting to see the church take bold steps using video, podcasts, and social media with open hearts and minds. Our Ministry’s Board of Directors has added a new media team to imagine with us new ways to help keep our ministry relevant and in touch with your needs on your spiritual journey. As our churches are imagining how to serve our Lord in today’s world, we as a Ministry of Evangelism in the Prophetic Spirit have begun creating video messages. These brief videos (3-5 minutes) include stories and music that will encourage you and your church to follow God’s Call. We’ve titled this new series OUR CALL. I invite you to share them on social media, download and use them in your church, or in your church’s videos.
May God bless and use our imaginations as we reach out to our world with the hope freely given. This is Our Call.
Kimball Boyd Coburn 