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Our Last Newsletter
I’m sitting at my desk with a blank sheet of paper in front of me and a pencil in my hand. I’ve always cherished this moment because it challenges me to be creative in writing these newsletters to you. But today feels different, because I know this will be our last one.
I’ve been writing to you since 1979 – that’s 210 quarterly newsletters over the past 47 years. My hope is that along the way, I’ve shared words that have touched, moved, inspired, and challenged you to hear God’s Call to be the Church.
I won’t miss the deadlines, but I will miss the opportunity to write to you. I’ll miss imagining you receiving our newsletter, The Call, settling into your easy chair, and reading my messages and hearing about the ministry experiences Pam and I shared while traveling among your churches. It has always encouraged me to know you wanted to stay connected through these newsletters.
I often think back to the day my bishop, Jack Tuell, said to me, “Kimball, there is no appointment for an evangelist in our conference. Will you go and live out God’s call on your life for the Church and then show us how to do it?” He not only challenged me, but supported me, because he believed evangelism is greatly needed in the Church. That day marked the beginning of a close friendship. His wife, Margie, became Pam’s prayer partner.
I am not retiring from ministry. I will continue to preach as I am invited. I will keep writing songs that share the Gospel, and I will remain available to encourage and mentor young pastors, sharing what I’ve learned over the past 60 years. The only change is that I will no longer be leading our usual three-day events.
Your prayerful and financial support has made this outreach so successful. Because of you, we’ve been able to reach thousands of people through more than 600 evangelism events across 13 states. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your belief in evangelism, and for trusting me to serve as a messenger for God. Please know how much I love and appreciate you. I remain available if you’d ever like to connect by phone or email.
In closing, I want to say I will always remember that genuine joyful look on your face as you responded to God’s Call to stand at the altar, joining hands with your fellow church men and women, singing, and boldly proclaiming that you are God’s Church.
Now, allow me to leave you with the words which I began our evangelism events:
“The Call to be the Church is the greatest and most loving challenge in the World”
And the words I ended with:
“Go into the World,
Living to Love,
Daring to Dream,
and Running to Reach the Highest”
The Prophetic Spirit, Now
Today, we live in a nation that is dangerously losing its sense of identity and purpose. Our political leaders often seem disconnected from the vision our founding fathers had for America. We are drifting further from the biblical call to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
The prophets spoke to the people of their day when they faced difficult times. They warned the people what could happen if they continued what they were doing. They also encouraged the people to change and follow God’s ways. As Eugene Peterson writes, “The biblical prophets continue to be the most powerful and effective voices ever heard on the earth for keeping religion honest, humble, and compassionate.”
When we understand what the prophets were doing—both in their words and their actions—we can be inspired to do the same. We, the people, can speak truth to power. As Christians, this is what Jesus preached and taught us to live by.
As we reflect on the prophets, do we see any parallels in today’s world? We live in a democracy, a system that grants each of us a vote. However, when the politicians are not honest in their speeches, our votes are being won fraudulently. We must be wary of politicians who hold up Bibles pretending to be religious, while lacking the values it teaches. Why are we so impressed with rich people? Do we assume they are smarter? Do they know more about running the country? Too often, their concern lies more with profit than with people’s needs, hurts, pain, and poverty.
As brave and courageous as the prophets were, they first made excuses as to why they couldn’t speak for God. Moses claimed he couldn’t speak well. Isaiah felt unworthy. Jeremiah said he was too young. I identify with them. At 85, I sometimes feel too old. But God did not accept their excuses, and God won’t accept ours either.
Just as the prophets warned the people in their day, we are called to warn our people of what could happen if we keep moving in the direction we are headed. We are the Body of Christ. We are the arms, legs, and heart of the prophetic spirit. Our country needs us now to speak and to act.
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
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
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
Seeing the snowcapped mountains last week over Claremont reminded us of one Easter we had while living in Mt. Baldy. It was unlike any we had ever experienced. There were no Easter flowers but Mother Nature surrounded us with beauty. There were no comfortable pews but we had big rocks that could seat more than one and we shared quilts and blankets for comfort. We had no pipe organ, only guitars, but their music, along with our voices, echoed throughout the mountainside. You could almost feel the movement of the trees and brush, the squirrels and deer joining in the songs of Easter with us.
All of Mother Nature seemed to come to a hush as Kimball began to preach the Easter message. The clouds floated around us like angels dancing and rejoicing. The sun began to peek over the snow-covered mountains. It was cold out in the elements but we were warmed by the Holy Spirit.
The old rugged cross stood before us but somehow the sting of it was taken away. As we gathered close to each other, tears came to many. I noticed a child wiping his mother’s tears in sweet love. “Because He Lives” never sounded so powerful.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
May your Easter be Happy and Blessed, Kimball and Pam
A Spirit of Christmas
Two-thousand years ago, Christmas came humbly in a stable. The light of a magnificent star showed the way to the place where the Christ Child lay. There were gifts to welcome the babe. What gifts, you ask?
The donkey brought the young mother-to-be to the place her child would be born, the lamb warmed the newborn with its woolly coat, the angels kept watch day and night, the shepherds welcomed Emmanuel, the wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But the real gift of Christmas is the Babe himself. He isn’t a gift to a particular people, but a gift to be shared with all the world. This incredible gift has no price tag, but it does have a cost.
If we truly have the spirit of Christmas…if we are to fully feel the love and compassion of Christ’s coming, we must bow like the shepherds. We must come humbly and gently to the stable. We must identify with the poor, the homeless and marginal people of our world. We must feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit the imprisoned. We must share the simple, yet profound power of Christ’s love by the way we live our faith and invite others to faith.
May Christmas be a time to reignite your desire to be a faithful followers of the Christ Child. That is when you will know and feel the message of Christmas.
God bless you and your family in this season of hope and love. Merry Christmas!
Kimball and Pam
Kimball Boyd Coburn 