Friends, In the NIV translation of the Bible, the word joy (or rejoice) is found 436 times. Here are a few examples: 1 Chronicles 29:22, “They ate and drank with great joy in the presence of the Lord that day.” Luke 2:10, “But the …
Pastor’s Note – July 16, 2020
Friends, The other day a good friend of mine sent me an article I’ve been thinking a lot about this week. It is written by Bishop Todd Hunter of the Anglical Church. He is the bishop of a non-geographic diocese …
Pastor’s Note – July 9, 2020
Friends, I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July celebration. Independence Day is one of my favorite days of the year. When you are a pastor you use other holidays besides Christmas and Easter to build family traditions, and …
Pastor’s Note – July 2, 2020
Friends, This note marks my one-year anniversary as your pastor. We’ve been through a lot together in this first year! I can’t say thank you enough to how you have treated me and my family in this first year with …
Pastor’s Note – June 25, 2020
Friends, On Sunday, we began a new season of our church as both an online and in-person church. One of our big lessons we’ve learned over the last few months is that you don’t have to come in person to …
Pastor’s Note – June 18, 2020
Friends, This is a big week for us. This week we start the process of reopening. You can find all the information about reopening on our website: sumc.co/reopening. As we are approaching reopening, I’ve been reflecting on some of the things …
Pastor’s Note – June 11, 2020
Friends, I got a text this week from someone checking in because as he said “I know your world is going to get really busy opening up the church.” That’s the truth! Let’s talk about reopening, because it is right …
Pastor’s Note – June 1, 2020
Friends, We’re sending out our weekly Pastor’s Note early this week because I want to speak a few words about the protests we’ve seen around the country this weekend. We did not address this in Sunday worship, largely because we …
Pastor’s Note – May 28, 2020
Friends, I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. We give thanks for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. This last Sunday we also launched sign-ups for people to host Vacation Bible School (VBS). Instead …
Pastor’s Note – May 21, 2020
Friends, There are some exciting things happening at Schweitzer right now. If you missed Sunday, we announced a large gift the church made to the Mozambique Initiative. Because of the financial uncertainty facing many churches, the Missouri United Methodist Church Conference …