Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Growing Up in the Faith

For the next two Sundays, I am going to focus on the idea of growing up in the faith.  As easy as that phrase might sound, it involves two particular aspects that are not easy:  Christian maturity and discipleship.

Maturity is difficult enough.  Christian maturity is something that is also quite difficult. In the United Methodist tradition, one of the goals for the church community (collectively and individually) is to continue to grow into the likeness of Christ.  It is a lifetime journey and each step along that journey is a step into Christian maturity.

It should be said, though, that the journey is not an easy one.  If it were, I wouldn't have books on my shelves called "Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White", "Barriers to Christian Belief", and "Finding Our Way Again."  It seems easy enough, but it takes a level of discipline and discipline takes deliberate choices.

The journey of faith is a journey where we attempt to grow in Christian and spiritual maturity.  We call that "Discipleship."  Christian Discipleship is the way of living that follows the life and teachings of Christ.  A disciple is one who follows and learns from a teacher.  So if we consider ourselves disciples of Christ, then it is Christ who is our teacher.  That also means that we would be those who seek to emulate Christ in who we are and what we do.

In the church, the goal of discipleship is to form people into the image of Christ and to "let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).  And it is more than just "Jesus and Me."  It is about being a member of a community of disciples.

I hope that you will join us these next two weeks as we look at growing up in the faith and what it means to live a life that demonstrates Christ to those whom we encounter.

- Grace and Peace,
Rev. Charles Ensminger

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Who We Are: Covenant and Grace

One of the great challenges facing most churches is that of identity.   With churches seemingly on every corner of every block, people on the outside might wonder what the difference is from one church building to another.  And, as we live in a time where churches are defined more by that which they are against than what they do or hold as sacred, we also find that the people inside the churches sometimes wonder what the differences are from one building to another.

Last week and this week, I wanted to take some time to focus on what it means to be a people who not only believe in the Good News of the grace and mercy of God shown in the person of Jesus, but also what it means to be a particular people: United Methodists.  To do that,  I am going to briefly focus on the distinctiveness of the United Methodist Church, our structure, and how it hinges on two particular ideas:

Covenant relationships
God’s great grace

We begin with the idea of covenant relationships.
A covenant is a formal agreement between two parties in which each assumes particular responsibilities.  Our church has at its heart these kinds of relationships.  These are not to be overlooked or taken lightly, as they define our relationships to one another, to the larger community of faith, and in how we work to respond to God’s grace. 

Our denomination is one that builds much of its understanding of our congregational relationship and structure on the idea of upholding our covenants, our vows, and our words.  It may not sound like a big deal, but if we approach the idea of discipleship with this in mind we quickly see how binding these can be on our life, our thinking, and our actions.

We continue with the idea of God’s grace.

Whereas a covenant is the relationship we establish with God and one another, grace is that on which covenants are built.  Grace is also a gift given by God and by you and I to one another.  And as much as we might over-utilize the word in church, grace is one of those things we simply can't do without.

In the United Methodist Church, we have very particular understandings of grace.  So what are our understandings of grace?
They are threefold.
1.      Prevenient Grace:  Prevenient Grace (preventing grace): the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses.  Prevenient Grace also awakens us towards repentance and faith. 

The United Methodist Book of Discipline (2004) defines prevenient grace as "...the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God's will, and our 'first slight transient conviction' of having sinned against God. God's grace also awakens in us an earnest longing for deliverance from sin and death and moves us toward repentance and faith."

2.      Justifying Grace:  God reaching out to the believer with accepting and pardoning love.  A change of heart can and does occur under the prompting of grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  (conversion and assurance)

3.      Sanctifying Grace:  draws us on towards Christian perfection, which Wesley described as a heart “habitually filled with the love of God ad neighbor” and “having the mind of Christ and walking as he walked.”

This coming Sunday, I will be talking about that particular understanding of grace.  I hope you will come and be with us!

- Grace and Peace
Rev. Charles Ensminger

Welcome and Introduction

Greetings!
Let me introduce this blog.  It is a place where I will be sharing some thoughts and observations from time to time, but most importantly, it is where I will be sharing the direction of the sermons for the coming weeks.  Some pastors are pretty free-form in their sermons (and some tend to come up with what they are going to say as they say it!), while others follow a strict pattern.  Others utilize the idea of series sermons and still others are straight lectionary preachers.
(For those of you who don't know what "lectionary" means, let me explain.  A lectionary is a listing of scripture readings that have been decided upon by the larger Christian church that follow the Christian Year.  In other words, the lectionary is a list of scriptures for each Sunday and special holiday.)
I tend to preach from a mix of lectionary and series.  And this blog will keep you posted as to what those sermons are going to be.
I hope that you will check back on a regular basis, as I will keep this page updated as the series and/or sermons change.

As always, you are invited to come and be a part of our worship service at Harrison United Methodist Church beginning on Sunday mornings at 10:55.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. Charles Ensminger