Devotional from Pastor Dave June 28, 2023

What On Earth?

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:30:15 GMT

Midweek Message

What On Earth Can We Do?

The crew of Artemis II, which slung around the dark side of the moon and safely returned to Earth a couple of weeks ago, took this beautiful photo of our home planet. I “shutter” to think that they snapped several other photos of our planet on their journey, including a stunning “Earthset” over the moon and a crescent photo where the Earth was mostly in the moon’s shadow.

Today, April 22, is Earth Day, which has been observed annually since 1970. Over 20 million Americans participated in campus and community rallies across the nation at that first event, and it has since expanded to over 200 countries including an estimated one billion people today. Earth Day is credited with propelling the environmental movement that has seen the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of legislation like the Clean Air Act.

Care and concern for the Earth as our home, however, goes much further back than 1970. The psalmist declares, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers” (Psalm 24:1-2). The Bible makes it clear that the Earth is not our own, to do with whatever we want; rather, the Earth belongs to God, and we are but tenants, trustees, caretakers.

When God created the Earth and everything in it, God gave us our role and our responsibility. It was our very first job. We are to “have dominion”—stewardship, supervision, oversight—“over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

Seeing photos like the ones Artemis II took reminds us how precious and fragile this Earth is, and how immense our responsibility to take as good care of it as we possibly can. It is a responsibility that we neglect at our own spiritual and existential peril.

On this Earth Day, what are some things you can do—not just one day a year, but every day—to fulfill our God-given responsibility to care for the Earth which is the Lord’s. Maybe you can recycle more. Maybe you can try composting. Maybe you can plant a tree or a pollinator garden. Maybe you can use your vehicle less and walk or ride your bicycle or take public transportation more. Maybe you can learn to identify some wildflowers or bird songs. Maybe you can take a hike on one of the trails on this magnificent mountain on which we live, and fall in love with the Earth all over again.

The Angel with the Furrowed Brow

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:47:42 GMT

Midweek Message

Last summer during our visit to Paris where Wesley was studying abroad, we visited a number of famous churches—Notre-Dame, of course, which was being refurbished after the 2019 fire, and Saint-Eustache, and Sacre-Coeur atop Montmartre. But an unexpected delight came when we visited the Church of St. Sulpice.

This church is the second largest church in Paris, after Notre-Dame, and it’s famous for a few things: its magnificent pipe organ (one of the largest in the world), its rich frescoes by Eugene Delacroix, its meridian line that is featured in Dan Brown’s novel The DaVinci Code, and its lopsided towers. But what captured my attention was an 1868 sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Clevinger in one of the church’s side chapels.

It's a pieta, from the Italian word for pity, mercy, compassion. In religious art, it refers to the depiction of Jesus’ mother Mary holding her son after he’s been taken down from the cross. Having by this point in our trip already visited several churches, we had already seen a few pietas! But this one stood out in a couple of ways. One was it included Mary Magdalene at Mary’s feet, kneeling beside Jesus, her head leaning next to his. The other was it included two angels off to the sides. One angel, the one on the right, is looking up at Jesus, Mary, and Mary Magdalene in awe and devotion. The other, the one on the right, is looking down and away from the central scene and instead at the twisted crown of thorns in his right hand, and he has a furrowed brow. It was the angel’s furrowed brow that captivated me.

What was the meaning of that furrowed brow? What was the sculptor trying to convey by showing us this frowning angel? Perhaps it was the angel’s confusion at the scene beside him, the many questions on the angel’s mind about what he had witnessed: Why did this man Jesus, the Son of God, have to die? Why did he have to die in such a horrible way? Why didn’t he call upon the angels to rescue him from the cross? Why did they give him such a cruel crown to wear? Why? And what now?

I admit that while I would love to always wear the awestruck gaze of the one angel, I probably have more often worn the furrowed brow of the other one. Maybe you have, too.

But we also know that the pieta isn’t the end of the story of Jesus. Eventually his body is taken from his mother’s embrace and laid in a tomb. But then, a couple mornings later, as the Gospel of John tells us, Mary Magdalene makes her way to the tomb, and she finds the stone rolled away. She eventually steps inside the tomb, and who should she see there but two angels in white, one on one side of the tomb and the other on the other.

I wonder if it’s the same two angels. And I wonder if the one’s brow is still furrowed.

For the Love of the Game

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:57:58 GMT

Midweek Message

This past Friday, Tracy and I were in Nashville visiting our son Noah, and while we were there, we watched the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team take on the #3 team in the US, the University of Texas. It was exciting to see such hard-hitting, fast-moving play. The camaraderie among the teammates and the encouragement of the coaches brought to mind memories of my years of playing on the tennis team in both high school and college.

Last August, the Atlantic magazine published an article that claimed tennis is the healthiest sport, especially in terms of longevity. It’s a sport you can play all your life long. In fact, I’ve gotten my old rackets out again and am playing in one of the city’s men’s leagues.

But tennis is not only good for your physical health; it can also be good for your spiritual health as well. Just think of the words we use when we play tennis.

Love. There’s an old saying: “In tennis, love means nothing.” Love is where every game starts, with the scores at zero, or love. Love is the beginning point of the game. It all starts with love. That’s true in our faith as well, isn’t it? “God so loved…” (John 3:16).

Serve. The game gets going when someone serves the ball to the other player. Nothing happens until someone serves. This is also true in our faith. “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45). Who knew Jesus played tennis?

Fault. This happens when a serve misses the target box either going wide or deep. This is like sin. The Greek word for sin in the New Testament is hamartia, which comes from the sport of archery and means “missing the mark.” We miss the mark in many ways in our lives, and much of the time it is our own fault. But the good news is that we get another chance.

Second serve. If we miss our first chance to serve, we are given a second chance to serve the ball into the box. This is grace. Thank God we serve a God of second chances!

Advantage. When the score in a game arrives at deuce, which is essentially three points each, whoever wins the next point but then needs to win one more point to win the game, has the “advantage.” Most of the tennis players I’ve ever met have a lot of advantages in life. But one of the great questions in life is what are we going to do with the advantages, the opportunities, the privileges we have been given? I’m reminded of something Jesus said: “From whom much has been given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). And what is required of us is that we use the advantages we have been given in this life to love and to serve others, especially those who are disadvantaged in some way.

I imagine that if we live our lives in light of these terms from both tennis and Jesus, we’ll be “set.”

Tuesday Spiritual Group

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:09:58 GMT

Midweek Message

Have you ever wanted to grow in your spiritual life but wanted to know how to get started? Dave suggested that I might tell you a little more about our Tuesday Spiritual Group. You wouldn’t be attending church if you didn’t love God and recognize that Jesus’ life and death show God’s love for you. Most of us know that we aren’t serving God as well as we could. The challenge in our busy, challenging lives is finding a way to feel God’s joy, and doing a better job of loving God by serving others isn’t easy.

There are many writers, some current, some from the past, who have found ways toward “spiritual transformation” that we study and learn from, some as recent as Richard Rohr, Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, but others as far back as John Wesley and the Desert Fathers and Mothers from the fourth century. They all tell us that they didn’t lead perfect lives, but the effort leads to fuller, more productive lives.

We know that God desires a close relationship with us and that the Holy Spirit helps us communicate with Him. We believe that God knows each of us by name and endows each of us with unique talents and expects each of us to share and serve the world in our own way. The question is how to get closer to God’s will. A closer relationship with God helps us to know God’s will for our life. I think the members of our group would agree that our time together has helped lead us to a closer relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. It can also be a source of inner strength for life’s challenges. It certainly was for me.

Our practice builds on four principles:

The Bible is essential and we explore deeper ways to ask the Bible to speak to us, rather than “studying” or asking an expert to explain it to us. The practice of spiritual reading is called Lectio Divina.
Prayer is also essential and we put more focus on listening for God’s message to us personally than asking God to grant us our needs. The practice is sometimes called Centering Prayer.
The presence of a community is essential. As Paul was spreading the gospel through the pagan world, he formed communities. We study together, pray together and share our thoughts. This is one of the most valuable parts of the experience.
And, if we learn to pay attention we can see God’s presence in our everyday lives.

In John’s gospel we hear Jesus’ words, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:11)

Come join us! We meet Tuesday evenings at 6 pm in the church library.

Dr. B.W. Ruffner

Advice to My Younger Self

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:53:02 GMT

Midweek Message

If you could go back in time and offer some advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Recently, I have gone back and read through my journal from 1995. By that time, I had been keeping a daily journal for ten years (I started January 1, 1985 – one of my few New Year’s resolutions that actually stuck). It was the year I graduated from college. My dad had just died the previous December from cancer. And I was still figuring out what exactly to do with my life.

Reading through my journal from those days, I feel a welling-up of compassion for that young man. I realize now that I was more anxious about the future than I wanted to be, I was more deeply entrenched in grief than I was aware at the time, I was disappointed that my post-graduation plans weren’t materializing like I’d expected, and I was more opinionated than I thought I was. So what would I say now to that young man then?

When I posed this question at our HeBrews men’s coffee group on Tuesday morning about what advice would you give to your younger self, one of the guys chipped in immediately with “relax!” I think my advice would be similar. I would want to tell my younger self to relax and to lighten up.

To lighten up on myself, and on others, and to trust that I would eventually find my way, and that healing would come. To trust more in the words of a passage of scripture I was beginning to be drawn to even then, that “we know that God works all things together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Because in the thirty plus years since then, that promise has proven to be true.

So what would you want to say to your younger self? And if you could project yourself out another thirty years from now, what do you imagine your future self telling your present self?

A Holy Charge

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:06:24 GMT

Midweek Message

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Write Scripture On Your Heart

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 14:20:00 GMT

Midweek Message

When I ask folks what they love most about this church, one of the most frequent responses is “the music.” And they’re right! The music at this church—in both our 9AM Crest service and our 11AM sanctuary service—is both inspired and inspiring! Consistently so. And it seemed especially so this past Sunday.

In the sanctuary service, Andrew sang a song that I don’t believe I had ever heard before—“Four Days More.” He had told me he had picked out the perfect song for the scripture, and no lie! It went right along with the story in John 11 of Lazarus’ death and Martha’s frustration that it took Jesus so long for him to get there. But “isn’t it great,” the song inquires, “when He’s four days late, He’s still on time.” What reason even is there for anyone to preach after we’ve heard a song like that? (By the way, that was a rhetorical question!)

And in the Crest service, Margee sang a song that I’m not sure I remember hearing either. It is called “Still Waters (Psalm 23).” The lyrics grabbed me from the very first line: “Great Aunt Maurine said at a hundred and three / Write scripture on your heart for when you need it / ‘Cause anxiety hates Psalm 23 / So just say it to yourself ‘til you believe it.”

As soon as I heard Margee sing that line “Write scripture on your heart for when you need it,” I was reminded of an old Hasidic Jewish story that goes something like this:

A disciple asked their teacher, “Why does the scripture tell us to ‘place these words upon your hearts’? Why not tell us to place them in our hearts?’ The teacher responded, “It is because, as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And that’s where they stay until, one day, when our heart breaks, the holy words can fall in.”

As far as I’m concerned, the words of Psalm 23 are as good as any for us to place on our hearts. As the writers of “Still Waters” paraphrased it,

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want

He leads me by still waters ‘til my fears are gone

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Oh, I know You are with me, my Father, my friend

Your goodness and mercy will follow me all of my days

I know by Your still waters, I’m safe

Another Golden Rule

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:34:25 GMT

Midweek Message

Over the weekend I finished another book that’s been making the rounds lately, Allen Levi’s Theo of Golden. Mr. Levi lives in a small town in Georgia, and he was here on Signal Mountain a couple of years ago as the guest author at the local library not long before the book really hit it big. I saw it was Katie Couric’s book club pick this month. It seems like just about every person I talk to these days has read it or wants to!

In the book, a mysterious and strangely foreign older man called Theo moves to a small southern city called Golden, where he gets to know some of the townspeople at the local coffee shop, bookstore, and park. It’s an endearing story about kindness, generosity, and close attentiveness to the people we find ourselves with at any given moment. Several of my clergy colleagues who’ve read it have commented on how it’s full of sermon illustrations, so you might have to hear about this book again.

One of the characters we meet is a minor character named Grandmother Whitaker. She is the mother of one of the more prominent characters, Kendrick, who is the night custodian at the local college, and the grandmother of Kendrick’s young daughter Lamisha, who was badly injured in a car accident. Before the sentencing of the man who was driving the car that injured Lamisha and killed her mother, Kendrick is pondering what kind of victim’s statement to offer. He asks his mother what he should do. Here’s what Grandmother Whitaker tells him:

“Baby, they’s justice and they’s mercy. If you not sure what to do and you gotta choose one or the other, I say always go the mercy way. If you make a mistake, make it for mercy. Bad mercy don’t hurt nearly like bad justice, and always remember, the eye of God can see.”

I don’t about you, but that sounds like gospel to me. And since this is reported to have been shared in a town called Golden, maybe we could consider it another “Golden Rule.”

The Lost (and Found) Art of Letter Writing

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:21:23 GMT

Midweek Message

A couple of weeks ago, one of our church’s preschool teachers let me borrow a book I’ve been hearing a lot about lately, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It’s an epistolary novel, meaning it’s a bunch of letters written over the years that tell the story of a fictional woman named Sybil who spends her life exchanging letters—with her brother, with her daughter, with her best friend, with her neighbor, with a customer service representative at a genetic testing company, even with real-life authors like Joan Didion and Ann Padgett. It’s completely engrossing to come to know this captivating, complicated woman through her vast correspondence with so many others in her life.

In this world of social media and text messages, it can seem like sitting down and composing a letter to someone else is becoming a lost art. But for Sybil, it was a discipline that she set aside time for around 10 o’clock in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and occasionally Saturdays as well).

I can’t tell you the last time I sat down to write a letter to someone. Oh sure, I’ve penned a few thank-you cards and short notes here and there. But not the kind of longer, more reflective, expressive kinds of letters like she shared. But the book did get me thinking about some of the letters that I’ve seen or exchanged myself over the years.

My dad grew up one of six children, and for years, long before there was such a thing as email (this was in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s), his parents and siblings exchanged a circular letter they called the “Round Robin,” where one of the members of the family would start a letter, send it to the next member, who would then add their own news, and then send the composite letter on to the next member, who would add their own news, and send that on down the line, and so forth. Several of the entries in my grandfather’s daily diaries from those years included notes like “The Robin came round today.”

A few years ago, cleaning out my childhood home, I found a box containing some of the letters my dad wrote to my mom when he was in the Army, from both before and after they got married. Who knew that they were real people before I was born?

I have also kept in a box several of the lengthy emails that Tracy and I exchanged when we were dating, before I moved to Atlanta to start seminary. I often think about getting those out and rereading them. Would I still recognize the authors?

Do you have any special letters that you have kept, that you cherish? Who are they from? What is it about them that makes them so special to you?

If you could receive a letter from anyone in the world, living or dead, who would it be? And what would you hope they would share with you?

If you could write anyone a letter today, who would it be? What would you want to share with them?

Spiritual Stethoscopes

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:52:16 GMT

Midweek Message

My wife Tracy and I recently finished watching the first season of the award-winning medical drama “The Pitt,” which is set in an Emergency Department in a Pittsburgh hospital. It stars Noah Wyle, who played an emergency physician in the hit show from long ago “E.R.” It’s a fast-paced, intense show. It’s hard to keep up with all the medicalese. But one thing that I noticed is how the health care providers always have a stethoscope draped around their neck. Amidst all the sophisticated medical equipment like ECMO machines, so often it is this simple tool that they turn to first to diagnose the patients’ conditions and start getting them the help they need.

A stethoscope is a listening device. It is a tool that is used for listening to the heart, the lungs, and the gut for any abnormalities that might indicate what the patient’s problem might be. It strikes me that the first thing a health care provider does is to listen. Before they pronounce a diagnosis or prescribe a cure, they listen.

That’s a good reminder for a preacher like me who talks a lot for a living, and maybe it’s a good reminder for all of us. Before God wants us to speak a word for God, maybe what God wants most from us is to listen to God—to listen to God’s heartbeat, to listen for where God’s Spirit is moving, to listen for who and what God is compassionate about in God’s gut (the New Testament word for compassion comes from the word for bowels). Our first job as disciples is to listen to God.

Thankfully, we have several tools at hand for us to use to listen to God. We have scripture. We have prayer. We have worship. And we have one another in the community of faith. These are our spiritual stethoscopes!

I want us to spend some deliberate time together this year listening to God and where God would like to lead us as a congregation in deepening our discipleship and expanding our witness. Our staff will be gathering next month for a visioning session to gather some of the hopes and dreams God is placing in our hearts. We also have formed a Vision Team here at the church in which a group of members from across our congregation will be discerning together what God might like to do among us and through us. If you have a dream or a vision for what might happen here at Signal Crest that glorifies God and grows disciples, I hope you will let me know. I would love to listen!

Our broader church is in a listening process as well as we seek God’s guidance into our life together. Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett is inviting church members across our denomination to participate in a survey in which you can share what is best about the UMC and what your hopes are for our future ministries together. I’ve completed the survey myself. It will take you about 5-10 minutes, and it will be available until February 15. You can access it at this link or at the QR code below. Our collective input will be shared across the denomination in the months leading up to an October leadership gathering and will inform the future priorities of our denomination’s ministry together.

So let’s all put our spiritual stethoscopes on and listen together for the leadership of God’s Spirit!

Making Dr. King’s Dream a Reality.

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 20:05:22 GMT

Midweek Meditation

Earlier this week we observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In his sermon this past Sunday, Pastor Drew referred to King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, where King envisioned a day when his children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” King also talked about “the Beloved Community,” where all God’s people, of all creeds and colors and conditions, can join hands and work together, can sing and stand and struggle for freedom and justice together.

While I certainly want to believe we have made some strides since King’s day toward making that dream come true, it cannot be denied that it remains a dream that has yet to be fully realized in our own communities. There is still more work to be done together, more life and love to be shared together, more freedom and justice to be sought together.

One of the things I try to think and pray about every year on and around MLK Day is what can I do, me, personally, to help make Dr. King’s dream of the Beloved Community come true in our world today. And it’s not just Dr. King’s dream; it is essentially what Jesus described as “the kingdom of God” and others after him have called “the kin-dom of God,” the family of God, the kinship in Christ. It’s the world that the Apostle Paul described where “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

That’s what we’re all aiming for, isn’t it? So what can I do to help us get there? What can you do? How can you and I use what influence we have, and what gifts we have been given, what networks we inhabit, to fulfill this vision, this dream today?

Pastor Drew described one opportunity for us to consider this past Sunday—his dream of our church’s expansion of our youth ministry in partnership with our friends and neighbors in the southside of Chattanooga. We can help host and serve the weekly meal we help provide student-athletes at the Howard School on Wednesday evenings. He’s in need of more volunteers to be a part of this ministry; let him know if you can help.

Another thing we can do, in this skeptical, cynical old world, is to believe—to believe in this dream. And this is no small thing.

Several years ago, a newspaper columnist in Knoxville, Ina Hughs, compiled some of King’s words into a kind of creed, a belief statement. I cut that column out of the paper and have kept it to this day. Here are some of King’s words that she shared:

“I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events which surround us.”

“I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace, brotherhood and sisterhood are not possible.”

“I believe there is an urgent need for people to overcome oppression and violence, without resorting to violence and oppression.”

“I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace, a way which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of this way is love.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

“I believe that right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”

“I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered people can build up.”

“By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can be healed, ‘And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.’”

Power of Reset

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:32:19 GMT

Midweek Message

Have you ever had, or needed, a fresh start? A reset? Have you ever wished you had a “Control-Alt-Delete” button you could push to give you a restart (if you don’t get that reference, then ask one of your elders to explain it to you!)

I was listening to a report on the radio last week that talked about how professional baseball players who are traded to a different team in the middle of the season get a fresh start, a reset, that often results in a bump in their performance after the trade. Their batting average, for example, might jump from the 200s to the 300s. Researchers found that this bump was even more pronounced when the player was traded from one league to another. Why might this be the case?

There are two different leagues in professional baseball, the National League and the American League. When a player is traded to a team within the same, that players’ statistics carry forward. But when a trade takes place from one league to the other, the players’ statistics automatically reset. It’s like they’re starting again from scratch. So a cross-league trade offers the player a completely fresh start, and that reset often results in improved performance.

I found this report fascinating, and it made me wonder: Have you ever experienced something like this, a fresh start, a reset?

Maybe it’s a new school, or a new job, or retirement, or a recovery from an illness or injury, or a new season in your life. I think every time I’ve moved to a new appointment, it’s been something of a fresh start, a reset for me in my ministry. I also remember when we moved here to Signal Mountain and Wesley was going into his junior year in high school. I worried about how moving in the middle of high school would affect him, but he was actually looking forward to a fresh start. It would be an opportunity, he said, for a reset.

Maybe one of the reasons we celebrate a new year is that it provides an opportunity for a fresh start, a reset. It’s a time to wipe the slate clean, return all the ledgers to zero, let the past be the past, and look ahead with new energy and enthusiasm. And unlike baseball players who are traded from one team to another, it doesn’t necessarily require a physical move from one place to another. It’s more of a spiritual mentality.

Every single day, every new morning, in its own way, offers a fresh start, a reset. And maybe that’s why I love the prayer of thanksgiving for the order of worship for morning prayer that we find in the back of our hymnal (#877):

New every morning is your love, great God of light,

and all day long you are working for good in the world.

Stir up in us desire to serve you,

to live peacefully with our neighbors,

and to devote each day to your Son,

our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Amen.

New Year's Resolution

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:25:29 GMT

New Year's Resolution

Midweek Message

We’re now one week into the new year. I don’t know how you’re doing on keeping any New Year’s resolutions that you may have made. Don’t be too hard on yourself; this is a judgement-free zone!

One of my resolutions (or perhaps I should call them “aspirations”) for this new year is to journal more regularly. I kept a daily journal for many years through high school and college, but then scaled back to…well, less than daily! When I’m journaling, I find that I feel a little less discombobulated and like I have a better sense of perspective about things. So, feel free to ask me, when you see me, how my journaling is going.

There is, however, another set of resolutions—or aspirations—that are always in season, not just around the new year.

On my desk is a framed print that has six words, three pictograms, and a scripture citation. I received this print when I registered for an online clergy conference at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City back in the fall of 2020, right in the midst of the pandemic.

The six words are: Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly. The three pictograms are a scale of justice, a black and white heart, and a person walking. The scripture is Micah 6:8.

That’s one of my favorite scripture verses. The Old Testament prophet is contemplating what God most wants from us. Is it sacrifices of burnt offerings? Thousands of rams? Rivers of oil? What about our own firstborn child? What does God most want from us?

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

Whether you’re still looking for a new year’s resolution or not, we could all do worse than resolve, or at least aspire, to adhere more closely to the trifold guidance of Micah 6:8:

To act justly, to seek justice and fairness in everything, to do what’s right by others

To love mercy, to practice kindness, forgiveness, empathy, and understanding

To walk humbly with God, with others, and with ourselves

When you see me, feel free to ask me how that’s going for me, too.

Happy new year, y’all!

What are you doing New Year's Eve?

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:10:15 GMT

What are you doing New Year’s Eve? Perhaps this question reminds you of an old Ella Fitzgerald classic! Or perhaps you are familiar with the tradition of churches hosting a Watch Night service on New Year’s Eve.

The Watch Night tradition traces back to Moravian churches in Europe in the 18th century who would host on this night a vigil to reflect on the year just past and to prepare, through repentance and resolution, for the year to come. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement in England, attended a Moravian Watch Night service and later adapted it for a Covenant Renewal service that is still frequently celebrated at the turn of the new year.

The Watch Night tradition took on additional significance for African Americans during the Civil War as enslaved persons gathered in homes and churches on December 31, 1862. This was the night before President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect. They stayed up well past midnight to watch the long dark night of slavery turn into a bright new dawn of freedom. Watch Night services continue to be a strong tradition in many African American churches today.

The Watch Night tradition invites us all to reflect back on the year just past with gratitude for God’s presence with us through the ups and downs, the good and the bad, as well as to look toward the year ahead with confidence in God’s promise to continue to guide us along our way toward the freedom and fullness of life together in Christ.

So as we prepare to enter the new year 2026, I’d like to invite us to join in “A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition” (United Methodist Hymnal, #607) as a prayer for each of us personally, for our families, and for our congregation at Signal Crest:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

Best Christmas Gift

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 15:21:22 GMT

What’s the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received? Aside from Jesus, of course ;-)

The red big wheel spinout speedster might be up there for me. Another one might be the year I got my very own jambox. But I’d have to say that the very best gift I’ve received wasn’t exactly a gift, in the way we normally think of gifts, but it did come around Christmas.

When I was in the fall of 7 ^th grade, I took a shop class, where we learned about all kinds of tools for woodworking, electronics, and other practical applications. The final project was to build a lamp that looked like an old water pump. Everyone who had ever taken shop class had a lamp like that. My brother had one. Now it was my turn to make a lamp.

The instructions for this lamp were about as old as the book of Job, and I tried to follow them to the letter. Measuring the wood, measuring it again just to be sure, cutting the wood, sanding the wood, sanding the wood some more, gluing the wood, staining the wood, etc. When I got the cord attached to the socket and the socket in its place, I found that the socket wouldn’t sit square in its seat. It wobbled, and I had no idea why. I thought I had followed the instructions to the letter.

That Christmas break, everyone else was taking home a perfect little wooden lamp, except for me. I had the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of wooden lamps. I was capital-F Forlorn. I was embarrassed to show it to my parents, and especially to my brother (whose lamp was also perfect). But I remember my dad looking at it, thinking to himself for a moment, and then telling me he knew someone we could call about this.

He called his friend Jack Eggleston, who was the plant manager for the local manufacturer in town. I really didn’t want the guy whose plant built fancy pool tables to see my puny little lamp. But a few days before Christmas, we loaded up the lamp and took it over to Mr. Eggleston’s house. He took the lamp in his hands, turned it around, told me I did a nice job on the sanding and staining, and then he said he had an idea on what we could do. He got out his own toolbox, dug around and found a little nut. Then he slipped that little nut into place right below the socket, and voila—no more wobble! Just like that, it was fixed, and it worked perfectly.

That was nearly forty years ago now. Both my dad and Mr. Eggleston have long since died. But the lamp lives on! It stands on a side table in our den and still shines the light. And of all the Christmas gifts I’ve received over the years, I believe it was Mr. Eggleston’s small act of kindness toward this awkward kid that shines the brightest.

Light in the Bleak Midwinter

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:32:29 GMT

Midweek Message

The pop song may proclaim “it’s the most wonderful time of the year,” but for many folks, December is a difficult month. With the days getting shorter and the nights coming on earlier, many people experience the down-turned spirits of Seasonal Affective Disorder. And for those who have lost a loved one, the holidays can be especially difficult. My dad died in December over thirty years ago, and today is the twentieth anniversary of Tracy’s dad’s death. December can be a hard month for a lot of people.

Ever since this season became tenderized by the experience of grief and loss, I have found myself drawn to another song. It’s not one of the most popular or beloved of the Christmas songs, but it can be found in our hymnal (#221). The words were written by a 19 ^th century English poet, Christina Rosetti, who suffered poor health from a young age. Her words were set to a soft, gentle tune from the composer Gustav Holst. It’s the hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

She draws from an old tradition that it snowed on the evening of Christ’s birth, blanketing the fallen world with pure white. And even though I later learned that scholars believe Jesus may have actually been born during the summertime (when traveling to your hometown to register for a census would have made more sense), I still prefer thinking he was born “in the bleak midwinter.” The early church apparently preferred this timing, too, and so they set the celebration of Christmas to coincide with the winter solstice, the so-called “longest night,” which is the point when the land’s deepening darkness reverses, the light returns, and the days begin to lengthen again.

I still draw comfort and hope in thinking that it was “in the bleak midwinter,” around the time of the longest night of the year, that Jesus, the Light of the World, was born into this world. However bleak our lives may feel, or the news of our world may seem, that’s precisely when Jesus first came, and when Jesus still comes, even today.

Real or Artificial

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:46:21 GMT

Midweek Message

Real or artificial—what kind of Christmas tree will you have in your home this year? That was the question that the TODAY show explored the other day as the gigantic Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center was being prepared to be lit.

Each kind of tree has its own benefits and drawbacks. There’s no substitute for the sight and smell of a real Christmas tree. They are also more environmentally friendly since they can be recycled as mulch and wood chips, and they support local farmers and businesses. However, they can be messy in the needles they drop and fussy in the amount of water they require.

Artificial trees are more convenient. They don’t drop needles or need water. Many of them come pre-lit, and they’re reusable for many years. However, some cite the environmental cost of manufacturing artificial trees from all the plastic, and because about 80% of artificial trees are made in China, tariffs are also driving up the financial cost.

As a nation it seems we’re torn between the two. While 85% of Americans say “real Christmas trees bring joy to everyone who sees and smells them,” an NBC survey also found that about 83% of us will have an artificial tree in our home this year.

I remember growing up, our family always bought a fresh white pine tree from our friend Mr. Burnop. We were surely among the last in the town to get ours, usually venturing over to his farm the week before Christmas. But he would always hold one back for us. Suffice it to say, I have some “sappy” memories of those trees over the years. But after my dad died and my brother and I moved on, my mom eventually shifted over to artificial. We now have in our home at the parsonage the last tree she bought, which is not only pre-lit but rotates!

Regardless of where you fall on the real versus artificial debate, maybe we can all agree that what matters more is not what kind of tree it is but what is on our tree and who is around it. Whether I’m hanging them on a real white pine or a fake Frasier fir, the various ornaments we’ve collected over the years each carry memories and stories of when we got them, where we got them, who gave them to us, how old the kids were when they made them, and in some cases how old I was when I made them.

And, of course, what is most real are the “real”-ationships with those who have gathered around our trees over the years—friends and family members, some of whom are no longer with us in body but are very much present in heart and mind—and especially our relationship with the One who is the real reason we put up any kind of tree in our homes in the first place.

Being a Newbie

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 19:35:52 GMT

Midweek Message

A couple of months ago, I joined the YMCA downtown. I had been a member of the Y when we lived in Athens, but I simply dragged my feet and didn’t join here until this year. I’m glad I did, not only because I enjoy the exercise, but also because I experienced again what it is like to be a newbie.

I wanted to start out visiting some of the different kinds of workout classes that are available. I went to one that meets at 6 am called “Afterburn.” I went to a spin class one evening. I went to a yoga class another night. Each time, I arrived early, because I was a complete and total newbie and had no idea what I was doing.

When I arrived in the area called “The Pit” for the “Afterburn” class, there were all these folks gathering all these weights and mats, like they all knew what they were doing. I, of course, did not. Thankfully, one guy walked in whom I had met, Joan Barnes’ son Mike. I reintroduced myself to him and told him I was new and didn’t know what I was doing. He was glad to see me there and invited me just to follow along with him and do what he did.

Likewise, when I arrived for the spin class, I was readily identified as the newbie in the room. But there were some very friendly folks there who welcomed me and helped me get acclimated to the bike and made sure I understood the instructor during the class. When it was over, they all invited me to come back.

While I had been to spin and workout classes before at the previous Y, I’d never been to a yoga class. So again, I got there early. While some of us were waiting for the room to become available, I told this complete stranger who had a kind face that I was a newbie and had never been to a yoga class before. She was so helpful. She told me I would need to get a mat and some blocks from the cubbies, and she suggested I set up my station in the back and just do what everyone else did. It was so relaxing. It was just what I needed!

I’m grateful for this experience of being a newbie at the Y, because sometimes I forget what it can be like for folks who visit the church for their first time. They often arrive early. They don’t always know what to do, where things are, how things go. Maybe there aren’t any familiar faces they can approach to ask.

There are often a lot of newcomers and guests during the Advent and Christmas season. I’ll try to keep an eye out for them here at church, like I am doing now at the Y, and extend a warm welcome to them, and I hope you will as well. It can be as simple as saying, “I’m so glad you’re here! I don’t believe we’ve met; my name is ___.” It can make a big difference!

This Advent—and always—let us all resolve to “welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).

Making Thanksgiving Count

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 19:28:54 GMT

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Standing on the Promises

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 16:02:03 GMT

Midweek Message

This coming Sunday, November 16, we will celebrate our annual Consecration Sunday with one combined worship service in the sanctuary at 10 AM, followed by a congregational brunch in the Crest Center sponsored by the Stewardship Team and catered by our chef Steve Ellis.

This year’s theme is “Standing on the Promises.” We will celebrate God’s generosity and faithfulness toward us in the manifold promises of Christ, and we will consecrate our promises of generosity and faithfulness to God in Christ through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness through the church. Toward the end of our worship together, you’ll be invited to bring your commitment card to the front of the sanctuary (there will be extra cards available). You’re also welcome to share your commitment for 2026 through our online form at https://www.signalcrestumc.org/give-back.

Reflecting on this year’s theme reminds me of a gift I received for my high school graduation of a book of God’s promises that we find in the Bible. Maybe you have a book like this, too; it’s been a perennial bestseller for the past forty years. It lists over 1,000 promises, arranged in alphabetical order. Who knew the Bible contained so many promises of God!

I’m also reminded of something that the Apostle Paul shared with the church in Corinth: “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not ‘Yes and No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes.’ For in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:19-20).

Here are a few of my favorite promises of Jesus.

Rest: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28

Peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” – John 14:27

Presence: “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:20

Return: “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.” – Revelation 22:12

Eternal Life: “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.” – John 5:24

These are just a few of God’s many promises to us in Christ. Do you have a favorite?

Thanks be to God for all the promises upon which we can stand together in Christ here at Signal Crest!

The Communion of the Saints and the Communion of the Stains.

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 19:11:06 GMT

Midweek Meditation

This past Sunday we observed All Saints Sunday. We remembered the lives of nine church members who passed away in the past year, as well as two former staff members. It also happened to be the occasion for our first celebration of Holy Communion on a Sunday in the sanctuary with our new church flooring.

One of the signs it was time for new flooring in the sanctuary was all the stains on the red carpet from the grape juice dripping from the chalices during the serving of Communion. Those stains that freckled the front reminded us how many times our church family communed with Christ and with one another in that sacred space. However, the stains are hard to clean, so the decision was made to go with hard wood flooring in the front, which would be much easier to clean.

After worship on Sunday, I checked the new hard wood to see if there might be some juice stains. Would you know, there were! And even though those stains can now be cleaned up with the simple wipe of a wet cloth, my mind got to thinking about the relationship between the communion of the saints and the communion of the stains.

All of us, like that old red carpet, eventually come to bear the stains that come with life. Some of the stains in our lives we may have caused ourselves; some of the stains may have been caused by others. But however we got them, there they are, and they can be difficult, if not impossible, to remove from the fabric of our lives. And so we are, all of us, together members of the communion of stains.

And yet, when we put our trust in Christ’s saving grace and become a follower of Jesus, we come to be counted among the communion of saints, those set apart or “sanctified” as holy and precious to God through Christ.

And whenever we share together in the sacrament of Holy Communion, we remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross that forgives us of our sin and washes those stains clean. In the words of one of our worship songs, we remember

Jesus paid it all

All to him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow

Thanks be to God for the indescribable, incalculable grace that, through Christ, transfers our membership from the communion of the stains to the communion of the saints.

Dress Up as a Christian

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 19:12:59 GMT

Midweek Message

With Halloween coming up on Friday, what has been your favorite Halloween costume?

I’ve had a few over the years. I remember as a kid dressing up as a Pittsburgh Steelers football player (this was back in the era of Mean Joe Greene and Terry Bradshaw). Not long after college, I donned my Concert Choir tuxedo with a sign around my neck that said “I’m sorry” and I went as a “formal apology.” I’ve also taped Smarties candies to my jeans and gone as “Smarty Pants.” But I digress.

This past Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed a delightful Fall Festival, which we moved indoors into the Crest Center because of the wet weather. There were so many creative trunks/tables, including a Sugar Plum Candyland, a Jurassic Park, and the Peanuts’ Great Pumpkin patch. We had at least twelve pots of chili, ranging from traditional to white chicken to vegetarian to a pumpkin-favored one! We had all sorts of games and prizes. The Crest band rocked out to “The Monster Mash” and “Ghostbusters.” And the costumes! Tracy dressed up as a frog. David Robertson was Rowlf from the Muppets. There were Buzz Lightyears of assorted sizes. Tinkerbells. Batmen (including one dad dressed up as Alfred the Butler). And a cadre of KPop Demon Hunters from the huge Netflix movie!

The tradition of dressing up for Halloween goes back to ancient Celtic superstitions about warding off evil spirits at the turn of the seasons. Around the 11th century, the church sought to Christianize these pagan practices in its tradition of All Hallows’ Eve, which is the day before All Hallows Day, or what we call All Saints Day, November 1. All Saints Day is essentially the church’s version of Memorial Day, when we commemorate the lives of those who died in faith in the past year and joined the Church Triumphant. This coming Sunday, November 2, in both of our worship services, we will lift up the names of those church members and former staff members who have joined the “communion of saints.”

The Apostle Paul offered some suggestions about how we might dress up, not just for one day, but for all time. “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,” he wrote to the church in Colossae, “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:12-14). Long ago Paul caught on that cosplay can actually help form Christian character.

So if you’re not sure what you want to dress up as for Halloween this year—or even if you have a costume in mind—we can always, all of us, dress up as a Christian.

Comfort and Compass

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:50:47 GMT

Midweek Message

This past weekend was my 30th college reunion at Emory & Henry in Virginia. It was a beautiful weekend, and I enjoyed seeing and catching up with some of my classmates, many of whom I hadn’t connected with in several years. I also enjoyed visiting some of my familiar haunts, including the chapel that’s at the heart of campus.

In the back of the chapel, above the balcony, there is this stained-glass window that I have always found myself drawn to. I love the image of Jesus with one arm around the shoulders of an apparently uncertain young man, pulling him into a side-hug, and the other arm confidently pointing in a direction in which the young man should possibly go, providing clarity in the midst of a very busy, even chaotic backdrop.

Perhaps this window resonates so much with me because I was an uncertain young man when I was in college. I wasn’t sure the direction in which I should go. I had sensed a calling into ministry, but I also felt like I needed to keep my options open. My dad died of cancer my senior year, which only deepened the sense of uncertainty and chaos. How I wished that Jesus would have simply shown up, put his arms around my shoulder, and pointed out to me the way he wanted me to go. Or maybe he had been doing that and this window was the sign I had been praying for, even though I couldn’t see it as such at the time.

Looking back now from the perspective of 30 years, I believe I can see that Jesus has been by my side all along, with one arm to be my comfort and the other to be my compass. I can also see that there have been several others along the way—mentors, colleagues, friends—who have been the arms of Jesus for me, who have put their arm around me and have pointed out a way forward for me in the name of Jesus.

How about you? How have you experienced the comforting presence of Jesus with you, and the confident guidance of Jesus, especially in times of uncertainty or chaos? Who in your life has been the arms of Jesus for you, providing comfort and pointing a way forward for you? And for whom might you provide comfort and a compass today in the name of Christ?

One Voice in Harmony

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 18:04:04 GMT

Midweek Message

One of the primary ways in which I experience the spirit of worship is through music.

This probably began when I was an often un-cherubic kid singing in the Cherub Choir in

my home church. It continued when I sang in the Concert Choir when I was in college

and in the chapel choir when I was in seminary. And that is why I have tried to sing in

the choirs at the churches where I’ve served, because music is one of the main ways I

connect with God and with my fellow worshipers.

Whether it’s listening to the Crest band perform an arresting arrangement of “Be Thou

My Vision” like they did last Sunday, catching Michael’s subtle nod to a beloved hymn or

occasionally a popular tune in his prelude, hearing Andrew proclaiming “It Is Well With

My Soul,” or trying my best to follow along with the bass line in the weekly anthem (you

know how us basses often know neither what page we’re on nor what song we’re

singing!), music feeds my spirit and stirs my soul.

I don’t know if the Apostle Paul liked to sing or not, but perhaps I am detecting a choral

allusion in one of his letters to one of the first-century churches. Toward the end of his

magisterial letter to the church in Rome, after discussing at some length how we can

stay connected with other Christians while staying true to our convictions, he offers this

prayer:

“May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with

one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice

glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6-7 NRSV).

Did you catch those choral terms: “live in harmony with one another…so that together

you may with one voice…”? Paul is juxtaposing, holding together, both harmony and

unison at the same time!

Harmony is using the various gifts that God has given each one of us to the best of our

abilities. It’s singing the part that suits our particular voice—whether it is in the high

rafters with the sopranos or the bargain basement with the basses—as well as we can.

And when each one of us does that, Paul’s prayer suggests, then it all comes together

and in unison we can “with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ.”

I’ve certainly had moments in worship—and maybe you have too—when I’m singing my

part with all the gusto I can muster, and then it seems like my own voice just gets lost in

the midst of all the other voices singing together, and it becomes one—one great and

glorious offering of praise and thanksgiving and glory and honor to God in the Spirit of

our Lord Jesus Christ. And that, my friends—that is worship!

Created for Connection

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:04:28 GMT

Midweek Message

I’m composing this week’s meditation on my 52nd birthday (I guess now I can say I’m

playing with a full deck of cards!). And even though I have seriously considered, from

time to time, just completely shutting down my Facebook page, one of the things I enjoy

about it is receiving all these birthday greetings from family members and friends from

all across the various chapters of my life, from my childhood church’s preschool through

college and seminary and now twenty-five years of ministry. I cherish the connections

that each greeting brings to mind.

Our church staff gathered for a staff retreat last Friday. We met in the Gold Room over

at Alexian. It was nice to be away from the phones and the screens and just be

together. Our leader, Rev. Carol Wilson, led us in an exploration of how we can cultivate

an emotionally healthy climate here among our staff and with our congregation. One of

the exercises involved each of us picking from a word list the top five feelings that we

want to feel in order for us to be successful in our particular ministry. My top word was

“connected.” For me to be successful in my ministry, I need to feel connected.

“Connected” happens to be a good Methodist word. It’s a word that describes our

church polity, the way we’re organized as a denomination. We’re not a congregational

kind of church that’s independent of others and out there by ourselves; we’re a

connectional church. We’re connected with other churches in our district, our

conference, and even all around the world. We like to be, and to feel, connected.

I wonder if we’re actually created by God for connection—connection with God and with

one another. We’re created in the image of God, whose very nature, as a Trinity, is a

connection. And when God said after creating Adam and just before creating Eve, “it is

not good for the human to be alone, I will make him a helper as his partner,” I wonder if

that’s really a way of saying it’s not good for us to be disconnected. We’re made for

connection.

Feeling connected isn’t simply about being around other people. I’ve found that I can

feel disconnected even when I’m around a lot of other folks. Likewise, I know some

people who live alone but are some of the most deeply and broadly connected people

I’ve ever met.

What about you? Are you someone who likes to feel connected? Who are some of the

connections in your life that you especially cherish? Will you take a moment today to let

them know (even if it’s not their birthday on Facebook!)? Is there anyone with whom you

might feel a nudge to reconnect after some time or distance? And is there someone in

your current orbit who might especially enjoy becoming connected with you? How can

you connect with others today in the name of the Christ who came to connect with us?

Love Your Enemies

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 17:41:55 GMT

Midweek Message

There’s a statement of Jesus that’s been rolling around in my mind these past few

weeks. It’s from Jesus’ most famous sermon, the so-called “Sermon on the Mount.”

Here’s what he said:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”

(Matthew 5:43). Even though nowhere in the scripture are we ever commanded to hate

our enemies; that was simply apparently what was being taught and modeled by the

leadership in Jesus’ day.

“But I say to you,” Jesus goes on to say, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who

persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Luke’s version of

Jesus’ words in this sermon are even more detailed and demanding: “Love your

enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those

who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28). Jesus’ words cut against our natural inclinations, our

team loyalties and tribal orientations.

But Jesus goes on to remind us that God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the

good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who

love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if

you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not

even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is

perfect” (Matthew 5:45-48).

Perfect? That can seem like too tall an order, out of reach for mere mortals. But the

word doesn’t mean sinless or flawless. It means mature. Not childish, but grown-up.

Adult. More like our heavenly parent.

I wonder, after witnessing some of the ugly chants and meanness of the fans at the

Ryder Cup golf competition this past weekend, what it would look like to take Jesus’

words to heart and love our opponents, pray for them, act for their well-being? As I write

these words, our government is still in a shut down. What would it look like for people on

opposing sides of the political aisle to pray for the other, to seek to bless them rather

than curse them? And with the big Baylor-McCallie football game coming up this

Friday…well, it just might be the “perfect” time to practice the kind of radical love Jesus

commends.

Living Out the Fruit of the Spirit

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:47:01 GMT

Midweek Message

When I plan to spend two hours with a group of fourth and fifth graders at church, I purposefully run scenarios in my mind of what might go wrong. It’s part of my planning. I think somewhere along the way I do actually prevent a few things from happening, but mostly whatever goes wrong were things I never saw coming. Mind you, “what might go wrong” are minor; like no available paper towels to clean up the jug of pink lemonade that was dropped because it was so heavy, or someone denting a ping pong ball when they stepped on it reaching for another ping pong ball.

I sometimes let my mind wander during this planning to what might go well. I’m not particularly good at that

either. Meaning, I never accurately predict the “what might turn out really great.” And I’m glad about that,

because when things go well, I know the Fruits of the Spirit are alive and at work in us and have greater impact that I could have ever imagined.

That’s what we have been focusing on, the Fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 reads, “But the Spirit gives

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” We have agreed that

sometimes one of these fruits may be more important than another. We have also agreed that sometimes we

are better at enacting one of these fruits than another. Some of these fruits are hard! Some do not come easily! When we are mad, it’s is surely difficult to show kindness. And when we are told harshly to “be kind! Share!” it takes the steam out of any desire to do so.

Last Sunday, however, we settled down with a pencil and paper, selected some fruits of the spirit, and wrote a

haiku about it/them. Every single kid in the room knew what form haiku poetry takes (3 lines; 5 syllables, 7

syllables, 5 syllables). (Thanks, school!) Just about everyone wanted theirs read aloud. Check these out:

PEACE GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, PATIENCE

Sometimes you must find I am generous

Peace in the demanding world I am faithful to Jesus

Have love for people I am patient now

PATIENCE PEACE, FAITHFULNESS, PATIENCE

You should wait in line We must have world peace

It is good to not be first Be faithful no matter what

You wait for your turn Be patient in church

SELF-CONTROL GENTLENESS

I can control me Be gentle to all

I can only control myself Show gentleness with your words

That is the best way It really matters

KINDNESS GENEROSITY

Kindness is the best Giving stuff is nice

Kindness makes you feel better I like to share stuff with friends

Show kindness, not anger Share with everyone

FAITHFULNESS LOVE

Be faithful to God I like to give love

Have faith in Jesus, our Lord Give love on Valentine's Day

Have faith in the world Be loving to all

Did you catch any of that wisdom, by chance? “Show gentleness with your words – it really matters.” “I can

only control myself – that is the best way.” “We must have world peace – be faithful no matter what.” These

kids, our kids, are living out the fruit of the Spirit—bringing love, joy, peace and goodness to me, our church,

and are way beyond any plan or consideration of what might go wrong Sunday evening, or what might turn out great. Let their haikus touch you, and know the Holy Spirit is working through these children. Even with sticky floors and ping pong balls that won’t roll or bounce, our children are blessing us profoundly.

Tracy

I'd Be Curious to Know

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:25:21 GMT

Midweek Message

“I’d be curious to know…”

This simple phrase can be incredibly helpful whenever we encounter someone who

thinks or feels very differently about something than we do. It’s a phrase that Jim

Henderson and Jim Hancock recommend in their book 3 Practices for Crossing the

Difference Divide.

The authors acknowledge the deep division and polarization in our society. We don’t

really talk to those on the other side of whatever differences divide us. We don’t trust

each other. Instead, we traffic in stereotypes and labels. We’ve lost our sense of

curiosity and wonder. And sadly, it seems some are resorting to using their weapons

more than their words. These authors are trying to coach us in some very practical ways

that we can use our words to connect across the chasms between us.

For several years, they have used what they call “3Practice Circles” in a variety of

organizational and institutional settings to create safe spaces for people to talk about

sensitive subjects like race, gender, faith, and politics. The aim of these circles is not

agreement. It’s not to try to get anyone to change their minds or to prove anyone wrong.

It’s simply to listen, understand, and stay connected across our differences.

These circles—whether in-person or online—follow the same format. They start with an

effective “framing question” about the topic to be explored. Then participants are given

up to two minutes each to respond to the framing question if they want to (no one is

required to respond). Then the others in the circle can respond to the speaker with a

“clarifying question.” This is where the phrase “I’d be curious to know…” is used. The

purpose of the clarifying questions is not to argue or attack but to better understand the

speaker’s perspective. Then the speaker has up to a minute to respond to that question.

When everyone has had a chance to ask a clarifying question, a new speaker can then

respond to the framing question. And so it goes until everyone has had an opportunity

to respond to the topic. There are a couple of trained referees in the circles who

manage the clock and ensure the responses and questions are appropriate. The circle

closes with participants being invited to say “thank you” to someone else in the group

for something that they shared or the spirit in which they shared it or the courage it took

for them to share it.

One of the great things about this phrase “I’d be curious to know…” is its portability. It’s

not just useful for formal circles but for informal occasions, like when Uncle Bob says

something predictably triggering at the Thanksgiving table, or your kid’s teammate’s

parent says something politically charged on the sidelines, or a fellow church member

offers a different opinion in your small group. It’s a phrase you can try at home!

I’m hoping to participate in one of the upcoming training sessions to help facilitate these

kinds of circles. Let me know if you’d be interested in being trained as well. I imagine we

all can benefit from learning how to cultivate a greater curiosity that can help us better

understand one another across our differences.

For more information on the 3 Practices, visit https://3practices.com.

Who wants to feel like a minion when we can sparkle like a firework?

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:19:13 GMT

Midweek Message

A day or so after the fourth of July, this minion figurine appeared on my desk in my

office at the church. Its name was Dave, and I could tell from all the warning labels on

the back that it was a firework. I wondered how it might have gotten there, but then I

remembered that our custodians Wanda and Arnold sell fireworks in a tent out on Taft

Highway. The next time I saw them I asked them if they knew anything about how Dave

the minion firework appeared on my desk, and they played all coy, but I knew better!

Our Nominations Team met this week, and as I was trying to think of a devotional to kick

off our meeting, my eyes fell upon Dave the minion firework. I tell you, it was a moment

of inspiration! The devotional—or the “Dave”-otional—that I shared with them was that

the folks we are approaching to ask to serve on the various leadership teams and

committees in the church are kind of like this minion firework. Right now, they’re all

potential. They’ve got all that energy and enthusiasm stored up inside. They’re like the

prophet Jeremiah: they’ve got “a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9). But

our hope and our prayer is that they will just light up when they’re asked to serve, that

they will sparkle, that they will shimmer, that they will bring joy to others, and that in this

dark world they will shine bright with the light of Christ.

So when the meeting was over, there was really only one thing left to do: go out in the

parking lot and light old Dave the minion right up! Who says church meetings can’t be

fun!

My hope and my prayer is that you are serving Christ in a way that lights you up, that

kindles the fire that the Holy Spirit has placed in your heart and life, and that shares light

and hope and joy with others. Let me know if you’d like to talk about this or explore

some opportunities for what that might look like for you.

I mean, who wants to feel like a minion when we can sparkle like a firework!

Faith That Won't Crack

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 14:11:42 GMT

Midweek Message

I’m finally having to retire my old wooden bat. It cracked the other night in our first

tournament game in the men’s church softball league. Before my first game with it two

years ago, Drew kidded me that he didn’t think I’d get a hit with it. He even said he’d

buy my lunch if I did. Turns out, I got a hit on my very first at-bat with it! I’ve been using

that bat ever since.

Players from the opposing team often kid me about my wooden bat, too. For example,

John, the catcher for St. Augustine, always instructs the outfielders to come in when I

step up to the plate, which just inspires me even more to find the hole. I like to tell him

and all the other skeptics and doubters that Jesus used a wooden bat.

I’ve been called “Roy Hobbs” (after the main character of the finest baseball movie ever

made, The Natural) and my bat referred to as “Wonder Boy” (the name of Roy’s wooden

bat). But I’m grateful that my fellow Holey Sox teammates have treated it with respect.

I’ve offered to let them use it, too, but they’re all afraid they’d break it, and none of them

wanted that hanging over their heads!

So the other night at my last at-bat, I popped one up, but it sounded weird. My

teammates immediately said, “Sounds like you’ve got a cracked bat.” We carefully

inspected it, and sure enough, there was a crack in the handle. But it still managed to

bring a runner home on its last hurrah, so you could say it went down swinging!

The origin of this bat remains somewhat clouded in my mind, but I believe it came into

my hands around 1980, when I was about 6 years old. My brother and I used some S&H

Green Stamps (the young people might need to Google what those were) to

purchase some baseball gloves and equipment. That bat got a lot of use for several

years in the playing field in our neighborhood, and then it stood silent in our family’s

garage for decades until we cleaned out the house in 2018 to get it ready to sell. That’s

when I found that old bat again and realized I couldn’t part with it but wanted it in my

garage. So when I got called up to the church softball league in summer 2023, I knew it

was time to get it back out again.

That old bat has gotten me thinking about something Jesus said. He was teaching a

bunch of parables, which are stories about what the kingdom of heaven is like. Stories

about seeds, about weeds and wheat, about precious pearls and such. He wraps it all

up by asking his disciples if they’ve understood any of it. They say they do. And then he

told them “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the

master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old”

(Matthew 13:52).

There’s a lot of new things in this world, and we can give thanks for a lot of them. But

there are still a few old things lying around, too. Things that have stood the test of time.

Things that don’t break or crack under pressure.

Things like faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

We’d drive ourselves batty, wooden we, if we let go of these things?

Follow Me

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 14:33:49 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to boat down the Hiwassee River with

Russell Hill, one of our church members, along with his brother and nephew. I had

kayaked down the Hiwassee a few times, but the last time I went I swamped my

flatwater kayak going through one of the rapids. So Russell asked me if I’d like to try

one of his open-boat canoes. I thought that sounded like fun. A new adventure!

So we loaded up the boats one Friday morning and headed for the river. Along the way,

he gave me an orientation on how canoeing is different from kayaking. Kayakers use a

double-bladed paddle which allows you to paddle on both sides of the boat, but

canoeists use a single-bladed paddle, which will get you going in circles if you don’t

know what you’re doing! He said paddling in a straight line will be the hardest thing I’ll

learn to do, and he was right. He showed me how to do it though, and after some

practice in that first stretch of the river, I began to get the hang of it.

As we approached each of the small class 1 and 2 rapids, he would give me a little

orientation to how we would navigate them. Then he simply said to me, “Follow me.”

And I did the best I could to follow the exact line through the rapids that he did. By the

end of the afternoon, I hadn’t swamped my boat or fallen out of it a single time! I

consider that a successful—and fun—river ride!

Russell said he couldn’t count the number of times he’d gone down the Hiwassee River.

Possibly 150 times or more. He’s long since graduated up to much rougher, tougher

rivers like the Ocoee and the Nantahala. He’s quite the skilled river runner, in the same

“boat” (so to speak) as some other church members like Bill Mitchum, Henry Allen, and

Hugh Bullock.

Russell was an experienced guide and a patient teacher. And he led me down the river

with two simple words: “Follow me.” In other words, go where I go. Do what I do. I’ll lead

you safely through.

It just so happens that “follow me” are the same two simple words Jesus has been

saying to folks in boats since the days of Simon and Andrew, James and John (Matthew

4:19, Mark 1:17). He says these two words at least twenty different times across the

Gospels. And they are among his last words to his disciples; he told Peter no less than

two times at the end of John, “Follow me” (John 21:19, 22).

Just like the Hiwassee River, our lives can sometimes roll along pretty smoothly, and

other times there can be some bumps, some choppy waters. But the call is the same.

Follow me. Go where I go. Do what I do. I’ll lead you safely through.

Love God. Love People.

dbarton@signalcrestumc.org (D Barton) — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:45:59 GMT

Midweek Message

Love God. Love People. That was the goal for our Signal Crest Summer Camp Staff this summer! We focused on Matthew 22:37–39:

“He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Our Camp Staff “loved God” by pursuing God daily as they prepared lessons for their groups. They spent time each morning connecting with God in prayer and praying for the day ahead. They also “loved God” by caring for His creation and His children.

Signal Crest Summer Camps are unique and special because of our Camp Staff and volunteers. This year, our team was comprised of Gracie Ellis, our assistant camp director, five college students, and five high school juniors and seniors. We were also blessed with more than 25 youth volunteers throughout the summer. Each staff member and volunteer used their unique gifts to connect with campers and love their neighbor.

We were grateful to connect with 230 campers over four weeks of camp. In addition, our Camp Staff connected with 75 campers at the Chambliss Center for Children as we partnered with their summer camp.

All the campers, staff, and volunteers shared God’s love through service. Throughout our camps, campers created:

78 birthday bags for the Bethlehem Center Food Pantry
175 homeless care packs
275 teacher appreciation gifts for Howard and the Chambliss Center
400+ sack lunches for the Mustard Tree Ministry

During our outreach camp, 10 middle school students served at the Bethlehem Center, Chambliss Center, Crabtree Farms, and Mustard Tree. Every camper learned how to share God’s love through action.

It was a great summer of sharing God’s love! As we move into fall, I encourage you to think about how you can “Love God and Love People.”

Blessings,

Drew Barton

Signal Crest Summer Camp Director

Seeing The Cross in You and Me

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 16:49:40 GMT

Midweek Message

One of the most interesting architectural features of our sanctuary is the large wood and

metal cross that hangs from the ceiling above the chancel area. It’s not easily or

immediately visible, however, because it blends in with the latticework that soars above

the choir loft all the way up to the skylights. Someone was commenting to me this week

that it’s curious that the cross, the central symbol of our Christian faith, doesn’t stand

out more prominently in the front of our sanctuary.

I remember thinking the same thing when I arrived here as pastor three years ago. But I

also realized that from where I stand on Sunday mornings, facing the congregation, the

cross in the back of the sanctuary, above the balcony, stands out strongly, starkly. You

can’t miss it.

This got me to wondering whether the architects were trying to communicate something

about how we enter into worship and how we leave worship. I wonder if we enter into

worship on Sundays, so formed and shaped by the ways of the world around us, that

the cross, though definitely present among us, is difficult for us to discern, to distinguish.

But maybe it is through our worship together—through the practice of singing our

praises to God, offering our prayers to God, sharing our gifts to the glory of God, and

listening to and pondering together the Word of God, especially words of Jesus like

“whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke

14:27)—that the countercultural, self-giving, other-serving way of Christ, the way of the

cross, becomes much more clearly seen as standing out in stark contrast to the

consumptive, self-serving ways of the world. And then maybe we can leave worship

with a much clearer view of the cross we are called by Christ to take up in this world.

Christians are called not to blend in, but to stand out. That’s what the word “holy”

means—set apart, different from. Our worship together is one of the ways we are

formed and shaped as God’s holy people, so that whether anyone else in all the world

ever sees the cross in our sanctuary, they at least will see the cross in you and me.

Where Do You Go to Find a Sense of Peace?

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:49:42 GMT

Midweek Message

Where do you go to find a sense of peace? Maybe you go for a hike out in the woods.

Maybe you go out to the lake or along the river. Maybe you have a quiet place in your

home. One of the places I find particularly peaceful is the memorial garden here at the

church.

In addition to occasional worship services (like our Good Friday Tenebrae) and the

preschool’s annual butterfly release, the trustees have approved the use of this space

for the burial or spreading of ashes, so that it can be an enduring memorial garden for

church members and their loved ones. This space has received some refreshment in

these past few months. A local landscaper, Asher Powers, has installed some new

stone decks and walkways, planted several different ferns and other flowering plants,

and spread some mulch, and all of this has given the memorial garden a fresh new look.

But one of the features has remained—the peace pole.

The peace pole stands to the side under one of the trees. It has the prayer “May peace

prevail on the earth” posted in eight different languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, and

Spanish. Every time I find myself in the memorial garden, I find my eyes drawn to this

pole and its prayer, and I am drawn more deeply into a sense of peace.

At the center of the church’s “footprint” on this earth is this place of peace. Peace, not

only for those who have passed on to glory, but peace for the living.

If you are trying to find a greater sense of peace in your life, in your faith, in this world,

perhaps you might want to spend some time sitting on a bench, by the peace pole

under the tree in our memorial garden.

Trying Times for Science and Religion

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 16:49:39 GMT

Midweek Message

One hundred years ago this week, on July 10, 1925, the nation’s attention was drawn to

a legal drama just up the road from us in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. It was

the so-called “Scopes Monkey Trial.” John T. Scopes was a young high school teacher

who was charged with violating the state’s Butler Act, which essentially prohibited the

teaching of the theory of evolution.

Major national figures were involved in the trial. William Jennings Bryan, a three-time

Democratic presidential nominee, former Secretary of State, and outspoken opponent of

evolutionary teaching, prosecuted the case; Clarence Darrow, the “Matlock” of his day,

served as the defense attorney. It was a major media event; over 200 national reporters

came to town to cover the case. In the end, Scopes was convicted and the Butler Act

was upheld, but religious fundamentalism suffered a humiliation that it has spent the last

century recovering from and rising to new life in various contemporary movements.

I first became acquainted with the Scopes trial when I was in college and was given a

big part in the 1955 play Inherit the Wind that was based on this story. As the local feed

store clerk and hot dog salesman, I provided the comic relief! But the experience

indelibly introduced in my mind the question of the relationship between religion and

science. This is a question our culture is still trying to sort out.

It seems that many in our society want to frame the relationship as one of conflict.

Religion and science can’t both be true, the story goes; it’s got to be either one or the

other. But I don’t see it that way. I think they can both be true, in their own ways. They

each address different kinds of questions. Science asks when and how questions;

religion asks who and why. Evolution may say how and when the world was created;

but revelation says who created it and why. And we need both science and religion; we

have much to learn from both. And I worry that, just like we ignore matters of religious

faith at our own ultimately eternal peril, so too do we ignore matters of scientific

research at our own earthly peril.

One of the scriptures that helps me keep things in their proper perspective is Psalm 8,

which asks that great question: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are

mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower

than God, and crowned them with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5). How simultaneously

humbling and uplifting!

The psalm both begins and ends with the same acclamation of praise to God: “O Lord,

our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1, 9). How majestic

indeed!

A higher virtue than independence

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:28:53 GMT

As we celebrate this week our nation’s independence from British colonialism, I’m pondering whether there might be a virtue higher and greater than independence.

Like our nation itself, all of us start out our lives dependent upon others—our parents, grandparents, caretakers—for food, for clothing, for shelter. As infants, toddlers, and small children, we cannot care for ourselves. We are completely dependent upon others to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

As we grow older—become adolescents, teenagers, young adults—we gradually gain more of a sense of independence . I remember when I turned 16 and got my driver’s license, I felt like I had finally arrived. I could go where I wanted, when I wanted. I was independent! But who was paying for my gas, for my insurance, for the car itself? Maybe I wasn’t as independent as I wanted to think I was!

We value independence so very much. It’s what we want for ourselves. It’s what we want for our kids and grandkids. We want them to grow up and become independent. And a sense of independence can be healthy, especially when one seeks to be free from oppressive governments or oppressive relationships. But I wonder if there is a virtue even more valuable than independence.

It seems to me that the Bible teaches us that God ultimately calls us not to independence but to interdependence upon God and one another. We are completely dependent upon God for life, for salvation, for everything! But God is also depending upon us to be God’s witnesses, to shine forth God’s image in the world around us. And as we are exploring in our summer worship series, God calls us to a life of interdependence with one another. We’re called to love one another, to welcome one another, to bear one another’s burdens, to forgive one another, to encourage one another, to pray for one another. God calls us beyond our dependence, and even our independence, to interdependence.

So this week, as we join in the celebration of our nation’s independence, let us also remember that God calls us—as individuals, as congregations, and even as a nation—to the higher virtue of interdependence, a way of relating with God and one another that reflects the interdependence of God as a Trinity.

H.O.W. to Pray

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:18:28 GMT

Midweek Message

Prayer is a spiritual practice that I feel I’ve always had a high level of “want to” but a

relatively low level of quite knowing “how to.” But a card on one of the tables in the

display area at our annual conference a couple of weeks ago caught my eye. It was

entitled “H.O.W. Do I Begin?” I thought I’d share this acronym with you in case you’ve

ever wanted to grow in your practice of “HOW to” pray.

The H in the acronym stands for “honest.” Paul’s confession in Romans 8:26 that “we

do not know how to pray as we ought” strikes me as refreshingly honest. So too does

the prayer by the Quaker author Richard Foster that is provided on this card.

I am, O God, a jumbled mass of motives.

One moment I am adoring you, and the next I am shaking my fist at you.

I vacillate between mounting hope, and deepening despair.

I am full of faith, and full of doubt.

I want the best for others, and am jealous when they get it.

Even so, God, I will not run from your presence.

Nor will I pretend to be what I am not.

Thank you for accepting me with all my contradictions.

Amen.

The O stands for “open.” The practice of prayer opens our heart to God and God’s

heart to us. The prayer provided for “open” on this card is by the mystic Howard

Thurman:

Open unto me—light for my darkness.

Open unto me—courage for my fear.

Open unto me—hope for my despair.

Open unto me—peace for my turmoil.

Open unto me—joy for my sorrow.

Open unto me—strength for my weakness.

Open unto me—wisdom for my confusion.

Open unto me—forgiveness for my sins.

Open unto me—tenderness for my toughness.

Open unto me—love for my hates.

Open unto me—Thy self for myself.

Lord, Lord, open unto me!

Amen.

The W stands for “ willing .” I am reminded of Jesus’ famous prayer in the Garden of

Gethsemane the night of his arrest: “Lord, let this cup pass from me, but not my will but

yours be done” (Matthew 26:39). A prayer in a similar spirit is that of Julian of Norwich:

Lord, you know what I desire, but I desire it only if it is your will that I should have it. If it

is not your will, good Lord, do not be displeased, for my will is to do your will. Amen.

So HOWever it is that you may pray, may our praying with God be honest, open, and

willing.

We Can Trust Jesus

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:34:26 GMT

Midweek Message

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What can we learn from giant sequoias?

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:28:45 GMT

Have you ever seen or stood below a giant sequoia tree? My family and I encountered a grove of them at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh a couple months ago. We have also seen the gigantic redwoods out at Muir Woods during a trip to San Francisco back in 2011. It is quite a humbling experience to stand beneath these grand specimens of God’s creation!

The writer of my daily devotional this morning was talking about sequoia trees ( The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer , p. 168-169). Even though sequoias are among the world’s largest trees, they don’t have their own separate root systems. Instead, their roots intertwine with the roots of neighboring trees. That’s how they support and strengthen one another. “When a storm hits,” the writer observes, “they literally hold each other up.”

The writer went on to observe that we often want to see ourselves as independent, self-sufficient, and self-reliant. When problems come our way, we want to be able to handle them ourselves. “But this isn’t how we are created to live,” the writer suggests. “We are made to derive our strength from a power outside ourselves. We are meant to be rooted in Christ and to establish our strength from a source beyond ourselves.” In other words, we are meant to be like the giant sequoias—bound together and connected to one another for mutual strength and support.

The devotional closed with a line that I really like: “The bad news is that you can’t do life alone. The good news is that you don’t have to.”

Today I thank God for our rootedness together in Christ and in community with one another here at Signal Crest.

Singing God’s Song: In Tune and In Rhythm

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:50:27 GMT

Midweek Message

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Spiritual Batteries

Wed, 28 May 2025 16:44:30 GMT

Midweek Message

This morning, I went out to my car to head down the mountain to meet some clergy

colleagues for coffee, and my car wouldn’t start. The battery was completely dead. No

ding sound. No dashboard lights. Nothing.

I had suspected this day was coming. My car has been starting more and more

sluggishly over the past few weeks, but I hadn’t done anything about it. I mean, why do

today what you can put off until tomorrow, right?

So I borrowed Wesley’s car and made it to my coffee meeting. On the way back, I

stopped by the auto parts store and bought a new battery. I didn’t have enough cash, so

I had to “charge” it. I hope to install it shortly, and I hope it’s an overall “positive”

experience.

It did get me thinking about our spiritual lives. Sometimes our spiritual batteries can be a

little sluggish. And sometimes, especially if we let it go on for too long, our batteries can

become totally drained, depleted, dead. No energy. No interest. Nothing.

When that happens, it’s good for us to know: What recharges your spiritual battery?

What gives you that spiritual jump start that renews and reenergizes you?

For me, it can be worship, and particularly upbeat music that gets my toes tapping and

my hands clapping. As an introvert, it can also be some good solo time, like a walk in

the woods to soak in the beauty of God’s creation, or some time spent in the silence

and stillness of prayer. But it can also be going around and making some visits to some

members of our church family, listening to them share from the stories of their lives.

It's vital for us to keep our spiritual batteries charged, and not to ignore the signs and

symptoms that we are running low, but to engage in those spiritual practices that refresh

and reinvigorate our spirits. That’s how we can best live the kind of life that Paul says

really matters, a life of “faith working through (energoumene, energized by, fully charged

with) love” (Galatians 5:6).

Where are You in the Different Gospel Endings?

Wed, 21 May 2025 19:13:30 GMT

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Preschool Blessings

Wed, 14 May 2025 16:49:56 GMT

Midweek Message

This is the last week of the school year for our preschool that meets here at the church.

One of the classes just passed by my office on their way to rehearse for their “Moving

Up” ceremony on Thursday, and a few of the kiddos waved and exclaimed “Hey, Pastor

Dave!” as they passed by my door. I can’t tell you how much that warms my heart. I’m

going to miss these kids. It’s going to be much quieter around here over the summer!

I wonder whether preschool teachers realize the impact they have on the children they

teach. I remember going to preschool at my home church in Virginia. My teacher was

Mrs. May. I remember her as very loving and kind, but she also had clear expectations

on how we were to behave in class. She was also a member of our church, and I

remember when she would see me in church, she would ask me how school was going

as I rose up through the ranks. Her care and attention extended well beyond the

classroom.

Both of our boys attended preschool at the churches where I was serving, in Knoxville

and then in Athens. It was a joy to know they were just down the hall and to watch them

learn how to interact with their peers. It helped them in so many ways to prepare for the

transition to kindergarten. Teaching preschool was a true calling for their teachers, as I

can tell it is for the staff here at Signal Crest.

One of the very first scripture verses I remember learning—maybe I learned it in

preschool—is Proverbs 22:6, which reads “Train children in the way they should go;

when they grow old, they won’t depart from it.”

I know this is an optimistic verse. After all, many of us have, in fact, from time to time

and in various ways, departed from the way we should have gone. But those preschool

teachers are among those—including parents, grandparents, Sunday school teachers,

pastors, coaches, mentors, and others—who help provide such good solid basic

training, a launching pad, a grounding in the way of Christ for children.

The preschool has been a part of this church’s life and ministry since the 1960s, and I

am so thankful that they continue to “train children in the way they should go,” and I’m

confident that, even those who may lose their way, will be able to find their way again

thanks in no small part to the love and care and training that they have received here.

Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, Lead Courageously

Wed, 07 May 2025 15:47:44 GMT

Midweek Message

Living Your Resurrection Story

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:54:38 GMT

Sometimes I stumble upon resurrection stories. I’m not just talking about the ones we find in the Bible, at the end of the Gospels, where the risen Jesus shimmies through locked doors and eats fish sandwiches and pronounces peace upon the disciples.

I’m talking about the resurrection stories of folks who are making their way into a new life after a separation or divorce, or who are finally coming to see a glimmer of hope in the middle of trudging through a long dark tunnel of grief.

I’m talking about the kinds of resurrection stories that are often shared in recovery ministries, where persons talk about finding new life after facing their addictions or compulsions.

Resurrection stories are all over the place, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. Just this past week, I read a news blurb about a fellow out in San Antonio named Doug Ruch. He has prostate cancer, and in January he learned that it is terminal. He was told he has maybe a year and a half left to live. He decided he wanted to spend whatever time he has left volunteering to help people in all 50 states. That became his new life

mission.

So he raised some funds, packed all his stuff in his 2017 Chevrolet Malibu, and hit the road from Texas headed north. He arrived in Seattle and volunteered at food banks, senior centers, and other service organizations. He’s now making his way from state to state, and God bless him, I hope he makes it to all fifty!

But the thing that struck me is that he says he feels so invigorated—even in spite of his diagnosis—that he wakes up every morning feeling like he’s been “shot out of a cannon.”

That sounds like resurrection to me!

I don’t know about you, but Doug inspires me. I wonder if you’re wondering, like me, what would you want to do if you knew that your time left in this life were limited? What would get you waking up every morning feeling like you’ve been shot out of a cannon? And if you’re not already living your resurrection story, why on earth would you put it off even one more day?

Jesus walks with us even if we don't recognize Him.

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 16:01:46 GMT

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Jesus and Judas and All of Us

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 15:33:47 GMT

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Do you have a favorite Holy Week hymn?

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 17:26:16 GMT

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What is the Bible for?

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 16:55:06 GMT

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Sculpting the Three Graces into our lives

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 16:18:05 GMT

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A Place to Pray

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 15:36:06 GMT

During the children’s message a couple of Sundays ago, Marti Wayland handed out a badge that read, “Did you think to pray?” I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need this reminder. I can so quickly move into problem-solving mode that I can so easily forget, as the old familiar hymn has it, to “take it to the Lord in prayer.”

Prayer is one of the primary spiritual practices throughout our lives, but it is a special focus of the season of Lent, the forty-day period of preparation for Easter. Prayer, along with fasting and giving to the poor, is one of the three practices that Jesus highlights in Matthew 6:1-18. These practices are not meant for show; they’re not meant for public display. Rather, “whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).

What a blessing it is that we have a special room at the church set aside for the practice of prayer! Our prayer chapel is beside the carpeted narthex in the back of the sanctuary. It’s been here about seven or eight years. Kathy Robertson initially designed it and she keeps it updated throughout the church seasons.

The prayer chapel has several stations or areas. It has a kneeling rail that was handmade by Farrell Eaves, with a kneeling pad that Kathy sewed. It has a cross where you can write down a prayer request on a post-it note, roll it up, and place it in the arms of the cross. There’s a treasure box full of other people’s prayers that you can join in lifting in prayer.

For the season of Lent, Kathy has placed on a table a bowl of ashes with 10 questions to ponder for prayer and self-reflection. There is also a silver bowl with 30 pieces of silver, the price Judas was paid to betray Jesus, along with the words to an old hymn that invites reflection on the ways we are tempted to sell out our faith and compromise our discipleship. There is also a wooden cross with a heavy hammer and long nails and an invitation to name our own specific sins that Jesus carried with him to the cross.

There is also a mirror that you probably don’t see until you turn to leave. I won’t give away what’s written on the mirror; it’s better that you see it for yourself. Suffice it to say it sends you forth with an invitation to see yourself as God sees you, as a beloved child of God.

The prayer chapel is a calm, quiet, peaceful place. It’s a perfect place to “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

Sometime during this season of Lent, I invite you to stop by the prayer chapel and just spend some time there in the spirit of prayer. Just be there in the presence of God. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Losership and Lent

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 17:30:57 GMT

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Today is Ash Wednesday. It is the day in the church year when we start the season of Lent, our 40-day journey (not including Sundays) toward the celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. Historically, Lent has been a time in which disciples of Jesus sharpen our focus on Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem and what would happen to him there. “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering,” he told his disciples, “and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22).

But Jesus went on to connect his journey to the cross with ours as his disciples. “If any want to become my followers,” he said, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24). In other words, he lost his life for our sake; we can lose our lives for his sake. But that’s a hard saying of Jesus. What can it mean for us in our lives of discipleship?

A friend and a colleague of mine recently wrote a book in which he unpacks this saying of Jesus. Bill Shiell has been a pastor, seminary president, and fundraiser. He’s spent the past seven years as a small-group leader for a group of boys at his church who are now graduating from high school, and this book is meant as a graduation gift for them. His book is called Losership: The Door to a Joyful Life.

He notes that so much of the focus in society and even in the church is on success, winning, and leadership. But Jesus calls us here to “losership.” This is actually good news, because loss is a part of life. Sooner or later, something happens in our life that disrupts our carefully crafted paths of upward mobility. Some misfortune befalls us, or some misstep catches up to us, and our life takes a different direction from what we had planned. Jesus doesn’t consider these losses to be failures. Instead, our losses can be opportunities for us to learn more about what discipleship in the way of Jesus is about.

Suffering and loss can make us more empathetic to the struggles of others, for example. It can bring others into what he calls our “loser’s circle,” reminding us that we are not alone in our losses. And it can make us more attentive to the presence of the crucified and risen Christ with us.

So this Lent, instead of, or in addition to, thinking about what you might be giving up or taking on this season, I invite you to reflect on a loss that you have experienced in your life. What emotions did you feel in that loss? Who was present to you in that season of loss? How was Jesus present with you in that loss? What have you learned about yourself through that loss? How has your loss helped you be present to others in their loss? How have you risen transformed in some way from that loss?

Merry Christmas - A Tale of Two Advent Calendars

Wed, 25 Dec 2024 13:53:22 GMT

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Three Christmas Gifts

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 14:50:55 GMT

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A Gospel For Us All

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 17:14:43 GMT

Do you have a favorite Gospel account of Jesus’s life and ministry?

Whenever I’m asked this question, my answer often depends on whichever Gospel I happen to be preaching from at the moment. I love the order and structure of Matthew, the brevity and urgency of Mark, the memorable parables that we only find in Luke (the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, etc.), and the fascinating characters we find in John (Nicodemus, the woman at the well, etc.). I love how each of the Gospel writers tells the same story of Jesus in their own way, with their own unique accent.

The United Methodist author and pastor Adam Hamilton considers Luke to be his favorite Gospel. He describes growing up in a home that was not particularly religious. He didn’t go to Sunday school or Vacation Bible School as a child. But his grandmother gave his family a Bible, and as a teenager, Adam decided to read it from cover to cover, to see for himself what it was all about. When he finally came to the Gospels, he found the Jesus in Matthew and Mark to be a compelling figure, but he was still skeptical as to whether it was true, real, or relevant to his life. But when he read through Luke, something changed in him.

“I came to love Jesus,” he writes, “as I read Luke’s Gospel.” The night he finished reading Luke, he got down on his knees beside his bed, and he prayed to the crucified and risen Jesus, “I want to follow you. I want to be your disciple.” He went on to write, “the best parts of my life have all been somehow connected to that decision to believe the witness of the Gospels and entrust my life to Jesus Christ.”

This new church year, from Advent through Easter, we will be following the story of Jesus as we find it in the Gospel of Luke. Last Sunday, Bill kicked us off by looking at the story of the promise to the priest Zechariah of the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. After the choir’s Christmas cantata this Sunday, we’ll continue exploring the Advent stories in Luke—the visit of the angel to Mary, the visit of Mary and her relative Elizabeth, and the visit of the shepherds to the stable of Bethlehem. Then we’ll look at the stories of Jesus as an infant and as a tweenager. And in the new year, we’ll follow his ministry all the way from his baptism through his death and resurrection.

I’d like to invite you, between now and Christmas, in preparation for our journey together through the story of Jesus, to read through the Gospel of Luke yourself. Make note of what insights you gain, what questions you have, what differences you see with the other Gospel accounts. And I’d like to invite you to share those observations with Bill and me so that they can help inform our messages and reflections.

I hope as we make our way through the Gospel of Luke together, we’ll all come to love Jesus even more and want to follow him even more closely as his disciples.

Put Not Your Trust In Princes

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 19:33:55 GMT

Our preschool director Tricia and assistant director Erin and I dressed up for Halloween

last week. They were dressing up as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, so they

suggested I dress up as Prince Charming. Turns out I could do it fairly easily. I could

wear black pants and a blue dress shirt untucked. I have a gold sash from my college

alma mater. And I could use my kilt belt to tie it all together. It was fun, and the students

and families seemed to enjoy their royal welcome that morning!

Then I was asked to lead a Vespers worship service where the assigned psalm is

Psalm 146, which contains the following verse: “Do not put your trust in princes…” (v.

3). What? Not even in Prince Charming?

The psalm goes on to clarify that princes are mortals, like everyone else, and that “when

their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish” (v. 3-4).

“Happy are those,” on the other hand, “whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is

in the Lord their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them” (v.

5-6).

It is the Lord, the psalm proclaims, “who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for

the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry” (v. 6-7). It is the Lord who “sets the

prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are

bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers; he

upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin” (v. 7-9).

While princes are mortal and come and go, “the Lord will reign forever, your God, O

Zion, for all generations” (v. 10). So the psalm closes with the same words with which it

opened: “Praise the Lord!”

We are now (at long last!) on the other side of this year’s election. We have voted for a

number of “princes” and “princesses” at various levels of our national, state, and local

governments. A vote is a gesture of trust. It’s a way of saying we trust in this person to

do what we think ought to be done. But this psalm tempers the trust we should put in

the principalities of this world. It reminds us that our ultimate help and hope is in the

Lord.

And the psalm reminds us where the Lord’s focus is, where the Lord’s attention and

affections are—not on the power-full, but on the power-less. On those who are

vulnerable, desperate and downtrodden. The hungry. The oppressed. The imprisoned.

The blind and bowed down. The strangers, the widows, and the orphans.

Turns out, that’s where Jesus’ focus was as well. And it’s where he wants our focus to

be, too, those of us who follow him, no matter who is president. For Jesus is the Prince

of Peace. He is the only Prince in whom we should put our trust, in whom there is help,

in whom there is hope.

John Wesley's Election Advice

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:21:39 GMT

Every time there is an election, I am mindful of the advice that John Wesley, the founder

of the Methodist movement, gave to voters back in his day. With our nation’s election

coming up next week, I wanted to share this advice with you for your prayerful

consideration.

In his journal from Thursday, October 6, 1774, Wesley wrote: “I met those of our society

who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them: 1. To vote, without fee or

reward, for the person they judged most worthy; 2. To speak no evil of the person they

voted against; and, 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that

voted on the other side.”

In the come and go of election cycles, Wesley’s words never fail to be relevant.

Let’s break his advice down a bit. First of all, Wesley encouraged them to vote. Our right

to vote freely for the candidates we judge most worthy is a sacred privilege and should

not be taken lightly. This is a right that people have fought and died to secure and to

preserve for us to exercise. Let us not forget that have a voice in what is important to

us, and our vote is that voice. And it is incumbent upon us to be informed about the

platforms and priorities of the candidates for office, not just at the national level but

especially at the state and local levels where many of the policies often more directly

impact our lives. And then, once we are so informed, to vote for those we in our own

conscience judge most worthy.

Second, he advised them not to speak evil of those they voted against. Sadly, in

election seasons like this, we tend to hear far too much evil, misinformation, and mean-

spiritedness spoken by candidates on all sides about their opposition. But just because

we hear so much evil being spoken doesn’t mean that we need to speak it ourselves.

Christians are called in Christ to a different way of being in the world. We are called to a

higher standard. I’m reminded of Paul’s words to the Ephesians: “Let no evil talk come

out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your

words may give grace to those who hear” (Eph 4:29 NRSV).

And third, he advised them to be careful that their own spirits were not sharpened

against those who may have voted differently. In other words, we are to guard our own

hearts, that we don’t look upon our neighbors as enemies. Again, I’m reminded of Paul’s

words to the Ephesians: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander,

along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving

each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph 4:20-31 NIV).

I pray that Wesley’s words from long ago may resonate in our hearts and minds in the

days and weeks to come, and that we also remember that regardless of who may be in

the seats in the halls of earthly power, the Lord God is still on the throne of heaven.

The Masks We Wear

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 15:59:37 GMT

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Dare to Grow

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 19:56:15 GMT

A University Motto with a Discipleship Message

When Vanderbilt beat Alabama in football a few weeks ago, several of our friends texted us, wanting to know if our son Noah, who is a junior at Vandy, was there. “Please tell me Noah is there,” they texted us during the game. “Please tell me he’s on the field,” they texted us after the game. “Please tell me he’s in the goal post parade,” they texted us even later. Yep. He was there for all of that. It’s a night no doubt he’ll not soon forget.

I know there are some Bama fans in the congregation, so I know I need to tread lightly here. I had to chuckle when one of them took the long perspective and said, “well, it only happens every forty years or so.”

A few weeks before that big game, Tracy and I went over to Nashville for parents’ weekend. While we were waiting for one of the sessions to begin, my eyes fell on a seal with the university’s Latin motto: Crescere aude . As I’ve mentioned here before, it’s been a while since my high school Latin class, so I had to Google it. It means “dare to grow.”

Crescere – as in crescendo, to grow louder, larger. Aude – as in audacious, bold, daring.

Dare to grow.

As I continued to contemplate it, it seems like an excellent motto, not only for a university, but also for a Christian, a disciple of Christ, and for a congregation of which one is a part. Dare – be so bold and audacious – as to grow in your discipleship, in your spiritual growth, in your Christian maturity.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul issues a call for us to “dare to grow” toward “maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…” (Ephesians 4:13-15).

The call of Christian discipleship is a call to dare to grow in our faith. So how dare you? How are you daring to grow in your own spiritual life, in your walk with Jesus? And how might we, as a congregation, dare to grow in our ministry in his name, our maturity in his love?

"Take up and read"

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 18:03:37 GMT

“Take up and read. Take up and read. Take up and read.”

These are the words that a down-in-the-dumps professor of rhetoric heard floating over a fence in a garden in Milan, Italy, nearly seventeen hundred years ago. They may have been the words of a child at play, but they turned out to be the very words that the professor needed to hear. Newly inspired, he picked back up the book that he had been reading before he became despondent. They were the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Rome. The words he read there touched his heart and changed his life. He became a believer in Christ, he left his post as a professor, and he went on to become one of the most influential theologians in the history of the church. The turning point was when St. Augustine heard those words: "Tollo lege," which is Latin for “take up and read.”

I’d like to issue that same invitation to you, to “take up and read” the entire New Testament over the remaining days and weeks of this calendar year. It’s only about 14 weeks now from the beginning of Matthew to the end of Revelation, reading just a few chapters a day. If you’ve ever wanted to read the New Testament all the way through, now’s a great opportunity to do it.

I’d also like to invite you to “take up and read” the New Testament in community with other readers from our congregation. On Tuesday evenings at 7 pm in the Leap of Faith classroom (beside the library in the front of the church), we will gather to review the previous week’s readings and share observations, questions, and maybe even some life and faith decisions. Now, I don’t know if anyone will decide to leave their jobs like Augustine did, but there may well be some new dimensions of discipleship that are discovered.

So let me say it again: “take up and read.”

The reading schedule is posted on our church’s website, in our weekly email newsletter, and on our bulletins. Even though we started in Matthew this past Sunday, there’s plenty of time to get caught up. Here’s this week’s schedule:

Sunday, September 22 – Matthew 1-2

Monday, September 23 – Matthew 3-4

Tuesday, September 24 – Matthew 5-7

Wednesday, September 25 (today) – Matthew 8-9

Thursday, September 26 – Matthew 10-12

Friday, September 27 – Matthew 13-14

Saturday, September 28 – Matthew 15-17

Sunday, September 29 – Matthew 18-20

A Way to P.R.A.Y.

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:27:44 GMT

I have shared with you before that I incorporate an app on my phone “Lectio 365” into my prayer and devotional life. You can also access this resource online at www.24-7prayer.com .

Lectio is the Latin word for “reading,” and the app incorporates scripture readings into daily prayers for both morning and evening. It also refers to a spiritual practice called “lectio divina,” which means “holy reading” or “sacred reading.”

I like the way the app sets up the daily readings and prayers. It uses the acronym P.R.A.Y. I have come to enjoy using this acronym in my prayer practice more generally, and I commend it to you for your consideration.

P stands for “pause.” It’s about pressing pause in our often busy and stressful lives, whether we’re just getting up in the morning or getting ready to go to bed or somewhere in between. It’s about putting aside your phone for a moment (even if you’re on your phone accessing the prayer guide), closing your eyes, taking a deep breath or two, and being still and simply being. It’s about recentering ourselves and putting ourselves in a posture of readiness to receive what the Lord would open to us.

R stands for a couple of things in the app, but I like the word “reflect.” It’s about reflecting on a passage of scripture. You can read the scriptures that are suggested in the app. You may have another reading plan you are following. There are several reading plans in the Bible app of various lengths that you can start any time. I’m following the “Read through the Bible in a Year” plan that our conference has suggested ( https://www.holston.org/readtogether ).

But whatever the scripture, read it reflectively. Maybe that means reading it aloud. Or a couple of times, or three. Or in a different version. Or maybe even in a different language. Ask yourself what words or images stand out in your mind. Is there something in this passage that speaks to you in some way? That comforts you. Convicts you. Inspires you.

A stands for “ask.” Ask of the Lord what you feel you need, what you feel you are lacking. Ask for yourself. Ask for someone else, someone you know and love. Ask for a stranger. Maybe your ask will be inspired by your reflection on the scripture passage. Maybe it will be inspired by something happening in your own heart and life. Maybe it will be inspired by something happening in your family, your congregation or community, or in the world. However it is inspired, ask—simply, clearly, confidently—trusting that the Lord is listening.

Y is “yield.” Like the triangular traffic sign, to yield is to let another have their way. It’s the phrase of the Lord’s Prayer: “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” It’s the prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane: “not my will, but thine be done.” For me, this can be the hardest part of praying. But I’ve found that it can lead us into the very heart of what faith is—trusting that, come what may, God is always at work for our good and for God’s glory.

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave September 11, 2024

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:17:57 GMT

Yesterday, Bill, Drew, and I attended a clergy gathering in Ooltewah with the bishop of the Holston Conference, the Rev. Dr. Debra Wallace-Padgett. She reinforced among us the importance of having a sense of true community, not only among the clergy, but in our congregations as well.

So much of what passes as community in our culture is relatively shallow and superficial. We may talk about sports, for example, or the weather, or last night’s presidential debate, but it rarely goes much deeper than that. We rarely probe beneath the surface to matters of the heart and the soul and the spirit. But she suggested that there is a hunger in our world—and certainly in our churches and among clergy—for a sense of true, deep, real, authentic community.

She offered for our consideration three characteristics of true community. First is the element of trust . We trust the people with whom we share true community. We trust them with our questions, our concerns, our struggles. We trust them to hold in sacred confidence what we share with them from our hearts and lives. And we trust them to be honest with us, to tell us what we may not want to hear but what we may need to hear. We trust them.

Second is the element of teamwork , a sense that we are engaged together in something larger and more meaningful than anything we may be doing individually. This team spirit can be experienced at the workplace, at school, or on the sports field, but it can certainly be experienced in the congregation, as we share together in the mission Jesus gave us to be and to make disciples who make a difference for him in our world. We’re on the same team.

Third is the element of time . We spend time with those with whom we share true community. The bishop shared a story of when her family moved to a new community when her daughter Leandra was a preschooler. Some of the children in the neighborhood came to their house and wanted to meet Leandra. Her mom encouraged her to come out of her room and meet her new friends, and Leandra said, “friends are like new songs – you can’t learn them in one day.” It takes time.

Time. Teamwork. Trust. Three elements of true community.

I’m grateful for the experiences of true community in my life—for the HeBrews men’s coffee group that meets on Tuesday mornings at 7 at Mayfly, for a clergy group I meet with on Wednesday mornings, and for an eclectic group of non-clergy friends from my childhood and college days.

The bishop left us with a few final questions. I’d like to share them with you for your own consideration.

1) How would you assess the quality of true community in your life?

2) What is one step you can take to increase your deeper connection to two or three others in your life?

3) What is a next step that you can take to help elevate the sense of true community here at Signal Crest?

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave September 4, 2024

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:38:15 GMT

Just as school has started back up for our students and teachers, September is the time of the year when small group studies usually start back up around the church. We have several opportunities for you to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds,” as the Apostle Paul put it, “so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

First of all, we are blessed this month to host Rev. Dr. Jim and Kathy Reiter, who are spiritual directors from Texas. They will present a free session defining and describing spiritual formation at our Wednesday night dinner on September 11 at 6 pm in the Crest Center. Then they will lead a workshop on the Enneagram as a tool for spiritual

transformation on Saturday, September 14 (register on our website at www.signalcrestumc.org), and Jim will be preaching in our worship services on Sunday, September 15 on the topic, “It’s All About Transformation.”

Second, during the Sunday school hour, I will be leading a four-session study of the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church. We will explore our denomination’s perspectives on some of the most pressing social issues of our world. The study will start this Sunday, September 8. We will meet at 10 am in the Leap of Faith classroom. The Social Principles can be accessed at https://www.umcjustice.org/documents/124.

Third, starting Sunday, September 15, Drew will be leading a study of the book Innovating for Love: Joining God’s Expedition through Christian Social Innovation. This study will focus less on the “why” and the “what” and the “how” and instead more on the “who”—who Jesus is and who we are called to be in and through him. The six-week study will be at 10 am upstairs in the Loft.

Fourth, if you have ever wanted to read through the entire New Testament, the “good news” is that we are about to arrive there in our schedule of reading through the entire Bible in a year. We come to Matthew 1 on Sunday, September 22. We will be picking back up with our Tuesday night Bible study on September 24 at 7 pm in the Leap of

Faith classroom, and all are welcome to come. We will be following along with the schedule of daily readings published in the bulletin, website, and social media.

Finally, this Sunday, we’re kicking off our fall sermon series on the book of Revelation called “Hope Revealed.” Two of our Sunday school classes—the Bible Foundations class (Room 434 near the elevator by the Crest) and the Roundtable Class (library)—are studying Revelation this fall as well, and I’m sure they would welcome all who are curious to learn more about this strange and compelling book of the Bible.

And these are just some of the opportunities available. There’s also so much faith formation happening in our children and youth ministries as well! But all of these opportunities for spiritual transformation take place in small groups. It’s something that is best done together, with one another. So the question I have for you is this: where will

you plug in? How will you open yourself to spiritual transformation this month?

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave August 29, 2024

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:54:33 GMT

This past weekend, we dropped off our younger son Wesley for his first year of college at Columbia University in New York City. While we were on campus, we browsed the university bookstore. My eyes caught a sweatshirt with the Columbia logo and a Latin inscription underneath: “In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lumen.” I had three years of Latin in high school with teacher Mr. May, but that was over thirty years ago. But instead of going immediately to Google, I wanted to see if I could piece it together myself.

“Lumine” means light (as in “illumination”).

“Tuo” means “your.”

“Videbimus” is somehow related to the verb “to see” (as in “video”).

Aha! “In your light we see light.” Google confirmed the translation was correct. Mr. May would be so proud!

Then I realized that phrase sounds familiar. Google also confirmed that it is a quotation from scripture, from Psalm 36:9: “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” These words are an ancient affirmation that God is the source of all light and life and that it is God’s light that enlightens us.

Columbia was founded in 1754 during the historical period called the Enlightenment. It was the age of influential philosophers like David Hume and John Locke. It was a time marked by a greater reliance upon human reason than on divine revelation. But the first president of Columbia, back when it was called King’s College, was an Anglican minister, the Rev. Samuel Johnson. He designed the seal that included this Latin inscription that reminds us that it is ultimately God’s light that enlightens our own education and enlightenment.

Columbia is not a religiously affiliated university, although there are students from all kinds of religious backgrounds and there are many different religious organizations on campus. But at the opening convocation, as the interim university president Katrina Armstrong and other administrators described the educational culture to us all before we had to say goodbye to our offspring, they encouraged the students not to be afraid to ask questions, to seek the truth even if the answers are not what they expected, to learn with and from one another, and to remember that they are never alone, as they are all engaged in the enterprise of education together.

As they were talking about what the college experience can be, I couldn’t help but think this is also what the church experience can be—a place to ask our questions, to seek the truth, to learn from each other, and to remember that we are never alone as we live and grow together in the light of the life of the one who is the light of the world and whose light enlightens everyone (John 8:12, 1:9). It is in his light that we see light.

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave August 21, 2024

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:38:08 GMT

I am excited that we will be hosting a spiritual growth opportunity here at Signal Crest next month. Jim and Kathy Reiter are spiritual directors from Texas, and they will be leading a seminar on Saturday, September 15, from 9 am to 3 pm entitled “ Introducing the Enneagram as a tool for Spiritual Formation .”

What is the Enneagram, you may be asking, and what does it have to do with Christian discipleship? The word comes from the Greek words for nine ( ennea ) and drawing or figure ( gram ), and it refers to nine different ways in which we understand and relate to ourselves and others in the world.

Here’s how Jim and Kathy describe the Enneagram:

In a world full of personality assessments, the Enneagram stands apart for the ways that it not only describes our behavior (and the basis of that behavior) but for the ways it offers practices which can help us live more resourcefully. (It) is a personality tool that allows us to see our giftedness as well as our limitations. It helps us see how we default to ruts in our relationships, including our relationship with God. The Enneagram opens us to self-awareness and opens our options for how to be in situations. It creates in us compassion for those who are experiencing and responding to life differently than we do and are.

For example, I am an Enneagram 9, which is called “The Peacemaker.” 9s just want everyone to get along! Some of the positives of being a 9 is that we can be a calm, empathetic presence and can appreciate different perspectives and see different sides to the story. Some of the drawbacks to being a 9, however, is that we often avoid conflict like the plague, and we can procrastinate. Yep, I’m a classic 9!

Do you wonder what Enneagram number you are? Maybe you are a 2, which is “The Helper.” I have found that churches often have a lot of 2s in the pews. Or maybe you’re a 5, “The Investigator.” 5s love to research and learn everything they can about something. Or maybe you’re a 7, which is “The Enthusiast.” 7s are the life of the party.

If you’d like to learn more about what your Enneagram number is and what that can mean for how you relate to God, to others, and to yourself, I hope you will plan to attend the retreat on Saturday the 14 ^th . The cost is only $25, which covers materials and lunch. Childcare will be provided. You can register online though our website at https://www.signalcrestumc.org/enneagram-workshop . Jim and Kathy will also be with us at dinner on Wednesday night, September 11, to share with us a preview of the retreat and a little bit about their ministry of spiritual direction.

Jesus said that the greatest of all the commandments is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:37-39, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-28). The Enneagram has helped me—and I believe it can help you—better understand the self with which we are to love God and one another.

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave August 14, 2024

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 15:46:52 GMT

I woke up in the middle of the night and was having trouble falling back asleep. So I decided to get out of bed and go outside and gaze up in the sky. The Perseid meteor showers have been peaking this week, and apparently the best time to view them is between midnight and dawn. I figured 2:45 am would work pretty well!

I went out on the back porch of the parsonage and looked up into the night sky. Stars shining (and a few satellites blinking) all above me. After about four or five minutes, I saw the fast flash of a meteor high above the Crest parking lot. If I had blinked, I would have probably missed it. I waited around a few more minutes to see if I could catch another one or two “shooting stars” as they’re sometimes called, but it was just the panoply of stars and the occasional lightning bug.

As I was craning my neck skyward, I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite psalms, the eighth one, where the psalmist inquires:

When I look up at your skies, at what your fingers made—

the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place—

what are human beings that you think about them;

what are human beings that you pay attention to them? (v. 3-4 CEB)

Stargazing has a way of putting us in our place and reminding us of who we are, how very little we are in relation to the vast expanse of the universe. We are a blip on the screen. A drop in the cosmic bucket.

And yet, the psalmist, in the very next verses, reminds us who we are, how God sees us, and why God made us:

You’ve made them only slightly less than divine,

crowning them with glory and grandeur.

You’ve let them rule over your handiwork,

putting everything under their feet—

all sheep and cattle, the wild animals too,

the birds in the sky, the fish of the ocean,

everything that travels the pathways of the sea. (v. 5-8 CEB)

How astounding it is that God has placed God’s creation in our care. Though we may feel so small standing beneath a star-studded skyscape, God has given us a mighty big responsibility. May we be inspired to live up to what God thinks of us and who God has

called us to be.

“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!” (v. 1, 9, CEB)

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave August 7, 2024

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 16:11:35 GMT

Our older son Noah spent four weeks this summer at an archaeological site in southern Turkiye. The team he was with were excavating ruins of Roman fortifications along the Mediterranean Sea. It was hot and hard work. So much of what they uncovered were pieces of broken pottery – bowls, pots, plates. This got me thinking about Jeremiah.

We have been in Jeremiah lately in our schedule of reading through the Bible this year. In Jeremiah 18, the Lord sends the prophet to a potter’s house, where he finds the potter at work at his wheel. The vessel the potter was making out of clay was spoiled, so “he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel” (Jer 18:4-6).

When we met up with Noah and toured around Turkiye together, one afternoon we visited a pottery studio. Each of the boys took a turn at the pottery wheel, shaping the wet clay into bowls. One of the bowls became a little misshapen, but the potter worked with the clay and helped shape it into something that would work.

In one of our hymns, we sing,

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!

Thou art the potter; I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still. (UM Hymnal 382)

But even though we may sing “have thine own way,” so often we act “have mine own way.” So did the people in Jeremiah’s day. They said, “we will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will” (Jer 18:12). So the Lord instructs Jeremiah in the next chapter to go back to the potter and buy a jug so that he can smash it in their sight as a sign of the disaster that will come upon them because of their stubborn willfulness. And sure enough, that’s what happened. And as Noah has discovered, the earth is littered with bits of broken pottery.

So let us learn the lesson of the potter and the clay. Let us remember which one of these we are. Let us not let ourselves become brittle and hard and dry, but seek to be soft and supple, moldable, shapable. Let us, like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, make our prayer not my will but thine be done (Matt 26:39, Mark 14:36). And let us sing this song as well (this song that we close our midweek Vespers services singing):

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. (UM Hymnal 393)

Midweek meditation from Pastor Drew July 24, 2024

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 14:42:57 GMT

Our family just returned from a trip to Turkey. Noah had been over there for four weeks working at an archaeological site along the Mediterranean, and when he was finished, we met up with him and toured around.

We started in Cappadocia, the rugged center of the country full of cave churches and otherworldly rock formations. Then we visited the site of ancient Ephesus along the Aegean seacoast, the Roman capital of that region where the Apostle Paul pastored. In Istanbul, we visited the historic Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) mosque that originally was a church, browsed the Grand Bazaar, and took a water tour on the Bosphorus Strait that straddles Europe and Asia. We ended in Nicea, the site of the first ecumenical church council in 325 that defined the doctrine of Jesus’ divinity and gave us the Nicene Creed. It was a magnificent experience.

One evening, we attended a whirling dervish ceremony. Called a “sema,” it was inspired by the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi. This elaborate spinning ritual has seven parts, including essentially an opening prayer and call to worship, music from the accompanying band, the dervishes greeting each other, their repeated revolving dance, a reading from the Quran, and a closing prayer. According to the explanatory brochure we received, the ceremony is intended to symbolize the journey to perfection that is called ascension or “mirac” in Turkish.

As soon as I read that, I immediately thought of John Wesley and his theology of sanctification, where he envisioned that the spiritual life is an ongoing journey toward perfection, being perfected in Christian love. The whirling dervishes also aim at love –love of God and love of others without discrimination. The ultimate aim is complete submission to God and being God’s servant and messenger in the world.

Again, I was fascinated to see that there is so much here that resonates with our Christian theology and practice. But I was also curious about God’s role in this journey toward perfection. The Sema ceremony made it seem like this journey toward perfection is entirely initiated by us, it is something that we do, a work that we perform, whereas we Christians believe that the process of sanctification is initiated by God and that it is a work that God does in us and through us and with us. In the Sema, it seems as if God is looking on from a distance, watching us as we whirl our way toward mystical ecstasy, whereas in our Christian theology, God’s Spirit is present and active in our lives, leading us step by step along this path toward spiritual maturity.

Perhaps God may have more of an active role in the dervishes’ journey toward perfection than the brochure made it seem. I realize I have so much more to learn about this and so much besides. But one of the things I have long enjoyed about traveling to different places and encountering persons of different traditions is discovering both points of connection and correspondence as well as points of comparison. At the very least, it’s encouraging to know that others around the world are on a journey toward a more perfect love for God and for others. We need a lot more of that in our world.

And so I join with the Apostle Paul in making this journey toward perfection my own. “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal,” he wrote to the Philippians. “But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own" (Php 3:12).

Thanks be to God!

Midweek meditation from Pastor Drew July 17, 2024

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 16:06:14 GMT

This week, our Signal Crest Summer Camps Staff and Volunteers are sharing the Light of Christ with the children at the Bethlehem Center. This is the 3rd camp (Olympics Camp & Basketball Camp) of the summer and we are excited to have two more camps next week (Outreach Camp & Music/Arts Camp)!

Our lessons for these camps have focused on Jesus being the light of the world and being the good shepherd. It has been a blessing to watch our high school and college students lead the lessons and share the good news through their actions! A question we've asked all summer long is where can you see God's light? So I'm curious, where are you seeing God's light this week? Is it at the grocery store? At work? At the town pool? God's light is always present! I hope you see God's light this week and pray it is a blessing for you!

Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave July 10, 2024

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 16:00:00 GMT

I can’t remember who it was that told the story of when their family moved to a new neighborhood. It was one of the neighborhoods that the Ice Cream truck frequented. You know the kind of truck I’m talking about. It’s usually an older truck with panels of stickers along the sides displaying all kinds of creamsicles and popsicles and other delectable treats that are available. It ambles along through the neighborhoods in the summertime, piping out some slightly off-key version of “It’s a Small World” or some such song. When I was growing up, as soon as I would hear it coming, I would run inside to get a quarter or fifty cents from my mom and then rush back out to see if they had my favorite, which was the Mickey Mouse ice cream bar.

Anyway, one day the little boy in the family heard the music and asked his dad what it was. Not quite sure why he responded the way he did, the dad replied, “Son, that’s a music truck.” The son thought that was awesome and that they must live in a great neighborhood where a truck drove around and played songs that children like him liked.

Every day the “music truck” would roll through their neighborhood piping its peppy songs across the lanes. One day it stopped right in front of the little boy’s house. There were a bunch of kids gathered around it, so the little boy went outside to investigate. It turns out the kids were buying all kinds of snow cones and ice cream cones. He ran back inside to report to his dad, “Dad, you won’t believe it! The music truck has ice cream!” The dad feigned surprise. “Really?” The son said, “Yeah, Dad, and I think it’s had ice cream all along, and we missed it!” (Journal for Preachers, Lent 2012, p. 5)

It’s the Nanci Crewe summer music series in our sanctuary services this month, and it will culminate in the Jubilee combined worship service on Sunday, July 28 at 10 am. I think there’s always magnificent music in our worship services every Sunday morning, in both the Crest and the sanctuary. But the music is the vehicle – the truck, if you will – for the ice cream, which is the gospel message. And the music truck has had the ice cream all along. So let’s not miss it!

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave July 3, 2024

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 16:00:00 GMT

As we celebrate our nation’s freedom this week, I cannot help but think of the freedom that we are invited to experience in and through Jesus Christ.

My thoughts turn in particular to that energetic epistle of Paul to the Galatians, where he expounds on the nature and purpose of our freedom in Christ. “For freedom Christ has set us free,” he asserts at the start of the fifth chapter. “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery,” by which he means the kind of overly legalistic dietary and circumcision requirements for which some were advocating.

He picks up this theme again a few verses later, when he reasserts, “for you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters” (Gal 5:13). Freedom is our collective calling in Christ. But he goes on to advise, “only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”

The Greek word translated “slaves” here is douleuo, which is related to the word doula for those who serve and support birthing mothers. So an alternate translation here is “through love, serve one another.” We are to exercise our freedom in Christ through loving and serving others like Christ.

“For the whole law,” Paul clarifies, “is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:14). For Paul, freedom in Christ is not so much freedom from the awfulness of the law but freedom for the lawfulness of love. Our love for others fulfills the law of God.

Paul closes this passage with words that can seem a bit out of place: “If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another” (Gal 5:15). This strange verse suggests the degree of conflict that was taking place among the factions in the Galatian congregation, to whom Paul was calling to a unifying freedom in Christ. It also seems to resonate with the conflict that is taking place among the factions in our nation and world today, especially here in the US in this election year. Instead of loving one another, like Christ commanded us, there seems to be a lot more biting and devouring one another. We can pray, like Paul, that we are not, in the end, consumed by one another.

I am reminded that Abraham Lincoln presided over a nation rent by great and terrible conflict. But in his famous address at the cemetery in Gettysburg in November 1863, Lincoln envisioned “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” I don’t think he was thinking about Paul’s letter to the Galatians when he wrote that. But I can’t help but think that part of our calling as disciples of Jesus today is to be the kinds of doulas that can help bring about a new birth of freedom in Christ, a freedom that forsakes self-indulgence and biting and devouring others, for the greater freedom found in loving and serving others.

Midweek meditation from Pastor Dave June 26, 2024

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 14:21:09 GMT

Vacation Bible School is in full swing this week at Signal Crest! After weeks of prayer, planning, and preparation, we have had close to 100 kids registered to attend, and we’ve had at least 50 youth and adult volunteers helping out!

It’s a SCUBA themed VBS this year where we’re taking a deep dive into friendship with God. Walking down the halls feels like walking inside an aquarium! The sanctuary is decorated with an oceanic spread from side to side. There is one big blow-up shark all by itself which I’ve been calling it the “lone shark.” “Sea” what I did there?

We’ve been learning and singing new praise songs led by our newly-named official Children’s Director Tracy Gartmann, experiencing the Bible stories in exciting new ways with Tricia Earl (actually getting inside the belly of the big fish with Jonah was especially awesome), memorizing scripture passages with Courtney Malone, exercising our imagination with Katie Edgemon and Hailey Tull and our bodies in recreation with a great group of dads, and indulging in some tasty tidal treats with Lisa Charlton and Debbie Matthews. A boatload of thanks to everyone who is helping out in so many ways!

Each day has a different focus on friendship with God. Monday’s focus was that God is a friend who is real and whose presence with us we can feel with us through the ups and downs of life (like the prophet Elijah experienced). Tuesday’s focus was that God is a friend who loves us and calls us to love others, even those we may not like (like the people of Nineveh, whom the prophet Jonah didn’t like at all!). Today’s focus is that God is a friend we can trust in the midst of the storms of life (just like Jesus was in the boat with his disciples during a storm at sea). Tomorrow’s focus is that God is a friend forever, because Jesus’s death and resurrection offers us the gift of eternal life. Friday’s focus will be that God is a friend for everyone, that “everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Friendship with God involves some of the same kinds of things as friendship with people. It’s important in our friendship with God, for example, to spend time together, in worship. It’s important in our friendship with God to communicate regularly, through prayer, not only by sharing with God what is on our hearts and minds but listening to what is on God’s heart and mind. It’s important in our friendship with God to do things that show our love and our gratitude. And it’s important to share with others—friends, family members, and more—“what a friend we have in Jesus” (as the old hymn has it).

So how about you? How is your friendship with God going? And how might you take an even deeper dive into God’s love for you and grow in your friendship with God?

Devotional from Pastor Dave June 19, 2024

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:33:07 GMT

These past few weeks, I have been making my way through Jon Meacham’s biography of Abraham Lincoln, And There Was Light . The other night, I was reading about his signing the Emancipation Proclamation, the delivery of the news of which, two and a half years later, in Galveston, Texas, is the reason we celebrate Juneteenth today. But in 1863, the Civil War was going poorly for the Union side. Lincoln was feeling rather discouraged. He found a small Bible and sat down in the family library of the White House and began to read from it.

A short while later, Elizabeth Keckly, who was a formerly enslaved woman now serving as Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker, noticed that the president’s face “seemed more cheerful.” She observed, “the change was so marked that I could not but wonder at it, and wonder led to the desire to know what book of the Bible afforded so much comfort to the reader” (qtd. 289). It turns out he was reading the book of Job.

According to Meacham, “the story of a faithful but unfortunate man whom God tested through tribulation…was a fitting biblical parallel for the wartime Lincoln. Beset by constant trial, the president struggled with the most complicated and charged of military matters, political realities, and moral decisions” (290).

As it turns out, in our plan for reading through the Bible this year, we are currently reading through the book of Job. Two whole weeks in Job. In the middle of June. Fun times.

I was surprised to learn that Job seemed to have brought Lincoln some comfort, or at least companionship. I can’t help but wonder what particular passage(s) seemed to brighten the president’s countenance. I wonder, for example, if it was Job’s sarcasm toward his three “friends” who weren’t being very comforting to him in his misery. “How you have helped the powerless!” Job retorts. “How you have enlightened my stupidity!” (Job 26:2-3 NLT). I chuckled myself when I read that.

We’re still making our way through Job. We’ve got a few more days to go. But I’m actually enjoying rediscovering how profound its reflections on human life before the Almighty God are.

For example, Job 28 describes how we know how to go down deep into the bowels of the earth and mine precious jewels like onyx and sapphire. “But do people know where to find wisdom?” Job asks. “Where can they find understanding? For it is hidden from the eyes of all humanity. Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it. But Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of where wisdom can be found.’” (Job 28:20-22).

That last line stopped me. Death and Destruction, personified here in this passage, might know the way. They have heard a rumor of the route to wisdom.

It’s a hard saying to accept, but it’s probably true. Suffering seems to have a way of cutting the clearest path to the deepest wisdom. It was true for Abraham Lincoln. It was true for Job. It was true for Jesus. Maybe it’s true for you, too.

Devotional from Pastor Dave June 12, 2024

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 15:38:38 GMT

Our Holston Annual Conference is wrapping up this morning at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. It’s been such beautiful weather here and such a refreshing spirit of fellowship. Our Signal Crest contingent (Bill Thornton, Allison Maynard, Stephen and Katy Hines and their family, Lisa Beckman, and Tracy and our sons) have enjoyed seeing several former of our church’s pastors as well as countless friends from across the conference.

At last night’s worship service, we celebrated the conference’s bicentennial – 200 years of Methodist ministry in Holston. The altar arrangement included saddlebags representing our circuit rider heritage and preaching coats, including one worn by my great-uncle Marvin Kincheloe. Six bishops participated in the service, and we also honored our conference’s ministry among Native American and African American peoples.

Charles Maynard shared a particularly interesting story about a table that the president of Morristown College, a historically Black institution, arranged to be built for the 1912 General Conference of what was then the Methodist Episcopal Church. He sent hundreds of letters to people around the world, inviting them to send scraps of wood from their respective regions to be included in this table. He received 360 pieces of wood, which the students then fashioned into a mosaic that formed the top of this table. John Wesley’s famous words, “The World is My Parish,” were carved into the front of the table.

This table, called “The Bishops’ Table,” was lost for several years, but it has been rediscovered in a storage closet of a childcare facility on the site of the former Morristown College and it is currently being restored. Maynard described this table as “a metaphor of who we are as God’s people, the church of Jesus Christ. Like the table, we are a magnificent mosaic of faith, formed with people from all over the world who stand solidly as a table where the world can come feast at a heavenly banquet.”

For many years, the United Methodist Church has been described as a “big tent” denomination, where there is room for all kinds of people. But more recently, the metaphor has been shifting from “big tent” to “big table.” This seems much more appropriate to our Methodist heritage as a people who gather regularly at the table of Christ, where there is indeed room for all, there is always room for more, and there is always room for you.

Devotional from Pastor Dave June 5, 2024

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 16:49:32 GMT

One of the unexpected outcomes of our son Noah attending Vanderbilt is that he has become a fan of country music. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised at this, since Nashville is, after all, the home of country music. He has attended several concerts since he’s been there, and he has introduced us to some bands and some singers and songwriters that we probably wouldn’t have gotten to know otherwise.

When I was his age, I went through a bit of a country music phase myself. This was the day of Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, and George Strait. One of my first big concerts featured Clint Black and Merle Haggard. But then my music tastes changed, and country music changed, too. But Noah has introduced us to some of the artists who are presenting a fresh face and a new voice to the country sound.

This summer, he’s gotten us tickets to two concerts downtown at the Signal, the venue which is beside the Choo-Choo. The first one was Charles Wesley Godwin. I almost went to hear him for his name itself, which evokes the hymn-writing co-founder of the Methodist movement. His reference to kinfolk who had preached in the mines and hayfields in his song “Family Ties” makes me wonder if his ancestry goes back to the Wesley brothers who did just that all across the British Isles.

This past weekend, we went to hear the band Flatland Cavalry, which hails from Lubbock, Texas. One of their songs, “Mountain Song,” was featured on the tv show “Yellowstone,” and another song, “Wool,” was written for the new “Hunger Games” movie. At first, I was having trouble remembering the band’s name, but now some of their songs are stuck in my head. They are so well-written. Some are clever and witty; others are quite touching and warm. And they put on a fantastic concert. We were all surprised by how much we enjoyed it!

At the end of the concert, the continuing applause brought them back onstage for an encore, and their very last song was not one that they had written. It was one that I already knew, and knew well. You probably know it, too.

Some glad morning when this life is o’er, I’ll fly away

To a home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away

You know, as good as it is to learn some new songs, it’s also mighty good to sing some of the old ones, too.

We were up on the balcony, so I looked out over the crowd packed tightly on the floor, filled with folks who looked half my age or younger, and virtually everyone in the venue was swaying and singing along to this song that is almost a century old. They knew the words, too!

And you know, I’ve got to say, it felt a little bit, maybe more than a little bit, like church.

Devotional from Pastor Dave May 29, 2024

Thu, 30 May 2024 15:43:47 GMT

When would you say God has stirred your spirit in the past? And how might God be stirring your spirit today?

These are questions that have come to my mind these past few days as we make our way forward in our daily schedule for reading through the Bible this year.

Both at the end of 2 Chronicles and the beginning of Ezra, we’re told that “the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia” to allow the Israelites who had been carried off into exile in Babylon to return home and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chron 36:22-23, Ezra 1:1-4). Isn’t it interesting that the Lord God of Israel is described here as stirring up the spirit of a foreigner, an outsider, even an enemy of Israel like King Cyrus of Persia?

But God wasn’t just stirring the spirit of Cyrus. We’re also told that “the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—got ready to go up and rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:5). And sure enough, as we’ll read in a few months in the prophet Haggai, “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts their God” (Haggai 1:14).

A couple of Sundays ago, we celebrated Pentecost, the birthday of the church, the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem and empowered and enabled them to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people all over the world. The Spirit of the Lord was astir among Jesus’ disciples then, and I believe the Spirit of the Lord is still astir among Jesus’ disciples today, inspiring and empowering our work and our witness together here in his name. In fact, I believe the Spirit of the Lord stirred several of you on Pentecost Sunday to commit yourselves to help replace our roofs and refresh our church—thank you!

Oftentimes I experience the stirring of God’s Spirit in what I like to call “holy nudges.” Like when someone I haven’t talked to in a while comes to mind, for no apparent reason, and I think to myself, I wonder how they’re doing; maybe I should give them a call. Or like when I sense my heart rate rising and my ears burning when I hear a story of someone treated unfairly or enduring injustice. Or like when I’m reading the scriptures and a phrase like “the Lord stirred up the spirit” occurs twice within two consecutive chapters!

I believe the Lord still stirs the spirits of people today, both those we might expect and those we might not expect. So how about it? When would you say God has stirred your spirit in the past? And how might God be stirring your spirit today?

Devotional from Pastor Dave May 22, 2024

Wed, 22 May 2024 16:17:35 GMT

Some of you may be old enough to remember David Letterman’s “top ten” lists from his time serving as the host of late-night television shows. His lists covered such silly topics as “the Easter Bunny’s top 10 pet peeves” (including “ticks in your fur the size of jelly beans”) and “top ten dog thoughts” (including “I could have sworn I heard the can opener!”). Most of these lists are outdated as they refer to politicians and personalities from former times. And religious references are very few (although there was the one about “top ten words used least in the Bible” which included “Rootin-tootin” and “Yankee fan”).

This summer, however, we are going to be tracing a different kind of “top ten” list. Starting this Sunday, May 26, at our combined outdoor service at 10AM on the parsonage lawn, we’ll explore the ten most popular Bible verses from 2023, according YouVersion. Their Bible app had a record-breaking 100 million installs worldwide in 2023. Approximately 12 million people interact with the Bible app every day, which is a 20% increase over 2022. The app tracks which scripture verses were shared, bookmarked, or highlighted the most. Over the next couple of months, we will preach from these top ten most popular verses.

Do you have a favorite Bible verse? A “go-to” passage that you know you can turn to for words of hope, comfort, encouragement? I’ve got a few. And I’m glad to see several of them on this list. Maybe you will find one of yours on this list, too. And maybe you’ll discover a new favorite as well!

And be sure to invite a friend or a neighbor to come along with you to worship as we explore together these Bible verses that resonate with so many with the good news of God’s grace, power, and presence with us in Christ Jesus.

This Sunday, we’ll kick things off with one of the most familiar scripture verses of all, John 3:16. Not a bad place to start!

Devotional from Pastor Dave May 15, 2024

Wed, 15 May 2024 16:51:22 GMT

I just finished reading Bishop Kenneth Carder’s memoir Shifting Margins. He is a Holston Conference native who was born into the marginalized world of poverty in rural Appalachia, in Washington County in northeast Tennessee. Though he eventually would rise to positions of privilege and prominence as a United Methodist bishop, the heart of his ministry has remained focused on those who find themselves on the margins.

A child of poverty himself, he devoted much of his energy as a bishop toward directing the church’s attention toward the needs of children in poverty. He served tall steeple churches like Church Street in Knoxville that had a soup kitchen for the city’s unhoused population, and several of the friends from this ministry came to his consecration as a bishop. The early years of his ministry coincided with the civil rights movement, and he developed friendships with Black pastors and fostered interracial ministries across congregations. He has sought to identify and eradicate the racism and prejudice in himself as well as in the institutions in which he has served.

I was particularly struck to read that Bishop Carder was inspired by a speech at Holston Conference in the 1960s by Signal Crest’s very own Judge Frank Wilson (for whom our church’s library is named) for pastors to become as familiar with the insides of the local jails and prisons as we are with the local hospitals. Those words of Judge Wilson prompted the young pastor to get involved in prison ministries where he met with inmates, corrections officers, victims, and their families. He befriended a man on death row and walked with him through the appeals process that eventually reduced his sentence to life in prison. He crafted a seminary course on restorative justice that would bring inmates and seminary students together to learn and share. He has advocated against the death penalty and for criminal justice reform. All of this ministry among those marginalized by incarceration was inspired by Judge Wilson’s words.

When his wife Linda was diagnosed with dementia, his attention turned toward another marginalized community in our culture: the frail, the forgetting, and the forgotten. So much of what he related about their experience resonates with my own experience with my mom in her dementia. The residents, staff, and families of Linda’s memory care community became his parish. He preached in their worship services, shared the sacrament of Holy Communion, and served as volunteer chaplain for that community.

He describes a service one Pentecost Sunday. The scripture was the story of the first Pentecost from Acts 2, which describes different people from different places speaking different languages, and yet somehow, they were able to understand each other. “How is that possible?” Bishop Carder inquired. After a period of silence, someone spoke up: “They loved one another” (p. 206-207).

Pentecost is this coming Sunday, May 19. May the Spirit of the God who is Love fall afresh upon the church today and help us—in the midst of all the different places we come from, the different perspectives we have, the various languages we speak—to hear, understand, and love one another.

Devotional from Pastor Dave May 8, 2024

Wed, 08 May 2024 14:01:10 GMT

As a church congregation, we are embarking upon an energetic endeavor to “refresh, regenerate, and rejoice” in our life and witness together to the grace of God in Jesus Christ. On one level, this is a campaign to raise money for several capital improvement projects here at the church, foremost among which is to replace the sanctuary roof and skylights (which were last replaced thirty years ago), along with replacing the roofs of the chapel and the parsonage. Both the sanctuary and the Crest need new lighting, and the sanctuary needs new carpet. Our church bus also needs to be replaced. So there is much room for physical refreshment.

But on another level, this campaign represents a continuation of the church’s spiritual refreshment and regeneration that has been building over the past few years. This church has weathered a worldwide pandemic, denominational struggles, and multiple transitions in pastoral, staff, and lay leadership. But more people are coming back to worship, and new people are getting involved in the life and ministries of the church. In our worship services these past two weeks alone, we have seen the impact of this church’s ministries in the lives of our children and youth and young families for Christ. This church is experiencing a season of refreshment and regeneration, for which we can indeed rejoice!

These capital improvements are an opportunity for our generation to ensure that future generations can come to know the life-saving grace of God in Jesus Christ here at Signal Crest, just as previous generations have ensured that opportunity for all of us here today.

I am always inspired when I read in this church’s history about the faithful and generous church members back in 1967-69 who supported the construction of the magnificent sanctuary in which we worship today. I am additionally inspired when I read about the capital improvements the Trustees undertook in 1993-95, some of which are the same projects we are undertaking today (new roof, skylights, carpet, and bus). And I am also inspired by this church’s captivating vision of the Crest center in 2009-2011 that has enriched this congregation’s worship and extended its presence in this community. This church has a history of regularly refreshing, regenerating, and rejoicing in its ministries!

The words of my younger son Wesley this past Sunday also inspires me. He was one of the six graduating seniors who spoke in the worship services. In his closing remarks about the impact of this church on his life and faith, he said, “I think the biggest thing that I learned was that it’s not always about what we can get from something, but rather about what we can give.” I’m so proud of Wesley. He gets it. And he got it from you here at Signal Crest.

I hope you will plan to attend one of the information sessions about these projects, either this Sunday, May 12 at 10 am or next Wednesday, May 15 at 6:15 . Both sessions will be held in the Crest Center, with refreshments!

And I hope that you will prayerfully consider generously supporting this effort to “refresh, regenerate, and rejoice” together in the ministries of Signal Crest for Jesus Christ.

Devotional from Pastor Dave May 1, 2024

Wed, 01 May 2024 16:05:01 GMT

I appreciate all of you who have been praying for and keeping up with the news from the General Conference of The United Methodist Church that has been meeting these two weeks in Charlotte, NC. The conference concludes this Friday, May 3. There have been inspiring worship services and a healthy, hopeful spirit of camaraderie and cooperation in their work. They have already accomplished much, and they still have much work to complete. But I wanted to share three things with you that I think are especially noteworthy.

First, on the third day of the conference, Thursday, April 25, the delegates overwhelmingly approved a plan for the denomination’s regionalization. Historically, the UMC has been very US-centered, but the growth in the church is now mainly in regions outside the US. Regionalization would make the US one of several worldwide regions and would put us on more equal footing with our UMC brothers and sisters in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines. It would allow each region to adapt some of their policies and practices (around ordination requirements, for example) to their own missional contexts. Because this is a change in the church’s constitution, it will require at least two-thirds approval of all the votes at the annual conferences before it becomes official.

Second, someone that many of you may know, Lori Sluder, was consecrated as a deaconess this past Monday. A deaconess is a laywoman who is endorsed by the United Women in Faith (formerly the United Methodist Women) for full-time servant ministry in the church. Lori was the church secretary here at Signal Crest from 1994 to 1996 while her husband Mike served as the church’s first associate pastor. Since 2011, Lori has served as the executive assistant to the bishops who have served Holston Conference. Since 2018, Lori has also been involved in ministries that serve those impacted by human trafficking. We thank God for the ministries of deaconesses and home missioners (laymen in similar work), and especially for Lori’s answering God’s call in her life.

Third, earlier this week, the conference approved full communion partnerships with the Episcopal Church and the Moravian Church. Full communion is not a merger of the denominations but rather is a recognition of the validity of each other’s ministries that allows for clergy in one denomination to serve in the other denominations. We already enjoyed full communion with the Lutheran Church. These ecumenical partnerships are especially helpful in providing pastoral leadership in areas that may be underserved by one of the denominations. This partnership awaits concurrence by the Episcopal Church’s own general convention, but its approval by the UMC this week not only brings us into closer cooperation with denominations with whom we share so much historical and theological DNA, but it also reflects the unity of spirit for which Jesus prayed in John 17.

Please continue to keep the work of the General Conference in your prayers as they wrap up over the next few days. You can read the latest reports or watch the livestream at www.resourceumc.org or through the Holston Conference’s website at www.holston.org .

Devotional from Pastor Dave April 24, 2024

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:26:05 GMT

The General Conference of The United Methodist Church is meeting this week and next week in Charlotte, NC. This global gathering of United Methodists typically meets every four years to establish priorities and shape our denomination’s life together and our witness to the good news of Jesus Christ. This year’s conference is really the originally scheduled 2020 conference that was repeatedly postponed because of the pandemic.

There are over 1000 proposals that will be considered at this year’s General Conference, so there’s a lot of work to be done. A couple of the most prominent proposals include a plan for regionalization that would allow different regions of the church around the world to adapt their policies and procedures to their particular contexts and also a revised and updated draft of our Social Principles that speak to the contemporary issues and challenges facing the church and the world.

What can you do as the General Conference is conducting their work? Three things:

First, we would like to invite you to pray for the General Conference as they are doing their important work, which is all aimed at helping our churches accomplish our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Here are some specific ways you can pray:

Pray for our fourteen lay and clergy delegates from Holston Conference.
Pray for the more than 800 delegates from all over the world.
Pray that all that they do is done in love.
Pray that they conduct themselves with mutual respect.
Pray for wisdom and discernment as discussions are had and decisions are made.
Pray for the bishops who are presiding during the conference.
Pray for the worship teams and leaders who are guiding the work of the conference.
Pray for all the staff and volunteers in Charlotte who are serving in so many ways.

Second, we invite you to stay informed and follow the news from the General Conference. You can see the schedule, watch the livestream, and read reports at www.resourceumc.org. You can also stay updated on news from the General Conference at umnews.org.

Third, you can keep the “General Rules” that we have been exploring in worship this month, these three simple rules that John Wesley developed back in the 18th century for Methodists:

(1) Do no harm, (2) Do good, and (3) Stay in love with God. These rules to live by should always characterize our life in Christ and our love for God and for others as for ourselves.

As always, if you have any questions about the General Conference in general or how its decisions will impact Signal Crest in particular, please reach out to Pastors Dave or Bill.

Devotional from Pastor Dave April 17, 2024

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:04:58 GMT

The Masters golf tournament was held this past weekend in Augusta, Georgia. The Masters is one of the men’s tour’s four annual major tournaments. It’s held every year at the august Augusta National Golf Club, which is sometimes referred to as the cathedral of golf. I certainly consider it a “holey” site.

Tracy and I enjoyed the opportunity several years ago to attend one of the practice rounds. The beauty of the course is absolutely breathtaking. Every blade of grass is perfectly coiffed. The azaleas seem to bloom on cue. Even the pine straw under the trees is evenly spread.

The winner of this year’s tournament was Scottie Scheffler. It was a commanding victory. He won by four strokes. This is his second green jacket (which the winners receive); the first was two years ago. His wife Meredith is expecting their first child in a matter of weeks. Scottie had said that if he had gotten the call that the baby was coming, he’d have left the tournament, even if he were in the lead. Luckily for him, it didn’t come to that.

Scottie is a Christ-follower who talks about his faith fairly openly. So I was particularly impressed with his press conference after the tournament. He described how he was talking with some of his buddies the morning of the final round about how badly he wanted to win. His buddies reminded him that no matter what happened, “my victory

was secure on the cross. And that’s a pretty special feeling to know that I’m secure forever and it doesn’t matter if I win this tournament or lose this tournament. My identity is secure forever.”

That is a pretty special feeling to know that, isn’t it? To know that our identity is secure, forever, through the cross, through our faith in Christ. He promises the ultimate, eternal victory. No matter the ups and downs, the wins and losses in our own lives, Christ is the core of who we are. That’s what our baptism affirms is true of us. That is what our confirmation confirms is true of us. That is something we can remember and celebrate every day of our lives. As the Apostle Paul put it, you are a child of God, “and if a child then also an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7). Our identity is secure in Christ forever.

We have the Master’s word on it.

Devotional from Pastor Dave April 11, 2024

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:26:52 GMT

This week we enjoyed an overnight visit with a friend and former parishioner from England. John was a 14-year-old member of one of the five churches I served for a year in Cornwall, England, when I was fresh out of seminary. John is now a journalist living in London. He currently covers politics for The Mirror and has met prime ministers and traveled all over the world. His office is in the Parliament building (Big Ben!). He attends a church in the neighborhood where he now lives.

We have kept up with each other over the years on social media. Back in 2011, John was visiting the US and came to visit us when we were living in Knoxville. This past weekend, John was in Nashville visiting some friends, and he saw that we weren’t living too far away. So after taking in the downtown Nashville scene and then visiting Dollywood on Sunday, he came to see us.

We caught up on his family, our family, and the church in the village where he grew up (a church called Wesley Rock, not because of its preference in worship music but because its pulpit is built on top of a big granite boulder that John Wesley preached from when he visited the area in the 1700s). I took him to the brow (too bad the W road was closed). I toured him through the church and introduced him to some of the staff. We enjoyed some meals together, and then he headed back to Nashville to fly back home.

Do you ever marvel at how you have come to know some of the people you know? For example, how on earth is it possible that I know a British political reporter like John? How is it, for that matter, that I know a Grammy-winning church musician like our organist Michael Huseman? How is it that I know a downtown high school baseball coach and community organizer who also serves as our church’s youth director, Drew Barton? How is it that I know someone like Lou Maynard who has taught Sunday school to children and visited church members in their homes for over 60 years? How is it, for that matter, that I know you and that you know me?

The answer is the church. The church is the common thread across so many of the people that I have come to know, that I probably wouldn’t ever have come to know if it hadn’t been for the church—the family of faith in Christ across time and place and even across “the pond.”

Jesus was once told that his family was outside waiting for him. He asked, “Who is my family?” And he looked around at those who were with him and said, essentially, “here is my family. Whoever does the will of God is my family” (Mark 3:31-35).

I am so thankful for my family in Christ and for the bonds that we share as brothers and sisters together in him. How blessed indeed are the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love.

Who are you thankful for this day? Who comes to your mind that you haven’t you seen or talked to in some time? How might you reconnect with them? I hope you will find a way to do so. I can tell you it might just make your day.

Devotional from Pastor Dave April 3, 2024

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 16:41:39 GMT

For this week’s midweek meditation, I’d like to share with you our bishop’s Easter reflections which she posted on the conference’s website at www.holston.org . She concludes with a question worthy of all our prayerful reflection: “How is the whole story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection shaping you?”

—

In re-reading the Holy Week narrative this weekend, I was reminded of the importance of knowing the whole story! Indeed, if the Good News stopped with Palm Sunday, we would ask with the crowd, “Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10 NRSV) If it ended with the betrayal, we would be left with the question, “Is it I?” ringing in our ears. (Matthew 26:22 NKJV) If it concluded with Jesus’ crucifixion, the words of Pilate would haunt us. “Why, what evil has he done?” (Matthew 27:23a) But none of these events are the final word about Jesus. Rather, on Easter Sunday 2024 we celebrate the reality that the whole story includes the Resurrection, which changes the trajectory of our lives and world.

Back to the Holy Week narrative as described in the Gospels. It had been a week like no other for Jesus’ disciples. Everything had started out great, with the crowds proclaiming Jesus as their king. As he entered Jerusalem on a donkey they shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” (John 12:12-13 NRSV) What a high moment!

However, this only added to the tension that already existed between Jesus and the leaders of the day. One thing led to another and by Thursday evening, the chain of events that would result in Jesus’ death was set off when Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples and close friends, led the Roman soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was praying. The betrayal resulted in Jesus’ arrest followed by the false accusations, trial, torture, and crucifixion in the course of 24 hours. After his death on the cross, Jesus was placed in a new tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea.

Praise God, the story did not stop with the burial, though. Instead, on the third day, Jesus’ followers discovered that the tomb was empty, and Jesus had risen from the dead! They even had the opportunity to converse with their Risen Savior on several occasions during the forty days between his Resurrection and Ascension to heaven. In that period, they began to understand the whole story, including a more complete meaning of Jesus’ life and teachings.

The whole story continues to unfold today. The Risen Jesus is accessible to us through the Holy Spirit 24/7 . . . offers grace upon grace for the missteps, wrong turns and sin in our lives . . . loves us unconditionally . . . and is continually transforming his followers into faithful disciples who make a difference in the world. The whole story runs like a thread through every aspect of the lives of his followers, from start to finish.

Here is a question I invite you to join me in asking as we consider the whole story this Easter season. “How is the whole story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection shaping you?” May we gain a fresh perspective on our current reality as well as our hopes for the future by reflecting on the whole story of Jesus.

As always, it is a joy to serve as your bishop.

Blessings,

Debra Wallace-Padgett

Resident Bishop

Holston and North Alabama Conferences

Devotional from Pastor Dave March 27, 2024

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:35:27 GMT

Today is the Wednesday of Holy Week. Today isn’t one of those days in Holy Week that gets its own special adjective, like Palm Sunday or Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. But according to Mark’s telling of the story, something rather significant happened on this day that Jesus wanted the world to remember—a woman anointed him with expensive perfume (Mark 14:3–9).

Jesus is at the home of a man named Simon who had leprosy. Because of Simon’s condition, he probably was supposed to be quarantined, but he was having company over for a dinner party. In the middle of the meal, a woman—we don’t know her name—brings out an alabaster jar full of an expensive imported perfume called nard. She breaks open the jar and pours the perfume on Jesus’ head.

Some of the others who are there take offense at the wastefulness of this extravagance. The perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor, they say, and they scold her (literally, they “snort” at her). But Jesus tells them to leave her alone, that they’ll always have the poor with them, but they won’t always have him. “She has done what she could,” he tells them. “She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her” (Mark 14:8–9).

That’s pretty high praise! But what was so special about what she did that is worthy of the church’s perpetual remembrance of her?

We call Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. And both of those words mean the same thing—anointed. And the thing is, this story is Jesus’ anointing. It’s his christening.

Early in each of the four Gospels, Jesus is baptized, but it’s not clear that he is being anointed. Jesus himself uses that term in his sermon in his hometown synagogue when he quotes from the prophet Isaiah who wrote that “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19). But Jesus himself is not actually anointed by anyone until this moment, by this anonymous woman, in the home of a leper, on the day before the day before he dies and is buried. She is the one who anoints him, christens him as the Christ, the Messiah. “She has anointed my body beforehand,” Jesus says, “for its burial.”

I wonder if she knew, if she really knew, what she was doing. Had she heard Jesus talk about how he was going to be betrayed, arrested, tried and condemned to death, and then rise again on the third day? He’d told his disciples all that. But none of them did what she did. None of them anointed him like she did. And she did it without being told to do it. She just did it.

Jesus also says that “she has done what she could.” She’s certainly done a lot more than some others maybe could have done. That jar of perfume was worth a year’s wages. But it’s not the dollar amount that matters. The day before this, Jesus watched a widow drop two copper coins worth a penny into the offering at the Temple, and he knew she’d “put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:44). She did what she could, too.

I wonder: Will Jesus be able to say the same of each of us, that we have done what we could?

Devotional from Pastor Dave March 20, 2024

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:04:44 GMT

This past weekend, my uncle Pat passed away one day shy of his 92nd birthday. He was born on St. Patrick’s Day, so even though Patrick was his middle name, Pat was the name he was known by throughout his life. He was the youngest of six and the last remaining sibling of my dad.

Pat was a remarkable man, and he lived a remarkable life. He got a scholarship to play the tuba in college. He served as an officer in the Navy. He went to law school and served for 25 years as a prosecuting attorney and then for another 18 as a judge. He was married to my aunt Jill for 70 years. He was a faithful member of the church choir which his wife often directed. He was a popular public speaker. He had a fabulous sense of humor, a smile that went from ear to ear, and he loved telling stories.

Fifty years ago, Uncle Pat survived an attempt on his life. One of the people that he had prosecuted years before for murder got out of prison on parole and planted a homemade bomb in a Pringles potato chip can on the hood of their family car. Pat assumed Jill or one of their young daughters had left it there after grocery shopping. When he picked it up, it exploded. He lost both of his arms, had burns on his face and chest, and had shrapnel in his eyes. During several months of recovery, he was fitted for prosthetic arms which had metal hooks for his hands. He learned how to write, how to drive, and how to get dressed and do most of the things he needed to do. After four months, he was back at work, and he went on to work another nearly 35 years.

A few years back, he wrote up his memoirs in a book he called Justice and Luck. In that book, he described his faith. “Faith came early,” he wrote. “During childhood, any of us had to be genuinely ill to miss a service at the Methodist Church. I’ve been a willing churchgoer since” (5-6). When he was asked how the bombing had affected his religious faith, he wrote, “the experience affirmed it. I regained sight, hearing, the ability to work. My life could go on. Jill and our daughters were unharmed. My faith was strengthened” (42). Pat has been a model for me and for many others that it is not so much the things that happen to us, but how we respond to them, that makes the difference.

One of my favorite stories about Uncle Pat is how his wedding ring that they thought they’d lost forever was recovered over thirty years after the bombing. The folks that were living in their old house discovered it when they were out raking leaves in the front yard, and they recognized the initials that were on the inscription. Pat wrote that “this seemed like a miracle to me. It was pretty emotional. Yet I believe in miracles, and have for a long time. I’ve had several in my life, and this was another one” (72).

He closed his memoir with the words, “I’m one of the luckiest people who ever lived” (76).

O for all of us to live our lives with such a profound sense of gratitude, not only for the blessings in our lives, but for the blessing of life itself, and to be able to say, even amidst the difficult days, thanks be to God.

Devotional from Pastor Dave March 13, 2024

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 13:53:18 GMT

Today marks the first anniversary since my mom died. The first anniversary of a loved one’s death is a significant date. It means we have grieved through the first birthday, wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and other special days without them physically present in our lives.

This is one of those many days for which I am grateful for the liturgy of the church, for words that are available for us to borrow, words that help give voice to what is on our hearts and minds. This prayer, “On the Anniversary of a Death,” is from our United Methodist Book of Worship, #548. These are words that I have borrowed many times over the years; Tracy and I incorporated them into our wedding ceremony in memory of her mom. These are also words that I have shared with many others as they have marked the anniversaries of the deaths of their loved ones. I share them with you here today, trusting that these words might bless you in your own remembrances of loved ones.

Everliving God,

this day revives in us memories of loved ones who are no more.

What happiness we shared when they walked among us.

What joy, when, loving and being loved, we lived our lives together.

Their memory is a blessing for ever.

Months or years may have passed, and still we feel near to them.

Our hearts yearn for them.

Though the bitter grief has softened, a duller pain abides;

for the place where once they stood is empty now.

The links of life are broken, but the links of love and longing cannot break.

Their souls are bound up in ours for ever.

We see them now with the eye of memory,

their faults forgiven, their virtues grown larger.

So does goodness live, and weakness fade from sight.

We remember them with gratitude and bless their names.

Their memory is a blessing for ever.

And we remember as well the members

who but yesterday were part of our congregation and community.

To all who cared for us and labored for all people, we pay tribute.

May we prove worthy of carrying on the tradition of our faith,

for now the task is ours.

Their souls are bound up in ours for ever.

We give you thanks that they now live and reign with you.

As a great cloud of witnesses, they surround us with their blessings,

and offer you hymns of praise and thanksgiving.

They are alive for ever more. Amen.

State of the Church report

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 16:35:46 GMT

In the spirit of the annual “State of the Union” address that our president will be offering this week, I’d like to offer a “State of the Church” report, which summarizes our 2023 year-end reports that we recently submitted to our conference and that I shared with our Church Council a few weeks ago.

By nearly every measure, 2023 was a strong year. We gained 28 new members (10 by profession of faith and 18 by transfer from another church). We lost 15 members (11 of whom died, 3 transferred to another church, and one withdrew). This yielded a net increase of 13 in our membership, from 1197 to 1210. So far in 2024, we have received 9 new members.

Our average worship attendance continues to bounce back from the pandemic drop. We increased 12% from the previous year from 201 to 226 on average in our weekly worship services. Thank you all who make being present in worship, whether online or onsite, a priority, and who invite others to come worship with you.

Deep spiritual transformation takes place best in our small group ministries. Our number of and participation in small groups (Sunday school classes, Bible studies, fellowship groups, etc.) remained roughly the same, though there were some increases in some areas (children, college and young adults) and decreases in others (youth, women’s groups). Thank you to all who lead or are involved in one or more of our small groups here at the church.

The mission and outreach of our church expanded significantly over this past year. With the launch of the MLK Day of Service, our home repair team, and our partnership with the Signal Mountain recovery ministry, we saw a net increase in our overall opportunities to serve as well as an increase in the estimated number of people serving (200) and the number of people served (600). Our church’s financial support of ministries beyond the local church also increased by 167% for UM-related ministries (like Mustard Tree) and by 29% to non-UM related ministries (like Signal Mountain Social Services). Thanks to all who are the hands and feet of our outreach ministries, and especially to our key leaders in this area – Doranne Lane and Rev. Drew Barton, our Director of Community Connections.

Not only have you shared your time and talents in the ministries of this church, but also your treasure – your financial gifts. Over $1 million was given last year to the work God is doing in and through Signal Crest. We spent 45% more on programming (like Vacation Bible School) and 2% less on operating expenses than we did the prior year, which reflects both increased activity and disciplined spending. Our indebtedness on the Crest center is now down to about $900,000. Both memorial giving and special offerings were up 200% over the prior year. Thanks to your faithful generosity as well as the careful management of these resources, the church realized a net gain of about $100,000 after our expenses for the year, which the Church Council voted to move to our designated fund for replacing the sanctuary roof. Thanks to Allison Maynard and our new treasurer Tom Eiseman for compiling the financial records for this report.

In sum, nearly all the key indicators of a congregation’s health and vitality are trending in a positive direction. Let’s continue to build on this good momentum and strive in all these ways and more to signal Christ here at Signal Crest.

Devotional from Pastor Dave February 28, 2024

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 16:33:39 GMT

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face to shine upon you,

and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you,

and give you peace.

(Numbers 6:24-26 NRSV)

If you’re following along with our reading plan to read through the Bible this year, we’ve been spending the past couple of weeks in the book of Numbers. Honestly, it’s probably not the most riveting book in the Bible, with its multiple censuses of the tribes of Israel (hence the book’s name) and its meticulous instructions on sacrifices and offerings. It has a few confusing and outright disturbing passages that I’m still trying to understand. But the passage quoted above is probably the most familiar and most favorite passage from Numbers.

This is the so-called “priestly blessing.” The Lord instructed Moses to tell his brother Aaron, who was the head of the priestly lineage, to bless the people of Israel with this blessing. These ancient words were found inscribed on two silver cylinders that date from about 600 years before Jesus. That means these words are the earliest fragments that have been found of any biblical texts. They’re even older than the Dead Sea manuscripts by about 400 years.

If you grew up Methodist, you may know these words as the benediction recited at the end of youth group meetings. I sang in the traveling choir in college, and we would always conclude our concerts by singing the composer Peter Lutkin’s choral arrangement of this blessing, with its towering sevenfold “Amen” at the end. Lutkin, however, rearranged the verses in his piece, putting the third verse before the second. So whenever I share this blessing in a service of worship or at a funeral, I have to either look it up or write it down, because the way I’ve sung it mixes up with the way we say it.

The people of Israel do a lot of complaining in the book of Numbers as they make their glacial way through the wilderness. They remind me of kids in the car whining about how much further do we have to go. And many times Moses seems like he’d much rather bless them out than bless them. And God’s patience with them gets a little thin a few times, too. But through it all, it’s still this blessing that stands out to me—this pronouncement of the Lord’s protection, attention, and affection.

Every day we have a choice about how we will use our words. Will we use our words to complain, to criticize, or to curse others? Or will we choose to use our words to bless others, to build them up, to encourage them?

And I don’t mean saying “well, bless their/your heart.” That’s often just a genteel southern way of putting someone down (amiright?) I mean offering someone else a genuine, heartfelt blessing. Especially someone who may least expect it. Even someone who may not necessarily deserve it. And if you don’t know quite what to say, you can borrow these words. After all, they’ve seemed to work pretty well for quite a while.

Devotional from Pastor Dave February 21, 2024

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 17:22:24 GMT

I’m in the midst of reading the monumental new biography of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by Jonathan Eig that came out last year (King: A Life). One of the stories I have especially enjoyed learning was how young MLK determined it was time he was baptized.

King grew up a PK – a “preacher’s kid.” His dad was the preacher at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin would later serve. In the spring of 1936, when Martin was seven years old, an evangelist from Detroit, Rev. H.H. Coleman, came to Ebenezer to lead a two-week revival. During one of the services, he invited any of the children who wanted to accept Jesus to come forward. Martin’s older sister Christine was one of the first to go forward. Martin felt like he couldn’t let her get ahead of him, so he went forward, too.

Even though he probably would have eventually professed his faith in Christ and been baptized into the church, having grown up in a pastor’s family, this was a spontaneous and unplanned event in his life. He later reflected on his baptism, recalling “I had never given this matter a thought, and even at the time of my baptism I was unaware of what was taking place” (p. 33). He went on to say he realized that “I joined the church not out of dynamic conviction, but out of a childhood desire to keep up with my sister” (p. 34).

How about that! The preeminent civil rights leader of the 20th century sought to be baptized, not out of a strong sense of calling or conviction, but out of a younger brother’s competitiveness to try to keep up with his big sister!

Do you know the story of your baptism? Maybe you, too, were caught up in the moment of a revival or special worship service. Maybe you were trying to go along with someone else. Maybe it was dramatic and decisive, a sense of the Spirit’s conviction. Or maybe it was simply your parents brought you before the church to get baptized when you were a baby. That’s my story. I was baptized when I was eight months old. I can relate to part of what Martin said of his own baptism: “I was unaware of what was taking place.” But then again, who among us is really ever fully aware of what is taking place at our baptism?

Or maybe you haven’t been baptized, but you’re experiencing a “sprinkling” of interest in it. If so, let me know, and we can talk about how your baptism story might unfold.

But regardless of the age at which we are baptized, or the way, or the reason, it marks the beginning of a faith journey that is meant to carry us through the rest of our lives. And just like young Martin could not have seen at the tender age of seven where his life would take him or what God would accomplish through him, none of us knows where our faith might lead us and what difference it might make to us ourselves to others.

Devotional from Pastor Dave January 17, 2024

children@signalcrestumc.org (Signal Crest Account ) — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 17:30:16 GMT

This past weekend, our church joined with others around our nation in our annual

commemoration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Monday would have been his 95th birthday.

On Sunday in the Crest service, Margee Lee lifted up her voice in singing the anthem by Patty Griffin, “Up to the Mountain,” which is drawn from King’s last speech on the eve of his assassination. I had never heard this song until Margee sang it on MLK weekend last year. The haunting words envision “the peaceful valley just over the mountain…I may never get there, ever in this lifetime. But sooner or later, it’s there I will go.” You can view that service online at https://www.youtube.com/signalcrestumc .

Drew organized not just one day of service, like we had last year, but two whole days of service. On Sunday afternoon, a crew gathered at the firewood camp to deliver firewood, along with some food, to our neighbors on the mountain. Others put together teacher appreciation gifts and treats for our friends at Howard High School and the Chambliss Center. Others put together college supplies for high school seniors at Howard High School. Several of our children and their families helped put together birthday boxes for Signal Mountain Social Services and to bake cookies to take to some of our more seasoned church members. And another group from the church went downtown to serve the Sunday evening meal at the Mustard Tree ministries.

On Sunday evening, we hosted a meal prepared by Alicia for our community partners in

ministry. Representatives from Signal Mountain Social Services and from Howard High School were present, including one of the assistant principals there, Dawn Bowles Lim, a college classmate of mine, and her dad, the Rev. Al Bowles. Drew organized a service of worship in the sanctuary that included readings from the prophets and a passage from MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” prayers for justice and peace, music led by our youth praise band, and Drew’s reflections on being extremists for love. That worship service is also at https://www.youtube.com/signalcrestumc .

Drew had also organized another full day of service for Monday, which included plans to sort clothes at the Signal Mountain Social Services clothes house and to serve at the Chambliss Center for Children, but the weather had other plans for that day. But well over sixty of you signed up to serve in some capacity during these two days of service, and even more of you showed up along the way. I can’t commend Drew enough for organizing this or you for taking part in it.

It all reminds me of one of my favorite MLK quotes. “Everybody can be great,” he said,

“because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”

That’s a good word for all of us. And not just one day a year, but every day.

Devotional from Pastor Dave February 7, 2024

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 17:30:03 GMT

I must confess that I haven’t watched the Grammy musical awards ceremony for a number of years. I feel like I don’t really know the popular artists or their songs well enough these days. But apparently this past Sunday’s Grammys threw a few bones to older dogs like me.

Billy Joel performed his first new single in several years. Joni Mitchell, at age 80, performed her song “Both Sides, Now” from decades ago. And Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs combined for her hit from my college days in the ‘90s which he has covered on the country charts this past year, “Fast Car.” It was very inspiring to see a Black woman and a White man together on stage singing a song that is all about feeling a sense of belonging and being someone.

But what really captured my attention was the song of the year, “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas. It’s one of the songs featured in the Barbie movie from last summer. Just like the movie is an entertaining existential exploration of the quintessential American doll’s meaning and purpose, so too is this song, which imagines Barbie waking up to her loss of innocence and her realization of her unreal life as an inanimate commodity. It’s a

simple, meditative song, sung in a plaintive whisper over a piano line. Four times in the song, the question is raised, “what was I made for?”

Perhaps it won song of the year because it raises a question that comes to all our hearts and minds at least at some point in our lives, and maybe even throughout our lives. Who among us doesn’t wonder what our purpose in this life is, what we were made for, what we are here for?

Thankfully, our faith provides us some answers to this most essential question. The very first command of God in Genesis 1 directs us to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (1:28). There’s lot of ways to be fruitful and to reflect the creativity of our Creator in our own creativity.

The Westminster Catechism, which comes to us out of the Reformed tradition, claims that our chief purpose is to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.” That’s pretty good, too. That resonates with the scriptures, particularly Psalm 145.

But I keep coming back around to what Jesus said was the most important thing in life, the greatest commandment—to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-28). Our bishop reminded us of this a couple of weeks ago.

How exactly each of us will live this out, of course, will be different for every one of us, so we still have to sort out our unique set of gifts and interests and abilities as we discern our particular purposes in this world. But it all comes back to love. Of both God and neighbor. Ultimately, isn’t that what we are made for?

Devotional from Pastor Dave January 31, 2024

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:53:26 GMT

What a joy it was this past Sunday to host our resident bishop, Debra Wallace-Padgett, to Signal Crest! She preached in both of our worship services, and she shared a special greeting with our confirmation class, which kicked off this past Sunday, too, during her tour of the church between the services. Her husband Lee and son Andrew joined us for the sanctuary service. Lee is a retired deacon, and he was Ruth Farrimond’s youth director in Arkansas when she was growing up. It was a treat to see them reconnect. Methodism is all about making connections!

I went back through the church history book from 1997 to see if a resident bishop had ever visited Signal Crest, and I couldn’t find clear confirmation that one had. Bishop Mack Stokes is listed as having visited the church, but it’s unclear whether that was before or after he was elected bishop. Suffice it to say, it was a special day in the life of Signal Crest!

And there was a lot of special preparation that went into this Sunday. I asked our custodians Wanda and Arnold to give the church a little extra shine with the bishop coming. I confirmed with our greeters at the early service that they could be present to welcome folks and to keep a lookout for her arrival. Patty Van Valkinburgh and I went through the pews in the sanctuary last week replacing the prayer cards and making sure there were plenty of sharpened pencils. We included some special announcements in our worship services celebrating the congregation’s generosity in giving last year and in serving on MLK weekend; special thanks to Katy Hines and Drew Barton for crafting those messages. And both our Crest band and Chancel Choir shared some mighty moving music with us; thanks Josh and Andrew!

In the midst of making all these preparations, I did catch myself thinking: shouldn’t we always be as careful and conscientious about creating a welcoming environment and inspiring worship service, not just for the bishop and our district superintendent, but for all our guests, members, and friends who may find their way to worship on a Sunday morning? After all, there is a theme that threads through the scriptures, which is that when we extend hospitality to others, especially to strangers, we are extending hospitality to the God whose image we all bear. As Hebrews has it, “do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (13:2).

I also am continuing to contemplate the questions that the bishop left with us on Sunday, and I offer them again here to you for your prayerful contemplation and response.

1. What is a next step for you in the practice of holy habits?

2. How do you show love for God and neighbor?

3. Who is your accountability partner or group?

Please let me know if I can help you in finding an answer to any of these questions amidst the life and ministry of Signal Crest. There is so much good growth that is taking place here at this church and also always room for all of us to continue to grow in our faith and following of the way of Jesus Christ.

Devotional from Pastor Dave January 24, 2024

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:00:00 GMT

One of my favorite columnists in The Christian Century magazine is Debie Thomas. She is a minister of discipleship at a church in California. In the February issue, she wrote an article, “Metaphors for the spiritual life,” in which she describes a prompt she likes to give her students in writing workshops: “Choose a metaphor that characterizes your spiritual life and describe why it’s meaningful to you.”

Some of the metaphors the students turn to are scriptural, like abiding on the vine or taking up the cross. Some are athletic, like running a marathon or wrestling or boxing. Some are more artistic, like sewing a quilt or shaping clay. Some are more contemplative, like stillness, silence.

She goes on to describe some of the metaphors that she’s drawn on in her own spiritual life. Years ago, as she was outgrowing and deconstructing the faith of her childhood, she described her spiritual life as being like peeling an onion, and she worried that when she finished peeling there would be nothing left. Later, she landed on the metaphor of being an excavator, as she was sifting through the wreckage and salvaging the treasures and resources that remained. She returned to this question again recently and discovered that a metaphor that she at least aspires to be is a bridge, “to help people cross over. From peeling to living, from rubble to treasure, from deconstruction to restoration.”

I am captivating by her question, and I’ve been contemplating what metaphor I would choose to characterize my spiritual life. Even though I often feel like I am in a boat adrift on choppy seas, the image that has come to mind that maybe I am aspiring to become is an anchor that holds steady in the midst of the storm. Maybe it’s because I have a son at Vanderbilt and they like to say “anchor down” a lot over there! But I’m also remembering the words to one of my favorite hymns. “In every high and stormy gale,” we sing, “my anchor holds within the veil.”

So what about you? What metaphor would you choose to characterize your spiritual life right now, and why?

Try to find someone to share your metaphor with, and see if they have a metaphor that they would choose to describe their spiritual life. And if you’re comfortable sharing, I’d love to hear what your metaphor is, as we all seek to grow in our spiritual life and faith in Christ.

Devotional from Pastor Dave January 10, 2024

children@signalcrestumc.org (Signal Crest Account ) — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 17:34:26 GMT

The practice of reading scripture aloud during worship goes way back, at least as far back as Jesus’s time.

We read in the fourth chapter of Luke that Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth, his hometown, on the sabbath, as was his custom. In other words, he attended worship regularly. He got up that day to read the scripture, and he unrolled the scroll that was handed to him and found the place that we know as Isaiah 61, and he read from the first couple of verses:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

Because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Then he rolled the scroll back up, gave it back to the assistant, and sat back down. Everyone’s eyes were on him, waiting to see what he might say. Then he said, “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Nearly every week here at Signal Crest, at least since the pandemic began, Allison Maynard has gotten up in both worship services to read the scripture for the day. She does a marvelous job; several people have commented to me how much they enjoy hearing her read the scripture. And when she is finished, she pauses, and then she says, while pointing to the congregation, “This is the word of God for YOU, the people of God.” And we all respond, “Thanks be to God!”

Allison knows that it’s a joy and privilege to read the scripture in worship. It’s one of my favorite things to do, too, and I know many others in the congregations I’ve served throughout my ministry who enjoy reading the scripture in worship.

Allison and I would like to share the gift of the opportunity to read the scripture in worship to you. I know this may not be something everyone would want to do; many are reticent to read or to speak in public. But there’s nothing to memorize, you don’t have to come up with anything original to say, and we will also help you find a way to pronounce the strange names and weird words that are in the Bible (I always say just say it boldly, however you pronounce it, and everyone will just think that’s how it’s pronounced!).

If this is something you would be interested in trying, please let either Allison or myself know. You won’t have to read it for both services; you can read it for the service you normally attend. And trying it once doesn’t commit you to a lifetime of doing it.

One of the words for worship is “liturgy.” It’s a word that literally means “the work of the people.” It’s not just the work of the preachers. We want to involve more people in our worship services, and reading the scripture is one of the best ways to do that. I hope you will consider taking part in this opportunity to share the word of God with the people of God.

Devotional from Pastor Dave January 3, 2024

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 17:00:00 GMT

Happy new year! This week is a time of new beginnings. It’s not just the start of a new year. It also may be the start of attempting to live according to some new year’s resolutions you’ve envisioned for yourself. It is also the start for me, and maybe for you, too, of a plan to read through the Bible this year (we are sharing the reading plan on our website and in our worship bulletins and church communications). This Sunday will also be the start of a new sermon series as we will follow the story of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark all the way through Easter.

As I’ve been reading the beginnings of both Genesis and Mark this year, I’ve noticed some similarities between the two books that I hadn’t seen before. Genesis, of course, has the creation stories, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the temptation posed by the crafty serpent, the story of Noah and the flood. And Mark describes the preparatory ministry of John the Baptizer, the baptism of Jesus, his temptation in the wilderness, and the beginning of his public ministry.

But both Genesis and Mark have the term “beginning” at the start of their stories (“In the beginning…” and “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ…”). Both have stories involving water (the creation of the earth, the flood, baptism in the Jordan River). In both the Spirit of God is present, hovering over the waters at creation and descending on Jesus at his baptism. Both have doves. Both have Satan’s temptations. And in both, God’s voice speaks.

I find myself grateful this week for this unexpected opportunity to see connections across two different biblical books that I wouldn’t have seen had I not embarked on these new beginnings.

What new beginning are you embarking upon this new year?

What is something you hope for as you set out on this new beginning?

How might you be open to unexpected discoveries along the way?

May the blessings of God be with you, with all of us here at Signal Crest, and with the world God has made as we set out together on the new beginning of 2024.

Devotional from Pastor Dave December 20, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 15:49:02 GMT

Christmas is quickly upon us, and shortly thereafter a new year! One of the best gifts we can give ourselves at Christmas is also a resolution we can make for ourselves for the new year – to read through the entire Bible in 2024. That is, to receive the gift of the Word of God which became flesh in the baby born in Bethlehem and to let it be born and live and grow in our hearts and lives throughout the new year.

A friend of mine on Facebook recently completed her course of reading through the Bible in a year, and she commented that “it is absolutely the best thing I have ever done for myself. Starting my day in the word has absolutely changed my life and I can’t wait to do it again to learn more and more. It has been challenging, comforting, confusing, confirming, and complicated.” Her words have encouraged me to want to read through the Bible as well.

Our bishop here in the Holston Conference, Debra Wallace-Padgett, has invited us to resolve to read the Bible together in 2024 by following the plan developed by the beloved author Ellsworth Kalas in his book The Grand Sweep: 365 Days from Genesis to Revelation. The readings for each day are relatively short and quite manageable, no more than about three or four chapters a day. The reading plan can be found online here:

https://www.holston.org/files/communications/webdesign/read+together/2024+read+together/2024+read+together+plan.pdf . We will also post each week’s list of readings in our weekly newsletter and Sunday bulletins and social media. If you would like to sign up for a daily email with each day’s readings, you can subscribe at http://holston-email.brtapp.com/subscribe .

You might want to try reading through the Bible in a different translation than you’re

accustomed to using. Sometimes that can help you hear it and understand it in a fresh and new way. For example, I usually use the New Revised Standard Version in my preaching and teaching and studying. But I’m also fond of the New Living Translation, so I think that’s the version I’ll use.

Like any new year’s resolution, reading through the Bible can be daunting, especially when we come to Leviticus (which will be in February). Sometimes it helps to know we are not alone, we are not in this by ourselves. It’s also more fun to read and study the Bible together. So starting on January 9, we will also be offering a Bible study on Tuesday nights at 7 pm in the Interpreters classroom by the church library where we will review and discuss the previous week’s readings, as well as some of the passages in the Gospel of Mark, which we will be exploring in our worship services in the new year all the way to Easter. I hope you will join us for this study as we encourage each other and learn from one another.

Let’s let God’s Word have the last word in this last midweek meditation of 2023, as we look toward the new year and letting God’s Word find more of its way into our hearts and lives:

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

(Isaiah 55:10-11)

Devotional from Pastor Dave December 13, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 18:30:00 GMT

What is the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?

This is the question I’ve been asking some of the folks I’ve been spending time with this past week. Some have a gift that immediately comes to mind, and it’s been a delight to watch their faces light up and to listen to the stories they tell. Others have taken a little time to consider their response to the question, but they have endearing stories to tell, too.

Many—in fact, most—of the gifts were received during childhood. There was the green bicycle with the banana seat. The erector set. The gaming system that one actually had to wait a whole year until the next Christmas to receive. My favorite Christmas gift was a boom box I got when I was 11 years-old in 1984. Not only could I make my own mix tapes by recording songs off the radio, but I could also record audio journals of my adventurous young life!

Some of the gifts were not material things but rather were experiences shared with loved ones—a family trip to the beach for Christmas. And some of the gifts were people—a loved one come home from overseas, the birth of a child, an engagement.

As joyful as it is to receive an amazing Christmas gift, as I’ve grown older, I’ve also come to appreciate the joy in giving good gifts. This year I found an absolutely perfect gift to give one of my best friends for Christmas. I can’t wait to see his face when he sees it!

That’s gotten me thinking about the joy that must have filled God’s heart when God gave us the greatest Christmas gift the world has ever known—the gift of God’s own self in the child born in Bethlehem. As joyful as it can be for us in receiving the gift of Jesus into our hearts and lives and celebrating that gift at Christmas, think of the joy God must have felt in giving us the gift of Jesus in the first place.

In this season of giving and receiving gifts, may the same spirit of joy that is in the heart of the divine come to fill our own human hearts as well, the joy of self-giving love.

Devotional from Pastor Dave December 6, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 17:15:48 GMT

On display in the lobby outside the sanctuary are no fewer than fifty nativity scenes that many of you are letting us borrow for this Advent season. I’m grateful to Courtney Malone for suggesting that we do that, and we are so grateful to those of you who have shared your special scenes with us as well as notes and stories about their significance to you.

They are made of many different kinds of materials, and they come from all around the world. Some of them came from Bethlehem and places like Peru and Guatemala. Many of them were gifts given to you by friends or family members. Many of them the children constructed out of natural materials a few Sundays ago behind the parsonage before roasting S’mores. Some of them were the nativity scenes you or your children or grandchildren played with. One of them even features snowpersons in the starring roles!

This church had a long-standing tradition in the past of the youth presenting a live nativity scene in front of the church on Christmas Eve for the passersby along Ridgeway Avenue. Charles Maynard talks about the time he was called in to portray the Virgin Mary when he was a youth, and he describes the smelly fake beards that would get passed from one magi to the next.

The tradition of the nativity scene has a long history in the church. The story is told that St. Francis of Assisi – the monk probably best known for presiding over bird baths the world over – started the very first live nativity scene in Greccio, Italy, at Christmas in the year 1223. That means that the nativity scene is 800 years old this year! It was reportedly inspired by Francis’s trip to the Holy Land where he visited the traditional site of Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem.

I remember our family’s nativity scene from when I was growing up. It was one similar to a few of the ones here in the sanctuary lobby. It was a simple wooden structure with flaky green paper shreds loosely glued onto the roof and little strands of straw strewn about the floor. There were the usual suspects – the baby Jesus mid-squirm in a bedful of hay, serene Mary kneeling by the manger in her soft blue shawl, protective Joseph standing beside her in his dark red robe, a couple of curious shepherds with a smattering of sheep, three majestic magi with their camels and crowns and gifts, and an angel of the Lord atop it all in a glistening white and gold robe with gossamer wings.

I remember nights in our living room with my mom telling my older brother and me the Christmas story, bringing each of the figurines into the scene at the appropriate time in the story. Then she invited each of us to take turns retelling the story ourselves. I remember bringing in the magi from the next room over since the story said they “came from afar.” I also remember sometimes going into the living room just by myself, just to tell the story again.

I suppose that’s the genius of the nativity scene, whether it’s a live nativity or the kind we place in our homes or sanctuary lobbies. They help us to learn the story so that we can tell, and retell, and then tell again the story. So that, perhaps in time, we can come to live the story – the story of God’s love for us and for all the world in the one born in the manger of Bethlehem.

Devotional from Pastor Dave November 15, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 17:15:11 GMT

Our Consecration Sunday is this Sunday, November 19. At both worship services, “this is ‘hour’ time” to submit an estimate of your financial giving for 2024 (you may also do so online at https://www.signalcrestumc.org/give-back ), and we will ask for God’s blessing of our commitments of ourselves to fulfill God’s mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ through Signal Crest. I am praying for you as you are praying about your part in this church’s ministry in ’24.

The key verse of our stewardship season is Colossians 4:5 – “Be wise in the way you act . . . make the most of the time.” As we look toward ’24, we are mindful that we all have 24 hours each day. Our time is probably an even more precious resource than our treasures, and so we are exploring how to be good stewards of our time as well as our treasure.

This key verse comes in a section at the close of Paul’s letter to the Colossians where he is offering some final instructions. These instructions also gather up and summarize some of the key themes of the letter as a whole. I would like to reflect on these verses.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

There are three actions that Paul commends here. First, he asks us to pray watchfully with

thanksgiving. Paul regularly pairs prayer with thanksgiving. Our prayers are expressions of our gratitude to God. How fitting for all times, but especially for this season of the year and the holiday this upcoming week. Paul is in prison here, and yet still he finds reason to give thanks. And what’s more, even though he is behind a closed and locked door, he asks that we pray for God to open a door for the word, the message, the mystery of Christ to find a way in the world. May we continue to watchfully pray with thanksgiving for God to open doors for the gospel both on and off the mountain.

Second, he asks that we live wisely in the world, especially toward outsiders, those who are not among the family of faith, that we make the most of the time or of the opportunities we have in our daily lives to witness to the love and mercy and grace of Christ to all people. Sadly, too many outsiders in our world say that they do not see Christ when they see Christians. This ought not to be so! Let those of us here at Signal Crest commit to signal Christ, point to Christ, show and share Christ in the world.

Finally, he asks that we always speak graciously, which, again, can be rather countercultural these days! When he says our words would be seasoned with salt, he doesn’t mean we should use salty language! No, if this phrase is an echo of Exodus 30:35, where the incense of the thanksgiving offering is to be blended with salt, then the sense is that all of our speech should be peppered with gratitude and thanksgiving. Then we will be able to offer to anyone who asks an account of the hope that is in us in Christ with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15-16).

As we prepare to commit the precious resources of our time and treasure to the witness of

Christ in ’24, let’s also commit to pray watchfully, to live wisely in the world especially toward outsiders, and to always speak graciously.

Devotional from Pastor Dave November 29, 2023

children@signalcrestumc.org (Signal Crest Account ) — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 17:41:17 GMT

This coming Sunday, December 3, marks the start of the season of Advent, the four Sundays leading up to the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas. The word Advent comes from the Latin adventus, which means “coming.” There are really three “comings” of Christ that are the focus of the season of Advent: the first coming of Christ in his birth in Bethlehem, his second coming at the fulfillment of history when he promised he would return to establish the reign of God on earth, and his coming into our hearts and lives through our faith and trust in his presence with us, his promises to us, and his purposes for us.

One of the words that I think about when I think of Advent is the word journey. Advent is about the journey of the God of the universe to enfleshment on earth in the baby born in Bethlehem. It’s also about the journey Mary made early in her unexpected expectancy to visit her relative Elizabeth, and then later the journey Mary and Joseph made from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea. It’s about the journey the Magi made from a far country in the East to see the new king born of the Jews. Many of us make journeys to be with family and friends this time of year. Advent is all about journey.

Some of our church members were scheduled to have taken a journey to the Holy Land this fall, but that trip got canceled after the war there began. Having traveled to the Holy Land with Tracy in the spring of 2014, I’m so sad that they weren’t able to go this year, and I hope that someday soon the situation there will allow them to make that journey. In the meanwhile, for our worship services in Advent this year, I would like to invite all of us to take a journey in our imaginations to Bethlehem. I’d like to trace the role and significance of Bethlehem through the Bible leading up to Jesus’ birth.

We’ll start this Sunday by looking at the story of Ruth, which took place in Bethlehem, and its emphasis on redemption. The next Sunday, the 10th , is the choir’s cantata, “Love Made A Way,” which is about the journey the love of God made to the manger in Bethlehem. On the 17th , we’ll explore the anointing of a new king, the shepherd boy David, in Bethlehem. Then on Christmas Eve, in the morning, we’ll explore the ancient prophecy of Micah of the birth of a shepherd king in Bethlehem, and in our evening services, we’ll journey with the shepherds from the fields to the manger of the Messiah.

On Thursday, December 20th , which is the longest night of the year, we’ll offer a “Blue Christmas” service which might be meaningful for those for whom the holidays this year might be especially hard. In that service, we’ll recall the matriarch Rachel’s death and burial in Bethlehem and her inconsolable weeping for the suffering of her children, a grief that is painfully relevant with the suffering taking place over there today.

I hope that you’ll come along for our journey to Bethlehem this Advent, and that you’ll invite someone—a friend, a neighbor, a classmate or a coworker—to join you on this journey as well. It’s a journey that we do not take alone. We are in this together, and most importantly, God is with us. Emmanuel. That’s what it’s all about.

Devotional from Pastor Dave November 22, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 17:22:22 GMT

Thanksgiving is this week. This is one of my favorite holidays. It’s a day for simply spending time with family and friends, watching or maybe even playing a friendly football game, and enjoying rich food and fellowship. And it’s all about gratitude, giving thanks, which has been scientifically demonstrated to make folks feel better.

In his first letter to the church in Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul includes in his concluding remarks the instruction to “ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you ” (5:18). I think it’s important that he doesn’t say “give thanks for all circumstances,” because there are some circumstances that we experience in our lives that are hurtful or harmful, for which we most certainly would not want to give thanks. Instead, Paul says “give thanks in all circumstances”—that is, in the midst of everything, even in the mud and the muck of the hard and awful things.

Some years ago, a fellow named John Kralik wrote a book called 365 Thank Yous in which he described his practice of writing a thank-you note every day for an entire year. He wasn’t feeling particularly grateful when he set out to write these daily notes. In fact, he was going through a tough time. His law firm was failing. His marriage was failing. He was living in a cramped apartment and sleeping on the floor.

One day, he got lost on a hike, and as he was making his way back down the mountain, he hatched a plan to write a thank-you note every day for a year. His only problem was, “did I have anything to be grateful for? The way my life was going, I hardly thought so.”

But he started writing notes to his friends and family members, the folks close to him, expressing his gratitude for their love and friendship. But pretty soon it became more difficult to think of folks to thank. One day, he stopped by his regular coffee shop, where the barista greeted him by name and asked him with a big smile if he wanted his usual order. It struck him that “this is really kind of a great gift in this day and age of impersonal relationships, that someone had cared enough to learn my name and what I drank in the morning.” So he wrote her a thank-you note.

He kept up this practice throughout the whole year, finding or thinking of someone to thank every day. What he discovered was that the regular practice of gratitude changed his perspective on life. It also affected his faith. After considering himself an atheist for many years, toward the end of that year he found his way to a church, where he was moved by the music and by the messages that grace was available to all, even to him. Through his practice of gratitude, he “developed a notion of being blessed with grace.”

I love this story, because it reminds me what giving thanks in all circumstances can look like. And it also reminds me that every day–not just one day a year–can be a day for giving thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I’m so incredibly grateful to share in ministry with you here at Signal Crest!

Stewardship 2024

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 18:14:23 GMT

Signal Crest Family,

Over the past two Sundays, and in conjunction with our 2024 Stewardship Campaign, we have discussed how time is one of our most valuable resources. Both time and treasure are finite, and we must decide how to spend them wisely. We have seen video testimonials from B.W. Ruffner, Katie Edgemon, and Michael Fulghum discussing how and why they invest time and treasure in Signal Crest and its mission. If you were not in services November 5 or 12, be sure to view the videos on the church’s YouTube or F acebook page .

You should have received in the mail a packet of information from the Stewardship team- a brochure highlighting God’s work at Signal Crest in 2023 and a pledge card for 2024. Please pray and reflect how you might give back to Signal Crest in 2024. The pledge card can be returned in person on November 19, Consecration Sunday; in the mail; or you can submit a pledge online here . Your pledge is fundamental as Signal Crest leadership budgets for ministries in 2024.

As Pastor Dave addressed this past Sunday, we should spend our time with God, loving our neighbors, and taking time for ourselves. One of the most important ways we spend time with God is in prayer. In preparation for Consecration Sunday November 19, you are invited to participate in a 24 hour prayer vigil. This will start with a Prayer Service at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 18, in the church sanctuary. Regardless of whether you can attend the service, you are invited to sign-up for a specific time of prayer in the 24 hours leading up to Consecration Sunday. You can pray at a time and place that is convenient for you. A list of specific prayer points is provided here .

Additionally, we will be sharing time and fellowship together with a Consecration Brunch at 10:00 a.m. on November 19 in the Crest Center. Come celebrate with your fellow church goers as we together commit our time and monies to Signal Crest ministries in 2024. This is “Hour” time!

Kind regards,

Katy Hines

Stewardship Chair

Devotional from Pastor Dave November 8, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 17:00:00 GMT

Dear Signal Crest Church Family,

A few months ago, as I was contemplating a theme for the 2024 stewardship campaign, I began to reflect on what we all have 24 of every single day. We all have the same amount of time – 24 hours – to do the things we need and want to do.

Time, as our former pastor Rev. Dr. Mark Gooden, reminded us this past Sunday, is the most precious gift we have been given. None of us knows how long or how short the time we will have on this earth will be. But the essential question for us all is what will we do with the time we have been given? How can we use our time wisely and well, not only for our own good, but also for the good of others, and ultimately to the glory of God?

This year, I want us to focus on the stewardship of our time as well as of our treasure. I have observed there is a connection between the two. We have a limited amount of both time and money. Some of our time is determined by others – such as the hours we are expected to be at school or at work or at the ball field – just like some of our money is already spoken for in terms of car payments or home mortgages or health insurance. But so much of both our time and money are discretionary. It’s completely up to us how we will spend them.

So will you join with me and with one another to commit to make the most of the precious gifts of our time and our treasure in 2024 to share the good news of Jesus Christ through this congregation into our community and around the world?

Our Consecration Sunday will be November 19. At both worship services, we will ask God to consecrate our plans for our financial giving for 2024, which you can submit either on the card or through the online form on our website at https://www.signalcrestumc.org/2024-gift-plan We will also share in fellowship with one another in a church-wide brunch in the Crest Center between the services at 10 am that will be free for all to enjoy.

I would also like to invite you to offer an hour of your time in prayer for our church’s mission and ministries in a 24-hour prayer vigil that will start with a short prayer service in the sanctuary on Saturday, November 18 at 9 am and will conclude on Sunday, November 19 at 9 am. You can sign up for an hour slot at https://signup.com/go/kHvmMtP , and we will supply a prayer guide for you to use to pray throughout the day at home or wherever you may be.

I believe great things are ahead for Signal Crest in 2024. I am excited to see us build upon the growing momentum of so many of our ministries and extend the good spirit of this congregation into our community. You know my fondness for puns, but I truly believe this is ‘hour’ time!

Together in Christ,

Pastor Dave

Devotional from Pastor Dave November 1, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 18:12:47 GMT

Today, November 1, is All Saints’ Day. It’s the church’s version of Memorial Day. It’s the day in the church year when we remember those who have died during the past year and have joined the church triumphant. This year, one of the saints I’m remembering is my mom, who passed away this past March at the age of 91½.

I remember learning in seminary that the word in the New Testament for “saint” refers not so much to extraordinary Christians as to rather ordinary ones. Saint in the New Testament is essentially a synonym for disciple of Jesus or member of the church. This became a point of discussion and some disagreement with my mom when I shared this with her. She still clung to the popular notion of a saint as a really special, unusually holy person, like the officially recognized saints of the church like the Apostle Paul and Mother Teresa. Even when I told her that by the Apostle Paul’s own definition of sainthood she would qualify as a saint, she persistently demurred. Which made her seem all the more a saint in my book.

My mom gave me my first Bible. She read and memorized scripture with me. She prayed with me. She encouraged my discernment of a call into ministry, and she has encouraged me every step of the way. By her own admission, she wasn’t perfect. She had her faults; we all do. But she modeled for me what a genuine and authentic life of faith in Christ could look like.

One of the things we say we believe in every time we recite the Apostles’ Creed is “the communion of saints.” This refers to Christians of every time and place, across the span of history and all around the world. And one of the most beautiful and memorable images of the communion of saints comes to us from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews. After a long chapter of extolling the faith of our ancestors like Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and so many more, the writer concludes,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

The imagery here is of a Roman colosseum, and the saints are those who have finished their events and are now seated in the stands. But we are still in the arena. We still are running our own races. We have yet to finish our event. But the saints are there and they’re cheering us on.

So who are the saints in your stands? Who is among your great cloud of witnesses? Who has reflected the love and grace of God to you in your life? Who has been a model for you of what a life of discipleship of Jesus can look like?

And as much as you (like my mom) might resist such a thought, who might consider you a saint? Who might be looking at your life to see what trusting in Jesus and following him might look like?

Thanks be to God for all the saints in Christ, those who now rest from their labors as well as those who labor on.

Devotional from Pastor Dave October 25, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Last Friday, a couple of church members and I went for a hike on the Mullens Cove Loop in the Prentice Cooper State Forest. Along the way is the promontory called Snoopers Rock. I had been looking forward to going to Snoopers Rock because I had heard that the view of the Tennessee River valley from there is the most magnificent in the whole area.

Well, when we arrived there, we couldn’t see a thing in front of us but clouds. The whole view was shrouded in fog. I took a photo anyway and was about to suggest we keep going and come back another time, since it seemed like we “mist” the view that day. But one of the guys suggested we hang out for a bit and see what happens.

In what seemed like no time, the fog began to thin, and we started to see glimpses of the gleaming river far below us. Then in short order the side of Elder Mountain rising up from the river was unveiled. Before too long, the entire vista opened up before us, leaving only a few wisps of clouds floating against a backdrop of brilliant blue sky.

I looked back at the time stamps on the photos I had taken and marveled that the entire transformation took place in a mere five minutes. We were so grateful we stuck around to see it, and we all agreed that the whole nearly ten-mile hike was well worth that one experience.

I’ve been contemplating this since last Friday. I looked up and found the few scriptures that address fog and mist. Some of the references are positive, describing the mist that used to rise from the earth and water the ground before there was such a thing as rain (Genesis 2:6). Some of the references are negative, comparing the loyalty of the people to the Lord to the transiency of the morning fog (Hosea 6:4, 13:3). One is particularly sobering. It reminds us that we never know what tomorrow may bring and then asks us, “what is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

But I also find inspiration in the experience itself, and I wonder how often have I found myself in somewhat of a fog, the view ahead of me unclear and uncertain? How often would I rather just plow ahead on the path that I can see instead of waiting around a little while for an even better and clearer view to open before me?

Maybe you have found yourself in a similar situation, caught in a fog, the view unclear. But the hope and the promise of the gospel is that the Son-light, the light of Christ, shines in the fog as well as in the darkness, and that neither the fog nor the darkness ultimately envelope or overcome the light (John 1:5). Sometimes we just have to wait a little while longer for the light to break through, for the fog to lift, and the view to become clear.

Devotional from Pastor Dave October 18, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:49:24 GMT

“Don’t stumble over something behind you.”

Our new District Superintendent, Rev. Mickey Rainwater, quoted these words from the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca in our clergy meeting this week. He shared with us that he came upon these words as he was doing his daily devotional a few months ago as he was leaving a congregation that had decided to leave our denomination and as he was preparing to enter this new appointment. He said these words spoke to his yearning to start fresh and not let the pain and the difficulty of the past become a stumbling block for his own moving forward in ministry.

How often have you stumbled over something behind you? Something in the past. Something that has already happened and that you can’t go back and change, no matter how much you might want to. I don’t know about you, but I do this kind of backward stumbling more often than I’d like to admit.

How often do we as a church stumble over things that are behind us? Things that happened in the distant or even the more recent past. Things that former pastors or former or current members might have said or done, or failed to say or do. And how does that stumbling over things behind us stymie us or stifle the energy and the effort to move forward more confidently in the mission God has given us?

It's not that we shouldn’t learn from the past. As another philosopher George Santayana famously said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But it’s one thing to learn from the past; it’s another to live in the past. How can we try not to stumble over the things in the past that are behind us?

I’m not sure what scripture was paired with this quote from Seneca in Mickey’s daily devotional; he didn’t say. But it reminds me of something the Apostle Paul said. Scholars believe Paul as a Roman citizen would have been familiar with the philosophy of the Stoics, and Seneca was in fact a contemporary of Paul.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes this: “Not that I have already obtained this [having been made perfect in Christ] or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (Php 3:12-14).

Lord, help us not to stumble over what is behind us, but to press on toward who is before us, and to follow where you would lead us.

Devotional from Pastor Dave October 11, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:34:14 GMT

This past weekend, the world witnessed the devastating attacks of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas upon Israeli cities, towns, and villages that so far have left over 1200 dead in Israel, 900 dead in Gaza, and many others taken hostage, wounded, under siege, and traumatized and fearful for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

My heart breaks for all the people of this special place, this holy land, and especially for all the innocent people—young and old, men and women, Israeli and Palestinian—who were just trying to live their daily lives of home, school, work, and faith when what was to have been a Sabbath day of rest became a panicked day of unrest.

Tracy and I had the opportunity to visit Israel in the spring of 2014. I remember seeing the Israeli soldiers securing the streets and checkpoints, and observing several Orthodox Jewish men and women walking through the Old City and praying in their separate sections at the Western (so-called “Wailing”) Wall. I also remember crossing through the concrete dividing wall into the occupied West Bank where Bethlehem is located and meeting the Palestinian Christian brothers who fashion beautiful crosses and nativity scenes and busts of Jesus out of olive wood. I’ve been thinking about these folks as I’ve been watching the news. I wonder if they are safe. I wonder if the shop where Tracy bought all those gifts and souvenirs is still there. I’m so sad that the trip that several of our church members were to have taken there later this month now has to be postponed. I hope they will someday get to see some of the places I saw and meet some of the kinds of people we met.

In the face of such terror and violence, what can we possibly do? Well, for one, we can pray. We can follow the command of the psalmist and “pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” that there be peace within its walls and security within its towers (Psalm 122:6-7). We can pray that all who love Jerusalem—and I would say that “all” includes Jews, Christians, Muslims, and more—may prosper there (v. 6). For the sake of our relatives and friends, for the sake of the house of the Lord our God, we can pray (v.8-9).

It may not seem like a lot, but I do believe the prayers of the faithful for peace—a peace that is not simply the absence of violence but a peace that is the presence of the goodness and wholeness and wellness that is what the Hebrew word for peace shalom intends—can make a difference, in our hearts as well as in the hearts of others.

And we can pray for the vision of the ancient prophets to become a reality. From nearly 2800 years ago, both Isaiah and Micah offer essentially the same vision:

In days to come

the mountain of the Lord’s house

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised up above the hills.

People shall stream to it,

and many nations shall come and say:

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.’

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more;

but they shall all sit under their own vines

and under their own fig trees,

and no one shall make them afraid…” (Micah 4:1-4)

May it be so, O Lord. May it be so.

Devotional from Pastor Dave October 4, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:29:42 GMT

In our Signal Crest 101 class this past Sunday morning, we reviewed the history of this church here on the mountain over the past 66 years since its launch in 1957. I drew primarily upon the book published in 1997 on the occasion of the church’s 40th anniversary, which was called “It Was Meant to Be.” Rev. Jim Whedbee was the pastor then, Rev. Charles Maynard served as the editor, Lynne Hill was involved in preparing it, and several church members (Rachel Cowart, Trisha Ellis, Lynn Heck, Russell Hill, Johnny Maynard, Lou Maynard, Gene Petty, BW Ruffner, Bill and Marti Wayland) contributed essays on various aspects of the church’s life and ministry. It was a wealth of information for me when I arrived here last year to serve as senior pastor.

There is so much in this little volume of the church’s history that is worthy of comment and reflection, but one that stuck out to me is the mission statement that is found on page 8. I’m not sure when this statement was formulated, or how, or by whom, but there is much within it that still resonates with the church’s understanding of its mission today.

The mission of the Signal Crest United Methodist Church family, as a people of prayer, is to proclaim Christ through joyful worship, biblical teaching, and enthusiastic service. Touched by the grace of God, it is our purpose to minister to the whole person as we know and serve God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May Christ be proclaimed in worship, practiced in service, and personified in the community and world.

As I reviewed this statement with the Signal Crest 101 class on Sunday, several things jumped out at us. First and foremost, we understand ourselves “as a people of prayer,” that is, a people in regular conversation and communication with God, seeking God’s guidance for our lives and for our church, and looking and listening out for how God leading us forward in faith and practice.

Second, our primary purpose is “to proclaim Christ,” that is, to show and to share Christ—or as I am fond of saying in a wordplay on the church’s name, to “signal” Christ—in the congregation, in this community, and beyond. We accomplish this in three main ways, and the adjectives here are key: through joyful worship, biblical teaching, and enthusiastic service. I hope you experience, as I have, our worship services as full of joy and gladness, our teaching and preaching and small group studies as solidly grounded and informed in the scriptures, and our opportunities for service as engaged in enthusiastically.

Third, we understand the ministry of the church to be holistic, to engage “the whole person,” that is, body, mind, and spirit. We seek to fulfill the Great Commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Mark 12:29-31).

And finally, I love the alliteration in the last sentence, which really pops, which is a prayer (for a people of prayer) that “Christ be proclaimed in worship, practiced in service, and personified in the community and world.”

May each one of you be an answer to that prayer as we continue to write the next chapter in the history of this church together.

Devotional from Drew Barton September 27, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 14:47:18 GMT

One of my favorite scripture passages is 1 ^st Corinthians 12. Through the years, I have found myself sharing this scripture with people as often as possible. Why is that? The reason I do is because these words have brought me so much hope in my Christian walk that I hope it does the same for others.

Recently, I’ve been focused on 1 ^st Corinthians 12: 4-7 which says, “Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” It is a powerful feeling to know that God gives you a specific gift and through that gift, God is transforming you as well as shining the Light of Christ through you.

In my role as Director of Youth Ministries and Community Connections, I get to see these verses at work every single week within our congregation. Over the last few weeks, I have witnessed students in our youth ministry sharing their gifts through soccer games, school band performances, football games, golf matches, cheer performances and other school events. When they aren’t participating in extracurricular activities, they are leading worship at youth group and being a voice on the mission and outreach team.

Speaking of the mission and outreach team, just this past month I have witnessed people using their gifts in multiple ways such as preparing and serving a meal at Howard, preparing a meal at Mustard Tree, chopping wood at Firewood ministry, and knitting a shawl at the Prayer Shawl Ministries.

Church members are utilizing their gifts and talents everyday and God’s love is being shared. As we continue moving through this week, take a second to look around and see how people around you are using their gifts. I am sure it will give you hope and peace to see God’s love displayed by so many people. It sure does give me hope.

Devotional from Pastor Dave September 21, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 15:14:21 GMT

Like many of you, I’ve been following with interest the story of the 81-year-old Chattanooga native and Signal Mountain resident retired Army Captain Larry Taylor, who received the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor, earlier this month, for his “conspicuous gallantry” in piloting his Cobra helicopter and rescuing four fellow soldiers trapped by enemy fire outside a village in Vietnam on the evening of June 18, 1968.

He accomplished this daring rescue at great risk to his own life and the life of his wingman, as they were running out of both fuel and ammunition. There was no room for the soldiers inside the helicopter, so they hung onto the helicopter skids and rocket pods as Taylor carried them to safety. “That’s just what you do,” he said, “because you depend on each other to keep each other alive.”

Taylor’s story reminds me of a story that three of the four Gospels tell of a paralyzed man Jesus heals. Mark tells us that there was no more room in the place where Jesus was staying, so the man’s four friends dug a hole in the roof and lowered him down on a man into Jesus’ presence. And the scriptures say that “when Jesus saw their faith” – not the man’s faith, but the faith of his four friends – he said to the man, “your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2, Mark 2:5, Luke 5:20).

Taylor was one man who was instrumental in saving the lives of four fellow soldiers. The Gospels tell of four men who were instrumental in saving the life of one of their friends.

Sometimes in our lives, we may be the one behind the controls of the chopper, and at other times, we may be one of the ones trapped by enemy fire in the rice patty. Sometimes in our lives, we’re one of the guys digging a hole in the roof to try to find a way to get our friend to Jesus, and at other times, we may be the man on the mat.

Who are your rooftop friends? Who are the people in your lives who would drop whatever they are doing at a moment’s notice and move heaven and earth and shingles and studs to get you the help you need, especially if that means getting you to Jesus? Will you reach out to them today or this week to thank them?

And who might consider you to be their rooftop friend? Who is so important to you in your life that you might even be willing to risk your own life to save theirs?

Not because you want a medal of honor, but because that’s just what we do for each other. We look out for each other. We care for each other. We depend on each other to keep each other alive.

Devotional from Pastor Dave September 13, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 14:33:21 GMT

We started our new worship series on the different Christian denominations this past Sunday by exploring the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The Greek word doxa means “glory,” so I shared that the word “orthodox” literally means right teaching, right praise, or right glory. It’s similar to a word for we do every week in the sanctuary service: we sing the “doxology,” which means words or language of praise and glory. “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow…”

That reminded me of one of my favorite stories.

When I was growing up, Orel Herschiser was one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball. The dude was a pitching machine. He pitched a complete shutout for the Los Angeles Dodgers in August 1988, and then went a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings without allowing a single earned run. He pitched another shut out in the National League playoffs against the New York Mets, and then another one in the World Series against the Oakland Athletics. He won the Cy Young Award and two MVPs that year for both the playoffs and the World Series.

During one of the final games of the series, the TV cameras zoomed in inside the dugout and caught him singing softly to himself between innings. The commentators couldn’t tell what tune he was singing, but they agreed that his pitching certainly gave him something to sing about. A few days later, he was on the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, who asked him what he was singing and if he would sing it for them right then and there. He was initially reluctant, but the audience egged him on. Finally, before a nationally televised audience, Orel Herschiser softly sang the song he had been singing:

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

He’d been singing the Doxology.

There’s an inscription in the chapel at the McCallie School here in Chattanooga that reads: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” It’s also inscribed on some other buildings and entrances over there. Apparently it’s the school’s motto. It comes from the Westminster Catechism, from the Presbyterians (we’ll explore that denomination in a few weeks). It reminds us that we’re made to worship. We’re created to praise and to glorify God. Whether we’re on the pitcher’s mound or in the dugout, up here on the mountain or way down in the valley, our whole lives can be a doxology, a simple song of praise and glory to God.

Devotional from Pastor Dave September 7, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 18:35:44 GMT

A couple of Sundays ago, our Church Council approved a new logo for our church. This has been something we have been exploring for several months. As we’ve been emerging out of the pandemic, there’s been a sense that this is a fresh start, a season of new beginnings for the church, and so some fresh branding with a new logo seemed appropriate.

One older logo of the church, for which we still have stationery in the office, includes a tagline that reads “Meeting Needs.” While we certainly hope the church meets all kinds of needs in people’s lives, this doesn’t seem to set the church apart from a social service agency.

The most recent logo simply has the church’s name with the United Methodist Church’s cross and flame symbol, and underneath are the words “Engage, Equip, Empower.” Again, this is an “E”-sy tagline to remember, and I preached on those very words my first few Sundays as the pastor here, but it’s also the tagline for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Is there something uniquely and identifiably Signal Crest?

We happen to have an advertising expert in our congregation, Bob Waller, who has designed logos for our church’s annual stewardship campaigns. He presented a variety of possibilities, many of which incorporated the recognizable slope of our main sanctuary. Others resembled the WiFi symbol, to go along with my idea of our hope of our church “signaling” Christ in our community.

One of our Council members, Courtney Malone, was inspired to try her own hand at some designs, and she came up with some abstract concepts with mountaintops and other symbols. But none of the images really resonated with folks until she drew up some designs that incorporated the church’s stained-glass windows. At that point, nearly everyone who saw them felt we were on the right track. Nothing seems to say “Signal Crest” quite like our signature stained-glass windows.

We then explored some different designs – one that looked more like a family crest or shield, for example – but the design that captured the imaginations of the different folks we showed it to was the one that looked like a pointed window. It also seemed to suggest the upward lift of the sanctuary from some of the earlier designs. So that was the design that was finally presented to the Council.

I’m grateful for all those who created designs, suggested ideas, and offered responses. I’m also especially grateful for our youth, who ended up being one of our focus groups when they were hanging around the church in late June for their local mission week. Drew led them in a brainstorming session around some of the proposed logos, and they came up with some wording around how this church incorporates all kinds of differences in our congregation, just like the stained-glass windows have different colors, different sizes and shapes, but that what unites us all is the light of Christ that shines through our lives.

I thought that was just about right.

Devotional from Pastor Dave August 30, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 18:32:13 GMT

With Labor Day weekend approaching and the church entering in our annual nominations season for the next year, I thought it might be a good time to revisit a question I asked last year: What is the labor to which you feel God has called you?

One of my favorite writers was Frederick Buechner, who passed away last year at the age of 96. I’ve used his collection of daily meditations, Listening to your Life , as my personal devotional many times in past years. In that book, he describes one’s vocation as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deepest need.”

What would you say brings you deep gladness?
What do you see as the world’s (or perhaps closer to home, our church’s) deep need?
Where do those two intersect?

Buechner suggested that intersection is where God is calling you to serve. That’s the location of your vocation.

There are lots of “ships” here at the church – worship, fellowship, discipleship, etc. – so there’s a “boatload” of opportunities for you to live out your calling, your vocation, in service to Christ.

Maybe it’s in the area of worship , singing in the choir, playing an instrument in the praise band, serving as an usher or acolyte, helping to operate our sounds system and livestream, or preparing our worship spaces for baptisms or communion.

Maybe it’s in the area of fellowship , providing generous hospitality and warmly greeting members and guests to worship and other events at the church.

Maybe it’s in the area of discipleship , leading a Sunday school class or book discussion, serving as a small group leader in a Bible study or our youth group, or helping to lead Children’s Church, or providing a kind and loving presence to our youngest disciples in the nursery.

Maybe it’s in the area of our various partnerships with multiple ministries in our community, such as cutting wood for our firewood ministry or serving meals for the staff and students at Howard High School or at the Mustard Tree or at Celebrate Recovery.

Maybe it’s in the area of leadership , coming alongside the pastors and others to steer the ministries of the church in the direction we discern together God is leading us.

Maybe it’s in the area of stewardship , overseeing the physical and financial resources entrusted to the church to ensure faithful and fruitful ministry takes place here.

So I come back to Buechner’s question: what is the work you feel God may be calling you to do? Where does your deep gladness meet a deep need in the church or in the world?

If you know where that place is, or if you want help finding it, I hope you will let me know. I would love to explore that with you. Because there’s nothing I love more as a pastor than seeing you live your life out of the very core of God’s calling for you.

Devotional from Pastor Dave August 23, 2023

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Co-winky-dink

A couple of Sundays, when I was away visiting some friends in Omaha, Marti Wayland delivered the Sunday morning message for me on Esther. Inspired by probably the most famous verse in the book of Esther, where her cousin Mordecai says to her “perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this” (4:14), Marti talked about coincidences. Or, as one of her daughters used to say, “co-winky-dinks.”

Have you ever experienced a co-winky-dink?

I remember one Monday morning years ago, I was getting ready to take Noah to school when I realized my car battery was dead. I needed to get some jumper cables to jumpstart it. Later that morning when I finally got to the office, I had to write my weekly newsletter article. I decided to write it about how Jesus is like jumper cables. Sometimes we need a boost ourselves, and sometimes we can give a boost to others.

Well, as it happened, the next day, as I was walking out of Walmart, a group of young people called me over to their car. Their car wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. Could I give them a boost? Why, yes, I could!

Co-winky-dink?

The Bible really doesn’t talk about coincidences. It prefers to talk about providence instead. While we might consider coincidences relatively random occurrences, perhaps they might be instances in which God provides what we need when we need it.

A famous example in the scriptures is when Abraham is about to sacrifice his son Isaac. After the angel of the Lord calls him off, we read that “Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son” (Genesis 22:13). Coincidence? Providence.

However, I do like the term “co-winky-dink.” I like the “winky” part of it. Maybe when they happen in our own lives, it’s like God is winking at us, reminding us that God is always there, walking with us and watching over us in love and care.

Devotional from Pastor Dave August 16, 2023

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 18:25:23 GMT

Gratitude or Grabitude

I’ve enjoyed learning what some of your favorite Bible stories are and preaching on them this

summer. Many of them are some of my own favorite Bible stories, too. One of them is the story

of the healing and conversion of the enemy army commander Naaman. The story is found in 2

Kings 5.

Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army, one of ancient Israel’s enemies. But even

though he was a mighty warrior, he had become afflicted with a skin condition called leprosy in

the Bible. One of the young Israelite girls he had captured served Naaman’s wife. One day, she

said she wished he could be cured by the prophet back home. Well, eventually, her wish came

true. Naaman made his way to the prophet Elisha, who told him to wash seven times in the

Jordan River and his skin would be like that of a newborn baby. Naaman was expecting a more

dramatic demonstration, but reluctantly he dipped in the river the requisite number of times,

and he was healed.

This experience led him to profess his faith in the Lord God of Israel. It also led him to express

his gratitude to Elisha. He offered to pay Elisha for healing him, but the prophet steadfastly

refused. God’s grace is not for sale. So Naaman made his way back home, with a couple of pick-

up truckloads of Israelite dirt as a keepsake along with the prophet’s preemptive pardoning of

his participation in the required religious rites back home.

That’s normally where the story ends. And it’s a great story of God’s grace toward an outsider,

an enemy even, and of his response of faith and gratitude. But the story goes on to tell of

Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, who thought Naaman got off too easy and should have paid up. So he

chased after Naaman and told him that Elisha had changed his mind, that there was company

coming and they could use the extra funds. Naaman was happy to oblige and gave Gehazi

double what he asked, which Gehazi planned to keep to himself. When Gehazi got back to the

city, Elisha asked him where he’d been. He lied and said he’d been nowhere. Just then, the

leprosy that was Naaman’s transferred to Gehazi.

The Gehazi episode makes this already great story even greater. It becomes a study in contrasts

and a reversal of fortune. The enemy outsider Naaman receives an unexpected blessing, while

the intimate insider Gehazi receives an unexpected curse. And what separates them is not so

much their insider or outsider status, but their behavior. One is grateful, the other is greedy.

I can’t remember where I first heard the term “grabitude,” but it was described as the opposite

of gratitude. Gratitude is being grateful for all that God has given you and all that God has done

for you, but grabitude is always wanting more. Like biblical leprosy, grabitude has a way of

getting under your skin and festering and eating away at you, whereas gratitude has a way of

enlarging your soul.

Where do you see an attitude of grabitude in your life? And how might you grow in your

practice of gratitude?

Devotional from Pastor Dave August 9, 2023

mwilson@signalcrestumc.org (Michelle Wilson) — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Last week, after a whirlwind tour of colleges in Boston, New York, and New Jersey, we slowed down for a few days at the beach at Ocean Grove, NJ. This is an historic Methodist area in the northeast. Methodists set up a camp meeting assembly there shortly after the Civil War, and it’s been operating ever since, a lot longer than our closest camp meeting assembly at Lake Junaluska, NC. The streets are named for prominent early Methodist leaders. There is a lake there, Wesley Lake, named for the founder of the Methodist movement. Adjacent to Ocean Grove is Asbury Park, named after the first American bishop of the Methodist Church, Francis Asbury. I had heard about these Methodist holy lands, but this was my first visit there in person.

Tracy remembers going to youth gatherings at Ocean Grove growing up, like our youth go to Resurrection in Gatlinburg. There’s a huge auditorium that can seat 6,500 people where prominent preachers and Bible professors come to speak (Billy Graham preached there many times). It has a pipe organ with over 200 ranks and over 12,000 pipes (Michael Huseman would have a field day!). There are gospel music concerts along the boardwalk every day and weekly youth gatherings on the beach. Families can rent canvas tents (that are now attached to small cabins) for the summer; apparently the waiting list is several years’ long (we didn’t put our names on it).

As we were walking through one of the parks, I saw that there were a number of bricks and benches given in honor or in memory of loved ones. One of the bricks in particular caught my eye. It was in memory of someone, and underneath the person’s name, there was this line: “We thought you were invincible.”

That line caught my attention because that was something my mom said about my dad nearly thirty years ago after he died from a brief but brutal bout with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He had been in such good health. He didn’t drink or smoke or chew (or run around with people who do). He was playing golf and tennis three months before he died. Not only mom but we all thought he was invincible.

Sometimes we can think we are invincible ourselves. Our son Wesley recently discovered the famous poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley, where the poet thanks “whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.” But it’s not just teenagers who may think they are invincible. As I am approaching a milestone birthday this fall, I am continuing a long process of reluctantly realizing that my body isn’t quite as capable of some things as it used to be. I am not, as it turns out, invincible.

And thanks be to God for that! And so I am coming to terms with my uninvincibility. And I am coming to appreciate more and more something that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

We are jars of clay. We are not invincible. But therein lies both our deepest treasure and our truest testimony to the extraordinary power of God.

Devotional from Pastor Dave August 2, 2023

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 14:19:17 GMT

This past week, we hosted a “stellar” Vacation Bible School (that was the theme this year), and it was out of this world! We had a 25-foot tall rocket that nearly went to the ceiling of the Crest Center. We created a moonscape on the stage of the Crest and a starscape along the halls. Rachel recruited an “all-star” cast of 40 volunteers of both youth and adults to help with everything from crafts to games to snacks. I dressed up as an astronaut (Sheila Rogers called me a “pastronaut”) named Mickey Wey (I did not make that up) for the daily skit with my wife Tracy, who also led the music.

We had about 75-80 children there each night. The main idea we were sharing with them was for us to shine Jesus’ light to all, for Jesus is “the light of the world” (John 8:12). Tricia Earl, who is also our preschool director, did an amazing job leading the Bible stories with the groups each day. See if each day’s main message doesn’t resonate in some way with your own life.

On Monday, the message was “when life feels dark, shine Jesus’ light.” Sometimes life can feel dark, and we can wonder where is our hope. Just like Jesus’ birth into a world full of fear and anxiety was signaled by a bright star, so too can we shine his light in the world around us.

On Tuesday, the message was “when people don’t get along, shine Jesus’ light.” Sometimes there can be tension among family and friends. But in the midst of disagreement and discord, we can do what we can to “live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:16).

On Wednesday, the message was “when people are sad, shine Jesus’ light.” The scripture focused on how Jesus took care of his mother, even as he was dying on the cross. And before he went to the cross, he encouraged his disciples, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). When life is hard and we’re facing losses of various kinds, we can trust in Jesus, and we can point others to him, too.

On Thursday, the message was “when people need help, shine Jesus’ light.” The scripture was one of my own favorite Bible stories, the story of Philip helping the Ethiopian to understand that the strange scripture he was reading was pointing to Jesus. When we help others, we are letting our light—Jesus’ light—“shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

On Friday, we hosted a family night hot dog supper where we enjoyed fellowship together, watched a slideshow recap of the week that Rachel had prepared, and handed out buttons, CDs and digital download cards of the music. We also celebrated the kids collecting over $300 in their daily offerings which will shine Jesus’ light by helping Signal Mountain Social Services provide plastic bins for their Clothes Closet.

I can’t thank Rachel and all the volunteers who gave so much of their time and energy and attention this past week to shine Jesus’ light and to share Jesus’ love with the children in this community. I pray they have been blessed as they have been a blessing to others.

I want to leave you with two questions for your own prayerful reflection:

Who has shined Jesus’ light to you in your life? To whom might you shine Jesus’ light in their life today?

Devotional from Pastor Dave July 26, 2023

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 16:11:44 GMT

This past Saturday, the four of us piled into our car and drove over to Nashville to see Ed Sheeran in concert at the Titans stadium. And what a concert it was! It was Wesley’s first big concert like that, and I told him not to expect them all to be like that. There were fireworks, a rotating stage, and fancy videography to match the music. There were 73,000 people in the stadium that night. It set a record for attendance at a music concert in Tennessee, surpassing even Taylor Swift’s recent concert there.

Ed Sheeran is the moppy red-haired English singer-songwriter who has piled up a bunch of hits over the past several years, like “The A Team,” “Thinking Out Loud,” and “Perfect.” He performed for over two hours straight, most of it as the lone musician on the stage.

I couldn’t help but think that a lot of the concert reminded me of worship. It was exhilarating to join our voices with 73,000 other people in singing some of these songs that we know by heart, just like it’s such a joy to belt out beloved hymns and songs with a gathered congregation in worship. He also led us all in a call-and-response participation that reminded me of times when we’ve asked one side of the sanctuary to read the bold print of a responsive reading and the other side to read the light print. He engaged us and made us feel a part of the concert.

The concert did what I believe good worship does. It made me feel something; it made me think something; and it made me do something.

For example, I had already known that his song “Eyes Closed” was about his grief over the loss of a dear friend last year, and he mentioned that when he introduced the song. And I had listened to that song dozens of times. But there was something about the way he performed it live that night that reached into my heart and touched my own grief at the loss of my mom this spring. I actually got a little choked up during it. It made me feel something.

Later, when he performed “Photograph,” which is really a love song, I heard its lyrics in a new way, inviting us not to romantic love but to a more Christlike love. It was as if Jesus were speaking through the words of this song:

Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes

But it’s the only thing that I know

When it gets hard, you know it can get hard sometimes

But it’s the only thing that makes us feel alive

It made me think of those words in a whole new way.

And the concert also inspired me do something, which is to tell you about it here!

That’s also what good worship does. It makes us feel something. It makes us think something. And ultimately it invites us to do something, something new or different, and which may be nothing more complicated than to simply tell someone else about it.

Devotional from Pastor Dave July 19, 2023

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 15:45:51 GMT

I was walking our dog Tiptoe the other morning this week. We were making our way back toward the house on Kentucky when I heard some heavy breathing behind us. I turned around and saw a Golden Retriever hot on our tail. We pulled over to the side of the road to let them pass. The dog’s owner was apologetic and said his dog just loves to meet other dogs.

As our dogs were sniffing each other, we got to talking. He asked my dog’s name, and I told him it’s Tiptoe. He said that’s a dog name you don’t hear much. I said the boys named him. He asked if I lived nearby. I told him I was the pastor at Signal Crest and lived in the parsonage up the road. I asked about his dog. He told me his dog’s name is Patience. I said that’s also a dog name you don’t hear much.

Patience had a collar that identified him as a service dog. I asked what kind of service dog he was. The man told me that he himself was a vet—a military veteran—and he’d been sent to work the scene after 9/11. I said I can’t imagine what that must have been like. He said it was pretty bad. He said he still gets flashbacks. He got paired with Patience through a program that pairs trained service dogs with veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress.

He told me that there’s a technique that he’s learned to help keep him grounded when he’s experiencing a flashback. It’s called the “five things.” You try to focus on something in each of your five senses—something you can hear, something you can touch, something you can see, something you can smell, something you can taste. He told me that Patience is his “five things.” He said Patience keeps him grounded in the present moment. I agreed that dogs have a way of doing that.

By that point, both of our dogs were looking at us, asking us how long we were just going to stand there and talk. So I told him it was very nice to meet him and his dog Patience, and he did likewise. Then they took off, with Tiptoe hot on their trail now.

I hadn’t seen them on my dog walks before, and I don’t know if I’ll see them again. But I’m grateful to know that there are organizations out there in the world that train and pair dogs like Patience to be there for those who have been there for others, dogs who are trained not only to heel but also to help heal.

Thanks be to dog.

Devotional from Pastor Dave July 12, 2023

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 15:44:09 GMT

Recently I was reading back through the Signal Crest history book, “It Was Meant To Be,” which was published back in 1997. In the back of that book is the text of a speech that a Signal Crest church member Frank W. Wilson delivered at the Holston Annual Conference at Lake Junaluska, NC, in June of 1968. Mr. Wilson was a federal district court judge. The church’s library is named for him. It is a fascinating speech in which he addresses some of the “false faiths of our time,” such as wealth, technology, and even the law itself.

His speech includes these words about the astonishing technological advances of the times:

“A television program last week demonstrated how the computer might well replace the doctor in the field of medical diagnosis. At a judicial conference I attended within recent days, we were told that the computer would soon be writing judicial decisions for us. I haven’t heard it suggested yet that the computer will soon be writing sermons, but ministers should take heart for help is surely coming!” (p. 145)

When I read these words, it stopped me in my tracks. How prescient Judge Wilson’s words from 55 years ago were about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) today. I don’t know how much medical advice or legal decisions AI is providing, but I did read that about 300 people attended a worship service last month in Fuerth, Germany, in which a chatbot generated and delivered a relatively coherent experimental sermon. Lord, help us all!

There is a lot of fascination with, and concern about, AI and its potential impact upon human life. Like every technology that has come before it, we will need to find ways to learn how to use it wisely and constructively to enhance and not detract from human flourishing. Ultimately we will need to rely upon God, whom we might call the OI – Original Intelligence – for that kind of wisdom and guidance.

To paraphrase the prologue to the Gospel of John, the Word of God – the OI of God – through which all things came into existence did not become computer code to be embedded into mechanical hardware, but instead became flesh, became a living, breathing human being, and dwelt among us, became embedded within the human family. “And we have seen his glory,” John writes, “the glory as of the Father’s only Son” (John 1:14).

For all of its fascinating potential, I don’t believe our AI will ever be capable of revealing the love and the mercy and the grace and the glory of our OI in quite the way that Jesus does. And I’d like to think that Judge Wilson would concur.

Devotional from Pastor Dave July 6, 2023

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 15:42:14 GMT

A very rare thing happened the other day in the world of Major League Baseball—a pitcher pitched a perfect game. A perfect game is a game lasting at least nine innings in which not a single batter from the opposing team reaches base by any means whatsoever (hit, walk, or error). It is so rare it has only happened twenty-four times, and only twenty-two times since the modern era began in 1901. Statisticians calculate that when a pitcher assumes the mound at the beginning of a MLB game, he has .000983 percent chance of pitching a perfect game. It is so rare that it has probably never happened in the over 40 men’s church softball league.

On June 28, Domingo German of the New York Yankees became the 24th MLB pitcher to pitch a perfect game. He is the first pitcher born in the Dominican Republic to have done so. His name is now in the history books among an elite number of pitchers.

Since hearing the news of this most recent perfect baseball game, I have been thinking about that word “perfect” (in fact, I used to use a word processor called Word Perfect). It’s a word that Jesus uses. In his famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, he calls us to “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).

I used to be something of a perfectionist. I tried to be perfect in just about everything I did. When I was in elementary school, I had three straight years of perfect attendance (maybe I was really motivated by the field day and pizza party at the end of the year for all those who had perfect attendance). I sought perfection in my grades. This was something that I pursued all throughout college and seminary as well. I even sought a sort of moral perfection. For example, I remember trying to go all through ninth grade without saying a single cuss word.

When I was in seminary, I learned more about this word “perfect” that Jesus is using here. The original Greek word is teleois, which can also mean mature, whole, complete. Substitute one of those words for “perfect” and see how that sounds to you. Be mature. Be whole. Be complete. To me, that sounds a lot less intimidating, a little less impossible.

John Wesley also talked a lot about perfection. He used that word interchangeably with sanctification and transformation. For Wesley, perfection was less about reaching some state of perfection as it was the process of being perfected, being made more perfect, more mature, more complete, more Christ-like. It is essentially all about becoming more loving. Being perfected in love, in God’s love, God’s perfect love. Be loving, as your Father in heaven is loving.

After all, that’s really what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 5. He’s calling us to love others like God loves us. To love not just our neighbors, but also our enemies. To love not only those who love us, but those who don’t. That’s what it means to love perfectly, like God does.

Now, this may sound like it’s coming out of left field. This may be way off base. But in the game of life, most of us may never reach perfection. It’s possible, but it would seem to be very rare. But we can all still strive for it, grow—by God’s grace working in and through us—in it as we try to love others more and more fully, completely, and perfectly, like God in Christ loves each one of us.

Devotional from Pastor Dave June 28, 2023

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 15:38:08 GMT

This past Sunday I enjoyed the opportunity to lead the Leap of Faith Sunday school class in an exploration of one of my favorite psalms. Some of you may have distinct memories or associations of particular passages of scripture with certain events or places or people. Psalm 46 is one of those passages for me.

I remember the Sunday after 9/11. I was the newly appointed associate pastor at Keith Memorial UMC in Athens. My senior pastor at the time, the Rev. Dr. Stella Roberts (who will be coming here to Signal Crest to preach on July 16) selected Psalm 46 as the scripture for that very first Sunday following that terrible tragedy in our nation. Its words were so appropriate.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear… (v. 1-2)

For those of us asking where was God in the midst of this awful situation, the psalm had an answer:

God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;

God will help it when the morning dawns. (v. 5)

This confident psalm resolutely expresses faith and trust in God’s saving presence and

protective care in the midst of whatever trials and troubles may come. It was the inspiration for the reformer Martin Luther’s majestic hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

There’s a verse that I have found to bring that sense of God’s presence home to me in times of my own anxiety and uncertainty. It’s a verse where the psalmist seems to be quoting the very words of God. I would imagine it’s a very familiar verse to many of you:

“Be still, and know that I am God!

I am exalted among the nations,

I am exalted in the earth.” (v. 10)

I can’t remember where I read or learned this, but someone suggested a way that we can pray this verse, particularly the first line. It’s only eight words – “Be still, and know that I am God – and each of the eight words are simple, only one syllable each. They sound kind of like our heartbeats – buh-dum, buh-dum, buh-dum, buh-dum. Or our breaths – breathe in, breathe out.

The prayer practice is to start praying the whole line, and then every thirty seconds, remove a word, one at a time, starting from the end of the line, and pray the new line.

It goes like this. First, pray through the full line – “Be still, and know that I am God” – and try to let that sink in.

Then after thirty seconds, pray: “Be still, and know that I am.”

Then, thirty seconds later: “Be still, and know that.”

“Be still, and know.”

“Be still, and.”

“Be still.”

“Be.”

After we shared this simple exercise in the class on Sunday, everyone felt much more calm, more relaxed, more at peace, more in the presence of God. Even those who came into the class in the middle of the exercise immediately caught on to what we were doing and were drawn into it. I’ve also found it’s something that children often enjoy experiencing.

It only takes four minutes to pray this prayer. I wonder: Do you have, or could you find, an extra four minutes in your day to center your heart and mind and spirit with a prayer like this? I believe you will be blessed if you do.

Devotional from Pastor Dave June 21, 2023

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 15:31:06 GMT

One of the most impactful books I’ve read recently is by an Iraq war veteran, former Army chaplain, and Episcopal priest David Peters. In his book, Post-Traumatic Jesus: A Healing Gospel for the Wounded , his very first sentence immediately caught my attention: “The post-traumatic Jesus is the only Jesus Christianity has ever known.” I had never really thought of it like that. The Gospels record the story of the resurrection of Jesus from the undeniably traumatic experience of death by crucifixion, but it had never really registered in my mind that the Christ of Christian preaching is a post-traumatic Jesus.

He observes that the stories of Jesus’ “life and teachings recorded in the four Gospels were written through the post-traumatic lens of his crucifixion.” He then proceeds to reread many of the Gospel stories through a post-traumatic lens. For example, he sees the Christmas story through the lens of the trauma of Roman occupation and Herod’s murderous rage. He sees the Good Samaritan as having tended to the wounds (the Greek word in Luke 10:34 is trauma ) of the man beaten and robbed and left for dead by the side of the road. And he also sees the so-called prodigal son through a post-traumatic lens. “The father does not get the same son back. He gets a son who has been though the roller coaster of the world’s suffering…The son has aged, and so has the father. They are both in a new, post-traumatic world.”

Again, this is one of the most impactful books I’ve read in a long time. I won’t be able to read or to preach some of these scriptures the same way ever again. And this book would be an impactful study for a Sunday school class or small group. It is Peters’ profound conviction, born out of his own personal experience and pastoral ministry, that “the wounded, traumatized Jesus brings healing and hope to traumatized people.”

Next month, we will have the opportunity to serve some of the folks in our community who may have been touched by trauma in their own lives. Our church has entered into a partnership, along with other mountain churches, with Celebrate Recovery of Signal Mountain. This is a ministry for those who are in the process of recognizing and recovering from various addictions or compulsive behaviors and other kinds of hurts, habits, and hang-ups. One of the things I have learned about addictions is that they often trace back to an attempt to deal with some sort of pain or personal trauma. Therefore, I can imagine a post-traumatic Jesus can bring a tremendous amount of healing and hope to persons in recovery.

I hope you will consider assisting with this ministry next month. The Celebrate Recovery meets on Thursday evenings at the Signal Mountain Bible Church on Shackleford Ridge Road. Our responsibilities for the Thursdays in July are to help serve the meal at 6 (which will be prepared by our kitchen coordinator Alicia Ray), provide music for the worship service at 7, and provide childcare for the children from about 6:45-9:00.

Please let me know if you would like to help out with this ministry next month. If you would like to know more about Celebrate Recovery here on Signal Mountain, go to https://www.facebook.com/crsignalmtn .

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE JUNE 14, 2023

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:33:06 GMT

The 2023 session of the Holston Annual Conference was held June 4-7 at the lovely Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Rev. Dave Graybeal, Allison Maynard, Stephen Hines, and Rachel Dow represented Signal Crest. There was a refreshing and reinvigorating spirit of renewal this year. As District Superintendent Rev. Kim Goddard put it in her report from the Cabinet, there’s a new “D” word we’re focusing on going forward—not disaffiliation, but discipleship.

In her State of the Conference address on Monday morning, our Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett shared that Holston is a strong and robust annual conference. She called us to a renewed focus on developing passionate spiritual leaders who make passionate spiritual disciples of Jesus. A passionate spiritual disciple is someone whose identity is centered in Jesus, whose life is formed and shaped and led by the Holy Spirit, who is continually growing in faith, pursuing their calling in the world, and helping others to become passionate spiritual disciples of Jesus.

Holston Conference Worship
In keeping with this renewed focus on passionate spiritual leadership, Bishop Wallace-Padgett challenged us all in Sunday night’s ordination service to offer Christ to someone else every day. We shared in the sacrament of Holy Communion together on Monday morning and reaffirmed our baptismal covenant on Tuesday morning. Holston Conference pastors Rev. Sarah Slack and

Walter Cross joined our guest preacher Bishop Gregory Palmer from the West Ohio annual conference in leading us in a fresh exploration of our sacramental teaching and practice.

On Monday evening, Bishop Palmer preached on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and encouraged us to go beyond the quick fixes and seek to address the root causes of the problems that plague our society. At the sending-forth service on Wednesday morning, he preached on the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). He called out our self-doubt and challenged us to confidently claim God’s call on us all to bear witness to the Gospel in the world.

Retiring Scenic South District Superintendent Rev. Reed Shell preached at the memorial service. Worship and music was led by Rev. Willie Kitchens and Christina Malone, both from the Scenic South District. Chris Blue (the winner of season 12 of The Voice), the Cokesbury UMC (Knoxville) praise band, the Christ UMC (Chattanooga) choir, and the conference choir (in which both

Allison and Dave sang) also helped lead the worship services.

Signal Crest Connections
Former senior pastor Rev. Dr. Mark Gooden retired after forty years of pastoral ministry. He will now serve as the Vice President for Development for the Holston Foundation.
Rev. Jason Gattis, the son-in-law of former senior pastor Rev. Jim Whedbee, received the Denman Award for Evangelism. Jason and Amy are returning to Chattanooga where he follows Mark Gooden as the senior pastor at First Centenary UMC.
Former senior pastor Rev. Dr. Doug Fairbanks and his wife Carolyn gave the lead gift of $10,000 toward next year’s special conference offering, “New Voices,” which aims to raise $1.5 million in support of the conference camps and college ministries.
Former associate pastor Rev. Mike Sluder, who currently serves as the conference’s Director of Connectional Ministries, led our celebration of our mission offerings for Liberia and Zimbabwe.
Rachel Dow represented the conference’s Children’s Ministry team where she shared information on their focus on “cultivating faith.”
Rev. Charles Maynard quizzed the bishop on Holston Conference history (which she aced!) and previewed next year’s celebration of Holston’s 200 th anniversary.
As the appointments were fixed at the close of the conference, Rev. Dave Graybeal is grateful to return for his second year as senior pastor, Rev. Bill Thornton for his ninth year as associate, and Rev. Drew Barton for his second year as a commissioned deacon.
Holston Conference 2023 by the numbers829 registered members attended from 578 churches representing over 117,000 United Methodists in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia
3 persons were ordained elder (all 3 were women)
5 were commissioned provisional elder and 2 were commissioned provisional deacon
4 were licensed as local pastors
2 clergy had their orders from other denominations recognized and received
26 clergy entered retirement
The lives and ministries of 24 clergy members and 19 spouses were commemorated 4,778 mission kits for Zimbabwe and Liberia were celebrated (Signal Crest collected 47 buckets)
$36,616 was collected across the conference for the Ishe Anesu mission in Zimbabwe
$26,401 was collected for Change for Children grants throughout the conference
The conference approved a budget of $8.18 million for 2024 (down from $8.74 million for 2023)

Let’s all join together here at Signal Crest to renew our efforts to take up the conference’s call—which is really Christ’s commission—to make passionate spiritual disciples of Jesus Christ who make a definite discernible difference for him in here on Signal Mountain and throughout the world.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE JUNE 8, 2023

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 15:36:26 GMT

The 40 and over men’s church league softball season on Signal Mountain started up last week. It’s been several years since I’ve played in a competitive softball game, but I grabbed my glove and my ancient wooden bat out of the garage, borrowed a pair of Noah’s old soccer cleats, and joined the team. The team’s name is the Holey Sox. You all know I love that name!

We lost our first game to the St. Augustine’s Catholic Church team on Tuesday. On Thursday night, we played the team from St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. We were up 13-4 going into the 3rd inning when our comfortable lead completely evaporated. They scored 23 runs on us in that inning! They went through their batting lineup three times. It took us about 35 minutes to get three outs. And it’s not for lack of trying. They just hit the holes and a few outright home runs.

I was playing catcher (probably the safest place they could put me, where I’d do the least amount of damage) so I saw it all firsthand. I thought our pitcher Jeff Romero’s arm was going to fall off. We were all just shaking our heads, dumbfounded. Even the St. Timothy’s guys weren’t quite sure what to make of it. The umpire said it was the longest inning he’d ever seen (in all the years of his late teenage life!).

When we finally got back up to bat in the bottom of the 3rd , we were down, but not out yet. We clawed our way back into the game with a few more runs each inning. I even got a few hits with my wooden bat, despite Drew Barton’s prediction that I would break the poor thing instead. We came into the bottom of the seventh and final inning tied at 34 runs each (church league softball is apparently a high scoring game!). All we had to do was get one run in and we’d win. So we set about rather methodically (because, after all, we’re Methodists) to get guys on base, and eventually we brought one of them home and won the game 35-34.

After the game (which lasted about two hours!), both teams circled up and we offered a prayer of thanksgiving for our fellowship together and for some of our teammates who were injured (after all, our bodies ain’t what they used to be). The next day I was telling Randy Evans about what had happened. I suspect it’s rather unusual even in the world of church league softball for a team to have such an abysmal inning and yet still win the game. He suggested that would make a good sermon illustration. That’s when I was inspired to write about it this week.

Maybe you’ve endured an inning in your life like that 3rd inning in our game. Or maybe you are right smack dab in the middle of an inning like that right now, where everything seems to be going against you, nothing seems to be going your way, and you’re at a loss as to what to do to turn this thing around.

I find the Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthian church especially encouraging: “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies . . . So we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16).

Even though you may be down, you’re not necessarily out. So don’t lose heart. Keep the faith. And come out and cheer on the Holey Sox this summer. We play most Tuesday and Thursday nights at the fields at Althaus Park. Our next games are tonight (June 8) and next Thursday (June 15), both at 8 pm.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MAY 31, 2023

Wed, 31 May 2023 15:37:38 GMT

This week I’m wrapping up an online course that I’m teaching at Tennessee Wesleyan University on the different Christian denominations. This is the third year in a row that I’ve taught this May term course, and this is the most students I’ve ever had in the class—twenty-two. And it’s quite a diverse class. While nine of the students are from east Tennessee, seven of the students—nearly one-third—are international students. I’ve got students from Canada, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Kathmandu, and two from Argentina. And they also represent some of the different Christian denominations we’re studying. There are at least four Catholics in the class, others from various Protestant denominations (including a few Methodists), and for the first time, I have someone in the class who grew up Eastern Orthodox.

One of the things I have especially enjoyed learning about these different denominations—and have enjoyed watching the students discover this as well—is how much we have in common. We have so much more in common than we have that differentiates, divides, and distinguishes us. Some of the differences have more to do with geographical, cultural, and political differences than truly theological differences. Often it seems to have more to do with one denomination putting a little more em-phah-sis on a different syl-lah-ble than another one.

One of the things that the vast majority of denominations uphold is the doctrine of the Trinity. There are a few exceptions to this, like the Unitarians and Jehovah’s Witnesses. But most Christian denominations affirm that God is one God in three “persons”—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The idea of the Trinity goes way back in the history of the church to some of the very first church councils (which formulated the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds).

While the Trinity may not be explicitly explained in the Scriptures, it’s very much grounded in how the early church talked about God (see for example 2 Corinthians 13:13) and how they baptized new believers (see Matthew 28:19). And the church chose to view the Trinity, not as a mathematical puzzle to be solved (or as a three-ring circus!), but rather as an inscrutable mystery to worshiped in awe and wonder.

This Sunday, June 4, happens to be Trinity Sunday. In the church calendar, Trinity Sunday always follows Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the church. I’m also mindful as I’m wrapping up this class on the denominations of Jesus’ prayer in John 17, where he prays for his followers, “that they may be one, as we are one . . . that they may all be one . . . so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:11, 21). I look at all the different denominations—hundreds of them—and it’s easy to see that we are not one but many. And I often wonder (and worry) if this makes it harder for the world to believe in Jesus.

But I’m finding myself inspired by the doctrine of the Trinity, and I wonder if maybe the church of Christ might still be seen, maybe even by Jesus himself, as one church, united in our common focus on Jesus Christ as Lord, but in three different personalities—Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. The students in my class this year are giving me hope that maybe, just maybe, we can.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MAY 24, 2023

Wed, 24 May 2023 15:39:02 GMT

The Rev. Dr. Brad Hyde is one of my very best friends. We were classmates at Emory & Henry College. Brad grew up here at Signal Crest United Methodist Church. He was the speaker at our district clergy meeting this week. He shared with us some of the things he learned while he was working on his doctoral dissertation about congregations where individuals, especially youth and young adults, experience and respond to a call from God into Christian ministry. I wanted to recap his presentation with you, because Signal Crest has been just such a congregation for Brad, and I hope and pray it will continue to be so in the lives of others.

In his doctoral work, he set about to discover what were the best practices of congregations where young people discerned a call to ministry. To try to answer this question, he interviewed hundreds of people—young clergy in our conference, staff members of churches from which significant numbers of people have entered ministry, summer camp staff, conference leadership, and many more. He discovered the following five themes that kept coming up. These are the top five things that congregations do where young people discern a call into Christian ministry.

1. They simply ask the question, “Do you think God is calling you into ministry?” They ask this question, as Rev. Adam Hamilton put it, “early and often.” They ask it when they hand out Bibles to their 3rd graders. They ask it in Confirmation Class. They ask it on mission trips and graduation Sundays. Whenever someone sees someone else in the congregation who might have the gifts for ministry, they simply ask the question.

2. They provide mentoring for their young people. Brad found that 90% of the young adults serving in ministry could point to someone in the congregation they considered to be their spiritual mentor. Maybe it was a pastor, maybe a youth director, maybe a Sunday school teacher or Confirmation mentor or small group leader. Young people who discern a call into ministry usually have someone in their congregation who models faithful and authentic ministry for them.

3. They provide leadership opportunities for youth in the local church. For example, Brad found that 100% of the young adult ministers he interviewed had served as acolytes. Many of them had served on a youth leadership team or on a ministry team. Many of them helped lead worship in a youth praise band or on Youth Sunday. Opportunities to lead in a local church become opportunities to discern a calling to lead a local church.

4. They provide opportunities for youth and young adults to put their faith into action through things like mission trips, short term service projects, and other local outreach opportunities like Mustard Tree and the Firewood ministry.

5. They connect young disciples with the larger church beyond the walls of the local church. This happens through large youth conferences like Resurrection, through the Confirmation retreats and the middle school mission weeks at Camp Lookout, and through occasionally combining with other youth groups like we do for fall retreat.

I am so glad that Drew was also there to hear Brad’s presentation, because we both saw that so many of these five things are already happening at Signal Crest. We are so grateful for all the adults who serve as mentors, officially or unofficially, for our young people. Drew and Rachel both provide leadership and service opportunities for our youth and children, often in cooperation with other churches and area ministries.

But if there’s one area in which we have the most room to grow, maybe it’s in the first one—asking the question. I’ll never forget when I was in high school and my tennis coach asked me out of the blue one day after practice if I had ever considered going into the ministry. I hadn’t breathed a word about it; how did he know? I don’t know. But I do know that apparently he saw something in me, so he said something to me. And I can’t begin to tell you the difference that made.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MAY 17 2023

Wed, 17 May 2023 15:40:29 GMT

This past Sunday, I finally had an opportunity to help serve a meal at the Mustard Tree Ministries, which is one of our church’s outreach partnerships. This faith-based non-profit ministry was founded 20 years ago and, according to their website, “helps people become all that God wants them to be.” They are based at First Centenary United Methodist Church downtown and are especially focused on serving their homeless and impoverished neighbors. Rev. Barry Kidwell, a former associate pastor here at Signal Crest, serves as the Executive Director. Our church provides volunteers to help serve the Sunday evening meal on the second Sundays of each month. Last month, that date fell on Easter Sunday. This month, it was Mother’s Day.

Doranne Lane is often in charge of organizing this outreach for us, but Jill Yetter herded the eight of us cats who came this time. She had heated up the pans of casseroles that she and others of you had prepared (thank you!), along with the salad fixings, dressing, bread, and desserts. Then we loaded up our vehicles and transported the food down to First Centenary. When we arrived, the folks there helped us set up in the kitchen and serving area. Then we went to the contemporary worship center for the evening worship before the meal.

Barry welcomed us all and invited us to greet one another. There were smiles on faces all around. Their worship leader led us in singing “This Little Light of Mine,” and then Barry’s daughter Kathleen delivered an inspiring message with us about letting our light shine. She shared a memorable image with us that the flashlights on our phones won’t work if it’s in selfie mode. In other words, we can’t let our light shine if we are focused on ourselves.

I was especially touched with the prayer time that Barry led before the message. There was such a supportive and encouraging spirit in the room, as various people lifted up joys like housing applications being finalized or medical treatments that were seeming to work, along with concerns about family members in the hospital or friends facing addictions. We took our time, and everyone who wanted to share something on their hearts had time to share.

Those of us who were serving the meal slipped out of the service before Communion. We served the kids first. I was at the dessert station, and there was this one kid who filled up her plate with just desserts! Then the adults came along, and many of them came back for seconds, and we later fixed several to-go boxes for them to take with them. We left the leftovers with the staff there, and they cleaned up after us. They made it so easy for us; all we really had to do was serve the food.

There were probably 30-35 folks there. All ages. Different colors. Different socioeconomic classes. But all with smiles on their faces, full bellies, and a palpable sense of fellowship and love for one another. I remember thinking as I was driving back up the mountain that I think I just got a glimpse of what the kingdom of heaven must be like.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”–Matthew 13:31-32.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MAY 3 2023

Wed, 03 May 2023 15:45:54 GMT

This painting of Jesus dancing with the children is one of my favorite paintings that hang here at the church. It’s in the hallway near the offices. It depicts Jesus with a big, broad grin holding the hands of children of various colors and cultural backgrounds and dancing with them in a round, while adults of various ages stand behind them, smiling and clapping. It reminds me of that old song, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight! Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

This past Sunday was Children’s Sunday at Signal Crest. In both services we celebrated Jesus’ love for all the children, and we highlighted our church’s ministry with our children and families. Chamar Drane led the children in singing “This is the Day,” “I’ve Got a River of Life,” “I’ve Got Peace Like a River,” and “Rejoice in the Lord Always,” with Sheila Rogers accompanying on piano. Michael Huseman led the children’s bell choir in presenting “This Little Light of Mine.” I got tickled when they shouted “No!” when all of us were singing along in our heads, “Hide it under a bushel…”

In the children’s message, Marti Wayland sent the children to distribute Life Savers throughout the congregation. The choir sang a beautiful contemporary arrangement of “Jesus Loves Me.” We prayed a blessing upon our rising kindergarteners and graduating 5th graders. A video depicted some of the children describing what they love most about Jesus, and one of the preschool boys said “he is always with us.” And Rachel Dow delivered a profound meditation on how we can find hope, peace, and joy in Jesus’ presence with us in the midst of the darkness and storms of life. I told her that was a fantastic sermon, not just for Children’s Sunday but for any Sunday!

We saw on Sunday that great things are happening in our children’s ministry, but there is still plenty of room for it to grow and to reach out and engage even more children and families. Children’s ministries in churches have been among the slowest to recover from the pandemic, as children were among the last to be approved for vaccines and children’s programs were among the last to return. So let’s each one of us do what we can to ensure our church’s children’s ministry continues to grow and to reach others with the love that Jesus has for all God’s children.

Here are some things you can do to help our children’s ministries to grow:

Invite children and families at your school, on your sports teams, or in your neighborhood to come with you to worship or to Sunday school or to Wednesday Night Fellowship
Tell your babysitters and friends that we are hiring paid nursery caregivers for Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings (they must be at least 18 years old)
Sign up with Rachel to volunteer periodically in the nursery (or in our upcoming Children’s Worship) to allow our parents to more fully experience the worship services
Serve as a small group leader for the K-2 or preschool Sunday school classes
Sign your kids and grandkids and neighbors’ kids up for Vacation Bible School July 24-27, and volunteer to help out with it
Stay connected with what’s happening in the children’s ministry through the church’s website and social media, and share the announcements with friends and families

In three of the four Gospels, Jesus is recorded as saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Matt 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16). Let’s do what we can to bring them to Jesus so that they can join the eternal dance of love and life in him.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MAY 10, 2023

Wed, 03 May 2023 15:42:29 GMT

This past Sunday was Youth Sunday. They led the worship services from start to finish. The youth praise band opened by invoking the Holy Spirit’s presence with us. The youth handbells rang out about how good Christian friends rejoice and sing together. Tracy and Wesley presented a trombone/piano duet that revealed Tracy’s keyboard talent that I keep telling her she’s been hiding under a bushel basket. Mark Smith recognized seven senior acolytes who have served in the sanctuary services for many years. And the youth recognized twenty-one adult leaders who devote so much of their time and energy pouring into the hearts and lives of these growing disciples. They also shared in serving Holy Communion as we closed our worship services.

The heart of the services was when we recognized our graduating seniors. There were seven different seniors who shared brief messages. They all talked about how much the youth group and the church has meant to them over the years. I am so impressed with these young adults’ maturity, their sincerity, their sense of humor, and their composure, just like I was when I watched this service online last year as we were anticipating coming to serve here at Signal Crest.

Each of their messages was as unique as they are and reflected who they are, at least as I have gotten to know them. But there were also a couple of common themes and threads woven throughout them that I’d like to highlight: consistency and connection.

Keller Williamson introduced the word consistency in her reflections. She talked about how the church has always been there for her, all the way from her baptism to her high school graduation. Later, Britton Williams described growing up with Keller, one of her best friends, from their preschool days together at the church. Ethan Bullock, Christopher Romero, and Tucker Luna also talked about growing up in the church and how it has been a consistent presence in their lives. I’m sure their parents had a lot to do with this sense of consistency, making it a priority whether at preschool, Sunday school, Bible school, worship, or youth.

They also talked about the strong sense of support and connection they have experienced. Several of them described the support they received when they were going through a tough time, especially from their leaders and mentors. Ethan talked about how Nick Moore helped him understand how God could use even an atheist friend to provide comfort and support. Britton talked about Drew showed up when she had knee surgery. Annabelle Adams talked about how her small group leaders Trisha Ellis and Allison Evans supported her and her family through some tough times. Olivia Sisk described how she came to the youth group a couple of years ago feeling somewhat lost and disconnected, but she found such a warm welcome and a bond that supported her when some friends were in a bad car accident. And Christopher talked about how the church steps up when folks experience adversity, both in the congregation and throughout the community, through the firewood ministry and other outreach ministries.

A consistent presence in our young people’s lives, and a point of connection to others through our commitment to Christ. That’s what this church has been for these young adults. Let’s all continue to do all we can to ensure that Signal Crest continues to be that consistent presence and point of connection for generations yet to come.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE APRIL 27, 2023

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:47:47 GMT

What is up with all these churches leaving the United Methodist Church? And what about Signal Crest? Where is our church in the midst of all of this?

This past Saturday, a specially called meeting of the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church approved the departure—or “disaffiliation”—of 264 churches across north Georgia, east Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. These churches, mostly smaller and more rural congregations, represented about one-third (31%) of the total number of churches and about one-fifth (21%) of the total number of church members in the conference.

The UMC’s longstanding disagreements over same-sex marriage and clergy led to the passage in 2019 of a provision for disaffiliation. This is essentially an “exit ramp” for those congregations who felt a sense of urgency to leave the denomination. These churches completed a three-month long discernment process, fulfilled certain financial obligations to the conference, and voted by at least a 2/3 majority to disaffiliate.

So what about Signal Crest? Where are we in all of this? I have not sensed an interest to explore exiting the denomination; in fact, I have sensed a deep appreciation for our United Methodist heritage and identity. In my onboarding sessions with the Church Council last summer after I arrived here as senior pastor, I was asked whether I planned to stay UMC or not. I shared with them that I do intend to remain a United Methodist pastor. That is the church that raised me in the faith, that I believe has the best theology and methodology out there, and that I committed myself, first at my confirmation and then later my ordination, to serve with everything I have in me. It is by no means a perfect church, and we don’t always agree on everything, but it is my home, and this is my family, and this is where I plan to stay. Several nods around the room indicated to me that this was the sense of the Church Council as well.

So what do we do now? As I shared in my sermon a few weeks ago, we keep doing what this church has been doing, and doing so well, for over 65 years. We keep sharing the gospel and making disciples of Jesus Christ who make a difference in the world for him. We keep inviting and welcoming all people to the open table of God’s grace where they can find a home and take their place among the family of Christ. We keep doing what Jesus told us to do: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). As I like to say, the calling of Signal Crest is to signal Christ—to point people to Christ, to proclaim Christ, to show and to share his love and mercy and grace everywhere, to absolutely everyone.

Because do you know what else happened this past weekend? It may not have made the news, but a young couple who found their way to Signal Crest last summer was married in our sanctuary Saturday afternoon. They had their reception in the Crest Center (and you have never seen the Crest Center decked out like that!). They and their families have raved about how welcoming this congregation has been to them. And then on Sunday morning, six middle- schoolers professed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and joined the church from this year’s Confirmation Class (and one more will do so this Sunday). That’s a pretty good weekend, if you ask me, and it gives me hope for the bright future of this church. So let’s keep up the good work, Signal Crest, and let’s stay focused on Jesus and trust that he will lead the way.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE APRIL 19, 2023

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 15:50:10 GMT

So many eggs. That’s what I kept thinking this past Sunday as we hosted our community Easter celebration in the Crest Center and on the parsonage lawn. Many of you brought candy and helped stuff eggs for the egg hunt, and thank you for doing that, and thanks to Rachel and the Children’s Ministry team for organizing it all! The Mountain Arts Community Center also very generously gave us about 8,000 eggs already stuffed after their egg hunt the previous weekend was canceled because of the weather.

You read that right—8,000 eggs. How egg-straordinary! It far egg-ceded our egg-spectations! You might say we were shell-shocked! (Yolk-yolk-yolk!)

Sunday afternoon, after the rain moved on and the sun came out, we spread the egg throughout the preschool playground and the front yard of the parsonage. There were so many eggs we had to be egg-stra careful not to step on them! And then when the children came out to hunt them, they were so egg-cited to see so many eggs! They filled their baskets and buckets in no time.

And then something happened that I’ve never seen at an egg hunt. There were eggs that were just left there ungotten. The kids had seemed to have gathered enough eggs—more than enough—so they just left the rest on the ground. And there were still so many eggs. But eventually the eggs got gotten. Some middle-school boys rode by on their scooters, and we invited them to get some eggs. They filled their backpacks, and then came back, not once, but twice to get more! And then the youth gathered up the rest Sunday evening.

But still I keep thinking to myself, so many eggs. And isn’t that really what Easter is about? Not the eggs, but the abundance. Jesus said, “I came that they (that we) may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). It’s the abundance of hope and joy and love and life that the Easter good news promises to us, that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead provides for us, that we celebrate throughout this Easter season.

How are you experiencing the abundance that Jesus has come to give us this Easter season?

Here are a few scripture verses that speak of abundance. Maybe one of these speaks to the abundance you may be experiencing or are yearning to experience (egg-sperience).

“O how abundant is your goodness that you have laid up for those who fear you,

and accomplished for those who take refuge in you.” – Psalm 31:19

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” – Psalm 51:1

“For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 1:5

“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” – Ephesians 3:20-21

“May grace and peace be yours in abundance.” – 1 Peter 1:2, 2 Peter 1:2

“May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.” – Jude 1:2

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE APRIL 12, 2023

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:53:35 GMT

What a glorious Easter Sunday we enjoyed at Signal Crest! From the magnificent sunrise service atop the brow, to the jubilant sounds of the brass and woodwinds accompanying the band in the Crest and the choir in the sanctuary, to the fragrant scents of the Easter lilies and the buoyant Easter hymns and songs, to the full congregations (there were over 500 in worship with us across the three services), it was certainly a Sunday full of joy and celebration of our Risen Lord and Savior.

Following the worship services, my family and I joined some others for Easter brunch atop one of downtown Chattanooga’s tallest buildings. After our meal together, I walked around and looked out the windows upon the city below. I saw things about the city I’d never seen before. For example, did you know that the Westin hotel has an outdoor pool atop its lobby? The downtown looks very different from twenty floors up than it does when you’re down on the streets. Being raised up like that gave me a new perspective.

Being raised up with Jesus in the resurrection gives us a new perspective, too. As Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-7). Paul speaks as if our being raised up with Christ is not just a future event, but in some sense has already happened. So if we have already been raised up with Jesus through our faith and trust in him, then that should give us a new perspective–on life, on death, on the world around us, on everything!

How has the resurrection of Jesus changed your perspective? How do you see things—yourself, others, the world—differently because Jesus is raised and because you are raised in him through faith? And in what ways is the resurrection still working on you, opening your eyes, changing your perspective?

Thanks be to God for raising Jesus Christ from the dead, and for raising us up in him!

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE APRIL 5, 2023

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:54:43 GMT

Wash one another’s feet. Jesus told us to do it (John 13:14). But like a lot of other things Jesus told us to do, we don’t always do it. At least, we don’t do it very often. But whenever I have done it, it has been very meaningful and memorable.

The first foot-washing I experienced was my first year in seminary. I had come to chapel on that Maundy Thursday in Holy Week, and when I saw in the bulletin that there would be foot-washing, I immediately considered sneaking out and just skipping chapel. I had never experienced foot-washing, and I really don’t like anything (or anyone) touching my feet. But somehow I found myself standing in line for one of the foot-washing stations.

When the time came, I took my turn sitting in the chair, while another student, whom I didn’t really know, gently palmed some of the warm water over my feet and then lifted and dried them with a fresh towel. We stood and embraced. Then I knelt at the chair while the next student in line took their turn as I turned some water over their feet and dried them. We both stood and embraced, and then I found my way back to my seat.

But I found myself overcome with emotion. It was as if the love and gentleness and welcoming presence of Jesus had literally washed over me. You see, I was living very much in my head at the time–reading, writing, studying, and thinking very heady thoughts about things like theories of the atonement. Plus I was exhausted. It was nearly the end of the semester, and I was under a lot of stress to wrap everything up. But it’s as if Jesus found a way to get through to me what this is all about–what he is all about. I came to discover the truth of what Jesus said to Peter, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand” (John 13:7). Likewise, I have come to understand that one of the ways Jesus likes to get through to us is not so much through our heads as through our feet.

Since then, I have experienced other foot-washings. One was twenty years ago at a wedding at which I presided. The young bride and groom wanted their first act as a married couple to be to wash each other’s feet. At another church, we offered foot-washing at our Maundy Thursday service. Afterwards, an older woman came up to me with tears in her eyes and told them that she hadn’t held her middle-aged daughter’s feet in her hands since her daughter was a little girl and it was bath time. The daughter had tears in her eyes, too. She had never touched her mom’s feet.

Now, it may seem “corny,” but I believe foot-washing is good for the “sole!”

Don’t worry; we won’t be washing each other’s feet at our Maundy Thursday service this week. But I invite you to read and to prayerfully ponder John 13:1-17 this week, and to try to find a way to let someone else wash your feet, and wash someone else’s feet in turn, whether literally or metaphorically in some act of tender loving service. Jesus said it’s how we share in him and his loving service (John 13:8). And he also promised that we will be blessed if we do (John 13:17).

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MARCH 29, 2023

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 15:56:22 GMT

Our hearts are heavy this week with the news from Nashville of the attack that claimed the lives of 3 children and 3 adults at the Covenant Presbyterian School. I can’t conceive the grief and the trauma that these children’s parents, siblings, classmates, teachers, and friends must be experiencing; nor that of the spouses, children, colleagues, and friends of the adults; nor that of the parents of the attacker who may be more confounded by this than anyone. I’m praying that the Holy Spirit might find a way to bring the broken heart of God near to all of them in their brokenness and pain.

I’m also praying for all of us as a people, as a nation and society, that we will somehow find a way to move beyond the baseline response of “thoughts and prayers” and to build the kind of community that the ancient prophets envisioned. Prophets like Zechariah, who dreamed of a day where old men and old women will sit along the streets of the city with staffs in hand in their old age and where “the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets” (Zech 8:4-5).

Prophets like Isaiah and Micah, who envisioned a time when we will beat our “swords into plowshares” and our “spears into pruning hooks,” where we will transform our weapons that hurt ourselves and others into tools that help ourselves and others (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3). And this isn’t just some ancient pipedream. Did you hear the story on NPR last month about an artist named Stephanie Mercedes, who takes old guns and bullet casings and melts them down and casts them into bells and other musical instruments?

I know there are no easy answers. I know there are no quick fixes. I know there are no simple solutions to the gun violence that pervades our society. But I find myself captivated by an image that the prophet Micah goes on to imagine, where “they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid” (Micah 4:4). And I can’t help but wonder what that would look like in our world today.

They shall all sit at their desks and on the school bus, and no one shall make them afraid.

They shall all stand at the chalkboard or the whiteboard, or lean on their brooms and their mops, and no one shall make them afraid.

They shall all go about their daily lives, their work and their rest and their play, and no one shall make them afraid.

No one shall make anyone afraid, because no one is afraid.

No one is afraid, because everyone is beloved. Every single one of us. Beloved by God whose perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

Lord, help us all to live with less fear and with more love.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MARCH 22, 2023

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 15:57:24 GMT

When I was 8 years old, my mom gave me my very first Bible. It is a white pleather, red-letter King James Version. But not only did she give me this Bible, she told me we were going to read it together. In fact, she said we were going to memorize some of it.

I have vivid memories of sitting up in my bed at night with her as we made our way through memorizing, one verse at a time, Psalm 121. Thank goodness there are only 8 verses! But after a little more than a week, I had memorized the whole thing. She said that way I’ll always have it with me. I can carry it around with me in my heart.

After living with dementia for the past few years, my mom passed away last Monday. We are so grateful for all the expressions of love and support that so many of you have extended to her after she moved here a few months ago, and then to us in this time of loss.

My mom left instructions for her memorial service. She wanted “Love Lifted Me” and “It Is Well with My Soul” to be sung. She wanted “You Raise Me Up” to be played in memory of my dad (I’m so glad Ethan Bullock and the choir sang that song here at Signal Crest this past Sunday). She was adamant about a closed casket. But she left the selection of scriptures up to whomever the pastor would be and to us. But there was only one scripture I wanted to be sure was included: Psalm 121.

The psalm starts “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Growing up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, I was lifting up mine eyes to the hills all the time. There were reminders all around me of whence cometh my help. Living here now in Signal Mountain, I feel back home again, with hills upon which to lift mine eyes everywhere and remember the source of our help.

On Saturday, we buried my mom on a hillside cemetery in Virginia that lifts its eyes up to Whitetop Mountain and Mount Rogers. I brought the Bible my mom gave me to the graveside, and I read the psalm we memorized together so long ago. I didn’t trust my memory to recall it all, but I still trust its message. I pray it might be a blessing to you today.

Psalm 121 (King James Version)

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in

from this time forth, and even for evermore.

DEVOTIONAL FROM DREW BARTON MARCH 15, 2023

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:59:19 GMT

What is Christian community?

This past Sunday evening, students at our Sunday night youth programming defined perfectly what “Christian community” is by their actions. How did they exactly do this? They showed hospitality by welcoming high school students from the Bethlehem Center. They spent time in worship together with the youth band leading. Then, they met new people during a group activity where people got to utilize their strengths and show their personalities. They shared a meal together. Finally, they encouraged and prayed for one another.

In one evening, they reminded me exactly what Christian community is supposed to be. It should include hospitality, worship, people using their gifts, meeting new people, fellowship and praying for one another.

During this time of much self-reflection during lent, I want to encourage you to reflect on how you are helping to cultivate Christian community at Signal Crest, as well as at home and in your neighborhood. Are you welcoming new faces? Are you spending time sharing a meal with common and new faces in your group? Are you reaching out to encourage one another? Are you praying for one another?

Christian community, led by God’s love is what makes the Church so special.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MARCH 8, 2023

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 16:00:43 GMT

The Power At Work Among Us

The power went out shortly after we arrived at Camp Lookout this past Friday evening for our Confirmation retreat, and it didn’t come back on until about an hour before we left Saturday afternoon. Many of you may have been without power as well after the strong storms that passed through the area this weekend.

I have to hand it to Don Washburn, the camp director, and his staff. They were so nimble, and they immediately pivoted in the face of this power outage. The kitchen staff prepared all our meals with their gas stoves. They located some battery-powered lanterns that they set out around the dinner tables so that we could see well enough to eat. They fired up their generator to run their computer and projector to lead our worship services and teaching sessions. Thanks to all their improvisations, we were still able to do all the things that make the Camp Lookout confirmation retreat so meaningful and memorable. We were still able to make our stoles (by the light of those same lanterns). We were still able to watch the Claymation video of Methodist history (for four minutes of cheesy entertainment, click here ).

Saturday evening, after returning from Camp Lookout, I posted on my social media what a joy it was to share in the retreat with this year’s class from Signal Crest. I also wrote, “the electricity was knocked out in the storm, but there was another power present among us.” And then in our worship together here at Signal Crest on Sunday morning, Bill talked about how Jesus is the light of the world, and Marti Wayland shared with the children how we can shine the light of Christ like a light bulb as long, as we are connected to the power source. It all added up to remind me and to reinforce in my mind the good and glad news that there is indeed another power present among us, even when the powers of this world go out.

And so my thoughts turn to one of the prayers of the Apostle Paul: “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Are you connected to that power source? How might you get more connected, and stay more connected, to that power? Who can you invite to connect to that power always at work within us and among us?

Please continue to keep our confirmation class in your prayers as they continue their

confirmation journey this spring. And if you or anyone you know want to spend a week at Camp Lookout this summer–riding horses, going caving or kayaking, and growing closer to God–check out their website at www.camplookout.com .

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MARCH 1, 2023

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 16:01:34 GMT

Belivers in Prayer

You may have seen the prayer request cards that we have at the church. You can find them on the table at the entrance to the Crest Center and in the racks on the backs of the pews. Maybe you have noticed the way a word on that card is spelled. After asking, “How can we pray for you?” the card reads, “As belivers in the power of prayer, we would like to support you.”

Belivers.

Is that a typo? (My spellcheck certainly seems to think so!) Or might it be what the painter Bob Ross would have called “a happy accident”?

I’m sure the word was meant to be “believers.” As “believers” in the power of prayer, we want to do all we can do to support you and those you love by praying with you and praying for you. And I hope that you are a believer in the power of prayer, too. But I also hope that you are a “beliver” in prayer as well.

What does it mean to be a “beliver” in the power of prayer? Maybe it means that prayer is something that we not only profess is powerful but actually practice. We not only believe in its power but experience it in our own lives and in the lives of others.

I’ve been attending a continuing education event this week in Pigeon Forge, and the theme is “Praying Together.” One of the presenters is a colleague, Rev. Dr. Susan Arnold. After citing various things for which people pray—including personal guidance, health concerns, the needs of family members or friends—she said that there’s one thing that people don’t indicate praying for: their own prayer life. And yet so many of us, even clergy, feel like our prayer lives are not what we would want them to be. So she left us with a question: “When was the last time you prayed for your prayer life?” I’ve been mulling that over ever since I heard her ask it.

She gave us some helpful advice about growing in our prayer life. She said it’s a good idea to ask God what God would want us to pray for (she also said that’s a good question to ask those who ask us to pray for them). She encouraged us to be diligent and persistent in our praying, not to give up, and not to let a dry spell in our prayer life go too long.

I’ve also gone back and looked at the prayer request card we have at the church. It includes a Bible verse from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Php 4:6).

“Don’t be anxious about anything.” I’ll admit that’s a lot easier said than done, especially for those of us prone to anxiety. “But in every situation”—even the ones that cause us anxiety—we can ask for God’s help (that’s what petition means). And as we’re asking God for what we don’t have, let’s not forget to thank God for all the blessings that we do have. I’ve found that the practice of gratitude and thanksgiving can actually ease our anxiety and reframe our petitions. And maybe it can also help us to become not just believers in prayer, but belivers in it, too.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE FEBRUARY 22, 2023

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 16:02:29 GMT

FOLLOWING JESUS TO THE CROSS

A Daily Reading Plan from Luke for Lent 2023

Signal Crest United Methodist Church

The season of Lent is a forty-day period of preparation (not counting Sundays) for the

celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. It recalls the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry. It has traditionally been a time when Christians have intentionally resolved to deepen their discipleship. One of the best ways to do that is through the prayerful study of scripture.

The following scripture passages have been selected for us to continue the journey we’ve already been on this year following Jesus’ ministry through the Gospel of Luke. The passages are relatively short, but there are longer sections during Holy Week as we approach the cross.

I would recommend you set aside a time of the day when you can spend 10-15 minutes prayerfully studying the scripture for the day. Maybe keep a notebook handy to jot down any questions or reflections or responses. And you may find these three questions helpful to you as you listen for the Spirit of God to speak to you through these passages:

1) What is the scripture saying? (A good study Bible can help with anything that

may be unclear or confusing or strange)

2) What is the scripture saying to you? (Is there a word or an image that jumps

out at you? What might its message be for you today?)

3) What is the scripture asking of you? (What kind of a response is it inviting from

you? What action might it be calling you to take?)

ASH WEDNESDAY, February 22 – Luke 9:46-48 – What is True Greatness?

Thursday, February 23 – Luke 9:51-56 – Jesus Sets His Face to Jerusalem

Friday, February 24 – Luke 9:57-62 – Would-Be Followers of Jesus

Saturday, February 25 – Luke 10:1-12 – Seventy Sent on a Mission

Sunday, February 26 – Jesus’ “I Am” sayings in John – “I am the bread of life” – John 6:35-40

Monday, February 27 – Luke 10:13-16 – Woe to Unrepentant Cities

Tuesday, February 28 – Luke 10:17-24 – The Return of the Seventy

Wednesday, March 1 – Luke 10:25-37 – The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Thursday, March 2 – Luke 10:38-42 – Mary and Martha

Friday, March 3 – Luke 11:1-4 – The Lord’s Prayer

Saturday, March 4 – Luke 11:5-13 – Lessons in Prayer

Sunday, March 5 – Jesus’ “I Am” sayings – “I am the light of the world” – John 8:12

Monday, March 6 – Luke 11:27-28 – True Blessedness

Tuesday, March 7 – Luke 11:33-36 – The Light in You

Wednesday, March 8 – Luke 11:37-54 – Woe to the Religious Leaders

Thursday, March 9 – Luke 12:1-3 – Warning against Hypocrisy

Friday, March 10 – Luke 12:4-12 – Fearlessness

Saturday, March 11 – Luke 12:13-21 – The Rich Fool

Sunday, March 12 – Jesus’ “I Am” sayings – “I am the gate” – John 10:1-10

Monday, March 13 – Luke 12:22-34 – Do Not Worry

Tuesday, March 14 – Luke 12:49-53 – Jesus as the Cause of Division

Wednesday, March 15 – Luke 13:1-5 – The Urgency of Repentance

Thursday, March 16 – Luke 13:6-9 – A Parable of God’s Patience

Friday, March 17 – Luke 13:22-30 – The Narrow Door

Saturday, March 18 – Luke 13:31-35 – Jesus Laments over Jerusalem

Sunday, March 19 – Jesus’ “I Am” sayings – “I am the good shepherd” – John 10:11-18

Monday, March 20 – Luke 14:7-14 – Humility and Hospitality

Tuesday, March 21 – Luke 14:25-33 – The Cost of Discipleship

Wednesday, March 22 – Luke 15:11-32 – The Parable of the Father and His Sons

Thursday, March 23 – Luke 16:19-31 – The Rich Man and Lazarus

Friday, March 24 – Luke 17:1-10 – Some Sayings of Jesus

Saturday, March 25 – Luke 17:20-37 – The Coming Kingdom

Sunday, March 26 – Jesus’ “I Am” sayings – “I am the true vine” – John 15:1-11

Monday, March 27 – Luke 18:1-8 – The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge

Tuesday, March 28 – Luke 18:9-14 – The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

Wednesday, March 29 – Luke 18:18-30 – The Rich Ruler

Thursday, March 30 – Luke 18:31-34 – Jesus’ Third Prediction of His Death and Resurrection

Friday, March 31 – Luke 19:1-10 – Jesus and Zacchaeus

Saturday, April 1 – Luke 19:11-27 – Parable of the Ten Pounds

PALM SUNDAY, April 2 – “I am the way, the truth, the life” – John 14:1-7

HOLY WEEK (April 3-8)

Monday, April 3 – Luke 19:28-48 – Jesus enters Jerusalem, cleanses the temple

Tuesday, April 4 – Luke 21:34-38 – Be on Guard

Wednesday, April 5 – Luke 22:1-6 – Judas agrees to betray Jesus

MAUNDY THURSDAY, April 6 – Luke 22:7-62 – The Last Supper, Jesus’ betrayal and arrest

GOOD FRIDAY, April 7 – Luke 22:66-23:49 – The Trial, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus

HOLY SATURDAY, April 8 – Luke 23:50-56 – Jesus’ Burial

EASTER SUNDAY, “I am the resurrection and the life” – John 11:17-27

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:03:22 GMT

Have You Ever Changed Your Mind?

Have you ever changed your mind? Not about what you would wear or where to go to dinner. I mean have you ever changed your mind about something big? Something you may have grown up believing or have believed for a long time? Something you never thought you’d ever change your mind about?

Yesterday, Gene and Louise Petty invited me to go with them to the UTC campus to hear a presentation by Franklin McCallie. He’s a big man (he stands 6’5”), and even a relative newcomer to Chattanooga like me knows that he’s got a big name. His grandfather was the founder of the McCallie School, and his father was a former headmaster.

Franklin described growing up white in segregated mid-century Chattanooga. When the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that public schools needed to start integrating, his mother told him that Jesus didn’t demand or require integration in order for people to be good Christians. Such were the racial prejudices that he was explicitly taught and implicitly assumed to be true.

When he went to college in Memphis, a classmate organized a visit to a nearby historically Black college. Franklin reluctantly went along. He was simultaneously impressed and irritated by their intelligence. He got to talking with one of them, and they discovered that they each had two uncles who fought in World War II. Fought for the same values, in fact. And they both shopped at the same department stores in downtown Memphis. But Franklin’s uncles could eat at the lunch counter, while the Black student’s uncles had to ride a bus two miles to the “colored” part of town to eat their lunch.

That conversation changed his life. It opened his mind to the world as they experienced it. He realized everything he thought he knew was all wrong. He says he went back to his dorm room and cried for three hours.

When he eventually finished his college degree, he told his father he would only come back to teach at McCallie if they would integrate. His father told him that wasn’t happening. So he took a teaching job at Howard High School. That launched him into a long career in education and school administration where he advocated for integration and racial reconciliation.

When he retired, he and his wife Tresa moved to the southside of Chattanooga, where they initiated a series of gatherings in their home among both Black and White citizens. They call it Chattanooga Connected. This group has been featured on CBS News (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RishUx2yh8 or click here ) and imitated in other major cities like Chicago.

He also described how, after many heated arguments, his father eventually changed his own mind. The elder McCallie went on to initiate the integration not only of McCallie School but also his church congregation and the Kiwanis Club.

There was a word that Franklin never used, not even one time, in his entire presentation. But it is a word that came to my mind as he was talking about both himself and his father. That word is repent. The Greek word for repent is metanoia, which means to change your way of knowing. To change your mind.

Have you ever changed your mind? Have you ever repented of some wrong-headed thinking? The Gospels record that Jesus’ earliest and main message was very simple: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

Repentance is one of the main emphases of the season of Lent leading up to Easter. Lent starts next week with Ash Wednesday, February 22. I will also be leading a study of Roger Owens’ book Everyday Contemplative on Monday nights at 7 (starting next Monday, the 20th) that is all about mindful prayer and practice. I hope you’ll get a book and join us on this journey.

Let us pray that our minds, our hearts, our lives may be open to being changed, transformed, more and more into the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). For the kingdom of heaven is always at hand.

To read more about Franklin McCallie’s story, visit https://www.salvationsouth.com/the-redemption-of-franklin-mccallie-racism-chattanooga/

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:16:07 GMT

The Ministry of Scouting

This Sunday, February 12, we will be celebrating the ministry of scouting at Signal Crest. Traditionally, the second Sunday in February is observed as Boy Scout Sunday, and the second Sunday in March is observed as Girl Scout Sunday (maybe because more cookies are available then!). Some of the scouts who participate in the groups that meet here at the church will be helping to lead both of our worship services this Sunday.

Signal Crest has been a longtime supporter of scouting ministries. Boy Scout Troop 116 was chartered by the Cherokee Council here in February 1960, just three years after the church started. Ralph McNichols and Allen Broyles were among the youth leaders who built the “scout cabin” with telephone poles from their work with the telephone company, and the cabin has been expanded and enhanced since then.

Troop 116 is currently chartered by the Signal Mountain Lions Club, but we are honored to continue to serve as their home base. This year, Troop 116 has 36 youths and 15 adult leaders. They have become one of the largest and most active troops in the Cherokee Council, and many Eagle Scout badges have been awarded across the years, including current church members Russell Hill and Hamp Kling.

We also host Cub Scout Pack 3116 here at Signal Crest. This is for boys and girls in kindergarten through fifth grade. This year they rechartered with 74 youths and 17 adult leaders. A few weekends ago they held their annual Pinewood Derby in the Crest Center, along with the Girl Scouts that also meet here.

The mission of the various scouting organizations aligns well with the mission of the church in preparing young people to make good choices throughout their lives. I have often compared the values in the Scout Law with the “fruit of the Spirit” that Paul describes in Galatians 5:22-23.

Let’s lift up the young people involved in the ministry of scouting and their parent and adult leaders in our prayers, in the words of the prayer composed by Mark Trotter which is found in our United Methodist Book of Worship (1992, p. 437).

O God, your will is that all your children should grow into fullness of life..

We lift to you the ministry of scouting.

We offer you thanks for camping, to teach us that the world is our great home;

for study and work, to build character;

for service, to see our responsibility to those in need;

for encouragement in genuine patriotism and vital faith.

Bless the work of scouting, in this place and around the world,

that, through its efforts, the young may, like our Lord,

increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with you and all people.

Amen.

This is a photo of my dad when he received his Eagle Scout in 1944.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE FEBRUARY 1, 2023

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:17:35 GMT

The Ministry of Reconciliation

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. – 2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Today is February 1. Since 1976, February has been designated Black History Month. It started out in 1926 as a week to celebrate the many contributions of Black Americans to our society, but 50 years later, President Gerald Ford officially expanded it to an entire month.

I got my start preaching in the Black church. I was in high school, and I had just completed the basic course in lay speaker training. The African American UMC in my hometown, Mt. Carmel, needed a substitute preacher one Sunday, so they called me. I knew the pianist there, Ms. Evelyn Lawrence. She was a third-grade teacher. She made me feel so welcome. I remember I was very nervous when I got up to preach. But then someone in the congregation exclaimed “Amen!” I was so surprised I lost my place in my sermon for a moment! They also would say, “Help him, Lord!” and Lord knows I needed the help! But apparently, it wasn’t too much of a disaster, because they invited me back. My first three preaching assignments were there at Mt.

Carmel. I credit the encouragement I received by the good folks at that church for helping to clarify God’s call for me to the preaching ministry.

Here at Signal Crest this month, we will observe Black History Month by singing some hymns and spirituals composed by African Americans. During the Sunday school hour this month, Drew Barton will also be leading a discussion of the book White Fragility, which can help us think and act better about being white in America these days and being about the “ministry of reconciliation” that Paul talks about here in his second letter to the Corinthians.

The reconciliation which we are called to proclaim and to practice is not just between us and God, but between us and each other. Let us all together recommit ourselves to this ministry of reconciliation in Christ.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE JANUARY 25, 2023

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:18:29 GMT

God’s Gifts

It was a real treat for my wife Tracy and me to spend this past weekend with 27 youth and 10 leaders from Signal Crest at the Resurrection youth retreat in Pigeon Forge. We got to enjoy some amazing worship and fellowship, and Drew did an amazing job organizing the experience for us all.

The theme of this year’s event was “ONE: One Faith, One Hope, One Lord.” It was inspired by the following passage in Ephesians 4:4-6:

“ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all ” (NRSV).

A few verses down from this passage, Paul goes on to describe the various gifts that God has given to each one of us. Some of us are gifted to be pastors and teachers (Eph 4:11). But there are many other gifts, including encouragement, generosity, leadership, diligence, compassion, and cheerfulness (Romans 12:6-8). Our speaker, Rev. Dr. Stephanie Hand, encouraged all of us to explore our gifts and to try to find ways to use them to build up the body of Christ (Eph 4:12).

On Saturday evening, Drew called us all together in the main room of our spacious cabin, and we took turns naming some of the gifts we saw in each other. Leaders named gifts they saw in the youth, in other leaders, and in themselves, and youth named gifts they saw in fellow youth, in their leaders, and in themselves. This went on for about an hour. It was a special time. The Spirit of the Lord was in that place that night.

So what about you? How has God gifted you?

What would you say one of your gifts is?

What would someone who knows you well say one of your gifts is (ask them!)?

How are you using your gift(s) to serve others and to build up Christ’s body?

If you would like to learn more about what your spiritual gifts are, you can complete the online questionnaire linked below. There are 80 questions. It might take you half an hour to complete. Let me know what you find out. I’d love to hear what your gifts are and to celebrate them with you.

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/spiritual-gifts-inventory/en

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE JANUARY 18, 2023

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:19:53 GMT

Life’s Most Urgent Question

This past weekend as a nation and as a church, we’ve been celebrating the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the Crest service on Sunday morning, Margee Lee sang a song that I don’t believe I’d ever heard – Patty Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain,” which was inspired by MLK’s last message on the eve of his assassination. Margee blew us away with her soulful singing of these lyrics of his longing for “the peaceful valley just over the mountain” where he knew he would arrive “sooner or later.” It obviously stirred a lot of our souls, and her song was followed by a standing ovation. If you missed it or would like to hear it again, check out the service on our YouTube channel here .

Then on Monday, Drew had organized a day of service at both the Chambliss Center for Children and the Lookout Mountain Conservancy. Drew kicked off the morning by leading us in a prayer service with scriptures that were key to MLK’s ministry (such as Amos 5:24, Micah 6:8), a reading from his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” about being extremists for love, and prayers for social justice and for the poor and neglected from the Book of Common Prayer. Then about 15 of us divided up and went to work at our sites until about noon. It was a beautiful morning and a great time of fellowship and service with folks from other organizations. I’m grateful for Drew for organizing this day of service, and I hope it will become an annual tradition.

In his promotion of this day of service, Drew quoted from a speech MLK delivered in

Montgomery in 1957: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” MLK had a ton of memorable and inspiring quotes, of course, but I’ve been ruminating on this one for the past few days. It reminds me of what Jesus said would matter most in the end – “truly I tell you, just as you cared for one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did so unto me” (Matthew 25:40).

Certainly something to ponder, not just one day a year, but every day.

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE JANUARY 11, 2023

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:22:28 GMT

Star Words

It is now the season of Epiphany. The twelve days of Christmas came to an end when Epiphany began on January 6. The word “epiphany” means revelation. In the church year, this date commemorates the visit of the wise men, the magi, to the infant Jesus. Their visit represents the revelation, or the “epiphany,” of Jesus’ kingship to all the world.

As we know from Matthew 2:1-12, the magi were guided to Jesus’ location by a star. A popular practice has developed in some churches in recent years of handing out “star words” on or around Epiphany. These words might be printed on star-shaped ornaments and hung on the Christmas tree, or they might simply be printed on cards. Some examples of star words are begin, embrace, patience, and trust. The idea is that we might prayerfully focus on our star word and allow it to draw us closer to Christ, just like the star led the magi closer to him.

One of my friends on Facebook asked if any of us would like for her to draw a star word for us, and I took her up on it. The word she drew for me was “welcoming.” I’m already praying about how this word might shape my discipleship and my ministry this year.

Another friend chose to see if he could find a star word on his own. As he was reading Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the word that kept jumping out at him was “wait.” He has found this word to be challenging him in a couple of ways, inviting him to wait when he can be impatient, but also to speak and act when he might be complacent.

So what about you? Have you found a star word for you this Epiphany? If you have, let me

know what it is so that I can join you in prayer around it. Or if you would like for me to

randomly select a star word for you from a list of star words, email me or comment on the

social media post and I will let you know what it is.

May Christ’s presence be even more fully revealed to you this Epiphany season.

Pastor Dave

DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE JANUARY 4, 2023

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 16:23:36 GMT

New Year’s Devotion

Happy new year! I pray 2023 is off to a healthy and hope-filled start for you!

Many of you may have made resolutions or set goals for yourself for this new year. One of my resolutions is inspired by a suggestion some of you made in our neighborhood gatherings a few months ago, which is to share a weekly devotional with you. So, every Wednesday, starting this week, I’ll send to your email and post on our social media a midweek meditation that I hope will be a blessing to you. I hope you’ll consider sharing this with someone else as well!

One of the traditions that John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist movement in 18 th century England, started was to lead his congregations in a covenant renewal service. He would do this throughout the year, but he found it especially appropriate on or around the new year. The heart of this service is the Covenant Prayer, which invites worshipers to commit, or to recommit, ourselves ever more fully to God. I want to share this prayer with you this week and to invite you to ponder it and to consider making it your own prayer for yourself as we enter this new year.

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

(A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition, United Methodist Hymnal, 607).