This coming Sunday, Karl Baumgardner and I will be sharing about the recent General Conference held this year in Tampa, Florida. As is the case with every General Conference held every four years, there were positive things about it and there were some disappointing things. We will be talking about that this Sunday.

But beyond that I want to go a little deeper with you and talk about some of the specific things that really position us as a denomination on the cutting edge of Kingdom work—What’s Right About the United Methodist Church. I think you will be pleased and blessed to know.

So . . . whether you are a life-long Methodist or a newbie, you’ll want to be here Sunday to hear about what God is doing among these very exciting and yet “methodical” people of God. Join us!

    That is exactly what will happen in two weeks. Saint Stephen East will gather at the Tascosa High School auditorium on Sunday, April 29, at 9:00 a. m. for a breakfast/brunch and then worship at 10:00. We are asking for RSVPs so please let us know right away that you are planning to come.

    I can promise you it will be one of the most amazing worship services you have ever been a part of with color and pageantry, all the choirs singing, great testimonies and exciting praise and worship. There will also been a “virtual” tour of the proposed Children’s Center and renovated kitchen and adult space.

    In addition, there will be a very exciting announcement of the total of Advance Gift commitments as we round third and head for home plate on Commitment Sunday, May 6th. May 6th is the Sunday that we will ALL turn in our commitment cards for the OUR KIDS – OUR FUTURE capital funds campaign. That is the day we will really begin to make the dream come true! I know it’s going to be an exciting time for us all!

    Be looking for future communication to visually acquaint you with the proposed plans and elevations of the project. Or check out the OUR KIDS – OUR FUTURE kiosk in the foyer.
Are you praying? Are you having conversations with God about what sort of commitment you should make to the campaign? Remember what I said Sunday:

Saved by an EXCEPTIONAL Grace,
we feel an EXCEPTIONAL gratitude,
inspiring us to an EXCEPTIONAL generosity!

May all people be the EXCEPTIONAL people of God!

    She said: Rabboni!

    Names they both knew well. Personal names. Intimate names. Pet names. Said by each the way no other could say them. It was her name spoken as only Jesus could speak it that opened her eyes. It was not the gardener after all! It was Him, Himself. It was Jesus!

    All the arguments of the resurrection have their truest finality when the Risen Lord calls us by name! Scriptures, of course, can reinforce it. Theology can explain it. Preachers can proclaim it. But it’s not until you have experienced Him in the Garden like Mary did that it really all makes sense! No wonder the songwriter wrote:

I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me, within my heart is ringing.

I’d stay in the garden with Him tho’ the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; thro’ the voice of woe His voice to me is calling.

And he walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known!

A Blessed Eastertide to All!

Pastor Stan

    Such love is truly stronger than death. The haunting refrain of the Song of Songs:
For love is as strong as death; its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot sweep it away. (Song of Songs 7:6-7)

    Have you ever wondered about the scriptures that describe God as a jealous God? Isn’t jealousy a bad thing? Yes, it very often is when applied to human beings. Human jealousy is self-serving and vindictive. But the jealousy that God feels for us is his protectiveness over us. He wants only our good! He’s thinking only of us! And when he sees false lovers wooing us away, he is jealous over us and, pure and simple, he will not let us go without a fight! He will fight for us! He is our Champion. He will love us even if it kills him. And in the end, of course, it does!

    Ah, but this is a love stronger than death, a generosity greater than the devouring greed of the grave.

Up from the grave He arose!
With a mighty triumph o’re his foes!
He arose a victor from the dark domain
and He lives forever with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah, Christ arose!

A glorious Easter to all!

Pastor Stan

Yours for Him,

Stan

    I think of another young man—Timothy— who was similarly called by God. Paul, his mentor, once encouraged the young man with these words:

Let no one despise you for your youth, but be an example to the believers in speech and conduct, in love and faith and purity. I Timothy 4:12

    Scott Smith is going to preach for me next Sunday and bring the series to a great conclusion. Don’t forget that our focus should be this: Lord, you’ve called a lot of people to Kingdom business, all kinds of people, at all different ages. How are you calling me? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do? Once, we know the answer to those questions, may our response be like that of Isaiah: “Here am I, Lord. Send me.”

Yours in the Call,

Stan

    This week we are going to look at the story of Esther, one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible. For one thing, the name of God is not mentioned a single time in this short book of ten chapters, but the fingerprints of God are all over the story. It is God working in amazing, behind-the-scene ways. AND it is God using people in specific ways: Mordecai, the kinsman guardian of Esther and Esther herself, consort to the Persian king.

    When the time of crises comes and the Jewish people are facing genocide—mass extinction—at the hands of the evil Haman, God raises up these Mordecai and Esther to save the people. The interesting thing is Esther is in the king’s palace. She probably would be safe from Haman’s plans. She could keep a low profile and survive, but her people would perish. Yet Mordecai has another perspective: Perhaps, just perhaps, God has put you in this place, in the king’s palace “for just such a time as this!”

    Courageously, Esther agrees. She will go to the king, even though she has not seen him for months. She will approach his throne unbeckoned, and it could mean death for her. Yet she says: “If I perish, I perish.” There are three days of intense praying and fasting. She goes to the king and he extends to her the golden scepter of welcome. She is able to reveal Haman’s plot and through incredible circumstances of God’s behind-the-scenes providence, Haman is destroyed and the people of Israel are saved.

    Join us Sunday as we talk more about THE CALL OF ESTHER.

For such a time as this,

Stan

    When I first heard the verse of Isaiah 6 that described how the Lord’s “train filled the Temple” my first thought, as a boy, was of a railroad train. As I got older, of course, I understood the word “train” to mean the Lord’s entourage or royal court. Either way, it’s a powerful image of the Lord’s might and glory and power, AND the fact, that no matter what, He is still on the throne!

    This is the heart of Isaiah’s vision. It is a vision that convicts him of his own sinfulness, cleanses him of that sin, and commissions him to prophetic ministry. We are on a roll with our sermon series exploring the Call of God in the lives of Old Testament characters. Join us this week for

THE CALL OF ISAIAH
Isaiah 6:1-8

    But let’s be clear about one thing. These three children made the decisions they did because of committed parents who made sure they understood the truly important things—the eternal things—about life. This is really what The Call of Samuel is all about.

    Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was barren. She prayed to the Lord to have a child, and promised to give the child to the Lord if He answered her prayer. Of course, it happened just that way. And Hannah “leant” Samuel to the Lord, and put Samuel in a place where, when the time was right, he would hear and respond to the voice of God.

    Isn’t this really our calling as parents? The truth is, all our children are “on loan” from the Lord, and as parents we partner with the church to put them in such a place where, safe and secure, they can hear FOR THEMSELVES the call of the Lord. That really is our purpose as a church. Join us this Sunday as we talk more about it.

Stan

        Feb. 26th            "The Call of Moses”         Ex. 3:1-8a, 10-12, 4:1-5
        Mar. 4th            “The Call of Samuel”        I Samuel 3:1-10
        Mar. 11th         “The Call of Jeremiah”      Jeremiah 1:4-10
        Mar. 18th         “The Call of Isaiah”           Isaiah 6:1-8
        March 25th     “The Call of Esther”            Esther 4:10-17

    I believe God has a special call for every person on the face of the earth. God invites us to partner with him in “His Save the Planet” Campaign. He wants to do great things through us. Yes, us!

    So what’s your response to Him? Will it be like Moses? “Here am I, Lord, send Aaron.” Will it be like Samuel? “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” Will it be like Isaiah? “Here am I, Lord, send me!” Will it be like Esther? “If I perish, I perish!”

    During this time of Prayer and Self-Discovery, may you hear from God and more importantly may God hear from you!

Pastor Stan

    This Sunday we will also introduce the Leadership Team of our Capital Funds Campaign. OUR KIDS—OUR FUTURE is just around the corner. Look for a mailing in the weeks ahead that will launch the program with a campaign of prayer.

    Sunday was fun! It was great meeting Dakota Bybee and his wife, Lauren. Dakota is our new Youth Pastor and has already hit the ground running. This weekend he will be with 50 plus mid-high students on their annual retreat. Dakota, you are in our prayers!

    Dear God, what do you want to do through me? This is our prayer as we enter the season of Lent. I am praying, are you?

Stan

Pastor Stan

But now, this week, we’re ready. Once again, this Sunday, we will do our March to the Joash Chest. Let’s all try to get our Commitment Cards in this week.

I love the way the Message Bible translates Exodus 35:

Every one whose hearts were roused, whose spirit was freely responsive, brought their offerings to God . . .

Eugene Peterson, the translator of the Message Bible, makes this commentary in the footnote of this passage:

Moses knew he had a congregation of generous hearts. And so he appealed to them on the basis of what they were “willing” to give. It was a voluntary offering, and the basis for their giving was gratitude. The response? “Every one whose heart was roused, whose spirit was freely responsive” brought their offering.

Cheerful givers don’t need calculating fund-raisers to motivate them to give. They need to be moved by God, not manipulated by technique. They need their hearts roused. And that happens when the Spirit of God stirs their spirits with gratitude for the grace that has first been given to them.

May the Spirit of God stir us to become generous givers!

Gratefully Yours . . . and His!
Pastor Stan

    But by the time you receive this midweek newsletter, the STATE OF THE CHURCH event for 2012 will be over. And the results, the effectiveness of our efforts to inform and to inspire, will still be unknown. That’s the liminal place I’m talking about.

    The real effectiveness of the STATE OF THE CHURCH event is told in the turning in of Commitment Cards this Sunday and the two Sundays following. The STATE OF THE CHURCH commitment is the commitment we make annually to underwrite the budget of the church. The budget of the church is essential. It is the underpinning of everything we do. It provides the space and the place. It provides the program and the ministry. It provides the amazing leadership of our church staff. It provides the outreach, the missions, the caring of our community to the world.

    Every line item in our budget is carefully considered and scrutinized. Every line item in our budget is accounted for and adjusted as needed. Our budget is as lean as we can make it without crippling our dreams or paralyzing our programs. We don’t spend it unless we absolutely need it and if we err, we err on the side of under-spend and delayed timing.

    The truth is, we cannot do great things for God without the heartfelt investment of the people of God. We need the generous and committed support of all of our members, people who have taken a vow before Christ to support the church with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, and their service and witness. We need you! See you Sunday—Commitment Cards in hand!

Pastor Stan

    Speaking of which . . . we are off to a good start for 2012! The last two Sundays we have had over a 1,000 in attendance at both campuses. Not bad for January! That’s one thing I’ve noticed about this church—we are not fair-weather attenders! We come in all kinds of weather. I salute your commitment.

    I do want to emphasize one thing—and not because anyone has said anything about it—but our focus on Children and their place and importance in the Kingdom is never meant to suggest that we don’t care about the other age levels in our church. When you are a church our size, we must specialize in caring ministry to every age! Maybe we can’t be ALL things to ALL people, but we must be—and this is our heartfelt commitment—the very best we can be for ALL people! We will never emphasize our children at the expense of our youth and adults. Every member of the Forever Family is important!

    That’s one thing that I really like about our proposed plans for the future. A new Children’s Center will give us an incredible opportunity to remodel our existing educational space for our adults (who also need more room!), including a new and larger kitchen actually connected to the Fellowship Hall!

    The YEAR OF THE CHILD, in truth, will be a year for us all! I hope you will not miss a single opportunity to participate in all that God is doing among us!

Yours for the Kingdom!

Pastor Stan

Jesus made it very clear: “The Kingdom is in a child” (Matthew 18:1-6). All the research specialists tell us that the window of reaching people for Christ is primarily when they are children. So that, quite literally, when you reach children, you’re building a future youth group, you’re preparing future adult leaders, you’re ensuring a future for the church, and, most importantly, you are obeying Jesus!

The next few Sunday’s I want to flesh out these ideas in a little sermon series called THE YEAR OF THE CHILD. With the exception of one sermon, all the sermons will be based Matthew 18:1-6:

January 15     The Kingdom in a Child
January 22     Protection of the Child
January 29     Faith like a Child
February 5     Vision for the Child
February 12    A Little Child Will Lead Them

I hope you will not miss a single sermon!

Blessings,

Stan

    Today, we are looking at JESUS: GOD’S HERO and the mystery of his incarnation. So many of us think of the incarnation as being like the phone booth in a Superman movie and Jesus is like Clark Kent who is dressed like a normal man but then goes into the phone booth and emerges as a divine Superman. But Jesus did not clothe himself in his humanity to hide his divinity. Bullets didn’t bounce off his chest or spears his side though he could have called ten thousand angels. He got stickers in his toes—what time he wasn’t walking on water. And his finger blackened when the hammer slipped off the nail. And when he wasn’t giving out drinks of Living Water, he himself thirsted for plain ol’ H2O.

    He had real hurts. He cried real tears. He bled real blood. He died a real death. Why? Because his name is Emmanuel—God With Us. With us by becoming one of us. Man could not save us unless he were God. God could not save us unless he were man. Jesus is both. He is the God-Man. Fully human. Fully divine. He is Emmanuel—God with us!

Pastor Stan

Next Sunday we will look at Jesus: God’s Hero. The Book of Hebrews tells how Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered. Just as Mary said “Yes” to God at the beginning of the story, so Jesus says “Yes” to God toward the end of the story in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Next Sunday (December 18th) is also “Membership Sunday” for any out there who would like to celebrate this year’s Christmas season by becoming a member of our church. Consider it, pray about it, we would love to have you.

What a wonderful time of year! What a wonderful Savior to share!

Stan

    Joseph is the “Unsung Hero.” One reason is because we know so little about him. He completely disappears from the scene, presumably through death, after Jesus’ trip to the Temple at the age of twelve. By that time, Jesus was very much in touch with his “heavenly Father’s business.” I think Joseph knew by then that he had finished his task.

    I appreciated Mikey Littau preaching for me Sunday while I was in Tulsa this morning visiting my son and his family and friends at First United Methodist Church where I was on staff for a total of nine years two different times. I am sure Mikey will did a great job telling the story of Joseph.

    As we continue to explore the Heroes of Bethlehem, we will look at the shepherds next week—the folk heroes of this great drama.

Yours for Him,

Stan

Mary, the Matchless Madonna                   Luke 1:26-38

Joseph, the Unsung Hero                           Matthew 1:18-25

The Shepherds, the Folk Heroes                Luke 2:8-20

Jesus: God’s Hero                                       Isaiah 53

The Heroes That Disobeyed                       Matthew 2:1-12

I truly hope that you and your family will have the most incredible Advent and Christmas ever. I hope you will not miss a single opportunity to hear the “word” proclaim the WORD MADE FLESH!

Yours in the Adventure!

Stan

    In one of his books, he tells the story of a little invalid girl who spent her life in a Phelp’s box, a very rude and primitive method in those days of treating patients with severe curvature of the spine.
    

    “Have you ever seen a Phelp’s Box?” he writes. “It looks like a shallow coffin—a grisly anticipation of the grave—and children with a tendency to curvature of the spine used to be strapped in them, as nearly flat as possible. Her box was by the window, and the little girl explained:

    “In this position I can only look up. On those night when I can’t sleep, I play with the stars?”

    “Play with the stars?” she was asked. “How do you play with the stars?”

    “This way,” she said. “I pick out the brightest star I can find and I say, ‘That’s Mummy.’ I pick out another bright star and say, ‘That’s Daddy.’ I find a twinkling one for my brother, another one for my puppy, another one for my friend . . .” On and on she went. Nothing seemed forgotten. Then she concluded with this: ‘But there aren’t enough stars to go around!’

    What a lesson on gratitude! Forgive us, Lord, for the ingratitude we often exhibit, and may we this Thanksgiving be more and act more thankful than ever before!

Pastor Stan

Stan

The second definition certainly is not restricted to the material. In fact, the best gifts from the past are those intangible things like freedom, character, and faith. All three of these we inherited from what Tom Brokaw first termed THE GREATEST GENERATION.
Call me old-school, old-fashioned, or just old, but that is a generation of heroes that should still command our upmost respect. World War II vets are leaving us at a rate of over a thousand a day, and I think we should take every opportunity to thank them for their service to God and country completely mindful of the fact that, had they not stepped up to the plate like they did, probably none of us would even be here today, or we would be speaking a different language altogether!
Since then, veterans of other conflicts have done their part just as heroically. Vietnam vets truly deserve much more recognition than they have gotten in the past. They served God and country at a time when our country did not treat them right. They did their duty every bit as bravely as any troops before them. And then certainly in recent wars, our troops have not only been great warriors but great humanitarians, rebuilding and building infrastructure like the countries have Afghanistan and Iraq have never seen before. All of that is a matter of Legacy.
For us here at Saint Stephen there is an incredible LEGACY of Faith. Next year our church will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. What we as present members have received from our past is absolutely amazing. But here’s the thing. For LEGACY to endure, it has to be passed on. The best way to protect a legacy is to pass it on to a generation that’s ready to receive it! Will our next generation be ready when their time comes? That is the million dollar question, and that, precisely that, is what this church needs to be about!

Pastor Stan

Pastor Stan

God bless you all! You are in my thoughts and prayers!
Stan

I know I can’t be perfect, but I do want to be my best self for Him. I want to be like Christ, but I have so far to go. I need, absolutely need, the power of the Holy Spirit to make me a whole and holy person for Christ. The two go together—being made whole by Christ is the key to becoming holy for Christ!

That “being-made-whole” part is what RECOVERY is all about. Listen to me, Church, we are ALL in recovery! We are all being made whole in Christ and that is a recovery worth celebrating!

CELEBRATE RECOVERY is one of the greatest ministries of our church. Every Tuesday night at the West Campus, individuals on this journey toward wholeness, meet to encourage one another and to find strength in the CR program.

This coming Tuesday night, October 11th, is CR’s annual OPEN HOUSE. I am inviting you to come and check it out. Enjoy the fellowship, worship with real freedom, hear powerful testimonies, consider becoming a part of CELEBRATE RECOVERY. Remember, even in your life, God never wastes a hurt!

Pastor Stan

Yours in the Covenant,

Stan

Stan