Pastor’s Perspective - MOMENTS OF GRACE Earlier in July I preached a sermon called The Heart of Listening based on Jesus parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The definition of listening includes effort to hear, paying attention, giving heed and understanding. In the parable, the fertile...
Pastor’s Perspective Annual conference is a gathering of all the pastors, active and retired, and representatives from all the churches in the conference. Annual conference is where we take care of the needed business of passing a budget and electing people to various leadership roles and...
I pray that the groundbreaking for our sanctuary space has recently occurred. That’s the plan. I remember a groundbreaking that happened when I was just a boy about six. The occasion was Kempner Methodist church doing a major remodel on the sanctuary, almost starting from the ground up. We...
The Lord God took the human and settled him in the Garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it.- Genesis 2:15 From the very beginning, human beings have been about the business of tending to and growing things. We grow gardens. We grow children. We grow marriages. We grow businesses...
I hope your summer has been a blessing to you and your family. Summer time for many families is less structured. There is time to get away if only for a little while. People cope with the south Texas heat by seeking refuge at the beach or traveling to higher elevations where the...
The second ever Rio Texas Annual Conference is now behind us. It was a spirit filled conference under the direction of Bishop Robert Schnase. I want to extend a big thank you to our lay delegates who sacrificed three days to represent our church. Delegates included veterans Steve Crain and Steve...
Lloyd C. Douglas tells the story of Thomas Hearne, who, "in his journey to the mouth of the Coppermine River, wrote that a few days after they had started on their expedition, a party of Indians stole most of their supplies. His comment on the apparent misfortune was: 'The weight of our baggage...
May is a transitional time of year. This is the main month for graduations from high school and college. That event marks a transition in the life of individuals and families. Young people are given new labels: graduate, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, employed. For some, the empty nest...