New Year's Resolutions!

Although there are many people in the world that think it is pointless to make New Year’s Resolutions, I’m not one of them. I’ve seen too many people finally put on their running shoes, lose that extra 50 pounds or even read the Bible for the first time to think that New Year’s Resolutions are pointless.  In fact a few years ago I made a New Year’s Resolution to start running again and 4 years later I’m still running.  What was my secret?  Accountability!  I shared my New Year’s Resolution with a church full of people and gained a couple of running partners along the way.  And without people to hold me accountable I don’t think I would still be running.  And so Shiloh I want to challenge you, not to put on your running shoes, but rather to read with Bible with me in 2013.  Maybe some of you have never read the Bible, maybe others just portions of it, but in 2013 I would like for everyone in our church to read the Bible from start to finish.   

We will begin on January 15, 2013 and finish January 14, 2014.  And to help with some accountability along the way, not only am I going to be preaching sermons about what we are reading (The Bible Reading Plan), but we also have a few ways for you to study the Bible this year in groups.  They include:

1. Disciple Bible Study- we have 2 Disciple Bible Study Classes taught on Monday and Thursday Nights at 7pm.  These are 32-34 week commitments and are incredible ways to really study God’s word in depth.  Disciple I is a course that is a overview of the whole Bible and Disciple IV focuses on parts of the New and Old Testament with a focus on John and Revelation.  
2. Mid-week Bible Study- if anyone grew up in a church that had a midweek service this is the kind of thing you are use to.  Mid-week Bible study will also happen on Thursday Nights in the Sanctuary at 7pm and we will be talking about the Bible Reading Plan we read throughout the week.  It’s a Large Group opportunity for you to hear a Bible teaching and ask questions about what you don’t understand.  This will run the entire year (we may take a slight break in the summer).  And you can come and go as your schedule allows.  
3. Life Groups- formerly known as Community Groups.  These groups will last throughout the year (taking breaks in the summer).  And they will focus on applying the weekly Bible Reading Plan to everyday life.  These groups are really focused on doing life together.  Most groups will meet in homes, other groups at the church.  If you are interested in leading a Life Group contact me at rachel@shilohumc.com or 451-3600 #105 

Reading through the Bible is a huge deal, not only is it a major accomplishment, but every time we read and meditate on God’s word we are bound to grow in our journey of faith.  So this year I want to encourage you to take up this resolution and Read the Bible in 2013!  

Blessings, 

Pastor Rachel 

Still Waiting

We have been waiting!  Some of us waiting to finish our Christmas shopping, waiting to send out those Christmas Cards, but all of us have been waiting throughout this Advent Season for the Coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  And we'll he is almost here!  And I am not talking about the end of the world!  Just around the corner we will gathering with friends and family, sharing some great food, and celebrating the birth of Jesus with an always moving candlelit "Silent Night."  Our wait till be over and all of the preparation for Advent and Christmas will be complete!  

But there are a few things we need not wait for: don't wait to invite your neighbors, friends, family and coworkers to one of our three Christmas Eve Services (7pm, 9pm, 11pm), don't wait to contribute to Christmas Is Not Your Birthday, and don't wait to enjoy the most wonderful time of of the year!  It amazing as I run into people at restaurants, in the grocery store, and even at doctors appointments people are looking for places to spend their Christmas Eve.  And if people are looking, well why not invite them to Shiloh?  

Advent is all about waiting: waiting for HIs presence, waiting for His birth, and waiting for Jesus Christ to come again.   And so as we wait we declare "Come Lord Jesus Come."

Blessings 

Pastor Rachel 

Children, Children, Children Everywhere

Upward registrations began this week and tons of kids streamed through the doors of Shiloh!  This year we have 54 additional basketball players and cheerleaders coming for the Upward basketball and cheerleading program: 120 basketball players and 22 cheerleaders will be not only learning the fundamentals of the game, but also they will be learning what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  This is an incredible opportunity for we as a church to reach children, parents, and families with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

This is where we need your help!  Whether you are interested in coaching, being a referee, or helping us share a Bible teaching during the halftime of ball games, we need lots of extra hands and hearts to help these young boys and girls experience the love God and the love of the game.  So maybe you aren’t the most experienced coach or perhaps you feel a little rusty when it comes to the fundamentals of Bible, well Upward does a great job of giving you the resources you need to feel confident with the information you are sharing with the kids.  If you are interested in helping contact Kathy Shea at kathy@shilohumc.com or 513-51-3600 #102 

Practices begin the week of January 14th so even if you are unable to coach or referee we ask everyone to pray.  Pray for the children, pray for the coaches, and pray for the families who are participating in Upward this year! 

Christmas Is Not Your Birthday

Just the other day I picked up an advertisement and began thumbing through the pages.  The pictures were enticing and the prices were “great deals” and before long I found myself saying, “I could use that.”  “It would be nice to have that,” and “I need that.”  The pull of the holiday season is upon us and whether it is an ad that comes in the mail or a commercial on TV we can easily fall to the temptation spending more, wanting more, and making Christmas something it was never intended to be, namely a birthday celebrating ourselves.  Throughout this Advent season I want to challenge us to begin thinking about what Christmas was really all about: the birth of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us!  Christmas is Not Our Birthday.  And I wonder if we could start thinking about the way we celebrate Christmas or even buy gifts at Christmas with the mindset that Christmas is not our Birthday.  With buying stuff: let’s say you spend $200 on your family, why not spend $200 on someone who goes without.  At Church we have numerous opprotunities to do just that, from the Angel Tree, the Giving Tree, and the Hums Tree.   If you aren’t the shopping type, just write a check and put in the memo line “Christmas Is Not Your Birthday.”   Half of what you give will go to help people directly here in Delhi and the other half to our neighbors in Pricehill. 

But Celebrating Christmas is not only about how we spend our money, it’s also about how we spend our time.  This Advent and Christmas season, I want to challenge you and I want to challenge me to relax, to enjoy your family, to talk with friends, to make this Advent and Christmas season the most transformational yet!  Whatever you do, enjoy this Advent and Christmas Season, because it really is the season that celebrates God’s plan to change the world! 

Pastor Rachel  

Not Your Ordinary Christmas

Advent is a time for us to prepare ourselves mind, body, and spirit, for the birth and second coming of Jesus Christ.  And sometimes Advent and Christmas preparation can feel like sheer chaos.  Today, my office is filled with candy canes, bows, pine roping, and invitation cards, all purposed for the next two weekends Advent/Christmas Events.  But even in the middle of what may seem like ordinary Christmas stuff is this unbelievable feeling in my heart that I am preparing for something, something extraordinary.  And so I wonder what would it be like to spend the next four weeks really focused on a Advent and Christmas Season that transforms and changes the way we do life?  I’ve spent the last several days praying over the Advent and Christmas story in the book of Luke, and what is amazing is that these stories, although they are so familiar, seem so new!  I can’t believe the extraordinary work of God in ordinary people’s lives.  So check it out: read Luke chapters 1-3.  Take your time and savor each line.  And experience the wonder of God’s work again.    

Just a reminder this week:  It is awesome to be part of a church family that celebrates Advent and Christmas in such a joy-filled, family friendly, community centered way.  This week I hope to see you at the Delhi Christmas Parade on December 1 at 9:30am or watching our children tell the Secret of Snow Flake County during the Children’s Christmas Play on Saturday Night 5:30pm or Sunday Morning 11 am.  And next week, December 8 we have the Live Nativity starting after Saturday Night Worship at 6:30pm-9:30pm and this year our No Strings Attached Puppet Ministry will be preforming at 7:30pm.  It’s a great opportunity for parents to let their kids watch the puppet show as they pray through the Stations of the Crib.  The Stations will be available to everyone Saturday from 10am to 9pm.  These events are incredible ways to invite our friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers to experience the love filled ministry of Shiloh United Methodist Church!

This truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

Pastor Rachel 

Information

As I write my blog today I have important information I would like to share with you.  

Last week most people in the congregation received a letter from our Office Administrator Gail Harris sharing with us her final day in the office of November 21, 2012.  Gail served this congregation for 8 years with passion, determination, and a heart for Christ.   We are thankful for her service and we wish Gail success in her journey.  In light of this we will be hiring a full-time staff person soon.  But in the meantime some people have been asking how they communicate information to the office staff.  If you have questions concerning information please contact the following: 

Building & Scheduling: Paul Vanderbosch:  paul@shilohumc.com or 451-3600 # 104

Financial Questions: Paul Vanderbosch: paul@shilohumc.com or 451-3600 # 104

Bulletin Articles: Danny Drummond: danny@shilohumc.com or 451-3600 #102

Prayer Concerns: Kathy Lowry: kflowry@fuse.net or 451-3600 (general mailbox)

Christmas Gift Requests: Brent Dearnell: brent@shilohumc.com or 451-3600 #106

Other Concerns: Rachel Billups: rachel@shilohumc.com or 451-3600 #105 

As things progress we will continue to communicate information to you.    

Peace, 

Pastor Rachel 

Go Ahead and Thank God

We may not realize it, but our celebration of Thanksgiving has a rich and yet sorrowful history.  In 1863, then President Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday of the month to be a day set aside as “a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”  Why?  We’ll it was because Lincoln was peering over the landscape of a divided nation.  A nation where brother turned against brother and the result was The Civil War.  Now if Abraham Lincoln and the entire nation could give thanks in the middle of that kind of tension, just imagine the kind of praise and thanksgiving we can give to God for the circumstances we find ourselves in: some wonderful and joy-filled and others just plain hard.  And so this thanksgiving I wonder as we gather together at our dinner tables we could pray with all of our hearts a prayer of thankfulness.  Let us pray: 

I give Thee thanks for every drop— 

The bitter and the sweet. 

I praise Thee for the desert road, 

And for the riverside; 

For all Thy goodness hath bestowed, 

And all Thy grace denied. 

I thank Thee for both smile and frown, 

And for the gain and loss; 

I praise Thee for the future crown 

And for the present cross. 

I thank Thee for both wings of love 

Which stirred my worldly nest; 

And for the stormy clouds which drove 

Me, trembling, to Thy breast. 

I bless Thee for the glad increase, 

And for the waning joy; 

And for this strange, this settled peace 

Which nothing can destroy.

--Jane Crewdson (1860)

My Hope Is In You

“But now, Lord, what do I look for?  My hope is in you” Psalm 39:7 NIV

Over the last three days, the pastoral staff (Brent, Dorian, and Danny) and myself traveled to Hyde Park Community Church to dream of God’s possibilities for 2013.  It has been interesting to spend time in prayer purposed not only for the future of our church, but the future of our nation.  On Tuesday evening we were going to spend time together in worship at Hyde Park’s Erie building.  For those of you unfamiliar with the building it is a former convent purchased by Hyde Park and used for many events like Emmaus Walks and Awaken the City.  But we received an email from a member of Shiloh, Cathy Hunt, who works at the local Episcopal Church, Church of the Redeemer.  The email was an invitation to an evening Communion Celebration and since we had planned on worshipping together anyway, we went.  And, I am so thankful we did.  Long before any votes were counted or any political races called, Brent, Danny, Dorian, and I spent the evening with Christians from numerous churches affirming our unity and declaring that our hope is in the Lord!   

So often we can place our hope in human beings, and whether they are presidential candidates with well funded campaigns or even friends that disappoint, it’s important to be reminded that our hope is in the Lord.  I don’t know if the person you voted for won or lost, but what I do know is that our hope, our security, our future is not measured by four year terms, our hope was measured on the cross.  This weekend concludes our sermon series, “We’re Joining A Movement.”  We will have the opportunity to commitment our time, talents, and treasures to God’s work, God’s hope for 2013.  “But now, Lord, what do I look for?  My hope is in you” Psalm 39:7 NIV

Pastor Rachel 

Superstorm Sandy

Over the course of the last several days our TV and computer screens have been bombarded by images of the devastation throughout the East Coast caused by super storm Sandy.  Millions of people have been affected by flooding, loss of utilities, and a lack of access to simple transportation.  As the number of people killed or injured by the storm continues to rise, our hearts and prayers are lifted.  But God is asking us to more than pray, this weekend we will be taking up a special offering for UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief.  UMCOR is our denominational emergency relief organization works on behalf of The United Methodist Church to meet the emergency needs of persons suffering as a result of worldwide disasters.  Not only does UMCOR serve as the helping arm of the UMC, but also 100 percent of what we give to UMCOR is used to help those affect by the storm.  And so I am asking you, our Shiloh family to prayerfully and generously give to this weekends special offering to help those persons and families in need.  For more information about UMCOR go to www.umcor.org.  

Thank you for serving Jesus Christ through your generosity,  

Pastor Rachel