Oh The Places You'll Go

Just the other day I was reading Dr. Suess’s, “Oh the Places You’ll Go” to my eight year old daughter Adeline.  The book was a high school graduation gift from my best friend Sarah Davidson Driesbach.  I still remember the feelings of fear coupled with absolute excitement as we wondered where our lives would end up post high school.  Next weekend, Sunday June 1, we will be celebrating the accomplishments of our graduates and I suspect they will be dreaming of their futures with that same combination of fear and excitement.  Whether graduating from high school or college, many of our students will be asking the questions, “What’s my major?” or “Will I get a job?”  These practical questions are really all about purpose.  People are really asking themselves and God the question, “What is my purpose?”  We were created for a purpose--to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Loving God and loving others changes the world.  Our graduates are world changers!  We can’t wait to see how our graduates will use their lives and their gifts to change the world for Jesus Christ! 

But we need more than the graduates to invest in this next opportunity to change the world!  The weekend of June 7/8 we will be taking up a special Shiloh Fest offering.  On the first Saturday of August, hundreds of people will come to Shiloh to collect necessary school supplies for the first week of school.  As many parents and guardians know, school supplies are expensive and every year Shiloh is able to partner with families by providing over 800 backpacks full of supplies.  The Shiloh Fest offering is an opportunity for us to personally invest in the education of our children and teens.  Kids matter--kids matter to us and they matter to God.  There will be special Shiloh Fest envelopes in the bulletins June 1st and 8th.  I challenge you to give generously.  

Graduates and non-graduates alike, I want to leave you with a little advice from Dr. Suess,  So...be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!  Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting.  So...get on your way!   

Blessings, 

Pastor Rachel 

You are called!

This week I heard our own District Superintendent, Rev. Brian Brown, remind our Leadership Council that all of us are called.  We all work for Jesus and Jesus Christ has laid claim to our lives.  Rev. Brown was reminded us of our call to ministry, whether clergy or not.  We were gathered to help Pastor Danny wrestle with his call to ministry.   On Tuesday night, May 13th, the Staff Pastor Parish Relations Committee, along with the Charge Conference, confirmed Pastor Danny’s request to become a Candidate for vocation of Local Licensed Ministry in The United Methodist Church.  It was refreshing to hear the movement of God in Danny’s life and how Shiloh has become part of Danny’s call to ministry!  As Danny and others have discovered, the steps toward credentialed ministry are numerous and it’s a process that takes time.  For the next several years of Danny’s life, he will be in the process of being and becoming a Licensed Minister.  For those of us unfamiliar to the process, you might be asking yourself, "What does that mean?"  It means that although Danny functions as a pastor on staff here at Shiloh, he is working through the education and formational requirements.  He has been and will continue to meet with our District Board of Ordained Ministry.  This summer Danny will attend Local Licensing School, and when he has completed the steps and is affirmed by the District will become appointed as a Local Licensed Pastor at Shiloh.  You also may be asking the question, “What will change?”  For Danny, a lot, for you not much.  The biggest change you will experience is that being a Local Licensed Pastor gifts Danny with the opportunity to administer the sacraments (Holy Baptism and Communion) within the context of the local church.  It doesn’t mean that the Senior Pastor will stop administering the sacraments, but it means that there will be more than one person on staff able to administer the sacraments at Shiloh.  This will give Pastor Danny the opportunity to explore new gifts in ministry and deepen his practice of church leadership.       

On Wednesday, Pastor Dave and I gathered with hundreds of clergy throughout our Annual Conference for Clergy Session.  Once again the topic at hand, call to ministry.  This time focused on those persons coming into ministry and those persons going out.  As I listened to several clergy give witness to the presence of God and the call of God in their lives, Rev. Brown’s words rang true.  We are all called to ministry!  This is truth!  This is truth for you!  Whether ministry comes in the form of your professional career or ministry becomes a vocational opportunity, we are all called to ministry!  You are called!  If you’ve been wrestling with a call to ministry, please see one of the pastors at Shiloh, so that we can help you prayerfully discern that call!  

I challenge you to continue to pray for Pastor Danny and all the pastors on staff at Shiloh as we continue to wrestle with God’s call on our lives.  

Blessings, 

Pastor Rachel 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day, Shiloh!  It’s interesting that our culture takes one day a year to celebrate motherhood!  I believe being a mom is a gift, but it’s a gift that comes with incredible responsibility.  And in the church, it’s not just about biology; mothers are the many women who invest their time and resources in improving the lives of women and children throughout the world.  What about the girls in Nigeria?   The promises we make at baptism makes me pray for, mourn with, and frankly angrily want to do something about the 234 school girls who were abducted in Nigeria last month!  Why?  Because these girls are our girls!  They may not be my children biologically, but every time a child is baptized, I make promises to God that says, “I will help this child become a disciple of Jesus Christ.”  We are family!      

On the cusp of the abduction, 8000 United Methodist Women gathered from throughout the world in Louisville, Kentucky, for the quadrennial (every 4 years) UMW Assembly.  The UMW is an organization of nearly 1 million women throughout the world and although the average age of an UMW member is 67 in the US, women in Africa are flocking to UMW meetings by the hundreds.  There is a real global interest in the development of women and girls throughout the world.  Why?  Because change, real life world-changing kind of change, happens when women are empowered!  From education to micro-businesses, the empowerment of women changes communities, it changes countries, it changes the world!  Two members of our United Methodist Women attended Assembly, Nancy Gallat and Kathy Erpelding.  There they not only heard testimony of the many ways that the UMW changes children’s and women’s lives, but they were also challenged to do their part!  The theme of the Assembly was, “Make It Happen!  Faith, Hope, and Love in Action.”  The UMW were challenged by fellow United Methodist Hillary Rodham Clinton.  who reminded the women that it wasn’t Jesus who fed the hungry.  He blessed the food, allowed it to multiply, and then said to his disciples, ‘YOU feed them.”  Nancy shared, “that’s what Jesus is asking of us!  People are hungry for safety, justice, peace, and of course food.”  Both Kathy and Nancy said it was an incredible reminder of the missional DNA of the United Methodist Women.  “It’s why we do the Rummage Sale in the first place!”  It’s not about the stuff, it’s about people and changing the lives of people throughout the world.  

Today millions of women and children are separated from their families because they’ve been forced into slavery.  It’s not just the 234 school girls from Nigeria, it’s millions.    As we celebrate Mother’s Day, remember the world’s kids are our kids and Jesus is asking us to do something about it, “YOU feed them.”  

To find out more about the UMW and 234 girls go to: 

http://prod.umwomen.org:88

http://prod.umwomen.org:88/news/faith-groups-around-the-world-call-for-school-girl

Blessings, 

Pastor Rachel 

Did you know?

There are awesome things happening in the life of the church and I wanted to share a few of them with you:

Where we have been: Holy Week and Easter

• On Palm Sunday, 70 people gathered to watch our No Strings Attached Puppet Ministry present “Planned With A Purpose.”
• 60 shared in Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday .
• 101 prayed through Stations of the Cross .
• Over 725 people celebrated the risen Christ in one of our four worship services on Easter Sunday .
• Our Children’s Ministry experienced over 100 kids through our two locations . 

Where we are going: May 

• May 4 is interim Campus Pastor Dave Hood’s first Sunday at our Price Hill Location.
• May 7 & 8 Rummage Sale                                                      
• May 11 we will celebrate Mother’s Day .
• May 15 6:30pm The United Methodist Women have the Annual Spring Dinner at the Farm. 
• May 15 7pm the Daniel Plan course begins at the Delhi Campus.  
• May 17 at 8:30am Change the World Day we will be loving our Price Hill neighbors.

Blessings, 

Pastor Rachel