Matt's Musings

Not that I have already obtained all this . . . but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Forgetting what is behind and striving toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s high calling in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV/NJV)

Baptizing

As a 400 meter runner in high school and college, one of the most exciting events I experienced was also the closing event for a Track & Field Championship: the 4 X 400 meter relay. Regardless of how fast each runner was in running his leg of the relay, the race could be lost if the hand-off was not made smoothly and quickly. So we spent much time practicing the passing of the baton within the specified zone on the track: two marks on the track between which the baton had to change hands.

This may sound easy but the idea is for one runner to hit the zone at full speed – arms and legs flying, and for the next runner to leave the zone at full speed – arms and legs flying. In between those two marks, the timing has to be such that for a moment, both runners are at the same speed – one slowing down as the other is speeding up. It is at that moment that the first runner yells, “HAND!!!” and pops the baton into the back-stretched and open hand of the next runner accelerating for his leg of the race. When it works well, it is an experience of exhilarating teamwork. Paul definitely had the image of the Greek games in mind – an easy-to-identify image of a runner straining for the tape and the prize. In his hand was the baton of faith – of joyous salvation – given to him by Christ through Barnabas – the Cypriot Christian who had come before him.

When Rev. Jim Porter handed me the baton of leadership at FUMC, Leonard Herring asked me if I was ready to hit the ground running. I told him I was; and run we have, covering much distance as a church in five too-short years, including three of the most difficult economic years most have seen. Yet as a church, we did not take our eye off of the goal – our high calling in Christ Jesus; and along the way we reversed some downward trends as we built up membership, reduced debt, added worship services, lowered costs, increased worship attendance, added small groups, extended congregational care, expanded missions & giving, lowered anxiety, raised confidence, shared joy.

We have moved from being a “maintaining” congregation to a “thriving” congregation, with an eye on the work being finished up on the Sanctuary and the work to be suggested going forward by our Long Range Facilities Assessment Team. In short, we are accelerating into the great future God has for this downtown church.

Now, I have the privilege of yelling, “HAND!!!” and passing the baton to Rev. Don Lee who will run with you for a season. He will be blessed as I have been over these past five years. THANK you for your outpouring of care and regard for the work we have done together; it has been rich, rich privilege to lead for awhile in the footsteps of the Bill Crouchs and Gary Muellers of this church’s history. On behalf of Cammy and Blaine, I can say that we have loved you like no church we have served; you have been the extended family and friends we have always sought. . . and will miss. Your best gift to me going forward is to keep running hard toward the goal to win the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus as you reach others in our growing area with that same good news.

Breathe peace and laugh with joy,

Matthew B. Gaston, Lead Pastor
First United Methodist Church, Denton
www.fumc-denton.com

Rev. Matt Gaston

It was a rhetorical question that I recently raised with three of my colleagues from large United Methodist churches in our area. We were mourning together the mounting reports and fallout from the alleged sexual inappropriateness by our colleague, Tyrone Gordon – the now defrocked pastor of St. Luke Community UMC in Dallas who recently surrendered his credentials as an Elder in the UMC.

St. Luke Community UMC is one of the largest and most significant of our black UM churches. A lawsuit has been filed against Mr. Gordon, St. Luke church and our North Texas Conference by a UM local pastor in Dallas who used to work at St. Luke as a sound and light assistant. Since the news broke, this young man has allegedly received hate mail for making his allegations. It is a horrible situation with persons all around the issues being terribly hurt in the unfolding process.

Yet sadly, this is not the first of my colleagues in just this conference to fall. Three others have been forced to surrender their orders and one is serving signicant jail time – all over the course of just the last three years. It is more than sobering.

My feelings range from profound sadness to frustration to indignation to anger because, whenever a pastor betrays the trust of the people he or she is called to serve – regardless of denominational stripe,  MY job just got a little bit harder. I have to work that much harder to earn the trust of an increasingly skeptical and jaded unchurched world that sees so often only the headlines blaring pedophile priests, philandering pastors and money-stealing ministers. It leaves me with my question to my colleagues gathered at our church last week, “How do we guard our souls?” because as one of my friends said, “We are all vulnerable,” and he was right.

Lent has taken on a new focus for me this year, using some of Jesus’ and John Wesley’s well-practiced advice plus one or two of my own to guard and bolster my soul. My practices have been certain to include:

* daily scripture reading, prayer and silence
* devotional reading
* journaling my reflections and prayers
* regular communion (hard to avoid this one)
* regular Christian fellowship (hard to avoid this one too)
* fasting one day a week
* hugging my wife and my son nearly every day and telling them I love them.
* and I pray for our pastors and our Bishops – their jobs are so demanding and stressful; they need all the support they can get.

Thank you for your prayers and care – for your pastors and for the larger church. We need each other and we need Christ every step of the way in this wilderness of Lent and life. What are you doing to guard your soul?

With you on the walk,

Matt

One of the things I love about Bible study is the gift of learning something I didn’t know before.  As we step through Bishop Schnase’s book together, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations,“radical hospitality” is the first tenet for a fruitful congregation.  Relationship starts with the first impression – the welcome.

Like ancient Hebrew practices, the Greeks practiced radical hospitality.  We see this in the Odyssey, where Zeus insures that the travelers’ experience hospitality along the way of their adventures.   It was understood in Greek thinking that the host provided shelter, food, cleaning, clothing and protection while under their roof and in their territory.   This was more than a casual, perfunctory offering; the extension of hospitality meant the extension of relationship and bonding that carried forward.   In fact, the Greeks understood this connection to be so important and strong that the very similar words evolved:

Xenia  -  hospitality
Xenos -  stranger

The two naturally and automatically went together, which is very different from our cultural norm, xenophobia or fear/wariness of the stranger.   For the early Greeks, Hebrews and early church, one extended hospitality to the stranger as a reflexive action in order to bring the stranger in under the protection, support and nurturing relationship of those in the house.  What a paradigm for the church!  FUMC-Denton has a strong history of welcoming people beyond the perfunctory handshake; we intentionally reach out, whether it is asking a first-timer out for lunch after worship, or inviting a new member to a Sunday School class, or opening the door for folks to come to our First Meal breakfasts and devotions on Sunday mornings.

In these weeks and throughout 2012, we will be asking ourselves, “Who do we want to be as a church,” whether it is discussion about construction of buildings or construction of Christian lives.   For me, regardless of the answers, the discussions will begin with the question, “How can we best offer xenia to the xenos?”  As Denton grows downtown and as we extend our reach, this will continue to be our compelling question.    How very exciting; how very gospel!

In and for Christ,

Matt

We saw with the Texas Rangers run in the World Series the employment of strategies by managers of opposing teams, especially in the latter innings of the game.  We would see the pitching coach of the Rangers or Cardinals go out to the mound to give “advice” to the pitcher when in reality they were slowing the game down because the other team had gotten two straight hard hits.   This visit to the mound not only slowed the game down but also gave time for the relief pitcher to get more warm-up throws before coming into the game.   His replacement of the previous pitcher meant not only slowing down the game but also changing the dynamics for the opposing hitters, giving them something different to think about as they stepped into the batter’s box.    All of this is by design to increase the odds of winning the game.

It has been the observation by several that the Advent Conspiracy series has been a “game changer” for us, that it has shifted dynamics in people’s thoughts and actions as we approach this Christmas individually as families and collectively as a church . . . and this has been a wonderfully good thing.   We are determining to slow the pace of the game for ourselves and our families and allowing time for the Holy Spirit to move more fully in our lives.  The Holy Spirit certainly  is up to something here – what that is we shall continue to see.   What we see dimly now, as Paul says in his letter, is that it is something glorious for the future of our church as we worship fully, spend less, give more and love all through this season and into the new year.    May our hearts not be troubled nor be afraid,  as Jesus reminded us, and ours will be the peace that passes all understanding.

Breathe peace, friends – Alleluia!

Matt

I was encouraged by a handwritten note left at church Sunday.  “RG” wrote that he (I will assume he is male) was looking at the American League Championship Series apparel on the Texas Rangers website and, with World Series excitement, was about to order a $30 jersey – something that could be rightly understood as an “impulse purchase.”  We make them all the time, sometimes daily: the $5 Starbucks, the multiple $.99 downloads, the 2 for $2 hot dogs at QT . . . plus the $.49 big drink, that outfit we see in the window – on sale of course!  Tens of dollars spent weekly for things we forget we purchased.  But RG said that just as he was about to type in the information necessary for the purchase, he paused and thought, “I don’t need this jersey.”  And RG saved himself $30 and he could save a life.

In economics the term, “opportunity costs” is used to describe the alternative ways that the same amount of money can be used; it is helpful for determining relative value.  RG, with an impulse purchase, would have had an Amercian League Champion Texas Rangers jersey.  Some opportunity costs for that same $30 would be:

• 3 mosquito nets for a family in sub-Sahara Africa that will prevent someone from dying from malaria.
• food enough to feed a homeless woman lunch for 2 weeks in our community through Our Daily Bread.
• 1 1/2 flocks of chicks through Heifer Project International..

A flock of chicks can help families from Cameroon to the Caribbean add nourishing, life-sustaining eggs to their inadequate diets.

The protein in just one egg is a nutritious gift for a hungry child. Protein-packed eggs from even a single chicken can make a life-saving difference.   In Tanzania, Omari and Kulwa were struggling to raise a family on just 50 cents a day. With the training and chicks they received from Heifer, egg sales boosted their daily income to $2, so they can now buy food and still pay school fees. Now, through passing on the gift, all of the children in their village are going to school.

As we enter the Christmas gift-buying season, we will explore some of these opportunity costs.  The Advent Conspiracy ( http://www.adventconspiracy.org) was the brainchild of several pastors who wondered about the power of such “pauses” like RG made.  What if multiple people made a similar pause during the Christmas season and spent less money, or spent it differently?  How much life-changing, life-saving difference could be generated using the Christmas season “economy of scale”?

During November we will explore biblically-based ways by which this Christmas could be very different from those we have experienced before – for us and for others.  We will be lifting up and educating about the numerous avenues by which actually spending less money brings far more difference in people’s lives.   I hope you will pause often for worship, prayer, and action this season.  And I hope that, like RG, you will pause often in the purchases you contemplate; the pause might just save a life . . . and change your own. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Held with you in Christ,

Matt

(after the 911 Service)

As my colleagues from several different faiths and churches gathered and planned over the last several months, we really had no idea what to expect in response to our offering a Service of Hope and Remembrance on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  We printed 300 bulletins thinking that 300 would be a good turnout.  We had 649. We had to share bulletins and sit a bit closer to one another.  To say we were humbled by the response is an understatement.  The massed choir overflowing the choir loft, the children’s choir, the flow of leaders and laity from 8 different faiths and 10 different churches, the candles, the joint singing and the testimony from Yasmina Benhalim of the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation combined to move many to tears and testimony days after the event:

“you helped restore some of the faith and hope that was lost on 9-11”
“thank you, thank you”
“I think I might have drawn closer to something holy, something real and something transformative.”
“I was moved to my core.”

It was for nearly all who were present, a “holy ground” experience that none of us could have predicted.  That indicates to me that God was truly in our midst, and I am so very thankful.

But I am encouraged more still with the attendant question that several asked afterward, “What will we do next?”  The repeated question tells me that there is a groundswell of desire for more people to pull together in our community for the common causes of hope and peace-building in an all too divided world.  Good people – of ALL faiths and cultures – wanting to work on a better future than the present time we live in.  Perhaps the service on 9/11 will be the springboard for this noble and just pursuit.  My colleagues and I are already talking about a similar collaboration early next year, possibly to coincide with the remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of peace-building.  In the meantime, I thank all of you, my sisters and brothers, for your encouraging words, calls and cards; you brighten my heart and my resolve to do that which is good and right and just for the sake of our community and world.   May God go with us.

Love and peace,

Matt

Where would we get enough bread in this desert?

- the disciples, Matthew 15:33

We were in the middle of a capital funds campaign at a church I served and the question on the minds of a lot of the congregation was, “How can we pay for both a large building addition AND maintain our budget?  In a sermon aimed at this question, I did a bit of research and was able to proclaim to them that based on the average income of persons in that area, if only half of the congregation were to give 5% of their income (versus the biblical 10%+) for these worthy purposes, then we would:

a.      Pay for the new construction in cash in two years and,
b.      Increase the annual budget by 50%.

As a friend of mine once told me, for most people, what we “can afford” is not determined by how much money we make but by how we spend it.  I have experienced this axiom time and again in my personal life, regardless of our family’s income.  We can afford pretty much what we decide we can afford with the resources that we have.   I think that is why Jesus put the issue back onto the disciples when he decided that they not only could afford but had to afford the ability to feed the masses who had stayed with them for three days.  “YOU feed them,” Jesus said.  You know the rest of the story: they focused on what they had – five loaves and two fishes – instead of what they didn’t have and it wound up being enough for the needs at hand . . . for a lot of people.

When we operate out of an attitude of abundance instead of an attitude of scarcity, then there is always the power of possibility.  We have had no car payments for two years now in our family.  That has effectively resulted in an increase of some $500 per month that can be used for other, greater priorities in our lives, even if we had no increase in compensation.  This is something we joyfully do because we know we have enough, and enough opens the doors for more for other important priorities in our lives.   Greater simplicity generates the ability for greater possibility, greater generosity and greater joy.

We will be exploring these important concepts and steps to attain them as we move into the fall season.   My colleague, Rev. Adam Hamilton’s book, Enough will be used in small group studies and in a sermon series.  Hamilton is the author of the The Last 24 Hours which we utilized during the Lenten season this year.  My belief is that we will lower our economic anxiety while increasing our joy as we learn how to live more simply.  It was, after all, the way of our Lord, for whom there was always enough bread in the desert.

Gratefully with you,

Matt

As a former economics major and as a Christian, it frustrates me to no end to see the lack of vision, courage and reasonableness in our elected leaders at both the federal and state levels.  From the highest office in the land to the newest freshman in the Texas state legislature, there is a stunning ideological entrenchment that has overridden the basic tenets of childhood teaching: play nice and share with one another, i.e. no one gets everything they want.  But from the staunchest red dog Democrat to the most livid Tea Party representative, there has been gross amnesia of what our parents taught us.   Even as Moodys and Standard & Poors fire warning shots across the American economic bow, both Republicans and Democrats continue to play their dangerous game of chicken with each other while the powerless are being trampled by this dangerous game.  It is time for reason and conscience to speak up and be heard from those of us who sit on the sideline and watch this automobile accident happen in slow motion.

Ever since I was in high school Economics 101, the question of sustainability of Social Security was put before us.  That was when we had more workers contributing per every retiree than we do now – a ratio that will continue to shrink.  As diabetes becomes the World Health Organization’s declared #1 global epidemic, our already stretched health care system will begin to break down in its sustainability.  We know we cannot keep paying for a two front war and keep starting new ones.    And now we know that we cannot keep borrowing money to pay for it all, especially going forward.  What to do?

It was fascinating and revealing to me that a group of some 400 teenagers were recently given the tools to play a budget-building game mimicking our national budget.   As they learned about the various issues involved, they came to appreciate a bit more how very difficult it is for our lawmakers to balance all of the varied and considerable interests and interest groups.  But they also learned how to apply what they had been taught as children: play nice and share.  At the end of the hard work, the teenagers reached consensus that a reasonable solution involved reducing benefits in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security by a little, reducing military spending by a little, increasing educational and social services a little and raising taxes a little in a manner where EVERYone had to pay in SOME.  They came away from the game with the satisfaction that in their virtual world, they had set the American economy on a track toward balance and health.

“Let the children come and do not hinder them,” Jesus said.  Maybe he was on to something.

Matt

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.”

Acts 2:4 (The Common English Bible)

My Pentecost came three days before the one on the church calendar.  Thursday, June 9 was the day we celebrated the life of Monsignor Charles King at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.  In Charles I lost a beloved colleague in the faith and our community lost a great leader in the faith.  At age 80, even as cancer was stealing his vitality in this last year, he never talked about his illness but rather threw his remaining energies into the causes that lifted up the lives of the most vulnerable in our midst.  He attended our Denton Faith Alliance lunches; he made the rounds at Our Daily Bread’s Celebrity Waiter Night here at our church; he assured me he wanted to be part of our collaborative work with our Jewish and Muslim brethren this fall as we approach 9/11; he opened Immaculate Conception’s doors to the homeless last winter on the nights when the temperature plunged below freezing and invited the rest of us to figure out how together we could create an organized safety net for the same.  But moreover, Charles insisted on the dignity and inclusion of our Hispanic sisters and brothers – that group which accounted for 44% of Denton County’s growth in the last decade.  Rather than separate Anglo and Hispanic worship services under the same roof which would be easier, Charles insisted on worship that included all , believing that the Bible speaks the truth when it says that the church is intended to be of “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5).  His funeral mass beautifully expressed that core value.

I found myself sitting between an Anglo couple on my right and a delightful English-speaking Hispanic woman on my left.  To her left was an Hispanic couple who was more comfortable speaking and singing in Spanish.   This mix was evident throughout the packed sanctuary.  The Anglo Bishop of the Ft. Worth Diocese and other mostly Anglo priests led us all in a call to worship, scripture, prayers, hymns and the funeral mass, speaking in English one moment and Spanish in the next. I found myself trying to keep up in my best Spanish as we read the text alongside the English text.  The words of the Mass (our communion) were of course nearly identical to those in our tradition.  It was for me an inspiring witness of the Pentecost Spirit, hearing so many witness in a language not their own.  I smiled as we finished the service singing, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”/”Pescador de Hombre” – a Charles Wesley classic, right out of the Catholic songbook.  It was a beautiful and moving hour shared with so many I did not know but with whom I felt an abiding sense of connection.  Truly, the Holy Spirit was in that place, just as surely as he had been in the person and life of Charles King.  May we pray for the same in all our houses and our hearts of worship.

It is Pentecost; gracias a Dios!

I was graced in April with invitations to attend the two Denton Kiwanis clubs for the first time and experienced first-hand what first time guests experience at our church – radical hospitality from a lot of our members! It seemed like a fourth to a third of the Kiwanis members present on those days were also members of our church. I learned a lot about Kiwanis that goes well beyond the annual Turkey Roll Bike tour they host in November and the Pancake Supper that they have held at our church. Turns out that their missional thrust is very familiar to us United Methodists and especially our United Methodist Women: Serving the Children of the World. Kiwanis has teamed up with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to virtually eliminate iodine deficiency disorders. These disorders cause various degrees of mental and physical impairment in the fetus and in young children.

Kiwanis and Christ both should smile on our new missional focus as a United Methodist Church. For the foreseeable future, the United Methodist Church is moving in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Organization, the Global Fund and a growing list of corporate partners to stamp out malaria in sub-Sahara Africa by 2015. It’s a prodigious task but one that is do-able and one that will put malaria in the same category as polio for Africa – a thing of the past, and a thing that we will be able to say to coming generations, “We helped eliminate it!”

Right now a child dies from malaria every 45 seconds. Ten years ago before the Nothing But Nets campaign began, that number was a child every 30 seconds. We are gaining. We will talk about it in our Neighborhood ConneXion gatherings and variously through the year as we learn, reflect, pray and do. Jesus had several strong things to say about our moral responsibility toward children; we dare not shirk that opportunity to make a generation’s worth of difference. My sisters and brothers of Kiwanis have made it their mission. I look forward to helping make it ours.

‘Tis the season of new life and hope,

Matt