Prayer for Mission in India

This week we pray for Teresa and Anil Henry and Nancy Lott Henry, our missionaries in India.  Teresa and Anil are medical doctors at the Christian Hospital of Mungeli and Nancy is a volunteer with the Church of North India.

You can read more about the mission to India here, including stories of recent improvements at the hospital with the procurement of a CT Scan instrument and the opening of a nursing school.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries.  Each week, Global Ministries highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, April 29

On Sunday, we will celebrate our ongoing support for the medical clinic in Carrefour, Haiti.  Our special Haiti Sunday will feature a testimony from Rev. Karen Yount, who has frequently traveled to Haiti over the years -- she will be sharing photos and stories from her experiences of visits to the Carrefour clinic.  After this, Sue Short will invite us to give generously to provide the annual salary for the clinic doctor, as Eastgate has done every year since 2007.

I am excited for our worship time this weekend, when we will gather together to praise a God who uses our congregation in Independence to make a community better in Haiti.  We will share our money and our prayers and hundreds of people will have medical care that they otherwise would not have.  In this practical way -- and Karen will have pictures to show us -- you and I will be reminded again that together, as the body of Christ, we can lovingly be the hands and feet of Christ.

What a blessed thing!  I have no doubt that we will raise enough money to fund Dr. Duronvil's 2012-2013 salary -- and maybe a little extra for the clinic besides.  And I have no doubt that we will be blessed through our sharing, if only by the assurance that, through Christ, all things are possible.

April 22 Worship: "The Long Run"

After all of the special Holy Week services and last week's special installation service, I suppose that Sunday was a return to a more normal style of Sunday service.  Of course, we have several special Sundays in the next few weeks (Haiti Sunday, Youth Sunday, Mother's Day, Graduation Sunday, and Pentecost) before we enter so-called "Common" time.

(Of course, I can think of a few people who would laugh at the idea that any worship service I lead be described as 'normal.')

In the sermon, I encouraged us to take Paul's metaphor of faith as "running a race" seriously by thinking about how a distance runner prepares and runs an endurance race.  I developed this sermon after reading a chapter in Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results by Lovett H. Weems Jr. and Tom Berlin, which suggested distance running as a model for pastor's seeking to sustain their leadership in a congregation.  The authors identify six lessons of long-distance runners:

• Take Time to Stretch
• Move at the Pace of Your Success
• Be Discerning about Pain
• Make Time for Recovery
• Find a Cheering Section
• Remember the Dream

I think that these lessons apply to our individual faith, not just pastoral leadership.  I also think there is another vital component of running the race that Weems and Berlin overlook.  As my friend John Sowers wrote in his most recent pastor's note: "racing is what always takes my running performance to the next level."

I strongly believe that this can be a helpful model for us to think about our individual faith and our shared ministry as a congregation, which is why I wanted to share them with the congregation on Sunday.  Certainly it is not the only useful model, but it has the potential to nurture us toward a more mature faith.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, of if you'd like to share it with someone, you can listen to an audio recording of it here.

Prayer for Mission in Israel and Palestine

This week we pray for the ongoing mission to Israel and Palestine.  While I think we may be between missionaries in this location, the Disciples have a long history of mission work in the Holy Land, dating back to the mid-1800s.

Now, the mission focuses on offering various measures of support to Palestinian Christians and encouraging interfaith dialogue, especially among young adults, in the turbulent land.  You can read more about the mission to Israel and Palestine here.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries.  Each week, Global Missions highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, April 22

This Sunday, as we take a breath from concluding this year's Lenten and Holy Week journey and relax after last week's celebration, we will seek guidance from the great valedictory section of 2 Timothy 4, which includes the famous passage, "I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith."  As Eastgate looks to the future, we might learn from Paul's great metaphor for faith -- running a race.  This week's sermon, "The Long Run," will ask what we can learn from running a race -- and preparing to run a race -- that will make our personal faith and our shared ministry more effective and more fulfilling.

April 15 Worship: "The Morning After"

Our celebration on Sunday, with my official installation as the senior minister of Eastgate, was joyous.  From my point of view, I thought it was a great day for all of us.  My family and friends enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people, and I thought that the worship was a hopeful expression of our faith and our ministry together.

The sermon about Jacob wrestling and the aftermath of that struggle is a personal one for me, and I have shared it with every congregation where I have served.  Entitled "The Morning After (There's Got To Be a Morning After)," it focuses on the scars of our lives that mark the important events that shape us and our relationships with God.  While I know that I have not faced the deep challenges that many have in their lives, like all of us I have had my growing pains, and this sermon reflects my understanding of how those can be blessings, rather than curses, from God.

If you missed the sermon on Sunday, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with someone, you can find an audio recording here.

Prayer for Mission in Colombia

This week we pray for Michael Joseph, our missionary in Colombia.  He works to encourage pastors in this country who are often subject to the threat of violence by those who seek to intimidate them.

You can read more about the mission to Colombia here, including the story one one such pastor who struggles to preach a gospel of truth and freedom in a country with drug lords who seek power.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries.  Each week, Global Ministries highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.