Depending on the church you grew up in, you may pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” or “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”

Either way, we are really talking about sin.

“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.”

Sin is not something we talk about very much, for various reasons. But sin is real, and its effects are catastrophic. Of all the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, this is the only part Jesus goes back and reemphasizes: “If you forgive those who sin against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, you r Father will not forgive your sins.”

This is a terrifying statement, because who hasn’t had a difficult time forgiving someone?

But what if there is more to sin than just our behavior, and what if there is more to forgiveness than dealing with our guilt.

This Sunday we’ll look at the depth or sin and the fullness of salvation. It won’t be pretty… it won’t be easy… but it will be good.

*We will be discussing some mature issues during the message, and so we are designating it a “PG-13″ event. If you would prefer for your child or youth to not be present, they are invited to join Abie, our children/youth minister for a special event in Fletcher Hall during the children’s church portion of the service.

*UPDATE – March 16: We’ve given away all our copies of the The Intercessory Life prayer journal, which means more than the ten people we hoped for are joining us during FORTY for 40. If you want to join us and would like a copy ASAP, you can purchase and download a Kindle or PDF version by clicking here.

You can also download, print and cut out your own FORTY for 40 prayer bookmark here.

ORIGINAL POST:
This week our Healthy Church Initiative (HCI) team submitted our self-study report to the consultation team, and I thank them for all their hard work. Two years of prayer and preparation have brought us to this point, and on the weekend of April 24-26 we will come together to consider the future of our church’s outreach and discipleship.

In preparation for the HCI weekend, we invite everyone in our church to join us in a special prayer movement we call Forty for 40. Forty is a significant number in the story of Scripture:

The rains fell on the earth for forty days while Noah was safe in the ark.

The Israelites were on Mt. Sinai for forty days as God gave his commandments and made his covenant promise.

Elijah fasted for forty days before he heard God’s still small voice.

Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness before he began his public ministry.

Forty days in scripture marks a season of prayer and preparation before a new thing is about to begin. In preparation for what HCI will bring us, we want to intentionally pray for our church and city.

March 18 through April 26 marks forty days until we receive our prescription report from the HCI consultation team. This week we mailed out a bookmark with a list forty prayers for those forty days. We will also have them in the bulletin this Sunday.  This is by no means and exhaustive list, but a guide to weave together prayers for our church and our city.

I encourage you to place this bookmark in your Bible, tape it to your bathroom mirror, leave it in your car for when you’re stuck in traffic… anyplace you’ll see it daily to help join us in prayer.  We will also have expanded prayers for each day on our Facebook page (facebook.com/fumcheath) and on Twitter (@fumcheath).

I’m also asking for at least ten people to prayerfully consider joining me during these forty days in reading The Intercessory Life by Maxie Dunnam. This workbook is designed to help grow us in “the daily fusion of sanctuaries and streets, of human pain with divine power.”

If you are interested, please email me at omar@fumcheath.org.

HOLY WEEK at FUMC HEATH

Wednesday @ 6:00pm 
“In the Beginning” Bible Study

We will continue our study of the five main covenants in the Old Testament, and how they help us see why Jesus had to die. This week we will be looking at the covenant with Abraham. Everyone is welcome, even if you have not attended before.

Thursday @ 7:00pm 
Maundy Thursday “Upper Room Worship” Service

Everyone is encouraged to attend this sacred service of story, song and sacrament. We will hear the story of the Last Supper in a new way as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. There will be space to receive Holy Communion and to respond in prayer and worship. Childcare will be provided.

Friday, Noon – 7:00pm 
“Stations of the Cross” Come & Go Prayer (Fletcher Hall)

The “Stations of the Cross” is a spiritual exercise in joining Jesus on his road to the Cross. Fourteen different prayer stations will serve as a map of Christ’s journey, from the Garden of Suffering to the Garden of the Resurrection. At each station is a Gospel reading, a passage for reflection, and a prayer. Spend as long as you wish at each station as you prayerfully center on the Passion of Jesus Christ. Holy Communion will be available at the end.

Easter Sunday Services

6:45 Sunrise Service: Outside by the prayer garden next to the sanctuary (inside if weather is bad).
8:30 & 11:00 Worship: Join us in the sanctuary as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Childcare is provided. An Easter egg hunt for children will immediately follow the second service.

This past Sunday we voted as a church to accept and move forward with the Healthy Church Initiative (HCI) prescriptions. This is an exciting time for our church, and our prayer is that the Holy Spirit would lead us in each step of the way forward.

The HCI prescriptions call us to take intentional steps to come together as a congregation for healing and unity, and to begin with a service of “prayer and preparation.” So this Sunday, June 7, we will once again combine both worship services, with SundaySchool at 9:45 and only one service at 11:00.

To further the spirit and work of this call to unity, the Worship Committee, in consultation with the Administrative Council, has prayerfully agreed on uniting both worship services into one service throughout the summer.

Our unified worship will begin with new times on Sunday, June 14:

9:00am: Sunday School
10:00am: Fellowship Time
10:30am: Worship 

This change will allow us to come together each week as one body in worship, prayer, and Holy Communion. And the fellowship time will allow us to spend time together catching up, welcoming guests, not rush the choir, and create space for intentional prayer before the service.

With these new times, we are inviting everyone to make a change or sacrifice for the goal of unity in Christ. At the end of the summer, we will re-evaluate this change as we prepare to initiate the other HCI prescriptions.

Please join us in prayer as we take this and other steps during this new season in our church. This is a historic time for us, and one we believe will help draw us closer together, with the ultimate goal of Christ’s Holy Love for God, for others, and for ourselves both inside and outside our church’s walls.

This Sunday begins our new Unified Worship times:

9:00am: Sunday School
10:00am: Fellowship
10:30am: Worship

Please help us spread the word.

Also this Sunday, we will start our summer sermon series on the book of Colossians, and we’ve put together a workbook you can use to track along. We hope individuals, small groups and Sunday School classes can use this resource as we work through the Scriptures together.

You can download and print out a copy of the workbook here. This Sunday I’ll preach from the content of Lesson One.

Below you can listen to the sermon from this past Sunday where I spoke in detail about why we are making this change:

Many of you who were not able to be there have asked about our worship service this past Sunday. With the tragic events in South Carolina a few days before, and with Sunday being Father’s Day, we opened our service with a unique liturgy for fathers and a special time of prayer for Charleston’s Emmanuel AME Church.

We have uploaded a podcast with both the opening prayer time and the sermon (which also touched on the tragedy). Unfortunately, I forgot to turn my mic at first, so the audio during the intro and prayer is low.

After the prayers, the congregation sang a version of “Amazing Grace,” but for copyright and audio reasons, we removed that from the podcast. The volume returns to normal as I read from Revelation 21 & 22, and the congregation declared the Apostle’s Creed. The audio of the sermon follows the Creed.

You can listen to and download the podcast here, as well as listen to and download the other sermons in our Colossians series.

Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the greater Methodist tribe, in South Carolina as the story fades from the news, but not from the lives of the church and families.

Before the worship service yesterday, a friend  from out of state texted asking what I would be preaching about.

“Jesus,” I texted back.

For the second Sunday in a row, national events before the weekend caused me to re-think my sermon. With the Supreme Court decision re: gay marriage, I felt it was important to make a pastoral statement before the congregation. But that did not change the message… because it’s all about Jesus.

My statement is at the beginning of the audio, followed by the sermon. And thanks to everyone who offered encouragement at support after the services both last Sunday and yesterday.

Update: You can listen to the latest sermons in this series here.

When I was a kid, I learned the big Old Testament stories in Sunday School on a felt board: Noah and the Ark; Moses and the Red Sea; David and Goliath.

When my daughter was given her first children’s bible, I realized how sanitized those stories had been made, and for good reason. Who wants their kids to imagine bodies floating past the Ark?

But I’ve also noticed that we do the same thing as adults.

Often, our Old Testament characters and their stories are given a mythological status: They become some form of superhero we’re supposed to emulate. Other times, in a culture that prizes leadership, the temptation is to look at them and their stories as models for our leadership… be it at work, home, or in the church.

We must remember that our Old Testament characters were very complex, seriously complicated, and deeply flawed. They often lived with doubt, fear, mistakes and evil acts (sometimes on purpose). And their stories were not just of victories, but also defeats.

But when our heroes and their get sanitized and reduced to steps for success, their stories become about us. But their stories are really about God and what he was doing in their midst.

We think we know these stories, but maybe we’ve heard them for so long, and in such a distilled way, that we’ve missed what’s really happening.

From this vantage point, we offer True Tales of the Old Testament as our fall sermon series. We’ll take a look at some of our most well known heroes, but hear some of their lesser known stories. Or we’ll take a look at their story from a different angle, looking at something we’ve never seen before.

Our aim is to see what God did in and among his deeply flawed people, so that their story and our story tell the same tale: God’s story or salvation for his people.

“Words kill, or words give life. They’re either poison or fruit… you choose.” – Proverbs 18:21

This past Sunday I addressed the sin of gossip in our lives and our church.

Through the story of Scripture, we looked at the most powerful thing in all of creation: The spoken word.

I believe our words either give permission for the Holy Spirit to create life, or ground for the Enemy to create death.

On Sunday, I confessed the sin of criticism, cynicism, complaining and gossip that has been a part of our church for too long, and that I am the sinner in chief.

As the pastor, I declared the walls of this church to be a gossip free zone, because I do not want to concede any more ground to the Enemy, in the name of Jesus Christ. 

I also offered a “gossip checklist” for us to go by:

• if it’s not true, or you’re not sure it’s true, or you haven’t verified its true, it is gossip.
• even if it is true, if you are about to complain, criticize or otherwise say something about someone to someone else, but won’t say it to the person you’re talking about, it is gossip.
• if your statement begins with “don’t tell her I told you this…” it is gossip.
• if you wouldn’t say it in public, it is gossip.

I believe our calling as the Body of Christ in Heath is to invite people in our community into a maturing faith with Jesus Christ. As a pastor friend of mine in Nashville says, our goal is to “Love God. Love One Another. Share the Love.”

This begins and ends with the power of our words.

And so I offered a “breath prayer” to take with us this week: “Word of God speak, and I will be healed.”

Please take thirty minutes this week and listen to the sermon podcast below, and spread the word… in love. 

RAIN or SHINE!

UPDATE: Listen to the messages below.

We love a good story, maybe now more than ever. Think about how much binge-watching happens on Netflix, how many more books are downloaded to Kindle’s, or how many people have seen the new Star Wars more than once (two times already for me).

Stories start for us in childhood: picture books, nursery rhymes, Highlights magazine… then on to Dr. Seuss, Junie B. Jones, and Harry Potter. And in the church, we use children’s Sunday school and VBS to tell the Bible stories.

But somewhere along the way, as we got older, we lost our interest in the stories of the Bible and focused on concepts and instructions: Just tell me what I need to know or do to be saved, blessed, and a good person.

The funny thing is, the Bible was written in a Middle Eastern culture that put a premium on storytelling. Literacy and printed works were very rare, and storytelling was the preferred way to teach and remember. Drama, humor, metaphor… these are the tools that make theology and faith connect with our mind, heart, emotions, and experiences rather than just a series of concepts to learn. They create conflict, make us wrestle, and in the end, hopefully, create more of a story in us.

Most of the Old Testament is the story of God’s people, and it was a story they were called to gather and re-tell over and over so they wouldn’t forget what God had done for them and who God had called them to be.

Then Jesus showed up, and his primary way of teaching was parables: stories that created word pictures his listeners could relate to, engage with, and be challenged by. Stories have a way of connecting us and sticking with us in ways concepts and principles can’t.

That’s why we read the same books over and over again, or watch the same movie multiple times, or tell our favorite tales around the Thanksgiving table.

Starting January 10, we will look at some of the stories Jesus told. Our aim is to hear what they meant to his audience, listen for what they are saying to us today, and grow in God’s story and our story becoming one.

Show Me, Don’t Tell Me

January 10 , 2016
Listen/Download

Plans are underway for Prayer Lab in the new year. We’ll be starting in February. Check back soon for more details.

Why does Jesus matter?

The quick (and obvious) answer is: “Jesus loves you so much he died for you.”

Or, if you want to be more Scriptural:  “For God so loved the world that he gave he only Son…”

Okay, but why did Jesus have to die? Why did his blood, or any blood, have to be spilled?

What if there is more to the story than we’ve known, and what if that story isn’t in the New Testament, but the Old?

This Lent, instead of the usual focus on fasting or “what we’re giving up and why it matters,” we’re going to focus on why Jesus matters, and if his story is true, what does it mean?

We will look at how the Jesus story starts in Eden, and weaves through all the plot points we’re familiar with. We’ll see how Jesus is not only the main character, but the subject, plot, and even author of the whole story.

Knowing the whole story can help transform your story. That is our prayer and goal during this Lent.

Each sermon in this series will build on the next. If you haven’t been in worship for a while, this is a great opportunity to re-join us. If you have a family member or friend (or even yourself) who have wondered how this all fits together… why Jesus matters… then this is a great time to invite them to join us.

Join us during this season of Lent as we look together at who Jesus is and why he matters in our lives and our church.

David is one of the most important historical and spiritual figures in the entire Bible. We know more about his life than anyone else in Scripture, use his songs as our Scriptural prayer book, and God calls him “a man after his own heart.”

But what does that really mean, and what does it mean for us?

As we go through this series, we’ll see through David’s stories and his songs how to live, and how not to live.

You can listen to the series here.

Wednesdays :: 7–8:30 PM
Singing for God is just one of many ways to glorify God.
Rehearsing is another form of worship. Our rehearsal will lift your spirits because the Holy Spirit works in us as we sing. Equip yourselves with tools to refine your singing voices while laughing and sharing joys and concerns with fellow brothers and sisters of Christ.

Email worship@fumcheath.org for more information or just show up. We can’t wait to see you!

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

HOLY THURSDAY WORSHIP SERVICE – 7PM
An interactive service where we remember the Last Supper Jesus ate with his disciples.  

GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP SERVICE – 7PM
A Tenebrae service where candles are extinguished as we remember the crucifixion of Christ.

EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE – 6:45AM
At the Town Center Pavilion behind Amy Parks Elementary (The service will be under the pavilion, so rain light rain should not be a problem. If weather is an issue the service will be at at FUMC Heath. We will announce any change on our Facebook page.)

EASTER WORSHIP SERVICE – 10:30AM
At FUMC Heath. Children’s Easter Egg Hunt following service.

This month we enter into one of the holiest seasons in the Church; the season of Lent. It is an opportunity for looking inward and allowing the Holy Spirit to show us those places where we are hurting, holding back, or need some course correction. Lent is a holy time for confessing, being forgiven, and forgiving others. But the goal of Lent is not to beat us up, but to help us travel down with Jesus to the place of crucifixion, to the place we are awakened to the Holy Love of Christ. This is a time of solemn prayer and transformation for individual believers, as well as for us a church community.

This month in worship we will continue our series through the Gospel of John while asking what does it look like when Love comes to town? If you haven’t been with us in a while, I invite you to join us as we journey through this story during this sacred season.

Join us for a fun-filled evening at FUMC Heath!

On Friday, June 30th, we are having an outdoor movie night and will be showing Inside Out! Grab your blankets and/or lawn chairs and come enjoy the movie and our free concessions! Be here to claim your spot at 8:15, the show will begin at sundown.

Invite your friends and neighbors, we want everyone in the Heath community to join us!

*All children must be accompanied by an adult*

*Donations will be accepted*