Pastor's Page Archives

For Whom the Bell Tolls

I have been thinking about the importance of bells lately. And when I write bells, I mean church bells specifically. Those of us familiar with world literature might recall Ernest Hemingway publishing his novel For Whom the Bells Toll in 1940, describing the dark and brutal days of the Spanish Civil War that became one of several preludes to World War II. Hemingway borrowed the title for his novel from John Donne, an English writer and poet living from 1572-1631. Donne’s famous poem by that title describes the interconnectedness of each human being with the larger community.

When I think about bells, I think of them in terms of life. For most of my growing up years we literally lived in the shadow of a bell tower. The daily tolling of bells was a familiar and comforting part and rhythm of my life, and it is during Sunday mornings that I really do miss hearing the sound of bells ringing. The first bells calling the faithful to start their weekly walk to worship God were the bells of the Roman Catholic Church in town, followed an hour later by the Protestant faith community, and later still the much smaller United Methodist chapel.

Sunday mornings were transformed by the symphony of centuries old as well as relatively newer cast bells from the various churches. The familiar everyday rhythm stopped for the duration of a Sunday morning, and whether people actually made it to their respective church service or simply paused from the ordinary hustle and bustle in their homes, was what mattered most. Church bells were the invitation to cease our usual pace and simply pause, reflect, and find peace even for just a few minutes before the relentless pursuits of life reclaimed each individual person.

Church bells rang in each New Year’s Day, joyously helped celebrate annually the National Day of Independence, rang victoriously all over the land when World War II finally ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, and a single, somber bell would toll on the occasion of a national or international tragedy.

We don’t hear bells much these days. Pastor and author Brian Zahnd wrote in one of his blogs that “the sound of secularism is the silence of the church bell.” This made me think about our church bells here at the United Methodist Church of Reed City. What would it take to get them ringing again, drawing people to pause, reflect, and connect with God?

While we are living in this world of care

Many the burdens that we have to bear

But there’s a prayer bell at the Lord’s right hand

Give it a ring and He will understand

Prayer bells of heaven oh how sweetly they ring

Bearing a message unto Jesus our king

When you are burdened down with sorrows and care

Ring on and on for God will answer your prayer (Prayer Bells of Heaven, 1937, by W. W. Ward)

I am interested in your thoughts about ringing the church bells again. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary at our current location, after all. You can phone me, e-mail me, or drop by and share your insights with me.

May the blessed peace of Christ surround you.

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

CONSTANTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The signs of serious construction are everywhere these days in our fair county, and while the ongoing construction is a major nuisance for many businesses and residents, they are a necessary nuisance that will help improve the roads in our county considerably.

To be honest, the construction didn’t bother me nearly as much when it was centered on someone else’s street or road, but now that it has come to the street I live on, my perspective has slightly changed. Other than in the beginning of my professional career (and that on a different continent!), I never did have to commute before I accepted my appointment to the Reed City and Brooks Corners Methodist Circuit. As I write this month’s article, the repaving of US-10 is fully under way, and I can see the traffic backups from my office window. But I can put up with this temporary inconvenience, because driving on the sections that have already been completed, the experience is like night and day. So we take the detours and go out of our way to go places. And all the while humming the mantra, “This too shall pass.”

This construction business got me thinking about the church. While the physical structure may remain the same for decades, the people who make up a church are constantly under construction. People come and people go due to changes in life situations, employment, etc. We here in the Reed City congregation most definitely have had our share of transitions lately, what with people moving away to be closer to family, or losing friends and neighbors to death. But as the people of God we do not remain stagnant, ever. God is constantly creating something new in us, with us, and through us.

For example: How do we build a church that is viable and adapted to the needs of the next generation? How do we build bridges now that span the philosophical and cultural divide that exists between generations? Several studies show that in many contemporary churches there are as many as 10 different generations present, a generation denoting separate age groups. Think, for example, of the differences that exist between junior high and senior high youths; between 18 -34 and 35–49-year-olds; between pre-retirement age and post-retirement people. I think you get the idea.

So how do we build the necessary bridges that will enable the United Methodist Church of Reed City to deliver the timeless message of Jesus Christ to each new generation? I believe we can build these needed bridges by being open to God’s Spirit to de-construct and re-construct us as God’s people again and again.

The church being constantly under construction: a lot of food for thought. What do you think? Drop me a note, write an email, or let’s get together and share ideas.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

One Thing is Needful Perhaps you have by now heard the news that the long-awaited and oft-postponed General Conference of the United Methodist Church will take place April 23-May3, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

What I want to focus on in this article is the question, “what will General Conference 2024 mean for the people of the Reed City UMC, and also what it does not mean for us.”

Let’s talk first about what the General Conference (GC) of the United Methodist Church is: General Conference is the top policy-making body of The United Methodist Church. The assembly meets at the beginning of each quadrennium to consider revisions to church law, as well as adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. It also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs for the next four years. The odyssey leading up to the 2024 General Conference began in 2016. This GC was the regularly scheduled conference that takes place every four years. That GC reached an impasse over the human sexuality issues, and the Council of Bishops was tasked with finding a way out of the protracted situation. A special General Conference dealing solely with the issues surrounding human sexuality was the proposed and agreed upon for 2019. Among the thornier issues were ordination of LGBTQ clergy and how to resolve issues when a clergy violates the UMC’s stances on human sexuality by, for example, performing a same-sex marriage.

Several different proposals were offered up for consideration, and when the elected members voted, The Traditional Plan was passed, which meant that our current statements about homosexuality, same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ persons would not fundamentally change. For an explanation of those current statements, click here: http://ee.umc.org/what-we-believe/homosexuality-full-book-ofdiscipline-statements .

We did not all leave as one happy family but were ready to do more battle at the regularly scheduled full General Conference in May of 2020.

And then COVID-19 walked onto the world’s stage, and everything pretty much was put on hold. In the meantime, though, lots of big and small steps have been taken to move beyond the impass of our denomination, such as the formation of at least one new Methodist denomination, and the introduction of a new paragraph in the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline, the Disaffiliation Paragraph. This time-limited paragraph gave local congregations the opportunity to leave the United Methodist Church and either join the newly formed Global Methodist Church, or join with another denomination.

To date, 60 out of 721 United Methodist congregations in the Michigan Conference have voted to leave (disaffiliate) the Michigan Conference, and the majority of congregations chose to become independent congregations, that is to say, with no affiliation to any particular denomination.

So what does any of this mean for us here in the Reed City United Methodist Church? Here is, first of all, what it does NOT mean.

We do not need to decide whether the Reed City Church should remain a vital part of the United Methodist Church or leave the denomination and affiliate with another yet to be formed alternate Methodist denomination, or none at all.

We do not need to decide whether or not Reed City UMC would be agreeable for its Pastor to conduct same-gender unions.

These three statements on what we do not need to act upon right now won't simply go away, and there will be a time and place to answer them in depth later on.

Here is what I believe what all of this means for us right now:

“Only one thing is needful,” Jesus said when asked to settle a dispute between two sisters, Mary and Martha (Luke 10:42). That one thing needful was to simply sit at the feet of Jesus and to listen to what he spoke. This is not an argument about whether or not someone takes the Bible literally. This is about whether we take the Bible seriously. What is God saying to the church about being the body of Christ? Do we truly believe that all people created by the one God are welcome to enter a house of worship?

Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors. This has been the slogan of the United Methodist Church since 2001. Is this slogan also true for the Reed City United Methodist Church?

What is open about our hearts, our minds, our doors? Is everybody welcome here, regardless of ethnic, economic, or educational background, creed, gender, or legal status? Do we tolerate self-appointed gate keepers who decide whether or not a person desiring to be a part of this worshiping community is acceptable or unacceptable?

The one thing needful for us to do NOW is to answer honestly and truthfully these difficult questions of how we define being a welcoming church. We owe this honest and deliberate conversation to those who are already part of this congregation, and (perhaps even more importantly) to those who have not yet affiliated with us but are waiting on the sidelines, wanting to know whether they, their friends, or their sons and daughters are welcome to worship in this congregation.

May we right now commit ourselves to lean into the guidance of the Holy Spirit? May we together discern right now the question of who is welcome in our congregation to worship God, praise God, and receive forgiveness for all that separates us from each other and from complete reconciliation with our Creator?

Let us take the time to sort these important matters out and commit ourselves to truly say “welcome” to whosoever might choose to walk through our sanctuary doors. Let us pay attention to what Jesus said to Mary and Martha in Luke 10:42, “Only one thing is needful,” and discover together what that one thing is. Yours in Christ,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

MAKING THE MOST OF OUR TIME

A quick look at my day planner reminded me that it was high time to write this month’s newsletter column. I had a deadline looming, so to speak.

The funny thing about the word “deadline” is that it did not originate in the newspaper world but has its origin in the American Civil War.

Congressional Records first mention the word in 1864. It states that the guards at the notoriously brutal Confederate military prison at Andersonville drew a line on the ground around the perimeter of the compound, a uniform seventeen feet inside the prison walls. Any prisoner crossing over that line was presumed to be trying to reach the wall in order to escape and was summarily shot. This boundary was known succinctly as "the dead line."

This looming “deadline” to write my monthly column got me thinking about time management in general. As a United Methodist I am well aware of our spiritual father’s admonishment to “not trifle away time.”

In his “Rules for a Preacher’s Conduct.” John Wesley gave a number of practical guidelines: “Be diligent. Never be unemployed: never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time: neither spend any more time at any place than is strictly necessary.”

These guidelines are certainly not applicable to clergy only, but hold true for all of us.

I am thinking here specifically of a passage in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians, where the following words literally jump off the page and beg to be applied in our daily lives: “Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep,

Climb out of your coffins;

Christ will show you the light!

So watch your step.

Use your head.

Make the most of every chance you get.

These are desperate times!” (Ephesians 5.11-16, The Message)

Neither Christ, nor Paul, nor John Wesley ever understood church as something to be “played” with, but as an organism that was alive and kicking, being busy in the pursuit of making the Kingdom of God a reality on earth.

May this column about deadlines and not wasting our time encourage us once again to not be content with merely playing church, but go out there and BE THE CHURCH!

In the awesome name of our risen Savior,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

The Natural State of Being

This month’s ‘Pastor’s Column’ comes to you by way of Pastor Tim Carson, the Senior Pastor at The Estero Church in Estero, Florida. His blog was shared with the Leadership Team at the February meeting, and I felt that Pastor Tim’s words were very timely then and, perhaps even more so, these days. May you be as blessed by these words as I am.

The Lenten season offers many opportunities for reflection, evaluation, and furthering direction. As we know, in our own United Methodist denomination, there is much seeking of direction as we are reflecting on the future of our collective churches. No matter which way we look at it, there is plenty of frustration and anxiety about the tomorrows.

We read and hear news of denominational turmoil around our country. There’s a lot of sadness and anger in wondering how our beloved United Methodist Church became so “untied.” Yet, some congregations are joyful in their decisions, feeling that they can best support their mission in service by aligning with the Global UMC. Others look forward to the more enveloping inclusiveness of a progressive church, or a different denomination entirely. And those in the middle of it all? They’re looking to understand a measure of “spaciousness” (as described by our own Bishop, David Bard), embracing our Wesleyan heritage with a loving and inclusive appreciation of what brings us together in Christian faith.

These are difficult times. There are no simple answers, but we can look to scripture for support. Paul tells us (Philippians 4:47), “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Anxiety is a natural thing. It comes from processing circumstances of uncertainty and unfamiliarity. It comes from concern over leaving a comfortable place for something new. It can also come in facing a lot of work and stepping into a place we’re not sure of with people we may not know. Decisions rarely come without some experience of anxiety. That’s not wrong, it just “is.”

The good news: Paul gives us a solid “out” for our worry! He’s urging us to transfer our anxiety with faith— turning it over directly to God and leaving it with Him. What a gift! An unconditional one, at that! Imagine yourself sitting at the kitchen table with Jesus, and as you’re talking with Him, you’re writing down your worries on pieces of paper and passing them across the table to him. He waits patiently for you to let go of your grip on them, and smiles as you turn them over to him, each and every last one. “There!” He says, “I’m so glad you trusted me with these. They’re mine now. Finished. Done. No worries! Be happy!” Can you imagine your feelings at that moment? Whew! An overwhelming feeling of…peace, beyond understanding? God’s peace—to fill your heart and still your mind in Jesus!

Perhaps Lent offers us an opportunity to sit across the table with Christ, to let go of our worries, trusting that God has us firmly in his care. Again, Paul’s words, from Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him…”

Preparing for the 40 Days of Lent

6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.” Isaiah 58:6-9 (NRSV)

We are a couple of weeks away from the start of the season of Lent (Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023). Lent is a word that comes to us from an Old Germanic word meaning “longing.” Just as people long for Spring after a hard dreary winter, so the spirit longs for renewal and life in communion with God.

Lent is the gateway we must walk through if we want to understand the events of Holy Week and Easter. There is no Easter without the cross, and there is no cross without us being prepared to carry it.

Jesus offers us companionship on our personal journey through Lent. We begin the 40 Days of Lent with Ash Wednesday on February 22nd . This year we will move beyond our beautiful sanctuary and extend an invitation to our larger community. We will offer each person the traditional sign of the cross on their forehead as they drive by our church between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. on their way to work or school. The sign of the cross with ashes signify that we are committing ourselves to spend the next 40 days in a significant manner. Alternatively, I will offer an Ash Wednesday service at the Brooks Corners UMC at 6 p.m. that same evening.

For many Christians today, Lent is a season of preparation and conversion: We acknowledge the ways we have turned away from God in our lives and we focus on turning our hearts and minds back toward God. For some this means giving up something for Lent as a form of fasting. We can deprive ourselves of some small pleasure or indulgence and offer that sacrifice up to God. Or we might give up a bad habit as a way of positively turning our life back towards what God wants for us.

An experience of want, however temporary, can help us to appreciate the true abundance in our lives. And a small positive change can have a big impact that lasts beyond the 40 days of Lent.

I invite you think about what you might want to give up this year. Perhaps the words from the Prophet Isaiah at the beginning of this column can be a good starting point for us to examine our motives and expand beyond giving something up for Lent and seek out ways in which we can be a light shining in the darkness and a beacon of hope for those struggling with injustice and issues of poverty and hunger.

As you prepare for your forty-day journey through Lent, I wish you a deep and lasting experience of God’s Grace and Love that will extend far beyond Lent and Easter.

I am privileged to share this journey together with you.

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

What on Earth is God Up to in 2023?

I write these words in the remaining days of December, with January 1st already in full view. We get our name for the first month of a new year from the Roman god Janus, whose depictions show him with two faces. One face looks back while the other face looks ahead.

We do a fair amount of looking back ourselves as the countdown toward 2023 takes place. We remember failures and accomplishments, deaths as well as births, endings as well as new beginnings. And we spend a fair amount of time looking and thinking ahead to the year that lies before us like a book with blank pages, waiting to be filled with accounts of wonder, joy, and amazement.

As a congregation we are naturally interested in the question, “What on Earth is God Up to in 2023?” Much we don’t know yet or could not even begin to imagine.

But there are a few things we know already.

We are not the congregation we were prior to the pandemic starting March 2020. We have lost members and friends over these past 20 months, some due to death, others due to the natural flow and ebb in congregational life. This presents both a challenge as well as opportunities! While life as we have known it pre-pandemic has changed, peoples’ need to know and be known by God has not changed. How many family members, friends, and neighbors can we think of that will benefit tremendously when we introduce them to Jesus Christ?

The Wednesday Kidz Club has grown exponentially over the past 12 months, doubling in size from 6 to 12 children attending every week. These 12 children have parents, grandparents, siblings; what might we be able to do in creating a hospitable environment where parents, grandparents, and siblings of our Kidz Club children could thrive as they begin their journey to be effective disciples of Jesus Christ?

John Wesley’s life motto was “The World is my Parish.” How many new ways to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” can we not only dream of but also make a reality in the coming 12 months and beyond to reach our corner of the world?

Will it be easy? Most likely not.

Will it be impossible? With God, ALL things are possible!

Will it be worth it? Yes, Yes!, and YES!

We are not doing these things just for ourselves, but also for our community, and most importantly, for future generations of faithful, spirit-filled people like you!

I am excited about the new year. I sense that God will bless us in ways we cannot even imagine today.

So let us step boldly into 2023.

God is with us, here and now!

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

From Bishop to Gift Giver

Every December 6, in cities and towns and villages, people primarily in Europe celebrate Saint Nicholas Day. Images of St. Nicholas vary considerably, but none of them look much like the red-cheeked, white-bearded old man seen everywhere today.

How did this Nicholas turn into the North Pole-dwelling bringer of Christmas gifts? Nicholas was a Greek, born around 280 A.D. He became bishop of Myra, a small Roman town in modern Turkey. Nicholas was neither fat nor jolly but developed a reputation as a fiery, wiry, and defiant defender of church doctrine during the Great Persecution, when Bibles were burned, and priests were made to renounce Christianity or face execution. Nicholas defied these edicts and spent years in prison before the Roman emperor Constantine ended Christian persecution in the year 313.

Nicholas' fame lived long after his death (December 6, 343) because he was associated with many miracles, and reverence for him continues to this day, independent of his Christmas connection. He is the protector of many types of people, from orphans to sailors to prisoners.

Nicholas rose to prominence among the saints because of his charitable giving. While still a young man, he inherited great wealth from his parents, and instead of spending it all on himself, Nicholas sought for ways to benefit others.

In one of the better-known stories from his life, Nicholas saved three young girls from a life of prostitution by secretly delivering three bags of gold on three separate occasions to their indebted father, which could then be used for their dowries. The father, curious of who might be the secret gift giver, stays awake on the night of his youngest daughter’s coming-of-age celebration, and catches Nicholas in the act of throwing a bag of gold through the open window.

Nicholas does not want his acts of charity to be known, and the father promises to keep the secret. However, over time, the truth leaked out, and that is why Nicholas became the symbol of secret gift giving over time.

After the Protestant Reformation, saints like Nicholas fell out of favor across much of northern Europe. That was problematic: now who is going to bring gifts to the children?

In many cases, that job fell to baby Jesus, and the date was moved to Christmas rather than December 6. But the infant's carrying capacity is very limited, and he is not very scary either, so the Christ child was often given a scary helper to do the lugging of presents and the threatening of kids that doesn't seem appropriate coming from the baby Jesus.

Some of these scary Germanic figures again were based on Nicholas, no longer as a saint but as a threatening sidekick like Ru-klaus (Rough Nicholas), Aschenklas (Ashy Nicholas), and Pelznickel (Furry Nicholas). These figures expected good behavior or suffer the consequences, like a piece of coal in one’s stocking instead of a chocolate bar. Dissimilar as they seem to the jolly man known hereabouts as Santa Claus, these colorful characters would figure in the development of the modern-day version of Santa himself.

So this December 6, on the feast day of Saint Nicholas, you might want to join millions of other people around the world by lighting a candle, and placing an orange or tangerine on each other’s plates, and express your gratitude for the gift of each person near and dear to your heart.

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

Who Will We Invite This Thanksgiving?

It seems only appropriate that as you read the November issue of our church newsletter we talk about hospitality and Thanksgiving.

During the month of October we have searched for “Treasures of the Transformed Life,” and one of the treasures we found was the acknowledgement that it’s not about us, but about one another. We were challenged to shift the focus off ourselves as individuals and focus on the people around us by looking at one another as God sees us.

That is easier said than done, isn’t it?

As I think about Thanksgiving, I have been challenged anew to ask the question, “Who will we invite to our Thanksgiving table?” Let me explain.

As a family we made a conscious decision years ago to always keep open spaces around the Thanksgiving table for guests whom God lays on our hearts.

Over the years these may have been recently widowed women or men, or persons we knew would be alone because they had no family nearby, or other people who had no place set for them around anybody’s dinner table.

This year, my wife and I have been invited by our youngest child to join him in his new living space, and he was wondering who else he might want to invite from his new neighborhood. I was struck by something Jesus said to a man who had invited him for dinner. “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14.13-14)

If I understand Jesus correctly, then the blessing is based not upon how spiritual or “good” of a person we are, but based upon the fact that people who cannot repay us in any form, shape, or whatever, gather around the table.

Jesus asks us to get out of our comfort zone and interact with people who are often “invisible” to us. If we truly desire to look at one another the way God sees us, then we begin to see one another not from the perspective of “what’s in it for me if I interact with this person,” but instead appreciate one another as God incarnate, God among us.

Keep looking up: God is here and now!

May you be blessed as you are thinking about how to be a blessing to someone else this Thanksgiving!

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

MAKING THE MOST OF OUR TIME

Our newsletter editor reminded me in no uncertain terms that I was once more holding up the presses, so I better get moving and write this month’s column.

The funny thing about the word “deadline” is that it did not originate in the newspaper world but has its origin in the American Civil War.

All I can say is that I am glad our newsletter editor (thus far) has not drawn a line on the ground for me!

But this looming “deadline” to write my column got me thinking about time management in general. As a United Methodist pastor I am well aware of our denomination’s founding father’s admonition to “not trifle away time.” In his “Rules for a Preacher’s Conduct,” John Wesley gave several practical guidelines: “Be diligent. Never be unemployed: never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time: neither spend any more time at any place than is strictly necessary.”

Theses guidelines are certainly not only applicable to clergy but hold true for all of us. I am thinking of a passage in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians, where the following words literally jump off the page and beg to be applied in our daily lives: “Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep,

Climb out of your coffins;

Christ will show you the light!

So watch your step.

Use your head.

Make the most of every chance you get.

These are desperate times!” (Ephesians 5.11-16, The Message)

Neither Christ, nor Paul, nor John Wesley ever understood church as something to be “played” at, but as an organism that was alive and kicking, being busy in the pursuit of making the Kingdom of God a reality on earth.

May this column about deadlines, and not wasting our time encourage us once again to not be content with merely playing church but to go out there and BE THE CHURCH!

In the awesome name of our Savior,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

I REMEMBER SEPTEMBER

On a picture-perfect day on a Lake Michigan beach, walking barefoot in the sand at the edge of white-capped waves, I couldn’t help but remember September.

For starters, September has a lot to do with change. The air turns a lot crisper in the morning, and the leaves on trees slowly begin to display an artist’s palette of warm colors as summer fades and autumn enters. Children walk down our sidewalks, some eager, some reluctant and sullen, as a new school year has begun. Churches experience fuller sanctuaries and a return to busier schedules as people settle into a more structured life following the enjoyment of a great summer.

Thus I remember September as I walk along a beach in Northern Michigan. My eyes and my ears soak in the tremendous sights and sounds of the world around me, and the wish that this perfect moment would last forever gently flows and ebbs in my sub-conscious mind. But my heart knows this moment is fleeting, and my rational side reminds me that I do not live in a perfect world.

I remember September walking along the beach and watching my feet make footprints in the wet sand. Occasionally I see another person’s footprint here and there scattered among the higher ground where the waves have not been able to erase these fleeting traces of another human being’s existence yet.

I remember September because on the eleventh day of this month 21 years ago, nearly 3,000 lives ceased to exist in the blinking of an eye, and thousands more lives have been lost since in the aftermath of that tragic day.

And suddenly I am no longer alone on the beach but am surrounded by the footprints of almost 3,000 women and men. They remind me that each one of us leaves footprints behind. The waves of time do erase all our visible footprints, just like my footprints will be erased when the waves wash over them, but I am not referring to visible footprints alone.

There are the lives of those who walked before us that have left footprints in our hearts. A person’s encouraging words or a simple act of kindness leave indelible prints upon our lives. Likewise, the hurtful things a person has said or done will leave permanent footprints on our hearts and minds as well.

Of the nearly 3,000 human beings that died September 11, 2001, 19 of them will be remembered for the part they played in the deaths of all the others. The other 2,977 women and men will be remembered by their spouses, their children, their families, their friends, and others, for the words they said or did not say, and the things they did or didn’t do.

Come; take a walk with me on the beach. Feel the sand beneath your bare feet. Let’s turn around and look at our footprints in the sand before the wind and the waves erase them. Is anybody following our footprints? And, more importantly, will their lives be better because of the invisible footprints we made in their hearts and minds?

I remember September, and I am more determined than ever to make footprints that leave a lasting and positive impression for those who know me and love me.

Making footprints for eternity with you,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

God’s Perfect Pitch

I want to talk to you about pitching. I am not talking about pitching for just any old team, but pitching for God’s team. And the pitch I have in mind has very little to do with baseball, but a lot with prayer.

The longer I follow Jesus as a disciple, the more I am convinced that one of the top ingredients for effective and relevant churches today is that of being and staying in tune with God. Prayer is how we as followers of Christ and as churches get in tune with God. Leonard I. Sweet in his book, Faith Quakes, writes “that our body is an instrument, tuned for the right pitch, which is God’s pitch.” Sweet uses the image of a Christian holding a tuning fork in one hand, and a pitchfork in the other hand. The image of the pitchfork may be rather obvious. Leonard Sweet writes that “a true prayer is not something one does with one’s lips but what one does with one’s life.” The Christian life is a life in action. We proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ not only with our lips, but also by what we do with our hands, our bodies. We are familiar with the saying that “action speaks louder than words.”

By the same token, though, one cannot support with one’s body what has not been discerned in and through prayer. To engage in Christian action without any sense of direction and purpose is to be a mere busybody. Hence the tuning fork.

We get out of tune with God’s perfect pitch quite easily. Christians aren’t immune to sin, those acts of willful and conscious disobedience to God’s love and grace.

Prayer becomes the instrument whereby we lift our lives toward God and get in tune with God’s will for our lives (and for our churches). By ourselves we will fail in this endeavor; but when we keep our eyes on Jesus we can get back in tune with God. To quote from Leonard Sweet’s book again, “Jesus is our tuning fork for the eternal. Jesus is God’s Perfect Pitch.”

My sincere wish is that we are willing to seek God’s heart and mind this summer and beyond. By striving to attain God’s Perfect Pitch, we can be tuned for constructive and body-building harmony as God’s people here in Reed City and far beyond.

What do you think could happen if Reed City UMC committed itself to weekly prayer meetings and to a sincere and fervent prayer life of its people? Don’t keep your thoughts to yourself; share them with me and talk with others about what you are going to do with your prayer life!

Praying with you, and for you,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody And Nobody

Recently I was cleaning o_t my email inbox and noticed how many of the messages contained the word ‘appeal’ or req_est for help’ in the s_bject line.

This got me to thinking abo_t the nat_re of the ch_rch. What makes a ch_rch a congregation of disicples of Jes_s Christ?

In the _nited Methodist Hymnal we find hymn #558 which reads, in part, that “The ch_rch is not a b_ilding, the ch_rch is not a steeple, the ch_rch is not a resting place, the ch_rch is a people.”

The Apostle Pa_l shared that same sentiment when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 12 that “j_st as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, tho_gh many, are one body, so it is with Christ. … The body does not consist of one member b_t of many. … Yo_ are the body of Christ and individ_ally members of it.”

Ok, I think yo_ have by now ca_ght on to what I am _p to. Like our typewriters of old, where once in a while a key got st_ck and wo_ldn’t strike the ribbon, so I have omitted the letter YOU up to this point. I am sure you understand by now that the Reed City _nited Methodist Ch_rch cannot be complete if YOU are missing at every turn!

Let me tell you a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.

A cheesy story, I know, but oh, so true! I draw your attention to this month’s Leadership Team Update, and encourage you to think about what we have written there about A Note on Leadership Team Direction.

Surely it cannot be that a few dedicated and willing persons wear themselves out in the service of the entire congregation! At the beginning of this article I quoted from hymn #558, and I close out my reflections with the refrain of the hymn.

I am the church!

YOU are the church!

WE are the church together!

ALL who follow Jesus, all around the world!

Yes, WE ARE THE CHURCH TOGETHER!

I look forward to working side by side together in being and becoming the Reed City United Methodist Church!

In Jesus’ Name,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

When Jesus Calls Your Name

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). John 20:16

Of the four Easter accounts in the New Testament, the one in John’s gospel is the most personal to me.

When I think of all the times when I stood in the presence of Jesus the Christ, but was entirely unaware of his presence, that is to say, when I did not recognize him as such, I know only too well the conflicting emotions raging through the hearts of Jesus’ disciples.

Peter and John are scared, confused, and bewildered by what they see and hear and touch, and yet cannot believe.

Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, meets the risen Christ but is so overwhelmed by her grief that she does not recognize him for who he is. She takes him to be the gardener and wants to know what had been done with her Lord’s body. Only when Jesus directly speaks her name does she become aware in whose presence she stands.

What power there is in a name! I tend to think our parents put considerable thought into naming us. And even if we end up with a popular name that is shared with many others, there is only one of us, and our common name becomes special precisely because of who we are as a unique person.

Mary is one such familiar name in Jesus’ time (as is the name Jesus coincidentally), but there is only one Mary, the Mary who is in the cemetery that first Easter morning. And all Jesus has to do for Mary to recognize him is to call her name.

I find it interesting that Mary seems to have her back turned on Jesus, for when he speaks her name, “she turned,” and as she turns around, she knows immediately who it is that spoke her name.

There are moments when I am desperately looking for God but cannot find him because my back is turned. And God, who does not play “hard to get,” gently and tenderly calls me by name, and I turn toward him, and am found.

Thanks be to God who knows you by name, who loves you, and who calls you and walks beside you!

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

For Such a Time as This

Every single day ordinary people are given the chance to do extraordinary things. In our current vernacular we call this “acts of kindness,” and sometimes we even add the expression “random” to it, but by doing so, we are missing the point. Exposure to current news stories is anything but encouraging. These are challenging times we live in. I hear the words of Jesus going through my mind as I open my newspaper:

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24.6-7).

We “commit” acts of “kindness” simply because we are the right person in the right place and at the right time. Take Nicholas Winton, for example. Nicholas was scheduled to take a skiing holiday in Switzerland when he received an urgent message from a friend in Prague, Czechoslovakia, who needed his help in assisting with some Jewish welfare work. Nicholas traveled to Prague instead of Switzerland, and once there, he put his whole dedication and ingenuity to work.

The time was December 1938, and Czechoslovakia was under constant threat of invasion through Nazi Germany, supposedly in order to free the German people living in the Sudetenland from their Czech oppressors. Winton singlehandedly established an organization to aid the children from Jewish families at risk by the Nazis. He set up an office at a dining table in his hotel room in Prague, and over the next few months he organized the rescue of 669 children (most of them Jewish) in an operation known as the Czech Kindertransport (children’s transport). Winton would arrange for the children’s safe passage to Britain in addition to finding homes for the children in Britain and in Sweden.

Nobody knew anything about what Nicholas Winton had done on the eve of the Second World War for half a century, until his wife found an old scrapbook while looking for something in the attic of their home. Inside this scrapbook Winton had diligently listed all of the names of the children rescued and other important documents. Once his story became known, Nicholas Winton was an overnight sensation, and the press called him “Britain’s Schindler.”

Nicholas Winton’s one act of kindness literally changed the world, because his brave action to save 669 children has touched the lives of their parents and descendants as well. All in all, Winton’s family, if you will, grew to over 5,000 people who are here today because of his willingness to stand up for what was right even when things became difficult and dangerous.

I am reminded of Queen Esther in the Old Testament book by her name. Esther, born to a Jewish family, becomes queen to a foreign king. When a decree goes out to have all of the Jews killed, Esther’s uncle, Mordechai, gets a message to Esther, urging her to do whatever she can to avert this tragedy: “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4.14).

The invasion and war in the Ukraine show us in vivid images humankind at both its worst and its best. The lies and misinformation fed to the Russian people, the Russian soldiers, and the rest of the world cannot change the stinking mess the Gremlin in the Kremlin has unleashed upon Ukrainian people and his own people. The outpouring of support and concern for the plight of people fleeing the war-torn country is a testament that good always wins over evil.

Every single day ordinary people like you and me are given the chance to do extraordinary things. May the story of Nicholas Winton inspire you to do extraordinary acts of kindness as you place yourself in the service of God. One never knows: Perhaps we are the right people in the right places for such a time as this!

Journeying towards Easter together,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

Spiritual Garage Sale-ing

Scripture: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” Psalm 103: 8-10

We are a few days away from the start of the season of Lent. Lent is a word that comes to us from an Old Germanic word meaning “longing.” Just as people long for spring after a hard dreary winter, so the spirit longs for renewal and life in communion with God. Lent is the gateway we must walk through if we want to understand the events of Holy Week and Easter. There is no Easter without the cross, and there is no cross without us being prepared to carry it. Jesus offers us companionship on our personal journey through Lent. We begin the 40 Days of Lent with Ash Wednesday, and I invite you to come by Reed City UMC between noon and 1 pm on Wednesday, March 2. I will be in the sanctuary and offer each person the traditional sign of the cross on their forehead, signifying that we are committing ourselves to spend the next 40 days in a significant manner. Alternatively, I will offer an Ash Wednesday service at the Brooks Corners UMC at 6 pm that same day.

For many Christians today, Lent is a season of preparation and conversion: we acknowledge the ways we have turned away from God in our lives and we focus on turning our hearts and minds back toward God. For some this means giving up something for Lent as a form of fasting. We can deprive ourselves of some small pleasure or indulgence and offer that sacrifice up to God. Or we might “give up” a bad habit as a way of positively turning our life back towards what God wants for us.

An experience of want, however temporary, can help us to appreciate the true abundance in our lives. And a small positive change can have a big impact that lasts beyond the 40 days of Lent. I invite you think about what you might want to give up this year. Is it something you enjoy that you want to sacrifice for a while, like your daily latte? Or is it a bad habit you want to conquer, like running late for meetings? Or perhaps you want to turn your mobile phone off for a few hours each day and not let it distract you from the loved ones you are with in real time?

Here is one more idea: Go into the basement and attic and storage closets of your heart and collect all the junk and rummage that has accumulated over time and hinders you from fully experiencing the life promised by Christ. Take all that junk and rummage and hold a spiritual garage sale. Don’t expect multitudes to throng to your place; they have junk and rummage of their own already! But do expect one buyer: God. God has promised us in Psalm 103 “As far as the east is from the west, so far [God] removes our transgressions from us.”

As you are getting ready for your forty-day journey through Lent, I wish you happy garage sale-ing in the Lord. We are on this journey together.

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

Do Not Be Afraid

Some Christians like to live by slogans. The more concise and pithier the slogan, the better for us to memorize it and recite it. Remember the “WWJD?” phenomenon from some years ago? It seemed that the whole world was wearing “What Would Jesus Do?” emblazoned bracelets, from cheap, colorful rubber bands to rather elaborate, diamond encrusted silver and gold bracelets.

Another slogan we like to invoke as a mantra quite often is “God is good, all of the time,” to which others are expected to respond with, “All of the time, God is good.”

As such, there is nothing wrong with slogans, but if slogans become something akin to magic formulas, then we get ourselves in trouble. We get ourselves in trouble because we substitute the real thing, faith, with some catchy phrase or pithy saying. It is one thing to proclaim, “God is good, all of the time,” but an entirely different thing when asked, “is that what YOU truly believe?”

Think about it: do you truly believe that God is good (i.e.: faithful, trustworthy, always present, etc.) ALL the time? How about during these challenging times of living in economically stressful and unpredictable times? United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase wrote in one of his blog articles that “If a congregation is driven by fear rather than faith, then it falls to us to keep the focus where it belongs—the ministry of Jesus Christ.”

How often do we find the admonition “Do not be afraid” in the Bible, and yet succumb to fear as we read or watch the daily news? And what are we to make with Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount about “Do Not Worry” (Matthew 6:25-34), and still give in to worry nonetheless?

“Do Not Fear” does not mean we avoid legitimate concerns, nor does “Do Not Worry” free us from making wise and often difficult decisions. But what Jesus reminds us of is that if we let worry win, then we lose. And “when worry wins, then the purpose and ministry of Christ gets hijacked, derailed, ignored and avoided,” to quote Robert Schnase one more time.

These are difficult and challenging days we are living through presently, but as people of faith we need not succumb to fear and worry. Someone once defined worry like this: “Worry is a lot like a rocking chair; it will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.”

So let us commit to make prudent decisions rather than panicked ones. When I look at the example the early Christians give us for this day and age, there is one thing that stands out very clearly: The early Christians did not let worry win. May we all learn from them as we follow Christ. And may we also remember that ‘this too shall pass away.’

In the awesome name of our Savior,

Pastor Daniel Hofmann

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What on Earth is God Up to in 2022?

I write these words in the remaining days of December, with January 1st already in full view. We get our name for the first month of a new year from the Roman god Janus, whose depictions show him with two faces: one face looks back while the other face looks ahead.

We do a fair amount of looking back ourselves as the countdown toward 2022 takes place. We remember failures and accomplishments, deaths as well as births, endings as well as new beginnings.

And we spend a fair amount of time looking and thinking ahead to the year that lies before us like a book with blank pages, waiting to be filled with accounts of wonder, joy, and amazement. As a congregation we are naturally interested in the question, “What on Earth is God Up to in 2022?” Much we don’t know yet or could not even begin to imagine. But there are a few things we know already, and the excitement and momentum are building.

What we can know is that we will continue our commitment to make a difference to be a beacon of God’s eternal love as we gather for worship and, even more importantly, when we are dispersed as God’s people within our neighborhoods and our community.

We can also know that 2022 will be a better and bigger year as we will learn to live with the Coronavirus and resume even more being an active and vital part in making our part of the world a better place through engaging the larger community. Engagements such as Vacation Bible School, hosting an ALPHA Course, run a Rummage Sale, or through serving the needs in our community in different ways.

Will it be easy? Most likely not.

Will it be impossible? With God, ALL things are possible!

Will it be worth it? Yes!, Yes, and YES!

We are not doing these things just for ourselves, but also for our community, and most importantly for future generations of faithful, spirit-filled Reed City UMC people like you!

I am excited about the new year. I sense that God will bless us in ways we cannot even imagine today.

So let us step boldly into 2022. God is with us, here and now!

Pastor Daniel Hofmann