By Dan Hester

Our first ever Community Christmas Tree Lighting was a blast. The weather was wonderful. The turnout was terrific. And the sense of it was something of a street fair. 

Several aspects of the event made it memorable for me. To start, so many people involved themselves in the event. Seeing so many people working on making their corner of the event work; seeing so many people do their part so that the whole came together gave me a feeling of joy. 

The animals were worth every rental penny we paid. The children were mesmerized by the animals. As soon as the trailer arrived, children literally jumped on the trailer and couldn't wait to see the animals. I think the adults liked them too, just not as many of them posed for cute pictures. Even the llama who was loosed at the end (thanks Facebook pictures) added a great story for those of us who were there to tell those who couldn't be there. 

But, by far my favorite part occurred just before we lit the tree. I was blabbing on a bit providing anticipation and ceremony to the actual lighting when something unscripted came out of my mouth. I said a word of appreciation for our neighbors who were in attendance because they were the ones for whom we were doing all of this. As soon as I said it, the church members present broke into applause. That heartfelt and spontaneous gesture of hospitality by our congregation was my early Christmas present. Thank you. 

By Dan Hester

A couple of Wednesdays ago we had our open Halloween party for the community. If you weren’t there you can see pictures from the event now posted in the hallway outside the sanctuary and opposite the history wall. Looking at those pictures again reminds me of what a miracle that event was.

Through experience and through contact with colleagues I know that most United Methodist Churches are largely culturally homogenous. Most of the ministers I know would fall over backwards in happy disbelief if they opened their gym for Halloween and saw the variety of people that showed up in our FLC.

Just in terms of establishing rapport with people, our Halloween party was a howling success. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) People hear our actions louder than our words. I think the message was loud and clear: You are welcome here. We like having you here.

I want people to know that our welcome is a reflection of God’s welcome of us in Jesus Christ. To that end we gave away free Bibles. We gave Bibles away to whites, to Asian Indians, to African Americans, and to Latinos. Not many churches can say that on any day of the year, much less Halloween.

I also want the people who visited to know God’s grace and love for them in Jesus Christ. I hope that they profess faith in Christ, join our congregation and grow in their discipleship. I know that the Church does not have the instant trust of our society in general that it once had. So building relationships from scratch is the order of the day.

I think of open community events such as the Halloween party and the upcoming Christmas Tree Lighting on December 2nd in two ways. One way I see them is in creating a kingdom moment; a moment where we see a gathering of people that reflects the way heaven will look. (Isa. 40:5) I think creating such a moment is an end in and of itself. It expands our imagination, our understanding of God, and the appreciation of our mission. One other way I see such events is scattering seed. Some won’t sprout at all. But other seeds will fall on good soil and bring forth a hundredfold. (Matthew 13:8)

Thanks to all who helped make the party happen. Let’s do it again!

By Dan Hester
Our Finance Committee has wisely asked the staff to try to express what we do for outreach beyond the walls of the church as a percentage of our time. Here is my account. 

One national study suggests that full-time protestant pastors spend 6% of their time on denominational matters outside the local church and in the community. I would say this figure is accurate for the way I spend my time, plus or minus 2%.

Some of my denominational time is spent at district events, district committee meetings, and meeting with other pastors to exchange ideas and support. Some of my time is offered beyond the local church as a trained member of a Church Transformation Team. I am part of a cadre of lay and clergy persons in our Conference trained by Plowpoint. Plowpoint is an organization, contracted by districts, whose mission is to heal, restore, and equip local churches so that they may move through conflict, lack of vision, and engage a broken and hurting world as instruments of the Gospel. I receive no payment other than mileage reimbursement for this service to the wider church.

Other portions of my time spent in outreach have included, taking persons to the hospital for emergency treatment, administering the Helping Hands Fund for people in need, and presiding over funerals for families in the neighborhood who have turned to the church in their time of grief. 

The Sunday offering plate, even when it pays for salaries and office space, quite often travels outside our walls. Thanks as always for your generous giving that helps spread the love of Christ in to our world. 

By Dan Hester

I've been amused by the fallout over the use of replacement referees in the NFL. I think there was an important lesson for us to learn in the experience, and we missed it. The lesson is about taking responsibility for oneself, and not scapegoating others.

Replacement officials started the NFL season because the regular officials were on strike. Over the course of three weeks, fans and sports journalists documented a lower quality of performance from these replacement refs. The issue seemed to come to a head during a Monday night game when a pass interference call was missed. The missed call led to a last minute touchdown that "robbed" a win from the other team. 

Between 120-140 plays are executed in the average NFL game. It's almost human nature to pin the win or the loss on a last minute play. Nevertheless, the impulse to use less than one percent of the game as the measurement of it all is unfair. Such an assessment makes us feel better, but it doesn't help us grow. Such quick-fix answers stem from an almost universal human need to scapegoat; to find an easy answer, a convenient person to blame, and load them up with all the responsibility we can. Scapegoats relieve us of the need to look inward and claim our own responsibility for our lot in life. 

Replacement refs gave us the chance to be better than any one call. Replacement refs gave us the chance to be resilient in the face of adversity. Replacement refs gave us the chance to notice that football is like life in that it isn't always pristine, and then ask how can we learn from this? Instead we just moaned. 

Life is always complex, at least as complex as a football game. If we ever think we can isolate all the problems in our life down to one call, one person, one event, we've got bigger problems than that one call, person, or event. The bigger problem is our inability to learn, our inability to look inward and see our own responsibility for our life, and our inflexibility when it comes to adapting to life as it unfolds. 

Jesus showed us that when we continue the practice of scapegoating we end up killing God. God has all kinds of things to teach us and show us. We cannot, however, learn very much until we can let go of the many scapegoats in our life, look inward and accept our responsibility, and trust that God wants to give us even greater things that what we expect. I think this is part of what Jesus meant when he told us, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." John 16:12 (NRSV)

I understand the need to get as many calls right as humanly possible. We all want justice. But only God is perfect. So in the meantime, may God's grace be with you and all the missed calls in your life. Let's pray that with God's grace we can bear what Jesus wants to give us through them. 

By Dan Hester
Leadership is a big buzzword in church circles these days. Seminaries have degree programs in leadership. Annual Conferences sponsor leadership training. Consultant gurus say that leadership is critical to church growth. This is a good discussion. I've received some good leadership training provided for me since graduating seminary. But the increase of the study of leadership has revealed several different camps of what good leadership looks like, and questions of what makes Christian leadership distinct from leading a bank, a public school, or a small business. 

I was excited to come across a succinct statement of Christian leadership that resonates with my own views as they have developed over the years. I offer it here to reveal my own thoughts, as a discussion starter, and as a devotional as I came across this passage in the book I'm currently reading devotionally. The book is called The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century. Written by Joan Chittister, the book provides modern reflection on a 1,500 year-old guide to Christian community in monasteries. She writes:

"Benedict's leaders are to birth souls of steel and light; they are to lead the group but not drive it; they are to live the life they lead; they are to love indiscriminately; they are to favor the good, not to favor the favorites; they are to call the community to the height and depth and breadth of the spiritual life; they are to remember and rejoice in their own weaknesses in order to deal tenderly with the weaknesses of others; they are to attend more to the spiritual than to the physical aspects of community life; and, finally, they are to save their own souls in the process, to be human beings themselves, to grow in life themselves." (p. 50-51)

That paragraph sums up much of what I try to do as a pastor. Any thoughts? 

By Dan Hester

Thanks for checking out the new web site. We created it to address multiple ideas. One aspect of the old site was that contributing to the site was cumbersome. This site will make it easier for staff and other contributors to edit content and tailor their pages to what is currently happening. 

Another reason for the change is current thinking about how web sites function for churches. Typically a web site is a church's front door. People who might visit us generally check the web site before they step foot on the property. So I hope you will find that our site is geared toward guests and not members. 

We're trying to keep the site relatively simple. Due to gearing the site towards visitors, we're not trying to provide complete information. Do more than six people really want to know that the study group for changing bathroom fixtures is meeting on Thursday? Hundreds of buttons and switches and options on a site may be good for CNN, but it can be overwhelming and confusing for someone who just wants to know a little about who we are. 

Hopefully this site will always be a work in progress. Let me now proclaim that the site is now and ever shall be imperfect. Nonetheless, the staff is excited about the possibilities it holds, the issues it addresses, and the conversations it can start. Check back often. Give us your feedback whether you are a guest or a member, and keep St. Andrew's UMC in your prayers.