Existing to create: A Faithful, Caring and Joyful Community of God
Ionia First United Methodist Church
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From the Pastor:
My Journey with God
I was born and raised in the Ithaca Methodist Church, a church very much like this one. My mother was the organist for 34 years and insisted that we three children sing in every choir available. Music was a big deal at Ithaca First just as it is here. My father was a member of every church board and committee. He was also the Mayor (mayor’s kids are like preacher’s kids, they have to be good!). Church was our social life, I knew nothing else and I took it for granted.
Like most boys my age, I wanted to be a sports star. I was excelling in football and basketball until one football game in Corunna my sophomore year a guy hit me in the mouth, loosened my teeth and cracked my jaw. My dreams of glory were shattered. A sports star with a glass jaw? Yes, I know, it seems minor, but to a 16 year old it was the end of my world as I saw it. It was my crisis moment.
A little while after that, a traveling evangelist conducted a city-wide revival meeting in our high school gym. Sitting there with my family I heard him preach how he had become an alcoholic, lost his family and found himself one day lying drunk in a gutter in Chicago without hope. He cried out to God and God reached down and touched him and gave him a new life and a hopeful future. I knew that’s what I needed so I went forward at the invitation. I believe I put my faith in Jesus sometime before that day but that night, I decided to take God seriously and to live for him and to rebuild my dreams.
As I look back 40 years, I have no regrets walking the narrow way, building my life on the rock of God’s truth. It has been an awesome journey. I have known some of the most amazing people in the world. I am grateful for all that God has blessed me, a wonderful wife and family, great churches to pastor and good health so far.
But it has not all been roses and sunshine. I drifted away in college until Beverly brought me back. I neglected my young family for a while to try to make a million dollars by age 30. (I failed. I don’t know where the idea came from.) I also deeply grieved the death of my mother from cancer. To this day, I am not sure why I didn’t give up on God altogether, but in fact, I actually heard the call to ministry during that time of soul searching. She showed us the love of God and I just had to pass it on!
Now as a pastor, I know that life is not easy so I expect to deal with life one day at a time. I am full of hope for the future and full of faith in my Savior Jesus Christ. “He who has the Son has life.” (1 John 5:12) Is living for God and His church a life worth living? Absolutely!
Newsletter for July & August 2010
BIBLE VENTURES
Our sunday school is taking a summer break but will be back in the fall.
We have finnished up our study of Genesis for the year.
Yes, the kids have studied THE WHOLE BOOK OF GENESIS!
And they are pretty good at remembering all of the wonderful stories of God’s provision for His people.
We learned that our God is:
powerful, loving, forgiving and generous.
He uses sinners and saints alike.
He can take our weaknesses and make us mighty!
He promises to BE OUR GOD and to walk with us everyday anywhere we go.
And He loves us, even when we don’t deserve His love.
WHAT A GREAT GOD WE HAVE!
