Peakland UMC

Music Monday: The Solid Rock by Peakland UMC

Joe

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. With me today is my partner in ministry, Andrew Labar Dietz Peakland’s Associate minister of Discipleship.  Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Season of Lent, and we gather with Christians all over the world on this day, and we do so as Christians have gathered for centuries to receive a gritty reminder.  Today we remember that we are mortal, that we will die.  We remember our mortality today, so that at the end of this season of Lent, we may truly celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and embrace our new lives in Christ and our resurrected lives with Christ in the life to come.  In order to participate for you watching at home, you’ll need a bit of dirt or ash from the from the fireplace. In just a moment you’ll place a mark on your forehead.

Andrew:

We remember our mortality by receiving a mark of ashes on our foreheads and hearing the words, Remember thou art dust, and to dust thou wilt return.  Repent and believe the Gospel.  That last part "repent and believe the Gospel" is just as important as the first.  For in order to truly embrace our new lives in Christ, we must do the demanding work of self-examination and correction in this season of Lent.  Our first step together in that self-examination is with prayer.  

Let us pray:

God, create in us clean hearts and renew your spirit within us.

Restore unto us the joy of your salvation.

Be willing, O God, to keep us in your tender care.

Deliver us, Lord, and free us from sin.

Help us, Holy One, to use our lives as a testament to your transformational power.

Allow your Holy Spirit to redirect us when we begin to wallow back to sin.

This Ash Wednesday we take hold of your promise:

Renew us, Lord: a new walk, a new talk, a new mind, a new heart, a new life.

Thank you for the promise that we can truly be made new again.

AN INVITATION TO THE OBSERVANCE OF LENTEN DISCIPLINES

Joe:

Beloved in Christ: the early Christians observed with great devotion the days of the Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation. During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.

Andrew

It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to participation in the life of the Church. In this way, the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Joe

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent: We do this through self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word. To make a right beginning of repentance and as a mark of our mortal nature, we receive these ashes.

THANKSGIVING OVER THE ASHES

IMPOSITION OF THE ASHES

Remember thou art dust, and to dust thou wilt return

Repent and believe the Gospel.        

Joe:

And now you, take a bit of the ash or dirt, mark your head.

Remember that thou are dust, and to dust thou wilt return.

Repent and believe the Gospel.

Amen.

Peakland offers two ways of strengthening our faith during the season of Lent.

As a congregation, we’ll be reading and discussing this book. Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. We’ll have in-person discussion groups during the week and I’ll offer my insights each Wednesday here online.

As we have done in year’s past, Peakland will collect a Lenten financial offering to benefit 7 helping agencies here in town. Look for more details on those ministries coming soon.

We pray you have a blessed Lenten season.

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, discussing our church book studies or like I’m doing today, giving you an update on Peakland’s new vision statement: reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table.

Last October, when we were discerning Christ’s vision for our church, we reached out to community leaders and asked them what the needs were that they saw that Peakland might be able to address. We heard from the Jubilee Center, Parkview and from Bedford Hills elementary school which is a 3 minute drive from our church.

I met with Sherri Steele, the principal of Bedford Hills, and she told me that the school needed three things.

Mini bags of pretzels that she and the teachers could keep on hand to pass out as needed for hungry kids who didn’t have a snack of their own.

Tutors to come to the school

Some form of staff appreciation for the just over 80 folks who work at Bedford Hills.

I have an update for you. Just a few moments ago, I dropped off 99 mini bags of pretzels to the school, using the pastor discretionary funds that you have provided for me to use to help folks out as needed. Thank you for your generosity. I’ll check in with Principal Steele to see how long 99 mini bags will last.

I’m going to begin tutoring at Bedford Hills on Thursday afternoons at least once a month. I start next week. One or two others from Peakland will be helping out as well.

As far as staff appreciation for the folks at Bedford Hills, that’s where I need some help. I’m not sure what would work best or who in our church would like to help with that. If you have an idea or want to volunteer send me an email.

These are good first steps, and I’m proud that Peakland is able to take them. As we and the folks at Bedford Hills get to know each other, I suspect there will be many other ways our church will keep on reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table.

For now, keep the students and staff of Bedford Hills Elementary in your prayers. Keep Peakland in your prayers too.

Thanks be to God!

From our 8:30 service on February 12, 2023 Andrew Labar-Dietz performs a handbell solo of Softly and Tenderly

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, discussing our church book studies, or church news.

Today, I want to tell you about my meeting with the Virginia Annual Conference’s new bishop. Sue Haupert-Johnson.

First a word about United Methodist bishops. We United Methodist organize our congregations into conferences, which are regional areas usually the size of a state. Each conference is governed by a bishop. Peakland is part of the Virginia Annual Conference, which covers most of the state of Virginia and has just over 1100 congregations and 1800 clergy like Andrew, Pastor Dave and me.

Our current bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson began as our bishop on January 1 of this year. This is her second annual conference where she has served as bishop. She spent the past 6 years as the bishop of the North Georgia Conference. A bishop is like the governor of a state. She is the chief executive officer and ensures that our church rules and laws are upheld. The bishop is the one who assigns us clergy to our congregations. Most United Methodist can go their whole lives without meeting a bishop, but bishops are an important part of our United Methodist church.

Bishop Sue as she prefers to be called is eager to meet as many Virginia United Methodists as she can as quickly as she can. Last week, I joined a group of 30 other Virginia clergy to meet her and share with her our hopes and challenges here in Virginia and to learn more about her and her hopes for Virginia and for our United Methodist denomination.

Bishop Sue is a life-long methodist who grew up in Florida. She is a second career clergy person. Her first profession was as a litigator. She had a heart warming experience as a young adult and realized God was calling her into a new profession as a United Methodist pastor.

I gather switching from law to the Gospel was a challenge as was being a woman in largely male dominated profession. Bishop Sue rose to the occasion. She’s tough and she’s a straight shooter. I like her very much.

Bishop Sue has high hopes for us in Virginia Annual Conference. As a few methodist congregations leave our denomination, Bishop Sue believes we United Methodists are to be a big tent church where all people are welcomed and all people can find a place here.

She described a bird, which needs its left wing and its right wing to fly. The United Methodist church is the same way. We need both our left wing progressive folks and our right wing traditional folks for us to soar as a congregation, as a conference and as a denomination.

I agree with Bishop Sue, and that’s exactly what I want for Peakland. We need left wing and right wing, we need poor and wealthy here at Peakland, We need young and old, those who are new to the faith and those who are the saints and giants of our church. We need those who wear suits and ties and dresses to Sunday worship and those who wear jeans and t-shirts. All of us together, united in Christ reaching out, serving all and extending God’s table and God’s love.

Thanks be to God.

When Covid 19 struck, normal went out the window. For us, at PUMC, we developed a pre-recorded daily devotional and Sunday program to try and stay in touch with our members. As we moved further and further into the pandemic we looked for new ways to expand or enhance our services.

Since we were limiting our exposure to people, I did something I had never done before - at least in any kind of serious fashion. I started singing. I had been using a lot of instrumental music I had created, along with my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash, and occasionally our incredibly talented Noémi Lee on piano. But people get tired of nothing but instrumental music - at least I did so I wandered into those murky waters of recording myself. You have to understand that I live with an incredible singer, so I’m always intimidated when I play myself singing for her. Tricia, hmmm, let’s see here - that would bet Dr. Campbell not only is an incredible singer but she teaches voice for a living, so you can imagine how I was feeling about recording, but none the less, I did.

Last weeks song, You Are Good featured some of our singers, but that was me singing on the tenor part. This week, it’s all me on vocals, including some parts I sang that were in the original chart I wrote for our Praise Team.

The Praise and Worship song is You’re Worthy of My Praise. And thanks again to Lynn Nash for the assist with his Flugelhorn, and I snuck in a few trombone parts as well. There’s a bonus this week, though. Right after the song is over, the track only version will play. If it’s something you like and you would like to perform it or at least have the vocal chart I wrote, drop me an email - [email protected]. and I’ll get that out to ya!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’ll be posting videos each Wednesday, sharing church news, discussing our church book studies or, like I’m doing today, offering a devotion.

I’ve shared before in these vides passages and prayers from my favorite devotion book: This Day a Wesleyan Way of prayer.

Today’s devotion focuses on the church.

Here these words from the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24-25:

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.

Rev. Larry Stookey, the author of this book writes: As it takes an entire village to raise a child, so also it takes an entire congregation to nurture a Christian God has created us in an interlocking system of relationships, apart from which we cannot flourish.

The church is a gift from God in order that we may be provided with a community of faith in which to grow and encourage us in our Christian journey. Regular participation in the life of the congregation is intended to be mutually beneficial. As other spur us on, so also, we spur others on.

Rev. Stookey asks us: What do you cherish most about your life in the Christian church? What are the ways you have been blessed and what are the ways you are blessing others?

I am grateful to God for being part of Peakland and for being part of the United Methodist Church. I’ve spent most of my life and all of my professional life as a United Methodist, and I’m grateful that we United Methodists enact our love of God by showing love to each other and to all of our neighbors.

Sometimes I fail showing love to others, many times we in the church fail. That’s why I take seriously the reminder in Hebrews not to give up meeting together, not to give up on the church life. We at Peakland believe Christ is calling us by reaching out, serving all and extending God's table and extending God’s love to each other and to all of our neighbors.

So in the days to come, I ask you to pray for Peakland, for our people and for our denomination. Pray for clarity on the ways we can reach out, serve all and extend God’s table.

Let us pray together now: God of all people, look with favor upon Christ’s flock in here at Peakland. Cause our congregation to be an effective witness of your love and power.

Banish from us petty rivalries and speaking ill of one another. Bind us together by your love and cause us to know ourselves to be a people called out of darkness.

Thanks be to God and Amen.

Every once in a while I have the opportunity to bring some of our vocalist into the studio to do a little recording. It’s fun for them and me as well. Typically, I bring them in one at a time so we can avoid spreading germs, and it kinda takes the pressure off for them.

I sent this song down to my flugelhorn buddy Lynn Nash to add some horn tracks, and I added some trombone parts as well. What a great, fun, worship song - You Are Good!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m standing in our sanctuary today and I wanted you to see our new green banners which were given by Jan Hickey and Emily Hickey in memory of Madison Grey Hickey. We have green banners on the table, the pulpit and the lectern. The green signifies a new season in the life of the church. Now that Advent and Christmas are done and Lent and Easter are still a month and a half away, we are in a season of Ordinary time here at the church.

For the church the word ordinary has two meanings. Ordinary time comes from the word ordinal. When we count numbers one, two, three, four we are using cardinal numbers. When we count using first, second, third and fourth, those are ordinal numbers. In the church calendar last Sunday, January 15 was the second Sunday after Epiphany, and next Sunday January 22, will be the third Sunday after Epiphany.

Ordinary also means not special, run-of the mill, regular order of business, and it’s true that in the life of the church, we celebrate the high holy days of Christmas, and Easter and Pentecost with lots of big church ministries and special music and fantastic worship. During these ordinary Sundays, we might be tempted to think of church life as run-of the mill, regular order of business, nothing special or exciting happening here.

But that’s where God steps in and makes these ordinary days, extraordinary and transforms regular order of business into new possibilities and new life for our church community.

We at Peakland have discerned that Christ is giving us a vision of reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table. I’ll be meeting with the principal of Bedford Hills Elementary school this week to see how we at Peakland can reach out there and serve them and welcome them at God’s table. In a couple of weeks on Saturday, January 28, Peakland will have our pot-luck Italian dinner. Our first church potluck supper of the new year with our new kitchen and our new floors. In this ordinary time do something not so ordinary: Reach out to someone you know and invite them to join us at the Potluck. Let’s reach out and extend God’s table to others. Reach out to a neighbor or a church member you haven’t seen in a while, and offer to be with them at the dinner.

During these ordinary church days, we could just do ordinary run of the mill things at Peakland or we could let God do wonderful things with us and our community, reaching out, serving all, extending God’s Table.

Thanks be to God!

And just like that. It’s Music Monday again!

Open:

I have worked with some great musicians in my life. In today’s Music Monday, one of these musicians wrote a little chorus to the hymn O God Our Help In Ages Past. Along with another great musician friend of mine, Lynn Nash, I set this tune with an uptempo groove.

Close:

O God Our Help!

The lyrics for the chorus, you ask?

Oh God, You are, You are our help, You are our helper.

To all generations You will be forever and ever our shield and our eternal hope, Oh Lord. You are the Ancient of Days and worthy of our praise!

If you like this, consider sharing with a friend. You can find this song, along with a lot of other songs on my website: linwoodcampbell.com. Thanks for listening! See you next Monday!