'encouragement' Tagged Posts
The Lens of Progressivism
May 7, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, In last week’s Letter of Encouragement, Pastor Jon shared a bit about how the lens of fundamentalism shaped his story. Sunday, he shared more about this lens that has influenced so much of modern Christian practice. Fundamentalism arose largely as a push back to society’s shifting views toward science and evolution. Interestingly, progressive Christians also had concerns about the growing emphasis on reason and the ways some thinkers in the early…
The Lens of Fundamentalism
April 30, 2025A Note from Pastor Jon Dear Friends, When the Letter Becomes Stone:A Reflection on the Rise of Theological Fundamentalism Before I ever studied hermeneutics or learned to pronounce it, I had already been shaped by a singular lens of interpretation — one that read the Bible as both map and rulebook, absolute and unchanging. I grew up in Hopewell, Virginia, just down the road from prominent faith leaders and communities deeply connected to the rise of fundamentalist Christianity.…
Preschool Celebrations
April 24, 2025A Note from Katie Williams Dear HUMC Community, As we look forward to our Preschool Sunday celebrations this Sunday, we are filled with gratitude for the incredible growth and blessings that have unfolded this year within our preschool program. This year has been a season of great joy and exciting developments, and we want to share some of those milestones with you, our faithful congregation, who have supported this ministry so generously. Celebrating our wonderful teachers & staff…
Held
April 16, 2025A Note from Beth Palmer Hello Friends, I walked my first prayer labyrinth probably 25 years ago, and it was a powerful God experience that has stayed with me. It was an outdoor labyrinth, surrounded by beautiful landscaping, sometime in the fall just as the weather was starting to cool. A lovely evening. I started with a couple of deeper, centering breaths (my friend Vicki had given me some guidance). Then I began walking slowly and mindfully along…
Art & Lament
April 2, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, As we continue through this season of Lent, I offer you today another lens by which we can engage this practice of lament: art. Artists have an incredible ability, whether through visual, audio, or tactile media, to express and evoke the emotions central to lament, to draw us into experiences of suffering, and invite us to engage it with our whole selves. Last week, it was my privilege to attend a…
Listening to Lament 2
March 26, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, This week, I offer you another lamentation written by British poet Benjamin Zephaniah. As we turn our focus this week on the theme of social justice, I am convicted once again by the words of John Wesley: “The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness.” ~John Wesley, Preface, Hymns and Sacred Poems Krista Tippett’s On Being website writes: “Zephaniah’s urgent, imperative poem ‘To Michael…
Listening to Lament
March 19, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, I pray that your Lenten season has been one filled with space for reflection, connection, and community. This season, the practice I chose to add was a Loving Kindness Meditation. I’ve found it even more helpful to visualize and hold space for others if I am also creating space to listen to the real struggles they are holding in their hearts. As we read the laments of our ancestors in the…
Caring for God’s Sacred Creation
March 12, 2025A Note from Amy Rae Bashforth Dear Friends & Fellow Members of God’s Creation, I feel closest to God when I am in my garden. My garden is peaceful, but far from quiet. There may be a chirruping robin nearby on a fence post waiting to see if I unearth a tasty grub as I plant some seeds. I may hear the hum of a hummingbird as she quickly zips past my ear toward a Mexican sunflower. I…
An Awesome Responsibility
February 19, 2025A Note from Jeff Rone Dear Friends, Constance Cherry is a United Methodist pastor from Indiana with Ohio roots. In 2012, she published an incredibly detailed book about planning worship services and events entitled The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services. When discussing the importance of selecting high quality worship songs, she says this: “Plato once said ‘Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its…
Living Through Times of Transition
February 5, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, What a start to the year we have had so far. Arctic cold temperatures, devastating urban wildfires, a national championship, a fragile ceasefire deal in the Middle East, a tragic airline crash, and an enormous shift in political power in our country. (All in one month!) I haven’t even mentioned the many things going on in each of our personal lives. If you are feeling a little out of sorts these…
Human BEINGS
January 29, 2025A Note from Pastor Jon Dear Friends, I once heard it said that we are called human beings, not human doings, and we must remember the importance of simply being. Even Jesus took time away from doing to focus on being. Throughout his public ministry, he modeled the rhythm of retreating for prayer and renewal: spending 40 days in the wilderness after his baptism, withdrawing privately following the feeding of the 5,000, and even stepping away before choosing…
Authentic Relationships Matter
January 22, 2025A Note from Michael Haney Dear Friends, Matthew 18:20 — “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Way back in 1988, Lisa and I were looking for a church. We were engaged, and as neither of us was regularly attending church at the time, we were looking for a church in which to get married and then attend. One Sunday we visited Plainfield (IN) United Methodist Church. We were greeted…