Blogs

Being Intentional

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Being Intentional

May 2025

by John Partridge

Good things don’t happen by accident.

This year, as always, seems to be quickly passing us by. Lent and Easter are behind us, and we have begun the season of Eastertide which leads to Pentecost. The school year is winding down, next week is my last class of the semester, and I know that the schedule is similar for our friends at Mount Union, the Alliance school system, and other local schools. Summer is approaching, the sight of lawnmowers has once again become common in our neighborhoods, and it’s now warm enough for us to get out of the house and start doing some of the yard work that we thought about during the winter months. Before long, we will be planning family vacations, weekend getaways, camping trips, summer camps, and all the things that we associate with the summer season.

But what plans are you making for the warmer months?

Certainly, many of us are planning vacations, hikes, boat trips, kayaking adventures, sightseeing, family picnics, back yard cookouts, and all sorts of other things, and that is to be expected. But none of those things happen by accident. They happen because we are intentional about planning them. We pick up our phone, call a friend and ask if they’d like to meet after work. We make plans with our family to meet on a particular day and discuss what everyone will bring. We talk over the dinner table about what we will do over the weekend, and so on.

But being intentional about our spiritual life is equally important. We aren’t likely to trip over the family bible and decide to read a few chapters. Instead, we need to be intentional and to plan our spiritual growth just as we do our family outings, dog walking, and trips to the gym. If we want to read scripture, we need to make time in our schedule to do so. Maybe we set our alarm half an hour earlier or turn off the television earlier in the evening so that we have time to do that. The same level of planning applies if we want to set aside time to pray every day. Athletes do not become competitive by accidentally working out whenever the mood strikes them. They intentionally set aside time, sometimes daily, to work out and to practice the event in which they choose to compete.

Spiritual growth doesn’t happen by accident. Just as we have all met folks that are physically mature and yet remain emotionally immature, spiritual maturity doesn’t happen just because we grow older, or even if we attend church. Spiritual maturity requires that we intentionally invest in spiritual growth. And so, as we make plans for the spring and summer months, let us also make plans to invest in our spiritual growth.

Blessings,

Pastor John

*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Invite or Die

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Invite or Die – The Importance of Being Invitational

The Importance of Being Invitational

March 01, 2025

by John Partridge

This past week (February 23rd), the Sebring United Methodist Church held their last worship service. Shortly, they will turn the keys to their building over to the East Ohio Annual Conference and next week their congregation will begin to worship with the neighboring Presbyterian church. Officially, the United Methodist congregation will still exist, but as a partner to the Presbyterian congregation and with a single pastor that serves both paper churches in the same sanctuary. I don’t know if this will be listed as a church closure at Annual Conference or if they will name it something else, but from a conversation that I had with one of their church members, for some of them, it sure feels as if the church has ended and they are grieving a death.

I am also aware of another local congregation that will soon make the decision to close. No public statement has yet been made so I will not provide any more details beyond the following. They might make it until Easter or might stretch until summer, but financially, the writing on the wall seems to be clear that soon they will be unable to pay their bills. Here at Christ Church, it appears that we are continuing to grow, but slowly. Even so, the losses that we have seen in recent years are being seen in our budget and in the offering plate. If we had not inherited our endowment from the faithful members of earlier generations, we might well be facing a similar crisis.

Rather than wring our hands, and worry about the future, there are things that we can be doing. Separate from church, I would like to show you two examples. You may know that Troop and Pack 50 are both doing well. Monday evening six more Cubs received their Arrow of Light award and crossed over into our scout troop. But every year, our Cub scouts, scouts, and scout leaders have recruiting drives. During this time of year, every elementary school will be visited, flyers are sent home, presentations are made, questions are answered, and children and their parents are invited to join the Cub pack. Scouts also regularly invite their friends from school, an open house(s) is held, more parents are invited, more questions are answered, and our scout troop sometimes even holds a campout at Silver Park to demonstrate scouting skills to the public and invite young people to join the pack or troop, as appropriate.

Two years ago, the Sebring Model Railroad Club, where I am a member, decided to do something different in the way that they promoted their annual open house. A generation ago, they would run an advertisement in the local newspaper, distribute a few flyers around town, and a thousand or more people would visit and donate to the club. But, as we have seen in the church, in recent years fewer people subscribe to, or read, newspapers. One result has been that attendance at the club open house fell from well over a thousand, to just over a hundred. But two years ago, the club decided to try something different. We printed two thousand business cards that invited folks to our open house. Every club member was expected to pass out 75 to 100 cards over the span of a few months, inviting friends, coworkers, and anyone they met throughout their day. We also purchased yard signs for members to put out along the streets where they lived. And attendance increased. What’s more, as we’ve done a better job advertising ourselves, our membership has increased as well. We still have a long way to go before we see the kind of crowds that were common a generation ago but, so far, we’ve been able to double our attendance. This year, we’re trying something else that is new to us. We know that it’s going to take time, but we’re willing to innovate and experiment. Our survival depends upon it.

I am convinced that Troop and Pack 50 are healthy and growing, in part, because of the efforts that they make to be invitational. I am certain that the Sebring Model Railroad Club would not be doing as well as they are if they had not decided to innovate, experiment, and be more personally invitational. What may have worked a generation ago, doesn’t necessarily work today. There are many reasons why the members of Christ Church choose to attend here. The people are great, the music program is strong, the building is gorgeous and well maintained, and the pastor might be okay as well. But no one is likely to know that unless someone tells them. Even people who know something about us probably won’t come unless someone invites them.

At the model railroad club, two thousand invitations (last year) increased our attendance by one hundred guests. That works out to be a success rate of about one in twenty. What if we did that at Christ Church? What if every regular attender invited twenty people over the course of the year? If we had that same kind of success at the train club, the result might be eighty first-time visitors each year and some percentage of those might choose to attend more often or even join the church. If we all choose to innovate and experiment, it is entirely possible that we could double the size of our congregation in five years. Doing what we’ve done for generations doesn’t guarantee success.

It is important that every one of us becomes more invitational. Maybe that means we have more conversations with the people that we meet in the community, or that we become more intentional about passing out invitation cards. But it is important that we do something different.

Our survival may depend upon it.

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Year in Review: 2024

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2024 Year in Review

by John Partridge

Once again, our “End of Year” reports have been filed with the East Ohio Annual Conference office. And so, as always, this seems like a suitable time to look at how we did and how things are going. Of course, numbers don’t tell us everything, but I think we had a good year overall.

We began 2024 with 281 members. Over the course of the year, we lost only one member to death and one to transfer, which is much less than in most previous years. In addition, we added six new members, which again, is one more than the previous year. So, we ended the year with 285 members. As I mentioned last year, our survival as a church depends upon us inviting new people to worship, connecting them to small groups and other ministries of the church, so that they eventually feel that becoming a member is an easy decision.

I had expected that our attendance would increase, and it did, but perhaps not as much as I had hoped. But, regardless of my expectations, our average attendance did increase from 70 to 72 and it is always good when we move in a positive direction. Our online attendance via YouTube fell from 36 to 20, likely because we were not streaming during the Advent and Christmas season which normally have more viewers. And our United Women in Faith saw a modest decline in membership falling from 55 to 53. Once again, we saw an increase in attendance with the number of children and youth in attendance increasing from 11 to 13 and overall, Sunday school attendance increasing from 44 to 46. Overall, given our average attendance in worship, the number of persons attending Sunday school is astounding in comparison to national averages.

After seeing a seven percent decline in giving last year, this year we stayed almost flat with a 63-dollar decline. This is good news compared to last year, but as we all know, our expenses aren’t going down any time soon, so this remains a concern. Worse, since our church will no longer sell our burgers in the park during the Carnation Days festival, we can already project a decline in that income for this year.

Our Facebook page has stayed the same with 298 followers and, despite our current livestream hiatus, our YouTube channel has increased from 123 subscribers to 137. Our online sermon webpage gets about 71 visits per week with a slight increase over last year, those same sermons are sent out to 447 subscribers by email, which is an increase of 147 over last year. Of those, about 10 percent actually open the emails, which is about 45 people, and that’s down a little from last year.

So, what does all that mean?

It means that we are still relevant, and people are still finding value in what we do. It means that Christ Church is connected to 13 ministries for outreach, justice, and mercy for the poor and the socially marginalized. One of the informal questions that has been used for years has been, “If your church disappeared tomorrow, would anyone in your neighborhood notice?” And clearly, the answer to that is a resounding “Yes.” Many of our neighbors rely on us to get through each week and that means that what we are doing is important. It also means that, through our online presence, we are having an impact far beyond the walls of our church even if we might never meet the people with whom we are connecting. And in a world where declining attendance is normal, our attendance is increasing, and the average age of our congregation is shifting younger.

These are all good things. But we still have challenges in front of us. Our expenses will continue to go up and the loss of many older givers has hurt us. If attendance and giving does not increase, we will soon be faced with the necessity of cutting our budget and staff. We hope that we will not need to make these hard choices. But I know that the people of Christ Church believe in what we are doing so I hope that each of us will continue to invite our friends and neighbors and spread the word about how we are making a difference in downtown Alliance.

Overall, the good things that we are seeing outweigh the negatives. We are doing good. We are growing. We are making a difference and changing the world one life at a time. There is good reason for us to have hope for a brighter future.

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Doing What’s Right… As IF.

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Doing What’s Right… As IF.

A Meditation for Ash Wednesday

March 05, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

In Isaiah 58, I hear the prophet Isaiah use what I can only describe as a really dark sort of sarcasm. God says, “Day after day they seek me out and they seem eager to know my ways, as if the were a nation that did what is right.” The use of the term, “as if” is almost that same as my generation used as sarcasm in the 1980’s. We would negate entire sentences by ending them with the phrase “as if” or “not.” I think you understand, but as an example, we would say something like, “That’s really beautiful… not.” Or “The government of the United States is very efficient and productive… as if.” Isaiah’s complaint is that the people of Israel, apparently as individuals and perhaps collectively as a nation, act as if they seek God, but complain that God doesn’t seem to notice their fasting and humility.

But in response, God says that it isn’t enough to seem like you want to know God. It isn’t enough to pretend that following God is important. You cannot fast and pray, and, on the same day, commit your favorite sins, abuse and exploit your workers, argue, and get into fights. If you want God to take you seriously, your life must look like more than an act.

What God really wants from us isn’t a good religious show.

What God wants is to fight against injustice, to rescue the oppressed, to share what you have with the hungry, to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and care for your family.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.(Isaiah 58:9-12)

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Making Your World Bigger: A Challenge

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Making Your World Bigger

January 2025

by John Partridge


Several times this past year, I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes. In his book, The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain once said,

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Despite not traveling anywhere notable this year, I was reminded of this on several occasions when I heard, or read, people self-righteously offering opinions about people they had never met or places that they had never visited. But whenever that happens, I remember a trip that I took to Honduras, courtesy of the United States Army. At the time, I was in my early twenties and still in college, or maybe just barely out of college. And, while we didn’t interact much with the local population, that trip forever changed my views on poverty, the third world, and world missions.

Reading about the poor is one thing. But watching a family of five being fed on one soldier’s uneaten lunch is a different experience entirely. It was common for children to approach us and beg for handouts, but the order of their requests was almost always the same. First, they would beg for food, second for candy, and third for pencils. The first two made sense, but we were puzzled by the third until we asked the civil affairs guys that arrived shortly before our departure. They explained that the government schools provided teachers but not school supplies. And as such, many children could not go to school because their families could not afford luxuries… like pencils.

Again, while I didn’t do any traveling, I felt similar emotions this year when I heard some of the opinions expressed about immigrants and immigration, the poor, the homeless, and others about whom political commentators, and internet bloggers like to pontificate. Of course, it’s okay for people to disagree, but often in these sorts of things, while the speakers and writers have lots of opinions, few of them have any actual experience with the people they are talking about.

And so, with these things in mind, I want to offer a challenge for the new year. I’ve never really liked the concept of making resolutions and since so few people keep their resolutions, please don’t think that this is what I am suggesting. Instead, in the spirit of Mark Twain, I encourage you to make your world bigger. I want you to challenge your opinions and preconceived notions about the people around you.

Instead of simply assuming things about the people around you, I encourage you to commit time (do not just resolve) weekly or monthly, to meeting, interacting, and helping those people. Rather than assuming that the poor and the homeless are in that situation because they are lazy, I encourage you to volunteer at a food pantry, at our bread ministry, Tuesday dinner, at the Clothed in Righteousness ministry outreach on Main Street, or someplace similar. Again, don’t just show up once for an hour to make yourself feel good, but commit to being there often enough to build relationships with the people there, learn about them, and hear their stories.

Instead of believing some of the nonsense that is spewed on television and the internet about immigrants and immigration, commit to volunteering weekly, or monthly, with ministries or agencies that work with immigrants. Again, spend enough time there to build relationships, make friends, and know them as people rather than as the caricatures that are often depicted in the media.

Of course, my invitation isn’t exclusive to these few examples. It could apply to any number of other groups of people from Scouting America (formerly the Boy Scouts) to university students and many others. You could take the time to visit our friends at Red Bird mission in the Kentucky mountains and meet some of our friends there, or travel with a group from our East Ohio Conference to Liberia, or Mexico, or any one of our other overseas missions.

While Mark Twain’s quote about travel is one of my favorites, I think that a part of it is wrong.  Yes, I believe that travel can be fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, but not by itself. I know too many people who are prejudiced, bigoted, and narrow minded despite having traveled extensively. The key is not just the act of traveling; it is in having conversations and building relationships during your travels. The change inside of yourself occurs when you can no longer refer to Africans, or the poor, the homeless, immigrants, or any other group of people without thinking about the names and faces of the friends that you have made.   

And that is why my challenge for 2025 is to get out of your comfort zone and commit to spending an hour a week, or even just an hour a month, volunteering and being present with people that you might have previously thought of only as a group. This is a challenge to confront your biases, or just to get out of the house and expand your horizons. Because whenever you spend enough time with people to build relationships…

…that is when your world gets bigger.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

An Invitation to the Familiar and Unchanging

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An Invitation to the Familiar and Unchanging

Pastor’s Christmas Letter 2024
by John Partridge

It is not what I expected. Patti and I are busy. Our “to do” lists for Christmas, for the end of the year, and just in general are long. We always have things to do. I expected that once our children were all out of the house and on their own that we would have a bit more time to relax. And, I suppose, some of the time that is true. We no longer have holiday band concerts and a dozen Christmas parties to attend for all the school groups and scout groups and other things with which our children were involved, but in many cases, other things seem to have stepped into their place to occupy our time.

This year Noah had purchased tickets to see his Pittsburgh Steelers play on Christmas day so there was a question of when he might make an appearance at our house (but he decided to sell them for a profit instead). And we might not see Jonah at all as he prepares to move from Texas to his next duty station in Georgia. But we know that we will spend time with Lina, Daniel, and watch as little baby Quinn celebrates his first Christmas with us.

But as much as our lives change, the more I sometimes lean into the comfortable traditions of the church. Our children grow, move out, and their lives go on. Our activities and traditions at home adapt, change, and evolve into something new. But the cycle of Advent and Christmas as church continues much as it has for generations. Minor changes and additions are made with each new generation but much of the old and the familiar remain. Pastor Chris reminded me this morning that the Christmon ornaments that decorate the tree in our sanctuary were once new, but the creators of those “new” ornaments attended worship at Christ Church more than 40 years ago. I suspect that if members who attended here or more years ago could somehow walk through our doors this Christmas season, they would notice the things that have changed but would still find much that was familiar and comforting.

But isn’t that just an architectural reflection of our relationship with Jesus Christ? From the time that we are born until the time that our life on earth comes to an end, our lives are constantly changing. Our families change, the people close to us change, we grow, we change jobs, change careers, have children, watch those same children grow up and move out, then watch the cycle repeat with grandchildren. In my lifetime, not counting school dormitories or military barracks, I have lived in thirteen homes. And, as a married couple, Patti and I have lived in six of those homes. But throughout that time, we have always celebrated Advent and Christmas. The Christmases that we celebrated at church with our grandparents, our parents, and our children were not much changed despite the passing years. While we may have worshiped in different churches in various places, we still worshiped the same God and remembered and celebrated the birth of the same savior.

I hope that all of you will join us this year for our seasonal celebrations during the Advent and Christmas season. The building will feel comfortably familiar, many of the people will be the same as when you attended last year, or even ten years ago, the decorations will likely be the same as those in your memory, and of course, we will worship with the God who never changes, and celebrate the birth of Jesus who is, and was, and always will be.

As much as your life today might be different than it was a year ago, or ten years ago, or even a lifetime ago, I invite you to join us in those things that are familiar and unchanging. May we, together draw closer to one another, and closer to God.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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*Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Photo by Genkaku on Freeimages.com

Contentment or Envy?

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Contentment or Envy?

by John Partridge

December 2024

By the time you read this, Thanksgiving will be over. Already our church is decorated for Advent, and we will celebrate Christmas in just a few weeks. But, this past Sunday, I was reminded of a meme that said something like:

“Only in America can we fight over a discount just one day after giving thanks for what we already have.”

And that got me to thinking about both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Whether we sat down alone or with family and friends at Thanksgiving, most of us at least briefly considered just how blessed we are. We live in a nation that guarantees us many freedoms that other people in the world do not have. We have food, clothing, shelter, and family and friends that love and care about us. We could spend considerable time making a list of all the things for which we have to be grateful and principle among these is a loving God who cares for us and watches over us.

But with Christmas on the horizon, most of us are already shopping for gifts for family, friends and, if we’re honest, for ourselves. But since we’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving, we should consider how grateful we appear to be if an outsider were to witness our Christmas shopping.

In Hebrews 13:5 the Apostle Paul offers this advice:

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.””

As we give thanks to God, and as we shop for gifts, it is that middle part where Paul instructs the church to “be content with what you have” that should give us pause.

It not only causes us to pause, but it is also both concerning and troublesome for those of us who live in a culture that constantly preaches a message of unbridled consumerism.

The meme I mentioned earlier is meant as a joke but, at the same time, it pulls back the curtain and reveals a little of our culture’s dark underbelly. Only the day after we gather to give thanks for what we have, we set out in the wee hours of the morning to fight through crowds of others like-minded individuals to buy even more, consume more, and not because we do not already have enough, but only because we have been sold on the idea that no matter how much we have, we should want even more. We have been convinced that just because it’s new, just because someone else already had one, or just because it can be owned, that we should want one, or perhaps that we should feel that we need one (or several).

And unfortunately, that desire for more has a name (or two).

Wanting more than we really need, and wanting things just because other people have them, or simply because they exist, is either envy, or greed, or both.

This desire for more is the opposite of contentment.

Maybe this doesn’t happen in your home, but we are all familiar with family and friends that spend so much on gifts at Christmastime, that they live in fear of the credit card bills that will arrive in January. We all know people who drive themselves into debt, sometimes deeply, spending money that cannot really afford to spend, just so that they can give gifts that “measure up” to what our culture has convinced us is normal, or to what our friends, coworkers, and classmates will show off when we return to work or school.

Paul could not have envisioned the consumerism of our twenty-first century, but his world was familiar with greed and envy. There were many “haves” but far more “have-nots” that dreamed of more, and many of those dreamed of simply having enough to feed their families. And it was to these folks that Paul cautioned to “be content with what you have.”

And so, as we prepare for Advent and Christmas, let us pause, as we did at thanksgiving, and consider why we are shopping for Christmas, what sorts of gifts we are buying, and how much we are choosing to spend.

Let us consider Paul’s words and ask ourselves…

…Does our Christmas shopping show contentment?…

…Or envy?

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*You have been reading a message presented in the Christ United Methodist Church newsletter on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Pastor’s Report 2024

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Pastor’s Report 2024

by Pastor John Partridge

Note: Every year, I am asked to present a report of the year for our annual Charge Conference. It’s really sort of a “what I did last summer” kind of report that asks, “What did your church do for the last year?” Long ago I decided that my answers should not be seen as any kind of a secret, and so I publish them here, and in our church newsletter. I’m excited about the future of Christ Church and its people and I hope that by talking more about it, others might learn about it, join us, and grow with us as we care for the people around us the way that Jesus cares for us. So, what follows is this year’s report:

As Christ Church entered 2024, we committed to keeping our mission statement in the front of our awareness and thus keeping our focus on our mission to reach out to our community and to use our gifts to do whatever we can to meet the needs of the people around us. Each church committee was challenged to regularly consider how the goals set out in our mission statement might be met in the context of the work being done by that group. As a result, some changes were made. Some of those changes were subtle and others were more visible, but even the subtle ones are having an impact.

One of our goals was to offer training to our members and leaders to better prepare and equip us to do the work of Jesus in our community. Toward this end we hosted a Bridges Out of Poverty training course which was open to anyone and advertised to East Ohio Conference churches as well as to our local Chamber of Commerce and local schools. While we might have hoped for more, attendance at this training event was good and was attended by both members of Christ Church as well as others from our community. Christ Church continued in our pursuit of developing a more active presence and ministry on the campus of the University of Mount Union (UMU) and, toward that end, several of our campus ministry team attended monthly training webinars hosted by the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO).  For several years, we had been hoping to partner with CCO in placing a campus ministry intern at UMU, but CCO has been challenged to find sufficient volunteers and, as of now, Christ Church has begun pursuing other options to establish and grow our presence on campus.

This year Christ Church continued to have a presence at the summer concerts at the caboose downtown where we gave out popcorn, water, and ice cream in exchange for donations to Habitat for Humanity. We also continued our collections in support of the Alliance Community Food Pantry, the Salvation Army, and the Alliance of Churches. In addition, with the growing number of children present in our worship services, we relaunched a monthly “Noisy Can” offering which has nearly tripled our regular giving to the Alliance of Churches bread ministry and the Salvation Army food pantry. Similarly, our increased focus on finding solutions for the needs of our community inspired our United Women of Faith to make a substantial $30,000 donation from the Martha Goldrick endowment fund toward the YWCA project which will provide temporary housing to women and children in crisis situations.  $15,000 was donated to the YWCA for immediate needs and $15,000 was invested with the Greater Alliance Foundation in establishing the YWCA Transitional Housing Fund to encourage wider community support of future needs.

As noted, we continue to see an increase in the number of children each Sunday and have now launched a second class so that we can better provide age-appropriate instruction. At the same time, our youth ministry through scouting remains strong and is reaching many young people and their families through our Cub Scout pack and two scout troops.

For some time, our members have been encouraged to be more invitational, and that message has begun to bear fruit as we have seen an increase in the number of visitors as well as several new members and regular attenders coming from those who first came as invited guests. Thankfully, we have only lost one current member to death or transfer and have therefore seen an increase in our membership for the first time in several years. We have also scheduled a new member class (and we anticipate that another may be needed after that) and so we hope that we will soon add even more to our congregation.

Overall, we are seeing positive changes throughout the life of our congregation, and it is our hope that we will continue to encourage those changes and the growth that they have inspired. I am encouraged by the things that we have seen in 2024, and I am optimistic that we will continue to build on the growth that we have seen. In sum, I believe that there is a bright future for Christ Church, its mission to the people of our community, and our place in the work of Jesus Christ.

Blessings,

Pastor John Partridge

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Context is Important

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Context is Important

(A message about immigration and scripture)

September 19, 2024

by John Partridge

Things aren’t always what they seem at first glance.

I recently read a story about two young mothers in the drop-off line at school. The first apologized to the other because her son told her that he had pushed the other mother’s daughter in the playground. They decided to talk to the teacher about it, and the teacher said, “It was the sweetest thing how he pushed her on the swings all through recess.”

Context is important.

Later in the day, I replied to a meme that had been posted on social media. It wasn’t the first time I had responded to this particularly annoying type of post. I often ignore things with which I disagree, but there are a couple of these, especially when posted by church folk who should know better, that I feel compelled to correct, rebuke, and admonish.

Why?

Because context is important.

The first example is reported to come from a page in a “Inspirational scripture of the day” calendar. On a particular day, a page was turned and it quoted Luke 4:7 which said:

“If you worship me, all will be yours.”

It might seem like a nice sentiment, but if you look at the context of that verse, the person quoted is Satan during Jesus’ temptation in the desert. So, while it somehow accidentally appeared in a calendar of inspirational quotes, it certainly isn’t something that God intends to teach us.

The second example seems to have suckered several of my social media friends into misquoting, misunderstanding, and misusing scripture. This meme appears as a warning about resident aliens and quotes from Deuteronomy 28:43-44 where it says:

43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.

But as I have noted…

Context is important.

If you read the entire chapter from which this is taken, you discover that it begins with the words, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today…” and then lists a great many blessings that God will pour out upon his people. And after the list of blessings, it says, “However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you…” and then lists a great many curses that God will pour out in punishment on the nation of Israel if they break the vows that they have taken and disobey the commands of God.

Nowhere does it say that these blessings and curses are broadly applicable to every nation on earth for all time (though some will assume that to be true). And the list from which this meme quotes is clearly intended as a curse that God might impose and not as a general warning about the perils of migrants and resident aliens.

Quite to the contrary, the consistent and repeated message of scripture, even in Deuteronomy where this misquoted passage is found, is that migrants, foreign laborers, immigrants, and resident aliens are to be treated the same as the native-born citizens of Israel because God’s people were once wanderers and strangers also. This theme is repeated dozens of times in passages that say, “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt (Exodus 22:21).  Or “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)

This theme is so persistent that it is found throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament in Hebrews, Romans, and Jesus’ own words in Matthew 25:35 when he describes the final judgement. God declares that the sheep would inherit his kingdom because “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.”

Nowhere in scripture does God warn us about aliens, strangers, migrants, or immigrants that live among us. It’s quite the opposite. The regularly repeated theme is that those who persecute aliens and strangers will be judged because God is their defender.

Context is important.

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Photo by photodisc on Freeimages.com

Culture Wars and Christianity

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Christianity: Rooted in Culture Wars

September 2024

by John Partridge

While you might not have the time to read the paper that I wrote last semester (and what is likely to become a part of a book next spring), what follows is an important excerpt. Working through several chapters of Matthew, I detail how our knowledge of modern archaeology and history adds to our understanding and gives depth to scripture. Below, I discuss how Christianity, from its birth, has been no stranger to culture wars and what we should learn from that.

When we read Jesus’ caution that “No one can serve two masters,” in Matthew 6:24, we find that our study of history expands our understanding beyond the surface meaning. Many of us have tried to please two bosses or have otherwise been pulled between our loyalties to work, family, and faith, but Roman Palestine, and Galilee in particular, felt many of these pressures, each demanding that they choose them as their master. At the time of Jesus, the rule of King Herod and Rome was less than 70 years old.  But there were institutions, buildings, and cultural memories of the earlier Hasmonean dynasty under which Israel was free and independent.

The Hasmonean dynasty had emphasized, and even required, an adherence to a more traditional Jewish culture and religion, but with the fall of the Hasmoneans, the rise of Herod the Great, and Israel’s subjugation by the Roman Empire, things were changing. There were changes in clothing style, architecture, language, art, and language, and all these changes were often seen as an incredible culture war between the traditional Jewish culture, and the newer Greco-Roman culture, known as Hellenism. Hellenism, of course, was not entirely new. It had begun generations earlier with the conquest of Pompey and the Greeks (in 63 BCE), even before the Hasmoneans rose to power, but was now, under Herod and the Romans, an increasingly strong influence.

While upper Galilee retained a traditional Jewish culture, lower Galilee, with the presence of the Greco-Roman cities of Sepphoris and Tiberias, as well as its proximity to Hippos on the opposite shore of the lake, was seen as having made a greater degree of accommodation to Hellenism. Israel’s elites, including the chief priests and much of Jerusalem with them, adopted Roman culture to fit in, to get ahead, and to win favor. This influence of Hellenism triggered strong emotions, and this is the tension that we see in passages such as Matthew 6:20.

Further, when we remember that ninety percent of Roman Palestine lived at a subsistence level or below, we see Jesus’ instruction in a different light when he says, “’So, do not worry, saying what shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:31-33). With this in mind, we not only understand that Jesus is teaching his listeners that they should make God’s kingdom a priority in their lives, but to people who were so poor that they often struggled to eat, or to drink, or wear, much of anything at all, Jesus was offering hope.

The people from rural villages in Galilee were insulated from Greco-Roman influence but they saw wealthy landowners, priests and other elites who were trying to fit into Roman culture, and they saw how that caused them to match what the Romans were eating, drinking, and wearing. But Jesus’ message was that conforming to Roman culture was not important and that it was not a curse to be so poor that they could not afford those things. His message was that God remembered them, knew what they needed, and would provide for them if they remained faithful and pursued righteousness instead of chasing after wealth and culture.

This was more than offering empty hope. The message of Jesus was that people should follow the law and live lives of moral integrity but also that they should be filled with compassion for one another. Rather than just watching out for themselves, or for their immediate and extended family, which was often the norm, Jesus and his disciples teach, and model, a life in which they all care for one another. Moreover, Jesus says that God sees them and cares for them in real life and not only on a spiritual level. God’s love for his children is not as a distant and disinterested observer, but as a father who cares for his children in tangible and physical ways saying, “ask and it will be given to you” (Matt 7:7) and “your Father in heaven gives good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt 7:11)

That’s just a sample from my paper, but the takeaway for all of us is that Christianity was born in the middle of an enormous culture war. What we see today is not new. But the message of scripture is still the same. No man can serve two masters, the people of the church should care for one another rather than only looking out for themselves, and God still loves us, not just spiritually or metaphysically, but deeply, tangibly, and physically.

Much has changed in two thousand years and times will continue to change with each generation.

But God’s love for us never changes.

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