John

Waiting for Hope

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Waiting for Hope

December 24, 2023*

(Christmas Eve)

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 9:2-7                Luke 2:1-20                Titus 2:11-14

READING 1:

Isaiah 9:2-7

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

READING 2:

Luke 2:1-7
2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

READING 3:

Luke 2:8-14

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God, and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

READING 4:

Luke 2:15-20

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying, and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Waiting for Hope

By Pastor John Partridge

Well… we’ve arrived.

For many of us, Christmas is our favorite season of the year. For some of you here, I have seen your posts on social media counting down to tonight and tomorrow morning. We might have hoped for a white Christmas, but I’m certain that we’ll have enough of that soon enough. We’ve sung the songs, we’ve heard the children, the pipe organ, the choir, and the bells. In a few minutes we will light the candles and welcome Christmas as we sing Silent Night. For many of us that is the moment that we know that Christmas has arrived and our hearts, and our souls are, even if only for a moment… at peace.

But what does it all mean?

Yes, we’ve heard the story. Yes, we know that the King of Kings was born to a virgin, entered into our earthly existence, and begun the journey that led to our salvation and rescue, but what about the here and now? We know the first century story, but what is the twenty-first century story? What does the Christmas story mean to us in our hectic, helter-skelter, world of rushed deadlines, underfunded budgets, and overscheduled calendars?

As much as we love the Christmas story, we all know that it represents just the very beginning of God’s invasion of the world and our work to tell humanity of Christ’s coming and call everyone to repentance and reconciliation with God. The disciples knew that too. And in his letter to his friend, we hear Paul helping Titus to grapple with the message of Jesus Christ and understand his, and our, role in the world around us. Titus was one of Paul’s missionary partners, a pastor, capable church administrator, responsible ally, evangelist, and a trusted friend. And, in Paul’s letter he tells Titus that what we are doing in the post-resurrection world, is… waiting for hope. That’s a puzzling idea, and so let’s read a larger passage from Titus 2:11-14, to hear, in context, what Paul is saying. He says:

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Paul says that the coming of Jesus Christ was, for us, the appearance of God’s grace to the world and offers salvation to all people. That grace, and that rescue, teaches us to navigate the chaos of the world around us. We surrounded by a culture that admires and idolizes lives that are at least, or often completely, out of control and burning with ungodly and worldly passions that worship sex, drugs, gambling, power, and excesses of every kind and flavor. But God’s grace guides us toward lives that are moral, ethical, upright, and self-controlled… which absolutely is not saying that we live lives that are boring, humorless, or without fun or other enjoyment, but that find fun and enjoyment in ways that honor God.

The odd part of Paul’s writing is where it says that we live these lives “while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of… Jesus Christ.” I’m certain that Paul isn’t saying that we live without hope, because Jesus Christ is our hope. Rather, I think what he is saying, when he says that we wait for the “blessed hope,” is that we live these lives while we wait for the fulfillment of our hope and return of Jesus Christ.

And so, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we must remember not just that he came, but why he came. Jesus came to earth to call the world to repentance, to rescue us from sin and death, to teach us how to live moral, ethical, upright, and godly lives in the middle of a world that is immoral, unethical, out of control, and ungodly. Our mission is to tell the people around us that God offers them a better way and a better life. And we must live and love in such a way, that the people around us can see that better life in us, know that God’s offer is real, and want what we have.

Merry Christmas everyone.

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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.™

Pastor’s Christmas Letter

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Pastor’s Christmas Letter

by John Partridge

Dear Friends,

This year the Advent season seemed to sneak up on us faster than I remember others in the past and we are already racing towards Christmas. This seems to race even faster when our fourth Sunday of Advent falls on Christmas Eve morning. This feeling of hectic scheduling makes it even more important that we be deliberate in preparing ourselves for the celebration of our Lord’s birth. I don’t just mean buying presents and decorating our homes, but preparing our hearts and our souls so that we can enjoy and appreciate the arrival of the newborn king.

I admit that since I was in my twenties, and in most ordinary years, I struggled (past tense) and still struggle (present tense) with being a humbug. I just don’t “feel” Christmas-y.  Before Patti and I were married, I discovered that one way to fight back, and to start feeling the warmth of the holiday was to start listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving, even if I didn’t feel like it.  More recently, with the loss of my hearing and music often sounding off-key, music hasn’t been as effective and so instead I make sure to decorate our Christmas tree, turn on the lights, and look at it for a while every evening.

But that isn’t enough. Because the Spirit of God dwells within each one of us as the followers of Jesus, when we are together, we feel the presence, not only of other people, but also the presence of God himself. And so, every Sunday, but especially during Advent, it is important for all of us to worship together, to simply be together, so that we can feel that sensation of closeness to God and prepare our hearts for Christmas. That closeness to God is real and, as important as it is to us personally, it’s important that we don’t keep it to ourselves.

Statistically, about one-third of, or one in three, people say that they would be willing to attend or visit a church if they were invited. That willingness is often highest at Christmastime. Christmas Eve is easily one of the most attended worship services of the year in almost every church in North America. And so, as I have in the past, I hope that each one of you will invite at least five others to join us. Toward that end, we have printed business cards that you can give to your friends, classmates, business associates, barber, hairdresser, grocery store clerk, or anybody else, and invite them to join us as we worship and celebrate Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve and Christmas are a time when we draw close to one another, and draw close to God, in a way that is both special and memorable not just because of the people, but because it is a time when we encounter the Spirit of God in a special way. Of course, we will share the extraordinary experience of hearing our choirs, bell choirs, pipe organ, and singing traditional and meaningful carols of Christmas together. But most importantly, we will remember the story of God’s invasion of the earth and the arrival of the Christ child, who would become the rescuer and redeemer of all humanity.

I hope that you will join us as we draw closer one another, and closer to God, together.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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Challenging the Comfortable

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Challenging the Comfortable

by John Partridge

Years ago, I was told that the job of a pastor is to “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” While that’s used jokingly, it is often true. We need to be comforted when we hurt, but often get stuck when we’re comfortable and need someone to give us a shove if we hope to move forward again. Those of us who have changed jobs, moved to new communities, started businesses, gone back to school, or otherwise made changes to our lives can attest to that. Sometimes getting something that we want, or something better than what we have, requires that we leave behind some of what we know, some of the things that make us comfortable, and launch out into the unknown and the uncomfortable.

Similarly, it has been said that “Ships in harbor are safe, but that’s not what ships were built for.” Sometimes launching our on a new adventure is something that we choose for ourselves, but other times we get drafted and dragged into those adventures kicking and screaming all the way. This past year has seen some of that for us at Christ Church. We are doing some things differently, and with different people, simply because some of the people who have always done them are no longer with us. In the last few years, people have moved away, gone to college, found other churches, or passed from this life and into the next. But we are also having conversations about other changes that we might choose for our future.

I saw a quote this week from the book Fusion, by Nelson Searcy, which suggests three markers to measure your church’s “guest flow.” It said that a church in “Maintenance mode” needed three first-time guests for every one hundred in worship attendance just to stay in the same place in worship attendance. To be in “Growth mode” required five first-time guests for every one hundred, and “Rapid-growth mode” required seven first-time guests for every one hundred. That’s a lot, and I’m not sure that I believe that the numbers are that high (especially if those are weekly figures) … as long as at least some of those visitors can be attracted to stay. But even so, our experience says that there is some truth to it. In the last few years, we’ve had more visitors, and each year more of those visitors have decided to stay. For each of the last several years we’ve been bringing in a few new members. But we haven’t… yet… been able to bring in more new members than we have lost.

I emphasize the word “yet” because I see change happening. Our worship attendance, since the Covid-19 shutdowns, is once again increasing. And, as we move forward into a New Year, we are, at least occasionally, doing things to move out of our comfort zones and try new things. And that brings me to my challenge for the people of Christ Church. I challenge you to be uncomfortable… at least occasionally. I challenge you to have conversations with friends, neighbors, family, coworkers, and yes, even strangers, about your faith and what it means to you. I challenge you to tell them why you come here and why you like it and invite some of those people to sit with you on Sunday morning, or volunteer and work with you on one of our work projects. I challenge our Sunday school teachers to teach a series on how to share your faith and how to have those kinds of conversations.

We all know that Christ Church is a great church family and is full of compassionate, loving people. But we don’t always do a good job of telling our neighbors about who we are and what we do. And we don’t always do as much as we might do to help the people around us. And so, my challenge is not only to invite people, but to continue pushing ourselves to be a little uncomfortable. To keep trying new things and finding new ways to reach out to the people in our community. God has put us in this place, at this moment, to be his hands and feet to the people of Alliance and beyond. Let us listen to his voice and consider where God is leading us.

Staying in the harbor, and doing what we’ve always done, is safe.

But that isn’t what God built churches to do.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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From Mourning to Joy

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From Mourning to Joy

December 17, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11                 John 1:6-8, 19-28                          1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

On June second of 2022, seventeen-year-old Ethan Liming, the son of United Methodist Pastor Bill Liming, was beaten to death during an altercation at a basketball court in downtown Akron. This week we were notified that another of our East Ohio Conference colleagues, Beth Wilterdink, with whom Mike Greiner and I have served on the conference committee on camps and retreats, is mourning, with her husband and family, the loss of their barely two-year-old daughter Cora. I can read about these things, but I can’t begin to understand the pain and the grief that these families must feel.

But many of us have experienced our own kinds of loss. Some of you have lost children, many of us have lost parents or siblings. We each understand grief in our own way. And so, we have some insight into the lives of the people who heard God’s message through his prophet Isaiah. These were the people who had lost everything. They had lost sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, parents, and grandparents, they had lost their nation and their freedom and had been carried off into captivity in Babylon. They were filled with grief. But God speaks to them through the writings of Isaiah and tells them that in the midst of their grief, there is good news. We hear these words in Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11…

61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3     and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

8 “For I, the Lord, love justice;I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

10 I delight greatly in the Lord;my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

God says that there will be healing for the brokenhearted, release for prisoners, comfort for those who mourn, and God promises to transform the ashes of their grief into a crown of beauty. God promises to rebuild, restore, and renew, and to bring justice and faithfulness to replace their despair and loss. And in the end, God will use the nations of the world to raise up gardens of righteousness and praise.

In no way does God, or Isaiah, diminish the pain, loss, and grief that we experience today, God does not tell us to “get over it,” but God does promise that he will, one day, transform our grief into joy.

But, because John the Baptist had been quoting from the words of Isaiah, the priests and the leaders of Israel came out to the wilderness in John 1:6-8, 19-28 to ask if he was a resurrected Isaiah that God had sent to fulfill the promises that had been written so long ago.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

But John says that he is not Isaiah, nor is he Elijah, nor is he the promised messiah. Instead, he has come to point to the Messiah, to announce his arrival, and to proclaim the fulfillment of God’s promises in Isaiah in the person of Jesus Christ.

But, knowing that Jesus is the Messiah, as we do, what does that mean for us today? What does that tell us about our grief, and our pain, and how we are to live our lives in the twenty-first century? In his letter to the church in Thessalonica, contained in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, Paul says this:

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.

23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Paul says that God’s will for us is to live in anticipation of God’s final and ultimate victory. We are to live as if Christ has already returned, and God has already fulfilled his promises of rescue, rebuilding, restoration, renewal, and transformation. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, test the prophecies of God to prove their truthfulness, reject every kind of evil, but hold on to all that is good.

In this world, we know that we will experience suffering, pain, grief, and death.

But one day God will transform our mourning into joy.

Until then…

…reject every kind of evil and…

                                    …hold on to what is good.

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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.™

Jesus, the Master of Insults?

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Jesus, the Master of Insults?

A message for teachers, preachers, and scholars

by John Partridge

As we read through the book of Matthew, there are many times when Jesus quotes from what we know as the Old Testament scriptures. Most of the time that Jesus does this he is simply teaching as rabbis and pastors have always done. Around his disciples, to people with honest questions, and in front of the crowds that gathered to hear him speak, Jesus preaches from the scriptures and teaches the people. But there are a handful of encounters in which Jesus does something different. When the Pharisees, and occasionally the Sadducees, come to Jesus, his approach, his intent, and his methodology are completely different. Rather than preaching from scripture, Jesus quotes scripture to the Pharisees… and it’s not pretty. In these cases, Jesus quotes from the scriptures, but rather than preaching or teaching in the gentle way that a father and son would play catch, Jesus quotes scripture as if he is hurling it at the Pharisees as a slinger in the army of Israel would launch stones, or a bowman would let loose his arrows.

We find the first of these instances in Matthew 12:3 in which Jesus attacks the Pharisees, men who dedicated their lives to reading, studying, memorizing, discussing, and debating scripture and its meaning. Here, Jesus’ attack is confrontational and deliberately insulting when he says, “Haven’t you read…?” as if these learned men had spent their time playing games rather than being serious scholars.

In another encounter with the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 15, the Pharisees come to Jesus and criticize him, and his disciples, for breaking the traditions of the elders. In other words, this isn’t about breaking the law, or committing sin, but about breaking the rules, habits, and traditions that had been handed down from other Pharisees, and perhaps even traditions that predated the Pharisees. But Jesus isn’t having any of that, and especially not from a group of people who are essentially the pot calling out the kettle for being black.

And so, in Matthew 15:3, Jesus once again insults them saying, “Why do you break the commands of God for the sake of your tradition?” For this group of men who followed hundreds of rules, specifically for the purpose of not breaking the commands of God, this is an obvious insult. But Jesus doesn’t stop there.

In Matthew 15: 7-9, Jesus continues by saying:

7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’”

This passage from the prophet Isaiah that Jesus quotes comes from Isaiah 29:13 where it says:

13 The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

The Septuagint reading is only slightly different in the first and last line but gives us some additional insight. The first line here saying, “They worship me in vain;” and the last saying, “their teachings are merely human rules.”

Of course, Isaiah wasn’t prophesying about the Pharisees but pronouncing a series of woes and judgements upon the people of his own time, but the similarities between the two situations are so strikingly similar that they can’t help but be compared to one another. The Word Biblical Commentary described this as being “in the sense of a typological correspondence between Isaiah’s day and the time of Jesus.” The Pharisees had certainly read and studied the words of Isaiah, and they understood that Israel had been carried into captivity because of their unbelief, and they devoted themselves to avoid a repetition of that mistake. And so, in other words, Jesus is calling the Pharisees out for having become exactly the thing that their entire movement had been intended to avoid.

But as we continue through Matthew’s gospel, Jesus isn’t yet done insulting the Pharisees. In Matthew 19:4, Jesus again meets the Pharisees and after they attempt to ask him a trick question about divorce, Jesus says, “Haven’t you read…?” once again suggesting that these scholars had not done their homework.

Again, when the Pharisees criticize Jesus for allowing the children to shout Hosanna as he healed the blind and the lame in the Temple, in Matthew 21:16, Jesus says, “Have you never read…? As he again quotes from the Psalms.

Not long after that, after deliberately insulting the Pharisees in Matthew 21:31 by saying that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of them, and again in Matthew 21:33-40 when Jesus ends the parable of the tenants by quoting Psalm 118 in Matthew 21:42 saying:

 “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

Even here, Jesus isn’t done. In Matthew 22: 41 after the Pharisees had asked him a difficult question as a test, Jesus asks a question of his own saying, “What do think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” But, when the Pharisees correctly answer that the Christ is the son of David, Jesus, quoting Psalm 110, asks, in Matthew 22:44, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord?” This exchange, on the surface, appears more respectful than some of their previous encounters, but again Jesus insults the Pharisees by exposing their lack of understanding.

The Sadducees appear in Matthew 22:23 for some of the same, as they ask a question with a quote from Ezra 7 in hopes of making Jesus look foolish. But Jesus’ response in verse 29 is to say that “You are in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.” And so, Jesus once again declares that men who were known for their knowledge of scripture, really didn’t know what they were talking about.

And all of that is followed by Matthew 23, in which almost the entire chapter is a Jesus delivering a diatribe against the Pharisees and all that they stand for.

From that, I think that all of us who study and preach should take note. Jesus was known for his gentleness, calm, and healing presence around sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, foreigners, and even Roman soldiers if their questions were sincere. But Jesus had no tolerance at all for the people who claimed to be scholars, priests, and teachers. Jesus expected these learned people to understand what they were studying and teaching, and he expected that their lives would be lived in line with what they knew. Like it or not, we should see ourselves as the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, and the teachers of Israel and heed Jesus words of caution so that we do not earn the kind of criticism that Jesus reserved for them.

As teachers, preachers, and as scholars, we are held to a higher standard and we are expected to live our lives in a way that models the scriptures so that on the day of judgement we might hear “Well done” and not, “Have you never read…?

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Pastor’s Report 2023

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Pastor Report 2023

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 and join us in our mission to care for the people around us, and around the world, the way that Jesus cares for us. So, what follows is this year’s report:

In 2023, Christ Church did what we have always done, survived, endured, persisted, explored, and innovated. As in life, things change and while some of those changes are good, others can challenge us. This year, after a particularly strong Spring storm, our scouts discovered that one of our tower windows had been sucked out of the building and shattered in the street. Further investigation showed that our roof had taken some damage in that same storm. But, as they have done for over a century, our trustees are managing, and repairing the damage to maintain our facilities. Similarly, we’ve lost a number of members to death, as well as several non-member family and friends, and our members have had their share of falls, surgeries, and other setbacks.

But through it all, we continue to do what we’ve always done. Christ Church has been, and remains a visible presence in our community through our semi-annual basement sales, the Habitat for Humanity Apostle build, our continued support of our Scouting youth ministry, contributions to school scholarships in Sierra Leone, the construction of a high school in Liberia, ongoing support for the missions in the Red Bird missionary conference, the bread ministry and Tuesday community dinners with the Alliance of Churches, the Salvation Army food pantry and Christmas “giving tree” programs, domestic violence shelter, coordinating and hosting the delivery of nearly a thousand Thanksgiving dinners, as well as our ongoing support of the Alliance community food pantry, and probably others that I’m forgetting.  We also have continued to live stream our weekly worship services and offer our sermons online in both text and audio formats. These online platforms now connect to more than 600 subscribers, though of course, not everyone connects every week.

At the same time, Christ Church has been doing some new things and exploring new possibilities for the future. This year saw the installation, and refinement of a new sound system that will allow an “autopilot” mode for days when our sound engineer cannot be present as well as our participation in the return of the Ministerial Association’s community Good Friday service (after Covid) in a re-imagined format. That service, in its new format, returned to a packed house at the First Christian Church.

Christ Church has also seen continued growth in our scouting ministry which now has four full patrols and continues to be one of the only troops for female scouts on this end of Stark County. This growth in the scouting program resulted in our church trustees giving the scouts a second room in the church in which they can store all the additional camping equipment and other things that these active troops need. We have also seen continued growth in the number of children attending Sunday worship which has resulted in a restart of a long-dormant children’s Sunday school program, and a collection to purchase all new toys for our nursery, in addition to our continuing children’s church program during worship.

As we look forward to 2024, we hope to continue to do what we’ve always done, but we are also exploring our partnership with the Coalition for Christian Outreach and the possibility of hiring a full-time campus ministry staff person. We also continue to work through the lessons that we learned during our strategic planning sessions and set goals for ministries that align our strengths with the needs of our neighborhood and the community of Alliance.

While our Sunday morning church attendance has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic levels, it does seem to be headed in the right direction and the signs that we see every week give us every reason to hope for the future.

As it has often been said, “We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.”

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It’s That Time Again

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It’s That Time Again

Pastor’s Letter – October Newsletter

It’s Fall, school has started, and most of our church folk have concluded our summer activities though it’s hard to grasp that June, July, and August passed by so quickly. As always, I thought that I would manage to get more done than I did. In any case, this is the time of year that our church begins to make plans for next year. Our fantastic finance team, led by Julie, our treasurer, has already completed a draft of our budget for next year and only needs to finalize budget numbers that are given to us by our Annual Conference. But that means that our Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development (aka the Nominating Committee) has also begun to meet and to consider who will lead our church in 2024.

I admit that this is sometimes tedious. Much like summer, our entire year passes so quickly that it seems as if our committee just finished the last list before we begin on the next one. But, at the same time, our work is sometimes a little exciting. We talk to many of you, imagine how things might change, and preview the new list of leaders before anyone else. Of course, since our church is not bursting at the seams with new members, many members of our committees are “recycled” from last year, and that’s not a bad thing either. As long as many of our experienced and highly capable leaders are willing to continue their work, we’re glad to have them do so. But, at the same time, we understand when they get tired and need to do something different.

But all that introduction leads me to two things that I probably say every year. First, I want to thank everyone who has served in leadership, not just in 2023, but over the 130 plus years of Christ Church (and First Church) in this place. All the time, effort, skill, and experience of all those leaders, as well as the power of the Spirit of God, are the reason that we’re still here and still in ministry to the people of Alliance. Over the past few years, our church has navigated a pandemic and other changes that the church members of the past could hardly have imagined, and we did it with the help of our amazing leadership team. So, again, thank you.

Second, I want to encourage everyone who isn’t currently serving, or who hasn’t ever served on a committee, whether you are a member of Christ Church or not, to consider how you can be a part of leading our church in 2024. While there are some restrictions on what leadership positions that nonmembers can hold, there are a great many that are open to anyone who attends worship and who wants to contribute. Please be in prayer and consider what God might be leading you to do. Your opinion, and your contribution, matter.

Finally, even though our Nominating Committee has only had one meeting (at the time I’m writing this), there are already some exciting developments because of the people who have already said ‘yes.’ I remain convinced that God has big plans for Christ Church, and I hope that you will be a part of it. Please let me, or any member of our Nominating Committee know what it is that you are interested in doing.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Do the Stuff

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Do the Stuff

August 28, 2023

by John Partridge

This isn’t a particularly religious idea, but it’s one that has grown on me over the years and one that I frequently repeated this summer. In the early 1990’s Patti and I were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at a camp Patti had worked at during college, and which we often visited. What was unusual was that on this visit, my parents stopped to visit us and see the camp because they were also in the area. As it happened, had made a stop in Frankenmuth at Bronner’s the year-round Christmas store and were (I think) heading across the Canadian border to ride the train through the Agawa Canyon which Dad had read about for years in Model Railroader magazine.

That part makes sense. The part that never made sense to me was that later, when I asked them what they thought of the train ride… they didn’t go. They drove all the way to the Upper Peninsula, crossed the border into Canada, and… decided that the train ride was too expensive. They had a good time, I guess, but they didn’t do the thing. They didn’t do the thing that Dad had read about, and probably dreamed about, for years, all because the train tickets cost as much as a night in a hotel (they still cost around $100 CDN per person). I couldn’t get over it. It bugged me then, and it still bugs me now. There is a time to save money, but there are times when you just… do the stuff.

When Patti and I first went into ministry, we didn’t have much money and we did our best to squeeze what we could out of every penny. When we went to Annual Conference at Lakeside, we slept in a tent at the campground because that’s what we could afford. But we still would buy ice cream with the kids at least once during the week and play putt-putt golf and do other things with the kids just because we were there. There are times when you can make memories and there are other times when you can save money. Sometimes, you just… do the stuff.

This summer in Israel, our group made a choice of whether we wanted to stop for lunch each day, or just carry snacks in our backpacks and keep going so that we could see more archeological sites and spend more time at others. The choice for all of us was easy. We paid a lot of money to take this class, and to travel to Israel, to see and to learn… not to eat nice, sit-down lunches. In other words, we just wanted to… do the stuff.  On at least one evening, after we had been touring and hiking all day, and were already tired, we had the option of walking into downtown Bethlehem to do a little shopping and to get some falafel from a local vendor. I was already tired, but… my choice was to do the stuff.

At the National Scout Jamboree in July, there were also several times when I had the chance to walk less, to stay out of the heat and out of the sun instead of hiking an extra three or five miles… but sitting in the shade wasn’t why I was there. I made the extra effort because I wanted to do the stuff. I gave this same advice to several people during the Jamboree as they struggled with decisions about what they wanted to do with their day. I gave this advice because I knew, from watching my dad thirty years ago, that sometimes you only get one chance to do the stuff. Years from now no one will remember the time that you sat in the shade, but you will almost certainly remember climbing the rock wall, riding mountain bikes, or whatever else that you were daydreaming about.

This is also a part of the reason why I went back to school at a time when Patti and I are thinking seriously about our retirement. I always wondered if I had what it takes to earn an advanced degree. It was the stuff of daydreams, but could I do it? And a part of me said… do the stuff. I do not want to spend my retirement wondering if I could have done it. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it’s time-consuming. Yes, at times it’s a giant pain in the keister. But I decided to try, and so every day I just… do the stuff.

One step at a time.

But, in the end, this does have an application to our spiritual life. As we move through our church year, especially as Christ Church sets goals for next year and considers a strategic plan and a new vision for our future, we will almost certainly arrive at moments when we must decide whether to continue doing what we’ve always done, or to do something different.

Sometimes rather than wondering how we might draw closer to God, or how we might find God’s purpose for our lives, or whether it might help to join a Bible study, have a daily devotion time, get back into the habit of reading scripture, attend church more regularly, join a Sunday school class, or do something entirely new and unexpected, what we ought to be thinking is whether we will regret NOT doing them later. Sometimes the best way out of our indecision, is simply to decide to just…

…do the stuff.

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