Last Thursday evening, I went to a forum hosted by the Middletown Ministerial Alliance at
Central Connections. Police Chief Muterspaw, Police Sergeant Nelson and Fire Chief Lolli
shared with those gathered current statistics regarding the heroin epidemic in Middletown, then
answered questions posed by the audience.
One of the questions asked was by a woman who does some gardening at one of the
downtown churches. She is often approached for financial assistance while she is maintaining
the church grounds. She asked what she should do when she is approached for assistance
because she wants to make sure she isn’t giving people money to buy drugs.
The police sergeant suggested that churches not give cash to those requesting assistance. It
is fair to assume that someone who asks for and takes cash will most likely not use it for what
they asked. Unfortunately, not everyone who comes to the church for assistance has the need
they tell us. That is not to say that some people don’t have legitimate need. But, not all of
those seeking assistance from churches are honest about their need.
If someone approaches you for assistance while at church, I request that you do not give them
cash and direct them to me. I’m at the church on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and
Sundays. If I’m not at the church, you can call my cell phone.
Through the Outreach Committee, I have resources available to provide assistance. I first
screen all requests to make sure there are no holes in their story, so I can refuse those who
are trying to take advantage of the grace and compassion of a generous church. For instance,
one man came to the church twice on Thursday with 2 different stories and 2 different
requests.
By fielding all requests, I can protect you from being taken advantage of. Some dishonest
people know that church people are very kind and generous and will unfortunately lie to you to
get what they want. It is important that in a town where drugs are a major problem we not give
cash away to someone who could go buy drugs with it. However, I’m sure that any mercy you
show someone in need is not lost on them.

Thank you for your grace and love for our neighbors,

On Sunday, I shared a story about me being ungrateful about a gift from my parents when I
was 8 years old. Like my 8-year-old self, I don’t always receive God’s blessings with gratitude
and thanksgiving when I want God to answer my prayers in a different way. We can all be that
way with God’s answers to our prayers.
Martin in his invitation to the offering gave some ideas for reframing our thinking so that we can
better appreciate God’ blessings. Heather in her children’s moment taught the children (and
reminded the adults) that we need to be patient with God because He will provide for us in His
time. Even the music Rachel Eve chose went along with our theme of reflecting on God’s
blessings.
Isn’t it cool when God’s Spirit works in our preparation to create a theme in worship!? When
we all look at the Scripture for the coming Sunday as we reflect and prepare for what we’ll say,
it’s amazing how the Spirit works all things together for a unified message. This week it was
gratitude.
The one thing I am most grateful for this year is the honor of being your pastor. It is a gift to
share the journey of faith with you. We’ve cried together, laughed together, prayed together
and thought deep thoughts together. Thank you for inviting me into your life and allowing me
to point to where Christ is in our lives and how God is working in our lives. You are a kind,
compassionate, generous, loving group who I am glad to serve Christ in a mutual ministry.
Thank you for your gifts and words of appreciate.

I had the opportunity to walk in the Middletown Homecoming parade on Friday evening with
the Girls on the Run team from Amanda Elementary School. I was surprised by the invitation
and decided to go for it. Who doesn’t love a parade!
When you watch professionally produced parades like the Rose Bowl parade or the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day parade, there are no long gaps between groups and it is well paced. At a
community parade, there is less coordination and large gaps can grow. The Girls on the Run
team had a spot in the parade Friday night that was near the beginning of the parade.
The groups in front of us moved quickly and they pulled away from us very early in the parade.
The group behind us lagged well behind us early too. The girls tried to catch up to the group in
front of us but couldn’t keep up. Then, they wanted to fall back toward the groups behind
them, but got worried that they couldn’t see the group ahead. Isn’t that indicative of many
aspects of community life?
Families try to keep up financially but there are large gaps between middle class families and
those living in poverty. There are limited opportunities to move ahead. It’s too easy to fall
behind and lose sight of the opportunities ahead. In our schools too, some students move
quickly ahead and outpace their classmates. Many students fall behind in our schools who
need attention and you’re left with a few who may not get the help they need because
resources are given to those lagging and those at the head of the class.
My hope is that when we plan our community service in response to God’s vision which we are
currently discerning we will help bridge the gaps, help people move ahead and help families
succeed. One of the people who responded to our community leader interviews said we need
to look beyond quick fixes or providing handouts. We need to help people get out of poverty.
As Habitat for Humanity’s puts it, we need to provide a hand up, not a hand out.

The Board and Elders continue their work in our vision discernment process. Over the
previous 2 months, they were interviewing community leaders asking questions about: who are
our neighbors; what do they need; what is being done for them; what else can be done. I have
received reports of the work they did and I will synthesize their reports into a manageable
summary of the 22 interviews. I’ll have that for them to review at the October Board meeting
and will make it available to you after their review.
Now, the Board and Elders are doing some reading. They’re reading chapters or whole books
about the mission of the Church. The authors are industry leaders on missional transformation
of churches. What does that mean? Missional transformation is the current buzzword for
churches who are being transformed from irrelevant, dying or stuck churches into vital,
relevant, healthy churches by shifting their focus from themselves to others. Churches today
are getting new life when they stop focusing inward and start focusing outward.
The reading the Board and Elders are doing will give them insight about why churches make
the shift and how they make the shift in thinking. The books include insights about how we can
plan for mission and ways we can be transformed. This transformation requires us to think
differently about what is outreach and how do we do outreach. I could tell them and you all of
whys and hows, but I want the Board and Elders and you to know that these ideas are
supported by church leaders who know the dedication of shifting the church’s mindset and
have seen the fruit of the hard work of transformation.

The Board and Elders will not need to do a book report or receive a grade. Everyone gets
100%! They’ll each share with me 3 bullet points, a quote or a paragraph summary of what
they read or thought inspired by the reading. I’ll synthesize that into a summary of all the
reading for them to review and I’ll make that available to you as well.
If you would like to also read something, please let me know. I have a chapter of a book that
would be a very good summary with nice stories to convey the teaching or I have a couple
books that you can choose an interesting chapter from. The reading will take you less than an
hour, unless you choose to read a whole book.

All this work being done by the Board and Elders will lead us to a bunch of stuff to pray about.
Through this work, God is beginning to reveal to the Board and Elders spaces where we can
serve and people we can build relationships with. My plan is to have a spiritual retreat during
worship on Sunday, November 12th for us to pray and plan. My hope is this retreat will be
when God reveals more of His vision of who we can become and what we can do through
missional transformation by our worshipful work as a congregation.
I can’t plan when God does stuff or tell God when things need to happen. We are seeking
God’s revelation in this process of prayer and work. We can’t rush God’s vision – it needs to
be from God, not us. This process of discernment has evolved as we moved along.
November 12th is my hope for a spiritual retreat during worship. However, the Board and
Elders will need to review the work they’ve done before I’m ready to say it is time for a retreat
and what that retreat will be like. I’ll give you more details about what that retreat might be
once the Board and Elders meet in October as I’m praying for God to reveal to me the next
step in this process of seeking His vision.