Pentecost

by Jason Byassee

Jason Byassee

One thing Pentecost means is that the Holy Spirit enables all of us to be like Jesus. We are like the disciples on our own: betrayers, deniers, those who flee. Then the Spirit breathes life into us and we can do what the apostles do in Acts: we can do miracles, preach, love our enemies, and for our purposes now–they can heal.

One of the best parts of my work is the chance to visit the hospital. The place pulses with life, even as it can be a place where the line between life and death is thin. I went today to meet young Chapman Blalock, Lance and Jessie Rose’s second son, and unimaginably tiny and mighty at the same time. New life! I also saw one of our most dignified and gracious older members, who had a fall recently, still radiant in her smile. I saw one of our guests who got hurt rescuing her children from a dangerous situation. She jumped up on the running board of her car to keep it from rolling off the mountain with her kids inside. She was lucky to escape with a broken leg alone, bless her. I hadn’t planned to, but also bumped into another parishioner in for unplanned and unpleasant surgery. We prayed together. Finally I prayed with Andy Ellis before his knee surgery, asking God to restore him to health to lead our youth and church toward Jesus. Five patients, part of an afternoon, the first day and the last phase of life; a courageous hero and a couple of maintenance surgeries.

Prayer is not healing. The doctors and nurses handle that part, thank God! But God is our ultimate healer, our great physician, and none of us gets out of this life alive. But prayer shows us Jesus is with us at every phase of life and will raise us to perfect bodies one day.

I was with Leighton Ford at a retreat recently. He is Billy Graham’s brother-in-law, and a treasure trove of stories of his own life and evangelism as well as his older mentor’s. He told a story of his daughter Debbie, who had breast cancer for the second time. She was naturally nervous, and as she headed to the hospital again she dreaded being there. Walking down a long hallway for tests she saw an old man in a wheelchair and sunglasses at its end. As she got closer she saw it was her uncle, the famous evangelist, Billy Graham. He was in for tests too, and had learned when she would be there and was there to meet her. She collapsed in his arms and said that was the best sermon he ever preached–not on the platform or in front of millions but with her in her weakness and in his, for prayer.

By the Spirit’s power we can do what Jesus does. We can be part of the healing he brings to the world. In our church there are several ways to do this: you can be part of our prayer team. You can come forward and kneel for healing at communion. You can visit in hospitals or nursing homes with pastor Jeff. He brings his kids to show them while they grow up that visiting the sick is something Christians do. You can apply with Jeff McClain (care@booneumc.org) to be a Stephen Minister. This may be our most important ministry of healing and it needs our best people–maybe you.

It won’t be just you doing it. It will be Christ working in and through you. Just think of your relief when you see someone you love ready to pray with you when you need it. And sign up to be that for others this Pentecost.

Transitions

by Jason Byassee

Jason Byassee

A favorite New Yorker cartoon depicts Adam and Eve leaving the garden. One says to another, “My dear, we are living in a time of transition.” Human beings are always in transition. The only question is whether we are becoming more or less faithful to Jesus?

In a college town in particular we tend toward transitions this time of year. Several affect our staff. One delightful transition is to Luke Edwards’ work. He has done wonders as our Director of Community Engagement while studying at Asbury Theological Seminary. We applied for and received a grant from the Western North Carolina Conference office of New Church Development to fund King Street Church and make Luke its full-time pastor. King Street will worship in cell groups around downtown and aim at folks vastly disconnected to church or without knowledge at all of what life with Jesus is like. As Luke often puts it, KSC will offer “Christian community for those who have never tasted its sweetness.” They will meet in living rooms, coffee shops, bars, or wherever folks gather downtown and seek to become disciples in disciplined community groups with leaders Luke will raise up and train. This gets Boone Methodist in relationship with a population we have really missed up till now and expresses our value that “Everyone everywhere matters.”

Boone Methodist is no stranger to launching bold new endeavors. We have come to speak of our “responsiveness”–when we see a need, as a church we mobilize to meet it. We have done that with our role at Esmirna Metodista in Patzibal, Guatemala, in starting FaithBridge in Blowing Rock, and in the launch of our own 8:45 and Crossroads services, as well as our link with Blackburn’s Chapel. When it comes to planting new communities of faith we have often been “all action and no talk” (which is better than the reverse!). And we have done it before without $132,000 in seed money.

Luke will become a licensed local pastor at annual conference in late June and shift to this work full time July 1. He will remain on my staff and connected to Boone UMC for his support and our growth. We will search for a replacement part-time hire in our missions program as well.

Another transition is taking place at Blackburn’s. Lindsey Long, who has done remarkable work as pastor of the chapel and head of the Blackburn House intentional community, is getting married this fall in Milwaukee. She and her fiancé Adam Joyce are seeking work as a pastor and editor and ask for your prayers. Her replacement has been an intern at BBC and resident at the BBH this year–Brandon Wrencher, a North Park Seminary student and terrifically gifted young pastor. Just as Lindsey has preached at special services and participated in our staff at Boone so too has and will Brandon. His wife Erica is a phenomenal singer and teacher and their son Phillip is prodigy-smart. Our relationship with Blackburn’s Chapel continues to bear more fruit for them and us than we had imagined.

Summer also sees its share of exciting events. We will send mission teams to Cherokee, Rwanda, and Daytona Beach. We will host Vacation Bible School June 16-20 including an adult portion that will be the perfect place to invite that person you’ve been meaning to invite to church. On June 7 from 11-2 we will officially open the Boone United Trail with a huge party. On June 8 we will gather Sunday School teachers at 10 and all committee members (and anyone else who’d like to come!) for a noon lunch to consider our mission together. And ongoing initiatives will spend the summer tackling our interior aesthetic, or practices of welcome, and the efficiency of our use of space.

And we will be changed. Your prayers will ensure that those changes draw us all closer to Jesus.