Some people don’t mind getting in a car and just driving, with no actual destination in mind, no arrival target time to hit. Where they are going is not nearly as important as what happened along the way. They want to know “What are we doing now?” Others like to have a plan. They don’t start moving until they know where they are headed. The journey is the process that gets them to the ultimate destination. They want to know “Where are we going?”

Many of us probably fall in between those two extremes. I admit. I am a “Where are we going?” kind of girl and I want to know “How are we going to get there?” Once I know where we are headed I can break down all the steps needed to actually get there. It’s how I’m wired.

I believe in the life of the church, it’s important to err on the side of “Where are we going? There are too many precious resources the organization is asked to take care of and too many people searching for something for the church not to be clear on what it’s supposed to be doing and how it’s going to do it. In other words, we need to have a clear sense of mission and vision.

Boone UMC, I’m exited to say, we have both of those. This past Saturday, around 70leaders from across the church came together to talk about the next year in the life of the church. We were reminded by the Vision team that our mission the church has been striving to accomplish for a couple of years isloving our community and inviting all to discover life in Christ. But then the Vision team shared the vision statement that they have been working on all last year. After pressing pause to navigate a change in Senior Pastors, it’s time to roll out the vision for the whole church to begin to learn and be guided by. A vision paints a picture of a preferred future. The vision for Boone UMC is thatall will be deeply transformeddisciples living for the transformation of hearts, the Church, our community and the world.This is what we are striving to do over the next 5 years or so. To become a community where everyone recognizes the transformation within themselves that following Jesus has brought about. That sounds super exiting to me!

So if we know where we are going than how are we going to get there? That’s what the other part of Saturday was about. Our approach is a very bottom up and organic process. Instead of a handful of leaders telling everyone in the church this is what we are going to do, we have instead cast the vision and pointed the way and then we asked each of our ministry teams to identify what is their piece of the Vision pie. What is their puzzle piece that they can contribute. Each of our ministry committees and teams spent some time identifying 1-3 goals that they can do to help our church align to our vision. It was so exciting to hear the ideas from groups like our Worship and Mission Team as well as our Trustees and Nominations and everyone else that was present. We had 14 different groups represented! Our Administrative Council will keep tabs with our church leaders and we’ll see how they are progressing with their goals. Then 10 months from now we will take time to celebrate the new things that have happened. And along the way we will help each other get unstuck if a stumbling block has hampered progress. But together we will begin to align our resources, focus our energy, and begin to make decisions that move our congregation towards becoming transformed disciples living for the transformation of hearts, the Church, our community and the world, by loving our community and inviting all to discover life in Christ!

One exciting thing that began on Saturday was the introduction of VOMO, a volunteer sign up app that our church is now using. We also introduced this to our whole congregation on Sunday morning. We are excited to have a new way in which our church folks can sign up for service opportunities so that we don’t have to depend on pulpit and bulletin announcements to share these opportunities with you. But let me address a concern that we have heard. VOMO’s policy (which we have in writing) is thatthey do not share data with outside companies, there are no ads on their platform, and they have no third-party vendors who have access to any user data. Your email address is safe with them. We would never share your information without that promise.

So we hope that you will respond to the email invitation our congregation received on Sunday morning so that you can sign up and see at your fingertips the various ways you can share your own time and talents. It’s pretty easy to do. You can either download the free app by responding to the link on the email in your inbox (might have to check the spam folder), download the VOMO app on your smart phone or you can go to VOMO.org on your computer. Click on “Join Your Organization” and enter the code BOONEUMC (all caps, no spaces.). Please join our congregation in using this app so we can make it easy to point folks towards the many ways our church loves its community and nurtures transformed disciples who are serving others faithfully.

This is going to be an exciting year in the life of our church. Our leadership left here energized about the future. We believe that our whole congregation will begin to feel that energy and excitement as we all begin to see where it is we are going and how we are going to get there. Even those of you who aren’t looking for a destination point. To be part of a church that has clear direction and purpose is the chance to see the Holy Spirit at work. And the Holy Spirit is doing some amazing things through the body of Boone UMC.

Let’s be God’s vessel this year and be part of the transformation. I promise, this journey will be quite a ride!

Grace and Peace,

Lory Beth

I’ve decided to try to use my blog in 2019 as a way of sharing signs of hope and good news so every other blog or so will be about lifting up examples I find of people doing a good thing. Today I want to start with an interesting story I heard about the Dave Matthew’s Band. I have loved this group for over 20 years but didn’t know Dave’s story. His parents are South African and his father was a professor at UVA. He died when Dave was young so his mother decided to move back to South Africa for support where he grew up during the last breaths of Apartheid. When he was called up to serve in the South African military, he decided he did not want to support the racist government, so he returned to Charlottesville, VA instead. He then went on to make it in the music industry but not after playing in dives all across Charlottesville.

So when the white supremacists targeted Charlottesville in 2017 a friend called Dave, who was in South Africa at the time, and told him what he had witnessed. He said he had seen the riots and witnessed the death of Heather Heyer. It broke Dave’s heart. He and his band decided to respond by offering a concert for Charlottesville where he was able to bring together some amazing artists to bring healing to the community.

Stop focusing on the negative all around us. Focus on the positive. To focus on the examples of doing good in the midst of our brokenness. To be bearers of light and hope in the hopes that it will inspire all of us to look for our own opportunities to make a positive impact and flip the tables of something hurtful, harmful or destructive into something hopeful, life giving and Kingdom worthy.

Butthat wasn’t enough. He felt called to do more. Even though he no longer lived in Charlottesville he spent some time there and his band figured out that they could impact that community best by helping improve low-income housing. So they held two special concerts at the end of their concert tour in 2018 and have dedicated part of those proceeds plus more money they are donating as well as their management company (also originated in Charlottesville) in order to earmark $5 Million to re-imagine public housing in Charlottesville. They are going to renovate all 376 housing units. Every single one of them. Plus they are going to build some new units. This funding is just the beginning of this project but how amazing it is to me that this famous person did so much more than host a benefit concert. He actually took the time to look around and offer to do something tangible and specific. To get involved. And to share some of his valuable resources. (By the way that band has given away more than $40 Million!) You can read more about this here:Dave Matthews Band.

I am struck by the observations Dave Matthews shared when he came back to America after living under a blatantly racist order of life in South Africa. Much to his disappointment he said every where he looked he was faced with racism but the difference was here, it went unnamed and by too many, unrecognized. That was over 20 years ago. So when this opportunity to do something about it came along, he did.

I am also struck by their generosity. It is not lost on me that while they have given away over $40 Million, they are still popular musicians, on tour, able to continue to generate resources. God is still blessing them while they choose to share generously with others. Blessings upon blessings. And that is a sign of God’s economy which it looks like that band has figured out and is living into. For that I am grateful.

I know most of us do not have access to $5 Million we can use to help right an injustice, or better resource a good cause, or start something new to meet an unmet need. But that doesn’t mean we are off the hook to do nothing. If nothing else, we can tell this story and share good news about the good things people are doing in our world. We can keep telling the stories until we figure it out and have one of our own to tell. Or maybe you do have a story of good news to tell. Share it with me so I can share it with others!

In the mean time, will you join me in being bearers of Good News this year? Stop focusing on the negative all around us. Focus on the positive. To focus on the examples of doing good in the midst of our brokenness. To be bearers of light and hope in the hopes that it will inspire all of us to look for our own opportunities to make a positive impact and flip the tables of something hurtful, harmful or destructive into something hopeful, life giving and Kingdom worthy.

Grace and Peace,

Lory Beth

I discovered some new Christmas songs this year that I downloaded and added to my Christmas play list. One of them was a version of Auld Lang Syne by The Tenors. It forced me to listen to the lyrics in ways I confess I just hadn’t before. Part of it is I didn’t really know what the title phrase that is repeated what feels like hundreds of times throughout the song even means. It’s a Scottish song that poet Robert Burns captured some of the language from the oral tradition of some old timers and then added his own words in 1788. The song title translates as “long, long ago” or “old times”. Hence why it has traditionally been sung at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve.

The song basically starts out asking should we forget about old times? And then the chorus answers its own question by saying no, we should toast and remember days gone by. However what struck me this time was how it said we should do that. It wasn’t just clank your glasses and say cheers and then bottoms up. It invites us to “take a cup of kindness”. I listened to The Tenors sing that to me all Christmas season and it imprinted on me.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

As I reflected back on this year which is my usual practice in my journal on New Year’s Eve, there were some memorable moments but if I’m being quite honest and including our political landscape, there has been much to turn one’s back on in 2018 and hope for much better in the coming year. This has not been our brightest shining moment on the world platform. It has also not been the brightest shining moment personally for me and Greg.

While we said goodbye to one long time furry baby in our family this year, a few months later we welcomed a great new kitty cat to our family. We also went through the very difficult act of picking up one’s life and moving. While we love our new church and community we have entered, it is still hard to leave friends and home and carve a new niche in a new community. Maybe I was feeling that as Christmas approached and I pulled out Christmas decorations that in the condo I knew exactly where to put it but in the new parsonage, I had to find new places and configurations for my Christmas trinkets. The same is true for me and Greg finding our place in the community. Throw in a few health concerns and some job and financial stress it’s no wonder we are looking forward hopefully to 2019 and not fondly backward to 2018.

I think for all of the above reasons, the line “take a cup of kindness” struck me. When I look around, I think we could all use a cup of kindness. Believe me, I am completely cognizant that the things I reflect on pale in comparison to what some people are facing. And in a time in our country where our default feels like it fallsto self-interest, or division and creating enemies to battle against, or ignoring decorum in order to upset the status quo no matter the costs I think a cup of kindness is in tall order.

So I figure if I am longing to receive a cup of kindness than it should be my goal to do my very best to offer a cup of kindness to anyone in my sphere of influence. I would argue that Jesus’ version of this line is:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. – Luke 6:31NIV

A simple plea as we start the new year. While we shouldn’t forget old times, they are
what shapes us and forms us into who we are, we don’t have to dwell on them. Own them. Acknowledge them. Relish those that make you smile. Move on from those that don’t. Take a cup of kindness, especially as balm for those tender places, and look ahead to what is in store for you yet to be experienced.

God’s Blessings and Abundant Kindnesses in 2019,

Lory Beth