Senior Dinner 2013

 

Thank you for being here. It says a lot for you as seniors, parents, and youth workers that you want to be here to celebrate with your church family.

This is also one of those rare times when your parents say “they know how you feel” they really, truly do. Maybe it’s been 30 years but they know about alienation, separation, fear, loneliness. They also know about joy, new life, new beginnings and a value of a faith community that has remained faithful to them.

One of my favorite picture frames was given to me by the Mallonees.  It has a picture of my mother, me and Catherine, and the caption “His faithfulness endures for all generation.” Insert your own mental pictures in the frame and that’s what this night is all about, we are products of that faithfulness in our homes, surrounded by friends and a community of faith. The theme of steadfast love explodes in the wisdom writings especially the Psalms.

 

So enjoy tonight, because the next two weeks will fly by.

Traditionally, I use a song that the words and music fits each senior class. Tonight, I will be using a song from Wreck-It Ralph by Owl City, “When Will I See You Again.”

A question some of you as parents are already asking.

If I were to summarize the charge to seniors in this song, it would be

Go see the world

Cause your futures

Ready to shine

You are ready! It’s been fun but it’s time to go, life is as it should be.

If I were to summarize the beginning of the OT it’s as if God says:

Here it is, a big, beautiful fascinating world

“Do something with it”

 

Sort of like David says “God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it but you get to do something with it.”

Think about the times you have hiked Crowders Mountain, been to the waterfall at Valle Crucis, stood at the Jersey shore or washed feet from crystal clear Lake Potomac.

 

Think about the magnificent architecture of the St. Louis Arch, building something with your hands, writing a sermon, or art in the little houses and then finding it incredibly satisfying.

 

Have you ever helped someone who needed it-yard work, fence work, shelves, housing, serving meals, decorating shoes and been amazed how meaningful it was?

Of course, because you were doing your part to make the world a better place.

God gives us life and turns us loose with it. The song says life is a trip

Look at the mountains you haven’t climbed

It’s just a matter of time

 

But before you go, just a reminder that you are called as disciples to continue to be students of life. Parents you are called to keep learning from Him how to live in God’s world, God’s way, without your students at home.  Like David said today:  “If you’re not green, you’re not growing.”

I guarantee you that the people you must admire, the ones you saw in the picture frame are people who believe that each day is a gift and thank God for it. Often times we are not changed by what we know, but by the examples of others.  Look around you tonight at the many examples you have. 

 

Jesus doesn’t expect you to have it all figured out. (Like in the song) We are always learning to fly. We’re disciples learning how to be more patient, more kind, more courageous.

The key to being a disciple is to keep paying attention to what’s going on inside you live with the conviction (Sidekick) God is with you and has a purpose for you in the world constantly pray and ask him to give you eyes to see what the next right thing to do is (he will never ever fail.)  

Now, on to more practical truths about you and your role in the world. Jesus talked about seeking God’s kingdom. Do that and the rest would fall into place.

Here’s what he means:  It’s easy to get hung up on the specifics and find yourself really disoriented and frustrated. It’s easy when you’re a teen to get hung up on the details-when you’re going to go to college or whether or not you’re going to make the team or get a certain teacher next year. And these are incredibly important things that deserve and demand tons of our energy and time.

 

But when you follow Jesus, they aren’t first!

What’s first is you being open to letting God transform you into more and more and more the person you were created to be.

 

The Bible tells the story of a God who believes in people, including teens, parents and youth workers.

 

And Jesus tells his disciples to go out and make more disciples and then what does he do?  He leaves them.

Sounds like Graduation.

He leaves them to spread his message without him, because he believes they can do it.

We trust you to go and we don’t know when we will see you again. Probably not ever exactly like this. But we believe in you-you can be courageous, generous, loving, kind, creative, daring, compassionate and honest all on your own!

 

Don’t ever forget that.

The Class of 2013 along with their families and this church are the kind of people who bring heaven to earth.

 

In a moment, your parents will wrap a blanket around you with the cross and flame. Let this remind you of our evening and our love for you.

LOL-Lord of Life. Working together to live Christ every day.

 

 

Style Your Soul

By Luke Christy

Today I was lucky enough to be a part of the “Style Your Sole” party the youth of the church put on for the local Boys & Girls Club.  This is just another creative way that FUMC Gastonia serves this community.  The idea really emerged last year with the youth director, Becky Greene. She purchased TOMS shoes for each member of the youth group, and on the group’s mission trip to Philadelphia the youth decorated their shoes.  This year the idea evolved even further.  The youth group decided to put on their own “Style Your Sole” party for the local Boys & Girls Club.  The church bought a pair of TOMS shoes forthe girls at the Boys & Girls Club and had the girls over this afternoon to let them decorate their shoes with paint.  The youth explained to the girls that they were doing this to allow them to be creative and express themselves as individuals.  This was an awesome opportunity for the youth to spend time with these kids and for the kids to do something that they otherwise would not get the chance to do.  The coolest part of the whole experience for me was at the end when a couple of the youth and I went from room to room and washed the girls’ feet.  I talked to the children about why we were washing feet and told them the story about Jesus washing his disciples feet.  I explained to them that Jesus loves everything about us, even the most nasty, stinky parts, like our feet.  Then, I told them that we werealso going to wash their feet to show them that we love them just like Jesus loves us.  

​What these youth did for these girls showed me what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  It does not mean onlyreading about how cool a person Jesus was, or how he washed his disciples feet once.  It is about DOING what Jesus did and trying to live like he lived.  I have spent a lot of time at school in class, and Bible studies trying to learn more about how to follow Jesus. Those things are great, but it does not mean anything if I am not LIVING it.  This party is a way the youth group is “DOING” their faith in Jesus. The “Style Your Sole” party not only showed Godly love to those girls, but also reminded me of what being a follower of Jesus looks like, and means.

I was also reminded again today how this church helps reach this community in big ways more often than I might realize.  For weeks the youth had been collecting money from the congregation for the cost of the shoes for these girls to design and have.  It was interesting to see how the church supported an idea that the youth group had to serve others.  This youth group is blessed with such a willing congregation that they are able to serve the community in new and exciting ways like this.  The youth had a great idea and were willing to work, but they could not do it alone.  The church is all about using the gifts of one another in order to show the love of God to the world, and that is what I saw this church do today in the “Style Your Sole” party.

Style Your Sole

Style Your Sole

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CH__CH, what's missing? U R

U Can’t Make a Difference Unless U R Different

by Garret Heath

Good Morning…   

Like a sports team, scouts, or a group of school friends, our Youth group creates a positive environment for fun among teenagers in our community; however, we’re very different. We place an investment in a higher power unlike any of these other groups. Just like CHURCH can’t be in existence unless U and R are juxtaposed in the middle, U can’t make a difference unless U R different.

            As teenagers, we often take ourselves way too seriously, when in fact we need to take God seriously. The diverse aspect that makes our youth group so distinctive leads us through life blindly. How many times have we made plans and asked God to bless those plans with endless devotion? Through the entire college search process, I prayed for God to validate my plans. When in fact God can’t lead if I am way out front. Jesus invites us to follow him twenty times in the New Testament—he’s not simply asking for halfhearted fans. He wants us engaged like a school’s student section buying merchandise, cheering at games, and arranging schedules around our most important rallies. He requires a change. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states:

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away

            This church has given me the opportunity to make a difference—and that difference is what leads to my ability to pass away old things. Mission trips have provided a cathartic experience to express my spirituality to others. From the Native Americans on a Mississippi Reserve to the inner-city aspects of St. Louis, I’ve met many people who’ve brought situations to my eye that I didn’t know existed within the United States (and have made me thankful for my life). However, it was a girl in Philadelphia that looked like everyone I’ve grown up with that changed my perspective on passing away my burdens. I worked at the Blessed Sarnelli Community in the rough Kennsington neighborhood in inner-city Philadelphia several times throughout the week. To giver perspective, the street corner a block away from Saranelli House traffics the most drugs on the East Coast. I was fortunate enough to serve a meal and see people from all different walks of life become energized with nutrients and a sense of community. I saw one girl enter, in her low-twenties, in running short, a big t-shirt, and carrying items in a grocery bag. I first assumed that she was a volunteer, her looks reminding me of an average Gastonian. As I looked closer, I saw bruises covering her body and hospital bracelets rubbing her wrists. She graciously thanked me for my meal and greeted her friends like long lost siblings. I felt both empowered and heart broken. I wanted to call every middle-class, white family in Philadelphia and ask if they were missing their daughter. This girl, who could easily have been my classmate, friend, or even my sister, broke my barriers of outreach and made all the mission trips more personal. Not only was I able to give this girl a meal, but she was able to give me the opportunity to relate to all the people I had previously served. It also made me treasure the moments with my sister and family, realizing that any individual can give help or be asking for help.

            As I move forth into my Adult faith, I must seek ways to stay grounded in my faith and search for opportunities to make a difference. Jesus has accomplished all the hard things—we must interpret each chance we get in order to accept the ways of God. So I challenge each one of you to open your eyes and see what’s around you.  The chance to make a difference because WE R different looms in everyday life because of Jesus. It is up to us to seize those situations with spiritual eagerness.

U R Expected to Pay Attention to God

by Sarah Towner

Good Morning! My name is Sarah Towner. I am a Senior at Ashbrook High School and I will be speaking to you this morning about paying attention to God.

Time after time we are given examples in the Bible of the importance of “paying attention”. As children we learn the story of Jonah, the man who tried to run away from God and found himself in the belly of a whale. When he did that, God could have chosen someone else to lead, but He continued to take care of Jonah. How true is this even for us as God’s children. No matter how much we try to make it about ourselves instead of Jesus, He will always be there for us.

In his book Toughness, Jay Bilas reminds us to “choose the harder right over the easier wrong”. This prayer that Mr. Bilas’ father taught him originates from the West Point Military Academy and makes me think of the Ashbrook JROTC program, which I am a part of. Everyday we are reminded to follow the three basic Air Force Core Values to become better citizens for America: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do. Integrity First means to do the right thing, even when no one else is watching. “Choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” When I was in the 9th grade it was so easy for me to not come to church. In the 10th grade it was hard to come back, and sometimes it still is, but I’m here, aren’t I? I’m convinced God talks to me everyday, all day long, and it’s my responsibility to listen and pay attention. My dad always tells me to listen to the wind rustling through the leaves, because sometimes it can end up being an “Aha! Moment”.

The burning bush is another example of “paying attention”, this time with Moses. He allowed himself to be interrupted but was terrified of what he heard. God picked Moses to lead and he made all kinds of excuses. But all God said was “I’ll be with you. And this will show you that I’m the one who sent you” (Exodus 3:12a CEB).

And this morning we heard the scripture of Samuel, the boy who was called 3 times before he understood God was calling him. It sounds a lot like my mom trying to get me up for school in the mornings! As a member of First United Methodist Church, are you hearing God’s call, paying attention so you don’t miss it? Are you invested in your faith, or do you just feel entitled to it?

While we were at Valle Crucis last Fall, Becky and Jimbo showed us a video where Jeff Foxworthy describes his favorite bible story. He tells about a man named Wayne who acquired a large sum of money from the insurance when his mother passed away. He got a couple girlfriends and started partying like crazy. He lost his job, stopped paying rent, and so he packed up all his stuff and started moving from hotel to hotel. The only thing he had left from his mom was his childhood bible, in which his mom had written a love letter in the front cover. As he moved from hotel to hotel, he started losing his stuff, and soon enough he realised he’d lost that bible too. Eventually, the money ran out, and the girls left. He was unemployed, homeless, and a crack addict. For a year and a half he lived on the streets, begging for money so that he could feed his addiction. One day, a man came to Wayne and told him he had a job for him and another homeless man nearby. The man took the pair to an old apartment he had bought 100 miles away from where they had been living on the street and asked them to clean it out. The second man worked upstairs, dropping big, black trash bags out the window while Wayne caught them and threw them away. After a while, the guy stopped dropping bags, so Wayne assumed he was finished and went upstairs. When Wayne got up there, he saw a big pile of stuff that the second man had found while he was cleaning out the apartment. Wayne said “Dude, what about all this stuff you missed?” And the other homeless guy said “No, that’s stuff I found that might still be worth something!” And so Wayne goes over to the pile and starts looking through the stuff, and at the bottom of the pile was this book, and Wayne pulled it out and opened it up to find his mother's love letter in the cover. It was his childhood bible, a year and a half later and 100 miles away. Wayne fell to his knees and started sobbing, and he decided that 'If God is chasing me this hard, then I'm just gonna stop running'."  At the point that Jeff Foxworthy was telling this story, Wayne had been crack-free for 3 years and had a full-time job working to help homeless people get off the streets and back into a healthy lifestyle. If God is chasing me this hard, then I’m gonna stop running. What about you?

As I prepare to leave for college, I give thanks for the values my parents have instilled in me. Many of you have also invested time in mentoring me throughout my life, and because of that investment, I will leave with a sticky faith that will last beyond high school. I have also learned that whatever I do is sacred. As a youth group, through texting, Facebook, and Twitter, we share our awareness of the presence of God each day.

On Mission Trips, we put serving others before ourselves. The service helps us get out of our comfort zones, but the reflection, journaling, morning glow, and foot washing is our most cherished discipline. Through silence we reflect, process, and learn. We are “fasting” from the noise that distracts us from our relationship with God.

Preparation is not just for big events like baptism, confirmation, graduation, or marriage; it’s a daily thing. We must tend to our souls daily--all day, every day! As a student, officer, athlete, and musician, I have found I must “bring it everyday”, even when the result is not what I imagine or hope for. As Joanna Weaver tells us in her book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, “We all want a testimony, but we’d rather skip the test that gives us one. We all want a product. But we’d rather skip the process”. It’s in moments such as this that I, like Samuel, trust the plans God has for me.

As a church, we must do our absolute best. Can we be here 100 percent of the time? No. But can we give 100 percent of ourselves while we are here? Absolutely.

Now, with that being said, I’m sure you are wondering about our theme this morning. If you would turn to the front of your bulletins, maybe I can shed some light on the subject. Our theme can mean a lot of different things to different people. I think in the sense of paying attention, it means that when you’re here on a regular basis, are you here to listen to Reverend Christy’s message and learn what he is teaching us, or are you here because you think the preacher’s funny? BAZINGA.

BLESSED ARE THE AVAILABLE

I have always liked the Beatitudes for the specific nature in which they guide our daily walk with Jesus .  From time to time, I enjoy thinking about modern day Beatitudes.  My new favorite is from Max Lacado "Blessed are the available".

It is amazing what showing up to do God's will means in the lives of those present.  Just this week,  I have witnessed people being available to people:

Who are exchanging wedding vows
By expressing their feelings in a Caring Bridge journal
To sit by a bedside
Through prayer texts
Knowing they are just a phone call away
Holding hands
Celebrating anniversaries and birthdays
In Neighborhood groups
Sharing talents as musicians and thespians
Extending emergency care
Counseling
Around tables at prayer breakfasts
To plan worship
To make handprints
Receiving graduation invitations
Who are hearing bad news
Going the extra mile to pass on a message
Confirmands, mentors, waterfalls and mountains
Having lunch
Through Interfaith hospitality network families and volunteers

And this is just what I know about the precious presence in one week at First United Methodist Church Gastonia.

Blessed are the available for they are the conduits, the tunnels, the tools to do His will. Amen.

Toughness

I am currently reading a book with the same title Toughness by Jay Bilas. To some of you it may seem strange that I am reading anything born from the pen of a Duke graduate; however, Catherine looked forward to Jay Bilas speaking in her graduate classes at Carolina, so clearly he has seen the light.


As I began reading, it dawned on me that he was raised by parents very similar to mine. He said he gets his toughness from his parents and that toughness has no relationship to physicality, but rather toughness is the ability to bend or flex without breaking.

In one of the first chapters, Bilas refers to being tested in school like everyone else, but he said "my mother never told me my scores, only that I did well." Neither did my mother. Getting my SAT scores back in the mail was the first standardized test I was privy to the results. Being announced a Marshal at the end of my Junior year was the first clue I had about class rank.
What have we done to our kids? A disservice in my opinion. We have placed limits and made excuses when our children don't do well, and inflated their egos when they achieve. We have done a poor job of teaching them perspective. As parents, we get high and low right along with our teenagers. My mother was a great listener, but she was very even keeled. She went to school one time to meet with a teacher, and of course it was Home Economics! And while she didn't necessarily agree with the teacher, it was unacceptable for me to leave my ugly, crooked, homemade poncho in the locker when I was supposed to wear it!

I am thankful for a solid foundation. As Catherine said in her eulogy, mamaw lived through the Depression, sent a husband to war, had a baby at thirty-eight, took care of her parents, buried a brother that was murdered, two sisters who died of cancer and Alzheimer's, and lost her husband when she was sixty-five (she died at ninety).

I will never be as tough as my parents, but the bar is set high and I'm working on it. I believe each day I learn more. Thanks to my mom, I to push myself and get out of my comfort zone. I feel prepared for any situation I encounter. You can be a nice person and still display "toughness." True toughness is more mental than physical; it's your ability to deal with adversity, and a will from within. As Christians, our toughness should begin and end with the Lord. If He brings us to it, he will bring us through it.




 

Sticky Faith

Most of you that know me, know march madness is my favorite time of the year.  I enjoy watching basketball at any level and particularly following a player or team throughout a season.  One of the things I have always believed, no matter what level, is that a player should go out of a program better than he/she came into it.  And while much of that responsibility is given to coaches to make the player better, the individual must have the discipline, desire and strong work ethic to obtain improvement as well.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism preached often  about going toward perfection.  Vince Lombardi, a great football coach, once said "perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence along the way."  Once again, while others may support and encourage you on this path to perfection, ultimately you have to make it happen.

When we think about @sticky faith, I believe the same principles hold true in spirituality as athletics.  I firmly believe after significant milestones such as baptism, receiving Bibles, confirmation, graduation, that a Christian should leave that program with a greater faith foundation than when they came in.  And while the church can guide this development and parents can and should  nurture a child, the responsibility for increasing in wisdom and love is on the student.  A disciplined prayer life, faithful participation, cheerful giving, sacrificial service and  living out loud in a way that witnesses to your faith is mandatory.  It is not optional regardless how many excuses you might offer to God.  If you want a faith that sticks beyond any program, you must be willing to practice.  The season of lent is about spiritual discipline.  March madness is about discipline. My favorite definition of discipline is "doing what you don't want to do now, so you can do what you want to do later. ". You have to work at your basketball skills or your spiritual tools now, so later they will be solid fundamentally.

So enjoy tournament time and look for those athletes who have finally achieved their one shining moment.  In addition, pay attention everyone.    Are you leaving this program, this worship, this place, this community, more spirit-filled than when you came in?  Do you practice your vows daily?  Do you seek perfection, in order to experience excellence? Are you waiting on someone else to make faith happen or will you work at it yourself.  It's not rocket science.  You know what you need to do, so just do it!