eNotes

Sign up to get weekly blog post from our pastors and updates about what’s happening in the life of the church. We call it the eNote and it will come to your email once a week.

This past weekend, Terri and I drove north of the border to reset our batteries for what is sure to be an incredibly busy and eventful 2020. As an ex-athlete, I love sports movies, even if they can be kind of corny at times. Call it nostalgia. There is a baseball movie entitled For the Love of the Game where Kevin Costner plays a superstar pitcher on the back end of his career. For years he has a secret ability to clear his mind and utterly focus on the task at hand -- throwing strikes. In the movie, he can be on the mound in an utterly hostile place like Yankee Stadium and simply say, “Clear the mechanism” and the crowd would literally fade away. He discovered, however, that the older he got, the more tired he was and the more his joints began to ache, the more difficult that was to accomplish. I can relate!

Jesus modeled for us the importance of “clearing the mechanism.” I would contend that in the history of the world no one had a more important job than Jesus. He wasn’t running a business or overseeing a country, he was saving the world… and he only had three years to do it! Every single moment of his ministry was utterly crucial and packed with incredible purpose and significance. Yet, he modeled for us the need in the midst of the chaos and clatter to go spend time with his “Abba.”  He would be in the midst of a major crusade, tens of thousands for a feeding miracle, throngs coming for healing and hope and the disciples would have to search for him because he had slipped off into the wilderness or the mountains. The disciples usually found him huddled behind a rock in prayer with God. They would protest, “Don’t you know that you’re needed?! Everybody is looking for you!” Jesus never responded and didn’t really seem to care.

The last two Sundays, Pastor Terry, Scott and I have kicked off the New Year by proclaiming that this year will be a year of “vision” for GMUMC – VISION 2020. We have invited you to pause and reflect on your own walk with God, your own response to Jesus’ call upon your life to be a disciple… a follower and not simply a fan. To see, as Terry and Scott preached on Sunday, that you have been planted in this time, in this place, in this church, in your marriage or singleness, in your neighborhood, in your career or moment of retirement on purpose. As God said through Jeremiah in the messages yesterday, “Circumstances may have seemed to bring you here, but it was I that carried you here,” says the Lord (Jeremiah 29:7, 14). So I urge you and us to take time individually and collectively amidst the busyness of our individual and collective lives to clear the mechanism and ask God for clarity in God’s vision for our lives.

I must practice what I preach or else it’s just words. So, as Terri and I sat on the Canadian shores of Lake Erie and prayed together, I was reminded of words from Susan B. Anthony who once said, “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” Our prayer was and is, “What do you want to do Lord, through our lives, our marriage, our ministry.” That was our first step in 2020 to clear the mechanism. I hope you will join us in disciplining ourselves to listen for the Holy Spirit’s voice this year.

This Sunday, we will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday at all services at both campuses. Our preacher will be Oneya Okuwobi. Oneya is no stranger to GMUMC. This will be her third visit here! She and her husband “Dele” and daughter Candace will be with us on Sunday. They are launching a new church in Cincinnati called 21^st Century Church and you will be invited to make a special offering to help jump start this new church (offerings can be made from Sunday through the end of the month – learn how on Sunday). Oneya’s bio is below:

“Oneya Fennell Okuwobi is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology studying race and religion at The Ohio State University. Oneya’s research interrogates how diverse organizations impact racial inequality. Along with her husband, Oladele, Oneya is founding elder of 21^st Century Church, a church plant in Cincinnati, OH. She is co-author of Multiethnic Conversations: An Eight-Week Journey toward Unity in Your Church. It is the first personal devotional and small group study on multiethnic life and church designed for people in the pews. You can find Oneya @Ookuwobi or Transcendculture.com.”