Hello there,

Greetings to you and your family. We hope you and your family are staying well and healthy during this time. We are writing to give you an update from Pastor Gordon's desk. This email is not to replace our monthly newsletter - The News and Views. This email is to quickly give updates to what is happening at Oberlin UMC.

The weekly Staff Pastor Parish Relations Committee continues.  Discussions of this group includes planning and suggestions to improve streamed worship.

Please remember to check our website:  oberlinumc.org and share information with your friends and neighbors.  For those persons who do not have internet services, DVD’s are being produced that can be viewed in their homes.  Please share this information with your friends, neighbors and relatives.

Celebrating Mother’s Everywhere

A Mother’s Love

A Mother’s love is something
that no on can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking . . .
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems . . .
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation . . .
A many splendoured miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God’s tender guiding hands
-Helen Steiner Rice

UMYF

Youth had their first zoom meeting yesterday, May 6, 2020. Please watch for details for next week’s zoom meeting.
Parents, if you have any questions or concerns you can contact the youth leaders. Robert and Robyn Rouse (rrouse3141@yahoo.com), Carol Wasson (cwasson@usd294.org), Chandler Pettibone (cpettibone@oberlinumc.org).

Sunday Morning Worship Bulletin

Those who wish to have a printed bulletin, please check your email and/or the church website.  Bulletins will normally be available by Friday afternoon for Sunday morning worship.

Giving

The ministries of Oberlin United Methodist Church are still happening but in different ways.  Meetings and worship are still happening.  The prayer chain is still praying for the needs of our membership, community and world.  Although the office is not open Monday-Friday, our email is still working, telephone calls can be received, and your pastor is still making contact with members and constituents.  Your financial gifts and tithes are still needed to continue our ministry in Oberlin and beyond.  John Wesley is quoted as saying, “the world is my parish”.  This is just as true today as it was in 1738.  The streamed worship service has been viewed throughout the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and even California.  You may mail your tithes/gifts to Oberlin United Methodist Church, 102 N Cass, Oberlin, KS 67749, or you may place your gift in an envelope and drop it in the mail receptacle at the south entrance.  Thank you for your prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.

Questions and answers about TITHE.LY:

Q: Is Tithe.ly or Online Giving Secure?

A: Yes. Tithe.ly / Online Giving is secure and information is encrypted.

Q: What options do you accept for online giving?

A: Tithe.ly allows you to give via Credit / Debit Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Bank Transfer.

Q: Can I setup automatic recurring giving?

A: Yes! Check the checkbox named "Recurring Giving" and select the options in the drop-down menu to select how often you want to give automatically.

Q: The Give button is not loading for me. Do you have another way to give?

A: Sorry about that. You can visit https://tithe.ly/give?c=1702815 and give online.

Q: Do you only accept online giving?

A: No. We still allow checks, and cash left in envelopes. Due to COIVD19, please drop your offline giving in our locked drop box on the south side.

Question not listed? Email us at giving@oberlinumc.org

UMW

The salad supper originally scheduled for June 3, 2020, has been cancelled.

Dorcas Circle

Dorcas met via Zoom on Monday, May 4, 2020.

Devotion Books

The May-June Edition of The Upper Room, both standard size and large print, are available at the south door for you to pick up.  Since many churches are unable to meet and gather safely in their buildings during the coronavirus pandemic, The Upper Room is offering the May/June 2020 issue, both in English and Spanish, as a free, downloadable PDF. The Upper Room also has created a web page featuring resources to help create and maintain spiritual wellness during anxious times.  Clink the following link to Download Upper Room.

Thoughts from Pastor Gordon

The world has a pace. We call it busy-ness, activism, freneticism. And at the extreme, we name it “hurry sickness.” We are all familiar with this, for we live in a world geared for it. And we know firsthand the debilitating effects of running faster and trying harder in the world’s feverish round of unceasing activities.

Ever think that grace has a pace. Did Anyone ever teach you to think differently?  Maybe we should consider the speed at which we live to appear normal, even “spiritual.” Some have a Bible verse for it, “growing weary in well-doing” (Galatians 6:9).  Maybe even our misunderstanding enables us to justify “exceeding the speed limit” in too many aspects of our lives?

We can become cynical about the pace of grace and maybe give up on it for the most part. The point is simply this: it is easier at some stages of life to live the pace of grace than it is at other times. It is far easier to live the pace of grace when the responsibilities of life (legitimate ones) seem to turn us every which way but loose. God knows this about us, and in such times, the pace of grace may be more of a vision to keep than an actual practice to achieve. That’s why it is a pace of GRACE.

But even “in the whirlwind,” we do not have to become victims of the soul-draining pace of the world. We can live in the pace of grace through the practice of the spiritual disciplines–means of grace that give our lives pattern and rhythm. The disciplines of abstinence (e.g. solitude, silence, sabbath) are especially helpful.

The disciplines are not only a collection of formative activities, but they are also a means to help us establish the spirit of the Christian life: engagement and abstinence. The pace of grace is the combination of doing and being, working, and resting. If we fall prey to a performance-oriented view of life (e.g. “I am what I do”), it will be difficult to see the pace of grace which essentially says, “I do what I am,” and puts the core of life in our personhood, not our productivity.

The pace of grace comes alive in us as we practice disciplines of abstinence as much as we practice disciplines of engagement. Even when we cannot fully live into this pattern and rhythm, we keep the reality and experience of it alive in little acts of everyday living that grow us in both our character and our conduct, lest in our freneticism we forget who we are.

Each of us is called to live in and practice G R A C E, not only for the world we live in with others but we are to live in and practice grace for our personal lives as well.  I hope that together we will all practice grace together.  Practice does not make perfect, but draws us to be a better Christians today and tomorrow.

Are you remembering to spend time at noon in saying the Lord’s Prayer.  Please mark your calendars, set alarms, and remind others that you speak with, by telephone, email, zoom, letters and cards, to be in prayer each day at noon.

Blessings for your week and we hope you will join with us to worship online on Sunday, May 3, 2020, at 10:45 AM.  Remember, the bulletin will be available at oberlinumc.org by Friday evening, May 1.

God bless,

Pastor Gordon