Tinney Chapel Today

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Please come to Tinney Chapel for Christmas Dinner

If you are alone on this Christmas Day, December 25, 2009, perhaps your family is out of town, or for whatever reason, you have nowhere else to go for a home-cooked meal and old-time friendly fellowship, please drive two miles south of Winnsboro on FM 312, then turn east on County Road 4620 for one-fourth mile, to Tinney Chapel—the quintessential country church, twice voted best in rural ministry by the North Texas Methodist Conference.

There, at 449 CR 4620, from 2 pm to 4 pm, expect a full-course meal from the ladies of Tinney Chapel, followed by the kind of coffee and conversation that reminds us all of flaming fireplaces, red-nosed reindeer, lamps in windows, hosannas in the highest, memories in a manger scene and ultimately the Reason for the Season.

For most of us, Christmas is one of the two most memorable meals of the year, ranking right up there with Thanksgiving turkey and crimson cranberries.

My Grandma Tinney, who helped raise me after I was orphaned at a young age, was no society type hostess, but she loved people, and always expected both family and friends to fill her rambling farmhouse for each year’s Big Dinner on Christmas Day. No invitation required: Just show up for the open latch, the larder, the ladle, the lamb and, of course, the love!

My Grandma Tinney introduced me to Tinney Chapel as an infant, and if she were still alive, and could be with us these days, she’d still want a crowd: our church’s 8,000-sq. ft. family life center would strain at the seams! I’d be grateful if all of you could have known her and the richness of having “company all over”—people drawn together by a single warm personality.

The next best thing might be today’s Tinney Chapel Folks, all of whom are steeped in the same rural roots and agrarian appreciation that made Grandma Tinney so special. Visitors to our church always say they have never been made to feel more at home than here at this 109-year-old monument to frontier Texas hospitality.

Please remember to be our guest on Christmas Day, December 25, for an unforgettable experience--and absolutely free!

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“Alone,” (c) Copyright by Angela Newton Wylie, a poem written & delivered especially for this event

Alone
When the world is closing in
And I am not certain even who I am
What I am
Where I am going
Pulled here and pushed there
Not belonging anywhere

Alone
Is the place to be
Outside in the open
Walking eyes shut and face lifted into the gentle wind
Whirling around in circles like the thoughts in my head
Arms outstretched to snatch dreams from the air
And breathing in the moment of sheer, exhilarating
Peace

Alone
Out beneath the achingly breathless blue of the sky
Watched only by the sentinel trees,
Sharing whispers and stories or imaginary worlds
With the grass and the lush weeds that trail though my fingers
As I ponder time and life and self and seek my soul,
Finding the quiet path to the way
To reach the Eternal

Alone
I am not a stranger in the breeze swept pasture
I am a friend that I can trust
I am comfortable within myself, confident for a moment
Away from the world and its strife and trials.
Alone with nature and alone with God
I can be true to who I am
I can find who I am
A child of God

Alone
I walk the dusty cow paths
Alone I climb up the steep leaf strew bank
And watch the water flow, rippling and thrilling
Over small waterfalls, flowing like my thoughts
And my dreams, away into the some other world
Washing away my worries and my fears
I can find myself here in the quit of Nature

Alone
I am older, my childhood not so long ago
Old enough to work, I steer a tractor
Through sun-drenched fields
The drone of the engine shuts our all other sound
And I have only my thoughts for companionship
Older, I have more things to escape from
Responsibilities, the future, these can all wait -
While I am with-in my seal of contentment
Alone

Alone
Sun-heated, soured rank cow manure sticks to my tires
Resin weeds give up their cloying pungent odor,
Crushed beneath the shredder blades
My skin is damp with sweat and covered with dust
And the powdery itch of goat-weed dust cloaks me like fine mist
My body is fatigued, but not my mind
I am never bored, I am mentally refreshed
When out in the field.

Alone
I know what Elijah discovered
Hiding in his cave
“Be still and know that I am God”,
The voice came in the quietness.
Away from the world I can be still.
In my mind I can listen
For the voice of the Creator
That in His infinite wisdom, created
A place to be alone.

Alone
I can find that I am really never truly alone
I can feel a connection to the world
To the ground dusty and pungent beneath my feet
To the sky and the clouds that drift, swept on unfelt wind
I am a child of God and I am surrounded by His glory,
I am filled to overflowing with his blessings,
And comforted by His
Peace

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Perceiving The Presence of God at Tinney Chapel Tonight, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 6:00 pm

At the Wednesday evening Advent Service, 6:00 p.m., December 23, Pastor Sue Gross will introduce Angela Wylie and Joe Dan Boyd, both Certified UMC Lay Speakers.

Angela, a prize-winning poet, will perform a reading of an original poem, "Alone," written especially for this event. Joe Dan will perform special music, "Something Got Hold of Me," selected especially for this event although not an original composition.

Both the poem and the song are scheduled to set a mood for Joe Dan's Advent Sermon, "Perceiving The Presence Of God."

Congregational songs selected for this service, "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" and "Blessed Assurance," are also intended to emphasize the sermon title and that which all of us seek, the Presence of God.

Pastor Sue will give the benediction to conclude this service.

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Christmas is, indeed, a state of mind, a mataphysical mix of memories from the past and hope for the future.

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Three Days of Christmas at Tinney Chapel This Week

At the Wednesday evening Advent Service, 6:00 p.m., December 23, Pastor Sue Gross will introduce Angela Wylie and Joe Dan Boyd, both Certified UMC Lay Speakers. Angela, a prize-winning poet, will perform a reading of an original poem, "Alone," written especially for this event. Joe Dan will perform special music, "Something Got Hold of Me," selected especially for this event although not an original composition.

Both the poem and the song are scheduled to set a mood for Joe Dan's Advent Sermon, "Perceiving The Presence Of God."

Congregational songs selected for this service are also intended to emphasize the sermon title: "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" and "Blessed Assurance."

Pastor Sue will give the benediction to conclude the service.

Thursday evening's Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, at 6 pm, continues a long-standing tradition at Tinney Chapel and the North Texas Conference, including the lighting of the Christ Candle to culminate the Advent Candle series of the past several weeks.

As "Silent Night" is sung and lights are dimmed, the Pastor will light a separate candle from the Christ Candle, and then the Pastor will light the candles of the candlelighters gathered at the altar who will then light the candles of the first worshipers at each pew in the sanctuary.

Jesus said: "I am the Light of the World, Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life."

Friday's open invitation to a Free Christmas Dinner, between 2 pm and 4 pm on December 25, is the second year that Tinney Chapel has hosted this unique event, which is further described in the Winnsboro Online Guide at: http://tinyurl.com/yd9k79f

If you are alone on this Christmas Day, if your family is out of town, or if for any reason you have no place to go, please join us, between 2 pm and 4 pm, at the Tinney Chapel UMC spacious, 8,000-sq. ft. Family Life Center, two miles south of Winnsboro, just off FM 312 at 449 County Road 4620.

Merry Christmas!