Tinney Chapel Today

Photo by Joan Labarr, Director, North Texas Conference Communications.

North Texas Conference Bishop Rhymes H. Moncure, Jr., maintained a decidedly spiritual tone, from beginning to end, during the recent Annual Conference in Wichita Falls, and thus was the subject today of Tinney Chapel Pastor Duncan Graham's sermon and The Remnant Sunday School Class Leader Joe Dan Boyd's lesson. For more detail on each of these events, see the reports below. To read Joe Dan Boyd's essay on Bishop Moncure, click HERE

MORNING WORSHIP SERVICE, 9:00 A.M.:

Pastor: Rev. Duncan Graham

Greeter: Roger Schneider.

Sound:

Ushers: Clay Spears & Roger Schneider.

Music:

Song leader: Angela Wylie.

Piano: Jeane Anderson for Pat Hollingsworth.

HYMNS:

Let’s Just Praise The Lord, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, Count Your Blessings.

Call to Worship & Opening Prayer

Morning Prayer & Lord’s Prayer:

LITURGY

Offertory Prayer

Doxology

Gloria Patri

Apostles Creed

CHILDREN’S SERMON:

Today’s title, said the Pastor, Rev. Duncan Graham, is “What Is Love?” It is based on Romans 5:7-8, which says, Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

“I don’t know about you, but when I see a heart, like a valentine, the first thing I think of is love,” said Pastor Graham. “We think and talk a lot about love, don’t we? We often say things like: I love ice cream, I love to play baseball, or we say to our parents and special friends: I love you.

“A group of professionals asked some children, between the ages of four and eight: What does love mean?” he continued. “Here are some of the answers the children gave:

“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne, and they go out and smell each other.”---Sherri, age 5.

“Love is when you go out to eat, and you give someone most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”

“Love is when you tell a guy that you like his shirt, and he wears it every day.”

“Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken.”

“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you’ve left him alone all day.”

“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him just to make sure the taste is OK.”

“Now, if I were to ask you to tell me what love is: What would your answer be?”

“But,” suggested the Pastor, “If we really want to know what love is, I think the best answer is to go to the Bible. God not only told us what love is, He showed us. The Bible says God showed us how much He loves us by sending Jesus to die for us even though we were sinful. Wow! That’s real love. God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us, even though we did not deserve it.

“You know, the list of answers the children gave to the question (What is love?): Well here’s one more!

“God could have said magic words to make the nails fall off the cross, but He didn’t. That’s love. I think that really says it all, don’t you? Let’s pray:

“Dear Father, thank you for love. Thank you for showing us what love really is, in addition to telling us. Thank you for giving us Jesus Christ to demonstrate how much you love a sinful world, a sinful people. Let us never forget, Lord, that great gift and that great love. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

All rights reserved by Bonnie Vincent and the North Texas Conference.

The 2005 Annual Conference logo was designed by Bonnie Vincent, a member of Walnut Hill UMC, Dallas. It is based on the theme Down To The River with the pots representing the six North Texas Conference Districts. A flowing stream of God's love expressed through the ministries of all the churches flows from the tipped pot, beginning the flowing stream that develops into the river that flows to the logo border, hence out in to the world. The flame representing the United Methodist Church leads to the stream below. The six Districts are combined, joined and energized by the Holy Spirit for ministry as the North Texas Conference went Down To The River June 5-8 in Wichita Falls.

ADULT SERMON:

“This morning, I want to read you a Scripture,” said the Pastor, Rev. Duncan Graham. “And then, I want to relate some things to you about our experiences this week. I’m going to read Romans 10:14-17, because it kind of lays out some of the theme of what recurred constantly throughout our Annual Conference session this past week.” To read the New King James translation of this Scripture, click HERE

“We had our Annual Conference sessions this week in Wichita Falls,” explained the Pastor. “Elaine and I really came away from that Annual Conference session in kind of a euphoric, spiritual attitude. Because, I really believe that this would be, if not the best Annual Conference I’ve ever attended, it would at least be one of the top two. It was absolutely a great experience, and a very moving experience, from beginning to end. I say that, because usually Annual Conferences, to be honest with you, are pretty boring: You hear a lot of reports, a lot of business is conducted, and those have to be. You’ve got to conduct the business of the church, and that’s what Annual Conferences are predominately all about.

“But our new Bishop has a way of making it, first and foremost, a spiritual experience,” added Pastor Graham. “And, he not only preached a blockbuster Sunday night service, at the first session of everybody coming together, that was very moving and very meaningful. But, he also preached these little sermonettes, or vignettes, throughout the business sessions every once in a while, that really called us to remember that we are, first and foremost, about being spiritual people who are here to serve the Lord. And it was so meaningful and so refreshing in the way that he put it across.

“He is not what you would call shy about telling it like it is,” explained the Pastor. “But, at the same time, he is such a very caring and loving man that he is also able to portray that quite literally, too. I printed off this week’s issue of the North Texas Conference Reporter that was forwarded to me by e-mail. It will be coming out this week, and it’s a full report on the Annual Conference and we will be getting our bundle of those things sometime this week. So they will be here by at least next Sunday, and I encourage you to be sure and pick you up a copy of it and see what all went on, first hand, because I’m not going to read all this because you would go to sleep on me.

“But there are some tremendous nuggets of deep things, spiritually, scattered throughout this report,” emphasized Pastor Graham. “Incidentally, the copy of the Reporter available in the foyer today contains all the appointments that were made in this Conference. Also you can get a copy of the Upper Room out there either in regular or large print for your devotionals. Back to the Bishop. The one thing he kept hammering on throughout the business sessions, every once in a while, especially to the preachers, was: Preach the Gospel and love the people. That’s why I chose to read the Scripture that I read earlier this morning.

“Nothing is more important in a pastor’s calling, a minister’s calling, a preacher’s calling, than to preach the Gospel, added the Pastor. “That is, as he constantly reminded us, the primary reason we are here: To preach the Gospel. Now, preaching the Gospel, as a general rule, is not hard if you believe it. And, if you believe it, then you ought to be more willing to preach it, and you ought to preach it with some kind of enthusiasm.

“I’m a firm believer, and always have been, that if you don’t believe the Gospel, you ought not to be up in a pulpit,” said Pastor Graham. “And, unfortunately, I’ve witnessed some that did not seem to believe it, and what they were doing there: I don’t know. But, I will always stand upon this: If you don’t believe the Gospel, then get away from it, and leave it alone, because if you don’t believe it, and are still trying to preach something that is half of it, then you are in a lot of trouble. But, if you do believe it, do the best you can to relay it to everybody. Because there is no one in this world who is not worthy enough to receive it. You can put that two ways. You can say that no one is worthy, and I’d have to say: That’s right. But, on the other hand, God said that He sent His Son so that whosoever would believe on Him would not perish.

“Whosoever!” That means anybody, everybody, and so we need to be sure that we are always willing to proclaim that Gospel to whoever in the world we encounter,” says Pastor Graham. “The worst person in the world needs to hear the Gospel. And, the Bishop kept hammering that home, time and time again, and he also kept talking about loving the people, loving the people. And, you know: Sometimes people are hard to love. Now, hello, don’t get too holy on me here. We are all in the same boat. Some people are just hard to love, and that’s when you have to call upon the power of God to work in and through you, to love them anyway. I treat people I love differently, because I love them.

“I think good things about them,” he explained. “Even though they have their flaws. I want to do good things for them, although sometimes I wish they would do differently. I never to seem to get over the fact that I love those that I love. And, I look at what goes on in our Annual Conference: Sometimes it seems to me that we preachers don’t act very loving toward other preachers. A lot of it comes back to the fact that it’s because we don’t know each other because we don’t take the time to get to know each other.

“Sometimes the same thing happens in the local churches all over the place,” added Pastor Graham. “Sometimes we don’t take the time to get to know each other long enough to get to love each other. I have discovered most of my life, very rarely does it ever happen that, when I really get to know somebody, that I don’t also love them. I’ve been around people at times when other people didn’t like them. I could never find it within myself just not to have anything to do with someone, no love or consideration, because I didn’t like them. It just doesn’t work that way.

“When we love people, we act differently than when we don’t,” explained the Pastor. “So, I take the Bishop very seriously when he says: Preach the Gospel and love the people. Preach the Gospel and love the people! Now, I don’t mean to be saying that I have arrived. But, I am saying that I commit myself to strive toward always preaching the Gospel and loving the people. When we do that, we begin to see things happen in our midst, in our church, in the Kingdom of God and in this world.

“Because, you see, we need to always realize that it’s one thing to be friendly to people when they walk in the door, on the surface, it’s another thing to love them enough to make a friend out of them,” said Pastor Graham. To carry them beyond the place of being just an acquaintance, to the place of being a brother or a sister in the Lord, and to include them in the family of belonging.

“We, so often, in the church, pride ourselves on grabbing a hand and shaking it and saying: We’re so glad you are here,” added Pastor Graham. “Welcome. Come right on in. But, then, when it’s all said and done, that’s all it is. We don’t really share who we really are for our lives, for our time for our service to them after that initial contact, that initial acquaintance, that initial meeting. How we need always to remember, to know, that bringing a stranger in means making them a member of the family and not just a stranger that we were nice to for a little while.

“And, so, the Bishop is saying to us that when we preach the Gospel and love the people that we are being an inclusive family,” he explained. “We’re bringing people together. The theme of this Annual Conference was Down To The River, a flowing stream of God’s love expressed through the ministries of all the churches. Everywhere you looked, that logo, that painting, was present with pots of water turned over and running down by the cross and was symbolic of several things: the water of our baptism, the mingling together of many droplets that make up the whole of One Body as opposed to individual droplets, making us realize that we ourselves are to be the wellsprings of Living Water that give life or that cleansing power of Jesus Christ away to everybody we meet.

“So, our Bishop was telling us how we need to realize, and he brought in an analogy, using a big clamshell up at the front: He would dip his hand in it and let the water trickle down again, demonstrating that we are many people, many churches, many districts, six districts, but all of us come together in One. And, we are part of the same unity, the same body of believers. This morning, we need to realize that we are not the only Methodists in the world that are worshipping, even though we are focused right here. But there are people all across this North Texas Conference, and all across the world, that are worshipping, too, the same Jesus that we worship.

“And, because we are a part of that Living Stream, we are a part of one another,” added Pastor Graham. “How important that is. And then I need to say that his message on Sunday night was powerful! In fact, I think I’m going to order the DVD of that and offer to show it one Wednesday night here, so that you can all enjoy that message, that sermon. But, also, on Tuesday, and I’m ashamed to say that I did not go to the Tuesday night session. It was an ordination service, and I didn’t know anybody who was being ordained. It’s a general thing that goes on: A lot of people don’t go to that when they don’t know any of the ordinands.

“So, I missed that service, and I’ve kicked myself ever since, and promised myself I will never miss another one,” he added. “Bishop Norris, the retired Bishop of the Texas Conference preached at that service and Bishop Moncure, our Bishop, came down and washed the feet of every one of the people there for ordination. I understand, from those who went, that it was a tremendously moving service. When it was over, he did an altar call, and they say there were a lot of people who went down to the altar. No doubt it was a life-changing experience for many of those people who were there that night.

“We heard a lot about it from the people who did go, the morning after,” said the Pastor. “And, what he was doing was saying to them that, as the Bishop, the overseer, over the souls and ministries of all these people, he was taking it upon himself the role of a servant, and laying before them, just as Jesus did, the example to be a servant of others in the world. Somewhere that’s right at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we need to know that we are not called to be elevated ourselves, to be served ourselves. But we are called, as Jesus said, to be servants of others.

“When we, as Christians, get that message down deep in our hearts, it begins to really change the way we look at the things that go on around us, day by day,” explained Pastor Graham. “It changes the way we begin to see others; it changes the way we begin to see the role of the church. Serving others is what we truly are called to do. And, in doing it, we are serving our Lord. For a long time, I used to sit and ponder how can I really serve the Lord: Render to him some service while I’m living here on this earth, that pleases Him and fulfills what He expects of me and gives me the knowledge that I have done what God would have me do.

“What I finally came down to was this: That the only way I can really serve God in this life is by serving others, by serving people in this world,” he added. “They don’t even have to be His people. They can be unbelievers. It really doesn’t matter who it is as long as I am serving in the Name of Jesus Christ. I believe that’s true of all of us. We need to understand the only way you are going to get a glimpse of God is by the people you serve. Amen, Brother Duncan, that’s right?

“The great need that we have in this world is to get out of ourselves, to get out of our personal beings, to get out of our own feelings, to get out of our likes and dislikes, and give ourselves over to what God desires in sharing life, and giving life and promoting life in other people,” emphasized the Pastor. “I really believe there will come a day when we are going to stand before the Lord and He’s going to say: What on earth did you do for heaven’s sake? And then we will have our own past life reviewed. What bothers me about that is that I’m afraid that, with too much of it, I’m going to be embarrassed. Are you all there?

“And it makes me desire, very strongly, to re-do some things, to really reach out and do some things better, do some things that really touch other people,” he said. “Do some things that impact their lives. For the glory of God. For good. For their own enjoyment. I don’t mean their pleasure. Rather, for their spiritual development and enjoyment. Now, a lot of people may not like what I preach, but I’d rather people not like what I preach than to go away and be indifferent about it. I’d rather you’d either love me, or turn me off altogether because of what I have to say than to go away and say oh well, ho-hum, I don’t care, didn’t mean anything.

“I’d rather make you mad, or laugh, than put you to sleep: Are you all listening?” quipped the Pastor. “What I’m getting around to is that we have shared in what I consider to be outstanding moments in our Annual Conference. And those outstanding moments went from beginning to end, in terms of telling us—as he would put it: There’s a new sheriff in town! And, believe me, I believe it. There is a new sheriff in town, and you can read about it in the paper as it comes out. In fact, I’d certainly be willing for anybody to share and look at some of these pages that I have printed off of the Internet today.

“But he is intent on leading us into a time of serious development, spiritual development, as a group of people, and as a group of churches, that will cost us a great deal,” added Pastor Graham. “And, he put it this way, after recounting a lot of the things that he liked about being sent to the North Texas Annual Conference as Bishop, talking about how much we have done, and how thrilled that he and his wife are to be here, to be assigned to this Conference for the next eight years, actually four years, but it probably will be for eight years, he said this:

“You have to know that from those who have received much from God, much is required,” he added. “Much will be expected, by God and by our Bishop, too. But, since there is much that is required of those who have received much, then we probably need to sit down and reflect upon what we have received. What we have received as individuals, and what we have received as a church. Because the honest truth is that we have been blessed, and if we have been blessed, we need to stop and think about what God is requiring of us! What does God desire that we become and do with all these blessings that He has poured out on us?

“Then, begin to formulate ways and means, within our own hearts and minds of how we can begin to return the blessings, how we can begin to be used of God,” said the Pastor. “At this point, the Bishop told us, right at the end: I want you to go back, all of you preachers, to go back to your congregations and tell them that, on Tuesday night, we ordained a number of people, some of whom were pregnant, those are his words, OK, some were people of white skin, some black skin, brown skin, some women, some men, different nationalities, some spoke with an accent. Tell your congregation when you go back that any one of these newly ordained people could be appointed as your pastor at some time in the future. You preachers are only appointed for one year at a time.

“The Bishop said that last September when the assignments were made for Bishops, he was called into the committee, and the committee told him that he would go to the North Texas Conference,” explained Pastor Graham. “He said they did not ask him if he wanted to do it or what he thought about it. They said, you will go! And he said: Yes. I will go! That was his point about making appointments. I admit that I was sitting there kind of smugly at that point because I’m thinking, Bishop, you can send anyone you want to Tinney Chapel and they will accept them.

“I really believe that: I don’t care who it is,” emphasized the Pastor. “I believe Tinney Chapel will accept any person of any color, of any accent, of any gender, as long as they preach the Gospel. As long as they are faithful to Jesus Christ. Honestly, I was a little bit proud of this church at that point. That was the point he wanted related to the congregations. And, so, I have related it in obedience to our Bishop. But, it’s one of those things that, having said all this: You had to be there to really grasp it. I don’t believe I can relate to you the spiritual high that we felt during those sessions and those worship services, and listening.

“Our own District Superintendent preached a great message at the Memorial Service for the Pastors and Pastors’ spouses who had passed away during the past year,” he added. “And it was a very touching, moving moment as well, as we honored those who have died and gone on to glory after having preached the Gospel for however many years. But the whole thing, from start to finish, let us come away feeling a certain refreshment, more spiritual than worldly. We always need to remember that the church is more about the spiritual than it is the worldly.

“Bishop Norris said something to the effect that we always have to be in the world, but not of the world,” said Pastor Graham. “And we have to realize that we have to be part of the world, but above the world. And, our calling as the people of God, as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ is to lay aside the sins that so easily beset us and proclaim the glory of the risen Christ through our own lives, through our church. We can make the future whatever we want. We can make it a great, great future in terms of accomplishments, of works and so forth for the Kingdom of God if we want to. But, we have to want to do it. And, we have to dedicate ourselves to it. Give ourselves over to it, to the cause of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray:

“Oh, gracious Heavenly Father, remind us always, beginning with me, Lord, to preach the Gospel and love the people. Oh, gracious Lord, may the Name of Christ be exalted not only here in this place, but in our individual lives, day by day, month by month and year by year, that we remain always faithful, always near to Him and always doing His work. O, gracious Lord, guide us in this church, today and every day, to be the glorified Body of Christ, sharing the Gospel, loving the people and seeing the fruit of our labors in the Kingdom. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

CLASSES TODAY:

SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS TOPICS:

WISE ONES, Frankie Brewer: Holiness to Healing.

LADIES BYKOTA CLASS, Peggy Boyd: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

TINNEY CHAPEL MEN, Bill Knoop: Faith for Earth's Final Hour, by Hal Lindsey.

OVERCOMERS, Jenna Nelson: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

YOUTH, Ronny Ellison: Life Lessons from 1 & 2 Peter, by Max Lucado.

CHILDREN, Linda Hallman: The Flower and the Oil.

REMNANT, Joe Dan Boyd: We Found The Christ at Annual Conference.

The Remnant Righteousness handout is below:

REMNANT RIGHTEOUSNESS

Life lessons # 270: from studying news and reports about this week’s North Texas Annual UMC Conference in Wichita Falls.

1. When the 1,200 United Methodists, registered for this Annual Conference, go back home, and are asked to report, our Bishop said he hoped our emphasis would be that we found the Christ: Our wine ran out, but He transformed us.

2. Bishop Rhymes H. Moncure, Jr., preaching on John 2:1-11, presented the Cana water-into-wine miracle as a suggestion for times when our own faith, love, patience and energy run low. This miraculous wine represents the energy of our life force.

3. Our energy for life’s activities may run out, like gas in a car, when we use more than we are willing to put back in.

4. All of us are vulnerable to finding ourselves still doing the work, but enjoying it less, finding it harder to find what it takes to keep on keeping on.

5. When we experience a sense of brokenness, fragmentation or loss of confidence, our first thought should be to seek out Jesus, to lean on Jesus, emphasized the Bishop.

6. We are to find ways to invigorate ourselves, perhaps through Disciple Bible Study, perhaps by witnessing the faith or something else entirely. Different strokes for different folks.

7. If Jesus could transform ordinary water into exceptional wine, imagine what He can do about transforming our lives and our congregations, reminded Bishop Moncure.

8. The Bishop said he is often struck by reading about Jesus’ heroic actions, like knocking over tables at the Temple, but at Annual Conference, Bishop Moncure emulated the servant-leader attitude of Jesus by washing the feet of each ordination candidate.

9. We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, said visiting Bishop Alfred Norris: Rather, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

10. Despite the imperfections of this world, Bishop Norris reminded us that this is, after all, the world for which the Savior died, in order that the world might be saved.

11. The entire life of the church is all about being a parent of humankind, declared Bishop Norris.

TODAY’S DATE: 06-12-05

THE REMNANT

SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS

TINNEY CHAPEL UMC

WINNSBORO, TEXAS

ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT SUNDAY: 06-19-05:

STUDY “WISDOM IN THE HOME” IN PROVERBS 10-31.

AFTERWARDS, REFLECT UPON THESE THINGS:

1. Children are a gift of the Lord.

2. The rod & reproof provide wisdom.

3. Those who love their children discipline them.

4. A good wife is a gift from God.

5. Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.

6. The woman to be admired and praised lives in the Fear-of-God.

BIBLE READINGS:

Readings for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost: Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7); Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23).