Tinney Chapel Today

To meet the Christmas expectations of disadvantaged children in Wood County, a collection of games and game pieces, including an authentic basketball and packaged parlor pastimes such as Monopoly and Battleship, were donated last month by Tinney Chapel’s OASIS group, an organizational acronym for Older Adults Still In Service.

Carolyn Beavers, one of the founders of the group, also led a devotional on “Expectations” at the OASIS meeting of January 15, 2008. She compared dictionary definitions of this fascinating word, expectations: Some of which include references to “prospects, especially of success or gain,” with our own expectations of ourselves, our careers, our health, our wealth, often unrealistic and unrealized.

“Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” Such was the opinion of novelist Charlotte Bronte, quoted by Carolyn, who paraphrased: “In other words, Bronte implies that perhaps we should not set our sights too high, because of life’s unpredictable twists and turns.”

Indeed, a dramatic variation of that lesson underpins Charles Dickens’ novel of the mid-1800s, Great Expectations, in which the main character actually exceeds his own social and economic expectations, but loses his moral compass in the process. Still, Dickens’ novel emphasizes the value of charting our course in life, just as does Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and his epigrams in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

But, Carolyn’s primary emphasis dealt with the expectations that God has for each of us: “Do we meet them?” she asked, rhetorically. And what does the Lord require of us? Carolyn pointed to Micah 6:8: “To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” This is a favorite Scripture for many of us, and for good reason: It’s the short version of God’s blueprint for our lives, the essence of His expectations for a relationship with each of us. Again, Carolyn asked: “Do we meet God’s expectations?

For New Testament parallels, Carolyn emphasized the Gospel of John, where Jesus tells us that we remain in His love if we obey His commands, and we are to love each other as He loves us! Jesus at once raises, encourages and empowers expectations!

# posted by Joe Dan Boyd @ 1/15/2008

It’s a first for the North Texas Conference:

Each individual church in an entire District paid 100% of its apportionments!

“No other District in our North Texas Conference (NTC) has ever done this before,” declared Rev. Dr. Keith Boone, Superintendent of the Paris-Sulphur Springs (PSS) District, who had recently verified the historic accomplishment with Marvin Guier III, NTC Treasurer and Director of Administration.

“Not only did our District pay out, for the 13^th year, 100% of its apportionments," he added. “But, this time every church in the PSS District paid its own way. I am so proud of you, of your faithfulness and of your fruitfulness.”

District Superintendent (D.S.) Boone made his dramatic announcement at the annual PSS Training Day, Jan. 12, where the theme of the day was “Faithful and Fruitful,” and was hosted by First UMC, Sulphur Springs.

District Lay Leader Ben Bennett opened the event with greetings and prayer.

Rev. Boone preceded his announcement and message by reading Scripture from John 15:1-8. His message focused on Jesus’ admonition that He is the True Vine and we are the branches: “Those who abide in Me, and I in them, bear much fruit.”

The D.S. recalled his own personal heritage: “I’m a cradle Methodist,” he explained. “Both my granddaddies were Methodist preachers, and I was baptized into the life of the church when I was about 6 weeks old. I wasn’t able to make promises to God as an infant, but that didn’t mean God was not making promises to me. So I have always felt that God was very close.

“I believe we’ve been given the tools and the resources for the Great Commission: To go and make disciples,” he added. “To go to all. Not just to pick and choose who to share the Gospel with.

“Rather, to be faithful and fruitful in that task,” emphasized Rev. Boone. “I believe that being faithful will build fruit. I believe, with all my heart, that this Scripture is a text about community. It’s about abiding in Christ. We are not the vine. We are just branches, but hopefully, we are among those fruitful branches.

“I believe with all my heart that we don’t form community: Rather, community forms us,” declared Rev. Boone. “Worship is not about what we want. Instead, God is the subject and the object of our worship.

“God has given us every tool, and every seed that is worth sharing or worth planting,” he added. “Every congregation, I believe, can be vital, vibrant and visionary. Both small membership churches and large membership churches can be powerful agents for change.”

How to do that?

Rev. Boone believes the answer is to be found in a book that he has chosen to guide the coming year of ministry in the PSS District: Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, by Bishop Robert Schnase (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2007).

“This book will help us form practices for vital, vibrant and visionary leadership in the life of the church,” says Rev. Boone. “Our charge conferences in the fall of 2008 will be shaped around these five practices: radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, extravagant generosity.

“This book provides a way to shape practices of the life of a congregation,” concludes Rev. Boone. “And, let us not forget that the ministry is not ours. Rather, it is the ministry of Jesus Christ.”

# posted by Joe Dan Boyd @ 1/12/2008

Laying Hands on Rev. Dan: Everybody’s Favorite Missionary

There he goes again: Rev. Dan Hubbell’s itinerary is crowded, with no relief in sight, between January 14 and March 10, and little to anticipate beyond Third World deprivation, militant Muslims, Hindu hotspots and Oriental inscrutability.

In other words, this jaunt of three-nations-in-two-months resembles nothing so much as a repeat of the now-legendary 71-year-old’s previous globe-trotting missionary journeys, where Rev. Dan always seems to find the Keys to the Kingdom, even when—-for security reasons---he often isn’t told exactly where he is or who is hanging onto his every word about the promise of The Word!

His first scheduled stop is the Philippine Mindanao Islands, where some recent Christian missionaries have been killed, and where church property has been destroyed: “But, the safest place to be is always where God wants you to be,” he emphasizes. There, Rev. Dan expects to co-labor with a growing army of young men he himself trained as Christian leaders three years ago, men with whom he already enjoys a Bible-based father-son spiritual relationship. This trip will mark his third missionary journey to the Philippines.

Rev. Dan’s second scheduled stop, beginning January 29, will inaugurate his first missionary journey to India, at which point most men in their 70s would insist on at least a short break for much-needed rest and relaxation. For Rev. Dan, it will only be a time for him to pause and catch his second wind: “At my age, I do get tired here in the U.S. just like everyone else, but not on an overseas missionary journey, where my strength can only be from God,” he explains. “As Jesus once said, ‘I have meat that you know not of’.”

His third scheduled stop, on Feb. 20, will be to begin his eighth missionary journey to mainland China, where he has become known as “Dan Bobo,” an affectionate Chinese designation for “favorite great uncle,” during his ongoing mission to the 100-million-plus “underground” Christians who are unwilling to join the eight million registered members of an officially sanctioned, and highly regimented, government Christian church. He returns on March 10, 2008, to his “hired house in Winnsboro, Texas, USA.”

# posted by Joe Dan Boyd @ 1/06/2008