I know\u2026the song is actually \u201cSee You in September\u201d but regardless, beginning September 22nd and continuing through the month of October I will be preaching and leading worship at the Caldwell and Elkhorn: Bethel United Methodist churches. I\u2019ll be filling in for a colleague who is taking a short sabbatical.<\/p>\n
So why am I doing this? Why would I want to drive fifty miles each way on Sunday morning instead of the five blocks I normally do? Why would I want to be away from all of you for six weeks?<\/p>\n
Actually, I don\u2019t want to be away from any of you\u2026but sometimes it\u2019s not about what I want but rather about what I have given my word to do. You see, just as you are members of this church, so am I a member of the Wisconsin Annual Conference, in covenant with all the other United Methodist clergy in the state. That covenant, just like your church membership covenant, brings with it some responsibilities and expectations; namely that we support one another by being good stewards of our time, talents and treasures.<\/p>\n
In this instance I am able to offer my time and talents to help not only a fellow pastor but one who is near and dear to us here in Bay View. Pastor Joyce Rich entered ministry from this very congregation back in 1998. And really, it\u2019s no different than how you offer yourselves and your gifts to this congregation.<\/p>\n
Beginning October 13th we will be embarking on a three-week stewardship campaign and I was going to be preaching the second of those Sundays. Since I now won\u2019t be here to do that I want to share with you a little of what I would have offered that day. I was planning to talk about the various ways we share together in the respective blessings of our beloved community. What blessings are those? They are the individual talents and gifts that God has blessed each and every one of us with. Those gifts and talents have been given to us not to be hoarded but to be shared\u2026shared with our families, our friends, our church community and our world. That\u2019s what you\u2019re doing when you volunteer your time here at church and it\u2019s what you\u2019re doing when you put your envelope in the offering plate each Sunday.<\/p>\n
We give, I believe, out of a sense of gratitude for all that we\u2019ve been given. It really is that simple. My prayer is that as a congregation our gifts together will ensure our continued presence here in this community for not only 2014 but for many years to come. May it be so.<\/p>\n
See you in November!<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pastor Andy<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know\u2026the song is actually \u201cSee You in September\u201d but regardless, beginning September 22nd and continuing through the month of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[334,259,335],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastorandy","tag-bethel-umc","tag-pastor-andy","tag-see-you-in-november"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}