As I write this article, I am aware that Lent is approximately half-way over. Being a season where one is challenged to face their mortality, I am also aware of many situations and circumstances that point out my humanness and frailty. Some of these situations are personal with me and my family and others are circumstances that I am
walking through with friends and church members.
The old saying, “Time flies when you are having fun” is definitely true. I have been back as Pastor at AMC for a month, and I am having a blast and time is flying by. The Season of Lent and the celebration of Easter is just around the corner. Lent has always been a meaningful time in the Christian Church. This was the time used by the early church to prepare new believers for membership in the church. Early believers went through a time of catechism and study of the basic principles of Christianity during Lent and celebrated Easter Sunday as their first day of Church membership. I can only imagine how special that first time of worship and communion was for the early Christians.
Let me say first that I am very excited to be returning to Archdale Methodist Church as pastor. During the past six months, I have spent much time praying and discerning the path God would have me to follow at this point in my ministry. Many things have happened in the time that I have been gone from you. Some have been wonderful and life giving, while others have been quite challenging.
When many retailers took down their Halloween decorations on November 1, they immediately put Christmas trees up, hung the garland and lights, and encouraged us to buy, buy, buy. In the retail world it’s been Christmas since Halloween. In the Church, we say “not so fast”, as we take our time getting to Christmas by way of the 4 Sundays of Advent. The older I get, the more I appreciate this time of slowing down that the Church offers to contrast the hurry of the holiday season
