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Unwrapping the Real Christmas |
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Written by Pastor Dan Drew
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Saturday, 05 December 2009 09:37 |
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“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
Dear Friends in the name of Christmas,
There is nothing quite like a wrapped package. It brings us a sense of excitement and hope, even if it is not our birthday, even when it is someone else’s party. The wrapping itself brings pleasure to our eyes and a jolt to our heart beat for we know that there is a surprise going to be revealed. There is a sense of wonder as what is inside a package is usually unknown. A package brings us a sense of hope that its contents will bring us joy, pleasure, delight or be very useful or meaningful.
During this time of year we get use to seeing packages wrapped in bright paper. And often we get disappointed when the surprise does not live up to our expectations. During this season we also sometimes get numb to the idea of gifts because we receive and give so many of them, but we should never allow gift giving or receiving to become common place or routine. |
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We Are One Church at Chardon UMC |
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Written by sysadmin
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Monday, 02 November 2009 16:14 |
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“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.…For the body does not consist of one member but many." I Corinthians 12:12&14.
After having been here for a few months, I have observed that it is hard for us to think and plan as if we are one church with many parts here at Chardon UMC. We need to understand that we are not a small church anymore, but we are not a “mega’ church either. We have a number of small groups and we have several worship services, which is all good. The challenge is for us to think and act like we are one church and to plan events which do include the whole body (church). |
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Opening the Doors of the Church |
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Written by Pastor Dan Drew
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Thursday, 01 October 2009 00:00 |
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I am excited about the many ministries we have here in our church and I know it will be even more exciting as we continue to add new members to our dynamic congregation. One of the mottos of the United Methodist Church is:
“Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors ... The People of the United Methodist Church “
It is a great slogan, but as is often the case it is easier to say than to do. I believe we want to have “Open Minds, Hearts, and Doors” to welcome in new persons to our community of faith and to our church. We have many new persons in our worship services now, and some familiar persons who we need to welcome into our Chardon United Methodist family. So I will be “opening the doors of the church” at our worship services at least once a month, in October it will be Sunday the 18th. “Opening the doors” will become a part of our worship-time response to God’s call upon our lives. It will allow us to renew our faith and welcome and introduce new persons to our congregation on a regular basis. |
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Written by Rev. Dan Drew
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Sunday, 06 September 2009 05:44 |
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Many of us are enjoying learning to sing “Stay in Love With God” as a response this August. I hope to keep using it during the fall season until we all feel like we know it and can sing it at any time. It was written by Raquel Mora Martinez, the wife of Bishop Martinez. She wrote it in response to Bishop Rueben P. Job’s presentation in 2007 at the Council of Bishops of his new book entitled “Three Simple Rules”. Bishop Job wrote this little book to help us in modern times to be better followers of Jesus. His book was inspired by the rules for living that John Wesley had written to help new Christians to better live out their daily walk with Christ. As people were responding to the preaching of John Wesley they were coming to ask, what do we do now that we are followers of Jesus? In essence Wesley gave them three rules that would be easy to understand, yet difficult to do. Over 200 years later we need to rediscover the importance of these rules:
- Do No Harm
- Do Good
- Stay in Love with God
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Written by Rev. Dan Drew
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Sunday, 09 August 2009 06:07 |
One of the greatest months of my life will always be July of 2009, when I began my ministry here at Chardon UMC. I thank all of you who have so warmly greeted us, invited us to your homes, come to “Meet the Pastor” events, planned and participated in 13 very exciting worship services, and shared with us dozens of other kindnesses.
The introductions and installations in worship have been exciting, but one revelation in the “meet the pastor” events is that you don’t know much about Debbie and me. So here is a little biographical sketch of us.
I was born and raised in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, the county seat of Knox County, a town much like Chardon. I came to Baldwin-Wallace College after high school and was introduced to the greater Cleveland area. Following graduation and working 2 years for Upward Bound at B-W, I went to Seminary at the Methodist Theological School of Ohio in Delaware. My pastoral service record is as follows; South Vernon (1973-75), Nottingham (1975-1982), Utica (1982-87) (Wabash College 1987-90), Indianapolis: Faith UMC (1988-90), Greensboro Maryland: St. Paul’s and Burrsville (1990-1996) Garfield Heights (1996-2003) East Ohio Cabinet as a Superintendent of the Cleveland area, (2003-2009). |
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