Peakland UMC: Recent Episodes
Peakland UMC
This is the Monday I’ve been waiting for!It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving Day, 2023! And the Christmas Album, “We Need A Little Christmas” is finally available! We are making this 10 song Christmas project available online via Facebook, Soundcloud, my website and Youtube. There are links in the description, but here is a quick synopsis of what to expect from the various venues. Facebook will have some of the songs from the album as Music Mondays through the holidays. Soundcloud will have all 10 songs, in a playlist, as individual songs as well as one track that contains all 10 songs. On Youtube, there will be the individual songs set against my flugelhorn friend and partner in this endeavor, Lynn Nash’s outdoor fireplace that he and his wife, Katie, decorated. And there will be one track, that will have all 10 songs, again set with the outdoor fireplace as the backdrop. Ideal for those of you that have a way to show Youtube videos on your TV at home!So here is the first song on our Christmas Album - Deck The HallsIn the description, and on my website, linwoodcampbell.com, will be a link to all of the ways you can enjoy our Christmas Album. This Album is totally free - it’s a labor of fun and love from us to all of you. Feel free to share it whenever and however you like. If you enjoy this project and would like to spread a little Christmas joy, please consider making a donation to Lynchburg Daily Bread. My late father-in-law, Neal O'Brien, volunteered there for many years. Daily Bread serves hot meals 365 days of the year to those who have fallen on hard times. The numbers continue to grow in our area and the need is great. Here’s a link to their donation page:https://www.lynchburgdailybread.com/donate Thanks for listening and supporting Music Monday’s through this year! Happy Holidays!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 22, 2023. It is the day before Thanksgiving here in the US.Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, I will be with my wife and our sons here in Lynchburg. I have a mighty feast planned, and I have to get the absolute last of my Thanksgiving meal ingredients later today. But really, I suspect I will have to get the absolute last of my ingredients for the thanksgiving meal, tomorrow as well.My favorite Thanksgiving Day scripture passage is from Psalm 107, which I offer as a way of reminding ourselves of the source of all the blessings we have in life. I’ll read the regular print, and we’ll both read the bold print together.PSALM 107: O give thanks to the Lord, who is good, whose steadfast love endures forever! LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO, WHOM THE LORD HAS REDEEMED FROM TROUBLE AND GATHERED IN FROM THE LANDS. We wandered in the desert wastes, finding no way to a place in which to dwell; HUNGRY AND THIRSTY, OUR SOULS FAINTED WITHIN US. Then in our trouble, we cry to the Lord, who delivers us from our distress. AND LEADS US BY A STRAIGHT WAY, TIL WE REACHED A PLACE, A HOME, IN WHICH TO DWELL. Let us thank the Lord for such steadfast love, for wonderful works to humankind. FOR THE LORD SATISFIES THOSE WHO ARE THIRSTY, AND FILLS THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS.Whoever you are with, wherever you are, I hope Thanksgiving is a day of blessing for you. In the weeks to come, Peakland United Methodist Church will have wonderful advent and Christmas worship services here at the church and online. During Advent, we’ll be considering this book: All the Good, a Wesleyan Way of Christmas, and we’ll be reaching out and serving our neighbors with our Advent Mission Fest on Sunday December 3 beginning at 4:00 p.m. here at the church. You can find all our Advent and Christmas worship an ministries on our church website: PeaklandUMC.org.I hope during Advent and Christmas, you join us here so that Christ can use you and all of us to be a blessing to others. As always, if you want to know more about our ministries here and how you can be part of our life here, reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.comHappy Thanksgiving and Thanks be to God!.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 15, 2023Halloween ended a few weeks ago, and Thanksgiving Day in the US is next week. But I’ve noticed that most of the grocery stores and big box stores have had their Christmas goods out for display for awhile now. Including my current favorite snack, Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes, which a church member brought to me last week. So tasty!Peakland is not far behind, we have been planning our advent and Christmas seasons for weeks, and we’ve been unveiling in worship for a couple of weeks all the good that we want to do. We have wrapped up our discussion of Being a United Methodist Christian this week and beginning in December we’re going to be reading and considering this book, All the Good, a Wesleyan Way of Christmas. We’ll have in person discussions at the church and around the table at Ihop. I’ll talk about this book in these Wednesday videos, and we’ll consider All the Good on Sunday mornings in December too.This Advent season we’ll have some wonderful worship services. Peakland’s United music worship service will be at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 17 in the sanctuary. There will be singing and ringing and lots of lovely music.This year, Sunday December 24th is both the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve. So on Sunday December 24, we at Peakland will have a united 4th Sunday in advent worship service at 10:00 a.m. in the sanctuary and then we’ll have two Christmas Eve worship services Sunday evening. Our Christmas Eve family worship service will be at 4:00 p.m. and our traditional candlelight and communion worship service will be at 7:00 p.m. that evening both in the sanctuary. This season we will nurture our faith, we’ll worship together, and we will serve our community together. Peakland’s fourth annual advent mission fest will be Sunday, December 3 from 4-5:30 in the fellowship hall. We’ve asked five of the helping agencies here in town to give us their Christmas wish list. UMFS needs gift cards to gas stations and box stores so that the foster families they sponsor can get what they need. Chase the chill needs knitted hats and scarves and mittens to distribute. The Salvation Army has these stockings that need filling, and Parkview and Daily Bread need canned and boxed goods just like these. Bring these items to the mission fest on Sunday, December 3 from 4-5:30 and then stick around for cookies, hot chocolate, ornament making, singing, and lighting our fantastic outdoor Christmas tree. All of the details for all of these ministries are already on our church’s website. PeaklandUMC.org, and we have multicolored handouts for you here in church on Sunday morning, and we’ll keep sending out email reminders. Peakland is an active, caring, generous congregation, but all the good we do for ourselves and for those around us is in response to the grace and love that our One Trinity God has done for us. That makes this season all the more meaningful for me and for all of us at Peakland.This December we will have folks join and become members of the Peakland United Methodist Church family. If you’d like to become part of our church family or learn more about our ministries and the ways you can do all the good that you can, then reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com Thanks be to God
The was frost on the pumpkin this morning! And that has absolutely nothing to do with Music Monday. It’s the 13th of November, 2023. A lot of things are happening - the Christmas program at the church is just a little over a month away, and I still have songs to write supplemental charts for, and practicing to do. The Christmas project Lynn Nash and I have will be released 2 weeks from today! Lynn sent me some really nice videos of his outdoor fireplace that I will use as a backdrop for the video versions of our project. More on that another day.This will be the last normal (whatever that means) Music Monday through the end of the year. Next week I will be in serious prep mode for the upcoming Christmas season music. The following week, I will start the Christmas Season of Music Monday’s that will feature different songs from the Christmas Project Lynn and I are releasing. While the whole album will be available online on Monday the 27th, I will be using various songs through the month of December from that Album. More details will be available on my website, linwoodcampbell.com, in the next few days.So, for today, I once again turn to our talented, talented Deacon here at the church, Andrew LaBar-Dietz, for one of the songs he has recorded for me. Andrew sings and plays guitar on this arrangement of Great Things. Song playsI love using my drone for background footage behind the lyrics in our church services, and thought I would share that with you today.If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend! See you in 2 weeks!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 8, 2023Peakland United Methodist Church is finishing up with this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This week and next, we are talking about the three general rules of being a United Methodist Christian. John Wesley created the three rules in 1743 when the methodist movement was growing beyond the Holy Club that he led at Oxford University. Small groups of Methodist men and women were gathering each week to pray for one another, read scripture together and to hold one another accountable in their Christian discipleship. John Wesley gave these methodist groups three rules to live by and to strengthen their faith: First: Do no harm and avoid evil of every kind.Second: Do good of every possible sort and as far as possible to all.Third: Attend upon the ordinances of God. A simple way to remember that: Avoid Harm. Do Good. Follow Christ.John Wesley had specific ways that methodist were to avoid harm, do good and follow Christ.Wesley wrote, Avoid harm like drunkenness and buying or selling spiritous liquor or drinking it, unless in extreme necessity. Avoid harm with no Fighting, quarreling, brawling, returning evil for evil or, the using of many words in buying or selling. No putting on gold or costly apparel. No softness or needless self-indulgence. My favorite is No uncharitable or unprofitable conversation particularly no speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers.For doing good, John Wesley quotes the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25 and directs us to give food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, visiting or helping them who are sick or in prison. That will be the scripture and the theme of the sermon next Sunday, when we at Peakland welcome Rev. Leigh Anne Taylor to the pulpit.John Wesley also warned methodists that they were to avoid the odious custom of avoiding good works unless our hearts be free to do it. Some Christians back then had gotten it into their heads that unless they felt like doing good works, they shouldn’t actually do good works. I trust none of us are so foolish as that. I don’t always feel like flossing or working out at 6:00 in the morning or paying my bills, but I still do those things. Charity and acts of mercy and kindness and justice are not optional for us United Methodists. John Wesley’s final rule was to follow the ordinances of God. “Ordinances” in this case are the activities which God has ordered for us to draw us closer to God and closer to each other.Things like: Sunday worship, prayer, Bible study, fasting and abstinence, communion, and baptism, acts of charity, justice, forgiveness, and mercy. We today may disagree with some of the specific John Wesley wanted methodists to do but the three rules are an honorable part of our heritage and a really good way of being a United Methodist Christian, so this week and in the days to come figure out how you will Avoid Harm. Do Good and Follow Christ.Thanks be to God.
It’s Monday, the 6th of November. Good Grief, where did this year go to?I was looking through my files yesterday, trying to decide what to offer for today’s Music Monday. I ran across this arrangement thatLyn Nash and I did a few months back and, honestly, had totally forgotten about - I bet he has too! We’ve spend so much time working on our Christmas project, that everything else kinda gets lost sometimes. Speaking of the Christmas project, it will be released in just a few short weeks - the Monday after Thanksgiving to be exact. More on that in a future Music Monday.This arrangement is a quiet - laid back if you will. The song itself is certainly not a in your face kinda song, but I like this interpretation especially. Nash provides an excellent solo line with his flugelhorn. AS a side note, we started recording together, I think, in 2016 - all of it long distance as he lives in Hickory NC, and I’m here in Lynchburg, VA. It’s truly amazing what technology allows us to do.So here’s our rendition of Lord, I Give You My Heart. Song plays.You’ve been listening to Music Monday with Linwood. A lot of the material you hear on this program can be found on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. Our music can be found on Youtube, Facebook and Soundcloud. And hopefully soon, Spotify.If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing with a friend. See you next time.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 1, 2023Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian.Last Sunday, I talked about how United Methodists understand grace, God’s loving attitude and God’s loving actions that surround us all our days. Sometimes, we go through life unaware that God loves us. We don’t see God in our lives, we don’t feel God’s love, and we may not even believe in God. But God is still there with us; God’s kindness and care is still with us even if we don’t see it or feel it or believe it. John Wesley called that prevenient grace, the grace that goes before us before we’re aware of it. Babies being baptized are not aware of God’s love, but God loves those children, and as the babies grow, we the church teach our children and we teach each other about God’s love,At one point in our lives or at many points in our lives, we clearly see the ways God is with us and God has always been with us. We see that we are better off with God and that God washes away our sin and helps us to live more lovingly with God and with each other. We methodists call that justifying grace. We were lost and now are found. We were blind and now we see the straight line of God’s love for us and our love for those around us. And then every day in all sorts of ways God draws closer to perfect love, perfect love for God and perfect love for each other. Wesley calls that sanctifying grace.Now, God’s grace is not an original theological insight from Wesley. Every other Christian denomination and church that I’ve ever heard of understands God’s grace. And truly, most of our United Methodist beliefs aren’t that distinct from other Christians. John Wesley never intended for methodists to be a separate denomination with its own set of beliefs. He wrote, as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think. We think and let think. That’s us at our best.From the start of my work as an ordained ministry, I have regularly sought other Christians and Christian communities to join in ministry. On New Year’s Eve 1999, I participated in an ecumenical Watch Night Service at Williamsburg United Methodist church with other local churches. In Lexington where I was the pastor of Trinity, I was part of one of the strongest clergy groups that I had ever experienced, with other Christians, Mormons, Jews, and Muslims. Here at Peakland, I am eager to reach out, serve all and extend God’s table with other United Methodists and all other churches and groups that seek to grow closer to God and closer to each other. I am United Methodist by choice and by God’s grace. I am proud of our United Methodists history and heritage and the ways we share God’s grace and love with the world.And along with that, it’s important to understand that we at Peakland who are proud United Methodist do not need to be against other churches or faith communities. Being a United Methodist Christians does not mean and will never mean that we are anti-Baptist or anti presbyterian or anti Catholic or anti anything. We respect the differences that we do have. United Methodists and Baptists don’t agree on the meaning of baptism. United Methodists and Roman Catholics don’t agree on the role of women in church leadership. We at Peakland seek and will continue to seek commonalities with others, common beliefs and common ways to serve our community and world. That’s another thing that’s great about being a United Methodist Christian.Thanks be to God.
I know, I know - it’s hard to believe, but it’s Monday again!Part of my job at Peakland UMC is listening to Praise and Worship music, trying to determine what songs would work well in our Horizons service - that’s the Contemporary service we offer on Sunday mornings. Thee are sooooo many songs out there, and a lot of them are really appealing, but won’t necessarily work for us. That’s another story another time.Recently, I ran across this song and it immediately appealed to me. I didn’t even have to listen all the way through to decide that it would work for us. In the course of writing a vocals chart, and making a sound track, I also thought this might be a good song for Music Monday.So we have used this song twice in our Horizons service and it has been well received. So I turned my attention to how this might work for a Music Monday, and in the process, it took not one, not two, but three different turns I had not anticipated. It’s not unusual for me to have different thoughts on something I have created, but I can’t remember the last time a song took this many turns in different directions. After you have listened to the song I’ll expand on what I mean. But I will say that one has to do with the how much fun the song was to listen to - that being groove-wise. And the other 2 had to do with the lyrics of the song.Here’s God So LovedSo I usually never put an instrumental solo in a Praise and Worship song, particularly because it leaves the congregation with nothing to do while that’s happening - that was the first turn. The 2nd was what I perceived as a reference to the lyrics from the Doxology we use in the Methodist Church - the “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Very “liturgical”, that is very “churchy” sounding. Hence the brass and more traditional organ sounds underneath the “Praise God” section. Lastly the a cappella, 4-part harmony section. That idea just jumped out at me - as an emphasis to the lyric. So thee you have it - my thoughts on this arrangement, which was probably a whole lot more than you wanted to know haha!If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing with a friend. Thanks for listening - see you next time!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 25, 2023Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This week we’re reading chapter 3 of the book, Our United Methodist Story!Our Methodist story begins with Rev. John Wesley, a priest in the church of England who started the Methodist movement nearly 300 years ago at Oxford University with a small group of likeminded folks who were so dedicated to their Bible studies, prayer, and service to those in needs that other mocked them with the name Methodist. I spoke last week about Wesley’s misadventures as a parish priest in the new American town of Savannah, Georgia. At the start of 1738, John was back in England and at his lowest professionally and spiritually. He doubted his effectiveness as a priest, and he doubted that his faith was genuine. In the evening of May 24, 1738, John Wesley went reluctantly to a Methodist meeting at Aldersgate Street in London. He heard a reading from the preface of Martin Luther’s commentary of the book of Romans. Wesley later wrote, “About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."Friends, a couple of days ago, I re-read the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary to the book of Romans. I know beyond a doubt there is a God in heaven because the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans is the most theologically dense and surprisingly dry writing that only God could have warmed Wesley’s heart with those words. Wow. With his heart strangely and wonderfully warmed John Wesley’s methodist movement grew and grew throughout Great Britain and into the American colonies.In December 1784, the methodist in America established the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first American born Christian denomination. Under the leadership of Francis Asbury, the Methodists in American grew and grew. Famous Methodists of the 19th century include. Richard Allen, a black American methodist who established the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816 after facing discrimination in the white methodist church and Thomas B Welch, a methodist minister and dentist, who in 1869 created Methodist Unfermented Communion Wine. Commonly known as grape juice.As the American nation grew so did the Methodists. As American divided on the issues of slavery, so did the Methodists who split into northern and southern branches in 1845.Through the 20th century Methodists united with other denominations forming the current United Methodist Church today. Marjorie Matthews was the first woman elected as a United Methodist bishop in 1980. Now in the 21st century, the United Methodist Church is the largest of all the methodist denominations with something like 12 million members worldwide. The fastest growing area of United Methodism is now in Africa. The newest methodist denomination is the Global Methodist Church formed by methodists who want to maintain traditional practices in marriage and ordination.Pastor Dave Drinkard preached at Peakland this past Sunday, and he reminded us that throughout our history, we United Methodists are at our best, when we love God and when we love our neighbors. We worship together and we nurture our Christian faith together and we serve Christ together out in the world. That’s what we’re doing at Peakland, and you are welcome to join and learn and experience what it means being a United Methodist Christian.
Hey, it’s Monday again!It’s the 23rd of October 2023. You ever lose something - search everywhere and just can’t find it? That’s what happened with today’s Music Monday song. I found the part of the recording that my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, had recorded, but could not find the original file I had started with. I liked it, for the most part, but there were a few things I wanted to change, actually need to change. I couldn’t find that original file, so I started over.Just my original parts, that is. I had Lynn’s and a sample track I had sent him to record against. So, I recorded against it to follow how I had originally had recorded the song. I did make a few changes, though. Well, I made a lot changes - not to the Flugelhorn part, but to pretty much everything else! I guess that’s the advantages of starting over!And in today’s Music Monday, you will actually see the song playing from the software I used, which happens to be Apple’s Logic Pro.This is an older song, but timeless in it’s message, and perhaps with a little fresher take from this arrangement. Here’s Because He Lives, featuring my flugelhorn recording partner, Lynn Nash.Song PlaysA month from today, Nash and I will be releasing our Christmas project. Please get excited haha - we are! And if you enjoyed this song, please consider sharing with your friends. See you next time!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 18, 2023Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This past Sunday, Rev. Denise Bates preached at Peakland and emphasized that as United Methodist Christians, we lift our hearts to God in worship and we unite our hands with each other and with all Christians everywhere in service and care for the world around us. We United Methodist believe that all Christians United Methodists and Lutherans and Roman Catholics, and Baptists and Presbyterians and Anglicans and Orthodox and Non-denominational and all the many and varied Christian churches and communities are all part of the one body of Christ.John Wesley himself had a powerful experience with a group of Christians from central Europe called the Moravians who shaped his spiritual growth and formation. Wesley met a group of 27 Moravians during his sea voyage aboard the Simmonds to Savannah, Georgia, in October 1735. Wesely was traveling to Savanah to become the local priest of the newly established colony. At one point during the voyage, a storm came up and broke the mast off the ship. While most folks panicked, the Moravians calmly sang hymns and prayed. Wesley saw that these Christians had an inner strength and peace that he sorely lacked. Wesley’s time as a parish priest in Savanah was a failure. His high church practices were of little interest to the colonists. He was involved in an unsuccessful love affair that ended badly and fled the colony in December 1737. On his return to England, Wesely was at a low point in his life spiritually and professionally. He wondered how he could preach faith in Christ when he felt his faith was so shallow. Wesley sought counsel from a Moravian minister named Peter Boehler, who encouraged Wesley to preach faith until you have it, and then preach faith because you have it.Wesley did indeed feed encouraged by Peter’s words, and there is some wisdom for us today. Like Wesley, our faith may fluctuate. We may feel strong in the faith one day and weak and so uncertain another. That’s as normal and natural as breathing in and out. I believe Christ helps us to persevere. I have found that helping others helps me to feel closer to Christ and closer to other Christians. Later today, I have a lunch meeting with other United Methodist clergy in our area in which we provide moral and prayerful support to one another. I have a home visit with a retired pastor and I’m volunteering for the first-time serving supper at Parkview Mission here in Lynchburg. Next week, I am tutoring at Bedford Hills Elementary. I’m joining with other United Methodists and people of other faith traditions and folks with no faith tradition, all of us who want to do good in the world. That’s what I love about being a United Methodist Christian.You can find more about all of our ministries on our website Peakland UMC.org, and on our Facebook page. You are welcome and invited to join us in these ministries and for Sunday worship in the sanctuary at 8:30 and 11:00, for our contemporary Horizons worship in the fellowship hall at 9:45. We livestream our 11:00 worship on Facebook and YouTube.Peakland’s mission is reaching out, serving all and extending God’s Table. If you’d like to know more about what we do here and how to join us, reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com.Thanks be to God.
So yesterday, which was Sunday the 15th of October, I was sitting at the piano in the Fellowship Hall going through the songs we were going to use in our Horizons service in a few hours. I usually get to church on Sunday mornings around 6:30 AM - it gives me an opportunity to prepare, rehearse some and just collect my thoughts and spend some quiet time with God. As I was getting ready to run through the last song, the thought slipped into my mind that this would be a good song for a Music Monday. Like today!I thought I might start a little more quietly today, to give you an opportunity to tune out the distracting thoughts in your mind, and give you an opportunity to spend a quiet moment or two.You’re listening to Music Monday with Linwood. You can find this song, and some others on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. At the end of November my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I will be releasing our Christmas album for you to enjoy during the Holiday Season. Songs like “Deck The Halls”, “O Holy Night”, and a fun little arrangement of “Ding Dong Merrily on High” that features my son Matt on bass. It’s arguably one of the best project I have ever been part of and I look forward to sharing it! If you enjoyed today’s Music Monday, please consider sharing it with a friend. See you next time!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 11, 2023On February 9, 1709, a five-year-old boy by the name of John Wesley was caught in a house fire. Young John Wesley was the son of Susanna Wesley and Rev Samuel Wesley, a priest in the church of England, and they lived in the rectory in the town of Epworth in central England. On the night of February 9, the rectory caught fire, and John was trapped in the second-floor nursery. John’s father tried in vain to rescue his son, but the flames beat him back each time. Convinced that John could not be saved, the family knelt in the garden and prayed God to receive his soul. A couple of quick-thinking neighbors acted to save John, one standing on the shoulders of the other, pulling John through the open window to safety, just as the house fire brought the roof down on John’s room. After the fire, Susanah referred to John as the brand plucked from the fire, which is a Biblical reference to Zechariah 3:2, in which God saves a High priest of the Temple from ruin.John Wesley would grow to become a priest in the Church of England like his father and when he was in his mid-20s John Wesley led a group of fellow college students at Oxford University in daily and weekly bible studies and acts of service to those in need. Those were the first methodists. That small group grew and expanded beyond Oxford into all of Britain and into the British settlements in North America. In 1784, the methodists in America established the Methodist episcopal church, the first Christian denomination established in the new United States.We at Peakland United Methodist Church are reading this book Being United Methodist Christians, and this week we consider how United Methodists read and understand the Bible. From our start, we United Methodists have been people of the Bible. Scriptures are at the heart of every Sunday worship service. We United Methodists read our Bibles individually and in small groups. When we consider how we are to be in mission out in the world, the first place we look is our Bibles. At Peakland our mission is reaching out, serving all and extending God’s table, and that comes straight from the stories of what Jesus and his first disciples did. When we consider God’s actions throughout the Bible, we see God reaching out to all of humanity, serving us with grace and mercy and salvation, and extending God’s love and God’s table to all. We United Methodists have no official version of the Bible. I tend to read the New Revised Standard Version. Many folks like the NIV or the Message or the Common English Bible. And in the same way, we United Methodist have no one person who is the end all be all authority in interpreting the Bible. As your pastor, part of my ministry is preaching and interpreting the scriptures in the way God has laid on my heart, and you may agree or disagree with what I say. That’s normal. That’s one of the best parts of being United methodist. We read the scriptures and talk about them and debate them and maybe disagree and then we go about our ministries with each other and out in the world. As I said this past Sunday in worship, that’s one of the things I love about being a United Methodist.This upcoming Sunday, October 15, Peakland welcomes Rev. Denise Bates, our Mountain View district superintendent to preach in our worship services. She will share with us the challenges and blessings she sees in being a united methodist and what we United Methodist have in common with other Christian churches.Join me on Sundays in person at our 8:30 and 11:00 worship services in the sanctuary, our 9:45 contemporary Horizons worship service in the fellowship hall and online beginning at 11:00 a.m.
Wouldn’t you know it - it’s Monday again!I took the day off yesterday - that being a Sunday. I don’t like to miss for a number of reasons, but sometimes you just have to take a break, so thanks to all who covered for me!I spent a little time yesterday getting ready for Music Monday, and in the search for something to share with you, I remember this recording my friend Mike Petrikonis and I made of the Matt Redman song, 10, 000 Reasons. Mike took ownership of this song, and I believe what follows is quite the extraordinary interpretation of this song. It’s not complicated, or overloaded with instrumentation - it’s just, well, it’s just there.You may have heard me play this arrangement before in past years, but it bears playing again. Mike plays guitar and sings, 10,000 Reasons.Song playsYou’ve been listening to Music Monday with Linwood. You can find this song and a lot more on my website, linwoodcampbell.com. And before you know Christmas time will be here and my flugelhorn friend, Lyn Nash, and I have a brand new Christmas album that will be released. More on that as we get closer to release time.If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing with a friend. See you nexqt time!
Back in the day, my Flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, and I spent a lot of time together playing in our High School Band, the Pep Band, and then afterwards we played in a rock band for a number of years. He played trumpet and I played trombone, and our friend W. B. played sax and hammond organ. We had a lot of fun, back in the day!I remember, back in the day, sitting at the piano and playing some of the really classic rock songs from Bread (If A Picture Paints . .. ), Chicago (Color My World), James Taylor (Fire and Rain, which we recorded and used as a Music Monday a few weeks back). One of Nash’s, favorites was the horn song, “Grazin In The Grass” A year or so ago we did an arrangement of that song and I wanted to play it for you today. We had way too much fun with this tune and I think you’ll see - hear why as we get into the old classic - “Grazin’ In The Grass”!Video PlaysYou’ve been listening to Music Monday by Linwood. Today, you saw the software I use to record our arrangements. I’m a Mac guy and the software is Logic, which is an Apple product. I also use Final Cut Pro, another Apple product, for video production.You can find a lot of our songs on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend. See you next time!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 27, 2023. +Just over 30 years ago, I was a student at Indiana University and worshipping at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Indiana. One Sunday in January, the church announced they would be sponsoring a trip for college students to work with Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta Georgia over spring break.I turned to my best friend who was sitting next to me and said, I want to do that. I had never worked with Habitat before. I had not done any carpentry since my wobbly plant stand in 8th grade shop class. I really had no business trying to help build a house, but felt called to go on that trip.And I did. I joined about 15 other college students, most of us had not volunteered with Habitat or had construction work, but the Habitat folks in Atlanta were skilled and taught us well. At the end of our week there, we had built the foundation of a new home. A sturdy, well-built foundation.At the end of that week, I had experienced the very best of being a United Methodist. Our small community of college students and adults formed a spirit filled community. We ate together and played together. We worshipped together and prayed together and we did our small part at making our world more like the world Jesus talks about That was the start of me wanting to do more and learn more about being a United Methodist professionally. Beginning in about 10 days on Sunday October 8, Peakland will begin a sermon series and a weekly book study on this new book Being United Methodist Christians, living a life of grace and hope. This book was written by a family of United Methodist pastors who have a combined total of nearly 150 years being United Methodists.I’m eager for us to hear from as many United Methodists as possible, so on the Sunday mornings in October and through November, Peakland will welcome to the pulpit Rev. Denise Bates, our Mountain View District Superintendent and Rev. Leigh Anne Taylor, an ordained deacon and the Director of Connecting Ministries for the Mountain View District. They will share their experiences of being a United Methodist, the great blessings, and the challenges. Pastor Dave, Deacon Andrew, and I will also share our United Methodist stories.As a congregation we’ll gather to read and discuss this book as well. Beginning the week of Monday October 9, I’ll lead a class on Monday evenings, and Andrew will lead one on Tuesday mornings. If you are a long-time veteran in the United Methodist Church or new to being a United Methodist, I think you’ll find our discussions meaningful.Being United Methodist Christian is also about service, and Andrew has a host of opportunities for us throughout October so that we can do our small part in making the world more like the world Jesus talks about. A big part of Being Untied Methodist is gathering around the table for good food and good times. We’ll have a Baked Potato congregational supper on Sunday, October 22 at 5:30. All the information on these Being United Methodist ministries are found on our website under the ministries tab and then click on the fall ministries, or reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.comBeing United Methodist at Peakland means that we are reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table and extending God’s love. I hope you’ll join me for these awesome Being United Methodist ministries in the days and weeks to come. Thanks be to God.
When I start setting up my computer and keyboard to start working on a new arrangement, a lot of times I have no idea where it’s going. In fact, there are times when I don’t really know how it’s going to start! Now I’ve been making sound tracks for a long time haha. Way back in the day I worked at a music store right at the time when the MIDI communication system and keyboards were just developing. So as it grew and developed, so did I. It’s amazing what one can do with a keyboard, a computer and the right software.So I start an arrangement. Sometimes it sort of just flows out of my fingers - sometimes I have to restart a number of times. The real message here is that I really can’t take credit for what comes out of these fingers. The inspiration all comes from above and most of the time I don’t know where I’m going until I get there.So today’s Music Monday, from one of my favorite Christian Artists - Tommy Walker, is from the COVID years here at Peakland UMC. I brought singers in one at a time to record, and then sent it to my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, for some brass. He sent it back and I added some trombone. Mix it all up, and you get:When I Don’t Know What To DoYou can find Music Monday’s on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. There are 2 versions - one with all of the introductions included, and one with just the song itself. And you’ll also find some of the other music I have recorded in recent years - some with my flugelhorn buddy, Lynn Nash, and some with my son, Matt. Occasionally all three of us!And there is a new Christmas album in the final stages. Lots of music to listen to!And as always, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend. See ya next time!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 20, 2023. +Do you know the word liminal? L I M I N A L liminal. It means a transitional or an in-between time or space. A hallway is a liminal space between two rooms. A liminal time is what I’m experiencing this week at Peakland: we are in-between big church events.In the past two weeks, we started our fall kickoff with huge successes. With Rise Against Hunger, over 70 of us packaged over 10,000 rice and grain-based meals in about an hour and 10 minutes. Last week, I presided at Peakland Pre-school’s all-school chapel service in the sanctuary. Dozens of preschoolers, all the Peakland preschoolers, gathered in the sanctuary together with their teachers, and we sang this Little light of Mine, enacted the first creation story in the Bible, and prayed our action prayer together. This past Sunday, Parkland After Dark had its first regular meeting of the season. We had children, youth, parents, and grandparents together and we created homemade pizzas as a spiritual exercise by praying together and individually during the preparation, and the eating and clean up. During these big church events it is easy to know and feel the presence of God during these big ministries.Looking ahead, in October Peakland will begin a congregational study called Being United Methodist Christians. We’ll explore the United Methodist story, our beliefs, and our best practices as well as the challenges we United Methodists face. This is going to be a great study for all of us both lifelong United methodists and for those of us who are new comers to Peakland and to being United Methodist. Next month, on October 17, the Ruth Circle will hold its grand Card Party here at the church to raise funds for supporting the helping agencies here in town. We also have our annual blood drive on November 9 and during Advent, we’ll have the second annual mission fair where we’ll have half a dozen ways to contribute and support helping agencies here in town. Those are the big spirit filled items that lie ahead.But this week, not a lot is happening at the church. We have our usual ministries and meetings. The Peakland staff met yesterday, and we prayed for our people and discussed church matters. The sanctuary choir and praise choir will rehearse later today. I am working now with lay nominations to identify our church leaders for the upcoming year, so when someone calls and asks you to serve on a committee, I trust your answer will be, Of course, I’m willing and able to swerve. With pride and pleasure.We are also in the middle of our Pave the way to grace Parking lot stewardship campaign. So far we’ve raised just over half the amount we need to raise. I turned in my first check and my pledge card this past Sunday. If you haven’t yet, now is the time.This is a liminal week for me at Peakland, in between big church events. While it’s easy to see and know God’s presence in the big events both here at church and in our own lives, the good news for us is that God is also present in these quieter, in-between liminal moments of life as well. God is with us when we are high on the mountain top with us when life is rewarding. God is with us in the valleys of shadows when life is challenging and hard, and God is with us in the routine, every day, neither high nor low places in life. Today and in the days to come, look for God in the ordinary, run of the mill liminal spaces in your life. Thanks be to God.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 13, 2023. +
This past Sunday, September 3, Peakland gathered for worship in our sanctuary and in our fellowship hall and online for Sunday worship. We sang, we prayed, we listened to the scriptures and how Jesus tells us to fight like a Christian. In worship on Sunday, we had babies and children and youth and young adults, not so young adults and all people are welcome. It was a good Sunday morning here at Peakland.
Later that same Sunday afternoon, over 70 folks from Peakland came together to Rise Against Hunger and create these – sealed bags of rice, sorghum, dehydrated vegetables, and a vitamin packet. Each of these bags contains 6 servings.
It took us about an hour to set up our fellowship hall into a meal making factory, with stations for filling the bag, weighing the bag, sealing it, and packing them up.
In an hour and 10 minutes our Peakland volunteers created 10,126 meals. We finished the job 20 minutes sooner than expected. Cleanup happened in about 40 minutes, but you may still see one or two errant grains of rice in the fellowship hall and on the sidewalk outside. Rober is one the job though!
My great thanks to the people of Rise Against Hunger for coming to Peakland and helping us reach out, serve all, and extend God’s Table and God’s Love.
From Peakland, these meals will be stored for a short time with Rise Against Hunger and then sent to a needed to community, could be a community in Haiti, could be a community in southern Africa. Rise Against Hunger will let us know when and where the meals end up, and I’ll keep you posted.
I’m grateful to all the people who donated funds so this ministry could happen at Peakland.
I’m grateful to God for the many, many volunteers of all ages who gave their time and energy. We had folks younger than age 8 and older than 80 giving of themselves so others might eat.
There aren’t too many places in the world where folks of all ages and stages of life can come together to worship and to work together to make a difference in the world. I’m grateful to God that Peakland is such a place where all are welcome, and everyone has a place here. My hope is to bring Rise Against Hunger back to us again next year at this time. Perhaps we can raise enough funds to prepare 15,000 meals.
Next Sunday, we’ll gather again for worship and Jesus will teach us how to forgive like a Christian. And in the weeks to come we’ll gather for food and fellowship and service and worship.
If you are looking for a church home, or if it’s been a while since you were here at Peakland, now is the time to be present here.
Reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com, I want to hear from you and help you find your place in this great church community. Thanks be to God!
I was out walking our dog, Joey, this morning and noticed that the skies were blue - not a cloud to be seen! In years past I would take advantage of a day like today and hop on my motorcycle and head for the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are several Overlooks that have absolutely amazing views - especially on blue sky days!Irving Berlin wrote a song that my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, and I recorded a few years back. In fact it’s the title cut for an album we released. I thought of that this morning while walking Joey. The song makes me think of those days riding the Parkway, and of the peace I find communing with God in His creation.The name of the song, you say? Why of course - Blue Skies!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 6, 2023. +Labor Day was this past Monday, marking the unofficial end to summer. I heard yesterday that one of our youth was sad that this weekend was the last time in the outdoor swimming pools, and then another church member said, end of summer was fine with her. She didn’t like the hot weather anyway.I do like September weather, and I am excited about all the great ministries Peakland will be getting to in the weeks to come. Yesterday, I sat in with the ladies of the Ruth Circle, Peakland’s women fellowship group. They are planning their great Card Party here at the church on Tuesday, October 17, and the money they raise supports local helping agencies.The United Methodist Men begin their weekly morning breakfasts here at the church this Saturday, September 9 at 8:00 a.m. All men are welcome for a great breakfast and great fellowship.This Sunday, September 10, Peakland unites in service with Rise Against Hunger, an organization which helps feed hungry communities around the world. This Sunday, 80 or so of us will gather at the church fellowship hall beginning at 4:30 and within 2 and half hours, we will have bagged 10,000 meals of rice and grain and dehydrated vegetables. For those of you who are volunteering, bring a baseball cap or you’ll have to wear one of the hairnets they provide. Andrew will be sending out more information to the church volunteers later this week about Sunday’s event.Peakland After Dark, our ministry with children, youth, and their families. begins its regular Sunday night gathering on Sunday, September 17.Looking ahead to October we at Peakland will unite for a church wide book study, reading Being United Methodist Christians, in which we’ll explore the questions of What do we United Methodists believe? What makes us distinct and how do we grow as disciples of Jesus. Whether you are a lifelong methodist are relatively new to the faith, I trust we’ll all learn a great deal together. We’ve also got plans for an October baked potato fellowship supper. We’ll have our annual blood drive in November. Andrew will create some special worship services around All Hallow’s eve and all Saints Day. And Advent and Christmas are coming. We already have great plans for Peakland in December. If you worship in the sanctuary this Sunday, you’ll see that I have replaced the green banners with red banners. These red banners were a gift to Peakland from the family of Steve Cox, and I’m glad they will be on display. Red banners are usually reserved only for Pentecost and a couple of special Sundays, but your radical pastor likes to put on the red in the fall to signal not just the change in the seasonal weather, but the mark the change in church life as well. The green leaves of summer will be changing to the fiery reds and oranges of fall outside and at the church we have fire and excitement and a great spirit.If you find that you have been away from Peakland for a season or two, now is the time to find your way back home. Christ is doing great things here at Peakland, and it’s so easy for you to be part of it. Reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com if you’d like to be part of our great church family.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, August 30, 2023. I am not in the parking lot today, as I’m recording this it’s wet and soggy outside and no place for middle aged pastors or expensive video cameras.
Last Wednesday I spoke to you about our parking lot, our 40-year-old parking lot in need of a lot of repairs.
This past Sunday, Don Weschler, Peakland’s chair of the Common Table, spoke at each of the worship services about our church’s Pave the Way to Grace capital campaign to fund the repairs, and after the 11:00 worship service, Mike Ohl, a Peakland trustees and the point man on the project, gave an excellent overview of the parking lot problems and the parking lot solutions.
This week, each Peakland household will receive a letter from the Pave The Way leadership team, along with an informative brochure, which Kim Ness, Peakland’s church administrator and I put together, along with a pledge card, which Cindy Harding, Peakland’s business manager put together.
We’ll also have these in the worship bulletins through the end of September.
Some folks had already filled in their pledge cards and turned them in. I will be doing mine later this week. We hope to hear from everyone by the end of September.
Two questions have come up since we announced this that I can address with you now.
The first is, “What kind of trees are we going to plant in the islands once the parking lot is done?” Good question! I love dogwoods and redbuds. I know having those in the parking lot would make me very happy when I come to church. But it’s not up to me. Our trustees will make that decision when the time comes.
The next question is really two questions when is this happening and how long will it take? Ideally if everything goes the way we want it to go, we will raise the money we need and accept a bid by the end of September, and work can begin toward the end of October and be done in 7-10 days with minimal disruption to church life.
that’s the ideal scenario which could happen. However, sometimes things don’t work out exactly as planned. I promise we will keep everyone informed about the progress we are making and let folks know what’s happening when. The Peakland pre-school folks know what we are planning and parking lot work certainly impacts them! And we need to know if we have a place to park when we come to Sunday worship!
We’ll make announcements online, in worship and through email.
I’m grateful to the people of Peakland for their hard work and their generosity. As Don told us on Sunday, what we do now will benefit future generations of Peakland people.
I’m also excited that we at Peakland will be kicking off our Fall ministries on Sunday, September 10th with our Rise Against Hunger event here at the church. 80 of us will prepare 10,000 rice-based meals in just over 2 hours in our fellowship hall. We have so much more planned for our church in the weeks and months to come, as we keep reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s Table.
A few weeks back I shared with you the majestic version of the Doxologies we use in our church services. It was an arrangement I played on the organ, which is in our sanctuary at Peakland UMC. Sometimes you just want to shout out praise, and that is certainly a wonderful way to do it.
At other times, though, you might just want to offer that same praise in a little more laid back fashion. I enlisted my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, to help me with this.
Here is our laid back version of the Doxology - Praise God To Whom All Blessings Flow.
It’s the 21st of August, 2023. While I was out working our dog, Joey, this morning, I was remembering that it is our daughter-in-law’s birthday today. And it occurred to me that it was a Monday, and I needed a Music Monday!
So why not honor our birthday gal, and give the rest of you a birthday song to play whenever it’s your birthday, or someone else’s birthday!
So happy birthday, Bri! Thank you for being you! And we all hope you have a wonderful birthday!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, August 16.
I am standing in Peakland’s fellowship hall to show you the new thing we are doing at the Sunday morning Horizons Worship service. We’ve switched things up! When you come to Horizons worship this Sunday, you’ll be worshipping in a new direction. Instead of facing this side wall, we’ve set up the chairs to face the East, toward the rising of the sun.
Everything else about Horizon worship stays the same. The rocking chairs are still here. The tall tables and chairs are still here. The couch and the children’s play are still here. We’ll still be singing our praise songs. We’ll still have scriptures and sermons and prayers, and we will still offer ways that Peakland is reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s Table. We’re just doing it in a slightly different way.
This arrangement, we hope, will allow Peakland pre-school to make better use of the space when the children come back beginning next week. We hope this arrangement will make it easier for us to set up this room for receptions and small meetings and church suppers too.
Linwood and Robert and church folks have been working very hard these past few days to prepare, and I’m grateful to them for their vision for how Horizons makes use of this space.
Now we know there are some things that we still need to do to perfect this worship space. We’re to have some new curtains put up on the windows. We have some additional big screens coming that will help us worship, and we have to worship here together to see if it all fits together. That will happen over the next few weeks.
Horizon worship is at 9:45 on Sundays in person here in this space. Sanctuary worship is at 8:30 in person and we livestream and worship in person in the sanctuary at 11:00.
Come worship here at Peakland. All are welcome. Thanks be to God!
I received quite a favorable response from the song I used 2 weeks ago, from an album my son, Matt, and I did (Turn It Loose, if you forgot or missed it) that I thought I would offer another one from that same project. It’s actually the title song from the project - “Going Up”.
I realized a few weeks ago, that some of you might want to listen to some of these songs again, but maybe not all my commentary, so I created a new playlist on Soundcloud, where my songs are hosted, that are just the songs. If you go to my website - linwoodcampbell.com or click on this link, it will take you right to that playlist - all the good stuff without all the babbling!
And it’s only August, but my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, and I are 9 songs into our Christmas Project. Most are done, a few having some finals touches including sending one to my Matt, to add some bass. That will be a fun song!
Ok, enough babble! Here’s “Going Up.”
I almost forgot to do today’s Music Monday. It entered my mind several times over the weekend but this morning I needed a little jogging, once again from my Flugel Horn friend, Lyn Nash. I was on the phone with him talking about a mix I had just completed of a Christmas song we were working on and he was saying, “don’t put that on Music Monday!” And I’m thinking to myself, good thing he said that . . .
So as I begin to think about today’s MM, I ran across a medley of 2 songs I had put together for something - who knows what, but I was not please with how it turned out. Time to start over.
The songs are “Still” and “Draw Me Close.” If you know these songs, then I think the words will come to mind as the melody goes by. These songs are very intimate in their approach to God, and I tried to communicate that with this arrangement. If you don’t know the words, then here they are:
Still: Hide me now, under your wings. Cover me within Your mighty hand. When the oceans rise and thunder roars, I will soar with You above the storm. Father, You are King over the flood. I will be still, know You are God.
Draw Me Close: Draw me close to You. Never let me go. I lay it all down again, to hear You say that I’m your friend. You are my desire, no one else will do. ‘Cause nothing else can take Your place, to feel the warmth of Your embrace. Help me find the way, bring me back to You. You’re all I want, You’re all I ever needed.You’re all I want, help me know You are near. You’re all I want, You’re all I ever needed.You’re all I want, help me know You are near. Help me find the way, bring me back to You. Bring me back to You.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Throughout the month of July, we at Peakland have been reading and discussing this book: God in the Wilderness, written by Rabbi Jamie Korngold.
This past Sunday morning in worship, I discussed chapter 6 of the book, Hear the Still Small Voice Within. We read the story of Elijah who was on the run following a religious battle between the priests of Baal and him. Elijah won the battle but Queen Jezebel threatened his life, so Elijah ran away to hide in the wilderness. Feeling pushed beyond his limits, he cries out to God to end his life. God doesn’t do that but comes to Elijah with a still small voice, providing comfort and presence.
The good news for us is that when we are pushed to our limits, God is with us too, and as followers of Jesus Christ, when we see those around us who are pushed to their limits, then Christ directs us to be a calm comforting resence helping each other and those in need around us.
Next Sunday, July 30, I’m covering chapter 7 of the God in the Wilderness book. The chapter is called Restore Your Souls Beside Still Waters and features the beloved Psalm 23. Many of us know the King James Version of Psalm 23 by heart. For this Sunday, I’ll have us read a version of Psalm 23 written by Robert Alter, a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at Berkley.
The King James version of Psalm 23 ends with Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Robert Alter’s version ends in a way he says is more accurate to the Hebrew: Let but goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for many long days.
That makes sense to me. Psalm 23 speaks of God’s care and provision in these days. God provides food and water and restful places to us now. God is present with us now even when enemies surround us, even as the shadows of death cover us.
This is an important reminder that God isn’t just in heaven waiting for us when we die. God is in the here and now. We Christians believe God is our Good Shepherd, and he’s not just waiting for us in the fields of eternity, his Holy Spirit is with us now, providing us comfort and care now, helping us to provide comfort and care to those around us now.
In her book, Rabbi Jamie pairs Psalm 23 with the book of Job, who is wailing to God about his suffering. Why am I suffering? Why does anyone suffer?
I’ll talk about the connection on Sunday in worship, join me here at Peakland in person for worship at 8:30 in the sanctuary. At 9:45 we have the Horizons worship in the fellowship hall, and at 11:00 we’re back in the sanctuary with our in person and online worship service. All are welcome. Everyone. Always.
Thanks be to God.
Before July totally gets away from me, I wanted to let all of you know that my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I are recording a Christmas album. Now, I’m a fan of a little Christmas in July, but I was voted down on that so I will not be playing any of the songs we have recorded, although I would like to, I won’t. Shoot. I will tell you that so far it’s a pretty wide selection of songs - everything from “It’s The Holiday Season” to “O Holy Night”. The project is a pretty ambitious undertaking for us and I’ll say I’m really please with what we have done. Still some tweaks and a few more songs to record but we are having fun and making good progress!
A few years back, Lynn was listening to a recording project that my son, Matt, and I had done with some of Matt’s friends in the Nashville area. I remember Lynn saying, you know I wish you guys had just turned it loose on one of those songs. Well, that thought stuck with me and on the next recording project Matt and I did, which was all original tunes, we did indeed turn it loose on one song - aptly named - “Turn It Loose”.
Throughout the month of July, we at Peakland have been reading and discussing this book: God in the Wilderness, written by Rabbi Jamie Korngold. This book has been important to Andrew, Peakland’s amazing deacon, and I’m grateful he’s introduced this book to us at Peakland. We’ve been using this book in our Sunday worship and last Sunday, Pastor Dave spoke about Sabbath and the ongoing question of how we keep the sabbath day sacred and holy. Used to be under the blue laws, most of the world shut down on Sunday, so after Sunday worship folks visited family and friends and not much else. In today’s world, Sunday can look very much like any other day of the week, so Rabbi Jamie encourages us to find those activities which bring us close to God and closer to one another. For her and her family, that means hikes in the mountains. For some of us worship at church or online, gardening and mowing, reading, cooking, and napping are sacred activities. This month, we at Peakland have been meeting on Monday nights and Tuesday mornings for further discussion of the book. I led both groups this week, and I have to say, Chapter 5 of the book, Stop Trying so Hard, even God isn’t perfect, was a controversial chapter. I was at the YMCA early the other morning. 6:00 a.m. is when the dedicated folks are working out. I am usually surrounded by men and women who are in much better shape than I am, and it would be so easy to be discouraged about my own state of physical fitness if I compared what I can do at the gym to what they can do at the gym. They are perfect, I am not. Rabbi Jamie warns us against that kind of unobtainable perfection. Physical fitness, wealth, grades, professional status – anything we have, anything we do, we can find someone smarter, faster, stronger, richer and, I don’t know, better dressed. The reality is nobody is all perfect. In chapter 5, Rabbi Jamie writes some words which many in the discussion groups did not like at all. She writes, Nobody and Nothing is perfect. Not even God. Nothing is perfect. Not even God. Well now. Rabbi Jaimie discusses at length the Bible stories where God seems to make mistakes. God creates humanity giving us free will, which we abuse and use to make poor choices. God floods the earth to get rid of corrupt humanity, but the second Noah and his family got off the ark, they fall right back into destructive behaviors. God calls Abraham and Sarah to be the parents of a new family and a new nation, and right from the start, Abraham and Sarah whined and wheedled and doubted. God calls Moses to lead the exodus from Egypt, but he was a nervous speaker and an uncertain leader. That’s just in the first two books of the Bible. What Rabbi Jamie notices in this is that each time God’s plans for humanity fail, God tries again with something new. When the people turn away from God’s laws and commandments, God sends to prophets to call them back into right relationship. We Christians believe that because humanity was stuck in sin and no amount of divine laws or Godly prophets could get us back on track, then God comes to us as one of us in Jesus to teach us and heal us and to be our way back to God and away from sin.. Rabbi Jamie says perfection isn’t possible for us or for God, but that’s ok. God is resilient and determined to love us come what may, and that’s something we can achieve. In the face of setbacks and trials and our own messy imperfections, we are to be resilient and determined to love each other, and our neighbors and strangers alike, come what may......
It’s been raining cats and dogs here! I took Joey, our 85 pound Golden Doodle, with me yesterday up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to record some “B” Roll for the church, and specifically, Music Monday. The video that have been using is not very long and I have to loop it a number of times to cover a MM segment. That’s always bugged me so I decided to do something about it.
Well, it turns out from all this rain we have been experiencing, the small lake dam on the BRP that’s close to the James River / Big Island entrance to the Parkway was experiencing some serious water flow. I got some video of that as well as some other parts of the water near there and will be using some of this footage here on Music Mondays, until I tired of that haha!
Today’s song, Friend Of God, was another one of those opportunities where I was able to bring in some of our singers to record. It was doing a time when we were closed due to Covid, so they came one at a time to record. The backdrop video I set it with was drone footage I shot early one morning of the front of the church, going straight up - 400 feet. The mountains were beautiful that morning.
When I first used this arrangement, which takes advantage once again of my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, as well as myself on trombone, the comments I got were good, but a lot of them said the beginning sounds like the opening music to the original Love Boat TV show haha! What do you think?
Here’s Friend Of God.
Andrew talks about his sermon this past Sunday, referencing the first two chapters of the book: "God In The Wilderness", and then shares an interesting insight into who Andrew is!
Tommy Walker is one of my favorite Christian Artist and Composer. And this song, in particular, is one of my favorites. I know I say that about a lot of songs, but, hey, one can’t have too many favorites!
I did this track for our Horizons service a few years ago and then updated it with some brass, with the help of my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash. Lest you think he is the only friend I have, that is not the case haha! I have at least one more . . . .
At any rate, I redid the track again, this time adding our very talented Associate here at Peakland, Andrew. Andrew plays several instruments and sings. He has lead Worship here any number of times. He has preached and also does out outstanding job. He’s one of those guys that just makes you mad ‘cause he can do so many things, and do them well, despite how young he is - not even 30!
I asked Andrew to sing on this recording. Not only did he sing, but he added some guitar and some percussion!
I have not featured Andrew on Music Mondays, and it’s about time, in fact, past time! So here’s Andrew singing and playing a song that has a powerful message of hope!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, July 5, 2023
I started reading an autobiography this weekend called The Tender Bar, written by J.R. Moehringer. J.R. is just a few years older than I am, and he writes about growing up in the mid1970s and early 80s in the town of Manhasset on Long Island. His childhood is straight out of a Dickens novel. His famous radio DJ father abandoned him. He and his mother lived with her abusive and sadistic father. Growing up, JR was hungry for male role models until he found them at the local bar where his uncle worked. The bar’s name is fittingly enough called Dickens, and at Dickens JR meets a whole host of men who have issues with work and money and health and gambling and women and many, many issues around alcohol consumption. But they welcome young JR and they teach him about life and love and having confidence, even when life is cold and so hard. They provide community and acceptance for him. I’m just a hundred or so pages into the book but I believe JR’s life story is headed toward a good ending. When JR grows up he becomes a journalist and he was the ghost writer for the autobiographies of Andre Agassi and Prince Harry. He is now married with 2 children of his own.
When I was growing up one of the most popular TV shows was the sitcom Cheers, set in a bar in Boston. The theme song for cheers was: Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.
I am not the first pastor to hope that the church could be more like Cheers and the Dickens bar. I want Peakland to be the place where when life is hard, you come here, and folks know your name and they’re always glad you came. I want Peakland to be a place where all folks find community and acceptance.
We at Peakland had an excellent time last week at vacation bible school. We had about 50 children in the church and 30 adults and youth who gave generously of their time and talents. Just this morning, I delivered to Daily Bread the homemade trail mix that the VBS kids made. In so many ways, this past week of vacation bible school was one of the highpoints of my time at Peakland so far. But I know full well that there are so many of us in the church and in the community who are finding life cold and so hard. We are dealing with our own issues with work and money and health and addictions and challenging family issues.
I want Peakland to be the place where we have good times together and we welcome and accept one another and are genuinely glad to see one another, AND I want Peakland to be the place where we aspire to be more than we are right now, where God’s love empowers us and resurrects us. As I read about the men in the Dickens bar, and as I remember the characters of Cheers, they don’t change much. Many of them feel run over by life and unable to change. I don’t what that for us at Peakland.
I want a community of folks where we seek a greater connection with our One Trinity God and with each other. I want a community of folks who are hurting and hopeful, who maybe down but will never be out. We are people who dream big for our church and for the wider world. We do that by following Jesus. By following the ways of Jesus, we at Peakland become more generous with our time and our talents. We become more forgiving and more loving. We seek a better way in life not just for ourselves but for all of those around us. Here at Peakland, we have acceptance and aspiration! We extend a warm welcome to others, and we seek spiritual growth! Here at Peakland we want community for us and for all our neighbors.
The 4th of July is tomorrow. Despite all of the not so good things that happen in our county - despite the unrest, despite the down-right unbelievable things people can do to each other, and think it’s ok to do, I still believe this is a great country.
Starting on July 1, and continuing until the 7th I am participating in an amateur radio event called 13 Colonies. As a ham radio operator, I am representing Va in this ham radio celebration of the original 13 Colonies. My personal call sign is K2LLC, but as a Va operator I am K2B, or Kilo 2 Bravo. The idea is for radio operators around the world to contact all 13 Colonies, plus the additional stations located in Philadelphia, Great Britain, and France. If you’re really curious, this website offers more information - 13colonies.us
I mention this because in the hundreds of contacts I have made so far, you would not believe how many operators have said God Bless America as they sign off with me. Sometimes it is so heart-felt it brings tears to my eyes.
So, there are still a lot of us Americans who think America is still something special - me being one of them. A few years ago I flew my drone at the McBride Sign Company parking lot just across the James River from downtown Lynchburg. They have a huge, and I do mean huge American flag that flies year ‘round. The day I flew, the winds were just right and the flag waved beautifully as I parked my drone close to it and watched it wave to Lynchburg. I came back and sat at the piano in the Sanctuary of the church and this arrangement came out. It;’s not the first time I have shared this online, but now more than ever, this is a good time to remind us that God has indeed blessed America, and I hope and trust he will continue to do so.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, June 28, 2023.
This week is a happy and busy week at Peakland! We are hosting Vacation Bible School in the mornings at Peakland with 50 or so bright and active children and a dozen or so slightly overwhelmed adult and youth volunteers. It’s a Food Truck VBS party! We are looking at the Bible stories in which God’s love is partnered with the foods that God provides: manna and quail for the Hebrew people in the wilderness, a bottle of unending oil for the widow in Zarephath, the good foods Daniel and his friends ate, Jesus feeding the 5000 and finally Jesus providing a breakfast meal to the disciples after his resurrection. This week I am not pastor Joe, I am Chef Joe the storyteller with my apron and chef’s baseball cap!
This upcoming Sunday, July 2, Peakland will have a united worship service at 10:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall. We’ll worship together in person and online! We’ll hear the stories from Vacation Bible School, and we will gather around the Lord’s Table for communion. For those worshipping online, you are welcome at the table too: Have a cup of grape juice and some crackers and bread. We’ll all celebrate God’s love at God’s Table because all are welcome at Peakland.
All are welcome. About that. I don’t usually make comments about the news coming from other denominations. I seem to remember Jesus saying something about focusing on a speck in your neighbor’s eye when you have a log sticking out of your own eye.
Nonetheless, news came out two weeks ago or so that another denomination held their convention and affirmed that they would not allow women to be pastors in their churches.
I would not be a United Methodist pastor if it were not for women pastors, deacons, and church leaders. When I felt God’s call to me to become a United Methodist pastor, it was Rev. Brenda Oldstrom Becker, the associate pastor of the church I attended who I first told, and she shepherded me through the first stages of becoming a pastor.
When I was in seminary and training at Mount Olivet United Methodist, I was with Rev. Susan Cutshaw and Rev Nancy Childress. My first full time job as the associate pastor of Williamsburg United Methodist church had Rev. Jeanetta Benedict, a United Methodist deacon, on the staff. These women mentored me and helped me sharpen my pastoral ministry.
Bishop Charlene Kammerer baptized both my sons. Bishop Sharma Lewis sent me here to Peakland where Rev. Denise Bates, my district superintendent oversees my ministry here.
I have partnered with dozens of United Methodist clergywomen on boards and committees through the years.
I have seen again and again, how God has blessed these women to lead and teach and pastor and serve. Our United Methodist denomination has plenty of flaws and we are nowhere near welcoming all people into all roles within the church, but I am grateful to God for the United Methodist women who are here and who have pastored me through the years.
As it happens of the five congregations that I served as pastor prior to Peakland, three of my successors as pastor of those churches were women. Now I hope to be at Peakland for many, many years to come, and I won’t have any say on who follows me here, but whoever my successor as Pastor of Peakland is, I pray God’s blessing on her.
Well, it’s Tuesday again - good grief! We are in VBS this week and yesterday just got away from me - so, alas, it’s Tuesday and I’m just now getting around to Music Monday, even though it’s Tuesday, I still need to do Music Monday - on Tuesday - yeah.
Last week I featured a hymn that we put a little pizzazz into - Come Thou Fount. I got some positive comments about it, so figured why not feature another one??
I did this arrangement with my Flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash some months ago. Ultimately I sent the arrangement to my son, Matt, and he sent back some pretty cool stuff. This arrangement, is the :before I sent it to Matt” arrangement - if that makes sense. After all it’s Tuesday and this is a Music Monday, on Tuesday, even though it’s a Music Monday . . . . .. on Tuesday . . .
Here’s Jesus Saves! With a little pizzazz . . . . .. on Tuesday.
Every once in a while, I pick an older hymn and try to do some interesting with it. Such is the case with this hymn - Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.
I enlisted my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, to help me with this arrangement. He played the melody on the first and third verses and I cover the melody on the 2nd verse.
I struggled to figure out how to / what to do what that 2nd verse. I’m not a great soloist, as when it comes to improvising melodies on the piano. So I got frustrated trying to come up with something I liked until I decided to give the Hammond organ a shot.
Well that changed everything! While I’m not the greatest Hammond player, I did come up with what I think is an interesting improv.
We sang this song yesterday in our Horizons service, minus the flugelhorn and hammond solos, so I thought I would use the instrumental version for today’s Music Monday.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Through the month of June, I’m posting my reflections on the scripture lessons for Sunday’s worship services.
We’re reading from Genesis this month and following the family of Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants, and I’m using a wonderful translation of Genesis created by Dr. Everett Fox, who is a Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Clark University in Massachusetts. Dr. Fox’s translation uses the Hebrew names for Abraham and Sarah, Avraham and Sara, and captures the rhythms of the Hebrew Language.
Adonai said to Avram, Go-you-forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father’s house to the land that I will let you see. I will make a great nation of you and will give-you-blessing and will make your name great. Be a blessing!
We heard that passage from Geneses chapter 12, last Sunday in worship. God calls Avram and Sarai to go to a new land so that God can give them descendants who will be a blessing to all the clans of the soil, to all the people of the earth.
This is surprising news for Avram and Sarai, because they have no children and they are well past their childbearing and child raising years, but off they go to be blessed and to be a blessing. As I said last Sunday in the sermon, we today, who are among the spiritual descendants of Avram and Sarai, are to be a blessing to all the clans of the soil as well. We who follow Jesus are meant be a blessing to all the world around us. Sometimes we get that right. Sometimes we get that so wrong.
For Avram and Sarai, almost immediately they question God and make all sorts of bad decisions. Each time God reiterates that God will give them descendants they question and hem and haw and at one point Sarai even laughs in the face of God, such is her disbelief.
I like that part. I like questions and pushback and laughing at God. That’s how we learn and grow in our faith. That’s how we grow and learn more about God. Ask questions! Seek better answers than what I give you or what the church gives you. Seek better answers from what the world gives you.
Avram and Sarai do make a huge mistake though. They decide that since Sarai is too old to bear a child, they will have Avram have a baby with Hagar, Sarai’s maid. That’s not what God wants to happen, and it’s not clear how Hagar feels about the situation. It does not go well. Hagar and Avram have a son together, Ishmael, but the household is not happy and Avram and Sarai banish Hagar and Ishmael. Hagar despairs that she and her son will die but God hears them, and God provides for them. Hagar and Ishmael survive and find a home for themselves, and Ishmael becomes the father of his own people. The Muslim people today claim Ishmael as their ancestor. God makes a way even when we mess things up.
In Genesis Avram and Sarai become Avraham and Sara, Abraham and Sara, and God does make good on the promise. They have a son named Yitzhak, Isaac, which means, One who laughs and rejoices. Sara laughed at God. Now God and Sara and Avram laugh and rejoice at the newborn baby.
I love the idea that God laughs with us, that God delights in our delight and shares our joy.
The joy and delight do not last. What comes next for Avraham and Sara and Yitzhak is a trial, a test of their faith which is brutal and life changing for them. We’ll hear that story from Genesis 22 next Sunday, June 18 in worship. Join us online or in-person for Sunday worship at Peakland.
Some years ago I was playing at a New Year’s Eve party - you know - a gig. The late Bill Carroll was the band leader that evening and he called for the song Blue Skies. I did not know the tune but he had a fake book, which is basically the chord progressions and the melody. That melody really resonated with me that evening and it lead to the 2nd album project that my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I recorded - the first being a Christmas project.
Everyone once in a while I pull that recording out and listen to what we did. Yesterday, I did a remix of the recording - fixing a few things and changing some of the instrumentation I used.
If you get any kind of correspondence from me, you will typically see me sign it “Blue Skies” and then my name. We’ve all had our ups and downs in life. And sometimes it’s hard to see Blue Skies when we feel the storms of life all around us. But just above those clouds, are indeed blue skies. So I try to close every correspondence with that little song title. As my friend Mike Lowry reminded me this morning, I try to remember that my cup over-runs with incredible blessings.
Here’s our version of the Irvin Berlin song, Blue Skies. And by the way, I have a lot of our recordings as well some other projects I have done on my website - linwoodcampbell.com
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, June 7, 2023
When I was a child in Sunday School, Miss Amanda, my Sunday School teacher, read us the story from the Old Testament of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Daniel, a Jewish man, living in Babylon had been ordered by the Babylonian King not to pray to God, but Daniel did, so the king threw him into a den full of lions. The next morning, the King opened the den to see if Daniel had survived, which he had. Daniel said that God had closed the Lions’ mouths, preventing them from killing Daniel. It’s not in the scriptures, but I’m guessing God remembered to put mittens on the Lion’s claws too. Miss Amanda, my Sunday School teacher, had us make a Lion’s Den by our cupping our hands together and then we looked inside to count the number of lions we imagined in our dens. I don’t think Miss Amanda read us the end of the story in which the king ordered those who had conspired against Daniel to be thrown into the Lion’s den along with their families, and the lions absolutely killed all of them.
The stories from the Bible that we were told as children often have unpleasant aspects to them. God saved Noah, and his family and all the animals on the ark, but what happened to Noah and his sons after the story is not really appropriate for a children’s Sunday school class. You can read that in Genesis 9. The young shepherd David was God’s chosen to be King of the Jewish people after he knocked out the giant Goliath, but what David did to Uzzah, one of his own soldiers was despicable. You can read that story in 2 Samuel chapter 11.
Most of the great Biblical heroes and heroines do not always make good and Godly decisions, which is why I their stories so much. God was able to use these very flawed men and women to be a blessing to the nations, and that’s good news for me and for us because I am a very flawed person, and I do want to be a blessing to my family, my church, and my neighbors.
Throughout the rest of the Sunday worship services in June, I’m going to be focusing on the biblical stories of the first family of Genesis: Abraham and Sarah, Hagar who is the mother of Abraham’s oldest son Ishmael, Abraham’s and Sarah’s son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob. I’ll begin this upcoming Sunday, June 11 with God’s call to Abraham and Sarah, who were at that point known as Abram and Sarai. Each Wednesday beginning today and throughout June, I’ll give you a preview of Sunday’s Biblical story. So next Sunday we’ll read Genesis 12, verses 1-5, God calls Abram and Sarai and tells them to leave their home country and to travel to a new land. God tells them that they would settle in the new land, have a family, become a new people, and become a blessing to the nations. That’s a very tall order considering that Abram and Sarai had no children and were well beyond childbearing and child raising years. How they were to have a family and be a blessing to anyone was a mystery beyond them, but they went, and God delivered. Eventually. Abram and Sarai had any number of mistakes and misadventures and miscommunications along the way.
We make mistakes and have misadventures and miscommunications along our way as well. And yet, God is willing and able to use us imperfect people to do good and Godly things. I’m eager to read these stories with you over the next few weeks! See you on Wednesdays and see you in church!
At one point in my life, I was an organ major in college. I gave it up ‘cause Bach and I don’t see eye to eye 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. I do enjoy playing the organ, though, and I am the organist here at Peakland UMC.While our organ is not a pipe organ, it is a fine instrument. One of my favorite pieces to play is the Doxology we sing on Sunday mornings. If you watch our online Sunday service, you will recognize the Doxologies we use in our church services as part of our response to how we have been blessed by giving our offerings.The words are magnificent and the organ is the only single instrument I can think of that can adequately express the wonder and power of these two Doxologies. They are both titled “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow, but set to different melodies and with some different wordings.If you’re watching the words are on the screen with a drone shot of the church. Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, June 1, 2023These past weeks, I’ve been sharing my thoughts with you on a book I’ve been reading Forging a New Path: moving the church forward in a post-pandemic world, written by one of my mentors Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist clergy who now does leadership training for church leaders full time. Last week, I introduced some challenging questions the Rebekah asks us to ponder:I discussed the first question last week: How do we in the church live faithfully in this new normal? I proposed that to live faithfully in our new normal, we worship each Sunday either online or in person, we make a commitment to nurturing our souls through participation in a Bible study, or prayer group, or participating in one of the church choirs. We nurture our souls through the church meals, or fellowship groups like Peakland After Dark, the Ruth Circle or the United Methodist Men’s group, and finally we give generously. We give financial gifts to the church, and we give our time and our talents not only here at the church but in the community. As Peakland’s pastor my role is to work with the staff and church lay leader to ensure that Peakland is always offering ways to worship God and to nurture our faith and to give generously so that we can live faithfullyForging a New Path also challenges us with the question: How do we invite folks to church so that our ministries and our community grow stronger?How do we do that? How do we invite people to church? Used to be a church just had to be open on Sundays and folks would find their way to us. We didn’t have to invite them at all. If the pastor was clever and didn’t take too long in the pulpit and if there were children’s and youth ministries that the church had, then that was enough for a church to sustain itself.That’s not our reality anymore. Fewer and fewer folks just come to a new church on their own. Now for those who do come to Peakland, they will find a clever pastor who doesn’t take too long in the pulpit, and our Peakland After Dark Sunday evening ministry for children, youth and adults is growing and welcoming. Peakland After Dark isn’t the same as the old model of Sunday school in the morning and youth group on Sunday night, but what we’re doing at Peakland After Dark is uniting youth, children and adults to lean about our faith together. As a parent, Peakland After Dark has been a blessing to me and to my family. Two weeks ago, our church united for worship and lunch and conversation about how to strengthen our ministries. One of the insights I took away from that conversation was the need to update our website and have some information to give to visitors and guests. When folks are looking for a new church, a good website and up to date information about our church helps them get to know us. Those are good suggestions and the church staff and I will start creating those. Stay tuned.In a conversation that Andrew and I had with Peakland’s Staff Parish Relations Committee last week, Andrew told us that an essential way for Peakland to invite folks to our church was for us Peakland people to be out in the community serving and helping and showing the community that we at Peakland are serious about our faith and reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s Table. That’s an excellent insight. Instead of waiting for people to come to church, we in the church need to be out in the world, showing our faith in action and inviting folks to join us. We need to be where the people are.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 24, 2023The past two weeks, I’ve been sharing my thoughts with you on a book I’ve been reading, Forging a New Path: moving the church forward in a post-pandemic world, written by one of my mentors Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist clergy who now does leadership training for church leaders full time. Peakland will be reading this book together later this fall but you all are getting a preview now. In the past two weeks, I’ve covered the three persistent questions that Rebekah has heard again and again from congregations and church leaders. When do things go back to normal?How do we get people back to church?And (3) How do we do more with less? The short answers to those questions are:Things in church aren’t going back to what was normal before Covid. We in the church are creating the new normal now. We get people back to church or to our church for the first time by inviting them to church, and finally we all have to be inventive and creative to do more ministries with fewer volunteers and fewer resources. Peakland is something of an exception in that we have an abundance of both volunteers and resources, so we’re blessed there.Rebecca has some longer, more thoughtfully developed responses to those questions in her book, and I look forward to the time this fall when we are all reading this book together. And Rebecca also challenges churches with three new questions that we can ponder and discuss together.Her three challenging questions for us are:How do we live faithfully in this new normal?How are we inviting new people into our church community?And finally, what can we do now that we couldn’t do before?Those are challenging questions and I have a few thoughts about that:How do we live faithfully in this new normal? How do we live faithfully? In my ideal church, I would want everyone of us to worship faithfully either in person or online. Some Sundays are packed with activities beyond our control, but on the Sundays that we are healthy and free, let’s be in church either in person or online. I’ll be here for worship on Sunday, come join me.To live faithfully, we nurture our spiritual growth. Peakland has an abundance of small group ministries that nurture our souls. United Methodist men gather on Saturday, the Ruth Circle fellowship meets monthly. We have a praise choir, a sanctuary choir, and a handbell choir for ringing and singing. We have the Bible Alive class for adults on Sunday mornings, and Peakland After Dark Sunday evenings for children, youth, and families. Andrew, Pastor Dave, and I host book studies and Bible studies throughout the year, and we are now forming activity groups. If you like Lego building, video games, hiking, cooking, or handiwork and maintenance, then come join likeminded people. Contact Andrew at PeaklandAssociate@gmail.com to learn more about them.
A lot of times, I will create practice tracks for the choir and or PT to use to help them learn anthems or praise and worship songs for upcoming weeks. Most of the time I just play a piano accompaniment and them each of their parts, and them place the individual recordings, which means soprano and piano, alto and piano, into DropBox for them to access whenever they feel inclined to listen and practice. A few weeks ago I was making a practice version of this song, I Give You My Heart, for the PT to work on. It’s an older P&W song but I did some rearranging to my original chart I had written. As I was listening along to what I had recorded, I begin to wonder what this new arrangement might sound like if I added some more instrumentation.One thing led to another, and, well, here’s my new rendition of I Give You My Heart, with some help from Lynn Nash on Flugelhorn.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 17, 2023Last Wednesday, today and next Wednesday, I’m sharing my thoughts with you on this book I’m reading now: Forging a New Path: moving the church forward in a post-covid pandemic world, written by a mentor of mine Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter. I had planned on leading a Monday night discussion on this book, but we’re going to do that in the Fall. You online folks are getting a preview! Last week, I presented three persistent questions that Rebekah has heard again and again from congregations and church leaders. When do things go back to normal?How do we get people back to church?And (3) How do we do more with less? Last week, we explored some answers to those questions:When do things go back to normal? The answer is they don’t. We are creating the next normal right now.How do we get people back to church or to the church for the first time. The short answer to that is that we invite them. We invite folks to come back to worship and into the life of the community. Some won’t come or come back, but others will, if we invite them.How do we do more with fewer people and fewer resources? That’s a tricky one and Peakland itself is blessed with a deep well of resources and great folks dedicated to our church.Rebekah spends some time looking back into church history to help us forge a new path. Covid wasn’t the first plague to disrupt life in the world and in the church. The black plague did that. The first wave of the plague began in 1347 lasted for a handful of years but then kept coming back again and again over the next 4-5 centuries in Europe disrupting all aspects of life: social, political, economic and religious but that disruption also led to new creativity and new possibilities. In the early 1600s, during an outbreak of plague in London, all the theaters were closed, as were the movies and theaters during the height of covid. Without the demands of producing and performing, Shakespeare had time to write Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest.When the plague raged in Cambridge in 1666, Newton fled to the countryside and had a miracle year of progress in calculus, physics and gravitation. Because so many clergy and church leaders were killed during the plauge, the laity took more and more of a role in their own spiritual formation outside of the church building. . Private devotions grew in popularity and use. The Protestant reformation emphasized each person’s personal relationship with God that didn’t require the church or the clergy to serve as a mediator. The creativity during the plague also occurred during covid.During our covid time, we in the church figured out how to do creative online worship and do our essential church meetings through zoom . Peakland started these church videos during covid. Because we couldn’t be as together in the same physical space as we wanted, we learned new ways supporting one another and praying for one another. We had outside gatherings and online gatherings. Both during the plague and covid, the church recognized the things that are essential for us, the “must haves” in church life. For Peakland folks, what I’m hearing again and again is that what is essential for us is worship and a deep connection to God, fellowship and a deeper connection with each other, and service, and the ways we can be a deeper blessing in the community.
Well I did it again….I was talking to my Flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash yesterday afternoon late and he said where’s Music Monday????? Ooopppsss. And then he suggested one we had recorded a few years back. After listening to it this morning, and making a few additions and subtractions, I am please to offer this arrangement to you. Some of our singers came in and recorded, and Lynn added some majesty to it.Here is Revelation Song.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 10, 2023Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on Friday, March 13, 2020? Do you remember that day, Friday, March 13, 2020. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. That morning, I was waiting to get a haircut from my barber in Lexington, Virginia, and I received a text from Dave Rochford, who was my district superintendent.Dave texted me, “Joe, in the next 20 minutes, the bishop is recommending that our conference churches suspend worship this Sunday and next Sunday to slow the advance of the virus.” That was the text and that was the day that changed our churches. We stopped in person worship not just for the last two weeks in March 2020 but for several weeks and for some of our churches it was months before we were worshipping in person again. I learned how to create an online worship experience for Trinity where I was the pastor, and I know the staff and worship leaders at Peakland did the same as well. Most of our essential church meetings were held through zoom and as the whole world closed, we in the church had to improvise and recreate our ministries and our lives together.Today, just over three years later, we at Peakland are prayerfully considering how we forge a new path in a post covid world.Forging a new path just happens to be the name of this book that I am reading and discussing on Monday nights here at Peakland. I’m eager to share my insights in this book not just with those in person in the class but with you online as well. This book was written by Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist pastor who has created a church leadership program called Creating a Culture of Renewal, which I have been participating in for two years now.In the opening chapters of the book, Rebekah lists three persistent questions that she has heard again and again from congregations in our post-covid world: When do things go back to normal?How do we get people back to church?And (3) How do we do more with less? Rebekah draws from her own experiences and what she has seen and heard to provide some answers to those questions.
On Sunday mornings typically the choir will sing at the 11:00 service in the sanctuary. We also have an 8:30 service in the sanctuary that pretty much mirrors the 11:00 service, but perhaps a little more relaxed. Same bulletin, same everything, except the choir does not sing. Noémi conducts the choir now, so I accompany the choir and it’s typically on the piano. So at 8:30 I sorta rearrange the choir song that’s sung at 11:00 and make a piano solo out of it.Yesterday the choir sang the old gospel song “Just A Little Talk With Jesus” and I will admit I had some fun with the solo I played. Here’s a rendition of that arrangement that I recorded this morning just for this edition of Music Monday.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 3, 2023This Saturday, May 6 is Derby Day, the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby at the storied Churchill Downs. I grew up in Southern Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Kentucky Derby, which is traditionally on the first Saturday of May. Growing up, it was my family’s tradition each year to attend a Derby Day party, usually at a family friend’s house. We would have good food and good times and then watch the most exciting 2 minutes of sports, and then go back to eating and drinking and enjoying ourselves. Many folks who attend the Derby in person at Churchill Downs dress traditionally with grand flower hats. Folks who go to the infield of Churchill Downs do not dress formally but traditionally have a very good time.This Saturday, May 6 is also coronation day for King Charles the third of the United Kingdom. The first coronation in the UK since his mother’s 70 years ago in 1953. The king’s coronation will be full of both religious traditions as well as some new elements. In keeping with tradition, Charles will be anointed with holy oils by an Anglican priest as the defender of the Anglican faith, and as a new thing Charles coronation will also include British leaders of other faiths, including Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Both the Derby and the coronation are this Saturday. And the day after, Peakland celebrates Holy Communion, a Christian tradition nearly 2000 years old. As a church community, we take a piece of the bread and we drink from the cup, and in some holy, mysterious, wonderful way, we are united with Jesus Christ and we are united with each other, and we are uniting with all the other folks who are taking communion in all the other churches, past, present and future. It’s a holy tradition, a holy experience in which our One Trinity God reaches out to us and draws us close.Communion is a traditional act of the church, but we have had to adapt and change and do some new things. Methodists have historically not used wine in communion so that those who struggled with alcohol abuse could come and take communion without endangering their sobriety. Many churches, including ours, now offer gluten free wafers so that those with gluten allergies can also take communion without endangering their health.Since Covid, more and more churches including Peakland, are offering online communion, so that folks who are worshipping online can also share in the holy meal. For United methodists, we have traditionally said that all are welcome at the Jesus’ communion table, and these days that includes all of those who are in person in the sanctuary and those who are online as well.If you are worshipping in person at Peakland this Sunday, May 7, then you are welcome to take communion. We’ll have communion at all three worship services, with bread, grape juice, and gluten free wafers,If you are worshipping online on Sunday, then you are welcome to take communion as well. You’ll need a cup of grace juice and some bread or crackers. As we share communion in the sanctuary, you share with your household. Whatever age you are, you are welcome to take communion. Whether you are a member of Peakland or any church, you are welcome at the table in the sanctuary or the table in your home. If you seek to draw closer God, if you seek to be in right relationship with those around you, then be welcome. That’s our communion tradition. Thanks be to God!
James Taylor wrote this song at a time when he was going through some difficult stages in his life. I think we have all been there. While this song, lyrically, can make one feel melancholy, I find this arrangement to be uplifting! Ok, I’ll explain. I sent this arrangement to my son, Matt, who is without question the finest musician I have ever played with, to see what his thoughts might be. He sent back the second verse and last chorus that was totally unexpected. His bass guitar solo is amazing and his electric guitar background and electronic drum programming gave the song a whole new flavor that is, well, uplifting! Add my great friend Lynn Nash on Flugelhorn to the mix and here is a rendition of a great song that I am truly proud of. There is always someone we can turn to in the good times and bad - our Heavenly Father is always listening.I offer this arrangement to all of you today, in honor of my son, Matt, whose birthday is today. Fire and Rain.
For the past two years, I have been part of a course of study called creating a culture of renewal. CCR provides church leaders with insights into their own leadership styles, skills for making church conflict productive, and encourages us to dream like Jesus to claim Jesus’ vision for ourselves and for our congregation’s life and ministries. These past two years, I have met each month with a mentor, a person who is year ahead of me in the program, with a buddy, a clergy person here in Virginia who is in the same track as I am, and with my Virginia cohort of 8 other United Methodist clergy who are learning alongside me. Our work with creating a culture of renewal is led by Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist clergyperson who does this training full-time now. I’m learning a great deal and am eager to share with Peakland one of the many books Rebekah has written for congregations.Beginning Monday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. here at Peakland, I’ll be leading a discussion on one of Rebekah’s latest books: Forging a new path – moving the church forward in a post-pandemic world. Now that Peakland and all churches are coming out of covid, we find the world has changed around us and the ways we do church needs to adapt. Peakland has done an outstanding job creating online worship and online videos like this one to reach folks who can’t get to the church building, but how else do we as a congregation need to adapt to a post-covid world.Rebekah names for us some realities of the world around us. Fewer and fewer folks identify as religious or attend worship regularly. Just as many folks prefer working online at home professionally, many folks prefer online worship to in person worship. How can we in the church best respond to these new realities. This book asks some demanding questions for our post-covid world: If we have fewer folks in church on Sundays, how do reach people where they are? How can we embody our faith in Christ to others outside the church? What can our church thrive and grow?I’m eager to read this book with you. Again, I’ll lead a book discussion group in person at the church beginning Monday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. If you’d like a copy of the book and participate in the in-person group, follow the link in the description below. I’ll also offer some insights of this books each week here online for the Wednesdays in MayI’m now 10 months into my pastoral ministry here at Peakland. We are already forging a new path together, and Christ is giving us great opportunities to live our vision of reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table.
I have a lot of favorites when it comes to music. I really like some styles and others, well some others, I - well let’s just say I’m not a fan haha.When it comes to Praise and Worship Music, I’m a fan of a lot of things and one of my favorites is featured today. Sometimes in your Horizons service I would open with this song and then say and hear comes our Ancient of Days Pastor John hahaha. He went along with it and I’m still gainfully employed haha!So for today, a song with some lyrics that will make you think a bit - here’s Ancient of Days.
Today is Wednesday April 19, 2023. Over the season of Lent, we at Peakland read Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline. We talked about these disciplines in small groups and in Sunday worship, and we helped one another practice the disciplines of study and simplicity, worship and prayer and meditation, service and submission. This pasts Sunday in worship, Andrew led us in observing the final discipline Celebration. Foster writes that Celebration is central to all the spiritual disciplines. Without a joyful spirit of festivity, the other disciplines become dull, death breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees. Now, I know, and Foster knows, there are times in our lives when we don’t really feel like celebrating. If we are even half aware of the state of the world, it can be hard to celebrate. Personal trials with our health, difficulties at school and on the job, relationship challenges can all make celebration hard to do.Which is why it’s discipline, something we practice and strive for. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians that we are to set our minds on the things in life which are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and gracious. We don’t ignore the hardships in life, but we intentionally and methodically look for the good in life and the good that we can each do and the good that we can do as a church. That’s one way we keep celebration alive in our lives.We also identify the things that bring us joy.: At the start of the worship service this past Sunday, Andrew had us call out the things in our lives that bring us joy these days: bright spring days, a loving family, a good meal, great church music. Naming our joys regularly is another way we keep celebration alive in our lives. For me, a good home and great church community are my joys. It's a joy to be the pastor here at Peakland. Our folks are generous with their time and talents. We’ve already raised just over $12,000 for our Lenten Offering which will go to the helping agencies here in Lynchburg like Parkview, Daily Bread, the Jubilee House and the Free Clinic of Lynchburg. Such generosity brings me great joy and pride.This Saturday, April 22, Peakland people will gather at our church for a spring cleaning! Our first since Covid began. We will have many hands helping! If you’re in town, come lend a hand. Bring a shovel and your gardening gloves. We’ll celebrate our church building and our church grounds together and then at noon, we’ll have a tasty BBQ lunch afterwards provided by one of our generous and talented church members! Peakland is putting together small affinity groups for likeminded people to share hobbies like cooking, hiking, Lego, and video games. There is joy and celebration as we play together. Send an email to Andrew at PeaklandAssociate@gmail.com to join a group. In the days to come, focus on joy and celebration. What brings you joy these days? What are the good works and good words that Christ is calling you to be about? I said this last week and it’s still true: It has never been a more exciting time to be part of Peakland United Methodist Church. We have so much to offer each other, and we have so much to offer the world around us. Peakland is a great place to celebrate our faith together. If you are looking for ways to get involved with our life here at Peakland, if you are looking for ways to be of service to the community and to build stronger ties with other church folks, reach out to me. Here’s my email: PeaklandPastor@gmail.com Thanks be to God.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. Today is Wednesday April 12. Happy Easter!Last Sunday, we started our worship in darkness with two women approaching the tomb of Jesus, what they found was an empty tomb and words of good news: Jesus is not here. He is risen! He is risen indeed!Now, obviously, that’s good news for Jesus. He lives again. Jesus’ resurrection is also good news for us. Because Jesus lives, we who follow him, we live again too. Not only do we live in eternity but we have new life here these days today. That’s good news for us. We have a new life and a fresh start, and we have the opportunity to do good in the world, and all that begins with Easter..I’m so excited to share with you some of the awesome ministries that Peakland will offer in the days and weeks and months to come. These ministries will bring hope and healing for others, and they will help us reach out, serve all, and extend Gods’ Table.Beginning in May, Peakland will be creating relief kits for UMCOR our denomination’s relief agency. We’ll join with other Virginia United Methodist churches in creating, cleaning bucket kits, hygiene kits, and menstrual kits. Last October Peakland raised funds for cleaning bucket kits, and we collected enough funds for 147 kits. What can we do this year? Throughout May, I’ll make available the instructions for making cleaning bucket kits, and hygiene kits and menstrual kits. It doesn’t take much, just a dozen or so items for each kit. What if our Peakland families and households each put together a kit, or two kits or 10 kits? Imagine what comfort and relief these supplies will bring to folks. Last month, Peakland folks gathered for a state of the denomination meeting in which we asked and answered questions about disaffiliation and general conference. Peakland remains United Methodist. That’ isn’t changing, but as other congregations disaffiliate we wanted to know how that was playing out. We also discussed some other topics like do lead pastors need doctorates? Will there be any changes to our relationship with the scouts? Why do we have communion only once a month? These were great questions and I suspect there are more questions out there about why we do the things we do at Peakland and as a denomination. So in the months to come, I’ll work with our church staff and our lay leaders to create additional opportunities for us to gather as a united congregation to ask and answer questions. Peakland’s deacon Andrew is creating two sets of small groups for folks at Peakland. Since I’ve arrived, folks have stated how much we want stronger connections with each other and to get to know folks who worship at different times. Andrew is creating affinity groups for folks to gather together regularly over a shared activity: gardening, woodworking, cooking, fishing, bowling, and Lego blocks! If you have an interest, we’ll find others here who share that interest. When John Wesley first organized the Methodists, he placed them each in small groups for them to help each other be strong disciples. We’re going to do that here as well. We’ll form Wesley groups, small groups of folks who will meet and pray together each month and share life’s joys and struggles.Please reach out to Andrew to learn more and join these small groups.Looking to the summer, we have the dates for our vacation Bible school which will be during the last week of June. We also have a church-wide overnight retreat at Eagle Eyrie in July.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. Today is Wednesday April 5, and we are mid-way in Holy Week.Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, Peakland worshipped as a united congregation. We read and listened to passages from the Gospel of Matthew as Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem while his followers and fans waved palm branches and lined their cloaks on the road to greet him. But we didn’t stop with just the Palm Sunday reading, we kept on reading and listening to Matthew’s accounts of the major events of holy week all the way up to Jesus’ death on the cross and his burial in a borrowed tomb.Tomorrow on Maundy Thursday Peakland will gather for worship to share communion, and then we’ll worship together again on Good Friday, in which we go with Jesus to the cross. Next Sunday, Easter Sunday, we’ll gather at sunrise and throughout the morning for our Easter worship services. Peakland has a full Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.As I said today is Wednesday, and I just learned this week that the church has given this day an official name as well. I don’t believe I ever knew that, but this is the day that the church calls Spy Wednesday. S-P-Y, spy as in secret agent. The spy in Spy Wednesday is Judas. According to the Gospels Judas Iscariot, a disciple of Jesus, made the decision to betray Jesus and he began to spy out opportunities to turn Jesus over to the religious authorities. None of the Gospels indicate exactly when Judas made that decision, but it happened between Palm Sunday and the Passover on Thursday, so today Wednesday is Spy Wednesday.Why did Judas do what he did? Why did he make that decision? The scriptures don’t ever tell us what Judas was thinking. In Matthew’s Gospel, Judas approached the religious authorities just after an unnamed woman spent a large amount of money to buy a special oil to anoint Jesus. Perhaps Judas was angry at the extravagant cost of the oil and let his anger consume him. He would not be the first or the last man to let anger lead to violence.Perhaps Judas’ betrayal had nothing to do with the oil. Perhaps Judas was so convinced that Jesus was the longed-for military messiah that would liberate the Jewish nation from Roman rule that Judas decided to force the issue with Jesus and make Jesus declare himself King rather than submit to the authorities. Judas would not be the first or last man to let his pride lead him to destructive behavior. We can speculate all we want trying to understand why Judas does what he does, but a better use of our time is to look inward to confess the ways that we betray Christ, to confess the ways that we deny him as Peter did, and to confess the ways that we do not always live in the ways that Jesus teaches us. We don’t love all our neighbors as ourselves. We are not as generous with our time and our God given talents that we know we could be. We hold onto grudges and resentments rather than seek reconciliation. We let our pride and vanity convince us we are better and more deserving than others.On this Spy Wednesday, let us confess that we are all spies. And yet, and yet, Jesus, who was fully aware of what Judas was planning, welcomed Judas at his table. Jesus was fully aware that Judas was spying him out, and that Peter would deny him and that all the male disciples would flee. And Jesus broke bread with all of them and offered all of them the cup. John’s Gospel says that Jesus washed the feet of all those who would betray him and deny him and desert him.
Our very capable Pianist and Associate Director of Choral Music, Noémi Lee, does a lot of performing in the Lynchburg area. Sometimes she will play one of pieces she is about to perform for the choir after rehearsal on Wednesday nights. I managed to capture this “performance” to the choir with the church live stream equipment. Here’s Noémi:
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. During this season of Lent, we at Peakland have been reading this book, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Over the past five weeks, we at Peakland have read about the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation, Fasting and Study, Simplicity and Solitude, submission and service, worship and confession. This is my third or fourth time reading this book with a congregation. I think I first read Celebration of Discipline 20 years ago, a few years after the start of my professional United Methodist ministry, and each time I read it again with folks, something new pops out for me.My biggest takeaways from this season with Celebration of Discipline is that we’re not to just read about these disciplines and discuss them and consider them, we really do need to practice these disciplines. That’s probably obvious to most people, but I felt challenged this season into trying the disciplines I don’t usually do and finding new ways of doing the disciplines I almost always do.This go around, I was taken with the palms up and palms down prayer posture that Foster describes in the prayer chapter. His religious background is with the Quaker community and this is a Quaker form of prayer. Palms turned over and facing down when we want to turn over our fears and anxieties and concerns to the Lord. By turning them over to God, we let God take them and make a new way for us. With palms up, we open ourselves to listen and learn and receive from God. This Lent, I’ve been using the palms up and palms down in Sunday worship, with the staff during our prayer time together, and in my own devotions. As I said this past Sunday during worship, fasting from meals has never been a strong discipline for me, and John Wesley would not approve of my negligence there, but I this Lent I experimented with fasting from screen time and instead used the time reading from actual books, which I found most fulfilling. My hope for myself and for all of us is that we keep up with these disciplines beyond Lent. My hope for all of us is that prayer and meditation, service and worship, fasting and confession and all the other disciplines become not just good habits that we do, but a way of life. Confession isn’t just a single prayer on Sunday morning. Instead, we live ready to ask forgiveness and to offer forgiveness and to seek reconciliation all the time. Worship is not just confined to a single hour on Sunday, but we live each day, aware of God’s amazing grace shining on us. Service isn’t just something we do when it’s convenient for us to do but we stand ready to respond with help when and where we are needed. Prayer and meditation, speaking and listening to God is ongoing and as regular as eating and drinking and walking and breathing. Even fasting and submission and the disciplines we each struggle with, we take small steps and see what God reveals to us. I have been deeply blessed this Lenten season with Richard Foster and with you. Next Sunday, April 2 is Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week. Peakland will worship next Sunday as a united congregation in a single worship service at 9:45 in the sanctuary. We’ll gather in person in the sanctuary and will also livestream the service.Peakland gathers for worship on Thursday April 6 at 7:00 p.m. for our Maundy Thursday worship and Friday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. for Good Friday. Both of those services will be in person only.And then on Easter Sunday, April 9, we have three plus one worship services. We’ll worship at our three usual times and in our usual places 8:30, 11:00 in the sanctuary and 9:45 Horizons worship. The 11:00 a.m. Easter worship will be livestreamed. We’ll also gather for a sunrise service at 6:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 9.
From the album I recorded with my son and his friends in Nashville a few years back, here is one of my favorites - Better Is One Day
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. During this season of Lent, we at Peakland are reading this book, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Over the past month, we at Peakland have talked about and practiced the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation, Fasting and Study, Simplicity and Solitude and this week, we consider the disciplines of submission and service. One of my takeaways from this weeks readings is Richard Foster’s guidance of what submission free us to do and to be and what really constitutes service.Foster writes that submission frees us from the terrible burden of always needing to get our own ways. I like that very much. Submission frees us from the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. Submission frees us to focus on the important things in life.Many things in life which we think are important and want to go our way may not be that important after all. Comparing ourselves to others, holding on to the resentments and grudges of the past, trying hard to fit in. None of that is that important in the long run. We submit, we turn away from our ego and pride and vanity. Submission frees us to focus on what is essential and what Christ would have us do and be about: following the ways of Jesus Christ, ensuring the well-being of our families, promoting justice and peace in our world, providing relief from poverty and oppression in our communities, and stewardship of the environment. When we submit our need to always get our own way, we are free to love one another as Christ loves us. We are free to love our enemies and seek reconciliation with those who hurt us. When it comes to service, Foster differentiates between self-righteous service and true service.Self-righteous service is done mostly for our own benefit. We who have lots give and serve those who have little. Self-righteous service seeks external rewards. Did you see what we did for them? Wasn’t that so generous of us? Self-righteous service is done only when it’s convenient for us and we feel like itTrue service, Foster writes, is built on the small everyday kindnesses that we can extend to other that don’t seek the limelight or validation. True service includes courtesy to others and refraining from speaking evil of others. True service includes time spent listening to others and providing empathy to others. True service focuses more on the needs of others rather than our needs. Foster readily writes that service and submission can be misused and abused.If I don’t pick and choose who I serve and if I don’t look for results in my service then I can be taken advantage of. If I submit to everyone and anything, then I will absolutely be taken advantage of!To do submission and service in the best ways, we remember that submission and service and all our disciplines are spiritual disciplines, to be done with our hearts open to where Christ is leading us. We must keep our souls open to how Christ would have us serve and submit. We practice submission and service as a community too. We as a church pray and seek God’s guidance on how to submit with love for others without compromising our own sacred worth. We as a church pray and seek God’s guidance on where we as church are needed to provide care and compassion in our communities. We help each other figure out how to practice these disciplines. I hope you’ll join us here in Peakland as we practice our spiritual disciplines and as we are reaching out, serving all and extending God’s table. Contact me if you’d like to know more about the our great church community.Next week, we look at the disciplines of confession and worship.Thanks be to God. Amen.
I first heard this song in the early 1970’s. Carol King wrote and recorded it, then sometime later James Taylor recorded the song as well. The lyrics have, from the very beginning, had more than just “you’ve got a friend”, in that it took on as much of a connection to God as to a close friend here. A little while back my friend Lynn Nash and I recorded our own version of this iconic song, and once again that relationship - the closeness to God spread over me. So I decided I would go outside of the box today with Music Monday and share this song that is so full of love, compassion, support and encouragement, with all of you. The lyrics are readily available online, but sometimes just listening to an instrumental lets your mind form its own lyrics.You’ve Got A Friend.
During the season of Lent we have been using Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline for sermons and Lenten Studies. I was honored to be invited to deliver the message on Sunday. My sermon topics were Simplicity and Solitude. However, if you were present in worship or joined the online service you noticed that I spent very little time of the subject of Simplicity. Richard Foster describes the Christian Discipline of Simplicity as “an inward reality that results in an outward lifestyle.” Both are essential, in that we deceive ourselves if we believe we can possess the inward reality without its having a profound effect on how we live. “The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of his kingdom first and everything necessary will come in proper order. The inward reality of simplicity involves a life of joyful unconcern for possessions. It is an inward spirit of trust. The sheer fact that a person is living without things is no guarantee that he or she is living in simplicity.”Foster goes on to describe three inner attitudes which free us from anxiety concerning our possessions or lack of them.Receive what we have as a gift from God. We are dependent on God for the simplest elements of life: air, water, sun. What we have is not the results of our labor, but the gracious care of God. All can be gone in the flash of an eye.Simplicity means to trust God for the blessings of life. This is not just about what we possess but our relationships, our employment and the simple pleasures of everyday life.If someone is in need, we help them by sharing what we have. As Methodist we have a powerful example from John Wesley, who lived a very modest life. He did not fill his life with possessions, rather he made it his goal to do everything that he could to assist the poor in society. His motto: Earn all you can, Save all you can and Give all you can!When you visit his home in London, it is obvious that he lived a very modest lifestyle. Even the Methodist meeting houses were simple structures without the finery we have come accustomed to in our churches today. Foster closes this chapter with a few suggestions for outward expressions of this discipline.Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status. Examples: Homes, automobiles, clothes, etc.Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you or the oppression of others. Simplicity is freedom, not slavery. Develop a habit of giving things away. De-accumulate! Masses of things not needed, complicate our lives.Learn to enjoy things without owning them. (Beaches, Parks Libraries etc.)Develop a deeper appreciation for creation.Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God.
I've had a lot of requests to repeat this song I featured last Fall. Here's my friend Mike Petrokonis, and 10,000 Reasons.
Yesterday in our Horizons service we did something different. In fact we did several things differently, but one thing I have not down before. More on that in a minute.I picture myself as a life long learner - I think I may have mentioned that before. One aspect of playing the I have wanted to learn is the Black Gospel style. Every once in a while I’ll get interested in it, but lately that interest has blossomed a little and with the help of my son Matt, I learned a few progressions I wanted to use on a Sunday Morning. And that day was yesterday.So I enlisted the congregation to be the percussion section! That means they clapped on 2 and 4 while I played and we all sang.So here’s a recording I made this morning of that arrangement, and I added hand claps on 2 and 4. One of my favorite songs - I Love To Sing Your Praise, Lord.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. During this season at Lent, we at Peakland are reading this book, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Written nearly 45 years ago, this is a book that I first read 25 years ago and have returned to it again and again over the years. I’m so pleased we at Peakland will be reading and discussing this book together. This past Sunday, I spoke about Prayer and Meditation, and this week Andrew, Pastor Dave and I are leading in person small group discussions on Prayer and meditation.I’m eager to share this book and my insights with you over the next few Wednesday in Lent.Simply put, Meditation is listening to God and prayer is speaking to God. In all the hurry and crowded calendars and noise in our lives, we Christians may neglect listening and speaking to God. As a busy parent and busy pastor, that happens to me a lot. It’s a gift from God to re-read these words so that I can change my behaviors and be more intentional in my listening and speaking to God.Praying and meditating, speaking and listening to God, is meant to allow God into our lives so that God can make some good changes in our lives. We don’t pray and meditate for the sake of praying and meditating, we speak and listen to God so that we can draw closer to God and closer to each other and so that words and our deeds better reflect the values and the practices that Christ intends for us.A couple of weeks ago, there was shooting on the campus of Michigan State University. After that shooting and after other acts of violence and tragedy, many politicians and public figures issues statements such as, “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.” My thoughts and prayers are with the community as they regroup and rebuild.”After the shooting on the campus, A Michigan state representative issued a statement, To heck with your thoughts and prayers. To heck with your thoughts and prayers. Only he didn’t write “To heck with” He used much stronger language.He was angry that the only response these folks seemed to have to the violence and death in our schools and in our grocery stores and in houses of worship were thoughts and prayers. I understand that anger. And if thoughts and prayers were the only response we have to violence and tragedy, then I would also say to heck with thoughts and prayers. Our speaking and listening to God, our thoughts and prayers and meditations are the first response we have to tragedy and violence in our world. They are not the only response, and they are certainly not the last response. We speak and we listen to God so that God can move us and change us. So that God can fill us with compassion and anger, so that we can truly love one another, help one another and become people who work towards peace and justice. Take the opportunity this week and in the days to come to pray and to speak to God. I’m still going to pray after tragedies. As a church, we pray for an end to violence. And then we listen as God directs us to become a people of peace and justice in big ways and small. Next week, we look at the disciplines of fasting and study.Thanks be to God. Amen.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, discussing our church book studies or like I’m doing today, sharing a bit of church news about Sunday worship.Since Covid began, Peakland had been pre-recording a Sunday worship service, specifically for online viewing. We recorded on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and posted it Sunday morning. From the beginning Linwood Campbell, Peakland’s worship leader and go to tech guru, was instrumental in crafting our pre-recorded video services. It took a lot of time during the week for Linwood to do this.Now that we are coming out of Covid and doing more and more in-person ministry, Linwood and I along with our church worship leaders decided it was time to try a new thing with Sunday worship. Instead of pre-recording, we are now livestreaming our Sunday worship. For folks worshipping online, you’ll be able to participate along with those here in person in the sanctuary. As of now, we can only livestream our 11:00 sanctuary worship. We have new cameras set up in the sanctuary, so you’ll be able to see and hear the worship leaders and me when I’m standing on the floor.When I’’m at the pulpit.When I’m behind the table.At the lectern.In the choir.We’ll post the lyrics of the hymns and the word of the prayers and scriptures on your screen, so you can follow along with the congregation.For those of you who are going to be worshipping in the room and don’t really want to be on camera, fear not. We will keep the camera focused up here.This Sunday, February 5, is a communion Sunday here at Peakland. We extend God’s table beyond this room and into the homes of our online folks. This Sunday if you are joining us online for worship, have a cup of grape juice and some bread for your household and follow along. We at Peakland believe Christ is calling us to be reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table. It takes many hands to make this livestream worship work. Linwood has recruited a team of church volunteers already, but if you’d like to help out make online worship possible, send him an email at this address. We are still working some of the technical issues out, so if you notice some sound issues or faulty streaming, let me know. I sure am grateful to God for Linwood and for all the folks who make our new livestream worship possible. Thanks be to God! Amen.
I had an opportunity to record an album with my son and some of his friends in Nashville a few years ago. Here is the title cut, "Sing to The King."
JoeGrace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. With me today is my partner in ministry, Andrew Labar Dietz Peakland’s Associate minister of Discipleship. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Season of Lent, and we gather with Christians all over the world on this day, and we do so as Christians have gathered for centuries to receive a gritty reminder. Today we remember that we are mortal, that we will die. We remember our mortality today, so that at the end of this season of Lent, we may truly celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and embrace our new lives in Christ and our resurrected lives with Christ in the life to come. In order to participate for you watching at home, you’ll need a bit of dirt or ash from the from the fireplace. In just a moment you’ll place a mark on your forehead. Andrew:We remember our mortality by receiving a mark of ashes on our foreheads and hearing the words, Remember thou art dust, and to dust thou wilt return. Repent and believe the Gospel. That last part "repent and believe the Gospel" is just as important as the first. For in order to truly embrace our new lives in Christ, we must do the demanding work of self-examination and correction in this season of Lent. Our first step together in that self-examination is with prayer. Let us pray: God, create in us clean hearts and renew your spirit within us. Restore unto us the joy of your salvation. Be willing, O God, to keep us in your tender care. Deliver us, Lord, and free us from sin. Help us, Holy One, to use our lives as a testament to your transformational power. Allow your Holy Spirit to redirect us when we begin to wallow back to sin. This Ash Wednesday we take hold of your promise: Renew us, Lord: a new walk, a new talk, a new mind, a new heart, a new life.Thank you for the promise that we can truly be made new again.AN INVITATION TO THE OBSERVANCE OF LENTEN DISCIPLINESJoe:Beloved in Christ: the early Christians observed with great devotion the days of the Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation. During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. AndrewIt was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to participation in the life of the Church. In this way, the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.JoeI invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent: We do this through self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word. To make a right beginning of repentance and as a mark of our mortal nature, we receive these ashes. THANKSGIVING OVER THE ASHESIMPOSITION OF THE ASHESRemember thou art dust, and to dust thou wilt returnRepent and believe the Gospel. Joe:And now you, take a bit of the ash or dirt, mark your head.Remember that thou are dust, and to dust thou wilt return.Repent and believe the Gospel.Amen.Peakland offers two ways of strengthening our faith during the season of Lent.As a congregation, we’ll be reading and discussing this book. Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. We’ll have in-person discussion groups during the week and I’ll offer my insights each Wednesday here online. As we have done in year’s past, Peakland will collect a Lenten financial offering to benefit 7 helping agencies here in town. Look for more details on those ministries coming soon. We pray you have a blessed Lenten season.
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, discussing our church book studies or like I’m doing today, giving you an update on Peakland’s new vision statement: reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table. Last October, when we were discerning Christ’s vision for our church, we reached out to community leaders and asked them what the needs were that they saw that Peakland might be able to address. We heard from the Jubilee Center, Parkview and from Bedford Hills elementary school which is a 3 minute drive from our church. I met with Sherri Steele, the principal of Bedford Hills, and she told me that the school needed three things. Mini bags of pretzels that she and the teachers could keep on hand to pass out as needed for hungry kids who didn’t have a snack of their own.Tutors to come to the schoolSome form of staff appreciation for the just over 80 folks who work at Bedford Hills.I have an update for you. Just a few moments ago, I dropped off 99 mini bags of pretzels to the school, using the pastor discretionary funds that you have provided for me to use to help folks out as needed. Thank you for your generosity. I’ll check in with Principal Steele to see how long 99 mini bags will last.I’m going to begin tutoring at Bedford Hills on Thursday afternoons at least once a month. I start next week. One or two others from Peakland will be helping out as well.As far as staff appreciation for the folks at Bedford Hills, that’s where I need some help. I’m not sure what would work best or who in our church would like to help with that. If you have an idea or want to volunteer send me an email. These are good first steps, and I’m proud that Peakland is able to take them. As we and the folks at Bedford Hills get to know each other, I suspect there will be many other ways our church will keep on reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table. For now, keep the students and staff of Bedford Hills Elementary in your prayers. Keep Peakland in your prayers too. Thanks be to God!
From our 8:30 service on February 12, 2023 Andrew Labar-Dietz performs a handbell solo of Softly and Tenderly
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, discussing our church book studies, or church news. Today, I want to tell you about my meeting with the Virginia Annual Conference’s new bishop. Sue Haupert-Johnson.First a word about United Methodist bishops. We United Methodist organize our congregations into conferences, which are regional areas usually the size of a state. Each conference is governed by a bishop. Peakland is part of the Virginia Annual Conference, which covers most of the state of Virginia and has just over 1100 congregations and 1800 clergy like Andrew, Pastor Dave and me.Our current bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson began as our bishop on January 1 of this year. This is her second annual conference where she has served as bishop. She spent the past 6 years as the bishop of the North Georgia Conference. A bishop is like the governor of a state. She is the chief executive officer and ensures that our church rules and laws are upheld. The bishop is the one who assigns us clergy to our congregations. Most United Methodist can go their whole lives without meeting a bishop, but bishops are an important part of our United Methodist church. Bishop Sue as she prefers to be called is eager to meet as many Virginia United Methodists as she can as quickly as she can. Last week, I joined a group of 30 other Virginia clergy to meet her and share with her our hopes and challenges here in Virginia and to learn more about her and her hopes for Virginia and for our United Methodist denomination. Bishop Sue is a life-long methodist who grew up in Florida. She is a second career clergy person. Her first profession was as a litigator. She had a heart warming experience as a young adult and realized God was calling her into a new profession as a United Methodist pastor. I gather switching from law to the Gospel was a challenge as was being a woman in largely male dominated profession. Bishop Sue rose to the occasion. She’s tough and she’s a straight shooter. I like her very much.Bishop Sue has high hopes for us in Virginia Annual Conference. As a few methodist congregations leave our denomination, Bishop Sue believes we United Methodists are to be a big tent church where all people are welcomed and all people can find a place here. She described a bird, which needs its left wing and its right wing to fly. The United Methodist church is the same way. We need both our left wing progressive folks and our right wing traditional folks for us to soar as a congregation, as a conference and as a denomination. I agree with Bishop Sue, and that’s exactly what I want for Peakland. We need left wing and right wing, we need poor and wealthy here at Peakland, We need young and old, those who are new to the faith and those who are the saints and giants of our church. We need those who wear suits and ties and dresses to Sunday worship and those who wear jeans and t-shirts. All of us together, united in Christ reaching out, serving all and extending God’s table and God’s love.Thanks be to God.
When Covid 19 struck, normal went out the window. For us, at PUMC, we developed a pre-recorded daily devotional and Sunday program to try and stay in touch with our members. As we moved further and further into the pandemic we looked for new ways to expand or enhance our services.Since we were limiting our exposure to people, I did something I had never done before - at least in any kind of serious fashion. I started singing. I had been using a lot of instrumental music I had created, along with my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash, and occasionally our incredibly talented Noémi Lee on piano. But people get tired of nothing but instrumental music - at least I did so I wandered into those murky waters of recording myself. You have to understand that I live with an incredible singer, so I’m always intimidated when I play myself singing for her. Tricia, hmmm, let’s see here - that would bet Dr. Campbell not only is an incredible singer but she teaches voice for a living, so you can imagine how I was feeling about recording, but none the less, I did.Last weeks song, You Are Good featured some of our singers, but that was me singing on the tenor part. This week, it’s all me on vocals, including some parts I sang that were in the original chart I wrote for our Praise Team.The Praise and Worship song is You’re Worthy of My Praise. And thanks again to Lynn Nash for the assist with his Flugelhorn, and I snuck in a few trombone parts as well. There’s a bonus this week, though. Right after the song is over, the track only version will play. If it’s something you like and you would like to perform it or at least have the vocal chart I wrote, drop me an email - linwoodcampbell@gmail.com. and I’ll get that out to ya!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’ll be posting videos each Wednesday, sharing church news, discussing our church book studies or, like I’m doing today, offering a devotion.I’ve shared before in these vides passages and prayers from my favorite devotion book: This Day a Wesleyan Way of prayer. Today’s devotion focuses on the church.Here these words from the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24-25:Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. Rev. Larry Stookey, the author of this book writes: As it takes an entire village to raise a child, so also it takes an entire congregation to nurture a Christian God has created us in an interlocking system of relationships, apart from which we cannot flourish. The church is a gift from God in order that we may be provided with a community of faith in which to grow and encourage us in our Christian journey. Regular participation in the life of the congregation is intended to be mutually beneficial. As other spur us on, so also, we spur others on. Rev. Stookey asks us: What do you cherish most about your life in the Christian church? What are the ways you have been blessed and what are the ways you are blessing others?I am grateful to God for being part of Peakland and for being part of the United Methodist Church. I’ve spent most of my life and all of my professional life as a United Methodist, and I’m grateful that we United Methodists enact our love of God by showing love to each other and to all of our neighbors. Sometimes I fail showing love to others, many times we in the church fail. That’s why I take seriously the reminder in Hebrews not to give up meeting together, not to give up on the church life. We at Peakland believe Christ is calling us by reaching out, serving all and extending God's table and extending God’s love to each other and to all of our neighbors.So in the days to come, I ask you to pray for Peakland, for our people and for our denomination. Pray for clarity on the ways we can reach out, serve all and extend God’s table.Let us pray together now: God of all people, look with favor upon Christ’s flock in here at Peakland. Cause our congregation to be an effective witness of your love and power.Banish from us petty rivalries and speaking ill of one another. Bind us together by your love and cause us to know ourselves to be a people called out of darkness. Thanks be to God and Amen.
Every once in a while I have the opportunity to bring some of our vocalist into the studio to do a little recording. It’s fun for them and me as well. Typically, I bring them in one at a time so we can avoid spreading germs, and it kinda takes the pressure off for them. I sent this song down to my flugelhorn buddy Lynn Nash to add some horn tracks, and I added some trombone parts as well. What a great, fun, worship song - You Are Good!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m standing in our sanctuary today and I wanted you to see our new green banners which were given by Jan Hickey and Emily Hickey in memory of Madison Grey Hickey. We have green banners on the table, the pulpit and the lectern. The green signifies a new season in the life of the church. Now that Advent and Christmas are done and Lent and Easter are still a month and a half away, we are in a season of Ordinary time here at the church. For the church the word ordinary has two meanings. Ordinary time comes from the word ordinal. When we count numbers one, two, three, four we are using cardinal numbers. When we count using first, second, third and fourth, those are ordinal numbers. In the church calendar last Sunday, January 15 was the second Sunday after Epiphany, and next Sunday January 22, will be the third Sunday after Epiphany. Ordinary also means not special, run-of the mill, regular order of business, and it’s true that in the life of the church, we celebrate the high holy days of Christmas, and Easter and Pentecost with lots of big church ministries and special music and fantastic worship. During these ordinary Sundays, we might be tempted to think of church life as run-of the mill, regular order of business, nothing special or exciting happening here.But that’s where God steps in and makes these ordinary days, extraordinary and transforms regular order of business into new possibilities and new life for our church community. We at Peakland have discerned that Christ is giving us a vision of reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table. I’ll be meeting with the principal of Bedford Hills Elementary school this week to see how we at Peakland can reach out there and serve them and welcome them at God’s table. In a couple of weeks on Saturday, January 28, Peakland will have our pot-luck Italian dinner. Our first church potluck supper of the new year with our new kitchen and our new floors. In this ordinary time do something not so ordinary: Reach out to someone you know and invite them to join us at the Potluck. Let’s reach out and extend God’s table to others. Reach out to a neighbor or a church member you haven’t seen in a while, and offer to be with them at the dinner. During these ordinary church days, we could just do ordinary run of the mill things at Peakland or we could let God do wonderful things with us and our community, reaching out, serving all, extending God’s Table.Thanks be to God!
And just like that. It’s Music Monday again!Open:I have worked with some great musicians in my life. In today’s Music Monday, one of these musicians wrote a little chorus to the hymn O God Our Help In Ages Past. Along with another great musician friend of mine, Lynn Nash, I set this tune with an uptempo groove.Close:O God Our Help! The lyrics for the chorus, you ask? Oh God, You are, You are our help, You are our helper.To all generations You will be forever and ever our shield and our eternal hope, Oh Lord. You are the Ancient of Days and worthy of our praise!If you like this, consider sharing with a friend. You can find this song, along with a lot of other songs on my website: linwoodcampbell.com. Thanks for listening! See you next Monday!
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today begins a new season of weekly devotions and reflections that I’ll be posting on Wednesdays. Sometimes we’ll have scriptures and prayers and a personal reflection, sometimes I’ll share with you some news about our church or our conference or our denomination, when Peakland does its next church wide study, I’ll share with you what we’re reading online.
Today is the 9th of January 2023! Happy New Year! Well, it’s a little late for that I suppose. Today’s Music Monday, the first of this new year is a little late.You see, today’s Music Monday’s song is We Three Kings, which seems a little late because Ephinany is over. Now, Ephinany celebrates the 3 kings seeing the baby Jesus and bringing him gifts. And the Bible tells us that the Kings were advised to leave by a different route on their way home. And that’s all it says about them leaving - go home a different way. Well, there is no mention of how they might have been feeling.I can imagine that they were awe struck initially, then as they thought about and talked about it they started getting excited. The further they went, the more excited they got. And so, here is my musical thoughts on the 3 Kings journey home. Did I mention I think they were all musicians?
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for Christmas Day, December 25th, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Merry Christmas. I hope the day is full of blessings for you.We have been lighting candles during the season of Advent. Today we light the Christ candle in celebration of his birth, and we offer this Christmas prayer togetherYOU, O LOVING GOD, HAVE WRAPPED THE GIFT OF YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST AROUND OUR LIVES. THE LIGHT OF YOUR LOVE THROUGH HIM IS SHINING BRIGHTLY. OPEN OUR HEARTS AND SPIRITS AS WE HEAR THE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC AND THE WORDS OF YOUR HOLY SCRIPTURES. BRING US TO YOU WITH SUCH JOY THAT IT WILL SEEM AS THOUGH OUR FEET AREN’T EVEN TOUCHING GROUND.Last Sunday, our sanctuary was full of music with our Christmas worship concert. For this Christmas Day worship online, we present that concert to you.Next Sunday, January 1, Andrew leads a livestream worship at 9:45 a.m. and then on January 8, we’ll have livestream worship every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. You’ll be part of the worshipping congregation here at Peakland.For now, enjoy the music and have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Good morning, and welcome to my final Wesley Wednesday devotion. When I began this series, I never imagined that it would continue for nearly two years. I have learned so much about our Wesleyan heritage, and I trust you have as well. Thanks for listening and sharing your kind words of appreciation. During the coming weeks Linwood will help be combine some of my favorite devotions and share them via social media. My hope is that through these devotions I have been able to reveal Charles Wesley not only as hymnist but also theologian. “It has been rightfully noted that his was “a theology which was sung”. Today I take a look at two of Charles Wesley hymns which express his understanding of the Messiah.O Love DivineO Love Divine! What hast thou done! The immortal God hath died for me. The Father’s co-eternal son bore all my sins upon the tree. The immortal God for me has died! My Lord My love is crucifiedSinging these words evoke some of the most powerful meaning of the incarnation of Christ. The immortal God has died for me. My Lord, My Love is crucified.And from his collection of Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord “Glory Be To God on High”. This hymn is not in our hymnal so one which you may not be familiar. It has become one of my favorites.Glory Be to God on High, And Peace on earth descend!God comes down, he bows the sky and shows himself our friend. God the invisible appears! God the blest, the Great I Am. Sojourns in this vale of tears, and Jesus is his name.Him the Angels all adored. Their Maker and their King;Tidings of their humbled Lord they now to mortals bring.Emptied of his majesty, of his dazzling glories shorn.Beings source / begins to be, and God himself was born.(Repeat)Stand amazed ye heavens at this! See the Lord of earth and skiesHumbled to the dust he is, and in a manger lies.We the sons of men rejoice, The Prince of Peace proclaim,With heaven’s host lift up our voice and shout Immanuel’s nameJohn Tyson describes this as “uniting heart and mind in an act of praise and doxology. He says that Wesley’s hymns caused the singer to participate in and experience the gospel’s truths in a way that sterile theological definitions do not. In sermon and song, Charles intended to communicate biblical teaching in a way that causes singers to replicate the Bibles Christian experiences.”Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!Stay safe and have a Blessed Day.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, a daily devotion. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. This week is the last week of Advent and this past month, I’ve been making use of the Advent devotion written by Rev Anna Catherine Gillozet, a United Methodist pastor in Ohio. Today’s Bible passage is from Matthew, chapter 1, beginning with the 18th verse.Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:‘Look, the young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, In just a few nights it will be Christmas Eve, and like many other churches, we at Peakland will hear the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke, which features sherpherds and angels and mangers. It’s a long standing tradition to read and hear the birth of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke on Christmas Eve.Matthew’s Gospel also has a story about the birth of Jesus, which focuses on Joseph and what he was told. From Matthew’s Gospel, we get a better sense of how scandalous Mary’s pregnancy would have been for her and for Joseph. The two were engaged to be married when they learned that Mary would have a child. Mary and Joseph would not have been the first couple or last couple to be expecting a child before being married. Joseph clearly knew how much trouble Mary would receive, and he moved to protect her reputation.The angel of the Lord reassured him that a great blessing would emerge from the scandal. Their child Jesus would be Emmanuel, God with us.As Christmas Day approaches, your family and your life may not be all merry and bright. Many of us have troubles and trials and if folks knew what we were going through they would be shocked.Hear the good news: God is with us. Jesus Christ is born, and his Spirit is within each of us, washing us with love and grace and mercy. God has a wonderful way of taking our scandals and disgraces and making great blessings come forth.As a church community, as a church family, we stand together through troubles and trials. We stand with those who are hurting and troubled. That’s the good news this day and every day. God is with you. God is with all of us, uniting us in the church family. Merry Christmas. Thanks be to God.
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for December 18, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is the fourth Sunday in the season of Advent, our season to prepare the way of the Lord. I’m recording this service here in the sanctuary, a few days before Sunday, and you can tell that we’ve already begun setting up our sanctuary for a special worship concert on Sunday morning. For those of you joining us online now, we have a special musical duet by Linwood and Noemi.
Andrew shares a story of a young child's excitement, and invites us to join him in seeking joy in the little moments in the last few days before Christmas.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, a daily devotion. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. During this season of Advent, Peakland people are reading this book written by Rev. Adam Hamilton: Prepare the Way for the Lord, an advent study focusing on John the Baptist. . For this week’s reading and in worship last Sunday, we focused the ministry of John the Baptist, miracle son of Zechariah the priest and Elizabeth, his wife. Scripture doesn’t tell us much of anything about Johns’ life after he is born. We meet John again when he is an adult in chapter 3 of Luke’s Gospel. Luke chapter 3, verses 2-3: The word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.When John is baptizing, he’s offering a physical cleaning of the body to represent the cleaning of our souls from sin.The people come to John, repenting and sorry for their sins, and John baptizes them and tells them to bear fruits worthy of repentance. To live their lives in a way that shows they really are sorry for their sins and really do want to live in a way that God desires.People ask him, “What does that mean, what should we do?”John tells them, “Whoever has two coats, must share with anyone who has noneWhoever has excess food must share with those who have none.”To the tax collectors and soldiers, John tells them to do their jobs honorably.John’s words are good words for us as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ and to have him born again in our souls today. Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Live lives that are meaningful and draw us closer to God.When Paul writes his letter to the Galatians, he describes the fruits of the Spirit.Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What should we do today to prepare for Christ? Anything and everything that promotes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That’s how we live loves worthy of the grace and love that our One Trinity God pours out on us.This past Sunday, Peakland welcomed five helping agencies to our church. The good people of Peakland had collected cans and boxes of food, knitted items, gift cards to box stores, stockings full of items for children and infants, We made Christmas ornaments, ate homemade cookies, drank hot chocolate and sang Xmas songs.It was the perfect way for the church to prepare for Christ-generosity to those in need, fellowship with each other. Our fellowship hall was full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and gentleness. The hot chocolate and cookies were really good, so we may not have had a lot of self-control.Today and everyday look for ways you can bear the fruits of the Spirit. Let love, joy, peace, and patience be evident in your life. Let Kindness, generosity, faithfulness and generosity and self-control be a way of life for you. Thanks be to God. t
Welcome to a Wesley Wednesday devotion for the third week of Advent with Linda and David Drinkard.One of the messages of Christmas is Peace. Luke 2:13-14 in the King James reads:And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward menThe prophet Isaiah describes the Messiah as: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. In Biblical times the people watched and waited for the gift of God’s everlasting peace to come upon the earth. Charles Wesley captures the essence of this message in Hymn #9 of Hymns for the Nativity of Christ. Charles did not give a title to any of the 18 hymns in this collection, so I will refer to it as a Hymn for Christmas. It includes five stanzas.Although not in our United Methodist Hymnal, I’m told the hymn can be sung to the tune used for Crown Him with Many Crowns.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, a daily devotion. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. During the Tuesdays in Advent I’ll be making use of an Advent devotion written by Rev Anna Catherine Gillozet, a United Methodist pastor in Ohio. Today’s Bible verse is Romans, chapter 15, verse 13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Twenty years ago, I was appointed to serve as the pastor of two congregations in Frederick County, just outside of Winchester here in Virginia. I had been the associate pastor at Williamsburg United Methodist church for the past five years, and I was going to become the sole pastor of Relief and Hites Chapel.I was anxious and excited and nervous and hopeful about the change. On the day I left Williamsburg, I noticed a mourning dove perched on the balcony of my apartment. She was quiet and peaceful and at rest I remembered the story of Jesus’ baptism and how the Holy Spirit alighted on him like a dove. I decided that mourning dove was a lovely little sign, a reminder that Holy Spirit of Christ was with me during that anxious transition. I had hope because even though I was headed to a place I didn’t know to do a ministry I had not done before, God was with me in a quiet peaceful way, like a mourning dove alighting on my balcony.Through the years, I have always noticed the mourning doves around me. I saw one a couple of days ago on my way the church and the sight still fills me with hope.Rev. Guillozet writes, Hope is the way that God speaks to us of what has been promised. Hope is our holding onto God’s grace.However it is with your soul this Advent season, hold onto hope. God has promised to love us and forgive us our sins and give our lives meaning and purpose. If you aren’t feeling that right now, fear not. That’s where hope comes in. Nurture the hope in your soul. Know that God’s presence surrounds you, even if you aren’t noticing it right now. May hope, love and peace grow in your soul so that you can give hope, love and peace to others. Thanks be to God.
From Linwood: Around this time two years ago, we were in the middle of the Pandemic. Unable to have a Christmas program, I set out to create one online. I picked some arrangements and I wrote some arrangements. I was able to record some of our choir and praise team members singing by bringing them in one at a time, record them individually and then mix it all together. It was quite an undertaking but I think it turned out pretty well!This arrangement of The Gospel Nativity Carol was written by Craig Courtney, a well-known arranger for several publishing companies. I took the arrangement , made a sound track, enlists my friend Lynn Nash to add some flu gel horn parts, I added some trombone parts and then finally recorded the voices - whew! But what a fun Christmas celebration song! This upbeat Christmas song ought to have your toe tapping while you pick up the lyrics and sing along - I believe this is Jesus - come and see.Here’s The Gospel Nativity Carol!
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for December 11, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is the third Sunday in the season of Advent, our season to prepare the way of the Lord. During this season of Advent worship services here in the sanctuary, so that you can see how the sanctuary looks this happy season.
Grace and peace to you and welcome to Trusting God at all Times Kids Edition. This devotion is created for children of all ages. I’m Rev. Joe, and I’m the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. All are welcomeIn our time together now we’re going to do three things. . We’re going to sing our song with our mouths. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions to pray and talk to God.. Let’s begin with our song, He’s got the whole world in his hands.Can you sing along with me?He’s got the whole world in his hands.He’s got the Shepherds and the Sheep in his hands.He’s got all of God’s children, in his hands. Let’s listen to our story from the Bible which was adapted by Ella K. Lindvall. Jesus is telling us a story about Baby Jesus and the Good NewsRead storyIn this story, the Shepherd loves the sheep . God loves you and God loves me just like the shepherd loves the sheep. Let’s pray our action prayer together. IN the action prayer we use our word and our actions to pray and talk to God. Dear GodYou Love the world.You love me.Help me.Love you.Help me. Love the World. Amen.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, a daily devotion. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. During this season of Advent, Peakland people are reading this book: Prepare the Way for the Lord, an advent study focusing on John the Baptist. This book is written by Rev. Adam Hamilton. Each week at Peakland, we’re discussing a chapter of this book in small groups and referencing this in the sermons during Sunday morning worship. I’m eager to share some of my insights with you, so that’s what I’ll do online each week on Thursdays in Advent.For this week’s reading and in worship last Sunday, we focused on Zechariah and what happened to him after the angel told him that he and Elizabeth his wife would bear a son. Zechariah and Elizabeth were both older people at the time, so having a child would have been miraculous news for a variety of reasons.Zechariah was understandably doubtful that he and Elizabeth would be able to conceive and bear a child, so the angel said to him, you will become mute unable to speak, until that day these things occur. So Zechariah was silent for 9 months.We’re going to do something now which is radical for an online devotion. We’re going to sit in silence for a minute. The camera will focus in on the advent candles, so that you don’t have to stare at my silent face for the whole time. But for a minute. Let us keep silent.[one minute]For some, a minute of silence is an eternity. For some it is a blessing and too short a time. When the angel inflicted silence on Zecharaiah, it was meant as a reprimand, but I hope Zechariah found a blessing in the 9 months of silence. I hope he found opportunities to listen more closely to those around him. Surely his wife needed him to listen, perhaps his friends enjoyed the opportunity to be heard. I hope in the silence Zechariah found opportunities to listen more closely to God. There are situations in our lives that are hard, that seem to be punishments to us, . Advent and Christmas can be hectic and pressure-filled and the opposite of holy and sacred. and yet the good news for us is God can give us small miracles and opportunities in our trials In the days to come look for the opportunities to be still, to be silent and to listen. Listen to those around you, listen to your own soul, and listen for the Word of Lord within you.Be silent and listen.Thanks be to God.
Welcome to a Wesley Wednesday devotion for the second week of Advent with Linda and David Drinkard.Charles Wesley wrote a number of hymns and poems for the Christmas Season. Eighteen of them are found in “Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord” and others in “Hymns and Sacred Poems.” Although many of these may not be familiar to us, they clearly express an understanding of the Incarnation.Let’s begin with a passage of scripture from Philippians 2:5-11Philippians 2:5-11 New Revised Standard Version5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.Paul Chilcote, points out that the vision of “self-emptying” shaped much of Charles Wesley’s thinking about the Christology of Jesus. He writes:“The ramifications of this divine self-emptying stagger the mind. God becomes one with us that we might become one with God. Christ emptied himself of glory and eternity of every divine attribute save one, the essence of God, which is love. Fully divine –all love and nothing but love—he enters our world of brokenness and sin, takes on our human nature, and makes it possible for God to be present in Human flesh. “Emptied of all but love he came.”We find several references to Philippians 2:7 in the hymns Charles wrote for the Nativity of our Lord. “Let Earth and Heaven Combine “Let earth and Heaven combine, Angels and men agree to praise in songs divine the incarnate Deity He laid his glory by, and wrapped him in our clay, Infant of days he here became and bore Immanuel’s name. “All-wise, All-good Almighty Lord”The eternal God from heaven came down, The King of glory dropped his crown, and veiled his majesty; Emptied of all but love he came. Jesus I call thee by thy Holy name.“O Thou Who Hast Redeemed from Old”Love, only Love, thy heart inclined, and brought thy savior of mankind down from thy throne above… Although not a Christmas Hymn we find a beautiful reference to Phil 2:7 in the powerful “And Can It Be” #363 in our UMHHe left His Fathers throne above (so free, so infinite, his grace) Emptied himself of all but love, and bleed for Adam’s helpless race.We close with a reading from the Gospel of John“In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. Jesus Christ our Lord.”Prayer: Loving Jesus, you became obedient to death on a cross for all lost sinners. You grace sustains us and empowers us to be your disciples. Amen.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, a daily devotion. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. During the Tuesdays in Advent I’ll be making use of an Advent devotion written by Rev Anna Catherine Gillozet, a United Methodist pastor in Ohio. Today’s passage is Isaiah 11:6-9
From Linwood:Christmas is approaching. Yesterday, we had our 2nd service in the season of Advent. We are still singing songs about the coming birth. The choir sang an arrangement I wrote of Prepare The Way o the Lord, which is sort o our theme song for this Advent season, along with Lo How A Rose E’re Blooms. This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns, although we dont’ sing it very often. The time signature can be a little difficult to follow but the lyrics are quite moving.“Lo how a rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung.Jesse’s lineage coming as those of old have sung.It came, a flower yet bright.Amid the cold of winterWhen half spent was the night.O flower whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the airDispel in glorious splendor the darkness eveywhereTrue man yet very GodFrom sin and death now save usAnd share our every load."
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for December 4, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is the second Sunday in the season of Advent, our season to prepare the way of the Lord. We’ll be recording the Advent worship services here in the sanctuary throughout Advent, so that you can see how the sanctuary looks this happy season. Today is communion Sunday, and you are welcome to participate later in the service. You’ll need a cup of grape juice and a bit of bread, enough for your household.It's the tradition of Peakland and many churches to light candles during advent. As we light the candles, we remember that in the darkness, a light shines and grows in strength. Christ is that light, and we pray his light will grow stronger in us this season.
Grace and peace to you and welcome to Trusting God at all Times Kids Edition. This devotion is created for children of all ages. I’m Rev. Joe, and I’m the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. All are welcomeIn our time together now we’re going to do three things. Hold up three fingers. We’re going to sing our song with our mouths. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions to pray and talk to God.. Let’s begin with our song, He’s got the whole world in his hands.
Good morning, welcome to the season of Advent and another Wesley Wednesday with Linda and David DrinkardMany of you are aware of these age-old debates; when is appropriate to put up your Christmas decorations and should we be singing Christmas Carols during the Season of Advent. What makes this even more difficult, is that the season of Advent is not just about the coming birth of Jesus, but the second coming of Christ in final victory at the end of time.Each week during the season of Advent, Linda and I will share verses from a few of Charles Wesley’s hymns for the Advent and Christmas seasons.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, a daily devotion. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. During this season of Advent, Peakland people are reading this book: Prepare the Way for the Lord, an advent study focusing on John the Baptist. This book is written by Rev. Adam Hamilton. We’ll discuss a chapter of this book each week in small groups here at Peakland and referencing this book in the sermons on Sunday morning worship. I’m eager to share some of my insights with you, so that’s what I’ll do online each week on Thursdays in Advent.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, a daily devotion. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. We in the church are now in the blessed season of Advent. Peakland’s new blue banners are up in the sanctuary. We have wreaths with blue ribbons hanging outside on the church doors. Blue is a new Advent color for Peakland. We’ve not ever done that before. Doing new things is often a challenge for churches and for people. Why don’t we keep doing things the way we’ve always done them? We’ve never done it that way before. We’ve always done it this way. I hear that a lot from church folks and I hear myself saying that too.
From Linwood:According to the official United methodist Church Calendar, yesterday, November 27 2022 was the first Sunday of Advent - that’s Christmas friends. That means I can play Christmas Music, even though it’s still November.
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for November 27, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is the first Sunday in the season of Advent, our season to prepare the way of the Lord. We’ll be recording the Advent worship services here in the sanctuary throughout Advent, so that you can see how the sanctuary looks this happy season. It's the tradition of Peakland and many churches to light candles during advent. As we light the candles we remember that in the darkness, a light shines and grows in strength. Christ is that light, and we pray this light will grow stronger in us this season.
Grace and peace to you, and welcome to Trusting God at all times, Thanksgiving Day edition. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church here in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. I’m recording this about 10 days before Thanksgiving and if all goes according to plan, I’ll be with most of my family in Indiana. We can’t all gather around the same table on Thanksgiving Day but we are together in Spirit.
Good morning, welcome to another Wesley Wednesday with Pastor Dave! I’m proud to be a United Methodist. In today’s devotion I will provide a quick summary of several of the doctrinal standards within the Confession of Faith, from the Evangelical United Brethren Church. These are found in the 2016 Book of discipline of the United Methodist Church. Please go the Peakland UMC Website for a link to the Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith documents.
From Andrew" It's coming, it's coming! Black Friday is coming! We are'nt forgetting anything right?
It’s the week of Thanksgiving. And this week, my wife, Tricia, and I are visiting our daughter Katie in LA - yep Los Angeles! We’re here for a few days and then will be back for church on Sunday. This is our first time visiting LA, so lots to see.
I’m so very thankful for my family, my church and all of my friends. I am blessed way more than I deserve, and I am vey grateful.
Since it’s a time of Thanksgiving, I sat down at the piano and decided to play some songs of Thanksgiving.
Grace and peace to you and welcome to Trusting God at all Times Kids Edition. This devotion is created for children of all ages. I’m Rev. Joe, and I’m the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. All are welcome In our time together now we’re going to do three things. Hold up three fingers. We’re going to sing our song with our mouths. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions to pray and talk to God.. Let’s begin with our song, He’s got the whole world in his hands.
From Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for November 20, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is the Sunday before our National Day of Thanksgiving and so our scripture passage this morning is Psalm 126 a Psalm of Thanksgiving and our first prayer together this morning is a prayer of Thanksgiving.
To sign up for the Advent Study, visit our website: peaklandumc.org/home
From Linwood: Good Thursday Morning, or whatever time it may be where you are. A week from today will be Thanksgiving Day. It seems like just yesterday we were enjoying Labor Day weekend, and the day before that we were at the beach in the early summer. So where did this year go? I think a lot of us ask that question every year along about this time. So, this year Thanksgiving will be very different for my wife, Tricia, and I. Since our children have grown and gone, we seldom have had them here for Thanksgiving.
Welcome to another Wesley Wednesday with Pastor Dave! I’m proud to be a United Methodist. The 2016 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church includes an important section on the doctrines of our denomination. Within this section we find the “Twenty-nine Articles of Religion” dating back to the beginning of the Methodist Church and The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church . When the Evangelical United Brethren Church joined with the Methodist in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church the doctrinal statement of both denominations were included in the Book of Discipline.
From Pastor Joe: When it comes to church life and the things we do at Peakland, what are we most passionate about?
When it comes to our church, what are our hopes and dreams for Peakland?
What are the greatest needs in our community that Peakland might meet?
Over the past six, weeks, we at Peakland have been asking and discussing those questions. We’ve met with community leaders and church leaders, and church member in person and online. Folks have sent me emails and chatted with me one on one.
We’ve had a wealth of responses.
Now it’s time to put it all together.
We’ll do that together as a church community on Peakland Vision Day, which is Saturday, November 19 here at the church beginning at 9:00 a.m. Rev. Jason Stanley, a former staff member here at Peakland, will lead our time together on Vision Day, which is Saturday, November 19 here at the church beginning at 9:00 a.m.
From Linwood:
There are tons of Praise and Worship songs our today - tons! From every style and every genre. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I like a little groove with my Praise and Worship - maybe you do to!
Here’s You’re Worthy of My Praise - an older P&W song, but one that has a great message - and with a groove!
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for November 13, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. The day after Halloween last week, I saw that the stores had pulled down the costumes and Halloween decorations and were already putting out the Christmas and winter decorations. I don’t have a problem with that at all. I enjoy the Advent and Christmas seasons with the music and lights and the reminder that God’s love is born in Jesus Christ. In our scripture passage from Isaiah today, the prophet reminds us of God’s love even when life is hard and tedious and messy.
To sign up for an Advent small group, copy and paste this web address into your browser window : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4syOiAJD3QPMdTPQe_yQ8DcRhHU2LnOAD4pQEsihbfVRVHQ/viewform
Grace and peace to you and welcome to Trusting God at all Times Kids Edition. This devotion is created for children of all ages. I’m Rev. Joe, and I’m the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. All are welcome In our time together now we’re going to do three things. Hold up three fingers. We’re going to sing our song with our mouths. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions to pray and talk to God.. Let’s begin with our song, He’s got the whole world in his hands.
Andrew shares how a simple gift made all the difference to his day.... and you guessed it: he connected it to the kingdom of heaven.
From Pastor Joe:
For today’s devotion I’m using This Day, A Wesleyan Way of Prayer. We begin with our opening prayer: Let’s lift up this prayer together:
From Pastor Dave: The following information comes from “The 2016 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church” In December of 1784 the famous Christmas Conference of Methodist Preachers was held in Baltimore at Lovely Lane Chapel. At this gathering the Methodist movement in America was organized becoming the Methodist Episcopal Church. The newly formed denomination published its first Book of Discipline in 1785, held its first General Conference in 1792 and drafted a Constitution in 1808.
From Pastor Joe:
For the past month, we at Peakland have been asking ourselves some questions.
When it comes to church life and the things we do at Peakland, what are you most passionate about?
What are your hopes for Peakland’s future?
From Linwood:
A number of years ago, my son moved to Nashville to play bass guitar. Without a lot of prospects upon arriving, he was quite successful in his endeavors to be a studio musician and travel around the country touring with a number of artists.
And he made a lot of friends. Over the course of a few months, Matt got some of his friends together to help me with an album I wanted to record. I’m very grateful for their help.
Here’s the title cut from that CD that came out of the collaboration with my son Matt, and his friends - Sing To The King.
From Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. It's All Saints Sunday, and Communion. You are invited to participate.
It's also Stewardship Time for our church. It you would like to pledge an amount to give to Peakland UMC, follow this link: https://6i6z2hq7g7g.typeform.com/to/CV1nLjbG
Thanks!
From Pastor Joe:
In our time together now we’re going to do three things. Hold up three fingers. We’re going to sing our song with our mouths. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions to pray and talk to God.. Let’s begin with our song, He’s got the whole world in his hands. Can you sing along with me?
Andrew reflects on the season of Allhallowtide and why it means so much to him. He reflects on the original traditions and the ways that he experiences them today, hundreds of years later.
From Pastor Dave:
Over the past few weeks I have been sharing some of the foundational beliefs of the United Methodist Church. I have referenced the Twenty-five Articles of Religion which John Wesley described as the doctrinal standards for the people called Methodist. In addition, the Constitution of the United Methodist Church states that the Articles of Religion shall not be revoked, altered, or changed. Note: These Articles were first composed by the Church of England which wanted to distinguish itself from the Roman Catholic Church. Today, I will present Articles 20-25, so let’s begin.
All Saints Day is approaching. This is the day that the church honors the lives of those folks who have died. Some saints have their own special day: St. Patrick who shared the Christian faith in Ireland has March 17. Saint Valentine’s Day, February 14 actually does honor a real person or possibly a couple of people both named Valentine for his or their Christian work. St Nicholas Day is not Christmas but Tuesday, December 6.
All Saints Day is for us to honor all of the believers who have died.
I am remembering an important saint in my life: Rev. Dr. Kirk Mariner, who was the senior pastor of Mount Olivet in the 1980s and 1990s. I was a seminary intern for two years at Mount Olivet and worked with Kirk there. In 1997, he was appointed to be the pastor of Williamsburg United Methodist Church and I was appointed with him as the associate pastor of the church. We worked together for five years at Williamsburg.
From Linwood:
A few weeks back I shared my arrangement with you of Goodbye World Goodbye. A lot of you enjoyed it, and now I have the updated version with my friend Lynn Nash adding his flugelhorn. And of course I have tweaked it a little bit, so here’s the final version of the song. It starts slow but takes off in the middle! Creating this arrangement was not something I wanted to do, given the circumstances, but I will say, Lynn and I have had a lot of fun in the process
Here’s our take on Goodbye World, Goodbye!
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship for October 30, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today’s Gospel passage from Luke also features a tree, a tall sycamore tree. A small man named Zacchaeus climbs the tree to see Jesus. Zacchaeus sees Jesus and Jesus sees him and Jesus offers Zacchaeus, peace, harmony and forgiveness for his sins. Jesus offers us that to all of us as well. peaklandpastor@gmail.com
From Pastor Joe:
In our time together now we’re going to do three things. Hold up three fingers. We’re going to sing our song with our mouths. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions to pray and talk to God.. Let’s begin with our song, He’s got the whole world in his hands.
Andrew shares a story of someone who had a major impact on his life and faith. His name was Nader, and he was muslim, yet his faith and the way he lived his life made Andrew rethink what it meant to care for others.
From Pastor Dave:
For those familiar with John Wesley you know that he placed great emphasis on what he called “the means of grace”. Among these ordinary means by which God conveyed His love and grace to believers were prayer, reading, hearing, and meditating on the scriptures, participating in worship and receiving the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. Of the Twenty-five Articles of Religion which are our Doctrinal Standards of Theology and Faith, four specifically address the Sacraments of Baptism and The Lord’s Supper. They are:
16 Of the Sacraments in general
17 Of Baptism
18 Of the Lords Supper
19 Of Both the Bread and the Cup
Signifying their importance is that the combination of these four Articles are longer than any other subject. I will highlight the key points. . . . .
From Pastor Joe:
For today’s devotion I’m using This Day, A Wesleyan Way of Prayer, created by Rev Larry Stookey, a United Methodist pastor and worship professor at Wesley Theological seminary. This is the prayer book that I have used for years. Each day offers a blend of scriptures and guided prayers.
For the next few weeks. Our church is in a stewardship campaign. And it’s not all about money. We are also talking about our stewardship of time, and how we use it to serve others, particularly those who really need help.
Yesterday in our services here at the church, John Buckley, one of our members who is part of our Methodist Mens group spoke about our involvement and support of Parkview Mission. And I had the opportunity to record him for our online service that aired yesterday, and is still online btw.
John is very committed to Parkview, and it was quite evident in his thoughts he shared. While I was editing, the song He Knows My Name came to me. It was, I believe, a reminder from God that regardless of who we are or where we are, He knows our names - he sees us when each tear falls. He knows because we are his children.
from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. peaklandumc.org.
From Pastor Joe: Which is more important: our words or our deeds? Which is more important to us, and which is more important to God, what we say or what we do? In just a moment we’ll hear Jesus’ words on the topic as he shares with us the parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee.
From Pastor Joe:
In our time together now we’re going to do three things. Hold up three fingers. We’re going to sing our song with our mouths. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions to pray and talk to God.. Let’s begin with our song, He’s got the whole world in his hands. Can you sing along with me?
Andrew shares a story of how one 2 year old remembers all the words of Jesus Loves Me, and how important little moments are.
From Pastor Joe:
Serving Fellowshipping Music Good Worship.
Those are some of the responses that I’ve heard when I asked Peakland church leaders this question:, When it comes to church life and the things we do at Peakland, what is it you are most passionate about: I’m taking all the responses and putting them on a bulletin board in the church hallway so that we can share with each other what we are most passionate about here at our church.
From Pastor Dave:
Today I begin by saying that I am proud to be a United Methodist. I am committed to our beliefs, doctrines, and practice of ministry. I have no desire whatsoever to consider leaving the denomination I love and have been privileged to serve since 1978. Over the past few weeks I have shared some of the basic Christian beliefs which are the foundation of the United Methodist Church. Part three of the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church contains the Doctrinal Standards and our Theological Task. This along with the section entitled “A Brief History of the United Methodist Church” are central in understanding who we are as United Methodist. In my opinion these 100 pages should be required reading for each of us.
From Pastor Joe: For today’s devotion I’m again using This Day, A Wesleyan Way of Prayer, created by Rev Larry Stookey, a United Methodist pastor and worship professor at Wesley Theological seminary. This is the prayer book that I use most days for my morning devotion.
We have a blend of scriptures and guided prayers.
From Linwood:
This has been the season for Memorial Services and Funerals. You may remember last week I played Goodbye World, Goodbye for you as a tribute to Bill Nash. This week, is another tribute, but this time by the daughter of one of our members who has claimed the promise. Hill McDaniel was a longtime member of Peakland and we celebrated his life this past Friday, here at the church. The music was quite different, though. Hill’s daughter, Mary Margaret has a lovely voice, and we all knew Hill would have loved to have her sing at his service. We knew that just would to be possible, so I brought her into our studio and recorded her singing The Lord’s Prayer, which we played at his service. I felt like this would be yet another fitting song for our Music Monday’s.
Pastor Jor Cailles - peaklandpastor@gmail.com Rev. Andrew LaBar-Dietz - peaklandassociate@gmail.com Linwood Campbell - peaklandmusic@gmail.com peaklandumc.org
From Pastor Joe:
Let’s listen to our story from the Bible which was adapted by Ella K. Lindvall. How God Made the world from the first book in the Bible Gensis.. In the story God creates everything and says That’s Good! Can you say That’s Good with me?
Andrew's been reflecting on communion and what it means to him. He's also been eating a lot of bread that Pastor Joe's been baking. It shouldn't be surprising he's somehow found a connection between them...
From Pastor Joe:
This past Sunday was the birthday of my wonderful wife Kim. She and I and our sons had lunch together after church. We had cake, and birthday cards from her friends and family. There were presents for her and I sang Happy birthday to her badly.
It was a happy celebration, and I’m so grateful to God for the past year that we’ve had together.
How does your family celebrate birthdays? Are there parties and presents? Some folks downplay birthdays particularly as they get older. Each of us celebrates birthdays in our ways.
From Pastor Dave: The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church includes a section on the Doctrinal Standards for the people called Methodist. It is here we find the Twenty-Five Articles of Religion . Please note that the Constitution of The United Methodist includes the following Restrictive Rule: The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change our Articles of Religion or establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrines.
From Pastor Joe:
For today’s devotion I’m again using This Day, A Wesleyan Way of Prayer, created by Rev Larry Stookey, a United Methodist pastor and worship professor at Wesley Theological seminary. This is the prayer book that I use most days for my morning devotion.
From Linwood:
Goodbye World, Goodbye is one of those southern gospel tunes that just makes you want to smile and tap your foot.
Last week my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash, well, he’s actual a childhood friend - his father passed. As our former pastor John Vest would put it, he claimed the promise of the ressurection . I was asked to play for the funeral service, of which I was honored to do so. The only song they wanted played was Good bye World, goodbye. Lynn’s father, Bill, had heard the song somewhere and had leaned over to his wife and said I want they song done at my funeral.
Ok, so I was trying to figure out how you play that very uptempo song at a funeral service and try to retain some of the funnest of the song without being disrespect able - you know it’s a funeral service and everybody knows you have to tone everything down. It would appear not! When I expressed my concern over how to try and accomplish a respectable version, both the pastor and Mr. Nash’s wife said, just turn it loose.
I started and restarted this arrangement a half dozen times it seems like. I have gotten it to the point that I’m happy with it and what you heard was pretty close to what I played at the service. I have been tweaking it some and will continue to do so as Lynn has expressed an interest in adding a Flugelhorn part to the song. Of course he can - it was his dad this arrangement was created for and it would be only fitting to have it play.
Bill Nash was a quiet man. But when he cleared his throat to speak, everyone got quiet cause Bill always had something very good to share. It usually summed up everything that needed, or should have been said. You could count on him for that. For a quiet man, we raise this un-quiet song of tribute.
The Man who helped from the Gospel of Luke. In the story a person gets hurt. Who will help him?
What do we do when life is not what we expected or particularly wanted? Is there a word from the Lord when life is challenging and not going the way it ought to go. There is indeed and we’ll hear that word from the Prophet Jeremiah and from Jesus in just a moment.
Andrew reflects on an experience with a preschooler and how it relates to the ways we gather together in worship.
From Pastor Joe:
One of the first questions that I received when I arrived at Peakland was What’s my vision for Peakland. What do I think Peakland should do and be? It’s an important question, a critical question for a church to know where we’re headed. But it’s not my role to impose my vision for what Peakland could be.
I believe Christ has a vision for Peakland. I believe Christ has a path for Peakland to take and discerning what Christ would have Peakland be and do is the work of all us Peakland.
From Pastor Dave:
This week, I continue to focus on some of our major beliefs as United Methodist. The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, known for its rules and procedures is also an excellent resource for learning about the history and doctrine of the denomination. I encourage you to borrow a copy from your church library and read the first 100 pages. These pages are the resource for my devotion.
From Pastor Joe:
For today’s devotion I’m using This Day, A Wesleyan Way of Prayer, created by Larry Stookey, who was my worship professor at Wesley Theological Seminary. This is the prayer book that I use most days in my morning devotion once I arrive at the church.
It’s a combination of scriptures and guided prayers which I’ve adapted to share with you today.
From Pastor Joe:
All are welcome to this worship and all are welcome for our online communion today. This Sunday at Peakland is World Communion Sunday and along with Christians around the world today, we are celebrating communion in person and today we expand the table to include you worshipping online. Welcome. Whether or not you are a member of Peakland church or any church, whatever age you are, you are welcome for worship and for communion. Adults, children, youth all are welcome to receive this sacrament.. If you seek to follow God more closely, if you seek to live in right relationship with your neighbor, then you are welcome to celebrate communion today. We’ll do that after the sermon. You’ll need a bit of bread and a cup of grape juice to participate.
Let’s begin our worship together with these words, an invitation to the Table:. I’ll read the regular print, and you can join in with the bold print.
From Pastor Joe:
Let’s listen to our story from the Bible which was adapted by Ella K. Lindvall. The Boy who shared his lunch from the Gospel of John. In the story a young child shares food with Jesus so Jesus can share the food with others.
From Pastor Joe:
This Sunday, September 4th, Peakland is going to do a new thing in our online worship. We are going to have online communion. If you are worshipping online on Sunday morning September 4th, then you are welcome to celebrate communion with us who are having communion together in person at Peakland.
While we gather around the physical communion table at the church, you’ll join us where you are.
You’ll need two things to participate: a single cup of grape juice and some bread or crackers. It doesn’t have to be a fancy cup or special bread. I’ve got my very favorite mug and some ordinary sandwich bread. That’s all you need.
Andrew reflects on handbell techniques and what we can learn about God from the hum of a bell.
From Pastor Joe:
This past Sunday at Peakland After Dark, I had our youth build bridges. We made our first set of bridges with Lego blocks. The youth were very creative with their Lego bridges. We talked about different types of bridges….bridges that help us cross rivers and canyons and bridges that help us cross the divides between people. We United Methodists are always looking for ways that we can bridge the divide between people who can help and people who need help.
You can make an online donation to the cleaning kits by isiting our website (peaklandumc.org). https://www.peaklandumc.org and clicking on the Give Online Button at the top. (secure transaction)
From Pastor Dave:
Over the next few weeks, I will share some of our basic beliefs as United Methodist. My source is the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church: Part III Doctrinal Standards.
From Pastor Joe:
Peakland United Methodist….why do we call ourselves United Methodists? Are there disjointed Methodists? What makes us so methodical?
If you’re new to Methodism or even if you’ve been a United Methodist for a while, you may have questions about Methodism. Who is this John Wesley person that we Methodists talk about? Methodists talk a lot about conferences. Is a Methodist conference an event or an organization?
From Linwood:
For our Horizons Service, and a lot of times for our online services I use moving backgrounds for the lyrics to the songs we are singing. Most of them I have filmed in various places around our neck of the woods, as the old saying goes. On occasion I get some help from some friends who might be on vacation or just out and about. One of my ham radio buddies, Olen Persons, sent me some short film clips he shot while on a camping trip out west with his wife. The video and pictures were awe inspiring - God’s creation in all it’s glory And what better song to put with Olen’s videos than the song Happy Day!
From Pastor Joe:
Let’s listen to our story from the Bible which was adapted by Ella K. Lindvall. The Boy Who Went Away from the Gospel of Luke. In the story the parent loves the child always. IN our lives, God loves us and call us all children. God loves us. God loves you.
From Pastor Joe:
In my office I have this framed quote “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.” John Wesley. Many folks call this John Wesley’s rule of life.
From Pastor Dave:
Like has many of you, Linda and I have watched the Services of Remembrance for Queen Elizabeth II. I especially liked the service from St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh Scotland. We were surprised and trilled to hear an anthem composed by the grandson of Charles Wesley.
From Pastor Joe:
Avoid Harm. Do Good. Follow Christ.
In 1743 as Methodism in England was expanding, John Wesley, who established the Methodist movement wrote three general rules for the Methodist people to follow.
Avoid Harm. Do Good. Follow Christ.
From Linwood:
Once again the boys are at it. My friend and fellow collaborator Lynn Nash and I team up to do a groove version of the old hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. This is definitely not the version you would hear in grandma’s church.
From Pastor joe:
Grace and peace to you, today is September 18, 2022. Welcome to Sunday morning worship. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia.
All are welcome to this worship and into the life of our church community. Andrew will be on screen in just a moment to share with you the ministries that are happening here at Peakland and all are welcome to join in our ministries. If you’d like to know more about Peakland and the ministries here and how you can serve Christ here, reach out to me.
From Pastor Joe:
In our devotion today we’re going to do three things. Can you hold up three fingers? We’re going to sing our song with our mouths and use our fingers. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions.
Andrew reflects on his good friend Juan, and the people who have been with him throughout his life.
From Pastor Joe:
Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain died during the first full week of September. She was 96 years old and had reigned for just over 70 years.
I don’t really know anything about the Queen. I’ve seen several depictions of her in movies and TV. Helen Mirren played the Queen in the movie The Queen which covered the days right after the death of Princess Diana Clair Foy and Olivia Coleman each played Queen Elizabeth in the Netflix series the Crown,
From Pastor Dave:
Like many of you, Linda and I are watching with great interest the celebrations going on in the UK regarding the life of Queen Elizabeth and the beginning of King Charles II reign. This morning I share a devotion I first recorded more than a year ago. The focus is on Samuel and Susanna Wesley and prayers for the King.
From Pastor Joe:
I’m learning more and more about the wonderful ministries that Peakland offers. We are a church that worships our One Trinity God, nurtures our Christian faith and reaches out with love and compassion to each other and to our neighbors.
One of the ways that we offer care and compassion to each other is with quilts like these. Made by hand by our church members, these lap quilts are offered to folks who are sick, who are grieving, and those who are struggling.
These quilts have been blessed and prayed over by our church folks and they are a visible, tangible reminder of our love for each other, and for God’s love for each of us.
These quilts embody everything that is blessed about the church.
From Linwood:
It’s Friday morning. Well. It’s Monday morning, or possibly later for you, but I’m recording this on a Friday morning. AS I was drinking coffee this morning with my wife I mentioned that I needed to record a Music Monday today, but really didn’t have any idea as to what I might do. I mentioned that I felt like it might be a hymn, or hymn medley today. Without much hesitation, Tricia said You know How Deep The Father’s Love For Us? You could pair it with In Christ Alone. Thanks my love. Here’s my musical thoughts on on those two pieces that I call God’s Love.
from Peakland United Methodist Church In Lynchburg, Va.
From Pastor Joe: In our Gospel passage this morning, Jesus tells two stories about lost items, a lost sheep and a lost coin. As Jesus tells the story, imagine which character you are in the story. Are you the shepherd or the woman looking for something that is missing in your life? Are you feeling like a lost lamb yourself? Are you the good sheep that stayed where you were supposed to stay? We’ll consider that in just a moment.
From Pastor Joe:
Let’s listen to our story from the Bible which was adapted by Ella K. Lindvall. The Man who said thank you from the Gospel of Luke.
Andrew reflects on the part of worship he enjoys most, and how it inspires him to do more in his own life.
From Pastor Joe:
I’m here in our church library which is right next to the pastor’s office here at the church. I’ve been near libraries most all of my life. One of the first things I do when I move to a new town is to get my library card. My first library card was at the New Albany Floyd County Public library in Indiana where I grew up. My first job was at the New Albany Floyd County Public library, and I worked there throughout high school.
I worked at the libraries of Indiana University and Wesley Seminary, and when I lived in Lexington, I was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockbridge Regional Library. One of the happiest days of my life was then they gave me the passcode to go into the library whenever I wanted.
Peakland has one of the finest most well-organized church libraries I’ve seen. What a blessing this place is.
From Pastor Dave:
This morning I share two poems by Charles Wesley simply titled “Morning Hymns”. You will find many such hymns in his collections some for the morning and others for the evening. They reflect the fact that both John and Charles were committed to daily prayers. I will close with a birthday Poem.
from Linwood:
. . . . . so through all this I have come back to the realization that having your own thriving relationship with God is the really important thing to focus on. WE are not called to sit in judgment over anybody - that’s God’s job - not ours. Nor is it our calling to criticize others in their interoperation of God’s word. There are a litany of things that are “wrong” according to certain interpretations, that have no Biblical basis whatsoever, but I suppose that’s a topic for another day.
So what’s the point here? That is to learn more about God, develop a stronger relationship with him, share the good news ( plant some seeds in other’s lives) and then leave it up to God to water the seeds and provide the sunlight.
From Linwood:
Several weeks ago, I asked one of our members if he would lead us in worship one Sunday morning with a song. He asked if I would accompany him on the piano as he sang and played his guitar. Well, the response was quite overwhelming. I’m not sure everyone in the room had any idea that he could sing and play, much less with such inspiration.
A few days ago, I asked him to come in so we could record the song, just for the fun of it for him as he had never done any recording before, and for me to use on this Music Monday, Labor Day 2022.
Here is my friend, Mike Petrikonis - 10000 Reasons.
From Pastor Joe:
In our devotion today we’re going to do three things. Can you hold up three fingers? We’re going to sing our song with our mouths and use our fingers. We’re going to listen to a story from the Bible with our ears, and we’re going to pray the action prayer with using our words and our actions.
from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Sunday morning worship September 4, 2022.
All are welcome to this worship and all are welcome for our online communion today. This Sunday at Peakland we are celebrating communion in person and today we expand the table to include you. Welcome. Whether or not you are a member of Peakland church or any church, whatever age you are, you are welcome. Adults, children, youth all are welcome. If you seek to follow God more closely, if you seek to live in right relationship with your neighbor, then you are welcome to celebrate communion today. We’ll do that after the sermon. You’ll need a bit of bread and a cup of grape juice to participate.
From Pastor Joe:
Two months ago on one of my very first Trusting God devotions, I shared with you that I was running in the mornings. I’ve been using an app the 5k runner to help me eventually to run 5 kilometer or just over 3 miles.
I have an update for you.
From Pastor Dave:
his summer my devotions have featured Charles Wesley the poet. It has been noted that Charles wrote around 9,000 poems containing nearly 180,000 lines. Yes, some of these became hymns but the vast majority were never put to music or meant to be sung. Charles Wesley understandably is recognized as one of the great hymnists, but seldom is he included among the great English poets. Frank Baker, Professor of English Church History at Duke Divinity School is quick to point out the gifts and skills of Wesley, and the eloquence of his poetry. He cites that the vast volume of Charles work means that he on occasion pens only average verses .For example Charles might pen as many as thirty verses for a hymn or poem which John would edit down to four to six verses to be published. Baker notes the many times where Charles displays sheer inspiration, as in the case of “Father of Everlasting Grace”
Andrew reflects on how something unfortunate led to a connection and moment of joy he never saw coming.
From Linwood:
The other day I was looking for one thing and found another haha. I know you know how that works! I found an arrangement I had done of It is Well, with just piano. But I also stumbled across another folder in my music folder on my Mac, also labeled It is Well.
From Pastor Joe:
We’re going to do something radically different in just a moment, something we’ve never done while I’ve been pastor here. Some of you are not going to like it. I know this, but we’re doing it anyway.
From Pastor Joe:
Grace and peace to you and welcome to Trusting God at all Times Kids Edition. This devotion is created for children of all ages. I’m Rev. Joe, and I’m the pastor at Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. All are welcome Let’s begin with our song….this little light of mine. We imagine our finger is a little light, a warm light and a friendly light. In the Bible Jesus tells us to let our light shine, so Let’s move our bodies and sing together.
Andrew reflects on one of the things he has observed of Pastor Joe's prayers, and the invitation that is offred through silence.
From Pastor Joe:
In my first sermon to you all I acknowledged the challenges that come for the church community when a new pastor arrives. What if the pastor changes things? What if the pastor doesn’t change things? Fear not folks, I’m going to do both. I’m going to change some things and keep some things exactly the same.
From Pastor Dave:
I continue to scan through poems written by Charles Wesley on select passages of Holy Scripture. Often, I will be sitting in my favorite chair, with one hear on the TV and my eyes scrolling through hundreds of hymns and poems searching for just the right selections for a Wesley Wednesday devotion. A verse of scripture will catch my attention and I will quickly give focus to see how Charles will expound it’s meaning. Such was the case for the poems I share this week. They each are from the final words of Jesus from the Cross.
Andrew shares a story from his time in undergrad and a made up word that created conflict in the congregation.
From Linwood:
There is a wide variety of music at Peakland UMC. Everything from classical piano or organ along with hymn arrangements. And then there is the more contemporary flavor of our music.
For me, the variety is a wonderful opportunity to express our praise and worship, regardless of what that may be. And this week, we turn towards the upbeat side of praise.
The setting is a small lake not too far away from the church. The song - Everlasting God. Here we go!
Grace and peace to you, welcome to Peakland United Methodist Church Sunday morning worship for August 21, 2022. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor here. All are welcome.
In this story from the Gospel of Luke, we will hear how Jesus heals a woman who had been crippled for 18 years. Luke writes that she was bent over and quite unable to stand up straight. This passage is special for me because this was the passage for my very first sermon, which I preached in August 1995 at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia where I served as a seminary intern. I’m not using the same sermon today that I used then, but the lesson of this story remains the same. Jesus offers us healing and liberation from sin so that in his name and with his Spirit guiding us we can offer healing and hope to the world around us.
From Pastor Joe:
Boys and girls these are my reading glasses. I use them to read books when the print is too small. I also where contact lenses to help me see clearly. Lots of people need help seeing. In today’s Bible story, we’ll meet a man named Bartimaeus and he needs help seeing as well.
From Pastor Joe:
This past week I finally hung all of my pictures in my office here at the church. That’s not the most important thing I’ve done since I’ve arrived at Peakland, but my pictures on the walls of my office help me feel more at home.
One of the pictures I have on my wall is this version of the Serenity prayer. A clergy colleague gave it to me 20 years ago as I was starting at a new church. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I cannot and wisdom to know the difference.
From Pastor Dave: There was a period of time in the life of Charles Wesley , where he devoted himself to reading and studying the Holy Scriptures with a deeper intensity. He did so as an act of spiritual discipline in order to grow closer to God. As his read and reflected prayerfully on these sacred words; he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
From Pastor Joe: Last week Peakland hosted Vacation Bible school. We had three sessions in the evenings and then a session Sunday morning at the 9:45 worship. As part of the Sunday worship service, we had printed on the bulletin a picture of a cross made up of a variety of words, some positive like Kindness, justice, light, and shine. and some negative words like Bitter, hateful, fear and abuse. Folks were then to block out the negative words with a pencil leaving the positive words to shine forth.
From Linwood: I found myself humming the hymn Jesus Is All The World To Me. I had been thinking about what to record for today’s devotional and that hymn floated to the surface. It’s been a quiet morning and so peace drifted to my soul. This medley recognizes that inner peace. The songs are Jesus Is All The World To Me, My Jesus I Love Thee, Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus and then returning to Jesus Is All The World To Me.
From Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
From Pastor Joe:
Friends, fair warning here. In our Gospel passage this morning Jesus sounds like he’s facing the day without his morning coffee. Our Prince of Peace sounds angry and frustrated with the world around him as he talks about division and our inability to interpret the present time. In the sermon we’ll look at how we today interpret Jesus words and discover the challenge he has for us to live in unity when we are feeling divided.
I’m sitting here at the church and each Sunday all sorts of folks gather here in this room to worship God and to listen to the words of Jesus. All sorts of people come here to worship. Mommies, Daddies, grandparents, friends, older people, younger people tall people and small people. In today’s Bible story we’ll hear about a man named Zacchaeus who was too little to see Jesus.
From Pastor Joe: Last week, I started answering some questions about myself and asked you to send me your questions. I’ve got two today. 1. What is your favorite thing to cook, not necessarily eat but to cook. 2. I was asked What is my feeling/position on marriage between members of the LGBTQ community?
From Pastor Dave: Over the past few weeks, I have been reading some of Charles Wesley’s Hymns and Poems on select passages of Holy Scripture. The collection includes over 2,300 short poems which were first published in 1762, and hundred’s more published either in Hymns and Sacred Poems or only discovered after Charles’ death. . .
From Pastor Joe: This past week, Peakland hosted Vacation Bible School: The Knights of North Castle. Our banner verse for the week was Be Strong in the Lord, in the strength of God’s power which comes from Ephesians 6, verse 10.
From Linwood: If you watch our online Sunday service, you will recognize this arrangement of both of the Doxologies we use in our church services as part of our response to how we have been blessed by giving our offerings.
The words are magnificent and the organ is the only single instrument I can think of that can adequately express the wonder and power of these two Doxologies. They are both titled “Praise God To Whom All Blessings Flow, but set to different melodies and with some different wordings. Please allow me toe read these to you before I play my arrangement.
. . . from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. What makes you afraid? What fills you with fear? Climate change, economic instability, someone somewhere doing something you don’t approve of? Does that make you afraid? Well fear not, Jesus has some words for us, lifesaving, life changing words for us in our scripture today.
From Pastor Joe: I have a story that I want to read to you. It’s not a story in the Bible but it is one you may know. I read this story to my sons when they were very small. It’s called the Runaway bunny written by Margaret Wise Brown and pictures drawn by Clement Hurd. I want to read parts of it to you.
From Pastor Joe: This week I am answering questions about myself. If you have a question for me, email it to me, and I’ll answer as many as I can. Children, youth and adults all are welcome to ask. The church staff are starting us out. . .
Pasgtor Joe's email address: peaklandpastor@gmail.com
From Pastor Joe: Recently I asked the Peakland church staff what questions they had for me about me, so they could get to know me better and here were three of their questions: Here are their top three . . .
Here is Pastor Joe's email: peaklandpastor@gmail.com
From Pastor Dave: Linda and I attended worship at St. Matthew’s UMC in Goochland Virginia on Sunday. I served this congregation for 10 years and it was good to reconnect with some longtime friends. Pastor Mark Montgomery delivered an inspiration sermon; concluding a series on the Lord’s Prayer. During the service my mind wondered a bit of ways I could use his theme for a Wesley devotion. As soon as I returned home, I began my research on Charles Wesley’s reflections on the passages in Matthew and Luke’s gospels where Jesus instructs the disciples how to pray.
Andrew shares a few moments from this past Sunday where he got a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven in our families and children. Where will you see the kingdom today?
From Linwood: I don’t often record pieces I play on the organ, unless it’s what I call service music - you know, hymns, the doxology and things like that. Recently, though, I found an arrangement of an old hymn, at least I think it was a hymn, that I really liked so I decided to record it. I happened to have the video camera with me in the Sanctuary so decided to set it up. It’s a beautiful arrangement of I Have A Savior.
from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. Our message today is entitled: "Are You Saved?"
From Pastor Joe: Girls and boys welcome, a few days ago I was the Master Storyteller for vacation bible school here at Peakland. I told the stories of Jesus birth and when he walked on the water. I told the story of the Apostle Paul in the jail cell. Today, I want another vacation Bible school story from last week The story of 3 faithful people: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Andrew gets into the weeds of spiritual cultivation, as he ignores the real weeds in his garden...
From Pastor Joe: This past Sunday in worship, I described how the early church came to understand that Jesus is God. His disciples saw how he loved everyone, even those who hated him and even those everyone else hated. The disciples saw how Jesus always followed God’s will and helped everyone else draw closer to God. To see Jesus is to see God. We believe that God sends us Jesus and that Jesus is God.
From Pastor Joe: I have a reusable cup here that our church created in 2015 to celebrate a successful capital campaign project. As I understand it there were some expensive plumbing issues at the church that we needed to take care of and Peakland needed to raise some funds for it. The church raised the funds and solved the plumbing problem and then through itself a party to celebrate.
From Linwood: A week or so ago. I featured my son, Matt, along with my friend Lynn Nash on an arrangement we did of Jesus Saves. Today, I’m featuring my daughter-in-law, Bri. She has a lovely voice and a gentle spirit. She is Matt’s wife, and the mother of our grandson Jameson.
Bri has on occasion contributed to our daily devotionals with her wonderful insights to daily living series, entitled Stories of Life. But today, Bri sings for us - Grace Flows Down.
From Pastor Joe: This morning I am so pleased to welcome Rev. Dave Drinkard, who is the Director of Senior Adult Ministries here at Peakland. Dave will be delivering this morning’s message.
From Pastor Dave: My message this morning is about the conversion of the Apostle Paul.
From Pasotr Joe: Girls and boys welcome, last week I was sitting in the sanctuary which is one of my favorite rooms in the church. Today I am in the fellowship hall where we also worship and have church meals and church fun and this is also one of my favorite rooms in the church.
Andrew shares one of the ways he has reclaimed a spiritual discipline that he has always struggled with.
From Pastor Joe: There was a television episode I was watching a few years ago, when two adult siblings, brother and sister were arguing. Brother and Sister were both faithful people and they were so mad at each other. Sister ended the conversation saying to brother, “I’m going to pray for you, brother. I’m going to pray hard for you.”
Last week, NASA began revealing images from the James Webb Space Telescope. These photos are from their website which tells us, With crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity we now see emerging stellar nurseries and cosmic cliffs created by stellar dust that are 7 light years high. The James Webb Space telescope reveals Images of protostellar jets shooting out from young stars, and these images will help us better understand the process of star formation . . .
from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. Our new pastor is Rev. Joe Cailles.
Boys and girls and kids of all ages, welcome to Trusting in God at all times, kids’ edition. A devotion for our youngest people and their families. I’m Joe Cailles, the pastor here at Peakland United Methodist Church.
Girls and boys do you know what room I’m sitting in? Do you recognize this room?
Andrew got a hair cut, and now he has to do things a little differently. You better believe he turned it into a parable!
I shared with you in Tuesday’s devotion that I am using this book for my morning devotions. This Day, a Wesleyan Way of Prayer created by Larry Stookey, a United Methodist pastor and one of my professors at Wesley Seminary. Each devotion features scripture readings, prayers of the day, and a brief reflection that Professor Stookey wrote.
My summer devotions are focused on Charles Wesley’s hymns and poems on select passages on Holy Scripture. I have found the writing by ST Kimbrough, Oliver Beckerlegge and John R. Tyson of immense value in my research and understanding of Charles’ collection.
Each morning these days when I arrive at Peakland, I am using this book for my morning devotion. This Day, A Wesleyan Way of Prayer.
Every once in a while I get an idea to, as they say, jazz up an old hymn. So I enlisted my friend Lynn Nash to collaborate with me on this hymn, and I was inspired enough to dig out my trombone and add a few parts! And then, I thought, I’m going to ask my son, Matt, if he would be interested in adding to our arrangement. Matt, without question, is the finest musician I have ever worked with. I realize I’m his father but it’s the truth, and there you have it! So, Here’s our collaborative rendition of Jesus Saves!
from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA. Our new Pastor delivers his first sermon today!
From Pastor Joe: Last time I shared with you my experiences with running and exercise. Some seasons I’m active and working to stay fit. Other times, I get physically and spiritually flabby. I have a running app and a brand new YMCA app to help me with my physical fitness
From Pastor Joe: If you were awake and watching the roads near my home these past few days, you might have caught a glimpse of me running early in the morning by dawn’s early light. Since moving here, I’ve been running again. Running and walking........
I have long been inspired by the hymns of Charles Wesley. I quote them often in sermons and am inspired by them when used as daily devotions. In recent weeks I have spent considerable time reading and reflecting on Charles’ collection of over 2000 hymns poems on Select Passages of Holy Scripture”.
Grace and peace to you! I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the newest pastor here at Peakland. I’ve been watching these Trusting in God devotions for several weeks now and am delighted to share this time with you. I have a question to begin with. Where is my home? I know exactly where I live, but I don’t know the name of the neighborhood I live in. There seems to be a variety of opinions. My zip code ends in 1, but not 01, so I don’t live in the 01. My mailing address is Forest, but I live in Campbell County, and Forest is in Bedford County, right?
Some time back I had the opportunity to fly my drone near the huge American flag located at McBride Sign Company, just across the river overlooking downtown Lynchburg. I returned to church later that day and recorded a medley of songs I feel would be appropriate for this Music Monday.
Yesterday, that was Thursday the last day of June 2022, was Pastor John’s last Trusting God At All Times daily devotional. When we started this devotional series way back at the beginning of the Pandemic, none of us had any idea that we would be dealing with the Pandemic for so long a period of time. And it’s still not over. We joke sometimes about Emma who was our Associate Pastor at the time saying “are we sure we want to commit to a daily devotional for two months?”
AS the guy typically behind the camera and doing the editing of our online content, I have watched, literally, our staff members rise to the occasion of continuing this daily devotional series for so long a period of time. And as the senior pastor, John has had to take care of the bulk of them - usually 3 - 4 a week - every week.
When I was a small boy our house had a back porch that sat pretty high in the air. Our land wasn’t level, the house had been built into the side of a mound so if you sat out on the back porch it was like stepping onto a second floor terrace. Only it wasn’t a terrace, it was just a porch with a long set of stairs that led down to the basement door outside. My Dad and I would sit together at the top of those stairs. I think it was one of his favorite places. He didn’t say, “Come on, lets go sit on the steps.” He’d just be there. Resting, watching… being.
Do you have a scar or two? Most of us do. It may be some spots left over from childhood chicken pox or the skinned up knee from a few too many falls on the pavement. Have you had any surgery? I have a scar on my right hand that I got in college. A sophemnore, I was literally running through a parking lot on campus, acting stupid as we are sometimes apt to do when I fell in the gravel and put a 2 inch gash in my hand.
An arrangement of the familiar hymn played on the organ in the Sanctuary of Peakland UM.
Do you have a friend or partner who can really speak the truth to you? The unsuccessful person in business is surrounded by what’s called, “Yes - men,” people who only say what the ceo wants to hear. The best political leaders, especially at the highest levels of government have people who can speak truth even if it feels bad. The president represents all the people and not just those who voted for him so a good president must know how decisions affect as many people as possible.
Things may seem a little different over the next few weeks, but that doesn't mean anything bad is happening. Join Andrew in considering how the Holy Spirit is calling us today.
Before our son was born I read one of the books on the UMW's reading list titled Night Lights: Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark, by Phyllis Theraux. It was autobiographical in nature and she told the story of her youngest child, a boy who remains nameless in the book to protect his innocence. As she puts it, it had been a zig zaggy year for him in school. He was trying to decide whether he wanted to be a student. Her son had a very low opinion of his own thinking ability although he was the only one among his mother and teacher who had any question at all about his ability to pass muster in class.
So there came time for a parent-teacher conference.
Have you ever wanted to have the last word? You know, the argument has been had or the point has been made and the only thing left is the competition over who will be the last to speak?
A married couple had a spat, and it was serious enough that the wife stormed out of the house vowing never to return. "I'm going to mother's," she declared with her last word. . . .
A woman my brother’s age, who lived the next house down the road where we grew up together as kids posted the following from an unknown author:
Andrew reflects on his commissioning as a deacon almost 2 years ago, and a recent announcement out of the Florida Annual Conference.
So, I’m getting a haircut at the home of a stylist to whom I have been going since we moved to Lynchburg 9 years ago. During that time she has worked in three different shops and in the past 2 years or so she has opened her own business in her home. It is a lovely and relaxing setting for a haircut.
As I wind down and approach retirement many transitions are taking place. One of the most labor intensive transitions, at least in our situation, has been moving from a 4-bedroom house with a full basement and attic space to a retirement farm that has a large horse facility and a small 2-bedroom living space with no basement and no attic space. We always intended to downsize when retirement came but, shall we say, we wanted to take it a lot slower than we are having to do it now!?
Recently I have been asked, now several times, to play Hymn of Promise at Memorial Services. I confess that it would not be the first song I would have picked, but the more I play it, and read the lyrics, the more this familiar hymn has grown on me and the message is one of inspiration.
Read any good books lately? Have you heard any good stories? How about a pithy saying or two? The Bible is a pretty good book and it has some pretty good stories in it. There’s the story of the Good Samaritan, the unjust judge, the prodigal son and, of course, what has been called the Greratest story of all - the story of what God has done through Jesus Christ.
Andrew's dog struggles with anxiety. Most of the time he is okay, but he has certain triggers that cause him to spiral. You may recognize one of them...
Did you miss National Donut Day? I hope not. It isn't a religious holiday but the fact that a good donut is food-for-the-soul I might suggest to us that it ought to be. Krispy Cream would sell you a dozen donuts for a dollar if you bought a dozen at regular price first. If you went by Dunkin Donuts and bought a drink, you could score a free - that’s FREE - classic donut.
Do you have a favorite Winnie the Pooh character? When our children were very young, they shared a “Kanga” and “Roo” stuffed animal. I always like Eeeor and his humble, “Thanks for noticing me,” attitude. Do you have a Tigger friend you love and hate? You know - love their energy but hate the fact they sometimes can be too self-centered? There’s Christopher Robin, Rabbit. And, of course, Winnie the Pooh. A member of the church , and one of the hardest behinbd-the-scenes-working-people I have have known posted the following on her FB wall
The Kingdom of Heaven is like the excitement of a child. Don't believe us, Andrew has a modern day parable for you.
Have you ever had one of those days when you wondered if someone had tampered with the water supply? You know - too many people seem to be in a surly mood.
Our Office Manager’s husband is from North Dakota. Airline routes being what they are, his journey home once took him from Virginia, to Atlanta, and THEN to Fargo, ND!? I suppose what they say is true - you can't get to Heaven without going through Atlanta first!? Sometimes life is like that.
My son and I used to go to NASCAR races at least 2X every year. My favorite driver has retired and I have lost interest but Byron still goes with his friends. One of the things that makes NASCAR unique is the access fans have to drivers. We have met Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth. What I thought was a look alike turned out to be Richard Petty when he waved at me and my wife as we passed each other behind a grandstand. It’s pretty easy to get an autograph or even a picture with your favorite driver. It was during one of those autograph sessions with Dale Earnhart Jr that an interesting encounter took place.
Andrew invites you to join him in taking a "Blue Sky Moment," as we celebrate spring, and new life.
Our office Manager, Kim, tells us about a recent journey on a train, and her discovery along the way.
My father was a gardner. When I was small he’d have Clyde Hall come to our 1 acre piece of land and plow the backyard with his blade and horse. We’d have corn, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables throughout the summer. He had a few cherry trees and we’d pick cherries so his mother, who lived across the country road from us, could make cherry cobblers. Dad had 2 grape vines - one with red grapes with seeds and one with sweet white grapes that were seedless. I loved the white ones. And he grew roses. My, how he grew roses.
A clergy colleague posted the following: The word Hate has 4 letters - so does love. The word enemies has 7 letters - so does friends. Lying has 5 letters - so does truth. Negative has 8 - Positive also has 8. Under has 5 letters - The word above also has 5 letters. Cry has 3 letters, so does joy. You write anger with 5 letters. The same goes for happy. Right has five letters. So does wrong. (And) Hurt has 4 letters, just like heal.
DId you watch the Kentucky Derby? Being horse people, Derby Day is a pretty special day for us. Kathie will make “Hot Browns” to eat while we wait for the race to start. We’re not drinkers at our house so the mint julep might be Apple cider. And we like to get the back stories on the horses that are competing. The back story for this year’s winner - Rich Strike - is inspiring.
Linwood, along with life-long friend Lynn Nash on Flugelhorn, offer this arrangement of the old Gather hymn.
Have you ever been so far outside the norm that you felt like, or someone might have suggested, you were a crackpot? You know, in the process of trying to find a solution to a problem, your idea was just silly; like, let’s put a boot on the truck every night so no one can steal it? I think crackpot might be akin to what we southerners call cockamamie. When someone does something; like, getting a tattoo of a woman's name who isn’t your mother, that might be a cockamamie idea. Having said this, here’s a story you might have heard before:
Andrew explores life through the lense of his blackberry bushes: ungrounded, placed in small boxes, and unsupported... sound like anyone you know?
Last week I was listening to a Weekly devotion by my friend Mark Ogren. Now retired, Mark was a beloved pastor, Cabinet Colleague, and Conference Church Growth specialist whose friendship I have come to appreciate as I approach retirement. He prayed the following prayer from our Book of Worship:
Linwood's Daughter-In-law, Bri, shares another of her "Stories Of Life" - This is Good.
God created the earth that we live in - the birds of the air, fish of the sea, all the creatures of the earth and the flowers. God created the beauty of the earth.
A dear friend who is unashamedly our daughter’s second mother posted the following: Someone graduated at the age of 22, but waited 5 years before securing a good job. Someone became a CEO at 25, and died at 50, while another person became a CEO at 50 and lived to be 90. Someone is still single, while someone she graduated with in HS has become a grandmother. Obama retired from politics at 55 and Trump entered politics at 70. Everyone in this world works based on their own time zone. People around you might seem ahead of you and some might seem behind you . But, everyone is running their own race, in their own time. Do not envy them. They are in their zone and you are in your zone. Relax You're not late. You’re not early. You are very much on time.
Join Andrew in acknowledging grief, as we look towards the promised land. The past few years have not exactly been easy, and it is okay, to not be okay.
A clergy friend and colleague, who happens to be one of the most upbeat and caring souls I have ever encountered, posted the following: It was crisp and cool and lovely on my Wednesday morning run. I felt sluggish because I didn’t sleep well- But I ran anyway. While I was running I got off the trail at one point. I couldn’t see which way to go. I was feeling frustrated, because I couldn’t focus on running or breathing, or anything really …. And the way was not clear.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. ‘You know how every time you buy a car all at once you start to notice how many other people seem to have the same car? Weird, isn’t it!? Or, how about those times you remember a song you haven’t heard in awhile - maybe haven’t heard in several years - and then a few days later you hear it on the radio? That’s weird, too. Maybe it's because we have recently bought a horse farm, but I’m starting to make horse farm associations and I have determined Jesus wants us to love like a horseshoe. Here’s why:
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. It was Mr. Rogers who said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” That is good advice and one of the things that draws people to a healthy church is its ministry to the scary things in its community and throughout the world. In our community here in Lynchburg, those scary things include food scarcity, homelessness, and poverty.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Today's devotion comes from Andrew... at least to begin with, but instead of our normal devotion Andrew has an invitation for you, and we encourage you to take it.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Have you ever heard that spring is the season for love? You know - spring is here and love is in the air? I don’t know, maybe there is some truth to that. One of my best friends just told me his daughter is getting married. Maybe it was spring? Flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, birds are building nests - is that where the whole “Birds and bees thing” comes in? Spring is here and love is in the air. According to people to study such things there is a scientific reason for all that spring time love . . . .
Don’t you wish people would just mind their business, sometimes? I have a new friend. A good man who is helping me learn the ins and outs of running a farm. I like him. I anticipate we will have a deep and long lasting friendship. But… sometimes I wish he would keep an opinion or 2 to himself. Especially when it comes to some of the details about how we intend to run our family farm.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. I love running water. One of my favorite things to do is to grab my camera and shoot background footage for the church. Invariably I will end up near a body of water, typically a creek or very small river and I just can’t resist the urge to hike along the bank until I find a spot I can set up my camera and film that spot of running water. There’s just something about the water splashing over rocks, or tree limbs - sometimes fallen flowers - any number of items create an atmosphere for me that speaks peace.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. I discovered a book a couple of years ago that actually has been around for 20 years. Written by Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge who is from Franklin VA, "The Undoing of Death," has become a powerful read for me as I reflect on the consequences of Easter. I think she is correct when she says the human spirit. left on its own will not do well. But the person who depends on God's spirit, that Holy Spirit of the Bible will prosper.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Join Andrew in reflecting on new life, through the lense of gardening. How do we spend this season of Easter? And how do we continue to grow with ourselves, and with our community?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Are you a mess at times? I don’t mean getting up with bed hair or needing a shave. I’m not referring to the state of the cleanliness of your house. I’m talking about YOU, your inner workings, the health of your spirit, your soul. Are you a mess at times? I hope so. And I mean that in the best of ways.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. A woman I literally went to school with for 12 straight years posted the following traditional perspective about a fine detail of the Easter Story. I honestly do’;t know if all the references to Hebrew tradition are correct but I hope they are and I know the conclusion of the story is true so I commend iit to you. Why Did Jesus Fold the Napkin?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Tomorrow is Easter but today Jesus lies buried in a borrowed tomb. We finish our Holy Week Devotions with this thought as we prepare for tomorrow.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Today is Good Friday, the day of death for Jesus. No one should try to get to the cross without passing by the events of this day.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. This week before Easter, this Holy Week I am offering some thoughts about the last days of Jesus prior to the Day of Resurrection. Today, Wednesday we consider a story that appears in all four Gospels, the anointing of Jesus.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Today, Tuesday we consider an ancient mystery – the cursing of the fig tree.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Usually, there are 3 and occasionally 4 different voices each week providing these daily devotions: Me, Andrew, David, and then Kim, or Linwood’s daughter-in-law or another guest contributor.but, on this special week before Easter, this Holy Week I would like to share some thoughts each day with the hope that we can move together to a special celebration of Easter on Sunday. Each day will involve scripture, some comments by me and a concluding prayer. On Thursday, Andrew will offer a special word that comes from his Deacon’s heart about the holy experience of foot washing.
Today, we begin with Jesus clearing the Temple….
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. As Easter approaches I’d like to ask you something. Does it matter? In a way, the resurrection is in our hands now. Unless we make it lively and meaningful - unless it matters - resurrection is no more than a doctrinal belief of one of the world’s major religions. What do those Christians believe? They believe in Jesus Christ and the resurrection. But, does it matter?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. As Easter approaches I find both I and my friends and colleagues with whom I share ministry here at Church start having thoughts and feelings about death. It will be Holy Week in just a few days and that, I’m sure is part of it. We follow Jesus into Jerusalem where he will be arrested, tried, tortured and killed. When ministry people speak of the Living Christ Jesus ,we speak of a living relationship. Death must be confronted before resurrection can take place and the death of Jesus touches us deeply even as the sunrise of Easter begins to appear on the horizon.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. It was just a word. Some things have just always been important to me. Saying Thank you is a big deal. I think calling people my parents' age “Mr” “Mrs” Miss and even the non specific MS is a sign of respect. I have always been overly sentimental. I can keep a Christmas card for years if I have an emotional attachment to the sender. I have a small collection of race and race winner hat-poins of every nascar race my son and attended together. I’m telling you this so you will understand some of why I did what I did.
The first Peakland UMC Cafe discussing where we are headed as a Denomination and as a Church
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. As the story goes… an old farmer went to church one night where there was a revival going on. He was not known as much of a church goer and the next day, as he and his friends gathered at the grain store, he was asked about the experience.
Well, he said, “There was a lot of hoopin’ and hollerin’” What else? “There was a lot of singing. What else? “Well there was this preacher and he went on for a long time.” What did he preach about? “Sin.” What did he say about it? “He was again’ it.” What do you expect? That about sums it up, doesn't it?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Someone once said we get what we want 3 ways: thinking - working - and praying. Thinking is the world of ideas, the world of the mind. It's like the old automobile commercial where the light bulb comes on and a voice says, "Ford has a better idea." It is the world of creativity, the place where projects are born and the first steps of creation are taken.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew shares a moment from this past Sunday that caught his attention between one of the youth and a child and how that interaction should guide us as we journey together.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Banned any good books lately? That issue seems to rear its ugly head every so often and it is rearing right now. Family groups are trying to get school systems to ban books from local libraries. Not liking the language (try reading Huck Finn out loud) or fearful that their value systems are being attacked by ideas that are contrary to their comfort level…
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Last Wednesday was a “scary” day! When my dentist said we needed to pull a tooth, I knew it would not be fun.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Do you remember the children’s song, “We are the Church”? I am the church. You are the church We are the church together All God’s people ALl around the world Yes! We’re the church together Maybe you remember the hand motions that go along with it? Do you remember that game we used to play…. (Here’s the church. Here’s the steeple….) I have a personal library full of seminary books, Bible commentaries and Bible dictionaries. I have recordings of famous preachers and theologians who expound on the faith, the nature and mission of the church, and all the rest.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” That’s what the Bible says. (Ephesians 4: 26) When I first heard that, being new to the Christan faith and having not yet read the passage, I thought it was a referee to Jesus himself, Do not let the son - the son of God, Jesus - don’t let anger push him out of your life.
Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Some people read that quite literally. Deal with anger before the sun goes down. I can see that.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. In the 37th chapter of the OT prophet Ezekiel there is a famous story about a vision of dry bones. . .
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. A college friend and fraternity brother during music school days at what was then Madison College has made his living as an elementary school music teacher. He recently posted inspiring words about the importance of music in our schools and his words spoke to me about the importance of music in the church. His name is Sam Ebberly, and I reached out to Sam and asked permission to share his words with you today. I’m glad he said, “Yes.” March is “Music in Our Schools Month” a celebration of the importance of music in our lives as individuals, and society as a whole. A means of exploring cultures here at home and around the world, music transcends language, wealth, education, geography, gender, and time. It’s a shared experience that touches emotions, lifts the heart, helps heal the soul and bonds humanity together.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. How’s your outlook on life? Pretty good? Pretty crappy? Do you get up most days with an excited, “It’s morning, God,” or do most of your days begin with , “Oh, God, it morning,”? Is your mid-day break about looking back at what you have done in order to anticipate what the next half of the day will detail or is that lunch break akin to the groundhog who sticks his head out of the ground for a few moments hoping no one is watching? At the end of the day do you GO home or do you GET home?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Our devotional today is from our Office Manager, Kim Ness. Kim says, "My grandmother spent more than 30 years as the secretary at the largest Southern Baptist Church in my hometown of Manassas. The preacher she worked alongside for most of that tenure was Dr. Edward Bratcher. He was the son of Southern Baptist Missionaries and spent much of his childhood in Rio De Janerio, Brazil. Dr. Bratcher had a passion for the mission field and even though he spent his career as a church preacher, he still took time out of his busy ministry to go on mission trips every year. This elephant was a gift to my grandmother when he returned from one of his trips. This trip was to South Africa, during the time of apartheid. This hand-carved elephant is made out of African ebony. "
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew reflects on active engagement with reading scripture and the celebration of Purim in some Jewish communities.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. I told a story in last Sunday’s sermon that some people connected to and I have been encouraged to share it as a daily devotion, so, here goes…. The year 1990 started well and ended badly. Our first child was born after more than 10 years of marriage and we brought him home to great celebration. Two days later, after taking our first outing just to get out of the house, we came home to a burglarized house.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Gene Carter was a special friend. Our relationship began with him as my District Superintendent, The role of DS has changed since then, but 30 years ago that made Gene my supervisor. He saw in me things I did not see for myself - good things, ministry things, and he took me under his wing. A few years later, when our daughter was born, Gene traveled from Roanoke to Richmond to baptize her and now that he is gone, that remains one of the most special experiences of the ministry we shared together.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew explores the feelings of his dog taking a solo, unplanned adventure through the neighborhood.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. So… my family and I had an uncommon experience last week and I want to tell you about it. We were doing things about 100 miles apart. I was spending my day at church and my wife and daughter were doing things in another city more than 100 miles away. My phone rings and my daughter’s voice says, “Guess what?”
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew shares a moment that made his week involving one of the preschool students, and how the smallest gestures can make the largest difference.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Now that opening day of Major League Baseball has been cancelled I have a question for you: Is your faith in God more like a baseball or a baseball glove?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. What’s in a name? The late singer, Jim Croce sang, “Like the pine tree lining a winding road, I’ve got a name… I’ll carry it with me like my Daddy did… if it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proud.” I don’t want to make too much out of geographic assumptions but wasI born in the south and in the south, when a baby is born people will ask two questions: What’s her name? What are you going to call her?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew reflects on one of his favorite hymns.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. What does a miracle look like to you? I once heard of a doctor. A surgeon to be precise who came out of the OR and said to a family, “I can’t explain it but I was a better surgeon than I have been trained to be. Your loved one is going to be OK.“ The doctor acknowledged, that's a miracle.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. War is never the best answer, especially when its purpose is to usurp the rights and property of people. The invasion of Ukraine is unjust, unrighteous and evil, and the world is responding.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Our guest preacher Sunday, February 20, 2022, was District Superintendent Denise Bates and she told the following story in her sermon:
There were these 2 boys who were in school together. Tommy had always been big for his age, which was a good thing; because his father, who was so much bigger, used to beat Tommy whenever he felt like it.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. A church lady from Roanoke Days posted the following: “Have you ever considered that God has fallen in love with you? He sends you flowers every spring. He sends you sunshine every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he listens.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew reflects on Ash Wednesday - his own experiences, its purpose, and what it means to us today.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. What’s the most practical advice you have ever heard? Never make the first offer in a negotiation? Measure twice, cut once? A penny saved is a penny earned?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. We have become horse people at our house and the story of Seabiscuit is one of our favorite stories. In the mid to late 1930’s with the country firmly in the grip of the Great Depression, the little thoroughbred horse, all 62 inches of him from shoulder to ground, became a symbol of hope for the country.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew reflects on the lack of black paraments in worship services, and how it relates to what we expect in worship.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. I have a niece I love very much. She married my nephew, my brother’s son and over the years I have watched her grow into a resilient and fierce woman.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. What is the secret to a good life? Good LIfe. Love your neighbor. Cross pollination
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. February is known as Black History month and we have much to learn and atone for because of our history of racism. One of the most famous stories about Jesus is actually a story that involves racism. You’ll find it in John’s Gospel, chapter 4:
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Timing is everything, isn’t it? A musician starting to sing one beat - just one beat - early can make or break a piece of music. A car engine with pistons out of time will eventually destroy itself. Early is on time - on time is late - and late - well do’;t bother showing up…. That’s the opinion of some people. And what is it about human nature, anyway? We all have some sort of internal clock that helps to keep us alive…
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. How do you feel about the month of February?
A few days ago the cat Garfield got up to his moring cup of coffee and with ears pinned back and a sour look on his face says, “I’m in a bnad mood. And it’s name is February.”
How do you feel about the month of February?
A reporter in St Louis named Kevin Killeen was recently quoted as saying, “February is the worst month of the year, but it’s an honest month.”
With apologies to everyone born in February, I tend to agree.
As the reporter continued…
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. My father was a humble, friendly man. He was so humble that one time we were at a fishing store trying to buy some bait. When the female clerk heard the two of us talking about the bloodworms we would bring from home she began to question Dad about how he raised them. (Now, you need to know there was no “raining” going on. We just went to the edge of the back yard and dug them up.) When Dad began to tell her how he encouraged his little bloodwomk population,, Dad seemed embarrassed to use the word “manure” with her. That was my father - willing to talk to almost anyone in his humble way. He would end most conversations with, “Come by and see us sometime.” I used to wonder as a small boy what would happen if they all came!
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. So….. I saw a picture that touched my heart. There is a young woman in nursing scrubs standing beside a man, clearly a patient because of the hospital bracelet on his wrist, and he’s sitting in a chair. The man is holding a dog - a blond scruffy looking dog that reminds me of my beloved Nado who I had to help cross the rainbow bridge a few months ago. I miss that boy much more than I thought I would. If the memory of Nado wasn’t enough, the story behind the picture was even mor4e powerful. The man and his dog lived alone. But the man became ill, critically ill. So ill he had a lengthy hospital stay and there was no one to care for his dog so he made the second more difficult decision a dog owner has to make - he had to give up his dog to the humane society.. .
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional/ Have you ever been the recipient of a random act of kindness? Maybe the person ahead of you at the coffee bar paid for your coffee? Has a stranger ever helped carry your groceries to the car? Did a kind word lift your spirits?
We once went to a local steak house, me, my wife and our daughter. It was a Sunday after church. AFter we ordered and enjoyed our food the server informed us that the bill had been paid by an un-named family who gave them money and asked them to randomly buy another family their meal. It was a humbling experience that I want to pay forward.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Have you ever tried to board a subway in a big city during rush hour? It can be a difficult experience if you are unaccustomed to how things work. You need to make sure you get on a train going in the right direction. You need to know what stop to get off. And if you have to transfer to another train… well… that can be an ordeal in and of itself.. There is jostling and a closeness that can be uncomfortable. There are people who thrive in such an environment. I went to school in Boston and after graduation we went back with our children to do all the touristy things….
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. There was a time when the 10 commandments were so important they were posted in both schoolrooms and on courthouse walls. They speak of a higher power, respect, honor, community and the difference between right and wrong. Everybody can name one or 2. Honor thy father and mother Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt nor steal.
It takes some practice to memorize att 10
from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
This is an interesting time of year and we have had a few interesting weeks this January. Snow. Freezing rain. Sleet. Surface melting. Hard ice underneath. The weather is one of those things everyone has an opinion about but no one can do anything about. I think it's going to snow. I don't think it is going to snow. I'm from Indiana; I can drive in almost anything. I'm from Virginia; I think I can drive in almost anything. Weather has a way of revealing one's true character. Some defiantly curse the snow and dare it to bring any alterations to their plans while others see it as a warm blanket upon the face of the earth that calls forth sitting in a chair, wrapped in a favorite shawl, and sipping hot chocolate while reading a favorite book. The fact of the matter is, weather/snow is something that comes to us and we cannot change that. All we can do is determine our response to it. And that is the jumping off point for today’s sermon.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional Quiet Meditation. Pictures and videos of Yellowstone (Fall 2021) by Olen Persons.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. I know Christmas is past but there is one lingering issue that I want to address. It comes from a line in one of Charles Wesley’s “Hymns for the Nativity”. You have heard about this collection of 18 hymns first published in 1745 from my devotions. Linda and I quoted from them in our Advent/Christmas devotions. “All Wise, All Mighty Lord” which is one of his nativity hymns. includes the following words in stanza three; O Holy Child still let thy birth bring peace to us poor worms on earth. Can you imagine singing these words as a Christmas Hymn or Christmas Carol. O Holy Child still let thy birth bring peace to us poor worms on earth. . .
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Today's Reflective Time Devotional is a medley of Grace Greater Than Our Sin and Nothing But The Blood.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Linwood Campbell, Director of Worship and Outreach, shares a meditative rendition of this wonderful worship song.
Bri Campbell returns to the microphone after a long absence with another of her "Stories Of Life."
This is an editied version of the Christmas Program that was presented on December 19, 2021, in the Sanctuary of the Church. Merry Christmas!
from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA. If you have been keeping up with our on-line services you will realize that we are looking closely at John the Baptist as we prepare for the Christmas Celebration. You can’t really get to Christmas without going past John. Mark’s Gospel presents him as a preparer of the way. That preparation requires confession and repentance. John’s Gospel, presents him, as "a witness to testify to the light." He is not the light, not even a revealer of the light. He is a witness to the light, the light that comes into the world as Jesus Christ.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Here is a medley of two contemporary pieces with a backdrop of the James River as it flows down towards Big Island.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. From Pastor John - A member and good friend from a church I served north of Richmond posted the following story . . .
Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. This is the 2nd Sunday in Advent service.
Andrew reflects on the energy and excitement of 1 year olds as he looks ahead, through Advent, to Christmas
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Today's devotional is a time to sit quietly, listen to the music while looking at the water gently moving across the lake at the Peaks of Otter, and reflect, if you will, on the goodness of God.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. I missed our in-person worship service last Sunday. My wife and I had traveled out of town for Thanksgiving . . .
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Happy place can be so many different things to so many different people. We have a pre-school. There’s nothing like seeing a line of cars with happy little faces. My wife, Tricia, and I have a dog - his name is Joey, and he is an 85 lb golden doodle, and he’s a happy boy. There’s a picture of him if you’re watching this. Sometimes he will lay in my lap and sometimes he will just look out the window while I rub on him, occasionally giving me a big kiss.
. . . from Peakland United methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. Our Advent Committee starting working on this season back in June. They picked a theme of “Wait and See” and have done their work around that theme. In worship, the liturgies we engage – the responsive readings, prayers, affirmations and candle lightings - these are the work of the people in worship. And today we begin our work by waiting. Most of us think of waiting as something passive. It's what you do flipping through the magazines at the doctor's office, or conversing with the barber while you wait your turn. It's an almost hopeless state determined by events you cannot control. It isn't your turn, so you wait. The doctor's appointment book is full, so you wait. The bus hasn't come. You wait. Sometimes, that’s all you can do. It's like life sitting at a rail road crossing - all you can do is sit there and watch things pass by. But not every wait is the same, is it?
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. So, I’m driving to church the other day and I hear “Take the Long Way Home” by Supertramp on the radio.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the "New World."
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Growing up in a small country church there are certain hymns we would always sing during particular times of the year.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. How does a child hanging out a window in the morning relate to the community of God? To Thanksgiving? Andrew has some thoughts.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. We should never underestimate the influences of our teenage years.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Andrew shares a morning reflection of his drive out of town to film a sunrise. What are the norms in your life that hold you back from being your true self? From being closer to God?
November 14, 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. God listens to and hears our prayers but doesn't always answer them in the way we would hope.
From Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA. Virginia Born statesman Henry Clay first used the term “self-made man" in 1832. Since then, the phrase has become a kind of watchword for our culture. We tend to admire the rugged individualist who stands with firm footing. To set the stage for what we do today, this All Saints Sunday, I want to say to you the church, that is a lie. For us, there really is no such thing as a truly self-made man. From our beginning the scriptures declare we are MADE in the image of God.. The reflection we see in the mirror bears a resemblance to the One who called us into being and can never be purely our own. With God as a common parent, we all bear some resemblance to each other. And, with that realization, our lives are molded by those who have born that image before us, by the saints. It is their gift to us and the gift we bestow upon those who come after us. The gifts of saints nurture and form us.
It is good to remember the people God has placed in our lives and remind us that we are loved.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Don't make your past into a collectable. Let both the good and bad propel you forward to a better life.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Through the promise of eternal life, we have a lifetime guarantee.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. God's mercies are everlasting so it is OK to start over.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Good teachers hope for the best in people. Good people hope for the best in us all.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Daily or routine devotion is important. The Key is to simply start.
Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. What's your favorite bread? Jesus said I am the bread of life. Food is important"A good meal begins with hunger." When we lose our hunger for life, we die.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Christmas is not a risk! If anything, a simpler Christmas with fewer presents may encourage us to consider the real meaning of Christmas.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. When we say, "I will pray for you," that prayer can make a difference.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. If we can accept that "This is the day the Lord has made," and then "Rejoice in it," that is a good first step on our daily walk with God.
Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA. Our guest speaker today is former Associate Jason Stanley. Jason is the Coordinator of Revitalization for the Elizabeth River District of the the Virginia United Methodist Church.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional - Because life is a gift from God, each day provides a great and mysterious opportunity to experience God in the world.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional; Priorities are important. Without them, the small things will take over the more important things.
You’re listening to Trusting God At All Times, A daily devotional from Peakland UMC. My names is Linwood Campbell and, I’m the Director of Worship and Outreach.
It’s Monday, although you may not be listening to this on a Monday, its’s Monday none the less. Now you may think, ugh, it’s Monday, but I think - it’s Monday! That means it’s a whole new week of opportunities to learn and grow, to plan and implement, to just experience life!
Since the pandemic started, I have dived into video production in a major way. I seen it done in the past and have actually contributed to video productions at other times in other churches. But not like this. As the old saying goes, it’s been like drinking from a fire hydrant. It’s been an incredible learning experience and each week I learn continue to learn new things. I watch other churches and I watch people who have successful Youtube channels. Sometimes I learn how to do things, and sometimes I learn how not to do things hahaha. But I learn, none the less, I learn.
So what’s the point of telling you all this? Well, it’s Monday. For me, it’s a new opportunity to learn and grow - to listen and watch - to hear God’s word and music. And to share all of that with you. I guess I am blessed to be able to have this opportunity. No guessing about it, really, I am blessed in so many ways. To have a family, to have a church, to have a church family. And to have a living God who cares about me.
It’s Monday. Or whatever the day of the week you may be listening to this. It’s another new week full of opportunities for you. Learn and grow. Be thankful for what you have.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Jesus calmed the sea and scared the disciples.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Pastor John talks about how a professional baseball player went out of his way to recognize a rookie player - on the other team!
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. All believers are ministers. Because ministry in the name of Jesus Christ is relational, all believers must be in relationship with the people and nature around them. That means we are all in ministry with each other.
Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va. Today our preacher is our Associate Andrew Labar-Dietz. The Scripture is Philemon 1:1-25. Andrew talks about Paul's letter to Philemon in a casual, informative way. Andrew views this letter from Paul to Philemon as a big deal and while it is friendly and familiar, it takes an interesting turn. Our Pianist Noémi Lee plays the prelude and we close with the worship song, Not For A Moment. Join us for this meaningul worship service!
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional with Andrew sharing a quiet, reflective time of his arrangement of Spirit of the Living God.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. We look to Jesus, and other people to do mighty things and forget that we, too, have the ability to make a difference in the world.
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Spread your wings. You are stronger than you know!
Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional. Heavy burden. Overloaded. Dispair. Heavy Load. Troubles. Source of love. Relief
That’s the power of mercy. That's what a life of grace does. Relationships are not always fair. Sometimes you have to decide, “Do I want to be right or do I want to love another person the way God has loved me?” If we answer that question with mercy and grace, we will find our way to the Kingdom of God.
Wesley Wednesday: Historic Sites in the UK - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday Historic Sites Overview in USA - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
September 5, 2021 Moring Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
Wesley Wednesday Historic Sites: Westminster Abbey - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
August 29, 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
Wesley Wednesday: Historic Site Marylebone - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
August 22, 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
August 15, 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
Wesley Wednesday Historic Sites: Wesley Chapel - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
You Can't Sing The Blues If You Got All Your Teeth - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
Question You Should Ask Every Clergyperson - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Charles Wesley In Bristol - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Lovely Lane Chapel - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional Series
Wesley Wednesday: St. George's Church - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional Series
Point Your Wheels In The Right Direction - Trusting God At All Times Daily Devotional Series
Wesley Wednesday: Field Trip Around St. Simons Island - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Georgia Leads To Aldersgate - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: A Trip Around St. Simons Island - Trusting God in Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Forty Days with Wesley; Loving God and Neighbor - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Forty Days With Wesley Means Of Grace - Trusting God in Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Forty Days With Wesley - Forgiveness, Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Forty Days With Wesley - Holiness of Heart, Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Forty Days With Wesley - The Way Of Love. Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
February 28, 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA.
Wesley Wednesday: Forty Days With Wesley; Living Prayerfully - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
February 21, 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
Wesley Wednesday: 40 Days With Wesley Week 1 - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: Charles and Sarah Wesley - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
February 7 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA.
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells His Story - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: The Wesley Sisters, Part 2 - Trusting God in Tough Times Daily Devotional
Wesley Wednesday: The Wesley Sisters, Part 1 - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
January 10, 2021 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va
Wesley Wednesday: Epiphany and The Visit of the Kings - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
December 27 2020 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church In Lynchburg, VA
Wesley Wednesday: Beings Source, Begins To Be and God Himself Was Born - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
December 20, 2020 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA
Wesley Wednesday: The Joy of Every Nation - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
December 13, 2020 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, VA.
Wesley Wednesday: Emptied Of All But Love - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
December 6, 2020 Morning Worship from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va
Wesley Wednesday: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional
Morning Worship for November 29, 2020 from Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
Wesley Wednesday: Frances Asbury Letters Home - Trusting God In Tough Times Daily Devotional