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Current Series
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Sunday Morn.
Wednesday Eve.
This Week's Message
Message: "Lifetime Guarantee"
Speaker: Rev. Jason Roe
Series:
Welcome - It's More Than A Handshake
Jul 27
Posted In:
“Welcome, it’s more than a handshake”
Introduction: the word “welcome” is a beautiful word. We all want it, we all smile when we get it. But, it’s more than a handshake and a “glad to see you!” It’s a life style. Sometimes it means forgiveness, sometimes acceptance, sometimes loving, sometimes letting go. It’s risky! To be a lifestyle it must be! Real welcoming is also costly, extravagant, intentional. In August we are doing a 6 wks. Introduction on “hospitality”. It is not meant to be a “six weeks series and then we’re done” but rather a launching pad when Fairview says, “We’ve heard. Now, let’s begin!”
Aug. 2: “Welcome, it’s a two way street”
• Thoughts: Hospitality is both to and from God. God is the guest and He is the host. He invites us to come follow. And then we invite Him to join us on the journey. Because of Him we are both the guest and we are the host. Christian hospitality is not a “Southern thing!” We extend hospitality because of the grace that has been given and extended to us.
Aug. 9: “Re-thinking Manure”
• Thoughts: In everyone’s life there is manure. As the bumper sticker so rightly puts it (and this is a paraphrase) “Manure Happens!” It’s not what happens that matters, it’s all in how you handle it. You can let it pile up, douse it with chemicals, bury it or turn it into compost. And, until you deal with the manure in your own life you can not extend welcome or hospitality to another.
Aug. 16: “Sometimes you just want to throw mama from the train!”
• Thoughts: Some of us (maybe all of us) have a relative that we want to throw off the train! We’re good at extending hospitality to “outsiders” but when it comes to our own families we struggle. We’d like our family gatherings to be a Norman Rockwell painting. But, sometimes, our Thanksgiving dinner is more like an episode of the Jerry Springer Show and the perfect scene at Rockwell’s table eludes us. There’s no hospitality here! The Bible is full of dysfunctional families. Like them we can accept, agree to disagree, let go or fully embrace.
Aug. 23: “Life at the clothesline”
• Thoughts: Long before there were electric washers and dryers there were wringer machines and clotheslines. More than drying clothes happened in the fresh air of the back yard. Neighbors talked to neighbors. They knew each other’s families - the struggles, the celebrations and the challenges. They knew names, and birthdays, and anniversaries. They shared stories, joys and heartaches. They raised each others children. They were community. Now, most of the clotheslines have gone the way of all antiquated things and knowing and loving your neighbor has gone with it. And hospitality has suffered.
Aug. 30: “Mama don’t know everything!”
• Thoughts: We all grew up with mother saying, “Don’t talk to strangers!” On one level that’s good advise but, on another level mama was wrong. We have come to view the stranger as “an enemy,” “one to be ignored, feared, disrespected.” The stranger has becomes strange! And, hospitality has ceased to be.
Sept. 6: “It’s the shape of the nose”
• Thoughts: Though we don’t want to admit it, each of us has a prejudice. By definition prejudice is an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race or their supposed characteristics. Many times these prejudices form the “data base” for our “enemy file.” The shape of the nose, the curve of the chin, the texture of the hair has pitted man against man. How do we learn to love our enemies? How do we extend hospitality to those who really do cause us harm or whom we simply hate based on the shape of their nose?
Click Here for a short film about hospitality starring some of our very own Fairview folks!
From the Pastor's Desk
Jul 15
Posted In:
Christmas in July
Sunday we will be taking an offering to help folks at our doorstep. A number of years ago someone said to me, “Preacher, when are we going to help people here and not just in some other country? ” We have hurting people here. My response was “Why do we not do both and with the same passion and commitment?”The area of Social Concerns has been at work for a number of years in our church and has organized themselves to reach into the community by providing food and clothing and assistance in a variety of ways. This kind of ministry happens daily and especially on Wednesdays at the old church. Both families and individuals come and receive encouragement and prayers for dealing with their individual situations. The book of James reminds us in Chapter 2:15, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. “We must allow our faith to be lived out in real ways near the church’s door and in distance places. So this Sunday, prayerfully be prepared to share an offering to aid others. If by chance you know someone that is in a difficult situation, share the information with us so we might be able to touch and be a helping hand of love and grace in the Lord’s name.Please pray for this ministry of care and concern to the folks hurting in our community and then ask the Lord if He would have you offer your time and heart in the ministry of helping others in need. Thank You Fairview Family, ahead of time, for your commitment in this outreach of Social Concern for I believe that this is very close the heart of God.
Pastor Jerry
From the Pastor's Desk
Jun 15
Posted In:
The center of the Christian Faith is changing. Dr. Timothy Tennent, the new president of Asbury Seminary, has shared with us that for 1000 years the Western Hemisphere has been the heartland of the Christian Faith. At the beginning of the 20th century 90% of all Christians lived in the Western world. We are experiencing in the Western world a decline of Christians. An example was in 1900, there were 380 million believers in Europe and less than 10 million in Africa. Today there are 367 million believers in Africa, with a rate of 24,000 people coming to the Lord every day. America and Europe are losing 4,600 per day. In fact China is the home to the fasting growing churches in the world, estimated at 16,500 per day.
John Wesley's declaration of "The World is Our Parish" has never been more correct. Fairview has seen and felt the importance of looking into the future with our eyes directed toward the Kingdom of God, growing in the entire world. We have committed ourselves to be at work where God is at work and to join Him in His present activity. Last Sunday and again on this coming Sunday, we will be taking a dollar offering for the Sudan Mission Project of Holston Annual Conference. This will help with the special project of feeding and educating the folks who have been displaced because of the war in the Sudan. It will help prepare the pastors to better extend their ministries in winning people to the Lord in that country and area.
On Friday, we will load two ocean-going containers with supplies that have been gathered from all over the Holston Conference. One shipment will go to help HIV children in Zimbabwe and the other will go to the school children in our Methodist School in Liberia. What a special privilege to be able to assist in these kinds of activities for the Kingdom's sake
I am so proud of FAIRVIEW UMC for our willingness to reach out to those folks in need in our community and around the world. With a smile on my face, I ask the Lord to save me from the sin of pride concerning Fairview.
Also I wanted to share with you that for the last three years we have been helping Jason Roe launch his evangelism ministry. We wanted to help him get to the point where he could become a full time evangelist for the Lord in our conference and around the world. This past Easter, he preached in London, England to over 2000 persons from Zimbabwe who were living in London. As of June, Jason will be giving full time service to this ministry. We want to pray for him and support him as the Lord leads. We want to recognize him and say thank you as he launches into this ministry full time. He has done a wonderful job for us and we pray the Lord's blessings on him in the future.
Pastor Jerry