Happy New Year! It’s the time of year we make resolutions to improve our physical health, our relationships with other people, or complete unfinished business. Our spiritual health is no less important. Here are some suggestions for New Year’s Resolutions for your spiritual well- being.
1. Resolve to read one book of the Bible again and again. With every reading you will find something that you hadn’t noticed before, or appreciate a familiar story passage in a new way. I particularly recommend Mark, the source of most of the gospel readings used in Sunday worship this year.
2. Resolve to invite one person to church this year who may be looking for a church home. The vast majority of people who join a church say that they were first invited to do so by a friend.
3.    Resolve to read a genuine Christian spiritual classic.    A classic is a book that has something to say beyond its original target audience to people in all times and places. Consider:
A Diary of Daily Prayer by John Baillie A Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh Your God is Too Small by J. B. Phillips
Our wonderfully organized and maintained church library may well have a book waiting for you with a tremendous blessing. Check it out (the library) and then check it out (the book).
4. Resolve to write a letter of thanks to someone who has been for you a help in time of need, a wise counselor, or who has taught you an important life lesson. If you can’t think of anyone you haven’t thanked already, think again.
5. Resolve to make a list of three to five very annoying people. Then pray for each of them every day for one week.
6. Resolve to be silent before God. Each day at the same time (if possible) turn off the radio, TV, and computer; don’t read anything. Just be quiet in God’s presence. (“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10.) Not more than 5 minutes at first. For our culture, this is probably the hardest resolution to keep—though likely the most profitable.
7. Resolve to be a regular at the monthly Taize service. This is a contemplative style of worship that provides a corrective to the demands of our hectic daily routines.
8. Resolve to be a part of at least one on-going group in the church—a committee, Wednesday Night Live, the Men’s or Women’s Bible Study groups, a Sunday School class, the choir— whatever it may be, be a part of the give and take of discipleship and fellowship. If the group you need doesn’t currently exist in the church, get one started. The pastor and the session will help you to get it going.
With warmest wishes for a happy and blessed 2012, Stephen

I am so excited—my first Christmas is coming!
This will be my first Christmas with First Presbyterian. Every church has its own style in celebrating Christmas, and I can hardly wait to experience the traditions of this congregation.
One church I served always had a brass ensemble at its Christmas Eve service. I remember a church member who, having attended a service while visiting out of town relatives, came back surprised that people could welcome the baby Jesus without a single trombone.
The choir of another church always put on a madrigal dinner. They brought in a real boar’s head on a platter while singing the “Boars Head Carol” with its Latin chorus: Caput apri defero, Reddens laudes Domino (which means: “The boar’s head I offer, Giving praises to the Lord”). The women in the choir wore beautiful medieval gowns, and the men wore doublets and tights. I joined them in the singing, but escaped the tights by dressing as Friar Tuck.
Another congregation, located in a charming, tree-lined neighborhood, received an annual in-kind offering of food, paper products and mittens, which were then delivered to another Presbyterian congregation serving a neighborhood wracked by poverty, unemployment, drugs and crime. The members of that congregation would distribute them where they knew they were most needed.    Each year an elder from that congregation addressed ours to say thank you, but he did it in such a way that we knew that we were the real beneficiaries of the offering, which gave us a chance to be partners with Christ in his loving outreach to those in need.
Already I can imagine how beautiful in sight and sound our sanctuary will be when we are singing Silent Night over lit candles on Christmas Eve. I wouldn’t want to be any place else.
The feeling of belonging—to Christ, to his church, to his cause, and to each other—is one of the greatest of all Christmas presents. And that is exactly the present we want to share with others this season. Everyone needs hope, everyone needs acceptance, and everyone needs to know Christ, the revealing and reconciling approach of God to the world. Share this present with your neighbors, your co-workers, those you love and – perhaps easiest of all – with casual acquaintances. For starters, you can invite them to be our guests for worship and a light lunch on December 4. They may say they saw something about our church’s invitation through an ad on television or in the paper. And they may very well find that our church is exactly what they are looking for: the place “Where Hope Is Born.”
See you in Church, Stephen

Wow! As I write this, there are less than eight weeks before Christmas. As we all know, the holiday period from Halloween through Thanksgiving and Christmas to New Year’s is filled with a multitude of extra and special activities in the church, the community and in our social and working lives.
Take a deep breath!

Here at First Presbyterian Church we have two special activities that will get a lot of our attention and energy. Our stewardship campaign has begun which will climax on Spiritual Growth Sunday, November 13. This is an opportunity to understand our stewardship choices as a way to move closer to the God who has moved towards us in Christ. Each of us will be asked to think and pray about what God wants us to give to the church, not so much for the church’s financial benefit as for our own spiritual well-being. How we respond on November 13 will determine what kind of budget, supporting what kind of ministries, First Presbyterian Church will adopt for 2012.

The second special activity will be an Invite-a-Friend service on December 4. The sanctuary will be decorated for Christmas, the worship and music will be inspiring, and the fellowship meal following the service will be a great opportunity for our guests to get to know us personally. You will be hearing a lot about this occasion, and not only at church. In November you will see ads on television and in the paper encouraging people to check out the Presbyterian Church, the place where hope is born.

There will be more—much more—about both of these activities—in church, and in various media including letters, the web site, television and newspapers. But the point that I want to emphasize here is what our stewardship campaign and our evangelistic outreach have in common. Both are based on the conviction that God has important work for us to do in the year 2012. We have hearts to mend, minds to inform, souls to save and lives to transform. When the church raises money it is called stewardship because we know that First Presbyterian belongs to God, not to us—we are only the stewards of the resources Christ puts into our hands to use to advance his kingdom. The word evangelism comes from the Greek word for good news, and we call inviting others to join us evangelism because we want them to know the good news of the new life that Christ has made possible through his death and resurrection. It all comes down to the conviction that the words of the prophet have meaning for us: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) God has plans for us. Let us be sure to include God in our plans.

As always—see you in church—especially on November 13 and December 4.
Stephen

One of the great trends that I have observed in my lifetime is the scarification of October. As we enter the month which ends with Halloween, we see that the scariest movies are put into the theatres and on television; haunted houses and terrifying thrill-rides at theme parks do big business; and trick-or-treaters wear ever more gruesome costumes.
What gives? I have a quirky theory. I think it comes down to the difference between acute and chronic anxiety. Acute anxiety is caused by a sudden fright that quickly goes away. Chronic anxiety lingers indefinitely.    I experience acute anxiety when I can‘t find my keys for a few minutes, but then remember where I left them. When I am diagnosed with, say, diabetes, and know I will have to deal with it for the rest of my life, my anxiety is chronic.
My hunch is that we are all living through a time of growing chronic anxiety. We all know that the world economy is in serious trouble, even if here in Central Nebraska we have been relatively spared. We know that families are under more and more stress. We know that the government and other institutions—including the church— are not as respected or as effective as they used to be.    We know that our lives could be disrupted or ended by any number of unforeseen catastrophes: a new plague, debilitating disease, environmental disaster, economic collapse, or war.
It‘s only natural that we prefer to distract ourselves from chronic anxieties by deliberately exposing ourselves to passing moments of acute fear—hence the popularity of scary movies, thrill rides, and gruesome costumes.
We could  ‘shame, shame‘ and fondly remembering some hypothetical good-old days—although I‘m guessing that those among us with memories of the Great Depression and World War II would wonder how we would deal if we were posed, as they were in their generation, with a double dose of very real acute and chronic anxieties at the same time.  Or we could remember who we are and—more importantly—whose we are. We are Christians. We are friends, followers, disciples, and soldiers of Christ. Jesus has already met and mastered our fears. Every one of our acute anxieties was concentrated on the cross. What greater chronic anxiety is there than the sin of the world for which he shed his blood?
With every step we take in our journey with Jesus, with every increase in the quality and character of our relationship with Christ, we overcome the fears that paralyze and distract us. Faith is the existence in our hearts of a space into which the Spirit of God brings courage and peace. And it is only through people with courage and peace that the chronic anxieties of our times can be overcome by the eternal hope that is in Christ.
Jesus is Lord: Rejoice! Jesus is Lord: Fear not! Jesus is Lord: Win!
See you in church. Stephen

“Getting to Know You…”

My fourth grade teacher taught our whole class to sing a song from the Broadway musical “The King and I”.  The words exactly expressed what I most cared about in my first few weeks in a new town, going to a new school, meeting new faces: Getting to know you, Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, Getting to hope you like me.

Over the years I have noticed how different people satisfy the urge to get to know others in different ways.  When I lived in Richmond, Virginia, people wanted to learn about my family connections: (people would say in a delicious Southern drawl: “And who ah’ yo’ people, Preacher?).  In big eastern cities like Pittsburgh, it seemed normal to get to know people through their resumes: school records, military service, employment history, what promotions or honors have they been awarded?  As we go deeper into the 21st Century, it is becoming more common to get to know a person by “googling” him or her on the internet.

For me, the way to really know people is to learn what they care about.  The way people care about family, or work, or politics, or pleasure, is a real window into their soul.  And just like a person, you can learn a lot about a church by noticing what it cares about.

In the short time I have been with First Presbyterian Church, these are some of the things I have noticed this church cares about deeply.

This congregation cares about

discipleship:  You care that what you do in, through and for the church is a way to live out your calling to follow Jesus and testify to the world that Jesus is Lord.
each other:  When someone has a problem, you want to help.  In this church, no one grieves alone, and no one rejoices alone.
children:  You want children to be safe, be healthy, be educated, and to know the love of Jesus.
the community: You love Kearney, want others to know how great it is, and help to make it better.
truthfulness: you want people to be honest about who they are and what they think.
process:  You care that not only will the right things be done, but that things will be done the right way.
getting things done:  You are proud when you accomplish your plans, and frustrated when projects never get completed.
the future: the community and culture are changing, and you want to be ready to share the gospel with others in the most effective way possible.

These are the things I have come to believe the congregation of First Presbyterian cares about deeply.  And it is the caring that I see in this congregation that makes me very glad to be here, and looking forward to knowing you better, and working with you to bear witness to Jesus Christ and his transforming love.

Let me know what you think I have missed.  And let me know what you care about.

See you in church,

Stephen Price-Gibson