A Letter from Pastor Andy: April 24, 2024
Dear U Park Family,
Have you ever experienced something that seemed miraculous? Someone is healed from a terminal illness. You know something before it happens. What looks like certain disaster is somehow averted. Someone who couldn’t possibly know your situation somehow does. These things are real. I’ve seen them, and probably you have too.
Of course, sometimes it’s the opposite: those horrible moments when something awful happens for no reason, or a person we love falls on hard times they don’t deserve. Most of us have probably experienced those things too. And as easy as it might be to believe that God is favoring us when things go well, it’s hard (and cruel to ourselves and others) to believe that God decides to make things go badly for us when they don’t. “It’s God’s plan” is cold comfort when we’re grieving. “God is punishing us” is even worse. Human beings have always tried to understand the workings of the universe, and usually we end up mystified.
This Sunday, I’ll conclude our “What Now?” sermon series looking at how the first Christians set the direction of the church, and how in some ways that direction still holds for us today. We’ll be looking at stories from the Book of Acts in which terrible things happen, and how the people of the early church responded. I hope you’ll join us for worship at 9:00 in Wasser Chapel, or at 11:00 in our main Sanctuary. If you can’t be here in person, our worship service will be live on Facebook at 11:00 (https://www.facebook.com/UParkumcdenver/) and uploaded to YouTube by Sunday evening (https://www.youtube.com/c/UniversityParkUMCDenver).
On Mother’s Day, May 12, our Children’s and Care ministry director Bethany Hader Crabbs will be hosting our quarterly Family Sunday School. All ages are invited to gather in the East Fellowship Hall at 10:00 to participate together in games and conversation, and for the adults to gain a sense of what our church’s children are learning in our Sunday School program. The family Sunday School is a fun way to live into our vision of being an intergenerational congregation, and I hope you can be there.
Our celebration Sunday is coming up May 19, as we mark the beginning of our Summer programming for the church. We’ll also be celebrating our congregation’s graduates that day, so if you’re graduating or someone in your family is, email Bethany Hader Crabbs (bcrabbs@uparkumc.org) with a picture of the graduate and information about their degree, diploma, or certificate.
After the 11:00 worship on Celebration Sunday, we’ll have lunch in the courtyard prepared by Chef Stephen Rohs of Painted Bench Catering, and we’ll have a bounce house on the courtyard lawn for the kids of the neighborhood. This is a great day to invite friends to church, especially if they have children or youth in their household or family. That day will also be the last day of our choir’s performing in worship until September, so join us for our 11:00 worship to hear them, or come by at 9:00 and then come back for lunch (or stick around through the morning).
The United Methodist General Conference is meeting this week and next in Charlotte, North Carolina. The General Conference is the meeting of United Methodist delegates from all over the world to make policy and doctrinal decisions for our denomination. General Conferences are usually held every four years, but because of the COVID pandemic in 2020 this will be the first General Conference in 8 years. This year we’ll be editing our Book of Discipline (the United Methodist rule book about church governance, doctrine, and theology) to accommodate the ongoing split in the United Methodist Church. In the next few weeks, as news becomes available and we understand what decisions have been made, I’ll be passing along my thoughts about what the Conference will mean for our congregation and our region. In the meantime, please pray for all the delegates present, that they may be guided by God in making the best possible decisions.
I hope you’re enjoying springtime as much as I am, and I look forward to seeing you at church!
Grace and Peace,
Andy