Dear U Park Family, Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of this year’s Lenten journey. I hope you’ll have time to receive ashes today, but if not we can still use the day as it’s intended: as a time of reflection to patiently focus on removing the obstacles that prevent us from growing closer to...
Author: uparkchurchdev
Post
February 26, 2025
Dear U Park family, 2025 is nearly one-sixth over, and around church it’s gone fast. Over the past 8 weeks, we’ve held food and supply drives for Metro Caring, sponsored by our United Women in Faith; we’ve put together a winter clothing drive for indigent patients at Porter Hospital. On Saturday, we’ll finish our strategic...
Post
February 19, 2025
Dear U Park Family, Have you ever felt like you couldn’t do enough to meet the demands of the moment? I recall a conversation I had years ago with a man in the church I was serving at the time. He had retired from a very successful business career, finishing his professional life as the...
Post
February 12, 2025
Dear U Park Family, Last month, I had the privilege of spending a few days with a friend of mine I’ve known since I was seven years old. We spent very little time reminiscing. Most of our conversation was about now: our perspectives on our very different careers and lives, the basic values we share,...
Post
February 5, 2025
Dear U Park Family, We’ve probably all thought of the perfect retort in a disagreement – two or three hours after the conversation is over. Or maybe we think of what we want to say, but we let the moment pass. Or now and again, we can’t resist that oh-so-perfect comeback that puts someone in...
Post
January 29, 2025
Dear U Park Family, Since November, I’ve been providing updates on the pledge campaign for our operating budget in 2025. I’ll provide one last update this coming Sunday, but in case you aren’t in worship I wanted to make sure that you got the good news. Our original goal was $375,000 in pledges. (I thought...
Sermons
In the Flesh, Week 3: Repentance and Re-Vision
3rd Sunday in Lent March 23, 2025 Luke 13:1 – 9 In 2016 and 2017, I was part of a program called The Living School, which was begun by the Franciscan monk and Priest Fr. Richard Rohr around 2013. The Living School was intended to move lay people and faith community leaders to cultivate...
Sermons
In The Flesh, Week 2: Holy and Living
Second Sunday in Lent March 16, 2025 Romans 12:1 – 8 I’ve spent 37 years or so working in churches. And most of that time, I’ve seen God at work in spite of me, not because of me. My main accomplishment in ministry has been to wander randomly into some room, bark my...
Sermons
In the Flesh, Week 1: “If You Are…”
First Sunday in Lent March 9, 2025 Luke 4:1 – 13 I don’t remember when I first learned about Lent, but I do know where I learned it: it would have been in the little Methodist Church where I grew up. Our church was a somewhat atypical United Methodist congregation for the early to...
Sermons
Finding our Balance, Week 5: The Long Game
March 2, 2025 Luke 9:28 – 36 When I was in high school, I never did any babysitting. I had friends who did. Some of them even turned it into an almost full time job, especially during the summer. They had families they worked for regularly, took the safety classes, first aid certification, all...