In this guest post, we hear from Reveille’s Lay Leader Bo Bowden as he reflects upon his time in Slidell, Lousiana.

Early one Sunday morning in July just after breakfast, Pastor Carl Blackburn invited us to answer a simple question.  “Why are you doing this?”  The night before, his church, St. John UMC in Chattanooga, TN had hosted fifty-seven Reveille members en route to our New Orleans area mission trip.

It had been the first overnight of the trip.  We gave answers you might expect.  “To help others, to share the love of Jesus Christ, etc.”  My answer was a bit tongue in-cheek – “Why not?”  Maybe the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet.  Here’s my real answer:  Serving on Church Council, we sometimes make decisions affecting youth ministry.  I felt it to be one area I had not participated in adequately.  For me, this trip was an opportunity to become more involved.

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Mary Evans is a member of Reveille United Methodist Church who participated in this year’s medical mission to rural Honduras with the Friends of Barnabas.

“You come to help my people,” an elderly man said in English, gesturing to my Friends of Barnabas Foundation t-shirt I wore to the airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. “Thank you.” He stood tall, and his face resembled many that I had seen in the previous week–tanned and lined from spending much time outdoors. I answered him in English, “You’re welcome,” and boarded my flight with tears in my eyes, eager to share my exchange with my fellow missioners.

Earlier that morning, our mission team of 16 adults and youth had arranged plastic chairs in a circle on the fourth floor of our San Pedro Sula Hotel and administered Holy Communion to each other in the final devotion of our medical mission trip. We read the Prayer for Honduran Children and wept out of love and exhaustion. Our hearts had been transformed and our family circle had been expanded to include the beautiful people of Honduras. Christ had broken down the wall.

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I only had 5-6 minutes, or I would have said more. Reveille was blessed to host this baccalaureate, and it was fun to be a part of it. A special thanks to Susan Creasy for arranging it.

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Psalm 139:14a

Well.

You made it. You did it. You’re here. At last. For those who raised you, this is at once one of the greatest and worst days of their lives, especially if you are a first-born and certainly if you are an only child. This is uncharted territory, and everyone is doing their best, making it up as they go along. It is a little exciting, as well as a little frightening.

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The sermon from Sunday, May 29, 2016  is up and available for streaming or download. This sermon begins our new series on the Epistle to the Galatians and what it can teach us about how to be the church today. Last Sunday’s sermon will be posted soon.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Grace and peace to you. I pray you are well. 

We have now entered the Season after Pentecost, but I would like to take you back to the previous season of the liturgical calendar: the season of Eastertide. It was during this season that we engaged in an intentional season of prayer in which many of you participated. Next comes a time of reflection and discernment. How is it with your soul? What is God saying to you as you pray for our church? What is next for Reveille United Methodist Church?

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The concluding sermon in our death series is up. This sermon is about grief and how we can help one another through it. It is also available in the iTunes store. Check it out.

Only look at your tools, your needle, your thimble, your beer barrel, your articles of trade, your scales, your measures, and you will find this saying written on them. You will not be able to look anywhere where it does not strike your eyes. None of the things with which you deal daily are too trifling to tell you this incessantly, if you are but willing to hear it; and there is no lack of such preaching, for you have as many preachers as there are transactions, commodities, tools and other implements in your house and estate, and they shout this to your face: “My dear, use me toward your neighbor as you would want him to act toward you with that which is his.”‘

– Martin Luther (1483-1546), writing on Christian Vocation

Like every other United Methodist clergyperson, I have been following with varied levels of interest/frustration/heartbreak the 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland. What follows is a meditation on one of our most controversial issues: the ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons.

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