This week's e-note will cover the following subjects: Holy Week Habitat Update Great Kids Not "Practically Perfect" Holy Week: This weekend we will begin Holy Week, the most sacred time of the Christian year. Please make a commitment to be here for Palm/Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday (led by Bishop Spain), Good Friday (led by Bishop Pennel), and Easter. For more information about Holy Week, including a schedule of all our services, please click here. Habitat Update: So far we have received $43,500 for our upcoming Habitat build, and a good number of volunteers have signed up to work at the site. If you have not yet given your "second mile" (over and above your regular offering) for this project, or if you have not yet signed up to work on the site, please do so as soon as possible. If only 26 families would give $1,000 each, or 52 families would give $500 each, we would immediately reach our goal of $70,000. Please pray about your part (both time and money) in this life-changing, Christ honoring, exciting ministry. Great Kids: Last week I interviewed six of our confirmands. This is a long tradition at BUMC. Every spring, all of our children in
confirmation (about one hundred this year) meet with one of our staff members. It was an absolute joy meeting these sixth graders. I asked them about themselves and their families. Then we talked about their confirmation experience. My favorite conversation involved the Trinity. One of the young people said, "It's actually kind of confusing." Most adults would agree! These sixth graders were smart, articulate, eager and kind, and made me feel even more positive about the present and the future of BUMC. Not "Practically Perfect:" Last week my wife and I and some good friends went to a TPAC performance of "Mary Poppins." If you remember the story, Mary Poppins was "practically perfect in every way." A lot of church members wish their pastors were "practically perfect in every way." But that obviously is not the case. Two weeks ago, I ate lunch with a good pastor friend. I told him about a stupid mistake I recently made at BUMC. He responded by telling me about a big mistake he recently made at his church. Then I told him about a major mistake I made at my previous pastorate. He then told me about a whopper mistake he made at his previous church. This went on for some time. It finally ended with me saying, "It sure would be convenient if we could be perfect." Every pastor wishes he or she could be "practically perfect in every way" for their congregation. We wish we could always be great leaders, great preachers, and great caregivers. But that will never be the case. As the Apostle Paul once said to a group of laypeople in the book of Acts, "We are human like you." So when I or one of our other pastors or staff members at BUMC makes a mistake, which will happen often, we ask for your patience and forgiveness. And please keep us in your prayers, asking God to bless our ministry among you, in spite of the fact that we, unlike Mary Poppins, will never be "practically perfect in every way." Finally, it was good to receive the follow eighteen new members: Beth and Jerry Trescott, Jack and Deborah Tipton, Wesley Malone, Anna Womack, Natalie, Melanie, Brianna and Samantha Patterson, Diane Scott, Robert, Mayte, Grace and Andres Cassella,
Jane Ann Campbell, Daralyn Dwyer, and Carol Patton. Welcome to our church family. I hope to see you this weekend for Palm/Passion Sunday. In Christ's Love and Service, Martin