e-Note from Martin - May 1 Issue

Dear Church Family, Over the past week, I had two interesting conversations with two United Methodist pastors. One serves a large, out of state "mega-church." The other serves a small congregation here in Tennessee. Both were refreshingly honest. One of the pastors openly shared that his son is struggling with chemical addiction. Obviously, this has caused him and his wife deep pain and grief. Thankfully, their son is in recovery and things, while still messy, are getting better. The other pastor told me that his wife left him two months ago and he believes a divorce is inevitable. Both stories reminded me that all persons, including pastors, are wounded and broken and struggling in some way.

At Brentwood UMC, many of us look like we have it all together.

Large numbers of us have good jobs and live in nice homes and have done well professionally. But we should never be na誰ve about outward appearances. The truth is that the people in our congregation, like people everywhere, struggle with family turmoil, addictions of all kinds, financial strains, faith struggles, physical aliments, and a host of other human traumas.

One of my dreams for BUMC is that we become a safe place for broken people like you and me to be real, transparent and vulnerable about our brokenness. To some extent, that is already

happening, especially in long-term groups with high trust levels.

My hope is that kind of culture will increase, and that people will learn that BUMC is a safe place to bring our deepest wounds, fears, questions and inadequacies as we journey toward wholeness through the healing power of Jesus Christ and Christian community.

One of my favorite musicians is a blind man named Ken Medema. In one of his songs he asks, "If this is not a place where my tears are understood, where can I go to cry? And if this is not a place where my questions can be asked, where can I go to seek?

And if this is not a place where my spirit can take wings, where can I go to fly?" My hope and prayer is that BUMC will, more and more, become that kind of place.

I hope to see you this weekend as we continue our journey through the Lord's Prayer. This week we'll be dealing with the phrase, "Father, who art in heaven." I'll be sharing on a very personal level how this image of God transformed my life.

If you missed worship last Sunday, I hope you will take the time to watch the video about our extension ministry at the Center for Youth Ministry Training. You can view it at www.cymt.org. Congratulations to Lindsay Brooks, our Associate Director of Student Ministries and Emma Loane, our Trinity campus youth pastor on their commissioning.

Our children's ministry has an urgent need for summer Sunday School teachers. If you have one Sunday during the summer that you could teach a class, it would make a big difference. No preparation is necessary - everything you need is provided.

Contact Holly Fisher, hfisher@bumc.net to volunteer to teach preschoolers and Beth Lentchner, blentchner@bumc.net for elementary children.

Finally, it was good to receive James Morrison, Leah Jones, Caroline Hale and Jonas Heuer as new members. Welcome to our church family.

In Christ's Love and Service, Martin