Ramona United Methodist Church
The Valley Spirit
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
May 2012
Notes From The Lay Leader Inside this issue: Lay Leader Article
2
Hunger Walk UMW
3
Friendship Circle Birthdays Treasurer
4
By the time you read this we will be halfway through Eastertide and well on our way into Spring. Truly, this is a time of new life in our community, in our church and hopefully within each of you. Now is the time for all of us to consider how we will reflect the Good News of the stone rolled away and the empty tomb. How will you reflect your status as a child of God?
OUR VISION:
These questions are nothing new. As far back as 85 AD Christian communities were asking themselves "Do I really need to do this hard work?" They had come to realize that Jesus' return was not going to be immediate. False teachers were harassing the church and enticing its members to embrace a different and easier approach to life. Following the teachings of Jesus made the members of the early Christian church different and sometimes being different is hard.
An inclusive community of faith, learning and serving for the glory of Christ
One of my favorite quotes is from George Bernard Shaw, “Re a so n a b le p e o p le a d a pt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”
NAMI Open Door Dinner Calendar
5
Volunteers LPLC
6
Scrip Notes from Music Director
7
I like it so much that I once had business cards made with my title as Unreasonable Software Engineer. I saw my role at the time as one who needed to drive changes to an organizations development process. Perhaps I'll print some cards with the title of Unreasonable Christian, although without the context of the quote, I'm sure that some will equate unreasonable with intractable or worse yet, equate it with the phrase "unreasonable faith" used often by atheists. So here's how I think we need to reflect our status as children of God by being Unreasonable Christians. After searching for a way to frame my arguments, I decided on what is often called the greatest commandment. We have all probably heard and read Jesus' commandments. As a reminder, here it is as written in Matthew 22, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first commandment.
and
Cont’d on Page 2
great