Pastor Paul's PostsA United Methodist minister for the last 24 years, this page contains journal posts beginning in 2017.
I hope to post pastoral comments here in the future as opportunities arise. |
TRAILRIDERS WALL In the Pecos Wilderness east of Santa Fe, New Mexico there is a very special place. I have probably written numerous posts before about this place. But it is time again to remember. In remembering, I give thanks for the experience Along the Way. You see, it is August and that is the time of year most often used in my work schedule for wilderness hikes and camping with family and friends in places different from Texas. Mostly it is a time to escape the hot temperatures of my home state. And also to enjoy the higher elevations, usually greener environments, and nature's beauty and majesty. This place you see in this photo afforded a sacredness on multiple occasions when my spiritual life needed a boost. God was present. Indeed, God is present each time I remember this place in my heart and mind. More to that matter in a moment. This year our family will be taking several day trips around the Austin area so that my 97 year-old father can participate. He enjoys getting out of the house just like we do, but the gear involved to make a longer trip is cumbersome. We traveled out to Bastrop State Park earlier in the week. As we enjoyed a late afternoon picnic seated on a refurbished day use table under a remodeled roof top leaning on a 1930s stone fireplace, we told stories of when Mom & Dad brought their three children camping here in the early 1960s. Fishing, camping, hiking, swimming, nighttime shuffleboard, board games (remember those played before smart phones or Ipads or Xbox), and so much more crammed into one week of vacation for an itinerant minister and family. Great memories indeed. You can imagine the smile on my father's face as he remembered the one-that-got-away. Yes, we have lots of fishing stories in our family about catch and release fishing. The release part was not always on purpose. Now back to the matter of sacredness and God's great glory displayed in the wilderness. So many of our wandering stories of the bible reflect the imagery of wilderness as a time rich with the experiences of God's presence. Abram journeyed from his home in Upper Mesopotamia into the drier hill country of Canaan. He journeyed in faith believing in this one God among many that called his name I am the Lord. A sacred call, a sacred journey, a sacred covenant - we remember the story and tell it as it was our own. And as Abraham's descendants, the people called Israel, journeyed in the wilderness with God upon leaving the forced labor of Egypt, they wandered through a sacred time. So many more stories from the Hebrew scipture tell us of God and the names that he was known for... the purposes of God's relationships. Beginning August 28 at Manchaca United Methodist Church, we will examine some of the names of God. We will remember the sacred stories of God's love, God's provision, God's healing presence, God's breath and re-creation in this world. Let us come to worship and praise the name of the One who created all things. Let us remember our role in the covenant of God's blessing. I invite you to remember the experiences that bind you to each other as a congregation and a family of faith. Bring your families. Give thanks! Along the Way Pastor Paul
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You may be wondering what the new lead pastor at Manchaca UMC is reading? In addition to several spiritual formation and spiritual direction resources, this month I am reading and digesting this book by Rebekah Simon-Peter, "Embracing the Next Normal: forging a new path; moving the church forward in a post-pandemic world." I have questions as I assume you do regarding the practice of worship and the near future expectations for our assembly of Jesus-followers. If we can agree that "post-pandemic" now applies in our context, then RSP offers some questions and her insight into those questions that may be useful for our discussion. She states that most pastors and church leaders she knows are asking three (3) persistent questions: When Do Things Go Back to Normal? How Do We Get People (Back) to Church? How Do We Do More with Less? In her book, RSP compares the impacts of pandemic in our current context with that of the bubonic plague on the church of an earlier day. Even though the current pandemic has only lasted several years as against the waves of death experienced over earlier centuries, she posits that the impact to people's lives and the impact to the church can be similarly viewed. And she believes lessons can be learned from the earlier pandemic(s) as to our actions going forward in the church. I am still digesting her work and finding my own agreement and disagreement with it. Maybe her truth-speaking is still too difficult for me to hear. I will be praying over this reading and discussing it with our church staff and church leaders. What we choose to do with it may be a blessing for our church? If so, I will report back to you in a later edition. In the meantime, allow me to say to you these things that come from RSP in this book: Something new emerged then for the church. I believe something new will emerge for the church in which we serve. We must begin to embrace that something new and engage our communities of faith in the unfolding future. Community and belonging in community continues to be a spiritual necessity for all believers. How will we engage that need and invite our neighbors, friend and stranger alike? In the almighty presence of God, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the comfort and advocate Spirit of God, may you find blessing in your faith journey. May it be shared so that glory comes upon this world in our time. Peace. Along the Way. Pastor Paul Hi friends, I find myself wandering this week in and among the sacred spaces of a new appointment in the United Methodist itinerancy. Being one of your pastors is a great joy! Being your new senior pastor is an honor. In six short weeks this summer, you have learned more about me and my family as we listen carefully to your family story when we meet more and more of you on a personal level. Praying with some of you at the altar rail this past week was truly a gift to me. As we continue to get to know each other, maybe it would help us all if I share what I mean about the sacred spaces of a new appointment. It is much like walking or sauntering through a labyrinth. The photos included show a 6 stage pattern that is very common and is the design of our labyrinth on the Manchaca UMC campus. As a person enters, there is a straightaway of welcome that appears to lead directly to the center and the cross and seating stations. Eureka! If it was only that easy to get to know all of you and the mission of this church! But wait, before too long in the labyrinth, there is a diversion and the pathway veers left and away from the center to make its way around the edges of the labyrinth. The center is in plain sight, but the pathway suggests the journey will take some time to get there. The center - the spiritual center for a seeker, the mission for a disciple, the calling and longing of all believers to be closer with God and in sync with God's spirit is always visible. And yet the path does not lead directly to that place, to that sacred space. Much traveling and physical work is required to reach the center. One thing I have learned Along the Way is that "the center" and its being in sight is enough for most days. When Christian vocation leads to many different places, conversations, dreams, ideas, failures, and successes, the pathway becomes an important revelation of the journey. The good news is that while we travel together toward the center which is Christ, I get to meet you at the bends and the curves of the labyrinth which is daily life. Some of you will call me seeking vision for a ministry or an idea for a small group. Some of you will reach out to me in the office of pastor for crisis care. Some will come alongside in small group or cottage meeting conversations Some of you will simply stop, pause, smile, wave, and continue your daily activities. In all of those sacred spaces and situations, I hope that we will allow the Spirit of God to be our friend and guide. We hope that you will join us this Sunday for in-person worship at 9:00 am or 11:15 am at Manchaca UMC. For those tuning in on www.facebook.com/ManchacaUMC, please let us know how we can join you in prayer. In all of the Sacred Spaces, Jesus Christ is Lord! Thanks be to God! Along the Way Pastor Paul Strength
Vacation Bible School week has used this teaching scripture verse in the Knights of North Castle theme: “… be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” - Ephesians 6:10 I was VBS age in the 60’s. I honestly can’t remember the themes or scriptures used to teach me and my elementary-aged friends. What I do remember is the teachers. I can name several by name and I regularly do state their names in prayers of thanksgiving. Being strong in the Lord was something I learned from each of them. When I observed their way of being in the world, the way they carried themselves, the words I heard come out of their mouths, that is what taught me to be strong in the Lord. Discipleship in the way of Jesus is often described in how or what we do in the community of faith. We meet one another and describe our functionality in the Body of Christ as an identifier as to who we are and why we are here. That helps a new pastor hear about the flock of a new congregation. And these days as a new pastor here at Manchaca UMC, the functional descriptors help me remember faces and names. But what I long for is knowing people by who they are in their time with Christ simply being who they are created to be. Sunday is coming! And this week we will examine the text from Luke’s gospel (10:38-42) which describes an encounter with Jesus and two sisters. Mary and Martha. Unlike the parallel scripture in John’s gospel where Jesus meets Mary and Martha in Bethany at the raising of their brother Lazarus, this text from Luke has five verses to describe the encounter. Somewhere Along the Way in the travel narrative of Luke, Jesus has time to make a Home Visit. What is described often leads us to speak of comparisons between Christin service (our functional roles like Martha’s obsessive need to demonstrate hospitality) and Christian faith. In different words, we contrast doing and being. Martha was distracted in her doing while Mary was engaged in holy listening at the feet of her rabbi and Lord. There seems to be strength in the Lord in both of these positions, in both of these sisters. Could it be that one way of being or doing is better than the other? Come along with us Sunday July 17 and let us talk about Jesus and being strong. Our lives are made better in the learning. See you Sunday! Along the Way Pastor Paul Coming Alongside in Faith, Hope, and Love
Greetings friends, I pray that the faith, hope, and love that this congregation already exhibits continues to grow and flourish in the days and years to come. In between unpacking boxes, finding our way around the area, discovering new friends, and remembering those we have known before, the Harris family is eagerly praying that we may serve in such a way as to build up the Body of Christ at Manchaca UMC in fruitful ministry. Week three is underway and Sunday is coming! To illustrate in our family what it means to build up the body of Christ, I am including a photo of my brother David with his grandchildren at GrandCamp. My brother is one of the most patient people I know. As a parent and now as a grand-parent, he is invested in the growth of his family in ways that lead to a pathway of peace. He teaches calmly. He corrects with compassion. He listens... wow, can he sit and listen. I admire him and his love of family. Laura and I get to go to GrandCamp every summer with my brother and his wife Kathy. This year will be the first time back together since 2019. As family chaperones, we help love, care, coach, cook, fish, hike, and tell stories. This year we will take along a new telescope and provide some stargazing after the nightly campfire. As the young ones look at the stars, they then get to participate in the nightly Star Chart. Each child gets to affirm and confirm acts of kindness and encouragement experienced during the day. Stars are awarded and a chart is kept. And prizes are involved; incentives for being the children that this family wants to help shape as they grow into responsible adults with good habits and sound decision making skills. From our family to the church family: we want to be with you in such a way that all of us together are encouraged in faith through the teaching of Jesus and the sharing of the scriptures, emboldened in hope as the Spirit of God leads us to new days and new opportunities, and encompassed in the love of Christ in all the time we share together. The Apostle Paul came alongside many church families. He started many of them and then wrote letters to the churches as a teacher and coach. This week we will read from Colossians 1:1-14 and hear Paul's greeting and blessing to the church at Colossae. I will attempt to speak about what it means for a church community to receive and share blessings, the kind that lead to growth and fruitfulness. I may even share a time when a blessing changed my ministry horizon. So, join us in worship this Sunday July 10th as we bless the volunteers who will launch into the work of teaching and caring for children at our Vacation Bible School (begins July 11th). And then you all are invited to pray for and with the VBS team, its families, and its dreams... for the blessings of the Lord surely will flow from and among this community of faith. Along the Way Pastor Paul Greetings,
This weekend is one in which my family has always enjoyed gathering around table, making and sharing ice cream in the backyard, and celebrating birthdays. It’s time for our annual 4th of July celebration! Dad will celebrate 97 years as we invite our immediate neighbors to a front yard walk-in. We have discovered that with this hot summer most of our neighbors are out in their yards and walking around at 9:00 pm. So Dad has decided to stay up and help us greet the new neighbors. Laura has handed out invitations and is preparing the outdoor table. I guess my part will be the ice cream. Making the ice cream is one of my fondest memories of our 4th of July family reunions in Kerrville. Sid and Dott Harris welcomed their family and hosted an annual event to celebrate at least five birthdays. And I remember helping my G-Daddy make the ice cream. The best part was hearing his stories about his childhood, his early years, and what he remembered. He also was prone to telling me (and all of us) about his dreams. The ones about what he hoped for in his family heirs. The hope that the grandkids and their kids would enjoy a life even more joyful and grace-filled than the one he had known. Now to the point. It’s about Inter-dependence. You see, when I celebrate the 4th of July as a citizen of this great land, I remember that the independence from tyranny can only be sustained when I take part in the connection of family, new neighbors, and Faith communities. I am literally Inter-dependent with you as together we strive for a life that gives the opportunities of freedom to all. Freedom is a tricky word. So I do not use it much. Rather, I choose words like peace. I think that if we were all to share peace, like the Hebrew Shalom and the Ancient Greeting “Peace be with you!”, well, then we might remember how important freedom can be for all persons. This Sunday, we will tell the biblical story from Luke 10 about Jesus sending 70 persons ahead of him in mission as they journeyed through Samaria toward their eventual destination of Jerusalem. Jesus and his band of followers ventured through a neighborhood that had been labeled as outcast and his command to each of those sent was to proclaim peace. Simply put, they were to announce that family and neighboring harmony could once again be possible because the Messiah was near. I cannot predict which story my Dad will choose to tell outside sharing ice cream with our new neighbors this weekend. But I can guess that it will be one from his family history and his ministry with people across this land. It most assuredly will contain a word of peace. That is what G-Daddy left for us to share. Peace is of the utmost importance in the message we so desperately need to speak and to hear. Shalom. Peace be with you! Along the Way Pastor Paul The neighborhood greeter I will call K brought these over last evening just to say, “I hope you enjoy living here.”
And I was beginning to develop strategies for neighboring as a new pastor in the neighborhood. A child brought me flowers, smiled, and said simply Welcome Home. The hard part of moving is doing the sorting before packing. It’s tedious work. But if it is not done, packing boxes becomes a never-ending process. So we sort.
Oh by the way, we are preparing to move. Thus the sorting before packing. Moving for this pastor is something I have done many times over the years in active Ministry and prior to that as child of an itinerant Methodist pastor. But it never gets easier emotionally. So we stick to the process. And so my job today is to sort. You can probably tell that I am procrastinating by doing other things, other than sorting. It’s hard work - sorting. Thanks for listening. Back at it. Paul Along the Way It seems like Spring is here! Yesterday in worship, there was a new energy among the Methodists gathered in Hunt, Tx. The surrounding landscape is also showing signs of new growth in a new season. Hummingbirds and orioles have been spotted in the area. And the recently completed Spring Break for students, teachers, administrators, and parents has brought on that much needed energy to make ready for required testing and semester launching activities. Laura and I were able to take a spring break trip to Virginia to see our son Ben and future daughter-n-law Rebecca. To say we were re-energized is an understatement. Maybe it's the fact that they live over 1,500 miles away. Maybe it's the lockdown and lack of travel over the last several years. But it sure was good to get on an airplane and share a long weekend of wedding plans with B&R. It seems like... Just yesterday, that I was reading stories to an inquisitive youngster and singing songs from our family tradition to soothe and calm him for a restful night. Just yesterday, that Laura and I sponsored his Cub Scouts & Webelos Den. A group of 8 boys growing up together in elementary school together now all grown men and on their own. Just yesterday, that Ben was graduating from High School and then College. And the wilderness backpacking trips we shared in those days still provide inspiration to this father (Photo here shows Trailriders Wall in the Pecos Wilderness with Truches Peaks in the distance). Just yesterday, that Rebecca came into our lives. She and Ben are meant to be together. And they have a plan. I get to officiate their wedding. To say I am one proud father is to understate the importance of my son's life. Ben is the blessing of my life. I hope I can find the words to properly convey that truth at his wedding. It seems like... Just yesterday, that Anabel my mother passed to the next step in her journey. I hope to share some words soon about her and the experiences we shared. For it is Spring and another season of new life is upon us. Peace be yours, Along the Way Pastor Paul In June of this year Pastor Paul and Laura Harris will be moving to Austin as Paul is being appointed as the next Senior Pastor of Manchaca United Methodist Church. While we were not seeking another appointment, we honor the Methodist itinerant system of appointments for pastoral ministry. We remain faithful to the Lord who has called us and who sends us Along the Way.
And so we begin the season of Lent with tremendous gratitude for the people of Hunt United Methodist Church. We also begin to pray for the opportunities that await us with the people of Manchaca United Methodist Church. Coming and going is always a time filled with full emotion in the lives of Methodist pastors and churches. So we ask for your prayers as we too pray for each family in both churches. May the peace of Jesus Christ be with us. Pastor Paul Along the Way |
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Author: Paul E HarrisJournal posts from a pastor and spiritual friend Archives
October 2023
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