TEMC Blog

An opinion piece made the rounds among us pastor types recently. Its author was saying goodbye not just to a congregation, but to pastoral ministry. It’s an old and creaky narrative that congregations are stuck in their ways. We clergy fancy ourselves more forward-thinking than our timid flocks.

Friends, I want to invite (nay—beg!) you to come to two events in the next two weeks as we start our church year.

Institutions like ours are good at starting out the year with dramatic statements. With bold plans and spreadsheets. With five-year plans and stirring announcements of ambitious goals. We need these. In fact, we will be doing some longer-range planning this fall. But these two events start us out in a different key. They are the work before the work.

Friends, I’d like to ask you to mark your calendars for an event early in the fall. It’ll take some doing to get to for some of our non-retirees especially, but it’s worth it.

“How long’s it been since you’ve sat in this office?”

“I was last here when mom died. Before that it was when I got married.”

She has been at our church her whole life. Her mom died more than a decade ago. She was married some 30 years ago. I joke that she should come by more often at less momentous occasions. She graces my poor humour with a half-second’s smile. 

I’ve been grateful to hear from our finance folks that y’all have responded well to my financial appeal. Several dozen of you have gotten in touch with that office to increase your giving and explicitly mentioned the letter. We’re a church that steps up when called upon. I’m proud of that.

Written By Rachel McMillan

A few months ago, I was gifted the privilege of taking a trip down bookish memory lane. A few of us, including Rev Lori, went to town attempting to organize the TEMC library. On that first day, we weeded and organized and sneezed through the dust of books that had sat untouched for many years.

I loved my first Easter here. The music was loud and thumpy. The crowd was boisterous (y’all even laughed at the jokes! Most of them...). The choir was its electric self. The band and Stephen did their usual best and then some. The preacher didn’t ruin things too badly. We managed to mark Jesus risen and reigning. And the children! An overflowing, bubbling over mass of children. Nupur was invisible at the children’s moment, covered up by so many children.

At 9:15am that is.

Friends, if you’ve been in our sanctuary recently, I hope you’ve noticed our heritage cabinet on our eastern wall, not far from the entry to the atrium. There, our own Charles Sweetman has been gathering mementos, photos, articles, and memories from our history. He has done this with seasonable appropriateness: first Christmas, then Valentine's, then St. Patrick, then Easter, and perhaps more that I missed. His displays have been beautiful, poignant, funny, and profound.

Lent is a season for giving up good things to remember the ultimate. It’s a season when the church refrains even from saying “hallelujah.” That’s an Easter word. Lent is a preparation for the cross, and a time to reflect on our own sins that send Jesus there.

What to preach?