Keith Church – The Keith Church Blog

“The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” – John 17:22-23

These words are from Jesus’ prayer for his disciples on the night before he went to the cross. He’s praying for his disciples then, but he’s also praying for those who will believe in him because of them. In other words, he’s praying for his disciples today, too. He’s praying for us.

How comforting it is to know that Jesus is praying for us just as he was praying for them, as anxious as they must have been on that night, their last time all together with him before the cross. And as anxious as we are today, with news of the decline in church membership in the U.S. below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eighty years of polling, with news of division in our denomination and the launch of the new Global Methodist Church earlier this month, and with the changes taking place here at Keith Church in this season of pastoral transitions. It’s comforting to know Jesus is praying for us now just as he was praying for his disciples then.

There’s a lot of things Jesus prays for in this prayer, his longest recorded prayer in the Gospels. He prays for our protection as we are sent out into the world just as he was sent into the world. He prays for our sanctification in the truth of his word. He prays for our joy. But ultimately this is Jesus’ prayer for our unity – “that they all may be one” (v. 21).

There are three dimensions to this unity in Christ that I want to explore here briefly: the source of this unity (where it comes from), the substance of this unity (what it is), and the purpose of this unity (what it’s for).

First, what is the source of our unity in Christ? Where does it come from? Jesus’ prayer reveals that the source of our unity as disciples in Christ is the oneness that Jesus shares with the Father. This oneness is depicted beautifully in the prayer’s language of reciprocity and mutuality. “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one” (v.21, 23). We can sense the intimacy between them in the intimate language of prayer. Perhaps we, too, feel most at one with God in our own times of prayer.

It’s refreshing to remember that the source of our unity is not in ourselves and who we are and our relationships with others, but in God and who God is and in God’s relationship with us in Christ. The source of our unity in Christ is Christ’s unity with the Father.

Second, what is the substance of this unity? What is it? It’s probably easier to start out by saying what it is not. It’s not uniformity. It’s not everyone looking alike, acting alike, worshiping alike. Just look at the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have different roles and functions. Their unity is not one of uniformity but of diversity.

Neither is it unanimity. It’s not everyone thinking alike, agreeing on everything. Just look at Jesus’ very first disciples. They were a motley crew. They included a tax collector, someone who worked for the government, but they also included at least one Zealot, a member of a group that sought to overthrow the government, by violent means if necessary. We can well imagine they didn’t agree on everything, or perhaps even much of anything!

The unity for which Jesus prays is a unity in love, a word mentioned five times in the last four verses of this prayer. Especially in the last verse: “I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (v. 26).

This love for which Jesus prays for us to be united is so much more than a warm fuzzy feeling. It’s a firm commitment to love those who can be tough for us to love, to love when we may not feel like loving, to love even when that love is not reciprocated.

Before Jesus prayed this prayer, he gave his disciples a “new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Which lead us to our third question: what is the purpose of our unity in Christ? Jesus emphasizes in his prayer that our unity in him is “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (v. 21). It is “so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (v. 23). Our unity in Christ is not for unity’s own sake; it’s not even for our sake; it’s for the sake of the as-yet unbelieving world, so that they may come to believe in him. Our oneness in Christ is a vital part of our witness to the world that might draw them to Christ.

Christ called the church to be different from the world. I worry when the ways of the world – its divisiveness, its polarization – finds its way into the world. That doesn’t attract a skeptical, cynical world to Christ; it repels them. After all, if the church is just as divided and divisive as the world, why would anyone in the world want to be a part of it? Jesus is still praying for the unity of the church for the sake of the world, and it’s obviously a prayer that is yet to be fulfilled.

Again, it’s a unity in love. It’s a unity that conservative biblical commentator William Barclay describes as a unity of the heart. He acknowledges that churches will never organize or worship in exactly the same ways or even believe precisely all the same things. What hinders our unity, he writes, is that we love our doctrines, our rituals, and our creeds more than we love one another.

And yet how does the song we sing go? “They’ll know we are Christians by our…” By our what? By our rules? By our politics? By our social media posts? No, “they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

I pray that Jesus’ prayer may be fulfilled in each of your lives, in the life of Keith Church, and in the life of the church in the world. I pray that each one of you are one with the source of our unity in Christ, that you know in your own heart and life the love of God in Christ.

And I pray for a spirit of unity in love at Keith Church, a unity that is neither uniformity (after all, we have two different styles of worship services in two different spaces, and maybe having one pastor will help to reinforce that spirit of unity) nor unanimity. One of the great strengths of Keith Church over the years is its diversity. People here see things from all kinds of different perspectives, and I find that very enriching. I learn new things from people who see things differently than I do. And we don’t have to agree with one another to love one another. A colleague told a story this past week about a woman in her congregation who disagreed with another member of her Sunday school class about some issue. The pastor asked her if that meant she didn’t want to do church with that member anymore, and the woman said, “Heavens no! This is my class, those are my people, and I love them.”

And I pray that this spirit of unity in love may draw more people in the Athens community and all across the world to a saving faith in the love of God through Jesus Christ.

Enneagram, United Methodist Church

Striving for Perfection…ism

August 19, 2019August 7, 2019 Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

A few months ago, our church spent some time looking at the Enneagram. The Enneagram is like a personality test that allows folks to gain a deeper insight about who they are and how they are built. There are nine type of personalities in the enneagram, and I have discovered that I identify as type One – The Perfectionist.

As a Perfectionist, I like things to be done a certain way. Ones, in general, have a need to be right, do the right thing, and to live right. We avoid fault, blame, chaos, and disorder.

In their book The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert write, “The Apostle Paul was a one. He was a Pharisee. Ones were born Pharisees.”

I have a hard time thinking about Ones being connected to the Pharisees. After all, Jesus seemed to be pretty upset with them throughout Scripture. However, I can somewhat understand the motivations behind the Pharisees’ actions. The Pharisees are just trying to do what they think is the right thing. They are trying to maintain order in the midst of chaos. They are driven by their need to restore order and bring about perfection in an imperfect world. This is why Ones are often criticized for being critical of themselves and of others. They are driven by their need to “fix” things.

Recently someone told me that being a One is the hardest type to be. I don’t know how much truth there is to that, but I can understand why they said it. The defining characteristic of a one is the inner critic that they hear inside your head. “I’m not good enough. I need to be better. I need to be perfect.”

In his book Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden writes, “In the inner courtroom of my mind, mine is the only judgment that counts.”

This inner voice forces Ones to constantly seek out “perfection” whatever that might be. This is a voice that Ones know all too well.

Perhaps my “One-ness” is what draws me so much to the United Methodist Church. As Methodists we believe in Christian Perfection.

Now, when we think of the word “perfection,” all sorts of things come to mind. We think about being flawless and being beyond reproach. We think about being like Superman and never making a mistake. When we think about being perfect, we think about someone who has their lives completely figured out and never makes a false step.

But this isn’t what John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, had in mind when he spoke of Christian Perfection. Instead, Christian Perfection means that you have gotten to the point where you truly love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And you truly love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37, 38). Christian Perfection is not something that we can work to attain on our own, but this is something that God does through us and even despite us.

Jesus calls us to be perfect as God is perfect, but this doesn’t mean that we need to fall into the trap of Perfectionism. Instead, God invites us to go on a journey where we become more and more like Jesus.

Ones sometimes need to be reminded that we are called to be perfect like Jesus, not “perfect” like the Pharisees.

So, may God work within our hearts and minds as we strive to love God and love our neighbors.

Uncategorized

It’s Okay Not to Be Okay

July 29, 2019July 12, 2019 Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

I have a good friend who struggles with anxiety and depression. She has a real medical condition that she has been prescribed medication to help treat. It is a real struggle that affects how she lives her daily life.

A few months ago, she attended a United Methodist Church in a neighboring Conference where the pastor preached on the passage where Jesus tell us, “Do Not Worry.” The pastor essentially said, “If you worry, then you are not a Christian.” He harshly condemned people who struggle with worry and anxiety, saying that those people have a lack of faith. He said, “If you worry or struggle with anxiety, then you don’t really trust God.”

I know someone else who struggled with the loss of one of his close friends who passed away. In fact, he was right by his friend’s side when he died. He attempted to give his friend CPR but was unsuccessful. As you might imagine, he had a hard time dealing with this deep sense of loss. He also had a hard time dealing with this traumatic experience. He felt guilty.

His parents suggested that he should go and see a counselor. They made an appointment with an older minister who ended up challenged my friend about his faith. “If you were truly a Christian,” the pastor said, “Then you wouldn’t be sad that your friend died. Instead, you would be happy because he is now in heaven.”

Wow. Really?

When my friends recounted these stories about these two pastors, it made my blood boil. I’m sorry, but I have to completely disagree with these two “colleagues” of mine.

Who said you have to be okay all of the time?

No one can be happy 100% of the time. We all have good days and bad days. We all experience ups and downs. You don’t have to act like everything is okay on the outside when it feels like your whole world is falling apart on the inside. Your feelings are your feelings. Let yourself feel.

When I experienced a deep loss of someone close to me who had died, the best thing that someone said to me was, “Whatever you are feeling, it is okay to feel that way.” In other words, “It’s okay not to be okay.”

These pastors who think you have to have it together all the time are just dead wrong. It makes me wonder, have they even read the Bible before? The Bible is full of stories of people who are inadequate and don’t have it all together. We can think of numerous examples of people in Scripture who experience deep pain and sadness, and that doesn’t mean that God can’t still use them. Scripture reminds us that you don’t have to have it all together in order to be in relationship with God.

God is with you, whether you are happy or sad. God is with you, whether you are experiencing faith or doubt. God is with you, whether you are on the mountain or in the valley.

God is with you, and God will meet you where you are. There is always hope that things will get better. God’s grace is always there to surround us and overflow in our hearts and minds.

Those who know that God summons the sun to rise are confident that, whatever tomorrow brings, it will also bring God with it.”
– Thomas G. Long, (Long Matthew 1997)

God is not going to leave us where God found us. There is hope for a future, because God moves and works in our lives all the time – But maybe right now you are in a place where it seems hopeless. And in the meantime, just remember…

It’s okay not to be okay.

Identity, Image of God, love

Who Gets To Say Who You Are

July 12, 2019July 12, 2019 Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

It was great to be in the Gathering to share in worship this past Sunday. One of the songs that Josh and the band played was a song I’ve been hearing on the radio a lot these days. Andrew’s fiancé Ally sang it so beautifully and so poignantly on Sunday.

It’s a song that started out on the Christian radio stations and then crossed over to mainstream radio. I can hardly get in the car without hearing it come on the radio. I’ve even had the experience once of hearing it on two different radio stations at the same time! Maybe you’ve heard this song, too. It’s by a young woman named Lauren Daigle, and it’s called “You Say.”

Here’s a link to the official music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaT8Jl2zpI

A few weeks ago, I heard it again, and I began to wonder how it is that this song has become so popular, has crossed over from Christian to mainstream radio so successfully, and has gathered so much attention that Daigle was invited to perform her song on the stage of this year’s Billboard Music Awards.

And then I realized: it’s her lyrics. It’s the transparency, the vulnerability with which she shares her struggles to come to know who she is, to claim her worth, her identity:

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?
Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know

And that’s the moment when she unleashes the first “ooh-oh” of many in this song. These days, as soon as I start to hear the meandering piano part at the beginning of this song on the radio, I just go ahead and blurt out a big old hefty “OOH-OH!” much to the annoyance of my family members who happen to be in the car with me.

But who among us cannot relate to those voices in our own minds that try to tell us we’re not enough, that we’ll never measure up to somebody else’s (or even, or especially, our own) expectations of us? Who doesn’t wonder if our lives only amount to the grand total of the difference between the highs and the lows, the good days and the bad? As I shared with the youth at the conference youth assembly a couple of weeks ago, I’m 45 years old and I still fight those voices and wonder those same things.

Who among us doesn’t need to be reminded from time to time who we really, truly and most deeply are?

Then she kicks into the chorus:

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours
And I believe, oh I believe
What You say of me
I believe

What powerful words! Read them again if you need to. Absorb them. Let them find their way into your heart so that you can believe them and trust them, too. Let yourself be the “I” who is loved even when you can’t feel it, who is strong even you’re weak, who is upheld when you’re falling down and beheld when you don’t belong.

And if you’re the “I,” then who’s the “You”? Who’s the “You” she’s singing to here in this song? Who’s the “You” who gets to say who you and I are? Do you see? It’s God! She’s singing this song to God. That means this song is a prayer. It’s a prayer to God. This song that has crossed over to mainstream radio and has won all these awards and was featured on the Billboard Music Awards program is a prayer. And whenever we sing it in the car, or in church, or in the shower or wherever, it’s a prayer then, too.

It’s a prayer for God to remind us who we are, especially when we are so prone to forget it.

The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity.

So, who is the only one who can tell us who we are? Is it all these voices in our minds? Is it all those voices out there in the world? Who gets to say who we are? The only one who gets to tell us who we are is the one who made us, the one who created us, the one who loves us, the one who saves us.

OOH-OH!!!

History

The History of Keith Memorial United Methodist Church and the Keith Family – Sally Ealy

June 21, 2019July 12, 2019 Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

We hope you enjoy this special presentation by our local historian Sally Ealy who spoke at the Heritage Museum during the History For Lunch Lecture Series. Below is a video of Sally sharing some of the history of Keith Memorial United Methodist Church and the Keith Family.

The History of Keith Family

History of Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

Holy Spirit

Pour Out Your Holy Spirit

June 17, 2019July 12, 2019 Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

Rev. Andrew Lay being commissioned by Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor

On Wednesday, June 12, 2019, I was commissioned as a provisional member in Holston Annual Conference at Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. It has been a long journey to get to this point, and I still have a long way to go. The process began when I entered the candidacy program in the summer of 2010. A few years later, I received my pastoral license on October 1, 2014. Then, last week started a three-year period as I continue the process of becoming an ordained elder in full connection of the Annual Conference.

Some of you may be wondering, “What does it mean to be commissioned as a provisional member?”

That is a good question…

As The Book of Discipline states,

“Commissioning is the act of the church that publicly acknowledges God’s call and the response, talents, gifts, and training of the candidate. The church invokes the Holy Spirit as the candidate is commissioned to be a faithful servant leader among the people, to lead the church in service, to proclaim the Word of God and to equip others for ministry.”
(BOD ¶ 325).

I love this description. I especially love that it speaks about how the church invokes the Holy Spirit.

Just a few days before my commissioning, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday which was when the disciples experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on their lives. The Scripture passage below recounts this special moment.

“2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” Acts 2:1-4 (NRSV).

As I knelt down during the commissioning service, Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor placed her hands over me and said, “Pour out your Holy Spirit on Andrew Curtis Lay. Send him now to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, to announce the reign of God, and to equip the church for ministry, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

I know you might think I’m crazy, but at that moment I felt a sense that there were tongues of fire hovering above my head. Now granted, I was wearing a black robe and under some pretty warm stage lights. But still, I felt the sense that God truly was pouring out God’s Spirit on my life. This was a special moment that will be with me for the rest of my life.

My hope is that we all feel the Holy Spirit working in our lives. May we wake up every morning and say, “Pour out your Holy Spirit.” Amen.

Enneagram

Know Your Number – Session 2

June 10, 2019July 12, 2019 Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

A healthy self-awareness is one of the most important qualities we can have as Christians. One of the best tools available to foster a healthy self-awareness is the Enneagram. Rooted in ancient wisdom, the Enneagram explores our key motivations, our core fears, our virtues, our vulnerabilities, and our blind spots. It posits that we all fall into one of nine different personality types, often identified simply by number, that relate to how we approach and experience our lives and our world. In this second session, Dave Graybeal and Mark Reedy explore what our numbers might help us learn about ourselves and our relationships with God and one another. Below you can listen to a recording of the second session of this study!

Session 2 – Listen Here

Enneagram Handout (Mentioned in the Recording)Download

Welcome

Welcome!

May 14, 2019July 12, 2019 Keith Memorial United Methodist Church

Welcome to The Keith Church Blog, the official blog of Keith Memorial United Methodist Church! Here you will find posts on various topics written by members of our staff and our congregation. This blog is designed to be a helpful and valuable resource to you. We hope that this blog will teach you, challenge you, and inspire you as you seek to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

To find out more about our church you can check out our website. You can also follow us on Facebook and twitter.

– The Staff at Keith Church

Tag: Keith Church

Jesus’ Prayer for Unity