Rev. Baron Ashfield and his wife Linda came to our congregation on July 1, 2007. He will be with us as our Interim Pastor until a new pastor is chosen.
Baron's Stewardship Letter | Stewardship | The Church
Psalm 27 for Lent
With the living and eternal God as my goal and guide, fear and anxiety preempt no place in my life. All the evil in the world is not able to destroy Him, nor can it destroy anyone within His loving embrace. The very legions of hell lay siege to my soul, only to be thwarted by a power far greater.
I have one primary and ultimate desire: to abide within the love and acceptance of God. Within His tender care I know I am safe.
Thus I shall stand tall regardless of threatening enemies and the tyranny of evil. I will counter the subtle voice of temptation with exclamations of praise to my God.
My God does hear when I cry out to Him. He does not ignore my needs, nor is He indifferent to my desires. He will not let me go even if my very own family should turn against me. He will sustain me and keep me on course through the dangers and pitfalls of this life
It is possible to know and experience God’s love in this uncertain, tumultuous existence. Take courage, step out in faith, scorning consequences. Let God have His way with you.
Baron's Stewardship Letter
The other day, I was walking down the hall from my office to the bathroom, frankly, and as I came near the door a little guy, maybe five, caught my eye. He was waiting his turn on the bench with his mom to go “grocery shopping” in our Food Pantry. I stopped to say hello. His mom told me how excited he was to go shopping in our Food Pantry because the volunteers running the store allow him to pick out what he likes to eat for dinner, and they are so nice to him. The little guy taking in his mom’s words added, “I always get a treat too, just for me!”
“Wow!” I said back to him, “that’s so cool.”
Multiply by hundreds these seemingly small acts of gentle grace and kindness and you have the sum of our life and ministry here at First Presbyterian.
I consider myself the most fortunate of people among us because, on a daily basis, I am privileged to witness and participate in these acts of love. I am blessed daily! There are so many people in and out of our doors, with so many missions of kindness that it is overwhelming.
Take the gentleman from AA who is always finding out in our parking lot a “lost” 20 dollar bill and brings it in to Linda to use in our ministry outreach.
Take Rotarian Juliette, by the way, Rotary meets in our church weekly due to the warmth and breakfast provided by our Hospitality Committee, Juliette had a vision that our growing Latino Community could use a good dose of English Language Training and was given by Session a classroom where she meets with and teaches more than 20 Latino Students. I could go on. I could multiply these many acts of kindness springing from First Presbyterian. Simply I note that for me I am privileged to witness and participate in these acts of love. I am blessed daily, as are many, coming and going through each day.
One last act I must share. A second grader hands me a “word of wisdom”, composed and hand-written by her, at the end of a Sunday Worship Service. She said it was written for me. I was so touched I turned my head to wipe away a tear. Her word - (I quote exactly as it is written):
god dose so many things for us yet he says we do not have to repay him, but we should at least try! If he dose nice things for us we should do nice thing for him in repay. god taught us to do that so we shall not say that we use that on him. If people do things nice for you do things nice for him.
Wow! that’s so cool.
Is there any question why we pledge and support First Presbyterian?
But let’s talk. Let’s hear from each other - share our church stories of blessings given and received, share how glad we are to be in this special family share how we see things, things we could do more of, things we could do better, add new things, all in the new year 2010.
We have scheduled two Town House Meetings to bring us together to talk and share. The first Town House Meeting will be at my house (The Manse) on Saturday, Jan. 23, at 4:00pm. The Second Town House Meeting will be after Church on Sunday Jan.24, in New Fellowship Hall. Please plan now to join us. We’d love to hear from you. Call the Church Office and let us know you plan to attend.
Thank you and Peace,
Baron
Stewardship
“Stewardship?” “Oh, No!” “Not Again!” These may be fairly common reactions to that time of the year when churches conduct their Annual Fund Drives.
Frankly, who likes a Fund Drive? But, let’s stop a minute and give this sore subject some thoughtful consideration.
It may come as a surprise to you that no other subject occupies Jesus preaching and teaching more than this subject of Stewardship – money and material possessions. Professor Dawn Wilhelm notes that of the 38 Parables in the New Testament, 17 of them pertain to possessions and giving, that over 2100 verses touch on Stewardship. Amazing! Comparing 2100 verses to the 272 verses that are found on the subject of “Right Beliefs”, or the 371 verses on the topic of Prayer, obviously, Jesus (and The New Testament) is keen having us put our wealth and abundance to work for Heaven’s sake.
It will come as no surprise that we in America do enjoy, for the most part, abundance and prosperity. In light of so many verses that speak to us of Stewardship, and in the midst of our abundance we must ask: “What in Heaven’s name are we called to do with our resources?”
The best answer is the easiest, and in sum is simply expressed by the sign hanging above our New Fellowship Hall - “Blessed to be a Blessing.”There are many ways of expanding upon this stewardship principle. Consider, for example, that when we pray “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” we are praying that as Heaven’s blessings are showered upon us, may we in turn be the conduits of Heaven’s blessings flowing forward. Hence we enact what we daily pray.
In attempting to find honest, effective, and healthy ways of being the conduits of Heaven’s blessings flowing forward, it is most important not to try to go it alone. We must not give in to becoming the whole show. Rather we join with a genuine blessing forward community, in the name of Jesus Christ, under His authority, and following His Stewardship Principles.
And, here we are. And, here we gather as First Presbyterian, an honest, effective and healthy community of conduits - Blessed to be a Blessing! There is much that we do for Heaven’s sake, much that we could “boast” of. Are we not a most fortunate people, a most blessed community.
Every once in a while we need to stop, look and listen. Life wears on. We fall into old comfortable habits. There can be some slippage of our highest values and most esteemed principles. After all we are human! So, our Lord calls us to take stock. The unexamined life is not worth living. How are we doing currently as blessed conduits?
In response to our Lord’s call our Session has determined to address the subject of Stewardship 2010. What is the best use of our resources going forward for Heaven’s sake? It was decided that we need a new and fresh approach. Doing the same old tried and true will not cut the mustard. We will not conduct the usual November Stewardship Campaign for 2010’s budget year. Stewardship is more important than following along in well rutted paths. After all there are 2100 verses speaking to us.
Our first order of new Stewardship business is to put out a call to you, the members, to form a Blessed to be a Blessing Team. Please consider serving on this new team - share your vision, express your hopes, give your hearts, use your heads, and let’s see how our Lord will bring to fresh expression the ways we are to bless forward.
When the Team in in place, our second order of Stewardship business is to hear from Baron news that he brings from the best Stewardship thinking and planning. Then we begin!
EMAIL BARON with your desire to join the Team: baronfpc@frontiernet.net.
Blessings!
Baron
The Church
The Church of Jesus Christ is the provisional demonstration of what God intends for all humanity.
The Church is called to be Christ's faithful evangelist,
- going into the world, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all he has commanded;
- demonstrating by the love of its members for one another and by the quality of its common life the new reality in Christ; sharing in worship, fellowship, and nurture, practicing a deepening life of prayer and service under the guidance of the Holy Spirit;
- participating in God's activity in the world through its life for others by
- healing and reconciling and binding up wounds,
- ministering to the needs of the poor the sick, the lonely, and the powerless,
- engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear oppression, hunger and injustice,
- giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer,
- sharing with Christ in the establishig of his just, peaceable and loving rule in the world.
The Church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life, trusting in God alone as the author and giver of life, sharing the Gospel, and doing those deeds in the world that point beyond themselves to the new reality in Christ.
