Category Archives: Pastor’s Ponderings

Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. – Proverbs 11:14 “

It had been a long day of filling out Charge Conference forms.  This is not my favorite Pastoral chore.  I needed a break and my dog, Gracie, needed to go out.  It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny but with a crisp breeze.  A good day for walking.  As we walked along, I began praying and asking for God’s guidance in completing the forms and in making plans for our church’s coming year.  I asked Him to bless us and especially to bless our 2027 Leadership. Most of our Leaders have been serving in some form of leadership capacity for many, m,any many years.  Some have expressed their desire for rest, but they also understand that we don’t have many options in leaders.  Our volunteer pool is way too small for the work that needs doing.  So, they tiredly say yes…. again.  

As I was walking and praying about this, my mind was drawn to the crunch of dried leaves under my feet.  Then, another sound burst through the air. 

Above me, a bunch of geese flew overhead.  There were about 20 of them flying in their V formation, just honk, honk, honking away.  It made me smile.  I remembered a story I had heard about geese.  And I think in that moment, God gave me His answer about my worries over leadership.

Most of us know that geese fly in a V formation.  Science has discovered why they fly that way.  It is actually a form of ‘team work’.  As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. Therefore, by flying in “V” formation, the whole flock adds at least 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. This formation, while providing crucial aerodynamic benefits to the flock, is tough on the lead bird who works the hardest, breaking the wind. 

However, and this is what makes me smile, to maintain their V-formation, the geese do a lot of honking. They honk their location, but they also honk their encouragement!  They encourage and motivate that lead bird to keep going.  They encourage it, and their voices also encourage and motivate each other.  Finally, when the lead goose becomes too tired to lead, he honks his information and drops back while another goose flies forward and takes his place.  Then, they all start honking their encouragement to the new lead. 

Geese flying in formation, share a common direction and have a sense of community and are able to travel more quickly and with a little less effort,  because they are traveling on the thrust of each other.  That couldn’t happen if they didn’t cooperate with and encourage each other.  As we look forward to the coming year, and our 2027 Leadership, I hope you will take your cues from the geese.  I hope you will take your turn whenever you can, our little church can do some wonderful things if we all pitch in.  I hope you will encourage your leaders; many are tired and are flying ONLY because of their dedication to our church and the encouragement you give them.  I also hope that you will fly along with us and be a part of the Claybanks flock as we get to wherever it is that God sends us.   Come on!  It’s time to get going! Honk Honk!!!!

Charge Conference
Our Annual Church Conference is scheduled for Sunday, November 8^th at 2:30.  It will be held in North Muskegon at Community UMC,  1614 Ruddiman Dr, North Muskegon, MI 49445. Booklets will be available for you to pick up and look over on November 1^st. Hope to see you all there!

Sunday Morning Adult Bible Study
Our Adult Bible Study has been going well.  We meet every Sunday at 9:30. We are studying a book by Adam Hamilton titled: Simon Peter, the Flawed but Faithful Disciple. 

We plan to wrap this study up on November 8^th.Then, we’ll take a one-week break and will begin a new Advent study on November 22^nd.  Watch for news about what we’ll be studying.

NEW!!!!   Upcoming Event!
Soon you’ll be digging out your Christmas stuff!  Keep an eye out for your Ugliest Christmas sweater/shirt because on Sunday, December 13^th everyone will be invited to wear them to church.  Then, after our service, we’ll all get to vote on who has the most  hideous one!  Don’t have one? MAKE one!  Get out the glue and tinsel and creativity!  Let’s have fun with this! There WILL be a prize for the Ugliest one!

Women of Faith News
Our Women of Faith met on October 15th.

Our October meeting is typically when we decide how much money we can donate to outside organizations and which organizations those should be.

This year we’ve chosen the following places to send a one-time check, of $100 each.
Oceana County Council on Aging
Oceana Medical Center
The Ladder
Crystal Valley Care Fund
Muskegon Rescue Mission
Every Woman’s Place
M.O.K.A.
C.U.R.E. International
White Lake Giving Tree
W.O.F. district treasurer

In November we will gather on the 27th, at 12 noon, for our annual pizza lunch. Following our lunch, we will decorate the sanctuary and fellowship hall for the Advent season. Everyone,  men and women, are invited to join us that day, for lunch and decorating.

Our WOMEN OF FAITH group is for every woman at our church.  Please join us at any meeting for a bit of business and a bit of social time.

Warmth for You
As we’re entering the colder months of the year we want everyone to be comfortable during our worship services.

In the little pew at the back of the sanctuary, you’ll see a few lap sized quilts and afghans.

They are available for your use during our services if you want an extra layer of warmth.

Please use them.

Cinda

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”  ~ 2 Corinthians 5:20

Friends, in my sorting to find things I packed during the move; I ran across a newsletter “Pondering” that I wrote for March 2022.  It concerned an issue that I find I need to readdress in my life.  I have gotten so ‘busy’ that I sometimes find myself rushing through or past important things.  Maybe I’m not as ‘present’ during a conversation as I should be, or perhaps I’m taking some short-cuts that shouldn’t be taken.  Anyway, I guess God wanted me to remember something important, so He put this little ‘Pondering’ back in my hands…..Don’t you just hate it when God uses your own words to point out an issue that needs change?!

I didn’t really hear her at first.  Well, I heard but I didn’t completely understand.  That happens to me sometimes on Sundays, especially after the service.  People tell me things or say things to me as I am rushing here or there.  Sometimes I’m just not as focused on them as I should be, so their words just float over my head.  There’s just too much going on…too many people needing something or saying something or calling my name.  And she…well…she is so small and so young and so soft spoken….her words….just didn’t register with me.  That is…not until her grandma translated.

I had just given her and her sister a small plastic heart.  (The kids always like to come to my office after service and see what treasures I have to share.) Grandma reminded them to say ‘thank you’ to Pastor Terri.  I heard one little voice say, ‘Thank you’ and then the other little voice said, what I thought was ‘thanks’ but she said something more that I didn’t quite hear.  I just simply responded with “you are so welcome’.  But their grandmother started to chuckle and said,  “She called you God.” “What!?”, I said.  Grandma smiled and said.  “She just said, ‘thanks, God!’” We both had a little chuckle about that, and I remarked that I had been called some pretty strange things, but this was a first!

On my way home though, it started to hit me.  She is about three or so and cute as a button.  She is happy and lively and healthy and …..she thinks I’m God! I guess it kinda makes sense to someone her age.  I mean, she only sees me on Sunday where she goes to learn about God.  And, that’s all she hears me talk about while she’s here.  I guess I can understand why her young mind might jump to that conclusion. 

My first thought was how flattered I was.  I mean…to be mistaken for God!  Then I thought about how enlightened she was (even though she didn’t realize it) to believe that God might be a woman!  But then I started to think about other things…If I am God to her, (not just representing Him but AM Him)…..well….that’s quite a responsibility!  Her little heart is so impressionable…. if I were to mess up in front of her…as God!!!!  Wow! I could really hurt her spiritual growth and her future connection with Him.  And that’s quite a big….no that’s a HUGE responsibility! 

God does these sorts of things to me every now and again.  He sort of slaps me in the face with a reality of the vocation I’m in.  It’s hard to live up to the responsibility of being a person in a pastoral leadership role.  I’m human…. I make mistakes… I say the wrong things… I forget stuff… I misread signals… I make hasty decisions… I fail!  (GASP!  I know!!!)  As a Christian, and especially as a Christian leader, my mess-ups reflect upon God.  My flaws and frailties sometimes make it look like I’m not connected to Him.   And sometimes, when I mess up… someone gets their feelings hurt, or worst, they might not get the spiritual guidance or comfort that they need.

That little voice, that little face…saying ‘thanks, God’, reminded me of the HUGE responsibility I have as Pastor and as a Christian.  She may be three (or so), but she is already forming opinions and connections.  Her little eyes are watching, her little ears are hearing and my input, casual or not, can make an imprint on her life.  In fact, anyone who has heard me describe myself as pastor and Christian, could be forming opinions about God because of my actions and responses.  That old saying, ‘you might be the only Jesus someone ever sees’ hits me a little differently since she mistook me for God.  I don’t want to mess this up!  Especially for her!  I want her to come to know the God I love and to trust Him.  I want her to trust me!

Someday, she will come to know that I am not God.  Someone will correct her… enlighten her and she will find that I make mistakes and am no more than a very HUMAN  Pastor!  But until then, I’ve got to UP my game!  I’ve got to let God shine through all that I say or do…especially around her!

So, if I seem a little ‘different’ to you….especially if I am around a certain little sweetheart, just know that I am trying my best to live up to my heritage and imitate my Father.  I’m trying to love like He does and forgive like He does and be the kind of person that SHE expects (and He hopes) that I will be. And really, that’s not a bad thing is it…to try to emulate God?  To live (especially in front of her) as if I were Him with mercy and grace and love and forgiveness.  Yeah, that can be a pretty tall order.  But for her….yea for her….I’m gonna try.

“Most adults I know aren’t looking for a religion that answers all of their questions, but rather a community of faith in which they feel safe to ask them.” ~ Rachel Held Evans

I love this quote! And I really love that this church community is EXACTLY the kind of place she is talking about. We ARE a safe place. For everyone … in every phase of their faith-walk.

Some of you have been studying the Bible for decades and have some strong theological opinions. Some of you have never really ‘chewed’ on the scripture and just enjoy the comfortableness of it. Some of you are new to your faith and haven’t really developed a deep theology yet.

Here at Claybanks, you can feel comfortable enough and safe enough to explore. There are NO dumb questions. And here….. you can ask! BUT, please understand, sometimes we won’t have the answer. Or sometimes, the answer may be…..’you just have to have faith.’  That answer might feel a little incomplete, a little unsatisfying.

As a pastor, I often get asked some really hard questions (usually in times of deep grief or tragedy). I am expected to know WHY. This is usually a question that I have an unfulfilling answer for. But….I do know and can share that God loves us and is with us through whatever we are enduring. And I trust Him and lean on Him and will pray that you will also feel His presence in your time of pain. I just don’t always know the answer to your ‘WHY’ question. I ask Him that myself all the time.

Sometimes folks ask me a theological question that I can’t answer. I used to really dread this! I have studied the Bible, I continue to study the Bible, but I am not a theologian or a Biblical scholar. I don’t always know the answer to the question you have. But….we can look it up together… we can read and study and pray together for an answer! So ask away! Let’s BOTH of us learn!

Pastors and church people DON’T always know all the answers. But we will try to figure them out. We have questions of our own, too. The point is, whether you are a church leader, a faithful churchgoer, a seeker, or an agnostic…. feeling safe about asking and looking for answers is part of our faith walk. We humans want to know why, how, who. We want to know!

As a church body, we have to keep ourselves open to receive all questions. We have to welcome those questions as what they are…..people seeking to deepen their relationship with God. And folks, THAT is what church is intended to be…a place where those relationships are nurtured and can grow and thrive. Sometimes we fertilize that growth with Biblical answers. Sometimes we water it with our open hearts and hugs. Being a place where people feel ‘safe’ to explore and grow their faith is what we are called to be. And I think we are nailing it! We just have to get the word out a little bit more. People need to know that we are here and that we have room in our sanctuary and in our church family for those who are seeking…. for those who need comfort… for those who want a relationship with God. We have room for you AND for those questions. It is safe to ask them here!

by Pastor Terri Cummins

“Faith and Fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose!”

I recently attended an online training titled “Dare to Dream.” The facilitator asked us to really look at our church with honest eyes and then do some visioning. Where do you see strengths in your church, where do you see cracks and failures? Then she asked us to do some visioning….. Where/how can we build on our strengths and repair the cracks? And then, she asked us to do something unique. She said, “Imagine that you do this whole vision thing, and it takes off and it’s a raging success. And then, imagine that you’re standing in the future looking back – Look at how you partnered with God before your dream. Describe the growth in your partnership with God. What amplified your partnership? What will you see?

This made me realize something. As I did my visioning…as I looked at where we are (as much as I know at this early stage of my re-ministry with Claybanks), I realized that I was seeing where I wanted us to be….and where YOU have been telling me you would like to be. Most of you have indicated that you are content where we are, except you would like to have a few more folks who are willing and able to do some of the work of the church. Some of you have indicated that you miss the children and would like to see a few families with children worshiping here. But the majority of you are content and happy with the status quo.

So, when I attended this training and worked along with the others, and especially during the time of visioning….I struggled. How can we fulfill Jesus’s instruction and call if we just continue our status quo? Shouldn’t we be doing more to reach up and out? And then, when I tried to answer her question of how we partnered with God….I realized that my dream for Claybanks and your dreams for Claybanks may not necessarily be where God would like us to be. He has blessed us with lots of gifts and strengths that we aren’t fully using. We have dreams….but they’re not big enough…..they’re not Jesus sized dreams!

Does that scare you? It does me! Jesus seized dreams!!!! I love our little family church. I love how we interact with and care for each other. I even love the status quo. But I believe that Jesus wants us to do more! I believe that He wants us to open up to “possibilities” and He wants us to reach out to others with purpose and vision! He wants us to share ourselves and our love of Him!

I promise you, I don’t plan to try to change everything tomorrow, and I won’t try to run away with our church. Lol. But, I will continue my prayers over this. I will, in the coming months, share with you all some of the instructions I received at this training. I hope you will hear it and pray about it too. We need to figure this out together. But we also need to….together….think, pray, vision, work…toward a Jesus sized commitment and path forward. I’m excited! I’m terrified! I’m committed. We can DO this!