FROM THE PASTOR's DESK
On Sunday, April 14, 2024, Christ Church United Methodist announced its pastoral appointments for the coming year. Pastors Monique McBride and Peytyn Tobin have been reappointed as associate pastors. Pastor Monique will continue as pastor to school and families. They and their families will remain part of the Christ Church family. Bishop Tom Berlin has appointed Rev. Dr. Cathy Johns and Rev. Doug Johns as co-lead pastors for Christ Church United Methodist. This husband/wife team comes to us from the West Ohio Conference. They have served much of their pastoral careers as co-pastors and are excited about coming to Christ Church. The Christ Church family will have an opportunity to meet Pastors Cathy and Doug on Sunday, June 9, at 10am. They will begin serving on Sunday, July 14, 2024. Pastor Cathy Johns is a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a graduate of Manchester College (B.A., 1981), United Theological Seminary (M. Div., 1984), and Chicago Theological Seminary (D. Min., 2003). Pastor Doug Johns is a native of Lansing, Michigan, and a graduate of Ohio Northern University (B.A., 1983), United Theological Seminary (M.Div.,1986), and recipient of the Executive Certificate of Religious Fundraising from Lake Institute/Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis, School of Philanthropy. Pastors Cathy and Doug served churches separately for about 18 years before co-leading churches in 1995: First United Methodist Church, Warsaw, Indiana; and Church of the Saviour and Hyde Park Community, both United Methodist churches in Cincinnati, Ohio. Each brings their own strengths to ministry. Pastor Cathy’s strengths are preaching, spiritual formation, and pastoral care. Pastor Doug’s gifts lie in administration and finance. After being in ministry in the West Ohio Conference, they moved to the Fort Lauderdale area in 2023. The Johnses have a daughter and son-in-law who live in Cincinnati and a son and daughter-in-law who live in Lexington, South Carolina. They are blessed with three grandchildren. The Johnses offer these words to us: “It is with great joy that we come to join you in ministry! God has blessed Christ Church United Methodist with a blessed past and a faithful present. We look forward to seeing the words from Jeremiah come alive: ‘For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.’ (Jeremiah 29:11) “Please join us in prayer for God to guide our steps as we begin this journey together. We look forward to a vibrant ministry of loving, leading, and learning with you as we strive to be faithful to God’s call to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
November 27, 2023 Dear Church Family, Greetings to you in the precious name of Jesus. It was a joy for me to worship with the Christ Church family on Sunday. Barbara and I feel it’s important that we share the announcement that was made in church with everyone of you. Please find below the information regarding interim pastoral leadership for Christ Church between now and June 30, 2024.Should you have any questions, please reach out to either Barbara Driscoll, chair of the church Staff Parish Relations Committee, or me, Rev. Dr. Simon Osunlana, the South East District superintendent, through our email addresses listed at the end of this announcement. God bless you. Following is the announcement shared in worship on Sunday: "It is an honor to be present in worship today at Christ Church United Methodist in Fort Lauderdale, in a city where I served for 15 years as the senior pastor of St. John’s. Before I bring the message, I wanted to give you an update on the transition here at Christ Church. As Pastor Alex Shanks shared last week and as I shared previously by email, Pastor Nathan Adams, your lead pastor since July 2022, requested a transitional leave of absence to transition to his next appointment within our United Methodist connectional system. We, as a conference, are grateful for Nathan’s leadership in Christ Church and in Fort Lauderdale and continue to keep him and his wife Alicia in our prayers. This past Monday night, I met with your Staff Parish Relations Committee, which is your leadership team related to the work of your staff and personnel. We prayed together for Christ Church and for this transition and thought carefully about what is needed in this moment. We took into account your commitment as a United Methodist Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world and your strong faithfulness related to our conference priorities related to being a vital and sustainable local church, a church that reaches all people in your community, a church that is passionate about missions and a church that creates and expands the beloved community and much more. Any time there is a moment of transition, it is essential that we provide just the right leadership in this moment. I am pleased to announce that both Rev. Peytyn Tobin, who is a licensed local pastor and has been your associate pastor at Christ Church since July 2023, and Rev. Monique McBride, who is an ordained deacon and has been appointed to Christ Church and Christ Church School for nine years, are both fully committed to serving this church and working with the leaders of the church and school staff during this season of transition until the Bishop and Cabinet and I discern who will be the new lead pastor to begin in July 2024. In this in-between time, I wanted to share three important notes with you: I am personally committed to doing all I can to assist you in this transition. My role as your District Superintendent is to care for you and for your pastors and staff and to do all I can to help. That is why I am here today. I look forward to talking with you and meeting you as together we face this moment. I have asked my fellow cabinet colleague, Rev. Alex Shanks, who preached last Sunday, who is the Assistant to the Bishop, and who is a former pastor of Christ Church, to provide interim pastoral leadership and coverage between now and December 31, 2023. Pastor Alex will be in Sunday morning worship during the month of December and will be here next Sunday as Pastor Peytyn preaches the first Sunday in your advent worship series. Pastor Alex will then preach on December 10 and December 17, as well as the evening Christmas Eve services. Pastor Alex will join as many virtual meetings and be available to support Pastor Peytyn, Pastor Monique, and the church staff and leadership as needed. Bishop Berlin and I have prayed long and hard about who the interim lead pastor would be to serve from January 2024 through June 2024. We knew we needed just the right person, and we believe an interim lead pastor for the first six months will be essential to the next steps. We have listened to the needs of the church leadership and consulted with our cabinet and the consistent name that came to us to serve Christ Church as the interim lead pastor is the same person who the appointive cabinet also discerned and your SPRC confirmed. I want to share with you that Rev. David McEntire will join you beginning in January 2024. I want to share some information about him AND assure you that he will be here next Sunday for Pastor Alex to introduce him. About Pastor McEntire David is a native of Atlanta, Ga., and has lived in diverse communities around the world. David has faithfully served in ministry in and through the United Methodist Church for four-plus decades before retiring about a year ago in December 2022. David has pastored churches in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church for more than 42 years. He is a graduate of Florida State University, majoring in psychology and religion. He attended seminary at The Divinity School at Duke University. David has served churches in Plantation, Ocklawaha, Fort Pierce and West Palm Beach, and most recently he served as the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Florida, one of the largest and most complex churches in Florida. . He has been a delegate to the South East Jurisdictional Conference and the General Conference of the United Methodist Church. David has served on several Florida Conference Boards and agencies, including the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Florida Southern College Board of Trustees, and he has previously served as the chair of the Florida United Methodist Children's Home Board, The Florida Conference Board of Trustees and the Florida Conference Board of Camps and Retreat Ministries David is married to Nancy Curran, who grew up in Pompano Beach. Nancy and her family were active members of First United Methodist Church of Pompano Beach, the church where David and Nancy were married and where David served as youth director. Nancy and David have three adult children, Katie, Andy and Molly, who are all active in The United Methodist Church and are incredible leaders. They have two grandsons, Crosley and Jude. David is firmly grounded in his Wesleyan roots and theology. He is passionate about mission and evangelism and, most of all, loves to preach. David’s greatest joy is knowing that a person has come to know the love of Christ in a personal way." Peace of Christ be with you, Rev. Dr. Simon Osunlana Barbara Driscoll District Superintendent Chair, Staff Parish Relations Committee ds-se@flumc.org jbdriscoll@aol.com
“I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing: ‘Salvation to our God on his Throne! Salvation to the Lamb!’” - Revelation 7:9-10 The Message September 22, 2023 Hi Christ Church and Friends, We hope you are having a great week! We believe that God calls us to our mission as a church: to be a diverse and inclusive community that is experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to one another and to our larger community. We believe that our mission is helping us individually and collectively to fulfill and live into God’s hope for what we usually call the Kingdom of God. As described in the book of Revelation in the Bible, one day in the Kingdom of God everyone and all of creation will worship God with one another. At Christ Church United Methodist we are striving to live into this, our future reality, today and trying to help others to do the same. This work is hard though. It takes intentionality, practice, patience, humility, and a lot of prayer! Because we know this work is hard, this past Sunday, we kicked off our new worship series: Multiethnic Conversations: Unity in Our Church. Our hope is that this series will help us to continue to grow into the church and people God is calling us to be. It is based on the book with a similar title by Mark DeYmaz and Oneya Fennell Okuwobi. This book functions as a workbook and facilitator for deeper conversations. As such, we are asking all Christ Church members and friends to participate in a small group study of this book over the next eight weeks. Members of our Anti-Racism Task Force studied the book together over eight weeks or so earlier this ummer. We found it hopeful, challenging, inspiring, and even humor inducing. We had rich conversations and forged new friendships. We became a little more like the Kingdom of God. You can read more about the various times you can join a small group and how, below. Also below are details on the book itself. We believe this worship series and these small groups have the potential to transform our individual lives and our church community. We believe, through the work we do and the way we live our lives, that our extremely diverse region of our state and country, which many of us call home, will also be transformed. Join us on Sundays for this important worship series and join one of the many small groups studying this book. As your pastors, we are praying for you individually and our church as a we take this journey together over the next several weeks as we continue to strive to live into the people and church Christ calls us to be now and forever more. We’ll see you soon! Have a great day. Peace, Pastors Nathan and Peytyn
“The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers.” - Acts 2:42 CEB July 17, 2023 Hi Christ Church and Friends, I hope the summer finds you and yours doing well. Here at Christ Church, we are in the middle of our Summer Together theme for Summer 2023. Throughout the summer, we are focusing on being together with one another and with our larger community. We are intentionally spending time together to get to know one another and to get to know our larger community and the people who are a part of it. This is the model offered to us by the early church in the book of Acts in the Bible. As part of Summer Together , we’ve worshiped together in combined worship, had our first potluck in several years, enjoyed delicious food at an ice cream social, welcomed our new Associate Pastor, the Rev. Peytyn Tobin with a great reception (Welcome Pastor Peytyn. We’re so glad you are here with us)!, and gathered members of our online Christ Church community via Zoom. We also marched in the Pride Parade in Wilton Manors for the first time as a church. During the parade, countless people thanked us along the route and openly hugged many of us who marched. We are also preparing this weekend to host a mobile health clinic and lunch with our friends at TaskForce Fore Ending Homelessness. In the coming weeks, we’ll also be putting our knowledge to the test at Trivia Night at Funky Buddha Brewery, playing at our game night with adult kickball on our Fort Lauderdale campus field, and enjoying a delicious churchwide dinner. All of this is, of course, in addition to all of the other activities and ministries that are ongoing each week. We are spending Summer Together intentionally for several reasons. First, as I enter my second year as your Lead Pastor, one of the things so many of you have told me over and over again the past twelve months is that we don’t know each other well, and we don’t have enough opportunities to be together. Our Summer Together events are helping to address this directly. Secondly, one of our priorities for our church is People. One of my visions for our church is that we will be a church that values people, especially people who have otherwise been devalued by other parts of society, including, perhaps, our church in the past. Diverse and inclusive aren’t simply buzzwords I and others say. They are descriptive of who we are and who we are becoming. You’ve heard me say and will continue to hear me say that “relationships change everything.” Relationships help us to become more diverse and inclusive, which of course is reflective of God’s Kingdom and desire for our church and all of Christ’s followers. Indeed, it is hard to put into practice prioritizing people if we aren’t taking and making time to spend with one another intentionally. Summer Together activities are helping us to do this important work (and they are a lot of fun)! Finally, Summer Together is helping us to be church. Perhaps that sounds redundant, but hear me out. Summer Together and its various components are helping us to be church. I believe firmly that a church can do a lot of things, but who we are as we do those things and how we do them are as important as what we do, if not more so. When we say we prioritize People, it means we value people before other areas of our church, including our own preferences and even our own comfort. This is what the early church in Acts did. As it did so, it was Church, and it thrived! I believe God wants us to thrive, Christ Church! So again, a church, including our church, must not simply do church, but it must also be church. Who we are as a church matters. Part of my vision for our church and what we are creating together is not that we are simply a group of individuals who gather for various activities to do stuff that then disperses back to our individual lives. Instead, I see us becoming a group comprised of people (disciples of Jesus) who are earnestly seeking together to follow God through Jesus, to know and care for one another, and to do the same for our greater community. To fully be church, we must invest our time, talents, and treasures in following Jesus and in one another and our larger community. We are selling ourselves, our church, our community, and even God short if we do otherwise. Many of you are already taking advantage of Summer Together . I’ve seen your smiles and heard your laughter. I’ve gathered around tables full of diverse people with you as we’ve enjoyed a delicious dessert and told stories of how we’re spending our summers. I’ve seen you step up to prepare and serve chili and offer a reminder that God loves everyone. Summer Together wouldn’t be possible without so many of you who have generously shared your time, talents, and treasures. Thank you to our staff, Church Council, Rainbow Alliance, Staff Parish Relations Committee, Anti-Racism Task Force, choir, praise band, and so many others for helping us all to be church. If you haven’t taken advantage of our Summer Together activities and gatherings, there are plenty more chances to do so. Again, we can’t fully be church without you! Click here to read about upcoming opportunities. As always, thank you for being part of this diverse and inclusive community we call Christ Church. Together we are experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to one another and our larger community! Grace and peace, Pastor Nathan Lead Pastor
May 1, 2023 “ 47 They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved. ” – Acts 2:47 CEB “ 34 There were no needy persons among them. Those who owned properties or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds from the sales, 35 and place them in the care and under the authority of the apostles. Then it was distributed to anyone who was in need. ” – Acts 4:34-35 CEB Dear Christ Church, Pastor Josh preached a great sermon on the above passages about the early Christian church recently as part of our ongoing worship series on Acts. In these passages, we read about the early church’s growth and daily life together. It is clear as we read about the Holy Spirit’s movement in this community that extraordinary things were happening as people worshiped together, ate together, studied scripture together, shared with one another and generally “did life together.” As Pastor Josh shared, the power of Jesus’ resurrection is in the power of relationship; God’s relationship with each and all of us and our relationship with one another. We live out this Good News about relationships every day in our individual lives and in our collective lives as part of Christ Church United Methodist. We were able to do this in a powerful way during Holy Week and Easter. What a great experience it was to see more than 80 Christ Church members and friends come together during this time to serve one another and our larger community so that we could together celebrate and live out the Good News of Easter: the tomb is empty, and love and life prevails over sin and death. It was good to see so many of you in worship throughout the week, whether it was in our sanctuaries at either campus or in the gym or on the field at our Fort Lauderdale campus. Hundreds of people from our community of all ages and a wide range of demographics came to be together and to celebrate. Thank you for making it happen! Last month, I shared that we have been working on key priorities of who we are as a church, specifically our identity and areas of focus. It is our hope that who we are guides and impacts what we do and how we do it. Here is a reminder of what our staff came up with: Our Priorities Our Mission Statement – We are an inclusive and diverse community experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to one another and our community. We are grateful. People first Growth – numerical and spiritual depth As part of that work, we said that there are several catch phrases that will help us live out and be the church we all desire to be. Here are those as a reminder: Our Catch Phrases Our Mission Statement We get to! 70/30! (I’m willing to be uncomfortable 30% of the time so that others might have a chance to be comfortable). Relationships change everything. During Holy Week, Easter, and really always, we try to live into these priorities and catch phrases. We intentionally try to connect with our community and one another because, as the passages from Acts show us, “relationships change everything.” As Pastor Josh reminded us in his recent sermon, the key to relationships is making time to be in the same proximity with others. The more you, and we, are intentional about making time to show up and be with one another, the more we and our church will grow. I generally try not to make too many broad promises, but I am convinced that this statement is true. If you, me, and we prioritize showing up and being with one another, we will grow. Growth, as the staff pointed out, is also one of our priorities as a church. Also, on display during Holy Week and Easter were our other two priorities. One of my favorite conversations was with one of our volunteers. I thanked him for his time and being present with us. Without hesitating he responded, “Thank you for having me. I’m so grateful to be here on Easter doing this.” He was grateful and indeed was experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus. Friends, God is moving in our midst, and you and others are responding. As one quick example, we recently celebrated two adult baptisms in the life of our church, nine adults joined our congregation, five youth were confirmed, and eight more adults plan to join our church this month! I recently had a lunch with a leader from the LGBTQIA+ community here in South Florida. At the end of our conversation he said, “It is so refreshing to have a conversation with a Christian like you.” Wow! Christ Church and friends, we are a church community that is full of “Christians like you.” I am honored to help lead us all. I’m excited that I get to do this critical work. Why? Because there are millions (literally) of other people here in South Florida looking for Christians who love them, who accept them, and who are filled with and willing to share the love, hope, and joy of Jesus. We get to do this, everyone! I teased last month that in addition to catch phrases that we want to use, our staff also came up with a few phrases that we DO NOT want to use; we want to STOP using them. Here they are: Us/Them – (we are one) We used to… Before COVID… That’s not my job. We/I don’t have enough….time, money, people, etc. Have you caught yourself saying these? I know I say and think them from time to time. I encourage you to join our staff and myself and take these phrases out of your language. These are phrases that, if we say them, we then believe them, and they then shape us into a different people and church than what God is calling us to be. These phrases, and the mindset that accompanies them, do not foster growth, relationships, or gratitude, let alone love, hope, and joy. So, join me in getting rid of them. As we do so, I am convinced that God will continue to work through us in extraordinary ways just like God did in the early church. Let’s get to it! Have a great day, everyone. Peace, Nathan Adams Lead Pastor
April 3, 2023 “He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him.” - Matthew 28:6 CEB Dear Christ Church and Friends, It is finally here! Holy Week and Easter are here! Everything changes with the above verse echoed in Matthew’s Gospel when the angel pronounces that the tomb is empty and that Jesus is risen! Death, sin, nor anything else have the final say on our lives or any part of creation. Instead life is the final answer. Specifically, life made possible by God’s unconditional love for all has the final say! Life defeats death even when death had looked like it had won. This is what we celebrate during Holy Week and on Easter: Life and love have the final answer! I hope you are making plans to join us this week at any of our worship services and activities. You can read more about everything happening in the life of our church on our website. Hundreds of people will be joining us for this life-changing celebration. They’ll get the opportunity to experience a little of who we are and who we are becoming at Christ Church United Methodist, just like many of you do each week. I shared a couple of weeks ago in one of my sermons that I have been reading a lot more this year than I have in past years. One of the books I read recently is Daniel Coyle’s The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. I’ve been working with my clergy coach to apply in the life of our church some of what the book discusses. So far, we have used and are using some of what the book offers in our staff meetings. Recently the staff took time to discuss catchphrases we sometimes say or hear that identify who we are as a staff and as a church. It was a lively conversation. After much discussion, we came up with not only catchphrases that help us identify who we are, but also priorities that are driving us in our work. Here’s some of what we came up with: Priorities: Our Mission Statement – We are an inclusive and diverse community experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to one another and our community. We are grateful. People first Growth – numerical and depth Catchphrases to embrace and embed to help us live out our priorities and identity! Our Mission Statement We get to! 70/30! (I’m willing to be uncomfortable 30% of the time so that others might have a chance to be comfortable). Relationships change everything. This is just a first working draft of this work with our staff. I know there is a danger in sharing unfinished work, but what do you think? Do these priorities and catchphrases describe who we are as a church? What are we missing? What would you add? What might our church look like if we all fully embraced these priorities and catchphrases, and they became a natural part of who we are and the language we use? Don’t worry, we developed a list of negative catchphrases that we sometimes find ourselves using or hear others using. I’ll share those in a future post. Those are the phrases that we want to stop using immediately because they do not describe the church we are now nor the one we wish to be. My hope is when you or anyone else joins us -- whether it be for Holy Week, Easter or another time; whether you join us in person or online; whether you are at our school or either of our campuses -- that you will experience these priorities and positive catchphrases. Indeed, it is my hope, prayer, and vision that this is who we will fully become. We have more work to get there, but I believe we are on our way. I’m delighted that we get to be on this journey together. I am pumped to celebrate my first Holy Week and Easter with you as your Lead Pastor. I can’t wait to celebrate this life-changing week with you, your friends and family, and our larger community. He is risen, and the tomb is empty. Praise God! The tomb is empty! Grace and peace, Nathan, Lead Pastor
March 22, 2023 Dear Christ Church and Friends, I hope that you are all doing well. I shared this week in our worship services about spiritual disciplines and that we need your help as Easter approaches. We need your help to welcome all of the people who will be joining us on Easter to celebrate the Good News of the Resurrection. Easter remains a day for many who don't usually visit church/worship to check us out and spend some time with us. As such, our whole morning of Easter on both of our campuses will be focused on having a festive and joyous celebration to welcome both those who usually worship with us and all of the guests who will join us! At our Fort Lauderdale Campus, one aspect of this celebration will be to make use of our beautiful field and location by having a mini-Easter festival, if you will, on the field. This will be in addition to our Sunrise service and our 9am service, which will both be on the field. The festival will be simply for people to linger a bit longer and visit with one another between services that morning and to show our community as they walk, drive, cycle, etc. by the field that we are here and that they are welcome to join us, whether it is on Easter or at any other time throughout the year. We are planning to have simple games and light refreshments on the field to help facilitate this. A Kona Ice food truck will us join us for part of the morning too! We are also working to incorporate other Easter traditions into this morning, such as the Easter egg hunt and the Easter flower cross. Those details are still being finalized. We will also be creating a great celebration at our Parkway Campus on Easter morning. We will worship that morning as well as have an Easter egg hunt after the service there! So, this is where you all come in! We need your help to make all of this happen, so we can serve and connect with as many people as possible on Easter and share Christ's love, hope, and joy with them. As I talked about this week, this is a powerful way to practice the spiritual discipline of sharing your time, talents, and treasures with others. Easter and Christmas are our Super Bowls, if you will. They are the most holy and important times in the life of our church and in our lives as Christians. We are looking for team leads for various areas such as set up, welcoming and clean up. If you lead one of these areas, you'll have the freedom to lead this area as you see fit. Of course, we'll also need people to serve in these various areas. We have created a form where you can sign up to serve in the various areas that are needed. It can be accessed here: christchurchfl.org/serve-easter You may note your interest in leading a team in the comments box on the form. Please let me know what questions you might have. If you have suggestions for people to serve as team leads or to serve in another capacity, please ask them to sign up! Thank you all for all you do in the life of our church. I appreciate it and you. We're going to have a great Easter here at Christ Church United Methodist. I can't wait to celebrate my first one with you! Have a great day. Peace, Pastor Natha n
March 2, 2023 Dear Christ Church and Friends, I hope that you are having a great day! Be forewarned, this blog post is going to have a lot of “get to” in it because the past week or so has made me so grateful that I get to serve as your Lead Pastor. Some of you have heard me tell the story of my first Christmas Eve at the church I served in North Miami Beach. I can’t quite explain what happened that evening, but as each person shook my hand or gave me a hug and we wished each other Merry Christmas, I couldn’t help but thinking to myself, “These are my people. I am their pastor.” Like most appointments in the United Methodist Church, I had been there since the previous July, but it was that evening when it finally all came together if you will. There had been other moments, but not quite like that. Indeed, as I headed home that evening, I left contented and filled with peace. Well, that type of moment happened for me again recently at the conclusion of our Ash Wednesday service. I have been proud to be your Lead Pastor, and obviously have been since July, but for me that special and familiar feeling of “These are my people. I am their pastor,” came rushing over me in a powerful and different way on Ash Wednesday. It wasn’t just after service, but really throughout the day. As a church we had a great Ash Wednesday; one worth celebrating! It started with administering ashes in our sanctuary and in our parking lot on Commercial Boulevard. The Sun Sentinel even got pictures of this! Then we had a great chapel for our school, Christ Church School (CCS) led by Pastor Monique. It was a joy to place a cross on our little ones’ heads or hands and to see how eager they were to receive it. Later that evening, Pastor Monique led our family Ash Wednesday event and administered ashes at our Fort Lauderdale campus, while Pastor Josh and I (and our great choir) led the Ash Wednesday service at our Parkway Campus. We even brought out extra chairs to make sure we had enough seating! I often leave our Parkway campus on Wednesday nights after service with a full heart, but I found it even fuller on Ash Wednesday. I mean, read that paragraph again, friends. We had an awesome day in the life of our church. Thank you to everyone who played a part in making it happen. I couldn’t help but think what I so often think, “I get to do this! We get to do this!” I left that night with that same sense of contentment and peace that I did many Christmas Eves ago in North Miami Beach. Honestly though, that was just the start of what was quite a great week of “getting to do this.” Check out just some of the highlights of what I got to do and all of the fantastic people who I (and we) get to meet, serve, and be in relationship with: On Thursday, clergy folks in the SE District of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church got to meet with our new Bishop, the Rev. Tom Berlin, for a question-and-answer session and lunch. It was extra special for me as it was my first such clergy gathering in the district since returning from five years of service in Colorado. On Thursday evening I got to have dinner with members of our Rainbow Alliance in Wilton Manors as we dreamed and planned future opportunities for our church to continue to grow as an inclusive community. That Friday afternoon my dog, Chance, and I walked over to the field on our Fort Lauderdale campus for a food truck rally hosted by CCS and to cheer on the CCS Flag Football team. Go Cheetahs! We won! I hear we’ll be playing for the championship soon. It was great to see and chat with many of our students and families. Saturday, I got the opportunity and honor to celebrate the life of Mona Thiem with her family and friends as we gathered for her memorial service. I consider honoring you and your loved ones in this manner one of the most sacred acts that I get to do as a pastor. Later that evening, my wife Alicia and I got to get all dressed up and visit with our CCS parents and great faculty for the annual auction. It was great to get to meet folks in a different setting, and the event raised a lot of money for our great school. Thank you to everyone who donated. Sunday, February 26, was CCS Sunday. What a joy it was to get to be led by our two wonderful guest pastors for the morning! They did a great job. Well done, Quinn and Rylan! On Monday afternoon, I got to spend some time with one of our most dedicated servants at our Parkway Campus. She walked me around the campus and told and showed me all of the great ways we are helping people in real and tangible ways to experience the love, hope, and joy of Jesus. I was quite moved by the time I left. Wow! Tuesday afternoon, brought a lunch meeting on the beach. Seriously, lunch on the beach? I get to do this as part of my job? Finally, on Wednesday evening, I got to spend the evening with more than 70 of our neighbors on the Fort Lauderdale Campus as we hosted the annual meeting for the Coral Ridge Country Club Estates Community Association. You better believe I loved getting to greet folks in the room as your Lead Pastor. It was an honor to get to represent you all and meet some of my neighbors since the Lead Pastor parsonage is in the neighborhood. So, why did I take the time to write all of that out? Well for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to give you just a glimpse of what a week or so in my life looks like as your Lead Pastor. More than that though, I hope you hear my joy and gratitude in the words above. I’m still amazed that I get to be your Lead Pastor. It isn’t imposter syndrome. Promise. Instead, it comes from a deep place of gratitude for this opportunity and for each of you who make it possible. None of what I listed above is possible without you. That is especially true of our incredible staff and lay leaders throughout our church and school. (Also, props to my wife, Alicia, for all she does in public and behind the scenes to support me). Here’s the thing though, I also shared this because you too get to be a part of the great things happening here at Christ Church and in your individual life. Remember, you “get to.” To me, it all boils down to our mission statement: we are an inclusive and diverse church family that is experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to our community. That’s our job individually as Christians and as a part of Christ Church. We get to do this. Seriously, we get to experience the love, hope, and joy of Jesus and then reflect it with and to others. When you as an individual and we as a church make the shift from “have to” to “get to,” I promise you, it will change so much. No longer are you obliged to do something, but you get to, and wow, what a joy it is to be able to get to do something rather than having to do it. Even the hard stuff. Again, Christ Church and friends, thank you for allowing me to get to be your Lead Pastor and for you to be my people. I’m honored to get to do this thing we call church together. Now, let’s get to it. Grace and peace, Pastor Nathan
February 2, 2023 Hi Christ Church and friends! As I typed the date of this blog post, I realized it is Groundhog Day. I also realized, Groundhog Day is a little less important for me than last year when I lived in a slightly different climate. Ok. I really didn’t pay attention to Groundhog Day when I lived in Colorado either. My apologies to those of you who anticipate February 2nd every year (and to Punxsutawney Phil, of course). ☺ Groundhog Day means though that we are nearing the start of the Lenten season. You read that correctly, Lent begins in less than three weeks, on Ash Wednesday, February 22. Then it’ll be on to Easter six weeks later. Before we look forward, let’s take a moment to look back. We had a joy-filled Advent and Christmas season here at Christ Church United Methodist. We had great concerts, various events for our School and Parkway and Fort Lauderdale campuses. We had parties and, of course, meaningful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship services. One of my favorite moments of the year as a pastor is being able to greet you all with a hearty “Merry Christmas“ before and after services those days. I hope you found the season inspiring and comforting, especially after two years of not being able to celebrate Christmas in more familiar ways due to COVID. During Advent, we also moved the worship service at our Parkway Campus to Wednesday evenings. I’ve enjoyed getting to know better those of you who call the Parkway Campus your church home. I love the opportunity to worship each week with you all. If you haven’t worshiped at Parkway yet, I encourage you to check it out. We worship at 6pm, after the free community meal at 5pm. The service is informal and intimate. You’ll recognize many of the hymns and songs as those we sing at our Fort Lauderdale Campus. Parkway is located at 100 NE 44th Street in Deerfield Beach. This January we continued the great work of experiencing and reflecting the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to our community. In worship, we dove deeper into our values of being a social justice-seeking church, anti-racist church, and a reconciling and inclusive church as part of our Bloom worship series. This series gave us the opportunity to discuss these important parts of our discipleship and our lives together, as we proclaim that Jesus calls us to love one another and to this work specifically. I must admit that some sermons are easier to preach than others. The sermons from the Bloom series did not fall into that category. Honestly, they were exhausting to write and even more so to preach. Yet, I believe wholeheartedly they were critical in our continued work and growth as a church. We must be aware of why we are doing what we are doing and where we are currently, before we go where God is leading us. This series was one small way to help us in this work. I’ve had several of you quote back to me the 70/30 concept I shared in the sermons. This concept simply states that in order for our church to grow more diverse and inclusive and otherwise, we have to be comfortable with being comfortable 70% of the time and uncomfortable 30% of the time, knowing that when we are in our comfort zone, others may be in their respective “discomfort” zone and vice versa. If we can make this not simply a concept, but our reality, I am convinced that God will do things with and through us we could never imagine. Let us never forget the discomfort Jesus was willing to, and did, experience for each and every one of us. We can do the same for others. At the end of January, we started a new worship series, It Takes a Forest. Our Bad: When the Christian Church Got it Wrong. The intent of the series is to acknowledge that we need each other, that we and the Christian Church haven’t always acknowledged that, and to offer hope for how to move forward as we do better. We kicked off the series with a challenge and invitation not to live in fear and scarcity, but instead to use our time, talent, and treasure to live and reflect the abundant life of love, hope, and joy that Jesus offers us all. This is, after all, what we get to do! I am also proud and excited to share that we marched in Fort Lauderdale’s King Holiday Celebration parade on MLK Day. This was a simple, but powerful way for our church to show up, be in our community, and show that we care about our community. Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for this powerful witness of the love, hope, and joy we share with our community. We hope to participate again next year with some options for those who aren’t physically able to march. There were many other great things happening in January as well. We launched another Grow Group on Sunday mornings, had a great Worship Workshop on baptism, held our annual Church Council Orientation, continued our excellent ministries for children, youth, those with food and housing insecurities, and so much more. Also, have you heard our praise band, choir, or handbell choir recently? Almost every week I am delighted by the top-notch music we get to hear and sing and by the musicians who lead us in worship. I am incredibly grateful that they are sharing their time and talents with us all. As we look ahead to February and Lent, we have much to anticipate. Ash Wednesday worship for the life of our church will be held at our Parkway Campus at 6pm on February 22. Our choir will lead us in worship, I’ll give a message of repentance based on Psalm 51, and we’ll have an opportunity to have ashes imposed. Check our Facebook page for other events taking place on Ash Wednesday in the life of our church and school. As February has arrived, we continue to be reminded that it is Black History Month. Recent events in our state and nation, including the death of Tyre Nichols, remind us of why we continue to need to celebrate Black history. To put it plainly, black and brown lives and our history, continue to be devalued. We are a church that believes God values all life, especially those who are often overlooked, because we are all created in God’s image. Our Anti-Racism Task Force is organizing several opportunities to celebrate Black history this month and to continue the conversation and work of anti-racism. Our Rainbow Alliance is meeting this month to discuss our next steps and plan future activities. Check out the “serve” tab on the church website for more information on both of these areas in the life of our church. Finally, I want to extend a special invitation to the South East District annual training event on Saturday, March 4. The event is entitled Eliminating Racism Through Change: Being the Body of Christ. We are hosting the event at our Fort Lauderdale Campus. Pastor Josh Beaty, lay member Susan Spragg and I are part of the planning team. Jason Campbell and our praise band will lead music. I will be one of the keynote speakers, along with my friend and colleague, the Rev. Chip Freed, lead pastor of Garfield Memorial Church in Ohio. The event will feature great music and conversations on becoming, being, and growing as an anti-racist and diverse church with many workshops related to this. It promises to be a powerful morning. I’d love to see many Christ Church folks present, not only to support the Christ Church team that is helping to make it happen, but so that we can continue to learn and grow together. I offer a word of appreciation for our many staff members who will be working tirelessly in the weeks ahead to make sure the day, including the district youth event we are hosting that evening, goes well. You can register for the training event and read more about it here. I’m also excited to share that Rev. Freed will join us in our Sunday morning worship services on Sunday, March 5. Rev. Freed is a dynamic preacher and pastor. I can’t wait for you to get to meet and hear from him. Thank you for being a part of the great work God is doing here at Christ Church, everyone. I am so grateful that you are. Let’s continue to use our time, talent, and treasure to experience and reflect the love, hope, and joy of Jesus Christ to our community. This is indeed what we get to do. Let‘s continue to do it! Grace and peace, Pastor Nathan
December 5, 2022 “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” - John 1:14a The Message Dear Christ Church Members and Friends, I hope that this holy season of Advent and Christmas finds you and yours doing well as we journey together toward Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Speaking of journeys, I recently had the opportunity to journey with one of our staff members to the Mosaix Conference outside of Dallas. The conference was for those who are either already part of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-racial congregation or those hoping to help to lead their current congregation to become one. It was a great and inspiring gathering of leaders, both clergy and non-clergy, from across the country and various denominations who seek to help lead congregations to be reflective of the Kingdom of God here and forever more. After all, the book of Revelation teaches us that the Kingdom of God will be a place where everyone will be – all nations and tribes, all races and languages (Revelation 7:9 The Message). Alongside passionate and diverse worship, we heard inspirational and challenging speakers throughout the conference. One thing that stuck with me was also about journeying. I heard several speakers say, “You’ve got to let people know where you (and they) are headed so that they know whether or not they want to go with you, and then you can go” One of the speakers harkened back to a time when flight attendants announced the final destination of the flight before take-off and then invited folks to exit the plane if that wasn’t their destination. I never flew when this was a common practice, but I have seen enough movies to be familiar with the concept. It is a powerful reminder for us all. For a flight, it reminds us that we are headed to a specific destination. Other destinations may be lovely, but those aren’t where this particular flight is headed. This also communicates clearly to everyone the purpose of the flight and offers an opportunity for folks to choose whether they wish to be a part of the flight. The destination, though, doesn’t change. The illustration is a powerful one to me. I’ve mentioned it several times to many of you and our staff has and is discussing the metaphor as well. I shared recently in our stewardship worship series that I am convinced (convicted even) that God is calling us to be an inclusive and multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural church that is doing its best to experience and reflect the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to our community. Our community, South Florida (and beyond), is an inclusive and diverse place. I believe wholeheartedly that God expects our church to be reflective of the community we are a part of. This is the direction and destination our church has been on and continues to be on. I have had conversations with so many of you. You have shared that you are excited that this is where we are headed as a church. You are excited and proud to be a place that takes seriously the call of God to serve and love all people, especially those who have historically been overlooked or excluded from full participation in the life of the Christian Church. We aren’t there yet, of course. We have much work to do together. One of the things we heard over and over at the conference was that this work is hard. This work is uncomfortable. This work is gradual. So, as we continue to journey toward Christmas and beyond, we are reminded to follow Jesus’ example; to be present and to show up, to spend time with people where they are, and with all types of people especially those who have been overlooked by others. After all, Jesus came as one of us humans. Born to unwed and likely poor parents, Jesus came and lived with us humans. In fact, Eugene Peterson’s The Message says that Jesus came and moved into the neighborhood. Over and over again throughout Jesus’ ministry and life, we see him proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is here, now! Now! We see Jesus breaking the social and religious boundaries of the day, inviting others to be a part of and to experience the Kingdom, now. We are called to do the same. This is where “our plane” as Christ Church has been and continues to be headed. As we journey together, we’ll be doing our best to follow our discipleship practices and stated values as listed on our website. Pastor Josh and I have preached about these over the past several months to make it clearer where we are headed together. All of these predate me as your Lead Pastor, but I’m excited to help us live them out, because they will be life- and community-changing if we practice them together. Here are the values again so that you can see just how life-giving they are. They also hang on the walls of our gym lobby as reminders for us all. The core values of our ministry are: Driven by the Holy Spirit -- We want to be where God is leading us. Courageous Change -- We want to have the courage to change to reach new people in new ways, as God leads. Outwardly Focused -- We want to serve our community before we serve ourselves. Intentional Discipleship -- We want each ministry to help others take the next step in their faith journey. Congregational Ministry -- Ministry is to be carried out by the congregation, equipped by pastors and staff. In the days, months, and years ahead, these values along with our discipleship practices will continue to guide us as we use and share our collective time, talents, and treasure and make decisions around these areas. Indeed we are doing this work already! We are using our time, talent, and treasure to pour into our community and the various neighborhoods we are a part of. This work includes investing in worship on Wednesdays at our Parkway Campus. We are buying more than 400 gifts this Christmas season for abused, neglected and abandoned children in our community. We continue to feed people throughout the week. We are raising awareness of and advocating for those in our church, school, and greater community who are marginalized because of who they love or how they identify. This is to say little of the ways we have been doing this work in areas such as worship at our Fort Lauderdale Campus, our ministries with children and youth, our school and partnership with Tedder Elementary, our various small groups, Grow Hour, Anti-Racism Task Force, Rainbow Alliance, and so much more. As we concluded our stewardship worship series, Grow Together and Lift, based on the book The Gift of Lift, by David York, I invited each of us to name our own values. It is our values that will ultimately guide our daily lives and the direction of where we are headed. You can catch the interview we were able to have with David York here. You can also watch the sermon on values here . If you haven’t had a chance yet to do so, I invite you to take time to determine the values that drive and motivate you and how you use your time, talent, and treasure. Our values drive each of our decisions, whether we can articulate them or not. The same is true of our church. Based on the values you all named years ago, I’m convinced that we will continue to grow into the church and the people God is calling and expecting us to be. As we do this, more and more folks will be able to experience and reflect the love, hope, and joy of Jesus. Finally, a big thank-you to all of you who have filled out your 2023 Commitment Card! If you haven’t had a chance to do so yet, please take a moment to fill out one. You can fill out a hard copy the next time you are at either of our campuses, or y ou can fill one out online here . If you give regularly already and plan to do so in 2023, we’d still love for you to fill out a Commitment Card so we are aware of your commitment and can thank you better. As Christmas comes near, I’m excited for us to continue to head toward the inclusive and diverse multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-cultural church that God is helping us become. We’ll do so as we live out our stated values. We’ll do so by showing up and being present with one another and others as Jesus modeled for us. I look forward to seeing you in person or online for one of our many Advent events or for one of our worship services for Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Year's Day. Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Year's, everyone. Peace, Pastor Nathan
