A Wonderful Easter

Thank you to everyone who participated in a wonderful Holy Week and Easter. Thank you to those who put so much hard work into the services and thank you to every single person who came and worshipped with us.

Today was a wonderful end to Holy Week and Lent and a wonderful beginning to the Easter season. Bryan preached a wonderful sunrise service this morning and John out did himself at 9 and 11:15, but so far I only have my evening sermon to post. You can read it here. You might bug John and Bryan to make theirs available.

I will be off this week, Bryan will be preaching on Sunday. I will be worshipping elsewhere. I may or may not get a chance to post his scripture this week.

I am looking forward to exploring the mystery and wonder of the Easter season with you. I pray that your coming days are filled with all the joy, hope and wonder that come from our God who has overcome death itself.

peace,

will

Easter Sunday

This Sunday, we will conclude our journey through Mark. It has been a wonderful experience for me to preach all the way through this amazing gospel. In case you missed any, all of the sermons are posted on the website.

Here is this week's reading:

Mark 16:1-8 New Revised Standard Version
Mark 16:1-8 The Message

Don't forget, there will also be services Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m.

peace,

will

Palm/Passion Sunday

Thank you so much to everyone who came out tonight and especially to everyone who helped with the service! Thanks to lots of help, we had a beautiful chancel, wonderful images, and powerful music. I was just able to read the passion account from Mark's gospel and let the story be told.

I have already had lots of questions about the images. I pulled them from a number of places, but many of the great, classic depictions of the events surrounding Jesus crucifixion can be found on a wonderful website called The Web Gallery of Art. I wish I had time to link to all the individual images, but you can do a little exploring on your own. Once you enter the site, their is a search bar and you can just search around by typing in something like "last supper" or "crucifixion." Enjoy the images.

Don't forget, Oak Hill will have service on Thursday evening at 7 for Maundy Thursday, Friday evening at 7 for Good Friday and Saturday Evening at 7 for Easter Vigil. And we will have service Sunday evening as we celebrate the glory of Easter together. It would be a great time to invite someone to come with you.

Have a blessed week!

will

Thinking, and Talking About Hunger

I meant to post this last week, while it was still on newsstand. Time Magazine last week (in their March 14th issue) Printed an excerpt from an important new book by Jeffrey Sachs entitled The End of Poverty. You can read the excerpt here. (At least as long as Time leaves it up.)

Poverty is such a complicated issue and because of that we tend to do nothing about it. Sachs helps to make the problem more understandable and helps us to realize that we can do something about is. Of course, as Christians, we know we should, it has always been a matter of how.

If you care to read the entire book, here is link on Amazon.com. I would love to hear your comments on the article, the book, or this issue in general.

peace,

will

Passion Sunday - This Week

The Sunday before Easter is usually celebrated as Palm Sunday and/or Passion Sunday. Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Passion Sunday recounts the hours and events leading up to the crucifixion and the crucifixion itself. It would be ideal to celebrate Palm Sunday the Sunday before Easter and save the passion for Good Friday. However, not all that many people come to church on Good Friday.

We also have the unique dilemma of being in Mark's gospel which doesn't mention Jesus' entry in Jerusalem. So, this Sunday, we will focus on the passion. We will start the service with praise and singing and then turn to the reading of Mark's account of the last hours of Jesus' earthly life. The reading will be accompanied by images taken from thousands of years of artists considering the events surrounding Jesus' death. Our musicians will also be part of the retelling.

This will be a different sort of service for us. I hope that you will come and I hope that through it, you may have a meaningful conclusion to your Lenten journey and begin to prepare for the glory of Easter!

See you Sunday!

will

Posting some sermons

I fell a little behind last week posting sermons. I finally got last week's up on the web site as well as this week's.

As always, I love to hear comments about the sermons and the service. Blogspot has made some changes to make it easier to post. So, post away!

Blessing upon you!

will

And the story Continues...

I wrote the following article for this week's Cornerstone. I know some of you may not read the Cornerstone, so I thought I would post it here as well.

And the Story Continues...

I always feel that people have heard my faith story so many times that I am surprised when someone asks me the question, “so Will, did you grow up in the church?” Without recounting the whole story here, let me answer that with “no.” In fact, as the story goes, Oak Hill United Methodist Church was the very first church I ever belonged to. In fact, the waters of my baptism came from the baptismal font at the front of our sanctuary. In fact, the waters of my baptism were poured over my head by our own pastor John Wright. Our former senior pastor Barbara Ruth was my very first Disciple teacher and Mary Beth Gartner quickly became my choir director. (She tried to recruit me the very first day I came to church.) John Wright was also the one I went to when I felt called to ministry.

Eventually, I started attending seminary at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. After a semester there, I returned to Austin to be with my wife Alisha and to attend Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Upon my return, I was offered the opportunity to return to Oak Hill as a staff member in charge of adult education ministries. I anticipated that position to be short term, but over three years later, I find myself here, now as associate pastor.

From the beginning of my call to ministry, I have been excited about the United Methodist itinerate pastor system and how well it serves our churches. We are a long way from the rugged, horse riding circuit riders of our tradition, but I am proud to be part of such a dynamic system. As much as I love Oak Hill, I also love our connectional system and the wide variety of congregations and communities it serves.

After my time learning from Barbara Ruth and John Wright and the entire Oak Hill congregation, I have informed our District Superintendent, Robert Hall that I feel I am ready to make to move to a new place and perhaps even the role of senior pastor. While the decision is ultimately up to the Bishop and his cabinet, I anticipate a move after Annual Conference in June.

Some of you that have heard that I might move have expressed some sadness. Believe me, I share that with you. Oak Hill has always been my church home. It is where I discovered the Gospel. It is where I watched it in action and it is where I began to see Jesus in the faces and lives of my friends, my brothers and sisters on the way. It is also where I felt my call to ministry, where that was nurtured and where I began to learn how to live that out and be a pastor.

At the same time that I am sad, I am truly excited. There is so much good here at Oak Hill and so much work to be done out there. I am looking forward to taking what I have learned here and putting it to work in new places. As the cabinet continues to meet and make decisions, I will let you know what my future holds. In the mean time, your prayers for me, this church, and our entire connectional system are always welcome.

Will

This week's sermon

I haven't had a chance to clean up this week's sermon enough to post it. I will try to post it by Tuesday or Wednesday.

We will be back into Mark's gospel this Sunday. I will post the readings when I post the sermon.

Have a blessed week!

will

This week

Sorry I have been absent from the blog this week. Things are still pretty busy with one less pastor.

In case you missed last week's sermon, you can catch up here.

This week, we will be stepping back out of Mark for a week. You will get a chance to hear a rather different sort of sermon on John's gospel.

I look forward to seeing you Sunday!

will