A Word from the Hill's
November 22, 2005
Dear Friends,
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The entire holiday season is special to me but I tend to enjoy Thanksgiving the most because three of my favorite things all come together in a perfect combination. The three F’s: family, football and food. I grew up cheering for the Cowboys and for the last several years I have watched them get whipped during their famous Thanksgiving day game. We have hope this year! Watch out Broncos!
In all seriousness, football may be fun but it is not the heart of what this season is about. Nor is it what makes Thanksgiving special to me. Time with my family and time of expressing thanks to God for all the ways he has provided for us is what makes this a special day. I especially like Thanksgiving day because the pressure to find the perfect gift is conspicuously absent. The unfortunate pressure that is built up around Christmas isn’t there. It is simply a time to reflect and enjoy family and friends. While we should give thanks every day there is something special about one day out of the year which, by its very name, reminds us what we are to do.
Calana, the kids, and I would like to take a moment and say thanks to all of you for being such good friends to us this past year. We have been friends with some of you for a long time and some of you we are just getting to know. Either way, we are grateful for you and recognize that God has brought you into our lives and us into yours. Friendship is a unique gift and one of God’s best.
We want to thank you for contributing to the ministry of The Wheatland Mission. Now, let us thank God for the past, present and future and let us thank him for this journey that we have embarked on, together.
In Christ’s love and with much gratitude,
Paul, Calana, Tatiana, Savannah, and Harrison
A Thoughtful Thanksgiving by Mike Metzger
Here are some great thoughts about Thanksgiving:
November 15, 2005
MINDLESS MANTRAS
AAA repeatedly warns us – for good reasons – that most auto accidents occur within 25 miles of your home. That's a no-brainer, since most of our driving happens to take place within 25 miles of home! In this case, familiarity not only breeds contempt... it nurtures negligence. Take Thanksgiving. Most of us are so familiar with the annual routine of turkey, stuffing, and shopping that it too has become something of a no-brainer. But gratitude – or thoughtful thankfulness – might launch a discussion over the dinner table that lasts long after the last leftover turkey sandwich is gone.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the 20th century's best known journalists, authors, debaters, and social observers. Born in London, his writing – punctuated with wit and humor – brought him acclaim until his death. Yet it was gratitude that grabbed him and launched a journey that changed his life. "If my children wake up on Christmas morning and have somebody to thank for putting candy in their stockings, have I no one to thank for putting two feet in mine?"1 The answer, for many years, was that Chesterton didn't have anyone. It left a hole in his soul but launched a personal journey – why do we express gratitude at all? And do we realize what we're saying?
Chesterton discovered that gratitude is one of many "signals of transcendence" – human experiences that seem to point to a greater reality. They are universal, instinctive; yet assume and require answers that lie beyond themselves.2 Chesterton's discovery began when he observed we invariably express gratitude in cosmic dimensions ("thank God I'm alive!!!") without giving it a great deal of thought. And just as C. S. Lewis noted that hunger does not prove that bread exists – but it does point to the fact that we repair our bodies by eating – so too Chesterton believed saying thank you does not prove that God exists. But it does point to Something Beyond – just as when we calm a scared child during a violent thunderstorm by saying "Everything's going to be all right." If you think about it, that's misleading – but it points to our desire for transcendent assurances about life.
G. K. Chesterton's journey into thoughtful gratitude brought him to faith. That surprised many of his colleagues and friends, who didn't associate Chesterton with God. But in his autobiography, Chesterton asked whether people cannot be genuinely grateful without connecting it to theology:
To which I answer, "Yes; I mean he cannot do it without connecting it with theology, unless he cannot do it without connecting it to thought. If he can manage to be thankful when there is nobody to be thankful to, and no good intentions to be thankful for, then he is simply taking refuge in being thoughtless in order to avoid being thankless."3
Aristotle described people with "weak minds" as those who take refuge in banal generalities (such as saying "Happy Thanksgiving" without giving it much thought). Perhaps this year you'll think long and hard about gratitude and celebrate a Thoughtful Thanksgiving. That kind of thankfulness might even launch a dinner table conversation that connects Sunday to Thursday!
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1 G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (San Francisco: Ignatius Reprint, 1995)
2 This term was developed by Peter Ludwig Berger, a University Professor and Director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture at Boston University. This phrase is taken from his book A Rumor of Angels (New York: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1990), pp.59-65.
3 C. K. Chesterton, The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1936), pp.341-48.
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The Wheatland Mission Weekly Worship Begins!
The Wheatland Mission will begin to meet for weekly worship on Saturday, December 10. We will meet at the Foundry – 1855. S. Rock Road. The hour will be announced shortly.
December is a special time of year to begin our weekly worship times. Advent, the days of worship in December prior to Christmas, also marks the beginning of the Christian year. We will celebrate the Advent of Christ and the birth of this new community at the same time.
The Wheatland Mission is dedicated to being a “missional” church. Advent and Christmas are great reminders to us that being a part of the church is not about getting our needs and wants met but about participating in God’s plan for the world.
WHEATLAND WORSHIP @ DEC 10 @ 1855 S. ROCK RD.(the Foundry)
Special Thanksgiving Prayer Gathering
There will be a special Thanksgiving Prayer Gathering this Tuesday at 7:00 PM at the Hill's home. We are located at 4019 Farmstead, Bel Aire. Bring the family and we will meet for a time of worship and prayer. We will finish by 8:00 for the sake of younger ones with early bedtimes.
This will be a great way to begin our holiday season and to express our gratitude to God for our new community! I'm looking forward to seeing how many of us we can squeeze into the basement. See you there!
By the way, if you need directions give us a call at 744-0875.
Does this look familiar?
Diaper Drive for PCC!
This is a good time of year for us to remind ourselves of all the ways we have been blessed. Being reminded should also move us to want to do something. Here is a simple project for us at The Wheatland Mission to take part in this Holiday Season.
The Pregnancy Crisis Center has provided a great service to many in the Wichita area. They minister to many and as a result they are in need of some support themselves. During the month of December we will have a Diaper and Formula Drive in order to collect some much needed supplies for this special ministry.
During our worship gatherings in December, (location and time to be announced), we will collect diapers (size newborn and 1), wipes, and baby formula (Infamil w/iron, Infamil w/lipil or Similac w/iron) for the moms and babies whom PCC serves.
If you want to get involved filling their needs before hand you can take some of these items directly to PCC at 1040 N. West St. or you can call Rosie at 945-9400.
Missional Practice #1: Gratitude
What do we mean by "missional practices"?
Missional Practices are activities that we engage in, as individuals and as a group, that help form us according to the model of Christ. Similar to spiritual disciplines, missional practices empower us to see where God is working and they empower us to participate with his Spirit in His work.
'Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”'
So. Where ARE the other nine and am I one of them?
This is an important question for me to reflect on this year--especially during this season. May God keep me grateful for a wonderful wife, beautiful children, and a group of people that (some call this a church) that cares for us, warts and all.
What makes you express thanks to God? What makes you express thanks to those around you?
* Gratitude is key because it draws us out of ourselves. There is no greater hell, this side of eternity, than to be alienated from God and isolated from those who love us.
* Gratitude is absolutely necessary because it reminds us that we are to live lives of mutuality and love. God Himself exists as one God in three persons. God is an eternal community of supreme love and togetherness. Through gratitude we recognize where we belong.
* Gratitude reminds us that we have been transformed. It reminds us that we need to be transformed still. (Phil 3:12-14) Regularly expressing gratitude to God reminds us that we haven't "arrived" and we need continued help on the journey.
* Gratitude is central to our lives as Christians because it reminds us that God is more at work in our lives than we are. It reminds us that everything in our life is redeemable because God brings everything together for those, "who have been called according to his purpose." (Rom 8:28)
* Gratitude should be a central activity in our life. As believers in Christ we should intentionally engage in the activity of giving thanks, not only because it is good for us but because Scripture calls us to. "Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Eph 5:19-20) Not always easy, the discipline of gratitude draws us out of ourselves and helps us see God's work in our lives. Even when we don't feel like it giving thanks helps us see God's big picture and moves us to participate in his work.
I list gratitude as Missional Practice #1 because it lays a foundation for every other aspect of our community life. We express gratitude to God for including us in his life, for incorporating us into his family, and for moving us to participate in his mission.
Gratitude helps us live with open hands.
Just a thought...
“The way of Christian witness is neither the way of quietist withdrawal, nor the way of Herodian compromise, nor the way of angry militant zeal. It is the way of being in Christ, in the Spirit, at the place where the world is in pain, so that the healing love of God may be brought to bear at that point.” - N.T. Wright
Tom Wright is one of my favorite authors. He is an evangelical bible scholar from Great Britian and one of a small number of conservative Christian scholars that really engages thinkers who take Christians to task.
It is too easy for us to fall into a place where we believe we are doing God's will and involved in the work of his Kingdom only to discover that we are messing around on the periphery rather than living in the center of what God is doing.
His phrase "at the place where the world is in pain" makes me wonder: Where does God want us to be?
Next Worship Gathering on Friday the 11th!
Our next worship gathering will be next Friday the 11th, 6:30, at the Foundry, 1855 S. Rock Road.
We need to give our worship gatherings a new name. I have called them "Corporate Worship Gatherings" but I don't like the way that sounds. To me it sounds like we are either worshipping in a large gray office building or we are worshipping a corporation. Anyway, you get what I mean.
As before, we will provide childcare for kids under 5 and have some special activities in our worship time for kids older than that.
See you then!
Happy Birthday Calana and Ross
This is a special day! Keep Calana Hill and Ross Townsend in your prayers today. They are both celebrating their 29+ birthday. Let them know how much they mean to you.
