7/14/2019 Dustin White

Lord thank you for the many blessings you have bestowed upon us. Thank you for the gifts and the talents you provided each of us which having turn provided us the opportunity to give some of those gifts back to you. Give us the continued discipline to lay these gifts your feet as well as the foresight and the mindfulness to put them to work as a church in a way that glorifies you in your name. We pray humming.

Scripture for today comes from The Book of Proverbs chapter 3 verses 1 through 12. My child do not forget my teaching but let your heart keep my Commandments for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare. They will give you do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake. You find them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the side of God and of of people trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own Insight in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes fear the lord and turn away from Evil. It will be a healing for your flesh and refreshment for your body. Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your Vats will be bursting with wine my child do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary of his reproof for the Lord reproves. The one he loves as a father the son in whom he Delights the word of God for the people of God.

And I get to introduce you since since that's been doing that. So we continue our lady summer at we're back to lady. Now after Dad gone last week and this week we have Dustin white most of you know him. And one thing I do want to say about Dustin is that he is becoming one of the really prominent leaders and both the church and the community. He's the de-facto leader of the praise team right now. He's the church's lay leader for one of these very active in the community as well. So it's my pleasure to introduce Dustin white. Thank you, Ryan.

I am going to have to say though. You stole a little bit of the Thunder from the very first part of my message here because that's what I was going to do. I was going to introduce myself. I know that they probably for most of you that you probably know who I am, but he hasn't since Rob does it every week. I figured that I was going to kind of follow suit and tell you that my name is Dustin white and I am the lay leader here at Grace United Methodist Church. And it says something that I've been doing give or take the past couple of years it goes back to Pastor Todd Krause some sort of the last portion of his tenure here. And then it's something that has continued since a pastor Rob took over which I know everything gets a little fuzzy for me, but I think it's about it. We're about a year and change into that and Dad. I wanted to get started by getting an admission off of my chest and well actually two because the first one is and I'm like really nervous. Okay, so it's a bear with me. Okay. I got that got to go over to Aetna in practice. But this this is a little different but then also

Just an admission that as your late later and maybe some of you didn't even know that I did that I was and that's a failing on my part. But also as a lay leader who is served for the amount of time that I have this this probably shouldn't be the first time that I've stood up in front of all of you and delivered the message on the Sunday morning. This is I understand it in addition to serving on pretty much every committee within the church staff Parish nominations Finance in church Council in just being involved involved member of our congregation in general terms late leaders. And in many United Methodist churches still give a sermon Here There and generally they're just a little more involved with the Sunday service and and I I haven't been Which kind of lead me to a story from the very early days of Pastor Rob's official tenure here after we finish the intake process and and the assignment was official. He was ours we were his and he was starting to move in. He he got a hold of me and asked me if I could come by some afternoon and stop by his office and we just sit down and talk for a little bit and you know, most of that meeting I had some expectations and it pretty much went the way I thought it would you know, he wanted he want to know a little bit about our church, you know, you wanted some background information he wanted to to to know about the makeup of our congregation and you want to hear the way that we've done things typically in the past and also wanted to give me some ideas about the way he might like to do things the way he might change things up and get get my feedback on and what I thought of it and and basically just kind of get the lay of the land. Establish a rapport with me and you know while I remember that I wasn't surprised by much of that conversation. I don't really recall a lot of specific details is more than a year ago. And really that was only one thing and it was a moment toward the very end of the conversation that I still haven't forgotten and that was the part where he asked me. How often do you preach and how often would you like to continue preaching?

and as certainly as I can recall him asking me that question I can tell you with equal certainty what my answers were answers that require very little thought because the answers were never and never

and then listen I'm not one to say no to things Community groups coaching summer softball teams Park District basketball camps projects at work. You name it and I have a tough time saying no to it. I just have a hard time dealing with this idea of letting people down and I think I mean that's kind of the whole reason I end up being a lay leader here in the first place. I mean first of all somebody somebody called me and said hey you want to be on nominations committee. And you know, I couldn't say no to that and then maybe like a year later. I'm sitting in a nominations committee meeting and we're calling around we're trying to get somebody to to agree to be the new layer later and we're getting shut down by a few folks. And then finally I think maybe as much as anything to just in the meeting and let everybody go home. I said, you know, why don't why don't I just do it. And and that's kind of how we got here. But to me that sort of involvement all that takes is it just takes willingness and time and that's one thing and I figured that anyone who's anyone could do that as long as they had the proper desire to do so. All it takes is a willingness but preaching at a church.

Friends that required some qualifications that I was certain that I didn't have. A worthiness for the job both in terms of like knowing and understanding scripture and then just in terms of being the the caliber of person that has any right to stand up here in front of you folks and tell you anything about living life or how to approach your faith. And I'm not going to lie to you. I'd still have those reservations. I still kind of feel that way. I'm not convinced of any qualifications. But here I am. Standing up in front of you doing this. And so the question is what changed.

now as I mentioned that conversation was robbed and never fully left my mind and in fact It was an instant recall that conversation when like somewhere in the neighborhood of a year later Rob after church council meeting. He pulled me and he pulled Ron flake aside after the meeting and said listen. You know, we're getting I'm going to be getting married and likely going to be taking a few weeks of attorney time while my new family in your messages and becomes acclimated to one another and and he wanted to know if we would each consider taking a Sunday to deliver the message. And you know, maybe maybe it was just the scenario. Like that knowledge that our church was about to head this very specific need to fill and interests acquiescing to that aforementioned hesitancy to ever disappoint anybody. or maybe maybe it's just the fact that he asked Ron and myself at the same time and run standing right there and listen runs kind of an intimidating guy. I don't know of anybody know this or not. but I just I didn't want to lose face. Maybe I just didn't want Ron to think less of me for my entire life. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe maybe those are the reasons. butter Maybe there's another reason for a why I said yes the second time. And maybe that will bring all this table setting that I've been stand-up you're doing to some sort of a point. Let's hope tears of morphed into this real life 35 year old adult and shift it into accepting more of these leadership type rules inside and outside of the church come to realize that in any Walk of Life. If you are never willing to step outside of your comfort zone. You're probably not providing yourself much opportunity to grow. Now I'm going to tell you a story. And it's just kind of fit. I I had some of this written before we went on the Strip, but we went on a trip last weekend and I had to Crowbar this in but I think it fits we we went on our family vacation last week and one of the first stops that we went on was the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama and just a side note. This is it's a really neat place to go. We only we only had time to see about half of a but it was so cool and it's especially great if you've got a seven-year-old who is just currently obsessed with all things related to the solar system and another admission. She knows more about it at this point than I do. She's she's she's got the quite a bit of knowledge racked up on our solar system and speaking of that 7 year old. One of the many attractions at the US Space and Rocket Center is a G-Force simulator after a little bit of research later that this is it was essentially a carnival ride. You might have seen it here and there to County Fair or something, but they called it the Gravitron but they dress it up a little bit at the Rocket Center and end at any rate what it was it was just this big circular drum and I don't know maybe 20 ft in diameter give or take I I forget exactly how big it was but basically you climb inside this thing and there's these angled kind of slightly angled walls and you get in there you strap yourself to it put your hands on your chest and lean back and it starts spinning and it spins and Spins and Spins and it keeps going faster. Any idea is that it's been fast enough that you start to experience this centrifugal force that Is equivalent to what I read online says equivalent to 3 times the force of gravity and it's kind of a scaled-down version of what an astronaut might experience during a shuttle launch. So that's why it was there. That's why they had it there. Anyway, they had this and Mackenzie she saw it and of course she wanted to do it and I didn't want to do it. But I also knew that she wouldn't go unless I went with her and and I wanted her to enjoy that day as much as I possibly could and you know, plus it was early in the day. So I Knew by the end. I was going to be grouchy later. So, you know, do what you can while you can write and so I sucked it up and I got in line. But just just as we were getting buckled in.

She got cold feet. And she decided it was too scary and listen part of me saw that is an escape. I was like, yeah, I don't have to do this anymore. Who did not in that kind of brief moment Another Part Of Me decided it, you know whether or not she ultimately enjoy this experience. She be better off and I would be better off for having conquered that that moment of fear. And so with with my near infallible powers of persuasion is a father because listen she she does everything I say she never argues. She always listens to me. This didn't have anything to do with the ride operator, maybe insinuating that she was kind of a chicken didn't have anything to do with that is just just me being just me being the good persuasive father that I am weak. We got her back on the ride and and we both ended up loving it her a little more than me, but we both liked it and it was a great experience for the both of us. And listen. Here's the here's the tie and here's why I'm telling you that story because that can apply to any facet of your life and your faith life. It's no different. If you're not willing to try new things or extend yourself more than you already have is a member of this congregation then neither you nor your church is realizing the full benefit of your presence here.

I think by continually finding fresh or additional ways to deserve this church in some way besides just showing up on Sunday mornings and then maybe putting which can in the offering plate you're serving yourself as well. You're you're growing as a person of God and is a part of the community that we have here with each other. And it was from here to tell you that I didn't grow up in Dino's additional commitments that I'd like that I saw my parents taking on or aspiring to the one day come here for meetings or practices on Mondays or Wednesdays or Thursdays after work. And in fact, I can be relatively sure that I told myself and a million different points that that would never be me and yet is I've evolved into these situations were I've been a part of the church's deeper infrastructure and in and help make decisions that I like to believe matter very much to not only our present but our future and my kids future in this church. I don't think I'd trade any of that for Simply Having a little less think about it. So I guess when that second opportunity to two-step even further outside my comfort zone. a comfort zone that at one time didn't include like speaking up at a finance committee meeting or playing my guitar front of all of you because that used to that used to make me nervous that used to used to bug but me to to know when but I guess I just feel like I wouldn't be doing my part around here if I shut Rob down a second time. And I'll tell you that with each extension of that comfort zone that the connection I feel to all of you is increasingly greater than that. Then the one that my 17 year old self. 17 year old who would admittedly volunteer to work Sunday shifts over Crothers IGA rather than come to church. I mean did that connection that I feel is greater than I could have ever dreamed and you know, sometimes it's sometimes it can make you angry. Sometimes it makes you happy but it it's a connection and it's one that I never knew I could feel.

We're tasked as Christians with spreading God's word God's message. And when you think of everything that we hear believe that he's done for us by by asking that of us. I mean got really doesn't ask that much of us, but that one is a pretty big one. Right? And so I think we're some folks including myself at times a lot of time sometimes I think when we get lost as what does that mean you might have these visions of people standing on like a busy street corner, you know with a bullhorn professing their faith or going door-to-door and asking you if you've heard the good news and and and I'm not saying that those things are bad. I'm not. Those things are great and provided that you're comfortable and capable of doing them in a respectful fashion, and there's a lot of correct ways to do this, but but some are certainly not for everybody. But the luckily I think another way we can profess our faith and spread. The message is by simply getting involved and in allowing this whole Faith journey to be more than a Sunday thing. If your friends and family if they know that you're coming to the church for meetings on weekday evenings where they see you Saturday mornings doing the mission projects around town that someone like Sharon Byford has been so great at organizing for us. They start to understand this whole thing must mean more to you than just some hour-long commitment on Sundays. But simply being more and more present in the life of this church, you're making it clear to everyone paying attention and that includes yourself that this has made a difference in your life and it can do the same for them. If they let it was not doesn't mean that you have to be up here doing what I'm doing because that is certainly not for everyone either and and listen, it's still really not for me no matter what else my presence at this Pulpit might suggest But but keep keep what I'm telling you in mind the next time you get that call from somebody on the nominations committee. Keep in mind when a mission opportunities mentioned during announcements at the end of our services. Keep it in mind when there's a new Bible study being offered or when the need for Sunday school or Vacation Bible School volunteers is expressed and keep it in mind as we is a congregation push into what I think of is a Brave New World five years earlier than what we bought thanks to some extreme generosity from within our church family this Brave New World in which were unencumbered by the thousands of dollars per month tied up in mortgage payments. You know, I have this hope That we can begin to explore ways to further our ministry that perhaps just weren't feasible in years past but that takes that takes more than a little extra cash. You know, it it it takes all of us and then in a willingness to you know, even if you even if you feel like you're doing a lot already a willingness to take that next step.

And keeps just keep it in mind. Even if all you ever really wanted to do was be here on Sunday mornings and see your friends and hear what Pastor Robert. Whoever might happen to show up that day. Listen to what they have to say and in and keep it in mind. Even if you're already one of the many people out there and I know there's many of you who go the extra mile when it comes to involvement here because here is my Kicker.

And keep in mind as I say this that I apply this to myself just as much as everyone of you. There's always a little more that you're capable of doing as a member of this congregation. God allows that he gives you the strength remember in that scripture your trust in the Lord Hilton Hilton will make it happen for you. It's always possible. There's always a little more growth in your faith life that you can experience. As that growth takes hold and enriches your life know this. Know that this church is experiencing that same growth that same enrichment ride along with you. And I couldn't happen without you.

And that's what I've got to say.