Tend to Your Knitting

First of all, let me say I love our church. It is the charming 19th century white steepled building on the corner of Main and Church Street in Cape May Court House.
The old-fashioned bell tower and position next to the historic courthouse next door belie what happens inside. This very active congregation has taken the very best and newest technology and uses it to enhance the preaching. There are three services every Sunday at 8, 9 and 11 a.m.
Depending on one’s taste, one can choose a service that most fits your musical inclinations. The 8 and 11 o’clock congregation will be hearing a talented choir and organ music that will leave one breathless with its passion and joy.
The 9 o’clock band is all contemporary sounds with electric and acoustic guitars, percussion instruments, some brass, flute and great keyboard playing by Ted Osler, our musically gifted senior pastor.
What will not vary is the message heard at all three worship services. At this United Methodist Church, we tend to stick pretty much with our “knitting” which is preaching the good news of Christ and the transforming of our hearts, which must follow if one believes that message.
We don’t tend to preach much about political agendas believing that Christ is equally at home in the hearts of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. In our church, we take very seriously Christ’s command to care for those who are poor, hungry, and in need of a neighborly helping hand. Sometimes our neighbors are in Africa, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic or right across the street.
We also take very seriously Christ’s command to spread the gospel. I have never been in a church that has raised more missionaries out of its own congregation — many full time professional people who devote their entire lives to spreading the good news of Christ’s salvation — many who make short term trips either to help in natural disasters such as Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti.
You know there has to be a great big “but” in here to cause me to devote an entire column to my church. The “but” in “I love my church has to do with the Council of Bishops pastoral letter to all the churches of the denomination. In this letter there is a call to “reduce our carbon footprint,” admit complicity in environmental degradation and admit consuming more than our fair share of the world’s resources.
Dear Bishops, I ask you as only one member of this ever-decreasing mainstream denomination to look again at Christ’s last command to us. It wasn’t “Take care of the Earth” nor was it “feed all the poor nor “redistribute the wealth.’ Jesus told us to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”
If we as a church can tend to our knitting, which is teaching according to Christ’s command, and stay out of the political agendas concerning “carbon footprints” etc., then perhaps we can let individual members go out into the world as Christian citizens and do as they see fit.
ART HALL, publisher