Bring your family and friends as we honor those with disabilities.

Soup and Salad Lunch after the church service.

 

Saturday, August 24, 2019 — 5:00 p.m.

Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Homemade Ice Cream and lots of goodies. 

Games, Fellowship, and Fun!  Enjoy singing with Edwin Hixson! Bring your instruments and enjoy a casual Jam session together!

All in the Community are Invited!  Come Join the Fun!

Bring a Lawn chair, your family and friend, and enjoy fun and fellowship together!

Fairview United Methodist Church

3901 Hamill Rd, Hixson, TN 37343

 

Gleanings… July 2019

Thought you might enjoy a few quotes and questions that seem to accumulate.  Here are some that have gathered on my desk.  Hope you enjoy them.

“When it comes to change, churches will always worry more about members they might lose than strangers they might bless.”

— Thomas G. Bandy

God loves you.

God is on your side.

God is coming after you.

God is relentless.

The only message of Eugene Peterson’s ministry as related by his son at his funeral.

Don’t let what you do define who you are.

Don’t smack the rock, speak to the rock.

Your focus will determine your flow.

You were created to thrive in a particular environment.

You must let go the past to embrace the future.

Don’t allow your past to dictate your future.

It doesn’t have to be either/or, but both/and.

Above All, Trust in the Slow Work of God

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.  We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.  We should like to skip the intermediate stages.  We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

Yet it is the law of all progress that is made by passing through some stages of instability and that may take a very long time.  And so I think it is with you.  Your ideas mature gradually.  Let them grow.  Let them shape themselves without undue haste.

Do not try to force them on as though you could be today what time — that is to say, grace — and circumstances acting on your own good will will make you tomorrow.  Only God could say what this new Spirit gradually forming in you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our loving vine-dresser.

Amen.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Did anything catch your attention?  Were any questions raised in your heart?  Let me know if you would like to sit and talk about any of these.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

See you Sunday if not before,      Pastor Braxton ><>

Gleanings… June 2019

Some of you may know that I go down to the mall to walk on an irregular basis.  It is a safe place to exercise and it gives me the chance to talk with people.  Actually, I listen more than I talk because most people seem to need that.  Some are widows or widowers, some are divorced, and some are single because they never chose to marry.  Most are older than me and in most cases are happy to have someone listen.  It is a blessing for me as well.

Stopped to talk with one of the older men at the mall the other day and he told me that another one of the “regulars” had just lost his wife after 60 years of marriage.  He told me, “I’m going to take him out to lunch.”  “You know, everyone needs a friend.”  And it struck me that here is the work of God being carried out right in front of me.

We lead incredibly busy lives.  We have appointment calendars at home, at the office, on our smartphones, and on bits of paper stuffed in our wallets and purses.  We then need a system to remind us when it’s time for our next activity.  In the end, we often have little extra time for the sudden opportunities that come our way.  The result of our busy-ness is that we miss opportunity after opportunity to share God’s love with others.

I preach about loving God and loving our neighbor quite often.  This comes from studying the Bible and other texts, and my personal struggle with how to get along with others, particularly those who have objections to how I do things (and I can be very hard-headed about some things).  The conversation that I spoke of earlier has caused me to reconsider my actions.  Is my schedule so important that I am willing to deny God the opportunity to use my presence by being a friend?

When Jesus told the parable of the Samaritan who helped the Jew who was beaten and left for dead (see Luke 10:30-37), his question of who proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers was answered with the statement, “The one who showed him mercy.”  We never know when we may be called upon to extend the hand of help and mercy to another.  In all likelihood, though, it will not appear on any appointment calendar.  Instead it will ask us to respond on the spur of the moment with no regard for what we might have planned.

Have you experienced something like this in your life?  Do you, like me, have a calendar that we use as a barrier to what God might want to do through us?  It is easy to avoid stopping to help the wounded all around us by looking at our appointment calendars and deciding there is not enough time.  My hope, though, is that my friend’s words will bring about a reexamination of how much we use our calendars to avoid interruptions in our lives.

“You know, everyone needs a friend.”  Lord, may we be open to risking a break with our busy schedules in order to be your response to someone who needs a friend today.  Amen.

See you Sunday if not before,

Pastor Braxton ><>

Freedom In Christ Service

Sunday   –   June 30, 2019   –   5:00 p.m.
Celebrate our Freedom in Christ!
Worship together!

Enjoy Ice Cream and Fellowship!
Choral Music, Congregational Hymns, Scripture, Prayer, and Sharing.

All are Welcome!

Fairview United Methodist Church
3901 Hamill Rd.  Hixson, TN 37343

Sunday May 12, 2016

Wishing all the ladies the love and happiness
you so richly deserve!

Proverbs 31:31: “Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”

Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

Proverbs 31:26: “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”

We are collecting home buckets for needy people in Zimbabwe.

Hands-On Missions for Zimbabwe

The following items should be packed in a new

5-gallon bucket with a lid.

1 bottle hand sanitizer (10 oz. or less)

1 bottle toilet cleaner (24 oz. or less)

1 laundry detergent, liquid or powder (40 loads or less)

1 bottle dish liquid (25 oz. or less)

1 bottle shampoo (15 oz. or less)

1 spray deodorant  (7 oz. or less)

1 bottle antibacterial hand soap (10 oz. or less)

1 roll paper towels (individually wrapped package)

 

Please do not vary from the sizes listed above.

We will be happy to shop for you.  Place your donation

In the offering and mark the envelope – Mission Project

We estimate the items and 1 bucket will cost $18.00

Donations of any amount are appreciated.  Thank You!

Gleanings…

If you stop by our home for a visit, you may notice that it is a bit of a climb to get to the front door.  The sidewalk and steps require no little effort to ascend.  Then one has to be careful descending, too.  You may also notice a bed of flowers where their color and beauty can be appreciated while one navigates the sidewalk.  And, if the wind is blowing, one may notice a colorful windsock and the sound of chimes.

We love the sound of our windchimes.  The wind blows for most days and we can hear their music throughout the house, day and night.  Their music touches the lives of our neighbors and the U.S. Mail carrier, as well.  They tell us how lovely the chimes sound and how much they add to the peace of the neighborhood.  We are grateful that others enjoy the beauty of their sound.

In addition to making music, they add another dimension to our lives: Our chimes and windsock make the invisible wind visible.

One of the first Hebrew words I learned was the word ruach.  Also spelled, ruah, it is the word for wind, spirit, and breath.  It is what God used to give life to the creatures God fashioned at Creation.  And it is the restless movement of air across the surface of the earth.  Its power can move mountains, part seas, and still be gentle enough to bring a prayer of thanksgiving on a still, hot day.  There is so much about the wind that we depend upon, yet, without something to color it, we never know it’s there.

Except when it pushes the wind catcher on our wind chimes and the music starts again.

What a gift of God to create something so necessary and wonderful, and to do so without calling special attention to it.  But, isn’t that the way God has always been present?  God’s love always seems to come in ways that do not scream “GOD!”  Instead, we are challenged to discover God’s presence in the invisible, in the mundane, and in the natural beauty of creation.

I expect, as we enter into late spring and the beginning of summer, to see more evidences of God’s love as plants grow, flowers bloom, and the wind washes over us.  I also expect there will be more moments of awe followed by prayers of thanksgiving for God’s presence as we continue through the year.  What a blessing it is to see, to feel, and to hear the witness of God’s love for all.

I am reminded of a song that is based on Isaiah 55:12 and I will close with its words.

The Trees of the Field

You shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace,

And the mountains and the hills will break forth before you.

There’ll be shouts of joy and the trees of the fields

Will clap, will clap their hands.

And the trees of the fields will clap their hands, (clap, clap)

And the trees of the fields will clap their hands, (clap, clap)

And the trees of the fields will clap their hands, (clap, clap)

While you go out with joy.

Pastor Braxton ><>

Palm Sunday Musical Service

“In Christ Alone”

Sunday, April 14, 5:00 p.m.

Fairview UMC Choir & Friends

In Christ Alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song.
This Cornerstone, this solid ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

All are Welcome!

Hot Dog & Chili Dinner after the Musical Service.

Fairview United Methodist Church
3901 Hamill Rd. Hixson, TN 37343 

Gleanings… March   2019

I am writing today while sitting at the kitchen island in a vacation rental home in the Orlando area.  Fitted out with multiple bedrooms and baths, it is a wonderful place to house a large number of people so as to save a bit of money for visiting the local attractions.  And, if you just feel like hanging around the house, there is a small pool and hot tub under screening that allows you to relax and doze to your hearts delight.  It is also a pretty good place to work if that is what one needs to do.

And that is where this article takes off.  When are we ever not working?  Seems like the more we seek to take a break from work, the more we end up working.  Talk about your basic no-win situation!  So, what are we to do?  I believe that instead of looking for ways to avoid work, we should look at work as a blessing from God.

When we work, we fulfill a basic purpose for our existence.  Our world needs people to use their gifts and talents whether they are compensated for them or not.  Work done for the purpose of bettering the lives of all people means that we can share in the benefits that are the fruit of our labor.

Ever thought about what work adds the greatest value to our lives?  I know that we value certain forms of work more than others.  We seem, at times, to place far more value on the forms of work that provide the greatest accumulation of assets.  I am not sure that that is where we need to focus though.  What benefits and blesses the greatest number of people is doing what assures them they are loved.

Loving one another does more to improve our lives than all the things that money can buy.  Love brings healing, restores our feelings of self-worth, and enables us to love others.  Love embodies forgiveness, mercy, compassion, and caring for one another.  Love asks us to let go of every thought that we are better than others.  Thus, when we love, we accept the model of Jesus who loved without reservation.

If there is a work that we need to constantly seek to be better at, I believe it is the work of loving one another.  I was blessed to have this opportunity to travel to Florida with family so that we could enjoy the presence of one another.  Through days of activity and just laying around the house, we are accomplishing the work we have been given to do.  That being said, I believe I hear work calling me.  May your days be filled with work that honors God and shares His love with others.

Blessings,

Pastor Braxton ><>