Blog Posts

Being Persistence

7/17/2019

FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK:

“Failure cannot cope with persistence.”
~Napoleon Hill

As I was reflecting on this month’s newsletter and what I wanted to write in it, I immediately thought about a sermon that I preached on the second Sunday in July, “When We Refuse to Quit!” I think this is a theme and a topic that is worthy of deep reflection. Remember this one thing, “Nothing worth having comes easy.” Life takes work; family relationships take work; marriage takes work; advancing in a particular career takes work; and, reaching a particular goal that you have in mind takes work. Now go back and reread the preceding sentence and replace the word “work” with the word “persistence.” Persistence is the key to accomplishing any goal, agenda, and or reaching a particular destination. Whatever it is that you are working towards it will take persistence. Why? Because nothing worth having comes easy.

Therefore, let me encourage you to persist. Persist in your relationship with your children; persist in your marriage; persist in your spiritual life; persist in your health goals; persist in prayer; and, after you have persisted, persist some more. Persistence will give you the ability to conquer what appears to be unconquerable.

Finally, it is my prayer that God will give you the strength, the ability, and the mindset to persist!

May the peace and love of God live in your hearts,

Pastor Michael L. Sloan

Wrestling with Doubt

5/23/2019

FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK:

“The more one tries to restrict it, the more power one gives it; for [doubt] is suspicious of nothing so much as attempt to quell it. It may lie low for a little time, but will come back all the fiercer [like a fiery blaze] for having been suppressed.”
~Daniel Taylor

“The worst kind of doubt is unexpressed doubt.”
~ David Kinnaman

This is my fourth newsletter to this great congregation—The First Congregational Church of Spencerport. I have been thinking a lot lately about a sermon that I preached on the last Sunday in April. If you recall, I preached a sermon entitled, “When Faith and Doubt Clash.” It was a sermon that was near and dear to my heart. Let me take this time to tell about when I experienced a great crisis in my faith—It was when I enrolled in seminary at Lincoln Christian University. I had grown up in a theologically conservative environment. So, when I got to seminary, I was surrounded by a lot of different theological views. When I was in seminary, for class I had to read Ancient Near Eastern religious documents that were parallel to some of the Scriptures that we have in our Bible. I also began reading and interpreting the Bible in its original languages. I have to admit all of this was a bit overwhelming for me. As a result, I began straddling the fence. It was an extremely challenging time. However, as the years went by, I continued to pray, study, explore (my spirituality), and even discuss my concerns with other pastors, scholars, and seminarians. It wasn’t until later on that I discovered, when I thought my faith was crumbling, it was actually being made stronger. When I thought my faith was crumbling, it was actually all coming together.

Additionally, I continued to see the fingerprints of God all over my life; and, He continued to be a powerful presence leading me along difficult paths. And, let me tell you, I have experienced some serious challenges in my life (some that I am not even brave enough to put on paper, yet); and, I can honestly say that if it had not been for that Supreme Being moving in the background (almost like invisible guide), I would have been lost.

Let me encourage those of you who continue to wrestle with doubt: keep praying, keep expressing your doubts (in written and oral form) to those you trust, and, keep looking for the fingerprints of that Supreme Being in your life. I guarantee you, if you look for those fingerprints, you will find them. Amen!

Pastor Michael L. Sloan

Finishing Strong!

4/18/2019

FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK:

“Starting strong is good; but finishing strong is epic.”
~ Robin Sharma

This is my third newsletter to this wonderful congregation—The First Congregational Church of Spencerport. As I was reflecting on the Lenten season and Holy Week, I began thinking about Christ when he was on the cross and when he uttered these words, “It is finished!” He had finished the work that God had sent him to do. As noted in my sermon on this text, I also began reflecting on our own work here on Earth; and, how imperative it is for us to finish our work. So often we start a project or a task with so much vigor, enthusiasm, and excitement; and, then when it gets tough, we begin to slow down and even stop, sometimes. It is so important that we finish what we start—even when we encounter bumps in the road. There will always be challenges along the way of completing a task or fulfilling a goal. However, we need to keep in mind that there are great rewards for those who are disciplined enough to stay the course—be it a relationship, parenting, a vocation/career, a goal, etc. Those who are disciplined enough to stay the course get to taste the sweet fruit of victory. I want to encourage you to stay the course until you are able to say, “It is finished!”
May the peace and love of God live in your hearts,

Pastor Michael L. Sloan

"New Life"

3/21/2019

FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK:

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” ~Saint Paul (Romans 6:4)

This is my second newsletter to this amazing congregation—The First Congregational Church of Spencerport. It has been a little more than a month since I began my role here as your new minister. As we look forward to the 2019 Easter season, I want to encourage you to also look forward to new life. Easter is one of the most important holidays on the Christian calendar. It is a time when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. What would be a better time for us to also celebrate our own personal resurrections? There are times in our own lives when we have to close the door to our past and open the door to our future. There are times when we have to end one chapter and then turn the page to begin another. As stated in my previous newsletter, new beginnings are filled with excitement, joy, and passion. However, new beginnings are often times the result of something being lost; something dying; or, maybe even something not working out the way we originally planned. While great losses stimulate great mourning; they also have a way of leading us to a new beginning or a new path. Let us take time out to reflect on and celebrate the new life that we have in Christ. Let us take time out to reflect on and celebrate our own personal “new beginnings.” And, let us take time out to reflect on and celebrate our own personal resurrections.

Finally, I look forward to celebrating Holy Week and many other important holidays on the Christian calendar together. Let us keep our church, our community, and our world lifted up in prayer.

May the peace and love of God live in your hearts,

Pastor Michael L. Sloan

"New Beginnings"

2/21/2019

FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK:

“Let’s forget the baggage of the past and make a new beginning.” ~Shehbaz Sharif

This is my first newsletter to The First Congregational Church of Spencerport. I remember last year praying, “God, lead me exactly to the place where you want me to be!” I can honestly say, I truly believe that God has answered my prayer by sending me here to Spencerport. I remember when I visited Spencerport in December of last year. I preached at a mutual pulpit; and, afterwards, I viewed our church and the parsonage. While walking through the parsonage, I said to myself, “This feels like home.” Since my arrival in February of this year, all of you have made me feel right at home.

Furthermore, this is a new beginning for us. New beginnings are filled with excitement, expectations, and great enthusiasm. New beginnings are filled with joy, passion, and celebrations. I believe that new beginnings are God-ordained; and, they are also needed and a major part of our human experience. As we all know, nothing in life stays the same. We are forever changing, growing, and developing into new creatures, new beings and developing new habits. I am trusting and believing that God will lead us through this time of transition.

Finally, my daughter Michelle, will be joining us in June (2019) after she graduates from high school. She has already applied to colleges here in New York. Michelle is so excited about this transition. She will be visiting periodically leading up to her permanent arrival in June.

In conclusion, please know that if you need me, I am only a phone call away. I am looking forward to what the future has in store for us.

May the peace and love of God live in your hearts,
Pastor Michael L. Sloan

Goodbye from Pastor Alan

1/17/2019

FROM THE INTERIM PASTOR'S STUDY:

Everything that happens in this world, happens at the time God chooses.       Ecclesiastes 3:1 (Good News Bible)

This is my last newsletter article during my time with you. The time has flown by, and it seems like just a few months ago that Sue and I first arrived. I can’t begin to tell you the joy and fond memories you have given us during our time here, to say nothing of the support you gave me during my back surgery recovery.

We spent some of our time together reflecting on life’s meaning, trying to understand it in the context of the “big picture” of our lives, we’ve explored what God might want from us and from The First Congregational Church, and we sought to understand how God is revealed to us on this journey we walk together. While this is all good, don’t forget to make that daily effort to look at God’s creation. As you continue to journey, remember that the ultimate purpose in everything is to truly know, love and serve God in everything you do. Even as you acknowledge the ambiguities of life, remain open to the rich and mysterious ways in which God will reveal your life’s meaning to you.

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, an 18th century French Jesuit Priest, once wrote of the present, “The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams, but you will only enjoy them to the extent of your faith and love. The more a soul loves, the more it longs and the more it hopes, the more it finds.”

Until that time when our paths again cross, it would be our hope for each of you to continue to recognize God’s work and presence in your lives, that you continue to work on behalf of those Jesus referred to as the least, and that you continue to seek for happiness and joy within your selves. And lastly, know that you will be missed.

May God’s peace and love rest in your hearts,
Pastor Alan and Sue

Believing the Good News

12/13/2018

FROM THE INTERIM PASTOR'S STUDY:

Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the Good News of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Good News."         Mark 1:14b-15

God came into this world, in the person of Jesus, with an offer that the kingdom was near and requesting all who could hear, to repent, to change their ways, to change their lives and to believe the Good News. He came with a radical message, a message which could change the lives of all who followed him. However, Jesus didn’t meet the many expectations of a Messiah and as a result many put off making a commitment.

Not much has changed today. How many of us are ready to risk everything to embrace Jesus’ example of humility and trust in God’s desires for their lives? Jesus’ request to forgive without expecting anything in return or Jesus’ commitment to justice for all, especially if it means risking everything we’ve ever worked for, whether it be our homes, our security or the acceptance of peers to go and do God’s bidding, all seem pretty daunting. We all know what the promise is, for that hasn’t changed in over 2000 years, but that fact still can’t seem to break through our needs to meet our own self-serving desires.

Advent/Epiphany is our annual call to stop putting off our commitment to follow Jesus. We don’t need to wait for a better time to pray, to forgive or to help the needy and the least among us. Each year, we are reminded to leave the old ways behind and enter the new year thinking, “Do not put it off one more minute. Change your lives and believe the message today.”

Knowing, what we might expect, helps us to experience and share God’s love every day and to become those beloved children God has been seeking for so long. Let us hear God’s
requests – whether it be in Scripture, prayer or acts of love and kindness towards each other and everyone God places in our path. We must always be prepared to respond to God’s gift to us when it is offered. For it is only when we risk making those changes, that we can experience the fulfillment of promise in our lives now.

This is why Christ came and risked everything, and this is what we have to gain. Yes, the kingdom is near, and it is time we believe the message!

May each of your days be blessed and your kingdom wishes fulfilled as you journey into this new year once again.

                                                         Pastor Alan

"Waiting" and "Patience"

11/27/2018

FROM THE INTERIM PASTOR'S STUDY:

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until the early and late rains.
You must also be patient.                 James 5:7-8

Each year as I begin preparing for Advent, I come across the terms “waiting” and “patience,” and I recall once being told that a “waiting” person is a “patient” person. The word “patience” implies the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out in the belief that something hidden there will reveal itself to us. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there.

Waiting makes us much more aware of the empty spaces in our lives. We seem to have a fear of empty spaces. We want to fill up what is empty. Perhaps our fear is that an empty space means that something may happen that we cannot predict, something that is new, that we might just be led to a place that we do not want to go. I once heard that waiting is even more difficult when we are fearful. Our fears of the unknown can explain why it is so hard to wait and just how tempting it is for us to act, to do something just to stay in control. Impatient people expect the real thing to happen somewhere else, for them the moment is empty, and they simply want to get away from the present situation and go elsewhere. But, patient people dare stay can be found there, still waiting.

.....It is choosing to hope for something that is far beyond our imaginings.

.....It is trusting enough to give up control over our future and letting God define our life.

.....It is living with the conviction that God molds us in love, holds us in tenderness, and moves us away from the sources of our fear.

This is what we can find in our empty spaces. This is when we let go of the safety net, this is when we learn to trust, this is when we experience Jesus as our anchor of hope, this is why we wait.

             Wishing you all a patient and hope filled Advent,
             Pastor Alan

Using Your Gifts

10/22/2018

FROM THE INTERIM PASTOR'S STUDY:

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10

Use your gifts always, to do good works!

Think about it this way, one of us gets news from a very reliable source that Jesus will return on January 1, 2019. So what do we do? Now you really don’t want to miss this as it just might end everything as we know it now. So would you keep doing whatever tasks you had been doing or would you spend your remaining days waiting where you learned he would arrive?

The inactivity option does not reflect at all what Jesus taught and certainly not the message Paul had in mind in writing this letter to the church at Ephesus. Ever since the encounter with Adam and Eve in the garden, we find God instructing people of the importance to continue producing fruit and caring for the creation that they were given. But to do this successfully, we find we are also called on to do many things that may seem to be beneath us, to do things that seem and feel ordinary. But then we are told that in Christ’s kingdom things are always reversed and “ordinary fruit” becomes exceptional and worthy fruit. Jesus' audience didn’t need rabbis, nor do we need pastors to produce fruit that pleases God. In fact, a quiet, peaceful life of doing something kind, appreciative or useful for our neighbor is generally just fine. The key is that we do it the best we can and with all the energy we can muster.

Are you:

A father or mother? Then, encourage and admonish in turn.
A son or daughter? Then, care for those who cared for you.
Retired? Then, get some rest and then get busy.
An employee (or employer)? Then, be the best you can be at putting others first.
A baker? Then, bake good bread.
A bus driver? Then, bring a smile to everyone you encounter.
Chronically ill or depressed? Then, assault the throne of God with your prayers.

So why would we do these, and other, ordinary things? Because when God came among us as Jesus, God exchanged divinity for the ordinary. God exchanged an ordinary crib for a cross and there produced the strangest fruit of all - a way for all who were there, and through them us, to understand peace with God and the pathway to the kingdom. That is God’s desire.

Always be on the lookout for that call that comes from God,

Pastor Alan

Challenging Yourself

9/20/2018

FROM THE INTERIM PASTOR'S STUDY:

For surely I know the plans I have for you,
plans for your welfare…to give you a future with hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

I recently received a meditation entitled, “We Were Made for These Times." It was written in response to the chaotic times we are living in, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, the author of Women Who Run With The Wolves, and is a timely message. I’ve already shared it with a few of you, but have decided that its message was appropriate for all and timely enough to be included here.

In the article, she encourages us, “Not to lose hope nor spend our spirits dry bewailing these difficult times,” because we were made for these times. For in times like these, we often dwell on what is wrong and often out of our reach. “Do not focus there,” we are told.

We are reminded regularly that we ask God for the help, clarity, understanding and grace we need. Estes challenges us to remember that to be in grace, means being willing to submit to the voice greater than our own. Paul told the church at Corinth that we could only see in part and Clarissa tells us, “We are needed and that is all we can and need to know." In addition, often we are told that a persistent series of many small things will have more impact than a single major effort or event, and that we might not ever know what specific thing will effect a change in the course of events.

Jesus’ charge to all of us was to remain patient, persistent and not to worry. In my mind, this is God’s charge to each of us, namely to maintain a calm presence in the midst of chaos. Estes shares that one of the most calming and powerful actions we can do is to stand up in chaos’ midst. For in times like this, to be assertive and show mercy toward others, especially those in need, are acts of bravery and necessity. And while we might often feel discouraged by the pace of our progress, we should not allow those feelings in, nor should they be invited to the table.

She ends her meditation with this thought…there should be no despair when we remember why we were placed on the earth, who we serve and who sent us here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and the deeds of the one who brought us here. In that Spirit, we should always remember that when a great ship is in the harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But, that is not what great ships are built for.

Enjoy the journey and allow yourselves to be challenged.

Pastor Alan