Unity Church of the Nazarene - McConnelsville Campus

10/01/2024

10/01/2024

***10/1/24 UPDATED DROP OFF TIMES for TODAY!!**** WE WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR DROP OFF TODAY FROM 2:00 P.M. UNTIL 7:00 P.M. in our Family Life Center****
Urgent opportunity to help meet some needs for hurricane victims in North Carolina!

We will be available at Unity's South Campus Tuesday 10/1 from 2pm-7pm and Wed 10/2 from 8am - 10am to receive donations. A list of needed items in the photo. If you would like to give monetarily, you can go the the Dresden Church of the Nazarene FB page and give through their Tithe.ly link. Thanks for anything you can do to help!

07/28/2024

God has given us himself to restore us to his image, to continue to grow in grace, to stand and move forward in in our relationships with God, with the church, and with others we share life with. This benediction, this testament to where the Ephesians have come to, is offered at this point in the letter to set up for what Paul wishes for the church to move into. Some call what Paul wishes for the people is expected morality. Perhaps. But we can rightly see that what Paul wishes for the Ephesian church is a growth in grace, a growth and maturity in the restoration of God’s image in each person as they are being formed from their growing intimacy with God, with each other, and others for the salvation of the world. If they would be surrendered to formation in the image of God, they will, in essence, be blown away by how much and how far God will do the work of saving them now. I know that when faced with change or contrary people, our minds often go to the impossibility for our own growth in grace, let alone the growth in grace of others. Paul is reminding us that the fallen nature in humans and the corruption of this fallen world cannot hinder, stop, or control the redemptive purpose of God. God in his providence will indeed continue the work he has begun in Unity, in Pastor Jamie, Bryce, and their boys, in the lives we are praying for to receive God’s prevenient grace. Yes, we have our memories. We have our experiences of God, each other, our loved ones who have gone on before. These each bear witness to God’s grace and mercy toward us and toward the world. They are not the end of God’s saving us, but a foundation for how God is continuing to save us – all of us – now.

Chapters 4-6 of this letter, then, describe God’s readiness to do “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power (Holy Spirit) within us,” and to God’s glory “in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

~Reflection on Ephesians 3:14-21
Hope and a Future

07/21/2024

We need not fret over the principalities and powers, seen or unseen. We do not need to fret over change, since God’s redemptive purpose will continue in completion toward the fulfillment of all things. Why? For Christ is the present life of the Church and is present by the Holy Spirit in the Church. In this, the Church is the embodiment of God’s redemptive purpose for the salvation of all people and the whole of creation both now and forever more. When we endure evil, when things change, when people come and go, we determine God’s will in the redemptive purpose of God, where grace abounds and in providence God fulfills now toward a day yet to come. For this is God’s heart for all of creation since before God said, “Let there be.” We surrender to redemption, to God’s will, trusting that by grace God who has saved us is saving us and will continue to save us into eternity. The Holy Spirit, Christ in us the hope of glory, assures us of God’s providence, this redemption is so, continuing to extend new life in the midst of evil, when things change, when people come and go. God’s will be done on earth now as it is in heaven.

~Reflection on Ephesians 2:3-23
Hope and a Future

07/14/2024

In our text we find that Ezekiel’s call and commission as a prophet by King Yahweh was a call to something filled with uncertainty for God’s people, an uncertainty out of their rebellious posture toward God. Yet this commission is filled with grace, filled with hope and a future. While he was exiled to Babylon in 597, some eleven years prior to the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel was commissioned to declare a painful message, oddly enough, that was to be filled with hope in God’s redemptive purpose and a future filled with new life. The unorthodox message, while assumed to be bitter, when received was going to be sweet. The salvation and identity of this people are going to be found squarely in God’s self – not in the temple, not in the cultic, not in priestly intercession. The grace offered is new life out of death, a new beginning out of an ending in humiliation. In uncertainty, whether caused by someone or something out of our control, or caused by our own doing, God is present as our sovereign. In the uncertainty God’s message to us might seem contrary to God’s love for us, contrary to grace, contrary to a God who wishes to save us. Yet, it is in the throes of uncertainty, suffering, and change, that God offers us himself and only himself. In God’s self is found love extending grace, new life out of death, a new beginning out of a humiliating ending. If we are willing, this message will be sweet, even though all reason and opinion will say otherwise. For God is present. God is redeeming. God is love and grace for the salvation of the world.

~Reflection on Ezekiel 2:1 - 3:3
Hope and a Future

07/07/2024

Throughout the history of God’s people, this psalm has stood as a testament of God’s presence and redemption among and for the people of God. It has brought comfort and assurance to generations. Psalm 23 has been such a testament for the people of God beginning with David who penned this song while on the run from King Saul. Under threat of an enemy, the return from exile, the occupation of an empire, and even under the challenge to worship God in everyday life, this psalm speaks of God as shepherd, the one who offers presence, care, protection, and provision. We are familiar with Jesus as the shepherd of the sheep, the presence of God for the salvation of God’s people and of the world. There is comfort for the individual and for a people that God is very present know, with them always, now and into eternity. God cares for, nurtures his people by and in his presence, offering a hope and a future even if things seem lined up for the opposite to be realized. God protects his people from an enemy who would seek to defeat or destroy them, seeking to separate them from God’s very real presence. God provides all that is needed for the body and the mind and the heart to find healing, rest, and sustenance. Jesus would refer to himself as the shepherd of the sheep and Peter along with the writer of Hebrews would refer to Jesus as the great shepherd. This would be especially comforting and reassuring to the early disciples considering Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. The promise of Jesus to be with us always is met in the indwelling presence, care, protection, and provision of the Holy Spirit. From David hiding from Saul to the Babylonian exile, to the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, to the change, disappointment, struggle, and threat of the enemy we experience, we still live under, the presence, care, protection, and provision of God. No matter who governs over us, or directs us toward Godlikeness, the Lord is our Shepherd. We have no want for anyone or anything else. Our very present Helper, our Comforter, our Defender, our Provider. Father: We are yours.

~Reflection on Psalm 23
Hope and a Future

06/30/2024

The book of Lamentations is a series of poems expressing regret and mourning over the fall of Jerusalem, which took place at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The book itself remembers the unfaithfulness of the people of Judah, yet leans into God’s faithfulness and compassion, seeking to establish hope that God will continue to fulfill his redemptive purpose, that a restoration will come to God’s people. While the poet writes of regret and mourning, giving full-throated voice to the despair and doubt the people have, there is a shift in our portion of this poem. Here the poet seeks to give the same full-throated voice to the faithful love and compassion God has for his people. There is hope even though God’s redemptive purpose cannot be seen or felt in the moment, in the suffering, in the doubt and despair. Why? Because God is present. God has not forsaken. God is fulfilling purpose. God is saving now.

I believe that many of us have been taught over the years that to have faith in God means that we will not give into our feelings, that we will not question God’s “will” when something bad or disappointing happens or when we think that God has allowed something to happen (permissive will). Yet, based on what the poet writes here we find that God is present in our brokenness, he is compassionate in his dealings with us frail and fallen creatures. When dreams are dashed, when we begin to regret things, or perhaps begin to despair life and trouble in this world it is common for us cracked pots to want to give up believing that God is present. It is hard for us to see God as compassionate or to sense that God is faithfully offering grace and mercy for our salvation and the salvation of the world. How about when change comes, unsettling our peace and upending our vision for how things will look in the future? The poet expresses these same feelings and questions in Lamentations. If we look at Jeus in Gethsemane, Jesus in the garden – Jesus questions and offers his feelings on the matter – yet surrenders his will to the will of the Father for the redemption of creation. And so, we may do the same – question, appeal, yet always surrendering to the redemptive purpose of God for the salvation of the world. And God who is rich in mercy and has a love for us which is as great and as deep and as wide as the universe, will restore our hope and offer a future greater than we can think or imagine.

~Reflection on Lamentations 3:19-33
Hope and a Future