A Note From The Pastor

First of all, I would like to express my deep appreciation to all of you for your generosity to me and my family during the past Christmas Season. While the monetary gifts, cards, crafts, mugs, ornaments, paintings, cookies, and restaurant gift cards are very appreciated, it is also a wonderful encouragement to know that you are thinking of us in such a way. We are truly enjoying our time of ministry here in College Hill United Methodist, and are looking forward to the many wonderful things God has for all of us in the future.

 

On arriving here in College Hill, I preached on our vision statement, “A Family of God. Connected by Christ, Committed to Community” on Sunday mornings for 6 weeks. We had an opportunity to review the statement and we were reconfirmed that we are called by God to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength and to love others as ourselves. We also came to know that we have to practice five things to accomplish our vision both in the church and in this world; Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Service and Mission.

 

In addition, we sing the statement every week so that everyone is now familiar with it and actually memorized it. But the value of the vision statement is not found in the repetition of it in church services, but in accomplishing it for the church. And so, I called our vision team to set goals and implement them in ministry by using the book of “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” which is written by one of the United Methodist Bishops, Robert Schnase.

 

John Wesley wrote in 1786, “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist in Europe or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without power.” (“Thoughts Upon Methodism”)

 

We must change. But change for the sake of change or to preserve the institution is not sufficient. We have to bear much fruits through the change as Jesus said, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be m disciples.” (John 15:8) I think that by doing easy-to-use new programs, through quick fixes, or by adopting new slogans we can not bear much fruit nor make any difference. We have to develop a congregational culture of “Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith development, Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity.”

 

Now think about our forefathers who had dedicated their lives for this church. Because they had conducted those five practices faithfully, we are now able to benefit from the fruit that they had borne. For example, though we didn’t build the church building by ourselves, we now enjoy a beautiful sanctuary, kitchen, offices, Sunday school rooms etc. We have to do something for our children too as our forefathers did for us.

Last Tuesday, we had an initiative meeting with our vision team to review our current ministries and to develop new plans for the future. Each member is expected to play an important role in the team.

 

So please, pray for them. Pray for them three times a day, in the morning, noon and in the evening that they may do their job successfully. All of our efforts are really meaningless if we are not connected to the Lord. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” We need to pray for them to remain in the Lord that they may bear much fruit for God’s glory through the process of this planning.

Pastor Duk Hee Han

College Hill United Methodist Church

5th Avenue at 33rd Street      P.O. Box 313      Beaver Falls, PA  15010

This page was last updated: February 2, 2012