The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.Psalm 24:1 (New Living Translation)
Baptism at the Lake
On July 21, we’ll gather at Hagg Lake, in the Sain Pavilion, for worship, music, and your opportunity to be baptized in the lake. Beginning at 11:00 am, this will be the only worship service that day.
Please plan to join us for this special morning. Your heart will be blessed!
All Team Worship Planning
Be part of the process of planning worship at Westside by attending Saturday, June 8, at 9:30 am. Everyone is invited! We should be done by 11:00.
Camp IWannaBe Coming in August
At Camp IWannaBe: Changing the World with Love, children spend three days learning how important it is to treat others with respect and kindness, regardless of our differences.
For children preschool through 5th grade, Camp IWannaBe will explore God’s world through science, music, Bible stories, crafts, and service to others.
Camp IWannaBe will be held at Christ United Methodist Church, 12775 NW Dogwood St in Portland, August 1 - 3 with a family BBQ at noon on Saturday. The cost is only $20 through June 21, increasing to $30 after that date. Sibling maximum is $60.
Register at Camp IWannaBe
Join the Journey, 5.26.19
Question: When have you lost touch with what really has value in life?
Answers:
Too many times to count, but it doesn’t take long to fall back to reality.
Whenever I have placed myself before God and family.
While in an addiction.
When I become prideful or selfish.
When I get too wrapped up in what needs to get done and forget to invite God into every moment of my life.
Letting go of those who really love me.
Upcoming
Service at Christ UMC
Sunday, June 16
Christ UMC
12755 NW Dogwood St, Portland
We will celebrate our Help Build Hope collaboration by attending second service at Christ UMC. The 8:15 Morning Watch will still be at Westside.
Gifts and Talents Workshop
June 10 - July 15
An online version on Monday evenings - same great group conversations and enlightening exercises. Requires a camera and mic on your computer. Sign up at signups.wumc.me.
Help Build Hope
Friday and Saturday, June 14-15
Christ UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood
Time’s running out to sign up at https://helpbuildhope.com/cumc.
Donations for Dominican Republic
Our team traveling to the DR in July will take items to the children there. If you can donate any of the following by July 7, it will be appreciated: DR needs 2019
Baptism at the Lake
Sunday, July 21
Our annual service at Hagg Lake, at the Sain Pavilion, is July 21. This will be the only service that day but it will be worth the drive! Worship, music, and the joy of baptism. More details soon.
Sneak Peek for this Sunday
Karen still remembers the exact amount. I came home from work that day in 1990, to her and our then three little girls, and told her that a woman had come into my office unable to pay her rent so I had loaned her $242 to help pay it.
“You did what?” Karen asked, thinking of our own meager budget and our need for groceries and our need to pay the bills. I told her again, and she was filled with disbelief and was not just a little angry.
It was that day that I learned it was best to get her buyin to large financial decisions (and that was one) before making them. The reality is this: when she has an opportunity to have buyin, then, she has the joy of giving as well.
I have regretted it every time I have not done this.
As Karen predicted that night, we never saw that money paid back. It took a tight couple months to recover with us limping along. It was years later that I learned how my own mythical thinking about money, my own poor budgeting, and my own lack of boundaries kept us strapped. God provides and when we honor Him with our finances, He blesses us with the ability to be good stewards of all He has provided. Then we can give!
Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy to instruct those rich in this world how to view money or wealth. His instructions are timeless. Truly, even when we were strapped financially in San Jacinto, we were still among the rich of this world, the most wealthy. We would have done well to heed his advice.
He told Timothy to warn them not to be proud (not to trust in their wealth); Trust in God and use their money to do good; To be rich in good deeds (always being willing to share with others). Paul wanted those who were rich to be generous-hearted, people who gave and gave freely. He warned Timothy that those who craved wealth, who loved money, have pierced themselves with many hurts, even fallen from faith. It was a message written to be delivered to people living in Ephesus in the first century but could easily have been written for us, today. All of us, no matter our incomes, are easily among the wealthiest of the world, living in the wealthiest of nations.
To see money not as what we “have” but as what we “have been given” is a start. It is to agree that all wealth, even if we earned it by our efforts, or by saving diligently, still is granted by God. God said this to the Israelites after leaving Egypt to beware of forgetting Him when they became wealthy, saying that, “He is the one who gave you the power to earn wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:18). What Paul wrote to Timothy was entoned previously by God through Moses there in Deuteronomy 8.
Money is curious. It is simply a means of commerce, yet, it can grab our hearts, it can give us a sense of power over others, and become something we crave more of. It can be dangerous that way. Heeding God’s warnings is helpful to undercut the ways money can have in our lives for it tends to grab our hearts.
This week we will be looking at Paul’s advice to Timothy and listening for how God is speaking to us today. We will also recall how John Wesley used money in his era, even when making what today would be $160,000 a year, Wesley chose to live on what was equivalent to $20,000 per year and gave the rest away. Wesley wrote that his own hands would be his executors -- he would give while he lived. And he did. He died penniless other than the money needed for his funeral.
If you cannot make it, ponder: How am I a steward of all God has given me?
In what ways do I guard against money gaining access to my heart?
How do I practice Wesley’s advice to “Gain all you can; Save all you can; Give all you can.”?
Office Closed this Friday
The church office will be closed this Friday, May 24.
Join the Journey, 5.19.19
Question: When has praise brought an answer to prayer you didn’t expect?
Answers:
Peace in the midst of grief/struggle.
I want to thank everyone for helping with my yardwork.
When God led us to our new home and neighborhood.
As I learn to pray for God’s will to be done, instead of mine, this happens more and more.
Upcoming
District Colloquy
Thursday, May 23
9:30 am - 3:00 pm
All are invited to attend this gathering here at Westside! Lunch and snacks will be provided, so please register for this free event: https://www.umoi.org/eventdetail/12791012
Family Promise Week
May 26 - June 2
Our Lighthouse building will once again host families that are houseless. If you would like to participate, please contact Bonnie Becker for more information.
Gifts and Talents Workshop
June 10 - July 15
An online version on Monday evenings - same great group conversations and enlightening exercises. Requires a camera and mic on your computer. Sign up at signups.wumc.me.
Help Build Hope
Friday and Saturday, June 14-15
Christ UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood
Those skilled with table saws cut the lumber on Friday, then all ages help assemble walls (and other tasks) on Saturday. Please note: you must sign up at https://helpbuildhope.com/cumc, even if you previously signed up on our forms here.
Donations for Dominican Republic
Our team traveling to the DR in July will take items to the children there. If you can donate any of the following by July 7, it will be appreciated: DR needs 2019
Sneak Peek for this Sunday
A brother in Christ and fellow pastor, David Beck, has cancer. Pancreatic Cancer. He was first diagnosed more than 16 months ago now and has been undergoing excruciating, ongoing treatments.
Back in December of 2017 when called to serve a church outside of Seattle from Sacramento, he arrived, preached a couple times, began to feel too exhausted to name, and in going to the doctor got this diagnosis. So, he had been doing the right thing, following God, obeying, showing up, being faithful, and the result, cancer. Sometimes the facts of life leave one mystified.
The unanswered questions can leave a person numb.
Circumstances can thwart us. But through this 16 months David has been posting on the Caring Bridge site in a blog that has now reached well over 50,000 readers. Week by week, through the struggles and impossibilities of his circumstances, he has simply shared his heart, his faith, and his determination to simply live every day as fully as he can, even if his last day is upcoming ahead of schedule.
So far, David is still alive. It is a marvel. It is like he is sitting in this jailhouse called cancer yet still praying, still praising, still believing, and certainly still sharing his love for Jesus.
This week, on Sunday, we will share in a passage, from Acts 16, in which a circumstance which looking in from the outside we would have to admit is dreadful leads to more people hearing about Jesus than ever would have otherwise. Although we only read of one family converting as a result, the overflow of this one must have been massive. Crowds had witnessed a miracle -- and even though this had been covered by false cries, still, God had moved in their midst. A slave girl had experienced the power of God over her life. Prisoners had witnessed the newest arrivals not yelling with anger or crying out in pain, but singing and praying, all of which they were listening to.
Read Acts 16 this week and look at Paul and Silas and wonder with me what we might learn about them that they chose praise and prayer over self pity or despair! They could have felt betrayed by God in this little circumstance, but you don’t see this. They could have chosen to complain, but didn’t. They could have said, “Hey, we are doing the right thing here,” but they don’t. What we do see is a choice in the midst of a circumstance. That choice made the difference.
What impact might those praises have had on those “listening in” prisoners?
How might the jailer’s life and his family’s life have been altered because of this imprisonment?
What was that midnight baptism like as Paul presided over his and his family’s baptisms?
This story reminds me that we are partners with God in this grand adventure and everything, not just the good stuff, is used so that God can be made more visible through our lives. It also reminds me of this: that I’m being observed all the time. And whatever I might imagine, when I come and go, when I speak and listen, my life is on display and others are watching to see how I respond, and what I say from the circumstances of my life. Perhaps, just perhaps, we could remember just two things of how Paul and Silas chose to follow in their circumstances to impact our own. Rather than anything else, rather then defensiveness or anger, in response to horrendous treatment, they prayed and praised. Perhaps this week, no matter your circumstances, you could choose the same and see what kinds of earthquakes shake your world for good.
Save the Dates!
Summer is a’coming! And so are our special services:
Sunday, June 16
Morning Watch service at Westside at 8:15 am
Second service will be at Christ UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood St in Portland, to celebrate our Help Build Hope collaboration.
Sunday, July 21
No Morning Watch service
Our service will be at the Sain Pavilion at Hagg Lake. There will be music and worship and the opportunity to be baptized in the lake.
Mark your calendars now for these events — and don’t forget to invite your friends!
Projects for this Sunday
There are two projects we are requesting folk to help with this Sunday, May 19th, after worship:
1. Help to move all the round tables into the sanctuary and set up the chairs around them for an all-day meeting and lunch for 60 happening in the sanctuary on Thursday. This will take 15 minutes, max. You got this!
2. There is a local, partially disabled couple loosely connected to our congregation who have been cited for having such a messy backyard in their mobile home park, that they've been threatened with eviction. We are heading there after worship to put in about 2 hours of clean up. With enough hands (bring your tools and work gloves) we can transform this backyard.
It is a small act of service that will make a huge difference in this couple's lives to help them See Jesus. And like any wave formed by love, it will overflow into others' lives too.
If you need snacks, bring them along. And do bring your water.
Thanks for being the kind of community that cares and reaches out. If you have others who might like to help, invite them!
Small Groups Meeting, May 19 - 25
Westside Readers
Sunday, Noon
Choir rehearsal
Monday, 7:30 pm
Bible Basics
Tuesday, 6:30 pm
Worship Design Team
Wednesday, 7:00 am
District Colloquy at Westside
Thursday, 9:30 am
Music Team
Thursday, 6:30 pm
Church Office Closed
Friday
News from Paraguay
Greetings from Paraguay!
What adjective in the Guarani language best describes a single, working mother of multiple, rambunctious children? You can find that and recent news at www.tmrevett.blogspot.com.
We hope that all of you who are mothers or motherly figures had a great Mother’s Day!
—Tim and Margarite Revett
Join the Journey, 5.12.19
Question: Which community actions to you most put on display our faith in Christ at Westside?
Answers:
I love to see how many opportunities for weekly gatherings here.
Our church itself.
Family Promise (three people chose this answer!)
I light a candle for family and friends - and if I see someone new I ask them if they want to join me. I go out and work for the benefit of others, and it gives me purpose and joy.
Family Promise, Habitat for Humanity, HomePlate, EPIK.
Upcoming
District Colloquy
Thursday, May 23
9:30 am - 3:00 pm
All are invited to attend this gathering here at Westside! Lunch and snacks will be provided, so please register for this free event: https://www.umoi.org/eventdetail/12791012
Family Promise Week
May 26 - June 2
Our Lighthouse building will once again host families that are houseless. If you would like to participate, please contact Bonnie Becker for more information. Training is this Saturday, May 18.
Gifts and Talents Workshop
June 10 - July 15
An online version on Monday evenings - same great group conversations and enlightening exercises. You’ll need a camera and mic. Sign up at signups.wumc.me.
Help Build Hope
Friday and Saturday, June 14-15
Christ UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood
Those skilled with table saws cut the lumber on Friday, then all ages help assemble walls (and other tasks) on Saturday. Please note: you must sign up at https://helpbuildhope.com/cumc, even if you previously signed up on our forms.
Donations for Dominican Republic
Our team traveling to the DR in July will take items to the children there. If you can donate any of the following by July 7, it will be appreciated: DR needs 2019
Sneak Peek for this Sunday
It is post Pentecost in this Sunday’s scripture (even though by the calendar we are still walking toward that date), the end of Acts 2. The church birthed on Pentecost. Before it was a group of disciples, waiting, praying, hoping, not knowing what to expect. After that morning when the Spirit fell like a rushing wind, it was an organism, a body, a linked unit of people moving together in concert. It was a sudden shift.
Certainly they did not do everything together, they all still had their various jobs. But even so, everything had changed. No longer were they afraid, they boldly proclaimed the risen Christ. No longer were they hiding, they were everywhere, and as a body always growing, first by addition and then by multiplication. It was a movement with a mission set by Jesus that shook the establishment.
So what are we to do with this church thing? I mean, we can look at this first picture of the early church in Acts 2 and believe, falsely, that that was all they ever were -- healthy, sharing, giving, dynamic, bold and transforming. But scripture is ruthlessly honest. Although the early movement grew rapidly, it also ran into major difficulties with deception, arguments, comparisons, persecution and the like, all within the first months.
It is helpful to us not to glorify this early movement, and believe it was perfect. But what can we learn from the early church? What can we see happening which we may be able to learn from as we seek to continue this movement today?
This Sunday we will look together at how this early fledgling community became the “word made flesh” in their era. They did not just preach, they embodied the scriptures. It was not the word become word, but the word made flesh among them that spoke the loudest to their contemporaries. This is where we can still apply what God wants for us today -- today still, we are called to this same thing, to make the Word flesh through our corporate lives. How does all that we do lend toward this desire? That’s what we will be asking on this Mother’s Day.
Gifts and Talents Online Workshop
Do you have two hours a week to explore the gifts that God has given you for your use in ministry?
Try a six-week online workshop. In just two hours every Monday evening, you will experience small group dynamics, sharing your personal history and dreams, and hearing those of your team members. Through a series of bible lessons, worksheets, and interpersonal conversations, the truth of your gifts will come to light.
The online workshop requires a microphone and camera, but don’t worry if you’re not tech-savvy. We can help!
The price is $10, which includes all materials emailed to you
June 10 - July 15, Monday evenings from 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Please register at signups.wumc.me by June 3.
Amena Brown Live!
The Columbia District has the incredible fortune of hosting Amena Brown, poet, author and storyteller for an evening of wonderful entertainment and fun on Saturday, May 18 at Sunnyside Community House, 3520 SE Yamhill St, Portland..
Amena was named one of Rejuvenate Magazine's Top 40 under 40 Changemakers. She is the author of 5 spoken word albums and 2 non-fiction books. There will also be live music courtesy of her husband, DJ Opdiggy.
You can purchase $5 tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/amena-brown-live-an-evening-of-poetry-music-and-storytelling-tickets-59731830513. Proceeds will benefit Africa New Life Ministries.