The theme within the United Church of Christ for this year is a quote from Gracie Allen, “Don’t place a period where God has placed a comma” to which our denominational folk have added the words, “God is still speaking,”  

Don’t place a period where God has
placed a comma: God is still speaking, 

     Though I hadn’t heard these words spoken in quite this way before, I have believed them for years. I do believe God is still speaking in great and powerful ways, in quiet and profound ways, in subtle and mysterious ways, and in deep and holy ways. God is still speaking, not that God at some point stopped and later decided to start again, no, God has been speaking from before the beginning of time and will continue speaking long after humanity is around to declare it (As though our declaring it somehow lends God some sort of authenticity, anyway!).

     God is still speaking, and you and I are a part of God’s speech when we allow ourselves to live, act, speak, worship and serve in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, the Living Word of God whose life is lived in the Spirit, our lives have the potential to be ‘God-speaking’ in so many ways:

·        In our daily attending to the place that God’s printed word, the Bible, has in our spiritual discipline. The hope of being ‘God-speaking’ begins with daily study of what God has already made manifest throughout the generations.

·        In our daily attending to the place of prayer in our journey of faith. Where there is no time set aside to listen for God, to converse with the Creator, there will be no place for the Holy One to enter in.

·        In our daily stewardship of life itself as a gift of a God who is still speaking. When life decisions are made outside the context of prayer and worship, the words, “Thy will be done” are void of the meaning God places in each of our lives.

·        In our daily stewardship of time as an important witness to others of how God speaks in our choices, our focus, our priorities. Where God’s living Word has no time in our daily calendars and palm pilots, our organization is not about ‘God-speak’, but ‘me-speak’.

·        In our daily stewardship of talents as a testimony before the world as to Who it is that has charge of our being. When talents serve only self, God still speaks, but what God has to say about that self we probably don’t want to hear.

·        In our daily stewardship of resources as a conversational response to the blessings God speaks within us. An abundant heart for the Lord opens to others the notion that there is Someone beyond ourselves who is being served, Someone whose Words are living, growing, and sacred in our heart and soul.

·         In our attention to the world community beyond the walls of our faith community. ‘God-speaking’ is a light to the nations, an invitation to all people to hear God’s voice, to experience God’s presence, in bright new ways. 

Never place a period where God has
 placed a comma: God is still speaking,

     May God bless you to be one of the clearest of tones in God’s voice still speaking this day in faith.

‘STEWARDSHIP’
Placing the Em-`pha-sis
on the right Syl-`la-ble 

Go ahead, sound it out. No, you are not reading it wrong. Sometimes, in our understanding of ‘Stewardship’, tradition, culture and context conspire against our ability to even say the word, much less live it’s meaning with any sort of integrity. Many times, stewardship in the Church means little more than talking about what the budget will be for next year. BUT, NO MORE! NOT HERE!

     Beginning Sunday, August 25 and culminating Sunday, September 22, the St. Paul U.C.C. faith family will be intentionally studying how the place the

 `Em-pha-sis on the right
`Syl-la-ble regarding
STEWARDSHIP

Sunday, 08-25-02 “Stewardship of Time & Talents: Gifts of the Spirit” 

Sunday, 09-01-02 “Stewardship of the Family: Individual, Church, & Community” 

Sunday, 09-08-02 “Stewardship of the Earth: Caretakers Of Creation –                                                                      Keepers of the Global Community”

Sunday, 09-15-02 “Stewardship of Resources: Our Commitment to a Faith with Vision”

Sunday, 09-22-02 “All That We Are, O Lord, Is Consecrated to You.”

CONGREGATIONAL POTLUCK ON THIS DAY
FOLLOWING THE 10:30 A.M. SERVICE.

*** Our sister congregation in New Baden, Zion United Church of Christ, is also sharing with us in this stewardship study. On Sunday, September 15, the Rev. Gretchen Sterrett, Pastor and Teacher of Zion U.C.C., will be switching pulpits for the day with Pastor Don as a way of offering new ways for God to speak in this time and place.

Be watching for further information
in the September Caller!