Peakland UMC

This is the Monday I've been waiting for! It's the Monday after Thanksgiving Day, 2023! And the Christmas Album, “We Need A Little Christmas” is finally available! We are making this 10 song Christmas project available online via Facebook, Soundcloud, my website and Youtube. There are links in the description, but here is a quick synopsis of what to expect from the various venues. Facebook will have some of the songs from the album as Music Mondays through the holidays. Soundcloud will have all 10 songs, in a playlist, as individual songs as well as one track that contains all 10 songs. On Youtube, there will be the individual songs set against my flugelhorn friend and partner in this endeavor, Lynn Nash's outdoor fireplace that he and his wife, Katie, decorated. And there will be one track, that will have all 10 songs, again set with the outdoor fireplace as the backdrop. Ideal for those of you that have a way to show Youtube videos on your TV at home! So here is the first song on our Christmas Album - Deck The Halls In the description, and on my website, linwoodcampbell.com, will be a link to all of the ways you can enjoy our Christmas Album. This Album is totally free - it's a labor of fun and love from us to all of you. Feel free to share it whenever and however you like. If you enjoy this project and would like to spread a little Christmas joy, please consider making a donation to Lynchburg Daily Bread. My late father-in-law, Neal O'Brien, volunteered there for many years. Daily Bread serves hot meals 365 days of the year to those who have fallen on hard times. The numbers continue to grow in our area and the need is great.  Here's a link to their donation page: https://www.lynchburgdailybread.com/donate Thanks for listening and supporting Music Monday's through this year! Happy Holidays!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 22, 2023. It is the day before Thanksgiving here in the US. Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, I will be with my wife and our sons here in Lynchburg. I have a mighty feast planned, and I have to get the absolute last of my Thanksgiving meal ingredients later today. But really, I suspect I will have to get the absolute last of my ingredients for the thanksgiving meal, tomorrow as well. My favorite Thanksgiving Day scripture passage is from Psalm 107, which I offer as a way of reminding ourselves of the source of all the blessings we have in life. I'll read the regular print, and we'll both read the bold print together. PSALM 107: O give thanks to the Lord, who is good,
whose steadfast love endures forever!
 LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO,
 WHOM THE LORD HAS REDEEMED FROM TROUBLE
 AND GATHERED IN FROM THE LANDS.
We wandered in the desert wastes,
finding no way to a place in which to dwell;
 HUNGRY AND THIRSTY, OUR SOULS FAINTED WITHIN US.
Then in our trouble, we cry to the Lord,
who delivers us from our distress.
 AND LEADS US BY A STRAIGHT WAY,
 TIL WE REACHED A PLACE, A HOME, IN WHICH TO DWELL.
Let us thank the Lord for such steadfast love,
for wonderful works to humankind.
 FOR THE LORD SATISFIES THOSE WHO ARE THIRSTY,
 AND FILLS THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS. Whoever you are with, wherever you are, I hope Thanksgiving is a day of blessing for you. In the weeks to come, Peakland United Methodist Church will have wonderful advent and Christmas worship services here at the church and online. During Advent, we'll be considering this book: All the Good, a Wesleyan Way of Christmas, and we'll be reaching out and serving our neighbors with our Advent Mission Fest on Sunday December 3 beginning at 4:00 p.m. here at the church. You can find all our Advent and Christmas worship an ministries on our church website: PeaklandUMC.org. I hope during Advent and Christmas, you join us here so that Christ can use you and all of us to be a blessing to others. As always, if you want to know more about our ministries here and how you can be part of our life here, reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com Happy Thanksgiving and Thanks be to God!.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 15, 2023 Halloween ended a few weeks ago, and Thanksgiving Day in the US is next week. But I've noticed that most of the grocery stores and big box stores have had their Christmas goods out for display for awhile now. Including my current favorite snack, Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes, which a church member brought to me last week. So tasty! Peakland is not far behind, we have been planning our advent and Christmas seasons for weeks, and we've been unveiling in worship for a couple of weeks all the good that we want to do. We have wrapped up our discussion of Being a United Methodist Christian this week and beginning in December we're going to be reading and considering this book, All the Good, a Wesleyan Way of Christmas. We'll have in person discussions at the church and around the table at Ihop. I'll talk about this book in these Wednesday videos, and we'll consider All the Good on Sunday mornings in December too. This Advent season we'll have some wonderful worship services. Peakland's United music worship service will be at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 17 in the sanctuary. There will be singing and ringing and lots of lovely music. This year, Sunday December 24th is both the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve. So on Sunday December 24, we at Peakland will have a united 4th Sunday in advent worship service at 10:00 a.m. in the sanctuary and then we'll have two Christmas Eve worship services Sunday evening. Our Christmas Eve family worship service will be at 4:00 p.m. and our traditional candlelight and communion worship service will be at 7:00 p.m. that evening both in the sanctuary. This season we will nurture our faith, we'll worship together, and we will serve our community together. Peakland's fourth annual advent mission fest will be Sunday, December 3 from 4-5:30 in the fellowship hall. We've asked five of the helping agencies here in town to give us their Christmas wish list. UMFS needs gift cards to gas stations and box stores so that the foster families they sponsor can get what they need. Chase the chill needs knitted hats and scarves and mittens to distribute. The Salvation Army has these stockings that need filling, and Parkview and Daily Bread need canned and boxed goods just like these. Bring these items to the mission fest on Sunday, December 3 from 4-5:30 and then stick around for cookies, hot chocolate, ornament making, singing, and lighting our fantastic outdoor Christmas tree. All of the details for all of these ministries are already on our church's website. PeaklandUMC.org, and we have multicolored handouts for you here in church on Sunday morning, and we'll keep sending out email reminders. Peakland is an active, caring, generous congregation, but all the good we do for ourselves and for those around us is in response to the grace and love that our One Trinity God has done for us. That makes this season all the more meaningful for me and for all of us at Peakland. This December we will have folks join and become members of the Peakland United Methodist Church family. If you'd like to become part of our church family or learn more about our ministries and the ways you can do all the good that you can, then reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com Thanks be to God

The was frost on the pumpkin this morning! And that has absolutely nothing to do with Music Monday. It's the 13th of November, 2023. A lot of things are happening - the Christmas program at the church is just a little over a month away, and I still have songs to write supplemental charts for, and practicing to do. The Christmas project Lynn Nash and I have will be released 2 weeks from today! Lynn sent me some really nice videos of his outdoor fireplace that I will use as a backdrop for the video versions of our project. More on that another day. This will be the last normal (whatever that means) Music Monday through the end of the year. Next week I will be in serious prep mode for the upcoming Christmas season music. The following week, I will start the Christmas Season of Music Monday's that will feature different songs from the Christmas Project Lynn and I are releasing. While the whole album will be available online on Monday the 27th, I will be using various songs through the month of December from that Album. More details will be available on my website, linwoodcampbell.com, in the next few days. So, for today, I once again turn to our talented, talented Deacon here at the church, Andrew LaBar-Dietz, for one of the songs he has recorded for me. Andrew sings and plays guitar on this arrangement of Great Things. Song plays I love using my drone for background footage behind the lyrics in our church services, and thought I would share that with you today. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend! See you in 2 weeks!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 8, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is finishing up with this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This week and next, we are talking about the three general rules of being a United Methodist Christian. John Wesley created the three rules in 1743 when the methodist movement was growing beyond the Holy Club that he led at Oxford University. Small groups of Methodist men and women were gathering each week to pray for one another, read scripture together and to hold one another accountable in their Christian discipleship. John Wesley gave these methodist groups three rules to live by and to strengthen their faith: First: Do no harm and avoid evil of every kind. Second: Do good of every possible sort and as far as possible to all. Third: Attend upon the ordinances of God. A simple way to remember that: Avoid Harm. Do Good. Follow Christ. John Wesley had specific ways that methodist were to avoid harm, do good and follow Christ. Wesley wrote, Avoid harm like drunkenness and buying or selling spiritous liquor or drinking it, unless in extreme necessity. Avoid harm with no Fighting, quarreling, brawling, returning evil for evil or, the using of many words in buying or selling. No putting on gold or costly apparel. No softness or needless self-indulgence. My favorite is No uncharitable or unprofitable conversation particularly no speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers. For doing good, John Wesley quotes the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25 and directs us to give food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, visiting or helping them who are sick or in prison. That will be the scripture and the theme of the sermon next Sunday, when we at Peakland welcome Rev. Leigh Anne Taylor to the pulpit. John Wesley also warned methodists that they were to avoid the odious custom of avoiding good works unless our hearts be free to do it. Some Christians back then had gotten it into their heads that unless they felt like doing good works, they shouldn't actually do good works. I trust none of us are so foolish as that. I don't always feel like flossing or working out at 6:00 in the morning or paying my bills, but I still do those things. Charity and acts of mercy and kindness and justice are not optional for us United Methodists. John Wesley's final rule was to follow the ordinances of God. “Ordinances” in this case are the activities which God has ordered for us to draw us closer to God and closer to each other. Things like: Sunday worship, prayer, Bible study, fasting and abstinence, communion, and baptism, acts of charity, justice, forgiveness, and mercy. We today may disagree with some of the specific John Wesley wanted methodists to do but the three rules are an honorable part of our heritage and a really good way of being a United Methodist Christian, so this week and in the days to come figure out how you will Avoid Harm. Do Good and Follow Christ. Thanks be to God.

It's Monday, the 6th of November. Good Grief, where did this year go to? I was looking through my files yesterday, trying to decide what to offer for today's Music Monday. I ran across this arrangement thatLyn Nash and I did a few months back and, honestly, had totally forgotten about - I bet he has too! We've spend so much time working on our Christmas project, that everything else kinda gets lost sometimes. Speaking of the Christmas project, it will be released in just a few short weeks - the Monday after Thanksgiving to be exact. More on that in a future Music Monday. This arrangement is a quiet - laid back if you will. The song itself is certainly not a in your face kinda song, but I like this interpretation especially. Nash provides an excellent solo line with his flugelhorn. AS a side note, we started recording together, I think, in 2016 - all of it long distance as he lives in Hickory NC, and I'm here in Lynchburg, VA. It's truly amazing what technology allows us to do. So here's our rendition of Lord, I Give You My Heart. Song plays. You've been listening to Music Monday with Linwood. A lot of the material you hear on this program can be found on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. Our music can be found on Youtube, Facebook and Soundcloud. And hopefully soon, Spotify. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing with a friend. See you next time.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 1, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. Last Sunday, I talked about how United Methodists understand grace, God's loving attitude and God's loving actions that surround us all our days. Sometimes, we go through life unaware that God loves us. We don't see God in our lives, we don't feel God's love, and we may not even believe in God. But God is still there with us; God's kindness and care is still with us even if we don't see it or feel it or believe it. John Wesley called that prevenient grace, the grace that goes before us before we're aware of it. Babies being baptized are not aware of God's love, but God loves those children, and as the babies grow, we the church teach our children and we teach each other about God's love, At one point in our lives or at many points in our lives, we clearly see the ways God is with us and God has always been with us. We see that we are better off with God and that God washes away our sin and helps us to live more lovingly with God and with each other. We methodists call that justifying grace. We were lost and now are found. We were blind and now we see the straight line of God's love for us and our love for those around us. And then every day in all sorts of ways God draws closer to perfect love, perfect love for God and perfect love for each other. Wesley calls that sanctifying grace. Now, God's grace is not an original theological insight from Wesley. Every other Christian denomination and church that I've ever heard of understands God's grace. And truly, most of our United Methodist beliefs aren't that distinct from other Christians. John Wesley never intended for methodists to be a separate denomination with its own set of beliefs. He wrote, as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think. We think and let think. That's us at our best. From the start of my work as an ordained ministry, I have regularly sought other Christians and Christian communities to join in ministry. On New Year's Eve 1999, I participated in an ecumenical Watch Night Service at Williamsburg United Methodist church with other local churches. In Lexington where I was the pastor of Trinity, I was part of one of the strongest clergy groups that I had ever experienced, with other Christians, Mormons, Jews, and Muslims. Here at Peakland, I am eager to reach out, serve all and extend God's table with other United Methodists and all other churches and groups that seek to grow closer to God and closer to each other. I am United Methodist by choice and by God's grace. I am proud of our United Methodists history and heritage and the ways we share God's grace and love with the world. And along with that, it's important to understand that we at Peakland who are proud United Methodist do not need to be against other churches or faith communities. Being a United Methodist Christians does not mean and will never mean that we are anti-Baptist or anti presbyterian or anti Catholic or anti anything. We respect the differences that we do have. United Methodists and Baptists don't agree on the meaning of baptism. United Methodists and Roman Catholics don't agree on the role of women in church leadership. We at Peakland seek and will continue to seek commonalities with others, common beliefs and common ways to serve our community and world. That's another thing that's great about being a United Methodist Christian. Thanks be to God.

I know, I know - it's hard to believe, but it's Monday again! Part of my job at Peakland UMC is listening to Praise and Worship music, trying to determine what songs would work well in our Horizons service - that's the Contemporary service we offer on Sunday mornings. Thee are sooooo many songs out there, and a lot of them are really appealing, but won't necessarily work for us. That's another story another time. Recently, I ran across this song and it immediately appealed to me. I didn't even have to listen all the way through to decide that it would work for us. In the course of writing a vocals chart, and making a sound track, I also thought this might be a good song for Music Monday. So we have used this song twice in our Horizons service and it has been well received. So I turned my attention to how this might work for a Music Monday, and in the process, it took not one, not two, but three different turns I had not anticipated. It's not unusual for me to have different thoughts on something I have created, but I can't remember the last time a song took this many turns in different directions. After you have listened to the song I'll expand on what I mean. But I will say that one has to do with the how much fun the song was to listen to - that being groove-wise. And the other 2 had to do with the lyrics of the song. Here's God So Loved So I usually never put an instrumental solo in a Praise and Worship song, particularly because it leaves the congregation with nothing to do while that's happening - that was the first turn. The 2nd was what I perceived as a reference to the lyrics from the Doxology we use in the Methodist Church - the “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Very “liturgical”, that is very “churchy” sounding. Hence the brass and more traditional organ sounds underneath the “Praise God” section. Lastly the a cappella, 4-part harmony section. That idea just jumped out at me - as an emphasis to the lyric. So thee you have it - my thoughts on this arrangement, which was probably a whole lot more than you wanted to know haha! If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing with a friend. Thanks for listening - see you next time!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 25, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This week we're reading chapter 3 of the book, Our United Methodist Story! Our Methodist story begins with Rev. John Wesley, a priest in the church of England who started the Methodist movement nearly 300 years ago at Oxford University with a small group of likeminded folks who were so dedicated to their Bible studies, prayer, and service to those in needs that other mocked them with the name Methodist. I spoke last week about Wesley's misadventures as a parish priest in the new American town of Savannah, Georgia. At the start of 1738, John was back in England and at his lowest professionally and spiritually. He doubted his effectiveness as a priest, and he doubted that his faith was genuine. In the evening of May 24, 1738, John Wesley went reluctantly to a Methodist meeting at Aldersgate Street in London. He heard a reading from the preface of Martin Luther's commentary of the book of Romans. Wesley later wrote, “About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." Friends, a couple of days ago, I re-read the preface to Martin Luther's commentary to the book of Romans. I know beyond a doubt there is a God in heaven because the preface to Martin Luther's commentary on the book of Romans is the most theologically dense and surprisingly dry writing that only God could have warmed Wesley's heart with those words. Wow. With his heart strangely and wonderfully warmed John Wesley's methodist movement grew and grew throughout Great Britain and into the American colonies. In December 1784, the methodist in America established the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first American born Christian denomination. Under the leadership of Francis Asbury, the Methodists in American grew and grew. Famous Methodists of the 19th century include. Richard Allen, a black American methodist who established the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816 after facing discrimination in the white methodist church and Thomas B Welch, a methodist minister and dentist, who in 1869 created Methodist Unfermented Communion Wine. Commonly known as grape juice. As the American nation grew so did the Methodists. As American divided on the issues of slavery, so did the Methodists who split into northern and southern branches in 1845. Through the 20th century Methodists united with other denominations forming the current United Methodist Church today. Marjorie Matthews was the first woman elected as a United Methodist bishop in 1980. Now in the 21st century, the United Methodist Church is the largest of all the methodist denominations with something like 12 million members worldwide. The fastest growing area of United Methodism is now in Africa. The newest methodist denomination is the Global Methodist Church formed by methodists who want to maintain traditional practices in marriage and ordination. Pastor Dave Drinkard preached at Peakland this past Sunday, and he reminded us that throughout our history, we United Methodists are at our best, when we love God and when we love our neighbors. We worship together and we nurture our Christian faith together and we serve Christ together out in the world. That's what we're doing at Peakland, and you are welcome to join and learn and experience what it means being a United Methodist Christian.

Hey, it's Monday again! It's the 23rd of October 2023. You ever lose something - search everywhere and just can't find it? That's what happened with today's Music Monday song. I found the part of the recording that my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, had recorded, but could not find the original file I had started with. I liked it, for the most part, but there were a few things I wanted to change, actually need to change. I couldn't find that original file, so I started over. Just my original parts, that is. I had Lynn's and a sample track I had sent him to record against. So, I recorded against it to follow how I had originally had recorded the song. I did make a few changes, though. Well, I made a lot changes - not to the Flugelhorn part, but to pretty much everything else! I guess that's the advantages of starting over! And in today's Music Monday, you will actually see the song playing from the software I used, which happens to be Apple's Logic Pro. This is an older song, but timeless in it's message, and perhaps with a little fresher take from this arrangement. Here's Because He Lives, featuring my flugelhorn recording partner, Lynn Nash. Song Plays A month from today, Nash and I will be releasing our Christmas project. Please get excited haha - we are! And if you enjoyed this song, please consider sharing with your friends. See you next time!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 18, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This past Sunday, Rev. Denise Bates preached at Peakland and emphasized that as United Methodist Christians, we lift our hearts to God in worship and we unite our hands with each other and with all Christians everywhere in service and care for the world around us. We United Methodist believe that all Christians United Methodists and Lutherans and Roman Catholics, and Baptists and Presbyterians and Anglicans and Orthodox and Non-denominational and all the many and varied Christian churches and communities are all part of the one body of Christ. John Wesley himself had a powerful experience with a group of Christians from central Europe called the Moravians who shaped his spiritual growth and formation. Wesley met a group of 27 Moravians during his sea voyage aboard the Simmonds to Savannah, Georgia, in October 1735. Wesely was traveling to Savanah to become the local priest of the newly established colony. At one point during the voyage, a storm came up and broke the mast off the ship. While most folks panicked, the Moravians calmly sang hymns and prayed. Wesley saw that these Christians had an inner strength and peace that he sorely lacked. Wesley's time as a parish priest in Savanah was a failure. His high church practices were of little interest to the colonists. He was involved in an unsuccessful love affair that ended badly and fled the colony in December 1737. On his return to England, Wesely was at a low point in his life spiritually and professionally. He wondered how he could preach faith in Christ when he felt his faith was so shallow. Wesley sought counsel from a Moravian minister named Peter Boehler, who encouraged Wesley to preach faith until you have it, and then preach faith because you have it. Wesley did indeed feed encouraged by Peter's words, and there is some wisdom for us today. Like Wesley, our faith may fluctuate. We may feel strong in the faith one day and weak and so uncertain another. That's as normal and natural as breathing in and out. I believe Christ helps us to persevere. I have found that helping others helps me to feel closer to Christ and closer to other Christians. Later today, I have a lunch meeting with other United Methodist clergy in our area in which we provide moral and prayerful support to one another. I have a home visit with a retired pastor and I'm volunteering for the first-time serving supper at Parkview Mission here in Lynchburg. Next week, I am tutoring at Bedford Hills Elementary. I'm joining with other United Methodists and people of other faith traditions and folks with no faith tradition, all of us who want to do good in the world. That's what I love about being a United Methodist Christian. You can find more about all of our ministries on our website Peakland UMC.org, and on our Facebook page. You are welcome and invited to join us in these ministries and for Sunday worship in the sanctuary at 8:30 and 11:00, for our contemporary Horizons worship in the fellowship hall at 9:45. We livestream our 11:00 worship on Facebook and YouTube. Peakland's mission is reaching out, serving all and extending God's Table. If you'd like to know more about what we do here and how to join us, reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com. Thanks be to God.

So yesterday, which was Sunday the 15th of October, I was sitting at the piano in the Fellowship Hall going through the songs we were going to use in our Horizons service in a few hours. I usually get to church on Sunday mornings around 6:30 AM - it gives me an opportunity to prepare, rehearse some and just collect my thoughts and spend some quiet time with God. As I was getting ready to run through the last song, the thought slipped into my mind that this would be a good song for a Music Monday. Like today! I thought I might start a little more quietly today, to give you an opportunity to tune out the distracting thoughts in your mind, and give you an opportunity to spend a quiet moment or two. You're listening to Music Monday with Linwood. You can find this song, and some others on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. At the end of November my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I will be releasing our Christmas album for you to enjoy during the Holiday Season. Songs like “Deck The Halls”, “O Holy Night”, and a fun little arrangement of “Ding Dong Merrily on High” that features my son Matt on bass. It's arguably one of the best project I have ever been part of and I look forward to sharing it! If you enjoyed today's Music Monday, please consider sharing it with a friend. See you next time!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 11, 2023 On February 9, 1709, a five-year-old boy by the name of John Wesley was caught in a house fire. Young John Wesley was the son of Susanna Wesley and Rev Samuel Wesley, a priest in the church of England, and they lived in the rectory in the town of Epworth in central England. On the night of February 9, the rectory caught fire, and John was trapped in the second-floor nursery. John's father tried in vain to rescue his son, but the flames beat him back each time. Convinced that John could not be saved, the family knelt in the garden and prayed God to receive his soul. A couple of quick-thinking neighbors acted to save John, one standing on the shoulders of the other, pulling John through the open window to safety, just as the house fire brought the roof down on John's room. After the fire, Susanah referred to John as the brand plucked from the fire, which is a Biblical reference to Zechariah 3:2, in which God saves a High priest of the Temple from ruin. John Wesley would grow to become a priest in the Church of England like his father and when he was in his mid-20s John Wesley led a group of fellow college students at Oxford University in daily and weekly bible studies and acts of service to those in need. Those were the first methodists. That small group grew and expanded beyond Oxford into all of Britain and into the British settlements in North America. In 1784, the methodists in America established the Methodist episcopal church, the first Christian denomination established in the new United States. We at Peakland United Methodist Church are reading this book Being United Methodist Christians, and this week we consider how United Methodists read and understand the Bible. From our start, we United Methodists have been people of the Bible. Scriptures are at the heart of every Sunday worship service. We United Methodists read our Bibles individually and in small groups. When we consider how we are to be in mission out in the world, the first place we look is our Bibles. At Peakland our mission is reaching out, serving all and extending God's table, and that comes straight from the stories of what Jesus and his first disciples did. When we consider God's actions throughout the Bible, we see God reaching out to all of humanity, serving us with grace and mercy and salvation, and extending God's love and God's table to all. We United Methodists have no official version of the Bible. I tend to read the New Revised Standard Version. Many folks like the NIV or the Message or the Common English Bible. And in the same way, we United Methodist have no one person who is the end all be all authority in interpreting the Bible. As your pastor, part of my ministry is preaching and interpreting the scriptures in the way God has laid on my heart, and you may agree or disagree with what I say. That's normal. That's one of the best parts of being United methodist. We read the scriptures and talk about them and debate them and maybe disagree and then we go about our ministries with each other and out in the world. As I said this past Sunday in worship, that's one of the things I love about being a United Methodist. This upcoming Sunday, October 15, Peakland welcomes Rev. Denise Bates, our Mountain View district superintendent to preach in our worship services. She will share with us the challenges and blessings she sees in being a united methodist and what we United Methodist have in common with other Christian churches. Join me on Sundays in person at our 8:30 and 11:00 worship services in the sanctuary, our 9:45 contemporary Horizons worship service in the fellowship hall and online beginning at 11:00 a.m.

Wouldn't you know it - it's Monday again! I took the day off yesterday - that being a Sunday. I don't like to miss for a number of reasons, but sometimes you just have to take a break, so thanks to all who covered for me! I spent a little time yesterday getting ready for Music Monday, and in the search for something to share with you, I remember this recording my friend Mike Petrikonis and I made of the Matt Redman song, 10, 000 Reasons. Mike took ownership of this song, and I believe what follows is quite the extraordinary interpretation of this song. It's not complicated, or overloaded with instrumentation - it's just, well, it's just there. You may have heard me play this arrangement before in past years, but it bears playing again. Mike plays guitar and sings, 10,000 Reasons. Song plays You've been listening to Music Monday with Linwood. You can find this song and a lot more on my website, linwoodcampbell.com. And before you know Christmas time will be here and my flugelhorn friend, Lyn Nash, and I have a brand new Christmas album that will be released. More on that as we get closer to release time. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing with a friend. See you nexqt time!

Andrew talks about what it means to him.

Back in the day, my Flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, and I spent a lot of time together playing in our High School Band, the Pep Band, and then afterwards we played in a rock band for a number of years. He played trumpet and I played trombone, and our friend W. B. played sax and hammond organ. We had a lot of fun, back in the day! I remember, back in the day, sitting at the piano and playing some of the really classic rock songs from Bread (If A Picture Paints . .. ), Chicago (Color My World), James Taylor (Fire and Rain, which we recorded and used as a Music Monday a few weeks back). One of Nash's, favorites was the horn song, “Grazin In The Grass” A year or so ago we did an arrangement of that song and I wanted to play it for you today. We had way too much fun with this tune and I think you'll see - hear why as we get into the old classic - “Grazin' In The Grass”! Video Plays You've been listening to Music Monday by Linwood. Today, you saw the software I use to record our arrangements. I'm a Mac guy and the software is Logic, which is an Apple product. I also use Final Cut Pro, another Apple product, for video production. You can find a lot of our songs on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend. See you next time!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 27, 2023. + Just over 30 years ago, I was a student at Indiana University and worshipping at St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Indiana. One Sunday in January, the church announced they would be sponsoring a trip for college students to work with Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta Georgia over spring break. I turned to my best friend who was sitting next to me and said, I want to do that. I had never worked with Habitat before. I had not done any carpentry since my wobbly plant stand in 8th grade shop class. I really had no business trying to help build a house, but felt called to go on that trip. And I did. I joined about 15 other college students, most of us had not volunteered with Habitat or had construction work, but the Habitat folks in Atlanta were skilled and taught us well. At the end of our week there, we had built the foundation of a new home. A sturdy, well-built foundation. At the end of that week, I had experienced the very best of being a United Methodist. Our small community of college students and adults formed a spirit filled community. We ate together and played together. We worshipped together and prayed together and we did our small part at making our world more like the world Jesus talks about That was the start of me wanting to do more and learn more about being a United Methodist professionally. Beginning in about 10 days on Sunday October 8, Peakland will begin a sermon series and a weekly book study on this new book Being United Methodist Christians, living a life of grace and hope. This book was written by a family of United Methodist pastors who have a combined total of nearly 150 years being United Methodists. I'm eager for us to hear from as many United Methodists as possible, so on the Sunday mornings in October and through November, Peakland will welcome to the pulpit Rev. Denise Bates, our Mountain View District Superintendent and Rev. Leigh Anne Taylor, an ordained deacon and the Director of Connecting Ministries for the Mountain View District. They will share their experiences of being a United Methodist, the great blessings, and the challenges. Pastor Dave, Deacon Andrew, and I will also share our United Methodist stories. As a congregation we'll gather to read and discuss this book as well. Beginning the week of Monday October 9, I'll lead a class on Monday evenings, and Andrew will lead one on Tuesday mornings. If you are a long-time veteran in the United Methodist Church or new to being a United Methodist, I think you'll find our discussions meaningful. Being United Methodist Christian is also about service, and Andrew has a host of opportunities for us throughout October so that we can do our small part in making the world more like the world Jesus talks about. A big part of Being Untied Methodist is gathering around the table for good food and good times. We'll have a Baked Potato congregational supper on Sunday, October 22 at 5:30. All the information on these Being United Methodist ministries are found on our website under the ministries tab and then click on the fall ministries, or reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com Being United Methodist at Peakland means that we are reaching out, serving all, and extending God's table and extending God's love. I hope you'll join me for these awesome Being United Methodist ministries in the days and weeks to come. Thanks be to God.

When I start setting up my computer and keyboard to start working on a new arrangement, a lot of times I have no idea where it's going. In fact, there are times when I don't really know how it's going to start! Now I've been making sound tracks for a long time haha. Way back in the day I worked at a music store right at the time when the MIDI communication system and keyboards were just developing. So as it grew and developed, so did I. It's amazing what one can do with a keyboard, a computer and the right software. So I start an arrangement. Sometimes it sort of just flows out of my fingers - sometimes I have to restart a number of times. The real message here is that I really can't take credit for what comes out of these fingers. The inspiration all comes from above and most of the time I don't know where I'm going until I get there. So today's Music Monday, from one of my favorite Christian Artists - Tommy Walker, is from the COVID years here at Peakland UMC. I brought singers in one at a time to record, and then sent it to my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, for some brass. He sent it back and I added some trombone. Mix it all up, and you get: When I Don't Know What To Do You can find Music Monday's on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. There are 2 versions - one with all of the introductions included, and one with just the song itself. And you'll also find some of the other music I have recorded in recent years - some with my flugelhorn buddy, Lynn Nash, and some with my son, Matt. Occasionally all three of us! And there is a new Christmas album in the final stages. Lots of music to listen to! And as always, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend. See ya next time!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 20, 2023. + Do you know the word liminal? L I M I N A L liminal. It means a transitional or an in-between time or space. A hallway is a liminal space between two rooms. A liminal time is what I'm experiencing this week at Peakland: we are in-between big church events. In the past two weeks, we started our fall kickoff with huge successes. With Rise Against Hunger, over 70 of us packaged over 10,000 rice and grain-based meals in about an hour and 10 minutes. Last week, I presided at Peakland Pre-school's all-school chapel service in the sanctuary. Dozens of preschoolers, all the Peakland preschoolers, gathered in the sanctuary together with their teachers, and we sang this Little light of Mine, enacted the first creation story in the Bible, and prayed our action prayer together. This past Sunday, Parkland After Dark had its first regular meeting of the season. We had children, youth, parents, and grandparents together and we created homemade pizzas as a spiritual exercise by praying together and individually during the preparation, and the eating and clean up. During these big church events it is easy to know and feel the presence of God during these big ministries. Looking ahead, in October Peakland will begin a congregational study called Being United Methodist Christians. We'll explore the United Methodist story, our beliefs, and our best practices as well as the challenges we United Methodists face. This is going to be a great study for all of us both lifelong United methodists and for those of us who are new comers to Peakland and to being United Methodist. Next month, on October 17, the Ruth Circle will hold its grand Card Party here at the church to raise funds for supporting the helping agencies here in town. We also have our annual blood drive on November 9 and during Advent, we'll have the second annual mission fair where we'll have half a dozen ways to contribute and support helping agencies here in town. Those are the big spirit filled items that lie ahead. But this week, not a lot is happening at the church. We have our usual ministries and meetings. The Peakland staff met yesterday, and we prayed for our people and discussed church matters. The sanctuary choir and praise choir will rehearse later today. I am working now with lay nominations to identify our church leaders for the upcoming year, so when someone calls and asks you to serve on a committee, I trust your answer will be, Of course, I'm willing and able to swerve. With pride and pleasure. We are also in the middle of our Pave the way to grace Parking lot stewardship campaign. So far we've raised just over half the amount we need to raise. I turned in my first check and my pledge card this past Sunday. If you haven't yet, now is the time. This is a liminal week for me at Peakland, in between big church events. While it's easy to see and know God's presence in the big events both here at church and in our own lives, the good news for us is that God is also present in these quieter, in-between liminal moments of life as well. God is with us when we are high on the mountain top with us when life is rewarding. God is with us in the valleys of shadows when life is challenging and hard, and God is with us in the routine, every day, neither high nor low places in life. Today and in the days to come, look for God in the ordinary, run of the mill liminal spaces in your life. Thanks be to God.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 13, 2023. + This past Sunday, September 3, Peakland gathered for worship in our sanctuary and in our fellowship hall and online for Sunday worship. We sang, we prayed, we listened to the scriptures and how Jesus tells us to fight like a Christian. In worship on Sunday, we had babies and children and youth and young adults, not so young adults and all people are welcome. It was a good Sunday morning here at Peakland. Later that same Sunday afternoon, over 70 folks from Peakland came together to Rise Against Hunger and create these – sealed bags of rice, sorghum, dehydrated vegetables, and a vitamin packet. Each of these bags contains 6 servings. It took us about an hour to set up our fellowship hall into a meal making factory, with stations for filling the bag, weighing the bag, sealing it, and packing them up. In an hour and 10 minutes our Peakland volunteers created 10,126 meals. We finished the job 20 minutes sooner than expected. Cleanup happened in about 40 minutes, but you may still see one or two errant grains of rice in the fellowship hall and on the sidewalk outside. Rober is one the job though! My great thanks to the people of Rise Against Hunger for coming to Peakland and helping us reach out, serve all, and extend God's Table and God's Love. From Peakland, these meals will be stored for a short time with Rise Against Hunger and then sent to a needed to community, could be a community in Haiti, could be a community in southern Africa. Rise Against Hunger will let us know when and where the meals end up, and I'll keep you posted. I'm grateful to all the people who donated funds so this ministry could happen at Peakland. I'm grateful to God for the many, many volunteers of all ages who gave their time and energy. We had folks younger than age 8 and older than 80 giving of themselves so others might eat. There aren't too many places in the world where folks of all ages and stages of life can come together to worship and to work together to make a difference in the world. I'm grateful to God that Peakland is such a place where all are welcome, and everyone has a place here. My hope is to bring Rise Against Hunger back to us again next year at this time. Perhaps we can raise enough funds to prepare 15,000 meals. Next Sunday, we'll gather again for worship and Jesus will teach us how to forgive like a Christian. And in the weeks to come we'll gather for food and fellowship and service and worship. If you are looking for a church home, or if it's been a while since you were here at Peakland, now is the time to be present here. Reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com, I want to hear from you and help you find your place in this great church community. Thanks be to God!

I was out walking our dog, Joey, this morning and noticed that the skies were blue - not a cloud to be seen! In years past I would take advantage of a day like today and hop on my motorcycle and head for the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are several Overlooks that have absolutely amazing views - especially on blue sky days! Irving Berlin wrote a song that my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, and I recorded a few years back. In fact it's the title cut for an album we released. I thought of that this morning while walking Joey. The song makes me think of those days riding the Parkway, and of the peace I find communing with God in His creation. The name of the song, you say? Why of course - Blue Skies!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 6, 2023. + Labor Day was this past Monday, marking the unofficial end to summer. I heard yesterday that one of our youth was sad that this weekend was the last time in the outdoor swimming pools, and then another church member said, end of summer was fine with her. She didn't like the hot weather anyway. I do like September weather, and I am excited about all the great ministries Peakland will be getting to in the weeks to come. Yesterday, I sat in with the ladies of the Ruth Circle, Peakland's women fellowship group. They are planning their great Card Party here at the church on Tuesday, October 17, and the money they raise supports local helping agencies. The United Methodist Men begin their weekly morning breakfasts here at the church this Saturday, September 9 at 8:00 a.m. All men are welcome for a great breakfast and great fellowship. This Sunday, September 10, Peakland unites in service with Rise Against Hunger, an organization which helps feed hungry communities around the world. This Sunday, 80 or so of us will gather at the church fellowship hall beginning at 4:30 and within 2 and half hours, we will have bagged 10,000 meals of rice and grain and dehydrated vegetables. For those of you who are volunteering, bring a baseball cap or you'll have to wear one of the hairnets they provide. Andrew will be sending out more information to the church volunteers later this week about Sunday's event. Peakland After Dark, our ministry with children, youth, and their families. begins its regular Sunday night gathering on Sunday, September 17. Looking ahead to October we at Peakland will unite for a church wide book study, reading Being United Methodist Christians, in which we'll explore the questions of What do we United Methodists believe? What makes us distinct and how do we grow as disciples of Jesus. Whether you are a lifelong methodist are relatively new to the faith, I trust we'll all learn a great deal together. We've also got plans for an October baked potato fellowship supper. We'll have our annual blood drive in November. Andrew will create some special worship services around All Hallow's eve and all Saints Day. And Advent and Christmas are coming. We already have great plans for Peakland in December. If you worship in the sanctuary this Sunday, you'll see that I have replaced the green banners with red banners. These red banners were a gift to Peakland from the family of Steve Cox, and I'm glad they will be on display. Red banners are usually reserved only for Pentecost and a couple of special Sundays, but your radical pastor likes to put on the red in the fall to signal not just the change in the seasonal weather, but the mark the change in church life as well. The green leaves of summer will be changing to the fiery reds and oranges of fall outside and at the church we have fire and excitement and a great spirit. If you find that you have been away from Peakland for a season or two, now is the time to find your way back home. Christ is doing great things here at Peakland, and it's so easy for you to be part of it. Reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com if you'd like to be part of our great church family.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, August 30, 2023. I am not in the parking lot today, as I'm recording this it's wet and soggy outside and no place for middle aged pastors or expensive video cameras. Last Wednesday I spoke to you about our parking lot, our 40-year-old parking lot in need of a lot of repairs. This past Sunday, Don Weschler, Peakland's chair of the Common Table, spoke at each of the worship services about our church's Pave the Way to Grace capital campaign to fund the repairs, and after the 11:00 worship service, Mike Ohl, a Peakland trustees and the point man on the project, gave an excellent overview of the parking lot problems and the parking lot solutions. This week, each Peakland household will receive a letter from the Pave The Way leadership team, along with an informative brochure, which Kim Ness, Peakland's church administrator and I put together, along with a pledge card, which Cindy Harding, Peakland's business manager put together. We'll also have these in the worship bulletins through the end of September. Some folks had already filled in their pledge cards and turned them in. I will be doing mine later this week. We hope to hear from everyone by the end of September. Two questions have come up since we announced this that I can address with you now. The first is, “What kind of trees are we going to plant in the islands once the parking lot is done?” Good question! I love dogwoods and redbuds. I know having those in the parking lot would make me very happy when I come to church. But it's not up to me. Our trustees will make that decision when the time comes. The next question is really two questions when is this happening and how long will it take? Ideally if everything goes the way we want it to go, we will raise the money we need and accept a bid by the end of September, and work can begin toward the end of October and be done in 7-10 days with minimal disruption to church life. that's the ideal scenario which could happen. However, sometimes things don't work out exactly as planned. I promise we will keep everyone informed about the progress we are making and let folks know what's happening when. The Peakland pre-school folks know what we are planning and parking lot work certainly impacts them! And we need to know if we have a place to park when we come to Sunday worship! We'll make announcements online, in worship and through email. I'm grateful to the people of Peakland for their hard work and their generosity. As Don told us on Sunday, what we do now will benefit future generations of Peakland people. I'm also excited that we at Peakland will be kicking off our Fall ministries on Sunday, September 10th with our Rise Against Hunger event here at the church. 80 of us will prepare 10,000 rice-based meals in just over 2 hours in our fellowship hall. We have so much more planned for our church in the weeks and months to come, as we keep reaching out, serving all, and extending God's Table.

A few weeks back I shared with you the majestic version of the Doxologies we use in our church services. It was an arrangement I played on the organ, which is in our sanctuary at Peakland UMC. Sometimes you just want to shout out praise, and that is certainly a wonderful way to do it. At other times, though, you might just want to offer that same praise in a little more laid back fashion. I enlisted my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, to help me with this. Here is our laid back version of the Doxology - Praise God To Whom All Blessings Flow.

It's the 21st of August, 2023. While I was out working our dog, Joey, this morning, I was remembering that it is our daughter-in-law's birthday today. And it occurred to me that it was a Monday, and I needed a Music Monday! So why not honor our birthday gal, and give the rest of you a birthday song to play whenever it's your birthday, or someone else's birthday! So happy birthday, Bri! Thank you for being you! And we all hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, August 16. I am standing in Peakland's fellowship hall to show you the new thing we are doing at the Sunday morning Horizons Worship service. We've switched things up! When you come to Horizons worship this Sunday, you'll be worshipping in a new direction. Instead of facing this side wall, we've set up the chairs to face the East, toward the rising of the sun. Everything else about Horizon worship stays the same. The rocking chairs are still here. The tall tables and chairs are still here. The couch and the children's play are still here. We'll still be singing our praise songs. We'll still have scriptures and sermons and prayers, and we will still offer ways that Peakland is reaching out, serving all, and extending God's Table. We're just doing it in a slightly different way. This arrangement, we hope, will allow Peakland pre-school to make better use of the space when the children come back beginning next week. We hope this arrangement will make it easier for us to set up this room for receptions and small meetings and church suppers too. Linwood and Robert and church folks have been working very hard these past few days to prepare, and I'm grateful to them for their vision for how Horizons makes use of this space. Now we know there are some things that we still need to do to perfect this worship space. We're to have some new curtains put up on the windows. We have some additional big screens coming that will help us worship, and we have to worship here together to see if it all fits together. That will happen over the next few weeks. Horizon worship is at 9:45 on Sundays in person here in this space. Sanctuary worship is at 8:30 in person and we livestream and worship in person in the sanctuary at 11:00. Come worship here at Peakland. All are welcome. Thanks be to God!

I received quite a favorable response from the song I used 2 weeks ago, from an album my son, Matt, and I did (Turn It Loose, if you forgot or missed it) that I thought I would offer another one from that same project. It's actually the title song from the project - “Going Up”. I realized a few weeks ago, that some of you might want to listen to some of these songs again, but maybe not all my commentary, so I created a new playlist on Soundcloud, where my songs are hosted, that are just the songs. If you go to my website - linwoodcampbell.com or click on this link, it will take you right to that playlist - all the good stuff without all the babbling! And it's only August, but my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, and I are 9 songs into our Christmas Project. Most are done, a few having some finals touches including sending one to my Matt, to add some bass. That will be a fun song! Ok, enough babble! Here's “Going Up.”

I almost forgot to do today's Music Monday. It entered my mind several times over the weekend but this morning I needed a little jogging, once again from my Flugel Horn friend, Lyn Nash. I was on the phone with him talking about a mix I had just completed of a Christmas song we were working on and he was saying, “don't put that on Music Monday!” And I'm thinking to myself, good thing he said that . . . So as I begin to think about today's MM, I ran across a medley of 2 songs I had put together for something - who knows what, but I was not please with how it turned out. Time to start over. The songs are “Still” and “Draw Me Close.” If you know these songs, then I think the words will come to mind as the melody goes by. These songs are very intimate in their approach to God, and I tried to communicate that with this arrangement. If you don't know the words, then here they are: Still: Hide me now, under your wings. Cover me within Your mighty hand. When the oceans rise and thunder roars, I will soar with You above the storm. Father, You are King over the flood. I will be still, know You are God. Draw Me Close: Draw me close to You. Never let me go. I lay it all down again, to hear You say that I'm your friend. You are my desire, no one else will do. ‘Cause nothing else can take Your place, to feel the warmth of Your embrace. Help me find the way, bring me back to You. You're all I want, You're all I ever needed.You're all I want, help me know You are near. You're all I want, You're all I ever needed.You're all I want, help me know You are near. Help me find the way, bring me back to You. Bring me back to You.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, July 19, 2023 Throughout the month of July, we at Peakland have been reading and discussing this book: God in the Wilderness, written by Rabbi Jamie Korngold. This past Sunday morning in worship, I discussed chapter 6 of the book, Hear the Still Small Voice Within. We read the story of Elijah who was on the run following a religious battle between the priests of Baal and him. Elijah won the battle but Queen Jezebel threatened his life, so Elijah ran away to hide in the wilderness. Feeling pushed beyond his limits, he cries out to God to end his life. God doesn't do that but comes to Elijah with a still small voice, providing comfort and presence. The good news for us is that when we are pushed to our limits, God is with us too, and as followers of Jesus Christ, when we see those around us who are pushed to their limits, then Christ directs us to be a calm comforting resence helping each other and those in need around us. Next Sunday, July 30, I'm covering chapter 7 of the God in the Wilderness book. The chapter is called Restore Your Souls Beside Still Waters and features the beloved Psalm 23. Many of us know the King James Version of Psalm 23 by heart. For this Sunday, I'll have us read a version of Psalm 23 written by Robert Alter, a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at Berkley. The King James version of Psalm 23 ends with Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Robert Alter's version ends in a way he says is more accurate to the Hebrew: Let but goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for many long days. That makes sense to me. Psalm 23 speaks of God's care and provision in these days. God provides food and water and restful places to us now. God is present with us now even when enemies surround us, even as the shadows of death cover us. This is an important reminder that God isn't just in heaven waiting for us when we die. God is in the here and now. We Christians believe God is our Good Shepherd, and he's not just waiting for us in the fields of eternity, his Holy Spirit is with us now, providing us comfort and care now, helping us to provide comfort and care to those around us now. In her book, Rabbi Jamie pairs Psalm 23 with the book of Job, who is wailing to God about his suffering. Why am I suffering? Why does anyone suffer? I'll talk about the connection on Sunday in worship, join me here at Peakland in person for worship at 8:30 in the sanctuary. At 9:45 we have the Horizons worship in the fellowship hall, and at 11:00 we're back in the sanctuary with our in person and online worship service. All are welcome. Everyone. Always. Thanks be to God.

Before July totally gets away from me, I wanted to let all of you know that my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I are recording a Christmas album. Now, I'm a fan of a little Christmas in July, but I was voted down on that so I will not be playing any of the songs we have recorded, although I would like to, I won't. Shoot. I will tell you that so far it's a pretty wide selection of songs - everything from “It's The Holiday Season” to “O Holy Night”. The project is a pretty ambitious undertaking for us and I'll say I'm really please with what we have done. Still some tweaks and a few more songs to record but we are having fun and making good progress! A few years back, Lynn was listening to a recording project that my son, Matt, and I had done with some of Matt's friends in the Nashville area. I remember Lynn saying, you know I wish you guys had just turned it loose on one of those songs. Well, that thought stuck with me and on the next recording project Matt and I did, which was all original tunes, we did indeed turn it loose on one song - aptly named - “Turn It Loose”.

Throughout the month of July, we at Peakland have been reading and discussing this book: God in the Wilderness, written by Rabbi Jamie Korngold. This book has been important to Andrew, Peakland's amazing deacon, and I'm grateful he's introduced this book to us at Peakland. We've been using this book in our Sunday worship and last Sunday, Pastor Dave spoke about Sabbath and the ongoing question of how we keep the sabbath day sacred and holy. Used to be under the blue laws, most of the world shut down on Sunday, so after Sunday worship folks visited family and friends and not much else. In today's world, Sunday can look very much like any other day of the week, so Rabbi Jamie encourages us to find those activities which bring us close to God and closer to one another. For her and her family, that means hikes in the mountains. For some of us worship at church or online, gardening and mowing, reading, cooking, and napping are sacred activities. This month, we at Peakland have been meeting on Monday nights and Tuesday mornings for further discussion of the book. I led both groups this week, and I have to say, Chapter 5 of the book, Stop Trying so Hard, even God isn't perfect, was a controversial chapter. I was at the YMCA early the other morning. 6:00 a.m. is when the dedicated folks are working out. I am usually surrounded by men and women who are in much better shape than I am, and it would be so easy to be discouraged about my own state of physical fitness if I compared what I can do at the gym to what they can do at the gym. They are perfect, I am not. Rabbi Jamie warns us against that kind of unobtainable perfection. Physical fitness, wealth, grades, professional status – anything we have, anything we do, we can find someone smarter, faster, stronger, richer and, I don't know, better dressed. The reality is nobody is all perfect. In chapter 5, Rabbi Jamie writes some words which many in the discussion groups did not like at all. She writes, Nobody and Nothing is perfect. Not even God. Nothing is perfect. Not even God. Well now. Rabbi Jaimie discusses at length the Bible stories where God seems to make mistakes. God creates humanity giving us free will, which we abuse and use to make poor choices. God floods the earth to get rid of corrupt humanity, but the second Noah and his family got off the ark, they fall right back into destructive behaviors. God calls Abraham and Sarah to be the parents of a new family and a new nation, and right from the start, Abraham and Sarah whined and wheedled and doubted. God calls Moses to lead the exodus from Egypt, but he was a nervous speaker and an uncertain leader. That's just in the first two books of the Bible. What Rabbi Jamie notices in this is that each time God's plans for humanity fail, God tries again with something new. When the people turn away from God's laws and commandments, God sends to prophets to call them back into right relationship. We Christians believe that because humanity was stuck in sin and no amount of divine laws or Godly prophets could get us back on track, then God comes to us as one of us in Jesus to teach us and heal us and to be our way back to God and away from sin.. Rabbi Jamie says perfection isn't possible for us or for God, but that's ok. God is resilient and determined to love us come what may, and that's something we can achieve. In the face of setbacks and trials and our own messy imperfections, we are to be resilient and determined to love each other, and our neighbors and strangers alike, come what may......

It's been raining cats and dogs here! I took Joey, our 85 pound Golden Doodle, with me yesterday up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to record some “B” Roll for the church, and specifically, Music Monday. The video that have been using is not very long and I have to loop it a number of times to cover a MM segment. That's always bugged me so I decided to do something about it. Well, it turns out from all this rain we have been experiencing, the small lake dam on the BRP that's close to the James River / Big Island entrance to the Parkway was experiencing some serious water flow. I got some video of that as well as some other parts of the water near there and will be using some of this footage here on Music Mondays, until I tired of that haha! Today's song, Friend Of God, was another one of those opportunities where I was able to bring in some of our singers to record. It was doing a time when we were closed due to Covid, so they came one at a time to record. The backdrop video I set it with was drone footage I shot early one morning of the front of the church, going straight up - 400 feet. The mountains were beautiful that morning. When I first used this arrangement, which takes advantage once again of my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, as well as myself on trombone, the comments I got were good, but a lot of them said the beginning sounds like the opening music to the original Love Boat TV show haha! What do you think? Here's Friend Of God.

Andrew talks about his sermon this past Sunday, referencing the first two chapters of the book: "God In The Wilderness", and then shares an interesting insight into who Andrew is!

Tommy Walker is one of my favorite Christian Artist and Composer. And this song, in particular, is one of my favorites. I know I say that about a lot of songs, but, hey, one can't have too many favorites! I did this track for our Horizons service a few years ago and then updated it with some brass, with the help of my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash. Lest you think he is the only friend I have, that is not the case haha! I have at least one more . . . . At any rate, I redid the track again, this time adding our very talented Associate here at Peakland, Andrew. Andrew plays several instruments and sings. He has lead Worship here any number of times. He has preached and also does out outstanding job. He's one of those guys that just makes you mad ‘cause he can do so many things, and do them well, despite how young he is - not even 30! I asked Andrew to sing on this recording. Not only did he sing, but he added some guitar and some percussion! I have not featured Andrew on Music Mondays, and it's about time, in fact, past time! So here's Andrew singing and playing a song that has a powerful message of hope!

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, July 5, 2023 I started reading an autobiography this weekend called The Tender Bar, written by J.R. Moehringer. J.R. is just a few years older than I am, and he writes about growing up in the mid1970s and early 80s in the town of Manhasset on Long Island. His childhood is straight out of a Dickens novel. His famous radio DJ father abandoned him. He and his mother lived with her abusive and sadistic father. Growing up, JR was hungry for male role models until he found them at the local bar where his uncle worked. The bar's name is fittingly enough called Dickens, and at Dickens JR meets a whole host of men who have issues with work and money and health and gambling and women and many, many issues around alcohol consumption. But they welcome young JR and they teach him about life and love and having confidence, even when life is cold and so hard. They provide community and acceptance for him. I'm just a hundred or so pages into the book but I believe JR's life story is headed toward a good ending. When JR grows up he becomes a journalist and he was the ghost writer for the autobiographies of Andre Agassi and Prince Harry. He is now married with 2 children of his own. When I was growing up one of the most popular TV shows was the sitcom Cheers, set in a bar in Boston. The theme song for cheers was: Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. I am not the first pastor to hope that the church could be more like Cheers and the Dickens bar. I want Peakland to be the place where when life is hard, you come here, and folks know your name and they're always glad you came. I want Peakland to be a place where all folks find community and acceptance. We at Peakland had an excellent time last week at vacation bible school. We had about 50 children in the church and 30 adults and youth who gave generously of their time and talents. Just this morning, I delivered to Daily Bread the homemade trail mix that the VBS kids made. In so many ways, this past week of vacation bible school was one of the highpoints of my time at Peakland so far. But I know full well that there are so many of us in the church and in the community who are finding life cold and so hard. We are dealing with our own issues with work and money and health and addictions and challenging family issues. I want Peakland to be the place where we have good times together and we welcome and accept one another and are genuinely glad to see one another, AND I want Peakland to be the place where we aspire to be more than we are right now, where God's love empowers us and resurrects us. As I read about the men in the Dickens bar, and as I remember the characters of Cheers, they don't change much. Many of them feel run over by life and unable to change. I don't what that for us at Peakland. I want a community of folks where we seek a greater connection with our One Trinity God and with each other. I want a community of folks who are hurting and hopeful, who maybe down but will never be out. We are people who dream big for our church and for the wider world. We do that by following Jesus. By following the ways of Jesus, we at Peakland become more generous with our time and our talents. We become more forgiving and more loving. We seek a better way in life not just for ourselves but for all of those around us. Here at Peakland, we have acceptance and aspiration! We extend a warm welcome to others, and we seek spiritual growth! Here at Peakland we want community for us and for all our neighbors.

The 4th of July is tomorrow. Despite all of the not so good things that happen in our county - despite the unrest, despite the down-right unbelievable things people can do to each other, and think it's ok to do, I still believe this is a great country. Starting on July 1, and continuing until the 7th I am participating in an amateur radio event called 13 Colonies. As a ham radio operator, I am representing Va in this ham radio celebration of the original 13 Colonies. My personal call sign is K2LLC, but as a Va operator I am K2B, or Kilo 2 Bravo. The idea is for radio operators around the world to contact all 13 Colonies, plus the additional stations located in Philadelphia, Great Britain, and France. If you're really curious, this website offers more information - 13colonies.us I mention this because in the hundreds of contacts I have made so far, you would not believe how many operators have said God Bless America as they sign off with me. Sometimes it is so heart-felt it brings tears to my eyes. So, there are still a lot of us Americans who think America is still something special - me being one of them. A few years ago I flew my drone at the McBride Sign Company parking lot just across the James River from downtown Lynchburg. They have a huge, and I do mean huge American flag that flies year ‘round. The day I flew, the winds were just right and the flag waved beautifully as I parked my drone close to it and watched it wave to Lynchburg. I came back and sat at the piano in the Sanctuary of the church and this arrangement came out. It;'s not the first time I have shared this online, but now more than ever, this is a good time to remind us that God has indeed blessed America, and I hope and trust he will continue to do so.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, June 28, 2023. This week is a happy and busy week at Peakland! We are hosting Vacation Bible School in the mornings at Peakland with 50 or so bright and active children and a dozen or so slightly overwhelmed adult and youth volunteers. It's a Food Truck VBS party! We are looking at the Bible stories in which God's love is partnered with the foods that God provides: manna and quail for the Hebrew people in the wilderness, a bottle of unending oil for the widow in Zarephath, the good foods Daniel and his friends ate, Jesus feeding the 5000 and finally Jesus providing a breakfast meal to the disciples after his resurrection. This week I am not pastor Joe, I am Chef Joe the storyteller with my apron and chef's baseball cap! This upcoming Sunday, July 2, Peakland will have a united worship service at 10:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall. We'll worship together in person and online! We'll hear the stories from Vacation Bible School, and we will gather around the Lord's Table for communion. For those worshipping online, you are welcome at the table too: Have a cup of grape juice and some crackers and bread. We'll all celebrate God's love at God's Table because all are welcome at Peakland. All are welcome. About that. I don't usually make comments about the news coming from other denominations. I seem to remember Jesus saying something about focusing on a speck in your neighbor's eye when you have a log sticking out of your own eye. Nonetheless, news came out two weeks ago or so that another denomination held their convention and affirmed that they would not allow women to be pastors in their churches. I would not be a United Methodist pastor if it were not for women pastors, deacons, and church leaders. When I felt God's call to me to become a United Methodist pastor, it was Rev. Brenda Oldstrom Becker, the associate pastor of the church I attended who I first told, and she shepherded me through the first stages of becoming a pastor. When I was in seminary and training at Mount Olivet United Methodist, I was with Rev. Susan Cutshaw and Rev Nancy Childress. My first full time job as the associate pastor of Williamsburg United Methodist church had Rev. Jeanetta Benedict, a United Methodist deacon, on the staff. These women mentored me and helped me sharpen my pastoral ministry. Bishop Charlene Kammerer baptized both my sons. Bishop Sharma Lewis sent me here to Peakland where Rev. Denise Bates, my district superintendent oversees my ministry here. I have partnered with dozens of United Methodist clergywomen on boards and committees through the years. I have seen again and again, how God has blessed these women to lead and teach and pastor and serve. Our United Methodist denomination has plenty of flaws and we are nowhere near welcoming all people into all roles within the church, but I am grateful to God for the United Methodist women who are here and who have pastored me through the years. As it happens of the five congregations that I served as pastor prior to Peakland, three of my successors as pastor of those churches were women. Now I hope to be at Peakland for many, many years to come, and I won't have any say on who follows me here, but whoever my successor as Pastor of Peakland is, I pray God's blessing on her.

Well, it's Tuesday again - good grief! We are in VBS this week and yesterday just got away from me - so, alas, it's Tuesday and I'm just now getting around to Music Monday, even though it's Tuesday, I still need to do Music Monday - on Tuesday - yeah. Last week I featured a hymn that we put a little pizzazz into - Come Thou Fount. I got some positive comments about it, so figured why not feature another one?? I did this arrangement with my Flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash some months ago. Ultimately I sent the arrangement to my son, Matt, and he sent back some pretty cool stuff. This arrangement, is the :before I sent it to Matt” arrangement - if that makes sense. After all it's Tuesday and this is a Music Monday, on Tuesday, even though it's a Music Monday . . . . .. on Tuesday . . . Here's Jesus Saves! With a little pizzazz . . . . .. on Tuesday.

Every once in a while, I pick an older hymn and try to do some interesting with it. Such is the case with this hymn - Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing. I enlisted my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, to help me with this arrangement. He played the melody on the first and third verses and I cover the melody on the 2nd verse. I struggled to figure out how to / what to do what that 2nd verse. I'm not a great soloist, as when it comes to improvising melodies on the piano. So I got frustrated trying to come up with something I liked until I decided to give the Hammond organ a shot. Well that changed everything! While I'm not the greatest Hammond player, I did come up with what I think is an interesting improv. We sang this song yesterday in our Horizons service, minus the flugelhorn and hammond solos, so I thought I would use the instrumental version for today's Music Monday.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Through the month of June, I'm posting my reflections on the scripture lessons for Sunday's worship services. We're reading from Genesis this month and following the family of Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants, and I'm using a wonderful translation of Genesis created by Dr. Everett Fox, who is a Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Clark University in Massachusetts. Dr. Fox's translation uses the Hebrew names for Abraham and Sarah, Avraham and Sara, and captures the rhythms of the Hebrew Language. Adonai said to Avram, Go-you-forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father's house to the land that I will let you see. I will make a great nation of you and will give-you-blessing and will make your name great. Be a blessing! We heard that passage from Geneses chapter 12, last Sunday in worship. God calls Avram and Sarai to go to a new land so that God can give them descendants who will be a blessing to all the clans of the soil, to all the people of the earth. This is surprising news for Avram and Sarai, because they have no children and they are well past their childbearing and child raising years, but off they go to be blessed and to be a blessing. As I said last Sunday in the sermon, we today, who are among the spiritual descendants of Avram and Sarai, are to be a blessing to all the clans of the soil as well. We who follow Jesus are meant be a blessing to all the world around us. Sometimes we get that right. Sometimes we get that so wrong. For Avram and Sarai, almost immediately they question God and make all sorts of bad decisions. Each time God reiterates that God will give them descendants they question and hem and haw and at one point Sarai even laughs in the face of God, such is her disbelief. I like that part. I like questions and pushback and laughing at God. That's how we learn and grow in our faith. That's how we grow and learn more about God. Ask questions! Seek better answers than what I give you or what the church gives you. Seek better answers from what the world gives you. Avram and Sarai do make a huge mistake though. They decide that since Sarai is too old to bear a child, they will have Avram have a baby with Hagar, Sarai's maid. That's not what God wants to happen, and it's not clear how Hagar feels about the situation. It does not go well. Hagar and Avram have a son together, Ishmael, but the household is not happy and Avram and Sarai banish Hagar and Ishmael. Hagar despairs that she and her son will die but God hears them, and God provides for them. Hagar and Ishmael survive and find a home for themselves, and Ishmael becomes the father of his own people. The Muslim people today claim Ishmael as their ancestor. God makes a way even when we mess things up. In Genesis Avram and Sarai become Avraham and Sara, Abraham and Sara, and God does make good on the promise. They have a son named Yitzhak, Isaac, which means, One who laughs and rejoices. Sara laughed at God. Now God and Sara and Avram laugh and rejoice at the newborn baby. I love the idea that God laughs with us, that God delights in our delight and shares our joy. The joy and delight do not last. What comes next for Avraham and Sara and Yitzhak is a trial, a test of their faith which is brutal and life changing for them. We'll hear that story from Genesis 22 next Sunday, June 18 in worship. Join us online or in-person for Sunday worship at Peakland.

Some years ago I was playing at a New Year's Eve party - you know - a gig. The late Bill Carroll was the band leader that evening and he called for the song Blue Skies. I did not know the tune but he had a fake book, which is basically the chord progressions and the melody. That melody really resonated with me that evening and it lead to the 2nd album project that my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I recorded - the first being a Christmas project. Everyone once in a while I pull that recording out and listen to what we did. Yesterday, I did a remix of the recording - fixing a few things and changing some of the instrumentation I used. If you get any kind of correspondence from me, you will typically see me sign it “Blue Skies” and then my name. We've all had our ups and downs in life. And sometimes it's hard to see Blue Skies when we feel the storms of life all around us. But just above those clouds, are indeed blue skies. So I try to close every correspondence with that little song title. As my friend Mike Lowry reminded me this morning, I try to remember that my cup over-runs with incredible blessings. Here's our version of the Irvin Berlin song, Blue Skies. And by the way, I have a lot of our recordings as well some other projects I have done on my website - linwoodcampbell.com

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I'm posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, June 7, 2023 When I was a child in Sunday School, Miss Amanda, my Sunday School teacher, read us the story from the Old Testament of Daniel in the Lion's Den. Daniel, a Jewish man, living in Babylon had been ordered by the Babylonian King not to pray to God, but Daniel did, so the king threw him into a den full of lions. The next morning, the King opened the den to see if Daniel had survived, which he had. Daniel said that God had closed the Lions' mouths, preventing them from killing Daniel. It's not in the scriptures, but I'm guessing God remembered to put mittens on the Lion's claws too. Miss Amanda, my Sunday School teacher, had us make a Lion's Den by our cupping our hands together and then we looked inside to count the number of lions we imagined in our dens. I don't think Miss Amanda read us the end of the story in which the king ordered those who had conspired against Daniel to be thrown into the Lion's den along with their families, and the lions absolutely killed all of them. The stories from the Bible that we were told as children often have unpleasant aspects to them. God saved Noah, and his family and all the animals on the ark, but what happened to Noah and his sons after the story is not really appropriate for a children's Sunday school class. You can read that in Genesis 9. The young shepherd David was God's chosen to be King of the Jewish people after he knocked out the giant Goliath, but what David did to Uzzah, one of his own soldiers was despicable. You can read that story in 2 Samuel chapter 11. Most of the great Biblical heroes and heroines do not always make good and Godly decisions, which is why I their stories so much. God was able to use these very flawed men and women to be a blessing to the nations, and that's good news for me and for us because I am a very flawed person, and I do want to be a blessing to my family, my church, and my neighbors. Throughout the rest of the Sunday worship services in June, I'm going to be focusing on the biblical stories of the first family of Genesis: Abraham and Sarah, Hagar who is the mother of Abraham's oldest son Ishmael, Abraham's and Sarah's son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob. I'll begin this upcoming Sunday, June 11 with God's call to Abraham and Sarah, who were at that point known as Abram and Sarai. Each Wednesday beginning today and throughout June, I'll give you a preview of Sunday's Biblical story. So next Sunday we'll read Genesis 12, verses 1-5, God calls Abram and Sarai and tells them to leave their home country and to travel to a new land. God tells them that they would settle in the new land, have a family, become a new people, and become a blessing to the nations. That's a very tall order considering that Abram and Sarai had no children and were well beyond childbearing and child raising years. How they were to have a family and be a blessing to anyone was a mystery beyond them, but they went, and God delivered. Eventually. Abram and Sarai had any number of mistakes and misadventures and miscommunications along the way. We make mistakes and have misadventures and miscommunications along our way as well. And yet, God is willing and able to use us imperfect people to do good and Godly things. I'm eager to read these stories with you over the next few weeks! See you on Wednesdays and see you in church!

At one point in my life, I was an organ major in college. I gave it up ‘cause Bach and I don't see eye to eye 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. I do enjoy playing the organ, though, and I am the organist here at Peakland UMC. While our organ is not a pipe organ, it is a fine instrument. One of my favorite pieces to play is the Doxology we sing on Sunday mornings. If you watch our online Sunday service, you will recognize the Doxologies we use in our church services as part of our response to how we have been blessed by giving our offerings. The words are magnificent and the organ is the only single instrument I can think of that can adequately express the wonder and power of these two Doxologies. They are both titled “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow, but set to different melodies and with some different wordings. If you're watching the words are on the screen with a drone shot of the church. Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I'm posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, June 1, 2023 These past weeks, I've been sharing my thoughts with you on a book I've been reading Forging a New Path: moving the church forward in a post-pandemic world, written by one of my mentors Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist clergy who now does leadership training for church leaders full time. Last week, I introduced some challenging questions the Rebekah asks us to ponder: I discussed the first question last week: How do we in the church live faithfully in this new normal? I proposed that to live faithfully in our new normal, we worship each Sunday either online or in person, we make a commitment to nurturing our souls through participation in a Bible study, or prayer group, or participating in one of the church choirs. We nurture our souls through the church meals, or fellowship groups like Peakland After Dark, the Ruth Circle or the United Methodist Men's group, and finally we give generously. We give financial gifts to the church, and we give our time and our talents not only here at the church but in the community. As Peakland's pastor my role is to work with the staff and church lay leader to ensure that Peakland is always offering ways to worship God and to nurture our faith and to give generously so that we can live faithfully Forging a New Path also challenges us with the question: How do we invite folks to church so that our ministries and our community grow stronger? How do we do that? How do we invite people to church? Used to be a church just had to be open on Sundays and folks would find their way to us. We didn't have to invite them at all. If the pastor was clever and didn't take too long in the pulpit and if there were children's and youth ministries that the church had, then that was enough for a church to sustain itself. That's not our reality anymore. Fewer and fewer folks just come to a new church on their own. Now for those who do come to Peakland, they will find a clever pastor who doesn't take too long in the pulpit, and our Peakland After Dark Sunday evening ministry for children, youth and adults is growing and welcoming. Peakland After Dark isn't the same as the old model of Sunday school in the morning and youth group on Sunday night, but what we're doing at Peakland After Dark is uniting youth, children and adults to lean about our faith together. As a parent, Peakland After Dark has been a blessing to me and to my family. Two weeks ago, our church united for worship and lunch and conversation about how to strengthen our ministries. One of the insights I took away from that conversation was the need to update our website and have some information to give to visitors and guests. When folks are looking for a new church, a good website and up to date information about our church helps them get to know us. Those are good suggestions and the church staff and I will start creating those. Stay tuned. In a conversation that Andrew and I had with Peakland's Staff Parish Relations Committee last week, Andrew told us that an essential way for Peakland to invite folks to our church was for us Peakland people to be out in the community serving and helping and showing the community that we at Peakland are serious about our faith and reaching out, serving all, and extending God's Table. That's an excellent insight. Instead of waiting for people to come to church, we in the church need to be out in the world, showing our faith in action and inviting folks to join us. We need to be where the people are.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I'm posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 24, 2023 The past two weeks, I've been sharing my thoughts with you on a book I've been reading, Forging a New Path: moving the church forward in a post-pandemic world, written by one of my mentors Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist clergy who now does leadership training for church leaders full time. Peakland will be reading this book together later this fall but you all are getting a preview now. In the past two weeks, I've covered the three persistent questions that Rebekah has heard again and again from congregations and church leaders. When do things go back to normal? How do we get people back to church? And (3) How do we do more with less? The short answers to those questions are: Things in church aren't going back to what was normal before Covid. We in the church are creating the new normal now. We get people back to church or to our church for the first time by inviting them to church, and finally we all have to be inventive and creative to do more ministries with fewer volunteers and fewer resources. Peakland is something of an exception in that we have an abundance of both volunteers and resources, so we're blessed there. Rebecca has some longer, more thoughtfully developed responses to those questions in her book, and I look forward to the time this fall when we are all reading this book together. And Rebecca also challenges churches with three new questions that we can ponder and discuss together. Her three challenging questions for us are: How do we live faithfully in this new normal? How are we inviting new people into our church community? And finally, what can we do now that we couldn't do before? Those are challenging questions and I have a few thoughts about that: How do we live faithfully in this new normal? How do we live faithfully? In my ideal church, I would want everyone of us to worship faithfully either in person or online. Some Sundays are packed with activities beyond our control, but on the Sundays that we are healthy and free, let's be in church either in person or online. I'll be here for worship on Sunday, come join me. To live faithfully, we nurture our spiritual growth. Peakland has an abundance of small group ministries that nurture our souls. United Methodist men gather on Saturday, the Ruth Circle fellowship meets monthly. We have a praise choir, a sanctuary choir, and a handbell choir for ringing and singing. We have the Bible Alive class for adults on Sunday mornings, and Peakland After Dark Sunday evenings for children, youth, and families. Andrew, Pastor Dave, and I host book studies and Bible studies throughout the year, and we are now forming activity groups. If you like Lego building, video games, hiking, cooking, or handiwork and maintenance, then come join likeminded people. Contact Andrew at PeaklandAssociate@gmail.com to learn more about them.

A lot of times, I will create practice tracks for the choir and or PT to use to help them learn anthems or praise and worship songs for upcoming weeks. Most of the time I just play a piano accompaniment and them each of their parts, and them place the individual recordings, which means soprano and piano, alto and piano, into DropBox for them to access whenever they feel inclined to listen and practice. A few weeks ago I was making a practice version of this song, I Give You My Heart, for the PT to work on. It's an older P&W song but I did some rearranging to my original chart I had written. As I was listening along to what I had recorded, I begin to wonder what this new arrangement might sound like if I added some more instrumentation. One thing led to another, and, well, here's my new rendition of I Give You My Heart, with some help from Lynn Nash on Flugelhorn.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I'm posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 17, 2023 Last Wednesday, today and next Wednesday, I'm sharing my thoughts with you on this book I'm reading now: Forging a New Path: moving the church forward in a post-covid pandemic world, written by a mentor of mine Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter. I had planned on leading a Monday night discussion on this book, but we're going to do that in the Fall. You online folks are getting a preview! Last week, I presented three persistent questions that Rebekah has heard again and again from congregations and church leaders. When do things go back to normal? How do we get people back to church? And (3) How do we do more with less? Last week, we explored some answers to those questions: When do things go back to normal? The answer is they don't. We are creating the next normal right now. How do we get people back to church or to the church for the first time. The short answer to that is that we invite them. We invite folks to come back to worship and into the life of the community. Some won't come or come back, but others will, if we invite them. How do we do more with fewer people and fewer resources? That's a tricky one and Peakland itself is blessed with a deep well of resources and great folks dedicated to our church. Rebekah spends some time looking back into church history to help us forge a new path. Covid wasn't the first plague to disrupt life in the world and in the church. The black plague did that. The first wave of the plague began in 1347 lasted for a handful of years but then kept coming back again and again over the next 4-5 centuries in Europe disrupting all aspects of life: social, political, economic and religious but that disruption also led to new creativity and new possibilities. In the early 1600s, during an outbreak of plague in London, all the theaters were closed, as were the movies and theaters during the height of covid. Without the demands of producing and performing, Shakespeare had time to write Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. When the plague raged in Cambridge in 1666, Newton fled to the countryside and had a miracle year of progress in calculus, physics and gravitation. Because so many clergy and church leaders were killed during the plauge, the laity took more and more of a role in their own spiritual formation outside of the church building. . Private devotions grew in popularity and use. The Protestant reformation emphasized each person's personal relationship with God that didn't require the church or the clergy to serve as a mediator. The creativity during the plague also occurred during covid. During our covid time, we in the church figured out how to do creative online worship and do our essential church meetings through zoom . Peakland started these church videos during covid. Because we couldn't be as together in the same physical space as we wanted, we learned new ways supporting one another and praying for one another. We had outside gatherings and online gatherings. Both during the plague and covid, the church recognized the things that are essential for us, the “must haves” in church life. For Peakland folks, what I'm hearing again and again is that what is essential for us is worship and a deep connection to God, fellowship and a deeper connection with each other, and service, and the ways we can be a deeper blessing in the community.

Well I did it again…. I was talking to my Flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash yesterday afternoon late and he said where's Music Monday????? Ooopppsss. And then he suggested one we had recorded a few years back. After listening to it this morning, and making a few additions and subtractions, I am please to offer this arrangement to you. Some of our singers came in and recorded, and Lynn added some majesty to it. Here is Revelation Song.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I'm posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 10, 2023 Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on Friday, March 13, 2020? Do you remember that day, Friday, March 13, 2020. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. That morning, I was waiting to get a haircut from my barber in Lexington, Virginia, and I received a text from Dave Rochford, who was my district superintendent. Dave texted me, “Joe, in the next 20 minutes, the bishop is recommending that our conference churches suspend worship this Sunday and next Sunday to slow the advance of the virus.” That was the text and that was the day that changed our churches. We stopped in person worship not just for the last two weeks in March 2020 but for several weeks and for some of our churches it was months before we were worshipping in person again. I learned how to create an online worship experience for Trinity where I was the pastor, and I know the staff and worship leaders at Peakland did the same as well. Most of our essential church meetings were held through zoom and as the whole world closed, we in the church had to improvise and recreate our ministries and our lives together. Today, just over three years later, we at Peakland are prayerfully considering how we forge a new path in a post covid world. Forging a new path just happens to be the name of this book that I am reading and discussing on Monday nights here at Peakland. I'm eager to share my insights in this book not just with those in person in the class but with you online as well. This book was written by Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist pastor who has created a church leadership program called Creating a Culture of Renewal, which I have been participating in for two years now. In the opening chapters of the book, Rebekah lists three persistent questions that she has heard again and again from congregations in our post-covid world: When do things go back to normal? How do we get people back to church? And (3) How do we do more with less? Rebekah draws from her own experiences and what she has seen and heard to provide some answers to those questions.

On Sunday mornings typically the choir will sing at the 11:00 service in the sanctuary. We also have an 8:30 service in the sanctuary that pretty much mirrors the 11:00 service, but perhaps a little more relaxed. Same bulletin, same everything, except the choir does not sing. Noémi conducts the choir now, so I accompany the choir and it's typically on the piano. So at 8:30 I sorta rearrange the choir song that's sung at 11:00 and make a piano solo out of it. Yesterday the choir sang the old gospel song “Just A Little Talk With Jesus” and I will admit I had some fun with the solo I played. Here's a rendition of that arrangement that I recorded this morning just for this edition of Music Monday.

Grace and peace to you. I'm Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I'm posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 3, 2023 This Saturday, May 6 is Derby Day, the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby at the storied Churchill Downs. I grew up in Southern Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Kentucky Derby, which is traditionally on the first Saturday of May. Growing up, it was my family's tradition each year to attend a Derby Day party, usually at a family friend's house. We would have good food and good times and then watch the most exciting 2 minutes of sports, and then go back to eating and drinking and enjoying ourselves. Many folks who attend the Derby in person at Churchill Downs dress traditionally with grand flower hats. Folks who go to the infield of Churchill Downs do not dress formally but traditionally have a very good time. This Saturday, May 6 is also coronation day for King Charles the third of the United Kingdom. The first coronation in the UK since his mother's 70 years ago in 1953. The king's coronation will be full of both religious traditions as well as some new elements. In keeping with tradition, Charles will be anointed with holy oils by an Anglican priest as the defender of the Anglican faith, and as a new thing Charles coronation will also include British leaders of other faiths, including Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Both the Derby and the coronation are this Saturday. And the day after, Peakland celebrates Holy Communion, a Christian tradition nearly 2000 years old. As a church community, we take a piece of the bread and we drink from the cup, and in some holy, mysterious, wonderful way, we are united with Jesus Christ and we are united with each other, and we are uniting with all the other folks who are taking communion in all the other churches, past, present and future. It's a holy tradition, a holy experience in which our One Trinity God reaches out to us and draws us close. Communion is a traditional act of the church, but we have had to adapt and change and do some new things. Methodists have historically not used wine in communion so that those who struggled with alcohol abuse could come and take communion without endangering their sobriety. Many churches, including ours, now offer gluten free wafers so that those with gluten allergies can also take communion without endangering their health. Since Covid, more and more churches including Peakland, are offering online communion, so that folks who are worshipping online can also share in the holy meal. For United methodists, we have traditionally said that all are welcome at the Jesus' communion table, and these days that includes all of those who are in person in the sanctuary and those who are online as well. If you are worshipping in person at Peakland this Sunday, May 7, then you are welcome to take communion. We'll have communion at all three worship services, with bread, grape juice, and gluten free wafers, If you are worshipping online on Sunday, then you are welcome to take communion as well. You'll need a cup of grace juice and some bread or crackers. As we share communion in the sanctuary, you share with your household. Whatever age you are, you are welcome to take communion. Whether you are a member of Peakland or any church, you are welcome at the table in the sanctuary or the table in your home. If you seek to draw closer God, if you seek to be in right relationship with those around you, then be welcome. That's our communion tradition. Thanks be to God!