United Christian Ministries is in need of macaroni and cheese.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
Midweek Meals
Our winter mid-week meals will continue tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the MFC. Dinner this evening will be meat loaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, peas, roll & dessert. We look forward to seeing you there!
1st Explorers After-School Program Recap
This week at After School was all about the winter Olympics. We talked about the Olympics and watched a few of the events. We also learned about the Olympics by going over a small activity book that covered where the games were being held and discussing all the sports being played. The weather was also very nice, and we played outside a fair amount.
The First Explorers After-School program needs 20 quart jars and lids for a craft project ASAP. You may leave them on the cart at the back door or in the Loving Kindness Room. Thank you!
Mission Moment 2.25.26
Kelly Adams
CBF Director of Clergy Support Ecosystem
You are invited to read the following blessing in the style of Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina is a practice of meditative reading in which a passage is read two to three times to listen for how God is speaking through it. As you read this blessing a few times, listen “with the ear of your heart” and see if you can identify a word or phrase that the Holy Spirit points out to you today. You may take this word or phrase to God in prayer, then close your time with a final reading of the blessing.
A Blessing for When You Know You Need to Change (but Don’t Want to)
The world is changing every day, every hour, every minute
Some changes we embrace—
We learn the new software at work
We make new friends
We trade in the old car for a new one
Some changes we resist
Because they ask too much of us
We don’t want to change that
Because it means something in us might have to change, too,
We acknowledge that we are holding on too tightly
But change is hard
And changing our mind, our views, our values, our practices
Comes with too many questions
And too much judgment
Blessed are you when you know you need to change
You have done the hard work of noticing the people and world around you
You are responding to an inner stirring
Perhaps of the Holy Spirit?
Toward newness
May this stirring give you clarity and tenacity
To take the next step
And make the change(s) you acknowledge you need
God who knows our hearts,
Let the work of making all things new begin in us
And make us faithful to embrace renewal in ourselves
So that we can keep noticing the newness in the world
Which points to where we can join you at work
Serving and loving our neighbors
Gift us with companions who listen with empathy
And affirm these changes without judgment
And do not leave us content
But keep us ever attuned to the world and to the Holy Spirit
So that maybe next time, we will be less resistant
And more ready to embrace the ways you are calling us
To be a more faithful reflection of your love to our world.
Amen.
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.
Mission Moment 2.18.26
Holly Hatton
Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church, Memphis, TN
”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:3
Have you ever been in a situation so uncomfortable that you had to look away? Maybe the following scenarios sound familiar. At a piano recital, when a student plays the wrong note and then struggles to recover, do you feel the need to bury your face in the recital program? At the grocery store, when a kid is throwing a fit and their parent is clearly at the end of their rope, do you suddenly become very interested in the label of the cereal box you’re holding? In your car, at a stoplight, with a person next to you on the median asking for assistance, does tuning the car radio become your number one priority?
Most of us are not comfortable bearing witness to someone else’s discomfort. What lengths will you go to in order to avoid unpleasantness and confrontation? For me, the answer is GREAT lengths! Sometimes we turn away from uncomfortable situations in order to save others from embarrassment or to save ourselves from embarrassment. Sometimes, we turn away out of pure denial—if we don’t see our neighbor’s plight, then we don’t have to share in it.
If you are like me, you do your best to avoid anything that might disrupt your peace. But here’s the thing: Jesus is disruptive. He directs our gaze toward what matters and draws us close to it. When we lean into our own unease and share in the discomfort of others, we open our hearts to the suffering in the world and become more kind and loving people.
It takes determination, presence and practice to see discomfort as a blessing, but this is how we come close to Jesus. When the student at the recital plays a wrong note, hold your head up and project encouragement out of your eyeballs toward them. When the parent at the store is struggling with a fussy kid, throw them a rope and say, “Man, I’ve had those days too!” When you’ve got nothing to give to the person in the median, look them in the eye and give them a smile and a nod. Jesus blessed the poor in spirit. May God bless us all with discomfort, for it is in this that we will find the kingdom of heaven.
A Blessing for Discomfort
Lord, help us to see discomfort as a blessing.
May our unease make us more aware of the suffering of others.
Direct our gaze that we may see the plight of our neighbors.
May our discomfort shake us out of our complacency and into acts of love and kindness.
Amen.
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.
Ash Wednesday Service and Midweek Meal
We will have our Ash Wednesday service at 6:15 p.m. following the midweek meal this Wednesday, February 18. Music will be presented by Bob Holquist and Kim Shuler.
Our meal will be lasagna, salad, roll and dessert. We look forward to seeing you there!
1st Explorers After-School Program Reca
This week we talked about Kindness and Valentine’s Day at After School. We watched several videos on kindness. And we did several crafts and coloring sheets around kindness and love. A few of the GAs went around town and handed out hand-drawn Valentine’s Day cards to some of the businesses.
The First Explorers After-School program needs 20 quart jars and lids for a craft project ASAP. You may leave them on the cart at the back door or in the Loving Kindness Room. Thank you!
Giving the Jesus Way
United Christian Ministries is in need of macaroni and cheese.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
Midweek Meals
Our winter mid-week meals will continue tonight,
February 11 at 5:30 p.m. in the MFC. Dinner this evening
will be pork loin, rice/gravy, green beans, roll and dessert.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Mission Moment 2.11.26
Dihanne Moore
CBF Executive Assistant and Project Specialist
In this season where loss and transition seem to touch almost every part of my life, I’m reminded how powerful it is when someone takes the time to speak the favor of God over another person. Years ago, someone did that for me. They spoke a blessing from Deuteronomy 33, Moses’ words over Naphtali and Asher. Naphtali was said to be “abounding in the favor of the Lord and full of His blessing.” Asher was called “most blessed among sons,” one whose strength would match his days. I didn’t fully grasp the weight of those words at the time, but they landed in me. And they stayed.
Over the years, I’ve pulled these words back out during moments when I needed to remember who I was and who God has always been. These blessings have carried me through ministry, loss and my Christian journey. And now, in another season of waiting, adjusting and rebuilding, I return to it again. I hold it close—not as a magic formula, but as a reminder of God’s presence when I feel uncertain and tired. Sometimes, all I have is the memory of what was spoken over me and the quiet faith that it still matters.
Favor doesn’t always look like open doors or easy days. Sometimes it looks like grace for just enough. Sometimes it’s peace that shows up when nothing else makes sense. Sometimes it’s a blessing someone once spoke over you that resurfaces just in time.
This is one of those times. And maybe you’re in one of those seasons too.
A Blessing
May you be surrounded by the favor of God,
the kind that stays with you
when the road stretches longer than expected.
May you be full of blessing,
even when life feels uncertain
and your next steps aren’t yet clear.
May peace be your portion,
and may strength meet you each day,
right where you are.
May your life carry the kind of oil
that doesn’t run out
when the pressure is high.
And may you know, deep down,
that God has not forgotten you.
You are still held.
Still chosen.
Still loved.
Still blessed.
May the favor of Naphtali
and the blessings of Asher
overtake you in this season.