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.
Music Monday: It's Finally Here!
This is the Monday I’ve been waiting for!
It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving Da
Wisdom Wednesday: Thanksgiving 2023
Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Met
Music Monday: Great Things
The was frost on the pumpkin this morning!
And that has absolutely nothing to
Comments & Upvotes