All are invited to participate in the month’s activities. Mark your calendars for these key events:

Winter Clothing Drive for the Temple’s Homeless Ministry on continues through February!

The African American Heritage Month committee will again be collecting clothes for the homeless ministry in the Narthex. The majority of people directly served by this ministry are men, but there are a few women and children who also benefit. Because of the current economic conditions, the Temple’s homeless ministry has experienced a 40 percent increase in the need for clothing, with many requests from guests going unfilled because of  low supplies. Items most in need are hoodies, jeans, long underwear, socks, boots, warm shirts, hats and gloves. Please look for gently used or new clothes to contribute, preferably new. Contact Nancy Renick at ncrgroup@aol.com for more details.

On Feb. 19, the Rev. Tanya Eustace, Minister to Children & Families, and our Temple children will participate in the 11 a.m. worship service. We will see first-hand the creative and precious gifts our next generation brings to us now and the promise for our future. Children ages (7-12) are invited to participate as readers. Those interested in being a part of the worship, parents can contact Rev. Eustace at childrenministry@chicagotemple.org or (512) 636-3294 by Feb. 12. Readers will rehearse on Feb. 12 and 19 during Sunday School. Children of all ages 3-12 are invited to participate by singing and/or ringing bells with the children’s music group for a performance of “We Shall Overcome.” This group rehearses with Annie Burton and Jeffrey Taylor on Sunday mornings from 9:30-9:50 prior to Sunday School.

We will conclude the month with the Feb. 26 Gospel Choir Concert at 3 p.m. in the sanctuary. Join us for a spirit-filled celebration through music, led by director, the Rev. Kelly Tiebout. There is no cost for the concert but a free-will offering will be collected to benefit the Temple music ministries. Following the concert, a light reception will be held in the Mabuhay Space.

February music to celebrate the soulful, spiritual richness of the African American community

The celebration continues for African American Heritage Month with a host of music-related programs. Mark your calendars.

Sunday, Feb. 19                       

Special music and leadership by the Temple Young Musicians and youth of the congregation will be performed at the 11 a.m. worship service.

All Sundays                       

The Temple Choir and Section Leaders will be presenting an outstanding collection of spirituals and anthems from the black tradition the entire month, featuring music of William Grant Still.

Rocky was gifted with artistic talent, a great sense of humor and most importantly, a deep spiritual sense of how God was working in his life in the aftermath of his paralysis. Rocky was not bitter about his condition, he became a source of support and encouragement to hundreds of people who were victims of the type of injury or who were suffering from other difficult obstacles in their life.

May God bless his mother Annette and the rest of his family as they all grieve the loss of Rocky in their lives. Let’s send our prayers to the Clark Family and other signs of support if led to do so. Please go to rasulrockyclark.com for more information on how to support the family.

Rev. Claude R. King

“Everyday isn’t perfect, sometimes things get in your way to make you mad, doubt your faith, and you lose focus. When things get rough like that I relax myself first, then I focus, and take time out to pray. Asking God to keep me focused, healthy safe, and strong. Knowing that if I endure and don’t give in there is a rising
miracle waiting for me to behold.    by Rasul “Rocky” Clark

November 1, 2011

• Download the Stewardship Pledge Form
• View Budget Breakdown
• Click here to make an online pledge to the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple

Dear Members and Friends of the Chicago Temple:

Our theme for the 2012 Stewardship Campaign is Strengthening our Foundation – sharing our gifts, showing our faith. Without question, the physical foundation of the Chicago Temple stands strong on the corner of Clark and Washington in downtown Chicago. Ever since the first log cabin church was moved here from across the river in 1838, our continuing presence on this corner has been just one of our many strengths. But more importantly, it is our worship within the building that is the very foundation of the Temple’s congregational life. It is the church’s chief reason for being. Our worship is what sustains us and empowers us to share our gifts and show our faith to the city and world around us.

This is the time of the year when we ask our members and friends to reflect upon the importance of our worship here at the Temple. We are asking you to think about the work of the church and make a financial commitment to help make all that the church does possible. Just as important, we ask you to think about how you can share your nonfinancial gifts and talents to support the ministries of the Temple over the upcoming year. The enclosed flyer is intended to show how the church’s financial resources are allocated and to show the richness of our programs that are made possible through our congregation sharing gifts of money, time and ability. Just some of what we accomplished in 2011:

• Worship – 30,000 attendees heard the Word of God and the gift of music during our weekly worship services
• Outreach – 7,000 hot meals served to the homeless citizens of our community
• Pastoral Care – 2580 counseling hours, plus hospital calls, home visits and telephone contacts
• Education – 500 individuals took part in our regular Sunday School classes for children, youths and and adults.

Please take a moment to record your commitment on the enclosed pledge card and return it to the church by mail (in the enclosed envelope) or in person by December 4. As an alternative, you can register your pledge online at www.chicagotemple.org by following the “Stewardship 2012” link on the homepage.

While we ask that you give what you can, the amount you pledge isn’t the most important point. What is important is that we hear from you and that you feel invested in the Temple’s ministries through your financial and nonfinancial contributions. Part of showing our faith is through sharing our gifts and it is those gifts that enable us to continue the ministries of the Chicago Temple.

Please reach out to me or the church staff if you have any questions. My email is horton8735@sbcglobal.net and the phone number of the church office is 312-236-4548.

Thank you and God bless.

Sincerely,

Robert Horton

Stewardship Committee

            When Jim Jones called several weeks ago to tell me that ChildServ intended to give me this award, I said that it made me feel like an old building in the Loop that is being granted landmark status because it is still standing. It was my way of saying, “Thank you, thank you very much.”  It is an honor also to be united with Terry Mazany of the Chicago Community Trust and all of the crucial work they do in the city and Karen Atwood of Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the services they provide to the families of our community.

            The Lucy Rider Meyer Humanitarian Award – it suggests that I have offered leadership in some form that has made things better for some people. I am humbled by the suggestion. When I entered the ministry in the late 1960’s, 44 years ago, I wanted to change the world.  You may have noticed since that time just how resistant the world has been. However, I never have given up hope.

            But leadership takes many forms. There are those who lead from the front. They get out ahead of everyone else and blaze the trail. Lucy Rider Meyer was one of those people. She led women into the forefront of the professional ministry of the church. She placed children on the knee of Jesus and dared the church to tell them to go away. She humbled the powers-that-be to take to heart the needs of children, of families, of households, of schools, of hospitals, especially of children and families with the greatest need.  That is what makes this award so special… not what I have done, but what she did to lead the way.

            There are others who tend to lead, not from the front, but from the middle, constantly prodding, cajoling, chastening, encouraging, insisting, always keeping the heat on low boil without boiling over, so that together we as the church can do some good. I tend to lead from the middle more than the front. So, it is especially gratifying to me tonight that you have picked me out of the crowd to stand before you. After my first year at the Chicago Temple the chairperson of the Staff-Parish Relations Committee took me aside and said, “You know, Phil, when you first got here we thought that you were asleep at the wheel. But you actually know what you are doing.”  That is the glory of leading from the middle!

            At times I have made an attempt to lead from the front. I mean, you have to work hard on your own to make it into the Chicago Police Department’s Red Squad file of the early 1970’s as a subversive while serving a church of 200 in Apple River 150 miles west of Chicago. What a place to mount a revolution! I might have done it except that the local radicals had to take a break every morning and every evening to milk the cows.

            I got some notoriety in Rockford for fomenting a public debate over homosexuality and the church, though I did not think that I was doing or saying anything that was newsworthy. At the University of Chicago I got a reputation for being a kind of smart-aleck by suggesting that the university had given its humanitarian award to Robert McNamara because Idi Amin had gone into hiding. In Wilmette when I got elected to the library board I imagined myself championing the cause of the First Amendment right to read any book that you wanted, but censorship
was never an issue. Instead, I advocated behind the scenes to be sure that we conformed to the new ADA access laws. In Chicago, well, it is about time for me to get another call from some TV station asking me to comment on the state legislature’s vote, up or down, on a gambling bill. That is my unspectacular history of leading from the middle.

            But much more satisfying to me over the years has been what the congregations have done while I was with them. Taking my lead from the middle, people seemed to catch glimpse of a vision that inspired them to start meal programs and food pantries, expand the nursery school, host a counseling center, devise an after school program, and develop a tutoring program with children of a bilingual public school. I take satisfaction in these things, and so many more . . . hosting the magnificent Silk Road Rising, working with Protestants for the Common Good to lobby for education reform, greater public assistance, and more humane treatment of young offenders, and assisting the Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries in producing religious programming directly communicated to young people via YouTube and other social media. Maybe, after all, it is these things that really change the world.

            Now for a confession: I sometimes have taken pride, as well as satisfaction. But I know that “pride goeth before the fall.” “The fall” came one night years ago when I was meeting with the trustees at the church in Wilmette. They were cataloguing all of the improvements they had made on the property over the previous ten years, which, I pointed out, was just the time when I arrived.  I said, “Notice in these ten years that not only have you restored the building, but also the church has increased in membership, attendance, pledge-giving, and service to the community.” And one of the members replied, “You’re right, Phil. You picked a good time to come here.”

            And so it goes in the middle of the pack. Thank you very much for this award; it means a great deal to me.  But from the middle of the pack I see ChildServ out ahead, leading from the front.  You are out there with the children who are at most risk, with those without families, with those who are in danger, with those who require love in every practical way that makes real the love of God.  I see ChildServ out front, and I will do everything I can to follow close behind and try to lead the congregation along the trail you are blazing.

Phil Blackwell

]]> http://chicagotemple.org/2011/11/rev-blackwells-acceptance-speech/feed/ 0 http://chicagotemple.org/2011/09/ministry-calls-us-to-view-disabilities-from-a-more-loving-gentle-perspective/ http://chicagotemple.org/2011/09/ministry-calls-us-to-view-disabilities-from-a-more-loving-gentle-perspective/#comments Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:50:20 +0000 admin http://chicagotemple.org/wp/?p=190 Three years ago we added a universal access ramp to the sanctuary, and I was one of the first to benefit from it. I had just had knee replacement surgery, and so the gentle slope of the ramp was much easier for me to climb than the center steps to the chancel. When we first designed the new floor plan a few years earlier in order to make everything more accessible, I had not imagined that I would be using it. But there I was, grateful for the changes we had made

Actually, the very first church meeting I attended at the Temple when I first started here 10 years ago was about access for people with handicapping conditions. People using wheelchairs or walkers could not get up to the pulpit, altar or choir area. There were no places for wheelchairs or walkers (or strollers, for that matter) in the rows of pews. We had only two narrow side aisles with no central aisle, so coming forward for Holy Communion was hazardous.

We saw problem for what it was – a justice issue. Everyone should be able to have access to all locations in the worship area. That was most evident one evening when we hosted a group from Chicago Theological Seminary who, when they discovered that one of their community was physically not able to speak from the pulpit, conducted the entire ceremony from the floor level. If one person was excluded, then all would be excluded.

During the last three years all of us have found how freeing it is to be able to move easily around our sanctuary. Now everyone who wishes can join the choir or the instrumental groups. Now Communion servers in wheelchairs can gather at the altar with everyone else. Now preachers and lectors can be on the same level with all others leading worship. Now people needing more room than the normal pew configuration allows can find space right in the middle of the congregation, or up front or in back, as the person desires. And with the extra wide center aisle we all can move around more easily.

All of these changes, plus a new sound system and sanctuary lighting that is five times brighter than what we had before, are ways of saying that we welcome all who wish to worship with us. Our statement of welcome and inclusion is made physically real with our new arrangement.

Which now raises a challenging question: Are we ready to initiate a ministry that self-consciously includes people with handicapping conditions? Not just passively, accommodating anyone who comes in, but actively seeking connections with communities in Chicago.

I commend to you a little book co-authored by Jan Vanier and Stanley Hauerwas entitled,

Living Gently in a Violent World. Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, an international network of people with and without disabilities living together, writes, “The mystery of people with disabilities is that they long for authentic and loving relationships more than power. . . . They are crying for what matters most: love.” Hauerwas, observing a L’Arche community, comments, “Gentleness requires the slow and patient work necessary to create trust.”

Do we have the patience to be gentle? Do we have the courage to overcome our fear? And are we willing to confront our prejudices, some of which have been nurtured by an obsolete theology that taught many of us that disabilities of all sorts are signs of God’s punishment?

If we are going to be a truly inclusive church, then we must answer “yes” to all of these questions. Who wants to help lead the way?