Meet Justin Collett

RUMC Ministry Intern Summer 2009

I experience either envy or suspicion for those who confess their call stories and subsequent vocations with unshaking assuredness, as if they received a text message outlining their forty-year-vocational-track from God Almighty. Such an unwavering certainty does not characterize my call to ministry; it features few bold shouts but instead gentle whispers. Less highway signs yet subtle trail-markers. Fleeting certainty but neccessary trust in God’s faithful guidance and timing. God’s interjections of grace have framed my call to ministry and established it on the bedrock of baptism. I am further blessed that my call to ministry comes tailor-made from my past mistakes and ensuing strengths.

I was baptized as an infant, a celebration of the fact that I was fundamentally given a new identity. As Janet Wolf says, I am a “precious child of God and beautiful to behold.” My family and the church would nurture me into a vibrant Christian and support me in this lifetime journey. I am so grateful for their faithfulness and support because I tested the bounds of both for years. Worse yet, I appeared to have “forgotten” my God-given identity by the time I left the altar.

Sharing Stories

Natalie and Chris

by Natalie Gidney-Cole

As shared at an Ecuentro/Encounter gathering at RUMC where people are invited to share testimonies and personal stories even as we are reminded of how our personal stories are grafted into the grand salvation story we have been adopted into through Jesus Christ.

When I was around 7-years-old, I heard the “n” word for the first time. I had been waiting to enter Brentwood Elementary School in Mentor, Ohio. I did not know what the word meant – I only knew that it sounded ugly and it was directed at me by a boy who later became my classmate. It was the first day of school …

The Gift of Friendship

Sue Eldon

by Sue Eldon / November 2008

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).  The heart of reconciliation begins here – with God who became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14).  In this season of Advent, as we prepare for the coming of Christ, the One we call Emmanuel (God with us), I am deeply moved by this incredible gift of God’s love for us.  While I had never thought of it this way before, I am coming to see the incarnation as a profound gift of friendship …

A Poem by Constance

The following poem was written by Constance Gary on November 8, 2008, just after the historic 2008 presidential election. She shared this with me on a recent pastoral visit and gave me permission to share it with you on this blog. - Pastor Kevin

Constance Gary

Constance Gary
November 8, 2008
7:30 PM

The grand-daughter of a freed slave
Voted for a man of color today
A walk of dignity
For world-wide (all) humanity
It was a walk of humility
It was a walk of sincerity
It was a walk of incredibility
It was a walk of impossibility …

The Body of Christ

Lisa Wells

Two weeks after I did my Emmaus walk the church where I had attended for many years with my family, fell apart. After a few months of soul searching & a lot of prayers, I decided to leave that church because as a church it no longer looked like how I thought the face of Christ should look. My father, I and some others decided to choose a church where racial reconciliation was given the importance it deserved. My new church was different from its beginning, because it was intentionally founded with a mission of racial reconciliation. After several years when the community “face” began to change yet again, with the increase in Spanish speaking neighbors, they recognized the need to change with it. At first it was a few songs, then a simultaneous translation of the sermon and now the entire service is delivered in both languages. Each week when we pass the peace, I am as likely to hear paz de Cristo as often as I hear peace of Christ. For someone who had never learned another language this was out of my comfort zone.

My name is Lisa Wells, and the title of this talk is the Body of Christ …