St. Arbucks Chapel – November 27, 2024

  • Happy Thanksgiving! I give God thanks for the gift you are to my family and me. It is such a privilege to be your senior pastor currently and to have been for 29 years. For those of you who come from our mother church, Bethel UMC, I am quick to say I am so thankful I have been your pastor for 31 years. I do not take you for granted and am very grateful for the honor I have. May you have a blessed Thanksgiving holiday.
  • To follow up on my sermon from Sunday, I quoted from Dr. Summer Allen, Ph.D. who did her dissertation on “The Science of Gratitude.” Here are some of the practices she discovered in her research on gratitude, which impacted people significantly.
    • Counting Blessings – Writing down five things for which participants were grateful either daily or weekly. In other words, keep a separate gratitude journal.
    • Three Good Things – This activity involves writing down three things that went well and identifying the causes of those good things.
    • Mental subtraction – this Activity involves imagining what life would be like if a positive event had not occurred. In one set of experiments, people who wrote about what it would be like if positive events in their life had not occurred reported improved mood, providing evidence for what the researchers call “The George Bailey effect” after the main character in the famous 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
    • Gratitude letters and gratitude visits – people delivered a letter of gratitude in person, not just mailed, to someone they had not properly thanked.
    • Experiential consumption – This simply means spending money on experiences rather than things. Across six experiments, this study found that people felt and expressed more gratitude following a purchase of an experience (concert tickets or meals out or vacations) than purchasing a material good like jewelry or clothing.
    • Death reflection – reflecting on one’s death can also increase gratitude. The students studied in this experiment discovered their appreciation for life increased dramatically.
  • I am repeating this on purpose:  Thanks to those of you who have been asking about our son Luke and stage 2 of the Q (qualifying) school which will take place at a course near Jacksonville, FL. Golf is a challenging game and we are extremely grateful for your prayers. Our son, Drew, and I, will go watch Luke play December 1 through 6. The four day tournament will determine who will go to Final Stage to become a member of the PGA or to play the Korn Ferry PGA tour. Again, thanks for your prayers!
  • I am repeating this on purpose:  Our annual Service of Loss and Hope is scheduled for December 11th, Wednesday, at 12 Noon and 6 pm in the evening. You will have the opportunity to light a candle to name the loss you’ve experienced. Loss includes but is beyond death. Any loss of any kind (physical, spiritual, emotional, mental and relational) creates for pain and grief. I will be preaching my favorite verse of the 23rd Psalm….”Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Both services will be in the sanctuary because our elevator to the chapel is out of order, with parts ordered but likely not to be repaired in time for the service.

Again, have a blessed Thanksgiving….and I thank God for each and all of you!