Happy Almost-Easter!

 March 26, 2024

 

 

Happy almost-Easter, church friends and family!

A few times per month, I open a note from a member of our community, donating to Fallon Daily

Bread. The ones I opened today say “thank you for all you do for our community!” and “Just a little contribution to help you in all your wonderful service.” Sometimes it’s a substantial amount, but usually it’s a check for just a few dollars. It means so, so much.

I know that money is always a stressful topic in churches, this one included. Every pastor and church leader I have known has talked about it, in every denomination. I know Epworth has been through times of plenty and times where there has just not been nearly enough money to stretch as far as it needed to. (I mean, does it ever stretch far enough?) For pete’s sake, the older part of the building we worship in was built smack in the middle of the Great Depression! One of these days I need to go dig out some of the newspaper articles in the museum, about the fundraising the church did at the time (I know there was a big vaudeville-type show they put on), and the groundbreaking. I bet there are some pictures and documents around here in our history archives, too. Sounds like a project!

I’m rambling. But I’ve been thinking about that, about how there is always a gap, like the gap between the money we have and the money we need. A gap between where we’ve come from and where we’re going. A gap between our understanding, and God’s. A gap between heaven and earth. A gap between death and resurrection. And I’ve been thinking that the gaps are where we find our faith. 

The ending of Mark’s gospel is crazy, kind of dropping off like a cliff and leaving us hanging with Mary and Mary and Salome when they see the “young man in white” in the empty tomb but are too afraid and bewildered to tell anyone. The ending does make a beautiful sort of sense, though, when you consider the title Mark has given the entire story: “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus the Messiah.” We the reader know the story doesn’t end with the women being afraid and saying nothing, after all. That’s just the beginning. The rest of the story is everything that happens next. But Mark doesn’t tell us about that. He leaves us in the gap. In the open space, where anything could happen.

Like the gap between the few loaves and fish Jesus’ apostles had, and the 10,452 who needed food.

Like the distance between the prodigal son, and his father’s home.

Like the space between the disciples’ devotion, and their courage.

Like the emptiness of the tomb.

Gaps can feel frightening and impossible. But gaps are where miracles happen. Empty tombs like these are what lead us to cry out to God in confusion and helplessness, until we realize that they aren’t empty at all but rather filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. In the gap, at the empty tomb, is where we are healed, transformed, forgiven, inspired, made entirely new. Where anything could happen, and God does the impossible. 

The people of Epworth are standing in the gap, doing our human best to live into and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our community is dependent on it, finding new hope because of it, and joining us in it. And I think our forebears, who rallied around each other and built this church in the middle of the Great Depression, are loving it, too.

Happy almost-Easter, church! Anything can happen.

Pastor Dawn

Worship This Week 

And then it’s Easter Sunday!! CHRIST IS RISEN!

Early risers can join us here at church at 7am to pray and shout our HALLELUIAs, and sing for joy as the sun rises and we celebrate the risen Lord. Then at 8am, we’ll share a pot luck breakfast together. At 9am we’ll worship and celebrate together with our awesome choir, and join the kiddos for an Easter Egg hunt all over the church. Thank you once again to Scott and Cindy Tudehope for filling all the eggs! 

 

Remember to find us on YouTube so that you can watch live from home, or join us on KVLV radio on AM980 every Sunday beginning at 9:30am. If you have ideas or questions, or if we can be in prayer for you in any way, please call the church at 775-423-4714, or call Pastor Dawn directly at 775-671-5553. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Wednesday Evening Prayer with Lectio Divina

Friday Evening Prayer has become Wednesday Evening Prayer, and will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00pm on YouTube Live. Lectio Divina is an ancient, special way of reading and praying with Scripture. Most people who try it find it deeply meaningful. We’ll meet next on April 3. Hope you’ll join us.

News and Fun Stuff

Neighborhood Game Day on Sunday April 7 at noon in the Fireside Room

We’ll have a bunch of games to choose from, and hot dogs and fixins for lunch. We’ll provide the hot dogs, buns, and basic condiments…you are welcome and encouraged to bring side dishes or alternative foods to share if you’re able. Invite friends and neighbors! 

 

Cowboy Poetry at the Fallon Theatre on Saturday April 13

On Saturday April 13, the Fallon Theater will host its first Cowboy Poetry event. They are looking for historians and storytellers as well as poets. Dr Stu Richardson and others will be reading poetry by our own Newell Mills! If you or anyone you know might like to participate, call Jessica at Huck Salt, 423-2055 or 217-4142. And mark your calendar to attend! 

 

Messy Church on April 21! “Church, but Not as You Know It.”

This wonderful program does not involve making messes. It is an all-ages Sunday School lesson, designed for families and friends to learn and play together. We sing, talk, pray, hear stories, do art and science projects, have a meal together, and love and serve the Lord. This time, our meal will be a taco bar! Everyone, everyone welcome.

 

“Love Fallon” Community Service Day! April 27

A wonderful group of folks in town are part of a national nonprofit organization called “Love Our Cities”, which gathers volunteers from churches, businesses, and neighborhoods to work together to beautify their community. They are hard at work developing projects for folks to do, and they need our ideas! Please talk to your Trustees or Pastor Dawn about projects here at Epworth that a team of community volunteers could do. And let’s put a team together to do a project outside the church, too!

Cowboy Discipleship

 March 12, 2024

 

Hello, church friends and family!

I have lived in northern Nevada almost all my life. Though the majority of that was in Reno, in my
heart I have always been a farm and wide-open-spaces dweller. And yet, somehow, I had never heard of cowboy poetry until I served my first church in Portola, California. A previous pastor there, Clarence Wager, was himself a cowboy poet, and I have his book “Letters from a Country Preacher” on my bookshelf. 

Anyhoo, this whole line of thinking was inspired by Dr. Stu Richardson, who tells me that the Fallon Theater is putting on an amateur cowboy poetry event on April 13, and he will be reading some poetry by Newell Mills! How cool is that? So I thought you’d enjoy this sweet poem about cowboy discipleship to inspire you this week.

Stuck in the Round Pen
by Jeff Hildebrandt
For those who’ve never trained a horse, there’s something you should know.
It’s about what’s called the Round Pen. It’s where most horses go
to learn to follow signals thru a tender teaching touch.
But, horses in the round pen can only learn so much.
Pretty soon, a cowboy needs to let the pony out
so it can use what it’s been taught. Cause training’s all about
just getting ready for the ride and knowing what to do
when challenges and obstacles pop up in front of you.

Like ponies, we can study until the cows come home
in the safety of our round pen. But really, we should roam
outside our Bible study group, outside our churches walls
and use our training where it counts, in grocery stores or malls
or at the doctor’s office, or any other place
where we can show God’s saving love and talk about His Grace.

But, I’m just like a fresh-broke colt that shivers at the thought
of leaving comfort zones behind. I’d really rather not
put my faith out on display where others criticize
so I seek incognito ways I can evangelize.
I can talk about the weather, TV shows and foreign aid.
I can argue over politics or the latest sports team trade.
But when it comes to life and death, I seek my comfort zone
cause there’s no confrontation in my round pen all alone.

But God’s Word says to go and do. So, I must get a grip.
Security’s not the round pen, it’s in relationship.
The closer that I get to God, the more my faith increases
and when I leave my round pen, I won’t go to pieces.
I’ll walk and talk with confidence about my transformation
since I accepted Jesus Christ, the gateway to salvation.
I know that God is faithful and with Him I’ll succeed
so let’s all leave the round pen with Jesus in the lead. 

Trying to get a grip,
Pastor Dawn

Worship This Week

Who Do You Say I Am? Afflicting the Comfortable

We are moving fast in Mark’s Gospel, toward the climax of Jesus’ ministry. After this week, it will be Palm Sunday, and then Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Peter and others are firmly convinced that Jesus is the Messiah they have been waiting for…and others are just as firmly convinced that he is a dangerous, blasphemous pretender. We’ll meet Jesus this week shortly after he has entered Jerusalem, and what he does there in the first few days of that week. Then next week, we will hear what happens the rest of that week between Palm Sunday and Jesus’ arrest. The story is getting confrontational and stressful, as it all builds toward the crisis point; as we read and pray and breathe through it, we will consider what it all tells us about who Jesus is, what that means for us, and what knowing him does in us. You might like to read the first half of Mark 11 as you prepare your heart for worship. 

 

Remember to find us on YouTube so that you can watch live from home, or join us on KVLV radio on AM980 every Sunday beginning at 9:30am. If you have ideas or questions, or if we can be in prayer for you in any way, please call the church at 775-423-4714, or call Pastor Dawn directly at 775-671-5553. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Wednesday Night Prayer with Lectio Divina

Friday Evening Prayer has become Wednesday Evening Prayer, and will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00pm on YouTube Live. Lectio Divina is an ancient, special way of reading and praying with Scripture. Most people who try it find it deeply meaningful. Hope you’ll join us.

News and Fun Stuff

Church Family Potluck! Sunday March 17 

It’s a baked potato bar! We will provide the potatoes and butter, you bring whatever you like best on yours. Chili, cheese, bacon, broccoli, sour cream, whatever you want. Or, you might like to bring a salad or dessert or something else to add to the feast. It all starts after worship at 10:30am. Invite your neighbors! 

And then, stay for Messy Church!
Also on Sunday March 17, after we get fat and happy on our friends’ excellent cooking, we’ll sing and talk and create together. This month’s theme is “Easter Around the World.”

“Love Fallon” Community Service Day! April 27

A wonderful group of folks in town are part of a national nonprofit organization called “Love Our Cities”, which gathers volunteers from churches, businesses, and neighborhoods to work together to beautify their community. They are hard at work developing projects for folks to do, and they need our ideas! Please talk to your Trustees or Pastor Dawn about projects here at Epworth that a team of community volunteers could do. And let’s put a team together to do a project outside the church, too!

 

Maundy Thursday “Passover in the Light of Christ” on Thursday March 28 at 5:30pm.

We will talk about the meaning of the Passover as Jesus may have celebrated it, and consider what new meaning it might have for Christians today. We’ll eat traditional Passover foods, and regular American food too. Great for all ages, and for people at any point on their journey of faith. Look for the sign up sheet on Sundays, to help organize and prepare. Invite a friend!

 

Good Friday Walk to the Cross, Friday March 29 

Meet us at noon in the cemetery parking lot for a brief devotion, and then we’ll walk together to the cross on the top of Rattlesnake Hill. When we get to the top, we’ll read the story of Jesus’ passion and death, and pray together, and look with hope toward Easter Sunday.

 

Easter Sunday Worship 7am & 9am

With a potluck breakfast in between! See you there to celebrate the risen Lord. Also, an Easter Egg Hunt all over the church for the littles. Hopefully we will find the last egg before July this time.

 

Manna??

  

February 7, 2024

 

 

Well, we made jokes about it being weirdly spring-like in the middle of winter, and now it’s raining and snowing like crazy. Which is so nice! Nobody appreciates rain and snow like us desert-dwellers and farmers. Especially if we don’t have to drive in it.

So anyway, happy February church family and friends!

Last Sunday, we were talking about “our daily bread” and manna from heaven, and I mentioned a little bit about how the word “manna” doesn’t mean bread or food at all, but rather “What on earth is this?” It's a thing I have always found very funny, and an excellent reminder of how good it is to do word study while studying scripture. 

It’s in Exodus 16:15, when the people of Israel have cried out to God for food (well, they have yelled at Moses really, and HE has taken their request to God) and God has told them to expect “food rained down from heaven.” In the morning, they see a flaky substance on the ground, and ask each other, “What is this?” It’s a sentence of two words; “man” meaning “what (is)”, and “hu” meaning “it.” Whenever manna is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, it is these two words that have become one word "manna.” So, in Psalm 78:24 for example, it says “God gave them…uh… something? from heaven to eat.”

I find this very eye-opening, for several reasons. Inspiring, too.

Eye-opening because this whole concept of manna is mentioned over and over in the Bible as an example of how God always provides, and yet when the people of Israel first encountered it they had no idea what they were looking at. It wasn’t bread. It wasn’t any food they recognized. It wasn’t anything they had ever seen before. The Bible describes it as a thin, flaky substance on the ground (Exodus 16:15), or as small white round grains that resembled coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey (Exodus 16:31). Some say it sounds like the sap of the tamarisk tree found around the Sinai, which gathers on twigs and falls to the ground, tastes like honey, is white at first and then turns yellow, and disappears when the day warms up in the late morning. Arab traders sell it to pilgrims as “bread from heaven.” Cool, right?

And not just fascinating, but inspiring too. Because even though the people complained, and resented their own rescue, God provided. And even though what God provided was strange and unexpected, it was good. Miraculously good.

I can’t begin to count how many times God has answered my own prayers in ways that made no sense to me at all at first. Plenty of times I didn’t think God had answered my prayer at all, until well after the fact. And even more times when I was struggling, or ungrateful, or hurting and confused and angry, when God came alongside me, wrapped me in arms full of love and understanding, and provided exactly what I needed. I hope you’ve had experiences like that, too.

Jesus himself, the Bread of Life, is like manna from heaven. He came in a very unexpected way, lived and died and was resurrected in a VERY unexpected way (can I get an amen?), and still shows up all the time where, and through whom, we least expect. 

So this is my prayer for us this week: that God shows up with exactly what we need, confirming our hope with gifts in unexpected forms.

Together in Christ,

Pastor Dawn

News and Fun Stuff

Ash Wednesday on February 14 @7:00pm

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day this year. If you’ve never been to a service like this before, let this year be the first time. It is a sweet, prayerful, reflective, hopeful time of being wrapped in the amazing grace of God. And a day that celebrates love of one another is a great way to begin our 40 day period of introspection, and sacrifice, andhumility before the joy of Easter. 

 

No Pizza with the Pastor This Month 

Because of the Superbowl and Pastor Dawn’s meeting in Yerington after worship on Feb 11, and Princess Bride the following week, we’ll have to skip our monthly Pizza lunch and conversation this month. See you in March!

Sunday Brunch and Messy Church on Sun Feb 18!

We hope you enjoyed the very first Messy Church last month. This month, we’ve sent invitations to our neighbors and our lesson is “Putting On Love” based on Colossians 3:12-17. It’s a new kind Sunday School-slash-worship, especially designed for people of all ages to actively participate together. We’d love your participation, your ideas for improvements, and your leadership! Reach out to Ashlee McGarity or Pastor Dawn at the church office, office@eumcfallon.org, 775-423-4714. 

 

And it all starts with a pot luck brunch! Bring something to share if you’re able, stay and enjoy food and friendship with your church, and stay for songs, games, crafts, and our Messy Church lesson. See you there.

 

Princess Bride on Sunday February 18 @1:00pm

It's that time of year again! Friends, there is a terrible lack of silliness in the world today, and ONLY YOU CAN HELP. Join us for a Very Silly Interactive Screening of "The Princess Bride" at the historic downtown Fallon Theatre on Sunday February 18 at 1pm! Feel free to dress in costume (or not), bring props (or not), invite everyone you know, and let's spend an afternoon being ridiculous together for no reason whatsoever. Admission is FREE!! Props including glow sticks, kazoos, marshmallows, and other assorted nonsense will be provided. As a bonus, any delicious snacks or lunch you buy at the snack bar supports the Theater!

Pie Dough

 January 30, 2024

 

Happy weirdly spring-like midwinter, church family and friends!

Things are buzzing around church this week. The Pantry has been extra busy, neighbors and regular guests have been calling and stopping in to say hello, folks are jumping in to help with all sorts of things and bringing their new ideas, and it is all very, very good. 

Because it is always impossible to do any writing in such a wonderfully busy place, I’m sitting here at home writing this letter in the dark early morning, with a snoring puppy next to me, and thinking about how blessed we are to be the church together in such a sweet and good place. I’m also thinking about pie dough. And 1 Corinthians 12.

Pie dough is my nemesis. I don’t know what I am doing wrong, but it *never* comes out right. So I gave up long ago, and rely instead on Marie Calendar’s frozen pie crusts. I mean, why put out the effort when there is a perfectly good option made by experts, in the freezer section at Raleys? Except…Raley’s was out, and I want to make a chocolate pie for the Bonus Son’s birthday this week, so I had to give it another try. 

As I was reading the recipe and putting the ingredients together and using the supposedly foolproof technique just before sitting down to write this letter, it reminded me of a lesson the youth group and I did a few years ago, where we replaced Paul’s metaphor of the body in 1 Corinthians 12 with the metaphor of a cake, and baked a cake together. 

“For just as a cake is one and has many ingredients, and all the ingredients of the cake, though many, are one cake, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all formed into one cake —Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

If the egg would say, “Because I am not the sugar, I do not belong to the cake,” that would not make it any less a part of the cake…” 

and so forth. 

Have you wondered how on earth someone thought to put eggs and sugar and flour and milk and stuff together, and heat it up, and make a cake? It’s a kind of miracle. Every ingredient, and even the process of mixing and baking, has an essential purpose. So as I put the dough together and prayed it would work, it made me think of all of us humans, the people of Corinth and Fallon and elsewhere, and how and why God mixes us together. How, though my own hands might be clumsy and mistake-prone, even with the best of intentions, God’s are not. God put each of us in this mix because the recipe needs exactly these ingredients, and in God’s masterful hands we can be made into something wonderful.

Let’s revel in that, friends. Let’s celebrate the way God has put all of us unique humans together in these families, this community, this church. Each of us as different as eggs and sugar and flour and milk, and yet each absolutely essential ingredients to make the recipe come out right. As humans, we might make mistakes in the mixing, but in the hands of the Master we can become something wonderful.

Pastor Dawn

Worship This Week

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

This week, part 2 of our worship series about the Lord’s prayer. This week, we’ll consider more together about who God is, and why we pray at all, and what happens when we do. We’ll talk about how our trust in God is rooted in a certainty that God wants to give us everything we could possibly need, and delight us with good things, while also being too wise and too good to give us anything destructive to us, no matter how badly we think we want it. And more than that, how God always gives the best  answer to our prayers, even when we want a different answer. And much more. You might like to read and pray with Jesus and his disciples in Matthew 6:5-14 as you prepare your heart for worship.

 

Remember to find us on YouTube so that you can watch live from home, or join us on KVLV radio on AM980 every Sunday beginning at 9:30am. If you have ideas or questions, or if we can be in prayer for you in any way, please call the church at 775-423-4714, or call Pastor Dawn directly at 775-671-5553. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Wednesday Night Prayer with Lectio Divina

Friday Evening Prayer has become Wednesday Evening Prayer, and will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00pm on YouTube Live. Lectio Divina is an ancient, special way of reading and praying with Scripture. Most people who try it find it deeply meaningful. Hope you’ll join us.

 

News and Fun Stuff

Church Family Game Day THIS WEEK!

This time, lunch will be pizza from Papa Murphy’s, and there is PLENTY for everyone. Feel free to bring snacks and side dishes, especially if you are eating gluten free or have other dietary needs that might not be compatible with pizza. We’ve made invitations for our Fallon Daily Bread guests, and our neighbors, so hopefully we’ll have some new people to eat and play with! Bring your favorite game, or join a table to learn a new one. See you there.

 

No Pizza with the Pastor This Month 

Because of the Superbowl and Pastor Dawn’s meeting in Yerington after worship on Feb 11, and Princess Bride the following week, we’ll have to skip our monthly Pizza lunch and conversation this month. See you in March!

Ash Wednesday on February 14 @7:00pm

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day this year. If you’ve never been to a service like this before, let this year be the first time. It is a sweet, prayerful, reflective, hopeful time of being wrapped in the amazing grace of God. And a day that celebrates love of one another is a great way to begin our 40 day period of introspection, and sacrifice, andhumility before the joy of Easter. 

 

Sunday Brunch and Messy Church on Sun Feb 18!

We hope you enjoyed the very first Messy Church last month. This month, we’ve sent invitations to our neighbors and our lesson is “Putting On Love” based on Colossians 3:12-17. It’s a new kind Sunday School-slash-worship, especially designed for people of all ages to actively participate together. We’d love your participation, your ideas for improvements, and your leadership! Reach out to Ashlee McGarity or Pastor Dawn at the church office, office@eumcfallon.org, 775-423-4714. 

 

And it all starts with a pot luck brunch! Bring something to share if you’re able, stay and enjoy food and friendship with your church, and stay for songs, games, crafts, and our Messy Church lesson. See you there.

 

Princess Bride on Sunday February 18 @1:00pm

It's that time of year again! Friends, there is a terrible lack of silliness in the world today, and ONLY YOU CAN HELP. Join us for a Very Silly Interactive Screening of "The Princess Bride" at the historic downtown Fallon Theatre on Sunday February 18 at 1pm! Feel free to dress in costume (or not), bring props (or not), invite everyone you know, and let's spend an afternoon being ridiculous together for no reason whatsoever. Admission is FREE!! Props including glow sticks, kazoos, marshmallows, and other assorted nonsense will be provided. As a bonus, any delicious snacks or lunch you buy at the snack bar supports the Theater!

Believe Big

January 24, 2024

 

 Hello from Livermore, church family and friends!

Every January, clergy in our Conference are required to attend what is known as the Gathering of the Orders, usually somewhere on the coast. Sometimes it is restful, sometimes it’s packed with workshops, worship is always wonderful, and it is so nice to connect with peers and colleagues we only see twice a year. It’s often been at a retreat center, but this year it’s being held at Asbury UMC in Livermore, CA. It’s a gorgeous church, not humongous but with a beautiful pine ceiling and a pipe organ and a big community garden in the back. I don’t know much about the church itself, but I did notice that they offer free showers to their community, just like we do, which is awfully cool. Until today, I hadn’t known of another church besides us who did that, and it is such a tremendous gift to folks.

I am sitting here in my hotel room now, after a very full day of training and worship, and the sermon our guest preacher gave an hour ago was SO GOOD. Her name is Bishop Delores Williamston, from the Louisiana Conference, and she preached on the theme of this week, “Hope for the Future.” She quoted a friend of hers who told her in a time of struggle, “sister, hope lives in the dark.” 

Not in the light, where we can see and go about our business just fine. In the dark is where hope is needed, and where hope lives. Isn’t that so true? 

Then she quoted Howard Thurman:

 

“Howard Thurman says this about raising the ceiling of our hope, he said:
It is easier to believe little than to believe big!
He says…
Our immediate demand is often so urgent, the immediate problem is often so acute or so insoluble that the ceiling of hope is lowered, leaving little room even for breathing…. And at such a moment, life seems not only to close in around us, but it also seems to close down upon us.
He said: 

I will lift on high the ceiling of thy hopes!
In other words: I will lift on high the ceiling of my hope! Or, 

We are called to lift on high today the ceiling of our hope!”

 

As she was speaking, and rousing us to AMENs and GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIMEs, I was thinking of small, dark spaces where it’s hard to breathe. I thought of a story about a sweet little abandoned pup who had been hiding in a storm drain, trying to keep himself safe. But he wasn’t safe at all, he was lonely and cold and scared and starving. It wasn’t until hope entered that dark place in the form of kind human rescuers that he was able to see what real life could be like. I’m sure the sweet little thing was terrified at first, out in the light, in the wide open. But eventually, the love and care of his rescuers won him over, and life became much better than it could ever have been in that storm drain.

It is easier to believe little sometimes. Easier to close ourselves in, and survive (barely) on crumbs, too afraid to hope for something better. But God wants much better for us. Ours is the God who saves, who wants to take the whole roof off and bring us from dark and cold and empty places into the wide open air of new life. Believe big, church! GOD IS GOOD, all the time.

Pastor Dawn

Worship This Week

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

This week, we are beginning a worship series we have been looking forward to, on the Lord’s Prayer. We will take it a section at a time, and talk togther about prayer in general, the purpose and the benefit and the miracle of it. This week, we’ll begin with the very first part, that reminds us who it is we are praying to, and why: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You might like to read and pray with Jesus and his disciples in Matthew 6:5-14, and in Luke 11:1-4, as you prepare your heart for worship.

 

Remember to find us on YouTube so that you can watch live from home, or join us on KVLV radio on AM980 every Sunday beginning at 9:30am. If you have ideas or questions, or if we can be in prayer for you in any way, please call the church at 775-423-4714, or call Pastor Dawn directly at 775-671-5553. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Wednesday Night Prayer with Lectio Divina

Friday Evening Prayer has become Wednesday Evening Prayer, and will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00pm on YouTube Live. Lectio Divina is an ancient, special way of reading and praying with Scripture. Most people who try it find it deeply meaningful. Hope you’ll join us.

News and Fun Stuff

Ash Wednesday on February 14 @7:00pm

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day this year. If you’ve never been to a service like this before, let this year be the first time. It is a sweet, prayerful, reflective, hopeful time of being wrapped in the amazing grace of God. And a day that celebrates love of one another is a great way to begin our 40 day period of introspection, and sacrifice, andhumility before the joy of Easter. 

 

Princess Bride on Sunday February 18 @1:00pm

It's that time of year again! Friends, there is a terrible lack of silliness in the world today, and ONLY YOU CAN HELP. Join us for a Very Silly Interactive Screening of "The Princess Bride" at the historic downtown Fallon Theatre on Sunday February 18 at 1pm! Feel free to dress in costume (or not), bring props (or not), invite everyone you know, and let's spend an afternoon being ridiculous together for no reason whatsoever. Admission is FREE!! Props including glow sticks, kazoos, marshmallows, and other assorted nonsense will be provided. As a bonus, any delicious snacks or lunch you buy at the snack bar supports the Theater!

Necessary.

 January 17, 2024

 

 

Happy GORGEOUS January day, church friends and neighbors!

 

After the snow last week and the rain this week, it looks and smells beautiful outside today. I have to be here at my computer for most of the day, but man it is a perfect day for a walk. Shoulda brought one of the puppies to church with me. I hope you are cracking the windows open a bit, or walking outside, or finding a way to thank God for this fresh air.

 

You may have heard me mention Rev Stephen Charleston before. He is a Native American of the Choctaw Nation, and a retired Episcopal bishop. He has written several books, and posts wonderful thoughts and ponderings on social media about God and being human. This one has been resonating with me ever since I read it a few days ago, and it fits with what we’ve been thinking and talking about during worship:

 

“You have been chosen to be who you are. Not as an accident. Not as an existence without purpose. But as a self-aware soul brought to life by a Spirit who knows your name. You have a mission to carry out, a message to send, a blessing to bestow. You are the only one who can live your life. You are entrusted with a corner of the universe. You are a stakeholder in creation, selected for a task only you can complete.”

 

I just love this sentiment. You are not an accident of evolution. You were formed and made by God, who has known you since before you were born and set you here in this desert garden of Fallon, Nevada because God thought you were the exactly right thing to include right here. It echoes Paul’s words in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, about how intentionally different we are from one another, and all necessary as parts of the body of Christ.

 

Necessary. You are necessary. 

 

You have a something to do. Something to say. Someone to help. A blessing to give. You matter, in this moment, right now, to God and to the part of creation you live in. 

 

I hope you know that.

Pastor Dawn

Worship This Week

Epiphany 3: Direction Reset

In the Christian year, this week is the 3^rd Sunday of Epiphany, a word meaning a new revelation or understanding, especially of God, and whose root means “shining light.” The season is inspired by the Magi’s following of the Star of Bethlehem, experiencing the Light of the World in the person of young Jesus, and going home transformed. In worship at Epworth, we’ve been talking about renewal and re-setting ourselves in our faith in God, because we too have experienced the Light of the World. We’ve talked about a soul reset, remembering our baptism and reclaiming our faith as central to our lives; and last week we talked about re-setting our values, reclaiming the importance of things like the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, and how all of the Christian values we can prioritize – if they are truly Christian values – are set firmly in a foundation of loving God and one another. This week, we will talk about where all of that leads us. As a child of God, with God as your source and life, and your highest priority placed on agape-ing God and one another, what is your own purpose and direction? What about ours, as a family of faith together? You might like to read Mark 1:32-39, or the story of Paul’s conversion in Acts 9:1-15 as you prepare your heart for worship. And all of Romans 12 is wonderful. 

Remember to find us on YouTube so that you can watch live from home, or join us on KVLV radio on AM980 every Sunday beginning at 9:30am. If you have ideas or questions, or if we can be in prayer for you in any way, please call the church at 775-423-4714, or call Pastor Dawn directly at 775-671-5553. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Wednesday Night Prayer with Lectio Divina

Friday Evening Prayer has become Wednesday Evening Prayer, and will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00pm on YouTube Live. Lectio Divina is an ancient, special way of reading and praying with Scripture. Most people who try it find it deeply meaningful. Hope you’ll join us.

News and Fun Stuff

Monthly Brunch After Worship on Jan 21

Stay after worship on the 3^rd Sunday of every month and share brunch with your church family and neighbors! Bring absolutely anything you’d like to share (food, friends, or just your gorgeous smiling face). See you then. #eattogetherfallon

“Messy Church” Begins This Week, Too!

After brunch, join us in the Fireside Room for a fun and inspiring all-ages Sunday School lesson. It’s a unique way of learning about the love of Jesus through games, music, art, and stories. Kids of any age and their grownups are welcome. Invite your friends and neighbors! We’ll do it once per month on the 3^rd Sunday at 10:30am.

The Church of Taylor Swift

January 10, 2024

 

Happy January, church friends and neighbors!

So, Taylor Swift. I don’t understand.

I mean, I am only barely acquainted with her music. What I’ve heard is definitely catchy and fun, and I love how self-deprecating she is in her videos. I love how she portrays herself as clumsy and goofy and flawed, while also being beautiful and talented (if you have a chance, go look up her video for “Shake it Off” and listen carefully to the words…it’s a fantastic example). And I am amazed by the confidence and honest vulnerability and business acumen of someone so young. But the level of adoration people have for her, the way her concerts sell out so fast, without the weird Beatles- or Elvis-esque mania…what is this? What is happening here?

And get this. Rajan Zed, the Hindu religious statesman who promotes interfaith cooperation around the world and organizes the Faith Forum in the Reno Gazette-Journal, sent those of us who write for that column a bunch of articles about how going to a Taylor Swift concert is like a religious experience.

What?

So I read them. And then I went online and found a bunch more. And just…whoa. This is a thing. There is something happening here.

Now, several of the articles – like the ones in Christian Century and the New York Times and at Charisma.com – took pains to point out that Taylor Swift concerts are NOT worship, but rather a surface-level taste of what community rooted in Jesus Christ can be. And of course, their point is well taken. But others said things like this:

“I go to church every Sunday like it’s my job — because it is. I’m a pastor: I believe in God and in God’s ability to use the church for good. I go to church expecting the Holy Spirit to show up, and she always does. But rarely do I have a spiritual experience like I had a few weeks ago during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.”

Rev Hannah Lovaglio, who wrote the above for The Presbyterian Outlook, described it as a festival of friendship and community and wonder and belonging and absolute unfettered joy. Sara Irwin at GrowChristians.org wrote that it reminded her to give our whole selves to God and invite God’s healing. Jeremy Peters at HackingChristianity.net (a fellow UMC pastor) wrote that it made him a better pastor, and that lessons from Eras can make us better churches.

Oh friends. Our workplaces and schools and even our churches and families can sometimes be really hard places to be. Our world, and every one of us in it, is longing for this: a place to be wholly welcomed, exactly ourselves and part of one another, encouraged and built up and supported through pain and hardship and healing and success. Genuinely seen and loved, in wonderful imperfection, and a part of building a whole WORLD like that.

Taylor’s music is fine. It is sweet, and catchy, and authentically human. It makes people feel seen and known and understood. But the story we have to tell in Jesus Christ is even more, and deeper, and better. If pop music, performed by an imperfect person who does her best to stand for kindness and goodness, can create a movement like this, can you imagine what the actual Gospel can do in the hands and hearts of people transformed by Jesus Christ?

Can you imagine?

Pastor Dawn

Worship This Week

Epiphany 2: Values Reset

We continue Epiphany worship this week, about the light of God and going “home by another route”, and the ways God leads us and transforms us in Jesus Christ. Last week we remembered our baptism, and talked about a “soul reset” that refreshes us and renew us and fills us from within. This week, we’ll talk about really examining our values: what they are, and what they should be. As you prepare your heart for worship, you might like to read and pray with Paul in Galatians 5:24-6:10. See you in church.

 

Remember to find us on YouTube so that you can watch live from home, or join us on KVLV radio on AM980 every Sunday beginning at 9:30am. If you have ideas or questions, or if we can be in prayer for you in any way, please call the church at 775-423-4714, or call Pastor Dawn directly at 775-671-5553. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Wednesday Night Prayer and Lectio Divina

**DATE CHANGE** Friday Evening Prayer has become Wednesday Evening Prayer, and will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00pm on YouTube Live. Lectio Divina is an ancient, special way of reading and praying with Scripture. Most people who try it find it deeply meaningful. Hope you’ll join us.

News and Fun Stuff

Monthly Brunch After Worship on Jan 21

Stay after worship on the 3^rd Sunday of every month and share brunch with your church family and neighbors! Bring absolutely anything you’d like to share (food, friends, or just your gorgeous smiling face). See you then. #eattogetherfallon

 

“Messy Church” begins on Jan 21, too!

After brunch, join us once per month on the 3^rd Sunday at 10:30am in the Fireside Room for a fun and inspiring all-ages Sunday School lesson. It’s a unique way of learning about the love of Jesus through games, music, art, and stories. Kids of any age and their grownups are welcome. Invite your friends and neighbors! 

Pizza with the Pastor This Week

Join friends and neighbors for lunch and fellowship on the 2^nd Sunday of each month at noon, and Pizza Factory. Everyone welcome, bring a friend! Pizza provided.

 

Hero Club Has Begun!

Safe, loving, high-quality after school care is HUGE need in our community, and we are so blessed to have folks in our church who are passionate about meeting that need. Steve Russell has been working hard at getting it going again, inviting community partners and finding grant funding so that we can offer a program that focuses on homework help, art and music, and healthy bodies, minds, and spirits. Kindergarten through 5^th grade. Please pray for the whole adventure! And if you’d like to volunteer, please see Steve Russell or Pastor Dawn.