Posts by Sue Ostrom

Last fall a number of people from Mill Plain joined a congregational study of a book titled A Bigger Table; Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community.  I also preached on that theme for three weeks. To my delight, months later the image of a bigger table comes up in multiple ways.  Sometimes it is as simple as a meeting with more people than can comfortably fit around the table that had been set up for it.  Someone will comment,…

We’ve been looking at the promises people make when they join the United Methodist Church: to support the church with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, and their service.  Today we’ll consider what it means to support the church with our service.   As with gifts, service means different things for different people.  The hope is that all members serve God in some way, including through the church’s ministries.  Sometimes that may mean primary leadership of a committee, sometimes it means…

We’ve been reflecting on the promises we make when we join the church. Over the last two weeks we have reflected on offering our prayers and our presence. Today we come to the third thing we promise: our gifts.  Particularly at this time of year, gifts bring to mind brightly wrapped packages, but of course we know that’s not what this means. Having just concluded our annual stewardship campaign, I think also of the gift of money. Certainly, we ask members of the church…

Last week I began to reflect on the promises people make when joining the United Methodist Church, to support the church with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, and their service.  Today I want to consider the second of those: to support the church with our presence. There was a time when to be an active member of a church was generally understood that one would attend worship at least three Sundays our of four.  Certainly, in those days it…

When people join the United Methodist Church, they promise to support the church with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, and their service.  As we conclude our stewardship drive, for the next few weeks, I want to reflect on the non-monetary ways people support the church. The first of these is by supporting with their prayers.  In a previous church, there were a couple of people I used to visit at a nursing home every few months.  When I would…

Recently, Doug and I were at the intersection of 205 South and Mill Plain Blvd.  As if often the case, a man stood by the side of the road holding a sign.  In this case it said, “I’m $20 from shelter.”  It was about 8:00 PM. I notice that as he stood there, his eyes closed and he swayed.  When a car revved its engine, he startled.  It looked like he was falling asleep (or passing out?) on his feet.…

I lit a candle for Tom yesterday.  It was the Memorial Service at our Virtual Annual Conference.  Traditionally, the memorial service is a carefully staged and formal worship service at which those Bishops, pastors, and other significant ministry leaders in the Annual conference who have died in the last year are remembered.  As we do at our All Saint’s Celebrations in the local church, often we have lit a candle for each person remembered. This year the service was virtual…

Something new took its place at Mill Plain United Methodist Church recently.  We hung Reconciling Ministry banners on our bell tower.  They include the Reconciling Ministry logo and the words, “You are welcome here.”  You can see them driving east or west on Mill Plain Boulevard.  We hope they say to everyone that indeed, they are welcome here.  We hope that especially they communicate our welcome to people of all gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations.                 As we…

I was in 7th grade when my parents gave me permission to leave school early to attend a protest against the Vietnam War.  For several days prior to that, some friends and I had gathered to make arm bands that said, “Peace.”             I was an early teen with little understanding of world events or military strategy.  At that age, many people see the world rigidly, with little room for nuances and the complication of multiple perspectives.  All I knew…

In another community, my husband and I attended the installation service for a pastor of a neighboring church.  The church was of another denomination so I was interested to see how the service would go.  The sanctuary was full, both of   the parishioners of that church as well as people from the community like me.  When we went in an usher handed us a  program and we read through it prior to the service beginning.                 We nudged each other…