From the Pastor’s study - December 2009

Posted on January 30, 2010

From the Pastor’s Study   Greetings my brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I trust that everyone’s Thanksgiving was a time filled with joy and thanksgiving as I hope you got to spend this holiday with your loved ones. Praises be to God who has so richly blessed us.   

As we go through Advent together and head towards Christmas, I want to speak a lot about this wonderful season that we are in. Christmas is one of my personal favorite times of the year and holiday. It’s not because of all the commercialism, the classic Christmas cartoons and movies on the television, or the joyful Christmas music playing on the radios; but because of what this holiday truly means and what happened on Christmas Day a little over two thousand years ago, the birth of our Savior, Emmanuel, Jesus. God’s special gift to the world that was found in a manger, a feeding trough, wrapped in swaddling clothes, rags basically. Oh, but what a wonderful gift this baby was, and what a gift he grow up being. Born to a people who didn’t deserve such a gift, but that’s the love God has for us to give us this precise gift.

Thank you always, Father, for what and who you gave us. Amen.  

Speaking, from earlier, about classic Christmas cartoons, there is one that comes to mind that kind of fits in the world today - “The Grinch that Stole Christmas”. We seem to have a lot of Grinches in this world who want to steal Christmas, or at least “Christ” out of Christmas. We walk into department stores and greeted with “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings” instead of “Merry Christmas”. In the school system it’s called “Winter Break” instead of “Christmas Break”. When did it become such a bad thing to say the word “Christmas”, and why?

“It’s not ‘Politically Correct’ to say ‘Christmas’ anymore, it might offend someone” is what they’re told as to why not to say “Merry Christmas” upon greeting a customer. To quote a word from the Scrooge, “Humbug!” Not saying ‘Christmas” offends me, as well as it should every Christian. ‘Christ’ belongs in ‘Christmas’ just the same as ‘Presidents’ belongs in ‘Presidents Day’ because that is who they are about. Christmas is very much about Jesus Christ, it’s his birthday. You can’t have ‘Presidents Day’ without having Presidents the same as you can’t have ‘Christmas’ without having Jesus Christ.When I go into places like Wal-Mart, Sam’s, or any number of department stores, if I’m greeted with ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Seasons Greetings’, I will stop, look at them, and with a smile on my face I will say back to them “Merry Christmas”. Because in this month, December, Christmas is not just a holiday, Christmas is not just a season, it’s more than that. It’s the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s a day that needs to be remembered for what it is. How would those people who ‘might get offended’ by the word Christmas like it if we took them out of their birthdays like they are trying to take Christ out of his?Our rights are being infringed upon by these people, the secular world which gets offended by us and our beliefs, who want to take anything that deals with religion away for us, and claim they don’t have holidays. They dress up in their customs and celebrate Halloween; they pull pranks on others on April fool’s Day. Sounds like they have holidays to me! We don’t infringe on them with these days, they should leave ours alone.   Brothers and sisters, we as God’s people need to stand up of ourselves, in the name of Jesus of course, and for our rights and our days, and stop letting others walk all over us. The days are only going to get darker if we don’t start shining our lights and be the light in this dark world. Jesus said in John 8:12 (NRSV) “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” We are followers of Jesus Christ and his light shines within us, let it shine bright.Peace and grace be with you all as we celebrate the birth of Christ together. Know that God loves, Jesus loves you, and I love you.In His grace and service to Him,Pastor Pete

From the Pastor’s Study

Posted on November 11, 2009

Can you imagine its November already? Wow, where has the time gone?

November, turkey time again, if it’s your tradition to have turkey on Thanksgiving, with all the trimmings.

   With all the hustle and bustle of everyday life, sometimes it’s hard to slow down to remember certain things that should mean something to us. Preparing and eating a meal together as a family, spending time with one another. Maybe watch a family friendly movie after eating, or play a game together, spending that quality time together. And all the while, most importantly, being thankful of what you have. A home, or place to go to, to have the meal, food to eat, family and/or friends to share and spend time with.

   During this Thanksgiving Holiday, I want you to think about how blessed each of you is, and to remember to thank God for those blessings. There are, unfortunately, many homeless people out in today’s world. There are more and more everyday due to loss of employment because of layoffs, and plant closings. No work and lack of income causing the banks and financial institutions to foreclose on people’s homes. These are dark economic times. We should always be mindful of the many blessings our Heavenly Father has provided us. The blessings he gives us day to day every day.

   So this Thanksgiving Holiday, as you gather around the table and bow your heads to give grace over the food, remember to thank God for all the many ways and for the many blessings he has given you. And also, remember to say a word of prayer for the homeless and the hungry.

   A wonderful way to feel blessed in this holiday would be to help feed the less fortunate, like volunteering at a homeless shelter or someplace that is set up to provide a meal to the homeless. Or if you know of someone in your community that may be struggling with providing enough food for their family and can’t afford to have a Thanksgiving Dinner, go out and buy them stuff for a dinner. Or if you yourself can’t afford to go out and buy extra food for someone else’s dinner, share some of yours. Fix them a plate or two and take it to them. They’ll be thankful and you’ll be blessed.

   “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Matthew 25:35 NRSV.

Share the love of Christ this Holiday season.

In His grace and service,

Pastor Pete Fender

Message from Pastor Pete Fender

Posted on April 21, 2009

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

As we approach the end of the Lenten season, I hope that what you gave up for Lent (your fast) has brought you closer to our Heavenly Father. And as we enter Easter, stop and think just what Easter truly means to you.

It seems no matter what store you go into all you see is the commercialism that has engulfed the “Easter” season. This really isn’t anything new, for this has been happening for years with all the candy, plastic eggs, egg coloring kits, and chocolate bunnies. They’ve even come out with chocolate crosses. This along with Christmas have become money making times of the year for store merchants, stirring away from what the “seasons” truly are about.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure many of you, like me, enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs and getting candy when we were children, and now we enjoy doing these things with our children, nieces and nephews, children in our class rooms and our churches. The thing is that in the midst of all these things, the egg coloring and the egg hunts and all the activities, we need to explain to our little ones what these seasons are really about.

There are a lot of people out here in this world that have no idea what Lent is, much less know what they are supposed to do during this season. And there are those who have no idea what Ash Wednesday or Good Friday are. They may have some vague idea of what Easter Sunday is, but not really any idea of all that our Lord Jesus went through and did for us. Chances  are they have never been to a church a day in their lives, or that it has been so long since they have been that they can’t remember anything about it. It’s up to Christians to educate them. We may be the only Bible some will ever see.

That’s where witnessing comes in. I’ve been saying during the announcements a lot these past several weeks that we need to get out here and invite the lost to church, to church events like the Community Lenten Services, dinners and breakfasts, and introduce them to our best friend so they can know him and have him as their best friend too. If they won’t come to church, at least you are bringing Jesus to them. That’s where we start, witnessing to them and then letting God work on their hearts. We can make the introduction. Jesus came here to free us all from the penalty of sin, and this needs to be common knowledge to all.

Tell all you come in contact with about the love of Jesus Christ. Tell them, if they don’t already know, what Easter is all about. Easter is about the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He took on himself the sins of the whole world - past, present, and future. He paid the ransom due and opened up the way for us. Who could ask for a better Easter present than that.

In the name of the One who lives and reigns, now and forever.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all always,
Pastor Pete Fender

August 2008 - A Letter From The Pastor

Posted on September 1, 2008

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Well, we are through our first month together. And what a blessing it was and will continue to be. As some of you may know, this is my first appointment. Our thanks to all of you for making us feel welcomed and helping us in the many ways that you have.

Thank you for being patient as we got settled in. Again, on behalf of my family, I want to express ow blessed we are to be here in this area, and what a blessing it is for me as your new pastor to serve the Alleghany-Grayson charge. I look forward to letting to know you better in the time ahead as we grow together in Christ’s love.

To give you some of our background, we moved here from Marion, NC where we lived for 7 years. I grew up in Burnsville, NC, which is over the mountain from Marion. Melissa, my darling wife of 11 years this coming October, grow up in Kenvir, Kentucky, before moving to Asheville, NC where we met.

I worked as a carpenter prior to receiving this appointment and moving to these beautiful mountains, which remind me so much of Burnsville. Both Melissa and I feel at home here in Alleghany County. And our two boys, Zachary and Timothy, are loving it here as well.

In closing, it is my prayer that our time ahead is richly blessed. I look forward in serving you as we grow together as a family for His kingdom.

May the Lord bless and keep you always,
Pastor Pete Fender

Nothing But Nets

Posted on March 23, 2007

The people of the United Methodist Church are being invited to participate with the Nothing But Nets partners to help stop a deadly disease – malaria. In sub-Saharan Africa, a child dies every 30 seconds from this preventable disease. This is a statistic that the world must pay attention to according to Bishop Joao Somane Machado, leader of the United Methodist Church in Mozambique.

“This is not an African issue,” said Machado. “It’s not only for poor countries. It’s global.”

Just $10 buys a bed net, distributes it to a family and provides education on how to use it.

By answering Jesus’ call to “minister to the least of these who are members of our family,” we can beat this awful disease and save future generations. So give a child the opportunity to live a life of health and happiness. Pray. Communicate the need. Buy a bed net. And save a life.

To learn more about malaria initiatives of The United Methodist Church, visit http://www.umc.org