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Reverend Tim

Vanden Langenberg

(Pastor Tim)

A View From the Hill

By Pastor Tim Vanden Langenberg

Well, it’s that time of year again. The nights are getting cooler. There is some color beginning on a few of the trees. Football, volleyball, and other school sports and activities are getting under way.

I remember the two-a-day football practices in high school. Sometimes the mornings were quite cool but the afternoons were hot. There were times in the middle of certain drills or exercises when I’d wonder why I was going out for football anyway. But then one of the coaches (or all of them) would remind us of our goals for the year as a team. We never had to guess that we were attempting to win games, win the conference title, get into the playoffs Our goals were clear. The grass drills, the laps, the tackling dummies, the sleds – all these things made sense when our goals were constantly held in front of us.

What is the mission of Wesley United Methodist Church? What are we trying to achieve? Why are we even here? Well, the New Testament is quite clear about that. God did not leave us clueless. In the Gospel according to Matthew, the last thing Jesus said to His disciples before ascending into heaven was, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV). In the Gospel according to Mark, one of Jesus’ last recorded sayings was, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole world” (Mark 16:15, ESV). In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus tells His disciples, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:46-47, ESV). Luke’s second volume of the gospel, The Acts of the Apostles records Jesus as saying, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”(Acts 1:8). And John records Jesus’ words, “Follow me” (John 21:19, ESV).

So what is our mission? Our mission is to reach out to the world beginning in our
own neighborhoods to share what we have experienced of God through Jesus Christ. And by the power and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will share God’s love in a variety of ways so that people will turn to God, receive forgiveness of their sins, and be set free to serve God in the world in Jesus’ name.

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