By Tom Jenkins on 2/21/2009 12:09 PM

   I lost a good friend this week. Ben Johnson and I had been friends for 48 years. He was a deacon in a church that I served when I was a college student. He was a good role model for a young preacher. He affirmed me in many ways and every criticism of his came with love. He was one of three very close friends I had in that small rural community in Georgia. I have now buried all three of them. Their loss takes away a part of my life. Though memories are ever there, presence is what's missed most.    John Donne was a preacher in London in the seventeenth century. A third of the city was destroyed by the dreaded plague during his ministry. Though people were afraid to gather in large numbers for fear of catching the plague, Donne preached to a packed house every Sunday because his words offered them hope. Donne caught the plague and as he fought death he wrote some of his most memorable words.    No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed...

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By Tom Jenkins on 2/2/2009 7:25 PM

  Our third annual service of "Remembrance" will be held February 22 at 6:30. We started holding these annual services as a way for us to express our grief and share our memories of church members who died during the preceding year. The service is a worshipful way to say "Thank You" to  God for those we've lost in death and to enliven our hope for life everlasting. Last year we started including the names of extended family members, such as parents, who may have died years earlier as a way to celebrate their lives. We will do that again this year.
  Charles Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said "Our people die well."  I believe he meant by that Christians die with hope. Surely, we grieve at the loss of anyone, but the death of the Christian is more about hope than loss. Our hope is in an everlasting life, promised by our Lord and verified by his resurrection. Amen.