(The Last One)

Yes, I am sad that this is the last Friday’s Word in this space.
I don’t like changes.
I hate losing contact with any of you.
But I hope you will keep up with me by subscribing to the church newsletter.
(Address below. Click “subscribe.”)

I’m not going anywhere.

And 2026 will be a big year. We will celebrate the 130th Anniversary of the St. Matthew congregation in October 2026.
And by that time, I will have finally published my book, Discovering God.
It will be available at the anniversary services.

By the end of January, I hope we will be online, on YouTube, and on a podcast, with the class on Discovering God, which I teach every Sunday morning at 9:45.

And in the New Year, you can get a free copy of my first book, God, Grace, and Gooseberry, just by visiting us on Sunday morning.
(Or order on Amazon.)

You know, I hear a lot of people say, “I am spiritual but not religious.”
What that usually means is that they believe in some kind of God but not in Jesus Christ or the church.

Much of my effort in this spot has been to show that the evidence for Jesus Christ is overwhelming.
God is both knowable and available to us.

I hear people say, “I like Jesus but not the church.”
If it were not for the church, Jesus would be a mere footnote in history.

So, those of you still seeking, come seek the Lord with us.
Those who have found him, come rejoice with us.
Give us a visit. Do come check us out.

Thanks for the time you have spent with me in this little box each week.
I begin the New Year with joy, expectation, and a hundred sermons I want to preach.

Happy New Year!

saintmatthewumc.com
revmaxb@tx.rr.com

I began my working life as an English teacher. In 1982, at the age of 39, I entered Perkins School of Theology at SMU to prepare for ministry.

I was immediately eligible to serve a church as a student pastor. I was sent to Saint Matthew, a small church in East Fort Worth, with little hope of survival.

I was overjoyed to be in ministry. And against all odds, the church began to grow, mainly from members who returned and friends of those still in the pews. Before long, we exhausted that pool of potential growth, and I knew we had to find a way to reach a wider world.

In 1987, I started Pastor’s Corner in The Meadowbrook News, a local Eastside shopping paper. It did the job. Growth soon accelerated. By 1988, we had grown from about 30 in attendance to more than 150 on some Sundays.

We needed more room, so we decided to build. We hired a rising young architect, Greg Wyatt, to transform our rather dreary sanctuary into the beautiful Victorian Gothic building we worship in today.

In the early 2000s, The Meadowbrook News closed down. That is when we shifted to The Star-Telegram and Friday’s Word. But with changes in how people get their news, we can no longer reach the audience we once did. So once again, we change.

This is our next-to-last appearance here. We will be turning to social media and other online forums to reach a larger audience. Please keep up with us. Subscribe to our weekly online newsletter. The address is below. Just click the subscribe button.

In 2026, Saint Matthew will celebrate its 135th anniversary. We will celebrate.

Join us for our Christmas Eve service at 6:00 p.m.

“The most beautiful service of the year”

saintmatthewumc.com
revmaxb@tx.rr.com

For forty years, this little box has appeared in two different newspapers—twenty of them in the Star-Telegram. The world has changed in those decades, and this newspaper has changed with it. What once reached thousands now reaches far fewer, and the time has come to bring this long chapter to a close.

This decision is significant. This little box played a part in saving a church. Without this outreach, St. Matthew might not have survived. Through it, God gathered a community of people who longed for grace, who weren’t drawn to fundamentalism, and who believed in the wideness of God’s love.

From this space, we have proclaimed the Gospel truth that God loves all of us equally—gay or straight, male or female, Black or white, immigrant or native-born. We have spoken against the harm caused by power misused. And through it all, I have simply shared the truth I know through Jesus Christ.

And let me be clear—I’m not going anywhere.

I’ll still be preaching.

This box, under a new name, will soon appear on several online platforms. I will also begin a weekly podcast of my Discovering God class. And in 2026, I intend to complete the book I have been working on for many years and send it out into the world.

I hope you’ll stay connected.

You can read these articles every week through the church’s online newsletter—just visit the link below and subscribe.

But you don’t have to remain anonymous.

You are always welcome to join us for worship.

If St. Matthew, or anything in my ministry, has mattered to you, come sit with us. Let me see your face. Let us thank God together.

saintmatthewumc.com
revmaxb@tx.rr.com

Christ the King Sunday

This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. And yes—I know it’s also the Sunday before Thanksgiving. And yes—we’ll feast together with a big Thanksgiving meal after worship. (A very good Sunday to visit us!)

But my sermon will lift up Christ the King. This is the big shoutin’ day before the quiet beauty of Advent. Everything from Easter forward builds to this moment. It’s as big as Christmas!

It’s just that… nobody really knows it.
So I’m here to tell you.

This is the day we declare who Jesus is:

King of the universe.
Lord of lords.
Savior of this world—and any others that may exist.

And here’s something interesting—about time, right?
This exalted status I assign to Jesus is backed up by human experience.

Some people meet Jesus—literally, personally, unmistakably. And when they do, he is exactly the Exalted One the church proclaims.

Heidi Barr was a 16-year-old Jewish girl whose heart stopped when she was thrown from a horse. Suddenly, Jesus was there. He took her to see “the Father.”

The singer “Maya,” known worldwide as M.I.A., was raised Hindu. In a moment of deep crisis in 2017, Jesus appeared to her in a vision. She said simply, “He saved me.”

Jesus has been appearing to people for 2,000 years. I know thousands of these stories.
Why do people keep seeing him?

Because he is the Christ.

Christ the King Sunday.
Come sing Majesty with us.
Worship at 11:00 AM.

saintmatthewumc.com
revmaxb@tx.rr.com

At age 19, I had an experience that pushed my life toward ministry.

We lived on a farm just outside Kemp, TX. In the country, we had a night sky that was glorious with stars.

Before going to bed, I often stepped outside to gaze into the starry sky and pray. One of those nights changed my life.

When I glanced up to pray, I was hit by joy.

I say hit. I could say seized. It was a joy so strong it shook me.

It was so much joy I couldn’t hold it. I thought I might die! I thought I might stop breathing.

I told God so.

I said, “Thank you, Lord. But I can’t take any more joy.”

And it slowly subsided. It had lasted, I think, less than a minute.

Overwhelming as it was, it was joy—ecstasy beyond anything I ever imagined.

It was a “God thing.” I knew that.

I just didn’t know what it was, exactly.

So, I headed for the library when I got to my junior college the next morning. It was there I found William James’ masterpiece, The Varieties of Religious Experience.

That’s what I had—

a “religious experience.”

I knew that joy was not from me. It came from some realm beyond this one.

And I knew that realm, that sacred realm, was available to us.

God is available to us.

We live our lives on the verge of glory. And even when life is hard, that joy is never far away.

If we ask for it, we will receive it. I believe that.

But I must add—you’ll want a lower dose of it than I got.

(Worship is at 11:00. Look for us online.)

saintmatthewumc.com
revmaxb@tx.rr.com