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URGENT: Special Offering for Guadalupe Flood Relief – Tomorrow at Church
Our hearts are heavy as we witness the devastation caused by the flooding along the Guadalupe River, which has already claimed at least 27 lives and left many without homes.
Tomorrow during worship, we will collect a special offering to support the relief efforts led by the Rio Texas Conference Disaster Response Team. All funds will be sent directly to them and used to provide critical supplies like flood buckets, emergency cleanup, and support for displaced families.
Our goal is to raise $2,000 to send immediate help where it’s most needed.
Want to give electronically? You can make a secure donation now through our PayPal campaign: https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=3WZVX49XX4JK4
100% of your gift will go to immediate disaster relief efforts.
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Rev. Brennan:
Treating NDEs as important puts a lot of credence on the functioning of an oxygen-deprived brain. I don’t attach much importance to what our brains do when they are not working.— G.
Two lines from a longer, thoughtful email from a reader who calls himself an atheist.
I repeat: Atheism is as fragile as Fundamentalism.
Both are ready to fall like a house of cards.
They cannot stand up to reason and information.Brains actually do not do anything when they are not working.
People having an NDE are absent from the brain—
yet they can often describe in detail everything doctors and nurses are doing to revive them.
This can include what doctors and nurses say to one another—while there is no brain activity.
Yes, the information is conclusive.So, what I call highly resistant non-believers must run from this and all such evidence—
just as fundamentalists must resist the clear truth that the Bible is not inerrant.But I have absolutely no desire to fight reality.
I want the truth.Dr. Raj Parti, a Hindu who met Jesus in an NDE, concludes this:
1 – Consciousness exists outside the body.
2 – There is life after death.
3 – We are all connected to each other.
4 – There is one all-prevailing supreme love and intelligence which is the source of all creation.No use to fight it.
Everyone who has an NDE says the same thing.And so does Jesus.
I return to the pulpit Sunday after my accident.
Worship at 11:00.
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I’m Back
For what it’s worth, I’ll return Sunday after a three-week absence following my collision with a concrete slab.
Great thanks to Mary for her loving and excellent work in my absence. I know you’ve enjoyed her sermon series—and so have I.
And online, Mary ended up doing a couple of solos last week when all help deserted her.
She was preacher and songleader. (Shannon and Julian were out, and Blake left early.)
But Mary’s a singer. She’s in our choir—one of her many hats.
I’m excited about being back.
If ministry were not at the heart of my life, I would have retired years ago.
But I warn you—I’m not moving very fast.
I know! I know!—I moved like a turtle before the accident.
Well, now I move like a dead turtle.
Been Watching
I’ve been watching online like many of you.
I now realize that the primary microphones for picking up the organ are the ones on the pulpit and lectern. These are usually off at the beginning of the service, which makes the organ sound distant online.
Big in-house. Distant online.
We also hear almost no congregational singing, which is why Mary sounded like she was doing a solo. This is also why we mic Blake, Shannon, and Julian during the hymns.
Breakfast This Sunday
If Winston is present, he’ll be doing breakfast.
Feel free to help. Breakfast is at 10:30.
Come early and eat. This fellowship time is lovely.
My Class
I’m easing back into things.
Preaching and Communion will be enough for my first Sunday back.
My class, Discovering God, will resume the following week—July 13.
Our topic: What NDEs Tell Us About Salvation—Who Gets In, Who Doesn’t?
New Procedure
I’m asking our musicians to get music titles to me by Wednesday morning by email or text. (It may not work this week.)
If you have announcements, get them to the church office—or to me—by Wednesday morning.
There will be an announcement page in the bulletin so that we do not have to take worship time for announcements—at least not much of it.
Veta will run the bulletins on Thursdays.
This Sunday
It’s Communion Sunday.
My sermon title is: All Are One
We’ll talk about the first great truth of our existence: that we are all one with one another—and one with God.
I’ll share a couple of wonderful and surprising stories.
We will sing.
We will gather at the Lord’s Table.
And I will have the joy of being back in church.
Come—let us rejoice together.
God Bless,
MB
