Hello. My name is Rody and I am the lead pastor at AUMC. We are a medium sized United Methodist church in a beautiful garden setting who seek to welcome all people seeking to follow Jesus in loving the earth( read more about our “Green Team”) and the people in it.
Jesus, Justice and works of Mercy
A while ago a couple who had been coming for a while said, “We think we have found a church home.” When I asked them to explain further they said this: “We have visited some churches that speak a lot about Jesus but we hear little or nothing about the whole world God loves. Or we go to a church and hear a lot about social justice but Jesus is hardly mentioned if at all. Here both are valued and celebrated in a way that comforts and challenges.”
Falling in Love again
This couples insight is at the heart of the community I am privileged to help lead. Here we seek to fall more deeply in love with God and the sacred world God has made. At the heart of our community is the heart of God, Jesus. It is his presence that sustains us and his love that nurtures and his power that is transforming us into the people of “The Way.”
WiJding
Pastor and theologian Craig Barnes says that possibly more important than the personal question WWJD (What would Jesus Do?) is the question represented by the letters WIJDING, standing for, “What is Jesus doing?”
Our call is to empower our people through worship, study, prayer through strong relationships of care, and to get out of the building to find the places where Jesus spends time and offer our lives there. So at Aldersgate, you will find a people constantly looking for fresh ways to love the world.
We are passionate about serving others and presently are involved in more than a dozen mission opportunities locally including five feeding programs, Habitat for Humanity, St. Andrews affordable housing, raising funds to build schools in Afghanistan and a new mission to children in the Congo.
The Way of Jesus
When asked what Jesus came to do we look carefully at the Jesus of the New Testament. Here we meet a Jesus that lived, loved died and rose to bring in an alternative world to the way this world is. He called it the Kingdom of God or the Shalom community. So while salvation is personal and individual it is also social, corporate and even cosmic. Jesus lived, loved, died and rose to set us free from sin for a great purpose: to join Jesus in the mission field.
We are an inclusive, progressive community of seekers after Christ who value a warmed heart and a challenged mind.
Theology and Politics
Diane Bass in her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us, speaks to the direction and style of our community: “We struggle to create a theology that is open, inclusive, and tolerant, a vision that persuades by goodness, service and beauty, not by condemnation, force or violence. Seeing religious intolerance dangerous we have no interest in creating a Christian commonwealth or any sort of theocracy.
Unlike Christian fundamentalists, we strongly support the legal separation of church and state. However, we equally define ourselves against secular liberals and praise the informal influences of faith on politics. So we seek the delicate balance of rejecting those who want to impose a Christian agenda on all people while holding onto the promise of a transformative Christian political conscience.” Pp. 267-70.
Worship and Preaching
Good preaching informs the mind and moves the heart. It begins with the biblical text and then moves into the daily text of people’s lives. Faithful Christian preaching helps the community to answer two critical questions: “Who are we in light of the Gospel?” and “What are we called to do in response?”
We have two worship services relevant to the lives of 21st century Christians—one is band lead and one is choir/organ led. We seek to sing the heart songs of all generations and shape worship to meet the great hunger to experience the Living God in Christ Jesus.
Hopefully this gives you taste of life among us. Please feel free to sample some of my messages on this web site and prayerfully consider whether this place where grace happens could be a spiritual home for you.
I keep the Pablo Arrupe poem you will find below close at hand and read it from time to time. May it be a blessing.
--Rody.
p.s. Fall in love
There is nothing more important than finding God. That is to say, fall in love with God definitely and absolutely.
Whoever falls in love with God, will find that The Holy One captures the imagination and leaves a footprint in everything you do. It will decide what gets you out of bed in the morning, what you do in the afternoon, where you go on the weekend, what you read, who you meet, what breaks your heart. It will be what fills you with happiness and gratitude. Fall in love. Stay in love, and everything will be different.” Pablo Arrupe, S.J.