Pastor Steve’s Blog Oct 28, 2018 It is Sunday afternoon, the football game is over and the JAGS have lost again. Other than mentioning that it is certainly more fun to win than to lose, I want to press on to another couple of points. I want to thank the Staff Parish committee and you, the church, for my new white robe I received this morning as part of Pastor Appreciation month. As you saw in church today, it is a bit long in length and also a bit long in the sleeves, so I will see about getting it tailored. Thank you again for your thoughtfulness and your grace shown to Cindy and me. The other point is this. You know the saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Well, that’s me when it comes to putting on a number of pounds, above 15, since I retired from the Navy. For 22 years I kept my weight within 5-10 pounds of my height and weight standards and always made weight every 6 months at weigh-in besides passing my physical fitness test. Now that I have retired, I haven’t faithfully gone to the gym, I am enjoying way too many cookies, cake and scoops of ice cream, but somehow I am expecting to not gain weight. Only one problem. I am gaining weight. I am living out the definition of insanity. Somehow my mind has convinced me that I can eat these sweets every day, but expect different results. I am going to have to do something different if I want to see something different. But what a bummer. I like eating cookies, cake and ice cream and my body tells me it’s ok if I don’t go to the gym. But that will not get the job done and will not get me back on track to take my weight off and be healthier. I have to make different choices and then reinforce those choices as I live out those choices daily to create change. And as we all know, change can be difficult. But with God’s help…all things are possible! As I sit here, the Holy Spirit is telling me that this same point applies to the church. Many United Methodist churches today want to keep doing the same things, in the same ways as they have always done but somehow, and in some magical way, get different results. The days of “opening the doors and they will come” have come…and gone. I wish it weren’t so. Admittedly, that model of church growth and ministry is so much easier. If we want to be relevant today as an Arlington community church, then we have to be willing to embrace new models and methods of outreach and ministry to reach the lost for Christ. We have to be in relationship with our community. When it comes to St Paul, I wonder just how much change we are willing to consider, embrace and implement. Remember, with God, all things are possible…and this goes for churches, too!