These are the days, and nights, of political debates and stock market swoons. What a time to be alive! The ups and downs of polls and stocks and yet still I am able to eat supper. Thank you God for my daily bread.
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OK, I confess...I have enjoyed watching the political conventions the past two weeks. Yes, I said "conventions," both of them. Somehow as I am aging I am able to look for hope and ideas and look for the best in people even in two different political parties. I have discovered several "news" channels and seen just how much they report based on the "leaning" of the channel politically. (Nice way of saying they are biased and report accordingly.) It is hard for all of us to look at an event, a speech, a conversation and not see it from our own biased viewpoint. Did I say hard for us? I mean it is impossible. Still isn't it OK to have enjoyed Hilary Clinton speaking one week and Sarah Palin the next? Am I off-base because I could enjoy Barak Obama one week and then Joe Lieberman the following week? I used to feel that if a certain candidate didn't win that the country would be in big trouble. Now I still care and will vote in the election, b...
An interesting week of media. I finished up The Shack, I'm reading The Faith of Barack Obama, and I put together a second video of small group leaders describing their offerings for this fall. There are so many ways to grow as human beings. From reading to being part of a group of people who want to grow deeper in their spiritual lives to so many different things. The important thing is to take the time to be in relationship with God and with people. Here is the video I just put together. All kinds of groups described here from bible studies to men's and family and teen groups to fantasy sports leagues.
This week I read The Shack by William P. Young. What an excellent book. I like to read mysteries and action type of books and this had that...and so much more. In the book, a man named Mack is invited to the Shack to spend time with Papa. He has the opportunity to have one-on-one time with God, if only he will go for it. Or is it a hoax, or a trap, or a crazed joke? I enjoyed the book so much. I learned so much about God and spent time thinking about my relationships with people and with God. But if you think it is an over-your-head type of book don't worry, there is something for everyone. Yes, it requires some thinking but the plot and the characters draw you in. Will it stretch your thinking about who God is and what it means to be a Christian? Yep, it sure will but that's a good thing. Will you agree with every thought expressed? Maybe not but that can be OK too. It's a novel, not the final word. It gave me a lot to think about. What else can you hope fo...
This past week I got to talk with some terrific people who have a heart for helping others grow deeper in their relationship with Jesus. In order to help that happen, they are going to lead Deeper Life small groups this fall. Rather than just put out a brochure of when the groups are meeting and what the topics will be, I met with these leaders and video taped each of them. Then I put together a video to encourage people to become a part of a small group. I even taped myself. Hope you enjoy watching this and are motivated to join a group and grow deeper in your life with Jesus.
Just this week I found out about a web site that lets me share the music I have written with others and lets me discover other new music that I can use as well. It's called www.ShapingWorship.com I have uploaded a couple of my worship songs so you can listen to them and/or download an mp3 of them. The lyrics/chords are also there for viewing and/or downloading. Just click on the "Search" button and type in "Rich Thornton" and you will see a list of my songs. While you are there check out some of the other songs on the site. There are some really good songs there. It's fun to use them here at Friendship Community Church and I look forward to sharing more of them as time goes by.
For the last couple of months I spent a lot of time with these guys in "The Music Man." From the left are John Marrs, Fred Stabley, myself, and Lee Howard. They are great guys and it was a pleasure to practice our barbershop quartet style songs together. Interesting how spending time together with others can help someone to reach out of themselves and learn so much.
This past weekend I was in The Music Man. I was one of the school board members who couldn't get along with each other (that would never happen in real life) until we were brought together by the joy of harmonizing as a Barbershop Quartet. Thus this picture of me. The show was an incredible experience. The director, musical director, choreographer, costumer, and cast were wonderful people and I miss them already. Fortunately, I have two of the cast members around...my daughters Rosie and Emily. We shared the whole experience and it will give us a lifetime of memories. It was a great summer vacation. Singing, acting, making new friends, driving with my daughters (Emily drove mostly since she is working on getting her driver's license soon...tomorrow actually), and learning so much about the theatre. I wouldn't have missed it. And I'm already hoping to be in another show someday.
Today I had the opportunity to talk with and video Linda Morningstar who coordinates the Angel Food Ministry at the church she attends, St. Paul UMC in Manchester, PA. Linda has a passion to serve God and it comes across when talking with her. Angel Food Ministries is designed to help everyone stretch their food dollars. Once a month, anyone, no pre-qualification necessary, can sign up and pay $30 for a box of food that they then can pick up two weeks later. For that $30, about $60 worth of food is obtained. It's not everyday that you can double your food money. Anyway, we are starting this ministry at Friendship Community Church in August and so have been trying to learn all we can about it. This weekend we will be showing this video to the congregation here to let them see how serving people serves God. Look for Angel Food Ministries in your own community and help someone, yourself included.
We use a lot of video resources at our church each weekend. Sometimes it gets really hard to find just the right clip to highlight and strengthen the weekly theme. Often I head to Sermonspice.com to look over the many videos from various sources. They have a good search set-up that lets me type in a topic and be brought to the many videos that might fit. I can watch them in full and choose what I need. But I would have to say that beyond the excellent videos and quick way of searching for them, what I appreciate a lot is the quick response I am given if I have trouble downloading a video. Most of the time the downloads go easily but on occasion I have trouble and e-mail the service team. It seems that within minutes I get a response saying they are sorry for my trouble (I always appreciate someone being sorry) and they give me enough new tries to download and specific help on downloading. Then I try what they say and I get the video. This is especially helpful near the weekend w...
During this last month I have been in rehearsal for "The Music Man." It's a fun musical first written in the 1950's and performed and then put out as a movie in the early 1960's. You probably have heard about it even if you haven't seen it. It's about an Iowa town where a traveling salesman goes to start a boy's band. No, not the Backstreet Boys, this band was in 1912. But he is a con artist who just sells people band uniforms and instruments and then heads out of town without there really being a band. But this Professor Harold Hill didn't count on falling for Marion, the librarian. Life changes and so do motives when one falls in love. Our lives change when we fall in love, when we care for someone besides ourselves... But anyway, I got into this musical because I enjoy the creative community and I hoped to be in it with my two talented daughters. Fortunately, we all got through the auditions and now are spending a lot of time rehearsing t...
It is with great anticipation that I look forward to Friendship Community Church becoming a distribution center in August for Angel Food Ministries. On August 8th and 9th people will be able to come to Friendship and order and pay for approximately $60 worth of groceries...but only have to pay $30 to do so. Then on Saturday morning, August 23rd, people will be able to come and pick up the groceries and take them home. With the cost of food and gas going up lots of us are struggling with just paying the bills. Whether you have a regular job with a decent income or infrequent jobs at minimum wage, you often wonder how you are going to keep putting food on the table. Angel Food Ministries offers the opportunity to all, with no income restrictions, to save money on their groceries. Of course lots of volunteers are needed to get the food from the refrigerated truck at a different location and bring it to Friendship. Then others will be needed to distribute the food to those coming i...
A couple of weekends from now the church here at Friendship Community is going to show a drive-in movie on our ballfield on Friday and Saturday nights, June 20 & 21. For months we have been talking among the staff about what would be a good movie to show. Something that all ages could watch and that would be a fun family experience. After discussing some movies that have been out recently, we finally decided to show "ET"(not Entertainment Tonight but ET the Extra Terrestrial). Yeah, it's an old one from 1982 but it's a great story and I am looking forward to seeing it on the gigantic screen that the Hershey Drive-In will be bringing for our event. The screen is higher than our church building. It will be a free event and if we have nice weather we may have 600 or more people as we did last summer when we had a couple of drive-in weekends. The thing that makes "ET" special is that it is a real family (well as real as movies can do) with family diffic...
What an afternoon yesterday was around the Thornton house! Our oldest daughter, Rosie, was doing her final packing for her mission trip to Haiti and we were preparing to get in the car to drive to Baltimore for her to join her mission team. Meanwhile my wife was online looking for information from an airline and searching for some Creole phrases, the language in Haiti, that Rosie could know for simple conversation. In the process, my wife came across news of a Travel Warning issued April 30, 2008, that had been issued by the United States Department of State. It advised Americans to defer non-essential travel to Haiti until further notice because the conditions that led to civil unrest a month ago had not been entirely resolved. She showed me the information online and I read it all several times. Fourteen kidnappings of Americans so far this year marked by deaths, brutal physical and sexual assault, and shooting of Americans. It read that there is a limited capability of local law en...
This past weekend Spirit Force , a drama ministry from Messiah College, shared a musical drama at all three of our worship services at Friendship Community Church. It was something to not only watch it but to see and hear the responses of people who were in the audience. The drama was all about grace. Of course grace only means something if you have lived without it, as the husband/father/alcoholic did. The stresses he put on his family were so real that the rawness of it was felt by many, and had been experienced by at least some present. To say the least, the presentation was a grabber that reached in and pulled out emotion from the viewer even if you hadn't experienced all that family trauma yourself. I'm thinking that's because all of us have experienced some distance from God and difficulties with people at some time in our lives, or at least known others who would admit to that. At each of the performaces I put visual images from the computer onto the screen and...
This week I had the opportunity to see someone that I have been mentoring for five years achieve quite an accomplishment. Tracey Utermahlen--busy wife, mom, grandmother, full-time employee, volunteer...and now ordained Pastor (and really so much busier than even all of this). What a joy to see her stand in front of the hundreds attending the ordination service and receive her ordination certificate and her new Bible, her authority for ministry. For five years she has taken classes through Winebrenner Seminary and served faithfully as a volunteer at Friendship Community Church. Just last year she became a licensed Pastor and came on board the church staff officially. Tracey is quite the fun person and is so gifted and caring. Congratulations Tracey! And to all the rest of us, let's join Tracey in serving God and sharing Jesus in exceptional and ordinary ways. The picture is of Tracey and her husband Greg on their wedding day a little over four years ago. Blessings on you both ...
Showing God's love to people in ways that will change lives is what I'm about. I try to do this in the way that I plan and lead worship on the weekends at Friendship Community Church and in the ways I connect with people daily. I have been interested in reaching people through starting new churches for quite awhile now. Two churches that have started in the past 3-4 years are the Liberty Community Church in Manassas, Virginia, and Higher Hope Church in Horseheads, New York. I have had the opportunity to get to know Thom Redmond at Liberty Community Church and some people from the church here at Friendship initially went down to help on some of the opening Sundays. I haven't had the opportunity to get to know Mike Schooley of the Higher Hope Church but it has been my pleasure to get to know him and his church by the hours of looking at video footage and editing it for this video presentation. These churches are unique yet each looking to touch people for Jesus in their o...
What a weekend this will be! First of all, let me just say, as my family and close friends know, that I am not a painter/construction person/or handy person in any way. Friday night at 6 PM and Saturday morning at 8 AM we are having Painting Parties here at Friendship Community Church. Parties I understand, but painting is not my thing. But I want to support what is happening and all the people who will come and do know how to paint, so I will be here for the Parties. I will move stuff and make coffee and do little things ... but no painting. (Maybe I'll surprise myself...but I doubt it.) I will be reminded of how important it is to help and support others. I do look forward to the burgundy walls that will be adding color in the lobby. I am so glad for the hallways to be brightened with a fresh coat of paint (5 1/2 years since we moved into this building is a long time in "paint" years). And the front of the worship center will no longer be white...it will be a bet...