As I write this article, I am aware that Lent is approximately half-way over. Being a season where one is challenged to face their mortality, I am also aware of many situations and circumstances that point out my humanness and frailty. Some of these situations are personal with me and my family and others are circumstances that I am
walking through with friends and church members.

As I write this article, I am aware that Lent is approximately half-way over. Being a season where one is challenged to face their mortality, I am also aware of many situations and circumstances that point out my humanness and frailty. Some of these situations are personal with me and my family and others are circumstances that I am
walking through with friends and church members.

The old saying, “Time flies when you are having fun” is definitely true. I have been back as Pastor at AMC for a month, and I am having a blast and time is flying by. The Season of Lent and the celebration of Easter is just around the corner. Lent has always been a meaningful time in the Christian Church. This was the time used by the early church to prepare new believers for membership in the church. Early believers went through a time of catechism and study of the basic principles of Christianity during Lent and celebrated Easter Sunday as their first day of Church membership. I can only imagine how special that first time of worship and communion was for the early Christians.

Let me say first that I am very excited to be returning to Archdale Methodist Church as pastor. During the past six months, I have spent much time praying and discerning the path God would have me to follow at this point in my ministry. Many things have happened in the time that I have been gone from you. Some have been wonderful and life giving, while others have been quite challenging.

When many retailers took down their Halloween decorations on November 1, they immediately put Christmas trees up, hung the garland and lights, and encouraged us to buy, buy, buy. In the retail world it’s been Christmas since Halloween. In the Church, we say “not so fast”, as we take our time getting to Christmas by way of the 4 Sundays of Advent. The older I get, the more I appreciate this time of slowing down that the Church offers to contrast the hurry of the holiday season

t’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here once again. It is the time of year when we take time to be grateful for our many blessings. I’ve become particularly grateful each morning as I drive around Caraway Mountain on the way to Archdale from my house in Asheboro. I get the joy of seeing the vibrancy of fall in all its glory. There is something about the way the morning sun hits the trees that says, “look at us!” that urges me to pay attention, to be present in the moment, and to be thankful for what is happening right now.

God Doing a New Thing…Most of us grew up hearing the saying that the only thing certain in life is death and taxes, which was originally attributed to Benjamin Franklin as he wrote to a friend about the new Constitution of the United States of America. I don’t know if Franklin was 100% right about that, but the saying taught us to expect change as a part of life.

It’s been a long time since I read or watched “Alice in Wonderland”, but one of my favorite quotes is:
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a…Color?

Susan Stewart shared the children’s moment in the July 23 worship service. She showed a puzzle she had done where she had to find the names of Crayola crayon colors. In the puzzle were colors such as shamrock, eggplant, and fuzzy wuzzy. All these years of
thinking that fuzzy wuzzy was a bear, we find out that it’s also a color. Who knew that
colors could have such interesting names and what happened to red, blue, green and
yellow? Susan made the point that even when so much is changing, God stays the same. Thank goodness for that!

Rev. Alexis Coleman is a lifelong Methodist. Born is Georgia, she is the great-great granddaughter of a Methodist circuit rider. Rev. Coleman was raised primarily in
Alabama and …

From Pastor Mike…..

Thomas Wolfe, the NC writer, and poet wrote a book that reminds us that time does not stand still. The title of that book is You Can’t Go Home Again.

From Pastor Mike…..

One of my favorite scriptures is found in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so