March-April 2024: Unifying Power - As you may know, this church has a tradition of hosting daily noontime services of worship Monday through Friday during Holy Week. This year will be my second time planning and hosting these services as your pastor. While different pastors have taken different approaches to these services down through the years, I have made it a priority to invite a preacher from a different Christian tradition for each day of the week. Last year, we hosted a United Methodist preacher, a Cowboy Church preacher, a Lutheran preacher, a Southern Baptist preacher, and a Presbyterian preacher. This year, I’m glad to say that we are on track to feature five different Christian traditions once again. On Monday of Holy Week (3/25), we’ll host the Rev. Tony… Read More Jan-Feb 2024: Spiritual Resolve - New Year’s resolutions: we’ve all made them, we’ve all broken them. Sometimes we set realistic goals—lose a few pounds, drink a little less caffeine, read a little more. Sometimes we set less realistic goals—I’ll let you provide your own examples of those. Even though we struggle to consistently do the things we’ve resolved to do in the new year, I think it’s still a good practice to set personal goals. It gives us something specific to aspire to. It helps us be at least a little more focused than we might be without a goal. As helpful as these goals may be for our health, our finances, our relationship, etc., let’s make sure we’re not neglecting our spiritual lives during this resolution-making season. Is there… Read More Sept-Oct 2023: Role of the Holy Spirit - As we’ve been walking through the Acts of the Apostles over the last few months, we’ve discovered the central role of the Holy Spirit in so many aspects of the Christian life. The Spirit opens our hearts and minds to God. He teaches us the truth of the Good News about Jesus Christ. He gives us spiritual gifts for God’s glory. He calls us to serve God in the world. And that’s only scratching the surface!The Holy Spirit is such a powerful influence in our lives—the most powerful in the universe—because the Holy Spirit is God. Jesus is also God. And so is the Father. But how can that be? Doesn’t the Bible teach that there us only one true God? Magnificently, yes. The Father,… Read More August 2023: Infant Jazz Hands - Infant Jazz-Hands, Saul of Tarsus, and the Everlasting Love of God Almost two years ago now, when my twin girls Eve and Adah were only a few weeks old, I made a joking-but-also-serious Facebook post about them. The post was about how, of all the things I wanted to teach my daughters—things about the love of Jesus, about the ways of the world, about the innumerable joys and struggles of life—there was one lesson I desperately wished I could get through to them right away. That urgent lesson was, and I quote, “DADDY CAN’T PUT FOOD IN YOUR MOUTH IF YOUR HANDS ARE IN THE WAY.” One friend (who happens to be a theology professor) commented on the post, pointing out the profoundly theological nature… Read More July 2023: Evangelism - As of the time I’m writing this, we’ve been walking through the Acts of the Apostles together on Sunday mornings for seven weeks. If you’ve been able to join us, you may have noticed at least one prominent theme that keeps surfacing again and again in the text: the announcement of the Good News about Jesus. It goes by many names and comes in many forms. Evangelism. Preaching the gospel. Sharing our faith. Making Christ known. Proclaiming God’s Word. Whatever phrase we use, the idea is the same. God has a message of hope for humanity—hope through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—and it’s the duty and the joy of Christian people to make sure that message reaches the whole world. Where have we… Read More June 2023: The Acts of the Holy Spirit - If you’ve joined us in worship over the last few weeks, you know that we’ve been walking through the book of Acts as we pray for God’s guidance and empowerment. The full Greek name of the book of Acts is best translated “The Acts of the Apostles.” Preachers smarter than me have sometimes called the book by a different name: “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” I like that informal renaming because it so beautifully describes the heart of the book of Acts. Now, of course, most immediately it is the Apostles—the “sent ones” of God—whose actions are described in the book. However, you will find as you read though the many narratives and discourses of the book that it is the Holy Spirit, the… Read More May 2023: Practical Faith Lessons From Leviticus - 3 Practical Faith Lessons from Leviticus If you’ve been joining us in worship recently, you know that we’ve been digging into Leviticus—perhaps the least loved, least read, least understood book of the Bible—to see what this ancient biblical law book has to say to us today. For this month’s edition of The Voice, I want to share just a few of the priceless lessons we find waiting for us in the pages of Leviticus. Here are three practical faith lessons for today from this much neglected portion of God’s most holy word: 1.) Our lives should look different from the rest of the world. God told the people of Israel, “You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated… Read More April 2023: The Fullness of God’s Love - Sisters and brothers of FUMC Decatur, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! As I write this from the pastor’s office, I find that I’m filled with gratitude for your faithfulness to Christ through this church. The more I learn about the history of Decatur and the vital role the people called Methodists have played here for more than a century and a half, the more sincerely I thank God for bringing me here and allowing me to serve as minister among you. It’s a special honor to arrive here so close to Holy Week and Easter. The events of that first Holy Week and Easter were the ultimate revelation of God’s love for human beings. Nothing shows… Read More March 2023: Meet Dr. Nick McRae - We are excited to introduce you to the new pastor of FUMC Decatur, Rev. Dr. Nick McRae! We look forward to this new chapter in the life of First United Methodist Church of Decatur and can't wait to see how the Lord works through Nick in our church. Welcome Rev. McRae and family! Rev. Dr. Nick McRae grew up on a farm outside of LaFayette, Georgia, and was raised by a family with deep roots in the evangelical Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. Intending to be an English professor, he earned a B.A. at the University of West Georgia, an M.F.A. at Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in English at the University of North Texas, where he taught English composition and creative writing courses. Nick discerned a… Read More
November 2022: Give Time to Jesus - Greetings folks. It’s hard to believe that we are getting to the end of the year. The busy time. Halloween is upon us. Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Then Advent. Then Christmas. The song says “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” But there are many among us who don’t look forward to this season. Maybe they have lost a loved one, or struggling financially, or hasn’t had a good experience with that in the past. Our Advent studies show that we celebrate the peace, joy, hope, and love of the Jesus story. We are drawn into the little town of Bethlehem, amidst the animals and the dirt. Past the crowd and into the space where Mary and Joseph bed down… Read More