Talbot Davis, Author at Talbot Davis

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The Best Ministry That Happened On Sunday

Talbot Davis April 29, 2015 at 3:03 am 0

I had a lot to be grateful for this past Sunday: a raucous choir, a Bruce Springsteen special selection, a message I enjoyed delivering, good crowds, and an overwhelming response to the Radical Impact Project with our partners the Scouts and our friends at Loaves and Fishes. But none of those ultimately represent the best ministry that took place on our campus on Sunday. Instead, that label goes to something that I had nothing to do with. I heard -- third hand? -- that a guest attending one of the services turned to someone near him and said, "I think I'm an alcoholic." The person on the receiving end of that confession then took upon himself the delicate task of locating someone in the church he knows is in recovery from alcoholism, telling that person about the situation, and linking the two people (confessing guy and recovery guy) up to meet. And the Good Shepherd friend did all of that. On a Sunday morning. To help someone he had just met. By knowing the story of someone else in our church. I only found out about it as I was headed to my car. A staffer told me: "Oh, two guys are in the Prayer Room talking and praying about alcoholism right now." And then the staffer told me the story. And even more than 1,000+ grocery bags to feed the hungry, that was the best ministry on Sunday morning. And I had nothing to do with it.

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Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Things To Know About Our Radical Impact Project With Loaves & Fishes And The Scouts

Talbot Davis April 28, 2015 at 3:52 am 0

As my Monday post indicated, we are in the middle of a Solutionists Radical Impact Project. In a word, we're becoming Solutionists for local hunger. On Sunday we distributed well over 1,000 empty grocery bags. Each bag was stapled with these instructions:

We gave people instructions to bring the bags back full of groceries this coming Sunday. Take an empty bag; return with a full one. Move on what you are moved by. Here are five things you need to know about the Project: 1. Help! I wasn't in church on Sunday, April 26! Can I still take part? No. You should have been at church. Just kidding! Yes! We have a number of empty bags in our office that you can pick up anytime this week. Or, you can simply print out the instructions above and bring back a full bag on Sunday. 2. Help Again! I will be out of town this coming Sunday, May 3! Can I still take part? I'm not going to tease this time. Yes, you can. Please bring a full back to the church during office hours (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and we will put them in a staging area. Either that, or just cancel your trip/ballgame/sleepover and come to church on Sunday, bags in hand. 3. I only took one empty bag home. How many can I bring back? As many as you want. 4. Where do I bring the food on Sunday morning? We will have a Loaves & Fishes truck in the Moss Road parking lot of Good Shepherd. Our partners the scouts will be on location to receive your grocery bags and begin the sorting process. 5. Where will the food ultimately go? To the one in four North Carolina schoolchildren who are food insecure. The food will be distributed by the Loaves And Fishes Ministry. To find out more about them, check: www.loavesandfishes.org.

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Food Network Solutionists — A Sermon & A Radical Impact Project

Talbot Davis April 27, 2015 at 3:24 am 0

Yesterday's sermon was really an interview sandwich. Huh? Yeah, the message had an opening, followed by an interview with Sue Bruce of Loaves and Fishes, followed by a concluding challenge. Here it is. Food Network Solutionists with this bottom line: Move on what you are moved by. The message led to another one of our Radical Impact Projects -- this time, our congregation left church with empty grocery bags that they will return next Sunday filled for distribution by Loaves & Fishes. ----------------------------------------------------------- Well, it’s interesting to think of those things that MOVE us, isn’t it? Those situations or presentations that stir up emotions, that make us either supernaturally buoyant or righteously indignant. Some things move us to tears. Like there’s no reason this should, since I didn’t even go to college there, but it does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AppygYRZs2A Or the the I Have A Dream speech on the MLK weekend, the Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! from President Reagan, the "Never give up" from Jim Valvano just weeks before he died. All of those and I get a lump in my throat, a verklepmf in my spirit. I am moved. Emotions stirred, passions risen, adrenaline flowing. And then other things, don’t they, move you towards a righteous indignation. When your team gets cheated. When you see a documentary about human trafficking. When you see the next atrocity by ISIS. When you see a child abandoned or a pet abused. And in those situations, your emotions get stirred and passions rise and adrenaline flows, but in an altogether different direction. And yet in all those scenarios, the question becomes: what do Solutionists do when MOVED BY something? Especially when that which moves them calls out for some kind of intervention, some type of restitution? Which brings us back to Nehemiah, the original Solutionist. By way of reminder and/or introduction: the section of the library is memoir, the year is 445 BC, and the first problem needing his solution is rebuilding the wall of a city in ruins. Yet in the middle of the flurry of that activity, a secondary problem crops up. (Isn’t that the way it always works? You work hard to fix one thing and in that process something completely different breaks?) Take a look at Nehemiah 5:1-2: Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. ²Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.” Doh! What’s going on? Well, a lot of people in the area have taken time away from their family farms to help Mr. Nehemiah (!) rebuild his precious wall! They took FMLA but there was no social safety net! So with no one to work the farms, the families in question were left without any food. On top of that, look at 5:3: Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.” So a famine had hit even IF all the families were working. Which they weren’t. And then, worst of all, look again at 5:1, 5:5, & 5:7: Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. ⁵Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.” ⁷I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” “Own people.” The Jews – a beleaguered minority just trying to get back on its feet – were cheating each other! There was a duel between the haves and the have-nots and, predictably, the haves were winning. Only in this case their victory came through charging usurious interest rates. The have took advantage of their oh-so-vulnerable brethren by offering sub-prime mortgages cluttered up by confusing loan documents, and the result was a mass of foreclosures. The irony, in 445 BC, was that this was exactly the kind of mistreatment of the poor that led to the Babylonian exile 150 years earlier . . . which was when the wall got torn down in the first place. So even though the exile is over and they’ve been brought home, they are repeating the same sinful oppression that got them punished in the first place. Oy vey! All in all, what a mess: Nehemiah wants to build a wall & now he discovers that he has got to quiet a rebellion. Which is why 5:6 means everything to me: ⁶When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. When I heard . . . I was very angry. You know what that means? He WAS MOVED by it! He heard the cries, assessed the situation, and he felt the mess of the people. His emotions were touched, his adrenaline began to pump. Like you when you see something about human trafficking, like you at the film where the starving children have distended bellies, like you when a pet’s abused, he was moved. Which is why we’ve got to see what he does next, right? What should he do? What would we do? Establish a study committee! How Methodist would that be?! Set up a consciousness raising tour! Build a web site! Start a think tank! Even: begin a prayer vigil. Nope. None of that. Instead, look at what Nehemiah does in 5:7: ⁷I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them I pondered AND THEN I did. His next step required only the briefest of reflections. He didn’t need to study, to analyze, or, dare I say it, even to pray. He uses his unique powers of persuasion to rally people and then to get them to DO. Look at 5:11-12: ¹¹Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.” ¹²“We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.” So: we’re going to stop usury, we’re going to start feeding, we’re going to make the changes we need to be making to fix the situation. And what I love most is the short distance from emotion to action, from feeling to doing, from indignation to correction, from diagnosis to delivery. Here’s the deal: Nehemiah WAS MOVED by the plight of the hungry, vulnerable Jews. But he didn’t stop with what he felt. He moved on what he was moved by. And that’s the idea today for all us would-be solutionists in the house: Move on what you are moved by. See: Nehemiah didn’t raise awareness. He raised an army. He didn’t wring his hands. He opened them. He didn’t feel sympathy. He embodied helpfulness. There was such a short synapse between what he felt and what he did, and that brevity summarizes his whole genius. And here’s why I like this story about food in the middle of a memoir about a wall: because even though we are beginning an expansion here (and it will involve walls!), we have an issue in our fair city that doesn’t deserve our sympathy; it mandates our generosity.

And here is where I interviewed Sue Bruce, who let us know that:

Loaves & Fishes served 78,000 Charlotteans last year, enough to fill Bank Of America Stadium, and 48% of those were children;
The average monthly income of their clients is $1,027.
One in four North Carolina children are "food insecure." That puts our state in the bottom 10% in the nation.

And listen: in the wake of all that, your sympathy never feed a single person. Your emotion never filled a plate. Your adrenaline never poured a glass. Your generosity does. You judge yourself by your intentions; hungry people tend to evaluate you based on your actions. So this week, I don’t want to raise awareness here. I want to raise an army. I don’t want you to wring your hands; I want you to open them. In Charlotte, NC, we are no so much dealing with distended bellies as we are with disrupted hopes and diminished brains. That’s what hunger-as-a-way-of-life does: robs you of your hope by inflicting injury on the brain. So it’s not like people are dying on the streets here; but we have an opportunity to make an enormous difference in their future. Not with our sympathy. With our generosity. Move on what you are moved by. Because get this – you are related to a lot hungry Charlotteans by blood. You don’t necessarily share Jewish heritage like Nehemiah’s Jerusalem haves and have-nots. No, but a lot of the folks we’re talking about in this city – especially the children – are victims of forces beyond their control. And they are Xns. That’s how you are related to them by blood. It’s not a matter of nationality or neighborhood but the Nazarene. Just like Nehemiah rails against the leaders, asking “how can we treat our own people like this?” that’s what we’re faced with today. Christians who HAVE food have an opportunity to share it with those who DON’T. Because we don’t want to be like that Methodist of an earlier generation who was known for starving the people who worked for him while stuffing the visiting preachers who came to his estate. Nope, there’s too much at stake for that. More at stake than just hollow stomachs. There’s the reputation of the Lord. Which Nehemiah also alludes to in 5:9: ⁹So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? See, Nehemiah knew that not only was the reputation of his people at risk, but the name of his God was as well. When the people of God are hungry and marginalized, then the name of God is as well. And the flip side is that when God’s people shorten the distance between diagnosis and delivery, when they stop wringing their hands and start opening them, then the fame of God grows. We don’t engage simply for the church’s reputation or even for our own but so that God’s name will be known through our actions. Move on what you are moved by. And because this is so elemental and so vital, we are making it simple for you. Not easy on you. Simple for you. Here’s what we’re going to do this week. We’re going to become solutionists for the scourge of local hunger. Working with our friends at Loaves and Fishes and our partners the scouts, we’re going to hand out these empty grocery bags with these instructions on them. That’s today. What you do is after taking an empty bag today you return it next Sunday filled. The sheet will tell you what kind of food products to include. It’s not easy. It is simple. It doesn’t take a lot of reflection. It is saturated in action. I’m not asking you to feel a bunch of sympathy for hungry children. I’m asking you to put feet on the sympathy you already have. I’m asking you to move on what you’ve been moved by. Just like Nehemiah. Take it home empty. Bring it back full. Not complicated. But not easy, either. Move on what you are moved by. Because the bottom line in 2015 is the same as Nehemiah 5. We can be solutionists. It’s interesting. In the aftermath of WW2, the Allies had to establish orphanages throughout Europe. And here’s what’s fascinating: at most of those camps, the children were well-fed. But they could not sleep well at night. They’d been through so much trauma and uncertainty, that they were restless and afraid. And so an Allied psychologist came up with an ingenious idea: give each child a slice of bread at night – not to eat, but to hold. (Now: if they were hungry and ate it, another would be provided.) And the results were pretty astounding. The children began to rest peacefully. The sensation of holding the bread gave them a sense of security and hope. Let’s give that same security and that same hope and that same bread to the children of our city. Move on what you are moved by.

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The Return Of First Serve — May 2, 2015

Talbot Davis April 23, 2015 at 3:41 am 0

First Serve is back! What is it? It’s one of the best ways we have of inviting all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. On Saturday, May 2 (the first Saturday of May! Get it?) at 9 a.m., we gather together at Good Shepherd on Moss Road to select from a variety of serving sites throughout the Charlotte community. You can serve lunch at the Rescue Mission, help with resume prep at Dove’s Nest, mentor children at the Children’s Attention Home, and much, much more. Most serving options will conclude by 12 p.m. Serving Opportunities Include: Charlotte Rescue Mission Rebound Ambassador, Luann Foster This is a good fit for all ages. Approximately 20 volunteers needed. We will prepare and serve lunch for 150 men enrolled in the Charlotte Rescue Mission recovery program. The centerpiece of this ministry is the time of visiting that comes after lunch is served. This is the time when the volunteers from Good Shepherd pick up a lunch plate, sit down at a table, and join the conversation. Please bring a dessert to share. ________________________________________ Samaritan's Feet Warehouse This is a good fit for ages 13 and up. Approximately 25 volunteers needed. Samaritan's Feet is a non-profit organization dedicated to changing lives through Shoes of Hope distributions around the world. 300 million people wake up each morning without a pair of shoes to protect their feet from injury and disease. We will help sort and stuff shoeboxes by size at the Samaritan's Feet warehouse. ________________________________________ Nursing Home Ministry This is a good fit for all ages. Approximately 20 people needed, including children. Do you have a heart for seniors? Please consider serving at the Nursing Home. We start by arranging and delivering fresh flowers to each of the residents. Then, Bingo starts at 10:30! Bingo helpers are needed at each table to repeat the last number called, help residents read their cards, and to shout "Bingo!" New volunteers can buddy-up with experienced volunteers for an introduction to the facility and our ministry. ________________________________________ Children’s Attention Home This is a good fit for middle schoolers and above. Approximately 15 volunteers needed. The Children's Attention Home is a non-profit, 24-hour, emergency shelter and long term facility for children who have been removed from their homes for abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment. We will plant flowers and make bird feeders with children ages 5-10. ________________________________________ Stop Hunger Now This is a good fit for ages 6 and up. Approximately 60 volunteers needed. Stop Hunger Now is driven by the vision of a world without hunger. Our mission is to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. We will prepare 15,000 meals. ______________________________________ Twin Lakes This is a good fit for ages 10 and above. Approximately 25 volunteers needed. Twin Lakes is a mobile home community located a few miles past the SC line in Ft. Mill. We host a weekly afterschool program at a trailer we have rented inside Twin Lakes. We are hosting a Cleanup day where we are encouraging residents of Twin Lakes throw away any unwanted items. We have rented two large dumpsters. Teams will help residents put unwanted items in dumpster and interact with community. _____________________________________ Open Arms - Option A This is a good fit for ages 18 and up. Approximately 6-10 volunteers needed. We will be moving and helping a family get settled into their new home! We will need 2-3 strong volunteers to help with moving the furniture while volunteers work on stocking the kitchen and getting the bedrooms ready for the new family. Open Arms - Option B - Resume and Interview Building at Dove's Nest This is a good fit for 25 and up. Approximately 6 volunteers needed. Come out and experience a fulfilling day as we work with residents at Dove's Nest to build job resumes and practice interview skills. The resumes are the residents next step toward employment and independence. Dove's Nest does require a background check in order to work with residents. Good Shepherd will reimburse you for the cost of the background check. Please contact Ron Dozier rondozier@gsumc.org. For more information about the Dove's Nest resume building ministry, please contact Ambassador Jeanneane Smith at 704 321-0722 To pre-register for any of the First Serve sites, go to www.gsumc.org/firstserve

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Top 5 Tuesday — Top Five Reflections About Being A Vice-President’s Husband

Talbot Davis April 21, 2015 at 3:02 am 0

People often ask Julie what it is like being a preacher's wife. But for five days last week, the tables were turned & the roles were reversed, and I filled the role of Vice-President's husband. Julie is a VP of Sales for BSN Medical, a German-based company specializing in bandages, casts, and splints. Last week about 50 employees and their guests traveled to a seaside resort for five days of what they call a "sales incentive" trip. So here are some takeaways from my time in the shadows, supporting the one in the spotlight: 1. People skills still matter more than anything else. Those selected for the trip all have persuasive skills when it comes to selling and leadership skills when it comes to managing. Regardless of how high tech our culture becomes, people skills will still be the most important of them all. 2. Terminology matters. So what we were supposed to call all those folks who, like me, came with the BSN overachievers? Not all were married partners, so spouses was out. Not all were even romantically connected, so significant other wouldn't work. Company leadership settled on favorite people. And told us repeatedly that if it wasn't for us "favorite people," the BSN employees couldn't have the success they do. I'll take it. 3. How did I ever travel away from church before email? I know I took vacations and trips back in the 1990s when I pastored in Monroe but before there was email. How did I do it and how did the world continue to rotate on its axis? Just fine, apparently. Which I would do well to remember during my times of email anxiety away from the office. 4. I am thankful when NOT called upon to pray. A couple of times, just as a large meal was beginning, I prepared for the worst: "And now, we'd like to ask Rev. Talbot Davis, Julie's husband, to ask a blessing over our meal." Those awkward moments are among my least favorite in ministry. Fortunately, BSN leadership was sensitive enough both to me and to those who may not pray at all not to ask me to fill that role. 5. Any time the schedule or activities didn't suit me exactly right, I remembered: oh yeah, this is a free trip to a seaside resort, all made possible because I married well. That put an end to complaining before it ever began.

Talbot Davis

Talbot Davis

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