I hope you already know about our 64th annual Men’s Easter Breakfast and are planning to attend. But just in case you haven’t yet decided, please let me formally invite and encourage you to join us this Saturday, at 8am, in the Family Life Center for a wonderful Southside tradition.
This is such a meaningful event for me. For almost 13 years I have enjoyed a great morning of food and fellowship with my father and my sons, as well as the other men of our church and community. Each year I see many generations of men gathering for this grand tradition. What a great legacy the men of our church left to us 64 years ago.
Please plan on coming and bring your son(s), father, grandfather, uncle, nephew, co-worker, neighbor, best friends, and anyone else who would enjoy this special time. In addition to the food and fellowship, we will also enjoy some singing (manly songs) as well as a great message by Rev. Mike Hudson of Ortega United Methodist Church.
So, to recap:
This Saturday (March 30th)
Southside UMC’s Family Life Center
8:00 – 10:00am
Please plan on coming as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Come join us for a brief excursion into fatherhood. Together we’ll take a look at a few of the key ideas and practices that can help every dad love and lead his children well.
We will meet right after our Wonderful Wednesday Fellowship Dinner (6pm – 7pm). Bring your family for dinner and stay for the study.
This is for any and all fathers, soon-to-be fathers, guys thinking-about-becoming fathers, and grandfathers. This study will last for six weeks (April 3rd – May 8th).
If you have any questions about this study, please contact me at 396-2676 or DaleTedder@yahoo.com.
Where do you look for direction, security, peace, purpose, confidence, and eternal life? With all of the competing voices in our culture, there’s a lot of confusion for men today. The world in which we live offers many options for where men might find such things. The Bible offers one: Jesus Christ.
Beginning the first week in April, our men’s discipleship ministry will start a new study entitled, I Am: Discovering Who Jesus Is. This 8-Lesson study will look at our basic needs from the perspective of the great “I AM” statements of Jesus, found in the Gospel of John.
Please come and join us for this new study. Not only will you get to know Jesus better, you will also have the opportunity to get to know other men who are on the same journey as you.
Starting Dates
Monday, April 1st (7:00 – 8:30pm, Family Life Center)
Wednesday, April 3rd (6:30 – 7:30am, Family Life Center)
If you have any questions about this new study or our men’s ministry, please don’t hesitate to call me at 396-2676 or email me at DaleTedder@yahoo.com.
Beginning this January, as part of our Wonderful Wednesday programming, my wife, Suzanne, and I will be leading a new study based on the book, Love & Respect, by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs.
Two subtitles of the book shed a little light on the title. One is, “The Love She Most Desires.” The other is, “The Respect He Desperately Needs.” The touchstone text for this book is found in Ephesians 5. There the Apostle Paul writes…
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:25-33)
Suzanne and I are still hammering out some of the details of how we’re going to teach this class. However, what we can say right now is that after the first session (where everyone will be together), we’re going to break the class into the two groups – husbands and wives. Knowing that not all couples will be able to attend this class together due to volunteer issues, work issues, etc., we wanted to make sure that those obstacles wouldn’t hinder a husband or wife from still attending on their own.
I feel compelled to add that nothing I do as a pastor makes me feel as hypocritical as leading a class on marriage. I’m working hard in this area, but I want everyone to know that this is very much a “do as I say, and not as I do” sort of thing. For this study I promise to do my best… to study hard, teach the book, lead the discussion, and try to add value in as many ways as possible. But in no wayshould I be looked at as an expert who has got it all figured out and who is executing the plan with perfect precision!!! Now, Suzanne on the other hand, is a well-oiled marriage-machine who is really going to bless the women.
So, as it stands right now, we’re going to start this study with an Introduction on Wednesday evening, January 9th, right after our fellowship dinner (which I hope you can also attend). We will meet that evening in the Family Life Center here at Southside.
Also, please let me know if you’re planning on being a part of this class so that we can prepare as well as possible.
Suzanne and I are very excited about leading this new study. Pray for us over the next few weeks as we prepare and iron out the remaining details. I think it’s going to be a great time of growing more and more as the husbands and wives that God has called us to be.
What does it mean to be a man? How would you define it?
When does a boy become a man?
When he turns 18? When he starts driving? Graduates from school? Gets married? What answer would you give a boy to that question?
I’m very excited to announce that beginning this January, we’re going to try to answer that question, as well as other questions related to it. Using the new curriculum, Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood, the men of our church and our community are going to discover what it means to become the man that God has called us to be. Here’s a clip…
In the twelve years of this ministry to men, I don’t think that I’ve ever been this excited over a new study. I believe that there is a great need for a rediscovery and renewal of godly manhood in our culture today. I pray that God will use this study to make a powerful impact in the lives of the men who gather each week to participate… and therefore, also impact their families, workplaces, communities, etc.
Requirement to be a part of this study…
You are notrequired to be an expert on the Bible or Systematic Theology.
What you will needis the desire to become the man that God has called you to be… at home, at work, at church, in your community… and even alone. None of us has yet become that man, but that desire is a step up and a step in the right direction!
Here’s a little more about the study…
Many men find it difficult to identify acts of courage while slogging through the daily challenges of home, work, and community. Yet these are the very battlefields where courage is demanded of them every single day.
In this 10-session video series, Dennis Rainey calls men to boldly forge into courageous manhood. Stepping Up defines courage throughout the five stages of manhood and commissions men to honestly evaluate where they stand in their duties of masculinity. Rainey then prepares men to bravely master their life purpose by developing a strategic plan and establishing a winning vision.
You can master true leadership, develop a plan for your life and make a difference in your world.
(from the back of the study guide to Stepping Up.)
Our new study begins on Monday evening, January 7th (at 7pm in our Family Life Center)… or on Wednesday morning, January 9th, (at 6:30am, also in our FLC).
You do not have to be a member of our church (Southside United Methodist Church) to come and join us. This study is open to all of the men in our community. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me at 396-2676 or email me at D.Tedder@southsidemethodist.org.
Let’s pray that God will use this new study to help us STEP UP and STAND FIRM.
Join me in 2013 for a year’s journey of drawing closer to God, as well as learning more about our Christian faith, through the life and writings of C.S. Lewis, one of the most popular and influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century.
My goals for this focus are, first of all, to help acquaint you with the person and works of and about C.S. Lewis. Secondly, I pray that your view of God and the Christian life will grow richer and larger and livelier. Thirdly, my deepest hope is that you will take what you learn and put it into practice as well as share it with others.
There are two ways to spend this year with C.S. Lewis.
You can think of this as, “Pastor Dale’s Book Club,” and simply read each month’s assigned book on your own. This will be an independent study of sorts. No checking-in required. Think of the assigned booklist as a helpful suggestion to aid your reading of C.S. Lewis.
OR…
2. You can think of this as a low-key directed study. By that I mean, if you so desire, you are more than welcome to set up times to meet with me to discuss each month’s book, what you’ve learned, questions you may have, etc. The last thing I want to do is add stress to your life, therefore, you are free to meet with me every other week, every other month, or not at all (or any other schedule that you can think of). The choice (and schedule) is up to you!
We begin our literary journey on January 1, 2013. You can check out the reading list below to see what interests you. Read a few of them… or read them all. Whatever you decide to do, I know you’ll be blessed by reading the books of and about this great man. More importantly, you’ll be even more blessed as you grow closer to the God of this great man.
Grace and Truth,
Dale
Reading List
January – The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs (Biography)
February – Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C.S. Lewis
March – A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
March – Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
April – The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
May – The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
June – Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C.S. Lewis by Lyle Dorsett
July – Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer by C.S. Lewis
August – The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
September – Between Heaven & Hell: A Dialogue Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley by Peter Kreeft
October – Not A Tame Lion by Bruce L. Edwards
November – The Soul of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by Gene Veith
December – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The books can be purchased online at Christianbook.com or Amazon.
Locally, I’m certain that Barnes and Noble or Lifeway Christian Store can order the books for you if they do not have them in stock.
Beginning this Fall, our Sunday Evening Bible Studywill be studying the Gospel of John. This book of the Bible is much loved throughout the Church and has been such a blessing to so many over the centuries. Here’s how the Life Application BibleCommentary describes John’s Gospel…
He spoke, and galaxies whirled into place, stars burned the heavens, and planets began orbiting their suns – words of awesome, unlimited, unleashing power.
He spoke again, and the waters and lands were filled with plants and creatures, running, swimming, growing, and multiplying – words of animating, breathing, pulsing life.
Again, he spoke, and man and woman were formed, thinking, speaking, and loving – words of personal and creative glory.
Eternal, infinite, unlimted – he was, is, and always will be the Maker and Lord of all that exists.
And then he came in the flesh to a tiny spot in the universe called planet Earth – the mighty Creator becoming part of his creation, limited by time and space and susceptible to age, sickness, and death. Propelled by love, he came to rescue and save, offering forgiveness and life.
He is the Word: he is Jesus Christ.
It is this truth that the apostle John presents in this book. John’s Gospel is not a life of Christ; it is a powerful argument for the incarnation, a conclusive demonstration that Jesus was, and is, the very heaven-sent Son of God and the only source of eternal life.”
I can’t wait to dig into such a mind-renewing and life-transforming book to learn about our Lord and what it means to have life in his name.
We will meet at 6pm and have dinner together. Then, at 6:30, we will begin our study, concluding at 7:30pm. As part of this study, we will also watch clips from the movie, The Gospel of John. Here’s a clip…
Our new study will begin on Sunday, September 9th, at 6pm in the Family Life Center. We would love for you to join us.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Brothers,
