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The Bonhoeffer Project Reading: Visualizing Spiritual Practices – Life in the River

Imagine a river, wild and rushing. Its roar prevents you from hearing much of anything and its currents create huge sprays of water pouring over you. This river represents modern life, hurried and loud. The easiest thing in the world is to be swept along with its current, just trying to survive, and then to arrive at river’s end asking, “Where did the time go? How did it go so fast?”

Indeed, imagine that you are being swept down the river, but in front of you the current’s flow is interrupted by a huge boulder. Water rushes on either side of the great rock, but a dry space, untouched by the water’s stream, has been created behind it. At first you are frightened by the boulder and by what might happen if you run into it, so you swim to the side, trying to avoid it. But then you realize that the boulder might offer you something that the river never can, since the river never lets you rest. So you start swimming toward it. With some serious effort, you are able to exit the wild rush of water and stand in the dry area. You are no longer knocked about. You can breathe easily. Miraculously, as you step into the space, the roar of the river somehow recedes. You can hear your own thoughts connecting with the quiet in a new way.

When you enter back into the river, things are different. The current doesn’t seem as strong. Maybe you’ve just become a better swimmer? The roar of the river still seems quieter, too. And your heart is encouraged when you see another boulder in front of you. You repeat the process, finding that when you engage the waters again, the current seems weaker still. Now rather than being afraid of the boulders or wanting to avoid them, you are, with gladness, on the lookout for the next one.

In this little parable, the boulder represents a spiritual practice. A practice creates a space that we can enter for the transformation of our soul; it’s a space in which we encounter Jesus and are empowered to live in a new way. Through the space created by spiritual practices, we are literally able to receive grace and power from on high so that we can be in the water in a new way.

Silver Saints Forward and Together !

If you haven’t hear about Silver Saints, it is the senior ministry of our church.  Most of us may have silver hair (some covered with dye!) but that doesn’t mean we are sitting around in our rocking chairs.

This group meets quarterly with a themed meeting, a meal, games, devotions and lots of good fellowship. 

We also do service projects in the community.  The last one we completed was reading to the children at Bridges.  Currently, because of social distancing, we have been unable to meet in person, but we are staying in touch through email.  If you’d like to get on the email list for updates, let Susan Ivins know at  [email protected]. 

Right now, our service project is supporting the Operation Shoebox ministry.  We have volunteer runners who are ready to pick up your items at the store or your home and bring them to the church.  We are anxiously waiting for our next in person meeting and will be sure to let you know about it. We hope that you can join us at that time.  We don’t care what your age is, but certainly we’ll be happy to see you!

Wesley’s Nurture Ministry

The mission of Wesley’s Nurture Ministry is to show God’s love by providing communion, visitations, cards and prayers for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are experiencing trials and difficult times.  As difficult times are in abundance these days, there is plenty to be done. The Shepherding Team has put our mission into action on a large scale as they have faithfully reached out to Wesley members during this time of isolation. They have been able to make important connections with many who are homebound or shut-in at nursing or rehabilitation facilities. It is my prayer that we continue to strengthen and serve these connections.

We hope that providing communion or communion supplies to members who are not able to come to church is a service ministry that will continue to grow. With the new self-service communion “kits” we have stocked, the elements representing His body and blood are available to be delivered during the week prior to Communion Sunday (the first Sunday of the month). Members are then able to take communion with the congregation as they watch the service online. Communion servers are also returning to action, taking the elements into homes where desired in order to serve the sacraments to members in person.

If the Holy Spirit is leading you to help with this ministry, please let me know! If you or someone you know would like to have communion served or the elements delivered, please be sure I have that information.

I can be reached at 813-499-7167 or [email protected].
Carol Dittmar

Steps that You Need to Follow to Watch the Livestream Sunday Worship Service

Before all, thank you for showing us your interest of watching the Wesley Memorial UMC Livestream Service thru Facebook at this time. For those individuals who are interested in joining us on Facebook and would like to know how to navigate to the Livestream Service, please follow the steps below.

1. If you have already created a Facebook page, go to Step 6.
2. If you haven’t created a Facebook page, you must first ‘Create a New Account’ with Facebook at ‘facebook.com’.
3. Fill in the required information and then click on the green button ‘Sign Up’.
4. Your Facebook page has been created.
5. If needed, refresh Facebook.com and then use your login information to access your Facebook page.

6. From your Facebook home page, type  wesleymemorialtampa/ in the ‘Search’ field and press enter. The Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church page should display on your screen.
7. Verify that the photo is the same as the one that appears above.
8. Once you’re there, click ‘like’ and ‘following’ the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church.  
9. After you do this, the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church will be added as one of ‘Your Groups’.  
10. Going forward, from your Facebook page, all you have to do is click on the ‘Your Groups’ icon and select Wesley Memorial Methodist Church. 
11. Then, to watch the scheduled livestream presentation, you only have to be present when the livestream begins at the scheduled time.
12. IF you want to watch the recorded presentation, look for the ‘Videos’ button and click on it.
13. From the Videos page, you search for the Livestream Worship Service that you choose to watch.