| Peace Church Celebrates the Installation of Rev. Stan Martin! | The Rev. Stan Martin was installed as the pastor of Peace Presbyterian Church on Sunday, February 26th, 2006.
Rev. Stan Martin was born and raised in the St. Louis, MO, area where his father was pastor (PCUSA) and his mother was... super-mom. He has most currently been solo pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Jerseyville, IL. He and his wife, Janet, have been married ten years and he is step-father to “three wonderful adult girls”, three lively grandchildren and another on the way.
Early lines of work included radio-broadcasting, restaurant management, and public relations. He is a graduate of Lindenwood College (University) in St Charles, MO (B.S. in Communication/Journalism.) Following his calling to his life-adventure of ordained ministry, he graduated from Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, MO with a Master of Divinity degree and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church USA as pastor of two churches in Southeast Missouri. From there he was called to St Luke Presbyterian in Wichita, KS.
Rev. Martin has had many transforming experiences in life and in his years of ordained ministry. He has worked closely with local Jewish leaders and has had a renewed call to be part of bridge-building for the new millennium. He is eager to be involved in leading a Community of Faith to “do what they aren’t quite sure how to do” – to share the joy of community, the hope in diversity and the love of God’s inclusive church. As a disciple with a traditional theology, a progressive social understanding, and a wide-net view of evangelism, Rev. Martin greets Peace Church.
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| Stan's Sharings - Are You Ready for New? - By Rev.Stan Martin | “Worry is an abuse of God’s gift of imagination”
- Corrine Lajeunesse
For being an old collection of books, the Bible sure talks a lot about “new”:
- “O sing to the Lord a new song” (Ps. 96:1)
- “I create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17)
- “I will make a new covenant...” (Jer. 31:31)
- “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins...” (Mt. 9:17)
- “A new commandment I give to you...” (Jn. 13:34)
- “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17)
- “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1)
There is something about anything “new” that can either excite us or worry us.
I remember when they changed the formula of Excedrin. Understand that I have a partiality for Excedrin. Namely because… it worked! Well into the 1970’s and early ‘80’s, everything was going fine: same old formula - same old pain relief. And then it happened – an advertisement announced that there was a NEW Excedrin with a NEW formula! It would have the same name but be a new product. My reaction: Worry. My thoughts: “What have they done?! Would it continue to work? How could I go on in moments of a severe headache pain extravaganza? Would I have to find something different?”
This “new” thing did not excite me at all. It worried me - a lot!
Eventually the time came when all that was left to do was to try the new Excedrin. For whatever reason, I was still open to the possibility that it might work. With the onset of the familiar pain in my head, I swallowed two tablets and waited…. It worked. My headache vanished. My reaction: Gratitude. My thoughts: “Okay… this time new was acceptable.”
I am discovering that the older I get, the more I am threatened with the worry about the “new”. I even get a pang of anxiety when someone says that God is doing something new. But, as a reasonable student of the Bible, it is impossible for me to miss the continued references to God doing new things. And as I study and read about these new things of God, I discover that there is a real difference between God’s new things and my new things. My new things are more like re-hashed old things: repackaged, re-vamped, re-done, re-charged, but not truly new.
On the other hand, when God does something new it is truly new. A new heaven and a new earth, is not a re-working of the old - it is very different in every respect.
I wonder how prepared we are to receive God’s newness in our lives. Do we simply expect God to re-work our old ways, our old personality, our old programs, our old church, our old desires and mold those old things into something that will work for a new time. And in all of our expectations we miss the new that God is doing.
Jesus pointed to the radical nature of God’s newness when he said what happens when “new wine” is put into “old wineskins.” The old wineskins break and the new wine is lost. (Mt 9:14ff)
It may be true that God is not trying to re-work, re-vamp, re-frame, re-do, re-program the Christian Church, the Presbyterian Church, Peace Church, or our lives. God may very well be pointing to something totally and completely NEW.
We can let it worry us, or excite us. This may very well determine the journey.
Let’s take the month of April to listen to the newness of God. Take a break and allow God to bring a total God-like newness to the workings of your life.
In One Peace,
Stan
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