On the Sabbath, we remember that we receive, as well as work and give. We take time to remember and spend time with the God who created us, and who creates all things, including the food we eat and the air we breathe and the time we inhabit. Even though what we do matters, the world’s running does not depend on us.

What do we see in the world around us? What do we notice? This week’s scripture has me pondering this question.

This week we’re gearing up for the Meet the Pastor event on Sunday—we’ll worship together and then have refreshments after. I’m really looking forward to it, to meeting some people who haven’t been able to make it back yet.

In my reading and preparation for this week I came across this definition of community: community is people who know you and whose stories you know. That’s the kind of community we already have at McKnight, and it’s one of the blessings of a small-to-medium church: it really is possible to know your entire church community.

I started a new Parables class at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary this week. Theoretically I’m done with seminary—I do have my M.Div.—but I miss that particular challenge. Plus it was a chance to take another class with a favorite professor, even if I’m auditing this one in order to make sure that it only adds to and doesn’t take time from my primary focus on McKnight, where we’re starting to see some new things come together!

My office is in good order, and we’ve been quietly working on making the upstairs even more welcoming to families, because I heard your interest in including new families in our outreach efforts. 

I’ve been seeing the preschool teachers’ cars in the parking lot as I come to church each morning—I am so looking forward to hearing the children on the playground outside my office window! In our button-pushing modern world, very young children remind us that there is much to learn and much living to do outside of our (definitely handy and sometimes even fun) electronic devices: the sheer exuberance of movement, the uninhibited freedom to call out loud, and the immediacy of the small things worth noticing, like the ladybug or the strange caterpillar.

These, too, are blessings, offered to us quietly. 

As I prepare for worship this Sunday, I’m once again spending time reading and studying Jeremiah and some of the many things that people have written about Jeremiah. As I was reading this morning, I came across this: Walter Brueggemann says that Jeremiah “has the powerful capacity to cause us to re-discern our own situation, to experience our own historical situation with new liberty and fresh passion—liberty and passion that arise in and with faithfulness.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about church this week: what it is, what we do, why we do it, and, here at McKnight, where we are going. I’ve heard from some of you, puzzled as to why some (often younger) people now think they don’t need to come to church each week, or that they think it enough that they worship on their own. And we should spend some time exploring those questions, because in the Bible people worship together as well as pray individually.

From Prayer in the Night, by Tish Harrison Warren.

In the meantime, we do not stop asking our questions of God. He allows us to ask them when we need to because he loves us. And we bring our perplexity into the prayers and practices of the church so that they can shape and direct our own questions.

The guest speaker at McKnight for August 7 will be Ms. Cici James. Please help us give her a warm welcome as she leads us in worship this week!

A Blessing for Letting Go of the Things that Shine

Blessed are we, when the heart shudders to ask, is it me, Lord? Am I one who has chosen to follow a proxy? What does my life point to? When I look at the decisions I make and the ways I spend my time and my money, what is it that I love? What does the evidence tell me about the cause that I care for the most?

As we here at McKnight pray and plan in our coming back from the pandemic, it’s important that we think about what the church is. As we go on together we have a chance to do some thinking about why we are doing what we are doing, so that we can focus our efforts, and sometimes our budget, more intentionally and more effectively.

For the last few weeks, I have been alternating preparation for Sunday Worship with going through files and reorganizing my office. It has been a helpful activity as I learn more about McKnight’s history and the kinds of ministry that the church has been involved in.

Rebecca has been appointed to serve as McKnight's new pastor beginning on July 1, 2022. Please join us as we welcome her to our church family!

About Rebecca Konegen

Rebecca was born in Rome, N.Y., and lived in Massachusetts, North Dakota and New York while her father served in the Air Force, before settling in Santa Clara, California her senior year of high school.

Her undergraduate degree is from DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana. Afterwards, at the University of California, Riverside, she completed an M.A in English Literature, with a focus in Medieval and Renaissance Literature.

When her husband's job transferred the family to Pittsburgh, she planned to finish her Ph.D. but wasn't able to find a similar program locally. Continue to the to read her complete bio on the link below.

The guest speaker at McKnight for June 26 will be Mr. Matthew Grubbs. Details of Matt’s upcoming new ministry opportunity can be found when you follow the link below.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for June 26, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

The guest speaker at McKnight for June 19 will be Ms. Katie Peterson, Director of the Eastbrook Mission Barn. A brief biography can be found when you follow the link below.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for June 19, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

The guest speaker at McKnight for June 12 will be Mr. Matthew Grubbs. A brief biography can be found when you follow the link below.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for June 12, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

I have a book called “Life is Goodbye, Life is Hello”. It is a book about grieving, as life offers us many opportunities to grieve. But it affirms the importance of acknowledging and engaging those times when transitions of whatever kind happen. I guess we’re at one of those transitions. We’ll be saying goodbye, and there will be, both for me and for you, new hellos coming.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for June 5, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

sus has advice for us about how we should live. It applies to how we should respond to the recent mass shootings.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for May 29, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

Imagine what could happen if we didn’t get all caught up in who should get the credit for it.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for May 22, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

We welcome Jeff Miller to the pulpit at McKnight UMC.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for May 15, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce