Caton Church

The Mid-Week Message is and On-Line Ministry   Of Pastor Dick Hurd and the “Caton Church”                                                                                    A Global Methodist Community of Faith      May 14, 2025

       I hesitate to write about what happened this past week, but it was so significant in my life, or perhaps because it was so significant in my life I feel I must address it.                                                                                                                                                      

       Last Saturday I was Ordained as an elder in the Global Methodist Church. Of course, I am pleased about that and perhaps a bit proud as well.  The problem I am having is that it is not supposed to be about me. My life and my ministry is about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, nothing more, nothing less, and certainly nothing else.   And though I appreciate and am grateful for, all the good wishes, kind words and congratulatory affirmations that I have received, I must confess it all makes me a bit uneasy. Perhaps I just never learned how to receive such accolades appropriately.  Yes, I suppose this is a considerable accomplishment, a big deal as it were, but for me it is just another step, along the path of my personal faith journey.   It is an important step for sure, and a day that I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life.  But you know what days rank up there right along with this one?  The day I was blessed for the first time to Baptize a little boy named Ben, or the time a young man collapsed on the floor, overcome with the spirit of God as he confessed his faith while I prayed for him. Or the conversation I had with a young lady who attended the church I was serving as an adolescent and told me that it was my ministry that led her to a career in Christian education. Over a career of thirty plus years there have been many such days and each one has blessed me far beyond anything I could ask or imagine.                                                                                              

      I don’t mean to minimize what happened last week, I just wanted to keep it in perspective. The things that seem important in this life will fade into obscurity when compared with the signs and wonders that God has prepared for us!

Yours in the love of Christ

Pastor Dick

Breath Prayer: Lord, remind me every day to keep the first things first, Amen