Posts with the category “pastor-notes”

A Recent GriefIn recent days, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to move forward with a constitutional amendment that would further restrict women from serving as pastors, elders, overseers, or preaching to the gathered congregation. The amendment still requires another vote next year before it would become part of the SBC Constitution, but the direction is clear enough. A large part of the Ame...  Read More

Dear Church Family,This week, Brooke and I returned from Holston Annual Conference, where we attended as clergy and David Frost, Alice Lucas, and Jennifer Mongold attended as laity representing our church and district. At the conclusion of Conference, it became official that Brooke and I have been appointed for another year of ministry with you at Gray United Methodist Church. This will be our sev...  Read More

Continuation of “Where Are We Putting Our Roots?” In my last post, I asked a simple but important question: Where are we putting our roots?Roots matter. They determine stability. They determine nourishment. They determine whether a tree survives shifting soil and unexpected storms.Over the past several years, many churches — including ours — have walked through seasons that felt like shifting grou...  Read More

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As we continue our journey through the story of Scripture, we arrive at a powerful moment where God’s promise to be with His people becomes visible and real. After leading Israel out of slavery and through the wilderness, God does not remain distant but comes to dwell right in the center of the camp, filling the tabernacle with His glory. Along the way, we see that God’s presence is both holy and gracious—so awe-filled that even Moses cannot enter, yet close enough to guide the people day by day. This part of the journey reminds us that God does not simply save us and send us on our way; He chooses to go with us. As the cloud moves and rests, Israel learns to walk at God’s pace, trusting His presence to lead them forward. We come to the Lord’s Table remembering that the same God who once filled the tabernacle still comes down to dwell among us today.  Read More

Confession from your pastor: Leviticus is where many good Bible reading plans go to die. So if you’re reading along with us and you’re about to turn the page from Exodus into Leviticus, you might feel the shift immediately. The story slows down. The details repeat. The rituals feel strange and far removed from our lives. Here’s the encouragement: don’t quit here. This part matters. Leviticus is less about what happens next and more about who God is. It shows us a holy God who is determined to live among His people—and who makes a way for forgiveness, healing, and restored relationship. Beneath all the sacrifices and instructions is a deep longing: How can broken people live in the presence of a holy God? That question carries the story forward… all the way to Jesus. So if you find yourself tempted to skip this book or stop reading altogether, stay with it. Read wisely. Look for the big picture. Ask good questions. Trust that even the unfamiliar parts are shaping the larger story God is telling. And if you’re not reading with us yet, this is a perfect moment to jump in. You don’t have to “catch up”—just start where we are and walk the story with us. Stay rooted. The story is still unfolding.   Read More

Where Are We Putting Our Roots? One of the greatest dangers facing the church today isn’t disagreement or cultural change—it’s the quiet loss of hope. When the church loses hope, it doesn’t always look like despair. More often, it looks like anxiety. It sounds like urgency. It feels like fear dressed up as faithfulness. And when that happens, we can find ourselves reaching for substitutes that promise security, control, or influence. I’ve been sitting with a phrase for a while now: displaced hope. I don’t mean it as an accusation. It’s a pastoral observation—one I’ve made in the church I love, and one I’ve had to make about myself too. To be clear, I don’t think this is a new problem, and I don’t think it’s one the church has to guess its way through. Scripture has long given us language and images for moments like this—especially moments when fear begins to shape what we trust. When we turn to the Bible, we find that it often speaks about faith not in abstract terms, but through images meant to slow us down and help us see ourselves more clearly. Scripture often speaks about faith in terms of roots. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God says that those who trust in the Lord are “like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream” (Jeremiah 17:7–8). It’s a simple image—but a searching one. What we put our roots into determines how we respond when the heat comes. When the world feels uncertain—when things feel louder, more divided, or less familiar than they once did—our roots are tested. And sometimes, without realizing it, our trust begins to drift toward whatever feels most solid in the moment...   Read More

If you’ve been reading along in Genesis and now into the story of the Exodus, you may have noticed something: the Bible is beautiful—and sometimes strange. Some stories feel familiar. Others raise questions. A few may have caused you to pause and think, “I’m not quite sure what to do with this.” If that’s been your experience, let me say this clearly: you’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, that’s often what happens when we read Scripture carefully rather than casually. The Bible wasn’t written as a puzzle book One of the challenges we face as modern readers is that we often approach the Bible with expectations shaped by textbooks, science, or modern history. We’re used to asking questions like How did this happen? or Can this be explained step by step? But the Bible—especially books like Genesis and Exodus—wasn’t written to function that way. These stories come from an ancient world that told truth through story, memory, and meaning. Long before modern science or journalism existed, God’s people preserved their faith by telling and retelling the story of who God is, who they are, and how God has been faithful through every season of their journey. The Bible is not trying to explain everything. It is trying to form us. A better question to ask as we read When a passage raises questions, it can be tempting to stop and try to categorize it or figure it out completely. But Scripture often invites us to ask a different question—not How does this work? but What is this showing me? What does this story reveal about: • God’s character? • Humanity’s struggle and hope? • God’s faithfulness over time? Genesis, for example, isn’t simply telling us where things began. It’s showing us a world created in goodness, fractured by sin, yet never abandoned by God. Exodus doesn’t just tell us how Israel left Egypt—it shows us the kind of God who hears cries, keeps promises, and walks with His people through the wilderness. These stories are meant to be lived with, not rushed through The Bible often leaves space—gaps we wish were filled, questions we want answered. That can feel uncomfortable. But those spaces invite trust rather than control. God has always shaped His people not by giving them every answer at once, but by calling them to keep walking. Israel learned who God was step by step—through stories, struggles, victories, and failures. In many ways, reading Scripture today places us on that same path. So when you encounter a passage that feels puzzling, don’t assume you’ve missed something. Instead, keep reading. Watch where God leads next. Pay attention to the direction of the story. Scripture is strong enough to carry our questions One of the great gifts of the Bible is that it doesn’t shy away from complexity. It holds together faith and doubt, obedience and struggle, judgment and mercy. It tells the truth about God—and about us. You don’t have to resolve every question to read Scripture faithfully. You don’t have to choose between trusting the Bible and thinking deeply about it. God has been forming His people through these stories for thousands of years, and He continues to do so today. As we continue this journey through Scripture together, my encouragement is simple: Keep reading. Keep listening. Keep walking. The story is bigger than any single chapter—and God is faithful all along the way. Pastor Aaron  Read More

At Gray UMC, we believe God’s Word has the power to shape us, steady us, and root us in hope. In 2026, we’re beginning a year-long journey through Scripture—walking together, week by week, as we listen for God’s voice and grow as disciples of Jesus. We’re offering two reading paths, both designed with grace in mind: 1) Deeply Rooted – a full-Bible plan for those ready to take a deeper dive. 2) Firmly Rooted – a lighter weekly plan that highlights the major movements of God’s story. Whichever path you choose, you don’t have to walk it alone. Each week’s readings include helpful BibleProject videos, summaries, and visual resources to deepen your understanding and draw you into the big story of Scripture. These tools make the journey clearer, richer, and surprisingly accessible—whether you’re new to the Bible or have walked with Jesus for years. We also invite you to sign up for our daily and/or weekly Rooted emails. These short messages provide: 1) A reminder of the day’s or week’s readings 2) Quick links to BibleProject resources 3) A simple word of encouragement for the journey. Signing up is one of the easiest ways to stay rooted and not get lost along the way. However you participate, we hope this year grounds you in God’s love, strengthens your faith, and helps you discover again the beauty of God’s story—and your place in it. Let’s grow deeper, together. -Pastor Aaron  Read More