Dear Coach Wade:

With High School Football Season about to officially "kick off" I wanted to dedicate this Blog post to Coaches and Teachers across the state who everyday are making a difference in the lives of young people.  You are in our hearts and prayers!  Thank you!  

Below is a letter to a Coach and a Teacher who changed my life.  

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Dear Coach Wade:

 

I just wanted to take some time here and stop for a moment in what is now the middle of my life, and express some very genuine and heartfelt gratitude.  And, in all honesty, it is an expression of gratitude, which you have long deserved, and yet never really heard from me.  So, please allow me to say "Thank you" for all of the ways you took time out of what was at the time the middle of your own life and invested it in me, at such a critical time, and in such a tremendous way.  Most certainly, you were a huge influence in my life, and I truly will never forget you. 

What you may not know Coach, was that as a young man growing up without a Father, I in many ways had always felt somewhat lost.  Throughout my life I had always looked hard for some man that I could look up to, a man who could show me who it was that I was supposed to be, and who it was I was supposed to become as a man.  But, I was again and again, painfully disappointed by those men who were most frequently a part of my life.  But then, as I came into High School, there you were, Coach Greg Wade, a man I instantly respected, and a man I hoped that I could trust to show me the way.

I remember how, as a freshman, I would pass by your classroom from time to time when I was on my way to Spanish class (which was next door to your room) and how I used to listen to you as you were teaching your American Government, Economics, or History classes, and think to myself about how I couldn't wait to get into your class as a Junior or a Senior someday…  Because, it sounded to me then, as if you taught in a way that I could relate to, and in a way that I would want to learn.  I loved to listen to the way you would "cut-up" with your students in class, and give them a hard time between classes in the halls, and then with the Upperclassmen as they gathered in the bleachers outside the stadium locker room before football practice started.  I wanted to be one of those guys someday that you thought was a "good player," and one that you would point to, or single out, as an example for the rest of the team.

I'll never forget my Freshman year how when I broke my hand in football practice, early in the season, how you would always see me in the hall and ask me about how the arm was coming, and about when I would be able to play again.  And then, my Sophomore year, how after I injured my knee and had to have surgery, how you took the time to work with me individually before and after practice as soon as I was back, to help me get "up to speed" with plays and with technique.  You took personal time, and you gave me individual attention.  You had no idea how "huge" that was to me, and what level of an impression that made on me, but it was… and in so many more ways than I can even begin to describe.  It was as if you were telling me I was somebody, and that you thought I had real potential.

So… "Thank you, Coach Wade, for that, and more, for telling me that I mattered, that I counted, and that I could do a heck of a lot more than I thought I could."  You had no idea then, but it was your coaching both on the field and in the classroom, that got me through College and Graduate School / Seminary.  And, it is lessons from the practice field, and from game nights, that I still draw upon "When the yardage is long and the clock is short" or "when the other team has the ball and it's 1st & Goal."  Oh yeah, and thanks for calling me "Schmutzball" all the time.  That, to me, was the best nickname a Defensive Tackle and an Offensive Guard could ever ask for.  Thanks especially for grabbing me by the shoulder pads when I threw my helmet down on the field after we lost to Chapman (our rival school) my Senior year, and (ever so gently) reminded me that I was a leader, win or lose, and that how I handled the outcome of the game was going to affect how everybody else on the team handled the outcome of the game.  (Your words were actually a bit more colorful, but I got the general idea…)

Most of all, thanks for becoming a teacher and a coach, for being a man of integrity, strength and faith, and for being such a key influence in so many lives.  (Oh yeah… and thanks for the "Law of Diminishing Return"/ Oreo Cookies Illustration from your Economics Class.  I have used that in every church I have ever served, and with every church and every youth group I have ever worked with!)

Very Sincerely,

 

Rev. Robert Schmutz

The United Methodist Church at Park City 

 

(Coach Greg Wade was inducted last year into the Kansas FCA Coaches Hall of Fame.  He died in 2002, following a difficult and yet truly inspirational battle with Cancer.)

Keep on Keepin' on...

Rob Schmutz, Pastor

The Church at Park City

Zechariah 4:10a

www.facebook.com/TheChurchAtParkCity

Sent from my iPhone

The Sound of Silence...

Silence...

Silence can be an interesting thing when you suddenly realize it has you surrounded...  

Being a supportive husband of a highly motivated career woman, a hands-on father of four very active children (spanning the ages of 4mo's to 15yrs), and a dizzyingly busy church plant pastor, all afford me little opportunity to hear the sound of something I truly long for... nothing.  It truly seems as if the pace, the demands, the actions and the activity of my life at all times means that my ears are filled with some sort of sound and some flurry of action or activity non-stop.   Text, Facebook, Twitter and Email message alerts, ring tones, reminder tones, phone calls, conversations, interactions, appointments, group discussions, counseling sessions, visitations, family communications and instructions, praying, preaching, teaching, leading, going, doing, discovering more to do, re-do, or that was never done in the first place... all day, every day.   Even in my attempts to get up as early as I can, our 4month old finds a way to capture my attention, and our 4year old is not far behind, and then our 12 or 15 year old need to be taken to some sort of practice at 0 dark 30...  Then it's back home and off to work, and...  Lather, Rinse, Repeat...  Dude!

But the last couple of days  have been truly different kinds of days for me.  The last couple of days I have been at the St. Benedict's Abbey guest house, at St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Ks, and my time has been my own.  I have been alone, and yet, surrounded.  Surrounded by the strangest sound for the first time in... honestly I cannot remember when.  And, in this sound of silence, as I attended morning prayers, mass and spent time reading and praying alone...  In the absence of that which I have ridden away from, left behind turned off, and unplugged from, I have discovered the sounds of silence and experienced the gift of the unheard, of not being immediately  needed, and of not being instantly accessible.

It has been interesting to me to feel and experience the peculiar way in which time has softened and stretched here in this place.  The peace here has been palpable.  It seems to have permeated my person, and yet held me in its grip.  I have been able to breathe deeply the air here and feel it fill me with something sustaining.  I have been able to see other things as I have looked from this Kansas hilltop out over the Missouri river valley .  I have been able to take the time to think my own thoughts, and the thoughts that God has quietly brought to my attention.  I have literally felt God here, and felt again His Love for me.  A love He has for me not based on doing... But a love found in being.

Thank you Lord for this which I have needed so severely.  For a day or two set apart, and for a few moments of sanctified solitude.  Thank you for Lord, for the sound of silence.  Thank you for a wife and a family who allowed for me to go.  And, for a new church family who covered and prayed for me while I went.

And... Thank you Lord for introducing me to a St. Benedict's Abbey Delicacy... The Peanut Butter & Onion Sandwich!  Wow!  I can't wait to introduce it to my family.  Who needs good breath when you're a Monk?!?  Perhaps if I begin to eat them daily, I might just find myself alone and surrounded by the sounds of silence more often? :-)

Keep on Keepin' on...

(Philippians 3:14)

Rob Schmutz, Pastor

The Church at Park City

Zechariah 4:10a

www.facebook.com/TheChurchAtParkCity

Sent from my iPhone

"It comes to this..."

It seems as if we have left everything and followed a dream... A vision... A calling... And now, it comes to this.

Last week I learned of three churches that closed their doors in Park City in the last 90 days...  And,  it is this week that we (The United Methodist Church at Park City) will officially "open" our doors to the public for the first time.  Will we make it?  Will our doors remain open?  Will we survive and thrive?

Truly I must say, I do not know...  I cannot say...  And, I am unable to see down the corridor of what will become of us, of this small group of people sharing life, labor and friendship, and of what will become of the "calling" to this new work we have put our hands, hearts and minds to. 

However, I do know this, we have truly given it our all.  We are completely "poured out" on this Altar of calling and possibility.  We have "left everything" on this field.  And, in so doing, everywhere I turn, or find myself, whether in personal prayer and devotion, or in conversation and in interaction, or in solitude and even in commotion... Everywhere I go, I find the calm, still assurance, that God truly "is" in this work that we have abandoned everything to pursue.  And, that God will "come through" beyond my ability to hope, work and aspire.

The words of Jesus, regarding the Church as I believe He envisioned it, have sustained me through every assault of the enemy, through every difficult moment, and through every discouraging  coincidence of this process.  "...upon this rock I will build My Church; and the Gates of Hell will not overpower it." (Matthew 16:18)

I believe these "Jesus Words" from then, are Jesus' words also for here and now, for this moment in my life personally, and for even (possibly) this "hour" in the history of the Church.  For me personally, I know that God has called me back to this place of a desperate personal relationship with Jesus, and an intimate confession of faith.  It has been a time in which I have felt frequently that there was nothing else to cling to, and that there was no one else to rely upon.  These experiences have caused me to think critically about my previous years of ministry, about how I could have or should have been more abandoned to Jesus, and to wonder what it might be like if the Church everywhere could return to, and could begin to rebuild upon, the foundation of a desperate personal relationship with Jesus, and of an intimate and yet public confession of faith.

That is who I believe Peter was, and what I perceive Peter was doing as he made his confession of faith in Matthew 16:16.  And, that is what I believe Jesus was explicitly referring to when He spoke of the "foundation" of the Church in verses 17 & 18 of that passage.  So, I have to ask, is it possible that this is this the "Sweet Spot" for the life, ministry and mission of the Church?  Is it this kind of Church, built upon a foundation of desperate people who will go anywhere Jesus calls them to go, and do anything Jesus calls them to do, over which the Gates of Hell will not prevail?

Personally, I am believing more and more every day that it is.  That there really is nothing more in this life worth living for than Jesus and His purposes for the world and for my life.  And, I am praying desperately that I can be a small but faithful part of whatever it is He throws me into.  And, that come failure or success in the eyes of the world, I will be able to keep my eyes fixed determinedly on Jesus through this life and on into the next.  No matter what...

Keep on Keepin' on...

Rob Schmutz, Pastor

The Church at Park City
Zechariah 4:10a

God's Plans for the Great Plains?

On the road to Topeka, riding through the flint hills, enjoying time with three clergy colleagues, I am also praying all along the way...  I'm praying because I am daring to believe that "God has Great plans for the Great Plains" and that the very best God has for us is still to come. (1 Corinthians 2:9)  Similarly, I am praying because I am daring to hope that these next three days in Topeka will be an Isaiah 42:9 type of gathering. A gathering in which we begin to embrace the reality that "...the former things have come to pass."  And, that now (right now) God will begin to declare new things to us, so that we can pray, prepare and ready ourselves "Before they spring forth..." 

I am also praying that this gathering would not be an exercise in futility. That we could be truly be empowered to put our hands to the work of being a church that once again covers the Great Plains in Prayer, Preaching, Power, Renewal, Evangelism and Discipleship...  That we would not just take up the responsibilities of administrative reorganization, but that as clergy, and as united Conferences we could take up the mantle of the passionate and desperate pursuit of God and begin to seek out the  plan God has for us, for our churches, and for the communities, the families and the persons that we have been called to reach.

So, What if...  
What if today truly became a day of new beginnings?  What if today we began to truly unite in risk taking mission?  What if today we could begin to not only say we believe in making disciples for the transformation of the world, but we actually began to transform the world by making disciples?  What if what was said of the Church in Acts 17:6 was what began to be said of us?  And, what if we realized over the next three days that God's plans for the Great Plains are far Greater than any of the plans that have yet been made?

One can only hope... And pray... And...

Rob Schmutz, Pastor
The United Methodist Church at Park City

Building Tents & Pitching Altars

It was about eighteen months ago that I began to detect that I had something seriously askew in my soul.  I had begun an awakening process that I was consciously resisting with all of my strength.  And yet, every day, regardless of my best efforts to stay asleep, I knew, I saw, I experienced, and I was consistently reminded that I was awakening to a very disturbing reality.  

The reality I was awakening to, was that my world had increasingly become about "maintenance" and about "self-preservation."  And, that I had lost my sense of purpose, vision, and of risk taking mission.  I began to understand that I had "pitched" my altar (life risking, daily mission with God) and "built" a tent (a new building and a highly predictable position of ministry). 

This gradual "awakening" journey of mine, culminated in a personal Epiphany in which I knew that I had personally stopped risking everything to follow Jesus.  And, that I had begun asking Jesus to come and bless everything I was "not" doing...  I had become a Wesleyan "deviant" in the sense that the world was no longer my parish, and that the parish ("my parish") had become my world.  It was from this moment of personal Epiphany that I then knew I had the power to choose to walk a new and a different road than I had ever walked before.  So... I did.

Without question, this new road that I chose changed almost every aspect of my life, and affected almost every relationship I had.  And, though I still know not where this road will lead, I have this sense of the presence of Jesus, on this road that I am traveling, that I have never had before.  

So, does (and will) this road lead to "success" or "prosperity?"  Part of me hopes that it will, and yet... part of me remembers my tendency to "pitch my altar and build my tents."  So, my pre-determined personal goal, walking forward from this personal Epiphany, is that I would walk where Jesus leads, that I would pitch my tent wherever it is in the World that the Spirit of God leads me to be about the building of an Altar of sacrificial Worship. Somewhere, I believe, where the Church truly needs to be, between the house of God and the world (Genesis 12:8).

Rob Schmutz, Pastor
The Church at Park City

Terminal Velocity

It is the morning of January 1st, 2012.  I am a 43 year old, 20 year veteran of the United Methodist Ministry.  And, I find myself it seems, in mid-air, hurling through space, having flung myself (6 months ago) from a perfectly good cliff (aka my previous Appointment).

So... What is going to come of this "leap of faith," and of the actions I have taken?  30 days or so below me, if my best efforts fail, lie the rocks of "certain death" for my career, my reputation, my finances, my socio-economic status, and more than I care to list or think about at the moment.

In this leap, I am fully aware that I have reached what could be referred to as "terminal velocity."  Around me, life and ministry are all a blur, and are all passing at such a high rate of speed, I cannot begin to perceive it all, and am unable to even pretend to be able to keep up with it.  

And yet, nearing the end of my descent, in the core of my heart, there is this sense of knowing, of familiarity, and (strangely enough) of peace.  I find myself internally experiencing those surreal moments of heightened and vivid awareness that come to all of us before a collision, or during a critical or traumatic incident.  And, though I know not that this venture I am a part of, in planting a new United Methodist Church in Park City, will be survivable, let alone "successful," I do know... I choose to believe... I dare to hope... I frantically trust... that God is Faithful, that Jesus has called me to this "incarnational" action of faith, and that the Holy Spirit will guide, sustain, and complete this Work which God has begun. 

Quite honestly, in these most harrowing moments of my ministerial calling, in brushing so near with the worst that could possibly happen, at the very least, I know, I feel, and I can perceive, that I am alive.  Alive perhaps, for the very first time.  It makes me wonder however, if this is what the call to ministry, and ministry itself, was supposed to be about all along...  Faith, risk and leaping.

So, I am asking God, not for a safe or uneventful landing, but instead for a faithful descent on my part.  And, that God's Will be done, both in Me, and in this Work in which I have invested my life and risked so much...

I believe a new United Methodist Church in Park City, Kansas, is both God's idea, and God's Will. And, that at the critical moment, as our doors officially open on Sunday AM, February 5th at 11am, that Isaiah 40:31 will come to pass, as I personally seek, and ask to live out, Philippians 1:20. If you Would like to join the leap... jump in with us on Sunday, January 8th, as we begin our pre-launch "exhibition season" Sunday mornings at 11am.


Rob Schmutz, Pastor
The Church at Park City
Zechariah 4:10a