First Congregational UCC - Platteville

Whoever wrote the letter to Timothy was pretty smart. Flattery will get you everywhere—and the idea that we have a gift in us makes us feel good. Unfortunately, the good feeling is a lot like bubble gum. The sweet goes out after a few chews. What is your gift? Is the emphasis on "your?" Or "gift?"

When Paul wrote this letter to the Roman church, he was giving them instructions on how to be a community of Christian virtue. Don't judge each other. Don't get in each other's way. Don't be consumed with your own perfection. Instead, build each other up. In your relationships, don't just look for pleasure or advantage, but be friends of character.

Is anybody else out there tired of sarcasm? Am I the only one sick of his own smug superiority, of earning cheap laughs while desperately trying to appear sophisticated or something?

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Led by Justice and Witness Ministries board and staff representatives, 10 UCC members were among more than 150 participants in late July at an ecumenical peace conference titled "Peace Among the Peoples: An Ecumenical Peace Conference on Overcoming the Spirit, Logic and Practice of Violence."

News Flash: The letters of the Apostle Paul, sent to churches throughout the region of Asia Minor in the first century, were not e-mailed, faxed or texted to individual church members. They were sent to corporate bodies of believers and they were always read aloud in the collective settings of Christians, gathered together. The letters of Paul were never intended to be read by individuals in isolation. They always evoked a shared witness, and shared hearing and a shared reflection.

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Phil Porter of the Unified Governance Working Group (UGov) has issued the following update on the group's progress toward fulfilling a General Synod 27 request to bring a proposal for a single UCC governing board before the July 2011 assembly in Tampa Bay, Fla.

It's better to give than receive but the best givers are good receivers. Otherwise giving is one-sided and leads to resentment. We act as though others need us more than we need them and miss what they have to give.

Where does God dwell? Where is God to be found? If you're looking for God, where should you look?

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OXFAM International weekly report on Gaza

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The Rev. Dr. Carol Vaccariello clearly appreciated the validation she received in sharing her perspective at the New Church Leadership Institute 2010 conference Aug. 9-13 in Decatur, Ga.

I often tell people that our congregation is "the best choice you never heard of." In olden days and ways, I would have said we are marching to Zion. Our congregation'and many others'remind of nothing so much as the Isner/Mahut tennis match at Wimbledon. It was the longest game of tennis ever played'and in it, everybody wins. You can't possibly say that someone who stayed in that long a match LOST. When you last that long, you don't lose.

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