In his greeting to the congregation Sunday,, the Rev. Kendall Waller, Heartland District Superintendent for the UMC of Missouri, welcomed everyone and expressed the wish that they would “come back next week for some real preaching.” His self defacement aside, he delivered a very good message to the 300 plus people assembled to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Avondale United Methodist Church.
The title of the sermon was “Near to the Heart of God,” and began with the hymn, “Near to the Heart of God.” But what he did was turn the song on its head, and ask a very pertinent question. We talk about being near to the heart of God, yet more often we are talking about God being near to us. His movement to us. The real question is if we move to Him, seek his heart.
In the middle of the sermon he tells a story from his life — a series of events that gets packed into a short 4 hours, and how that exemplifies the latter movement, and not the former. It is well worth listening to again. So go ahead and play the above sound track.
At The Rainbow 
Reblogged this on markrwhitaker and commented:
I thought our District Superintendent did a nice job preaching at our recent 100th Anniversary Worship service at Avondale United Methodist Church. Below, read Jonathan’s blog about the sermon.
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