Weekly Roundup: Sunday, March 30, 2025
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being” (2 Corinthians 5: 17).
Living into the new creation means admitting our brokenness, stopping pretending we have it all together, and embracing the forgiveness extended to each of us. It means forgiving when it is hard and living with open hearts and open hands toward the hurting and the vulnerable.
Living the cross-shaped life invites us to join God's work, reconciling our world's brokenness to the harmony reflecting life in God’s kingdom. As Paul says, “God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
Here is the truth: It will take becoming a new creation to become the people and the community whose reflection of love begins to match the reach of God's love.
Pastor Jamey
(Click Here to Watch the Worship Service from Gainesville First United Methodist Church, Gainesville, Georgia)
Weekend Prayer
Gracious God, Shape our hearts to be open, our hands to be generous, and our lives to reflect the deep love of Your kingdom. Make us ministers of reconciliation, joining You in healing the world's wounds. Transform us, Lord, so our love might begin to mirror Yours. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Wisdom Nugget: Becoming new means learning to forgive when it hurts, to love when it’s costly, and to live open-hearted in a hurting world.
A Question to Consider: How might God be calling you to live with more open hands and an open heart toward those who are hurting or vulnerable?
Meme of the week
Dad Jokes
What do you call a pony with a sore throat? A little hoarse!
How does a penguin build its house? Igloos it together!
Leadership Reflection:
What does it mean to lead from a place of reconciliation?
Leading with reconciliation in mind means we take brokenness seriously. We see it in our relationships, in the systems around us, and our own hearts. And we don’t ignore or gloss over it—we bring it to God and do the slow, Spirit-led work of making things whole. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t always make headlines. But it changes everything.
And it starts with us.
If we’re going to help others heal, we’ve got to be honest about our own need for healing. That takes self-awareness. It means recognizing where fear, pride, or self-protection are still driving us and being willing to lay those things down. It means letting God meet us in our wounds so we can lead from a place of grace, not performance.
Jamey
Photo Taken By Me
Book I am reading this week
Looking for God in Messy Places: A Book About Hope by Jake Owensby
Podcast Worth Listening to:
Articles that caught my eye
Winnie the Pooh’s Cedartown Voice
The American Dream Costs $4.4 Million
The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America
A Surprising Route to the Best Life Possible
Can Silicon Valley Find Christianity?
Are we expecting too much of the church?
The Garden and Gun Bucket List
What’s Cookin’
Found Interesting on Social Media
Happening at Gainesville First United Methodist Church, Gainesville, Georgia
Hope has risen! If God can overcome death, there are endless possibilities for what God can do in and through your life. Join us as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and discover how God meets us in our fear to give us new life.
7am Sunrise Worship at Lakeside (weather permitting, with breakfast afterwards, no childcare available)
9am Classic Worship in Sanctuary (childcare available)
10am Modern Worship in Great Room (childcare available)
11am Classic Worship in Sanctuary (livestreaming, childcare available)
Happening in North Georgia
Friday, April 18 / 9am / First Presbyterian Church, Gainesville, Georgia
You’re invited to an ecumenical Good Friday service at First Presbyterian Church at 9am. A variety of pastors from local churches will be speaking. On Good Friday, we experience the depth of God’s love by remembering the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.
Weekly Blessing and/or Quotes
“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.” — St. Clare of Assisi
“We have all been wounded. But the question is not, 'Why was I wounded?' The real question is, 'What am I going to do with the wound?’” — Henri Nouwen
“The way of Jesus is not about upward mobility but downward servanthood.” — Richard Rohr
May you walk as one made new in Christ—
free from shame,
anchored in grace,
and open to the transforming work of God.
Great stuff, Pastor Jamey. I needed this today. I’m passing it in to my mother, Billie T. Thank you! ~ Susan T.