Sermon Prep
Dan Metzger, pastor at St Marks United Methodist Church in Findlay, goes behind the scenes of weekly sermon prep, addressing cultural and spiritual issues, and what happens the other 6 days of the week.
Sermon Prep
Episode 12 - Happy Mothers Day
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Pastor Dan is joined by his mom, Pastor Erma Metzger as they talk about the people who influenced them in their faith, and how we are called to do the same
Hey everybody, welcome to another Sermon Prep Podcast. I'm Dan Metzger, I'm the pastor at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, and we've had a string of special guests, but I have a very special guest with me today. It's my mommy, uh, the Reverend Irma Metzger. And so, hi, mom.
SPEAKER_00Hi.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for doing this.
SPEAKER_00This is great. I wasn't expecting it, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're coming up on Mother's Day, and I thought, what better guest to have than my own mother? And um, so we're gonna be talking this coming week um in church about some of the people that have been an influence in our faith. Um, and of course, you were one of the biggest influences, if not the biggest influence in my faith life growing up, and I remember, you know, watching the way you and dad lived out your faith. And um, I always remember there being music and singing, and uh also remember you guys being uh youth group pastors, and I remember times where you would I'd get to tag along on different like uh trips and stuff that the youth group would take and just be hanging out and watching watching the way you guys kind of uh ministered to all of them, and it's probably was probably one of the biggest impacts on me in the way that I do ministry now. And so I was just wondering um a couple things. One, what do you remember from that time of us growing up and the ways that you tried to um instill faith in in your children? But also, who were those people for you when you were growing up?
SPEAKER_00Well, to your first uh question about what I remember about those days, um, yeah, your dad, Dean, and I um were youth directors for a period of time at uh the church that we were in at that time, and you and uh Kyle especially during that time. I don't think Jake was born yet, maybe, but you were young. You were young kids, um elementary and younger. And uh when we went on you know retreats, we took you with us, and you know, you guys were troopers, did that kind of thing, mission trips, even you guys came along, and it was important to us that you would see this is how we how we live this out. And you and young people were very important to us when we were asked, and we were volunteer youth directors, but that was something we felt like that's something that we can do because we both had been impacted in our youth at church and through Youth for Christ. Um, and so we felt like that was something really important to do at that time, and we was glad we were glad to have you guys tag along with us, and we thought that was a good thing. Um, and for me personally, by far the most impactful person on my faith was my mom, and you know that, of course. I mean, she just she lived it out um every day. I saw it every day in her life. She was a very disciplined um person of scripture, she memorized scripture, she studied often. She was a part of not only a part of Bible studies, but she led Bible studies for years. She taught children in Sunday school. Well, my dad and her did that together, actually. Um, and then as you know, time went on, she led all kinds of Bible studies at church. Um, one of the more, I don't know, interesting things, kind of like us taking you guys along with us. When I was a kid, mom not only taught Sunday school and vacation Bible school, but she did she taught child evangelism fellowship in our Child Evangelism Fellowship. There's a throwback, right? My goodness. Yes. And we would go, she was trained to do it, and she would go to um a community building in a trailer park several blocks away from us, and she always took me with her. And I remember that really well. And part of it that was kind of profound in my mind at the time was, you know, it was one thing to be in Sunday school and um vacation Bible school with other kids from church, but you know, it struck me even at a young age, mom was ministering and reaching out to children who maybe had never heard anything about God, anything about Jesus, and that's that's what she wanted to do. She wanted to introduce um children to Jesus in the way that she knew Jesus, and that was to love them no matter what their situation was. That's something that really sticks out to me about when I was a kid. And then as I got older, um in junior high age, we had a youth pastor, Eddie Hatcher, who was extremely impactful on my faith because he was one that really um encouraged us to go deeper. And um he met with some of you know a smaller group of us and really um really worked with us to understand better our faith and to go deeper into scripture. Um and then the last one I would say is, or actually two people, but it was when I was in high school and I was in Youth for Christ, it was our um leaders then, and it was Tom Robinson and Ruth Ann Jones, and I was at Finley, so it was a bigger group, pretty, pretty large group. But Ruth Ann, one of the big things that she did was if anybody really wanted to go deeper than what we did on you know the club nights, um she started a small group of women, uh young, young women Bible study before school. And I think what she did so much for us, at least for me, was helping us figure out how do we live out our faith in high school. That is not an easy thing to do. And how to do it, not necessarily to, you know, preach and evangelize, but living it, living it out in your life. And and so those were some that were probably the most um impactful on my life when it came to growing my faith, I would say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's funny you say some of those names and those things that you did, and I'm like, I remember that person. I got to meet that person like Eddie. I remember meeting Eddie Hatcher later, you know, uh when I was a kid, and and then um, yeah, just some of like the different the different things that you participated in, and I participated in different versions of what those kinds of things were. I was in Youth for Christ campus life later on when I was in high school, and then I got to help lead a campus life while I was in college. And um, so it's like you can see kind of this generational passing on of the faith and like the ways in which we do that. I don't think we always do everything all exactly the same. I mean, we're at you we go to different places and um and different churches, and hopefully our um hopefully we grow and our theology grows and evolves and changes, and you know, as you change as you get new information and as you learn more and and all of those things, but um but there's people that that yeah definitely set those kind of foundations for us. When I was thinking about it this week, I was thinking about a couple of people who um you know from my from my youth or my childhood, of course, of course, you and and and grandma, uh both my grandmothers, uh and uh and and and my grandfathers and and my dad and and all and so many other extended family members. Um and Melissa helped lead kids chorus and and other other people that were um that were instrumental in those in those early on things um that I'm now passing on. I think about uh kids chorus, which was our version of uh Spark Kids, but it was very music focused. We sang so and they we would do songs, we would sing a lot, and then we would sing on Sunday morning, and um there was like this kids choir that would that would do things, and um some of those same songs that I learned then I'm now doing with our preschool at St. Martin's. Yes, I love that. And it's just like this passing on of all of this stuff, and I think that that's that's really, really special. Um, so you talked about um doing some mission kind of stuff when you were when you were a kid, um, some service kind of things and how you live out your faith. Um, do you remember any of those kind of specifically like places you went or things you did that you're like, oh, this was like a light bulb moment for me of what it means to live out my faith?
SPEAKER_00Well, the one I just said, the child evangelism fellowship for sure. Um, and then I think probably it would have been in um junior high with when Eddie Hatcher was our youth director, he was really a lot about going beyond the church walls and especially connecting like with other small groups and youth groups in the area. And so we, you know, found other people that were similar to us, but then found ways, you know, to learn about how to better go out into the community, how to better do those kinds of things. And we did some meals, we um we took food to to people, we did some things like that, and I remember uh that being an important part of stepping out of the box for us for sure. And campus life, the same thing. We had some, especially in the summertime, there were some special things that we did, and I was in a singing group that um with uh Children of the Light is what it was called, connected to the campus life group, and we toured all over the place and went to different churches and we um taught some you know small Sunday school classes and things like that, and so it was you know, we we got outside of the box, outside of our church doors.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then yeah, and it it's it's so funny that like a lot of my life ends up mirroring that, and you know, I'm in college and I end up in a little traveling singing group that does some stuff, and yeah, I I get it, I it I I get it naturally. Um but um I also and I didn't tell you I wanted to talk about this, but maybe you can kind of guess where I'm going with it. So then I go through all of that and I kind of feel a cult ministry. Um you had been doing a lot of stuff as a volunteer and volunteering in youth groups and and teaching different things at um at the church we were at and all this other stuff, but um, but then I kind of went into uh professional ministry, I guess you could say, and uh and became a pastor and started off at uh Van Buren. And um so just maybe tell the story from your version. Uh I know my version, but like your your story of like how you how you kind of started to feel that that same nudge and that same call, because you weren't a pastor yet when I when I became a pastor.
SPEAKER_00Correct, correct. I was a year behind you, actually. I was I was the year after. But what had happened was I was I had worked different jobs. I I was a stay-at-home mom when you guys were little, and then I um worked several different jobs um in the area, and I was at the time working at uh high school, Liberty Button High School as a secretary, and I just really began to feel like I should be doing something more, and that I was feeling a call towards ministry, I just couldn't define it. And so I did do some things. I ended up going through the uh lay speaker classes and became a lay speaker, but I can remember when I finished that literally I was at Bluffton and I was on a church in Bluffton, I was on my way home from that, and I just started crying in the car on I-75. Say, thinking, this is great, but it's this isn't it. And um, I'm I'm not there yet. What what is it that I should be doing? And spent a lot of time praying and talking to Dean. And uh finally um I ended up talking to the DS, and he wanted to meet with us, the district superintendent wanted to meet with us, and because I thought, well, maybe he's got an idea of some what direction I might be able to go. And um literally sitting at Kofiamichi, he said, Well, what do you think about pastoral ministry? And I truly had not specifically thought of that. I had thought of maybe worship leading and that kind of thing, but not pastoral ministry. And we I began to talk about what that might look like and what the process would be. What how how would I do all of that? And I can remember walking to our car afterwards, and Dean just looked at me and said, This is it, isn't it? I said, I really think it is, and so we began the process to do that.
SPEAKER_01I also have a memory of, and maybe I've just made this up in my mind, which is very possible. You know, you I have an imagination. Yes, but I have a memory of shortly after I started at Van Buren. Uh, that was my first church. And and you guys didn't come the first Sunday, I don't think, because you're like, we don't want to be the parents that show up at our kids' first time preaching. First time preaching. And maybe you weren't sure how it would go for me. I don't know. But um uh I remember it was because it was it was shortly after that, and as it was as you were kind of discerning this this kind of call, um, that I remember like you came out and like you were a little a little teary. And I just remember thinking, like, oh she's so proud of me. And well, I was and really what it was was you said, I think maybe I'm supposed to be doing this too. Yeah. Like, do you do you remember that or am I making it? No, I vaguely remember that.
SPEAKER_00I do remember coming, and I do think it was during that time period when I was trying to discern and seeing that happen, seeing you do what you were doing, um, I brought me kind of that realization a little deeper that you know, I think I really need to pursue this.
SPEAKER_01Kind of feeling like, well, if he can do it, I can do it. So you started after me. One year after me. You've retired before me. Yes, I have. But uh, but now you're coming to St. Mark's, which is so much fun. We love it. Um, and um, so you know that one of the things that um, and I know this was a part of your ministry, you were both at Van Lu and at Arcadia, uh, but a part of your ministry always focused around you know serving others in the community. Absolutely. And that's been obviously influential on me, and um, and it's a huge part of what we do at St. Mark's is is um we've been talking about moving the needle and how do we do that in our community? How do we serve our community well? And um, so what are some of the areas of service that have been um most meaningful to you over the years? Where do you see Christ in that and um how how we get to live out the great commission um of preaching the gospel to others? You know, somebody did that for each of us, somebody, you know, it's for your mom, or or whether it was a youth pastor or somebody else, um, somebody did that for you, somebody did it for me. I've got a whole list of people that did that for me. Um, and now we have a chance to go be that for others. So as you think about service and those kind of things, what are the places that are most meaningful for you?
SPEAKER_00Well, one of the areas I've worked at worked with at St. Mark's and did previously is um food insecurity issues, you know, people that um it's hard for us to imagine um not having enough and having empty cupboards and you know that kind of thing. Um, but we know it's real, and we know that there's a lot of people in the community and Finlay area that are in need. So doing those things, um feeding, I love the Give a Crack program at uh St. Mark's, and also um, you know, doing like what we'll do with Super Service Saturday coming up, we'll be um doing the little food pantries and taking stuff all over town for people. Um that's something that's really important to me. Also, children, I think you know, it's children and youth, it's such an awesome thing that we have great programming of that in St. Mark's. And what I really love is that it's it's wide open. You have people that come in that maybe don't attend very often on Sunday mornings, but our youth and our children have you know encouraged others to come in, and I love that. I love that that is happening as well. It's not just a little closed community where others aren't, you know, welcome to be there, of course. Those are areas that are very important to me. Um, there's so many things, uh, of course. I one other thing I've thought about, and we've talked about it, and I know you're trying to talk through some of it with the churches, um, working with education. Um, you know, working side by side with again, you know, I felt like you guys had the privilege of, you know, two parents always, you know, in your life and and being able to encourage you when it came to education. Not all kids have that, and we know that. And there's some that really struggle, and if they don't get help early on, it's gonna really be difficult as time goes on. So that's another area that's important to me for sure.
SPEAKER_01I I just think that you know, sometimes we can separate these things out, this service and like our faith, but this this ability to to kind of tie the two together to me is is such a beautiful thing. Um I was thinking today, uh, you know, one of the other areas that we've done some stuff in um is partnerships with um different community organizations like Welcome to a New Life that has uh done a lot of work with people coming out of incarceration and dealing with addiction issues and Habitat for humanity. Habitat for humanity and and all of those things. Um when I was thinking about Welcome to a New Life, um it was four years ago today that uh that I lost uh a friend who had come out of that um who had come out of that program, uh Chris, who uh dealt with some addiction issues and um uh what I remember seeing out of that, out of this, just this goofy service stuff that we did. It was just you know being around him, me and a couple of other guys uh from the church who kind of took him under our wing and um really just tried to love him and care for him and take him grocery shopping and just and just be there and just be a listening ear, uh just serving him in that way. And um, I remember him, you know, he got baptized and all these things, and of course, addiction is a a really terrible disease, and it it reared his ugly head again and and he lost his life. Um but through all of that, this you know, Christian service, and not only I, but but the entire church wrapped their arms around this guy, yes, and it changed so many lives. Um, and uh it it just uh really, really brought impact to our community, and um it it it gave us a heart to not say, Oh, that hurt too much to ever do that again, but it to instead say, Oh, well, there's so much more we need to do. And I really feel like it was an accelerant for us to say we've there is so much in this community that we that we need to do and that we can do more. Um, and so like the way our faith has kind of informed our service has been a really beautiful thing, and it's part of what makes me us love this church so much, um, is that they're always willing to reach out to others and um and love people who look different than them. And uh so that's part of what we're gonna be talking about in this sermon series. It's gonna be a really fun one where we're looking at serving our community, the people who are like us, the people who are different than us, what it looks like to go to the ends of the earth, um um and and serve in that way. Um, there's some a beautiful opportunity with that with the World Vision 6K that's coming up for Super Service Saturday, so you can sign up for that, and I'll talk more about that on Sunday. But um, yeah. Thanks, Mom. This is great. Yeah, thanks for thanks for doing this and happy early Mother's Day. Thank you. This is what I'm getting you. Is this okay? Perfect. I got you a podcast episode. Thank you. No problem. What a great son.
SPEAKER_00Uh you are.
SPEAKER_01Uh uh, thanks so much for joining us, and uh, hope to see you this Sunday and uh catch you on another Sermon Prep podcast.