Why do Christians lie? by Steven Skelley

Why do Christians lie? Isn't telling the truth one of the foundational principles of Christianity?

I ran across this publication by the UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE - http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/1181

The news article praises a Methodist seminary student / minister-in-training named Disney Weaver. (He claims his parents conceived him at Disney World - hence the catchy name).

Rev.-to-be Disney claims he created a youth fitness center by utilizing unused church facilities. He claims he sought donations of equipment for youth to use in a safe environment.

Unfortunately, for Disney, I know the truth.

Disney had NOTHING to do with the creation of the fitness center or youth outreach.  It had been created two years before Disney was even hired at Community Methodist Church in Belle Glade, Florida.

How do I know this? It's quite simple - Belle Glade area youth and I  created the youth outreach fitness center in unused church rooms in 2000 when I was on staff there after the church relocated my family to Belle Glade from Ohio.

A number of quality young people from Belle Glade raised funds and donations not only for fitness equipment, but also for a professional billiard table that they helped me carry to the second floor and install. Kevin Hale donated his own heavy bag (boxing equipment).

The youth involved in ACTUALLY creating the youth center but never given the credit that was instead unfairly bestowed on "Disney" include Harvard Law Graduate Matthew Sanchez, Stanford University Graduate Nick Sanchez, University of Florida Graduate Justin Gilmer, the late Fenton Hollingsworth, Published Author Steffany Skelley, Gulf Coast University Graduate Justin Miller and Kevin Hale.

I made several attempts to request that the United Methodist News Service print a retraction and correction for their article which is in complete error and is disrespectful to the people who actually DID create the youth center. They never returned my emails.

Here is the article they published-


Church connects with neighborhood youth through fitness center
http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/1181

1/18/2006

e-Review Florida United Methodist News Service
        
Church connects with neighborhood youth through fitness center

Jan. 18, 2006    News media contact: Tita Parham*  
800-282-8011   tparham@flumc.org    Orlando {0429}

An e-Review Feature
By John M. De Marco**

In neighborhoods all across the county there are kids who have the opportunity to immerse themselves in after-school activities, like sports, and there are those with no place to go once school gets out.

It's no different in the western Palm Beach County community of Belle Grade, but one neighborhood church is striving to catch the latter group of youth before they fall through the cracks.


BELLE GLADE — Youth who live in the neigborhood around Community United Methodist Church here work out at the church's fitness and game room center. Photo by Disney Weaver, Photo #06-297.
Members of Community United Methodist Church recognized the need for youth in Belle Glade to experience more physical exercise, discipleship and Christian fellowship, so they launched a fitness and game room that's open three times each week. The goal is to provide an opportunity for fellowship and recreation and to foster mentoring relationships between the church's adults and the neighborhood's youth.

"We've had the fortunate situation of having donations of some significant weight equipment and game room equipment," said Disney Weaver, the church's full-time youth and young adult coordinator. "We had the facility and were always raising the question, 'How do we utilize it in the most effective way?' In Belle Glade, there's boys and girls clubs, school activities, sports, but there is a gap when it comes to everyone having a positive, safe, drug-free environment."

Through the church's Hispanic ministry, some teenagers and adults had already begun to regularly use the cardiovascular and strength training equipment at different times throughout the day.

"We just began to explore the opportunity of designing an outreach ministry or program utilizing the facility we have," Weaver said. "We developed an idea of an after-school activity, opening up the church for teenagers to come and be here and have a safe place for recreation, as well as a place to be nurtured."

Weaver says they dream of mentoring the youth and establishing relationships with the neighborhood, "with those right around our church."

About 25 to 30 different youth gather at the church in the afternoons during the school year, with about 10 to 15 visiting every weekday. A devotional each Wednesday at 5 p.m. leads to a discussion of a current issue facing the diverse Belle Glade community. The church also has a Sunday evening youth group fellowship that was sparsely attended before the after-school activities began.

Residents around the church are primarily African-American, British West Indian, Haitian, Jamaican and a variety of other ethnic groups. Weaver said the Wednesday devotional time helps him and the ministry volunteers get to know some of the backgrounds of the youth.

"Many of the youth we encounter have a connection to another church, whether Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist, non-denominational or whatever. We seek to be ecumenical in our approach and not proselytize, but facilitate. We communicate to them that there is a spiritual component to healthy living, to being a whole person," he said.

Weaver said the church has also provided computer and Internet access, encouraging youth to download sermons or listen to Christian podcasts.

Support for the program from the congregation has been mixed. Weaver said some members have donated exercise equipment they no longer use and provided positive feedback. Others have expressed resistance, asking, "Do we really think they would fit into this church or become members here?"

"I tell them, 'If we are hospitable and welcoming to them, that's a possibility.' " he said. "I'm not going to shortchange what God could do in this scenario. I expect that we're going to get some different comments, and I just try to meet them with an informative defense."

Weaver says the church built an educational wing as a response to integration in the 1960s with the goal of making it a private school. "I'm very proud to say that it is being used in an integrated manner and is a place that is multicultural," he said. "It's not just for our own people. We're establishing a rapport with a younger generation that we hadn't been effectively reaching through our worship or even our traditional Christian education."

Every Monday an intercessory prayer group of adult members meets at the church. Weaver has taken some of the youths' prayer concerns to that gathering. When he does, he lets the youth know others in the church are praying for them.

"It's a way to build a bridge to some of the people who may be the most reluctant (to support the after-school ministry)," he says.

Weaver said he is motivated by the interaction with the youth and the opportunity to get to know them. One youth expressed an interest in going to college, and through Weaver's mentoring he has enrolled in classes — an event that stands out in a neighborhood where only 9 percent of the population has a college education.

"That's an encouraging thing," Weaver said.

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This article relates to Health and Wholeness and Outreach.

*Parham is managing editor of e-Review Florida United Methodist News Service.
**De Marco is a commissioned minister of the Florida Conference and a freelance writer, speaker and consultant

****Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.

Steven Skelley's UM News Service articles.

Steven Skelley's UM News Service articles.

Approximately 100 of Steven Skelley 's articles and photos were published by the UM News Service.

He was a staff writer whose articles focused on churches that were successful in reaching out to people in need.

A list of his articles can be found at http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/site/search?keywords=Skelley




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Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.

Miami Beach church spreads healing through arts By Steven Skelley

Miami Beach church spreads healing through arts

By Steven Skelley

Published by UM News Service at http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/2435

More than 14,000 people have attended events provided through Arts at St. John’s since the program began eight years ago at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Miami Beach. Photo by Steven Skelley. Photo #07-0667.

MIAMI BEACH — St. John’s United Methodist Church is just 10 blocks from the mansion of megastar Jennifer Lopez, and nearby residents range from the mega-rich to the disillusioned, homeless and abused of all ethnicities.

Amidst this diversity St. John’s has found a common thread: the arts.

“St. John’s is a reconciling church,” said Dr. Carol Hoffman-Guzman, director of Arts at St. John’s. “We are diverse ethnically. We welcome the gay community and those people who were disillusioned by churches in the past. Now, they have a safe way to peek inside a church again because of these arts programs.”

Arts at St. John’s is a nonprofit corporation begun at St. John’s United Methodist Church eight years ago. It was developed to increase the visibility of the church, attract new visitors and members, and build community. Its goal is to use the arts as a medium for bringing social, spiritual and personal transformation and a means of encouraging intercultural understanding, sharing and dialogue.

Arts at St. John’s events include concerts, shows, workshops, panel discussions and a variety of innovative arts programs. In addition to support from the church, the program also receives funding from such community and state groups as the Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.

Hoffman-Guzman says more than 14,000 people have attended Arts at St. John’s events since the program began, and each year the program receives between $50,000 and $60,000 in corporate donations and city, county and state grants.

“What started as a neighborhood outreach program expanded,” she says. “Attendees started coming from all over south Florida and then internationally. People said they made trips to the U.S. just to attend our events. One couple came all the way from England.”

Hoffman-Guzman says she believes the church should be part of the community and promoting and presenting arts and artists as a way to be agents of social, personal and spiritual transformation.

“We want to expose people to different cultures,” she said. “Many people in society separate for different reasons. We try to bring them together. We want to build relationships within our community and make connections with artists in this community.”

The Rev. Melissa Pisco, senior pastor of the church, agrees and says the arts can often say more than what language can convey.

“We do something together and we break through barricades,” she said. “It is a ministry of bridge-building with people and with God. Art breaks down those backgrounds that separate us. Everyone is welcome here.”

Bringing healing to people

Charm Walters says there were two things that carried her through the difficult times in her life: dance and God.

Dr. Carol Hoffman-Guzman (left), director of Arts at St. John’s, and Charm Walters, who developed the Rhythmic Rapture outreach dance program, believe the arts can transform both individuals and a community — spiritually, socially and personally — and that the church should be part of that, a main tenet behind the arts program. Photo by Thomas Routzong. Photo #07-0668.

“Spirituality can be expressed through the arts,” she said. “Having arts in a sacred place is just natural. What brought me back to the church were the artistic, inclusive activities here.”

Through Arts At St. John’s Walters has launched the nonprofit Rhythmic Rapture outreach program as a way to “use dance and rhythm to heal people.”

Rhythmic Rapture recently received a $7,000 grant from the county, and a psychotherapist has partnered with Walters to help her bring healing to abused, oppressed and homeless women.

The pair recently led a Flamenco dance therapy class at a local homeless shelter, particularly appropriate because Flamenco was created as an artistic release by people who were oppressed, according to Walters

Walters said one of the women in the class refused to participate in the dance therapy.

“She just sat with her arms crossed,” Walters said. “I offered to dance for her. As I danced, her face lit up. The next time, she opened up and participated herself.

Walter says the women are very strong in their faith, even though they’ve been “abused and beaten down.”

“This ministry empowers them,” she said. “You see women working things out through their movements and finding healing in what they’re doing. The arts can do something special that other avenues can’t. It reaches people in special ways.”

Tiffany Madeira teaches Sunday school at the church and Middle Eastern dance. She’s also reaching out to women at the shelter through a dance program she developed called Dance Empowerment. Its goal is to help women feel better about themselves.

Hoffman-Guzman assists both women in applying for grants to support their programs, which operate under the St. John’s umbrella.

“The United Methodist Church is a diverse church,” Hoffman-Guzman said. “We have music and dance from different cultures. We want to expose people to different cultures.”

Making connections

In addition to the church’s ministries and arts outreach, St. John’s also provides space for a Montessori school for moderate- and low-income children.

Participants attending the Afroroots Sacred Music concert Feb. 29, 2004, enjoy sacred music from countries and cultures with African roots. Photo courtesy of Arts at St. John’s. Photo #07-0669. Web photo only.

The Montessori Academy offers three learning environments: one for infants, one for toddlers and one for preschoolers and kindergartners. Lead teachers who hold bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and Montessori certifications manage the levels.

“We recently did an outreach event that linked the church, the arts program and the Montessori school,” Pisco said. “Both children and adults created and decorated masks and talked about how we live with masks on in different areas of our lives.”

The academy is the first school to host a new cultural program called World of Art, featuring a different talent each week, according to the church’s Web site. One week the children were shown how to belly dance. Another week they were introduced to sign language. The program often features music and dance that is typical of a certain culture or region.

“Everything we do has some message,” Hoffman-Guzman said. “Some are fun. Some are inspirational. Some are confrontational. We want people to begin to look at the stereotypes that they have of others. Our arts program transforms the community and artists, but it also transforms us. It renews a sense of spirituality in us all.”

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Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.

United Methodists celebrate growth of Haitian church from Miami to California By Steven Skelley

United Methodists celebrate growth of Haitian church from Miami to California

By Steven Skelley

Published by UM News Service at http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/1717

The Rev. Luc Dessieux and Jocelyne Jean-Baptiste help others remember the birth of  Haitian United Methodist churches in Florida and the United States. Dessieux helped launch Grace Haitian United Methodist Church, the first Haitian congregation; Jean-Baptiste was one of its first worshippers. Photo by Steven Skelley, Photo #06-441. Web photo only.

In 1979 a man named Luc Dessieux fled his Haitian homeland in fear for his family’s lives. An illegal immigrant, he was imprisoned in the United States for three weeks.


Just two years later, God led Dessieux to launch the first Haitian United Methodist Church in his new homeland.

From this one small beginning in Little Haiti, Miami, 18 Haitian United Methodist congregations in Florida and across New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Georgia and California were born.

That first Haitian congregation was Grace Haitian United Methodist Church. It’s motto today is “Grace Haitian United Methodist: Where Everybody Is Somebody,” and that attitude was evident there Sept. 10 during the 25th anniversary celebration of the church and Haitian ministry in the United States.

Twenty-five years ago Bishop James Lloyd Knox was superintendent of what was then called the Miami District. He recalled how he came to know Dessieux. “Luc had washed ashore on Palm Beach,” Knox said. “Immigration had taken him to its facility in Immokalee. They held him there for three weeks. Luc’s brother, Pierre, lived in Miami and had somehow gotten Luc released.”

Dessieux, now an ordained elder in the Florida Conference, had been a school teacher in Haiti. He was also the assistant pastor of a nine-congregation Methodist circuit in the Cap Haitien area. A terrorist group called the Ton Ton Macoute threatened to kill his family unless he left Haiti. He fled in 1979 and did not see his family for six years.

In the fall of 1980, Dessieux contacted Knox about creating a Creole-language congregation. The Rev. Michael Loomis and the congregation of Grace United Methodist Church agreed to provide that opportunity. On Sept. 11, 1981, the first Haitian United Methodist congregation in the United States was formally recognized. Dessieux, now a local pastor, became the minister of that church.

“It was possible to get funding from the district, the Florida Conference and the then National Division of the Board of Global Ministries for pastoral support,” Knox said. “The Haitian congregation flourished.”
 

A banner hung at Grace Haitian United Methodist Church announces the 25th anniversary of the church. Photo by Steven Skelley, Photo #06-442. Web photo only.

By 1991 the church had more than 350 members. “Grace Haitian United Methodist Church is considered the mother-church, at least by the Haitians in Florida,” Knox said.

The Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries and the United Methodist
Committee on Relief gave the district funds for a number of Haitian ministries, including a ministry with Haitian and Hispanic women and children and a refugee resettlement program for Haitians, according to Knox.


The Rev. Deborah A. McLeod, superintendent of the South East District, which includes the Miami area, said the six Haitian congregations in the district are among the district’s strongest churches “in terms of average attendance, spiritual maturity and their evangelistic and mission efforts. There are many professions of faith each year in all these congregations.”

She added: “The Haitian-American United Methodist pastors are among the hardest-working pastors. They are often the only paid employee of the church, serving as spiritual leader, counselor, social worker, translator, friend in legal proceedings, immigration advisor, organizer of youth activities and driver of the church van. We have the finest men and women serving as pastors of our Haitian congregations.”

The Rev. Preval Floreal, the current pastor of Grace Haitian church, stood during the celebration and asked the congregation, “Has God been good to you?” They immediately stood and shouted, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” punctuating each “yes” with raised hands.

Grace Haitian United Methodist Church was filled to overflowing during the celebration of its 25th anniversary and the Haitian ministry it helped launch in the United States. Photo by Steven Skelley, Photo #06-443. Web photo only.

“We have gathered here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Haitian ministry here in the United States of America,” Floreal said. “We thank God for all of you who have gathered together to praise and lift up the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”


Jocelyne Jean-Baptiste was one of the church’s first worshipers. “We feel God here,” she said. “He has done so much. We see people who have worshiped here for many, many years, and we see young people coming in. We see God doing something here.” She said the church’s revival meetings sometimes last until midnight.

Wilfred Toussaint attended the celebration with his wife, Julie. He said he feels the church is very important to the community. “We have a very helpful pastor, and the church is reaching out to the community. We formed PATC: People Acting Together for this Community. We meet to discuss the needs of the community, like transportation, education, immigration and people in need of housing.”

Floreal shared the stories of people who had come to know Christ through the church, including one woman who attributed the healing of a hemorrhage to giving “her heart to the Lord.”
“And there is another lady,” Floreal said. “God sent her to the church. I went to her house and began to witness to her. … One day after that, she came to the church and now she is coming here. The Lord is working.”

Others agree. “God has been working in our lives here for years,” the Rev. Fabolon Pradel said. “We try to touch lives in many ways because people have different needs.”

The Rev. Mike Oliver, superintendent of the Atlantic Central District, added: “I drove down to support the Haitian church in their celebration. I think God is using them in this community to do many good things.”

The celebration included a variety of special speakers, choirs, dancers and communion. The sanctuary was filled to capacity, and as many as 25 people stood in the narthex watching through the glass windows.

The praise team opened the celebration by leading the congregation in singing “How Great Thou Art,” while a clergy processional including Florida Conference Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker, Knox, Dessieux, Floreal and other conference pastors entered the sanctuary. The welcome was given in both English and Creole.


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Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.

Children’s Home opens 24-hour emergency shelter By Steven Skelley

Children’s Home opens 24-hour emergency shelter

By Steven Skelley

Published by UM News Service at http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/2659

The Florida United Methodist Children’s Home has partnered with the Community Partnership for Children to open an emergency shelter for children removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, abandonment or family breakdown.

Ron Zychowski, chief executive officer of Community Partnership for Children, and Jennifer Raby, coordinator of the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home Emergency Shelter Care, cut the ribbon at the dedication ceremony for the new shelter. Photo courtesy of Florida United Methodist Children’s Home. Photo #08-0729.

It’s the first of its kind in the area.

The Chatlos-Quillian cottage on the Children’s Home camps was previously used as a residential care facility, but has been rededicated for emergency shelter care placement for children and youth ages 6 to 17.

Children who have no other place to go enter the shelter immediately after entering care with the Department of Children and Families or when removed from their current placement, no matter the time of day or night.

The cottage officially opened as the emergency shelter last July. It can accommodate 10 children who need immediate placement and provides specialized educational, therapeutic, clinical, recreational and spiritual services. The goal is for professional staff to provide a stable environment for children to be evaluated and appropriately placed in long-term care.

Community Partnership for Children provides temporary housing for children who must be removed from their homes while working to place them in safe, long-term care, whether through foster care or adoption. It currently cares for 1,234 children, but that number changes daily according to Jo Lynn Deal, chief development officer for the organization.

Statistics provided by the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home from 2006 show the Children’s Home served 135 children in residential care and 145 in foster care. More than 20 children were adopted.

Mike Galloway, president and chief executive officer of the Children’s Home, says he is excited about adding this program to the home’s array of services.

“While we have historically focused on long-term care for children during our 99 years of service, we have adapted as the needs of children have changed,” he said. “Children in crisis need, and deserve, the best we can give them as we help them cope with the traumatic circumstances that bring them to us.”

Ron Zychowski, Community Partnership for Children’s chief executive officer, says he is thankful for everyone who has worked to make “good things happen for children.” He says the partnership helps everyone better meet the needs of children during a challenging time in their lives.

“The new children’s shelter will enable us to offer a safe and loving environment for children removed from their homes while we prepare a comprehensive plan of care for them,” he said.

According to Miranda Levy, public relations coordinator for the Children’s Home, removing a child during a time of crisis causes major decreases in that child’s self-esteem and self-worth, as well as “behavioral management difficulties due to grief and loss, feeling of worthlessness, feelings of hopelessness for the future, fears of abandonment, and difficulty trusting others.”

She says the Children’s Home helps children cope with these challenges by providing a host of services, from a safe, structured environment in which their basic needs are met to “therapeutic support from a therapist to cope with grief/loss, behavioral analysis services for behavior management and stabilization, assessment by a licensed clinician to recommend other support or services needed and to help facilitate permanency.”

Jennifer A. Raby is coordinator of the emergency shelter. She says it is amazing how quickly the children and youth being helped by the shelter stabilize their behaviors and build relationships with the staff in the short time they are at the shelter. She says many remain in contact with the staff for support in their future placements.

Levy said past residents frequently call the shelter to keep in touch with staff and thank them for providing a safe atmosphere and support while going through such a difficult time. She says some have even said, “I want to work for Shelter when I turn 18.”

Raby says she has personally been touched by the work she does. “I have learned that before we try to help children prepare for some of the challenges they face in life, they need a solid basis and foundation, stable caregivers, structure, food, clothing, rest, hygiene, recreation, exposure to spirituality,” she said. “Children need to learn, but this evidence of bonding, trust and the planting seeds is a big part of what gives me fulfillment in this ministry.”

The Florida United Methodist Children’s Home has been providing residential care to school-aged boys and girls for nearly 100 years. It provides foster care and adoption services to Volusia, Seminole and Flagler counties. Florida United Methodist Children’s Home is one of four foster care service providers for Community Partnership for Children.

“The Florida United Methodist Children’s Home has a long tradition since its founding in 1908 as a provider serving both private-placed and state-placed children and youth,” Levy said, adding people can support the ministry with “donations of all types, not just monetary, and lots of prayers for our children.”

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Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.