The Significance of October 1

Today is October 1, 2017.

After 46 years as an active United Methodist Pastor, I am retired as of today. Oh, I officially retired this past July 1, 2017 at the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference meeting in Peoria, Illinois. However, Bishop Frank Beard, the Staff-Parish Relations Committee of the Troy United Methodist Church, and the incoming pastor, Rev. Dr. Andy Adams, gave permission for me to serve as Pastor Emeritus during the past three months. During July, August, and September, I helped with the transition of the pastoral change at Troy.

On October 1, 1988, I was appointed pastor of the Troy United Methodist Church by Bishop Woodie White. So when yesterday rolled around, I literally completed 29 full years associated with that congregation! I'm grateful for the unusual opportunity to be at one place for such a long time.

I hoped the three month transition period would be helpful to the new pastor and to the church. I believe it was. But, it was also good for me. Even though I retired in July, I still had some connection to Troy and still spent several days there as a staff member and still had things to do and still knew what was happening with the church.

The three months were up yesterday. Today, I'm really retired!

Now, this October 1 is a new date to remember: my "real" retirement begins! I'm excited to see what unfolds. I'll keep you posted!

As for now, I will just say I'm grateful to God for my calling to serve as a pastor and a messenger of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great 46 years!

Harvest Legacy

A few weeks ago, Sharon Price, one of my dad's first cousins, conducted a "Price Legacy" tour. One of the places we visited was Likely Cemetery in Greene County, IL. One of the persons buried in that cemetery is Henry Price. Henry was the first "Price" ancestor to come to America. Born in Germany in  1819, he came to Greene County, Illinois, in the 1840s. He became a United States Citizen on October 29, 1866 -- almost exactly 150 years ago! Sharon was kind enough to give me a copy of his citizenship papers. I was fascinated to note that he had to sign the paper in his original German name: Heinrich Preise. A farmer by occupation, he owned a 380 acre farm at the time of his death in 1900.

Henry was my great-great grandfather. Many of his descendants were also farmers on other farms in Greene County, including my great-grandfather, George, my grandfather, Othel, and my father, Basil. Presently my brother, Greg, is finishing up the 2016 harvest on our Greene County farm.

Which brings me to something that I noticed on Henry's tombstone that made an impression on me. It says this:  "SEED TIME AND HARVEST SHALL NOT CEASE."


This phrase is part of a verse in Genesis 8: “As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (verse 22)

Some years the harvest has been good; some years the harvest has not been good. In some wet years seed time is a challenge; some times it is easier to get all the seeds in the ground in a timely manner. This year, the harvest is abundant. However, we give thanks for the harvest in all years.

Farming techniques have dramatically changed in my life-time -- it would be almost impossible for Henry to fathom the changes since he was around. But a few things have not changed---farmers plant the seeds; farmers harvest the grain, but God makes it possible for the basic process to happen: the seed sprouts and grows; all by itself the soil produces the grain. (Some phrases from Jesus' teaching in Mark 4.)

I don't know too much more about my great-great grandfather, Henry. I am impressed and grateful that he reminded me (as I looked at his tombstone) in the midst of Harvest 2016 that "seed time and harvest shall not cease." That promise has outlasted him and will outlast us "as long as the earth endures!" Thanks be to God.

"Consulting My Own Preference"

While reading a biography of President James Garfield (Destiny of the Republic, by Candice Millard), I was struck by this comment he made:  "I did not feel it right to consult my own preference in such a case."


Here's the story around that statement. In 1862, James Garfield was a Brigadier General in the Union Army. He also had been elected to congress. However, he did not take his congressional seat until a year or so later when President Abraham Lincoln asked him to (he was still actively serving in the military).


Here's what Garfield said, "I have resigned my place in the army and have taken my seat in Congress. I did this with regret, for I had hoped not to leave the field till every insurgent state had returned to its allegiance. But the President told me he dared not risk a single vote in the House and he needed men in Congress who were practically acquainted with the wants of the army. I did not feel it right to consult my own preference in such a case."


In light of a call of God on our lives; in light of the mission of the church that Jesus has given us; in light of the hurts and hopes of people around us, do we "consult [our] own preferences"?  Or in such cases as these do we have the courage to say "I [do] not feel it right to consult my own preference"?


This little story from James Garfield's life was an encouragement to me. How about you?

A Poem I Wrote this Afternoon

Once in a while we should just say thank you to those who help make disciples of Jesus Christ…

Thanks to the adults who work with youth,

Who live out the gospel and share the truth.

Thanks to the groups whose music inspires us,

And propels us to live as Jesus requires us.

Thanks to the teachers who teach young and old,

The stories of Jesus, rehearsed and retold.

Thanks to the team who cuts the grass,

Who cares for the mowers and buys the gas.

Thanks to people who sacrificially give,

Money invested that will eternally live.

Thanks to the servants – behind the scene saints,

Who serve, and love people minus complaints.

Thanks be to God for his Son, Christ Jesus,

Who has come to the world in order to free us!

(c)2015 Dennis D Price

Significance of April 2 in Methodist HIstory

I always think about the significance of this day (April 2) in Methodist history. It was the first day (according to John Wesley’s journal) that he submitted to the idea of field preaching – taking the gospel message of salvation outside the walls of the church. Here are a couple of his journal entries.


From the Journal of John Wesley:



 March 31, 1739. . In the evening I reached Bristol and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarcely reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; I had been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.




Monday, April 2, 1739.— At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people. The Scripture on which I spoke was this (is it possible anyone should be ignorant that it is fulfilled in every true minister of Christ?): “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”

Portion of a letter from Francis Asbury to John Wesley (September, 1783)

I have been reading a biography of Francis Asbury:  American Saint. Francis Asbury and the Methodists by John Wigger.

In a letter that Francis Asbury sent to John Wesley in September, 1783, he writes: "No man can make a proper change upon paper, to send one here, and another there without knowing the circuits and the gifts of all the preachers, unless he is always out among them."

For any who are involved in the appointment process in the United Methodist Church, there still is great wisdom here.

Quote from Peter Cartwright (early Methodist Circuit Rider in Illinois)

I ran across this quote by Peter Cartwright today:

"It has often been a question that I shall never be able to answer on earth, whether I have done most good by preaching or distributing religious books. For more than fifty years I have firmly believed that it was a part and parcel of a Methodist preacher's most sacred duty to circulate good books wherever he goes among people."

What is the 21st century equivalent of the practice of circulating good books? Whatever it is, are we engaged in it as diligently as the early Methodist preachers?