Our Pastor: Rev. Doyle Burbank-Williams

Rev. Doyle Burbank-Williams became the lead pastor of new Visions Community United Methodist Church in July of 2017.  An ordained elder and full member of the Great Plains Annual Conference, Doyle has served United Methodist churches for over 30 years.
An artist by nature and training, Doyle’s artwork has been displayed throughout the Midwest. Most recently, Doyle created 2 of the hearts for the the Nebraska by Heart public art project which celebrated Nebraska’s 150th anniversary of statehood. Doyle works in acrylics, pastels, and watercolor and considers art to be his primary spiritual discipline.
These are challenging times for any church. Doyle believes that these are times that demand all of our creativity, compassion, and imagination. As we follow Christ in these days, new forms are being explored in places where the Spirit dares to inhabit. It is up to us to be bold enough to take part in that recreation!
Doyle can be reached at rev.doyle@newvisionsumc.org

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Life Notes

Every week Doyle write some thoughts framing the following Sunday's worship. Our Life Groups use these notes as a conversation starter each each. Many of our members and friends use them for their personal reflection and devotions.

LIFE Group Encouragement and Flow
Train Tracks Across the Alps, week 2
November 17, 2019

Beginning in Silence: Invite each other into a quiet time. Let your hearts and minds be calm in the silence. Take a moment to invite the Spirit into your being. Take a breath to feed the cells of your body, and exhale all the things your body is done with.

How is it with your soul?
Still in silence, examine the state of your soul: is it contented? Discomforted? Hungry (and what for)? Has this changed from yesterday or last week? What does your soul need today?

The Leader May Share a Brief Centering Prayer     

“Between Austria and Italy there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Austria and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.”


Luke 13:6-9
Then he told this parable: “A farmer had a fig tree growing in the vineyard, and went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. Saying to the servant who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
“‘Please,’ the servant replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Grace has a lot to do with time. When time has run out, we often say that we are up against a deadline. The word ‘deadline” refers to a line drawn in a prison yard. If a prisoner stepped over that line, they could be shot without warning. Cross the line and you are dead: a deadline. Grace erases the deadline.
To the eyes of the vineyard owner (I’m not sure why a fig tree was growing in a vineyard!), the fig tree was a waste of space and resources. It had met its deadline. Lots of times this parable is used as some kind of warning: “Get your act together and start producing, or next year we start the bonfire!” But I believe that this is less about deadlines and more about grace. It is not a warning about destruction, it is about time to become fruitful. My guess is that in a year’s time that servant will again argue for more time: “Look! There’s new shoots and blossoms. Let’s wait another year and see if there will be fruit!” Grace is time.
In last week’s notes, I told the hard truth that for the last decade we have been outspending our giving by five figures a year. The grace is that we still have reserves to draw from - enough for maybe another 10 years at this rate. Yet the call of Christ asks us to do more with this time than wait it out.
They say they built a train track across the Alps before there was a train that could make the climb. They built because they knew the train would come. Lest we think we are a barren fig tree, look at the signs of the fruit growing among us already: We had almost 50 kids come to our Halloween party. We are building relationships with folk in our neighborhoods as we give away thousands of articles of clothing through Harold’s Closet. We strive for rich, meaningful worship every Sunday morning. We name and support the struggles of recovery for those in our family and those around us through Faith Partners. Kids Are Great touches the lives of a lot of young people, and through them, their families, too.
Christ is giving us the grace and time to prune and fertilize and encourage new growth. Christ is giving us the grace and time to lay new tracks across the steep grades of the future, for the train that isn’t here yet. I believe this is the moment for bold visioning. The time for tweaking is past. Christ is extending the deadline. Let’s not waste this grace.


Name some of the steep mountains you face in your life. Who has given you grace to grow and blossom? What ministry has been so audacious that you’ve been afraid to dream it? Where is Christ pointing us that we have been afraid to look? What does it mean for you personally, and for New Visions, to have faith that some day a train will come that can make the climb?

In The New Visions Community, 
we seek to strengthen and encourage one another through LIFE* groups; 
How is God inviting us to live out the radical compassion of God’s kin_dom

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LIFE Group Encouragement and Flow
Train Tracks Across the Alps, week 1
November 10, 2019

Beginning in Silence: Invite each other into a quiet time. Let your hearts and minds be calm in the silence. Take a moment to invite the Spirit into your being. Take a breath to feed the cells of your body, and exhale all the things your body is done with.

How is it with your soul?
Still in silence, examine the state of your soul: is it contented? Discomforted? Hungry (and what for)? Has this changed from yesterday or last week? What does your soul need today?

The Leader May Share a Brief Centering Prayer     




Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

It is time to take off the rose colored glasses and look at the cold reality of the world we live as the New Visions Community. We do not do ministry in a pink fuzzy vacuum, but in a world that relies on currency and commitment. In other words, it costs money to exist in the United States in 2019, and that has been the case since our church began. The truth of the matter is that it costs more money than we take in. 
Let me say that I am deeply grateful for those of you who give faithfully, and even sacrificially, to keep ministry happening at New Visions. There are a lot of factors that stand in the way of our keeping up. Big picture: our culture continues to shift away from organized religion (our denomination’s exclusive shenanigans are not helpful either), and the generations raised on regular giving are passing away.Some of the details: a full- time elder in the United Methodist Church (even one who receives minimum salary) is expensive; and the costs of maintaining three church buildings is more than we can sustain. 
But the truth is, we have been relying on the giving of those who built these churches. Year in and year out, we draw from our reserves to make ends meet. In fact, over the last decade, we have withdrawn $15,000-20,000 per year to operate. 
There is some good news that our forebears were generous. We have not tapped out our resources, but there is a bottom to this well.So we have some resources and we still have some time. And the real question is, what do we do with them?
Hard news like this, in the midst of genuine effort to make progress, feels like weeds are growing among the good crops we’ve planted. Sometimes, though, all we focus on is the weeds, and we are apt to be like the workers ready to raze the whole field. But the eyes of grace see the good crops still, and realizes that there is yet time to make the harvest.
The quote which is our theme comes from the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun.” In it, Frances (a recent unhappy divorcee) buys a rundown villa in Tuscany, and then wonders why.
Frances: This house has three bedrooms. What if there’s never anyone to sleep in them? And the kitchen - what if there’s never anyone to cook for? I do, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking, “you idiot! I mean you - you’re the stupidest woman in the world - you bought a house for a life you don’t even have.”
Martini (her realtor):Why did you do it then?
Frances: Because I’m sick of being afraid all the time. And because I still want things. I want a wedding in this house. And I want a family in this house. 
Martini: Signora, between Austria and Italy there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Austria and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come. 
So, it seems to me, it is time to lay some track into the future. We can bemoan the weeds around us. Or we can see the train that isn’t quite built yet, but that will one day make the climb. We can envision the church that is effective, vital, and creative well into the 21st Century. God has not given up on us. Neither should we.

What are the good seeds we have planted? When has grace led you to an unexpected place? Who has given you a vision for your life? 

In The New Visions Community, 
we seek to strengthen and encourage one another through LIFE* groups; 
How is God inviting us to live out the radical compassion of God’s kin_dom