​Edinburg First United Methodist Church

Dear EFUMC family, May is a month of held breath. The alleluias of Easter are still ringing in the church, but all around us life feels full and hurried. The school year leans toward its close. Teachers, students, and families are pressing toward the finish line. There is excitement in the air, but also fatigue. For those who have taught or loved someone through the rhythms of a school year, May carries its own kind of ache: exhaustion, anticipation, and the longing to become

Dear Edinburg FUMC family, I have been thinking a lot about the cross—which is to be expected of a pastor during Holy Week. But as we have been walking with Jesus through the Gospel of Luke this Lenten season, I have been turning over in my head Jesus’ call to his disciples to “take up their cross and follow [Him.]” I have been asking myself: what does it mean to take up the cross? Perhaps some of us have been taught that carrying the cross means enduring suffering

Dear Edinburg First Family, The season of Lent is now in full swing, and I have to tell you—Lent is my favorite time in church because in Lent, we slow down. We go back to our roots. We take stock of who we are before God. In Gospel of Luke 3:21–22, Jesus stands in the waters of the Jordan. The heavens open. The Spirit descends in bodily form. A voice speaks: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And then, Luke tells us that Jesus, “full of the Holy Spiri