“I Love my Church.”
These words moved me when I heard Don Magnus say them last Sunday in a 56-second video that is worth much more than the minute it takes to watch.
He testified to the joy of serving and giving to something you love. It was only fitting that after the 11:00 service, we consecrated our new Birds Nest maintenance building and, in a surprise moment, revealed two commemorative stones with brass plaques affixed to them (Thank you, Dave Gray). One of the stones honors all of those who have served as Yardbirds, beautifying and repairing just about anything that needs it around and inside our church building. The other stone dedicates the new Birds Nest to the founders and leaders of the Yardbirds over the past 35 years: Don Magnus, Bob Bontz, Jim Murrell, and Tom Durdin.
Founding Yardbirds Don Magnus, Bob Bontz, Jim Murrell, and Tom Durdin stand beside the newly dedicated plaques at the Birds Nest maintenance building, honoring 35 years of faithful service.
It was a short but deeply meaningful recognition of this group who love their church—and they represent a host of others in our church family who give and serve with the same spirit.
Last Sunday, we received pledges for more dollars for 2026 ministry than we did on the first Sunday of our stewardship emphasis a year ago. A lot of people brought their “batons”—their Estimates of Giving—and handed them off into big baskets down front while praying at the rail for what God will do through our church next year. We also received gifts last week for our Free to Grow debt elimination campaign. With funds in hand, our remaining debt now stands at about $72,000. In April it was $750,000. It’s what happens when people who “love their church” serve and give with joy.
I am confident that we will be debt-free by Thanksgiving week, November 23, when we are scheduled to burn our mortgage note. I know we can overcome, by the end of the year, the deficit that we, like most churches, face this time of year. I also know that we can fund all that we feel called to do in ministry in 2026. All it requires is for the 600 families who call FUMC Plano their home to say with their heart’s giving, “I love my church.”
And as we’ve witnessed again and again, God is more than gracious to meet our every need.
See you Sunday as we talk about prayer that matters.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
Wisdom in the Meeting
Biblically, divine wisdom comes to the body when the body meets together:
Jethro advises his son-in-law Moses on how to manage the people (Exodus 18).
Jesus persistently pulled his disciples aside for teaching and practice that strengthened the witness of their doing (e.g., John 6:1–13).
The early church discovered a new way of doing ministry that involved more lay people, expanding the church’s reach (Acts 6).
Since then, the Church—in most of its iterations—has discovered and practiced the power of meeting to discern divine wisdom moving forward:
The Vatican and its dioceses meet.
The Southern Baptist Convention meets.
Lutheran Synods meet.
The United Methodist General and Annual Conferences meet.
In every instance, there is prayer, worship, and thoughtful discussion to discern the Spirit’s leading in a variety of issues the Church faces, both internally and externally, for the sake of Christ’s ministry.
Several years ago, FUMC Plano began holding Town Hall meetings led by our lay leaders to present information and encourage the congregation to speak about the issues we face together. We will hold our next Town Hall Meeting this Sunday, October 19, at 10 a.m. in the Sanctuary. Yes, it conflicts with the Sunday School hour—but the issues are important enough to warrant that shared time. This hour provides us with the best opportunity for broad participation in issues that affect us all.
The chairs of our Missions, Trustees, Finance, Staff-Parish Relations, and Church Council will give brief reports, allowing most of our time to focus on your questions. Handouts will be available, and the meeting will also be livestreamed.
We work to give every voice a voice, because in doing so, we better discern the wisdom of what the Spirit is saying through all of us who make up this body of Christ.
I hope you will attend.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
How Does 2% Make 98% of the Difference?
By now, most everyone who considers FUMC Plano as “my church” should have received an envelope with the red-stamped question: Will You Be Part of the 2% Solution? The enclosed letter claims that 2% can make 98% of the difference. How is that possible?
Your church has reported that we are about $300,000 in the red with three months to go. Our expenses are slightly higher than expected, but it is giving for ministry that lags. $300,000 may seem like a large number until you consider the power of numbers, specifically about 600 “family units” who make up the FUMC Plano family.
The median income (half make more; half make less) for an individual in Plano is $56,045 (2023 data)—more if there is more than one person in the household. But let’s stay with the lower number. The average charitable giving rate in the U.S. is about 2.1%; Christians in the U.S. average about 2.3%. God asks for 10%. But let’s stay with the lower, historical percentage.
If 300 of our 600 families gave 2.1% of a $56,045 income, the calculation would be:
300 × .021 × $56,045 = $353,083.50
And this calculation does not account for the other 300 families who call FUMC Plano “my church.” While perhaps small in the eyes of some, 2% makes more than 98% of the difference!
I have heard people say, “I can’t give much.” And I say to them, “You underestimate your power!” This is especially true when added together with 300 other “widow’s mites.” There are seasons for us all—because of health, job, or family-cost issues—when we cannot give as much as we wish. But we all can give to the God who always gives first. And when joined with the other faithful souls who make up our church, your giving makes all the difference in the world.
$300,000 is a big number for these last three months, and the approximately $2,000,000 budget for 2026 is a large number too … but not for the family of FUMC Plano, who have faithfully risen to the challenge for 177 years. And it’s not too big for Jesus, because “with God all things are possible!” Consider faithfully the gift of God’s grace in your life, and then ask the question: Will I be part of the 2% Solution?
Rising with you on eagle’s wings,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
Our Communion Rail Offering: WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY
David, Liliana, and Emma celebrating his doctorate from Perkins School of Theology (SMU), December 2020.
This Sunday, October 5, is World Communion Sunday. United Methodists around the globe will celebrate communion with Christians of all denominations, recognizing our unity in Christ as we join together worldwide in Holy Communion.
Embracing this commitment, United Methodists dedicate this day to nurturing diverse leadership within the church. Gifts received support scholarships and leadership training for underrepresented students.
Contributions fund scholarships for U.S. and international students, as well as grants that strengthen inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. Last year, over $360,000 was raised to advance these initiatives:
50% of funds provide scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students of color pursuing ordained ministry.
35% of funds support worldwide training in inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. These In-Service Training Grants help recruit, train, and retain people of color in leadership across all levels of church ministry. Imagine the impact of one World Communion Sunday scholarship recipient on the many lives of people, leaders, pastors, and future pastors.
15% of funds support leadership development among partner churches and communities in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and communities of color in the U.S.
One such recipient is David Rangel, who grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Monterrey, Mexico, in a devout Christian family of lay leaders and pastors. As a boy, he dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player until he entered engineering school.
After graduating from the Engineering School in Monterrey, Rangel joined a mission trip to Dallas, TX, helping a United Methodist church connect with its community. Though he was engaged in meaningful ministry, he lacked the financial resources to pursue his calling.
“It was the United Methodist Church that opened its doors for me to begin my pastorate as a local pastor,” Rangel says. “Later, the church provided the financial support to become a permanent U.S. resident so that I could attend seminary.”
With a master’s degree completed, Rangel sought to continue doctoral studies. The General Board of Global Ministries, through World Communion Sunday offerings, supported his pursuit of a Doctorate at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.
Rangel’s ministry has been innovative and wide-reaching:
Developing the first Spanish-speaking multi-site model in the Legacy North Texas Conference, opening two campuses in his previous appointment.
Creating a Spanish-language Leadership Institute.
Producing a Spanish leadership podcast, Liderazgo y Estrategias Ministeriales (“Leadership and Ministry Strategies”).
Currently, he is forming a coaching cohort for Spanish-speaking pastors, serves with the Hispanic Latino Planters Group (which evaluates the work of the National Plan with the General Board of Discipleship Ministries), and pastors the largest Spanish-speaking church in the Horizon Texas Conference at Custer Road en Español.
Rangel—and many other scholarship recipients—are making a difference because of your gifts to this Special Sunday offering.
Please give generously to the World Communion Sunday offering on October 5! Every penny you give goes directly to people who need this support.
Pogo Was Right
Pogo Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, The Ohio State University
Pogo was a beloved cartoon character featured in newspapers across the country from the 1940s to the 1970s. His creator, Walt Kelly, famously had Pogo looking at the man-made trash littering his forest home and saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
That line came to me as I sadly pondered yet another senseless and tragic killing last week—this time in front of the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. The targets, according to investigators, were ICE agents, but the victims were Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez and Norlan Guzman Fuentes, both shackled in the back of the ICE van that came under fire. Garcia-Hernandez was a father of four, and his wife, Stephany Guffeny, is expecting their fifth. She said her husband was a “good man, a loving father, and the provider of our family” (NPR, 9/30/25). Miguel Angel had lived in the U.S. for 20 years but did not yet have legal status.
The alleged shooter, Joshua Jahn—like the alleged shooter of Charlie Kirk, and the alleged shooter at Evergreen High School the same day, and the alleged shooter of the Minnesota representatives—was not an immigrant but a man shaped by fear, anger, and hate, and in this case, from our own backyard. And that is my point—a point we all need to ponder like Pogo: we have met the enemy and it is not a horde of “others.”
There is a very loud narrative in our country that portrays people crossing our border as rapists, drug dealers, criminals, and murderers. The facts do not support that narrative. Our own Justice Department reports that crime rates among those here without legal status, or awaiting asylum hearings (which is legal), are lower than those born in this country.
My reading group just finished the most agonizingly important book I have ever read: Crossing the Line by Sarah Towle. Towle’s wide-ranging research and first-hand work with nonprofit groups serving immigrants along the border more than supports the Justice Department’s statistics about who the real enemy is. Her book upended everything I thought I knew about our country’s decency and its border policies across every Congress and administration of the past 60 years. It is a difficult and fascinating read, and I commend it to you in the name of our shared humanity as people and as Christians. One factoid: in 2023, we imprisoned more than 68,000 children and youth whose only “crime” was arriving with—or being sent alone by—families desperate for a better life. 68,000 is more than any other country in the West.
We have some pondering—and some praying—to do about who our “enemies” really are. “Lord, forgive us, for we know not what we do,” we once confessed before the Great Thanksgiving. This Sunday, we will again share holy communion on our knees together, and fortunately for all of us, Jesus told us to be kind to our enemies, starting with ourselves.
Breathe peace,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
The $2 and 2% Solution
Maci Oh really wanted a Glow-Stick. Our youth were selling them for $5 at the Plano Balloon Festival to raise money for Crossfire Youth Ministry. Maci only had $4, and she told our Youth Minister, Sarah Henson, that $2 of that had to go in the offering plate the next day at church. Sarah, of course, chose grace and let Maci buy a Glow-Stick with the $2 she actually had to spend.
I know the Oh family and can imagine that Maci’s $2 for the offering plate was a tenth, or a tithe, of perhaps a $20 allowance she is given by her parents. Maci already has an understanding and practice of gratefulness that few Christians have, despite “what the Bible says” plentifully on this topic of gratitude and praise. I know this to be true because the national average for giving to all charitable causes is 2.1% of income; the average percentage rate given by Christians in our country is only slightly higher: 2.3% of income. Yet even at that rate, if every church member of most churches gave that to God through their church, few churches would be struggling financially. A first step in this spiritual practice is to move beyond tipping God toward tithing for God and God’s purposes through Christ’s body, the church.
We are putting into our people’s hands a new FAQ sheet that explains the accomplishments and the challenges ahead of us in the last three months of 2025 as we gear up for 2026. We need to discuss and pray together in our families and small groups about our roles in giving for 2025, and our collective giving/funding for ministry in 2026 towards $291,000 current deficit in general ministry. The solutions for both will require participation of all 1,300 people who consider FUMC Plano their church home. To this successful end, I want to commend to you three things:
Like Maci, what would a 10% of income gift to God look like for you? What would 2% look like?
What percentage of giving is God calling you to give back to God for the remainder of 2025?
What percentage of giving is God calling you to give back to God in 2026? We will have Estimate of Giving cards for everyone to use as we work to fund the 2026 Ministry Goals.
Maci’s $2 (tithe) solution plus everyone else’s 2%+ solution will result in the funding we all want to see for the ministries of FUMC Plano in 2025 and 2026.
After all, we all want to see our church “glow.”
Lead Pastor
FUMC Plano
Time to Stop the Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a 1971 study at Stanford University where 24 psychologically stable male college students were selected from a larger pool and randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners in a mock prison set up in the basement of Stanford’s psychology building. The psychologist Philip Zimbardo aimed to explore how situational factors affect behavior.
However, the experiment was stopped after only six days due to the guards’ increasingly abusive, even sadistic, behavior and the prisoners’ severe emotional distress and submissiveness. Questions have been raised since then about Zimbardo’s methods and conclusions, but the experiment remains a testament to how any of us can situationally and quickly live into roles and behaviors that we would otherwise deny and abhor. Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, we call this sin.
Like you, my heart has wept and my mind has been aghast at the murder of Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson, the alleged 22-year-old shooter, like the majority of lone gunmen before him, slid into the dark corners of the internet and into a role and behavior that he would otherwise deny and abhor,
like Desmond Holly, the 16-year-old who allegedly shot two students at Evergreen High School on the same day – Wednesday, Sept. 10;
like Vance Boelter, the 57-year-old who stalked and murdered Minnesota House of Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and of Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and wife Yvette Hoffman, and attempted to murder their daughter Hope Hoffman in June;
like Cody Balmer, the 38-year-old man who struggled financially and once attempted suicide, who firebombed the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro in April.
Unlike the Stanford Prison Experiment, no one knew or was able to stop the slide into horrific sin by each of these males. But there is another slide into extremism that can be stopped, and it involves all of us.
Socially and culturally, we are—often unintentionally—experimenting with extremism, self-righteousness, rigidity, and blame in our rhetoric instead of openness, curiosity, compromise, and dialogue. None of us has a monopoly on the truth; all of us have something to learn from those with whom we disagree. As followers of Jesus, we have to be willing to wade into those rare waters and replenish them; otherwise they will dry up.
I respect Charlie Kirk’s desire to stand as a follower of Jesus. I also respect his invitation to students on college campuses to debate the issues of the day. At our best, this is what we do in a democracy: we debate the merits of ideas, not kill the other person for theirs. Make no mistake: one does not have to pull a trigger to condemn and kill another person in our heart and mind. We are followers of higher law. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:21–22).
It is time to stop this experiment in extremism—where we know we are right and the “other” is obviously wrong and even evil. It is poisoning our souls, the souls of our churches, and the souls of our country. We can do better, and we must do better—all of us. Fortunately, we do not have to do it alone, for God stands by to help us if we but ask. Let’s ask, and stop the experiment, and start rebuilding a better way of living, instead of dying together.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Lead Pastor
FUMC Plano
When is a Front Door More Than a Door?
When it is also an invitation.
You can tell a lot about the inhabitants of a house just by looking at their door and front yard. I recently drove by a house whose owners had allowed the bushes to grow up over the windows, the front door porch light was burned out, and the front door was dark, tired, and bare. Otherwise, the front yard was reasonably well-kept. The message I received was, “Don’t bother stopping here.” Sometimes “No Solicitation” signs in the front yard underscore that message.
Another house I have driven by has a neatly trimmed yard with bright flowers at the base of the bushes, windows with curtains pulled open, and a front door with a beautiful wreath hanging on it. A large, vertical sign hangs next to the door saying, “Welcome!” The message sent and received is quite different from the other house. Here, I would almost expect to knock on the door and meet my next new friend—and maybe be invited in for dinner! I think that’s the message the church wants to send to the neighbors who drive by our “house” every day.
It has been five years since we began this odyssey, but this Sunday, after the 11 a.m. service, we will consecrate and celebrate our new front door, now facing the busy intersection of East Spring Creek Parkway and Parker Road. The new parking lot is ready, and the finishing touches on the landscaping are nearly done. More than 500 bushes and 50 new trees now surround our campus, creating a softer, greener welcome that the City of Plano requires to better align with the “Park Overlay” that is part of our plat. But what excites me even more is the way our Gathering Area was designed. The angled walls around the three southeast doors look like outstretched arms, ready to embrace our neighbors and invite them inside. And soon, a large banner over those doors will make it clear: this is more than just a front door—it’s an open invitation.
This Sunday’s brief, 30-minute consecration is the first of three Bring 1 events that will highlight our reoriented campus. We’ll mark the occasion with special food and fellowship, and we hope neighbors will join us in celebrating this milestone. I encourage you to come, and to bring along someone you haven’t seen in a while. Together, let’s share the joy as we raise the welcome banner to quite literally shout our welcome from the rooftop. That’s when a front door becomes so much more than just a door.
It’s going to be a beautiful Sunday; let’s fill it up!
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor
Proud to be a United Woman in Faith
It always gets a laugh when I tell people that, by the Discipline of the United Methodist Church, every UMC pastor is a United Women in Faith member—and that I am proud to be one! More seriously, it has been the UWF (formerly UMW – United Methodist Women) who have long led our denomination in serious study and reflection on issues that impact God’s children globally.
One of my most enjoyable teaching experiences was teaching a class on global economics at the (then) UMW Missionary School in the mid-90s. Women of all ages from churches around the region gathered to learn about how an “American” car was actually a composite of parts and processes from around the world, often using labor at countries’ borders where workers could be paid a sub-living wage. It was the United Women in Faith who began to raise awareness that the much-touted North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the United States, and Mexico had a dark underbelly for poor families who had few options. While this was certainly an economic and political issue, for these faithful women it was first a moral, Christian, and human rights issue that needed voice and advocacy. Those women are still speaking out wherever God’s children are being unjustly trampled upon … just as Jesus did.
We will not hear of anything so dramatic this Sunday as we lift up our United Women in Faith. But what will remain the same is the boldness of faithful women (and men) to speak up for the grace of Jesus Christ and for those in our world who most need it. “When you did it for the least of these, you did it for me,” Jesus said. We are committed to that at FUMC Plano. Our women will remind us of that as we share communion this Sunday. I am proud of their witness and proud to be one of them!
Summer is over; it’s time to be back in church together and start the fall well together. See you Sunday!
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Take Time to Be Holy
This is the title of an 1882 hymn by William D. Longstaff. Though venerable, its message is eternally contemporary:
Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.
The need to find that place apart from the craziness of the world is not just a vacation need but a daily need. It’s why Jesus pulled His disciples away for some “down time” together (Mark 6:31–32). It’s why I am thankful to hear of our members getting away over the summer or even just a long weekend. It’s why I urge my staff to take their PTO; they are better when they have been away to a quiet space somewhere else for a while. It’s why I am glad when I hear that a member has started a new prayer routine, found a helpful prayer app, or is going on an Emmaus Walk—they are looking to Jesus and “like Him (they) shalt be.”
The extended benefit of this is what Longstaff says in this second verse: “Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.” When we take care of ourselves, we see more clearly the Jesus who is in each other and in the gathered body of Christ; the benefit is exponential for the church.
I have enjoyed our time away in the mountains of Colorado, but I am looking forward to being back with my church family this Labor Day Sunday in order to see Jesus in each one of you. But I tell you in advance: some of our staff will be gone—I told them to go take some time to be holy somewhere!
Breathe peace,
Matt