Welcome Message

{ May 31st, 2008 }

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To the Moreno Valley United Methodist Church web site! We are delighted that you are taking some precious time to get to know us. Please explore our site to learn about the life and ministry of our church. If you are living in this area, we hope that you will find our congregation friendly and helpful, and that our service of worship will enable you to experience the presence of God.

We invite you to join us and to experience spiritual and personal growth within a caring church family. If there is anything we might do to help you, do not hesitate to call. Hope to “See you in church!”

Rev. Dr. Martin Niponi Finau

Who is our Pastor?

{ May 31st, 2008 }

Name: Roy R. Riggs
Born: York, Nebraska
Married: Cheryl
Children: Elaine, Jason (both of whom are now really old)
Favorite Movies: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, “13th Warrior”, “The Producers”
Last Books Read: “Harry Potter” series (read twice), “The Kite Runner”

Pastor Roy can be called Rev. Roy, Rev. Riggs, Roy or just “Hey you!”, it doesn’t really matter to him. In fact, for the thirty-five years that he has been in the ministry he has taken delight in the people sometimes make that he doesn’t “sound like a minister”. His goal from the beginning has been to show Jesus as a lover of people.

Roy and his wife Cheryl have been married for thirty-nine years, and they still think that the other one is the most fascinating person that they have ever met. Cheryl has a Ph.D. in Medieval History from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and is a full Professor at Calif. State University in San Bernardino. Cheryl shares Roy’s love of Notre Dame football, flying kites and camping beside the ocean.

If you look closely at Roy’s car you will see that he has a personalized license plate that reads, RRGOOFY. He chose that because Goofy is his role model. Goofy is never mean or unkind, he never quits, and he never stops enjoying life. These are qualities that Roy aspires to in his own life.

As a pastor, Roy considers all people to be God’s special creation, regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, or gender orientation. He doesn’t much care when Jesus returns, although he is certain that he will; and he believes that the “gospel of love” is more powerful than the “gospel of fear”. He believes that judgement of a person’s life should be left to God, and that we are each responsible for our life.

Roy’s Ramblings 6/08

{ May 31st, 2008 }

We are very nearly at the end of our second year together working on the ‘garden’ of our church. (Can you believe that?) During this time we have killed big weeds (our mortgage arrearage), nurtured and given life to two beautiful plants (our Kid’s Church and Youth Group), and seen the revival of a plant that we feared was dead (our choir). The garden of our church is looking better.

But, sometimes what happens with our gardens is, once they’ve been improved, we start to ignore them again. It’s like we figure that the work is done, so now we caan quit working on our garden. But then, what starts to happen? Of sourse what happens is that the weeds begin to grow again, and if we don’t stay vigilant, they’ll soon take over our church again. You can’t just take care of a garden once, and then expect that you can just forget about it.

And yes, we do have some weeds to take care of. Since the first of the year, we’ve only had seven families visit our church for the first time. Why is that a weed? Because if we don’t make an effort to bring in new people, just like our garden at home without new plants, our garden will die. We constantly need to introduce new plants into our garden to make it beautiful, strong and healthy.

Another weed that needs our attention is leadership. We’ve got great leaders, but some of them are getting worn out, and a church without leaders is dead already. New leaders, like new plants, must be planted and encouraged to grow. This means that all of us, but especially our present leaders, need to constantly look for new leaders whom they can in turn nurture.

So, let us continue to attend to our garden of a church. Let’s work on the weeds and encourage the new plants. We can’t turn our back on it and expect it to be a healthy garden without any effort on our part. Together, we must love it, cherish it, and tend it.

I’ll see YOU in church.

-Roy