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This is the Monday I’ve been waiting for! It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving Day, 2023! And the Christmas Album, “We Need A Little Christmas” is finally available! We are making this 10 song Christmas project available online via Facebook, Soundcloud, my website and Youtube. There are links in the description, but here is a quick synopsis of what to expect from the various venues. Facebook will have some of the songs from the album as Music Mondays through the holidays. Soundcloud will have all 10 songs, in a playlist, as individual songs as well as one track that contains all 10 songs. On Youtube, there will be the individual songs set against my flugelhorn friend and partner in this endeavor, Lynn Nash’s outdoor fireplace that he and his wife, Katie, decorated. And there will be one track, that will have all 10 songs, again set with the outdoor fireplace as the backdrop. Ideal for those of you that have a way to show Youtube videos on your TV at home! So here is the first song on our Christmas Album - Deck The Halls In the description, and on my website, linwoodcampbell.com, will be a link to all of the ways you can enjoy our Christmas Album. This Album is totally free - it’s a labor of fun and love from us to all of you. Feel free to share it whenever and however you like. If you enjoy this project and would like to spread a little Christmas joy, please consider making a donation to Lynchburg Daily Bread. My late father-in-law, Neal O'Brien, volunteered there for many years. Daily Bread serves hot meals 365 days of the year to those who have fallen on hard times. The numbers continue to grow in our area and the need is great.  Here’s a link to their donation page: https://www.lynchburgdailybread.com/donate Thanks for listening and supporting Music Monday’s through this year! Happy Holidays!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 22, 2023. It is the day before Thanksgiving here in the US. Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, I will be with my wife and our sons here in Lynchburg. I have a mighty feast planned, and I have to get the absolute last of my Thanksgiving meal ingredients later today. But really, I suspect I will have to get the absolute last of my ingredients for the thanksgiving meal, tomorrow as well. My favorite Thanksgiving Day scripture passage is from Psalm 107, which I offer as a way of reminding ourselves of the source of all the blessings we have in life. I’ll read the regular print, and we’ll both read the bold print together. PSALM 107: O give thanks to the Lord, who is good,
whose steadfast love endures forever!
 LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO,
 WHOM THE LORD HAS REDEEMED FROM TROUBLE
 AND GATHERED IN FROM THE LANDS.
We wandered in the desert wastes,
finding no way to a place in which to dwell;
 HUNGRY AND THIRSTY, OUR SOULS FAINTED WITHIN US.
Then in our trouble, we cry to the Lord,
who delivers us from our distress.
 AND LEADS US BY A STRAIGHT WAY,
 TIL WE REACHED A PLACE, A HOME, IN WHICH TO DWELL.
Let us thank the Lord for such steadfast love,
for wonderful works to humankind.
 FOR THE LORD SATISFIES THOSE WHO ARE THIRSTY,
 AND FILLS THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS. Whoever you are with, wherever you are, I hope Thanksgiving is a day of blessing for you. In the weeks to come, Peakland United Methodist Church will have wonderful advent and Christmas worship services here at the church and online. During Advent, we’ll be considering this book: All the Good, a Wesleyan Way of Christmas, and we’ll be reaching out and serving our neighbors with our Advent Mission Fest on Sunday December 3 beginning at 4:00 p.m. here at the church. You can find all our Advent and Christmas worship an ministries on our church website: PeaklandUMC.org. I hope during Advent and Christmas, you join us here so that Christ can use you and all of us to be a blessing to others. As always, if you want to know more about our ministries here and how you can be part of our life here, reach out to me at [email protected] Happy Thanksgiving and Thanks be to God!.

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 15, 2023 Halloween ended a few weeks ago, and Thanksgiving Day in the US is next week. But I’ve noticed that most of the grocery stores and big box stores have had their Christmas goods out for display for awhile now. Including my current favorite snack, Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes, which a church member brought to me last week. So tasty! Peakland is not far behind, we have been planning our advent and Christmas seasons for weeks, and we’ve been unveiling in worship for a couple of weeks all the good that we want to do. We have wrapped up our discussion of Being a United Methodist Christian this week and beginning in December we’re going to be reading and considering this book, All the Good, a Wesleyan Way of Christmas. We’ll have in person discussions at the church and around the table at Ihop. I’ll talk about this book in these Wednesday videos, and we’ll consider All the Good on Sunday mornings in December too. This Advent season we’ll have some wonderful worship services. Peakland’s United music worship service will be at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 17 in the sanctuary. There will be singing and ringing and lots of lovely music. This year, Sunday December 24th is both the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve. So on Sunday December 24, we at Peakland will have a united 4th Sunday in advent worship service at 10:00 a.m. in the sanctuary and then we’ll have two Christmas Eve worship services Sunday evening. Our Christmas Eve family worship service will be at 4:00 p.m. and our traditional candlelight and communion worship service will be at 7:00 p.m. that evening both in the sanctuary. This season we will nurture our faith, we’ll worship together, and we will serve our community together. Peakland’s fourth annual advent mission fest will be Sunday, December 3 from 4-5:30 in the fellowship hall. We’ve asked five of the helping agencies here in town to give us their Christmas wish list. UMFS needs gift cards to gas stations and box stores so that the foster families they sponsor can get what they need. Chase the chill needs knitted hats and scarves and mittens to distribute. The Salvation Army has these stockings that need filling, and Parkview and Daily Bread need canned and boxed goods just like these. Bring these items to the mission fest on Sunday, December 3 from 4-5:30 and then stick around for cookies, hot chocolate, ornament making, singing, and lighting our fantastic outdoor Christmas tree. All of the details for all of these ministries are already on our church’s website. PeaklandUMC.org, and we have multicolored handouts for you here in church on Sunday morning, and we’ll keep sending out email reminders. Peakland is an active, caring, generous congregation, but all the good we do for ourselves and for those around us is in response to the grace and love that our One Trinity God has done for us. That makes this season all the more meaningful for me and for all of us at Peakland. This December we will have folks join and become members of the Peakland United Methodist Church family. If you’d like to become part of our church family or learn more about our ministries and the ways you can do all the good that you can, then reach out to me at [email protected] Thanks be to God

The was frost on the pumpkin this morning! And that has absolutely nothing to do with Music Monday. It’s the 13th of November, 2023. A lot of things are happening - the Christmas program at the church is just a little over a month away, and I still have songs to write supplemental charts for, and practicing to do. The Christmas project Lynn Nash and I have will be released 2 weeks from today! Lynn sent me some really nice videos of his outdoor fireplace that I will use as a backdrop for the video versions of our project. More on that another day. This will be the last normal (whatever that means) Music Monday through the end of the year. Next week I will be in serious prep mode for the upcoming Christmas season music. The following week, I will start the Christmas Season of Music Monday’s that will feature different songs from the Christmas Project Lynn and I are releasing. While the whole album will be available online on Monday the 27th, I will be using various songs through the month of December from that Album. More details will be available on my website, linwoodcampbell.com, in the next few days. So, for today, I once again turn to our talented, talented Deacon here at the church, Andrew LaBar-Dietz, for one of the songs he has recorded for me. Andrew sings and plays guitar on this arrangement of Great Things. Song plays I love using my drone for background footage behind the lyrics in our church services, and thought I would share that with you today. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend! See you in 2 weeks!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 8, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is finishing up with this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This week and next, we are talking about the three general rules of being a United Methodist Christian. John Wesley created the three rules in 1743 when the methodist movement was growing beyond the Holy Club that he led at Oxford University. Small groups of Methodist men and women were gathering each week to pray for one another, read scripture together and to hold one another accountable in their Christian discipleship. John Wesley gave these methodist groups three rules to live by and to strengthen their faith: First: Do no harm and avoid evil of every kind. Second: Do good of every possible sort and as far as possible to all. Third: Attend upon the ordinances of God. A simple way to remember that: Avoid Harm. Do Good. Follow Christ. John Wesley had specific ways that methodist were to avoid harm, do good and follow Christ. Wesley wrote, Avoid harm like drunkenness and buying or selling spiritous liquor or drinking it, unless in extreme necessity. Avoid harm with no Fighting, quarreling, brawling, returning evil for evil or, the using of many words in buying or selling. No putting on gold or costly apparel. No softness or needless self-indulgence. My favorite is No uncharitable or unprofitable conversation particularly no speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers. For doing good, John Wesley quotes the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25 and directs us to give food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, visiting or helping them who are sick or in prison. That will be the scripture and the theme of the sermon next Sunday, when we at Peakland welcome Rev. Leigh Anne Taylor to the pulpit. John Wesley also warned methodists that they were to avoid the odious custom of avoiding good works unless our hearts be free to do it. Some Christians back then had gotten it into their heads that unless they felt like doing good works, they shouldn’t actually do good works. I trust none of us are so foolish as that. I don’t always feel like flossing or working out at 6:00 in the morning or paying my bills, but I still do those things. Charity and acts of mercy and kindness and justice are not optional for us United Methodists. John Wesley’s final rule was to follow the ordinances of God. “Ordinances” in this case are the activities which God has ordered for us to draw us closer to God and closer to each other. Things like: Sunday worship, prayer, Bible study, fasting and abstinence, communion, and baptism, acts of charity, justice, forgiveness, and mercy. We today may disagree with some of the specific John Wesley wanted methodists to do but the three rules are an honorable part of our heritage and a really good way of being a United Methodist Christian, so this week and in the days to come figure out how you will Avoid Harm. Do Good and Follow Christ. Thanks be to God.

It’s Monday, the 6th of November. Good Grief, where did this year go to? I was looking through my files yesterday, trying to decide what to offer for today’s Music Monday. I ran across this arrangement thatLyn Nash and I did a few months back and, honestly, had totally forgotten about - I bet he has too! We’ve spend so much time working on our Christmas project, that everything else kinda gets lost sometimes. Speaking of the Christmas project, it will be released in just a few short weeks - the Monday after Thanksgiving to be exact. More on that in a future Music Monday. This arrangement is a quiet - laid back if you will. The song itself is certainly not a in your face kinda song, but I like this interpretation especially. Nash provides an excellent solo line with his flugelhorn. AS a side note, we started recording together, I think, in 2016 - all of it long distance as he lives in Hickory NC, and I’m here in Lynchburg, VA. It’s truly amazing what technology allows us to do. So here’s our rendition of Lord, I Give You My Heart. Song plays. You’ve been listening to Music Monday with Linwood. A lot of the material you hear on this program can be found on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. Our music can be found on Youtube, Facebook and Soundcloud. And hopefully soon, Spotify. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing with a friend. See you next time.

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, November 1, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. Last Sunday, I talked about how United Methodists understand grace, God’s loving attitude and God’s loving actions that surround us all our days. Sometimes, we go through life unaware that God loves us. We don’t see God in our lives, we don’t feel God’s love, and we may not even believe in God. But God is still there with us; God’s kindness and care is still with us even if we don’t see it or feel it or believe it. John Wesley called that prevenient grace, the grace that goes before us before we’re aware of it. Babies being baptized are not aware of God’s love, but God loves those children, and as the babies grow, we the church teach our children and we teach each other about God’s love, At one point in our lives or at many points in our lives, we clearly see the ways God is with us and God has always been with us. We see that we are better off with God and that God washes away our sin and helps us to live more lovingly with God and with each other. We methodists call that justifying grace. We were lost and now are found. We were blind and now we see the straight line of God’s love for us and our love for those around us. And then every day in all sorts of ways God draws closer to perfect love, perfect love for God and perfect love for each other. Wesley calls that sanctifying grace. Now, God’s grace is not an original theological insight from Wesley. Every other Christian denomination and church that I’ve ever heard of understands God’s grace. And truly, most of our United Methodist beliefs aren’t that distinct from other Christians. John Wesley never intended for methodists to be a separate denomination with its own set of beliefs. He wrote, as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think. We think and let think. That’s us at our best. From the start of my work as an ordained ministry, I have regularly sought other Christians and Christian communities to join in ministry. On New Year’s Eve 1999, I participated in an ecumenical Watch Night Service at Williamsburg United Methodist church with other local churches. In Lexington where I was the pastor of Trinity, I was part of one of the strongest clergy groups that I had ever experienced, with other Christians, Mormons, Jews, and Muslims. Here at Peakland, I am eager to reach out, serve all and extend God’s table with other United Methodists and all other churches and groups that seek to grow closer to God and closer to each other. I am United Methodist by choice and by God’s grace. I am proud of our United Methodists history and heritage and the ways we share God’s grace and love with the world. And along with that, it’s important to understand that we at Peakland who are proud United Methodist do not need to be against other churches or faith communities. Being a United Methodist Christians does not mean and will never mean that we are anti-Baptist or anti presbyterian or anti Catholic or anti anything. We respect the differences that we do have. United Methodists and Baptists don’t agree on the meaning of baptism. United Methodists and Roman Catholics don’t agree on the role of women in church leadership. We at Peakland seek and will continue to seek commonalities with others, common beliefs and common ways to serve our community and world. That’s another thing that’s great about being a United Methodist Christian. Thanks be to God.

I know, I know - it’s hard to believe, but it’s Monday again! Part of my job at Peakland UMC is listening to Praise and Worship music, trying to determine what songs would work well in our Horizons service - that’s the Contemporary service we offer on Sunday mornings. Thee are sooooo many songs out there, and a lot of them are really appealing, but won’t necessarily work for us. That’s another story another time. Recently, I ran across this song and it immediately appealed to me. I didn’t even have to listen all the way through to decide that it would work for us. In the course of writing a vocals chart, and making a sound track, I also thought this might be a good song for Music Monday. So we have used this song twice in our Horizons service and it has been well received. So I turned my attention to how this might work for a Music Monday, and in the process, it took not one, not two, but three different turns I had not anticipated. It’s not unusual for me to have different thoughts on something I have created, but I can’t remember the last time a song took this many turns in different directions. After you have listened to the song I’ll expand on what I mean. But I will say that one has to do with the how much fun the song was to listen to - that being groove-wise. And the other 2 had to do with the lyrics of the song. Here’s God So Loved So I usually never put an instrumental solo in a Praise and Worship song, particularly because it leaves the congregation with nothing to do while that’s happening - that was the first turn. The 2nd was what I perceived as a reference to the lyrics from the Doxology we use in the Methodist Church - the “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Very “liturgical”, that is very “churchy” sounding. Hence the brass and more traditional organ sounds underneath the “Praise God” section. Lastly the a cappella, 4-part harmony section. That idea just jumped out at me - as an emphasis to the lyric. So thee you have it - my thoughts on this arrangement, which was probably a whole lot more than you wanted to know haha! If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing with a friend. Thanks for listening - see you next time!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 25, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This week we’re reading chapter 3 of the book, Our United Methodist Story! Our Methodist story begins with Rev. John Wesley, a priest in the church of England who started the Methodist movement nearly 300 years ago at Oxford University with a small group of likeminded folks who were so dedicated to their Bible studies, prayer, and service to those in needs that other mocked them with the name Methodist. I spoke last week about Wesley’s misadventures as a parish priest in the new American town of Savannah, Georgia. At the start of 1738, John was back in England and at his lowest professionally and spiritually. He doubted his effectiveness as a priest, and he doubted that his faith was genuine. In the evening of May 24, 1738, John Wesley went reluctantly to a Methodist meeting at Aldersgate Street in London. He heard a reading from the preface of Martin Luther’s commentary of the book of Romans. Wesley later wrote, “About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." Friends, a couple of days ago, I re-read the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary to the book of Romans. I know beyond a doubt there is a God in heaven because the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans is the most theologically dense and surprisingly dry writing that only God could have warmed Wesley’s heart with those words. Wow. With his heart strangely and wonderfully warmed John Wesley’s methodist movement grew and grew throughout Great Britain and into the American colonies. In December 1784, the methodist in America established the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first American born Christian denomination. Under the leadership of Francis Asbury, the Methodists in American grew and grew. Famous Methodists of the 19th century include. Richard Allen, a black American methodist who established the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816 after facing discrimination in the white methodist church and Thomas B Welch, a methodist minister and dentist, who in 1869 created Methodist Unfermented Communion Wine. Commonly known as grape juice. As the American nation grew so did the Methodists. As American divided on the issues of slavery, so did the Methodists who split into northern and southern branches in 1845. Through the 20th century Methodists united with other denominations forming the current United Methodist Church today. Marjorie Matthews was the first woman elected as a United Methodist bishop in 1980. Now in the 21st century, the United Methodist Church is the largest of all the methodist denominations with something like 12 million members worldwide. The fastest growing area of United Methodism is now in Africa. The newest methodist denomination is the Global Methodist Church formed by methodists who want to maintain traditional practices in marriage and ordination. Pastor Dave Drinkard preached at Peakland this past Sunday, and he reminded us that throughout our history, we United Methodists are at our best, when we love God and when we love our neighbors. We worship together and we nurture our Christian faith together and we serve Christ together out in the world. That’s what we’re doing at Peakland, and you are welcome to join and learn and experience what it means being a United Methodist Christian.

Hey, it’s Monday again! It’s the 23rd of October 2023. You ever lose something - search everywhere and just can’t find it? That’s what happened with today’s Music Monday song. I found the part of the recording that my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, had recorded, but could not find the original file I had started with. I liked it, for the most part, but there were a few things I wanted to change, actually need to change. I couldn’t find that original file, so I started over. Just my original parts, that is. I had Lynn’s and a sample track I had sent him to record against. So, I recorded against it to follow how I had originally had recorded the song. I did make a few changes, though. Well, I made a lot changes - not to the Flugelhorn part, but to pretty much everything else! I guess that’s the advantages of starting over! And in today’s Music Monday, you will actually see the song playing from the software I used, which happens to be Apple’s Logic Pro. This is an older song, but timeless in it’s message, and perhaps with a little fresher take from this arrangement. Here’s Because He Lives, featuring my flugelhorn recording partner, Lynn Nash. Song Plays A month from today, Nash and I will be releasing our Christmas project. Please get excited haha - we are! And if you enjoyed this song, please consider sharing with your friends. See you next time!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 18, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This past Sunday, Rev. Denise Bates preached at Peakland and emphasized that as United Methodist Christians, we lift our hearts to God in worship and we unite our hands with each other and with all Christians everywhere in service and care for the world around us. We United Methodist believe that all Christians United Methodists and Lutherans and Roman Catholics, and Baptists and Presbyterians and Anglicans and Orthodox and Non-denominational and all the many and varied Christian churches and communities are all part of the one body of Christ. John Wesley himself had a powerful experience with a group of Christians from central Europe called the Moravians who shaped his spiritual growth and formation. Wesley met a group of 27 Moravians during his sea voyage aboard the Simmonds to Savannah, Georgia, in October 1735. Wesely was traveling to Savanah to become the local priest of the newly established colony. At one point during the voyage, a storm came up and broke the mast off the ship. While most folks panicked, the Moravians calmly sang hymns and prayed. Wesley saw that these Christians had an inner strength and peace that he sorely lacked. Wesley’s time as a parish priest in Savanah was a failure. His high church practices were of little interest to the colonists. He was involved in an unsuccessful love affair that ended badly and fled the colony in December 1737. On his return to England, Wesely was at a low point in his life spiritually and professionally. He wondered how he could preach faith in Christ when he felt his faith was so shallow. Wesley sought counsel from a Moravian minister named Peter Boehler, who encouraged Wesley to preach faith until you have it, and then preach faith because you have it. Wesley did indeed feed encouraged by Peter’s words, and there is some wisdom for us today. Like Wesley, our faith may fluctuate. We may feel strong in the faith one day and weak and so uncertain another. That’s as normal and natural as breathing in and out. I believe Christ helps us to persevere. I have found that helping others helps me to feel closer to Christ and closer to other Christians. Later today, I have a lunch meeting with other United Methodist clergy in our area in which we provide moral and prayerful support to one another. I have a home visit with a retired pastor and I’m volunteering for the first-time serving supper at Parkview Mission here in Lynchburg. Next week, I am tutoring at Bedford Hills Elementary. I’m joining with other United Methodists and people of other faith traditions and folks with no faith tradition, all of us who want to do good in the world. That’s what I love about being a United Methodist Christian. You can find more about all of our ministries on our website Peakland UMC.org, and on our Facebook page. You are welcome and invited to join us in these ministries and for Sunday worship in the sanctuary at 8:30 and 11:00, for our contemporary Horizons worship in the fellowship hall at 9:45. We livestream our 11:00 worship on Facebook and YouTube. Peakland’s mission is reaching out, serving all and extending God’s Table. If you’d like to know more about what we do here and how to join us, reach out to me at [email protected]. Thanks be to God.

So yesterday, which was Sunday the 15th of October, I was sitting at the piano in the Fellowship Hall going through the songs we were going to use in our Horizons service in a few hours. I usually get to church on Sunday mornings around 6:30 AM - it gives me an opportunity to prepare, rehearse some and just collect my thoughts and spend some quiet time with God. As I was getting ready to run through the last song, the thought slipped into my mind that this would be a good song for a Music Monday. Like today! I thought I might start a little more quietly today, to give you an opportunity to tune out the distracting thoughts in your mind, and give you an opportunity to spend a quiet moment or two. You’re listening to Music Monday with Linwood. You can find this song, and some others on my website - linwoodcampbell.com. At the end of November my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I will be releasing our Christmas album for you to enjoy during the Holiday Season. Songs like “Deck The Halls”, “O Holy Night”, and a fun little arrangement of “Ding Dong Merrily on High” that features my son Matt on bass. It’s arguably one of the best project I have ever been part of and I look forward to sharing it! If you enjoyed today’s Music Monday, please consider sharing it with a friend. See you next time!