Bio
of Pastor Allen L. Heckman
Pastor Heckman was
born January 3, 1949 in Beaver Falls, PA and graduated from Berlin
Brothersvalley High School in 1967. Following two years of classes at
Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA. he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He served
in the Navy from October 1969 to July 1973 as a Sonar Technician 3rd class
aboard the USS Fortify MSO 446.
On July 12, 1974 Mary
Jane Hicks joined Pastor Heckman in marriage at St. Paul’s United Church
of Christ, Hermitage, PA. In May of 1976 Pastor Heckman received his
bachelors degree in Elementary Education from Yankton College, Yankton,
South Dakota. He received his Master of Divinity Degree from Lancaster
Theological Seminary, Lancaster, PA. in 1979. While attending Lancaster he
was called as student pastor of Zwingli United Church of Christ, East
Berlin, PA. Upon graduation he was ordained and installed as the first
full time pastor of Zwingli Church.
Nine Years later in
May 1986 Pastor Heckman was appointed to active duty as an Air Force
Chaplain and assigned to Norton AFB, California. His Air Force assignments
have included, Warren AFB, Wyoming, Kunsan Air Base, Korea, Dover AFB,
Delaware, Stavanger, Norway and Minot AFB, North Dakota. Pastor Heckman
also served tours of duty in Guantanamo Cuba and Ali Al Salem Kuwait. He
retired from the Air Force in September 2002.
Following his Air
Force Career Pastor Heckman served as Pastor of St. John’s United Church
of Christ, in State College, PA for five years before being called to
Zion.
Pastor Heckman has
been published in several quarterly magazines to include: Air Force
Smart Families, Daily Meditation, Evangel and The
Gem.
The Heckmans have a
twenty-six year old daughter, Sarah who is married and living in Florida.
Monthly Newsletter
Dear Friends,
Gil Rendle, a
church consultant was the featured speaker at Penn Northeast Conference
Annual Meeting held April 24th. In the July Penn Northeast
Conference newsletter our Conference Minister, Alan Miller shared some
thoughts about Gil’s presentation. Here is an excerpt from Alan’s letter
that I believe will be helpful for us at Zion.
“Early in his
presentation Gil made the comment: The mission of the church is not to
satisfy its members. The mission of the church is to make disciples.
This statement requires us to think about the church in a way that is
contrary to both the manner in which many of us have been conditioned to
think about the church and the mindset of our society. Many of us were
taught that the church is the place where we go to learn right from wrong,
put our time in getting through confirmation so we can be allowed to take
communion, having a pastor who is available when we run into one of life’s
crisis, and participating in fun social events that occasionally raise
money to help some charitable cause. Basically for many of us, our
understanding is ‘the church is the place to take care of me and meet my
needs.’ Likewise, our society has taught us to be consumers
extraordinaire-even to the point that a new term was invented to describe
this activity in relation to church: church shopping. So now people
look for a faith community that has the right programs to meet their needs
for fellowship, education, and in some cases even entertainment.
But the beginning
of the church was marked by Jesus’ command to take his message to the ends
of the earth, making disciples of all who respond to the Good News. In
other words, church is not about being a service organization that
provides our needs for fellowship, weddings, baptisms, funerals, and
pastoral care, but a community that helps us to discover what is means to
be Christ’s disciples and to live a life of service to others in Christ’s
name.
To move from this
old understanding of church to this new understanding does not happen
quickly or easily. Gil suggested that the way to make this move was to
begin by having much better conversations at our church council meetings.
Instead of spending all of our time talking about money problems
fund-raisers, building maintenance, and personnel issues, Gil suggested 3
questions that we need to be asking and prayerfully discussing:
1.
Who are we now?
Many of our churches answer this question by talking about who they were
in the past, rather than asking the hard question: Who are we now?
2.
What has God called us to do?
Many of our churches operate out of scarcity rather than abundance, thus
they spend a great deal of time talking about what they can’t do due to
their limited resources rather than asking: What is God calling us to do?
3.
Who is our neighbor?
Where are we located; which part of the kingdom has God given to us?”
I hope that we
can begin to discuss these questions ourselves. We might find ourselves
returning to the first step for a faith community as we discover what it
means to be Christ’s disciples.
Yours in Christ
Pastor Allen
Parking Spaces: We have a limited number of parking
spaces. We hope to rectify this issue some day but until that fix becomes
reality search out someone who might car pool with you to church. Come to
church with friends instead of by yourself. Invite one of our more senior
members or couples to ride with you. You might even make some great new
friends.
Sunday's Message
Living Into the
Promise
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Heb 11:1-3, 8-16
Today’s
questions is; “What is the reason we exist as a church?” Why is there a
Zion United Church of Christ? What is our purpose? What is our mission?
Let’s begin the discussion by revisiting the scriptures that were read
this morning.
God
through Isaiah proclaims, ‘Take your evil deed out of my sight! Stop doing
wrong, learn to do right.” Then God defines what is right for us. ‘Seek
justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.’ Isaiah 1:17
Living
into the Promise of God means we play it forward in our daily lives. To
play it forward means that we do today what is necessary for tomorrow to
be better. For tomorrow to be better means that today we encourage the
oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the
widow.
The right
of Hebrews reminds us that those who receive the inheritance God has for
us play it forward. He read in Hebrews; ‘Abraham received an inheritance
because he was looking forward to a city with foundations, whose architect
and builder was God.’ Abraham received his inheritance because he played
it forward in his life each day doing what was necessary to make tomorrow
better. The author of Hebrews tells us that is what was going on with all
the bible heroes. The writer states, ‘If they had been thinking of the
country they had come from they would have had opportunity to return.
Instead they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for
them.’ Heb 11:15 & 16
Our
purpose as a church is to ‘seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend
cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widow. Our task is to
play it forward, to live into God’s promise. Our task is to do today what
will make tomorrow better.
I was
shocked to hear a member of this church tell me, “I don’t want my money to
go to feeding kids. They have stamps and I’m against it.” I was shocked!
When God says, ‘Take your evil ways out of my sight.’ That is what
God is talking about. I was shocked
when I heard a member of this congregation say, ‘We shouldn’t be doing
that because it isn’t bringing any money into the church.’ That is what
God is talking about when God says, ‘Take your evil ways out of my sight.’
I was shocked. I was shocked because these two people and others like them
have so completely forgotten why we exist as church.
Our
purpose is to play it forward. Our purpose is to do today what is
necessary to make tomorrow better. I am thrilled that this body of Christ
as a whole does not subscribe to the thinking of the two that I mentioned.
This body of Christ is learning every day new and better ways to play it
forward and live into God’s promise. I am thrilled at our mission to seek
justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless and
plead the case of the widow.
Allow me
to share two examples of how we are playing it forward at Zion. Both of
these happened this week. First, we offered our first annual Music academy
at Zion. Forty some children and teenagers were touched by this mission. I
would guess that 2/3 of the students were not members of Zion. We reached
into the community, and not just Lehighton. We had students from Tamaqua,
Palmerton and Jim Thorpe sharing this great opportunity to make music
together. We played it forward this week by letting forty some students
know that they were valued and appreciated. During this week we made
tomorrow better by giving encouragement to a bunch of young people. Thank
you Brad and Laura for taking the risk and making this week happen. It was
a thrill to watch.
We have
been playing it forward all summer with the Free Lunch program. By the way
this mission has not cost us one cent. We have been reimbursed by the
state for every meal we served to children. One day this week I was
visiting with the staff of this mission. Now, understand that we don’t
just feed the children and their parents we develop relationships with the
recipients. We are playing it forward by giving folks the assurance that
they are of value. One little girl in a family of four children with one
parent was asked if she had her school backpack and school supplies ready
for school. The little girl said they couldn’t afford to buy the stuff
this year. Well, our folks continue to look for ways to play it forward so
they found out what the girl needed and an angel bought the stuff and it
was waiting for her the next day.
The girl
wrote a precious thank you to our staff. Now, here is the thing. As I was
being told the story the tears were flowing from all the staff members.
Tears where being shed because we were playing it forward. That is our
purpose. That is our reason for existence.
Every day
Zion is finding new ways to live into God’s promise. Every day we are
learning how better to be who we are called to be by God.
What is
our purpose? Our purpose is to ‘Seek justice, encourage the oppressed,
defend the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widow. Thank
you everyone who has accepted our mission. Today, we really are making
tomorrow better. Let’s keep living boldly into God’s promise. God bless
you.
