Rev. Morgan Guyton, Associate Pastor
I have been the associate pastor of Burke United Methodist Church and lead pastor for our LifeSign contemporary worship service since July, 2010. My wife Cheryl is also a minister who has served as a hospital chaplain in the past, but is currently taking some time off to stay home with our two boys Matthew (5) and Isaiah (2). My wife and I both went to Duke Divinity School and love Blue Devil basketball. I also enjoy gardening, coaching my son’s soccer team, making electronic music, and writing my blog at http://morganguyton.wordpress.com.
I’m a broken person whose brokenness is what qualifies me to love and serve other broken people. I’m learning to be less ideological and subordinate everything else that I believe to my trust in God’s mercy. I’m very passionate which can turn into arrogance when I don’t have enough loving friends around to call me out. Above all, I seek to be saved from the prison of self-justification that Christ died to help me overcome. The more that Christ liberates me from the need to be right all the time, the more that I grow capable of love.
Some of my favorite Bible passages are:
· Psalm 42: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
· Psalm 130: “I wait for the Lord more than the watchmen wait for the morning.”
· Isaiah 6:1-8: We have to say, “Woe is me; I am lost,” before we can say, “Here am I; send me.”
· Mark 10:15: “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
· John 1:5: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
· John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”
· 1 Corinthians 1:27-29: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
· 2 Corinthians 4:8-10: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
· Ephesians 2:7-8: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
· Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
· 1 John 4:7-8: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
I’m a broken person whose brokenness is what qualifies me to love and serve other broken people. I’m learning to be less ideological and subordinate everything else that I believe to my trust in God’s mercy. I’m very passionate which can turn into arrogance when I don’t have enough loving friends around to call me out. Above all, I seek to be saved from the prison of self-justification that Christ died to help me overcome. The more that Christ liberates me from the need to be right all the time, the more that I grow capable of love.
Some of my favorite Bible passages are:
· Psalm 42: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
· Psalm 130: “I wait for the Lord more than the watchmen wait for the morning.”
· Isaiah 6:1-8: We have to say, “Woe is me; I am lost,” before we can say, “Here am I; send me.”
· Mark 10:15: “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
· John 1:5: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
· John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”
· 1 Corinthians 1:27-29: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
· 2 Corinthians 4:8-10: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
· Ephesians 2:7-8: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
· Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
· 1 John 4:7-8: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
