Damaska Thoughts

Jesus

2011-12-22T10:20:00.004-05:00

He hungered - but He fed thousands...

He was wearied, but He is the Rest of them that are weary...

He was heavy with sleep, but He walked lightly over the sea...

He prays, but He hears prayers.

He weeps, but he causes tears to cease.

He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was Man; but He raises Lazarus, for He was God.

He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only thirty pieces of silver; but He redeems the world...

As a sheep He is led to the slaughter, but He is the Shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also.

As a Lamb He is silent, yet He is the Word...

He is...wounded, but He healeth every disease...

He dies, but He gives life...

If the one gives you a starting point for your error, let the others put an end to it.

Gregory Nazianzen, c329 - 389/390 AD

(from T.Oden's "The Word of Life", p185)

Permission.

2011-10-13T15:19:00.001-04:00

There's a standing rule in our household; when I'm preaching and I'm going to tell a story involving Sarah I need to give her a heads up and sometimes get permission. It is a system we have worked out.

What I am about to share needs no permission.

Today she was remarkable to/for me.

I arrived home for lunch and she knew my morning had been heavy. Although I did not want to dump on her, when she asked a simple question the avalanche made its descent from me to her.

She listened and calmly asked questions. She heard my anger and spoke into it. She picked up our nearly one year old and directed our almost 5 year old to better activities - continuing to carry my weight while taking the weight of others too. She heard disappointing news and swallowed it with dignity and an incredible level of understanding.

I love her. I have loved her for years.

She loves me.

And that is good.

Curve Ahead

2011-10-05T11:09:00.000-04:00

In 1992 I spent a school year in England.
Yes, it was very cool. Thanks for asking.
It was then that I was introduced to Roundabouts. They seemed to be everywhere! (In fact, estimates are that there are 25,000 of them in England.)

What's a roundabout?
See for yourself…

It is a traffic management device.
Rather than car coming to a complete stop there is a yield process and then a series of "spokes" that a driver chooses in order to continue on a journey.

When you first experience a roundabout it's just plain nutty! Especially in England where drivers drive on the other side of the road, it all seems a little out of control and hard to navigate.

Sarah and I travelled to England together in 2003. We hired (rented) a car and were literally tossed a set of keys, a map and then pointed to the top floor of the parking garage where our car was waiting for us. No training, no pointers, no tips…just a car and a map.

So we set off and within no time at all encountered a roundabout. Then another, and another, and … you get the picture.

We managed, but it was tricky at times.
When you are used to stop lights, exit ramps and right turns a roundabout messes with your head!

When you grow up in Wyoming, driving in England really messes with you.

Hello! Anybody out there?

Here's the thing.
Roundabouts are being proven to be safer, more efficient and more cost effective.
And they are beginning to show up in the states more and more (2,500 at last count).

I was in the backseat of a buddy's car recently as he attempted to navigate 3 roundabouts in city in Michigan. It was a sickening experience. He didn't have a clue what he was doing and where he should go. In fact, to get to our destination we navigated those 3 roundabouts twice! Then we had to go through them once more on our way out of town. Blimey!
But you know what? On our exit, he had kinda it figured out.

Here's what I wonder?
Is there a curve ahead for the church which will be big?
The shift from Right Turns and Stoplights to Yields and Roundabouts is big.
The shift from Church as we know it to Church as effective in reaching our community is BIGGER.

In America, we don't get roundabouts.
In England, they get them. They are raised on them and trained to drive around them.

We have a learning curve (pun intended) ahead of us.
It will take time. It will require training. It will include uncomfortable experiences.
But we must learn and put it into practice.

Bananas!

2011-09-28T13:20:00.000-04:00

Recently I had 232 miles of alone time in the car. So rather than listen to repeat episodes of Adventures in Odyssey I tuned on NPR and heard a cool interview of Dan Koeppel.

  I've never heard of Koeppel, but I've heard of the topic he was talking about: Bananas. Ya, like America's favorite fruit.   It was a great story.  

Did you know; 

bananas didn't always used to be the #1 fruit. Apples were. We grow apples in the USA…bananas had to be imported. It was a huge undertaking to get them to the states. 
bananas we eat now are not the same variety our grandparents (and maybe parents) ate? That species got a virus that wiped it out. It was a better tasting fruit than what we love now--which also has a virus in other parts of the world. Predictions are that it will die out in the next 10 years. Then what? 
bananas only start ripening once they are cut from the tree? 
bananas must be shipped in refrigerated containers to keep them from ripening?
 bananas emit a chemical amongst themselves that activates the ripening process in each other? 
grocery stores work very hard to get bananas on the produce shelf at just the right moment?

  (You can actually listen to the story here and check my facts--I'm writing from memory. And some of the banana's story is not all pure and wholesome.)  

The whole thing was intriguing to me. I love bits of information like that.  

But what really got my attention was the fact that environment matters to a banana.  It grows in a particular climate, it must be shipped in a specific climate, it ripens in just the right environment. Even organic bananas--that variety of banana we should all be so conscious to eat--can only be grown in a particular environment (above a specific altitude and with specific guidelines).

Environment matters.  

Teachers know this. They talk about "hidden curriculum." Those things that aid/inhibit teaching regardless of what is being said; colors of the wall, temperature of the room, lighting in the room, etc...  

You know this too. If the building looks dingy you are wary of going in. If you don't receive a warm welcome you wonder what kind of people these are. If the classrooms are smelly you won't likely leave your children there. And certainly, if the message and relationships are flat…you are out of there. (Sound like church?)  

Environment matters. 

If we are going to mature (ripen) in Christ, the environments we create matter.   

*I am indebted to guys like Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, Carey Nieuwhof and others for using the term environment in talking about church. It has shaped the way I look at what we do, what we say, how we do what we do, and how we say what we say.

Life today

2011-09-22T16:20:00.000-04:00

Today is a day of remembering for our family.
We mark September 22.
It is the day, 2 years ago, our Annie died.

Within moments of her death we were thrust into doing all sorts of weird things. They were like out of body experiences. The kinds of experiences where I remember looking at Sarah saying, "are we really doing this?"

We drove away from the hospital with an empty car seat.
We began planning her funeral.
We even posted on facebook the news of her death.

Strange experiences.

A day or so after Annie's death I drove by myself the couple miles from our home to the funeral home. That drive replays through my mind in slow motion; the long hill leading down into town, the gas station and all the people with their fountain drinks, the hardware store owner standing in the door of his shop.

I remember thinking, "No one has any idea that I am on my way to deliver an outfit for my daughter to be buried in." There, on the seat beside me, were her clothes.

All around me life was still moving. Yet right beside me were the reminders of the end of Annie's life.

Today is like that.

William went to school and has soccer practice later.
Kate is taking her regular afternoon nap.
Eliza is on her second nap of the day.
Sarah has been leading the girls through their day.

I kept a commitment on my calendar that took up my entire morning through lunchtime.

Life keeps moving while simultaneously intersecting our grief.

(I still don't know what to make of that reality.)

I am anxious for our family to be together tonight.
We will spend time remembering Annie.
We may watch home videos of her or read through the journal we have of things we remember about her.

Whatever we do, we will move...forward, not on.

*By the way, Sarah's thoughts today are captured (beautifully) here. She's amazing!

Patience

2011-07-22T09:53:00.003-04:00

My wife shared a post with me this morning. I listened as she read some lines to me and digested it a little bit.

I'm now at the office and took a moment to read it for myself.

It's good.
Here it is...

Love is Patient.
I am often impatient with others.
Sometimes it is to the point of being filled with pride over my ability to be more timely, quicker and a better multi-tasker--listen, I'm a guy who multi tasks even while brushing his teeth.

But even if I can do all kinds of things and I don't have love I am just a resounding gong, Paul says.
And if I do not love I am certainly not being patient.

The blog Sarah shared includes great words on being patient with others.
For us, it is being tested even as I write. Our son, who is amazing, left the deep freeze door open just a smidge last night. Even after repeated reminders to be sure the door was closed, the door was not closed. Sarah is currently wiping it down and assessing the damage---all the meat seems frozen still, thankfully.

So I've been thinking, does my impatience with others indicate an impatience I have with myself?

I'm 37, shouldn't I have more of my life figured out?
I've been in full time ministry for 11 years now, shouldn't I be better at it than this?
I've been a Christian for lots of years and grew up in a Christian home, shouldn't I be able to find the book of Hezekiah quicker?

Am I alone here? Doubtful.
I wonder if I mask my impatience with myself through being impatient with others--demanding that they fill in the gaps of my own personal impatience.

Henri Nouwen suggests that “[t]he word patience means willingness to stay where we are and live out the situation to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”

Love is Patient.
With others and with self.

Put me in, Coach

2011-07-14T05:38:00.000-04:00

I wrote some lines. Just not here.
They are here.

Freebies

2011-06-28T09:37:00.000-04:00

Here's another site.
This one is full of great images and such for us in ministry.
Many freebies available.

http://www.creationswap.com/

Underdog Pastor

2011-06-28T09:27:00.000-04:00

I stumbled across a network of Rural Church Leaders earlier today. Cool to read of how God is working in rural areas.

Here's a post from one of them. It's suitable for all Pastors, not just the rural types.

His name is Artie Davis. He writes of the Underdog Pastor.

Peas and Carrots

2011-04-05T06:38:00.000-04:00

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Moses and Aaron
Ponch and John
Fonzie and...his leather jacket?
Forrest Gump and Jenny.

Forrest Gump, 1994

I'm one of those "with" guys.
I love to know people are with me.

Which is what makes my church's 21 Days of Praying and Fasting so cool. We are doing this with each other. For the next three weeks we are reading the same scriptures, wresting with the same questions, and praying for each other.
I know there are people going completely without food for these weeks. I know some people have said bye-bye to facebook and other media (TV, online news...). I know some people are giving up a particular food. And that's just the people who have shared their commitments with me. I know there are others who are with us that I haven't heard about.

We are using a prayer and reading guide to move us through this season together.
You can download one here.

For me, there is beauty in doing this with each others.
It's good for me.

Books I'm Reading

2011-01-31T08:12:00.001-05:00

I've been spending time in the following books...

Practice Resurrection
A friend and I have been plowing through this book chapter by chapter. I'm glad we read it slow. I would have blazed through the book at too quick a pace and missed much of the depth Peterson includes.

Parenting Beyond Your Capacity
The way Joiner and Nieuwhof write clicks with me. I love their philosophy (here) and their practical look at influencing the next generation for Christ.

Bearing the Cross
I recently re-read Philip Yancy's book, Soul Survivor, (good read) and he recommended this book. I have never read a book about MLK, Jr. I'm 150 pages in (450 to go) and I am enjoying it. The author, Garrow, gives a thorough look at King and the movement he was swept into; eventually becoming face of.

UPDATE: Not going to make it through this book. Sorry David J. Garrow...just can't swing it. :)

Next in line...

Gandhi, Portrait of a Friend

E. Stanley Jones has connections to Asbury Theological Seminary and was a friend to Gandhi in India. I purchased this book a few weeks ago and am excited to see what it has inside.

Writing over there...

2011-01-25T11:27:00.001-05:00

I just posted on our church blog.
I'd like you to read it.
Click on my head to go there.

Local Jesus

2010-12-01T16:12:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure how your community celebrates Jesus. Maybe your community doesn't do anything. I hope it does something. Here's a snapshot at how my town celebrates!

This caught my eye for a few reasons.

Continue reading here...

Stir the Water

2010-11-11T22:02:00.001-05:00

For the past couple years our church has hosted Grocery Giveaways. In a nutshell they consists of 10,000 lbs. of food being dropped at our church on 12-15 pallets. From there volunteers sort, count and stack it all within an hour and a half. The food is ultimately given out to folks from our community. Each time we do this it is exhilarating. Each time it is tiring. Each time also brings with it new insights into the needs of our community, the church and my own heart.

We receive our shipment of food around 3:30.
We distribute the groceries at 5 pm.

Today, and like every other time we get host this ministry, people start arriving to the church early in the day. Today it was at 8:56 that the first car pulled into the driveway. 8:56 am!

Here's my confession. I was annoyed that she pulled into our driveway 8 hours prior to us distributing groceries.

And here's the next confession, I said something about her to Pastor Josh. I said it in a derogatory way.

I was wrong.
It's not my business.
I apologized to Josh. I apologized to God.

Jesus had an experience in John 5 at the Pool of Bethesda. Around that pool the sick and the crippled gathered. They hoped that by going into the pool at the point of the water being stirred something phenomenal would happen--they would be healed. So there, around that water, people would lie in wait. All day. All week. All month. All year(s)?

And today she showed up in our parking lot at 8:56 am. She sat there all day! She was there 8 hours. I don't know why she "doesn't go get a job". I don't know why she doesn't go somewhere and work on her resume. I don't know why she sits in the parking lot all day for $70 in free groceries.

But maybe, just maybe, she thinks that through the church, the body of Christ, something phenomenal can happen. Maybe she wants what we have--and I don't just mean our groceries. Maybe she believes the water is stirred when the people of God serve and love others.

When Jesus encountered that entire pool of people he approached one man and healed him. We served her today. We also offered her an opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ prior to handing out groceries.

I know her because she's received groceries before. I am guessing we'll see her again. If she is in the church parking loat at 8:56 am next month I know I will think of her differently. Rather than scold or sneer I'm going to stir the waters.

This is the Juice

2010-11-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

One of the ways we are seeking to keep conversations going and information moving in our church is through a new blog Josh and I are co-authoring. It's called The Juice.
We plan to take turns writing and will post at least weekly.
When I post there, I'll let you know here too. I posted...read it here

Hear it here...

2010-10-25T19:59:00.000-04:00

We had an amazing weekend!

The short version:
Eliza Grace Damaska was born into our family Friday night (10/22/10). She and Sarah are both doing well and are now home.

Jump over to Sarah's blog for the full story.

A Regular Party

2010-10-18T09:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday our church joined with many other churches nationally in celebrating Pastor Appreciation Month. It's really a cool thing.
Recently I've been wondering why October is the month for Pastor Appreciation.
Here's my working theory:

November: turkey on the brain
December/January: it's Christmas time--not pastor appreciation time.
February: huh? we are too cold to celebrate
March: oh boy the pastor just told the Leadership Board he/she is resigning
April: Easter celebration (plus the pastor just announced to the church he/she is resigning)
May/June: school is wrapping up. We are celebrating graduating seniors and appreciating volunteers who have served during the past year
July: um, we don't have a pastor...remember, he/she resigned in April
August: still searching
September: we have new pastor and we are showing appreciation by helping him/her unload their massive moving truck full of stuff
October: Pastor Appreciation Month

Whatever the reason for the timing it really is a cool deal for pastors.
We don't have pay raise incentives or end of the month bonuses (at least I don't). We don't have employee of the month parking spots. We don't hang our pictures on the wall and celebrate the pastor of the month. None of that stuff.

So yesterday the church said thanks and I appreciate it. I appreciate the Leaders planning this over a month ago. I appreciate the folks who decorated and set up our activity center. I appreciate the crazy people who decorated my mic stand and put ribbons on my guitar. It was cool sharing a meal together and seeing kids make multiple trips to the desert table. Thanks.

Like any family gathering there were issues too.

There were conversations about opposing views about some current ministry plans.
Some people were noticeably missing yesterday.
There were too many carbs and not enough protein items on the table.
The men's toilet backed up through the floor drain. Gross!

In so many ways it was a regular party with many of the regular elements of any old party you might attend.

But it was more than just a party. Beyond the meal, hugs and gifts the church gave us, yesterday was a another great opportunity to share life together. Admittedly this is hard for me--and I don't think I'm alone in that confession--but it's good to be together and share our lives with one another. Jesus promised that he'd be with us when we gather together and do his business. He doesn't seem to be afraid to party. He was with us. What a party!

poetic memory

2010-10-02T22:22:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I sat in my office heart broken and deeply missing Annie. What replayed through my mind were the final hours Sarah and I spent with Annie. Only she and I will ever know how excruciating it was as we held Annie knowing she was going to die.

I don't know if the following can legitimately be called poetry. Maybe. Whatever it is, it reflects some of the flood of images and emotions from those last hours with her.
- - - - - -

touching you, feeling your rhythm
listening, watching, wondering
each pause, each gap
each one killing me as you died

hours and music, hands and tears
endless it seemed as we awaited the end
you so strong, I so proud
but still not miracle to be found

you so heavy, you--but not yourself
here but already away
so tired but how
this is the day

in and out the helpless helpers
tending, touching, crying with
and we, hopelessly holding
as eternity robbed your mortality

no more pulse--I no longer feel it
what once was, is now not
the suffering, so sudden, for you no more
so still so cold no breath in store

one more look, one final touch
naked, quiet, peaceful, beautiful
home without you
and I barely knew you.

one year. reflections with sorrow

2010-09-21T21:19:00.000-04:00

Sunday Sarah and I shared with our church some of our reflection of this past year with sorrow. I love that she and I were able to do this together. It was good for me to have her next to me.

Here's a copy of what we shared.
Audio.
Text. (Some of this won't make sense to you if you read it. But it works for me when I preach.)

As difficult as it is at times to share our sorrow with other people and allow them into the story with us, I believe it is so important for us (and others) to do so. So we talked. And we cried, some. I think I would have been a weepy mess were it not for Sarah sitting next to me. I felt solid with her there.

Sarah, William, Kate & I are spending the entire day together tomorrow.
Tomorrow marks 1 year since Annie died.

Getting to tomorrow has been difficult for me. The past couple weeks have been sad ones. I've felt like I have been more sad -- or sad in an entirely different way -- than when we first lost Annie. It has certainly been hard for me.

But life keeps clipping along.
Here is how strange our life is. On the day we commemorate the anniversary of our daughter we are preparing for our new baby. We plan to spend some time at Barnes&Noble tomorrow so William and Kate can buy new books for their coming sister. It's crazy.

But stuff like that has been the story of this entire year. As sad as we have been we have been blessed to have our kids around us. They have literally kept us moving.

Thanks to all who have been with us this past year. Thank you for praying for us and loving us.

Thank you for loving Annie.
I love her too.

"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
       he rises to show you compassion.
       For the LORD is a God of justice.
       Blessed are all who wait for him!"
Isaiah 30:18

The Leader's Constant Companion

2010-09-10T09:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday God used a message from Craig Groeschel at The Forum webcast (here) to impact my thinking and my perspective on ministry.

Leader’s Constant Companion: Pain
As a result we flinch and are hesitant.
As a result we lead so as to avoid pain.

Purposeful Pain exists.
It leads to good results.

So often, the difference b/t where we are and where God wants us to be is the Pain we
are unwilling to endure.

Increasing our Pain Threshold.
3 Areas:
1) Increase our threshold in enduring unjustified rejection and criticism.
The quickest way for us to forget what God thinks of us is to become consumed
with what people think of us.
What is God calling ME to do.

2) Increase our threshold of pain in making the hard decisions.
The “bottom line” is too valuable for us to not make hard decisions.
Make hard decisions early…the longer we postpone them the harder they get.
Good leaders know there are times that you have to tell people (even your friends)
“this is going to hurt me more than this hurts you”.

If there is a painful decision facing you. Step into it. Grab it. Make the decision
God is leading you to make.

3) Endure the pain of pruning.
John 15, true vine-gardener-prunes
If you blame yourself for the decline, one day you’ll take the credit for the
increase.
God may be cutting some things away in preparation for things to come. There
may be times God prunes and we don’t understand. He understands—and yet he
doesn’t tell/show us, yet.

There’s one promise in ministry: God will break you.
Push through the pain. There is more in you.
God wants to do more in you that you can ask or imagine.

My wife is surprised I'm here too...

2010-09-09T21:54:00.002-04:00

Regardless of my absence from this blog, I do plan to be here again.

Some of my throughts will make it here...eventually.

Tonight I can't be bothered, though.

But before I go let me tell you about a cool resource. I'm tuning in again tomorrow to this amazing FREE webcast.

www.forumwebcast.com

(Earlier today I tuned into messages from Erwin McManus, Craig Groeschel and Patrick Lencioni. Three of my faves. Tomorrow another fave, Andy Stanley.)

If you miss it this year, get on their email list and catch it next year. What a gift.

Still Thinking Orange

2010-05-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

Core Values @ NBWC are exciting to preach.
Seven down, one to go.

Our fifth value is: Outreach & Evangelism
Our sixth value is: Excellence in Ministry
Our seventh value is: Discipleship that Grows Leaders

I'd love to have you listen to them and share your feedback. Here they are...

Also, a huge shout out to all our volunteers from the past year! Thanks for all you do. We had a great time celebrating together; eating breakfast together (thanks Pastor Josh & co. for feeding us) and sporting out new think orange shirts.

We really are partnering together to revitalize the spirit of family and community by loving and serving through Jesus Christ.

DRIVE '10

2010-05-24T22:19:00.000-04:00

It has been a long time since I have taken a monstrous road trip. I did not realize Atlanta, GA was so far from North Branch, MI. (Just a little FYI, it takes about 14 hours in a church van with 12 people.)
I'm still processing and enjoying the fact that I was able to go to DRIVE Conference '10 @ North Point Community Church. Huge shout out to Keystone Community Church for helping make it possible to go.

A couple videos will serve you well. They are both only a couple minutes in length.
The first one is a hightlight video of the 2 1/2 days.
The second video is one that is now circulating around online a bunch. They showed it at the conference and after you watch it you'll see why people want to share it. It's especially funny to anyone familiar with worship services.

DRIVE 2010 Highlight from North Point Media on Vimeo.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Attending the conference, like any quality conference, left me with much to think through. Josh and I went to the conference because we really like the North Point model and mindset of ministry. I could list several items that stand out to me and several lessons learned but here is a biggie...
~Fun~

Yep, that's it. Fun. It is possible to take oneself too serious. (even using the word "oneself" is an indicator of how serious you've become!) And I am that guy. I have been taking myself and our church too serious. In the process I believe I have led people to take what we do too serious. Do I still believe in the seriousness of the message of Jesus? Absolutely. Does it still plague me that 70-80% of students who grow up in the church will leave the church when they are college aged? Yes! And on and on...

At DRIVE '10 there was a culture of enjoyment. Aside from the evidence of incredibly hard work to make the conference happen there was a noticeable atmosphere amongst volunteers & staff that they genuinely like being where they were and doing what they were doing.

Thinking Orange continued...

2010-04-30T10:48:00.000-04:00

Our Core Values are exciting to preach. I told a friend this week that I'm enjoying preaching them because I actually believe in them. And, I know others already do too! These are not some flashy bullet points out of the latest book but they are values that our leaders worked out together over the course of nearly 18 months. I am the lucky one who gets to present them.

Last Sunday I preached the our third core value: Foundation (listen here)
Simply put, we believe in God's word, the message of the Cross, and God's call for us to be holy. To snag a line from Andy Stanley (whose flashy books I greatly appreciate), "Maximum Freedom is found under the Authority of God."

It may seem trite for a church to say we believe in the Scriptures. But we believe it important to say it and live like it.

In a couple days I'm going to preach our fourth core value: Spiritual Vitality.
Again, simply put, we believe in the beauty of a relationship with God not the performance of the religion of following God.

My boy, William, loves it when I spend a few minutes lying down next to him in his bed at night. When I am in a rush to go watch "24" or something and am about ready to leave without spending those few minutes he calls to me, "Dad, aren't you going to stay a few minutes?" Actually son, I am.

Perhaps your relationship with God has become rigid and restricted to time/place. Perhaps, like me, you need to just spend some time with your Father. Perhaps, like me, you need to remember he's not in a hurry to watch a show on tv. He's knocking on the door waiting for us to invite him in.

What to say?

2010-04-21T10:38:00.000-04:00

When people ask, "How are you doing?" I cannot always discern if they are saying, "How are you doing today?" or if they are saying "How are you doing with...well, you know...um...you're daughter's death?"

Ah, the beauty of the english language!

I can, though, answer both those questions in one statement that has become a bit of a mantra for me. My answer is, "I'm more good than bad."
And that is the truth. My days are mostly good. My emotional state is mostly strong. My workload is mostly manageable. etc... Yes, I walk by pictures of Annie and stare in disbelief at what has happened. Yes, I struggle to tell people I have 3 children when the truth is I have 2 children alive in my household. But still, "I'm more good than bad."

The picture above is a group of people Sarah and I spend a weekend with not long ago. In the lower left are the leaders of the retreat we attended, David & Nancy Guthrie. (See my little head floating in the back row?) They designed a weekend for parents who have lost children. It's called Respite. Although surrounded by stories of grief we found it refreshing to be in a setting where there was 1 thing in common---the death of a child (or children for some couples). It was awful to hear their stories and to share ours. But at the same time it was refreshing because the "How are you doing?" question was immediately understood.

"How are you doing?"
You may hear me asking you that the next time I see you. Feel free to answer it as it pertains to your day. But also feel free to answer it as it relates to some deeper aspect of your life. And I will do my best to listen.
Thanks for listening to me.

Thinking Orange

2010-04-18T20:56:00.003-04:00

Think Orange. The title comes from a book with the same title by Reggie Joyner. You can check it out here. The book captivated me and Josh (our other pastor). Not only does it ask (and answer some) great questions about practical ministry it overarching theme is partnership. Rather than thinking of family and church as two separate entities (red & yellow) is there a way in which we can "Think Orange"? Partnership.

I'm struck by the images above. One includes 40 dots--representing the average number of hours a church has in a year to influence a life. The other picture includes 3000 dots--representing the number of hours parents have to influence their kids. How can we partner together to make each set of hours most valuable?

We are spinning off the theme of partnership as we preach through the Core Values of our church. Our 8 Core Values are all about Partnership; with God, with each other, with our community.

Core Value 1: Healthy Relationships
Josh preached through this last week.
The ultimate goal of this value is for our church to develop intimacy with God, community with Insiders, and influence with Outsiders. To do so we are developing a plan for small groups. By September a renewed structure for Community Groups is going to be in place. We believe that by connecting people in groups is our best opportunity for developing healthy relationships to take place.

Core Value 2: Generous Living

If you've been around the church for long you have probably heard preachers talk about 'time, talents & treasure'. Generous living, although we aren't using that exact terminology, is about people using what they have to accomplish greater things together. Again, partnership is much more valuable that individual efforts.

6 more to go...stick around.
If you'd like to listen to the sermons click here

a first

2010-03-09T10:07:00.000-05:00

Today is Annie's birthday. It would have been her first.

My wife has a great idea for a "birthday present" on her blog. Check out Peanut Butter Jam and leave a gift there.

Happy Birthday sweet girl.

Numbers

2010-03-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

I have one mom and one dad.
My one sister is older than me.
I lived in 5 different states before High School graduation. (3 more states and 1 additional country since then.)
My neighbor sold me my first car for $750. A Chevy Luv.
Bought my second car for $900. A VW bus.
Shortly after that second car I bought my third car. It cost $4600. It was a more dependable VW.
I dated Sarah 9 months before asking her to marry me.
We were engaged another 9 months and then married.
Have been married 10 years this May.
Our William is 5.
Our Kate is 3.

We are staying in room 306 at a hotel in Ann Arbor, MI.
We are ~~celebrating~~ commemorating this weekend. Annie would have turned 1 March 9. She died nearly 6 months ago.

We visited the 3rd floor of the Mott Children's Hospital yesterday: PICU. Such amazing people there.

We walked by Family Consulation Room 2 and William said, "There's the room we were in."
My thoughts: "Yes son, that is the room where your mom and dad waited, cried, and prayed. Yes son, that is the room where the 4 of us sat as we told you that Annie was so sick and was going to die. Yes son...how did you remember that?!"

The book of Hebrews includes the following description of Jesus.
¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Did you see the number? Verse 15 says, "we have one..."

And because of that one we receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. God gives us grace right on time.

This weekend we are commemorating.
We are also celebrating; celebrating the victory of the One (Jesus) who overcame so much for us, celebrating his grace, and celebrating the one that through grace is with him even as we mourn that she is not with us.

Anne Jane.
I Love you.
Daddy.

Pray for Kate

2010-02-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

Let me simply direct your prayers and support to a young girl named Kate. She's battling brain cancer and this week is undergoing an intense round of chemotherapy.

Her story and the ongoing blog is here.

Thanks.

One Minute

2010-01-24T13:51:00.003-05:00

Jesus' mission to his followers is shared, at least in part, in Matthew 28:18-20. It is a big mission. It is a seemingly impossible mission. It is a mission he originally shared with a small band of followers.

One of my favorite books is by Malcolm Gladwell. It is called, The Tipping Point (buy it here). He fills the pages with illustration upon illustration of how the unexpected has beomce the expected in personal lives, companies, and countries. My mind soaks it up.

Jesus' mission was originally given to 11 disciples (some of who doubted, the text says). From that small number grew the entire Christian Church. Malcolm Gladwell eat your heart out. It is a remarkable illustration of the effect far outweighing the cause.

We are raised to think that A + B = C and many times this is the case. But there are numerous occasions where A + B = Whoa! And this is a Tipping Point.

As a follower of Jesus I believe in the Tipping Point. I believe that Christ does more in and through us than we can even ask or imagine. And the cool thing about a tipping point is that it does not take something big to make a big change. It does not take changing everything for everything to change.

Rob Bell, in the DVD Everything is Spiritual, shares some great insight from the world of science. Essentially there are hundreds of realities scientists know about our solar system. For instance the sun is 93 million miles from the earth; the earth tilts at 23.5%; oceans are 3.4% salt; etc... Again, there are hundreds of these known realities and all of them together create the life sustaining planet we call home. If just one of those calculations were different, like the sun were 92 mil. miles away, it would throw off the who entire equilibrium and life on earth could not exist.

Phenomenal.
And do you get it?
It doesn't take much to change everything.

Jesus used a small band of followers to begin changing the world.
Our solar system is precisely designed for life on earth.
A + B does not always equal C.

Today I invited our church to change everything.
I invited our church to commit to one minute of prayer. Just one minute.
One minute in prayer everyday for the mission of our church and the transformation of our community.

It doesn't take much to change everything.

The choice

2009-12-25T22:41:00.000-05:00

Because I want to wake up tomorrow.
Because I want to laugh.
Because I want to make a difference in the world around me.
Because I want to care for others.
Because I want to cry.
And because I want to honor life rather than succumb to the misery of death...
I choose.

I choose to celebrate Christmas and worship the God who gave it to us.
I choose to play catch with my son.
I choose to squeeze my beautiful daughter.
I choose to kiss my amazing wife.

I even choose to laugh at juvenile jokes--I did tonight.
I will choose to cry--I'm not far from it now.
I will choose to share my grief and I will choose to speak of the strength that I find within to make choices that move me forward rather than backward.

At Christmas we remember the birth of Jesus. I choose to remember and be thankful.

It was in October, in Kentucky, where I received the Sacrament of Communion for the first time after saying good-bye to our Annie. I recall holding the bread and the cup which symbolizes the message of Jesus' sacrifice for my sins. The thought occurred to me that in this world I will never hold and touch my Annie again but that each time I receive communion I will hold and touch the grace of God.

I choose grace. I choose the message contained in Jesus the Christ.
I choose.

Intersecting Stories

2009-11-30T19:38:00.000-05:00

So I met a guy in 1997 named Ben.

Ben was married to a nice girl who had a nice sister dating a friend of mine. That sister, who I knew mostly through my friend, has gone on with her life--and so has he. They are both married to other people now. But that is not the point.

Ben posted on his facebook account tonight a link to an upcoming episode on the Dr. Phil show. The story of his wife's sister is going to be aired this Wednesday. I was intrigued and checked it out.

He also posted this site: prayforkate.com

Now I'm heavy.

Their story is familiar...

Beautiful girl.

Healthy and Vibrant.

Concerned parents because something physically was not right.

Doctors.

Hospital.

Tests.

Brain Tumor.

I know there will always be stories that intersect ours. I know it. I know it.

But it it stunning.

As God provides space in your prayer life, would you join me in praying for Kate and her family?

Through words...

2009-11-16T14:38:00.002-05:00

Through my own spoken words on Sunday mornings I'm working out (strike that), working ON my questions and grief and faith. At this point there are many lingering questions but when I enter the pages of Scripture I can't help but see how God takes the pain and loss and impossibilities of life and does something...something that makes sense to him.

I've preached about God's narrative before. In fact, it was the focus of Advent at our church last year. NT Wright has some great insight on that here.

But Annie's death is forcing me to take God's story more serious than I believe I ever have.

Rewind a bit.

It was just a handful of days after Annie was born that we went with some friends to hear Rob Bell on his Drops Like Stars Tour. We thought it was be "so good" for our friends. The theme he would be delving into was How does Suffering impact Creativity--how does God use Suffering/Loss for something remarkable? We thought it would be good for our friends who have a great boy that lives with cerebral palsy. (Just a little fact: he's my greatest fan on Sunday mornings because I play a guitar!)

I know it was good for our friends--they've told me so. But never did I envision how I'd be reflecting back on that evening. As the sculptor, God must now take the bar of soap which is my life and create something beautiful out of it. That's what sculptors do. In fact that's what story writers do--create where creation seems uncreate-able.

(*pictures from Drops Likes Stars book)

I believe God is setting the stage for something remarkable through the setbacks of my life.
I believe the same for you.

If you are reading this and wondering if God is able to do this for you, check out a few incredible people from the Scriptures:

Joseph (betrayal, slavery, power, imprisoned, power, choice to forgive)
David (Goliath, Saul, adultery, forgiveness, Psalm writer)
Daniel (exile, brilliance, pressure to worship another god, lion's den, miracle, prophecy & visions)
Joshua (particularly the 10th chapter of Joshua)
Legion (Mark 5)
Jesus' disciples following his arrest, crucifixion and resurrection (went from fear to world changers)
Paul (2 Corinthians 11:21-12:10)

The iconic photographer Ansel Adams said, "A good photograph is knowing where to stand."
Ephesians 6 exhorts, "Stand...and after you have done everything, to stand."

God is calling us to Stand. From that position the view will be remarkable.

8 minutes of beauty

2009-10-26T21:02:00.000-04:00

A good friend created this collection of pictures of our girl. As you view, it is OK to have thoughts like, "Wow, she's beautiful." Or, "Look how much she was loved." Even, "It just doesn't seem right." It's also OK to enjoy her...we do.

As you grieve with us we appreciate your prayers: please continue in them for us. We also appreciate you loving well those who are in your relationship circles. Take care of each other.

Annie

2009-10-22T22:50:00.004-04:00

Tonight I miss her.

A friend shared this song with us by Steven Curtis Chapman.

He knows the words to sing as he too lost a little girl.

Home with 2 Hanks

2009-10-19T10:55:00.011-04:00

We have been out of town for a couple weeks.

Some friends loaned us their RV and we've been on the road.

A stop in DC to visit Uncle A...

A few days at a great RV campground in Virginia (hot tub included on our site)...

A stop in Kentucky to revisit our Asbury College & Seminary days and to reconnect with some great friends...

And a stop in Indiana to see Nanna and Granddad (oops, no pictures).

This is the kind of trip we've always wanted to take and yet it's the trip we never wanted to take. RVing and exploring has always been on the list of things to do in life. But each mile was marked with the reminder that the reason for the trip was the tragedy of losing Annie.

We live in real paradox right now. Joy & Sorrow, Happiness & Sadness, Plenty & Emptiness...

As we returned home we were reminded of the paradox. Although we were glad to be heading back to our own beds and our own home, there was part of us that never wanted to return. But a humorous distraction helped ease our entrance back into life.

While we were away on our "Big Rig" Adventure we kenneled our dog, Hank. It was strange that on one day while we were gone one of our neighbors facebooked us saying something to the effect, "It'll be good to have you guys back. I could hear Hank up early this morning." We didn't think too much of it, kinda just thought it was a little joke or something. Little did we know what lay ahead. As we arrived back in Michigan we picked up Hank at the "Doggy Hotel", giving him a chance to ride in the "big rig". It was weird when we walked into our porch and discovered a new dog bed and a note that said, "I'm out on a walk. Love, Hank". I checked his dog food and it was obvious that it was much less than when we had left. I called a couple neighbors to find out what was going on--evidently a yellow dog had been at our house for about a week and our friend across the road, Annette, had been taking care of him.

A few minutes later, she came strolling into our yard with a yellow dog yelling, "Welcome home!". You should have seen her face when I told her that the dog she was walking, and had been walking for a week, was not our Hank.

Here's what we've deduced... A stray dog showed up in our yard last Sunday and someone put him in our porch--assuming he was our dog. Word then travelled to our neighbor Annette that they were supposed to take care of Hank the second week of our absence. She's been walking and feeding "Hank" for a week.

So we stood in the yard with Annette and these 2 yellow dogs and wondered what we should do. Brainstorm...let's check his collar. We quickly found a phone number on dog #2 and his rightful owners (1/2 a mile away) came, quite relieved that their dog had been found. Annette explained that he had been such a great dog and had come when called so obediently. It made sense when we asked Dog #2's name . . . yep, you guessed it, Hank.

We're home and life moves on in all its humor and pain, with all its certainty and questions.

166

2009-09-29T21:01:00.002-04:00

166 hours ago I was holding our Annie. She was just two hours from departing this world.
I can't believe it's been just 166 hours...almost 7 days...barely 1 week.

In that time we've arranged for her beautiful funeral; funeral director, burial clothes, burial plot, outdoor tent procurement, minister, friends, music, memorial fund, family travel & housing...

Sometimes I just cry.
Sometimes I have to play my guitar.
Sometime I'm sure I'm going to walk past her bed and see her smiling back at me.

Our Kate has said numerous times, "I'm so happy that Annie is with Jesus. But when he's finished being with her she can come home."
Someday she'll realize the truth of the matter and that makes me sad.

Our William has tried to stand stoicly through these days. He doesn't like the tears associated with Annie's absence. And yet, thankfully, he's cried too and spoken of his love for his sister.

Nearly 7 days in this "club"--it's membership dues are too high if you ask me.
Only 7 days...and another 7 starts right away.

*A friend just called...divinely prompted to call us. Thanks. We're reminded that we are not alone in this 166th hour.

Every once in a while

2009-09-02T21:59:00.000-04:00

When I talk about my kids.
When I share about the support of my wife.
When I talk about the meaning of my friendship with my buddy Troy.
I cry.

And when I speak these things in front of my church, well I cry then too.

I cried Sunday as I watched a guy named Marty stand at the altar and worship God with his hands raised. I cried Sunday as I shared with the church the heaviness I feel in ministry and the inadequacy that exists in me.
I cried Sunday when my wife stood next to me and squeezed my hand in support and love.

I am not the "weeping pastor" but when I cry, you know it. It's not just some misty eyed moment. It's drippy.

I value my wife, my kids, my friend and my church. They are to me the Aaron and Hur as I feel, on a small scale, the weight and role of Moses. I believe God is leading our church in ways like I've not noticed in the past 5 years. There is a good land (even a promised one) ahead of us. But man, it's a struggle.

We go together.

My amazing family

2009-08-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

Early Edition

2009-08-26T06:19:00.005-04:00

In college I knew a guy who received free shoes from Nike. He'd get them well in advance of the public and get to simply wear them around to see how they felt, held up and, I guess, see how other people responded to them. As a shoe loving college student who was living on a shoestring, pun intended, I wanted in on that action! But alas...no.

But this all changed when I (and several thousand others) we able to buy an advance copy of a book by Chip & Dan Heath. Willow Creek was able to secure advance copies of their latest book, Switch, for those who attended the Leadership Summit. The book will be released in the spring of 2010 but I have already read it. They've asked that we not blog, teach, or quote from the book until January. I'm being careful to honor that request. Although last Sunday I wanted to use some of it in my sermon. It's cool to have read a pre-release book but even more is the timing. It's helping me visualize how we might be able to make a Switch in some areas at our church.

It's on my heart to lead in a particular direction in our church. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger categorize pastors in 2 ways in their book Simple Church; a programmer or a designer. I am living the prior but aiming toward the latter. It's going to take a Switch. Church can program for discipleship or can move people in a discipleship process. We currently practice the former but will be moving toward the latter.

I believe my passions started pointing this way about 6 years ago. In my small office at Faith Community Church, Osceola, Indiana, I wrote down a one word description of making disciples. I didn't do anything with it except type it and stick it in a desk drawer. (Sounds about right for a pastor.) I moved that piece of paper and it's lived in my desk over the past 5 years in Michigan. The book 7 Practices of Effective Ministry fired me up about what church could be and look like. Follow that with 3 Big Questions for the Franctic Family, some podcasts, prayer and journaling and baboom...there's a flame inside. That piece of paper is part of a collage of stuff I'm compiling in this process of understanding change and how to shape the environment around people so that they will be apt to change.

The board of our church has already heard my heart.
It's coming soon to other leaders and the full congregation.
I'm excited about our church.
There are some crazy events happening in our area that we have to engage--some people know what I'm talking about already--but we will still get there.

Food for the Masses

2009-07-18T10:22:00.003-04:00

Every time we've hosted our Free Food Giveaway there's a gnawing feeling in my gut where I think, "Are people going to show up? If they don't what do we do with all this food? Will there be enough volunteers?..."

I'm grateful to the 40+ volunteers who gave their time and energy to set up, distribute and clean up. It's humbling to have helped serve 191 families (representing 793 individuals) free groceries and a New Testament.

Thanks to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and to my friends who volunteered.

May God's kingdom come in North Branch as it is in heaven.

Food Warm Up

2009-07-16T13:44:00.002-04:00

In just hours a truck will arrive @ NBWC and leave us with 12 pallets of food (10,000 lbs.). We'll have two hours to sort it, count it and set it up. At 6 we'll (hopefully) give it all away--free. We expect to have about 175 family units show up, which represents around 600 individuals. It has been incredible for our church and for individuals to experience this event.

The calls have been coming into the office in large numbers inquiring about the event. We are expecting it to be a busy afternoon.

I can't say enough about the volunteers who take part in this. 40+ people will give of their time (and take personal time off work) in order to be at the church early and stay late cleaning up. Remarkable. Thanks everyone, in advance.

I'm getting warmed up...I'll let you know how things go after we've served.

Unplanned

2009-06-20T20:50:00.004-04:00

My past few sermons have surprised me. The process of writing a sermon, although laborious, is typically pretty cool for me. But lately what I've found it that I've planned to give some lighthearted sermons with somewhat predictable endings but have instead ended up going way deeper than I though I would. (Now I know I should always be willing to go deeper but I wasn't going to, ok.)

For instance, I was going to preach on the beauty of having a break--and the plan was to talk about the beauty and responsibility of a summer break. Instead the sermon was a totall indepth look at Sabbath, the old covenant, the new covenant and how it relates to us today.

Last week I preached on God is Fortress (using the OnePrayer focus) and found myself going in directions I hadn't planned.

Tomorrow I'm preaching on the Providence of God. What?! Yes, the providence of God--his ability to economize our world based on his design, story and purposed. Totally didn't plan to preach this. The "plan" was to preach on God is Provider (again a OnePrayer theme). I was going to try to encourage our Michigan congregation to trust in God and be encouraged in tough economic times (blah, blah, blah). And now I am so glad to go deeper and lead people deeper.

Another beauty in all this is how cool it's been to read large chunks of scripture, theology and church history. I'm re-learning and learning for the first time perhaps some great stuff about God.

So there you go.
If my church podcasted you could listen online.
If you go to my church...see you soon.

Sometimes they are difficult

2009-05-24T13:56:00.003-04:00

This morning's church experience was difficult.

I'm processing why and what and who and everything.

Our Sunday School class is tacking difficult topics. It challenges our values and beliefs. It's tough. Our Worship Team and Tech Team do an amazing job week after week but there were a couple glitches today that were noticed---at least by me.

Summers in Michigan...wow, two words, "Up North". Attendance and Momentum are drastically impacted by the desire by people to have a summer break.

My sermon. Hmm, definitely not one of my top ten. (I am grateful God speaks through his Word and by his Spirit and not only through the voice of mere mortals.)

I know some Sundays are flat, I get that. But that doesn't negate the funk I feel when they occur.

Lord willing and the creek don't rise I'll give my all again next Sunday.

And so now, an Ale-8-One

2 x 10,000

2009-05-15T22:36:00.005-04:00

Last night our church participated in our second free food giveaway. For a fraction of what it would cost in a grocery store we purchase approximately 10,000 lbs. of food and give it away...free. The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan (fbem.org) is the agency supplying the goods. We purchase a truck of food through them, they deliver the food and from then on we manage the outreach event.

It is an overwhelming experience. As the leader of our church I'm overwhelmed to see the number of people who have responded to serve. The volunteers are just awesome.

It is overwhelming to come in contact with the 120+ people (representing 500+ family members) who arrived to receive food. Everyone left with a pile of food, loads of smiles and a free Bible.

I told several recipients, following their words of thanks, that we are glad to help in any way we can and that "we are in this together". I hope they know that we mean it.

Our next free food giveaway is scheduled for Thursday, July 16 @ 6 PM.

Gay in the News

2009-04-27T18:33:00.004-04:00

There's been quite a bit of banter over the issue of person beliefs in the news lately. Miss California expressed a personal belief in a national setting and those who view things from the right-wing are calling foul. I've not been too wrapped up in it but applaud the gal for saying what she said in the tone in which it was said.

I keep an casual eye on how denominations are handling this pressing issue. I especially watch what the Presbyterian Church (USA) does with this issue because of a personal connection we have there.

Sarah and I spent two great years at Pisgah Presbyterian Church, Versailles, KY, and loved the people there. It was a wide mix of beliefs--liberal t0 conservative. In that setting I really got my feet wet and really had to defend my understanding of the Scriptures as they address/don't address homosexuality and other topics. I was glad to read that the PCUSA has defeated a move to allow for the ordination ofopenly homosexual clergy. Here's a link to one report of it. The local Presbyteries (Districts to all you Wesleyans) turned down a proposed ammendment to the Book of Order. For now, the PCUSA is standing in a Biblical position. Another report, here, details a little more of how the vote shaped up. It's a bit disconcerting though as it reports more and more presbyteries are moving toward approving this measure.

"Maranatha!", meaning either Our Lord has come or Come, O Lord has significant meaning in times like these. Yes, we desire for our Lord to return. But let's not forget our Lord has come and as a result we must, as his representative body, live like we represent Him.

Tough questions abound for the church--not just this area. Pray for the church universal as we engage our culture and as the culture engages the church.

Because I'm up

2009-04-20T22:55:00.001-04:00

Because I'm up I decided I would write a few lines.
The biggest event of my day was chatting with my friend Troy. He and his wife just returned from an incredible adventure. They recently were able to adopt a 2 year old girl from Swaziland (I believe). They have some crazy stories of their time in Africa to bring her home and are all recuperating in the home in British Columbia. We wish were were closer to them in location...a coffee and some stories would be great.

Troy and I have been connected since our seminary days at Asbury. I was a lonely single guy and and he and Teresa invited me over for coffee once. I accepted their offer and really only left their apartment to go to class. (Not really, but I certainly hung out there a bunch.)
From those chats in their living room he and I began meeting weekly, with Ale-8's in hand, to pray with and encourage one another. He's been my accountability partner for a long time.
As he says, he a brother from another mother.

I'm excited for the commitment they've made to raise their sweet girl. They already have a great boy and from the conversation today their kids are treating each other like siblings already.

Many blessings to them!

Good Friday ... Great Sunday

2009-04-11T07:49:00.002-04:00

There was a great crew assembled at our church last night for an "experiential worship service". Josh--our Discipleship Pastor--planned and coordinated a great night. 8 Stations were experienced by everyone present as we traveled from room to room in small groups. It was very tactile and was even a good thing for our young kids. (It was cool too because there were tons of kids there.)

The evening closed with communion and it was incredible to share that meal with our community of believers. Someday we'll share it with our Savior!

It was also incredible to serve William communion for his first time. It's cool to see his love for Jesus and was an honor see him experience this means of grace.

Sunday's service will be great. 2 friends are getting baptized. Great music will be played/sung. Let's just hope the preacher pulls his weight and has worthwhile to say.

Today we'll hit our community Easter egg hunt. The volunteer firemen host it and we enjoy the opportunity to connect with our North Branch neighbors in this type of setting. And, the day is forecasted to be the warmest (and least windy) of all the years we've done this.

Christ HAS died.

Christ IS risen.

Christ WILL come again.

Honesty

2009-04-06T19:54:00.009-04:00

I've been wanting to blog recently but haven't done so. I even began the process of opening up a new blog because there's an itch in me to write openly and candidly. I was going to start the new blog, keep it anonymous and use it a means (almost a spiritual discipline) of speaking/writing more courageously. But I didn't do that.

You see over the past few months I've been on an enjoyable/unenjoyable journey. It's enjoyable in its outcome but has been fairly unenjoyable throughout. It's a journey I shared with my church last Sunday and a journey I fully intended to avoid. But I believe God had a different design.

There have been some rough edges in me, some dark days & weeks, and some spiritual issues I've not addressed. I believe it has taken its toll on my family, my ministry and me. It's been tough.

The real problem I have with it is I could have sidestepped much of it if I had been willing to listen to God. In early January I read from Psalm 15 these verses,

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?

He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart?

There they are in bold letters. The words intended for me and the words which I tried to crowd out of my existence. Ironic, isn't it? Yes, and somewhat sad.

So I stalled. I figured "God would let me off the hook" and those things I didn't want to face and those words I didn't want to speak...well, he'd understand. But if you've ever done this kind of dance with God you know (just like I already knew but chose to believe otherwise) that God doesn't let people off the hook--at least not without consequences and not after an immense season of grace and conviction. He poured on the latter two in massive quantity.

At the root: trust.

And why? I have no stinkin' idea. Well that's not totally true, I have some thoughts.

And now, how will I become more trusting? By trusting others and giving myself more fully.

That is hard for me.

I am able to position myself well. I can give the appearance of committed and connected all the while keeping my cards very close to my chest.

So I'm learning to play the game with joy again. I know I can't simply flash my cards to everyone at the table (to keep my euchre thought process going) but I do know that I there has to be a certain level of trust on my part as I sit at the table and engage with those in the other seats.

The freedom to speak again, to cry again, to begin trusting deeper came through the love, grace and mercy shown to me by my wife. She truly is remarkable. In her I felt the hands of my Savior receiving me and forgiving me. In her I see the marks of grace. In her there is a supernatural ability to love. I am a blessed man.

So I told my church some straight up stuff 2 Sundays ago.

We are in the midst of a retooling endeavor called, ReVision. As part of it we are digging into stuff like Mission and Core Values, etc. As part of the process we are sharing our work with the church--in small groups and in corporate worship.

I stood 2 weeks ago with a bulletin insert of ReVision info in my hand. I stood there knowing that the information and the process we are in is stuff some people in the church have been through before. Perhaps they've been through it at NBWC, perhaps somewhere else. Perhaps they've been through a process like we are in and at the end all of it all it just gets filed and begins collecting dust. Perhaps they've been through such a process only to have the Pastor leave during or shortly after its completion.

As I stood to share from the document my heart was at peace. I believe God freed me to speak in a way I haven't done in some time--if ever. I spoke a bit about my journey the past few months. I spoke of how I spent time online looking for open ministry positions. I spoke of how I spent time dreaming and praying that God would "get us out of North Branch". Then, oh then I spoke of how God has placed me here. Sarah and I cannot shake the calling we know we have to this place and to these people. I got to tell my congregation that I am not leaving. As I held that piece of paper in my hand I told them my plans are to stay. I told them that although I shouldn't be in North Branch, Michigan (from a human standpoint) I belong here. I wanted them to know that I believe in the future of our church. I believe in the change possible in our community. I believe the process of ReVision is good. I believe when ReVision is over I will still be here.

It's been a week + 1 day since I spoke.

People have been incredible. It's fun to receive their love...and to give it in return!

Old habits and thought patterns still invade. Ben Witherington, a fave ATS professor, always used to say, "God has to rewind the mind and retread the head."

I'm up for that journey, honestly.

Where I am More

2009-03-16T17:47:00.002-04:00

More times than not I am on Facebook rather than Blogger.

Check out my happenings here

Learning & Leading

2009-01-28T13:37:00.003-05:00

I've been enjoying some great reading lately.

Bill Hybels' book, Axiom, is one I've been thumbing through in bits and pieces. It's short chapters make for quick reading followed by good reflection. Today I stumbled across this blog where each of the chapters was summarized. Nice.

I've also just finished Seth Godin's book, Tribes. Loved it. I don't know much about Godin but I also enjoyed his book, The Dip.

Sarah's brother put a great read in my hands recently, Jayber Crow, by the Kentuckian Wendell Berry. It was a great novel...especially for those who love Kentucky. Which, fortunately, I do.

Another book for this list is one I've been plugging along in before nodding off to sleep at night. It's certainly interesting and is providing me some insights on how I write. We picked it up on Amazon not long ago because we were intrigued by the title, Writing to Learn.

Now, to the final book. I'm enjoying and encouraging others to enjoy/pursue reading through the Bible this year. I picked up a One Year Bible to keep me on track. So far so good--although I admit some days I have to read 2-3 days of readings in order to get caught up. (And wow, that's a big picture isn't it? I couldn't get it resized.)

Will we look like Obama?

2009-01-20T10:26:00.015-05:00

Today we will witness an incredible shift in our nation. Shifting from what has been to what might be. Sarah and I plan to watch the inauguration with our kids at lunch. We will explain what's happening and pray together for our new president as well as our former president.

Speaking of Obama. Have you noticed how look-a-like logos are floating around all over the place?

Here's Pepsi's latest:

Here's Chrysler's latest:

Here's the latest look for Pirates (found this on a t-shirt)

What if Jesus had a logo?

Maybe I should have one too?!

We will have new leadership in less than 90 minutes from the time I'm writing these words.
We don't all have to look like Obama but we all have been called to pray for our leaders.
Jesus said, Love God, Love your Neighbors, Pray for your Enemies, and Forgive each other. That's the way I want to look.

Happy New "You"

2009-01-16T17:57:00.004-05:00

I shared at our Christmas Eve service last month the joys of raising our kids and the excitement that filled our house leading up to Christmas. Along the journey to Christmas our girl, Kate, learned some Christmas carols; Away in the Manger and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. The latter provided great substance for my Christmas Eve message.

In her 2 year old vocabulary she doesn't always get words out of her mouth just as they ought to be. With great gusto she would sing We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new YOU.

I love the opportunity of a new YOU we have--not just at the beginning of 2009--but always as we live under the saturation of God's grace through Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas (belated) and a Happy New YOU!

Month in Review

2008-12-05T13:10:00.003-05:00

My last post was on 11/5...whoa, it's been a while.

I tend to read other people's blogs rather than write on my own.

I also frequent Facebook more often than not. (Although I don't write much there either. It's just more fun to read what other people feel the need to write about.)

So the past month. I'll be brief.

In rewind:

-We've all been sick this past week. I'm on my second day out of the office with whatever this junk is.

-Sarah is almost 30. She turned 29 on Wednesday. Of those years, I've been in her life for 11 of them. Wild!

-Thanksgiving with Sarah's family had a new twist--we hosted it at our house. Man, it takes a lot of work and a lot of cash to feed people over a long weekend. It was great not having to travel though.

-Speaking of money, Sarah's brother spent some of his own on the new macbook and sold us his old powerbook G4. So we're treading into the mac world. (Tomorrow I'm hoping to take it to a mac genius in hopes of them helping me undo some things I unknowingly did.)

-William is completely engrossed in football. He plays it, he dreams it, he watches it. He knows most, if not all, the team logos. And perhaps his favorite, he loves to say "Sunday Night Football Night in America" just like Al Roker says on the Today Show every Friday.

-Kate moved into her big girl bed. No more crib! She is such a star. Obviously she was ready because she was starting to crawl in and out of her crib and when we did move her into a bed she didn't fuss or anything. Just pulled the blankets up and went to sleep.

-Catalyst One Day: I spent a day of incredible learning at a conference called "Catalyst One Day". Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley were the presenters and it was awesome. Well worth the 4:30 AM wake-up, 500 mile round trip drive, and 8 hours of conference.

-Christmas stuff is is full swing at church and in our home. We're looking forward to a great Christmas. Jesus is amazing. I'm glad he is my Lord.

Merry Christmas to you and yours...I may not make it back before then. :)

Image makes a Difference

2008-11-05T12:57:00.003-05:00

Our son, William, has surprised us with his name dropping over the past few weeks. He overhears the news (and his parents) talking about the election and has picked up on the names that are out there. He has been a staunch supporter of Barack Obama--not because of what he has heard/not heard in our house--but simply because he think Obama looks like Tiger Woods. Yesterday we told him we were voting for John McCain and today, following us telling him that Obama won the Presidential Election, he proudly proclaimed that he was "right" and we were "wrong".

Image makes a Difference...even 4 year olds have this one figured out!

So you know what we did at lunch today? As a family we prayed for Obama and Biden (you should hear Kate try to say Barack Obama). We asked God to protect them and bless them--and we meant it.

Away!

2008-10-27T09:05:00.002-04:00

Sarah and I are having a 24 getaway. We are in Indiana and able to leave our kids with Sarah's folks overnight. This is the view we had last night of the lake where we are stayed (I did not snap the pic but found it online).

For us to get away took a lot of work--in fact, it took a lot of mature conversation between the two of us. It was hard work to accomplish it. We have enjoyed waking up this morning without children calling our names, watching an entire news show without switching channels to watch Curious George, sitting on the couch for the past 2 hours, and our biggest discussion this morning is whether or not we should peel ourselves from our couches and eat some breakfast. Ahh.

Big thanks to my wife for getting us here.
Big thanks to our family for watching the kiddos.
Big thanks to my assistant pastor, Josh, for leading worship & preaching yesterday.
Big thanks to professional mileage reimbursements from the past month that gave some extra cash to get down here.

Star (five) Bucks

2008-10-21T14:53:00.003-04:00

Dave Ramsey says he has a friend who calls Starbucks, FiveBucks, because everytime you go there it's going to cost you $5.

Well push that total up to $10 now.

Just moments ago I sauntered into the local Starbucks for a little study time and access to the internet outside of the noise and interference of the church office.

As I waited for my grande cafe mocha and tastey M&M cookie I inquired about the use of internet access. "It's free, right?" I said. The answer was something to this affect, "If you purchase a Starbucks card, even just putting $5 on it you'll be able to register at starbucks.com and get all sorts of free newsletters and offers [junk] sent to you via email. It's a really cool thing. All you have to do to keep your account activated is buy a starbucks coffee once a month using your card and it'll keep your account active."

WHAT?!

Starbucks went from Fivebucks to Tenbucks.

I did it. I joined. But at least I can post on my blog now. Now that's $5 well spent...or not.

Sound Advice

2008-10-01T11:31:00.002-04:00

I recieved this videoblog this morning and found it to be timely and solid. Kevin Eikenberry writes good stuff; simple and practical.

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Call to Prayer

2008-09-24T21:27:00.002-04:00

In case you haven't already sensed it, now is the time for prayer; prayer for discernment and action. How will Jesus followers be able to respond to the financial implosion we are witnessing? How will God's people participate in the upcoming election, and shape the next era of our country? How will we creatively and honestly express the good news?

I'm struck with how people in my congregration repeatedly "go without". Embarrassingly, our congregation does not have an action plan in place to assist those with needs. It bothers me greatly. We give and we give well, at times and when we hear about it, but I want to be more intentional. Pray that our church would be able to pull together and respond appropriately and generously.

Thanks.

Dollars and Sex

2008-09-20T21:27:00.002-04:00

I live in Michigan, where the financial cruch that the rest of the nation is now feeling has been felt for the past 2 years. More than that, I live 80 miles from Detroit and 45 from Flint--two cities incredibly affected financially. It has affected our small town for some time now.

We have great people we know who are struggling financially. Some people in our church are losing their homes. Others are coming to our church for some finacial assitance. It has been a cause of real concern for me and we have only been able to make small dents along the way. I pray we can do more.

With all the layers of issues wrapped in the financial crisis I don't pretend to know too much about it and I don't pretend to know how to fix it. But I would like to make one observation. I wonder if anyone else has made the observation that the only man who is given any network airtime is that guy from Mad Money? Other than him, NBC and ABC (from what I've observed) has a female-only staff of Financial Consultants/Reporters. Nothing against women but I wonder what the driving force is behind this. Has anyone else made this observation? They seem to give sound advice and accurate reporting but where are the boys?

Hey, thanks!

2008-09-07T21:54:00.007-04:00

So if you stop by my blog with any sort of regularity, thanks. I've been away from it for several weeks. Since the beginning of August loads of good things have taken place:

1) the Olympics were fun to watch...in fact William will see Matt Lauer on TV and ask if we're watching the Olympics.

2) William celebrated his 4th birthday. He's a star, we love him.

3) We visited my family in SD for a week. It was great seeing family and great to leave the church in the hands of our very capable layleaders.

4) NBWC has hired an assistan pastor! Josh Hilty and his wife, Jamie, will be moving to North Branch on the 17th of this month. It's weird to think that Pastor Tony's former office will no longer be our office storage space, that a living breathing person will occupy it instead. It's going to be good to have Josh here.

5) The brakes on our '96 Subaru Outback (absolutely amazing car) were shot. Out of the blue we had someone give us a check which covered all but $24 of the mechanic's bill. It was an amazing gift not to have to pay the other $300!

6) Kate's vocabulary is exploding. She still enjoys pulling funny faces and now has verbal expressions to go along with them. She is hilarious.

I could go on. Suffice it to say the latter part of this summer has been great.

Thanks for reading.

He thinks I can

2008-08-08T21:14:00.003-04:00

I've just returned from the Willow Creek Summit and am once again blown away. I am not an every year Summit attendee. I've been a few times and really should go every year. My mind is on a bit of overload and I'm refecting on all that I heard over that past two days but I do know one thing right now...God thinks I can.

Willow Creek takes some hits for doing certain things and making certain decisions but what I experienced over the past 48 hours was a clear and present impact by the Holy Spirit. The leaders of Willow Creek have pursued Christ's best and tilled a fertile garden for the Spirit of God to reach me--and I appreciate it.

I've found that leadership chips away at your will power and your confidence. It breaks down your resolve and can get you off center. I am so thankful for God reminding me (and some 100,000 other leaders who attended the conference) that HE thinks we can.

He thinks we can innovate. He thinks we can lead. He thinks we can change the world. He thinks we can survive failure. He thinks we can overcome sin. He thinks we can...

As part of the excitement of the Summit, a group of leadership friends joined me at the retreat. It was great to share the experience with my wife and our friends at church. I don't want our church to stay the same. For that matter, I don't want to stay the same. It'll be cool to see where we all go as a result of this.

Now I'm home watching the Olympic opening ceremony. Kinda interesting to come home after a Christ-centered setting to NBC airing an hour+ long religious ceremony. The religions of China were in the fore of all the presentations and network TV seemed to really enjoy it. (It makes me wonder if they would enjoy airing an Olympic ceremony that was laced with Christianity, its symbolism, and its meaning.) Technologically and the people involved in the ceremony were phenomenal! I think they said a 500 ft. LCD screen was used. Crazy. Should be a fun several days of watching.

Makes me think..."Just how are people going to know that God is good?" Gary Hougen of the IJM asked this question at the Summit. Millions of people need to know that God is good and He thinks we can let them know.

Lengthy

2008-07-24T21:22:00.003-04:00

When our former pastor resigned I made an inward and outward commitment: we will take my time to hire the next assistant pastor for our church. The prediction was that we would have someone in place by August 1. Isn't August 1 next week? Ya, we're not all that close to bringing that person to minister to/with us. And so we wait and we search.

I've met some great people along the way and have enjoyed some of the process of the search. Some of it I could do without. But we will get there.

Enough?

2008-07-10T06:31:00.003-04:00

It's a funny thing, discouragement. It hits at the wierdest times and in the most unexpected ways. For me, as it may be for others, it comes down to the "enoughs" of life.

Did I do enough?
How come they didn't give enough?
The board said "yes", but did they say yes enough?
Were enough people at church?
Will there be enough volunteers?
How will we be effective enough?
Did I call enough people?
Do people feel loved enough?
Did I work hard enough?
_____________________________? (fill in your own)

And check it out--it's all centered on performance. But does God want my performance or does he simply want me? He wants me to want Him. He wants me to love Him. He wants me to know Him. Seems to me that Jesus was like this with Mary & Martha--one who was doing and one who was being.

Oswald Chambers makes a distinction between active work and spiritual activity in today's (July 10) entry of My Utmost for His Highest. He writes, "Simple active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work can actually be the counterfeit of spiritual activity." Trying to do enough is counterfeit spirituality. (I think this is along the lines of what Thomas Merton calls the "false self".)

In a performance driven society it is difficult not to be performance driven our spiritual lives. It is just as difficult to rightly handle performance in our corporate (church fellowship) lives. But it seems necessary. Sure, we have to guage what's going on spiritually, corporately, etc..., but the questions that center on the "enoughs" are just about enough to take one down and lay them out. Tread carefully.

Community Gift

2008-06-24T13:00:00.004-04:00

4 days of work, over 100 volunteers, 500 yards of mulch, donations galore from local businesses and individuals equals 1 completed playground project.

Two years ago our church began meeting in our community park for 5-6 weeks in the summer. Two years ago we thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to have some updated playground equipment in our park?" Two years ago that thought was planted in my mind. Three days ago it came to a great end!

It was great working with people from our community to see this project come together. Our village leaders supported the project from the get-go and from there it was "simply" a matter of seeing all the details come together. I thank the Lord for the way in which he provided people and finances. Our church really showed up in a great way and it was fun for us to work alongside the people of our community.

Personally this was an exhilarating project...and an exhausting project. I am glad to have been associated with it.

Where You've Been...Where You're Going

2008-06-03T14:12:00.004-04:00

In a tribute to our graduation seniors (high school & university), in farewell to our Student Ministries Pastor, and as a word of encouragement to every person who comes and goes from our church I penned the following words for my Sunday sermon. Inspiration came from that all too popular book by Dr. Seuss, Oh, the places you'll go!, as well as from the fact that the Bible reminds us we are all interconnected as the body of Christ. We come and go, but we are in this together.

Here goes...

The big question today, the big thought we all wonder
Is whether or not lwe'll leave here and blunder.
Will we make it far or go just a little?
In Christ you’ll complete every jot and every tittle.

Suess, that is Dr., once wrote a fine book
He wrote it last and it brings a smile in the look.
Will you succeed? He wrote. Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)

Your success, my success, our successes are related
For all at this church have been similarly slated.
Common bonds, common friends, common hopes with no end.
We are tied together through thick and through thin.

You go from this place, some to school some to serve
Some on clear paths, some that will swerve.
Some go to a workplace, some go to a home
All want a good life and want HIM to be known.

How will this happen? How can it be?
People like us to make a difference, you see.
You might think you don’t have much to offer
But the king knows exactly what you have in your coffer.

Look at Paul, for example, that great man of God.
He had one purpose in life wherever he trod.
Bring Christ to the center of each location
Despite how he got there or the next destination.

Five times he was beaten forty stripes minus one,
Three times with rods, once he was stoned.
Three times the ship wrecked leaving him in the sea
He found peril in waters and in many journeys.

In danger from robbers, his countrymen, his friends,
In danger from Gentiles—those to whom God did send.
Even in cities, just like the wild
He found no safely like a mother and child.

Weariness, doctrine, hunger and cold
Hardwork and fasting must have grown old.
Yet in spite of all this, in spite of the pain,
His one purpose for Christ yet did remain.

Look at Daniel, from the Lion’s Den, and the great fiery furnace.
He stood his ground and did so with earnest.
Not in shouting or yelling but with strength and with poise
He was indeed the healthiest of all the king’s boys.

There came such a day as the sins of the whole
Were too obvious to forget and needed forgiveness total.
They weren’t his sins necessarily but they were just the same
For they were his people and he shared in their shame.

He prayed to the Lord, the great awesome Father,
Knowing that God loves his people and those who love others.
He prayed about the sins that the people had committed
Again they weren’t his but all needed acquitted.

How did Paul make it, barely it seems
But his purpose was clear and the fruit can be seen.
What about Daniel and the trials he witnessed?
Would we act similar and take on someone’s missteps?

To succeed we must, we must endure and engage.
The journey we travel knows no age.
Paul’s passion was the church, Daniel’s was purity
The Bible says this church must be likewise—that’s certainty.

Oh it’s fun to think of the places we’ll go
But our journey starts here and from here we will go.
If the start is muddled and the beginning a sham
That doesn’t leave much hope for the rest of the plan.

So it’s here in this place that God resets the game
He has a great plan for us, we go with a great name.
His name is the one we must carry well.
We represent the son of Heaven, not...

Well you know who I mean you know it’s through Jesus
You know it’s in Him that the world should see us.
So put on the new self, Colossians implores.
And see where you’ll go, what God has in store.

For all here today, not just those in transition,
I want you to hear me, “You are on a mission.”
Your work is not done if you’re still drawing breath
It’s possible God is not through with you yet.

So be quick to trust, to finish your work
Be committed to those who sometimes are jerks.
For at times we are jerks and God still loves us.
He loves us, he made us, and for us He makes a fuss.

Confess your own sin, the quicker the better.
The longer it lingers it just settles and festers.
Look around you as well, for their sins are yours,
The Bible is clear, corporate sins He abhors.

If that is the case, then my pain in yours.
And with that as the case your gain is ours.
We share in this journey, we are marked together,
You’ll go from this place connected forever.

Take from here what is good and renounce what brings shame.
You can do it, be free, all in Jesus’ name.
Will you succeed, we began, that was the question?
Succeed indeed with God in direction.

So take hope today, you young and you old.
You’ll do great things in the Bible we’re told.
You’ll wonder at times if you’re doing OK
You’ll wonder at times if today is the day.

You’ll have moments of levity and moments of grief,
But please, oh please, don’t forsake your belief.
For Christ died for you, 100 percent.
And into the world each one of us is sent.

In the name of the one who died in your place
In the name of the one who gives so much grace.
In his name I send you to go and succeed,
For in his name you will, that’s guaranteed.

Long time coming

2008-05-28T15:07:00.003-04:00

Well I've been out of it for quite some time. Good grief I'm one of those people who has a blog but has not updated it for a long time.

I know that part of my hesistation in writing is the fear of really being honest in my writing. Have you ever read a deceased person's journal? Have you ever thought while reading it, "Did they mean for me to read this?" But at the same time you find yourself incredibly moved by what they are saying or how they lived. Maybe most writers find it difficult to just lay it all out there for others, I don't know. I do.

My last post covered the fact that our assistant pastor has resigned and is moving. This Sunday is his final Sunday. If I were to be honest (and I will be) it has been a hard transition. There are many reasons why it has been hard but one in particular is how hard it is to pastor the size of church I pastor. We run around 250 or so...at least lately...and summer might change all that. But everything I experience and everything I am reading about churches like ours tells me that this is a difficult size church.

My greatest hope for my church would be the further empowerment of people to do stuff. (In church circles this is called discipleship.) Plain and simple, I want people to do the work of the church. Acts 2, Ephesians 4, et al., all speak about role clarification. I'm finding great pressure to be the "everything pastor" in a church that is too big for an everything pastor.

We are not going to hire a specialized minister for our next hire. We are taking our time and praying for a person who will come to be a "leader of leaders" as I call it. I'm looking for a person who gets excited about leading other people, holding them accountable, and getting other people involved in serving. We must grow wider at our base or the top will keep getting too dull.

I keep wondering who I know that could be this person. I'd love to hire someone I already know and trust but just haven't come to that name yet.

If you're interested in the position, email me: peter@nbwesleyan.org and I'll get you a job description.

Ch-ch-changes

2008-05-05T19:55:00.002-04:00

David Bowie sang it.
The rest of us live it.
Changes.

Tony Parsons, our Assistant Pastor, officially resigned this past Sunday. In August it would have been 3 years that he and I have served together. He has accepted a Youth Pastor postion at a church in North Carolina. June 1 will be his final Sunday. For those who read this and know him, shoot him a line of encouragement and prayer at tony@nbwesleyan.org.

I'm optimistic about the next steps for our church and for the student ministries of our church. I"m determined not to hire in a hurry or under pressure. I believe God will direct me and the leaders of our church in the right direction.

More changes to come...

Autobiography

2008-05-01T05:47:00.002-04:00

I'm reading an autobiography of a women who loved and lived in Africa, I Dreamed of Africa.
Last night as Sarah and I were in bed reading I told her that in reading this book I keep wondering where it's heading. But then I realized it is the story of one woman's life so it's simply heading through her life.

...from there it went downhill...

While I was in college I thought it might be a cool idea to write my life story. My plan was to give it to my parents as a gift at some point. I told Sarah that I'd once thought this and she erupted in laughter! :) At first I thought it just kinda tickled her a bit but she laughed for several minutes while pushing out words like, "That's the funniest thing you've ever told me" and "Only your parents would think that's the best gift ever"--which is true.

Her laughter caught me and eventually were both laughing.
I told her I was going to blog about this. I also feel like I should tell her that my next attempt at my autobiography will be dedicated to her.

By the way, the first attempt didn't make it too far. It is probably still on some harddrive of the now antiquated computer that reside in the basement computer lab of the old science hall of Indiana Wesleyan University.

If anyone ever comes across it let me know.

Good Reading

2008-04-13T21:15:00.002-04:00

The other day I took Kate & William to the North Branch Library while Sarah did some running around. I was very happy when Sarah showed up to take us home; William had played Go Diego Go games on nickjr.com for too long and Kate had put about 30 books in her mouth. In the few minutes we stayed after Sarah arrived I quickly browsed the books our library has in the "leadership" section--it didn't take long.

The book I checked out, Remarkable Leadership by Kevin Eikenberry, is a totally unknown book/author to me. It's secular, it's not church related, and it's not written to/for pastors. (I admit I do not read many books with this criteria.) Some of the content is quite basic. But much of it has been refreshing to me. It's laid out well and covers a great range of topics.

I told Sarah last night that I am enjoying this book because it is not written for me, as a pastor. It is written for me as a leader. As a pastor I can take the leadership aspects of the book and imagine how I can apply them to me and to my church. It is fun for my mind to wander and process versus reading a "how-to run your church like I run my church" leadership book.

Vacation cont...

2008-04-10T09:58:00.005-04:00

the obligatory family picture. :)

cute beach girl
william did not stop running...

our vacation spot overlooking the ocean

Vacation

2008-04-09T10:47:00.002-04:00

We own a 2006 Ford Freestyle...correction: we don't own it, we are in debt with it...and in the course of 18 months we have had 2 tires blowout and 1 flat due to a nail lodged in the side of a tire. BUT, even a flat tire on I-75 South in Detroit, in rush hour traffic, could not stop us from going on vacation. We had a flight to catch!

Spending the next several days in Myrtle Beach, SC, will be great! Our place for the week looks out over the ocean and is just great. We're here with Sarah's folks who are a great help with our kids and who are going to earn every cent of that greatness---if I have anything to do with it. (Just kidding. I won't be mean. But it is nice to have some additional hands to be with the kids.)

Maybe some pix in another post.

Stoves are great...

2008-03-25T15:57:00.002-04:00

Stoves are great, when you have one that works.

The whole Easter weekend was nutty. Thursday - Sunday were jam packed with services and church stuff. On the morning of Good Friday I had a phone call from some folks in my church. Turns out that for the past several days their oven had stopped working. The stove top worked, but they could not cook anything in the oven. They were wondering if I know of an agency that could help them out with this. Here's where the story gets good!

Last summer I went golfing with a guy from our congregation. In the midst of our round of golf he got a call from someone needing an appliance. With little effort he was able to commit to the person on the other end of the line and the deal was done.

So Good Friday morning I call him and ask if he can get his hands on a stove. He said he was on his way out of town and trying to run some errands. He then shared, "I'll see what I can do." Within 30 minutes he called me back with a stove in his vehicle and he was heading into North Branch to make a couple stops. Less than 30 minutes later he calls me and said he was waiting downtown if I'd like to meet him and drop off the stove. Would I...?!

From the time I received the call to the time we dropped it off, it must have been about 90 minutes.

It was so fun to squeeze that in prior to the Good Friday Service I helped lead with a couple other community churches. I'm putting the Stove on the list, right after Jesus' Resurrection, as a favorite Easter Moment of 2008.

Hope your Easter was grand wherever you were.

Returning Home

2008-03-11T09:32:00.004-04:00

Saturday afternoon I, and 5 others, returned home from our short term Mission Trip to Antigua. All told I was away from home 9 days. It was a new experience to be away for that period of time. It was also a new experience to travel and minister like that without my wife being with me.

The ministry opportunities on the small island of Antigua are on a grand scale. For the tourist, the island is a tropical get away. For the national people the island is home and is home to many needs. Because we traveled there for ministry we definitely saw a side of the island that few tourists would see. For instance, the church we served, Grays Farm Holiness Church, has housed a preschool in its lower level for the past two years. During that time there has never been running water and functional bathrooms. It's exciting to share that that has now changed. A guy on our team spent 3 days working to get the plumbing functional and the bathrooms operational! So cool. Those of us who are not inclined to digging in toilets and drains spent out time giving a cosmetic facelift to the exterior of the church building. We were like flies as we painted the building. We were everywhere. It was great to see progress on a daily basis.

I found great joy in the several occasions when we were away from the church property and people recognized us. (Who wouldn't recognize a bunch of very white people in the midst of a predominately black population!) Seriously though, we were recognized not so much for our skin color but for the work we were doing. People would say, "You are the group working at the church." Or, "Aren't you the people helping Grays Farm?" It was cool.

We still have a group of people in Antigua for the remainder of this week. They are continuing to minister at the church and the surrounding community. You can pray for them. Check out their ongoing ministry here.

Enjoy the few pix I've added below.

the painting crew
doing my part
the minister at Grays Farm, Brother Michael
with the kids in the preschool

finding shells to bring home (we worked hard and played a bit too)

Joy Spots

2008-02-14T09:46:00.003-05:00

In the weeks leading up to Easter I am encouraging our church to be intentional about "spotting" God at work among us, answered prayers, people serving selflessly, etc...

Our sanctuary and foyer are separated by a wall of glass. The hope is to cover that glass with Joy Spots. They are simple in design and function but my aim is to see our Joy increase, our appreciation of one another deepen, and a renewed excitement of God's ongoing work in our midst.

Mark Twain once wrote, "Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."

Stand!

2008-01-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

We are enjoying a 3 week sermon series entitled, "Stand". Two weeks ago the point was Stand: Together (based on Philippians 1:27ff---perhaps my favorite passage in the Bible). Last Sunday found us digging into Romans 14-15 on the topic of Stand: Down (when believers should step back). I wrestled hard with the text throughout the week, finally felt some clarity in the text and then really enjoyed teaching it. This week we'll finish up with Stand: Up. Matthew 5:38-41 is Jesus' famous teaching on turning the other cheek. Is this a passage designed to teach Christians to roll over or is there a message of strength included?

Looking Up

2008-01-21T13:13:00.000-05:00

I've had a growing interest lately in knowing more about the night sky. I checked out some books from the Library--but didn't really pick any that helped me. But then my brother in law happened to have this great book, The Stars by H.A. Rey (Curious George author), and wasn't using it. It's been great reading it and learning about when/where to look for constellations and stars.

Wouldn't you know, Saturday was our clearest and most beautiful night. It was also our most frigid night so far this winter. I'd been wanting to go outside and gaze for a few nights leading up to Saturday but the sky was totally cloudy.

I bundled up a bit and spent just 5-10 minutes craning my next so as to spot some of the goodies I'd been learning about.

From eighth grade I remember Orion and I've always know about the Little & Big Dipper. What I didn't know is that the Little Dipper contains a star called the "Pole Star". It rarely moves in the night sky and gives you the indication that you are facing north. I also enjoyed learning that the Big Dipper is part of a larger constellation called the "Great Bear".

It's just something fun to do.
Oh and by the way, I spotted "Cassiopeia" for the first time on Saturday. After finding it, the dog and I were both cold so we called it a good night. Next chance I get, I'll be looking to find the "Herdsman".

p.s.
Thanks to Mrs. Ray (my eighth grade teacher) , Bruce Bain (a great friend from England), and Joe Dongell (a professor from Asbury Seminary) for all enjoying the stars and encouraging me to look up.

Oh the Questions!

2008-01-18T16:30:00.000-05:00

It's time again for a little input from Sarah. Hope you enjoy. . .

The other day Peter went to Holly to do a short Graveside Service. This man had been in the Military, so he was buried at the National Cemetery there. The kids have been crazy lately (I foolishly thought this would end after Christmas) and I decided this would be a great opportunity to get out of the house for a bit. We often take advantage of extra miles that Peter has to drive for work to spend time with him. I took my Bible study with me, hoping that the kids would fall asleep and I could sit in the car while he did the service. Perfect! They both woke up the minute we drove into the Cemetery. Why is it that so many of my great ideas so rarely get carried out!?

From where our car was, we could see the Veterans standing straight with their guns in the air. I should’ve been prepared for the barrage of questions that come from any three year old:

“Mommy, why do those men have guns? Are they going to shoot my Daddy?”
“No, Son. They are soldiers. They protect us from the Bad Guys”

Bad guys are a hot commodity in our house. William loves to talk about them, play games with ‘bad guys’, pretend he is the bad guy . . . (When I tried to teach him to call out the name “Jesus!” if he was ever scared of a bad guy, he replied that he’d just get out his sword and kill them himself.). So I thought this would be a good analogy for his little mind. Until a man walked out of the pavilion with his long black coat: “There’s the Bad Guy, Mommy! They’re going to shoot him!”

Next, I got this question: “Mommy, why do some people die? Am I going to die?” Now, this is very tricky. Do I give him a sense of false hope?-- “You won’t die for a very long time”. Or do I give him the harsh truth?—“Yes. You’ll die”. Or do I give him the huge theological discourse?—“William, we never know when our last breath will come. Then again, Jesus may come at the blink of the eye to separate the sheep from the goats. . .” Instead I simply told him, “You probably won’t die until you’re a grandpa.” I’m pretty sure this is going to backfire on me.

I quickly tried to change the subject. It wasn’t that hard to do as the Veterans commenced their 21-gun salute at this point. Again, the questions about shooting came and I realized it was getting very hot in the car. At this point I was wondering why in the world I thought this was going to be a nice, relaxing afternoon.

As the soldiers turned to march away, another man (a member of the VFW) with gold medals in his hat marched along with them. William, with reverence in his voice said, “Mommy! The King! The Soldiers are protecting their King!” Oh to have the awe and imagination of a three year old again!

Get up...

2008-01-03T13:36:00.000-05:00

Back in the days when I had hair, grew it long over my eyes, and doused it in "sun in" so that it would be blond, a lot was going on my teenage life. Skateboarding ruled most of it but there was other stuff too. Art, Pursuit of Identity and Music. Although at that point in my life I rejected playing an instrument (crazy!) I did listen to a bunch of it. Some good, some not so good.
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
-Skater Master Tate
-Young MC
-Public Enemy
-DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
-and more...

Public Enemy had a song with the lyrics, "Get up a get get get down. 9-1-1's a joke in my town..." Pretty much it bashed on police and rescue services in the inner city. (I don't know how valid the picture is that they painted as I was living up in rural Wyoming.)

My thought in all this...what if the song said, "Get up a get get get down. Jesus Follower's a joke in my town..."? Am I (are we) truly living the story of redemption in my town? Does it really shake the foundations of my (our) priorities, agenda, passions?

When I was into skating, it was pretty much all I was into. Sometimes it was to the point of being completely lop-sided. I still laugh at the fact that my friend, Jim, and I used to take our skateboards with us up into the Big Horn Mountains when our families would head up for an afternoon. I mean seriously, did we think we were going to find a natural half-pipe up there or something? We did not know that we could appreciate skateboarding and other things too.

What I loved about being completely immersed in skating was the fact that it consumed me--and I loved it. I dressed the part, bought the right stuff, grew my hair accordingly, defended it (my only actual fight was over being called a poser). On and on it went. My room was plastered with torn pages out of skate magazines. I drew skaters on my church bulletins. I talked to girls about skating--over which I'm sure they swooned!

I've been evaluating; Does following Jesus consume me? Do I defend my position on Jesus? Do I get excited when I talk to others about Jesus--wanting them to also experience what He offers?

Jesus & Peter had a great dialogue in the Scriptures. At the end of John Jesus asks Peter about Peter's love for him. After some back & forth chat and Peter saying "Yes, I love you" he looks over and sees, presumably, John and asks a great question. "What about him?" Jesus' response is, "What does it matter what happens to him. You follow me."

We are part of such an amazing story. Consider the God of the Universe. Consider His divine story being written. Now, consider Him inviting you to be a principle player. Or consider Him wanting you to be even a supporting actor. Consider Him wanting you to be an extra on the set. How cool...God wants you his movie!

But somehow I (we) lose sight of the importance of God's story and how important we, as his creation, are to the story.

Here's an obscure music lyric...
"Skate, skate, skate. As fast as you can. Skate, skate, skate. All across the land..." (Skate Master Tate)

With passion and purpose and with knowledge that the same power of God who raised Christ from the dead is available to me, I will participate in the story of God. Doing so as fast as I can and all across the land.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas Celebrating began Friday.

I had an opportunity to speak at the MOPS group hosted by our church. It's a great chance to speak into the lives of some 40+ families. I always appreciate the opportunity.

Friday night was a chance to be together with Sarah's family in Indiana. Sarah, William & Kate had traveled by Amtrak Thursday and I arrived Friday afternoon. We had a great time with Sarah's folks, brother and grandparents. It was a quick trip but good stuff.

Sunday was a fun celebration at church. Christmas is just good.

Tonight--actually in a couple hours--we'll celebrate together again with our Christmas Eve service.

We'll do some small family stuff tonight and tear into presents tomorrow morning. My parents fly in tomorrow evening for a week. We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with them too.

Pa Rumpa Pum Pum. The beat goes on.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Winter Wonderland

2007-12-18T22:15:00.001-05:00

Mmmm, Music!

2007-12-13T15:06:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple great videos.
Music ignites me.

1. Switchfoot just continues to be a great band!

2. Watch this guy, Andy McKee. Great stuff.

Church with a Mission (Trip)

2007-12-13T14:49:00.000-05:00

The Trip...
In March a group from our church is heading to Antigua for a Mission Trip. Those who have been around here longer than me tell me that this is a 1st for our church. In our 75 year history an Adult/Family Short Term Mission Trip has not been taken. Our teens have ministered in this capacity many times but not adults/families. I'm going with a group for the first week of the trip and another group will head out during the second week.

The Mission...
Reggie McNeal asks six great questions in his book, The Present Future, contrasted by the "wrong" questions typically asked in church. They are;
Wrong: How do we do church better?
Tough: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

Wrong: How do we grow the church?
Tough: How do we transform our community?

Wrong: How do we turn members into ministers?
Tough: How do we turn members into missionaries?

Wrong: How do develop church members?
Tough: How do we develop followers of Jesus?

Wrong: How do we plan for the future?
Tough: How do we prepare for the future?

Wrong: How do we develop leaders for church work?
Tough: How do we develop leaders for the Christians movement?

Will a Missions Trip make our church missional? I not banking on that. I'm banking on the Word of God to transform our minds and hearts so as to see the world as God sees it.

Peacemaker video

2007-12-05T13:48:00.000-05:00

Here's the video we showed Sunday entitled "Peacemaker". I'm excited to post it here and excited that I am now on YouTube.com with this video.

Messing with Christmas

2007-11-30T14:08:00.001-05:00

There is a saying, "Behind every successful man is a surprised woman."
Some truth there...some stretch.

I know for certain that my wife assists me and encourages me so much. We mull things over together across a wide range of subjects: kids, current issues, church life, politics, fun... She has a keen mind and a good read on things.

So we've been talking about Christmas and I shared with her a couple weeks ago that I did not have a clear direction on what to share during this season of Advent as we point toward Christmas. She reached back into her mental archive of sermons I preached in years past and over the course of the next few days began to remind and press upon me a sermon series I shared back in the Fall '04. Drawn from Dr. David Thompson's book, Holiness for Hurting People is a series of messages pointing to the holiness available for everyone...in spite of our hurts.

Sunday's sermon will be from Ephesians 4:25. I'm going to talk about the Light of the World who has come to dispel our darkness and take us, using Dr. T's terms, from Delusion to Disclosure of our Pain.

A great song that goes along with this series is entitled "Peacemaker" by Greg Ferguson. It's on a CD entitled One Life. I think it is available from Willow Creek Community Church's on-line store.

Christmas may look/sound a little different at our church this year but it will still point to the Light of the World.

Thanksgiving Musings

2007-11-19T09:08:00.000-05:00

A former professor from Asbury Seminary, Elsworth Kalas, preached a great message in Chapel back in 1998. Speaking on Leviticus 10 he pointed out the Intimate Peril serving in ministry has with it. Serving God is intimate work--a nearness and closeness--but there is always the peril of taking the things of God for granted. Case in point: Nadab & Abihu...see text.

I shared Sunday about the peril we each face in being close to God and one another. There is a danger of taking them for granted. I tried to give a challenge to handle with care those things and people God has placed in our lives.

Chris Tomlin sings, "How can I keep from singing your praise?" I wonder if it is possible to keep from singing praise if we presume upon God and take for grant that which he has given us. Even if we are in a "worship & praise" service, but are taking it for granted, we are treading into the wrong territory.

Father God, thank you for your goodness to me. Thank you for your continual presence with me. Thank you for Jesus Christ and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the great days and yes, thank you for the junky days too. Thank you for my wife and kids. Thank you for our extended family. Thank you for our great church and the community around us.

Hunting...Jesus Style

2007-11-11T06:07:00.000-05:00

It was a few weeks ago I approached a guy in our church with an idea. He owns an outdoor supply shop and we chatted about the "what if" of hosting some sort of event for deer hunters. All it took was one suggestion and my friend, Dave from Bowman's Outdoor Sports, ran with the idea.
(For those of you reading outside the state of Michigan, opening day of rifle hunting season is this Thursday.)

Last night was my opportunity to witness what happens when you tap into something bigger than yourself. The event was titled, The Blessing of the Hunt, and it was certainly that. His shop was absolutely FULL of hunters, their spouses and children.

Out of the 61,000 licensed deer hunters in our region of Michigan and of the 750,000 in the state of Michigan, we hung out with 200.

What'd we do?
6:30 PM...people began arriving for the 7:00 event
-people talked about hunting
-we ate
-people talked about hunting some more
-a taxidermist gave a brief presentation
-people kept talking about hunting
-I spoke to the group about the fact that although we look and see evidences of God in creation, the reality is that God is looking for us. He loves us and pursues us.
-Prayer of blessing and safety for the hunt
-a drawing for give-a-ways was held (including a sweet prize: a bobble-head deer)
-people talked about hunting
9:30 PM...headed home

I'm not a licensed deer hunter and don't plan to ever be one--much to the amazement of the men in my church. But I loved hunting last night.
-My field: Bowman's Outdoor Sports
-My target: Hunters who need Jesus
-My weapon: Love of Christ

Huge thanks to God for last night. Thanks to Dave & Shelly Bowman and all the people they connected with to help out last night!

How Do You Smell?

2007-11-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

I’ve always had a thing with smells. Peter thinks I’m crazy. I’ve always associated people and places with smells and can go back to a specific memory just by smelling something. Kate and William both had Burt’s Bees lotion that I put on them when they were tiny. It’s one of my favorite smells. Another favorite is the smell of bread baking. It reminds me of home, growing up. Or the smell of a farm . . . the smell of my dad when he returned home from work each day. Weird, but true. What can I say? So when I saw this verse, I immediately took note:

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession,
and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing
Him.” 2 Corinthians 2:14

A wonderful friend of mine, Sally Dunlap, is such an example to me in this verse. She is every bit the southern School teacher that you can picture. She is small and petite, with white hair and sparkling blue eyes. Though she is a senior citizen herself, one of her ministries while she and her husband Whitney winter in Florida is to visit those who can’t leave their home. One of her ladies, she told me, had severe arthritis and her hands hurt her terribly. So Sally would take her best lotion to her house and while they would visit, she would rub the lotion into her hands, working them until they would begin to loosen. That is the fragrance that comes from knowing Christ. I imagine Sally, spending time with a woman that few would take time to see. I imagine the woman, and the smell of her hands long after Sally left. What a beautiful picture.

William and I started doing devotions together about a year ago. He loves them! He had a little trouble getting the word right, though. “Lotions, Mommy! Let’s do Lotions,” he’d say. When I finally figured it out, it occurred to me that he was being profound without even knowing it. How do I get the fragrance of Christ? By spending time with Him. Have you ever hugged your Grandma and find that you smell like her for the rest of the day? When I spend time with God, truly learning and loving Him, His smell is on me. I, in turn, leave that fragrance wherever I go.

May you have the fragrance that comes from knowing your Lord and Savior and may you spread it wherever you go.
Sarah

Home is Good

2007-11-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

We returned last night from a fairly quick visit to my family in South Dakota. Aberdeen, SD has never been my "home" (my parents moved there after I graduated college) but it is home for me because my family is there. It was great visiting with my folks, my sister & brother-in-law and my grandparents. Kate turned 1 while we were with them. She's such a beauty and I am blessed to be able to be part of her life. Home is Good.

Home in Michigan is good. We were anxious to be back yesterday. There is something about familiar surroundings and your own bed. Ahhhh. Even being back in the office today is something of a welcome change. (I may feel different about it tomorrow...) But home is good.

While in South Dakota I had opportunity to hear my dad preach again. He's so good. What a great story teller! Then he pulls it all together for a great point. He keeps it clear and simple--so helpful when wanting people to understand.
-My biggest observation from being in the congregation is: There are loads of distractions when you are in the congregation. Great pastors know that the point of the message should be clear and concise so that, in spite of distractions, people will still get the main point. I want to keep it simple so people can get the point.

Home is good.
Peter.

Praying Scripturally

2007-10-31T16:38:00.000-04:00

Hello All! Sarah here. While I’m certainly not the intellectual that Peter is, I do have something to say from time to time. I’m glad that Peter is allowing me to share this blog with him.

God has been doing something amazing among our women lately. You may know that our church is offering the Bible Study Believing God by Beth Moore for the second time this year. I’ve been blown away as I’ve sat through, and helped teach, again. How could I have missed so much the first time?! Wiebke Papenfus came to me after we finished in the spring and wondered about offering it to the ladies of MOPS. Fifteen women from our MOPS group are currently in the same study! We are determined to be women who believe!

I’ve got to say that one of the most important things I have internalized from this study is the practice of praying Scripture. So many times I spit words out and then I wonder if I’m praying in the will of God. But if I pray a specific Scripture over a situation or a person, I can know that I’m praying the powerful words of God. How does this work out specifically? Here are some examples:

If I know someone is dealing with insecurity issues, I can pray Psalm 90:14 for them: “Satisfy us in our earliest youth with your loving kindness, giving us constant joy to the end of our lives.”
I pray Jeremiah 1:4-9 for Peter: “The Lord said to me, ‘I knew you before you were formed within your mother’s womb; before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman . . . you will go wherever I send you and speak whatever I tell you to. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I, the Lord, will be with you and see you through.’"
And for my kids, I like to pray Psalm 101 for them, especially verse 1-2. Here’s how I would personalize it for them: “Lord, help me to teach William and Kate to sing of your loving kindness and your justice. Let them sing your praises! Give them the strength to walk a blameless path (and may I be the example to them—but I need your help), especially in our home, where we all long to act as we should.” What a great reminder that even if no one hears me screaming at my children at the time, my attitude is going to reflect in my kiddos as they are in other situations!

Praying like this takes work and isn’t usually quick or easy, unless we really take time to study Scripture, instilling it in our lives. At Beth’s suggestion, I’ve begun to read my Bible with eyes wide open. When I come to a verse that applies to a person or situation, I write it down on a 3x5 card. I keep a stack of cards in my Bible and read them out loud. What a powerful way to pray! And I don’t need to second-guess if I’m praying within the will of God—because I’m using the words that He has already ordained! Try it and let me know how it works out in your life.

Sarah

Beliefs recap

2007-10-31T06:06:00.000-04:00

Someone asked me following Sunday's service, "I believe in the core beliefs of Christianity, but how do you answer someone's question when they ask you, 'Who created God?' "
-Bigger heads than me have attempted to wrestle with that question. My thought is, if you could answer the question of who/what created God you are left with another question of who/what created that... And the cycle would simpy repeat.
It's an unanswerable question.

Jesus said, "Believe in God, believe also in me." The big question is what will I do with Jesus?
Following that, I really like what Rob Bell, "Who is Jesus among us?" Meaning, if I understand him correctly, how is Jesus revealing himself to our local body of believers so that we will faithfully live that out in our community in response. Who is Jesus among us?

This Sunday, "How do Christians behave?"

Peter

Loading the Guns

2007-10-27T21:38:00.000-04:00

I live in Michigan, where the licensed deer hunters outnumber the population of the state of South Dakota, and I do not own a gun. The men of my church just shake their heads at me.
The only loading I know to do is to prepare every Saturday night for what will come Sunday morning. A mentor pastor of mine, Dave Engbrecht, calls this "loading the guns."

Tomorrow I'm preaching on the topic, What do Christians believe? It's core stuff. Down to the bone stuff. (AKA, Doctrine & Theology)

The content of what I will share is similar to what I am doing tonight--making sure I know what I know. Our doctrine and theology, as followers of Jesus, is what we ought to be ready to live and share. It is what we must know that we know.

Alistair Begg says something to this effect... "The doctrines and beliefs of Christianity are not just for the intellectuals to know. In fact, they are learned more often through obedience to God's Word than they are through mere intellectual pursuit."
I like that. Obedience.

On another note, I spent time tonight surfing around blogs of former classmates, pastors and Chrisitan leaders around the world. It is amazing how God has placed His people around this orb. I am elated to be included in His kingdom work.

Peter.

Strange Sunday

2007-10-24T13:43:00.000-04:00

Pray for our church.

Without looking back on sermons preached and getting a specific number I'm going to say that the last 4-5 times that I have preached a sermon on Salvation and asked for commitment, the response has been visibly empty--including this past Sunday. Now I fully believe in the quiet work of the Holy Spirit in a peron's life so please don't hear me getting overly focused on numbers. I am wondering, though, why we are not seeing that fruit come forth.

Is it connected to the message?
Is it connected to our outreach?
Is it connected to a spiritual barrier?
Is it connected to...?

So, pray for us. Pray that we would see the harvest. Perhaps our greatest effectiveness in seeing the fruit of salvation will NOT be in the Sunday morning worship service. If so, that's fine with me. So long as we find that place where we are most effective.

Peter.

How in the world?

2007-10-20T15:30:00.000-04:00

It's simply not something we can ascend to intellectually. It's simply not something we can attain because my mom and dad have it. It's not even something we can give to someone else regardless of how bad we want to.

It's Salvation. The free gift of mercy found in Jesus Christ. Your brain can take you only so far, your parents/role models can hope it for you, and once you have received it you want everyone else to know the same. This great gift is life changing.

So how in the world does one get "saved"?
Luke 5:12-13 is a great backdrop for understanding our spiritual condition and seeing the beautiful gift Christ brings when He shows up on the scene.

Ponder the question of How one gets saved. Let me know your thoughts.

Peter.

NBC Response

2007-10-20T15:20:00.000-04:00

Following my last post I did, in fact, contact NBC in regard to a racey commercial they aired during last Saturday's cartoons. I emailed the NBC Corporate Offices and immediately received a generic response from them. It said something like, "Thank for writing but due to the high quantity of responses we receive we cannot guarantee that we'll actually do anything--even read--your email..." (That's not a direct quote.) I understand that to a point and didn't get all bent out of shape.

Instead, I contacted our local NBC station, NBC25, with the same email. Today I recieved what I would call a decent and considerate email from a Jon L Bengston. Thanks Jon. I appreciate his action and I appreciate him following up with me. Below is the content of his response.

Peter,
Yours was the second email that I received on this issue and I researched the issue and found that NBC Network did air a promotion for Chuck in the Saturday Morning segment of their telecast. I forwarded the original compaint to the Affiliate Relations Division of NBC and did get a response that it was referred to both NBC Legal Affairs and upper management at NBCfor review. The promotional spot was inadvertantly more exactly, improperly scheduled for other than adult time periods and how that happened is up for review. Both the network and WEYI-TV take our responsibilitiesseriously especially when kids are affected. I can only assure you that on behalf of WEYI-TV NBC25 and our sister operation WBSF-TV CW46 this occurance is obviously not an example of our normal broadcast efforts. I appologize for the situation and for the uncomfortable situation created as a result.

Jon L Bengtson
Operations and Programming
WEYI-TV and WBSF-TV

Sex Talk

2007-10-17T14:21:00.000-04:00

We wrapped up our sermon series "Taking it to the Limit" this past Sunday. Talking about Sex in church is right up there with talking about Money. It messes with people's junk. I'm of the impression that during sermons on Sex there are many people who think, We don't need a sermon like this, we are Christians. Perhaps it is we who need it most. In a world where anything goes it's time followers of Jesus get things squared away so that our testimony can be most effective. I'm grateful for one comment in particular following the sermon. A mom approached me and said, Thanks for emphasizing what we emphasize at home.

Christ-followers are going to have to be more intentional about setting moral margins. There is a continual whittling away at moral limits. For instance, I was watching cartoons with my 3 year old son this past Saturday morning. During one of the commercial breaks I was stunned. Mixed in with commercials about G0-gurt and the newest toys came a commercial for a new TV show. In the commercial a woman takes off her shirt and exposes her bra to a man. It's ruffled my feathers enough that NBC will get a formal complaint from me. I'm not being militant but it bugs me immensely that this is what they are showing my son during a half hour cartoon.

Hold the line friends. Moral margins are important to your Heavenly Father.

Peter.

Finding our Margins

2007-10-12T10:36:00.000-04:00

The past weeks at NBWC have been a great time. I have openly used a sermon series preached by Andy Stanley of North Point Church (www.northpoint.org) on the margins of our life: time, emotions, finances and this week we'll conclude with moral margins. The feedback and additional insights the congregation have shared with me have been fantastic. I can't help but think that a nerve has been struck--in a positive way.

If you take a glance at our culture the message is, "Push it to the Max", "Go all the Way", "Spend More", "Work More"...you know what is being said. In contrast, our Heavenly Father calls us back from the edge. Our Heavenly Father asks us to order our days (Psalm 90:12). He asks us to trust him, even with our money (Micah 3:8-10). He implores us to get as far away from sexual temptation as possible (1 Corinthians 6:18).

We all live at limits. The question, and the challenge, becomes which limits will I choose. Culture's or God's? The invitation from God is to allow him to help us create margin.

Picture margin like the space between jogging and sprinting. Sure, we can all sprint for awhile. But does anyone sprint a marathon? What's the longest a sprinter runs in a race...100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters? I think that's about it. But a runner who is keeping a steady pace has margin. There is something in the tank in case it is needed later in the race.

The Bible teaches us to run hard, for we are in a great race. Transversely, the Bible instructs us to live wisely. A wise person knows their limits and lives a few paces back from them.

May God Bless you as you seek His Limits for your Life!

New Venture

2007-10-11T10:49:00.000-04:00

So I'm here. I don't think I get to be called a blogger yet but I do get to say I have a blog. (Man, I am so cool.) Actually, my itch for putting some thoughts out into the word of cyberness has been itching for awhile but like many things in my life it gets replaced by other "urgent" items of business. How often does that happen...the urgent takes the place of the important...too much I suppose.

Life-Life has been going so great. Sarah and I are still friends and still married. Most people 7 years into their marriage should aim for the same thing. I'm aiming for it for 50 years down the road. Our kids...come on, how can I not love them?! William scares me with how brilliant he seems to be. Maybe every 3 year old is brilliant like he is (a collective "no" from his grandparents was just given) but he astounds me with his attention to detail and his long term memory. Kate is such a beauty. She has learned to shake her head no. For now, it's cute. I don't think she knows what it means. Soon enough she will and the cuteness will take a backseat.

Ministry-Life wasn't going great too long ago. I was feeling like I was in the tank. But, thanks be to God for helping me to stick it out. Thanks to my wife for being wise enough to yank me away from the church, office & people for 4 days recently so I could breathe and laugh again. Now, in the immortal words of Vanilla Ice, "I'm rollin' in my 5 point 0 with my rag-top down so my hair can blow..." Ok, so I don't have a Mustang 5.0 (don't really want one) and I don't have hair that blows in the wind but the fact remains I am ready for the next season of ministry.

More to come...Peter.