Good Reading

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...

the obligatory family picture. :)

cute beach girl
william did not stop running...

our vacation spot overlooking the ocean

Vacation

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...

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

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

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!

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

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!

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...

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

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

Mmmm, Music!

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)

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.