Parking Lot Encouragement

That's what Wednesdays feel like for Bunny and me.

It is the day when (insert cliche like "the rubber meets the road" here) and we have to have everything prepared not only for Wednesday, but roughed in for Sunday worship too. We make sure the powerpoint and music are ready, gather the materials for that night's excitement with the girls, and finish prep for Bible study. Oh and Bunny teaches piano that afternoon too.

Most weeks we come home after and collapse since it is past 8PM and eat a late supper (provided by the great folks at New Hope), and do mindless TV, facebook farming or read until bed. It's a draining day, but a good day.

Last night right before we left New Hope, I was walking around the parking lot saying hi to people who had come to pick up their kids. Wednesday nights are tough for some parents to make it to, or aren't their sort of thing. So it's great to connect with them when I can. And last night there was such a great Spirit at work among the folks as they left that the parking lot was the place to be.

One child came over and had me walk across the parking lot talk to her mom about a Korean variation on pizza.

Another came by and gave me a fist bump.

Then one gave me a sideways hug and said "I love you brother David."

And then people wonder why we love this place so much?

So Where ARE You?

Does God seem to be hiding from you? Would you respond "yes" immediately if someone asked you if your faith was growing?

Every now and then, we all need to stop and take an inventory of what we have become. One of the best classes I have ever taken was a Spiritual Formation class with Dr. Robin Jumper at the New Orleans Seminary extension in Graceville. He helped us, probed and prodded us,and really kind of got in our face about what we, pastors and future pastors were doing to measure how we were growing in our faith.

We read several books on Spiritual Formation that semester, and my least favorite is actually the one I'm posting an excerpt from today. Donald Whitney is so dry (IMO) that I have trouble staying focused on his work. That's a shame because he really has solid content. Problem could very well be on my end.:)

Donald Whitney, in Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, provides ten questions to help evaluate spiritual health:

1. Do you thirst for God?
2. Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?
3. Are you more loving?
4. Are you more sensitive to God’s presence?
5. Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
6. Do you delight in the Bride of Christ?
7. Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?
8. Do you still grieve over sin?
9. Are you a quicker forgiver?
10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

Might be worth spending some time over, friends.

Monday Is Catch It All Up Day

No, my home office does not look like this, thank you very much. Though the expression on the guy's face does seem familiar in a Monday sort of way. Considering I lost two days on the up and back to Macon, I'm really in good shape for this week. Especially considering Bunny and I will be away on a church-mandated :) vacation next weekend. :) Wonder if we will just decide to stay on vacation....

Nah. I love this job!

Working on upcoming events - Beach Baptism celebration, Sunday Night @ the Movies, National Night Out Blockparty(s), Fall Small Group materials, Children's Sunday School restructure.

Reading Tim Keller's "The Reason For God" today. Need some good fiction to balance the heavy reading coming.

Good day yesterday. Worship was great, some other things not so great but because we have some amazingly giving people, holes got filled with love.

Even had one of the best deacon's meetings I've ever been in.

Glory be to God for all He is doing at New Hope.

Home and away

Bunny and I made the trip up to Macon Friday and came back late this evening. Since last September we have driven over 20,000 miles. Given we have not gone on vacation, and typically a tank of gas lasts us 3 weeks, I'm going to say that trips to Macon make up the bulk of that.

When Bunny's Mom came down with the illness that eventually claimed her, we started making the trips. Sometimes they were emergency got to get there right now whatever day it is dashes. Most were go up Thursday evening, get there before 1AM Friday, then hit the ground running later that morning. I lost track of how many times we went, but toward the end it went to every other week, and then every week. Since Bunny teaches piano during the week, she can't phone it in - she has to be there. And since I'm a pastor, my Sunday's are tied up. So I switched my off day to Friday, and Bunny cleared hers too. And we went - all through the fall, into the winter, and to the cusp of Spring. We were totally focused on Dot and willing to do whatever it took to help her get well and help Curtis cope. She was THE priority.

But we lost her.

And the aftershocks in Bunny's heart continue. Bunny slept almost all the way back home tonight. I think she was just emotionally spent. The trip was almost as tough as the one we took to be at the funeral.

This weekend was at her father's request - to clean out Dot's closet. To give you an idea of how hard this is for Curtis (Bunny's Dad) - he changed closets rather than be faced with Dot's clothes every day - without Dot. My mother in love was a beautiful woman with the taste to match. Bunny carefully gathered, then separated and placed the clothes in black plastic bags - crying as she did so, because over and over and over again she remembered what her mother looked like in those clothes.

On Dot, they were beautiful.

But now they are just clothes. Nice clothes. Certainly still can be used. They will look good on the right person.

Yet Bunny and her dad KNOW what those clothes could look like.

I'm sitting here thinking that when Bunny, Curtis and I read and think about heaven and its beauty, we're as limited as the folks who will receive those clothes.

Dot on the other hand, KNOWS what heaven looks like.

And my thanks to God for that will be the last thought before I fall asleep tonight.

Good Grief

It's been 18 years now since my Mother passed from this life to the next. On most days, the only way you can tell that I ever knew her is by the lasting impressions her fierce love made on me. That love wasn't altogether perfect, BTW. Any Mother (and later Grandmother) that would taunt their child (and grandchild) when she absolutely destroyed them playing Checkers, has some issues. But I think I can speak for my family when I say that we know beyond a doubt that we were loved by her.

Today would have been her 89th birthday.

And I miss her.

It's not as bad as it was early on, when the sting of the immense loss was still so fresh. Those days of picking up the phone to call her and then realizing that it would be fruitless are long gone. Now my grief has a softer tone to it. Songs bring her immediately to memory. Bunny's piano recital last weekend was filled with songs from the 30's and 40's that my Mother used to sing at the drop of a hat. Every now and then we come across a picture of her, and I'm transported back in time. It's seldom I go to McDonalds, see a Milky Way candy bar, or refill a coffee cup I used before that I don't think of her little quirks and thank God that I had her as long as I did. Tears well up sometimes, like now, but far more often I feel a deep joy at having been loved by her, and having loved her.

And I do thank God upon every remembrance of her.

She'd like that a lot.

I think that's a good form of grief.

So Happy Birthday Mom. Save me a seat in the choir. I'm not in a hurry, though. :)

Where I Was Today

Days off are good.

A day off with the love of your life at the beach...

priceless.

I Can Has Cheeseburger?

Tonight in Bible Study I'm going to do the first of what I hope to be several "Table Talks". The idea is to be more interactive and help people learn to learn rather than imparting info.

The first?

Levitical Laws - In force over Christians today or not?

As you can tell by the picture I chose, there's a lot riding on this. :)

Stay tuned.

Amazing! Incredible! Awesome Sunday! - next week

It's Monday, and this is when we internet savvy pastors get all reflective about yesterday's gathering. Typically you will see words like "amazing!" or "incredible" tossed out pretty liberally. And there are times when those words definitely apply.

But if I can be blunt, there are other times when the worship was "okay."

I should remind everyone that we see what's going on from a very limited perspective. We know that if God's Word is proclaimed and Christ is lifted up, that there is spiritual value to what happened. But again, from the human point of view there are times when it just doesn't click.

Yesterday seemed to be one of those days. Challenges in the congregational music (although the "special" from Bethany and Kira was sweet), mediocre sermon, smaller crowd.

Meh.

And yet there was one moment I will remember the rest of my life.

It happened during the announcements.

Our Child2Child and Niara girls were telling the church about this month's effort - to provide clean water to kids who have none. They used a simple skit to illustrate. Each girl counted to 5. Three girls, 15 seconds. The point was that while they were counting out the fifteen seconds, a child died as a result of not having clean water.

Sarah Hickman was supposed to do the wrapup, explaining what the 15 seconds meant. She began well, and then as she read her information, it became real to her and she was overcome with grief. She left the stage in tears.

I will never forget seeing the Spirit of God work in Sarah's heart.

It was awesome.

As We Celebrate 223 Years of Freedom

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, by certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” – Declaration of Independence

Bunny and I just finished watching the excellent HBO mini-series on John Adams. His life spanned the very beginning of this nation - the run up to Revolution, the struggle for our freedom from tyranny, the young nation finding its place in this world. I highly recommend you watch the series.

It reminded us both again of the uniqueness of America.

Despite what some might have us believe, America is an exceptional nation. Those lines I quoted from the Declaration of Independence" should establish that fact once and for all. We were born in war, but we were established through faith - faith in the providence of Almighty God. Those brave men and women who made the decision to "pledge our lives, fortunes, and our sacred honor" knew that by doing so they made their lives forfeit should their cause fail.

But they believed in the rightness of their cause specifically because they believed it was a God given one. They had faith in God.

“Were my soul trembling on the wing of eternity, were this hand freezing to death, were my voice choking with the last struggle, I would still, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember the truth: God has given America to be free.”
– Patrick Henry


So as we go out this weekend, flying our beautiful flag, enjoying fireworks and backyard BBQ, we should celebrate everything that God has given us then, and gather to give praise and honor to, as Thomas Jefferson wrote "the Author of Liberty."

May God continue to bless America.

Living Together

Our friend Allan Hill had a birthday last week. He's the youngest 27 year old I know. Allan lives just down the road from the church, and very frequently drops by or calls both there and at the house. There are probably very few people who have lived in Valparaiso very long that have not seen Allan out walking, and a large number of those people also know him personally.

Allan's hard not to know.

He's never really met a stranger, and when he does, he's generally within hailing distance of someone he does know, so he does what comes natural to him. "Do you know David? David is my pastor" is what I have heard on several occasions when I ran into Allan while out in the community.

So today when we were at one of his favorite places, Dollar General, when we picked out a gift for him, Bunny asked the clerk if Allan had one of them already. "No, but he will like that.," she said, so our purchase was made. She knew him that well.

I sit here and wonder sometimes, what if the whole community - not just the church - but everyone, was as open and connecting as Allan? What if we knew each other so well that pretty much anyone among us could tell someone else whether something as silly as a birthday gift would make us smile?

Think about it.

And here is what Allan will be getting.



It plays "On the road again" and sways while its ears flap up and down.

I expect to hear it a lot until Allan runs the batteries down. But it will make him happy, and that will be a gift to all of us as well.

Our friend Allan Hill had a birthday last week. He's the youngest 27 year old I know. Allan lives just down the road from the church, and very frequently drops by or calls both there and at the house. There are probably very few people who have lived in Valparaiso very long that have not seen Allan out walking, and a large number of those people also know him personally.

Allan's hard not to know.

He's never really met a stranger, and when he does, he's generally within hailing distance of someone he does know, so he does what comes natural to him. "Do you know David? David is my pastor" is what I have heard on several occasions when I ran into Allan while out in the community.

So today when we were at one of his favorite places, Dollar General, when we picked out a gift for him, Bunny asked the clerk if Allan had one of them already. "No, but he will like that.," she said, so our purchase was made. She knew him that well.

I sit here and wonder sometimes, what if the whole community - not just the church - but everyone, was as open and connecting as Allan? What if we knew each other so well that pretty much anyone among us could tell someone else whether something as silly as a birthday gift would make us smile?

Think about it.

And here is what Allan will be getting.



It plays "On the road again" and sways while its ears flap up and down.

I expect to hear it a lot until Allan runs the batteries down. But it will make him happy, and that will be a gift to all of us as well.

Grace and peace,

David

Monday Morning After Action Report

What a weekend!

The concert by EPIC427 was really good. Having the last beans and rice of the week right before the concert -not sure how to rate that. But the Spirit that was present Friday night really carried us through the weekend - even through a rare business meeting. :)

That's not to say we didn't have some challenges.

Knowing that John and Amy worked their tails off to get everything back the way it should be for Sunday, and that I didn't take the time to get up there to do an equipment check until an hour before worship griped me. Needless problems that could have been solved. Won't forget that again.

Given the number of people we had at worship practice then compare that to the multitude we had up front Sunday, combine it with a sound system that wasn't working right, and you have a sub par music portion when it could and should have been much better. Don't get me wrong, I worshiped, and I'm sure others did too, but we left some blessings on the table that we could have enjoyed. Bethany and Kira - we'll take a rain check for this coming Sunday.

We have some opportunities in the way we care for our kids, the way we greet our guests, and how our facilities are cared for. I'm hopeful we took a leap forward last night toward making those better. And yes, I have the church pictorial directory here by the laptop and am praying off and on through the day over the pictures asking God to place His servants where they were gifted to serve.

As we move through the Summer, I'm looking forward to the beach baptism blast! To seeing the nursing home ministry get off the ground. To more children being sponsored. To movie nights...

And I'm looking forward to sitting around a table hearing person after person talk about how amazing God is and how incredible it is to be a part of His Kingdom work.

My odometer will roll over 10 years next month here, and I've never been more excited or more proud to be the pastor of New Hope.

Don't Be the Frozen Chosen

Bunny and I were at Chic-Fil-A in FWB a while back. That's pretty unusual for us in two ways. First, because we don't eat Chic-Fil-A that often. Costs too much. Secondly because we don't eat inside fast food restaurants very often at all. But on that day we thought we'd slow down, take a breath,and grab some lunch at the fairly new location across from Walmart.

We went inside and ordered, and stood waiting for our food. While we were waiting, it was apparent that while the food might come out hot, we wouldn't. It was FREEZING in there. Bunny didn't have a coat in the car, so when the food came, I told the server that it was freezing in the dining area.

"We have to keep the temperature down for the people in the kitchen."

Mustering every bit of customer relation skills, and ignoring the little devil sitting on my shoulder who was whispering "Give her..." well,you know what a little devil would say, I said politely, "But out here is where the customers are."

She looked at both of us, and repeated I think a little slower for my benefit...

"We have to keep the temperature down for the people in the kitchen."

Bunny and I tried to eat, but wound up tossing most of the food and leaving.

And we haven't been back.

I'm sharing this to remind those of us in established churches that at some times we are guilty of the same mindset as the woman at Chic-Fil-A. What we are doing and how we are doing it works for us, so why should we ever want to change?

Jesus had a far different attitude. He said that He "came not be to served, but to serve,and to give His life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45

As we head off to church tomorrow, be praying for eyes that can see your buildings, your welcome, your worship, and yes - your people as someone who has never been to your church or perhaps any church would see them.

It's not about us. It's about Jesus, and reaching people with the good news.

We're In the Paper

From It's Like Herding Cats - A pastor's life

Take a look. And don't forget to come to supper and the concert tomorrow beginning at 6:30PM

The Passive Voice

Bunny was writing something the other day for her amazingly eclectic blog, and she decided to use a grammar checker just to make sure she was making her high school English teachers proud. She got nicked a couple of times by the software for "passive voice." I can remember the same thing happening to me when I used that kind of software. The writers of that software code were making sure that anyone who wrote was going to take you somewhere.

So I'm reading the gospel of Mark today, and I get to the calling of the first disciples. "Jesus called out to them, "Come, be my disciples,and I will show you how to fish for people." And they left their nets at once and went with Him.

What does "Come and be my disciples..." mean?

The New Testament record indicates that Jesus and the disciples saw it as anything BUT passive.

DO SOMETHING!

Three Days In...

"So is this week (eating rice and beans) doing what you thought it would do?" asked the reporter from the Daily News.

If by that you mean that every time I whine about eating rice and beans I remember those who didn't make a choice to eat them...

Then yes. This week is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.

I came upon this passage today -

23 Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him.24 But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature.25 No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.
John 2:23-25 (NLT)

Fact is, we are so out of sync with what God values that it's very difficult to approach poverty with the heart of Jesus. We need to get slapped. We need to be shaken. We need to be made to awaken to the human cost of our indifference.

So if this week does that, I will end it thanking God and waiting for orders.

It's SBC Convention Week

The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting right now in Louisville, Kentucky. Be afraid, be very afraid. I'm teasing, sort of. In years past, the week of the convention meeting has been one where I was afraid to read the newspaper. But since no one reads newspapers anymore, we should be okay.

What?

Oh right, the Internet. Curse you AlGore! (JK again)

So I'm tracking the convention this year through Twitter feeds and have visited the official website a couple of times to see what was going on live. I just finished watching the president of the convention, Johnny Hunt, deliver a message on the future of the SBC. Well, I watched some of the message, like a typical Southern Baptist, I found it hard to stay focused.

We have a fix for that though, Baptist Press, so I went over there to see what has been happening.

When I searched Google for Baptist Press, one of the hits that came up was a news article of a Baptist pastor praying for the death of our president. Now that's some Baptist press, but not the right one,or the right kind.

So I finally found and clicked on the "Baptist Press" link.

The Breaking News story - "The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee recommended in a unanimous vote Monday afternoon that the denomination cease its relationship with Broadway Baptist Church, a Fort Worth, Texas, congregation that has been the source of controversy over its stance on homosexuality."

Then there were hits on disaster relief, and the Crossover Louisville project where thousands were fed.

Sigh...

Maybe next year.

Lunch - Day 1 of Worth the Sacrifice

The bags of herb seasoned rice that our Child2Child girls put together to help us along is what I had for lunch today. Pretty darn good fare with a little pepper sauce.

Bunny added 3 cups of water and a little olive oil and with the whole bag of ingredients it cooked up perfect.

Buy a bag and try it out. Money goes to Amazima, you encourage the girls in mission action, and you stay on your rice and beans course (Worth the Sacrifice)

Church Planting - The Church at Skyline Valley

One of the critical needs as we seek to have the message of Jesus heard by as many people as possible is simply venues to hear it in. The culture has changed, and most churches have lost much of their effectiveness at reaching out into it. So new churches are desperately needed.

My friend Tim Fowler is a church planter. This time around he's planting a church outside Ft Hood Texas in a town called "Copperas Cove." The fledgling congregation will meet for their first preview service this weekend. Previews are a time to try to draw people who are looking to find a church, to work out the kinks behind the scenes, and to form a core of people who are totally sold out to what God is calling them to do and be. I can tell you that getting that "core" means everything. I wouldn't take anything for the core of people God has gathered at New Hope, so I'm praying like mad that God would send Tim exactly who he needs.

Tim is a hero of mine. Please pray for him and the church. If you'd like to send an email of encouragement, or something else encouraging $ :)

Phone: 254-285-8668

E-mail: church@skylinevalley.org

Rice and Beans Rwandan Style