Month: March 2006

  • A man I admire

    I’m not ashamed to admit that there are some people in my life that I really admire. One of them is our former pastor, Ray Pritchard. He’s not a super fancy guy, and he’s no "church growth expert." But he is a person who simply lives a faithful life obedient to the Father as much as you can expect a man to. From my vantage point, he really lives out James 1:22-25 "Do not merely listen to the word, and
    so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it
    says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and
    immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law
    that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard,
    but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.    "

    As a member at Calvary, I always looked up to Ray. I don’t really know him personally and we’ve only talked a couple of times, but sitting in the pews week to week for a few years and you feel like you know a guy. What always struck me was that he was seemed confident in who he was… just a man.

    Back in the Fall, Ray left Calvary. When I heard that news, as I wrote about back then, I was in a bit of shock… but I always had sensed that this wasn’t the last place for Ray. The shock continued for me when I learned that Ray just felt led to leave Calvary… not head on to greener pastures as so many successful people in ministry seem to do, but just to leave.

    I am a lurker of Ray’s blog. Since I served in the youth group when a couple of his sons were growing up, I’ always happy to see news that the boys are doing fine… and better than fine is always a bonus.

    But it especially warms my heart to read the joy between the lines as he filled a pulpit last Sunday in Tupelo, MS. You can just sense from his words that he feels at home in the pulpit and any church would be pleased to have him as pulpit supply.

    I actually heard someone say "Amen!" when I finished telling the story.
    Afterwards someone remarked that I was talking a mile a minute during
    that part of the sermon. Someone else chimed in and said, "You had a
    lot of ground to cover." When I said I would slow down a bit next
    Sunday, a woman spoke up and said, "Just be yourself and bring the
    message God lays on your heart." That put a smile on my face.

    For me, I need to see this. That may sound so carnal and so selfish or whatever… but I long to see men following and chasing after God with their lives. Not a sprint, but a lifelong marathon.

    So, this is a guy I admire.

  • A big step up for Romeo

    Ss701_bigTo some this will seem like no big deal, but to others what we did today is a massive thing. Just a few hours ago I put together a purchase order to replace our church pews with the chair pictured to the left. This isn’t something that we did flippantly, but I recognize that it will signify something very hard for our people. The tipping point for going to chairs was money… isn’t that always the case. At the end of the day, re-upholstering them every few years was just too expensive when we looked at the one time cost of a chair.

    What will happen to our pews? We are hoping that this isn’t the end of the road for Romeo’s pews. I am currently working on finding a way to sell our chairs to a new church or old church that needs them. I found a very cool website called Used Pews for doing this. If all else fails, we will be finding a ministry in the area to donate them to.

    There are a lot of side benefits to changing the auditorium to chairs. But there is also a lot of sentimentality to keeping them.

  • Why Fasting is Appropriate for Lent

    FastingPerhaps the world just missed this, but I didn’t… Lent started last week. Lent is 40 days of preperation for Easter. Now, by prepare it has traditionally been "identify with Christ’s suffering." Somehow this got translated over the years to being "in lent I give up something." I think that sell the significance short, but it is on the right track.

    Self-denial is good. It doesn’t make God love us any more, but it does help us get the connection better between what we think we can provide for ourselves and depending on God. How do I observe lent?

    This year I will be fasting from dinner on Tuesday until dinner on Wednesday. It’s not a big deal, but I have found this to be a good way to seperate the "what I need" from the "what I want." The reality is that we can pretty safely fast for days at a time… we just don’t think we can. I am hardly a fasting expert, but in my own experience this has been a time of intense concentration, preparation, and communication. I am looking forward to fasting through Lent.

    Your Personal Guide to Fasting and Prayer by Bill Bright

    Protestant Fasting on Wikipedia

    Going Faster in the Christian Life by Dennis Rupert

    Fasting: A Study in the Scriptures by Diane Dew

  • Doubling Down on Sirius

    Siriuslogoblu_img_lrg_2I like Sirius (SIRI) so much personally that I doubled down on it last night. The stock has been down as Howard Stern sells off his shares, but the company is good enough, it has good executive leadership, and the product itself is downright cool and developing. So after dumping Intel last week, Sirius is my sole technology stock.

  • Abortion Laws Challenged

    Abortion_lawI’m not sure if this will stand up in the court system, but the State of South Dakota has passed a law banning nearly all abortions in their state. This will be an interesting fight worth keeping our eyes on. Of course, if it goes to the Supreme Court it will be even more interesting with two of Bush’s appointees on board. [See story]

  • You’re fired!

    More proof that churches are the hardest places in America to work. Just heard from a friend that his job has been terminated "effective immediately." No chance to say goodbye, no chance to end things nicely, no chance to look for another gig, no chance to… it just sucks.

    And people wonder why pastoral staff have so much baggage? Another walking wounded.

  • Time to get connected

    3 Story groups have now spent 3 weeks discovering God’s Story, My Story, and Their Story. Now we are turning the corner and starting the connection process. I am very much looking forward to this. I know to this point we’ve poised more questions than answers, from here on out it should be about light bulbs going off.

  • Another vacation change of plans

    So I chickened out. Some friends of ours told us that the drive to Fort Lauderdale would cost us about 24 hours… that so wasn’t happening. So we bit the bullet and bought round trip tickets tonight for the four of us. All in all, with the rental car in Florida and everything else it is still going to be cheaper for us to fly there versus spending 2 days each way driving.

    It’s official that we’ll be there from March 30th through April 6th. I can’t wait!

  • Paralyzed by Fear

    GarmishThe following is an article I wrote for the Romeo Peach. (Our church newsletter)

    We’ve just completed our first week of 3 Story Life groups here at church. Our goal has always been bold. We want to equip 100 people with skills for sharing their faith in 2006. With the groups we have going right now, the number is already nearing 50.

    It is an accident that we’re starting 3 Story during the Olympics, but I’ve also gotten caught up in its symbolism. I’ve had the pleasure of traveling in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, I’ve been on some great ski mountains, and I have to be honest and say that I was terrified by the challenges I faced. The very first time I went skiing I got on the wrong lift and ended up on a very steep ridge, far beyond my skill level. (You can’t snowplow down something nearly vertical!) It was a beautiful trip to the top of the hill but when I got to the top and looked at all the skiers hurriedly gliding to the edge so they could start their descent… I had to stop to catch my breath. Reality had just smacked me in the face. Of all the times I had watched skiing on television it never sunk in how high or steep the hills might be. I was very afraid of what would happen. It was at that moment that I realized that since I had no idea what I was doing, I was taking a huge risk. My mind raced with pending realities. I could get hurt! I would likely get laughed at. I would fall; it was just a matter of how hard I would fall and how much it would hurt to fall.

    With no way out but going down the hill I had to swallow my fears and head down the mountain. Just as I had imagined I fell several times on my way down the mountain. I was laughed at, I got some bruises, and I learned some hard lessons the hard way. But I also lived to tell the story. Oddly enough I even found that while it wasn’t easy, it was worth it. When I made it to the bottom I found that, while I still had a healthy fear of the mountain, it was exhilarating to swallow the fear and take the chance!

    This is the same look I’ve seen in our 3 Story groups. A little bit of fear, a lot of excitement and some expectations that learning to share our faith with people we already know may come with bumps along the way. Paul writes, "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6)

    For those who are now in 3 Story groups, thank you for counting the cost, swallowing your fears, and heading down the mountain! For those who haven’t "headed up the mountain" yet, there will be more opportunities later this spring.

  • a sniff of spring

    So today the whole family went out and played in the yard a bit. According to the National Weather Service, it is 38 degrees and sunny. I will admit that as I sat in our rocker outside in the sun, I thought about pealing my hoodie. It’s crazy that 38 and sunny feels "hot."

    Busy Day While life might be calm now, I have had a crazy and unrestful day. I was at the church at 9:00 to help with the stage remodel. Just like with the office remodel, I wasn’t allowed to do much more than carry stuff. But it was nice to help nonetheless. My skills come into play later with the sound stuff and designing a worship service that will work with the tiny amount of stage equipment we’ll have available.