Category: light force

Dave’s been here 2 weeks today. So far everything has gone better than expected. Last night he planned and led the Middle Madness event and it all came off great.

So far, so good. It’s panning out to be a great time.

In just a few minutes the church ministry/pastoral staff will be leaving for 2 days. The goal of this trip is simple… go somewhere quiet and free of distractions and define some vision stuff for the next phase of our church.

With all of the transitions, pastoral changes, heartaches… in the past several years the church has defaulted into a maintenence mode. So the idea here is that we’re off to craft an aggressively insane vision for reaching our community even more effectively using the latest and greatest techniques. (So, if you thought we were pushing it now… hahaha! j/k… that’s all a joke.) OK, in all seriousness all we’re trying to do is shift the church out of a maintenence mode and into something clearer. To do that we need to run and hide in the woods.

The second step in this is coming up with departmental vision for adults, students, and kids. This is the part that really effects "how we do stuff" in the church. So… pretty much every single thing we do in the church is one the table. There are no sacred cows going into this.

Of course, this is just a tempter post since I won’t be able to post any of the results of this time for a while. But I am sure I will be posting some of the good times we’re to have.

p.s. If you have a chance, introduce yourself to Jim… he’s new to Romeo. Jim is our new instrument… the djembe. He’ll be appearing at Light Force and Bonfire.

Here’s Part One: There is One God

Mormons claim that the Old Testament and New Testament are
incomplete. 

They claim that after Jesus spent time in

Jerusalem

,
he spent time with American Indians. The time that he spent here in the

Americas

is recorded in the Book of Mormon.

According to them, there isn’t 1 book authoritative for
daily living… there are 4. The Bible, The Book of Mormon, the

Pearl

of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants.

(more…)

This is the devotion that I gave to our first ever Middle Madness group tonight. Middle Madness is our summer ministry aimed directly at the middle schoolers of Light Force.

Did you know?

– There is a fish in the ocean that farts as a self
defense?

– Researchers have discovered that the herring, when its
school is being attacked by killer whales, fart.

– When a school of herring fart at the same time the tiny
bubbles of smelly gas actually distract and deter the killer whale from eating
its prey.

– The study’s authors perhaps say it best: “Farting may
save their lives.”

– Think about it like this… if the herring did not fart
in self-defense, more herring would be die. 

What does this odd
fact have to do with you?

– More than you’d like to admit I am sure

o We
all fart.

o It
is natural.

o Just
as you laughed at the idea of thousands of herring farting in masse to save
their little lives, we too find farting to be funny.

– Farting is actually a God designed defense mechanism
for these fish. It helps them survive in the wild waters of the ocean.

What defense
mechanisms has God built in for us spiritually?

– A person who knows Christ has two forms of self-defense
from attackers.

o Holy
Spirit John 14:26 “But the
Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

§ What things?

· The Holy Spirit guides and protects us.

· He reminds us of what we’ve learned about God.

· He teaches us new stuff.

o Our
conscience Romans 1 describes our conscience as God’s “divine nature in all of
us.”

§ This is something that every single person has
in them from birth.

§ Defined as “The awareness of a moral or ethical
aspect to one’s conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong”

§ The conscience tells us how to get out of
trouble.

                                        § The conscience tells us how to stay out of trouble.
 

So we laugh at the
herring. It farts to get away from being devoured by the killer whale.

And yet we too are created by God with two very important defense
mechanism.

Just 24 hours until our summer intern, Dave Luke, arrives from Belfast. There is still a lot to do around the McLane house. The room is painted, we have most of the furniture… but I still have 2-3 items that need to get taken care of. OK, so a mattress is pretty important. But beyond that we are covered!

We’re getting geared up on the "Dave Luke Welcome Committee." We leave Thursday at 2 PM for the airport. Should be funny.

Tonight we are beginning our series on Mormonism. I’m pretty excited about it as this is a very relevant topic to our community. To read the transcripts of the talk, just click that "read more" button.

(more…)

OK, the Detroit Free Press ran an article today that kind of annoyed me. It’s about something the author calls "religious tourism." This isn’t the $3000 trips to Israel or a Bible lands trip to Greece and Turkey.

No, he’s talking about short term missions. I’ll be the first to say that many foreign mission trips aren’t all that effective ministry-wise, but to label missions as some sort of tourist industry is a bit odd. Read the whole article here.

For thought: Isn’t this a short sighted view of travel since missionaries of all shapes and sizes really opened up a lot of areas of the world to Western people?

Today is the much "counted down" day. As of 11:00 am this morning, all of the kids at Romeo Schools are free until Labor Day.

Bob, Jason, and I were in a staff meeting when we heard a yellow school bus rumble down Campground Road. It was followed by the roar of happy screams that interupted our meeting. I just looked at the guys and told them "school got out today." We all knew exactly what that meant.

Last night I had oodles of fun playing my role in The Senior Roast.

Amazingly, all 5 of our seniors showed up. In fact, it was Sam’s very first time at Light Force and we roasted him anyway. It went really long and yet most of the students seemed to be really into it. The idea of the roast continues to get clearer to our students… though I saw a few of them get stage fright and slam up in a way I never expected.

It’s no secret that I had an "especially hard time" with the roasting of Andrea/LisaB. There is so much to say and so much that has been said already. As I told them, they have been more than students to Kristen and I… they are our family. There have been so many powerful and amazing times share with both of them… it’s just hard to deal with the reality that they are headed off to something bigger and better.

Here’s the video from last night.

For the second time in three years, I’ll be heading up to ICCS for their 8th grade graduation.

They’ve asked me to talk to them from Psalm 5:11-12:

11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;

       let them ever sing for joy.
       Spread your protection over them,
       that those who love your name may rejoice
in you.

12 For surely, O
LORD, you bless the righteous;
       you surround them with your favor as with
a shield.

 

(more…)