Smart Move

What can I say?  When we launched our Awana program a couple of months ago, I must confess that I really didn’t know that much about how the whole thing worked but now I am convinced that it was a smart move!!!

Over the past few weeks my kids have been really getting into memorizing scripture and learning basic bible teachings.   “Dad, can I read to you?”  is the phrase I have been hearing alot and what that means is, they want to quote scripture verses to me.  How exciting to see.   When they get the whole verse right, there is such a look of  genuine self-satisfaction, as they stand there with a big goofy grin on their faces.   What a blessing it is to see the younger generation learning to hide God’s Word in their heart.

On a more serious note,  there a number of people in our church that are battling sickness, job loss, and difficult personal decisions.   Let us continue to lift each other up in prayer, by faith believing that God hears us and is actively working things out for His glory and for His purposes.  Yesterday a guy from our church was in our sactuary praying all afternoon, becuase God put it in his heart to do so.  How awesome is that?   Our church is full of “unsung heroes”  who are quietly going about their Father’s business.   I feel very blessed to be apart of this church and all that God is doing here.

GERONIMO!!!

This week the local paper said that the building across the street (old city hall) is indeed going up for sale and they are hoping to get over $100,000 for it, to help with a budget shortfall.

I care about our city and their budget shortfall, but I am praying that we can have that building for free.  There is also a big white house to the east of us that I am praying will one day become ours so we could put in a parking lot.   Why do I think we need all this property?  Because healthy, living things grow.  And our church, as the body of Christ, is alive and reasonably healthy and if we don’t keep allowing God to stretch us and help us grow, then we will inevitably get sick and start to die. We sure don’t want that to happen!!

Growing is always a challenge.  That is why some struggle with it.  There are unforseen variables,  mistakes can and will happen,  fear of failure can arise, and the list goes on.  But here is what a lot of people forget. They forget about the consequences of  NOT growing….  depression, cynical attitudes, hopelessness, and a sense of being defeated.

My point is this…Growing as a christian, growing as a church,  even growing as a pastor is hard and challenging.  But NOT growing is far, far, worse.   I have witnessed this first hand.   So while for some, the pace we are moving as a church seems a bit brisk, and maybe  it would be nice to pause for a breather, we can’t.  We can’t.  The minute we get comfortable, the minute we get satisfied with were we are, we start to lose momentum.  And when you start to lose momentum, you stand still.  When you stand still, you sit down.  And when we sit down, we start looking backward and start thinking about how great things used to be,  and forget to look forward….

I love how Paul wrote it in  Phillipians 3:  12  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.13  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,14  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.15  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.

I also love this quote:

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, shouting GERONIMO!” –Hunter S. Thompson

So,  my church family,  we are just going to keep moving forward, dreaming dreams, and working hard for the Kingdom of God.  If it is God’s will for us to get these buildings, then we will get them, as we pray and trust Him.  If not, He will open up better opportunites in the future. Regardless, there is some great opportunities in the horizon.

I ask this of God with an enthusiastic faith:  “What Next?”  GERONIMO!!!!!

Back From Florida

Jen and I got back from Florida late Tuesday and we had a really nice time.   The wedding was held on Amelia Island and we stayed at a hotel just off Fernadina beach.   The weather was pushing 90 the whole time we were there with high humidity,  and the wedding was  outside, so let me tell you it was plenty hot.

The ceremony itself was beautiful and I have to say that Aaron and Natalie definitely looked like 2 people who were crazy in love with each other (kind of an important detail).   There is a considerable age difference between the two–my friend Aaron is 35 and Natalie is 25.  I bring this up because the pastor officiating the ceremony was her youth pastor and at one point he  turned to me and asked if I was Aaron’s  youth pastor as well.   I told him no, Aaron is an old man just like me. ..

One interesting thing that came out of the wedding was that I sat next to Aaron’s dad, who’s name is BJ,  during the rehearsal brunch thing and he was telling me that he was born and raised in Neilsville WI and that a great revival swept through that town in the real early 70s and lasted for about 6 years.  A bunch of hippies all found Christ and flooded the little AG church there in Neilsville.   Ed Gungor from the Believers Church found Christ out there and so did our very own Holly & Frank Pisor.   BJ told me that the 2 main parts of that revival were that many souls were  saved and that the church was committed in prayer.  BJ told me that somebody literally came walking right into the bar where he was sitting and talked to him about Jesus and getting his life right and the Holy Spirit gripped his heart like n0thing he ever experienced before and he almost fell off his bar stool. Anyhow,  I am going to find out a few more details about all that happened there in Neilsville.    I tell you this to remind us all that God can and will do big things in small towns.

The Power of Love

Last Sunday I was so blessed to see our church family come around a hurting individual who needed to feel love and acceptance.   And he was given exactly what he needed–  Hugs,  a hand on the shoulder, and a firm handshake.  Love.

In January of last year,  we viewed a video series on prayer by Pastor Jim Cymbala and it was really powerful and I remember that at one point the camera showed the front of  his church stage and in big bold letters across the front it simply said,  GOD IS LOVE.   How simple, how profound.   Let me put that phrase in its proper context…

1John 4:7  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.10  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.11  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.13  We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

We are indeed a church that knows God, and that was clearly demonstrated last Sunday.   May we only continue to grow in His Love.

History in the making

Just this last Wednesday we launched our first mid week children’s program called Awana.  leading up to that day there was much preparation, planning, and training.  I am very thankful for the many servant leaders who have made this commitment of time and energy.   Ministry to children is so strategic to the kingdom of God.   George Barna of Barna Research said that the majority of adult Christians polled said that they came to Christ before the age of 18.   Barna also quotes research that says that a child’s moral code is fully in tact by age 9.

Mark 10:14 And Jesus Said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.15  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”16  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

As a dad of elementary age children, I want my child to be excited about God, His Word, and church.  My wife Jen, who is the commander, and all her excellent servant leaders are committed to this program and to it’s success.  It is our prayer that every church in this town will have or continue to have great success in their ministry to children.   There are hundreds of kids in this town who need to be ministered to, and no single church can do it alone.

May God help the churches of this town to pass our faith on to the future generations.  God help us.

Back to School

Like many other parents, the wife and I have sent off our 3 kids to school this past week.  This is the first time all 3 are in school full time.   After 10 years of being a “family with little children”  we have awakened to the reality that our children are not so little anymore.  They are now at that place in their lives where they have to start thinking for themselves, and making decisions without mom and dad looking over their shoulders.  Letting go is not easy but it is necessary.

Ah, free will.  The greatest gift God gave us, and yet I am sure even He must have thought long and hard about all the possible consequences  and repurcussions that “gift” would have on us–  And yet He still gave us the gift of being able to think for ourselves and choose for ourselves, even though that would open wide the door for human error,  and just plain bad decision making.  Letting our children think for themselves and to choose for themselves at the appropriate time, and in the appropriate manner is some very tricky stuff,  but do it we must.

If we hold on for too long,  they will become justifiably rebellious, and if we let go too soon, they could crash and burn unnecessarily.   So what’s the answer?  Well, its true, every child is different and so there is no “secret formula” One Size Fits All–  we just have to pray for guidance & wisdom.   BUT, I would say that one thing you can do is check your own motives for “holding on”— are you doing it so they won’t make YOU look bad?   Maybe you like to be “In control”….  or maybe you are doing it to try and compensate for mistakes you might have made with your kids when they were younger.   Those are all the wrong reasons.

God Loves us, but he doesn’t  “over protect” us at all.   He knows failure and suffering can be the most powerful tools for building and shaping our character.  It teaches us  Humility, Compassion and Empathy.

Over protected kids can become conceited, selfish, arrogant and proud and they can’t relate to people who have gone through the school of hard knocks.   The bottom line is,  Kids need loving and supportive parents, but they also need to experience  failure,  difficulty, moral decision making without mom and dad, and to experience the consequences of bad decision making.   I heard one Christian Counselor said that Parents are not to interrupt God’s law of  “YOU reap what YOU sow”…..    Hey, the prodigal son came to his senses only AFTER he ate pig food for a while.   The Father did not hunt him down.  He patiently waited for the son to CHOOSE to come back to his senses,  THEN helped the kid out and helped bring the boy back to full restoration.   The waiting for that Father must have been so hard on his heart, but even he knew of the importance of letting his child exercise free will.

Well there, fellow parents– This stuff sure keeps us praying, huh?

Mission Trip to City On A Hill

Last Saturday a group of us went on a one day mission trip to the inner city of Milwaukee.   When you are from a rural small town,  it feels like you are in a another country!!!  But anyway,  we were part of an outreach that gave away free backpacks and school supplies to 250 kids.   I think there were about 4 or 5  A/G churches there helping to do all the work.  2 churches helped with the backpacks, and the others helped put on a VBS style program for the kids.

The leadership of City On A Hill really impress me.  They run this outreach in the absolute worst part of town.  The facility is huge, the upkeep overwhelming, and the financial hurdles are endless.  And yet they press on.  Diane De La Sontos,  the director there, walked away from a 6 figure income at a hospital, and a nice house, to minister to the poorest of the poor, and now lives literally, at her place of work.   Wow.  then there is Brooke Chapman, a young college aged woman who works as her assistant down there too. Not exactly the safest job for somebody like her, and I am sure with her talents she also could work anywhere she wants to.  And yet they booth heed the call of Jesus,  To feed & care for  the poor,  and to minister to orphans–literally and figurative.   People like that inspire me.    There work is motivated by one word–Compassion.   Being down there made me look inside myself and examine my own heart and see what motivates me…

Full Weekend

This last weekend …

Thursday–Jen and I  took kids on Valley Fair Trip;  Friday– Jesse & Amanda Roe and I took kids to the Jason Maupin youth evangelist in Augusta, and then on Saturday Jen, Diane and I helped out at a kids game tent in the Abby First City Days.  Then, to top off a great week of ministry, on Sunday night we had a Praise and Prayer Gathering led by Brian and the Worship Team with over 40 in attendance.     Man, is there ever momentum building!  Glory to God!

I shared on Sunday night at the prayer gathering that I have been praying a simple prayer lately– “Lord increase my faith.”   There are no limitations to what God can do.  But we put limitations on God by thinking small, being “realisitic” and sometimes even being down right cheap when it comes to ministry and the House of God.   I know many small town churches  struggle with thinking they need to think small in a small town.   Well, guess what?   NOT ME….at least,  not anymore.

God has really shown me that He wants to do BIG things in SMALL towns.  Why?  Because He likes to prove that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God!  Sure, we have limited resources, limited money, and limited space.  But God would say….”Sounds like you need a miracle!–Great, Let’s Do It!!!”   The bottom line is,  I want to pass on to my children a bold faith in a Mighty God, and the only way to do that is to take some bold steps from time to time, so that if God doesn’t show up, all is lost.  I wish I could tell you there was an easier way but there isn’t.   To some, that sounds too scary, but I tell you what is even more scary—passing on to our children a dead, boring, comfortable, and predictable faith.    How’s that for motivation?  It sure gets me up and moving, that’s for sure!

Getting Old

So,  Jen and I  took a van load of teens to Valley Fair yesterday.   And again we had an ethnically diverse group of kids who went.   It really blessed me to see everyone interacting on the van ride home.  A couple of them couldn’t speak english real well but most of them did.   Did I mention the van was FULL!?! 15 people went and once again God blessed us with a great turn out.   Praise God!

As for getting old,  I have to admit that after I came off a few rides I was a bit dizzy and my stomach felt funny. …That never used to happen….  Of course, eating a pile of cheese curds before I got on the rides probably didn’t help either…

The Road Ahead…

As any church or organization  grows,  it tends to become more institutionalized– policies, paperwork, and red tape.   The other thing that tends to happen is that they start to  lose their focus and try to be “all things to all people”….

As the pastor here at Abby NRC,  it is my prayer that our church will resist these pitfalls.  Policies and paper work are necessary, but  they should never be allowed to inhibit people from following a dream that God may put in their heart.   Risk taking and stepping out in faith is part of our history, and we will continue to step out in faith and believe God for the impossible.  It is there that God meets us.

But the other part of the equation is,  as a young church we need to be wise, and we need to be intentional about what we do, and when we do it.    Timing is everything, even in the ministry.   Just because God put it in your heart, doesn’t mean you are to do it RIGHT NOW!   Look at Joseph–he had to wait 14 years before his dreams came to pass.   So here is what I am trying to say– I want to be the kind of pastor who supports people in their dreams regarding ministry, but I also want our church to be prudent as to what we do, and when we do it.   Many churches have had the right idea, but they did it at the wrong time, and it led to disaster.   This is where relationship and trust kicks in.  As we grow together–as a church, but also as individuals–we must learn to trust each other, and give leaders the benefit of the doubt.   All of that to say,  I really want to hear everyone’s heart, and their dreams of ministry opportunity, but I also ask that you be willing to wait for the most opportune time.  Sometimes there will be no delay and you can have at it, and other times it could take years for everything to come together.   In Hebrews 13:17 it says that we must submit to church leadership,  but in that same sentence it goes on to say that the church leadership will be held accountable by God himself!  Boy, is that just a  little daunting!    As a young pastor trying to figure things out,  I do not take those words lightly.  Sure, I am human and make mistakes, but I am also sincerely seeking the Lord’s direction and I ask you to keep me in prayer.