Pastoral Confession: I can very easily fall into grooves and patterns of behavior.  I like the predictable, the familiar, and the safe. On the one hand, that makes me reliable, dependable, and responsible.  Those are good things.  Those are good farmer genes, which I inherited from my dad and grandpa. But if I am not careful, those good qualities can also cause me to miss out on a spontaneous or adventurous leap of faith.  So to me,   Missions Trips are like a spiritual discipline that I need to “snap myself out of it” and  realize that I can do new things, face new challenges, and work with new people.   God is Big and Strong, and he wants us to rely on Him, Trust in Him, and Walk in Him.  But the only way to do that is by going out to face the giants,  and by stepping out of the boat.  If we stay home, and if we stay in the boat, God can’t show  us how Big He is, and how Strong He is.  I remember one quote from a missionary who said,  “we don’t just believe in miracles,  we DEPEND on them.”

So,  maybe your pastor can inspire you today to step out of your comfort zone a little, and get involved in a ministry that you feel inadequate to try, or have that conversation about faith with your friend or co-worker, which you have been putting off.  Put yourself out there.   Take a step of faith.

You will try and talk yourself out of it,  make excuses, and you just might stumble over your words,  or act goofy, but c-mon people.  At some point you have to step out of the boat,  and go face a giant.  That is scary, yes, but its the only way to see God do something great in your life, and with your life.

Here in 2011 we can all find a youtube video of a 10,000 member church putting on a professional Christmas performance of art, music and media that rivals Hollywood.  If I could, someday I would like to go and watch one of those productions.  I have no doubt they bless Christians and reach the lost. In no way would I be critical of the time, work, energy and vision that it would take to put those things on.

But I am the first to admit I have my own bias toward the  small town Christmas Program, complete with untrained unprofessional children dressed in bathrobes and wearing fake beards… When I was about 12 years old, I thought I was too cool to have to participate in our church Christmas program.  But I was short for my age, so I was paired up with a 8 year old girl, and we both were enlisted (more like drafted) into the Christmas Program for the Rock Assembly of God, which at the time was meeting at a local community center on the South Side of Janesville WI.

I was pretty ticked off about the whole arrangement and came up with a solution to protect my 12 year old ego from the embarrassment of being on stage with an 8 year old girl in the church Christmas program.  My mom was big into “crafting” (home made Country crafts type stuff)  and was making these long armed, long legged velcro monkey puppet things (If you are in your 30s or older you know exactly what I am talking about).    So anyway, I got a hold of some brown, fake monkey fur stuff and constructed a thick brown beard that basically covered 3/4 of my face, kinda like those partial face masks you wear when you are skiing, only mine was brown and furry.  I had a very furry looking beard, but hey, Joseph could of been a furry guy– nobody knows for sure, right?

So anyway, I cut just a small slot for my mouth, rigged up some paper clips to hook the crazy thing over my ears, and I was ready to go, and nobody would ever recognize me.  It was the perfect plan.

So on the night of the program, the community center was packed, and the program went off without a hitch, and like every good pastor, Al Borreson got up to give the closing prayer, but he seemed to be really happy, almost like he was trying hard not laugh out loud. So he gave the closing prayer, dismissed the congregation to enjoy some Christmas cookies and coffee, and he later told my mom that he was laughing pretty hard at my brown furry beard, but what he found even more ridiculous was the big, two white teeth that managed to poke out of my little mouth hole, unbeknown  to me!!   Turned out I was a bathrobe wearing, furry beard wearing, hill-billy Joseph!

So whats my point…  I grew up in church. I was dragged into many a crazy church project, scheme, program, choir, fundraiser, ect.  I was unprofessional, reluctant, and in retrospect, something of a Hill Billy.  But I was  loved and accepted, and more than that, I was needed.  That is the power of the local church.  We need and use regular people, to help serve an amazing God. This was the model set before us by God as found in the Bible.  He grabbed fishermen, farmers, shepherds, cowards, scoundrels, crooks and wayward women, as well as wealthy men, kings, and business men, and gave them second chances, gave them grace & mercy, and used them all for his purposes.

I love the fact that the Birth Story of Jesus  involves wise men (Magi, astrological advisers to kings Matthew chapter 2)  as well as shepherds (Luke Chapter 2).  ….And apparently they all wore bathrobes back then….

When my sister and I were a little older, my dad bought us an old Arctic Cat Cheetah 295 that we would bomb around with,out in the snow covered hay fields.  Man, that was so much fun!  We would blast through the snow drifts heaped against the snow fence, and jump over driveway culverts in the roadside ditch.   After a few hours of riding around,  we would sometimes ride up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, up on the hill over looking the family farm, and grandma Jean would make us some hot chocolate and serve it with Oreos.  As I look back on it, I am very thankful for the experience of growing up in the country.  And for snowmobiles….

3:1  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
2  a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3  a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
4  a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5  a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,6  a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,7  a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,8  a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
9  What does the worker gain from his toil?10  I have seen the burden God has laid on men.11  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.12  I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.13  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil–this is the gift of God.14  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.15  Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.

Baby dedications & funerals, nursing home & jail visits, weddings & marital counseling, church conflicts and church celebrations.   As I try to reflect on these last few months, its been hard to find a starting point.

One of my favorite quotes:   “The unexamined life is not worth living.” –Socrates

I have come to realize that as a pastor, I have been given  a special gift– I get a front row seat to the most important and meaningful life moments of others.  The depth of feeling, the raw emotion, and the carefully spoken words from the friends and family,  each word containing meaning, thought and sincerity, based upon the closeness of the relationship… observing these things, they leave an impression in my heart and in my mind –and it gets me thinking.

What really matters.  What is most important.  What to hang on to, what to let go.  Truthfully, the thing I come away with the most,  is just how blessed we really are.  When we choose to focus our minds on the good, and think about the goodness of God, and we see the fingerprints of God, even in the midst of the trials, it gets to be quite overwhelming to me.  As I watch a married couple of 54 years approach the fork in the road,  one prepares to leave their earthly dwelling as the other stands by in the role of comforter,…  and as I watch the eyes of a young groom fill up with tears at the approach of his beautiful bride, as she walks down the aisle,   Oh, how that grips the heart!!    What a gift I am given.

Perspective.   A gentle but urgent reminder to hug my kids,  to kiss my wife, share my heart,   Call my mom & dad,  do something with the time I have been given, Pray,  have more friends over,  speak the truth in love,  Live what you believe, remember the elderly, don’t be in such a hurry,  and trust God.

On a side note, my mom called the other day and said that the home movies they took of our trip to Mount Rushmore didn’t turn out (mom & dad are not big into technology) so I made them a DVD of the pictures and video we had taken.  As I took the time to sit down and create it,  I couldn’t help but to “count my many blessings”  as I thought about the many ways God has blessed our family and just how much fun we had together.

(In case you don’t know who they are, they are two precious saints whom God has given our church  as Spiritual Elders–Norm is 86 yrs old and prays every day for our church and specific people, as written down in his prayer book).

Dear Pastor Will,

I forgot your Sunday Sermon 8-13-11 But, I remember the message.  After we left Abbotsford we stopped at Arby’s for lunch. A lady came to our table and commented how we said prayer at lunch. I let her know we did it every noon and God would be hurt if we missed something He was was expecting.  Then we went to County Market where a man was blessed to help unload our groceries and later take them to the car and unload the in the car.  Then we went to Wal-Mart to buy a badly needed toaster (Norm likes to ride in that motorized cart). I asked a staff member for help and she was blessed to take us to the right spot and explained things about several toasters.  And again a man was blessed to push our cart to our car and unload everything into our car.

Monday it was an awesome effort but we did make it to the once a month breakfast at (I couldn’t make out the name).  Before we got to the door a man was blessed by holding the door open so we could get our walkers in. Once seated another man was blessed by bringing us 2 cups of coffee.  I got my plate full at the buffet and another man was blessed by carrying my plate to the table and making sure I had  silverware.  I sat across the table from another lady who was in the same shape we are–walker, oxygen tank, ect. We talked about old times, when she mentioned the Lord wasn’t ready for her yet.  I told her that when we were young, we were blessed every time we helped someone.  Now its our turn to step down and let others get a blessing by helping us.

…. I’m blessed because I got to church Sunday, Oh yes, now I remember your sermon.  We do need each other, and we do need the church. In closing, remember Phil. 4:6  “Don’t worry about anything and pray about everything.”  Jesus loves you and so does Norman and Caroline Franck.

Party In The Park went awesome,  with over 400 tickets sold, and Abby First City Days went great as well. I myself really enjoyed helping with the kids games and the guys did awesome with the grilling and the ladies from church did great serving up all the food and getting it all out there to the people.  Thanks to everybody who participated and there was a number of you who helped with both, and I am extremely grateful. But most of all I am grateful for all the help my wife gives me.  She helps me out with counseling, organization, and she pretty much designed, set up, and bought prizes for all the kids games this weekend.  I am very blessed to have such a great partner in ministry!

This morning I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I came down to the church office and decided to watch the Tuesday evening message  from General Council (The Assemblies of God National meeting of all the pastors).   Our national leader  George O. Wood  was preaching the sermon.

He gave a powerful word about not giving up on your dream  and it really, really touched my heart.  Sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking that  national leaders  are not in touch with what is going on in a local church context, but I have to say he really nailed it, and gave a great call to renewed passion, vision, and action. The story about the missionaries who were sent out during the great depression, or rather, DESPITE the great depression was incredible!

I was also very impressed with watching some of this service, and how they had succeeded in blending a lot of “styles”.   There was modern worship, modern staging,  but they still sang a few traditional songs,   1/2 the leaders wore suits, some didn’t,  and the worship team was multi-ethnic.  This approach wouldn’t fly in an “entertainment”  context, but in the church context,  where we are FAMILY,   the rough edges of transition,  style, and presentation are fully accepted.  just like at a family reunion, there is hip cool teens dressed in the modern clothes talking modern language,  hanging out with grandma and granpa in their polyester pants and suspenders.  In any other enviroment, that doesn’t work, but  when its FAMILY,  we  look past the differences, and just see FAMILY.

This affirmed to me that we are, as a church, on the right track as we try to blend styles, age groups, and culture. Living in small town Wisconsin, from our limited perspective,  sometimes you wonder how things compare here,  up against the bigger picture of the national scene.   I encourage everybody from church to check out these messages and  see for yourself just what kind of a group us  AG pentecostals really are, on a national scale, and how we “fit in” to the bigger picture.

Click here to find the Tuesday Evening Video: Genera Council Media

The brokeness, hurt and pain that lives in the hearts of these young kids is more than what most people realize.  There was much tears, prayer, and kneeling before the Lord at the altar times.   The effects of broken families,  peer pressure, adolescence,  and spiritual turmoil  are all very real and evident in their faces and behavior.

The children and youth of this generation have seen a lot,  know more than they should,  and struggle to process it all.  They need strong parents,  strong churches, and open lines of communication between the two.   Despite the challenges they face, these young people are  incredibly bright,  media savvy,  and dream big dreams.    I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for these kids.  It definitely keeps me praying!