Will You Help?

Voice of the Martyrs has some great stuff on their website, www.persecution.com I just wrote a letter to an Iranian pastor who is imprisoned, under sentence death. You can write to persecuted brothers and sisters, too! Go to the website. Click on Prisoner Alert. A persecuted believer's "file" will come up. You can choose to look at some other believers who are also under persecution. Over to the right there will be a link "write an encouraging letter." Click on it and it will lead you through some phrases that will be translated into the prisoner's language and you can then print it off and send to the prison address they give you. "Remember those in prison, as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourself were suffering" (Hebrews 13:3)

Crazy Week

So much good stuff going on makes it a crazy week.

We have been having some small gatherings in homes, a kind of get-to-know-the-pastor meetings, and it has been wonderful to hear peoples' dreams for their church.

Tomorrow I meet with a church planting/evangelism guru from Southern Seminary. We both had our first churches in Winchester, so it's cool to swap tales...

Sunday, we started our new worship service. Pastor Bruce had really laid the groundwork for this. It sounds nuts to be in a church less than 3 months and start a new service, but the hard work had already been done before I got here. I am totally reaping where I did not sow. We start at 11 in Wesley Hall, our multi-purpose facility.

That sounds weird-- to have two services, both of which I will preach, at 11. David Peyton, one of our members and musicians had a great idea... the we could run the services concurrently, not simply offset, say 1 at 11 and the other at 11:15 or 11:30. He and Drew McNeill had timed things in the sanctuary and we realized that if I preach first thing in the new service, I have plenty of time to head to the sanctuary, where lay ministers lead the first part. After some long talks with Phil Hogg who has some experience with concurrent services, we decided it was the best way to start a new service.

We had 111 in the service, so we are feeling really blessed. But the week after the opening is always tough because the numbers go down as people who just came to check it out don't come back. Hopefully we will keep up our inviting... there's no way 111 people showed up without lots of people seriously inviting everyone they know. Emma Newton, one of our youth, stuck invitations in the lockers at the high school!

It was a great service-- awesome music. It's amazing to have so many people who can play instruments, lead worship, and then take over when the pastor heads to the sanctuary. And how crazy is it that there are so many lay people in the sanctuary who can lead the church through the liturgy without the pastor!

And to top my week off, and it's only Monday, so who knows what else will happen! I got a chance to preach in the Methodist Student Center to a group of kids totally primed for the Word by awesome music! I shared a bit of my testimony, really focusing on how important it was to have some guys around me who were Christians, and I challenged the students to be the kind of friends who will being people to Jesus.

There was a great response of students seeking God to fill them with the Spirit to share Christ!

And then... a young woman comes up and says, "I think I am where you used to be. I don't believe in God. A friend brought me here tonight. I'm a scientist and I just can't see how to believe in God."

We had some talk-- there's not a lot you can say in just a few minutes. I shared with her that God has to break through in our lives with the gift of faith. It's not something we are going to figure out or pluck from the world around us. And then she said something that hit home: "I don't have a Bible and I am not sure how to get one." I was not either. I never went to the section of a bookstore where they had Bibles! And what would you do if you saw the bewildering array of translations? If it had not been for the Gideons giving me a Bible...

So I got a student leader to tell me where Drew keeps his stash, and we got her a Bible! Let us pray that God reveals Himself in a powerful way!

Sabbath

So, today... I try to take Fridays off because it sure isn't a Sabbath on Sunday for a preacher.

And today Jessie is visiting a friend and it is Nadia and I. daddy-baby days I have been calling them for years now. I look forward to the days when I have a big chunk of time with one of the kids.

Nadia and I have played, snuggled, napped, walked around, had lunch... You can kiss a baby to sleep, and that is a wonderful thing.

When you say it's time to pray, Nadia says, "amen" and will continue saying it throughout the prayer.

Today she has been a love bug, constantly throwing up her arms for a hug.

I was reminded when I was holding her right after she woke up that we really need to cultivate that kind of place of rest. A place where there is perfect peace, perfect trust.

Tomorrow it's back to grinding hard, but today, God willing, will be an important time just re-creating with my family... Any wait for the boys to get home... That has always been my number one commitment, to carve out the real time to be with family. I don't want to be that pastor who loses his kids because they don't know him, or whose kids hate the church for taking their dad. Or wake up one day and realize how long it's been since we just hung out.

Have you had that experience with God? You know, you go to pray and realize it has been months since you prayed? Don't let it happen!


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Prayer Meeting

I just got back from the men's Wed morning prayer meeting and I want to get some things down that are fresh on my heart.

This is a group of older men-- they won't mind me saying that, they say it all the time!

What strikes me first is that they know each other. To know and to be known is a blessing, especially within the bounds of the Church, within Christian love.

But this morning I realized that it has been a while since I have had a group of godly older men around me. Maybe 10 years, I guess. They have 50, 60, 70 years of Christian experience. It was great to hear their testimonies-- things like learning to pray as an adult; learning that your name is an important thing to guard; to hear from a doctor that color vision is a miracle he enjoys every day with the sunrise...

And a devotion from Philippians 3:12-17...

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Yesterday after school, we all headed to Eagle Lake, at the back end of Morehead State. The previous pastor, Bruce Nettleton told me about it, showed it to me and said what a great place it is to walk. So we all went and walked around the lake. The boys loved it, I loved it, Jessie loved it, Nadia rode on my shoulders and loved it. Very serene, reminded me of Germany, get around a bend and forget how small the lake is and I was remembering the Bodensee...
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We have been having some "get acquainted" meetings with the church in different parishioners homes. It has been a greta chance to meet people and hear a bit more of their stories. I know I keep saying it, but Morehead is a special place. So many people say they came here in 56 or 77 to stay two years... what can you do? The lake, the hills, the small town with a university... an awesome Methodist Church...

Rejoice With Me!

Back at my first church in Winchester, the Mynhier kids were part of the youth group. John and his twin sisters, Mary and Martha. We had some epic adventures. A staple of life together was for me to say to them, "Now, when we get close to your house, I'm just gonna slow down, and y'all jump out. Remember to tuck and roll!"

This phrase, "tuck and roll," became a greeting and a good bye or just something we'd say at random moments.

I think I blogged a few days ago about getting back in touch with John. So imagine my surprise and joy when, walking down Main Street today I hear someone yell, "Tuck and roll!" I look and there is Mary! With her mom Arvilla!

I ran out into the street, almost got killed. But it was so good to see them, and to meet Mary's 4 yr old daughter, Destiny.

Arvilla is the reason we had such a huge garden at the Rock, a big part of the explosion of gardening in Lexington. Arvilla had a huge garden and kept me in beans, peppers, maters, corn, you name it. She wanted it to go to the hungry, so we began a program to make sure that we could get extra produce to the people who needed it. When I got to Lexington, I knew I'd want to do some gardening-- to feed the hungry, do some evangelism, but especially to beautify the neighborhood.

So while very few people may know Arvilla Mynhier, she was huge in getting some great stuff going.

You know, there are some people I have always known I would see again, would find again, no matter how often we lost touch or for how long. The Mynhier kids are in that category. It's another reason I was happy to come to Morehead, because they are from Rowan County, and I knew I could at least start on the trail of finding them.

But Mary found me first. Something as silly as "tuck and roll" brought a tear to my eye today. Rejoice with me!

Stoked

I hope all y'all preachers are stoked to preach this Sunday and every Sunday!

Have you stopped to think how good we have it?

We get to preach the Word!

Salvation in Jesus' Name!

Or what about this: we get to study the Word throughout the week!

I'm so pumped right now-- I get to sit down with about 30 pages from that great North African Bishop, Athanasius, to prepare for this Sunday's sermon!

I almost feel bad; I mean, they are paying me to go deeper in the Word! What?!?!

I only pray I can go deeper and point others to The Way!

Faith

What is Faith?

It's not what I thought when I did not believe in God. In those days, I thought it was a crutch for weak-minded people who could not handle life on life's terms.

At best I may have said it was a kind of giving yourself over to a Fate you could not comprehend or predict, and so faith was a kind of spiritual wisdom, a kind of "let's see what happens.". But thats still just coping. It may lead to bold and extravagant living, but it is simply coping.

Faith, biblically speaking, is a sure and settled conviction that God is trustworthy because He has proven Himself trustworthy forever. There is very little leap of faith, it seems to me.

But what does it mean? What does it do?

Faith, before and after it's theological definition, makes the Word of God active in our lives. We not only find our trust miraculously placed in Jesus Christ, the promises of God become truer and truer with each new experience.

How else to describe the Christian experience of the Beatitudes, to take one example?

Blessed are those who mourn? How? If you have ever grieved and known the comfort of the Lord, then you know. In fact, you will take all the mourning you can get because God is close to the brokenhearted, and the blessings of His presence in the time of mourning is better than being free of mourning!

We are surrounded by a great could of witnesses who can testify to such phenomena in every aspect of their lives... The promises of God came to life, were made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.


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Preview of Coming Attractions

We had a great day of worship at Morehead United Methodist today. Good crowd, great music, freedom in preaching.

Sunday August 28 starts a new experiment! We have known for a while that we need a contemporary service. But... when? The single best time is Sunday at 11 a.m. But we already have a sublime service going on then. We decided that we would run them at the same time. In the new Wesley Hall I will preach right out of the starting gate, and then the service will enter the time of praise and worship, while I head to the sanctuary to preach in that service.

I am looking forward to it, because I will preach as often as anyone will let me! It's going to be different, a little strange, but I think it will bear fruit in the long run for us. We don't have any room in the sanctuary for new people... a GREAT problem to have!

This coming Sunday, I will be preaching on "What I Learned About Jesus in Las Vegas." I was in Vegas with John, who was 4 then. One afternoon while he napped, I went all Jim Wallis on the Gospels. That is, I started to read them closely, looking--not as Wallis did, for verses about the poor--but for verses where Jesus indicates that He is the only way to salvation.

This is a very offensive idea in our times. We are supposed to pretend that all religions are valid, that "we're all going to the same place, just by different paths." I don't buy it. But I wanted to look closely.

What I found shocked me: you'll be left with very little in the Gospels if you take out the parts that assume the exclusivity of Christ. At almost every turn, Jesus demands that we understand His uniqueness. Along the way, we'll unpack the meanest thing Jesus ever said...

Can't believe I forgot...

I had a great lunch yesterday w Jay and Sue Barrett talking about missions.

There is so much going on, so much supported from Morehead: Peru, Kazakhstan, Mexico, local missions... Looking forward to Estonia

Morehead Methodist is a wild place-- so much ministry going on, so much happening... The mantra is keep doing what we're doing and add to it


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Great Day of Ministry

Sometimes, somedays, the Lord is just all over it.

A few things conspired to make me realize that I had to totally give the day up to God or it was going to get bad. I didn't fast yesterday--I forgot, and I can tell you when I don't fast things can get rough.

After squaring away schedule stuff, I went to visit a parishioner who does not get to come very much. I found out that this person is sick, days are shorter than longer; doesn't have much money-- making it, but... And then these words that blessed and convicted me: "All I have is the Lord."

Early this morning someone had posted to Twitter that you don't know how much you need Jesus until He is all you have.

So this was going through my mind: here is a person that, really, by the world's standards, is not someone to spend any time on, not someone who adds anything. But isn't it amazing that this person feels the presence of the Lord more than ever? How amazing! The Lord gives His presence and love in powerful and extravagant ways to the very ones we overlook.

I wonder what it would be like if we related like that, like God does?

Then I had an impromptu meeting with the Program Director at the Morehead Inspiration Center, a residential treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction. That is going to be a great relationship for our church. We already do a lot with them in terms of giving them space for classes, but I hope we can do more and really look to the spiritual care of the guys.

I had a great meeting at a nursing home that turned out a number of folks from the church are there, so it was like a mini-service!

And capped it off tonight with a meeting for a couple about to get married and it turned into a great time of prayer!

First Day of School

Last night, I was with each boy privately as they both told me of their worries about starting school in a new place.

They had been at Arlington Elementary in Lexington, a very special school with a staff that really came around the boys when they were in the toughest times I hope they ever have to face. So it's not just that we moved to a new school--we left a school that was a great space for the boys, not just in terms of the building, but in a kind of emotional landscape.

I went to five elementary schools in 4 states and Germany, 2 high schools. So i've been the new kid a lot. Came to terms with the fact that all my friends were going to be strangers. So last night, I could tell the boys that it's ok to be the new kid.

But this morning, to see the boys sitting there awkwardly, off to the sides, not knowing anyone... I know how that feels... and there's this weird line between knowing it's ok.. or it will be ok, and wishing it wasn't that way. At the end of the day, I know that they will come home excited, new friends, excitement of learning and getting to know their teachers.

Whenever I am reminded of the darker mode on my peripatetic life, I'm in a California mood, so until the boys come home, it's P.O.D. and The Offspring in the iPod.

Tuesday

Taking a short break from the sermon... I know, I know, you wish you could too on Sunday! Ha ha ha. Having fun with this one-- history of the Roman sewer, old school paganism, Christian social ethics... what's not to love?

But something struck me, totally unrelated to the sermon.

It's so easy to lose sight of, track of, what's important, valuable, precious to us.

Another way to say that is: it's hard work to NOT take good stuff for granted.

You're around your family and friends all the time, and so it becomes routine. When they're not around, you really miss them.

Maybe you live in a place like Morehead, KY, and you forget to be in awe of the beauty, or take advantage of the lake (this one worries me. I can see 2 years from now no longer looking up to that mountain outside the church. It becomes a backdrop that I don't even notice.)

Or a struggle I have to revisit periodically: what about the things you do that give you life? What if they get crowded out by the everyday? Or "important" stuff that's on your plate? You have to step back sometimes and remember what it was that brings life and joy, what you're called to.

Monday

A very productive Monday!

The guy I needed to see came into the office... nice. Thanks, Wes! We got a killer confirmation plan for the youth.

Flowed out a new members' class that I will offer a few times each year.

Set the hymns for the projected sermons until Advent.

Got a document ready on the preaching schedule for the next 15 weeks so people can have something specific to invite their friends, family and co-workers to!

Working on getting a set of inserts ready for this Fall's Keyword Sermons so people can follow along and take notes. We're going to be going deep into Hebrew and Greek, and letting the Bible define its terms for us. So often we come to the Bible, read a verse and then think we say whatever we feel like... but this is God's book, so we want to let it speak for itself, so that when we say words like "sin," grace," and "forgiveness" we actually know what we're talking about!

2 more things on the punch list and then the rest of the week is for the sermon and visits in the community.

9 Years

This weekend, we celebrated Joseph's 9th birthday. It seems like yesterday we had his eighth birthday, like yesterday that he was just born. I can still remember holding him right after he was born, showing him to family. What a precious boy! What a wonderful blessing! A big strong boy (half inch shy of 5 feet tall!) who will still sit with me, curled up under a blanket in the La-Z-Boy.

Jessie's mom came down, and that really made his day! I told him we'd have a special guest when he woke up, as Grandma was coming in late. When he saw her, he told me that he was so happy. He said, "I thought maybe it was somebody from Lexington!" It meant a lot to him to see her, all the way from Illinois.

I think back to that strange time after Melissa died, and we were at a birthday party for this person we did not know, Jessie. In pictures from that party there was Joseph and John everywhere Jessie's mother was. We joke that they wanted Jessie because of her mom.

I think of my little man and all that he has been through. I tell him all the time how much God has blessed me through him.

Good Things

So, Tom Fossett, a member at Morehead got us a pass to the National Park facilities around Cave Run Lake. tuesday, we loaded up the family and I worked on the sermon while Jess and the kiddos swam and played. It was a great day under some pines. I like to be outside when I work on my sermon, used to like a place on the Palisades in Jessamine County. Of course, the week I got to spend on sermon prep on the Baltic was pretty nice. I guess the highlight for me was hearing the pages of my Bibles turn when a breeze blew. I love it on sunday morning when people are turning the pages and following along in the Bible with the sermon.
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John said tonight, "I can't wait til I am a Daddy." I got a chance to tell the boys that of all the things I have done in life, being a Daddy is the best.
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And it's easy to be happy to be a Daddy to John, Joe, and Nadia.
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Nadochka may be the cutest thing I have ever seen. She has this smile where she throws her head back and leans forward and shows her teeth. Why am I so blessed?

She says Amen now pretty regularly. If you start to pray, she says it. If you say the words "Jesus" or "heavenly Father," she says, "maymen."
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Blast from the past. a few days ago, Jessie asked, "Do you know John Mynhier?" Yes, I do! He friended her on facebook looking for me. He was a youth in my church in Winchester. We had a lot of good times together, especially doing evangelism on the back roads of Clark County. We called a few sinners to repentance. And one day, we were way out there, and we got to a long driveway that we drove up only to find and abandoned house. But, we alos found something else: blackberries! Now, we were so far out in the woods you'da had to go back towards town to hunt, and so not even the birds had found these blackberries! Our faces and fingers were purple. I remember telling John we needed some ice cream, but he said they were pretty good as is.

I think this is one of my favorite memories.

The list of people who wanted to kick my butt was shorter. [don't worry, the list of people who want to and CAN is very short. And if you think you're on that list, forget about it. you're not]

Simpler times.

We did not fully appreciate the battle with the enemy, and that there might be fewer of us.

But then, John Mynhier's family got the whole garden madness going!

This Sunday at Morehead UMC

This Sunday at Morehead United Methodist Church, we'll be looking at the Nature and Use of the Ten Commandments. In short, the commandments exist for one reason: to make us despair of of our own righteousness. No matter how hard we try, we have all broken several if not all of the commandments. But there they are, so simple, so plain, so common sense!

When we knuckle under and realize that all our best thinking and good intentions got us to the place where Jesus had to die on the Cross to save us from our sins, then we know that there has to be a righteousness that comes from God, not from us. And we learn that this righteousness comes by faith in Jesus. It is His righteousness we need.

And when we believe in Him, repent of our sins, and turn our hearts and minds to live a godly lives, then we find that, indeed, His righteousness lives in us. And we can fully obey the Ten Commandments not because we decided to, but because Christ lives in us.

This is a mystical reality, not a mechanical process. It is by faith from first to last.