Praise

So let's see...

Great dinner by Diamond Dave Sheffel.

Big crowd studying Romans 10.

Little kids working on their Christmas play... December 11, 6-8 pm... they are going to be awesome!

15 kids in youth!

One of the Chinese who has been studying scripture with us wants to be baptized. She said, "But I think I need a class, to teach me what we believe, because we can't talk about this where I come from."

Sunday's Sermon

This week's sermon is working me over. There's a lot to talk about when we dig into the importance of the Israelite Exile and the life and ministry of Jesus.

So for those of you from Morehead who get a chance to read this blog, here is the Scriptures we will be looking at this Sunday:

Matthew 1:1-12

Jeremiah 16:14-15

Deuteronomy 26:5-9

1 Peter 1:10-12

Matthew 13:17

Matthew 3:19-23

Matthew 4:12-16

And, of course, we may dig into more... but I figured I should help you out a little bit, and give you a heads up!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sanctuary

Last night, the church decorated the sanctuary and Wesley Hall. It is amazingly beautiful. There is something about the simplicity of a Protestant Church that is just... Beautiful in a dimly lit time like a Christmas Eve service. I am really looking forward being in the services this season.

We had a whole bunch of kids getting ready for their Christmas play. They are so cute and it is really neat to see how some of them come out of their shells... Or how they intensify who they already are!

Jonathan Powers talked me into reading the New Testament through Advent. Like I needed much arm-twisting. As is was reading the first 12 chs of Matthew today, I was really hit with an anticipation about what reading Revelation will be like in the days closest to Christmas!

You can read the Bible in 90 days! Matt Baker I think got me started on that kick. What an amazing thing! You get that much scripture in your life, things happen. Maybe best of all, the greatest way of reading the Bible will open to you! Letting Scripture interpret Scripture opens up whole new worlds of understanding. If you want to understand the Old Testament, you'll need to understand Jesus. And if you want to understand Jesus, you'll need to understand the Old Testament. No better way to do that than to read lots and lots of Scripture.

What a way to start the New Year, than by starting a 90 day Bible reading plan!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A New Year

This morning, Tom Burns died. He had not been able to come to our church in some time. A kind saint in the church put together a list of our shut-ins, and that list has brought such great ministry! First, it has created a monthly communion service at a nursing home. And second, it gave me a chance to meet Mr. Burns before he died. Tom and Ada were married for 70 years! Longer than many people live. It is hard to imagine how deep her grief must be. We shared Scripture and prayer, and hopefully will have more time to be in prayer and ministry with her.

How very thankful I am for the wisdom of my mentor in ministry, Howard Willen, who so strongly emphasized visitation of the sick and shut-in with prayer and Scripture reading.

My mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and niece came into visit over Thanksgiving. We had time to grill ribs, eat turkey and visit. I guess it hits me now that everyone is gone that we are blessed with jobs and homes and we hope that 2012 can be a year of rest and regrouping and growing stronger, building on the joy that God has given us. May we all be found healthier and happier and even more sensible of our blessings!

I am veyr much looking forward to preaching tomorrow... first Sunday of Advent!

My mom brought me a tin of Lebkuchen, German Christmas gingerbreads. What a wonderful memory of the times we went to Nuernberg at Christmastime. In some theological circles we gripe and moan about Christendom... whatever else we may say about this thing we derisively call "Christendom," it set apart and sanctified time and space. 12 Days of Christmas would be awesome in so many ways. Kids have it off, but we stay busy... we could be busy by worship and feasting the great news of Jesus' birth!

Prayer: The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn

Last night I was woken up by a new direction for Sunday's sermon. Of course, Lord, You couldn't do that on Monday when I had not worked all day Tuesday on the sermon... :) ANd also to pray for two people. Whenever I get woken up like that, I have to pray...

And today on Twitter, someone said something like intercessory prayer is being willing to lay down your life for the person you're praying for. Maybe so, maybe not, but it's worth thinking about.

Nadia did not want to take a nap today, but she sure needed it. I held her until she fell asleep, then put her in her crib. I regularly think about the mystery of a baby... you can know them for less than a day, from the moment they are born and you feel you could never live without them... And indeed, I can pray deeply (according to the definition above) for Nadia or Joe or John or Jessie because I would, simply, quickly, with no thought, lay down my life for them.

I made the mistake some time ago of asking the Lord to break my heart for people who don't know Jesus and that I would love the poor like they are my own children. I think, no, I know, that the difficult parts of my life socially come from that prayer. It's not that I live out the answer to that prayer as fully or even as often as I should. It really is bad form to talk too much about spiritual "lostness." Not a great conversation starter at parties. Doesn't always go over well in worship! And to really take care of the poor, well, you have to do things that people who also want to take care of the poor think is the wrong thing to do!

But today, slapping some ribs on the smoker I really had a hard time thinking about all the people who don't know Jesus in Morehead. So much prayer it's going to take. And... would I lay down my life for them? So much work to do in my heart before I am a good shepherd.

Great Day in Worship

When you get to preach three times, it's a great day.

When you get to preach on holiness, it's a great day.

When you get to baptize a new believer, it's a great day.

We baptized Johnny Bajusz today. We kept it country, in a trough. I know some wondered why we just did not go down to the Baptist or Christian church, but I wonder why we don't have a baptistry? And I wanted as many people as possible to be there, to see him in this great moment.

And then afterward, a time of packing gift boxes for the Christmas Child Program. A great time of fellowship.

There has been a lot of prayer going on lately in our church, a lot to pray about... sometimes tough times do that for us.. bring us the blessing of prayer.

Sense of Place

There's hardly anything better than a restaurant you've been going to for years, where the staff has been there as long as you've been coming and you've been let in to the lives and on-the-job banter of the staff. That place for me is the Gold Star in Hamburg.

It sounds dramatic, but it's like a sailor sailing into home port. Nothing like chili on a cold winters night. Great to see old friends and familiar faces; one of the servers has a girl Johns age, and we started coming a little after John was born... So each time she sees the boys it sparks talk of her kids... And now one of the boy's favorite babysitters, Steffi McKinney, is here about to get off and her little boy, whom I baptized is here to pick her up.

I don't get over here as much anymore. But if I cruise into town I do try to stop by. Maybe I'll end up here on a cold, snowy night, and I can tramp in and be warmed up.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Evangelism Almost Never Takes Place Unless it is Planned

I am posting this from a paster I got from Dr C. Akbar, India Outreach Missions. Even though it is from India, it applies to our churches here.

EVANGELISM ALMOST NEVER TAKES PLACE UNLESS IT IS PLANNED

Since only abiding in Christ makes the Christian fruitful, urge members to abide in Him and feed them properly so that His Word abides in them

Since prayer plays a major role in evangelistic effectiveness, significant attention must be given to personal prayer life and corporate prayer ministries

EACH CHURCH SHOULD:

Have a strong attitude of personal evangelism

Have a consistent soul-winning pastor who takes a leading role in evangelism

Plan outreach on a regular basis

Incorporate evangelism as a prominent feature in every activity

Encourage every member for personal evangelism

Continuously emphasize from the pulpit on the need for salvation and witnessing

Designate intercessory prayer time for corporate prayer for the lost

Use definite evangelism and witness methods

Provide continuous witness training to its members

Watchfully maintain the consistency of its evangelistic attitude

Evaluate its evangelistic growth on a regular basis

Set annual evangelism goals for each of its departments

Conduct revival meeting every year

Plan evangelistic events on a regular basis

Encourage Sunday School teachers to present the plan of salvation on a regular basis

Have a “welcome class” for people interested in the gospel and the church

Be actively involved in church planting

Hold regular seminars on evangelism, witnessing, and church planting

Integrate evangelism in its youth programs

Adopt strategies to reach different people groups for Christ

Provide members time to share their witnessing testimonies

Designate a significant portion of their income for evangelism

Evangelism Update

A few weeks ago, I posted on the fellow who left a note on an old sofa, click here to read the post

Well, I went by and knocked, got no answer and left a note that I was a pastor, and I would tell him there is a God who loves him.

I found out that one of my parishioners went, too. Kay Stiner felt she just had to go. So she left him a note telling him God loves him. When I told her I went, too, she said that the fellow might be pretty freaked out!

Keep telling people about Jesus!

New Church Development Meeting

I am in a meeting w the Bishop, Superintendents and pastors who will help lead a movement to plant new churches.

The Superintendent leading the charge to plant churches is Paul Brunstetter. He gave us some statistics to think about.

77% of Americans do not have a consistent relationship w a local church.

When 5000 churchgoers were asked what is the main purpose, 88% answered "to serve the congregation." we will not reach out until that number is as close to zero as we can get!

In 1900, there were 27 churches per 10,000 ppl. In 1996, there were 11 per 10,000. The scary piece of this statistic is that the avg church size is THE SAME as it was in 1900. So mega churches have not evangelized the culture.

For United Methodists, to compare today to 1968, we have:
80% of the churches we had

78% of attendance we had

57% of ppl making a profession of faith for the first time

44% of the youth and children we had

We need to plant 1% of the total number of churches we have to maintain. 2-3% to grow. That means we must plant 8 UM churches in KY each year just to survive. 16-24 to grow!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sweet and Lovely

Go get your Thelonius Monk out and put on "Sweet and Lovely." I know you have it.

SO, what a day in worship! The two 11 o'clock services were all in one place for Bill Arnold to preach. Bill is an Asbury Seminary Professor of Old Testament, a great pastor, teacher, mentor and friend. He gave a great sermon on "Love and Fear." I think we all know how to love God a little bit more now.

After the service, Ryan Neff said to me, "That's the best sermon you ever preached." I deserved that. But I will get him back.

Because it was a mixed service, we had a mixed bag of music-- very traditional, folkgrass, and praise songs. Our organist got backed up in traffic, so the folkgrass group played the Prelude. It was just nice to have so many people able to jump in and make the service work.

I don't know what it was, but I was just feeling worship all day long. I hope others were, too. At the altar call, I was praying with two folks and then I noticed Bill Arnold praying with Joseph. I had to wipe away some tears because I know why Joe is at the altar. He wants help from God to not be so sad about his mom dying. And there is Bill, someone so close to Joe's mom, Melissa, from years before Joe was born, praying with him and ministering comfort to him.

The evil one has been trying to discourage me on Sundays lately. Today it was fear that if something were to happen to me, how devastated would the boys, Nadia, and Jessie be, esp the boys. And would our mixed family get split up, and the boys not see their baby sister as much. Irrational, I know, but it's how the evil one works to discourage people, filling them with fear that can only be cast out by love. And so I knew also the touch of the Lord seeing Bill there with Joseph.

Scripture, Scripture, Scripture

I received a really sweet noted from a saint at the church. She laughed at how she wrote the word "blessing" so many times in her letter. She said as she read it over, she was struck that she sounded like all she was saying was "blessing." She said she realized it was because of the Upper Room. She was reading the daily devotion, and the Scripture and the devotional thoughts that followed repeated the word "blessing" nine times.

Thanks for the blessing!
_____________________

In Bible study today, we were in Isaiah. I have really been living in Isaiah 8, off and on for a few months. Back into it not only bc of the Bible study, but be Chad Brooks talked me into reading the Prophets during Advent! Well, there is a section in chapter 8 where Isaiah is prophesying against people who consult oracles, mediums, etc. He says that we should look to the Scripture instead:

"When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn."
______________________

And then, what generated the most discussion was this passage, Isaiah 28:23-29:

Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear what I say.
When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?
When he has leveled the surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place,d
barley in its plot,e
and spelt in its field?
His God instructs him
and teaches him the right way.
Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
and cummin with a stick.
Grain must be ground to make bread;
so one does not go on threshing it forever.
Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it,
his horses do not grind it.
All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,
wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom."

Thoughts?

Evangelism Question

We sometimes hear, and I myself have said, that Christians must be good examples to win people to Christ.

I wonder if we are stretching that too far, or I wonder if we are being a bit dishonest to get our hearers to act with more consistently Christian character?

Does the Gospel have a power unto itself, independent of us, to reach out? To convince people of the truth of Christ?

We all know the bumpersticker theology of "Lord, save us from your followers."

Did I need to see excellent Christian witnesses? Is that what brought me to Christ? Why did they do it above and beyond terrible witnesses I saw?

Put another way, a repulsive math teacher I had did not make me doubt the transitive principle of arithmetic.

Have I put too much faith in the people around em who brought me to Christ? I hope not. I hope that I can say that their direct efforts took me to Christ who drew me to Himself by the truth and power of the Gospel.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad