Fasting from the blog world...

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, I will be fasting from the blog world until December. As I will be on vacation, hunting at my parent's farm.

Had a great Pizza with the Pastor's Lunch on Sunday...

It was fun to share time getting to know some of the newer attenders at Community of Joy on Sunday and helping them get to know the unique church that we are.

It occurred to me as we were talking that I should re-emphasize for all of us, how ministries get started at CoJ.

Not a lot of hoops here, and no water for the fire... just gasoline. You see, I believe that as a pastor, it is my job to empower people to live out of their gifts and callings... we are all ministers when we say yes to Jesus... I am a pastor, but all who have said yes to Jesus are ministers.

At CoJ, to start a ministry a couple of simple things must take place. First, the ministry can't violate our vision or core-values (see our webpage for those). Second, you must get a couple of other people who will join you in the venture as a team(I can't think of a leader in the bible that acted on their own... Moses had Aaron, Paul had many co-horts, Jesus sent the disciples out in twos). Third, be able to raise the necessary funds at least of the first year... then we can talk about if it becomes a core ministry, adding it to the budget (however, doing so, deflates commitment to the ministry somewhat at lease further removes it). Fourth, be willing to evaluate the ministry periodically and adjust or let go of it. And you see, it's just that easy.

Someone asked, "well, doesn't that create an opportunity for things to run amuck?" I guess it may, but I like the way Gamialiel puts it in Acts... If God is in it, I can't stop it, and if God is not in it, it will fail. (my translation of his words in Acts 5:38-39).

Recapping Sunday's Message...

This past Sunday was the final in our 4 part mini-series called "Did Jesus really mean what he said, when he said..." This week was "when he said, Love your enemies."

Of course the answer to all of these was YES! But the reason for exploring the questions is that often we ignore, skip over, push to the margins, or explain away the tough teachings of Jesus and when we do that, we are giving the answer, "no"!

Looking at Luke 6:27-36, we find several ways that Jesus encourages us to do something that is humanly tough! All of these fall under the general category of "do something unexpected!" First Jesus says, "Do good to those who hate you." then "Bless those who curse you." then "pray for those who hurt you." None of these are the typical response to someone who hurts us or we perceive as an enemy. While none of these are easy... we can all pray. By praying for someone, we are taking the relationship to another level and by responding to hate, cursing, or hurt in an unexpected, non-typical way, we defuse the situation. Abraham Lincoln says, "do we not destroy an enemy when we make them our friend?"

And Paul teaches in Romans 12:18, "as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." You and I can't make someone love us or treat us nicely, but we can change our response to them. And by changing our response to them... by doing all we can to do good, bless, and pray, doing the unexpected, we just may change the way they treat us. Because Jesus proved that in the end, Love ALWAYS WINS!

A good day with lots of memories...

Today, Frank, Tri and I met at the Ministry Center to plant a Christmas tree that was given to the church. It is a BEAUTIFUL Concolor Fir! Thanks to Walt for making the arrangements and getting the tree.

I grew up on a farm and in particular have planted LOTS of Christmas trees. My father no longer balls them, but he and my sister still operate a cut-your-own tree farm near Cordova called Hutchison's Christmas Forest. My girls will be working there next Saturday and the Saturdays in December prior to Christmas! They love it.

This tree will be our Christmas Tree at the Ministry Center for years to come... we will host a Tree Lighting and Carol Singing on Dec. 2 @ 5:30 for the caroling in the neighborhood and 6:45 for the Tree Lighting and refreshments. This may become an annual event.

The other thing we did today was begin clearing the brush... and cutting trees... wow does it look better!!!! The other place I had many memories today was riding in the bucket of the backhoe and being lifted up high to cut down high limbs from trees. Used to do that a lot on the farm.

Making Our Mess Our Message...

This morning on Good Morning America, a feature story was Robin Roberts sharing her journey with breast cancer... today's segment covered her hair loss and getting a wig... what a traumatic experience and how awesome of her for sharing that journey in picture and interview! I am sure she will help countless ladies deal with this and other issues they face when living with breast cancer! Thanks Robin!

During that interview, she said something that made me take note.... when asked why she is doing this in such openness, she said that her mother always said, "make your mess, your message" And I thought WOW!!!! What a great concept! We all have messes in our lives and God can use those messes if we will allow him... when we are honest with our messes, we can help others deal with theirs. God often uses our messes to point us in a direction for ministry. When we do that, we can say to someone who is struggling... "I know what you are going through" and mean it! That's powerful authenticity!

So, let's make our messes our message!

Earl Holland Strikes Again...

What a blessing Earl Holland of The Daily Times has been! He contacted me on Wednesday saying he needed info very soon on our Alternative Christmas Gift Market and other upcoming events. I was at my parents house on Wednesday following an all day meeting in Frederick on Tuesday, I decided to stay at Mom and Dad's to hunt on Wednesday. When I checked my email from their place, I found Earl's email. So, I replied at once and lo-- today (Thursday) the paper had the info listed in the Update section where we have been featured before. THANKS Earl!

To date....

Our efforts toward supporting a Guatemalan student in getting a high school education have been OVERWHELMING! From Saturday's Alternative Christmas Gift Market, we raised over $1400 toward the needed $2,000 for this year. Last night we got word that in the offering on Sunday there were gifts toward this effort totalling $2020; which makes the total amount in hand $3420!!!!! In addition, we raised $950 for the Heifer International animals that will go toward the purchase of a heifer and some other animals for needy families. All praise to God and thanks to those who allowed God to work through them!

Reading perspective...

Recently, I read a comment on our reading perspective when reading the Bible, that made me think.... When we read the Bible, we often take the perspective that Jesus was speaking/ministering to us. BUT... that means that we would be the marginalized of our society... and most of us are not marginalized, poor or diseased. We are the insiders... the ones in the church. Maybe we should take the perspective of the Pharisees and religious leaders. If we did that, we would hear the teachings of Jesus in a different light... rather than be insiders, we would hear a strong challenge. So, next time you read the gospels... look at it as if you were a religious leader and listen to what God says to you.... It might be different from what you currently hear as you read.

Great Day!

Anxious to find out numbers, but it was a great day today... had great response from our congregation and good response from the community! The lighted sign was very helpful. Thanks to Sally and Doug Ruby for all their work! Our first alternative christmas gift market was a success!

The day has arrived for...

our Alternative Christmas Gift Market. I am excited about it, and hope it is a good day! We have some neat items, especially from Guatemala.

These fabrics are weavings done by the ladies in Union Victoria, Guatemala. Yep, they are done by hand!

Pat answers just won't do....

Life is full of rough spots and challenges. Lots of things rob us of happiness and cause us to question things. We can't deny the challenges, questions, or tough spots by speaking cliches or giving pat answers. There is so much mystery to life and to our spiritual connection with our Creator that pat answers and cliches often miss.

One of the reasons that I am doing the Better Questions series at Community of Joy is that we need to look at the tough teachings of Jesus and not avoid them. Not so much so we can be pushed down, but so that we can struggle with the mystery of faith and go to the deeper level of trusting God that comes when we don't have the answers and have to say "I don't know". It's often in the wrestling that we gain greater or new insight. It's in the tough spots that we recognize our need for God. God never promised it would be easy and we have done God a great disservice when we lead others to think that he did. What he did promise was to be with us... to never leave us nor forsake us. So, in the midst of struggle... where is God? He's there... just look a little harder and you might see him. He might show up in the most unexpected ways and at the least likely times, but I am sure he is there. Not always there to rescue us, but always there to travel along with us.

The images above are classic renderings of the Genesis 22 story about Abraham's near sacrifice of his only son Isaac and God's provision of a lamb.

FInally, but now what....

In recent days, including today, I have heard news casts taliking about the danger of all the violent videos, movies, video games that our children are exposed to. I have felt for a long time that these violent movies, videos and video games are not good for our culture. The studies are showing that they help create a more violent people. No surprise there... but the question is what will we do with these findings?

Alternative Christmas Gift Market....

This Saturday, we will hold our first ever Alternative Christmas Gift Market at Community of Joy. It will begin at 8 a.m. and conclude around 2 p.m. The proceeds from the event will directly benefit people who have need. Like a Guatemalan 9th grader, who we are helping to get a high school education with an investment of $2,000 a year for three years. We are working directly with our own young adults, Becky and Aaron Johnston, who are living in Guatemala and working there for another year or so. Then we will also support countless families around the world through Heifer International and Greater Gift. In addition, there will be direct trade coffee and lots of eats for sale. A few local crafters will also be present and will donate to the effort. It should be a great day!

TV coverage....

It was great to get some television coverage yesterday for our Community Emergency Shelter Project. Here is the link....http://www.wboc.com/global/story.asp?s=7308188

I am so happy that now our church will be participating in this important ministry. I knew as soon as we had a place, we would! Now I need to get busy rounding up volunteers... especially over night volunteers.

Blues Concert...

Last night, Sharon and I attended the Blues Concert that benefited the CESP (Community Emergency Shelter Project) which our church is part of. The concert began with Mike Truitt, who is a one man band and local legend. Then the Hill Street Blues band played. They are one good band! This was their third performance and you would have thought they had been playing together for years! If you ever get the chance to see them... you really must do so... it is well worth whatever the cost of the ticket might be!!!! They have a dynamic female vocalist, a marvelous bass player, two superb sax players and one of them plays a mean keyboard, the lead guitarist is fabulous as well and the drummer did a great job too... on some songs, Mike jumped in with his harmonica. What a delightful evening... and all the proceeds went to support the shelter. WOW!!!!

I'm Back...

I had a area one pastors gathering Monday night at my parent's home...so, while I was already there, I decided to take two days to deer hunt. WOW! What nice days and how refreshing to sit most of two days in silence in a tree stand in the woods, watching the woods come to life in the a.m. and go to sleep in the p.m. Didn't get a deer, but saw 15 Tuesday night and 4 Wednesday. Had 3 right under me... could have spit on them, they were that close!

Watched these 9 deer out in the field on Tuesday for nearly 2 hours... one of them was a funky buck... see the pics... he is several years old, probably 3.5 or 4.5 but sometime in his life, he must have gotten hit by a car, because he had a definite limp when he walked... running was a different story -- couldn't tell a thing was wrong. He had some big antlers but weird shaped... see the enlarged pic. He was chasing a doe who was in heat and spent the better part of two hours keeping her in the field and from going into the woods. They ran over my way, but never got close enough.

However, today right when I was to go into the office to get to work, I received a phone call from DiAnna See saying a lady in front of her on their way to work had hit a deer and it was still alive. So, off I went to put it out of it's misery... when I got there it was already dead... and what a huge buck it was... after doing surgery on the lady's car so she could drive it and surgery on the buck so, I could load it, I brought it home to butcher for a needy family! What a lot of meat it will provide them! The lady was very tearful, it was her second deer accident this year! She was so badly shaken, she was not going to go to work... and when she thanked me, she gave me a hug! DiAnna got a hug too! She was the lady's angel! What a week!