Really Looking Forward to Sunday....

It seems like my weeks always orient toward Sunday! But this week in a different way. I am not preaching... in fact don't have anything to do for the worship gatherings but attend! The youth are doing it all and I am excited about it. They have worked hard and have done a great job. They even have a special treat that is top secret for now...

Really looking forward to it!

Change....

A friend of mine on facebook and in real life is part of the pastoral staff at Easton Church of the Brethren where they just learned that their pastor, Gene Hagenberger will be our new District Executive! I am excited about this calling for Gene... and so is she...but the calling leaves an opening and exposes grief! In her facebook update today, she was talking about change. It is inevitable and is part of life. In fact when you stop changing you are dead... even then you change because your body decomposes!

The question related to change is not will it happen or when, but how will we deal with the changes we face on a daily basis? What approach will we take to change? How will we face the many changes that come our way? Will they challenge us? Will they cause us to sink in fear? Or will be rise to the occasion and face them?

Myself, I like to rise to the occasion and face them head on! Change is not a bad thing. It is a necessary thing... in fact, it is in facing change that we rely on our faith... because as we move into the uncertainty that change brings, we must trust that God is in control and will provide what we need to move through the change.

I am so glad to be part of a church family that does not cower when faced with change... in fact we rise to the occasion and face whatever change is ahead of us!

So, in the midst of daily changes that we face... we lean of God and we move forward into the future God has prepared for us!

Borrowing a great saying...

I don't know the origin of this quote. I took it off a facebook friend's status update... since it is in quotes, I am assuming it is not his...

"It turns out that our real ministry is always where we are and almost never where we imagined we might be."

Parked outside....

Parked outside my neighbor's house is Clint Black's bus... yes, you read that right! My neighbor's son is Clint's bus driver and after dropping Clint off at an airport, he came by to visit his mom! Couldn't resist taking some pics and sharing them!

We've enjoyed watching Clint on Celebrity Apprentice with the Donald!

The answer to yesterday's questions...

Community of Joy Church Bless Our Community Teams! Yeah!

Who would...

Who would give up prime time hours on a Saturday morning to sweat and sweat and work and work hard on a project that was not even theirs? Eight people showed... One family of 4 -- the youngest being 10, one family of three, and one man. This goup worked for nearly 2.5 hours ... picking up trash, sticks, cutting tree limbs (loaded 2 truck loads and 1 trailer of debris to take to the dump) and mowed the yard twice because the grass was over 12 inches long in lots of spots!

Who would do such a thing in our world? And WHY?

An Awesome Prayer to Pray...

"Lord, take me where You want me to go.
Let me meet who You want me to meet.
Tell me what You want me to say, and
Keep me out of Your way!"

by Father Mychal Judge

A Culture of Blessing...

I have been really enjoying reading Dino Rizzo's brand new book "Servolution: Starting a Church Revolution through Serving." In it he shares 10 "cultural definers" that help keep serving at the forefront. I think they are excellent! Here they are...

1. Serving is our mandate.
2. We are Not looking for a badge!
3. There are NO excuses for not serving!
4. Give with NO strings attached!
5. Be ridiculously generous.
6. Do Justice intentionally!
7. Help people become over comers!
8. Increase your capacity.
9. Build the local church.
10. Remember the poor!

Dino has developed a culture that sees needs in the community and meets those needs with the love of Jesus in very practical ways. Kind of what I hope will happen at Community of Joy through our blessing teams. I hope to develop a similar culture at CoJ... because I believe it is what we are called to do and it makes the biggest impact on people's lives... helping them to open up to the possibility of what God desires for them.

Think about this...

"being a Christian who does not like to serve is like having a crab feast without the crabs!" What fun is that?

After the rain... pure beauty...

What a beautiful morning it was... had fun listening to the dawn chorus and watching the woods come alive this a.m. Hear one gobbler, two hens, saw a hen and on the way out a gobbler. Saw three male wood ducks... and LOTS of song birds and bugs....

What do you see?

What do you see in this picture?

Absolutely love this time of the year... look at the budding trees and the green grass and the beautiful flowers.

And the evidence of a leaky roof... gotta fix that soon!

An interesting exercize....

Last night at youth group... the kids had an participated in an interesting exercize and challenge.

They were trying to make music with trashcans, bukets, bottles, and the likes. Very few of them had percussion training. Many of them were apprehensive, but little by little, one at a time, they all learned a part on their "instrument" that when all of them combined their parts to play together, it sounded really good!

What started out as an apprehensive experience for most of them, turned into a fun thing! And the lesson that came from the blending of single parts into a whole was a wonderful learning for them.

The Dawn Chorus...

Headed out the door in a few minutes (it's 4:30 a.m. now) to sit in the woods to listen to the dawn chorus (as pooh would say). I love this time of the year and enjoy turkey hunting immensely! Gonna take my bow and a video camera to see what will happen.

UPDATE:

What a beautiful dawn chorus performance this morning! Five or more gobblers, lots of hens and the song birds, geese, crows, and peepers... spectacular!

And to make it even better, I got much of it on video and even brought home my first turkey killed with a bow and arrow! All before 6:30 and I even made it to men's group... 10 minutes late!

Off to a GREAT start....

At Community of Joy, we believe that relationships matter... and that they matter a whole lot!

So, Sharon and I are working with hosts to have small group dessert fellowship/ get acquainted socials where 10-12 people gather in homes for a night of getting to know one another better and building relationships. Last night was our first and what an awesome starter it was! GREAT time was had by all. Really accomplished our goal!

Thanks to Judy U. for hosting it and to Carissa V. for lining them up for us... Looking forward to our next one on Sunday!

The Power of DBR...

Just finished my DBR for today! It is a powerful thing to do! I miss it when I don't do it! And I walk in a power not my own when I do.

Today's DBR was from Matthew 1-4 and in it we find the reason it is so powerful. Jesus himself faced temptation... and when he did, he responded to it by quoting Scripture that informed his decision to walk on the path toward God. Knowing Scripture kept Jesus walking in God's direction and not headed toward the temptation.

The same can be true for us! But before we can know it, we have to read it! That's where a practice of DBR comes in. DBR is nothing more than a Daily Bible Reading program where you set aside a block of time to read a portion of scripture and reflect on it. I also end my time with prayer. I follow a daily reading schedule that in the course of a year will have me reading through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice. It is a powerful thing in my life, when I do it.

Try it for the next 30 days ... you will find it's power too, for sure!

Here is the plan I use....http://www.navpress.com/uploadedFiles/BRP2.pdf

Loving the rain...

Thank God for this awesome rain we are having! It sure is making the colors of God's world vibrant! Check out how green the grass is! And the spring flowers are vivid as well!

I am thankful for the beauty of the wonderful world that God created! Hope you are appreciating it too!

Easter 2009

Another Lesson Learned and Taught!

Took my nephew, Ben, turkey hunting this morning at my parent's farm. It was raining hard as we walked in and we got wet, but thankfully I have a blind and we set it up and stayed mostly dry. We heard gobblers in the early morning, which was unusual given the rain. Usually they stay quiet in the rain, but not this morning. They gobbled steadily.

After day light, we saw two hens come out to the field to feed and they stayed out there most of the morning. Also saw 10 deer and 3 foxes.

About 10, Ben and I decided to go for a walk in the rain, because we had heard a gobble in the woods behind us. I knew better on two counts, but we did it anyway! First, we should have stayed put! But we had been in the blind for 4.5 hours and I was sitting on the ground and ready to change positions - my back was killing me! And second, we should have taken up the decoys before we left.

We walked through the woods and called a few times and looked at the green fields -- no turkeys, that is until we were driving the truck around to the blind to pack it up and put the decoys away and there in our decoys was a really nice gobbler! Lesson learned and taught!

Ben and I learned that patience does pay off. We also learned that when turkey hunting, things can change instantly! The turkey learned that the plastic birds were not real!

Oh well, it was a fun morning and we both enjoyed ourselves!

Another....

Another Spirit connection last night at Love Feast! So cool... and so touching!

The Love Feast traditionally in the Church of the Brethren has been a time to examine our lives and deal with broken relationships that hinder our ability to Love God and Love Others. I opened the night with some questions and time for reflection regarding this brokenness.

We moved through the night... the meal, the footwashing, and were ready to receive communion, we had just sung a song of praise, when I felt a nudge to lead the next segment differently than I had planned. I had planned to lead a prayer of thanksgiving, but instead, invited folks to share statements of praise and thanksgiving. Lots of great sharing, but when Fran shared, I knew why I had been so nudged! Fran recently lost her 19 yr old grandson in a fluke police encounter where the policeman mistakenly yet intentionally shot him and killed him in his own home! As you can imagine that has been hard for the family to deal with. It has knocked the wind out of Fran... and last night she shared that for the first time, she was able to forgive the police officer and experienced a huge weight lifted. There weren't many dry eyes in the room at that point! So cool how God can lift our burdens and bring healing to our hurts!

So much to do....

This is a big weekend... there is so much to do...

Love Feast tonight at 6:30 needs final tweeks.

Sunrise Worship on Sunday is almost done, just need to print songs.

The two worship gatherings on Easter are in final stages.

The house needs readied for the family that is coming.

Need to get all my turkey gear together because Saturday is Youth Spring Turkey Season... and I expect to take my nephew, Ben for his first Turkey Hunt.

Luckily, I already mowed the two yards I need to mow this week.

So busy... Yet I want to make sure I leave time to reflect on the events of this week in Jesus' life and how grateful I am that he was willing to endure them so that we might have life and have it abundantly!

A Gathering Worth Attending....

Every year, twice each year, we host a worship gathering like none-other! It is called the Love Feast and it is modeled after the last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples. It is a highlight of worship experiences for many and always for me is a meaningful time.

It has three distinct components...1. a simple meal around tables with brothers and sisters, 2. a time of humbly serving one another by washing one another's feet, like Jesus did for his disciples and encouraged us to do, and 3. a time for receiving communion... the reminders of Jesus' life in us.

This year, in keeping with our theme of Jesus Creed, Loving God and Loving Others, we will look at John 13's challenge to us to show we are followers of Jesus by sharing his love. We are marked or identified by sharing Jesus' love with others!

Looking forward to Thursday night!

Let the Blessing Begin...

Today, Jim Replogle and Aaron Johnston finished Stacy's bathroom floor. This was the first of our community blessing teams in action! Way to go guys!

It's so awesome to think of all the lives we will touch as we share the blessing of God that we have experienced in our lives with others!

We are blessed by God to be a blessing! Who will you bless today?

Better pics of the coffee shop.

Taking shape and NOW OPEN!

WOW!!! The Holy Spirit Encounter for today...

Yesterday, I got a piece of mail that was for my neighbor. I didn't have time to take it to her yesterday, so today I took it over right after the mail came and I could take her today's mail as well. When I did, she asked if I was busy this afternoon. And I had the afternoon chocked full, so I said, "yes, VERY!" But then asked what she needed. She proceeded to tell me that her eyesight in her one eye had a BIG black hole in the middle of the sight window. This is the eye she doctors for with the Retina specialists already. So, I told her to call to see if she could get a doc and I would rearrange my schedule to take her. She called and the docs were out till 3. So, I kept my scheduled 1 p.m. appointment, except the person didn't show... so I mowed the grass at the Ministry Center. ( I had planned to write an Easter sunrise sermon while the person mowed with my mower.) Got finished just in time to come get my neighbor to take her to the doc. Sat with her until they called her back at exactly 3 p.m. (she was an add on)! Then went to Common Grounds to buy a coffee and have dessert and write a sermon. Got it done just before I had to leave to go pick her up! Couldn't have planned it better myself....so thankful for the way the Holy Spirit lines up things just as they need to be lined up.

If I had taken the mail last night, she would have not needed the doctor visit and it's very likely that she would have waited until her appointment on April 15 to see the doc. And she wouldn't have told a soul!

God's timing is so perfect!

Don't sell the Holy Spirit short!

Learned a lesson that I have learned before!

At our passages Bible Study last night, I thought we would have to read the whole chapter... thought the first 13 verses wouldn't prove very rich for conversation and that reading the whole chapter would be necessary to have an hour's conversation. Was I ever wrong. The first 13 verses was all that was necessary when the Holy Spirit joined us and shined some light on those verses.

Quite a powerful time of sharing!

So Cool! Don't ever sell the Holy Spirit short!

GREAT NEWS!

I don't know who is more excited! But I know that I am so pumped! Frank just called me to say that the Coffee Shop is a go! It will officially open for general public business on Saturday a.m.

I am so happy for the Potvins and Townsends! May God bless this venture in many ways!

Here is a sneak peak...

Let your Yes be Yes....

Had an interesting experience this morning at a bank in Fruitland. The NWTF chapter that I was president of, closed a year ago. The Treasurer was very sick at the time and we never closed the account. Today, the VP and myself met at the bank to close the account. It had a little over $ 1100 in the account.

What amazes me is that the two of us walked into the bank with the check book and the statement in hand and walked out with a cashiers check made out to another chapter. The amazing part is that neither of us had to show id nor sign a thing and neither of us bank at that bank. I find it hard to believe that we weren't asked for id or to sign anything. Maybe that is how it should be... after all as a follower of Jesus, he encourages us to "let our yes be yes and our no be no".

Glad that is how I conduct my life! But still amazed that they didn't want to see ID or have me sign anything.