A First

Last night was "a first" for me. I sang publicly with a group. Several members in our congregation have a musical group. They do some country, blue grass, oldies rock, and some gospel. The Christian School has a monthly chicken dinner as a fund raiser. This group performs every September. During the performance they usually get a male quartet together to sing a couple of hymns from the book. This year they recruited me to sing bass. We sang "Heaven Came Down" and "Jesus Hold My Hand." The alto lead was sung by a brother who is the chorus director at the Christian School. We sounded pretty good. I had never sung publicly like that and so this is "a first." I don't know whether we will ever do this again but I've done it once.

Grieving

Just received news yesterday that a good friend has cancer. Mike Godknecht called and told me that his wife, Cathy, has pretty extensive cancer. The doctors don't think treatment will help. Their concern is keeping Cathy comfortable. Mike and Cathy have been through a lot these past couple of years and now this. I cannot imagine what Cathy must be going through wondering about why this disease has come into her life. I cannot imagine what Mike must be going through feeling helpless. Both though are faithful to their God and I have no doubt that God will be faithful to them.

Diseases like cancer remind us that this world is not perfect and that there is a better age coming. Even though we believe as Christians that death leads us to that better age, we still grieve when someone comes down with a life threatening disease. We will not be able to enjoy those eternal relationships until that final day, so we grieve at the loss we experience now. Grief now will turn to joy on that day. Ed Monroe used to say that you really can't know joy unless you know grief. I'm sure that Mike and Cathy will know great joy on that final day.

New Lists

On the sidebar I've added some lists. I got the idea from my son's Xanga blog (and other blogs I've read). The reading lists are books that are of interest to me and do not necessarily carry my endorsement. I try to read to keep up with current ideas , some of which may be antithetical to my Christian faith. I don't have much fear in reading such books because I feel pretty grounded in my faith. I just caution those who may see a book and want to read it. Don't think that I'm giving it my approval. I may be reading it for a sermon and seeing how I can help my congregation see through the falsity of its content. If you do choose to read a book you see on my list, let me know. I will be interested in hearing your thoughts about the book. Same with my listening lists.

My listening lists are usually tied to what I'm listening to while hanging upside down. I have a CD/MP3 player that I use while I'm on my inversion table. I have listened to quite a bit of my CD library and will probably start back over them again soon. I don't have a CD player in my truck so I listen to a smooth jazz station out of Orlando. I'm really enjoying this station. I was disappointed that I couldn't find a good oldies station but am pleased with smooth jazz as an alternative. Even if they start an oldies station I probably will stick to this one.

This week in Mt. Dora

I attended another preacher's meeting yesterday. This one was held in Winter Garden at the West Orange Congregation. I met: Mark Smith (pulpit), Carey Hadley (youth), and Dave Stevens (family life) from the West Orange congregation; Steve Puckett (pulpit) from the Melbourne congregation; Joe Roberts (pulpit) and Lonnie Johnson (youth) from the Orange Ave. congregation in Eustis; and Randal Myers from the Highland congregation in Lakeland. We shared how we became Christians and how we came to ministry. Then we had lunch at the Asian Buffet around the corner. Next month we will meet at the Orange Ave. congregation in Eustis. The normal procedure is to have a grab bag, a book review, and a sermon to share (PowerPoint) each brought by a different guy. I'm looking forward to having some good fellowship with these guys.

Two of the senior ladies here at Mt. Dora passed away this week; Yuvarn Haskins and Myrtice Pickren. Both ladies and their families have been instrumental to the work and history of this congregation. There are a lot of family connections in this congregation, just like Tabernacle. It will probably take me a while to figure them out.

Pat passed the Florida Teacher's certification test yesterday. I had no doubt she would. She will be issued a temporary certificate. She can be hired now with confidence by any school. She will have to work on a permanent certificate but again I have no doubt that she will pass that one as well. I'm looking forward to seeing her use her teaching knowledge for her own class room. I think she's going to be a great teacher.

Sunday Evening Series

On Sunday evening I'm starting a series on "Attacks on the Bible's Integrity." I started off last Sunday evening with a lesson on "Why I need the Bible" from Psalm 19. I showed that David had a strategy in writing Psalm 19 that went beyond just the content of the psalm. In v.1-6 David uses the Hebrew word "el" for God just once. In these verses David emphasizes the greatness of God in what he has created and shows his power and majesty. But in doing so God appears larger than life and almost out of touch with us. In v.7-14 David uses the personal name for God seven times (its the word translated Jehovah or Yahweh). This is the personal name by which God revealed himself to Israel (Ex.3:14ff). What David is saying that God becomes personal to us through his revelation in the Word. I also believe that David is saying that without the word we cannot have a relationship with God. The word is not the only aspect to the relationship but without the word there can be no relationship regardless of what else we do.

Tonight I used a column by Bonnie Erbe (Robertson Isn't God's Spokesman) from January of this year. She used Robertson's silly statements of the past few months as the springboard to show us that the Bible really isn't the word of God and that we shouldn't claim that we can even know God's mind or will. So we should all be a bunch of moderates, never really believing in anything and never really condemning anything either. Of course she can condemn Robertson's condemnation of others without realizing that she is stepping into his territory as well. I know that this is a risky kind of series. It is possible that I might make it a little too technical but I want to make the congregation aware of what is being said about the Bible and that we do have good evidence that counters those attacks.

I plan on a separate lessons on Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, and I've forgotten what my fourth subject would be. I also hope that our teens will be listening. They need this to fortify their faith.

I closed my lesson tonight by reminding them how our brotherhood focuses on showing where the traditions of men have deviated from the word of God. That focus took us to the denominations with their traditions, but now Bonnie Erbe and the others I will focus on are the new "traditions of men" in that they elevate human rational thinking to the point of making man the god of this world. It is a new religion, a secular religion. They have created a man-made religion. Pagan religions and deviations from God's Word are always man-made religions. We need to be armed in new ways to deal with it and defend our faith. This series will be tough but hopefully helpful.

Sunday AM 9/24/06

My lesson this morning was "Revive Me To Share Your Word." I'm doing a month long series called "Revive Me According to Your Word." It's taken from Psalm 119:25. The elders had asked me to continue their routine of assigning September as "revival" month. In thinking through how I could make it work for me, I decided to do a 30 day challenge. It's sort of on the order of a 40 day challenge that some mega-churches have done. I created a schedule for each day of the month with a passage from Scripture and a thought. For instance, September 1 is "God's Word Created the Universe" with the text being Psalm 33:6. Each received something similar. The whole month focused on the Word of God. I also listed my sermon topics and texts as they came up in the schedule. It appears to have been well received. The elders really liked it and several members have said so as well. I've been told to do it again.

Mt. Dora has done an incredible job of incorporating the video projector into our worship services. It is used for announcements before Bible class, in between Bible class and services, and then after services. Eddie, Doug, and Gene (I'm not sure who else might be helping out) really have kept focused on making sure that the announcements are kept up-to-date. From the beginning they have expected me to use it as well. It has made my sermon creation process quite different. I not only have to think through the message I want to get across but also how that message is to be presented visually on PowerPoint.

My lesson today mixed clip art that I found on Google's Images section with slides containing outlines. I started off with a brief summary of Matthew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:15-16. Then I talked about how intimidating "all nations" and "all creation" must sounded to the apostles who probably hadn't been much more than 50 miles away from their homes at any one time. I showed that "all nations" are our neighbors, friends, family members, co-workers, and classmates. I also suggested that a congregation needs to think globally (supporting an overseas mission work) and locally (reaching out in our own back yard). I finished with some practical suggestions of how we can revive our interest in sharing God's word (the theme of the day). Suggestions such as invite a friend, pray for a friend, go with someone who enjoys teaching others, and so forth. I felt it went well. I have a new wrinkle in my presentation - I now have a monitor in front of me so I can view what slide is in the screen behind me and I have a control that allows me to advance the slides. I can now work at my own pace. Hopefully the presentation flow will get better.

I will pick up next week where I left off in Romans 12. I was doing a series of lessons on the Christian life from that text and will continue next week. Don't know just yet what I'm going to do afterwards. But stay tuned.

Out of the blue

When I was a freshman (1971) at Pepperdine University, our English class read a book that contained a chapter about the word "camp." The word in this chapter isn't talking about camping or a church camp or a summer camp of any kind. Instead the word "camp" at that time was used to indicate something that was over the top or exaggerated. Websters even has a separate definition for this usage - "something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing." Sort of like someone showing up at a prom in 2006 dressed in a "zoot suit" (a 30s/40s suit associated with the swing era - Google it). I had never heard the word "camp" used in this way and thought it rather silly that an English composition book would devote a whole chapter to this particular usage. I thought it was just an "LA" thing or a "Hollywood" thing. Lo and behold, I started seeing the word "camp" used this way all over the place. I even saw a billboard containing the word. Amazing.

When we bought our first minivan (1985 Toyota) it was painted a sandy sort of color (I think it was called Desert Rose). Wouldn't you know it, we had neighbors and half the community that owned that particular minivan (I'm exaggerating in case you don't know me). We did see it a lot even though we had never noticed it before.

One of the members here at Mt. Dora told me about a preacher (not in the Churches of Christ) that has a program called "servant evangelism." His name is Steve Sjogren. Guess what? You guessed it, his name popped up out of the blue. I was reading a blog (Michael Duduit - editor for Preaching Magazine) that mentioned a controversial speech by a popular preacher named Steve Sjogren. It turns out that Steve Sjogren claims that some of the pastors at big churches have admitted to him that they spend less than 15 hours on their sermons and that sometimes they preach someone else's sermon - word for word. Michael Duduit called it "stealing sermons" or plagiarism. Sjogren claims that we don't have to be completely original and that sometimes it's a good thing to use someone else's material. Apparently some preachers feel they have too much to do and can't spend time coming up with original sermons. Duduit claims that it's okay to borrow material (and sometimes you give credit depending on how you use the material) but to take a sermon word-for-word and not reveal that it isn't your sermon it the "preacher's unforgiveable sin" (that's my thought about Duduit's attitude). Duduit concluded by writing, "If you are too busy to prepare sermons, then you are too busy to preach."

I am amazed at how you can hear a word or see a car or be introduced to someone for the first time and then discover them all over the place. I bought a Ford Ranger last year and I am still noticing how popular the vehicle is. Maybe God uses these new situations for opportunities to serve him. Out of the blue we meet someone, then we start noticing them in all the places of our daily routine. Coincidence? Maybe not. Watch for out of the blue situations. Who knows what might happen.

Preaching to needs

I have a "love-hate" relationship with all the blogs I have bookmarked. I love to read them, but hate that I don't have time to really read and digest all of them. I bounce around on occasion (sort of like channel surfing on the TV) briefly looking at the blogs hoping to find something interesting. Today I came across an interesting article on Albert Mohler's blog. He's discussing why preaching to the needs of the congregation is a futile exercise. I have always wondered since I began to preach how I was supposed to perceive the needs of the congregation and design a sermon that could preach to those needs. Even in a congregation of 70-80 you have so many different needs that it's impossible to touch those needs. But am I really supposed to do that? Now that's a quote!

Mohler quotes from William Willimon (one of my favorite authors), "Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them. He cares very little about most things that I assume are my needs, and he gives me needs I would've never had if I hadn't met Jesus. He reorders them." Now that's a quote! Willimon suggests that people in the third world have biblical needs (housing, clothing, food) but that we in the affluent world have wants not needs. We meet our needs outside of prayer. We want things that really have little to do with the kingdom.

I was told one time that people wanted a sermon that would get them through the week. I've thought a lot about that statement. I wish I could talk to them now because I would say, "It's not my job as your preacher to get you through the week. It's my job to get you to heaven." God calls us out of this world and into a world of His creation. It is a new world, a new creation with new needs. Preaching should point the way to those new needs and new ways. We are called to follow the new standards of the new community.

God calls us to pay attention to others (Php.2:3-4). We are to be other-centered. The "needs" that people claim the preacher should address are really self-centered stuff (satisfying life, career, ect.). Sometimes it's wrapped up as evangelism but really the people want their needs met not those on the outside. God called me to be faithful and I pray that I stay faithful throughout my years.

Remembering

Today I met several of the preacher and elders in the area. The Sanford Church of Christ hosts a leaders' luncheon every other month. I met the preacher from the Plymouth congregation (both the retired one, now an elder, and the new one), from the Concord Ave. congregation in Orlando, and from the Delanto congregation. One of the preachers knew Mark Niehls . They served on a board together for the Christian schools in our brotherhood. This is what impressed me about the students at Pepperdine who were from the churches of Christ. At lunch time they would sit and talk and within five minutes knew 10 people between them yet they were from different states. Now that's me. I love it! I'm a social animal. I love talking, socializing, and finding out who knows the people I know.

I remember sitting in my car listening to the radio waiting for my buddy, Bob Weber. We were meeting at the Princeton church building for our usual study time. I heard the report that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers. I thought maybe someone flying a small Cessna had a heart attack and the plane just flew into the tower. Then I found out a second plane had hit and I knew that it was no fluke. This was on purpose. At home I remember feeling uneasy about what would be happening later on that day as we discovered the purpose for the attack. Soon however, my faith kicked in and I knew that God would take care of us and lead us regardless of what might happen.

Over time we heard stories from various members about friends or family they knew were in New York or affected by it in some way. A preacher friend washed windows at the twin towers part time (inside not outside). He was scheduled to go in that morning but decided to take the day off. Others did not make such a decision. Now five years later we can still remember the heroism and the stories but I'm grateful that no other attacks on our soil have taken place. I'm waiting for that day when peace will reign and there will be no more weapons of war.

Yes we should remember these attacks. The purpose of remembering is to keep the passion alive so that we will encourage our president, Congress, and military to do what is necessary to keep us safe. This is the purpose of a government (Romans 13:1-8). God has ordained that governments not only keep order in the nation but keep the people safe from outsiders.

God's religion is based on remembering. The Israelites remembered the Passover. Christians remember the crucifixion. We remember so that we will serve.

To Infinity and beyond!

On Monday we all (Pat, Loni, Lon, and Jeanne) went to the Kennedy Space Center. We bought 12 month passes. We can go see all the sights anytime we want for the next 12 months. There are two guided tours (up close and personal type of tours) that our pass does not cover, but the cost isn't that much and will be well worth it.

We arrived and ate lunch. Food was typical of parks like this. Over-priced and so so. However, it fulfilled its main function - filled my belly. We then took the non-guided tour of three stops. The first was the observation tower for the launch pads. We could actually see the shuttle on the launch pad. The lift-off has been delayed several times. Pat and her folks were going today to see the scheduled lift-off but it was postponed, again.

The second stop was the Apollo center. It had considerable more to see than the other two stops. I would like to go again and spend most of the day there. I think it would be worth it.

The third stop was the International Space Station building. We got to see parts of the space station and the area where the building for future parts is taking place. It was interesting but limited in what you could see.

The main attraction I wanted to see was the IMAX show. There are two of them. We saw the one narrated by Tom Hanks about the Moon (capitalize or not?). I was a little disappointed at first. The theatre is not what I would consider typical IMAX. The screen isn't quite as big as usual. However, this one was 3D. That made up for the difference. It was an incredible show. Sometimes it looked rocks were literally flying at your face! I enjoyed it on the whole.

I'm looking forward to taking Dan, Lisa, Nathan, Jeremy, and Derek to the Space Center. Our 12 month passes get discounts on day passes. I think it would be a lot of fun. So when can you guys come down? Maybe Christmas? Dan and Nathan will have the time off. So will Loni and Mom. Just a thought for now. I'm sure Mom is planning stuff for Christmas.

During our day at the space center I didn't really think much about the vastness of our universe. I thought more about the creative and productive energies of we humans. We are made in God's image and I believe firmly that the image includes our desire to explore, build, and dream. All one has to do is look at where we as a people are today and see that we are in God's image.

Good Sunday

Today was a good day. Pat's folks are here. They came up Friday after Ernesto blew his way through our area. We had a potluck after services this morning. The folks here at Mt. Dora don't wait around to get to their potluck. At Tabernacle we would finish services around 12:15 PM then talk for a while. We would probably get home around 2:30 PM or so. Here we were home before 1:00 PM. Even though we have singing at the local nursing home, I still got in a good nap.

After evening services we had a baptism. One of the girls in one of the cottages was baptized. She had a good weekend at Sonquest and decided to make the decision. Then later on Eddie (our youth minister) called and another girl in the cottage also made the decision.

I'm looking forward to getting to meet and interact with families from the Bible School. Most of the kids that go are not from a church family. I'm sure that it will be a good source of evangelism.

For those of you reading this that may not know, there is a Christian Home and Bible School a few blocks down from our church building. It has been around for 60 years. There are three cottages that house kids needing a home, each having a set of house parents. There is one lady who gives each set of house parents a week off each month. There are over 700 kids enrolled in the Bible School. It has a pre-school and k-12. They even have a football team (just 2 years old). I have already done chapel for the high school and middle school.

Are you among the "de-churched?"

I read a couple of interesting posts on other blogs that I think may have a connection. The first is Patrick Mead's blog. You can reach Patrick's blog at http://tentpegs.blogspot.com He said the following:

A couple was furious with our church. We had gone to see what happened to them after someone noticed they'd been gone from our worship assembly for some time. "We aren't coming back," the husband said. "That is an unloving, cold church that claims to care about people but doesn't." I asked him on what basis he made that judgment and he replied, "We were gone four weeks from that church before anyone there even noticed. What kind of church doesn't even notice something like that?"

I replied, "What kind of person are you, that you could be gone for four weeks and the no one in the church could tell?"

It appears that Patrick can be blunt. I wish sometimes I was that quick on my feet. My guess is that this family thought that just showing up for worship for one hour is the equivalent of serving God. They were incensed that no one gave them a gold star for their "participation."

Another blog talked about the "de-churched." It would appear that we have to continually make up new names for new situations. However, I like what this guy wrote (or is "typed" a better term?). If I have read his blog correctly, the "de-churched" are those who come from a "small church" environment and are attracted to a mega-church. Here they are trained to believe they are doing "church" when in fact they are not. They have come to the mega-church for the production values and do not really participate in the mission of the church. They think they are serving God.

I wonder how many of us (me included) think we are doing God's will when in fact we are not. We sing with gusto, but are we really worshipping God? We pray with all the right words at the right time, but does God really hear us? We talk about our faith in certain circumstances or live the right way thinking we are evangelizing, but are we really? Perhaps we would do better to pay attention to what God has really said in His Word and not let others convince us that we are serving God when we have really traded our service for something less.