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Sunday I flew from Minneapolis to Boston. I then entered into the adventure that is the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (Boston’s mass-transit). I took the silver line from the airport, to the red line, to the green line, and then 20 stops later at the end of the line found myself discombobulated and somewhat lost. I had directions, but having never been here before they weren’t completely clear to me. After a bit of wondering and sheer dumb luck I ended up on the correct street, where I walked up a hill to where we are staying for the week - the Walker Center.

For the week we are studying Congregationalism and Covenant Theology. The classes are at the Congregational Library at 14 Beacon Street in downtown Boston. Our primary instructor is Dr. Steven Peay. 14 Beacon Street was the “office” for Ally McBeal.

Cool things:
-I’m becoming a pro at the “T” which is what Boston calls its subway system.
-I am sitting 5 feet from a chair from Jonathan Edward’s office. While it’s not a particularly impressive chair, it is cool nonetheless.
-We just looked at one of the first copies of the Eliot Bible - the Eliot Bible was the first Bible printed in the Americas.
-We looked at 1 of the 3 first copies of the Cambridge Platform
-We got to look through the stacks in the rare book room yesterday. We didn’t get to go into the “cage” where the most valuable and rare books are housed. Books dating to the 1500’s are housed in that cage, some of the earliest copies of some of the Pilgrim and Puritan fathers.
-Downtown Boston is pretty cool. Old and new mixed everywhere.
-Had lunch yesterday at Union Oyster House - really good eats! I had some Clam Chowdaah that ranks top 3 of chowder in my life.
-Had the best Mac & Cheese of my life - 4 cheese pasta with white truffle oil over the top - for dinner last night. Can’t remember the name of the place, but it was a sports bar at the Newton Center Station off the Green Line in Boston. Go North, turn left to the end of the block, turn right and go to the Union Street side of the block (1 block North) and you’ll find it just around the corner to the right down an alley.

Uncool things:
-Everyone in Boston smokes. I think I saw a pigeon spark up a heater on the way into downtown this morning. Butts everywhere, smoke everywhere. I feel like I’m in Europe with this many people smoking
-Subway system is undergoing a huge face lift. Currently it is very run down, tired looking, and under repair/replacement all over. Should be done in 2009
-The Walker Center where we are staying is lacking in accommodations, and isn’t the cleanest either (I’d call it dumpy chic - a professor called it New England Shabby).

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My sermon from yesterday is posted on our church’s web site. It was a good sermon. When I asked my wife for constructive criticism, she had none. That’s a first. Maybe I should quit preaching, I’ve reached the mountain top! Or maybe not.

The sermon was on the Parable of the Sower, and I stuck to my text for about 75% of the time. I cut a bit of the ending (as posted) and added some other stuff there and in a few other places, but the posted version will give you the gist of what I was saying.

I will not be preaching the next two weeks. Our church will survive quite well with the incredibly gifted Brenton Balvin filling in for me. Brenton is a better preacher than me, so if you are looking for a good church the next two Sundays, check him out! My philosophy is that I want the best possible person to fill in when I’m gone. Even if they rock it better than me! I want my sheep to hear the Truth, to be challenged with God’s Word, and I trust that will occur.

This coming Sunday I fly out to Boston for a week for a course called The Boston Seminar. Below is the reading list for this course. It’s a boat load! There is one other reading beyond the below that didn’t make it on the list, so you know what I’ll be doing the rest of the week! Every spare moment from now to take off will be consumed with reading. I’ve gotten a good start on it, but will have to remain focused to get it all in.

Boston Seminar Reading List

Downloadable articles

The Cambridge Synod and Platform

The Covenant of Grace and Puritan Thought- Office will mail you a copy upon request

Towards a Ministry of Accountability: Why we should credential ministers and why we are afraid of it

Fellowship: The Neglected Focus of the Congregational Ellipse

Breaking Covenant: The Tensions in American Congregationalism that Resulted in the UCC Merger Conflict

Controversy in American Congregationalism: A Historical Perspective on Theological Issues at Stake in a Twenty-Year Struggle

Professional Code of Practice

From Call to Settlement

We Covenant with the World and With One Another

Books to Purchase- Click on link to take you to the bookstore

The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism

The Shaping of American Congregationalism

Yet More Light and Truth… Congregationalism, Covenant, and Community

Congregationalism: The Church, Local and Universal

The Congregational Way of Life

The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics

A Past with a Future

Symposium V. The Church… Born for a Time Like This

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We ate at Chino Latino tonight with a friend who wanted to take us out for dinner. My first time there, and I was thoroughly impressed with the food. The atmosphere left something to be desired, but the food was totally worth the wait. The waitstaff was helpful and had good recommendations.

We ate:

PESCADO AHUMADO

mesquite-smoked Pacific swordfish tossed in citrus dressing and served with a pile of crunchy tortilla chips and creamy guacamole

ARGENTINE RODIZIO TENDERLOIN

a gaucho-sized portion of spice-rubbed beef tenderloin, Brazilian herb-marinated chicken and spicy chorizo sausage served churrasco style with chimmichurri and molho apimentado.

ELOTE

grilled corn with queso fresco, lime juiceand cayenne pepper

THE THREE-WAY SIDE:

Wok Glazed Green Beans

Pad Thai Noodles

Fried Rice with Guacamole

The Argentine Roizio platter was out of this world. The tenderloin was tender and juicy, and the side of rub that you can add to it made it fantastic. The Chicken was juicy and flavorful. The weak spot of the platter was the Chorizo, and even that was decent, though I’ve had better.

The Elote was so good, that I’m tempted to go back and order a couple just for myself. The Wok Glazed Green Beans are fantastic. I’ve tried for a long time to make green beans in a similar way, and now have found perfection. I will have to abuduct their kitchen staff next time I try to make my similar green beans. Though I would give a bit more of a hot kick to mine.

If you are looking for some interesting and tasty cuisine in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, I reccommend this place whole heartedly. Just know that it is deafingly loud, very crowded on weekends, and the wait for a table can get very long.

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I’m assuming that as I write this that Mark and Grace Driscoll, along with their 5 children, are somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in an airplane. They will be in Australia until September on a combination speaking tour and vacation.

Pastor Driscoll is a brave man, I’m pretty sure I’m not up to the task of 20 hours in flight with 5 children on my plane, let alone 5 of MY children WITH me!

From the Mission & Vision Blog for Mars Hill Church:

So if you think of it, pray for Mark for his speaking that it would powerfully move forward the mission of Jesus in Australia. Pray also for safe and speedy travel, with happy quiet children!

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My newest sermon is posted. If you are ever in the area, come check out our wonderful Waseca Church! We are First Congregational Church of Waseca, MN.

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It’s not too late to get signed up! I expect this conference to be fully sold out, so I might be camping out overnight to get a good seat Below is a message from Dr. John Piper inviting you to the upcoming Desiring God Conference.

The Power of Words and the Wonder of God

An Invitation to
the Desiring God 2008 National Conference
September 26-28
Minneapolis Convention Center

Dear Friends at Bethlehem and Beyond,

I’m writing to invite you to an unusual conference. This Fall’s Desiring
God National Conference is one of the most extraordinary we have
conceived. Our expectations are very high that its effect will be
mind-sharpening, heart-humbling, mouth-seasoning,
backbone-strengthening, and Christ-acclaiming. Our theme is The Power of
Words and the Wonder of God.

This conference is an overflow of our amazement at the significance of
words. Think of it:

* the Son of God is called the Word (John 1:1)

* the universe was created with a word (Hebrews 11:3)

* all things are held in existence by Jesus’ word (Hebrews 1:3)

* God reveals himself to us through his word (1 Samuel 3:21)

* Jesus healed and cast out demons with a word (Matthew 8:16)

* faith is sustained by words (Hebrews 3:13)

* we fellowship with God by the words of prayer

* we worship him through the words of song and confession and preaching

* our relationships are all sustained and nurtured by words

* we speak our love to each other by words; kings rise and fall by their
words

* politics and news and entertainment and business and education and
international relations and families and friendships-all are possible
because of words.

Language is God’s idea. Words are his creation. They belong at the heart
of who he is. They have huge potential for good-and catastrophic
potential for evil.

The tongue, James says, is seemingly untamable. “With it we bless our
Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the
likeness of God” (James 3:9).

Every issue today-political, religious, educational, theological-relates
to the way we use words-thinking them in our heads and speaking them
with our mouths.

What would the world be like-the home, the church, the school, the
public square-if words were used the way Jesus used them? That is not an
easy question. We might be surprised.

We have asked Sinclair Ferguson, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church
of Columbia, South Carolina, to set the stage with an exposition of
James 3:1-12. This text is astonishing in the power it attributes to the
tongue: “No human being can tame the tongue” (James 3:8).

Paul Tripp, who teaches at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and
counsels at the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, has
written wisely in his book War of Words on the crucial place of the
heart in how we help or hurt each other with our words. “Out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). We hope to
love people better with our mouths because of this message.

Daniel Taylor, who teaches English Literature at Bethel University in
St. Paul, Minnesota, is a lover of stories and has written about their
power in his book Tell Me a Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our
Stories. This power is more pervasive than you may think and touches the
heart of the gospel.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has agreed to
tackle the knotty issue of tough and tender words, words in controversy,
words in confrontation, words like Jesus and Paul used when they called
people vipers and said, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be
accursed” (1 Corinthians 16:22).

Bob Kauflin, a worship pastor with Sovereign Grace Ministries, in
Gaithersburg, Maryland, just wrote the book Worship Matters: Leading
Others to Encounter the Greatness of God. He will help us explore what
happens to words when we put them with music and sing them. Why is the
Western world so filled with singing? Just turn the knob on your radio.
Hundreds of stations. And most of them are singing. What is this power?

The task I have set for myself is the question: “Is There Christian
Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross.” Paul said, “Christ
did not send me . . . with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of
Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Yet who can deny
the eloquence of Paul and others in the Bible? What is this? Should we
pursue it?

We will worship Christ together. We will think hard. We will pray. We
will meet people who are serious about their minds and their hearts and
their mouths. We will buy books. And I pray we will go home ready to
obey the words, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt”
(Colossians 4:6).

I would love to see you there.

Pastor John,
Preaching & Vision,
with David Mathis,
Executive Pastoral Assistant

More info is available at Desiring God’s Web site:
http://www.desiringGod.org/events

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Alex Chediak has more information on the Obama/McCain joint appearance at Saddleback:

The folks at Saddleback have set-up a website describing the August 16 joint appearance between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain (moderated by Pastor Rick Warren). Ticketing information will be available August 1st.

This historic forum will be the only joint event for the two, and the last public appearance for either candidate prior to the two-week hiatus during each party’s national convention.

Due to Secret Service mandate, tickets will be required for the event in the main auditorium, but the program will be broadcast live in multiple venues on the Saddleback campus, as well as on several national broadcast networks and online. It will also be streamed live on www.SaddlebackCivilForum.com.

Update: Ross Douthat has a post on Obama and Evangelicals. He concludes it by saying: “Obama’s performance at Saddleback (and McCain’s) will probably be at least mildly important in determining how those undecided evangelicals cast their votes.”

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New sermon posted at WasecaChurch.org.

To say I got carried away with my sermon today is a slight understatement. A video I intended to use wouldn’t play on our worship center’s computer (and that would be the Pastor’s fault, A/V guys did their part) because it was in a format that our computer would not play. The time it would take to download the software, or to download the video in a new format made it an impossible to fix problem. So with no video, I tried to fill in the gaps, and boy did I fill. I had planned 10 minutes for the beginning of the sermon, 5 minutes of video, and then 3-5 minutes for conclusion and challenge. While I didn’t time it, I suspect my sermon hit around 25-28 minutes! It’s on video, so I’ll wait and see what the official count is.

I have a lot more to post on coming soon. I apologize for this blog being fairly inactive this week. I was ordained this afternoon, and that has been my complete focus. More on the ordination tomorrow.

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The sermon I preached today is now posted on our church’s web site - Wasecachurch.org. Along with that I posted a video I showed to start the sermon off. The video is the YouTube version, and we played the high definition version in the service. But you’ll get the idea. It got a lot of laughs! This sermon brings to close the series I have been preaching that came out of Ken Sande’s book The Peacemaker.

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I’m not certain that it’s newsworthy (they crossed the 10,000 barrier a while ago) but Eagle Brook Church of Lino Lakes/White Bear Lake/Spring Lake Park is in the Star Tribune today. The author seems to be a bit slanted in his perspective, but any publicity is good publicity is how the saying goes, and this isn’t really negative, just not quite positive. Nonetheless it is great to hear of a regional church who is making a difference in their community. I have a number of friends on staff at Eagle Brook -e.g. I was Pastor Bob Merritt’s teaching assistant for a couple of years in Seminary, Jason Strand who is reference in the article for his sermon went to Bethel Seminary with me, and I was on staff at Spring Lake Park Baptist Church with some of the Eagle Brook staff before SLPBC became a campus of Eagle Brook Church.

Reading the comments on the Trib article, you’ll find a lot of uninformed people lashing out against Eagle Brook. In spite of the size of Eagle Brook Church, they have worked very intentionally to connect people in small groups so they have a strong connecting point at church. They have more volunteers on a given weekend than 95+% of all churches have attenders. They preach the Word, making Jesus know, giving Glory to God. They are making a difference in their community and the world. They are helping other regional churches in many ways. They are doing great things! But because they are big, some people will blindly lash out against them. That’s silly and immature. I pastor a small church, and understand that not everyone will be comfortable in a sanctuary that seats 2200 people, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Lives are being transformed by Jesus there, eternities are being changed. Glory to God for that. May they continue to grow and may their influence multiply as they give credit to God for all their success!

My last post was in May.  I simply stopped posting after that because using Voxtropolis had become such a headache for me.  Rarely would it load, and it was constantly flaky and buggy.  I realize I get what I pay for, so I simply quit including Vox in my posts.  It appears that things are good now, things appear to be stable.  So I will begin to include Voxtropolis in my posts again.  My regular blog is @ http://mrclm.blogspot.com and that is where I post first and most frequently.  If you want to follow my day to day blogging, that is the place to go.  Voxtropolis only gets the bigger things, or things I deem most worthy of letting the whole world know about.  I also post at my church’s web site with some regularity - though it is generally about sermons I have written or things going on related to my church.

Larry Brey, Assimilation Pastor at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC had the following thoughts to share on the Access Elevation Blog. Pastor Brey was examining the idea of closing the back door - keeping people in you church when they visit.

As you evaluate your own church and assimilation strategy ask yourself a few questions:
What is the vision of your church?
What do you want the culture of your church to look like?
What does it mean to be a part of your church?
Who does Sunday morning exist for, is it for the exhortation of the believer or is it for those who are far from God? The answers to these questions will tell you a lot about what your doors need to look like.

Technorati Tags: Larry Brey, Assimilation Pastor, Elevation Church, Charlotte, MN, Acess Elevation, Elevation Blog, Evaluating Church, Why we do church, How we do church, God, Vision, Culture

A great post today by Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv on his thoughts about how to prepare a sermon. I’m with Craig on this one. I’m of the sort of person where I need to let things percolate in me for a while before I’m ready to assemble my sermon (or any other important piece of writing). I can sit down and bang something out if I have to, but it won’t be nearly as good as it could be. Since I am a new pastor, I am slowing trying to get ahead of the curve and work on my sermons farther out each month. I’m not there yet. I’m not where I want to be, as the combination of learning the job, trying to sell a house, finding a job for my wife and a myriad of of things keeps me from being able to sit down and plan the next 6 months where I want to go. But slowing I’m working on it, and I intend to reach the point where I have a vision for where I am going with sermons 4-6 months in advance. Certainly I’m still open to God’s leading to cover something else as need or conviction arises, but this way, I have a plan, some direction, something to focus on.

Craig Groeschel’s post that inspired me today:

Technorati Tags: Preparing a Sermon, How to write a sermon, Writing Sermons, Preaching, Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch, LifeChurch.tv, Prayer, New Pastor, Sermon Planning, Sermon Writing, God’s Word, Bible, Church

Tony Morgan recently read the book Simple Church and commented on his blog about it. I read Simple Church while candidating for my current church, and to say that it had an impact on me would be like saying Minnesota has a few mosquitoes. Tony’s thoughts are below. Last week I gave my copy of this book to one of the leaders of my church with the hope that he’ll read it and it will inspire and challenge him like it did me.

I finally had a chance to read the book Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. It’s been on my list for the last year or more, but I didn’t prioritize it. I wish I had. Honestly, I think it’s one of the top five books I’ve read on church ministry. This is one of those every-church-leader-should-read books. Great, great insights. I wish I would have written this book, because it certainly captures my heart for the local church.

Here are some of the highlights from my reading:

• “Churches with a simple process for reaching and maturing people are expanding the kingdom.”
• “Many of our churches have become cluttered. So cluttered that people have a difficult time encountering the simple and powerful message of Christ.”
• “Great amounts of activity do not produce life change. It only gives the impression that things are happening, that there is life.”
• “If the purpose is hazy, the process for making the purpose happen has not entered the picture.”
• “If the goal is to keep certain things going, the church is in trouble. The end result must always be about people. Programs should only be tools.”
• “The goal is to partner with God to move people through the stages of spiritual growth. Changed lives are the bottom line, the intended end result. Christ formed in people is the goal.”
• “The first group consisted of growing and healthy churches. These churches had grown 5 percent a year for three consecutive years. Few churches do that. Sadly, less than 2 percent of all churches in America experience that type of consistent growth.”
• “Some churches are not clear on a ministry process because they do not have one.”
• “Focus does not make church leaders popular.”
• “To be simple you have to eliminate the unnecessary. Most of the things you eliminate will be good things. They were started with a passionate leader and a perceived or real need.”
• “People will not live out something they cannot remember.”
• “When you are tired of talking about it, people will just be in the first stages of understanding.”
• “Sadly, in many churches people are stuck in the same place spiritually. And there is no intentional process to move them.”
• “You must begin with the process, not the programs… If the programs do not fit into your process, you need to eliminate them.”
• “Choose one program for each phase of your process… Multiple programs for each phase of the process divide attention and energy.”
• “Church leaders must avoid the two extremes of micromanagement and neglect. Micromanagement stifles creativity and hampers shared leadership. Neglect fosters complacency and leads to a fragmented team.”
• “One would think that the more programs and the more special events that are offered, the great the impact. Our research has confirmed that the opposite is true.”
• “The churches that experienced the highest percentages of growth were the churches that offered fewer programs.”
• “The majority of churches choose not to change. They would rather die. Tragically, in most churches, the pain of change is greater than the pain of ineffectiveness.”

Technorati Tags: Simple Church, Tony Morgan, Thom Rainer, Eric Geiger, Church Leadership, Church Growth

Pardon me while I wipe drool from my keyboard. Today the ESV Study Bible web page went live.

The ESV is my preferred translation of the Bible as I have mentioned before. I have one full sized ESV and a couple of pocket ESV’s. My full sized ESV is great, but it has a binding problem whereby the cover has slowly begun to separate itself from the rest of the book. I have to hold it carefully when I read, or it’ll tear completely free. It has been glued once, and it didn’t really last long so I’m not doing it again.

The argument could be made “Don’t you already have a Bible or twelve?”. Yep. I do. I gave one away just last Monday. BTW I love giving Bibles away. I do have a number of older Bibles of mine in various states of usability. Some of those are in need of retiring, others I plan on giving away. I have a few Bibles that are just for reference - an NASB for example - that I want for the odd occasion that I want either a very literal or a highly interpreted version to cross reference. Yes I do have Bible software that does some of this, but not all the major versions are within my price range to add these to my software. I got a handful of Bibles at various times through Seminary too, ones that were being given away by publishers.

With all that said, I have nothing that comes close to the ESV Study Bible. I have an NIV Study Bible, but I’ve always felt that it fell short on the extras that a Study Bible should contain. A bunch of super tiny print foot notes, but not much else.

So when October comes, I’ll be getting a new Bible. I suspect I’ll order it online so I won’t have to tent out in front of a Christian book store somewhere the night before, even though that does sound like a lot of fun.

Technorati Tags: ESV, ESV Bible, Bible, ESV Study Bible, Study Bible, NIV, NASB, Crossway, Crossway Publishing

I got up extra early today to hunt down a part for my truck. Yesterday I smoked my idler pulley bearing on my S-10 on the way home from church. And by smoke I mean that it got so hot that the aluminum spacer on the back side of the bearing melted and oozed it’s way into the bearing. According to Wikipedia, the melting point of aluminum is 1220.58F. Since it might be an alloy, the melting point may be a bit lower than that, but nonetheless it was smoking hot. Thankfully I made it home.

So I ran and got parts yesterday. A quick trip to O’Rilley Auto Parts scored me a new pulley and bearing. This was just before the parts store closed, so I was happy. I got home, and upon extraction of the old pulley I discovered the new part didn’t have all the things I need. I hadn’t previously realized that I melted the mounting spacer. So I quick search the web and find that Autozone is open later on Sunday than all of their competitors in the St. Paul/Minneapolis metro area. I run over before they close, only to find the space is a dealer only type of thing. Of course. This can never be easy. And dealer only means it’s gonna cost you!

I dig up Merit Chevrolet’s web site, the dealer closest to me, and see listed that their parts department opens at 7:00am. 7:01AM today I call and work my way through the phone tree to the parts department phone line. Ring ring ring…thank you for holding, all service members are busy with customers if you would like to leave a message please press 1 others pleas keep holding. Over and over again. For 15 minutes. Wow, they must be busy. After 15 minutes, I hang up, I’m getting tired of listening to this message (I didn’t want to leave a message, I only have access to my wife’s car until 8:00AM, a call back at 9:00 does me no good.) So I hang up, and call back 5 minutes later. Phone answered on 2nd ring, and I ask for Parts. “Sorry sir, they aren’t open until 7:30AM.” So I ask the young lady who answered the phone if she would let someone know the web site says 7:00AM. “I will let someone know.” Click. Dial tone.

Anyone else see a customer service problem here? An opportunity missed? “Can I take your number sir?” “I’m sorry the site is incorrect sir.” (BTW, the door of the service department lists the parts as not opening until 8:00AM!) Or even “Is there any other thing I can help you with?”

Since I have had a previous experience Merit that was overall positive, and since I absolutely need this part for my truck to function, I call them back at 7:30AM. Parts answers right away once I am passed through. They have the full idler pulley assembly (rather than just the pulley and bearing). So I RUSH over to pick up the part before my wife has to head to work. I can’t make her late, even if I have to walk to the part.

$74 later and I’m out the door. The O’Rilley part was $21. Ouch! But the first one got 179,000+ miles, so I figure I won’t ever have to do this again. I wince, and pay, and make haste to home so my Banana (my nickname for my wife for any newer readers) can get to work pronto. I also sent a quick email to Merit letting them know my experience.

I might post some photos later of the slagged bearing spacer and melted pulley. And we’ll see if I ever hear anything from Merit on this missed opportunity for customer service. I don’t want anything from them, but I do think they would want to know how they can improve for future customers.

Technorati Tags: Chevy, Chevrolet, S-10, S10, O’Rilley Auto Parts, Autozone, Merit Chevrolet, Customer Service, Parts Department, Idler Pulley, Idler Pulley Bearing, Bad Bearing, Aluminum, Melting Point, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Car Parts, Truck, Engine Problems

Yesterday I put a new pitman arm and idler arm in my truck. $425 later and it rides better, and I’m not afraid that it will crash off the road every time I hit a pot hole while going around a corner at speed.

So today, just after I get off the highway near our home, I smell something getting hot. I check my gauges, and nothing is registering from my truck. I figure it must be the car in front of me. 1 block from my house, my truck starts to squeal under the hood. Curious. Just as I turn into my alley, the truck starts to sound bad, not running quite right, clearly something is wrong. I pop the hood as I enter the driveway, and see that my serpentine belt is barely turning, I’ve lost tension. I quickly shut the engine off and investigate. A pulley has locked up, the bearing will no longer turn and this caused the belt to jump off this tensioner pulley. So it looks like I’ll be working on my truck the rest of the afternoon once I’m able to get parts. It’ll need a new belt, as I could smell the rubber burning off the existing one. Of course it is a fairly new belt, I just installed it last November.

Cars are money pits. Bleh. But praise God it died just as I got home safely and it wasn’t something worse!

Technorati Tags: Chevy, S-10, S10, serpentine belt, car problems, bad pulley, bad bearing, Pitman Arm, Idler Arm

Imagine this…

You are kneeling down in 2 inches of your favorite flavored Slurpee (or Slush Puppy or Icee). There is Slushy everywhere, dripping from buildings, sliding off of cars, and it’s as if someone is standing above you letting the Slushy machine pour down upon you, but somebody forgot to add the sugary flavoring.

Now imagine changing a tire by head lights in that same situation. That is where I found myself tonight after a distressed phone call from my wife. Seems her right front tire was dead flat. 30 bone-chilling dripping-wet minutes not-a-dry-spot-on-me later and the doughnut spare is on and we head home.

But at least we got to experience Thundersnow again this year!

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From LifeChurch.tv’s Swerve Blog:

Do you truly want to make a difference in this world? Do you want generations to be different because you knew Christ? Do you want to lead a church that will impact your city, state, and the world? Do you want your preaching to awaken dormant spirits, stir complacent hearts, convict wayward sinners?

Then pray this prayer: “God, please break me.”

He will.

And when He does, you’ll be ruined—in the best sort of way.

• Your heart will ache for those without Christ.
• You’ll despise spiritual complacency.
• You’ll see the darkness of your heart clearly.
• You’ll be bothered deeply by things you used to easily overlook.
• You’ll cry often and easily.
• You’ll know Jesus more intimately.

“Break us… Oh, Lord! Break us!”

Technorati Tags: LifeChurch, Life Church, LifeChurch.tv, Swerve Blog, Prayer, Christ, Craig Groeschel

I submitted the following article on Friday for the Waseca County News (published next Thursday?) as part of my duties as a member of the Waseca Ministerial Association. Then today Justin Taylor linked to a blog post by Justin Childers that is probably even better than my article on this subject.

Today I would like to share with you some things my more experienced (and likely wiser) peers are unlikely to share with you.

• 80 percent of pastors say they have insufficient time with spouse and that ministry has a negative effect on their family.
• 40 percent report a serious conflict with a parishioner once a month.
• 33 percent say that being in ministry is an outright hazard to their family.
• 75 percent report they’ve had a significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.
• 45 percent of pastors’ wives say the greatest danger to them and family is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual burnout.
• 21 percent of pastors’ wives want more privacy.
• Pastors who work fewer than 50 hours a week are 35 percent more likely to be terminated.
• 40 percent of pastors considered leaving the pastorate in the past three months.
Source: “Pastors At Greater Risk” by H.B London Jr. and Neil Wiseman, Regal Books, 2003
As a new pastor, these statistics are scary. As a person who has spent his whole life going to church they are even more frightening. So how can you help your pastors? One of the best ways is to pray for them.

Pray for your pastor on Sunday night and Monday morning. This is when your pastor is likely most depleted. After the church empties, and the adrenaline rush from leading/teaching/preaching wears off we are sapped and vulnerable.

Pray for your pastor on Saturday nights. There are times when most pastors endure little or no sleep on these nights. We have a tough message to bring, a challenge to face, or perhaps our week was chaotic and we just don’t feel fully ready to bring the message God has given us to speak.

Pray for your pastor daily. Simply put, we need it. Pray that God would strengthen us. Pray that we would be leaders of integrity. Pray for our health, emotional, physical and psychological. Pray that God is working on us, in us, and through us.

Pray for your pastor when they come to your mind. If you are driving down the road, and your pastor pops into your mind, pray for them. The Holy Spirit knows when people need prayer. I cannot tell you how many times God has brought someone to my mind, and I found out later that something was going on that they needed prayer for.

Encourage your pastor, and tell them you are praying for them. They are doing the same for you!

Romans 12:12 says: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Amen.

Technorati Tags: Prayer, Pray for your Pastor, Pastor, God, Integrity, Romans 12:12, Romans 12, Justin Taylor, Justin Childers, Waseca, Waseca County News, Waseca Ministerial Association, Ministerial Association, Pastoral stress, Stress of being a pastor, H.B. London Jr., Neil Wiseman, Focus on the Family

I posted my sermon from this past weekend on the site I created for our church - First Congregational Church of Waseca, MN. I must say I don’t think I’ve ever heard of another sermon on this passage. I’m sure they exist, but I’ve never heard/seen/read one!

Technorati Tags: Psalm, Psalms, Psalm 133, First Congregational, First Congregational Church, Congregational Church, Waseca, Waseca Church, First Congregational Church of Waseca, Unity, Communion of the Saints, Communion, Saints

This is from Mark Batterson’s blog Evotional.

Neurological studies have shown that over the course of time, there is a cognitive shift from right-brain to left-brain. And if we don’t find a way to stop the shift, memory overtakes imagination. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop innovating and start imitating. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.

A few years ago I read something R.T Kendall wrote that impacted me: “The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday.”

I don’t want that to be me!

One of the byproducts of the neurological shift away from right-brain imagination toward left-brain logic is that we become too logical. And it seems fitting on April Fool’s Day to say that great leaders are illogical. The people God uses the most are people that aren’t afraid of looking foolish. In fact, if you aren’t willing to look foolish you’re foolish!

Technorati Tags: Mark Batterson, National Community Church, Washington DC, Washington Church, Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, Evotional, Theater Church, Theatre Church

This is from Mark Batterson’s blog Evotional.

Neurological studies have shown that over the course of time, there is a cognitive shift from right-brain to left-brain. And if we don’t find a way to stop the shift, memory overtakes imagination. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop innovating and start imitating. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.

A few years ago I read something R.T Kendall wrote that impacted me: “The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday.”

I don’t want that to be me!

One of the byproducts of the neurological shift away from right-brain imagination toward left-brain logic is that we become too logical. And it seems fitting on April Fool’s Day to say that great leaders are illogical. The people God uses the most are people that aren’t afraid of looking foolish. In fact, if you aren’t willing to look foolish you’re foolish!

Technorati Tags: Mark Batterson, National Community Church, Washington DC, Washington Church, Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, Evotional, Theater Church, Theatre Church

Below is a video I made in February for Crossroads Church of Cottage Grove, MN. This video is one of a series of videos used to supplement the sermons as the church works through the different books of the Bible in conjunction with their reading of The Divine Mentor by Pastor Wayne Cordeiro. My video was a summary of the Epistles. I took my idea of this summary from Grasping God’s Word by Duvall and Hays.

Technorati Tags: Epistles, Crossroads, Crossroads Church, Church, Chuch Video, Bible, Divine Mentor, Wayne Cordeiro, Grasping God’s Word, J. Scott Duvall, Scott Duval, J. Daniel Hays, Daniel Hays

I just got back from the Doctor’s office and the news wasn’t good. I have strep throat. I haven’t had this in a really long time. My throat started to be irritated Tuesday night, and by Wednesday night it was like I had been drinking lava from Kilauea in Hawaii.

I told the doctor all my symptoms, and he agreed that it didn’t sound like strep. He looked down my throat, and agreed it didn’t look like strep (I’ve been looking myself for a couple of days). He said let’s do a culture anyhow while you are here. Shazam! You’ve got strep!

So I got some drugs, and hopefully I’ll be on the mend. My biggest concern is that it has begun to affect my voice some, and I have to preach on Sunday. So I’ll be pumping fluids and popping penicillin for the next 10 days.

Technorati Tags: Strep, Strep throat, Doctor, Doctor’s office, Kilauea, Hawaii, Hawai’i, Preaching, Penicillin, Penicillin VK, oral antibiotics, antibiotics, Pharmacy

Below is the statement of faith I inherited when I took over as Pastor for First Congregational Church of Waseca, MN. Other than there being some unbelievably LONG sentences it seems to be pretty well thought out. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Statement of Faith:

We believe in God the Father, infinite in wisdom, goodness and love; and in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord and Savior, who for us and our salvation lived and died and rose again and lives evermore; and in the Holy Spirit, who takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to us, renewing, comforting, and inspiring the souls of His children.

We are united in striving to know the will of God as taught in the Holy Scriptures, and in our purpose to walk in the ways of the Lord made known or to be made known to us. We hold it to be the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel to all mankind, exalting the worship of the one true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and laboring for the progress of knowledge, and promotion of justice, the reign of peace, and the realization of human brotherhood. Depending, as did our ancestors, upon the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, we work and pray for the transformation of the world into the kingdom of God; and we look with faith for the triumph of righteousness and life everlasting.

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Craig Groeschel wrote the following on the Swerve blog for LifeChurch.

Pastor, here are just a few ways your life is different:

• You prepare new messages every week for the same crowd. (I can’t think of any other profession who does this without the help of curriculum or speech writers.)
• You do what many managers or business owners do. (The short list includes: maintaining the building, building new facilities, hiring, training and firing staff, overseeing the budget, raising money, recruiting and leading volunteers, etc.)
• You shepherd the flock. You might counsel someone who is suicidal, meet with a couple who is about to divorce, do a funeral and a wedding before your preach on the weekend.
• You are rarely “off duty.” Like the doctor who might be on call one weekend a month, you are almost always “on call.”
• Though your hours are flexible, they are generally long and unusual. You work many nights, weekends and most holidays.
• You have the pressure of life in the “fish bowl.”
• Your role creates many social obligations.
• No matter how much you do, your ministry is never “finished.”

Technorati Tags: LifeChurch, LifeChurch.tv, Craig Groeschel, Pastor, Pastor’s Job, Preacher

I dare you to read this post by Mark Driscoll and not be inspired.

A few choice quotes:

Something broke this weekend, spiritually. I’m not sure how to explain it, but God’s favor was evident everywhere. We had 8,070 people attend on Sunday, plus however many could not make it into the Eastside Campus or stand up outside the building to listen on speakers because there was no room in the parking lot or on the sidewalk. We had 3,648 for Good Friday services plus however many hundreds got turned away from the 7 p.m. service at Ballard. We had at least 11,718 people altogether this weekend, somewhere near 200 baptisms yesterday alone, and are still trying to figure out how many people got saved.

and:

Yesterday while singing with the congregation at each of the five services I preach live, I could not stop weeping. People were singing loudly with their hands in the air. They cheered all day as people came forward to give their lives to Jesus and be baptized. The pastors were up front laying hands on people, praying over them, and leading them to Christ by the dozens at every service.

Wow. Praise God! God is good!!

Technorati Tags: Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill, Mars Hill Church, Bible, Jesus, Baptism, Easter, Good Friday, Maundy Thursday, Worship, Seattle, Influence, Salvation

Tomorrow is Easter. Or perhaps better stated, TOMORROW IS EASTER!

I ask that you stop for a minute or five and offer up a prayer for our worship service (or the service you might be attending). As Perry Noble says, “Pray like crazy for this weekend’s service.” I have no idea who will be in our church, but I know they will hear about Jesus. I’m sure there will be people far from God who need to hear this message, I pray their hearts are soft, that they are fertile soil. For others I pray it will be a sweet reminder of the Christ we follow.

Easter has an inherent tension for pastors. The “C & E Christians” (Christmas and Easter) will be making an appearance. People who don’t normally come to your church will be visiting. There is a chance that lives will be transformed and eternities changed. I don’t take that lightly, but I always fear that many do not take that serious enough. There is added tension because Easter is the celebration of the risen Christ, and the joy and grace we are afford through what he has done for us, that which we cannot do.

For my sermon I will be stealing a framework from Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I will be talking about the words and works of Jesus Christ. I believe it is a good sermon, but more importantly is is a God-honoring Christ-centered message that makes clear who we worship is fully worthy of that worship. To borrow a bit more from Perry Noble, we will make His name famous and we will push back the gates of hell a little bit further.

So pray. Pray for me, for those coming to the church, for my message, for God to act in amazing ways, both in our church and in this world.

Technorati Tags: Easter, Easter Service, Easter Sermon, Prayer, Sermon, Pastor, Preacher, Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, He is risen, Empty tomb, Words of Jesus, Works of Jesus, Joy, Grace, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, First Congregational Church, Waseca, Waseca Church, 1st Congregational Church, 1st Congregational, First Congregational, Congregational, Congregational Church, Church, Perry Noble, Life transformation, Eternity, Passion, Passion of the Christ, God, Christian, Christianity, Bible

Just a quick update on why the blog has been so silent the past few days. My church was gracious enough to allow us to take some vacation earlier this week. We took off Sunday after church for Wisconsin, and got home yesterday. It was a fun trip, and most importantly it was relaxing. We checked out Granddad Bluff in Lacross, WI. We visited Wisconsin Dells where we took in Wilderness Water Park one day (we didn’t stay there though, too expensive!). The next day we went through Cave of the Mounds and spent the night in Dodgeville. We took in House on the Rock yesterday, and then came home. On the way home we drove by Taliesin - which is Frank Lloyd Wright’s home near Spring Green, WI. Taliesin is not open this time of the year, so we stopped and took photos from the road and headed home.

The best part of the trip was being with my wife for a few days. We haven’t had a few days off together in quite some time, so it was a great get away. My next favorite part was the water park at Wilderness. The lines weren’t too bad this time of year, though there were quite a few Spring Break families visiting.

Technorati Tags: Vacation, Wisconsin Dells, Wilderness, Wilderness Water Park, Cave on the Mounds, House on the Rock, Alex Jordan, Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Dodgeville, Spring Green, WI, Wisconsin

The following was posted by Bill Reichart on Ministry Best Practices Blog. Bill is one of the pastors at Big Creek Church in Forsyth County, Georgia. This post is fantastic because it is soooo true.

Does your church erect invisible barriers toward people getting connected with your church? Is it easier to find the Lost Ark rather than your church on a Sunday morning?

Certainly there may be many legitimate reasons why someone may not come to your church (personal preferences, driving distances etc..). Those are issues that you can’t control. But there are plenty of other issues that you can. So, if you are determined, for people to not come to your church or get connected then,

Here are 10 ways to Stop Me (or anyone else )from Discovering Your Church

1. Don’t have a website: This is the information age, even 107 year old women have blogs, but not your church. No website, no blogs, nothing, nada, zero. In order to feel more comfortable before I visit, I want to see something about the the church. I want to be able to kick the tires before I show up on Sunday. And even if you must have a website, make sure it is poorly designed, lacking in information, hard to navigate, lots of rainbow and dove graphics, and definitely out of date.

2. Be completely inactive in the community: If you’re not doing anything in the community then no one will talk about your church. That makes it a lot harder for me to accidentally find out anything useful. So don’t serve the community or partner with other churches or non-profits. In fact it’s really just best if you stay completely inward-focused and don’t do anything missional in your town or city.

3. Don’t answer your phone: Regardless of what time I call (weekday, weekend, morning, afternoon, evening) don’t answer the phone and don’t have an answering machine or voice mail for me to leave a message or prayer request. If you do have voice mail, don’t include your website address, service times or directions to your church on your message, and don’t ever answer the phone on Sunday mornings. That way when I’m lost en route to service, I’ll have no choice but to drive around aimlessly until I give up and go home.

4. Allow misinformation: When contact information changes about your church, make sure you don’t update websites, online directories and phone books. It is important to make sure you keep me on my toes and misdirected every chance possible.

5. Lack clear signage: Even if I’m determined to visit your church, you have several on site options to discourage me. The first is to play hide and seek. Is your church in a nondescript building or on a street with several other churches? Have absolutely no signage; none, whatsoever. Except maybe on the mailbox, where you abbreviate things beyond comprehension.

6. Have insufficient parking/seating: Other discouraging on-site options are lack of adequate parking and seating. Does your church seat 200? Only have 30 parking spaces and make sure that all the church volunteers are using them. Been running at capacity for weeks or months? Don’t start another service, so that there will be standing room only. Have visitors’ parking? Put it in the corner of the lot away from the entrance. Have adequate parking? Don’t stripe the lot or have parking attendants; chaos is best. Have adequate seating? Make it as uncomfortable as possible.

7. Ignore Visitors: Despite your best efforts to discourage me, you think that you have won -but I have found and attended your church. In fact, I even filled out a visitor’s card requesting more information. Don’t acknowledge my visit in any way. Don’t call me, don’t send me a thank you card, don’t answer any of my questions or give me any information about how to become involved or learn more about Jesus. Also don’t have any literature available for me to take home and don’t train your volunteers to be courteous or helpful in anyway.

8. Respond half-heartedly to inquiries: If responding to information requests at all, do so extremely slowly and only partially. Wait 1 week or more to return emails or phone calls and if I ask several questions, don’t answer them all. Instead just tell me I should come to a service to find out more. That saves you a couple minutes of response time and makes you look very busy and important. Whatever you do, do not start a dialogue with me.

9. Be evasive about your beliefs: When I ask a direct question about the church’s beliefs, ignore the question or act like you don’t understand and then start telling me about your denomination or church programs. For “What We Believe”, only include the Nicene Creed on your website or literature. If I’m adamant about wanting positional clarity, instead tell me about the love of Jesus and how Christianity isn’t about division. For those times you do answer my questions, act offended that I would even ask, then try and make me feel stupid or sinful for questioning you.

10. Continue to be difficult: You might just get a few months of attendance out of me before I just give up out of frustration. Don’t help me get into a small group. Don’t help me find ways to volunteer and use my gifts. If you keep making the process of involvement and connectedness difficult and unclear, you will eventually wear me down and I will go elsewhere.

(adapted from a post at Church Redone)

Technorati Tags: Ministry Best Practices, Big Creek Church, Bill Reichart, Forsyth County, Georgia, Church website, Church Visitors, Ministry, Marketing,

Today is a glorious day! The audio from the Text and Context Conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA is now available. For those of us poor saps who were unable to attend (and who have poor DSL service so watching it live via webcast wasn’t an option), this is the next best thing.

Sessions 1-8:
Mark Driscoll - Putting Pastors in Their Place
CJ Mahaney - Pastoral Character & Loving People
John Piper - Why I Trust the Scriptures
Jim Gilmore - Fear & Trembling in the Experience Economy
Matt Chandler - Preaching the Gospel from the Center of the Evangelical World
John Piper - How My Pastoral Ministry Shapes My Pulpit Ministry
Mark Driscoll - The Ox: Qualifications of a Church Planter
Matt Chandler - Vision of a Church Planter

I’ll be burning down my DSL line tonight to download these sessions.

Technorati Tags: Conference audio, sermon audio, Resurgence, Acts 29, Acts29, Acts 29 Network, Mars Hill, Seattle, Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll, CJ Mahaney, C.J. Mahaney, John Piper, Jim Gilmore, Matt Chandler,