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Showing posts from September, 2008

Still Seeking Our "Place"

Having been recently summarily dismissed from my church staff position, my wife and I find ourselves in a most unusual position. In our 42+ years of marriage, we've never wondered where to go to church because I've always been on staff. We have visited a former pastor who is now a staff member of a church in a city not far from here, we've been back to one of our former churches for their 115th anniversary celebration, and today, we visited another church in our area for the second time. We're not really sure what we are looking for. We've enjoyed meeting new people and experiencing being "people in the pew", but still feel that God has more for us to do in the kingdom. Some opportunities are opening up for me to do conferences, but that still doesn't address the need to be an active part of a local "body" of believers. We have our home Bible study each week, which gives us a great time of fellowship and study with other believers, but

Home, My Bed, Ahhhhh

After 13 hours on the road yesterday, we finally pulled into our driveway about 7:30 p.m. last night. We unloaded just what we had to. Rae went through the mail and phone messages, and I emptied my luggage, and hooked up the lap top to check e-mails. After showering and getting ready for bed, we watched the season premiere of Criminal Minds, and then...ahhh, we got in our sleep number bed and snoozed. There's nothing quite like coming home to your own bed after a trip. I kind of think it is going to be that way when we get to heaven. We're going to have that "Home at last!" feeling like sleeping in our own beds. The longer I live, the more homesick I get. After spending a day with Rae's mom in a Nursing Home, I'm more convinced that at some point, life becomes a sentence rather than a blessing. I saw people who were definitely homesick. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should hurry the issue. God is in control. There may be issues that n

Friends

We have just had a whirlwind weekend. Went to the 115th anniversary celebration of a church we had served 28 years ago. We had the opportunity to see people who had been in our youth group back in the late 70's. We also saw the pastor with whom we worked. There were many memories revisited during the day, and it seemed as if we had not been separated by all those years. Today I had the opportunity to spend most of the day with a dear friend who had once been in my college ministry, and later served as an intern with me between college and seminary. We spent the day remembering things we had learned together in ministry and in studying to become certified as Intentional Interim Pastors. The beauty of this time was being able to think out loud and bounce ideas off one another without fear of being put down, or worse, ignored. As we plan together for some mutual ministry opportunities, our friendship is deepening. The truth of the matter is, real close, deep friendships are ha

Family

I'm enjoying one of those terrifically tiring family trips. My wife and I are the ones traveling. So far we have visited my Dad, my brother and sister-in-law, my sister, neice & her kids. We spent one night on the road in a motel; one night at my brother's house, tonight and tomorrow night we are at our daughter's house, then on Sunday we'll spend the night with a former intern then to Rae's brother's house, and finally an all day drive back to so. central FL. Whew! I can imagine that it will take a week to recover from this trip. Don't get me wrong, I love family. I love seeing them, being with them and all, but the getting there and back are the real drags. Kind of makes me wish for the days when families all lived in the same town, and sometimes on the same block. I remember that every Monday night my paternal grandfather walked the 2 blocks from his house to ours and we popped pop corn and visited. I lived only 2 doors from my maternal gran

Be Careful Who You Listen To

This morning I was reading in 1 Kings 13 a very interesting story. There was a "man of God" who spoke a word of prophesy which immediately proved true. When things happened exactly as he said they would, the King invited him home for dinner and a reward. He refused, however, because God had told him not to eat or drink in that place and to return home a different way. Up to this point, he was obedient. Later and "old prophet" pursued, caught up with him, and invited him home for dinner. Once again, the man of God told what God had instructed him to do. The old prophet then said, "An angel appeared to me by the word of God and told me to bring you home." At this point, the man of God was persuaded to forget what God had told him directly and assume that He had sent a new message through the old prophet. Bad decision!!! The end result was his death by mauling by a lion because of his disobedience. Too bad he didn't have the benefit of the Apos

It's All in The Way You Look At It

Today my wife and I attended Belle Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, FL. Since the end of April, the church has lost their pastor & his 13 year old son in a plane crash, and then lost their Pastor of Worship to a heart attack. They, like many churches these days, are experiencing a decrease in giving due to the economy. (by doing the math, I determined that they are @ $200K behind) However, instead of scaling back, they are aggressively moving forward in evangelism and missions. Oh, and they have just moved into a beautiful new worship center. We were so impressed by how they went about voting for those who will serve on the Pastor search and pulpit supply teams. Before the vote, they asked the nominees to come to the front of the church where 100's of church members gathered around them, laid hands on them and prayed for them. Since the untimely death of their pastor, they have seen an 1100% (not a typo, that is eleven hundred percent) increase in professions of faith co

Whew!!! Retirement is Hard!

Today retirement really started. Except I wound up working almost 12 hours today in my office at home getting my computers cleaned up, getting Outlook synched, and getting out some e-mails to my network letting them know that I'm now available for conferences & speaking engagements. Rae was subbing today, so the house was quiet except for the radio. Got a lot done, but still have a lot to do. So far I haven't experienced the "void" that many people tell me they experienced when retiring. Part of that, I guess, comes from the fact that I didn't choose to retire...it was decided for me. My immediate focus is...I'm still alive, I still have a call from God, I still have my health, and I'm expecting an new assignment from the Father. The cool thing about working for the Kingdom of God is that, even if one location doesn't need or want you anymore, there are thousands that do. The tough thing is waiting for the next assignment. Moses is one of m