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HOPE FOR AFRICA CHILDREN'S CHOIR

Our conference has been hosting the Hope for Africa Children's Choir for the past three weeks.  They have stayed at our Simpsonwood Conference and Retreat Center [That's where our offices are housed as well].  It has been great my few days in this office to hear them rehearsing down stairs each day before going out to the various venues each evening to share their ministry and hearts with others around our state.

It was a sad departure yesterday morning as they loaded up their bus to head over to South Carolina and continue their tour.  As they prepared to load, each of the twenty two children did what they had done since coming into our lives -- They smiled - They hugged, and hugged, and hugged, then... smiled some more.  We are truly going to miss their presence around the Conference Center.

Yesterday afternoon, as I was leaving the main building, I noticed the many smudges and little finger prints all over the front doors where the children had made their final exit in their stay with us.  It was a subtle reminder of twenty two little lives that, even after the windos have been cleand, will forever be a part of our lives and the many they ministered to over their North Georgia stay.   God speed my young friends, and hugs & smiles along your way...

SURROUNDED BY...

I'm sitting in my new office with boxed unpacked, and everything in its rightful place -- Yesterday, Melissa, from Connectional Ministries dropped by my new office to say hi.  She took a quick look around and said, "You must be an outdoors-man."  Hmmm, interesting that she could just look at my office and discern that truth about me...

But, as I took a look around the office after she left I quickly realized that, in just the one day I had been in this office, I had surrounded myself with indications of who I am - There is the porcelain duck, and sculpture of a person riding a bike that gave away my bent toward the outdoors - Then there's the diplomas, ordination certificates, plates with my grand children's hand prints, picture of my wife, Dee, sand art given to me from the Indian reservation in Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico -- The books and their titles and subjects, the photo of the "prayer rock" from the church I founded, the crosses, the book mark made from the flowers of a six-teen-year-old's funeral spray given to me by his mother...  Just a quick look around and anyone could see pretty much who I am, and what is important to me.

I suppose that's the way it is with life - We need but to look around and see the things we allow to surround us to get a really good glimpse into our priorities and, maybe even, our souls...  I'm glad I have the things I have in my office.  I'll take an inventory of those other things I have surrounding me in my life regularly as well to keep a good check on who I am, and what I value as important...

I'M BACK...

I've taken a long hiatus trying to transition from my position as Pastor of Sugarloaf UMC to the Executive Director of New Church Development in our conference.  I'm in my new office now, and, hopefully will be able to be more up-to-date in my blogging efforts in the future. 

On Remaining a Barbarian

Thought it was worth a re-post - Even if it's just for my own reminder...

I've been re-reading Erwin McManus' The Barbarian Way recently.  He speaks of how real Christianity is not about religion, but an encounter with the Crucified & Resurrected Christ...  He talks about how western Christianity seems to domesticate us and hinder us from living more like Christ in our everyday lives.

This jives with my own understanding of the Christian life not being one of religious compartmentalization, but, of a relationship with Christ that totally, unabashedly, uncontrollably encompasses every aspect of our lives - At home, in our schools, workplaces, places of recreation, our church, and our world!

I was thinking about how unleashed and untamed I was after my conversion as a 25-year-old man on that mountain top in Pagosa Springs, Colorado over a quarter of a century ago.  I didn't reason everything to fit nicely into a tidy packaged religious box, but simply TRUSTED the intuition as one who had been mysteriously, yet miraculously changed!  The old instantly disappeared and everything was truly becoming new -- A new attitude - new behavior - new understanding - new passion - new motive - new relating to others - New - everything new!

I didn't know much of the Bible, nor many Christian words and phrases - I hadn't a clue about church polity, denominational stances, nor religious protocols.  I just had this inner assurance that somehow, because of Jesus, I was radically different from the man I had been before that amazing God-encounter on that mountain.

And now, in my third decade of pastoral ministry, pastoring one of the top 50 United Methodist Churches in our nation, I plead with the God on that mountain to never let me lose that assurance, peace and passion - To continually rejuvenate my weary soul and let that innocent, wandering seeker deep inside my spirit continue to be free to pursue - Simply pursue my God, my Maker, my King and my Savior!

Lord, please don't allow me to ever become so civilized and domesticated - That I leave behind that barbarian you birthed on that mountain top!

 

I am very thankful for all who have served in the Armed Forces of our country.  They have secured the freedoms we so often take for granted - All have sacrificed, and some made the ultimate... Thanks to you.

Facebook Friends...

We all have this need to be loved, needed, accepted, a place to belong.  Maybe that's why Facebook is so popular.  I click, invite you to be my friend, and boom!  I have a new friend on my friends list.  I think I've got something like 50 friends on Facebook - Not bad for an old guy I suppose.  But, there's this point of acquiring friends on Facebook that's really scary -- You know - You click the invite this person, then....... you have to wait to be accepted.  That's pressure, huh? 

I guess it, in many ways, mimics life.  We reach out to others with no certainty that they'll reach back - We invite without being sure they will accept - We hope to develop a friendship, but there's no guarantee it will all work out --

I'm really glad that's not the way it is with God.  You know that would be stressful -- God, will you be my friend....Wait a minute and let me think about it.  He doesn't have to think about it - He already invited me - Before creation, before I was even born - Knowing how I would turn out, what I would do, and not do...  But, he chose me, and that's a good friend to have...

Rethinking...A Different Perspective

                                                                            So, yesterday I posted this same picture with the title, Limits, people should sometimes just know their limits.  But, perhaps a rethink, review, revisit can allow a different prespective...

I missed my run on Tuesday due to a little stomach bug that kept me close to the house all day.  I made up some of the miles by tacking onto my runs Wednesday & Thursday even though it meant one day on the streets before daylight, and the other long after dark.  But, even with that, I was still coming up 4 miles short going into tomorrow's long run on the schedule.  So, that left today to pick up the 4 miles - No problem - Except, maybe, that today has been in the 40s, steadily raining, and windy - Just one of those yuck days that would be better suited for curling up with some good reading, or, at least, staying inside.

Well, I kept looking a my schedule, and that 4 miles kept gnawing at me - Now I understand 4 miles, in the big scheme of hundreds during my training, probably won't make or break my marathon.  And, I'm doing 20 miles tomorrow to train my mind and body to be upright and moving for hours at a time - So, why not just write off the dinky 4-miler?

I guess because, December 13 just might dawn to be rainy, windy and cold (or worse), so, why not go ahead and condition the mind and body to endure the elements now, to be prepared for the worst, so I'm better prepared when the real day comes... 

So, I got wet - I got cold - I got looked at with some interesting gazes from passersby in their cars - But - I got it done - Finished - In-the-bag - Complete...  I saw the hurdles and went for it -

Maybe that's what Paul meant when he said perseverance leads to character, and character leads to hope...

Limits...

 

Sometimes - It just pays to know your limits... 

You Un-churched People Keep Me in Trouble...

I have a problem - I love non-churched, un-churched, de-churched, whatever you may want to call or label them - You know - Those people who, for whatever reason(s) just aren't a part of any church.  But, my adoration and affinity with the non churched culture keeps me in trouble.

When I was a kid, I was always the one dragging my little heathen friends to Sunday School with me - They'd come in all scruffy, rude, foul-mouthed, and crude -- (Not that all non churched people are these things, but, well, my little friends hadn't yet learned to at least give the perception they were in line with the status-quo of the religious righteous...)  The little old ladies gawked in disgust, the preacher cried in dismay, and my Sunday School teachers whispered, They don't belong here in disapproval of my choice of friends...

It didn't stop there, though.  I remember one of those first little churches I pastored.  It was a miserable failure...  I was sent to help a little church die with dignity - A little country church that had dwindled to less than a dozen saints.   But my bad habits of befriending the scrubby old non churched hadn't worn off - It didn't take long to realize those hills were full of bootleggers, dope-smokers, beer drinking, hell-raising rednecks searching to fill that void within their heart...  I failed to close the church, and, in fact, had to add on in order to accommodate the people who seemed to enjoy gathering to experience an environment of hope, love, and of a Savior who loved even them -- Some of my little saints showed a side much less flattering though - Those dad-gum non churched people got me in trouble again...

I guess I still rub some Church folk the wrong way - I probably look more like those scruffy old, less than polished non churched folks than I do the saints - But, I must confess, I cant seem to help it -- I'm just a missionary called to meet all those who "aren't yet" right where they are.  And, that means knowing their language, understanding them, accepting them for who they are, and trying to love them too much to leave them there...

So - All you non churched people - If you can muster a prayer - Pray for me - Cause' you keep me in trouble all the time...

Singin' In the Rain...

So, I'm sitting on my back porch on my day off enjoying a nice, steady, well-needed rain -- Reading the manuscript of a new book a friend of mine is writing, and preparing a forward that's due to his publisher, uhh, today...  You know, that grownup, adult kind of stuff we important people do on our days off...

So, I look up through the field toward my son's house and see my almost two-year-old granddaughter, Aly, out on her drive singing, dancing, twirling in the rain - Her Mama's tucked dryly under the garage supervising the excursion -- Now, my grownup, adult, important person mind thought, What's that child doing!  She'll catch a cold, get soaking wet, and ruin those shoes stomping in those puddles like that - She's not a duck!  She's a little girl!!  Oh, yeah, she's a little girl - Nobody's told her yet that she's supposed to act all grownup, adult and important...

So, I lay the manuscript on the table, get up from my chair, open the screen door, brace myself, and run through the rain-soaked yard to be met by the gleeful delight of Aly ready to spin and twirl  and sing with her Pop in a marvelous instant of child-like revel...

It lasted only a moment, but, what a joy it was to freely dance and sing with Aly in the rain - Or, perhaps, more aptly, in the sunshine of God's freeing grace - together, singing, dancing, laughing, enjoying a moment of simply "being" together... 

Maybe that's why Jesus said unless we change and become like the little children we really can't experience the kingdom of God to it's fullest...

Thanks, Aly, for teaching your Pop something about living today...