Sunday, May 29, 2005

The Journey was a great place to be this morning as the Lord spoke to us through His Word about meekness - releasing control of myself to God - as seen in Matthew 5:5 - Blessed are the meek. We talked about navigating through turbulent times by releasing control to God, and both services went well.

A couple of events today that I was very proud of:
1) We gave out copies of The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren to our graduates (all of whom were adults in college) - Andy Becker, Dory Gibson, and Pam Johnson. I am proud of what they have accomplished, and I hope that they will take the time to read this great book by Pastor Warren.
2) Speaking of Andy, I felt Andy did great today on bass guitar and really took a good turn toward becoming the bassist God wants him to be. Good job, Andy!
3) We had a group from Grace Church, a new church that just started in Stoughton, Mass. visiting with us today. My friend, Sean Sears and his wife along with another couple came here to observe how we as a newer church do things. I am glad to have had them with us.

We also had several visitors, including some return visitors which I hope will be back. God is so good to us, bringing in so many people to worship every week. We had 101 today, which considering it is Memorial Day weekend and we had alot of people gone is a great turnout. Thanks, God.

I was glad to be back in the pulpit. I am so appreciative of Lee and Ed standing in for me, but I was glad to get back in there. I do know one thing - I am exhausted right now (it is 2:10pm on Sunday afternoon - I could go for a nap).

I pray that through today's message that the people of The Journey will take on meekness to help them become the kind of faith-filled people that God desires us to be.

A special thanks...

To the teens and the teen leader Lee Thompson for a "no donations accepted, we're doing this because God loves you" carwash on Saturday, May 29th! What a great testimony.

The sign fell... :(

Everyone,
Due to the high winds the other night, our sign fell down. Praise God it didn't break or get run over, but we have not had the chance because of the weather to put it back up again. Please don't worry about it - we aren't closing shop - just waiting for a break in the weather to put it back up! -Pastor

A review of "Revenge of the Sith"

I have had the chance to sit through this movie twice, the first time for fun, the second time for observation. So I am pretty familiar with most of the movie, the characters, the plots, and some of the underlying tones of the movie.

Let me say right off that as a Star Wars fan, I was very excited to see how everything came together - how Ani became Darth, how Obi became Ben, and how Yoda landed up in a swamp in the middle of nowhere (my back yard resembles something like Yoda's place of exile - Dagobah - with all the rain we have been getting.) The characters were somewhat wooden at times, and some of the fight scenes had too many cheezy lines. I actually felt about Yoda the same way I felt about Morpheus by the end of the Matrix movies - basically please just shutup and fight. Yoda was doing his best Clint Eastwood impersonation when confronting the Emperor ("Not if anything to say about it I have" - ugh!).

But I honestly could care less about the dialogue because the story came full-circle. Many answers made up for goofy lines and bad acting. And the fight scenes were great - it seems that each character that lost in each battle REALLY lost. I did have to laugh at Yoda crawling through some mechanic tunnel near the end with just that brown, gunny sack outfit he was wearing - it was the same exact gunny sack that my action figure Yoda had growing up - I laughed at the memory as it brought me back.

OK - now let's talk about the movie on a deeper level. The first three movies that have dealt with the fall of Anakin have displayed what I feel to be an important principal, and that is that the differences between someone who is really good and someone who is really evil are most often a few bad choices that lead down a dark path. It amazed me how Anakin continually made small choices that led him deeper towards his ultimate conversion to Vader. It wasn't a one time, "all of a sudden I'm evil now" kind of choice. It was a passion for his loved ones that led him to make wrong decisions - and you could actually understand why he would do what he did - but no less is the point made that we all could be Vader.

The apostle Paul addresses this very thing in Romans 7:15-17 when he says this,

"I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things."

Amazing, isn't it? We look at those who commit atrocities against humanity, and we think, "What animals!" But really, a few bad decisions and giving into that sin inside of us, and we can find ourselves along that dark path becoming our own version of Darth Vader.

Luke Skywalker is reminded of the potential to follow in his father's footsteps in The Empire Strikes Back when training with Yoda. In other words, those who do not remember history or doomed to repeat it.

Of the many lessons that this movie series had, this is one that has stuck with me. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

There are times when God's Spirit begins to move, and you can sense that something is about to happen that will permanently change the way that we operate church. I believe the time is getting very close to God again doing something spectacular and mighty in this body of believers we call The Journey. Let me give you a few reasons why I believe this:

1) We have come out of what I believe was a wave of harvest from September through January, in which we saw over 40 people come to know the Lord in our services. During that time we experienced tremendous growth and baptized many. I believe that wave of harvest is now done, and that means right now we are planting for another harvest. I do not believe that time of harvest is far off.

2) We are at a point of need with our space. In other words, we can keep growing, but we have to become very creative at exactly how we will do this. We need the Lord to do something that we cannot do ourselves to be able to facilitate what He is going to do next. We need some solid steps to take with our building projects - I need God to give me some fresh insight into our next steps. God often puts His people in great need so that they will completely rely on Him- call it "the blessing of desperation," or as we learned a few weeks ago, God blesses the poor in spirit.

3) We are praying now more than ever before. We have prayer meetings on Wednesday and Saturday, and our prayer times on Sunday during our services are great, and I believe that the Lord wants us now, more than ever, to call on Him and become completely dependent on Him. As Alfred Lord Tennyson said, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."

4) Many of our "babes in Christ" are growing, taking forward steps and seeing the Lord work in their lives, even though the devil resists. I am excited to see God work with our new believers, and I believe that they, through their excitement, will stir us on to greater growth.

All that said, yesterday - May the 22nd, was a great day in God's house. Our people heard a good word from the Lord through Ed Cormier, another man who stepped up in my place to preach for me. Through Ed's meek and powerful approach, he stirred the saints to pray for their pastors, and honestly Journey, you folks have no idea how badly I needed that. Please keep praying. But I feel like there is some great growth that is happening, as was indicated yesterday.

The total attendance for the day was 107, which is fantastic, and it was so good to see most of our regular people there. God has truly blessed us, and we continue to see Him work.

Also, I want to thank you, Journey, for your consistency and growing faith with your giving. I am on the verge now, of becoming full-time with the church, which is something we have strived for since we moved here. God has stabilized our finances through your generosity, and I rejoice on your behalf. Keep going.

God has been good to us. Let's not look back - let's keep moving forward. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to pastor and lead.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

This is an abbreviated version because I was not here to know much about this service, so let me give you what I do know, and then anyone can feel free to publish their thoughts.

Lee Thompson stepped in and preached for me while I was away, and Lee spoke on "The Truth about Untruth." From the reports I have heard, Lee and his message were very well received, and the Lord used this message to speak to many people. I am so grateful that God has given us gifted men and women to do so many things at The Journey.

The attendance for this Sunday was 95, and from what I understand, this was a great day to be at The Journey!

Just to be clear...

I know that yesterday in my post I came on strong about attendance. I have been saddened by some of the people that we have lost in the past few months who have chosen not to attend for whatever reasons. But let me clarify by giving you a word picture:

Imagine that you are excited about a big family reunion that you are hosting at your house (if you could). You prepare the meals, you get the games together, you set up the tables, you imagine the good times that will be had with your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandmothers and 2nd cousins, etc. The day of the big reunion arrives, and some people arrive, and you anticipate more. But as time goes by you realize that you have several of your relatives - a loud-mouthed uncle and his family; a life-of-the-party sister and her 5 kids; your cheek-squeezing grandfather - along with about 20 others all decided that they had other things to do. You have a great time with the ones that are there, you play games, and you eat the food (which you had WAY too much of because people didn't show) - but you walk away thinking, "Darn it! I wish everyone had come - all this prep and time and the good time they would have had (and that we could have had with them)!" The day would be good, but not quite as fulfilling as if most everyone was there.

Every Sunday, we reunite. And we are a huge family - so huge that we felt it necessary to switch to two services. Lots of prep and energy goes into every service. After Easter, some of our people have forgotten to be consistent. So much prep is done, but the last several weeks we could have had one service, and I believe that is poor handling of our resources to do two when only one would be necessary under normal circumstances.

I want to reinvite our people back. Come back - and see how great the reunion is - how re-energizing and re-freshing. Let's make our normal circumstances hitting consistently as we should right now at about 110! The table is set - let's make it a point to be in one of the chairs at every meal... :)

Sunday, May 8, 2005

Mother's Day at The Journey was a good day. We had 94 in attendance, and the people in both services were ready to worship. We introduced a new song today call Indescribable, a great song giving praise to the Creator and expressing joy through all He does. The preaching this morning was tough for me to deliver, as I talked about the fact that we are "Blessed Beyond the Curse" and what the 2nd Beatitude (God blesses those who mourn) has to do with joy. Honestly, it was a tough sermon to preach on Mother's Day, as I spoke on being sorrowful over our sin. But I felt that it was needed, as we need to investigate our lives and seek out the sin that sets us apart from God.

Admittedly, this weekend was tough on me. I have been hit hard by the spiritual struggles of some in our church - marital problems and spiritual problems - and it just hits me harder at times than others. I love all the people that God has entrusted into my care, and I just pray for victory in their lives. For some reason, this weekend was just more difficult for me than other weeks have been for this reason.

I am also a little frustrated over one thing that I would like to address with our church. We split to two services in March, and we have been right around 100 ever since (in the 90's the last four weeks), but I am seeing a consistent pattern of a portion of our congregation missing every week. And it is not the same people - it's just some here, some there. I find myself saying all the time "If we would have had everyone here, we would have had 120!" I hate saying that. With all the prep that goes on with me and with teachers and with the praise team for two services, we ought to be filling both services up consistently and making The Journey Church services what they are capable of being. If you aren't there, a part is missing, and you miss something.

I would love if we as a collective whole would make a commitment, especially with summer coming up, that we will not miss a Sunday morning (exceptions aside) as it is our ONE time to worship together and receive the Word together. I would like us to just show more commitment in this, and let's blow out both services LIKE WE ARE CAPABLE OF! People are attracted to growth and energy and excitement. When we are only 75%, we are missing chunk of potential! Please pray for this. The Journey cannot be an effective house of worship and praise if the people don't get together.

Today was a good day. I was dissappointed with the turnout as we were missing at least 25 people, but I know that the Lord worked and people repented and mourned over their sin and received comfort. I pray that the Lord will FILL our services, and that this summer will be all about increase in worship, spiritually, and numerically. I love the people in this church so much, and I look forward to sharing what the Lord has given me every week. Let's commit together, Journey - let's refuse lethargy and get moving together! I love you all.

A Pastor's Dilemma...

I have to make a confession. No, nothing serious, but just a dilemma that I find myself in that I need to address, even if it is just on this site. You see, I love what I do (no, that's not a confession). I love the people that come to The Journey, I love those that God has given me to minister to, I love ministering and preaching and leading - I love what I do through and through, through good and bad.

However, I have a quandary. I have had many of you give me items to watch, listen, read, etc. I love learning new things, and I love studying and teaching, but quite honestly, I have to limit the amount of studying that I do - specifically in light of the fact that my brain needs breaks and my family needs my focus when I am not working. My workdays consist of studying for messages and Bible study, planning for activities, counseling, visiting, church planning, research, and many miscellaneous activities. By the time I get to the end of my day, my family time kicks in, and I don't read or watch or listen to church-related materials. I give my brain a daily break if possible.

All that said, I apologize to several of you who have given me things to read or watch or listen to, as I have not yet looked at the materials. Please don't take it personally. What I would like to propose is that if you would like me to view or read something with you, please let's make a time to discuss and review stuff together. I prefer to get together and converse rather just receive materials to read at my convenience. Honestly, it will probably take me awhile unless I am specifically studying for a lesson or message that the materials deal with that would assist me in my research.

I hope this doesn't come across snobbish or as seeming that what you are passionate about is not worthy of my attention - not at all. I just have to guard my time and really focus in my sermon studies - which for me means keeping my attention and mind on one track. Thank you for entrusting me with the job of being your pastor.

Sunday, May 1, 2005

You know, it's funny. There are times where when I preach I have a great story or illustration to push home a point. And then there are times when I don't have any kind of great story of illustration - I just have the plain truth and preach it as such. This isn't a bad thing, but there is something to be said for a great illustration that really hits a point home (remember the lady with the bloodsucking leech and releasing the lifesucking things that attach themselves to us?). Today, I had the truth (which is great) - the spiritually poor are joyful because they receive the joy of God's presence - but no great illustration. But I felt it preached well, and I am excited about the next 8 weeks (except for May 15th) as we go through the 8 characteristics of the joyful life - the 8 Beatitudes - Experiencing the Joy of Jesus.

Both services went well. I was a little offset by some distractions during the worship that I will address, but I hope that we as a church will commit ourselves to really being prepared to worship every week, that we will lay aside the distractions and focus on God. Sometimes we are there, sometimes we are not. But I believe that as a church, we can be ready EVERY week to worship.

We had 96 in both services, and we still had many people who were not with us. We have been hovering around 100 for the past several weeks, but I believe that we should be more near the 110 mark. God has been so good, and I get to converse with many people this week, including two that raised their hand for salvation last week. We had another person pray with me for the first time today that she allowed Christ to come into her life. I am so glad that God gives me the opportunity to lead people to the Lord almost weekly.

Honestly, I count it an honor and a privilege to pastor and do what I do. Thank you for entrusting me to lead. Another good weekend of services at The Journey - I can't wait until this church splits wide open and the Holy Spirit moves like we have not witnessed before. Holy Spirit, please rain down...