Do you remember when...?

One of the papers I'm working on this weekend is a Sermon on Evangelism.
To do evangelism, one must be able to tell one's own story. Mine has some roots planted all around this area (Ohio), so I decided that this weekend, I"d explore a couple of those roots.

Yesterday, I took a drive north. Now originally, I thought about heading east towards where my aunts and uncles live and where my grandparents lived when I was a child, but something about the north drew me in. In doing so, I found myself at the Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival. Now, when I was young, I memories of being there was of the smells of all different sorts of brats cooking all around you. Now, it seems like there was only some booths with different brats, and the rest where assorted foods as you would find at any other festival. Granted, it has been many years since I was there, but it just didn't seem the same. Even as I got a brat from the Schmidt's booth (known through the area for its Brats), something just didn't seem "special" about it.
But, nonetheless, I went, saw some of the sights that I remember seeing in Ohio - the barns, older early to mid 19h century homes and farms, and the winding roads that just brought back some find memories.

Today, I decided to go to church at the place where I went about 35 years ago. I attended the Groveport UMC. When I arrived in the town, the memories flooded my brain... there are STILL brick roads with trolley tracks in them, some of the business are still there (like the car lot across from the church), and the early 1800-s homes are there as well. The memories of riding my bike through the town made me want to go find a 26" 3-speed bike with "saddle bag style baskets" and see how fast I could race other bikes or see who could jump the farthest off a ramp in the middle of the road.

When I arrived at the church and got out of my truck, I found myself just standing there by the building, soaking in the sights, letting the memories fill my brain. I was greeted there at the door by someone who asked if it was my first time there. How awkward do you think it was to give an answer - "Well, sort of, it's been 35 years."
I went inside, and walking up to the Sanctuary made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It's been modernize a bit (screen on the wall for projection, a small praise band to get the Service kicked off, carpeting where I remember wooden floors, a section made into a "cry room", etc.). The only thing that maybe "bothered" me was that it was missing a stained glass window that I remember looking at all of the time, but as it turns out, the church is having it refurbished. Awesome.
The usher was a nice lady, and greeted me with her name and asked me my name and if I was new to the area or visiting. Again, the awkward-answer time. But this time, as I introduced myself, her face started to change, and it turns out that she remembers my family and me from those 35 or so years ago. Then as we were talking, she introduced me to their newly-appointed Pastor, and then as he commented on his possible "calling" as a kid (my "possible calling" was at that church, standing at the pulpit, as the narrator of the Kids' Christmas Program one year), he decided to mention it as he was introducing visitors. It was obvious that he doesn't "point out" specific visitors, but it was a great witness and ministry moment for the church, not to mention that another woman had overheard us talking, and yelled out across the Sanctuary about the "35-year" part, so I think it put the Pastor "on the spot" a bit.
Being in worship there was interesting. The memories of sitting there listening to the Pastor, of being the Acolyte, of the sights and sounds, especially of the KC-135 Refueling Jets form the nearby Air National Guard Base flying nearby. Where I was sitting (near the window that was where the "temporary window" is for the refurbishing), you couldn't help but notice the jets flying by... I noticed at least 3 or 4 during the Service.
After the Service was interesting as well. I went down into the Fellowship Hall area into a space where I remember having Sunday School, and where the Youth Fellowship was once held (it's now the Prayer Room, and Youth meets in another room).
Afterwards, I drove through the neighborhood I once lived in there in Groveport, as well as by the schools I went to (Glendenning Elem and Groveport Middle School).

Sometimes, the world gets to be too fast, and we forget the simple time... riding our bikes to the DQ, playing ball in the backyards, sitting on the swing set, seeing who could swing the highest...

What's your memory? What would it take to just stop the running around of the daily routine and go back and do it?

If you know the Bible, do you know "Acts"?

One week down, one more to go. And the most instersting parts haven't always been the learning 'inside' the classes, but when something in the classes has reminded me of 'outside' of the class.

Comedian Craig Shoemaker made a couple of very interesting FB posts back in June (used with his permission)...

• "right column on fb reminds me my anniversary is in 3 weeks, then prompting me to send my wife a message. if i have to send my love a note thru facebook, forgetting my wedding date is the least of my concerns"
• "att phone brags u can talk & surf at the same time. 4g ads race download against a car. another phone u can text a girl out, get response in 2 secs on a ski lift...really?...we're connected to everything, but one another"

How is it that we've become a society that can connect with people through media so much that we need reminders to tell us things, yet we can't take a moment to simply go face-to-face with someone and say HI or "How's it going with you?" Then, people in church complain because we never see anyone to invite to church.

How is all of this possible?

If you read the Book of Acts, you'll see that the disciples didn't wait for people to come to them - they went to the people!

Maybe we "rethink" all of this modern technology and how we use it, and then look in our history books at how people did this amazing things in days-gone-by...they walked down the street, said "hi" to the people in their neighborhood (because they knew them BECAUSE they walked through the neighborhood), and offer a hand when we see someone needing it, instead of seeing how fast they could zoom by in their cars or instead of having their noses plastered to a smartphone screen.

Do you ever think of what God is thinking when He sees us using our thumbs for nothing more now than texting?

Ya just gotta laugh at that!

Proverbs 17:22A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. (NLT)

The start of Course of Study always seems to be a stressful time for me, yet I don't know why. After all, the preclass work is in, I have some assignments due, but there is time to get them done, and if I have questions, the intructoris are right here to answer questins, and the Spiritual Enrichment time is always nice (especially here at MTSO).
But maybe I'm "high strung".

• I get worried about what my papers will have written on it, even though I can't do anything about it, or if I DO have to do a re-write, then the instuctor will write what he/she is looking for, and it's just a matter of going into the document in the computer and editing it.
• I find myself always watching the time, even though there is MORE then enough time to get to wherever I need to be.
• I'm worrying about having enough reference materials to do some assignments, even though I've brought plenty of books, AND the seminary has a well-stocked library!

So as you see, I have to find a "release", and so mine is usually laughter. The source of the laughter is from different things. Sometimes it's a quote from something someone said, maybe from an effective prank or practical joke, or as we found out today in one of my classes before it started, comparing different ringtones on cellphones (it's amazing how many apps are out there for ringtones!)

As our Evangelism instructor said, you HAVE to have a sense of humor in church. You also have to be able to have a sense of humor in life. If you can't laugh at yourself, then you can only bring down your spirit, which will only drag you down in many ways.
Even thinking about the movie "Patch Adams", and the reference to laughter releasing endorphines (which I have read somewhere is true), laughter also helps our physical health.

So next time you're having "one of those day", stop and think of something to laugh at. Maybe it's a quote from a social netowrking post, or maybe it's how you bumped into a pole while walking down the hallway at your office, or maybe you just need to pull out your cellphone and pull up that silly music and play it to see how many people will look at you with that weird "huh" face.

How open can we be for Christ?

During our time here at school, one of the things that have been taught and repeated to us are the questions that John Wesley would ask people, such as "How is it with your soul?"

I've have to admit that I've managed to skirt around the question because of some internal struggles that I've been fighting for a few days now. It's nothing horrible or bad, but it's just something that I can't get in to... to try to explain it would mean going to another story which would lead to another and to another... you get the idea?

So then I remember some things that I've learned, especially last year (although I have to admit, sometimes things don't always sink in until later with me...). First, but not in importance (just getting it out of the way), I'm 46, and already a grandpa. So, why should I worry so much about what other people think or do to the point that it will cause me heartache and/or pain?
Secondly, refering to Luke 17, wherever Jesus is, there is the kingdom of God. So, if one allows the worries to push out the more important things, then are we allowing room for Christ?
(Also, there are scriptural references reering to not worrying, but for now, I'm just going to stick with my thoughts instead of looking up all of the verses - Thx)

In the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10), Martha was so busy trying to make everything right, while Mary sat at Jesus' feet. Who would be the better of the two?
Martha couldn't take time to be with Christ, while Mary took the time to be with the Savior.

Maybe we need to realize that it's OK, ALRIGHT, FINE, GOOD, or whatever word one chooses, to stop and let God take control, instead of letting someone or something else try to control us.

God bless and good night.

What's "Easy"?

I have just completed my 2nd day of Summer 2011 COS classes, and I'm finding that things aren't always as hard as something might seem. The class assignments that are coming up due aren't really too bad, and reminding myself of my Ethics Instructor from last Spring - "Don't make it harder than what it is"... But of course, I don't always think like that - darn it. LOL

This reminds me of a comment made at the 2011 Nebraska Annual Conference by Gil Rendle - we've made things for our lives to make life simplier, but in doing so, we're taking up more time and energydo make life easy and simple. For example - to make a cellphone call, it was a simple "flip open the phone and dial the number." Now, you have to unlock the screen, find the "phone dialer" screen, search your contacts, and then select if you want to call, message or in the case of smartphones, conect via the internet, with the person.
I would concede that somethings do make life nicer, such as a GPS... its nice to be able to have quick directions and an ETA to my destination, but even GPS units aren't foolproof... They will send a peron in all different routes, only to find out later that all one had to do is turn a block down the road and drive straight down a street.

Now here we are, seeing how 'easy' we can make church, only to make things harder for some...
Maybe we should take a look at our friends, family, and neighbors, and go back to the old fashion way - go and say hi, and if they don't have a church home, invite them to worship and fellowship with you. If they do have a church home, then great - you now know something more about your neighbor =)

What is our needs and wants?

As I'm getting ready to go to bed and reflecting on the day, the one thing that came to mind was the conversations of our responsibilities of our needs and wants... what do we really need to have, and what do we think we want? For example, do we think we need to have everything the same way in our churches, or do we just want to keep things the same way as they've been for 50 years? (A thought from my Evangelism class).
Then, as I'm typing this, I'm seeing a commercial for 50M Internet speed... FIFTY!!
I'm tickled pink just to have FIVE at my home!

And as my dad pointed out with his getting rid of the DVR from his and mom's home - it saves money, and in the case of most of the shows they like to watch, they can catch the rerun the next week before the new epidsode comes on.

Are we becoming SO BAD in our wants that we can't see what is already right in front of us? People think that things 'need' to be a certain way, but 'want' to do other things - like wanting to see a church grow, but not wanting to make changes in the way that the people do their ministry or evangalism.
And what makes me laugh is how some people can't even admit it... I know of how someone once said that they didn't own a computer so they couldn't send emails - had no use for it... OK then, but if you're going to say that, then don't go on social network sites.LOL

The point is that if we truly "need" something, then we have to do what's necessary to do what's needed, even if we might not like "taking our medicine".
If we "want" something, is it really something that we "MUST have", and what are we willing to sacrifice to have it?

Is it REALLY a need, or is it just a want?

Honesty; First day of SUM 2011 COS classes

Honesty is defined as "fairness and straightforwardness of conduct, or an adherence to the facts".
I make that statement because I've found that as the paths of people always intertwine, facts and figures get brought up, and the opportunity to confirm information becomes available.
Why is it that people would rather spread stories about a situation instead of visiting the person or going to find out if the facts are true. Just a little bit ago, I found out the facts about something from a year ago, as well as worked to squash a rumor from a month ago. Ugh!

Enough about that - Now to something else...I've made it through my first day of this round of Course of Study classes.
My first class is "New Testament II", with John Lepp, the same instructor that I had for New Testament I last year. Dr. Lepp is a blast. He's really smart on Wesley's writings as well, and so he mixes it all together with the New Testament writings. Sometimes it can make one's head spin, but all-in-all, it's actually very informative.
My other class is "Our Mission from God - Evangelism" with Joclyn Roper. She's good at making class a "conversation" instead of a lecture, just as Lepp can as well. She's also very informed on Evangelism through the Bible, as well as peoples' life experiences. Dr. Roper also holds some positions to where she was able to clear up some questions that I had that created some stress last year. Even though my Bishop could tell me some facts of an incident, Dr. Roper could tell me firsthand how everything had happened... to which made some people look like fools last year.

That brings me back to honesty. Some people seem to like to "spout" what they think is the "truth", yet when the facts are given to them, they want to do the "la la la" or "if I don't see it, it doesn't exist" game.

We all have a responsibility to give the facts to people, and not try to cover the facts with our own personal beliefs. Sometimes, we have to agree to disagree.