March break !!

Wow March break is now history for 2005 and has now been stored in a place called memory.

While away I attended a BIG Church ( attendance of 600+ ) .
When this happens , for the first 15 minutes every thing I see and hear is filtered through a basket in my brain called the small church standard.

Then with that done on with the service.

But after all is said and done there are some things that I appreciate in the smaller church - we don't have The casual atmosphere where people can drink coffee and praise the Lord for there is some reverence to the sanctuary.

And yes I think Hymns and hymn books are still a Good Thing . I love the new stuff as well !
What I like to have is a good mix of both.

And people Reading their own bible is good - while power point is cool.

But no matter what I think when we are back in the car - this is the church my kids want to Go to.
it's exciting to them - the classes are bigger and more fun.

And the city has more to offer than the village we live in and the town we are next to,
it would be great to live there or some big place.

And so the very option that has bounced around in the heads of people who have left the smaller church's TO THE BIGGER ONES'S 'for good of their families' -
has landed in my court should a person leave for the good of their family.
( now there is no one calling me to leave ) but its a option that often bounces around and for a moment makes me think.


Later

Easter time...

It is now just days away from the opening of Fishing season ! And to add to this excitement the ice is slowly melting off the lakes and giving us back the wonderful picture of open blue water.

Its Easter Time and as usually I take the Wednesday and Thursday nights before Good Friday to have services of reflection - in the past we have recreated what the last supper would of consisted of and this is really cool.
This years theme is the cross - but as I talk with other pastor buddies I find that they DON'T take the extra time to reflect on the Easter message as I believe we should.
If we as the church don't take the message of Easter seriously why then would the world.
Just think this was an event that Jesus would not have missed yet we miss the significance of it by allowing all kinds of events to squeeze Easter from the place of significance to just a date on the calendar.

Later

100 %

Some weeks are but one long yawn of boredom and others are like speed, and these last two weeks have been anything but boring ! I knew at the outset of this week it was time for the church to have THE Pastoral Vote ! While I knew there were no problems looming , I have learned by now that one must always be ready for the unexpected , with out any hint of disapproval on the part of our church people they voted for me to stay on as their Pastor at 100% which is cool.
So here I am with 6 years behind us and at least as many more ahead ... And what will I due to meet this challenge simple Pray more , seek God, improve what I have been doing and seek to help People grow more like Christ and see people converted To Jesus.

And start planning this years fishing season that starts April 1 which is now just days away.

Later

NHL church basement style...

Living in a parsonage attached to the church has its rewards (sometimes ) like a perfect basement that can be turned into ( by the help of some imagination ) a NHL rink ! Who needs big salaries when a table a big brother / little sister and dad can pass the evening away playing Hockey , all that's needed is a passion to play ! driven by a love for the game.

Passion is a great gift we give to our selves and others I think.
My church is just 15 min from one our Districts Mega church's and when I talk to people from there they seem amazed that a church can run on 50 instead of 600-700 people.

So what makes us run, well it was in full force just a little while ago, its our passion, not serving Christ with a lot of big league perks but passionately serving Christ For the Love of our relationship with Him.

Later

It was almost like C.S.I.

The past Sunday night after a full day of church that included my D. S. For one service and a bible college group singing at night later on there was a call at 10:30 pm from a lady asking if I would go and check on her husband who had not been answering the phone.
So ... Off I went with two other church men to see where this gentleman was - when we got in through a locked door and searched the house we found him in bed - there since Friday night. With my cell phone I called 911 and requested a ambulance and police to come. The ambulance came first and declared that the man had passed away - to which I called his wife who was visiting her son out west and told here the very sad news. ( and this was never covered in college ! ) then we waited for the police - you know they don't come as quickly like on C.S.I - oh well !
When they came in they had no kits like the shows , just a camera and note pad...
And while we waited for some one to come and transport the body our conversations didn't radiate around what had happened we just discussed things like home made bread small talk I guess.
While I am a great fan of csi it is more entertaining than real life and to this I hope that our church for those who come find us more real life than entertaining because the entertained is a little disappointing when life hurts and you need real strength and help.

Later