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Greetings Y’all–
Just wanted to share with you a link on itunes to a single that was recently released by a friend of mine from Southern Adventist University, Joey Tolbert. This is just the single, her album is being released March 1st. Joey and I got to know each other and became friends our first year at Southern because we worked for the same couple, her cleaning the house and me doing the yard work. Later Joey’s future husband, Matt, and I toured around the country for 4 1/2 months, with 5 other gents, doing ministry. Then Matt and I were flat mates and Rook competitors. I know a lot of information you didn’t care about, but if I personalize this you may go pay .99 cents to buy her song 🙂 And hopefully after that the album.
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” –Exodus 20:12
I was just thinking about this text last night. My Dad and I went to an individuals house to give a Bible Study, which is really awesome that I get that experience with my Dad. After the study we sat in my driveway for about an hour just talking. I came inside and this text popped into my head, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long…” I didn’t think about it because I had been disrespectful or dishonoring to him. I realized my dad is a lot smarter than me, not intellectually though probably that too, but experientially. That text popped into my head and I felt God impressing upon my heart to listen to honor my Dad’s counsel because his wisdom would help me avoid some pitfalls in life, thus reducing my stress, and thus hopefully I will live longer as a result. Suddenly I realized honoring is not just about being kind and respectful. It is more than just being obedient while a child. It is a lifelong commitment to honoring their counsel, the legacy God is using them to help direct us into.
I know that not everyone has a Dad or Mom. Or not everyone is blessed with the relationship with their Dad or Mom that I am. To those folk I would encourage you to do this, go seek out someone that is older than you someone with more life experience. Even if you are 40 or 50 I am sure there is someone that is 60 or 70 that could throw some counsel into your life. I think you would be surprised at how many great people are out there willing to speak words that we need to honor into our lives, if we would just listen!
I am blessed beyond words to have my Mom and Dad as two of my best friends. But I also have a significant number of other folk that I ask and invite into my life to give me counsel that will help me to live a long and blessed life.
Our church has recently faced two challenges, challenges that are a sign of God’s blessing, but challenges none the less. The first challenge our sanctuary was reaching the 80% capacity and in church growth that is a dangerous number. The 80% rule of church growth is that, if your church reaches 80% capacity rather than growing all the way to 100% a church will in fact begin to decline. Our second challenge was that we were having a number of families that were attending our church and looking for a place to put their kids while they attended the main worship service. These families were typically unchurched and or from Sunday churches that provide child care during the worship service, either way we saw the need to minister to these families and to remove all barriers that would keep us from doing so.
So what did we do to meet each of these challenges? At first we were only focused on the challenge of space. We went back and forth debating the need for a second service. We prayed about this, planned for it, then backed off. We prayed, planned, backed off. We just didn’t see that we were quite ready to make this leap! It was during one of these planning sessions that we looked at model where one service was “family style worship” (meaning the entire family attends the worship together) and the second service provided a children’s church so that there would be options for families. As we were looking at this model we began to also think about our second challenge, ministering to families who were not comfortable or acquainted with “family style worship.” We realized at that point that on any given Sabbath (Saturday) we have roughly 50-80 kids attending our church, if we began a children’s church to meet our second challenge this would also meet the needs of our first challenge.
Well at the beginning of February we began our new Children’s Church. What has happened? Both of our challenges have for the time been met and removed. About 30 kids have been in our children’s church (ages 2-8) along with our nursery this has met the needs of about 40 kids each week, and the families that desire to take advantage of these ministries. One of our members contacted me this week and shared with me that a colleague of his was wanting to visit our church, but was wondering what they could do with their kids. This member was wondering what week we were going to have children’s church? I was happy to tell him that his co-worker could come on any week and find a place to send their kids.
Our second challenge is being met because we have now gone from bumping up against the 80% capacity mark to being closer to 56% of capacity, which means we can continue to grow without worry of beginning to decline.
We have killed two birds with one stone. What challenges does your church face and are you proactively looking for ways to overcome those challenges so that the Kingdom of God will grow and be glorified?
So the latest thing is to have flash mob’s, if you don’t know what those are check out wikipedia. Well recently at my Alma Mater Southern Adventist University there was a flash mob to celebrate a gift the student’s gave to charity. Also at the end our President Gordon Bietz is the guy with the crazy hair (an example of why he gets standing ovations from the student body of Southern each year), I think I even saw our chaplain Brennon Kirstein in this crazy celebration. Now this isn’t the greatest flash mob ever but I cut them some slack, we are Adventist and no one ever taught us how to move or lift up our hands! Enjoy and I love my school!
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” –Exodus 20:11
Exodus 20:11 points us back to creation, back to the institution of the Sabbath,
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” –Genesis 2: 2, 3.
This text reminds us that the Sabbath is not some arbitrary law. It’s establishment was not at Mount Sinai when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, but rather was a part of God’s original plan before sin ever entered the world. The Sabbath is as Holy as the establishment of unity between one man and one woman at the beginning of time. The commandment is simply a reminder to all mankind to worship the creator on His holy day.
On December 17, 2002 I asked this beautiful woman to be my valentine and more than 8 years later she still is my beautiful valentine. She is now also the valentine and amazing mother to our two boys. Jesus has blessed this home and we thank Him for loving us first so that we have the capacity to love one another!