And the next weekend..

Now we're getting in to some very touchy things. No long trips. No hotel stays. No shopping. Just some more very new and very special pastoral duties to perform.

You see the previous weekend I went to Dallas to visit a very special member of our church and his family. Well unfortunately that church member passed just a few days later. This was a giant of a man in our church and in the church in general. He was a business leader, a philanthropist, a tireless worker in our church up until he drove himself to Dallas. He sang in the choir, took care of money, has done just about anything you could do in the church. A patriarch.

Here's little ole me..just did my first funeral on a 16 hours notice. Now I was being asked to do another just a week later.

I got a lot of input from the family. They were a joy to visit with. I got input from my friends and former co pastors. I did visitation at the funeral home Friday night...then I spent a little time at the Lufkin Panther game.... then I went home, stayed up till about 1:00 a.m. and put together what I hoped would be a message that would honor this man and a message that would please his family and friends.

I was never really very nervous. I had so many of YOU praying for me. I also had a great man to speak about. A rich and full life and a joyous family that shared their love with me.

No doubt. Many people in the church were not sure just how well this green, part-time pastor would do. I did have that other funeral you know...but I didn't write the message for that. That one I was blessed to use the message of my co-pastor..who was suffering from double pneumonia.

So I got up Saturday, went through it a few times. Went up to the church to visit family at their brunch, came back home, put on my not so seldom worn suit and headed back to church.

It was a wonderful service. The singing was great. He loved to sing so I know that would have pleased him. I did what I was supposed to do and then we had a brief reception after.

From the feedback of those there I think I did ok. Something more happened there though. And this may be more inside me than anything that was thought by everyone else in church. I actually felt like I WAS their pastor now. I felt like I had served in an important pastoral role to someone much older than me and that part of the church community now saw me a little differently.. that was probably more my own perception than anything else. But even if it was...it was a nice feeling.

Home and some rest... Up and to church the next morning. It's 8:45 and our guest pastor has not arrived. We had some announcements that morning..and they went a little long.. and I was ok with that. We also started just a few minutes late..that was on purpose. We still didn't have a pastor once I had done communion and so it was time for a message. I had been rolling ideas around in my head all morning in case our guest pastor didn't arrive.

I read the scripture..

Matthew 9

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

¹Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. ²Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."

³At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"

⁴Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? ⁵Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? ⁶But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." ⁷And the man got up and went home. ⁸When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

I said a short prayer...and fortunately we didn't have much time left..but I gave a short message.. and nothing that I had planned (in the last 40 minutes) came out of my mouth.. my message went to a place about the discussion of "which is easier" I've always wondered which is easier but hadn't thought it through. Now the Holy Spirit was walking me through. You see I had always thought it would be so easy to say "your sins are forgiven". I know I couldn't tell someone who couldn't walk to get up and walk... and make it happen. But I could always tell someone their their sins are forgiven. Then I started thinking about our modern technology and how we can heal so many things now that so many years ago would have killed us. We have computers and machines and advanced knowledge way beyond those days. We can heal people and make them walk but we are still fragile, imperfect, human beings. What is easier for us to do? Is it easier to heal a man or to forgive a man? So we are called to forgive. but it is difficult isn't it? It's also healthy for us.. for the others as well as ourselves. I said some other stuff but the part that truly enlightened me was that I finally learned what Jesus was meaning about it was easier to heal than to forgive sins... to for give those who sin against us.

Our guest pastor showed up in time for late church. We had a great service. A few hours later I gave the message and led music for the youth that evening. So...it was another busy but blessed weekend.

What's next weekend? Maybe I'll let you know.. after... got to go to bed.

Wow..what a weekend..

well..it started with the fact that we now have one full time pastor on staff... then..
A long time member of our church had a heart attack and had surgery and got very sick.
Another long time member of our church passed away.
Another church family member was having surgery.

I talked the situation over with Kathy..our only full time pastor and we thought it might be a good idea for me to go to Dallas and pay a visit to our church family member that had the heart issues. Kathy was handling a funeral and going to visit our member having surgery.. First I was going to make a day of it..run up there and back...Since Donna was out of town and all I have is a hot, un-air conditioned pick-up truck I thought..hmm might be fun to go with my son and then we could take that new nissan cube.. with a/c. I also checked in with my daughter to see if she might like to have a lunch or brunch with me/us but she was busy going to Tyler and couldn't make it.. oh well..

Spoke to Austin but he had to work Saturday afternoon. I decided to get a hotel Friday night to make the trip less hard and we could bum around together a little along with making the visit to our church friend.

He made arrangements to get off work Saturday night and he thought he'd be through around 6:30 Friday and we could leave then.. sounds like a nice relaxing Saturday with my son..

A party shows up at the FUMC CLC that they thought had cancelled their party.. but I guess they didn't...so he had to stay late.. I went to FCC and moved some things around to make room for Jinx to play on Sunday morning.. I then went to FUMC to help my son move things around so he could leave..

and I didn't plan on this part...but that whole moving red padded chairs around in the gym became an amazing spiritual flashback moment for me that night... hundreds of times I moved those chairs around to set up for Upward Basketball on Saturday morning (we didn't have bleachers) and move them around again to set up for church (Center Court Service) in that same gym. A long time ago I said that gym smelled like Jesus...still does smell like Jesus to me!!

Anyway..the unplanned working late got us out of Lufkin around 9:30 and it was raining. Not fun to drive in. We stopped a couple of times to eat and to wake up etc.. of course I'm doing some twitter/fb posts along the way and my daughter calls me to see if we can have breakfast together Saturday morning since we're coming up Friday night. OK...

I finally get in bed around 2 a.m...

I'm up around 6:30 to try and find out if I had decent service at the Ex and to see if I need to be on a conf call.. and I'm groggy and not moving too fast but we finally get going and pick Hannah up around 10 and have a brunch..well really just an early lunch.. then we drop her off for a meeting she has to go to at 11 and we head back to Dallas...FYI.. DFW does not fully impart how far apart the D and the FW are.. especially in rain and slow traffic.

We go and have a great visit with our church family at Baylor... we then decide that we need to find puma shoes.. we drive around Dallas for a while and finally get to the Galleria... we eat there and the Genghis Grill and it was great. One bowl filled us up.. I know it's just a dollar more for the all you can eat but we had all we could eat.. we hang around go to a couple of stores and it looks like the puma shopping is going to be a zero.. I mean we were leaving the mall and I decided to google puma's and the finish line (which we had never heard of) has them.. we go find it and Austin gets these.

We finally head out of Dallas for L-town and drive in more rain. By the way the cube drives great..rides pretty nice and handled the crappy weather very well. We roll in to Lufkin about 9 and I find out our only full time pastor...Pastor Kathy...has the flu.. Sunday morning was not an issue..really except now I was going to have to get up earlier.. but I now had a funeral to do too. My first one ever..

Up early Sunday..wishing I was still in bed... church was great in both services. I went home and read over some notes.. put on my seldom worn suit and performed my first funeral.. it was a blessing to be there and I was glad I got to be a part of that family's celebration of life.

Then home..sat still for a few minutes then went and did music for the youth.. got done around 8:00 p.m....

and then...do you ever get so tiered and keyed up you can't go to sleep? I was up past midnight.

Ugh!!!! and when that alarm went off this morning I did NOT want to get out of bed...I drug my self out.. a little late and got to the Ex around 7.

I am looking so forward to a quiet restful evening tonight...maybe even a nap when I get home. It was a great weekend.. no doubt about it... but hope I don't have any more like it in a while. I do need a day off now and then.

Rule of Life

As a licensed minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) I have an educational component that I have to complete each year. This year that educational piece was spiritual formation. It was taught by Dr. Tim Hessel-Robinson from Brite divinity school at TCU.

It has been a very good class this year and has challenged me as well as convicted me. I had 3 books to read. Soul Feast, Thirsty for God and Practicing our Faith. As I read them in many ways I felt so insufficient in my spiritual walk. A few years ago as a lay person I was very devoted to reading the bible and doing bible studies and had a rich, full prayer life. As my plate became more full as a part-time pastor I began reading other spiritual books but my bible reading stopped. My prayer life was still there but not as strong.

As time went on and some work challenges increased my reading came to a halt and my prayer life became more random. I've really not been very focused spiritually over the last couple of years.. Throw in a Disciples history class with a ton of reading last year and my spiritual disciplines came to a halt...

Enter spiritual formation class. I knew it was something I needed but my life had a bad routine and it was not something that was going to be easy to get back in to. I didn't even get the first book read before the first class.

This discussions in class were very good. I enjoyed how Tim led each class like a worship service. It made it different and cast a completely different atmosphere over the situation had he not done so. We had 3 classes through the year. The first one focusing on personal spirituality, the second on community (church/SS etc), and the third focused on social engagement (justice etc).

As we moved through the class I was really feeling my spirit drawn back to a set of spiritual disciplines like I used to hang on to a few years ago..but I just wouldn't make the jump.

The last session began with some awesome discussions on earth care. It is to much to discuss here (may blog on it more later) but it gets my heart beating thinking about it again right now. Here are some links..

http://www.greenfaith.org/
http://www.webofcreation.org/
http://www.earthministry.org/
http://renewalproject.org/

So then we go in to the afternoon session and we go back to that first book that I never finished.. called Soul Feast.. and we go to the end and Tim begins discussing a Rule of Life. They discuss it in Chapter 9 of the book. "A rule of life is a pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness."Marjorie Thompson (author) has some examples of rules of life different people have had. Different things that they do. Tim then asks us to put together our own rule of life to begin on Monday..

Dang.. just what I needed and just what I was not prepared to do on my own. Groups of us at tables put together our own rules and discussed them with each other and then we discussed them in the class for all to hear.

This is what I came up with.

Rule of Life for Artie

Daily
Morning
Get up and walk for 30-45 minutes
15 minutes of prayer
15 minutes of reading
clean up and go to work
be sure and listen to some spiritual music during the day.

Evening
30 minutes of reflection/meditation/prayer

Weekly- Some kind of recreation -softball, racquetball, dancing, biking, bowling, hiking, whatever but something that moves and is fun.

Quarterly-
24 hours of silence and fasting
serve at cisc, love inc., or other charitable organization
find something I can change about my life to make it more green and do it daily.

Annually-
Emmaus walk or other spiritual retreat
Mission trip

Tim told us to type it up with fancy letters on nice paper and frame it and post it someplace where we would see it daily...in our office, home etc. He also told us to not make it a burden.. it is a framework to live in to create a rhythm for living and spiritual growth.

He also told us that we should try what we put down for a couple of weeks then tweak it and make sure it works for us.

Well I've been at it for a week so far. It has been hard getting up at 5:00 a.m. and beginning my walk.. I've had some late nights and I've hit the snooze and put me a little behind. I've traded a few minutes of sleep for a few minutes of prayer/meditation a couple of mornings but I know I can also do that on the road with God as well.

The toughest part has been the evening time of reflection/meditation and prayer. Too much going on around the house and too much going on in my life it seems. I may have to re-think this part.. either that or just make it a little shorter but I'm going to work on it for another couple of weeks before I adjust.

I've also got to give myself a little time to get over my jet lag or whatever you want to call it. I get in to a sleepy funk every time we do a time change so this has been much like this.. so it hasn't been easy...but I guess if it was, everyone would do it. Well that sounded kind of arrogant..didn't mean for it too. How about this.. If it were easy it really wouldn't be a sacrifice.

So overall, living in to the rule has been good so far and I'm looking forward to my quarterly activities. I really appreciate the fact that Dr. Hessel-Robinson came and taught our licensed minister classes this year. It was a real blessing. He did a lot to enrich my life and the lives of others in the class.

It also got me walking more...7 1/2 miles last week. Big change from weeks before. Kinda holistic I think.. thanks Tim!! Very much!!

Catching you up...

I hope I don't make this too long but here's what's been up lately..

Friday Octoboer 17th.. drive to Conroe to do some work around my in-laws house.. almost hit a deer and scared the crap out of everyone.

Saturday October 18th.. Clean out my wife's aunt's house and get stuff for the 2nd "Send Hannah to Rome" garage sale (see pic of truck for our spoils).

Sunday October 19th.. Breif worship confessional..

Rain Down

To Every Nation

You Never Let Go

Communion-Come Ye Sinners

Went home, ate lunch, took a nap, drove to Fort Worth...Hannah did most of the driving on this trip..


, ate at Uncle Julio's with Donna, Hannah and Katie Anderson.. yeah. a table full of Andersons... but not all mine.

Monday October 20th.. Spent the morning hanging out with Katie on the TCU campus as she showed us around. Ate Lunch at Fuzzies and saw Nikolee Beyers (our super awesome student intern from last summer).

Saw Aaron Marez that morning too and he did our orientation meeting.. that was cool.

Hung out around the college of communications that afternoon and took a tour and saw Brittany Brookshire Adams.. she gave us all big hugs and we hugged her back and she introduced Hannah to her class.. that was cool. Also looked around the radio, TV, film department and that's where Hannah would like to study.. heck so would I.. looked pretty fun.

Drove back to Lufkin then drove (by myself) to Waco to do Fortune 100 transportation work.. hit a deer east of Marlin. No one hurt.. including the deer I think.. the PT Cruiser got a little damage though.

Tuesday Oct 21st.. Worked in Waco, age at Rudy's that night. Stopped at Sonic and got a sonic blast.. shot the last needed video I have to do to complete my half of the Todd and Artie eats video.. now if I could just get time to put it all on a CD and ship it to you.

Wednesday Oct 22nd.. worked in Waco that morning and drove back to rehearse for drug court entertainment.

Thursday Oct 23rd.. Worked that day then did entertainment for Judge White's drug court and drug court graduation at our Fellowship Hall. We did:

Unclouded Day

I'll Fly Away

Everything (Caraway, Anderson, et. al.)

The Road to Recovery (Muchow)

Friday Oct 24th Worked and went to the first half of the LP/University Park game (the half with no score).

Saturday Oct 25th Learned "Audience of One" by Big Daddy Weave and "Give me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. Cleaned House..moved all of Hannah's garage sale stuff out of the guest room in to the "media room" (that's a future name for what is now a junk room). Did laundry, practiced Audience of One with Shawn Reith. Hung out with Cory Glover and many of his friends who came in for his Ordination that occured Sunday night. Tell him he needs to blog. Went home early because I had to get up early for church..

Sunday Oct 26th.. video worship confessional and more..

Yes.. our wallpaper is coming off the wall in our bedroom... we'll be fixing that some day soon.

And that's a PBJ..yes I ate it right after shooting that vid.

Oh and by the way. We had myself on Acoustic Guitar and Amanda Hutchinson on bass..that was our whole band.. We had several singers and thank you Scott Skelton, Tara Watson, Bill Malnar and Tina Peavey for being there along with Amanda..

You can see the video of Cory's ordination here.

Monday Oct 27th..worked that day and vegged that night..watched some dvr'd shows and ate and skipped bible study.. I was too worn out. Forgive me.

Tuesday Oct 28th..worked at you know where that day and that night planned, scanned and e-mailed music for the next couple of weeks. I have even updated my sidebar here on my blog with the music that is planned for the next few weeks. I also went to the Goodiers to get more garage sale stuff for Hannah. I plan to head to the Tyson's Thursday and get their offerings to the Rome trip.

OK, my hands are cramping.. I think that's enough.

Liquid

Nikolee, our awesome summer youth intern, was in charge of worship Sunday night at "Liquid" our summer youth program. She used the the video below as a basis for her teaching.

I opened with one of my new favorite songs "The Twenty-first Time" by Monk and Neagle. She then had a student read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

I then sang "A Beautiful Collision" and then Nilolee began the video.

The video choked me up. I had never seen it before but it did a great job of telling stories about people who demanded change.. peaceful change.


She then began teaching on 1 Peter 5:2-11
The main message was obviously "how will we serve?" and "how can we change the world?". Her discussions was also about "what are our motivations in doing these things?"

Nikolee did a great job in teaching from the scripture and challenging and questioning the students on how and what they can do.

I then did "Rise" by Robbie Seay Band and "Surely we can Change" by Crowder.

She then had the students go outside and do chalk drawings regarding the teaching. From looking at the drawings.. I think she got the point across.

Music

I know that a key part of my ability to lead worship in my church is to listen to and find new music... or is it???? I have been a song writer in the past but it was something that just happened. The Lord inspired me, gave me words regarding scripture, things that were happening in my life, etc. It was not something that I sat down and did like a job. Well there were a few times when Chris Caraway and other friends (David McElveen, Tom Baker (T), Annie Gipson, etc..I hope no one gets mad) and I sat down with the intention to write a song...about a play we had in mind doing or for a group of new confirmands but so many times it was just something that came to me. It was usually when I had some time alone. I also know listening to music influences the ability to write.

Long drives to meetings... back when I used to have to go out and deliver (thank God that doesn't happen any more) those were times when I seemed to be blessed with inspiration from God. It put me in a habit of driving whith my radio or CD player OFF. My mind and my heart would reflect on God and God's work.

I've also been a person that usually does not listen to more than 3 or 4 artists at a time. When I was young(er)... ZZ TOP, Jimmy Buffett, Jerry Jeff Walker. Not a ton of chart topping musicians there in that group.. at least not when I started listening to them. But that was pretty much the 3 artists I listened to in college... throw in some Foreigner, Van Halen, SRV, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Gary P. Nunn...oh yes.. I did have my infatuation with E.L.O. for a while too, but most of the time I listen to just 3 or 4 groups/artists at a time.

Then comes MTV (yes I am pre MTV) and ZZ TOP becomes huge. I hear not too long ago that Jimmy Buffett is some kind of huge country music star and has actually put out an award winning song. JJW is still not a huge star although he has written a huge song (Mr. Bojangles)..yeah he wrote it.

With all of that, I usually listen to any of their older stuff... that's what happens to people that are not young(er) any more. I listen to K-FOX now and again to hear what the students listen to but it really doesn't sink in... (I do love "Hey There Delilah").. I know it's old and stuff but the melody and the chorus just says I love you like I want to say I love you to my wife.. ahh.. go ahead, make fun of me... anyway......

With all this, it makes it hard for me...at least it is against my nature... to listen to a lot of music. I savor music. I hear things the 23rd time that I didn't hear the first 22. I listened to Third Day's "Offerings" CD a lot... and I mean a lot before "Love Song" suddenly kicked me in the gut and had me crying as I was driving down the road. I like listening to contemporary christian music. I like worship music. I liked Crowder when hardly anyone listened to him.. years before he was on the radio. I like Mercy Me.. not near as much as I used to. They haven't done anything to me.. it's not their fault. I loved them before they were signed to a label and were gigantumongous rock stars. But I still love to listen to "Worship Project" a lot. I love listening to my old passion CD's.. a lot. They still make me feel closer to God. I love Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman. Heck I still listen to Among Thorns.

By the way this would be an appropriate time for me to give credit to Chris Caraway for turning me on to all this great stuff before hardly anyone else knew who they were. Thank you Chris!

All this leads to a couple of things....

Does worship music get old? It seems that worship leaders are always looking for and gobbling up new worship music like it was mom's apple pie. I realize the need for fresh music but I get intimidated by the fact that I like to do music that is 5 to 10 years old and I look at other worship leaders song sets and I don't do anything like they do.

How do I do a better job of finding new fresh music without putting my congregation in to culture shock? I still love Crowder... most of his stuff works at youth and I do love some of his slower stuff for the main service but no doubt there is a lot that is not doable for me in my main church setting. I have subcribed (as you can see from my "listening to" blocks to the right over there) to vineyards music club to try and help me expand my horizons a little but I have to say... with a 4 minute ride to work each morning and a 4 minute ride home... a full and I mean FULL time job at FedEx along with my part time duties at my church. I have a hard time digesting new music... (remember how long it takes me to get in to some music...most music... I bring up Third Day's "Love Song" again). How do I find new stuff to do without turning it in to a detestable excercise that makes me want to turn my radio "off" and listen to God in the quiet of it all??? Or the road noise of it all?

Anyway.. I want to know more, but it's also against my nature and the way I operate. I mean look at traditional worship!! They have books folks. 600 something pages of stuff they do over and over and over...and usually do only a small section of that.

My life is "rich and full" as I like to say which means I'm buried most days. I don't want my listening pleasures.. what few I have... to turn in to drudgery. I like doing "Not to Us" and "Let it Come", "Forever", "Sweet Wind" and "It's all about You (Jesus, Lover of my Soul) with a "Rain Down" thrown in there for a little spice. (Rain Down is actually an old song too... but was re-released on Crowder's "Remedy" CD.. I love it!!)

Thoughts???

Disciples History Class

Last week I completed a class that fulfills one of my requirements as a licensed minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was a Disciples History class that was very similar to the same class that seminary students take if they attend Bright Divinity School at TCU. In fact Cory Glover took the class a year or so ago at Bright. Dr. Mark Toulouse who teaches the class at Bright gave us video lectures and a pile of reading to do. I hit the class with a vengeance and although I was very frustrated at times (because of all the reading that was required and I had lost my only real "sabbath" day to this class...more on that later) I stayed current with the assignments and kept up with readings and lectures...until Holy week. So much to do that week at church blew me out of the water on the class. I even had some other Saturday church responsibilities that slowed me even more. I am also a father of 2 and I had some dance competitions I had to go to support my daughter. All this led to a very minimalist approach to the last half of the course.

Of course future M.Div Glover told me that the class I was taking was 1/10th the reading and papers he had to do for his class (Look at Glover's blog and his summer reading list.. I hope I get through 2 books in a summer.. he's got like 47 up there so he could handle all that..) I heard through my Sr. Pastor that Dr. Toulouse said he had watered the class down as much as he could for the licensed ministers. We couldn't do less and really learn about our church. WOW!

It was a great venture, I really enjoyed the class and learned of the beauty of our denomination.. that for years we would not accept the moniker "denomination" because we were really a "movement". From the beginnings unity was important and setting aside man made creeds and rules were a part of the passion. It was a part of the make up of the early American frontier...our independence, self reliance, heck.. we didn't even HAVE to go to church any more much less be part of some state required church. It fit the personality of the American frontiersman.

An early motto was""In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, charity". That has grown to mean that Christ is our only creed. We can talk, discuss, see things differently even argue passionately but we will part friends and brothers/sisters in Christ.

Our church still aches for unity and is very passionate about ecumenical ventures to serve and change the world. We have an open table that we celebrate weekly and although we baptize by immersion we accept all forms of baptism from those that may desire to become a part of our church.

I was very happy when the class was over but I was also disappointed that I was not able to give it the time and effort required to complete all the readings. I was also disappointed that I was not able to participate more in the on line discussions.

It also changed me and how I view things. How I view my Bible, how I view the "global church", how I view my role in it. It has wet my appetite for more. I have a desire to attend seminary some day.. I have an inner desire to be ordained but I also have to balance that against how many years I have left on this earth vs what I can get done. Am I doing it for me??? Pride??? Service to others and the greater church? It's something that is a discussion topic for me with others right now. I don't know the answers but I am enjoying the questions.

I look forward to more....after the summer. I need a break.