Offering Apologies

I know I said that I would post about our visit to The Village, but I haven't had a chance to get my thoughts on paper yet, so they are not here either. I hope that since I don't have a sermon to write for this weekend, I can get around to processing thru that church visit.

Grace&Peace

Hebrews 11:41

That verse does not actually exist in scripture, but today in Bible study we took the time to write ourselves into the "faith hall of fame" in Hebrews 11. This is what I came up with in three minutes:

"By faith Dean, responded to God's call on his life in order to love and serve the church on a daily basis. He chooses to live a life of service to the gospel in order that God would be glorified in all the earth."

What would your Hebrews 11:41 be?

Grace&Peace

One out of four isn't bad...right?

I only made it to one of the four worship services that I was trying to visit this weekend. The one we went to was the 9 a.m. service at the Village. It was good, but since Matt was off for the weekend, it was not the usual experience that has brought so many people to that church in the last three years. I'll fill out the report and let my co-workers know about my visit, so once I do that I'll post here about my feelings and thoughts. I did get a few good ideas and one thing I will say is that I am glad that there are churches in our area that are using secular songs for redemptive purposes.

Grace&Peace

Church Visits

I am thinking about making a few visits to other contemporary churches this weekend in order to get some broader experience in what goes on in other contemporary worship services. My weekend could look like this:

Saturday, 5:30pm - St. Andrew UMC (Saturday Night Alive)
Sunday, 9:00am - The Village Church
Sunday, 11:00am - St. Andrew UMC (The Gathering)
Sunday, 5:00pm - Bent Tree Bible Fellowship

I don't know if I will make all of these, but it would certainly be a full day of worship (and work) to accomplish it. I'll let you know what happens.

Grace&Peace

Sin is Messy

Have you ever felt helplessly trapped by the weight of your own sins? Have you ever been on your knees in despair because of the realization that you cannot overcome the magnitude of your rebellion on your own? Was there ever a time when you knew that your actions were against God and you didn't have faith at all?

Sin is a tricky thing...it makes us think we are better than we are or not as bad as we really are. But the truth is that sin is an offense against God and we must deal with that with God. If we continue in our lives like we only make guilt-free mistakes instead of guilt-full sins, then we will never acknowledge our need for someone (us or someone else) to pay the penalty for those sins. And if we don't acknowledge the fact that we cannot pay the price our sins require, then we will never reach out to Jesus - the one who has paid the price for our sins.

I think Christians often go thru life thinking that the faith of their families is enough, but they never make the realization that owning our sins and dealing with them thru the blood of Jesus is the only way to make the faith of our family personal. As George Whitefield said, "We must be convinced of the weight of our original sin, our actual sins, our sin of self-righteousness, and the sin of unbelief before we can speak peace to our souls."

I hope this made sense because I am sort of combining my reflections on several sermons I have heard recently - as well as things going on in my own life. If you have not yet been fully convinced of the weight of your sins and your inability to free yourself from them, I would love to talk with you more.

Grace&Peace

The US is another year older today. I wonder if the forefathers are proud of what we have done with the country they fought so hard to free from the tyranny of England? I wonder if the ideals set forth in our country's foundational documents have gone by the wayside or if we are continuing to work toward them? I wonder if we as human beings have really made all that much progress in the quest for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

Not sure about America, but I still hold out hope for humanity because we were created by a God that loves us enough to reach out into the mess of our lives and bring us back into relationship with him. Our life pursuits are changed from wealth, status, and possessions to full connection with creation, restored relationship with our Creator, and loving like our Savior.

On this 231st anniversary of the formation of the United States, let us reflect on our true freedom in Christ and how we can bring that freedom to all who need it - spiritually, emotionally, physically, or economically.

Grace&Peace

VBS Reflections

Last year I ranted and ranted about the curriculum that our VBS Team picked for our church, but this year I must say that the obvious "baptist-slant" in the curriculum is missing. I credit that to selecting a curriculum produced by a publisher that is not directly affiliated with one particular denomination and to the fact that our VBS Leaders go out of their way to tailor the materials to fit our church.

On that note, I continue to wonder what the VBS Team would need to do in order to produce its own curriculum for our church (and others) to use? If they invest as much time in re-writing the materials as they would in writing their own, we could have a unique curriculum, rather than the same one that almost every other church in the area is using. Just a thought.

Grace&Peace

They say it's my birthday...

Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah....
Gonna have a good time...
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah....
They say it's my birthday...
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah....
Well it's my birthday too yeah!
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah....

Ok, enough of that. I am 29 today.

Grace&Peace

Wireless ROCKS!

I just want to say that wireless internet access on my new laptop is REALLY COOL! I can now go to Starbucks and work on email and documents that were previously only available on my desktop in my office. I like the fact that I can work on sermons, blog, or AIM from almost anywhere. Fun stuff!

Grace&Peace

Annual Conference - Day 3

My friend Doug Fox just gave his address to the body of the Annual Conference because he is being ordained this evening. He told us, "As an engineer he guided people to the stars, but as a pastor he guides people to the creator of the stars." He told us, "As an engineer he learned to blast rockets into the heavens, but as a pastor he blasts people into heaven."

I thank God for Doug's ministry and I am glad to call him a friend.

Grace&Peace

Annunal Conference - Day 1

Sunday, June 3, 2007: Clergy Session and Opening Worship
On Sunday afternoon I attended the Clergy Session for this year's Annual Conference where several friends of mine were elected to probationary membership in our conference and one other was elected to full membership and ordination in our conference.

I went to dinner with a few colleauges and had a great conversation about the future of ministry in the UMC - with a special emphasis on attracting younger clergy to Methodism. The guys who I ate dinner with shared several different strategies on how to move forward in this area, but we are still struggling on how to move such a large body of people in new directions when we only meet as a whole body once every four years.

At opening worship there were 95 PT interns commissioned for this summer's program. They then helped to serve communion to the almost 2500 people in attendance. It was very cool to see all those college students who are giving their summer to serve the underserved here in Dallas. I pray that Trietsch can lift up a few interns next summer to serve with PT in 2008.

Grace&Peace

Last Day of May

On this final day of the month I thought I would let you all know that I have not fallen off the face of the planet, nor have I been hiding in a hole all month. This month has been particularly busy for me and June is not looking very slow either.

Coming up...
Next week, June 3-6, is the North Texas Annual Conference in Plano, so I will be out of the office until Thursday of next week. Call my cell phone if you need to get in touch with me. Hopefully I will have my laptop up and running for the option of blogging/emails during the parts of Conference that drag...or when something exciting is happening on the floor.

Also, I found out a few weeks ago that because I am not a full member of the AC, I don't get to vote on clergy delegates for General Conference. Bummer! Oh well, I will still try and see who is running and get to know them a bit better.

My birthday is coming up in a few weeks and my parents will be here to celebrate Father's Day and my 29th at once.

In other news, I will be preaching here at Trietsch during the 9:30 contemporary service during the whole month of June. Jim and I are collaborating on a series of messages dealing with the issues of conflict, criticism, and complaining using Paul's letter to the Ephesians as our biblical basis.

Preaching last weekend went GREAT and I can't wait to do it again during June and July (when Jim is on vacation).

OK, now I can successfully say that I posted this month.

Grace&Peace

Kids at Night

Deb and I just put Caitlyn down for the night and eventho we didn't talk about it prior to her going down, we both commented on how much we like watching her falling asleep.

It is quite interesting that her sleep resonates out from her core. As she falls asleep the first thing that stops moving is her legs, then her feet, and then her toes. On the upper half the first thing to stop moving is her arms, then her hands, and then her fingers. When all of those are quiet, she closes her eyes, sucks her fingers, and then her breathing gets deeper and deeper as she drifts off to dreamland.

Kids are awesome! Even when the go "jekyll and hyde" on you as you try to get them in and out of the bath and in to their PJs. I highly recommend having a few kids in your life, but be sure to wait until the time is right.

Grace&Peace

Tony posted this a while ago, but I just read it this afternoon. I must say that it felt like he was writing that just for me.

Grace&Peace

Undignified Worship

2 Samuel 6.22a says:

I will become even more undignified than this, I will be humiliated in my own eyes. (TNIV)

David was dancing for joy as he brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. David was so passionate about God's presence returning to his hometown, that he was willing to humiliate himself - and he didn't care! He was willing to praise God without a thought to self-consciousness. He love to praise, sing, and dance so much that he not only didn't care what he looked like, he didn't care who saw him or what they thought of his dancing. David was willing to be 'even more undignified' in order to praise God with all his heart.

How often to we as Christians reign in our enthusiasm for Jesus? How often are we afraid to speak, sing, or scream for Jesus? Why do we cower to the 'standard of decent behavior' in order to fit in or not stand out? When we have such a great message to proclaim, why do we keep our mouths shut and our praise 'dignified'?

I want to be like David. I want to be so unashamed of what God has done for me that I am willing to embarrass myself for the sake of the gospel!

Jesus, you lived a life that changed so many people. Help me to express the depth of change in my life with worship that honors you and humiliates me. Amen.

Thank you God, for bringing this passage before me in light of the conversation that Kris, Alan, and I had yesterday!

Grace&Peace

Sunday Reflections

Update: After some very exciting proposals from Jim, this rant is no longer necessary. Isn't it cool how God makes things fall into place? More on that later.

Grace&Peace

The Notebook

I may have to reclaim my title of "token woman" (don't ask) after writing this, but I just have to say that Deb and I watched "The Notebook" for the first time last night and it was a good movie. I was drawn into the story and I wanted the main characters to work out in the end. I know, I know...it's a chick flick, but it was a good story and I am always up for a good story.

Ok, I think I will post about the NFL draft or something like that tomorrow...

Grace&Peace

Perry's Passion

I just read this post from Perry Noble and I felt that I must share it with you. His passion for those who don't know Jesus is so obvious.

God, I pray that you continue to stoke the passion your Spirit has lit inside Perry. I pray that you continue to work thru him as he reaches out to the people of Anderson, SC. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Grace&Peace

Lunches That Make You Go Wow

Today I had lunch with a member of our church and I was reminded of the amazing way that God brings people into our lives in order to make his plans work.

I went to the restaurant thinking that I was meeting a woman, but it turned out that Kerry is a dual-gender name (I should have known that, but it didn't click for some reason). So I had lunch with Kerry and found out that he used to be a pastor in the Baptist church, but through a series of events, left the pastorate, left the Baptist church, and joined our UM church (interesting story).

So we were talking about him becoming part of our Missions Committee and what he could bring to the table. About halfway through his story, it became clear to me that he had at least three undeniable things to offer our Team:

1) Love for the Church
2) Passion for those outside the Church
3) Leadership thinking (another 30,000-ft thinker!)

Our conversation went great and he is going to pray about joining our efforts. I walked away from the meeting reflecting on one thing: he had called his wife before meeting with me and told her that he was going to have lunch with me just to get to know me better, but he wasn't all that interested in being on the Team, but he told me that by the end of our lunch he was very excited about the possibility of serving on the Team to set direction and leadership for the Missions here at Trietsch. Praise God!

Grace&Peace

Recon Work Today

I was invited to go down and visit with the worship staffs of Highland Park UMC today and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with them and touring the facility. Paul Rasmussen (a buddy of mine) leads their Cornerstone service and I can only say that he has done a phenomenal job of growing that community into a vibrant body of Christ followers.

I pray that I can have the opportunity to preach in a contemporary setting where, as the pastor for that worshipping community, I get free reign to make it whatever the community wants it to be.

Thanks HP for raising the bar on excellence in worship!

Grace&Peace