Well if you ask me...

The People Business

This Sunday’s message was about “the people business.” Pastor shared with us that most people leave a church for some reason related to social interactions in the church. The simple fact is that if people don’t like the people in a church, they leave. As the message began I was very uncomfortable. I have been in church my whole life. Dad and Mom were both very active in ministry and the administration of our church. When I was seventeen we moved to a new church. I fell in love with the pastor’s daughter and we were married when I was twenty-two. As a result of my background I have a different perspective on church. I’d like to think I wouldn’t leave a church because of the people. To me church is much more than just the people. As the message progressed I began to see how this message related to our message from last week about making disciples. Many people do not know what they really need, but they know what they want. They come to church looking for it. If we give them what they are looking for (without crossing certain boundaries, of course) we will have the opportunity to give them what they need.

Hunting vs. Fishing

I wanted to pick up my discussion of pastor’s message from Sunday. If I had left church and had only learned about “as you go,” I would have learned a lot. There was more to the message though, and it reminded me of Dad even more. Pastor talked about the Bilical model for making disciples fishing. Most people try to make disciples by hunting instead. People naturally fight against being hunted just like animals do. Think about the difference between hunting and fishing. When one hunts, he hides and tries to catch the animal by surprise. When one fishes, he offers the fish bait. As the fish bites, he tries to catch the fish. Now I realize that all analogies break down and obviously the fish is not happy with the ultimate outcome of being caught in the throat with a hook, but we should learn something from the difference. My parents have always been a great example to me of good fishing. There were many people who were introduced to the gospel as a result of my parents goings. They were both also involved in normal ministries of the church but the real work of the great commission was done by fishing. When I was in college we called this “meeting people where they were.” People have real needs. People want to know that they matter. If we can help people meet the needs in their lives, we can reach them with the real message. Pastor even pointed out a couple of websites to help us learn how to integrate faith in the workplace. How 21st century of him.

• avodahinstitute.com
• marketplace-network.org

As you go,

Very often I sit in church and think of how nice it would be to discuss the message with Dad. He would have loved today’s message. He and I used to have this discussion about missionaries. It was a mystery to him that so much talk in the church revolved around overseas missions when so many here at home were in as mush need here at home. Several years ago Terri and I raised support to take a couple of short-term missions trips overseas and Dad was always very supportive. He understood how valuable the experience was for us and the teenagers who went with us, but he still made a very good case for spending more time and money helping people here at home. Today pastor Richard taught from Matthew 28:18-19. His message challenged everything I understood about these verses. I grew up listening to Kieth Green singing “Jesus commands us to GO” and preachers explaining that Jesus would not return until we reached all of the unreached peoples of the world. I don’t really want to debate either of these points, but today I realized that the Scripture says “as you go,” and this gives me a whole new perspective on things. Missions opportunities are all around. I am called to be in a certain place and work in a certain place and do certain things. I go to work. I teach. I take care of my family. I go to my son’s baseball games and my daughter’s soccer games. As I do these things I should “make disciples.” The focus should be on making disciples and not on going.

Game Ball

I mentioned in an earlier post that Billy is playing on the Jr. High baseball team. Not only is he in 6th grade, but he is young for a sixth grader. Most players on the team are 13, 14 and 15. Even some of the sixth graders are 13. Billy is 11! He loves baseball and he wants to play. Today’s game was a little better than the first. We discovered another eighth grader that can pitch reasonably well. Today was his first time and he pitched the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings. He struck out 4 of the first six batters he faced, struck out 3 batters each inning for a total of nine. Looks promising. We lost 16 to 1 but the team learned a lot. The highlight of the afternoon for us was when Billy was awarded a game ball for his “brave performance behind the plate.” Not only did Billy volunteer to catch the fifth inning (he’s never attempted this before), but in the bottom half of the fifth, he was facing a full count with two outs and a man on third. He was hit by a pitch in the chest. He was hurt badly but he will be okay. Anyway, he kept the inning alive and our man on third was able to score on the next play. On the day he had a walk and was hit by a pitch. For the season he is 0 for 1 with an OBP of 667. Not bad, keep up the good work!

The Meaning of Life

“See, this is the meaning of life,” I said to Becky.

Becky was enjoying playing in the yard and watching Billy and I have our almost daily catch.

“What is?” she said.

“Throwing the baseball around in the spring.”

“No it’s not, Dad!”

“Well, what is?”

“Praising God is the meaning of life.”

Thanks Becky for once again teaching your dad a lesson about life!

Billy’s First Game

Billy had his first game for the middle school baseball team. He is the youngest one on the team, but he did very well. He made a nice play in center field that impressed the coach (and everyone else). Tough game. We lost 23 to 3, but the 6th graders are still learning.

Big Birthday

Today is Terri’s big day! She is taking a half day, so I will cut out of work early. We’re planning on a visit to Bugaboo so the moose will sing to her. Loads of fun.

Visit with Dad

On Saturday I had a chance to visit Dad’s grave. It was my first opportunity to see the stone. It is very nice. You did a good job, Mom! After my visit I was at my brother’s home for the rest of my nephews birthday party. As the kids were preparing for bed, we discussed the The DaVinci code. My brother read it first and forced his wife and me and Terri to read it. We talked about how much Dad would have not liked the book but how nice it would have been to discuss with him the contents of it. He would have loved that discussion. Having discussions like that without him is hard for me. I miss Dad very much. This week has been hard. My wife’s birthday is just around the corner. She and Dad were very close and she keeps remarking how much harder this is than she imagined it would be. I know my birthday in January was the toughest day yet for me. Just today I almost picked up the phone to call him again. I had a simple question about cooking. People have warned me about this but I can’t believe how my mind plays tricks on me like that!

Vacation Pics

Had a wonderful vacation. We returned home on April 2nd. I wanted to post pictures as soon after as possible, but my plans were de-railed by the flurry at work. You can see a few pics on my photo blog and more by visiting Billy’s webpage. If you want a larger collection, call us for the password to see these.

Moved to WordPress

Well, I’ve done it. I moved to WordPress. I like it a lot. I still like Blogger and use it for some other sites, but I like this a lot more.

I’m Back

I know I’ve been gone a while.I figured today was an appropriate day to pick back up for several reasons, not the least of which is the start of the Mets 2005 season.A lot has happened since my last post. I will try to catch you up little by little. For now, check out my photo blog to see some pics from our vacation last week.

Still don’t know what is goin’ on at PHL?

PHL + US Airways = nightmare.

On the Bright Side

Now that I have that out, I did enjoy the panel on Meet the Press. I thought Jim Wallis hit home with his not getting to solving problems. Al Sharpton, with whom I have several disagreements, also made a strong case for voting based on other values; not just abortion and homosexuality. I have less positive to say about the other two. Dr. Falwell, despite his other shorcomings, did make clear that his ministries do more than just talk — they do. I was also glad to see Tim Russert having such a good time.

…lest he be judged

I just finished the Sunday morning shows. Running a little late this week

Meet the Press featured a panel of ordained ministers this week for a discussion of politics and religion. If I had known the agenda, I would have watched this on Sunday, but thanks to TiVO (and my son) I didn’t miss it. The panel included Jerry Falwell, Jim Wallis, Al Sharpton, and Dr. Richard Land. I am sure I have written of this before, but I am a graduate of Liberty University where Dr. Falwell is chancellor. I am very proud of my faith and am pleased with the education I received at LU. However, I have never agreed with everything that is taught. I am sure I was visibly disgusted every time I heard Dr. Falwell recite some of the points of his statement of faith during an assembly. (It still gets me when I hear it or read it.) I must say that after his appearance on Sunday, I am deeply disappointed. Of course, his behavior did not surprise me, but it still upsets me. What bothers me most of all is that he was the only panelist who questioned (aloud at least) the faith of the others on the panel based on politics. Even Dr. Land, who spent much of his time rolling his eyes and seemed intent on dredging up his thoughts on the civil rights movement (which he should probably avoid), stated that he did not question the faith of the others (Rev. Wallis in particular) because of politics. I just find it hard to believe that some believers feel that all believers must vote the same way in a political election. What bothers me more than anything is that I personally know people who agree with the narrow minded thinking of Dr. Falwell.

The “Liberal Media”

After watching two of my favorite Sunday morning talk shows I am astounded at what I heard about bias in the media.

…the degree to which, especially ABC and CBS… don’t ever meet anyone who fundamentally disagrees with them and that that colors their entire reporting really can’t be underestimated. Bill Kristol on Fox News Sunday

Desire, especially at NBC, to make sure that we are as objective as possible, the facts are clear, and there is less commentary Norah O’Donnell on The Chris Matthews Show

They were kinda liberal actually. In addition to that they were arrogant and they were unwilling to admit that they were devaluing their own credibility with their biases. Tucker Carlson on The Chris Matthews Show

Bill Kristol went on to say that he has always thought that calling the media biased is usually an excuse for conservative failure. I could not agree more, but, ** I do think all reporters let bias slip into reports. It should be noted that the quote from Ms. O’Donnell is here ‘out of context.’ Her point was that broadcast news is really less biased than cable (or Internet) news. **No arguments from me.

Speaking of Dangerous Intersections

What is going on at Philadelphia International Airport? I was watching the local news last night (something I do about three times a year). While the anchor is showing a graphic of a collision from earlier in the day (the second in a couple of weeks), he receives word that another collision has taken place.

Loser

Well, Ken Jennings has finally lost on Jeopardy. My son and I actully just started following Jeopardy after my Dad told us about Ken. He had about a dozen wins at that point. With TiVO it is easy to keep up with this kind of show. We have a season pass (set to save up to two eps since the show comes on early) so we can sit and watch it at high speed whenever we get the urge. It has been fun watching you Ken. Have a nice life. Billy and I will probably stick with the show for a while and see how the new champ does.

Dangerous Intersetions

It’s interesting the things that remind me of Dad. On our way to my brother’s for Thanksgiving, we drove througth one of the most dangerous highway interchanges in the country; and it reminded me of Dad. I remember clipping an article from the paper about the proposed reconstruction project. I brought it to Dad’s on a visit once and we talked about how dangerous this place really was and how this plan looked like it would help, etc. Actually, I’m disappointed he didn’t get to see the project finished. Is that wierd?

No Phone

After waiting until almost 2p.m., the Verizon tech comes to the door to tell us we have to wait until tomorrow to have a dial tone. Yesterday at about 4 we lost our dail tone. I called the phone company and they told me someone would visit on Sunday to take a look — between 8 and 5 The man at the door tells me he has to come back tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. If you are trying to call, you will be re-directed to the vox with a message that we are on the phone. Don’t let that fool ya, we are not on the phone. After it’s fixed I will put a request in for a refund of charges for the time missed. Not gonna hold my breath though.

Code Monkey

I spent several hours experimenting with Amazon Web Services yesterday. We do most of our shopping online so Black Friday is not a big day for us.I have been working on a couple of projects with AWS. If you have any interest in such things, you can read more.