5 February 2012

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Some will ignore the game. Some will watch every second. Some will pay more attention to the commercials than the game itself. Some will gather with friends and enjoy a great evening of fun, food and fellowship.

The Super Bowl has become a huge cultural event. We had breakfast at Bob Evans yesterday and noted a sign on the door that indicated they will be closed this afternoon for the Super Bowl! Anything that affects the hours of operation of a major restaurant indicates great cultural impact. Bob Evans is closed for Christmas and the Super Bowl.

One of the great traditions of Super Bowl Sunday is the Souper Bowl of Caring campaign. All over the nation Churches are collecting food for distribution to those who are hungry. In the midst of this huge cultural event followers of Jesus make a statement that caring for hungry people is as important as a football game.

We’ll be watching the game at our house and enjoying some great food and fellowship with friends. We’ll critique the commercials. We’ll cheer for our favorite team. (I’m pretty much for the Bears, the Colts and whoever plays the Patriots, so I’ll be cheering for Eli Manning and the Giants.) But in the end, it’s just a game. Our culture tends to put too much emphasis on sports and leisure, and too little emphasis on more important matters. For evidence of that, just compare the salary of a professional athlete or actor with that of a school teacher or nurse.

I believe God would have us enjoy life. I believe healthy competition brings out the best in us. I believe there is a place for the Olympics and the World Series and the Super Bowl. And I believe that ultimately none of those things matters much in the face of unemployment, addictions, hunger, poverty and most of all – heaven and hell.

I hope we all enjoy the Super Bowl – even if the enjoyment comes from proudly ignoring it! And I hope we all keep first things in our lives and priorities. Perhaps the most important thing one can do today is load up a bag with some food and donate it to an agency that feeds hungry people.

With apologies to the Bears and Colts, GO GIANTS!

29 January 2012

One thing that a Pastor has to constantly do is to look ahead. In November, my focus was not only on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was already planning worship themes and sermon topics for the weeks from January through May. In the past two weeks I’ve been working on details of the series we will focus on as Easter approaches.

At one level it seems odd to be thinking about Easter in January. On the other hand if I am not looking ahead and planning, then I find that too much in life has to be done in crisis mode at the last minute. Maybe others don’t struggle with putting things off, but I have to battle procrastination constantly. I can relate to the old saying I heard as a teenager:

“Procrastination is a sin – it only leads to sorrow.

And I can stop at any time. I think I will – tomorrow.”

Often it is true that things delayed only get worse. It’s true with a toothache. Many of us are guilty of putting off going to the dentist until we just can’t stand the pain any more. It’s true in finances.  Skipping a month of paying a high electric bill only makes the mountain more difficult the next month.

At a personal level, my pastor’s heart would simply encourage anyone reading this to take a step TODAY to move closer to God and to put Christ first in our lives. Don’t put off the most important thing you can do. Come back to Church. Take steps to change a bad habit with God’s help. Establish a time every day to pray and read Scripture and grow closer to God. Do something tangible today to express love to those around you. Don’t put it off!

In the spirit of looking ahead as a congregation, here’s a peek at what’s coming in the life of Dayton Church:

• Renewal Services – Rev. Dr. Frank Beard will be with us from February 19 to 22 for a series of special services focused on spiritual renewal and deeper commitment to Christ. Frank is a GREAT speaker, and you will not regret making time for these services!
• Lenten Testimony Services – We will continue our tradition of holding special services each Thursday during the season of Lent (February 23 through March 29) to hear the witness of a different person each Thursday sharing how God has changed their life. These Lenten Services always have powerful impact as we hear the stories of what God has done in each other’s lives.
• Lenten Series – We will focus on the “I Am” sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of John for the season of Lent – six weeks before Easter up to Easter Sunday. I’ll be preaching each Sunday about these striking things Jesus said about Himself, and we will provide small group curriculum for a congregation-wide study during these seven weeks.
• Holy Week – The week from Palm Sunday (April 1) to Easter Sunday (April 8) will include a special service on Thursday evening to remember the Last Supper and celebrate Holy Communion. On Easter Sunday we will have our normal services, along with a Sunrise Service and Easter morning breakfast.
• Moving forward on our Prescriptions for Greater Vitality – A Children’s Ministry Task Force is working on a comprehensive study of our children’s ministries and will recommend steps we can take to take our children’s ministries to the next level. A Worship Task force will begin work in February to move us toward adding a third worship experience on Sunday mornings and a full-time Worship Pastor. A Staffing Task Force will also begin work in February to look at the deployment of our paid staff and recommend alignment of staff positions with the vision of our congregation.

We have some great stuff coming up at Dayton Church. My hope is that every one of us will look ahead and make plans to invest ourselves in becoming all God intends us to be. If you are reading this and you live nearby, please make time to participate in these special services and activities. Show up and see what God does to change your life!

3 January 2012

Between Christmas activities and vacation, it’s been a while since I posted to this blog page. I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or anything. I’ve just been busy/preoccupied.

We ended the year with a flourish at Dayton Church! Our Christmas offering as a birthday present for Jesus was aimed at putting a water well in one or two villages in Ghana, Africa, through the Methodist Church there, in partnership with our missionary church-planter, Joseph Otsin. The cost for each well is $5,000. I encouraged folks to tithe what we spent on Christmas (or better yet, match what we spent on Christmas). Did this committed, generous church ever come through BIG TIME! Including what came in this past Sunday, the Christmas Offering totals $26,492! That’s enough for FIVE wells in FIVE villages, and it will save the lives of hundreds of children who would otherwise die from diseases in unclean drinking water!

The short-term mission team we send to Ghana in February will likely be involved in the dedication of two of these wells in the villages where they do a medical clinic, children’s ministry, build a pavilion and plant a church! What a great gift we will leave behind – the water of a well and the water of life!

As I look forward into 2012, I am reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 43: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

God moved in my life and in our church in incredible ways in 2011, but He does not want me/us to dwell on the past. He wants to do a new thing among us. And His new thing will always be like making “streams in the wasteland.” When water touches arid soil, the result is LIFE. In spite of the fact that it is human nature to resist change (at least change which I do not initiate for myself!), this message from God indicates that the new thing God wants to do in me – in Dayton Church – in the new year will be life-giving!

As I begin 2012, I have not made any new year’s resolutions. But I’m asking God to find the dry places in my life and water them. I’m giving Him permission to do a new thing in me in the new year. And I’m trusting that His new thing will be an even greater thing than He’s ever done in the past. Now THAT’S an exciting thought!

I hope God also does this new thing in you! Make streams in the wasteland, Lord. Water the desert places in my life. That’s my prayer! May it be so.

18 December 2011

No room in the inn. That’s what the Bible says Joseph and Mary found when they arrived at Bethlehem for the census. No room in the inn. Instead of a comfortable home with a warm bed, they found themselves quartered in a stable. The One who deserved the surroundings of a King is laid in a feeding trough. No room in the inn.

Whether we move to a new community or travel on a family vacation, we search for a place where we will be welcomed. A place where room will be made for us. Not just room in a building, but room in the lives of the people we meet. Will we be ignored or welcomed? Will we find friends in this new place? Will anyone notice we are here?

The Biblical practice of hospitality is the practice of making room in our lives to bless other travelers. It’s the everyday practice of the golden rule – welcome others as we would want to be welcomed. Make room, even if it means sacrifice. How dangerous and lonely would it be to travel to a new place and find no room in the inn?

In reflecting on these simple words the Spirit of God grips my heart with a deeper truth. The fact that Joseph and Mary found no room in the inn is not simply an example to encourage us to be kind and welcoming to one another. It is a spiritual reality. The Spirit causes me to question my own life. Is there room for Jesus in the “inn” of my life?

And then God’s Spirit gets personal. Room for Jesus is not limited to some general spiritual sense. Room for Jesus does not apply only to my religious world. It gets personal, and it also gets uncomfortable.

Is there room for Jesus in the world of my leisure? Does He provide the boundaries for what I will watch/listen to/pursue/participate in, or is it all about me and what I enjoy?

Is there room for Jesus in the world of my work? Does my work please Him and does it reflect integrity and grace, no matter what the pressure to compromise?

Is there room for Jesus in the world of my finances? Am I following Biblical principles with the money God has entrusted to me through the work of my hands? Is my life marked by generosity or extravagance?

Is there room for Jesus in the world of my sexuality? Is my life marked by love or lust? Is my sexual life lived out within the Biblical boundaries of faithfulness in marriage or celibacy in singleness?

When Jesus shows up and seeks residency in my life, is He welcomed? Or does He find there is no room in the inn? I find that I live with a heart that is at least willing to welcome Jesus. And I know He gives grace when I fail to honor Him and allow other things to crowd Him out. Perhaps the most spiritual prayer I can make at Christmas time is a simple one: “Lord, together let’s clear out the clutter that fills my life so there is always and everywhere room for You.” I believe Jesus is thrilled with that kind of prayer.

Have a blessed Christmas!