Getting Rid of Good People

Milford First Brethren, the church I’ve pastored for 12 years, is not a large church by any metric. We love each other, love our community, and generally try NOT to run people off.

Recently we had to do just that. Ultimately though it is an occasion to celebrate. Having said that, maybe I should elaborate a little further. 

Duane and Lori Harmon have been faithful members of our church for a while now. Even before attending our church, one ministry passion they had was routinely serving on work team projects at Riverside Christian School in Lost Creek Kentucky. Riverside was created in 1905 by The Brethren Church as an educational ministry to those living in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky. The school seeks to be a beacon of light in an area ravaged by poverty and economic downturns.

Earlier this year, the Harmon’s felt the Lord directing them to a bigger commitment to serving the school. Apparently, a sermon I preached on Abraham following God into the unknown was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’. Shortly after, they told me and announced to our church that they were moving down to Kentucky for the school year. Duane, a retired licensed plumber and farmer, is focused on building and grounds projects while Lori is working in family and community relations position to better assist the families of the students.

So given the obvious move of the Spirit, we had no choice but to “get rid of them”. At the end of August, we officially said goodbye, praying for and commissioning them for this work. I hate to see good people leave, but I am so thankful for the reason for their departure.

God has already been providing for them, from a friend’s semi-truck trailer to carry all of Duane’s equipment in one trip, to the work being accomplished, and of course the friendships that are being made.

In the middle of all of this, I had to remind myself and our congregation, we are not “losing” the Harmon’s. We are sending them off to serve as our ministry hands and feet. I would not normally say this, but it fills my heart with joy to get rid of these good people.

 

 

 

Bragging...about what God has done

 * The following is an article written for our local Mail-Journal newspaper this week as part of the "Church" section of which I am a regular contributor.

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Boasting and bragging are not typically traits Christians seek to be known for. And having lived my entire life in Indiana and Ohio, I certainly know that boasting is not something our Midwestern culture appreciates.

Yet I would like to take this opportunity to do a little bragging, bragging in what God has done. A few months ago, our church secretary mentioned an idea regarding honoring all the people who volunteer and serve in our church. It seemed like a worthwhile concept and so we started planning a dinner celebration. In the course of our preparation, we went through our regular attenders and members at Milford First Brethren. Low and behold, after going through the list, we discovered that EVERYONE who regularly attended and/or was a member served in some capacity with our church’s ministries.

That was both surprising and not surprising. We are not a large church by any means, so to an extent, we need everyone to pitch in at times. But it is an incredible blessing that both the old and young have found ways to serve.

As the pastor, I cannot take credit for this even if I wanted to. Instead I find myself echoing the apostle Paul’s words in a couple of his New Testament writings. In 2 Corinthians 10:17, he quotes Jeremiah when he says, “But ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’”. And in Romans 15:17, he says, “Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God.” I find myself in full agreement with his perspective. I can’t brag about my own achievements or even about my people’s service per se. I can brag about the work God has done in their hearts and lives to lead them to this kind of service as a community of believers to the community around them.

Our celebration was a delightful evening. We catered some BBQ and had some terrific desserts. My good friend, Pastor Tim Sprankle from Leesburg shared a word of encouragement and we were also treated to a country music concert by Jim Olson, brother of one of our deacons who has recorded several albums as a solo artist.

I will remember that evening for a long time, not just for the event itself, but for what it represents – God working among his people to invest in His Kingdom in simple, tangible ways.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

As I noted in my last post, it's been a busy fall. Keeping up this blog has been one of the things that I've let fall to the wayside. But this, the first day of December, is the day of my return. I'm sure dozens of you will rejoice. 

In all seriousness, I thought I'd share an article I wrote for our local paper. It was our church's turn in their rotation to have a feature on the backpage. 

I knew this would run the week of Thanksgiving, so I offered this to them - and now to you. Some Thanksgiving Thoughts:

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Before we start decking the halls, stringing up lights, and putting Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You” on repeat, can we take some time to fully celebrate the current holiday?

While Thanksgiving may get overshadowed from the annual “Christmas Creep”, I’ll try to do my part with these reflections and share some of the things I am grateful for this year.

Let’s start at home. I am deeply thankful for my family. I am grateful for my wonderful wife who works as a counselor part-time, lives as a mom full-time, and has chosen to be a partner with me in our life’s journey. I am thankful for our two boys, nearly 4 and 6 respectively. They bring so much adventure, chaos, and fun into daily life. Parenting them is so exhausting but so rewarding.

I’m very grateful to serve as pastor at our church. We are a congregation that takes our calling seriously to impact our community. We are not necessary a real “young” group of people but God has blessed us with enough energy and vision to do what Christ wants us to do and be who he wants us to be.

I am especially thankful for the Milford community. And it is not just because of Harry’s Pork Tenderloin which is the best I’ve ever tasted. No, there’s more to it. We are a friendly town that is generally comprised of people who genuinely care about each other. I appreciate how local businesses and organizations partner together to organize community events and foster a caring spirit among our people. I don’t take it for granted either that two other churches (First Christian, Wawasee Bible) have consistently joined our weekly Prayer Tent endeavor. If you can use some encouragement, stop by on Thursday afternoons where we’re stationed next to the Housing Authority building.

Lastly, I need to mention just how grateful I am for God’s provision. As I take stock of 2023, I realize just how faithful he is. And not just generally. In our family, we had several significant unexpected medical bills – and God’s provided. The more I walk this Christian path, the more I see God showing up when I need him. He has done that ultimately with His Son Jesus – the greatest gift we could ever receive. But there I go, creeping into the Christmas season myself.

Hopefully these reflections can help you embrace this Thanksgiving for all it’s worth.

Thursday Thoughts

It has been and will be a fun-but-busy month at church. 

For the past two-and-a-half weeks we have been living out our polity, our special church practices that go beyond simply meeting for worship.

Two Sundays ago, we had a baptism. A young man who has been coming to church since he was a hyper-active toddler. It's a privilege to see how God's worked in his heart. You may notice from the picture, we baptize in an unique way - three times forward. It makes it a little more awkward but it is our tradition and we make it work. After this particular event, I remember as I was changing my clothes in a separate room and hearing lots of "church chatter" in the pool room. There's few sweeter sounds than God's people celebrating steps of discipleship.

This past Sunday, we held Communion. The Brethren have long observed not just the traditional "Bread and Cup" but also serve each other in foot-washing and incorporating a Fellowship meal. All done to mirror the last supper Jesus had and to literally obey his words in John 13. 

Then last night we held our annual business meeting. Admittedly it's less worshipful than these previous events, but it doesn't have to be. We adopted a newer, more specific and accurate mission statement to serve as a general guide for what we want to be about as a church. I purposefully tried to connect that with the various reports that were given to show how God's worked through us this past year. 

This busy ministry month isn't over either. Regional Gatherings, leadership meetings, plus we have an annual Halloween Fun Fair we put on for Trick-or-Treaters. 

It would be unwise to pack every month full of activities like these. But it is a good boost as we finish out the fall to celebrate and serve in these various ways.

Wednesday Wisdom

Yikes, it's been almost exactly a month since I posted. 

Not that the world is desperately clamoring for my perspectives on things, but I do intend to be disciplined with regular posts here. 

In my defense, I'm working through my third week battling pneumonia. I feel like the worst is over thanks to antibiotics and meds. 

It has certainly thrown me for a loop though. And I've certainly had extra time to take stock of things and think through lessons and reminders God may be wanting to show me.

Here are a few:

• Rest is both good and essential. Unsurprisingly, this illness has made me tired and worn out on a daily basis. That's kind of what pneumonia does. Thankfully my wife allowed me to take extra naps often at random times and away from the chaos of our toddler boys. I was mostly home-bound and had to miss two Sundays at church as well. It was good to have a break in my regular routine. It was good to remember there are limits to my energy and capacity to do things. Busy-ness is not a fruit of the spirit. Sabbath rest is still a critical principle of discipleship. It allows for both my body and spirit to heal and recharge.
  
  
• My church is filled with capable people. I love the smaller community God has placed us at. And when this illness set in, the last-minute prep was fairly smooth. Responsibilities got covered, sermons were preached, fellowship still happened. My church needs me, but they don't NEED me.
  
  
• I need to accept my newer, older identity. Ever since I was a kid, I had above average athletic endurance ability. That's very specific but here's what I mean. I always found myself able to run long distances or play sports for long periods of time without feeling like I was dying of fatigue. I was usually one of the top runners in the elementary gym class mile run they always had us run. I had fun playing basketball for long hours and found myself able to keep my energy up when others tired. In addition to basketball, I ran track in college and though the season was already underway, I was able to be fairly successful at the 400 hurdles (an ideal race for someone who isn't speedy fast, doesn't have time to build up endurance for long races, but can do a little bit of both). Even after my college years, I stayed active regularly playing recreational basketball, slow pitch softball, and staying in semi-decent shape. As I've hit my late 30's and now into my 40's, I've noticed more physical limitations. It is harder to stay in shape and other family priorities get in the way of those activities I once participated in. And now this pneumonia really made reality set in. I could barely chase my boys around the living room without having to catch my breath. Bouncing back from being winded has been hard. Now I hope to be able to stay in some kind of active shape once this is past. But I'm more and more resigned to the fact that a part of my identity - being physically capable of doing stuff and not tiring - is changing. My pride has and is taking a hit. And I need to adjust.
  
  
• I can be grateful this isn't worse. I was worried at the beginning I'd contracted COVID. That worried me not just for myself but because I had been around a bunch of people that week. Thankfully, two tests showed I was negative. But I had some restless nights where coughing made rest rare and breathing was labored. During this same time, three people I know have gotten COVID and all had severe symptoms. One even passed away. I am ok, my family is healthy, and getting medical attention was pretty effective and not super expensive. I am grateful it has not been worse.

Home Worship 5/10/20

Sermon

This week's message can be accessed on our FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/Milford-First-Brethren-Church-106750154192984/
Or through our website here: https://www.milfordfirstbrethren.org/live.html (video will post by Sunday afternoon)

Study Guide Questions

After - or even as - you listen to the sermon, try digging deeper into the text by working through these questions:

1. What specifically can the "strong" in faith do that the "weak" cannot - 14:2-3, 5-6?
2. What are Paul's specific commands to each side of the issue - 14:1-4,13; 15:1,7?
3. What are non-essential issues of our day that Christians often get hung up on?
   
4. What kinds of sacrifices does Paul ask the strong to make in 14:19-23?
   
5. Who is the example to follow - 15:3-6?

Worship Songs

Devotional Guide

Monday - Romans 14:1-12

Tuesday - Romans 14:13-23

Wednesday - Romans 15:1-13

Thursday - 1 Corinthians 8

Friday - 1 Corinthians 9

Saturday - 1 Corinthians 10

Gen Con reflections and quotes

We just returned from our Brethren Church National Conference which was held at the beautiful and spacious Ridgecrest Conference Center outside of Ashville, North Carolina. 

It was a busy week so we took our time coming back this weekend and made it a mini-vacation which was a good decision. Having some time to reflect on the conversations, meetings, and sessions I thought I'd share some of the key quotes I am taking away from this year's gathering. 

It turns out all of these are from our main speaker, Karl Vaters, who is an author, pastor, and expert on small churches. He proved to be a perfect fit for who we are and where we are at as a denomination. 

A little background, The Brethren Church traces its roots back to 1700's Germany when a movement was birthed out Anabaptism and Radical Pietism. Fleeing hardship and persecution, these original Brethren moved to the American colonies and continued many aspects of their spiritual and social lifestyle including being agrarian (farming) people and remaining German-speaking for many years. These preferences led them to starting churches in rural areas to begin with. And while various groups have splintered off and no longer maintain this path, it still provided the foundation for where we began and where our churches were planted. Because our specific denomination did not dramatically change course we remain in mostly rural areas with mostly smaller churches (50-150).

And here is where the Conference's themes and Vater's expertise comes in to play:

"Small is not a problem, virtue, or an excuse."

IKEA and Starbucks are both wildly successful businesses with vastly different business models (h/t to Vaters for this genius analogy). We don't have to compare ourselves with bigger ministries and we don't have to arrogantly believe we're better because we "provide a better personal touch."

"A healthy church will not necessarily experience numerical growth."

Numbers may accompany healthy ministry, but not always. We need to divorce ourselves from the assumption that numbers equal health and health equals numbers. More quotes to come, after the break...

Book Blog

This week's featured book was one I caught the second time around. 

By that I mean that I didn't read it the first time I had the chance. It was one of my Bible or theology classes in undergrad and I remember Dr. Soto encouraging us to read it and do a short response paper for extra credit. I must have felt that I didn't have the extra time to put in the extra effort and I'd learn later how much I missed out.

A few years later, as an intern at my home church, our senior pastor had our elders and staff read it for discussion purposes. I'm pretty sure I read it through at a much quicker pace than our discussions because I quickly discovered what a beautiful piece of literature it was and what a profound look into David's life it was. 

A Tale of Three Kings was written by Gene Edwards in 1980. While it is centered on King David, it traces his life in relation to two other kings - Saul and Absalom. 

The central theme is that God desires his people to embrace humility and brokenness. But even that summary barely does the book justice. It's format is one like a play with short scenes reflective of the biblical text. Edwards does interpretively "fill in the blanks" with some details and conversations but never strays from the spirit of the text.

In the first part of the book, Edwards observes David's responses to Saul - submitting to God and refusing to manipulate things to get what is rightfully his. And he keenly demonstrates that those are the same responses David has towards Absalom, who does rebel against the King and seeks to manipulate to get what he believes is his.

The applications that are made both subtly and overtly are what gives this book it's power. Edwards connects the dots to our present day by showing how the leadership issues in play in the stories of Saul, David, and Absalom are vital questions pastors and spiritual leaders must answer in our day. 

How will we react when the leaders above us seem to be unqualified or misguided?

How will we respond when our authority is challenged?

How will we leave if we are forced out of or called away from a leadership position?

This book made a significant impression on me and I enjoy re-reading it every couple years. The truth of it's insights have been validated again and again the more I've been in ministry. Interestingly enough, I got to observe the very same pastor embody these principles a year or two later after reading the book. 

I've come to believe that David wasn't "a man after God's own heart" because of his courage or passion. I believe he earned that title because of his brokenness and repentance. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a big piece of the puzzle.

Carry One Another's Burdens

The last week has been a rough one here in Milford. Last Thursday, one of our members was in a lawn mowing accident and lost her life when her riding mower flipped over on her. Based on the scene, it's possible she had a stroke or heart attack before it happened. The reality though is that she is gone and her friends and family are shocked and devastated.

We just happened to be exploring the "One Another" command found in Galatians 6:1-2 that calls us to carry each other's burdens. The context of Galatians 6 is about helping those in sin, but there are several other related 'One Another's' that directly call us to help those who are suffering for other reasons.

It was an ideal reminder as we tried to deal with our grief and loss. 

And this was a perfect opportunity to be the Body of Christ and live out part of our calling as the family of God.

We are thankful for the promise of Heaven and for Kathy's faith in Christ. We will miss her deeply but know she is enjoying the presence of Jesus, having received her reward.

Memorial Day Weekend

Our small town of Milford loves to celebrate Memorial Day in a BIG way. From numerous garage sales, Carnival Rides, a Classic Car Show, Talent Showcases, and all kinds of food, it's a big deal locally. And of course it all culminates in a parade on Monday honoring those who have fallen in military service to our country as well as those who have served.

Our church is located smack dab in the middle of town making this a great opportunity to connect with people. So what we've done for the past several years is cook hotdogs on our 'front porch' and pass out free food and drink to those walking by visiting the attractions. 

It's a neat way to tangibly be a blessing to our town. We've also partnered the Gideon's to pass out their New Testaments - and this year we had some folks from Nappanee First Brethren come and do outreach as well. 

Our goal and supply level was 650 hotdogs, 700 drinks, and over 400 individual bags of chips. 
We ended up grilling around 800 hotdogs, while passing out close to 800 drinks and 500 bags of chips.

We'd been worried about the weather forecast, but our prayers were answered as it turned out to be a perfect day. We were so thankful for the opportunity to show love to our neighbors and plant seeds of the gospel in people's hearts. 

 
And as a pastor, I have to brag on my people who came out to help man the tables and be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

The 12 Best Quotes I Heard at Exponential Conference

This past week, I had the privilege of attending Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida. It's the largest annual conference for church-planters in the world. 

I am not a church planter but was there to learn, observe, and support our MissioChurch Brethren Church planters. 

It was a blast. 

It was a week of connecting with new friends and old,  being equipped for more effective ministry, and being challenged by world-renowned speakers in the main group sessions.

I tried to take careful notes as much as I could and as I have reviewed them, I've come up with 12 of the most memorable quotes. 

Why 12? It's the number of disciples and tribes of Israel...ok that wasn't the intent. It is the ten that really spoke to me plus to personal ones that you'll want to stay to the end for.

So here we go, in no particular order:

1. "Don't get stuck on the math and miss the mission."
- Albert Tate


2. "The drift of the human soul is always towards self-reliance."
- Matt Chandler 
He may have been quoting someone, but I didn't catch it if he was.

Music Mondays

While our society is very individualistic, we still embrace corporate labels like "American", "Hoosier", and/or "Cowboys fan". 

For much of history, there were only two labels that mattered, spiritually speaking. They were "Jew" and "Gentile". Any one not born into the people of Israel were outsiders, excluded from God's redemptive plan. Gentiles could partake through converting and conforming to the Law, but they were not on equal footing. 

That all changed with Christ and Paul lays it all out in Ephesians 2:11-22. In Christ, God has taken those two groups and made a new community by destroying what had divided them. 

No longer, misfits, we are members of God's people, the Church. 

So this week's Music Monday features a theologically-rich rap by Lecrae that spells out who we are and what God has made us.

Christian Movies, Christians and the Movies, and Christians going to the Movies

Hollywood is finding religion.

Between God's Not Dead, The Son of God, Noah, and the future Ten Commandments remake, movie studios are turning to the Bible as source material almost as much as they have turned to comic books in recent years.

Personally,  I'm interested in seeing these 'Christian movies', but unfortunately not in a financial position to take my wife on dates to the theater to see each and every one. I'll wait for them to come out on DVD - Redbox is received much better by our bank account right now.

I will probably see them, but it's been the Church's responses to these films that have really grabbed my attention.

Nationally and locally, I've observed a variety of responses from Christians - everything from adamant rejection to wholesale endorsement. Skepticism and ambivalence can also be seen from church-going folk as well.

Hopefully enough of us evangelicals can take a look in the mirror and resist an uninformed knee-jerk response and interact with this cultural trend in a wiser way.

I found this particular discussion to strike the right notes. The bulk of the first half specifically discusses the Noah movie. It was fair and balanced. At around the 27:00 mark however, the focus turns to how we as Christ-followers ought to engage with 'biblical' movies and movies in general. It's this last part of the video I found the most beneficial.

Props to Dr. Darrell Bock, Naima Lett, and Dallas Theological Seminary for providing an excellent thought-provoking presentation.