The Hilty's

Introducing... Isabelle Reue

2009-04-23T22:46:00.004-04:00

After spending most of Tuesday night not being able to sleep, we came to Lapeer Hospital at 3:00 AM. Later that morning, family arrived anticipating a granddaughter. Jamie's labor was actually delightful after the epidural :). By 6:02 PM Isabelle was here. She's nice and long at 22 inches. Her weight is, well, unknown. Officially she weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. at birth, but we know now that the weigh in was off. She was probably closer to 7 lbs. 10 oz., but with all the excitement, we (and the nurses) aren't exactly sure. Either way, she's a beautiful healthy baby girl, 7 lbs. 2 oz. tonight, and sucking everything like a pro. We are in awe to be parents and thankful for God's miracle-gift to us.

Here are some pictures to help you "get to know" her.

Just 9 days to go (we hope!)

2009-04-14T21:14:00.012-04:00

The closet is stuffed full.

The decorations & furniture are in place.

The diapers are ready.

Classic Pooh is right where he belongs.

The books & toys are waiting for a baby girl . . .

who will arrive in her own good time . . .

Our last Easter as just the two of us

with questions,

fears,

anticipation,

and lots of love

we're ready

we think

Picture Time . . . 6 months & counting!

2009-01-27T11:31:00.010-05:00

setting up the nursery little by little

our Christmas picture at our church

(almost 5 months pregnant)

6 months, taken this weekend

Tummytown

2008-10-22T20:40:00.004-04:00

For those who have facebook, this isn't anything new. For those who don't, we're starting to shop for baby stuff (already stocking up on diapers). Our due date is April 24, one day before our 5-year anniversary. One of the teens in our youth group said we could have a candle-lit hospital dinner together. We'll see about that, but we're really excited about becoming parents! We heard the heartbeat yesterday and we go back in four weeks for a second visit, which will hopefully include and ultrasound. More to come later.

North Branch, MI

2008-09-12T23:12:00.002-04:00

We move in 3 days. Our fourth home since being married four and a half years ago. For those who don't know, and that's probably most of you since we don't update this thing, the church we've been at in Baraboo, WI closed August 17. After my resignation, the district assessed the church and spoke with its leaders. After prayer, the district decided to end the ministry of Jubilee Wesleyan Church.

I had resigned the beginning of June and was looking for a new place of ministry when I got a phone call from Pastor Peter Damaska at North Branch Wesleyan. I had sent a resume there and hadn't heard much back. So I thought God had other plans...

Jamie and I thought we'd be leaving Baraboo much earlier than this. It reminds me of the story of Lazarus dying and Jesus learning the news. Instead of going to be with Lazarus when he was sick, Jesus waited until he had been dead 4 days. I heard a song once that says "My God is great/When He's four days late, He's still on time." In our case, God seemed to be a few months late in providing this new job. Maybe this is cliche, yet I believe God was right on time.

We wondered how we would live on a couple hundred dollars a week and how we would pay for moving expenses. We even thought of moving to Madison and trying to find jobs there until something popped up. Or if worse came to worse, we were going to move in with our parents, something I'm sure they would have loved (for the first week). So thanks, God, for being on time and for giving us an amazing fit of a church.

I'm officially going to be Pastor of Discipleship and Leadership at North Branch, which is in the thumb of Michigan. This means I will coordinate and empower our volunteers for children's youth, and adult spiritual formation. I get to give resources, teach, help cast a vision, keep us all on track with that vision, and encourage us as we move forward. The weekend we candidated we met a lot of people who are involved and who care deeply for their church...I think they'll make our "job" a lot easier. I also get to give leadership to the missions and local outreach efforts of the church. The church just took its second mission trip to Antigua in the Caribbean and I know we're looking to do much more globally.

So that's a fairly good summary of what's ahead. I'll post our new address on my (Josh's)Facebook page, so if you're a "friend" you can get it there. If you're driving through the east side of Michigan and want a good hotel, just shoot an email and we'll put you up.

We're Alive, We Promise

2008-07-27T00:13:00.002-04:00

Yes, we are still breathing...just not typing as often as we'd like. Since we last updated you, several new things have happened.

First, I was ordained on June 26th. It still feels weird to be called "Rev." and I'm not sure if I will get used to it for a while. Rev. Hilty makes me sound so not 24 years old. It was a joy to be ordained alongside some of my friends in ministry and by Dr. Jo Anne Lyon. Our ordination ceremony was the first she took part in as our new general superintendent (and for those who don't know, the first female general superintendent in Wesleyan Church history). My family and Jamie's parents were all able to come up for the weekend, and we had my grandparents with us for the week prior to ordination. Jamie and I had a great time seeing family.

Second, the church is closing. Last Sunday I announced to our congregation that our final Sunday as Jubilee Wesleyan will be August 17th. This has been quite hard for some as they have been a part of thus church for most of their lives. I personally cannot totally empathize with them because I've never gone through this before. And yet it's hard for me to see a church that we've poured the last 2 years of our lives into close down. Please be in prayer for the people of the church in this time of transition.

Jamie and I have no real clue as to what God has in store for us next. We are in contact with a couple churches, but nothing is definite. Both places sound like they could be good fits, so please pray that God's will would be done AND be done in His time. He has been faithful up until now and I don't anticipate Him quitting anytime...ever. We will be quick to let you know what He does for us when that happens.

We had a good rummage sale the 4th of July weekend, getting rid of lots of things we don't use. There's two less sleeper sofas to move into a truck! Plus we earned money to help us get through the summer and to allow us to go on vacation, which we did this past week.

We drove 4 hours up to Door County, WI to Peninsula State Park where we camped for six days and 5 nights. If you're from Indiana, think Brown County. If you're from Michigan, think Mackinaw area. Door County is right off of Green Bay (the actual body of water) and is just a hop, skip and jump from Lake Michigan, right in the thumb of Wisconsin. It was a chance to stop thinking about the transition we're in and focus on ourselves. It's safe to say we both are more in love this week than last (not that we were on the rocks before...anyway, I'll stop digging). On our way home Friday we stopped in Green Bay at the NEW Zoo. We were literally one foot away from a giraffe's head, which I thought was pretty cool.

Also over vacation we both had the chance to read a book called "Who Stole My Church?" by Gordon MacDonald, a serious every-Christian-must-read book. It's a fiction book in which MacDonald puts himself into a made-up church that is going through a time of transition. He tells the story from his perspective and also gives the thoughts of older and younger people within the church along the way. I wish I could do a better job describing it. All I can say is, if you've ever wondered why one generation of Christians has a hard time letting younger generations change things, this book is for you. If your church has ever had a "worship war," it's for you. READ IT. NOW. :)

Tomorrow we give a concert for our church. Thirteen songs we've sang as special music numbers over the past few years along with some personal testimony times.

I'm sure there's more I've left out from June and July. But this will have to do. Until the next random post...

Resigning

2008-06-01T14:52:00.002-04:00

Today I made the announcement to our church that I was resigning as pastor. Jamie and I don't know where God will take us next but we're trusting Him to be faithful just as He always is.

If you'd like to find out more about why we resigned, send us an email to either josh.mathetes(at)gmail.com or jamieleahilty(at)gmail.com. We can give you our phone number from there if you'd like to talk (I'm not sure how smart it is to post it here).

Thanks for all your prayers.

Josh's new job

2008-05-09T21:00:00.003-04:00

We just celebrated our 4-year wedding anniversary at the end of April. We purchased the laptop I'm using to blog this as our anniversary present (something tells me that 4 years isn't the "laptop anniversary" but oh well). Hard to believe it has been that long being married. Jamie and I look back at our wedding pictures and I can't believe how much we've changed. I for one am a few pounds heavier. I find that my jeans and khakis don't fit as well as they used to. I'm hoping that my second job will help take care of this "reshaping."

Two weeks ago I began working with DeLon's Carpentry, which is really a fancy way of saying I work with DeLon. It's been a fairly easy first two weeks...I think God knew I would need to ease my way in to hard labor when I'm used to sitting behind a computer and seeing people all week long. I've already learned quite a bit, like how to hook a two-ton dump trailer onto a truck, how to remove mushrooms growing inside your apartment building's wet carpet (yes, we found 5 mushrooms growing in an empty apartment room that had water leak in), how to prep a driveway for sealing, how to get a sunburn (I actually already knew that), and how to eat lunch at the bar (in a Wisconsin town of less than 1,000, three bars is all you get).

It's been good. My dad will call and he gets excited that I am doing construction work since that's what he does and that's been his dream for me ever since I fell down the stairs in my baby walker. And DeLon is someone I can work with and still be friends with. He allows me to try things and learn by making mistakes and yet also tells me enough of what I need to know so I'm not standing around all day. He and I can share the tough stuff from church and I can trust him to keep it to himself.

It's also been tough. I come home tired some nights and don't feel like doing ministry stuff whatsoever. I only work for him three days a week, so the other days are good for ministry. Yet there is so much to "work on" that I feel guilty for not working those evenings. I was reminded by a pastor friend just a few days ago that this is not my church; it's is Christ's and He will provide the growth. I'm trying to let go of the pressure to succeed and the emotions that come with "success" and "failure." I'm trying to see this church the way Jesus sees it. It's a process and I have a long way to go.

Thanks for your continued prayers and blog comments. One final note...Jamie and I today made a list of things that need to happen for us to stay at this church/for it to stay open. Some things that need to happen in the next 30 days, 60 days and 90 days. I won't post them here, but I would ask that you pray that God's will be done and that if we're supposed to stay, God would confirm that by setting those things in motion.

Interesting Month

2008-04-16T21:55:00.004-04:00

Some highlights: IWU Youth Conference--we took Melissa, our friend from church, down to IWU to preview the university and hopefully encourage her to attend there. The weekend was fast, long and incredible. Incredible to be home, to catch up with friends from school, work & church, and to see Melissa's reaction to what "Wesleyan" is outside of Baraboo:) The only downfall was that we didn't see Josh's parents at all, and only saw mine for about an hour.

But, Mom and Shawn made the trip up two weeks later to help us plan our finances and celebrate Josh's birthday. We had a fun time touring the Dells souvenir stores and eating Culver's. Thanks for coming!

Last weekend, Stephen, Michelle, Titus & Damaris Mowat visited the Dells and we were able to spend some time with their family. I think this is the first time we've been with them when both kids were awake. What fun!

For most of March, we unexpectedly shared our house with a mother & her three children who were in a desperate situation. The time went much better than I thought it would. It was nice to have them with us, and we had many conversations and Bible stories about Jesus and following Christ. Please pray for this family, as they do need to see a consistent Christian life lived out and also need to choose to let Christ into their lives.

It is nice to have the house back to ourselves again though. After hosting missionaries each weekend in February, then sharing the house with the family, it is a relief just to wake up to a house for the two of us.

Some urgent needs: Josh is looking for a nearly full-time job this month. We met with our leadership team to discuss the upcoming budget, and realized we all had to make a choice between maintaining the church building and having a bit of money to do outreach and aid spiritual growth or paying Josh a full-time salary. So, Josh will start work somewhere around here, probably 25-30 hours a week, depending upon the pay-rate, and also juggle pastoral & restart responsibilities. Neither of us is too excited about this for a few reasons: We feel like we are running with our heads cut off much of the time, attempting to get structures in order and fuel some energy and ideas into moving the church in a new direction...adding an additional job on top of this just seems so overwhelming. We are praying that the job is flexible to allow Josh to still participate in ministry related meetings, hospital visits & funerals, as well as camp roles and travel that we'd already planned for the coming year. We also had the hope of having an intern with us for 6 months to help start a teen ministry & worship, but with this new change in Josh's responsibilities, that seems unlikely, although much more necessary. The church is at a standstill on the remodeling project because we need guys who can mud and tape the drywall. We are also almost out of money to keep moving on. Josh was working on this project pretty hard, and with an additional job, I don't know what will take place. We have just 1 car, so our schedules & job locations need to be pretty flexible and local. And my kindergarten job ends the beginning of June. Our finances are tight as it is . . . We have the summer planned with camps, a mission team, Josh's ordination, and hopefully a vacation, although now that might not be possible. Anyway, sometimes we are unsure if we'll make it through the year. We are trying not to worry, but...At the end of the year, the church will close if something drastic in attendance & finances don't change. We are beginning the year when our district support is at 1/3 of the original amount, and next year we are on our own (if nothing changes, that means the church will close)so we are also trying to figure out some do or die idea that will be crazy, but just may get people into the door and start coming to Jubilee.

With all of this, I will be working 4 jobs & Josh will be working 2, if we can plan it right. I have just started a Creative Memories business and have held two Get Togethers this weekend. CM has tons of neat ways to organize & celebrate memories & photos...definitely has gone a long way beyond scrapbooking to appeal to anyone who takes pictures. If you're interested, check out my website (www.mycmsite.com/jamiehilty). I am also starting a freelance writing business. I've wanted to pursue this for a while and have been doing research into what I can do to submit my work for publication and also perhaps write for small businesses, ministries & non-profits. If you have anything you'd like written, please let me know. I'd love to help you in this area. The other two jobs include the kindergarten assistant position and keeping accurate records for a local contractor.

We'd appreciate your prayers as we start this new chapter of life...trusting in the Lord to provide each and every need. I know He is able. He has proven that many times. Thank you for reading our posts and praying for us! We love you and miss you...and hold you in our prayers, as well.

Facelift

2008-02-25T21:10:00.004-05:00

Saturday was a big day. There were 12 of us at the church framing, insulating and drywalling our sanctuary ceiling. Praise God for whoever invented the drywall lift. All we had to do was put the sheets on, crank it up, and slide them in place. It was a lot easier to screw them in than if we had had to hold the sheets up ourselves.

There were 5 men from the Eau Claire Wesleyan Church (including Pastor Dwayne Winterberg), Pastor Roger Miller from the Hillsboro Wesleyan Church, Rev. Dan Bickel (our D.S.), Al Dolan (a member of our church), DeLon and Brady Davis (president and VP of operations, even though Brady is only 13), Rod Tucker (a member of the Church of the Nazarene in Baraboo), and me (Josh) helping out.

Our newspaper sent a reporter out to take pictures and he wrote a great story in today's paper. Here's the link. http://www.wiscnews.com/bnr/news/274098

We've also been blessed by help from Pastor Doug Walborn of the Pardeeville Wesleyan Bible Church, Andy Tolwinski from Mid-State Electric in the Dells (a good friend of DeLon's), and Ross Curry, a local painter (also a good friend of DeLon's). If it weren't for their gifts of labor, we wouldn't be this far in the remodeling.

Here are some additional pics. The bubbles are from drywall dust on the lens. Oops.

Rod, Jim, Dwayne, Todd, Jim, Tim, Brady (in back), and DeLon after working Saturday.

Al, Brady and Doug, putting up insulation and trying not to breathe it all in.

Some Remodel & Winter Pics!

2008-02-22T14:16:00.012-05:00

You're looking into our extended foyer where we can enjoy coffee, donuts & each other before & after service. Straight ahead at the back is Josh's new office, large enough to hold the copy machine and a desk for administrative work, as well as room to counsel people. To the left is the new nursery! It's not huge, but a good size for a small church. There will be a window that parents can see through to make sure their babies are fine. A sound booth is off to the front right of the foyer.

Josh and DeLon have done most of the grunt work. They've been incredible...Josh is learning construction as he goes. DeLon has been a great teacher, and very patient! Jamie has also learned all about insulating walls & ceilings, and of course cleaning up for Sundays!

These are the pews we are trying to sell. With the money, we will be able to purchase nice padded chairs that will make the upstairs much more functional for various types of ministry events. If you're interested, we do have better pictures available! :)

The new "back wall"---it is so cool!

The sanctuary walls were painted cinderblock with tall semi-windows nearly from floor to ceiling. We've studded, insulated, and drywalled, and already the building is so much warmer. The upper holes are for windows when we get the money to put them in.

This weekend we are hosting work days, and several men have come to help us insulate & drywall the ceiling! It is so nice to have help. Thanks to: DeLon, Brady, Doug, Al, Ross, Larry, Rod, Roger, Dwayne & the Eau Claire men, John, Laurie and Alesha. We are grateful!

This winter has been a real Wisconsin winter....and all of our friends are so surprised at how much snow we've had (and keep getting!). Last Sunday we got about 12 inches, on top of all the snow that hasn't melted. Apparently we are way past the record snowfall for this part--over 80", I believe. Another snowfall is coming Monday...yippee! Josh and I bought real boots and snowpants this winter, hoping we weren't wasting our money...and they have been the best purchase!

Prayer Requests, from our heart to yours!

2008-02-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

A ton is happening right now in our lives and in the life of the church.

Early last week we were able to go to "The Getaway," our district's ministers and mates retreat up in Warrens, WI, an hour from us. What a blessing to be away for awhile. Dave Holdren was the speaker and challenged us in several areas of ministry and personal life. We left refreshed (the waterpark helped too!) and with several friendships renewed, as well. We are looking forward to hosting a youth mission team from Our Savior's Wesleyan in Mukwanago this summer. Stevan and Jessica Sheets are youth-pastoring there right now, and we enjoyed making preliminary plans for work/ministry opportunities. Please pray that their teens would catch the vision and jump on board with this trip. Also pray that while they are here, we all would make some vital connections within our community. We are hoping to go door to door and do some surveys, as well as host a large fun event for Baraboo...

As of January 1st, our church has a new name: Jubilee Wesleyan--A Community Church. With the new name comes the task of changing accounts, information, creating a logo, contacting the whole world with the change, etc...please pray that Josh and I would not be overwhelmed in the process and also that there would be time to do this (see why below).

As of January 7th, Josh and DeLon Davis (wonderful guys!) started remodeling the upper level of the church building. They have been working so hard each day and already the changes are making a good difference. They've constructed the stud walls for a nursery, sound room and office, as well as a foyer/entry hall in the back of the sanctuary. They're in the process of adding insulation and drywall to the cinder-block sanctuary walls, and will be insulating & drywalling the foyer. Ultimately, we hope to change the carpet, which is very stained in many places, enlarge the platform area, spruce up the restroom, add a new roof, lighting & windows, as well as replace our pews with chairs. All of these changes are vital if we are going to have a welcoming attractive place to bring in guests. BUT...we also have a tiny budget, need some major funding support and some volunteer labor (does anyone hear God telling you to come here?:). That is perhaps one of the biggest concerns of our lives right now...the changes are absolutely necessary--if we don't change, the church could still close. And if we do, the funding must come in to continue (and there's still not a guarantee that the church will flourish). We need $25,000 for this first phase of construction, not including the roof... so will you pray with us that the Lord will provide?

Administratively, we could use some help too...creating a workable church office and financial practices are necessary, but we also need guidance in how to correctly do that.

And our church needs unity. The numbers have been small. Growth has been backwards. Several of our new friends carry large burdens. And some in our congregation don't favor the building changes. Pray with us that we will lead change effectively and compassionately. The last thing we want to do is ruin a church...Josh and I are both seeing areas in our lives that need to mature spiritually...like love. That's a big action--to really agape each person with whom we interact.

Josh started preaching through the book of John in January. I'm sure this series will last all year. I wasn't sure what to expect marrying a pastor, wasn't sure if I could ever really grow and enjoy listening to someone other than my dad. But The Lord has blessed Josh and gifted him to minister the Word. The Lord has been among us in our services and has spoken. He has not left us...and I pray that we will stick with Him and follow in His footsteps.

This February is also our first Missions Emphasis Month. The church will have a faith promise commitment time (wow!), and we are hosting missionaries each weekend this month. We enjoyed having Ben Kidder, a church planter and friend from Minong, WI with us last weekend. This weekend my cousin, Jan Janofski will come down from the UP and focus on short-term and children's ministries...it will be great to have her and another cousin, Kevin. Then, next weekend Bill & Daphne Foster will travel up here with an IWU student and speak about career missions and their time in Australia. Josh will close with a focus on the Global Partners missionaries we support and our district's Nicaragua partnership. We enjoy hosting people in our home and it will be neat to see where God leads our church in the area of praying, giving & going.

Did you know: 40% of Wisconsin is completely unchurched? That was just one of the stats we heard from Ben on Sunday...that makes this restarting effort worth it...if we as a church can minister and bring the gospel to those who need it...this will be worth it.

Some other needs: We still need some people (families, individuals, students) to minister with us. We need worship leaders, organized administrative help, financial wisdom, outreach-oriented individuals, etc. If you or someone you know is interested in an internship, volunteer opportunity, or long-term move, please contact us. We need a laptop computer and projector...and we need to sell our pews.

Also, if you're ready to buy a magazine or renew a subscription, visit www.magfundraising.com/jubileewesleyan. All magazines are up to 85% off and our church's building fund receives 40% of the retail price.

Thanks so much for praying, for loving us and for supporting us.

Evangelism Linebacker

2007-11-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

My brother showed me this video. Silly, silly, silly.

November

2007-11-17T16:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, we realize we stink at updating this thing. New Year's resolution? Sounds good.

Here's a bit of what's happened in November. Our church has been approved to remodel the building with the idea that we will do it as the money comes in. So we've been working on getting the money to "come in." Yesterday we, along with six others, made 103 pumpkin rolls. No, that's not a typo. (When we were at Brookhaven we sold pumpkin rolls as a youth group fundraiser and made 79.)

We had a blast! It was great spending time with friends and church family. We turned on Christmas music and sang obnoxiously and made some small messes in our kitchen and the church kitchen. This year went so well we plan to do it again next year. One person already suggested we try for 200. We'll see about that...

We're looking forward to spending some time with family next week for turkey day. We'll see both sides as well as Josh's mom's family in Ohio.

Maddie also turned one on November 5th. We had a small birthday party for her (not that she had a clue) filled with cat treats and new toys. She's getting so big!

Raking, er, laying in leaves.

Ordination

2007-10-24T08:30:00.000-04:00

Romans 1:1 says, "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God..." Paul says of himself he is first a servant of Christ Jesus, something all Christians are. He then adds that not only is he a servant or slave of Jesus, but he has also been called. He has been called to be an apostle (a sent one). He was set apart for the gospel.

These two elements, the call and being set apart, are a big part of what we now call ordination. Ordination is a way of the church confirming the call to ministry for a pastor. It is also a way for the church to set him/her apart for service. Some say that ordination has no real Biblical basis, and yet Paul states he has both been called and set apart. In Acts 13:2 the Lord said that the church in Antioch should set apart Paul and Barnabas. They had hands placed on them and were sent out.

Is this not the same thing that happens in an ordination service? I believe so.

The reason I post this is because last Monday night I was interviewed for ordination. I will be getting ordained in June 2008 at our district conference. Exciting and humbling at the same time.

Jamie's New Job

2007-10-17T02:30:00.001-04:00

After laying in bed for 2 hours, hoping to fall asleep before the alarm rings at 5:45, I decided to give up and type awhile. So, now it's one in the morning, I've caught up on several of your posts (wonderful late night reading), and figured I would post, as well.

The last month has been a whirlwind. I am getting reacquainted with the workforce...I started a job in September as an educational assistant (teacher's aide) at one of our local schools, West Kindergarten Center. As the name suggests, it is entirely made up of kindergarten classes (6 of them, all full day). And I am loving it. It is so fun to be able to work with children, especially because our church doesn't really have any of its own. I get my kid-fixes in all week, and I think it is making me a better wife (at least a happier wife) for Josh when I return home each day. I can't fully explain just how much I love this job . . . and there are 116 5 & 6-year-old reasons. In the last month I have had more encouragement & compliments from "my kids" than I think Josh & I have had in the last year...and coming from a really encouraging church family & work environment in Marion, that has meant a lot to us. (I don't want to sound negative--While this last year was tough and pretty discouraging, we were not alone...we have amazing support from others in our district and several in our church here...but it is so good to have that encouragement each day!) So, back to school...I work with two teachers in their classrooms, have 2 recess duties (my favorite!), morning bus duty (thus the 5:45 alarm!), and then office coverage, general cutting/pasting/laminating/copying time, and lunch duty (I can open milk cartons pretty well:). It's definitely not the same intensity that I had in World Impact by a long shot...and sometimes I miss that purposeful driven environment and mission and wonder if I am pursuing the right dream at this moment...but right now, it is so nice to not have to worry about what might happen next at work and not be in charge of anything important (financial/travel/etc!). And did I mention, I love the kids?! There are several whom I am attached to and I even have a little secret admirer--tons of fun:) The job offers just enough hours to help us financially and get me out of the house, but isn't full-time, which I know we couldn't handle right now. It's been a great way to get to know several others in the community and make contact with parents of all of these kids...so we are feeling more a part of Baraboo...Josh also comes in three days a week to volunteer in the classrooms, and the teachers just love that. All in all, it is a great arrangement. Tomorrow we all go on our first bus field trip to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard, and I am so excited! Perhaps it's time to crawl back in bed, pull up the covers and start counting sheep....good night!

Donald Miller

2007-10-09T00:20:00.001-04:00

Last Thursday night Jamie and I got to hear Donald Miller speak at Elmbrook Church (www.elmbrook.org). Phenomenal! Brandon Heath and the Robbie Seay Band opened for him. He spoke about story and what it means to live a good story. He said a good story involves a main character who has a dream who goes through conflict on his/her way to achieving the dream. He related this idea to the story of Joseph in the Bible. Joseph had a dream from God that his brothers would one day bow to him. He is sent to Egypt, then sent to prison (conflict), but eventually becomes second-in-command to Pharaoh.

Donald Miller said that the main character may mess up, won't be perfect, but never thinks of him/herself as better than anyone else. You may hate some of the things a main character does in their pursuit of the dream, but they treat others as equals. He didn't explicitly say it, but I think this is Jesus' love your neighbor as yourself.

He said the dream has to be better than "I want a Volvo." Who goes to a movie all about someone trying to buy a Volvo and leaves the theater with tears? The dream is bigger than that. It's better than that. He told a story of a woman he knows whose dream is to build 1,000 wells in Africa. He said if she got hit by a bus and died today, hundreds of thousands of people would die.

In dreaming there's always fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of embarrassment. And the only way to overcome the fear is to dive into the dream. Don't worry about next steps and possible setbacks along the way; just dive in. He said in a movie you don't know what a person is thinking. You only know if he's going fishing if the camera takes you to the boat and you see him sitting in it with a fishing rod out on the lake. Same thing with our dreams. We have to do something with them.

Then comes conflict. But conflict enables us to appreciate the dream all the more. What sports team loves going undefeated if they're playing the JV team all year long? There must be conflict. And finally the dream is reached. The character is changed in the process.

It's made me question if I even have a dream. At this point I don't think I do. What's your dream?

New Look to the Church

2007-09-19T13:06:00.000-04:00

Last week a team of four from Main St. Wesleyan in Jonesboro, IN came to help us upgrade our church building. Here are pics of the results. Jamie and I think it's a cute little Wesleyan Church!

The cross, plants, stones and mulch are all new. Many people have said how much the cross makes the church look like a church. Thanks Stephen!

The picture of the roof shows how the shingles now match. The small triangle used to have old gray shingles with a blue tarp in the middle. There was an opening where the old fan/vent was. We closed that up and it looks great. Thanks Stephen and Dillon!

Our church sign is currently blank. The old service times and my name looked dilapidated and dated. So we'll leave it this way until we come up with a new church name. The mums and mulch are new here as well. There used to be a "pine" bush on either side of the sign. They were alright, but not my preference. Perhaps we'll buy something else to put in their place. Thanks Ben and Gina!

We meet with a building committee from the district Saturday to discuss further changes/ remodeling to the interior. Right now we have to work in stages based on what we can afford. Hopefully we'll come up with a strategy to do things in the right timing. If you think about it, pray that we would have wisdom for this project.

Josh Needs Help

2007-08-31T11:49:00.001-04:00

For all of you married couples (and singles) who read our normal blog, click on the "Jesus and Josh" link in our blogs section. I need your input on my premarital counseling material. Get on the other blog, see what you think, and let me know. Thanks!

We're Back

2007-08-28T00:02:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging this summer. We don't really have an excuse. Here's 6 new posts from Hilty happenings in July and August.

Prep for 14 Extra People Living in Your Basement

2007-08-27T23:37:00.001-04:00

I think the title says it all. The fact that I'm writing almost two months afterward tells you it can be done. It was a joy to fit 16 people through one shower all week. It's part of the mission trip experience. Our Sunday School class has been going through Keith Drury's "There's No I in Church" for the past month or so. The theme is how God uses the church as a body to sanctify us, to make us more like Him. One of the questions He asks is, "Why can't churches be more like mission trips in regard to koinonia, or fellowship?" And the answer is simple: Mission trips provide a group of people an extended period of uninterrupted community. Sleeping in a basement on an air mattress 6 inches from the kid you normally see a few hours a week at church makes it almost impossible for bonding not to take place. Standing in a church basement on a chair with paint in your hair and on your shirt, breathing in paint fumes, isn't something that normally happens on Sunday morning or Wednesday night.

Jamie and I were excited to have the team from Brookhaven here. And we were just as excited to prepare our basement for them to sleep in it. Here are some pics from prep time.

That little black thing is a bug. The wall and floor meet but there's a bit of a crevice between them where these goobers come through. Jamie was washing the wall and they just started popping out. I couldn't spray them fast enough, so this was option 2. Remember the game where the gophers come out of the holes and you hit them on the head? Same thing. Gross! Oh, I killed about 30 that day.

Jamie and I both washed the floor. What a difference scrubbing the floor and walls made to the smell. When we moved in, the entire basement was full of church clutter which create a less-than-pleasant smell. Now it's a liveable space. Can anyone say "TLC"?

We also cleaned the panels for our lights. No more dead bugs up there.

Brookhaven Team

2007-08-27T22:45:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a project you wanted to tackle but knew you couldn't do it on your own? Our recent projects were painting the church basement, weeding around the outside of the church and putting on a VBS. We know that without God providing 14 extra helping hands we couldn't have done any of it.

To those of you from the BWC team who came and helped, thank you so much. Our congregation loves the basement and we still see Ryan. We're getting ready to add some landscaping to the church next month.

The team arrived Monday July 30th. We showed them the church, set up shower and meal prep arrangements, had devos and went to bed. Then the fun began. Tuesday morning we started taping and painting the church basement. Some of the guys worked outside to weed around the building and did a great job. That night we held a youth service for a few of the teens that come to the church. This was their first experience with a youth group and hopefully is a taste of what we'll have (someday). Pastor Tony preached a great message about God's unconditional love with a little help from Rob Bell (Lump).

Wednesday through Friday days were the same as Tuesday: paint and weed. Those nights we held a VBS. We had one boy show up each night, a 6 yr old named Ryan who lives 2 houses down. He had a blast with kickball and enjoyed learning the memory verses each night. While we were disappointed to have so many volunteers and only one kid, we know Ryan loved it. Plus it's given Jamie and I a connection with his parents.

Saturday Jamie took the team to Devil's Lake even though it rained. They had fun hiking the trails and warming up back at the house.

Sunday the team presented our VBS songs and verses and stories for the congregation using Powerpoint slides and a guitar and worship DVDs. These are all things our church has had little or no experience with, so we're glad we could use the VBS as an "excuse" to introduce them. That afternoon we went to Noah's Ark, the largest outdoor waterpark in the US. It's 15 minutes north of us in Wisconsin Dells. Think of Cedar Point with lots of water.

Monday August 6th was farewell. We were sad to see them go. Here are pictures of our week together.

Haley cleaning the women's bathroom prior to painting. Let's just say it's not good to touch or breathe in mold.

How many teens can you fit on a couch?

Before #1

Before #2

Our cousin Crystal and Jessie removing old curtain rods.

Allie working her tail off to rinse paint rollers and brushes. When you use 9 different colors this becomes a difficult task :)

Jewel, Jessie and Haley painting the back wall of the basement.

Jewel starting to paint "the squares." You would not believe how many times we taped and retaped so we could paint this correctly. You can only paint in every other square, both horizontally and vertically. Then pull out the hair dryers to help the dry time, pull off the old tape (in places) and put up new tape. Repeat process. It took us to Saturday morning just before family members showed up for a memorial service to finish this wall.

After #1. Yes that's me jumping like an idiot.

After #2

Ryan, our VBS kid and neighbor.

Mollie

2007-08-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Jamie's friend Mollie Bozarth came to visit in late July. She was on her way up to Minnesota and we had lunch together. It's been nice to see friends and family quite a bit this summer. A team of four people from Main Street Wesleyan Church (Jonesboro, IN) is coming in September to help out at the church, including pastor and friend Stephen Mowat. We thank God for great friends no matter how far apart we are.

Family Time

2007-08-27T21:39:00.001-04:00

Jamie's family came to visit us in the beginning of July. We camped at Devil's Lake State Park for about a week. Some of these pictures were taken from on top of the West Bluff that surrounds Devil's Lake. We hiked along the lake one way, then went to the top on the way back.

They brought corn hole, the game where you toss bean bags onto wooden boards. Simple yet addicting.

These two just had to go together. Yes, they're related.

A Sad Day for Maddie

2007-08-27T21:22:00.000-04:00

Today we took Maddie to the vet for spaying and de-clawing. It was like dropping your child off to kindergarten on the first day of school. If you think about it, how many times are you really away from your pet? And how many of those times is it crying in the back seat of your car, looking at you with the "puppy dog" face? Maybe I'm pathetic, but it was hard to leave her.

BUT...praise God she won't have any little, white, mutilating, blood-producing front claws when she returns! We pick her up tomorrow at 11:00, complete with recycled newspaper litter and incomplete without claws and, well...

These pics were taken a month ago. She actually slept on hte couch with Jamie like this, butt in the air, head on the couch. Owee!!!! She loves getting into our laundry baskets. We have tall ones and we throw her toys into them. She jumps in after them and tries to jump out. She can do it, but not without the basket falling down after her. This time she's trying to use those blood-producing things to get Josh.

Rain!

2007-08-27T21:10:00.001-04:00

Here's how the back page of my newspaper reads:

Precipitation Month to Date: 14.70"
Normal Month to Date: 3.67"
Year to Date: 34.11"
Normal Year to Date: 23.06"

The front page article is titled, "Residents can get federal help." That's right. We've had enough rain to be considered a federal emergency. All summer long, especially in July, we had no rain. The grass was dead. It hurt to walk outside barefoot. All of a sudden August comes and we have water gushing through into the church basement and a small puddle in ours. Okay, maybe gushing is a strong word. But it did take about 10 towels to sop it all up one Sunday morning. Now our grass is far from dead and we're sick of the rain. Today we woke up to thunder and lightning. Hopefully God decides its time to quit and shares it with areas down south. We'll see.

Church Remodeling

2007-07-03T18:45:00.000-04:00

We're getting excited about some upcoming changes to our building. We met with DeLon Davis, the man in charge of it all, today. He's lining up guys to do the electrical, glass, and drywall work. And Jamie's been working hard getting prices on all the inside decorative/practical things like curtains, paint, coat racks, etc. We hope to start as soon as possible. Once we get prices to the District Board and they approve them, we'll get to work.

Teams from Brookhaven Wesleyan and possibly Main Street Wesleyan and Warsaw Wesleyan in Indiana have volunteered to help, along with Hillsboro Wesleyan, the First Church of the Nazarene (Baraboo) and Lakeshore Church (Madison) in Wisconsin. Plus Jamie and I will devote every possible moment to the projects.

We've been doing car washes and bake sales to raise money as well as put out a "wheelbarrow for change" in the sanctuary (thanks Brookhaven for that idea). Plus the contractors have offered to volunteer some of the work for a tax write-off. God is slowly but surely working things out. Things like not having to draw up plans for the county (8-10 thousand dollars), providing a man who went to IWU in DeLon, and providing many people to volunteer.

If you could pray with us that the necessary plans would be approved (those that the Lord would deem appropriate--we're hoping we can do an extreme makeover!) and also that the finances would be provided somehow to cover the expenses. We really feel like this is one large step that we can make to become a welcoming environment & viable option for those in our community.

Here are some pics of the building to give you an idea of what we have now:

The platform area

Our sign out front

Inside the sanctuary . . .

Looking into the entry area

Our 1960's windows--imagine with us Pizza Hut cups in a light yellow hue

Vacation Pictures

2007-06-27T16:52:00.001-04:00

These are a month late. Pretend like we just got back and we won't feel so bad. :)

Poppa J teaching Josh how to set up their huge-mongous tent (so he could have it all ready for them come July in Devil's Lake State Park).

Part of the photo board for Josh's brother Andrew's gradution. Jamie and my mom worked on this for a few hours.

A picture of Jamie I couldn't get upright. She's learning how to decorate cakes with her mom.

Jamie and Tiffany being goofy. Those two can be just as silly as me and my three brothers.

The van being towed on our way to Michigan to see Jamie's grandpa. Needless to say we missed the noon meeting by a few hours.

What vehicle is this? The 2007 Ford F150 with the extended cab that we rented when the van broke down. For some reason all I hear now is we need toi buy a truck.

Goofing off.

Falling down while goofing off.

Some of our best friends from Jonesboro, IN...Stephen and Michelle Mowat. We had a good time playing Rook together and going out to Ivanhoes for ice cream.

Sunday morning at Brookhaven. It was children's Sunday, so the KOH kids' choir sang.

Josh, The Graduate, and Nate.

Jamie with our niece Olivia (she's growing up quick!).

The Goobers: Nate and Andrew.

Wow, It's been a month

2007-06-25T22:51:00.000-04:00

An entire month since we last posted . . . we've been running ragged--so here's a quick update on our lives...pictures to come when I can find the camera.

Car Wash/Bake Sale---was FABULOUS. Four out of our 5 new families participated, as well as 14ish teens/kids. We made $440 and sent 3 girls to camp with the rest of the money going toward our remodeling fund. One of the best days since we've moved up here.

Vacation--HECTIC. We spent 37 hours in a vehicle, made 2 trips to Michigan, were at graduation for Josh's brother, Andy, a funeral for our friend, Eldine, the hospital with my grandpa, and the car repair/rental place, as well as Marion/Brookhaven/home & with both sets of families. Great time, but we had to crash when we returned because we were so worn out.

The next week brought church catch-up and remodeling pricing & helping friends move. . . and then last week was District Conference...where we learned not to always go for the cheap motel room when you really desire and desperately need a good night's sleep. Conference was great...it was good to be with fellow Wesleyans and other pastoral couples. We got to know Ben & Ingrid Kidder better. They are church planting in Minong, WI, a village of 500 people. Their previous church was going through the refocusing process like ours is now, so they had some great insight and encouragement to share with us. And the worship & speakers at conference were fabulous! We got home late Friday night to an overflowing answering machine and a list of long to-do's for this week, including the funeral of a young man who passed way tragically. Pray for Josh as he officiates this funeral tomorrow...that he might have inspired words of comfort and hope for the family & friends.

Master's Praise gave a concert at our church on Sunday morning....and were FABULOUS (this is my new favorite word)...we had a great time with Brent, Branden, Dan, and Jon...it was nice to have "college-aged" guys around the house and the church...and our congregation loved the concert ("Wow, those guys were awesome! Can they ever sing!"). Today, while Josh worked through his day off, I baby-sat 2 kids whose family has been coming to our church recently. I had so much fun watching T-ball, reading stories and playing with them...and my respect is renewed for all of you who are parents already. I was tired when they left!

So, that's the short & sweet update...hope all is well. It's nice to be back at the keyboard again after a month away.

Vacation in 4 days!

2007-05-26T11:16:00.000-04:00

My hair has gone through therapy...and I think we've got it tamed into a decent rendition of something nearly in-style! I even got compliments on it at church from some of the girls...Josh keeps rating it on a scale from 1-10...the first few days it was a 1 or below...and this week we were up to an 8...hopefully he is being honest and not just saying it!

The real reason for writing: We are coming home (INDIANA) this week. We leave on our first official vacation Thursday afternoon, and we are so excited for it. You'd think we were going on a Cruise or something...that's how good it will be to be home for a week and not try to fit visits with family into just 2 days or less. We've realized that sometimes it is harder now that both of our families live only 20 minutes from each other because we always feel like we need to be everywhere as much as possible, and there's really not a whole lot of rest to be had...but it's worth it to be with our families. We'll be traveling from home to home a lot this vacation...it seems like nearly every other day we are at a different place.

But: we are coming to Marion (my real home!) on Saturday and will be there through Sunday after morning service at Brookhaven...We are eating at Ivanhoe's at 5pm on Saturday, and had hoped for our friends/family to meet us there so that we could be with you for a little bit of time that day...Hopefully, it will fit into your schedules...I don't know of another way to see everyone in just one day. We emailed, but haven't received many responses back.

Anyway, that's it for now. We have 6-10 girls (age 10-14) coming to our house tonite for a bowlathon & overniter. Then we have a carwash & bake sale on Monday to raise money for camp registrations...I hope they have a good time. It will be the first thing we've done with them since Christmas, and several are new to our church. So, we'd appreciate your prayers.

Wistful Thinking

2007-05-14T22:30:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago Amy posted about her unsuccessful haircut experiences. I understand. I've had several bad cuts in my life. In kindergarten my mom decided to save money and cut it herself . . . and I ended up looking like a hick-child with a mullet. She took me to the hair stylist after school pictures were taken . . . so I have a great photo to remind me not to be as frugal with my kids. The next very bad haircut (I've had many more than this, but these are definitely the worst) happened the day before my senior pictures . . . I left the salon with feathered chunky hair and now have senior pictures that I'd prefer no one see.

I've been craving a haircut for several weeks now. It's been a good two months since my last one, and my hair has been driving me crazy. For the last year, I've been growing it out long...but recently, I got the urge to cut it short again . . . and so I've been looking forward to this salon visit. When I arrived, it was lunch time. That should have been a clue that I was in trouble. There was only one stylist there, and she sounded tired, like she just needed a long lunch break away from scissors and customers. I'd decided to go to a new salon, the one in Wal-Mart (that should have been my next clue that something might be wrong), so that Josh could also get the oil changed in our car at the same time. He dropped me off; I walked in, picked up a magazine and read an article about getting the right cut and style from your salon. Perfect timing, I thought. Apparently the key is in the initial communication between you and the stylist, before she takes the scissors in her hands. The article told me a picture would help the stylist better understand my needs . . . and lucky for me--I'd brought a picture--four, in fact, showing exactly the style I wanted (one I'd had back in the summer of 2005)...the short, layered, flippy kind . . . a little longer in back, with long side bangs that frame my face . . . something my brother would be proud of and compliment me on. I'd even made sure that Josh still liked that hairstyle before leaving home today.

I shouldn't have bothered. The stylist took a look at the cut in the picture, told me her version of it ("one chop at the chin and another at the ears"), and started whacking. I've never had such a fast cut. She asked me about the bangs . . . I told her that I get annoyed when my bangs brush my nose . . . and so she whacked some more until I had a straight line of bangs above my eyebrows . . . the cut ended within 5 minutes . . . she blew it dry, and when I looked in the mirror for the final once-over, I saw a combination of poof and short mullet . . . a triple combination of June Cleaver, Lucille Ball and Betty Rubble staring back at me. My new hairstyle makes me look like I'm in my forties or fifties. (The goal was summer-flippy-fun-young cut, not this!).

Josh didn't comment too much in the salon except to say, "I have to get used to it." Later, in Subway, the truth came out (which I completely agree with): "You look like you're from another decade." Thanks, Honey. He has been really great . . . tonight he sat down with all of my styling gels, sprays and mousses, my hairdryer, curling irons and straightener to try and create a style that would put me back into this century . . . his attempts were valiant, but I don't think he's going to want to do my hair every morning. He did say he'd still walk with me in public, and he offered me his baseball cap to wear for the next few months. I'm so grateful!

I guess I thought that as I age, bad haircuts would become a distant memory. Now, I only wish I could explain to anyone I pass that my hair isn't supposed to be this way...and even though it will grow out, I still have to live with it for the next few weeks until that happens. Needless to say, I miss Kathleen, our stylist in Marion, and it's time to find a new salon up here. (I've added these classy cuts to the blog to give you some uplifting humor . . . definitely at my expense . . . #1: Kindergarten frugal cut #2: Senior Pic #3: Two weeks ago #4: Tonight, after some major depoofing by my husband. . . hopefully I'll be able to laugh about this most recent cut in a few days!)

Mondays with Maddie 3

2007-05-14T22:22:00.000-04:00

Last week we posted Madeline stuck in the window . . . the winner for that post is Mom, whose caption goes like this: "Give me a high-five, Mom! I climbed way up to the second story window. Next time I'll try the tree!" Today's picture is my favorite so far. Can't wait to read your ideas. The winner will be posted next Monday.

Mondays With Maddie 2

2007-05-07T18:54:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all who commented on last week's pic. Maddie is becoming a star and she doesn't even know it. Perhaps that's a benefit of having a cat right now. Wew don't have to worry about how embarrassing the pictures are. We don't have to apologize for the comments you write. Kinda nice, huh? Here's the moment you've been waiting for: the winning caption.

"If curiosity kills the cat, I at least want to die with a full belly!" by Pastor Matt and Laura Aspinall

Here's this week's picture. Look closely or you'll miss what's happening here. Enjoy commenting. We'll post the winner next Monday.

Surprise Visitors

2007-05-07T18:43:00.000-04:00

Sunday Jim and Roxy Lo surprised us by walking into church just as service was beginning. Jamie was leading our opening song, which just happened to be "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty." Coincidence? I don't think so.

It put such smiles on our faces to see them. We went out to eat afterward at Cracker Barrel. It was almost like being back at the Gas City restaurant.

Jim and Roxy are good friends from IWU days. Jim married us and taught several classes we were in. He was also Jamie's boss for two years at IWU's World Impact. They attended Brookhaven with us and we consider them to be our mentors, people we can share joys and sorrows with and know they will listen and most times be able to give wisdom.

Thanks you two for brightening our day!

Mondays With Maddie 1

2007-04-30T11:08:00.000-04:00

Jamie and I love to see our friends post pictures of their kids. We don't have kids yet. So the next best thing is our cat. We're now starting a weekly post: Mondays With Maddie. Each Monday we'll post a picture of her without a caption.

It's up to you to comment with a caption. We'll choose the best caption each week and post it in the following Mondays With Maddie post.

Here's week one.

Sleepy

2007-04-26T18:27:00.000-04:00

If our weather is at all like yours, it's a good day for a nap. Unless you're a cat who's not used to being flashed (with the camera, not me). Isn't she cute?

Anniversary Gift

2007-04-26T16:32:00.000-04:00

This blog is about to get a lot more fun for you and us. Our anniversary present to one another was a digital camera. Now it will be a picture blog, kinda like a picture book. So for all of you still stuck in kindergarten with The Cat in the Hat, this just got a lot easier. Here it is.

Our Anniversary!

2007-04-26T16:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our three year anniversary! I like to say we're three years old now.

In the last three years we've...

Lived in three houses: a rental from Dr. Judy Huffman in Marion, IN; our own home we bought in Marion, IN; and the parsonage in Baraboo, WI.

Graduated from college: Jamie the day before we got married; Josh a year ago.

Had a few jobs: Jamie at IWU's Accounts Payable Office, World Impact; Josh at IWU's Admissions Office and pastor of Parkway Wesleyan Church.

Had no children: Unless you count our kitten :)

Been asked several times when we're going to have children by several people: Probably by some of you reading!

Spent time vacationing in: The Outer Banks of NC (honeymoon); Mackinaw (last summer); another place in Michigan camping with Jamie's parents with a name that escapes me.

Lived day to day with one another, growing in our love and appreciation for one another. We've made it through some bumps in the road and we can honestly say we cannot live without each other.

Here goes year number four. I wonder if this makes us preschoolers?

Loving the Weather

2007-04-21T17:39:00.000-04:00

Today I took advantage of the beautiful weather and cleaned up our lawn from the tree branches and sticks that had claimed it over the winter. This is really the first time I've ever done any spring yard work and I enjoyed myself...afterwards I felt ambitious and put the first coat of paint on the exterior of our house's bottom half (we have a walkout basement). Before moving in last fall, the district totally redid the inside of our house and painted the top half of the outside, but time was too short and they couldn't finish that project. I thoroughly enjoyed the paint job and it is amazing to see the difference one paint color can make on a previously two-toned house.

Our next house projects include cleaning our basement, adding new flooring & paint at some point, and making it into a useable family room. Right now we can't really use the space except for storage, so it will be great to be able to nearly double our living space, especially with summer coming and the Brookhaven mission team heading our way.

The homesickness hit last night as we both realized that there will be no family campfires to enjoy at my parents' house this summer. We were both in the mood for an evening of relaxation and roasted hot dogs, and so are hoping to fix that longing and buy a firepit with our tax rebate. Hopefully that day will come long before these beautiful evenings end.

Josh and I are discovering that our backyard, which connects to the church's side yard, is the community playing field. Right now there are six elementary aged boys playing a game of football...Josh and I will have to go out and meet them one of these days. Saturdays are so different now that Josh is a pastor . . . his Saturday & night is the final push of sermon prep and bulletin printing. Mondays are his day off and they have now become our "Saturdays." Service last Sunday was wonderful, and we are both praying and hoping that tomorrow will be just as good or better.

Hope

2007-04-18T16:25:00.000-04:00

I am alone this afternoon and evening...Josh has been invited to go to a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game with 3 other guys and so he just left...this is the 1st time since we've moved that he has had the opportunity to hang out with guys just for fun...and I hope he really has a blast tonight, and perhaps will become friends with them so that this is not just a one time event. He desperately needs guy friendships up here.

This week has been pretty uneventful; I am recleaning the house after having Josh's family here this weekend. We had a great time and it was fun to be with them...it always seems to take me a lot longer to clean up after an event compared to before having people over...perhaps the adrenaline just doesn't kick in as much.

Our ladies Bible study happens this evening...we are going to delve into the topic of HOPE. I am interested to see what the Bible has to say about it and how this study unfolds the concept. HOPE has been the word of the year for me...or at least these last 7 months. Although we are doing better up here; some days and weeks, the depression & hopelessness settle around us and it is hard to glimpse God's glory and plan in the midst of it.

We have been writing letters and praying that God will call at least one other person to live up here and serve with us for the summer or a year...a bit of a long-term mission project...It has been really hard to try and "figure out" how to minister & refocus a church & do all of the small unseen yet necessary tasks for "running" a church legally, much less smoothly, in our first year...IWU prepared us well; but there are some things that you only learn on the job, and this has been the hardest thing we have ever done in our lives. We'd appreciate your prayers in that direction...that someone would call us and come.

We are digging deeper into the remodeling project estimates & ideas. Josh has spoken with several people about quotes on jobs that need doing at the church...this could be a HUGE process...and the funny thing is, once we have all the estimates & ideas of what the necessary projects are (& there are a lot), we'll have to shave the list down to the 1 or 2 immediately necessary things that we can afford. We are getting to know the carpet, paint, electric & carpentry people quite well. They have been super friendly & their wisdom is invaluable. We hope to make the church feel homey & have sort of a coffeehouse feel to it, all with a modern-timeless-twist...if you know of anyone in the market for pews, send them our way!

Family Time

2007-04-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

Josh's family (Dad, Andrew, Nate, Grandpa Hilty and Aunt Karen) came up last weekend. Here are some pictures of our time together.

Nate skipping a stone at Devil's Lake.

Jamie and Karen preparing Sunday lunch. Lasagna!

Madeline, curious as ever!

Josh showing Grandpa how we'd like to change the windows in the church.

Front: Josh's Aunt Karen, Dad, Jamie
Back: Andrew, Josh, Nate (brothers)

Paradigm Mission Trip

2007-03-26T22:28:00.000-04:00

Brookhaven's youth group is coming. What an exciting week that will be! They plan to be here for a week in late-July/early-August. Boy do we have work for them!

We're hoping to do a mini-VBS and have them help with whatever remodeling is happening at the time. This is another prayer request for us. Pray that logistics will all work out for each person who needs to come. Pray that God would prepare the team for what may not seem like a "mission trip." Pray for the team as they raise funds to come. And pray for God to use them when they're here.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Life in March

2007-03-23T12:39:00.000-04:00

We're alive! See subtitle of our blog if you're wondering why we haven't updated lately. Okay, really we've just been busy and are slacking. So this post might be a little longer than normal.

The snow is definitely gone. We're loving the early spring weather and we're excited to take advantage of the state park. We just need to purchase the year pass. We're also going to become members of a fitness center that's just a few blocks from our house. Jamie's been there once and loved it. With our health insurance we save 20% off the normal rate and they pay you to work out (kind of like IWU does). One of the ladies at our church works out there, so we'll be able to spend time with her and hopefully meet some new people too.

Maddie, our cat, is at least three times as big as when we got her. The vet says she'll always be a little on the small side though. We can't wait to get her de-clawed. What a menace! If she's not clawing up the furniture, it's the curtains. If she's not jumping on the kitchen table, she's trying to climb our picture window (with a good amount of success). Her favorite activity is to lay on our couch staring out the picture window. She'll fall asleep there for hours on end.

Enough about the cat....

We're are also volunteering at the local kindergarten a couple days a week. It's been fun meeting kids and getting to know the teachers we help out. Hopefully we'll be able to someday meet their parents as well.

Other big news (no, we're not expecting) is that we're looking into remodeling/updating the church building this summer. Jamie now works part-time for a construction company in town. She shoots nail guns and is learning to roof houses. I wonder how many of you I had going there?

She really does work for the construction company, just as their financial guru. She keeps the checkbooks in order and has been getting things ready for tax time. All this to say her boss is DeLon Davis, an IWU grad! He and his family had been attending our church back in the early 90s but stopped because they were immediately asked to volunteer for every ministry position possible. Now we're at least hoping they can help us figure out what can and can't be done to improve the building. Please pray we'll have wisdom to know how much we can spend, what's essential and what's not, etc.

Hope life back in Indiana (or wherever you're reading from) is going well.

SNOW

2007-02-26T11:29:00.000-05:00

If only we had a camera. That's what we've been saying since we came back home Saturday.

Last Thursday Jamie and I made a quick trip to Indiana. Jamie's dad had hip and knee replacement surgery on the 12th and is recovering at home now. It was hard enough staying in Wisconsin for the surgery, and he hadn't been feeling well, so we went down. The physical therapist says he is coming along well, and will only need 2 weeks of therapy instead of the 5 weeks he had planned.

We had a great though short time there, and wished we could've stayed for the World Impact Commissioning Service at IWU Saturday night. We're now glad we didn't. If we had, there's no way we could've made it home.

We now have over a foot of snow. It's still falling as I'm writing. Our church parking lot finally was plowed this morning because it's been a constant downpour since Saturday night. If only we had a camera. Needless to say, church was canceled on Sunday. I didn't want any of our people having to wake up to shovel their drives and then drive on semi-plowed roads.

Woohoo for snow!

If I didn't have to work this week, I'd be out in the snow making a fort or something.

Avoidance

2007-02-05T13:51:00.000-05:00

Ok . . . This is a first attempt at writing again--so it's rough & raw. Anyone willing to take a shot at editing/critiquing is welcome.

Avoidance

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
--James 1.5 (TNIV)

I must have Avoidant Personality Disorder . . . I read the description of it in a psych book once—the one that all the doctors use—it was my college roommate’s textbook. And the description seems to fit. You see, I get scared by the littlest things—like seeing a friend by chance at the grocery store. I hide if I can, sneaking around the next aisle just so I won’t have to say, “Hi, How you doing?” and start a conversation from there. Throughout most of my life, it has been easier to avoid conversation starters than have to frantically think up the words that become small talk. Perhaps because I am not a “think on your feet” kind of communicator. Or perhaps because small talk eventually becomes deeper conversation, the kind where you place your heart on your sleeve and hope the other person accepts you. And I have deep expectations for friendship—some that I won’t be able to fill, and others that I don’t expect anyone else to fill either. So, instead of talking to that person in the next aisle, I walk the other direction, intent on looking for the right brand of . . . something.

This avoidance disorder doesn’t just happen when I’m faced with unplanned conversations . . . My self-diagnosed psychosis has a hand in nearly every area of my life—except maybe for brushing my teeth and eating breakfast—you know, the usual out-of-bed routine.

My family labels me a procrastinator, and that label would apply, for I’m writing this three hours before my new writer’s club meeting . . . but I’m discovering that this need to avoid goes beyond procrastination’s normal realm. While I wait until the last minute do some routine things, the tendency to avoid begins when I am face to face with personal opportunities for success and failure. Decisions to volunteer my time, to start healthy eating habits, and especially, to write again. And while I hate to admit it, my avoidance has a lot to do with doubt.

Doubt in my God-given abilities to try—and to succeed. Succeed not just once but over and over again. It’s one thing to write for a college assignment. It’s an entirely different thing to write for the sheer fun and work of writing. What if I actually write something of value and people read my words—and then want me to speak on that subject? What if I have no words left to say than those already on the page? Or—and this may be my worst fear—what if my words are valuable to no one but myself?

I’ve taken a break from writing—The last three years I’ve only written emails and grocery lists; I haven’t even journaled. Nothing creative or reflective has graced my computer screen or paper. And I wonder, have I buried the gift God gave me? Buried it so deep that the gift is now lost? Do I have the courage to see if it is still there—hidden and waiting to be born one more time? Am I ready to birth whole essays, poems and stories not just for myself, but for others’ eyes and hearts, as well? And what words will come first? Words that will cut or heal?

And so I stand here with my doubts, wondering and waiting, and a little bit believing too. And I think I'd like to make a choice.

The Indianapolis...

2007-02-05T00:10:00.000-05:00

...Colts won the Superbowl!!! Woohoo!

Hilty January Update

2007-02-03T20:45:00.000-05:00

So it's been a little while since we've posted. Oops. Here's an update on the month of January for us.

The kitten. Maddie (we call her Madeline more often because it's her I'm-in-deep-trouble name), is getting bigger. She enjoys playing with her yarn, cardboard boxes, our feet, getting onto the table and countertop in the bathroom, and drinking the leftover water in the tub after a shower. Don't ask me why she does the last one...I don't know. But everytime we take a shower, she jumps in immediately after the water is off and lays down, gets wet and laps up the puddles. Goober. We love her and wouldn't know what to do without her. Right after Christmas our neighbors brought us another kitten, because they knew we wanted one. But they didn't ask if we still wanted one with Maddie in the house. So we took it. For one day. It was sick, with junk running out of its eyes, and it wouldn't eat. We took it to the humane society because right now we can't afford to keep two cats.

Women's ministry. I may not be best qualified to write this, but here goes. The women have been meeting bi-monthly for Bible study and monthly for fun nights. In January they made take-home shower sundaes. They put bath poofs and salts and foot massage stuff into a sundae glass. They also had Mary Kay facials. They've been averaging about 5-8 women per time. I'll let Jamie fill you in more about this and about writing later.

Men's ministry. The men of our church have been going out for breakfasts bi-monthly for prayer, a short devotional, and fellowship. Some of the guys who are normally shy have started opening up. And the food's good too!

Snow/weather. It hasn't been much worse than an Indiana winter. Today we had temps around zero and below. I guess they're calling for 30 below in a few days. They wait to close schools here until it gets 50 below. I wonder if IWU would close for that....probably not. We had two good size snowfalls earlier with a total of 8 inches or so. There's still a few inches on the ground now. We still haven't tried skiing. Maybe someday.

Ministers and Mates Retreat. What a wonderful time! We were so excited to meet lots of the other pastors and wives. I don't think we could ask for a better district all around. Dr. Jerry Pence was our speaker. We felt like he was speaking directly for us and our church. It was neat to meet the pastor who fixed up our parsonage, and one of the former ministers of our church (Alan Tripp, who was here in the 70s. The parsonage was built under his leadership and almost split the church). It was extremely encouraging to hear we were being prayed for over and over.

Right now we're getting ready for Lent, a Valentine's Day party, and Jamie hopes to head down to Indiana to help take care of her dad after his surgery (Feb. 12). He's having his other hip and knee replaced. If you think about it, pray that it would work out logistically for her to go down (me without a car). She also hopes to make it to the World Impact Commissioning Service.

We'll try to update more regularly from now on. If we don't, just smack us.

Ministers and Mates Retreat

2007-01-28T15:48:00.000-05:00

In a few minutes Jamie and I are leaving for Warrens, WI about an hour north of us. There is a Jellystone Park/Hotel/Resort there. Each year the Wisconsin District has a pastors' retreat, and this year we get to hear Dr. Jerry Pence, one of our general superintendents speak. We look forward to a nice relaxing time away.

For those of you wondering where the Hilty's have gone, it's my fault...not Jamie's. I'm the one who mainly updates both blogs and have neglected this one this month. Oops. When we get back we'll update you on the kitten (rascal!), Jamie's potential job, our church, and all the other fun stuff in Baraboo.

Josh's New Blog

2007-01-09T17:51:00.000-05:00

If you are interested in seeing Josh's sermons and Parkway happenings specifically, check out his new blog--click on Jesus and Josh at the left of this page.

So, You Want to be a Writer

2007-01-08T18:02:00.000-05:00

Had an interesting week...a very good week, actually. We brought Tiffany, my sister, home with us after Christmas, and we had a great time. Not only did we hit the Chula Vista Resort Indoor Water Park on New Year's Day (awesome place), but Tiff and I also did some of the more touristy things that the Dells offer...like invade all the little shops in the River District and take in an IMAX movie in Madison. It was so nice not to be alone in the house all day...and to share some chic flics with my sis.

Maddie has been a fun addition to the family. I wouldn't call myself an animal lover by any means, but I wouldn't trade our little cutie for the world...she is so feisty and such a "Kitten" in every sense of the word. And she loves to be with people...laying on us, and playing around us whenever we're in the room.

Yesterday, we introduced the concept of donuts and coffee to our congregation...we're calling it the Parkway Refinery. I think it was a hit, as most of the donuts were eaten up, and people seemed to enjoy chatting together before and after service. We moved the back pews around in our sanctuary so that they were against the walls...it made the whole room seem so much larger...and placed our breakfast table in the back there...if we get any complaints, it might be that we allowed food in the sanctuary...but overall, I think it was a good idea.

My dad and mom came up for the weekend to pick up Tiff...it was soo good to be with them. I am understanding just how precious time with my family has become. Mom & Dad sang a duet at the church, and it was really special to sit with my family and listen to my husband preach (a great sermon, by the way). I'm sure he'll post it soon.

We are starting a women's ministry up this week. Hopefully, several of our ladies will join us for a Bible Study on the women in the Bible...we'll be meeting every other Thursday at our house...and then the 3rd Fridays of each month we'll be having a Girls Night Out, with opportunities to just have fun. I hope these events are well-received...and I'm very thankful to have been on the women's committee at Brookhaven for a few years...I still need to learn so much as I try to lead these women in Bible Study and and fellowship. Ya'll know I am not an initiator and definitely not vocal in big groups, so tackling & leading this project has been a huge prayer request of mine.

Today, I also took a stroll out of my comfort zone and attended the Sauk County Writers' Meeting. I found an ad for it in the newspaper this morning, and I think I was desperate enough to get out of the house and be with people that I jumped on it. I even took some writing to share ("Firefly Parade"...about single motherhood, a creative non-fiction essay I'd written in college). Lo and behold, I was the youngest person there (again!), as every other member had gray hair. :) I had a good time, and heard some very nice pieces, and I'm pretty sure I'll attend again, maybe even join. I definitely need some sort of discipline to get me writing. I guess that is my resolution for this year: to actually sit down and write--consistently. And perhaps even submit some of my pieces for publication. We'll see where that goes.

Hope you all have had a good start to this new year...I am finding over and over that I need more of the Holy Spirit in my life, not just a sprinkling of Him, but an overflowing waterfall. Perhaps you've found the same too?

Love and miss you all,
Jamie

Christmas Fun at New Paris, IN

2006-12-29T13:55:00.000-05:00

Here are some random photos of us at Josh's mom's house this week.

Josh, Jamie, Dan, Zeeke, Jessi, Andrew, Olivia, and Nate.

A little DDR fun. I'm not that good at it, but people laugh when I try, so that's good.

Jessi, my brother Dan's wife, and Jamie.
Somehow the kids never seem to look at the camera.

You may wonder what in the world is going on. And I would too if I wasn't in the picture. We're attempting to swat a ball out of a tree. It took us only two tries to get it. How many Hilty's does it take....?

Olivia. That baby doll is the new tickle-me doll...you pick it up, and it tickles you.
Okay, just kidding.

Zeeke. He reminds me of what I think God was trying to do 2,000 years ago. Send us a present in His Son, Jesus. Have we taken the bow off the top and said, "Thanks God"?

Maddie...Our New Cat

2006-12-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

Meet Maddie, one of our Christmas presents this year. My mom and Carl got her for Jamie, and I get to share her.

Our new kitten, Maddie. She's a little white furball full of energy. Mom and Carl gave us her and some money to get her de-clawed and neutered. The next one is of her and Nick, my mom's dog. I think he will be sad to see her go.
And Jamie will be happy to get her home. Who knows how we'll do that though. Seven hours in a car. We'll see :).

Pray

2006-12-23T10:07:00.000-05:00

Please pray for a man in our church who just lost his mother yesterday morning. She had been in and out of the hospital the last few months, but death is never easy to deal with. Pray for Jamie and I as we will be here trying to comfort him and his family. The funeral is Tuesday the 26th. Pray for me as this is my first funeral.

Thank you.

68

2006-12-18T11:25:00.000-05:00

Sixty-eight. Random number any other day...but yesterday that was our morning worship attendance. Double what we average. As a pastor, I'll admit that although I'm not supposed to worry about numbers, I do. To see 68 people there was great. Our kids put on their Christmas musical during service, so I didn't preach. They did an amazing job! We weren't sure how it would work out, especially since a few in particular were overly sugar-loaded. They all remembered lines and songs.

Also on Saturday our nursery area was painted a bright blue and white. It looks 100 percent better.

Yesterday after service a couple from our church and their 10-year-old daughter took us out to see Charlotte's Web. It was a good movie! Within five minutes, Jamie said, "We have to buy this!" She was impressed with how good they made Charlotte look. It's hard to make a spider look beautiful, you know. After the movie we went to Uno's Chicago Grill. Awesome restaurant! Equivalent to an Outback or Texas Roadhouse.

Now we're looking forward to the last week before seeing family. The schedule looks like this:

24th PM Warsaw Wesleyan Christmas Eve Service
25th Christmas at Janofski's
26th Christmas with Hilty's/time with Josh's dad
27th Time at Hilty's
28th Janofski's
29th Going home

We'd like to make a Marion stop in there sometime. So if anyone has an open day and wants to get together, respond to this post and we'll try to rearrange the schedule. We may try and stay thru Friday and leave Saturday, it all depends.

Merry Christmas!

Hospitals

2006-12-17T01:10:00.000-05:00

I've been in hospitals this week much more than I ever imagined possible for a person who hadn't been admitted to one. In fact, its mainly just been the last two days. Friday one of my members had surgery in Madison to remove two aneurisms. God was good, and he is recovering. It sounds like the doctors were able to take care of both aneurisms in one shot. Jamie and I left Baraboo at 5:00 AM to get there and stayed until 1:00 PM. Not too long. Except I was dead tired and felt like I was worthless to the family.

Then Friday night I got a phone call telling me to come to Baraboo's St. Clare Hospital. One of my members was back in the ICU. This was her second trip there in a week, and her fourth in two months. She's 88 and has a failing heart and lung damage. She's been fighting this for so long and it's been hard to see her in pain all the time. Her family has been at her side through all of it. They keep saying they hate to see their mom suffer like this.

Friday night was especially hard because the doctors informed us that they will not perform CPR or do anything to resuscitate her if she slips again. They feel that it will not improve her quality of life, and will actually only prolong her suffering. So her sons and daughter grudgingly agreed to sign a "do not resuscitate" paper.

I wish I had more experience, more wisdom to offer. Yes, "just being there" is what matters. But at times like Friday night, I again felt worthless to the family. My greatest fear is about the time she passes away. It could happen on Christmas. It could happen on Christmas Eve. No matter what, it seems like this could be a situation which prevents us from seeing family this Christmas. I don't want to be selfish. And yet I am.

My prayer is that whatever happens we will get to travel home and stay at home without a funeral in the middle.

I would ask that whoever reads this in the coming days pray for God's will to be done in this situation...not mine. Pray for me as I go through my first funeral. Pray for the family as they will soon be grieving the loss of their mother. Thank you.

Christmastime in Baraboo

2006-12-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

Christmas is coming, and the temperatures show it. We've been down in the single digits the last few days (still no snow, though). Church has been going well. Last Sunday we had 39 people, with 19 of them being age 30 or younger! Jamie and two others are planning a Christmas kid's musical for the 17th. Right now 14 kids are participating! Jamie is going to have them to our house next Friday for a movie night.

On Wednesday the 13th we're having the first annual Hilty Christmas Open House. Jamie has been hard at work baking and decorating. The menu for the night includes two cheesecakes, angel food cake, fudge, oatmeal, chocolate chip, mint, peanut butter, and pumpkin cookies, snickerdoodles, ham roll-ups, veggies, chips, and reindeer made of pretzels. I know I forgot some, but this is most of it. She's got all the cookies prepared and frozen...just needs to bake them (my wife is such a great cook!). We sent out invitations to our congregation and some other friends, so hopefully we'll have around 40-50 people come.

We plan to go Christmas caroling on the 20th and have a candlelight/communion service on the 22nd. So, add one man's surgery, another woman in the hospital now, 3 more sermons to prepare, dinner with the whole church on the 16th, and all that's missing is the partridge in a pear tree.

We will get to see family this year, and Tiffany is coming up with us when we return so Gale and Janet can go to The Gathering.

I know I'm excited for all that December has. I think that God allows special things to happen at a greater frequency around this time. I don't know why, but for some reason God's presence and power is more visible to me in December than at any other time of year. Maybe it's because I'm expecting it. Maybe I don't take enough time to "look for" God January through November. It's not like God is silent or taking a break at other times, so it must be me.

My prayer for this December is that I would expect God to be God in 2007. Every day. Advent literally means "arrival." What better way to celebrate than to expect God to work now that He's here?

So, I Guess We are Weird

2006-12-02T22:47:00.000-05:00

So, apparently we've been tagged by Amy to list 6 weird things about each of us . . . but there's two of us here, and we might just have to confess 12. I might have to confess our oddities for both of us. (We'll see what Josh has to mutter when he reads this!)

1. I sing in my sleep . . . the alto harmony of the Indiana Wesleyan University Chorale songs. At least that's what my college roommate reported to me, especially after returning from strenuous Praise Gathering weekends in Indianapolis. When I'm not belting out the alto lines of "Now Shout" & "Betelehumu" I like to create my own Russian Peasant Woman melodies with various sleepy oohs and aahhs.

2. My knees have always been and will always be "dirty" from childhood scars. One dark spot on each knee causes onlookers to question if I've been playing in the dirt recently.

3. Nine times out of 10, if I see you in Wal-Mart and you haven't seen me yet, I'll hide. Not because I don't like you, but because I'm just plain scared to say Hi and start a conversation.

4. I hate talking on the phone, unless it is work-related or I'm talking with my immediate family.

5. I love to cook and bake, and in general, be completely creative with construction paper or any other childhood art supply . . . but don't count on me cleaning up my mess for at least 6 days. (I am trying to grow up and fix this messy fetish.)

6. I, too, am a packrat and save everything from old school work and class notes, to empty pasta boxes with lasagna recipes, to birthday cards from way back when I was 2.

Odd Things About Josh:
1. He sees a pediddle car on the road, knows what the heck a pediddle car is, but refuses to pound his hand on the roof of the car and yell out, "Pediddle!"

2. He likes to start long projects, but very rarely finishes them.

3. (Exception to #2) He's organized the 1300 fonts on our computer, and created a binder full of 1300 "samples" for us to search through when choosing good ones to use.

4. He dislikes when the clocks in our house are on different times; they must all be on the same time (digital satellite time).

5. He loses his sanctification when driving on the 90/94 tollway through Chicago . . . or when driving the Marion, Indiana bypass. (We've since figured out new and holier ways to travel home, avoiding Chicago traffic at all costs.)

6. He gets frustrated with most Christian television (at least the ones on our cable network).

So, now, Stephen and Michelle, it's your turn.

Hilty Happenings

2006-11-20T14:42:00.000-05:00

Here's what's been happening this last week (I know, what a boring opening line). I promise this post won't put you to sleep.

1. Josh's family visiting. My family—Dad, Dan and Jessi with Olivia and Zeeke, Andrew and Nate—came late Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. We had a good time seeing the Dells and Devil's Lake State Park. Jamie cooked an amazing meal (homemade mac 'n' cheese, white chicken chili, corn, Josh's favorite broccoli-olive salad, a pumpkin roll, and dump cake with ice cream)! And we watched Ohio State beat Michigan...go Bucks!

2. Meeting some Mormons. Jamie and I met with two Mormon girls our age last week for a second time. We had the chance to share with them about salvation through faith alone. They are coming to our house tomorrow night for dinner, and expressed an interest in learning about John Wesley/Wesleyan theology. Pray for them and us.

3. Preparing to paint. The painter, whose wife just got saved, is busy now but will work on our entire basement soon. His name is Rick, and he's seen the need for updating the church building and wants to help. He doesn't understand why his wife has accepted Christ, though he's not completely opposed to the gospel. We all watched "The DaVinci Code" last night. Pray for us as we try to work through misconceptions about the movie with them. Praise God we will have the basement of the church painted for free!

4. Church health surveys. Our church will be taking church health surveys put out by New Church Specialities soon. We will rate ourselves on eight different areas described in Christian A. Schwarz's book Natural Church Development. I recommend the book to any pastor wanting to improve the overall health of the church. This will be one of the first steps involved in getting to be a healthier church.

5. Going home. We get to see Jamie's family this week as we go to Warsaw late Wednesday. We'll be there from then until early Saturday morning. Hopefully we'll get to see some Janofski's from Marion too (Craig and Renee? Ken and Tina?). Let us know if you can get together.

Hope you all have a great turkey day!

Sunday Sermon: Responding to Suffering, Part 2

2006-11-20T14:36:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is part two of the sermon from 1 Peter. Stephen Mowat, I used you as an illustration in preparation, but forgot to mention it when I preached. So you get to read what I almost said.

Introduction: Review From Last Week

Last week we looked at 1 Peter 4 and talked about persecution and our response to it. Peter tells us that we are to expect suffering—it should not come as a surprise. If we aren’t being persecuted, then we should be surprised.

Then Peter tells us that we should rejoice in our suffering. There’s no point in getting down and out about it…we ought to rejoice, and for two reasons. First, because if we suffer now for a little while, we will be exceedingly joyful when Christ returns. And second, we are blessed right now as the Spirit of God rests on us. God has sent His Holy Spirit to us so we won’t have to walk the Christian walk alone.

This week we’re going to look at the other two responses. But before we do that, we need to remember why Peter was writing. Like we said last week, Peter was writing to Christians in Rome right after it burned to the ground. Nero blamed them for starting the fire and began killing Christians. To be a Christian meant being hated, insulted, and killed. Whether it was being lit on fire or thrown into the arena with a gladiator or torn to bits by wild animals, you were most certainly dead. So Peter writes to these people to give them a proper perspective on suffering and their response to it.

If it were me, I would be tempted to renounce Christ and say forget it. And I’m sure that was what was going on in many of their minds as well. That’s why Peter’s letter is so important. So, let’s look at what he has to say.

Again, turn to 1 Peter 4:12-19. It says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Evaluate Its Cause

So our third response is found in verses 15 and 16. Peter says you shouldn’t suffer for reasons other than being a Christian—for bearing the name of Christ. So, our third response is to evaluate the cause of our suffering. When we’re suffering, we ought to take a look at why. And this response, I believe is the most key and one we should take time to understand. Lots of people think they are being persecuted for Christ, when really they’re not. These are the same types of people who write letters to the editor trying to persuade people to vote “yes” for the marriage amendment. They’re anti-abortion, so they stand in front of abortion clinics and picket. Or they’re anti-Democrat—because all Democrats are liberal and all Republicans are conservative Christians—so they only vote Republican and judge others who don’t. Or, they go witnessing and tell someone, “You’re going to hell if you don’t repent right NOW!” That person cusses them out and they think they’re being persecuted for Christ’s sake. As we’ll see these people are a little off the mark, a little misguided.

Verse 15 says, “If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.” There are four evils mentioned that are typical of a sinful lifestyle and they are used to illustrate the character of unacceptable suffering. They're very obvious, at least the first three. Don't suffer as a murderer. I mean, if you murder somebody and you suffer and they put you in prison or take your life, don't moan and complain. You should be ashamed. Same thing with being a thief, someone who steals in stealth and gets caught. You should be ashamed. Or an evildoer. The word "evildoer" covers all the crimes not mentioned in the first two words. Those first two are pretty broad...murder and thievery. And then summing up all the rest, don't suffer as an evil doer, all other forms of wickedness and sin. If you do, you should be ashamed.

Then he adds one other very interesting word, as he says, "a troublesome meddler." You say, "Well how in the world did you get a troublesome meddler in there with a murderer, a thief and an evildoer?" Because this is a very interesting word. By the way, it's only used here in the whole New Testament, so it is harder to define it. Some say it means a busybody, someone interfering in the affairs of others. It could also mean one who is unfaithful with goods committed to him—a bad steward. Or it could mean one who has his eyes on others’ possessions, a coveter. The word comes from two different words: “episkopos,” which is the word for overseer; and “allotrios,” which means stranger. And if you combine the two words together it means someone who looks over or someone who intrudes into things that belong to someone else. Someone that looks over or intrudes into things that belong to someone else. It is a sort of "mind your own business" word.

The question is, why does Peter say this word along with a murderer, thief and evildoer? This type of sin doesn’t seem to fit in well; it’s not as extreme as killing a guy. The reason he includes meddler is because Christians weren’t supposed to act like that. In 1 Thessalonians 4:11, Paul says, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” You are to attend to your own business and to work with your own hands, do your own trade, stay out of other matters.

Whether that’s in the areas I spoke of above—the social issues, or issues within the church. We tend to meddle in each others’ business in the church too. We always want to know about every little detail, and we gossip about other people. Or we complain about other people. I have a pastor buddy who I graduated college with. He pastors a small church in Indiana, and he says people from his congregation will drive by his house frequently during the week. And his house is on a road that’s out of the way. So he knows they are driving by just to “check up” on him. They are meddling. Peter lists this in the same breath as murderers and thieves. It’s a serious sin! We’d like to think that just because there’s no criminal penalty for gossiping that it’s okay for us to do it. And we’d like to think that we are called to transform the government. But it’s not, and we’re not.

In his book, The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson explains what it means to be subversive, a big word for the opposite of meddling. He says that by being subversive, we take our message of Christ crucified and resurrected seriously, and we know that the gospel is offensive. If we are to have long-term effectiveness, the route to take is not to argue with the government and push our agenda on society. Rather, it is to, as Paul said, live quietly so you will win the respect of outsiders.

Being subversive means we assume three things to be true:
1. The status quo is wrong and must be overthrown. It is so deeply wrong that repair work will be futile. The world is, like a car, totaled.
2. There is another world that is livable. It exists, though it is not visible…it is the kingdom of God. The subversive Christian then operates out of the conviction that the kingdom of God is real.
3. The usual means by which one kingdom is overthrown and another brought to power won’t work. You can’t depose a dictator, change the constitution, elect a bunch of Republicans, etc. We must live as subversive Christians.

Jesus was subversive. He spoke in parables, which were hard to understand. Now with Pharisees and chief priests, he was up front and to the point. But with those seeking to know the truth, he spoke in parables. He healed people and told them not to tell others. He was not a meddler, and did not seek to change the government as some wanted him to. So should we live. Back to our passage, Peter says we should not suffer for being obnoxious, nosy and messing with the government. If we evaluate why we’re suffering and find it is because we are going on TV bashing our government or abortion or homosexuality or anything else, we are not being persecuted as a Christian. We are then being given our just punishment. If we take it upon ourselves to force our Christian thinking upon our culture, we've stepped beyond the boundaries.

Some of you are thinking that I’m saying we should hide our Christianity, never witness to others, etc. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying there is a way to go about it that we’re missing. Yes, share your faith regularly. Do not compromise the gospel. Don’t water it down. Don’t be afraid of being rejected. Live as Christ calls us to live, righteous and holy lives. Just don’t throw yourself into the political scene, or act like a bigot, or judge non-Christians for not behaving like a Christian does. If you do, you deserve your suffering and should be ashamed. But if you suffer for bearing the name of Christ, you should not be ashamed.

Peter goes on to say in verse 16, “If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.” We must evaluate if we are suffering as a Christian. The word “Christian” was originally a derogatory term given to followers of Christ by non-Christians. Just as those who worshiped the Emperor Caesar Augustus were called “Augustinians,” so worshipers of Christ were called Christians. What Peter is saying is almost ironic. The world considered murderers, thieves, evildoers and meddlers to all be horrible people. It also considered Christians to be horrible people. So, you can be despised by the world, but it better be for the right reason. You had better be a subversive Christian.

Entrust Yourself to God

So, we should evaluate why we’re suffering. And now one final point. In verse 19 it says, “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” Entrust yourself to God: our fourth response to suffering. Perhaps this is the hardest, even harder than rejoicing. God, after all, is the One who is allowing us to endure this trial. If he would just act on our behalf and save us from whatever it is, life would be better. But instead He asks us to go to Him. To entrust yourself to God means to give Him yourself, with the thought that God will take you and sustain you. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He said, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit,” using the same word as we see here.

God is our faithful Creator. As our Creator, we know that God created all things, and that He permits and enables the events of life. Without God, we would not exist. Theologian G.K. Chesterton once said, “He who has seen the whole world hanging on a hair of the mercy of God has seen the truth.” It is precisely for this reason that Peter calls him Creator—by the way this is the only time this word is used in the NT. Entrust yourself to the one who both created you in his image, and who sustains your every breath. He is faithful to you, so be faithful to him and commit your life to Him.

John MacArthur tells of how a man named Jeffrey Bull was held for three years and two months by the Chinese communists. Part of the time he was held in solitary confinement, he was half starved, threatened, badgered, subjected to the infernal techniques of brain washing. He was desperately holding on to some power of objectivity in his brain by making at one time a special study of the six different types of mosquitoes in his cell just to keep his sanity.

In the midst of all of this he composed a long poem and I will read part of it to you. Close your eyes, and imagine yourself locked in a room just small enough to sit down in, dimly lit, alone. This was his prayer in the midst of horrible suffering:
Let not Thy face grow dim, dear God, nor sense of Thee depart.
Let not the memory of Thy Word burn low within my heart.
Let not my spirit, Lord, grow numb through loneliness or fears.
Let not my heart to doubt succumb and keep my eyes from tears.
Let not the distance come between as months and years increase.
Let not the darkness close me in, let me not lose Thy peace.
Let not the pressure of the foe crush out my love for Thee.
Let not the tiredness and the woe eclipse Thy victory.
For Thy joy is my joy and my hope, Thy day and Thy kingdom gracious God shall never pass away.

Sand Lake Wesleyan Church

2006-11-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Jamie and I had a chance to be "youth sponsors" again. We traveled an hour and a half to Onalska, WI, (close to Minnesota) to assist with their junior high ministry. Guess what we played? Dodgeball! I got to speak about Leah and Rachel, how they competed for Jacob's love. I explained how when we try to find love only from other people, they will let us down. Only God can love us and give us the acceptance and self-worth we seek. After that we taught them Four on the Couch...not the easiest game to teach to 14 guys and 3 girls, most of whom bounced around and couldn't sit still. We had a good time though.

The pastor of the church meets in my LDJ group (a group of pastors who meet for prayer, fellowship and sharing). He invited us to help out whenever we can since we don't have a Wednesday night program at our church, and they only have a few "sponsors"....no youth pastor. Hopefully we'll be able to go back again.

Also, last night we met a guy who creates websites. It sounds like we'll be able to create a church website with him. We'll see how that goes. Its amazing how God works things out and connects us with other people. Its amazing how one night of hanging out with junior high boys boosts your spirits. Praise God for his goodness to us.

To all you Brookhaven Paradigm readers, we miss you guys and wish we could be there!

Sunday Sermon: Our Response to Suffering, Part 1

2006-11-12T16:02:00.000-05:00

I promise this time to preach the sequel sermon. Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. So I spoke about persecution and our response to it.

Since we were in Indy for part of the week, I didn't have time to study and write a fully original sermon (no, I don't plan to make this a habit). So credit goes to John MacArthur for the majority of this one. Thanks John.

Introduction: Passage Background

Open your Bibles to 1 Peter 4:12-19. As you’re doing that, I want to give you a bit of background on the passage. As you know, today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. And the book of First Peter was written to a group of Christians living in Rome who were just that: persecuted. On July 19, 64 A.D., Rome burned while Nero goofed off. That's sort of a famous point in history. Everybody remembers that Rome burned and Nero goofed off. Rome was a city of very narrow streets. It was a city of high wooden buildings. They built what would today be known as apartment houses out of wood and they were very close together. The fire spread fast and although it began on that day it lasted three days and nights and it broke out again and again even though they tried to stop it.

The Romans actually believed that the Emperor Nero was responsible for burning their great city and their homes. Why? Because Nero had this strange fixation with building and he wanted to build a new city and so they believed that he burned down the old one. He stood in his tower and watched happily as the city burned to the ground. People who put the fire out or tried to put it out were hindered by his soldiers and new fires were started. The people were absolutely devastated. They lost everything.

All the temples and shrines to their gods, their homes, all their household gods, everything was gone and they were homeless. The resentment obviously was great. The bitterness was deep and somewhat deadly. And so Nero needed to divert the attention away from himself. He needed a scapegoat. So he selected a scapegoat, the Christians. Publicly he blamed the Christians for burning Rome.

It was an ingenious choice on his part because the Christians were already the victims of hatred and already the victims of slander. They were connected with Jews in the minds of most people who were not Christians. And since there was a rather growing anti-Semitism, it was easy to have an anti‑Christian attitude as well. The Lord's Supper which Christians held was closed to pagans and so they sort of developed all kinds of strange imaginations about what happened. They heard about these Christians who were eating flesh and drinking blood and accused them of cannibalism. In fact, they began to say that they ate babies and Gentiles at the Lord's Supper. They also said that the Christian kiss of love at their love feast was about lust and orgy that took place called the Lord's Supper. Christians were also very unpopular because they split families. When a man became a Christian and his wife did not, it was an obvious fracture. Christians also used to talk about a time when the world would be engulfed in flames and so it would be easy to blame them for this fire, thinking they had tried to develop a fulfillment for their own prophecy.

This really began what later developed into a full‑blown persecution. If you go later than Nero to other Roman emperors, you find that what began here as an initial hatred of Christians became a fixed policy. And the question whether a man was a Christian became the most essential part of any charge against him. As a result of this accusation, persecution began. Tacitus, the Roman historian, reported that Nero rolled Christians in pitch or oil and then set fire to them while they were still alive and used them as living torches to light his garden parties. He served them up in the skins of wild animals to his hunting dogs to tear them to shreds. They were nailed to crosses.

Even lynching became very common. Within a few years Christians were imprisoned, racked, seared, broiled, burned, scourged, stoned and hanged. Some were lacerated with hot knives and others thrown on the horns of wild bulls. Dr. H.B. Workman in his book called Persecution in the Early Church wrote this: "For two hundred years from Nero on, the leaders among the Christians were branded as anarchists and atheists and hated accordingly. For two hundred years to become a Christian meant the great renunciation, the joining of a despised and persecuted sect, the swimming against the tide of popular prejudice, the coming under the ban of the Empire, the possibility at any moment of imprisonment and death under its most fearful forms. For two hundred years, he that would follow Christ must count the cost and be prepared to pay the same with his liberty and life. For two hundred years the mere profession of Christianity was itself a crime. ‘I am a Christian’ was almost the one plea for which there was no forgiveness, in itself all that was necessary on the back of the condemned as a title. For the name itself in periods of stress, meant the rack, the blazing shirt of pitch, the lion, the panther, or in the case of maidens, an infamy worse than death."

Now, what is interesting about that in relation to 1 Peter is that most scholars say this letter was probably written just after that all began, some time toward the end of that same year, 64 A.D. So it would be written then at a time when Christians were undergoing the beginnings of the horrors of a two‑hundred year persecution. So, Peter is writing to Christians in fear for their lives. The theme of suffering and our response to it is big in the book, and we want to focus on eight verses that speak of our response.

1 Peter 4:12-19 says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, ‘If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’ So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Peter gives his readers four key features of a proper response. And if we can get a grip on these it will go a long way to helping us deal with suffering for righteousness’ sake in our own lives. It will also help us as we learn how to pray for those who are persecuted even today. We ought to respond in four ways. Number one, expect it. Number two, rejoice in it. Number three, evaluate its cause. And number four, commit yourself to God. Expect it, rejoice in it, evaluate its cause and entrust yourself to God.

Expect Suffering

In verse 12 it says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you." The point here is to expect suffering. Throughout the Bible, we see that persecution is inevitable. In fact, the surprise would be if it didn't come. Matthew 5:10 says we will endure persecution for righteousness. Matthew 5:11-12 says we will be insulted and slandered. Matthew 10 says we will endure false accusations. Matthew 10:14, rejection by men. Matthew 10:17, scourging for Christ. Matthew 10:21 says that brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. In John 15:18 Jesus says that they hated Him, so they're going to hate you. Acts 5:41, we will endure shame for Christ's sake. Acts 7:58 says some of us will be martyred. Acts 12 reminds us that many Christians will endure imprisonment. According to Acts 14:19, some might be stoned. Paul tells disciples in Acts 14:22: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” First Corinthians 4 says we will be misunderstood, we will be defamed and we will be despised. First Corinthians 4:9 says we will be made a spectacle to men. Second Corinthians 6:4-10 says we will endure bad reports, beatings, sorrow, loneliness, poverty, and riots. Paul writes to Timothy and says all that live godly in this present age will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). And in 1 John 3:13 it says, “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.”

And so Peter is really echoing the instruction of the others who have written in the New Testament that we're not to be surprised when suffering comes. It's as if he is saying, “Suffering is the price of discipleship.” When you become a Christian, you take up a cross and the cross speaks of pain and suffering and even death. There is definitely a price to pay because if you name the name of Christ you will become a conscience—a sense of right and wrong—to an evil world which does not welcome such a conscience.

What is interesting about this passage is what it does not say. Peter never has to apologize to these believers for mistakenly telling them that God really wants to make them happy. He doesn’t have to say, “Oops. I guess I was wrong about that prosperity gospel.” How often do we hear that message preached? Just accept Jesus as your Savior and he’ll make life great. God wants you to be happy. God wants you to have that brand new car and house. He wants to bless you. God would rather see us holy than happy, and that’s why we must go through and accept suffering. And it’s not like God doesn’t love you. He does.

Just look at how Peter addresses his listeners. Dear friends—literally beloved ones—is a way of reminding these Christians God does love them. It’s a word of tenderness, a word of compassion, a word of affection, a word of care. Back in 1:22 Peter tells them to love one another deeply from the heart. Then in 4:8 he talks about the fact that we are to keep a fervent love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. Not only are they to love each other, but they are loved by Peter. And not only that, but they are loved by God, the One our love flows from. What a comfort in a time of persecution and fear for your life. It would be very easy during suffering to question the love of God, to think, do You really love me? Do You really care? That’s why Peter stresses his love for them, which comes from God’s love for him.

Why should we expect to suffer for Christ? Because it helps us when we’re in the middle of it. If it catches us off guard, how much easier would it be to get down in the dumps about it? If you can expect it, you can cushion its initial impact. It’s part of God's design. It's the way He proves the genuineness of your faith and it's the way He purges your life. It takes out all the pride and the illusion of self‑control. It strips you and makes you totally dependent on Him. So if we expect to grow in Christ, we also expect to suffer, as that is one way God grows us and tests us. John MacArthur tells a story of speaking with a Russian pastor. He said, “It must be difficult in Russia to pastor the church.” He replied, "Not so, it must be difficult in America; in Russia we know who the true Christians are.” So it comes for your testing. It's an essential feature of God's working in you to prove you, to purge you, to cleanse you.

So, he says expect it and don't treat it as though some strange thing were happening to you. That verb "were happening" is an interesting verb that means “to fall by chance.” Don't think that when you're persecuted it's something that happened by chance. No, God allowed it and designed it for your testing, your purging, your purification, your cleansing. First it proves whether you're real and then it purges the dross out of your life. Persecution, affliction, suffering are not accidental, nor do they interfere with God's plan. They are right in God's plan, should be common to all Christians, they are common to all faithful Christians. So let’s expect suffering.

Rejoice in It

The second thing that Peter wants to say to us is to rejoice in it. Notice verses 13 and 14. “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” The word “rejoice” is in a tense that emphasizes a continued action: keep on rejoicing. This is the right attitude in the midst of persecution.

And you say, “Well what's the motivation for that?” There's a future motivation and a present motivation. The future motivation is that you will share His glory at His revelation. If now, you share—a word taken from koinonia, the big fellowship word—in his sufferings, you will be overjoyed when Christ’s glory is revealed, when He returns to the world. Because what is the other option of rejoicing? It’s denouncing Christ. In the midst of seeing your children being used for Nero’s torches and your spouse torn to shreds by a lion, you can either denounce Christ, turn tail and run, or rejoice. Christ suffered so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness, and by His wounds we are healed. Sharing in his sufferings means that we have chosen to die to sin and to live for righteousness, to live for Him. Sharing in his sufferings means we get to be hated just like Him. What a wonderful privilege, to be treated like our Savior!

When you look at it like that, I’m not sure if there is much of a choice. I’d much rather be treated like Christ than have special privileges because I’m a Christian. And, I get to rejoice when Christ returns. The word translated “overjoyed” is one with more force and weight to it than the normal word for rejoice, which is used at the beginning of the verse. We rejoice now because when Christ comes back, we will rejoice even more. Our joy will increase when Christ’s glory is revealed. What is better? To suffer a little while on earth or to suffer eternally in hell? If we suffer now, we can rejoice, because our joy will increase throughout eternity.

So rejoice because of the future reality of eternal glory. But there's also a present reason for rejoicing. Look at verse 14; this is a present reason for rejoicing. “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed.” The present benefit is being blessed, right here and now. I know I said Christ didn’t come to make us happy. That’s not what being blessed is all about. Being blessed is a result of having the Spirit of God on you. It is therefore not a subjective happiness, where one person is happy and the next happier. Suffering brings God’s presence in a much stronger sense than when life is great. And so our blessing is more a benefit than anything else. We don’t have to go it alone. God is right there with us.

The thing I notice about both of these reasons to rejoice—future and present—is that it’s because of God’s presence. We obviously won’t be excited about being beaten and insulted. I don’t know anyone who wakes up in the morning and desires to be yelled at in order to get them going for the day. But with God’s presence, we have reason to rejoice.

Conclusion: The Persecuted Church Today

Okay, we’ve covered points one and two: expect suffering and rejoice in it. We’ll plan to cover the next two next week. But today, there are questions we must ask ourselves:

1. Do we expect to suffer? Are we surprised when we are insulted because of the name of
Christ?
2. How do we respond to it? Do we have joy that comes from knowing we are loved
and that Christ is with us? Do we remember we will rejoice eternally?
3. Do we take time to remember those who suffer and die each day for Jesus?

Our Christian brothers and sisters are persecuted around the world, and it is easy for us to forget that persecution isn’t just a first-century thing. The Voice of the Martyrs tells the story of a man named Andrew in Bangladesh, a country near India.

Four drivers of four different buses were hired by a militant Muslim group to crash into Andrew’s SUV on the morning of April 24th. On his way to visit 17 Muslim convert families, Andrew was rammed by a bus while in the front passenger seat of his moving vehicle. His left elbow was broken from the impact, and his right forearm was embedded with glass and severely lacerated in five places. The Voice of the Martyrs is providing continuing medical treatment for Andrew, who was attacked for his Christian witness. Immediately after the collision, the bus driver ran from the scene and reported to the leader of the hiring Islamic group that he killed the targeted Christian preacher in the red SUV. Wasting no time, two men from the Islamic group went to the accident site to confirm the bus driver’s account, but they were too late. Andrew’s driver had already driven the smashed SUV away from the scene to the nearest city, where the unconscious Andrew was later admitted to a government hospital. Once at the hospital, doctors cleaned some of Andrew’s wounds and transported him to an operating room where they extracted shattered glass from five large gashes in his left arm. Andrew later regained consciousness, bleeding and in great pain. When Andrew’s brother (a medical doctor) arrived at the hospital, he saw that Andrew’s treatment had been stopped, even though he needed more care. He quickly checked Andrew out of the hospital and took him to another doctor. Together, the two physicians extracted the remainder of the glass from the wounds and dressed them before driving Andrew over 370 miles to a large city.

While traveling to the city, Andrew received four calls on his mobile phone. Even though he was not fully coherent because of the pain during the trip, Andrew remembers callers telling him, “Now you are going to heaven with your Isa (Christ).” Andrew believes that the perpetrating Islamic group kept the hospital staff from cleaning his wounds in the operating room. During the month of June, Andrew received more threatening phone calls from unidentified people within the attacking fundamentalist Muslim group. They confirmed the premeditation of their murder plot by divulging they knew from a source beforehand that he was going to travel in a red SUV to visit a group of Muslim converts on the morning of April 24th. Andrew believes the radical group gave instructions for the first bus driver who saw him on the road to smash into his vehicle. Andrew shared that his most recent phone calls from the militant group express they still plan to kill him. They meticulously described the make, model and color of the passenger vehicle in which he was to be transported and the date and location of his upcoming medical examination. For many years, Andrew has received phone calls threatening him and his family, and this is not the first attempt on his life. But despite all of this hostility and opposition, Andrew remains determined to continue his ministry to Muslim background believers.

This is a story from Indonesia, the country with the world’s greatest population of Muslims. On October 16, 2006, Pastor Irianto Kongkoli was shot and killed by two masked gunmen. He was 42 years old. The attack happened at 8:15 a.m. local time. That morning, Pastor Kongkoli was shopping for tile with his wife, Mrs. Rita Arianti Kopa, and five-year-old daughter, Galatea. The trio took the family van to a local hardware shop. Pastor Kongkoli was browsing the store’s yard when two masked men shot him in the head at a range of two meters. According to witnesses, one of the men was on a motorbike. Following the attack, the masked men fled. Pastor Kongkoli’s wife heard the shots from inside the van and rushed to help her husband. Rita, who is a member of the East Palu police force, immediately took her husband to a hospital for aid. He died that same day. Local police are following a lead on the two men suspected in Pastor Kongkoli’s murder. The suspects are also wanted for the murder of Pastor Susianti Tinulele, a pastor shot in the back of her head during a Sunday service, and the murder of an unidentified employee at a gold shop. Pastor Kongkoli actively worked to promote peace between Christians and Muslims. His body is to be buried in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, instead of Tentena, the Christian district, to prevent retaliation against his death. Pastor Kongkoli is survived by his wife, Rita, and three children. Rita is not seeking retaliation against her husband’s murders, but plans to let local authorities handle the case. “It is God’s will,” she said. “He gives life and then He also takes life.”

Let's pray for the persecuted church now. If you're reading this on the blog, take time to pray now.

Prayer Requests & a Good Week

2006-11-10T17:27:00.000-05:00

This week has been wonderful. Why? Because we traveled back down to Indianapolis for an orientation for new pastors at the Wesleyan Headquarters. Not only was it good to meet the "major" people in the Wesleyan Church and have many of our questions answered, but we also met up with Stephen Mowat & Phil & Stephanie Stuller...it was a HUGE joy and blessing to be with them for those 2 days. We found out that the Stullers' Sunday School class is praying for us each week (a big thank you!), and we were able to spend a bit of time with both of our families. So we've definitely had a pick-me-up from the Lord.

Tomorrow our leadership team travels to Madison to attend a church health assessment conference by Lonnie Bullock of New Church Specialties. We are praying that our team will sense the vital need for change in our church, and that we will have more wisdon with how to proceed in this refocus/restart process.

I just opened the door to 2 missionary girls from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We had a good hour of talking and listening . . . and I am taking their arrival on my doorstep as an opportunity to pray for them and minister to them. They will soon be helping me put up the rest of the wallpaper border in my house, and we will get together for a Bible Study next week (their idea, which I will be bathing in prayer this coming week). Please pray with me. They are sweet girls . . . and just our ages. Pray that I would have a heart of patience with them, and that the Holy Spirit would open their minds and hearts to His TRUTH.

Josh is preaching about the persecuted church this Sunday...I am looking forward to hearing his message.

A few more prayer requests to take to Jesus:
1) We need nursery workers . . . we finally have a couple of babies whose parents are starting to attend service and I am struggling doing the nursery thing all alone (as well as leading worship & teaching Sunday School).

2) Eight kids were at the church last week (WOW!), but only 2 are committed to attending Sunday School time, when our kids programming happens. The others come just every now and then, and some don't actually come to the service time at all. Pray that we would have a solution to this...knowing how to minister to these kids and their families...how to love them and provide God moments for them to grow like Christ. And pray that their families would encourage them to be a part of our congregation.

3) Please ask the Lord to change us into a welcoming congregation where visitors and new attenders feel accepted and very loved.

It is snowing outside right now...our 4th snowfall of the season, but the first one that is really sticking. It's actually very beautiful. We should have 1-2 inches by nightfall.

Question to Ponder: The Mormon girls asked me this question as they were leaving: "Do you think that people are more apt to repent of their sins when it is winter/snowing because of the reminder of a pure cleansing?" Great question...

Thanks for praying for Josh and me up here in our mission field. God has definitely placed us here...and He will surely show us what He wants to accomplish.

Prayer Request

2006-11-06T21:51:00.000-05:00

Today I spent the morning at Baraboo's hospital with our treasurer and his mom. She was taken into the emergency room with trouble breathing (she's 88). After some tests the doctor told us she had congestive heart failure. For a while it looked like she might not make it, and I know our treasurer is really close to his mother. Please pray for her and for him and his brother and sister.

He called me tonight to say she started talking again and is feeling a bit better. Pray (I know this sounds weird) that nothing happens while we're in Indiana this week.

And pray for Ted Haggard and his family and church and those who look up to him as an evangelical Christian leader.

God's listening now, so take five minutes and pray! Blessings...

Sunday Sermon: It's All About the Gap

2006-11-05T18:33:00.000-05:00

Today I preached from Psalm 8, about the gap between us God, finite and infinite. "The Fourth Part" was amazing, and we had a good potluck after service. Enjoy the sermon!

Introduction: The Gap

In 1997, a man from New York jumped over 23 miles on a pogo stick. In 1998, this same man walked almost 81 miles while balancing a bottle of milk on his head. From May 17th, 2004 to July 18th, 2005 two Brazilian men windsurfed for 5,045 miles along the coast of Brazil. From April 25 to August 6th, 2005, a Russian man drove a tractor for 13,172 miles. And from May 31st, 2000 to February 14, 2001, a man drove a riding lawn mower 14,594.5 miles across all 48 states and parts of Mexico and Canada.

Pretty crazy huh? You know what is so impressive about those feats? It’s the distance. That and the fact that someone would spend over 1 year of their life driving a mower. No, what is really amazing is the distance. No one would care if the guy balances a milk bottle on his head for an hour or goes across a parking lot with a pogo stick. Big deal. It’s the distance that makes these people incredible.

Jamie and I went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for our honeymoon, and I can remember the drive down. It took 17 hours driving in one day for us to get there. And we didn’t mess around. It’s not like we took the scenic route and took bathroom breaks every hour on the hour. We got to our destination at 1:00 in the morning. What a drive! Like those other big records, the amazing thing about our drive was the distance. And this is what I want to talk about today. Distance. The distance between you and me and God—and how that distance is necessary for us to worship Him.

The third century Christian Novatian said, “God is greater than mind itself. His greatness cannot be conceived. Could we conceive of His greatness He would be less than the human mind which could form the conception. He is greater than all language, and no statement can express Him. All our thoughts about Him are less than He, and our loftiest utterances are trivialties in comparison with Him.” He is speaking of the infinitude of God, of how God is infinite and we are finite. And because of this we can never fully comprehend God. Not only can we not comprehend Him except what He reveals to us, we must realize how utterly different we are from Him. And in so doing, we must make a choice: ignore Him as One pointless to try to love, or to worship Him because of how great He is.

The writer of Psalm 8 chooses the latter: to worship Him. And I would ask us today to consider the great distance, the gap, between us and God, and choose to renew our passion for worshiping Him, singing to the God of wonders beyond our galaxy.

If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Psalm 8. It says, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Now in order to understand the gap between us and God, we must know a little about who God is and who we are. So, let's look at what the psalmist says.

Who God Is

The psalmist begins by addressing God as LORD. In my Bible, it’s in all capital letters. That’s because the Hebrew word is Yahweh, God’s proper name. The root of Yahweh means “to be.” That’s why, when Moses asks God what His name is, God tells him, “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM has sent you” (Exodus 2:14). God is. There was no beginning to God, there will not be an end to God. He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet—the beginning and the end.

Yahweh also means that God doesn’t change. His name isn’t “I AM love sometimes and I AM hate other times. Or, I AM merciful sometimes and I AM vengeful sometimes.” God’s nature never changes; He never changes. Yahweh also stresses the faithfulness of God. The LORD promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob He would be their God and they would be His people; that He would give them land as a place of service and inheritance. The LORD then calls Moses to lead Israel into this land, and He brings them to it, thus fulfilling His promise. Yahweh is a covenant God who makes promises and keeps them.

Then he calls God “Lord,” this time not in all capital letters. The Hebrew for this word is Adonai, which means “master, ruler, owner, lord.” This name is frequently used when a person is worshiping God. When one wanted to praise God, to acknowledge God’s majesty and greatness He would call Him Adonai. Adonai also is a humbling name for the one speaking it. It reminds us that God is our master and we are His servants.

As Yahweh and Lord, God is majestic. He is mighty, and He is glorious. This word has connotations of one being a noble, of a higher social class than others. And it makes sense that God would be majestic, in light of what we hear later on. His majesty is reflected in the awesome creation seen in the heavens. Only a God who is majestic, powerful, could create the moon and the stars. Only his fingers could be responsible for setting everything in its place. When you know the character of God, the things God does make more sense.

It’s like a buddy I had in high school named John Stangland. He did everything he could not to conform to social norms. He would trip himself in the hall just to get a laugh, or walk by someone and tap them on the shoulder just to get a look. A few years after we graduated, John got married. It was no wonder that at his wedding he wore tennis shoes with bright pink shoelaces and a bright green shirt with a bright pink tie. That was John. If he would have worn a normal tux I would have questioned what happened to him.

God is majestic…powerful, awesome. Therefore it should come as no surprise to us the wonder of His creation we see all around us. His creation speaks to His majesty, and because of it we know how great and unfathomable God is.

Scientists tell me they cannot count the number of stars in the universe, but guess there to be an excess of one billion times one billion stars. And odds are David, looking up into a starry night sky could not begin to count them either. He may have tried, and then about halfway—okay, not even one percent of the way—through given up. It’s like dropping a glass bottle off the top of this church building and then trying to glue it back together again. You just can’t do it. Looking into the sky, seeing the work of God and knowing the one who made it leaves only one logical next step: not trying to comprehend that one, but seeing how small you are in comparison.

Who We Are

It is tempting to think that we, as human beings, rule the universe. The passage does describe us as being put in charge of the works of God’s hands: flocks, beasts, birds and fish. We are smarter than animals, we have emotions, a soul, can communicate sophistically, and on and on. But we must remember that we are only in charge of these creatures because their Creator has made it so.

And quite frankly, we are only humans. When the psalmist writes about us, he says, “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” The word he uses for man is one that speaks of man’s insignificance or inferiority. Job 33:12 uses the same word to say, “God is greater than man.”

John Wesley once preached a sermon from this passage, and in it he spoke of the finiteness of man. He said, “What is one individual compared to all the inhabitants of Great Britain?” At that time he thought there were between 8 and 10 million people. Then he asked, “What are all the inhabitants of Great Britain compared to all the inhabitants of the earth?” At that time, it was guessed that there were 400 million people on earth. Now there are over 6 billion people on earth. So, what is one man compared to six billion others? What is Josh Hilty compared to them, that God would be mindful of me, the word literally meaning that God would “remember” me?

Then John Wesley thought, “What is the magnitude of the earth compared to that of the solar system?” Especially once you think that Earth is much smaller than some of the other planets and the moon. And then he thought, “What is the magnitude of the solar system compared to that of the rest of creation that man cannot see?” It is inconceivable. And finally, John Wesley thought, “What is all of this…the earth, the solar system and everything beyond it…all that is finite, compared to the Infinite God?” He said we should think of this question, and then ask, “What is man?”

Man is defined in this passage in relation to what God has made him. God made him a little lower than the angels. God made him ruler of His handiwork. Whereas God is defined by Who He is. Nothing outside of God defines Him. Neither you or I or anyone else who has grand ideas about who God is can define Him. He is the I AM.

The Gap

And here’s where worship comes in. Worship is taking in all of that: that God is bigger than we are and we are tiny little people in comparison to all of His creation, and then deciding to praise God for it. The key to all of it is the gap between us and God. If there were no gap, how do you think we would respond to God’s handiwork? “Nice stars God. Give me another hour and I’ll count them all. Oh, I like that moon. But it’s not quite a full circle. You see all those craters…yeah, they distort its shape. Fill in the craters and it will be perfect.” If there is no gap, there is no awe and wonder. If we feel we are even remotely close to understanding God, worship will never make sense to us. Because we feel like we have God down, like we have His number. And instead of worship our goal would become trying to figure God out. That’s why there’s a gap.

I love to sing. If you could be a fly on the wall in my office on any given day, you would hear music playing and me belting out the melody or a tenor harmony. I’ve been singing in choirs ever since I was in fourth grade. In high school I was part of an octet of guys who sang southern gospel music at local churches, something like what The Fourth Part did today. I also was part of my church’s praise band. And in college I traveled with four of those same guys for another year as Brother’s Keeper. We sang at churches on the weekends, and in the summer sang at Wesleyan Church Camps. I was in Indiana Wesleyan’s choir for three years. I love to sing. For me, it’s a way to tell God I love Him. Singing is my main avenue for praising God. The words to songs in our hymnal and to modern worship songs express the way I feel so much better than I ever could.

I have to confess that I went through a phase in college of being critical of worship. I analyzed songs and who was singing them. I picked apart their words, and only if I liked the words would I sing the song. How silly of me. Worship is not about that. It’s about recognizing how small we are and how big God is. I know that we’ve heard a lot of music today, but I want us to hear a song from Phillips, Craig and Dean called “How Great You Are.” It expresses everything I’ve been trying to say to you, and everything that Psalm 8 is saying.

Conclusion: How Majestic is Your Name

It’s all about the gap. And as we know, the gap between us and God is beyond our understanding. It’s greater than all the distances traveled by guys on tractors and pogo sticks. It’s greater than the number of stars in the universe. And for that reason, I praise Him. And I ask that you praise Him too. If nothing else, walk out of here with a renewed sense of the majesty of God. And when we come back here next week, be ready to praise Him.

Prayer Update

2006-11-04T16:46:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for praying. Again, we know God is moving in reponse to your prayers. Since the last update, the woman we mentioned has come to salvation in Christ! Praise God! Jamie is going to begin meeting with her both as friends and as a mentor/discipler. We've given her a Bible and she has started to read it. Continue to pray for her and her family, as the Evil One will be at work. This Sunday we're having a mini-concert by a local group called The Fourth Part, and afterward a potluck.

Thursday Josh met with a couple who is planning to get married at our church in September. We went over things like pre-marital counseling, fees, and reasons why I would not marry a couple. One of those is if one is a Christian and one is not. Our discussion focused on this topic, as the woman is a nominal Christian and her fiance a non-Christian. It's so tempting to post more information, but I won't. Just pray that through our meetings they would come to Christ or to a fuller commitment to Him.

We are going to Indianapolis again next Tuesday through Thursday for a New Pastor's Orientation at the Wesleyan Church Headquarters. Pray for safety and a good time meeting other new pastors (probably some of the same people I graduated with...who knows?).

Again, thanks for praying. Updates on last week's prayer requests:

1. Our leadership team found a time to meet for last week, but still no set time. We will be going to Madison on the 11th for a church health conference. We hope it will open our eyes to the desperate needs of our church, as right now there is no sense of urgency.

2. We haven't had any other conflicts.

3. Jamie and I both still have our days of restlessness. We were blessed to have Janet, Shawn and Tiffany with us last weekend. Thanks you guys (Shawn, we just bought a new computer. Thanks for the advice.).

4. This one will be a long-running prayer request I think. But keep praying. We'll let you know how our church responds to be asked to help with things (such as the new nursery).

5. God is still giving us His grace. Without it we would be either extremely depressed or back in Indiana. HAHA! We're doing great, and we praise God for Himself, the Great I AM.

Love you all,

Josh

What IS That Nursery For???

2006-10-28T18:22:00.000-04:00

I guess our last post was a little ambiguous as to our nursery situation. I'm trying to think of a way to lead you all on so you think we're having a little Hilty, but it's not coming to me. No, there is no announcement to be made. The nursery in question is our church's nursery. Sorry to keep you all guessing...although that is kinda funny. When the day comes, there will be no guessing. And hopefully we'll be able to call all of you instead of just posting it online.

Anyway, thanks for wondering... If you read this between now and Sunday, pray for our services. I'm giving a salvation message, and I know there are unsaved people who will be attending. Thanks and God bless.

Prayer Update

2006-10-25T13:27:00.000-04:00

Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for us! It has been an amazing few weeks as we've seen God work. Two weeks ago a woman walked into Parkway. She had moved up to Baraboo from Madison (45 minutes away) with her family. As they drove the moving van by the church, she felt like she should come in...for a reason she can't explain (psst...it was God!). She liked service, and we went to her house two weeks ago today to visit with her. Last Sunday she came back with her daughter and daughter-in-law, who brought her two young sons. And last Sunday night we had dinner with her and her husband. Josh has started tutoring her daughter in math. Her husband is a professional painter and has volunteered to paint our non-existent but soon to exist nursery for free. And, they are bringing used nursery items that their sons and daughters don't need anymore for their kids.

So I just have one thing to say: Praise God! Please continue to pray for this family, as they are not Christians. Some have church background and some do not. God is definitely at work, and we know your prayers are making a difference.

Other prayer requests include:

1. Finding a time for our leadership team to meet. Since we are under district supervision, we have no board. Just a leadership team. There are nine of us, and with conflicting work schedules, it has been hard to find a consistent meeting time.

2. Conflict. There has been minimal conflict so far with changes already happening. Please pray for understanding and a desire to reach out into the community, rather than a desire to be content with who we are.

3. Jamie's restlessness. Sometimes staying at home all day (especially with few friends and shopping malls) can get boring and repetitive. Pray she would feel like she has a purpose.

4. Church participation. Pray that our whole church would desire to get involved in what is happening. Right now we pray Tuesdays at 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM. One man comes in the morning and no one at night. We want people to want to pray and be involved.

5. Grace for each day. God has been SO faithful thus far, and we know He will always be. Pray for His grace for us and our congregation. In change, we've found, grace can be hard to come by.

Thanks for praying. We love and miss you all!

Sunday's Sermon: Get Out of the Lifeboat

2006-10-25T13:14:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday I preached about a concept Donald Miller writes about in Searching For God Knows What. Its an issue our church struggles with, and though I'm not sure how many people caught on (I got more compliments about my tie than the sermon), it was a message that spoke to me. By the way, the book is excellent and I would highly recommend it. So, here's the sermon.

The Lifeboat

I just finished reading a book called Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller. For those of you who don’t know who he is, Donald Miller is a contemporary Christian writer. He has a way of writing that just makes sense. He puts Biblical concepts onto paper and it makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I would highly recommend the book to anyone. One of the concepts he talks about is being in a lifeboat.

Sometimes as Christians we think of a lifeboat metaphor in terms of saving everyone who’s not a Christian, going out to the Titanic and picking up all the drowning people. That’s not what he’s talking about. To illustrate what the lifeboat is all about, I need some volunteers. (During service we had four people come up front and stand on a half-inflated swimming "couch.").

On a lifeboat, you want to save as many people as possible. But what if the boat gets too heavy and you have to throw someone off in order for it not to sink? Who gets thrown off? Who decides who gets thrown off? What happens in this situation is everyone tries to stay alive. They try to convince the other people they are worthy of staying on the lifeboat. But still, someone has to go. We’re getting pretty full up here, right? So, Mary says, “You can’t throw me off. I have children and grandchildren. My grandson just turned 4 last week. I’m a secretary at a school. I have to stay on this lifeboat.” And Linda says, “Me neither. I have a husband and daughter. I won’t even be able to say goodbye to them. Besides, I know how to get us to land. If you throw me off, you’ll all die anyway.” And Jamie says, “I’m too young to die. I’ve only been married for a couple years. And I sell Mary Kay. How will anyone get make-up if I’m dead?” And so the women conspire against poor Al, and he doesn’t get a say. So Al gets tossed overboard and drowns.

This is the lifeboat. Not a fun place to be is it. It’s a good thing we don’t normally have to be on these things, right? Not to sink your boat or anything, but this is life. This happens everyday to every one of us, even on Sunday morning at this church. You see, everyone wants to think of themselves as being in the group that doesn’t get kicked off. The popular group. The group everyone likes. And so, either consciously or subconsciously, we do our best to make everyone think we’re a great person.

And sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking we’re better than this person or that person. Why? Because there is a deep desire within us to be accepted, to feel important, to be looked up to, to be loved. And to counteract the fear of rejection or isolation being unloved, we put other people down. And this is just the surface issue. Because in a perfect world, there wouldn’t be a lifeboat. We wouldn’t have to worry about being the unloved one or the last one picked for a team.

At one point this world was perfect, and this wasn’t an issue. In the Garden of Eden, God created Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were perfect. They walked and talked with God, and as their Creator, God gave them their sense of worth. They had nothing to fear. Adam never told Eve she was ugly, or she got on his nerves. And Eve never told Adam he watched too much TV and didn’t spend enough time with the kids. There was no fighting match to see who was better than whom.

Until sin entered the world, when they disobeyed God. All of a sudden, they were kicked out of the Garden, and God wasn’t as close as He used to be. The way things used to be was tarnished and trashed, and they were separated from God. Without God telling them how much He loved them, without them getting their worth from Him, they had to seek it from each other. And Adam couldn’t always give the love God did. Same with Eve. Sin equals separation from God equals searching for the love and acceptance of God in others which ultimately equals a letdown and a lifeboat.

That’s where we’re at today and that’s where the disciples were at when they walked with Jesus. Mark 9:33-37 gives an account of their lifeboat games. So if you have your Bibles—by the way if you have a Bible you brought to church, could you hold it in the air? If you have your Bibles, turn to Mark 9:33-37.

They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Disciples in the Lifeboat

In this passage, Jesus and the disciples are going to Capernaum. They are walking away from just having witnessed Jesus drive out a demon from a boy. They had tried to drive the demon out but couldn’t. And so in their state of failure, they walked. And soon arose an argument. In the Greek, the word for argued is what we get the word “dialogue” from. This word literally means “to balance accounts, to take full account of, to consider, to debate, or to argue.” In arguing about who was the greatest, they were being careful to give full account of why they should be at the top of the list. They compared themselves to each other, putting one another down and building themselves up. And they knew that what they were doing was wrong. Because when Jesus questioned them about it, they all got very quiet.

I remember a time when I was younger, probably seven or eight years old, when my brother and I thought it would be a great idea to take our bats and see who could make a crack in our mom’s windshield. So we got up on the hood of the car and started banging away. And I can’t remember who won, but we did make a good crack in it. Obviously mom found out about it. And so did dad. Boy did we ever get quiet. Which is pretty silly seeing as how we were the only ones who could have done it, and we couldn’t really hide what we had done.

Same thing happens here with the disciples. Jesus is no dummy. He knows what they were talking about and lets them know, “Whoever wants to be first must be the very last and must be servant of all.” You mean, I have to be thrown out of the lifeboat if I want to be the greatest? Yes.

You have to be tossed, and you have to want to be tossed. When Jesus tells them they must be a servant, he uses a word which means one who attends to the needs of others freely. He could have used another more common word, doulos, which refers to a slave. Jesus isn’t saying you have to be a servant who is forced to serve, as a slave would be. He’s saying you have to be a guy who desires to serve. This has to be in your blood, being last. So not only do you have to be tossed from the lifeboat, you have to want to be tossed.

And this is hard for us. No one wants to be last. Last is horrible. Last means you don’t make the cut, you don’t get the trophy, no one pats you on the back and compliments you on a job well done. We’d much rather be first. And so when we don’t like what someone has done, we tell others about it. We put the pastor down because we don’t like a decision he made. And we don’t tell him about it for fear we’ll end up at the end of the lifeboat.

Or we boast about how much money we have in the bank, or our intelligence, or any other talent we have. Anything we feel makes us more special than someone else, or anything that makes others love us. Then there are others who feel they’re always at the end of the lifeboat, and just wish that for once someone would consider them worthy of stay onboard. I know I’ve been on both sides of the coin. But perhaps it’s time we shut our mouths a bit and begin loving other people. Just think about it: If everyone is so busy focusing on how they look to other people, then no one is looking at you. They’re all looking inward. So, instead of worrying about it, let’s take time to encourage each other, to serve each other, and to get out of the lifeboat.

Call to Get Out of the Lifeboat

That’s what Jesus called the disciples to do. In verse 37 he said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” A child in Jesus’ day was at the low end of the social totem pole. Children were supposed to obey their parents and be sure to make their parents proud. They didn’t have many of the responsibilities an adult would, and just weren’t seen as very important. They are the ones who we would most likely toss from the lifeboat. So Jesus is saying we must welcome—receive with open arms—this child, Himself, and the One who sent Him—God the Father.

We must welcome God, for He is the only one who can love us and give us the sense of worth we are seeking. We won’t find it in other people, in their acceptance of us, or in putting them down. We’ll never be satisfied with ourselves until we welcome God and His love for us.

So today, it’s time to step out of the lifeboat. If we all step out of the lifeboat, then we don’t have to worry about being thrown overboard (take off swim trunks and throw away “lifeboat.”). God wants our relationships with Him and with each other to be pure. No more faking like we like each other just to feel good about each other. No more talking behind someone else’s back because you feel better about yourself. No more secretly evaluating people based on appearances or wealth or fame or Christian maturity. Jesus would say the greatest thing we can do to display that we love Him is to love others unconditionally.

Conclusion

I would guess I’m speaking to two types of people today. You’re either in the popular group pushing others out of the lifeboat, or you’re being pushed out wishing you weren’t. If you’re in the first group, and you want to change, here’s what you need to do. You need to tell God you’re sorry and repent. And from here on out, you need to commit to seeing other people as equals, as created by God and given worth by God. And you need to see yourself in that way too.

For those who are in the second group, and you want to change, you need to forgive those who have been doing this to you. Whether you’ve heard through the grapevine comments someone has made, or you’re jealous about another person, or something else, you need to forgive those people. And then you need to commit to loving them, even if they stay in the lifeboat.

I know that everyone is in one of these two groups…maybe even in both at the same time. That means we should all respond today. I would ask that everyone who desires to change pray quietly where they are at, out loud. As an act of commitment, pray for forgiveness and for a love for others. Then I’ll pray to close.

Sunday Sermon: God Can Forgive and Use You

2006-10-16T17:10:00.000-04:00

A quick disclaimer: If you think this sermon ends abruptly, it does. Part 2 is next week.

Introduction of Israel: From Joshua to Gideon

Gideon was a judge over the nation of Israel, appointed by God to bring the nation back to Him. Israel had turned from the God who delivered them from Egypt. You see, after Moses died, he appointed Joshua as leader, and he brought Israel into the Promised Land. Joshua led the people into battle, most famously against Jericho. And the generation he was a part of served the LORD. In Joshua 24, he tells the people, “Fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Then the people answered him, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from the land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”

So, there was a period of success as Israel marched forward to drive out the nations living in the Promised Land. God was with them as they drove out the Canaanites. But they failed to drive out every nation. And so Israel was corrupted by their gods, and began to worship Baal. Baal literally means “owner, husband, or lord.” He was considered a weather god associated mainly with rain. The Canaanites were farmers, and so they worshiped Baal in order for him to provide the rain for their crops. They believed that every winter Baal would “hibernate” in the underworld, and in order to bring him back for springtime, they would make sacrifices—both animal and human—and engage in sexual orgies. Just as they were showing their fertility, they believed Baal would bring fertility to their crops. This is what a good portion of Israel got involved in, thus breaking the LORD’s command, “You shall not have any other gods before me.”

So God, in Judges 2:3 said, “Therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.” And in verse 15 it says, “Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.” So, Israel was in great distress, but it hadn’t come to its senses yet. God then raises up judges—those faithful to him who would bring the people back to Him. Yet the people did not turn back to God. Instead, they continued in their wicked ways. What did happen though, was that as long as a judge was alive, the LORD had compassion on them and saved them from their enemies. Yet when the judge died, the people threw themselves further into rebellion and idol worship. And this happens on and off for a period of a couple hundred years. Looks like a pretty grim situation doesn’t it?

Israel at the Hand of Midian

As we get closer to the time of Gideon, it says in Judges 5:31, “Then the land had peace forty years.” Forty years. That’s one generation of peace. A chance for those who worshiped Baal to die out, and for their sons and daughters to return to the LORD. In fact, peace signifies that the LORD’s hand wasn’t against Israel anymore. Somehow they had turned back to Him. Obviously it didn’t last though. The next verse tells us that, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” Midian was a nation south of Israel. And it was formed by the descendants of a man named Midian, who just so happens to be a son of Abraham. Genesis 25 tells us that after Abraham’s wife Sarah died, he took another wife, and she bore him many sons, one of whom was Midian. Abraham sent all these sons east and gave Isaac all of his inheritance.

Thus we have Midian, an affliction to Israel. Midian was so fierce, so oppressive, that the Bible tells us the Israelites ran and hid in caves. The Midianites killed their flocks and destroyed their crops. They were so numerous that one couldn’t count them, as a swarm of locusts. And finally, after seven whole years—SEVEN years—Israel cries out to God. You’ve got to be kidding me! That’s like a woman in labor, sitting on her couch in pain as the contractions keep getting worse and worse. And she waits and waits. She even tells her husband she’s okay. Then after seven years and a boy half her size living in her stomach, she goes to the doctor. What kind of joke is this? It’s not a joke. It’s a testimony to how deep in sin and apostasy Israel was. They had turned tail and ran from God so many times they forgot who He was. They forgot He was the only One who could save them from these nations. They loved the gods of Midian and of Canaan so much that the pain and fear became bearable.

It’s like asking the question, “Would you rather run 20 miles in 68 degree weather or 5 miles in 100 degree weather?” The correct answer to that question is "Neither!" And Israel has answered, we’ll take both. Both your gods and your pain.

After Israel cries out to God, he answers them in two ways. The first is through the prophet in Judges 6:7-10. He tells them that God had brought them out of Egypt and said He was their God; don’t worship the other gods. But they hadn’t listened to Him. The prophet says this and that appears to be all it is. This paragraph reminder of their sins was a type of “course correction.” They had to remember what God had done for them in the past, or what He planned to do for them through Gideon would be of no consequence. They had to remember they were in the wrong, they had sinned, or else they would not turn from their sin.

God Calls (Forgives, Is Patient With, Believes In) Gideon

God first sent the prophet, and then He called Gideon. Let’s begin reading in Judges 6:11-24. “The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.’ ‘But sir,’ Gideon replied, ‘if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said “Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?” But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.’
The LORD turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?’
‘But Lord,’ Gideon asked, ‘how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family.’
The LORD answered, ‘I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites together.’
Gideon replied, ‘If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.’
And the LORD said, ‘I will wait until you return.’
Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth. And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, ‘Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!’
But the LORD said to him, ‘Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.’
So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.”

God called Gideon in a such a way that blows my mind. Gideon is scared to death of Midian, secretly threshing wheat in order to not get caught. And when the angel of the LORD, later called Yahweh, appears to him, he speaks foolishly. He says that God cannot be with Israel because there are no wonders, no miracles he’s heard so much about. He’s standing at least somewhat close to his father’s altar to Baal and he has the gall to tell God it’s his fault. “It’s your fault we’re being attacked all the time and I have to hide in this winepress. If only you would show up and do a few miracles we’d be okay.” In reality, it was the sin that so easily entangled Israel, which blinded Gideon to the truth of sin and of God, that caused the current troubles. If it was easy for Gideon to lay the blame on God, how easy is it for us to do the same? Even when we’re standing neck deep in it? We think if only God would do this, or if only he would answer my prayer…when perhaps God is calling us to repent and turn to Him. Think about that one for a bit.

Gideon assumes it’s God’s fault, and then God tells him he should go and save Israel in the strength he has. Even in his sinful state, Gideon has some strength left which God plans to use. But Gideon baffles me again. He makes a silly excuse about being part of the weakest clan and least in his family. He’s saying to God, “No way. I’m of no use, no good, just a weak scared guy. Nice joke, God.” Remember last week when we talked about saying, “I just can’t do much.?” This is Gideon here. Gideon forgets, in a breath of time, that it is God who performed the wonders for Israel. All of a sudden he thinks God won’t be able to perform wonders but will expect him to save Israel by his own strength. Crazy guy. If God performed wonders to release Israel from Egypt, He surely can do it again.

The LORD answers saying he will be with Gideon, reaffirming what he first said in verse 12. Then he says Gideon will strike down all the Midianites, reaffirming what he said in verse 14. And finally Gideon catches on. Almost. He’s really set on this signs and wonders thing, so he asks God for a sign. So he prepares an offering of a goat and unleavened bread.

God commanded Israel to sacrifice one male goat during each major feast—Passover, the Feast of Weeks, during monthly offerings, on the day of atonement—as a sin offering to make atonement for sins. And unleavened bread was made to signify the separation of sin and Egypt, since there was no yeast (sin) in the bread. Gideon’s offering, therefore, was one of atonement for the sins he had committed by worshiping Baal. And his test of God in that offering was not just to see if it was truly God calling Him and speaking with Him. It was a test to see if God would forgive him. Gideon, like us, believed that his sin was too great for God to forgive, and that because God wouldn’t forgive him, He couldn’t possibly use him. Too often Satan lies to us, saying we’re too horrible to forgive, and that we can never be used by God because of how horrible we are. It’s all lies. It’s all lies. We see that the sacrifice was consumed on the rock as God signaled to Gideon, "Your sins are forgiven."

Gideon worries about dying because he’s seen the angel of the LORD. But God reassures Him this isn’t the case. He will not die, because the LORD is Peace. The LORD and Gideon made their peace that day. Next week we’ll return to Gideon to see how God used him. But today, there are those of us who feel like God cannot forgive us. We have turned to worship other gods and want so desperately to turn back to God, yet something is holding us back. It’s our fear of being rejected by God. Fear of not measuring up to God's standards (which forgiveness tosses out the door). There are no standards to be forgiven, except a contrite and repentant heart, and a commitment to serve the LORD.

Messed Up Weather

2006-10-12T20:19:00.000-04:00

Guess what happened yesterday and today? SNOW. It's invading already, and some trees still haven't changed colors yet. And you all thought Indiana weather was messed up. It's been great to see all the leaves change colors, especially near our state park.

But snow in October? Snow means warming our car up, scraping ice and shoveling snow, being scared about how many people in my congregation will slip and fall and break something. It also means Christmas is coming. I think I'll be excited for Christmas when it gets here, but now I'm worried. People expect big Christmas services, and at this point, we can't really offer much. I'm scared guests will walk into our church Christmas Eve and walk right back out. I'm scared that by Christmas people will be leaving the church in the midst of changes. Maybe I'm too pessimistic.

God, remind me and anyone else who needs it that You send the snow, and that Your presence as Immanuel is much more important than any Christmas service. Thank you.

New Church University

2006-10-10T22:50:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, Jamie and I were in Indy last week (Oct. 2-5) for our first conference. It was good to see family and friends at Brookhaven and Indy. Family, we miss you all. Kevin and Sandra, thanks for the meal and time with friends. Let's get together quicker than two years next time. Jessie, Jewel, Haley, David, Ty, Janel, Janna, Pastor Bob and Veralyn, Pastor Matt and Laura, and Pastor Phil and Stephanie, it was good to be back at youth group once more.

What an amazing time! New Church Specialties is a church health focused organization "based" from the Church of the Nazarene. They train pastors and lay leaders in refocusing (moving from inward focused ministry to outward focused), restarting (shut down the church, change lots of things, re-open) or church planting. Our church is in need of a mix between refocusing and restarting (leaning toward restarting).

We were blown away at how comprehensive it was. Everything was grounded in Scripture and prayer. We heard spiels from a few guys for most of the time and also got to meet in small groups with other pastors from around the nation. Guys were there from Kansas, Texas, California, Indiana, Wisconsin... Overall, we are excited about what God has in store for us. We found this to be a time of learning and commitment. The process of restarting a church takes about 3-5 years. And at the end of that time, we should be ready to at least assist with a church plant. It's like God was emphasizing how big a work He is going to do at Parkway. Not only does He want to make us a healthy church, but also a multiplying church.

Now that we're back in Baraboo, it's time to convey what we've learned to our leadership team. For those of you who've committed to pray for us, please pray that we would have wisdom to know what to say and what to hold back. There's so much information that we could easily overwhelm and discourage our church. Pray also that we would be personally renewed by God's Spirit in these next weeks and months. If we are going to lead this process, we need to be renewed first. Also pray for our leadership team, that they would commit to the long process, and that the right people would be on it. We have asked a few new people to join the team after learning we had too few. And one man is hesitant to join because he's new to the church and isn't sure how a few people will react. Pray for God's will to be done in him and our church.

If any of you know churches or pastors looking to plant churches, please pass this website on to them: www.newchurchspecialties.org. Refocusing churches are those at the "plateau" stage, and I believe most churches would benefit from this training. So, as the guy from Reading Rainbow says, "Don't just take my word for it. Check it out yourself."

Sunday's Sermons

2006-10-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry we haven't blogged in a while. We've been going, going, going lately. If any of you want to read my last two Sundays' sermons (Oct. 1 and 8), just post your email and I'll email them to you. I figure posting two huge entries at the same time will be too overwhelming and the second one wouldn't get read by anyone... I'll be sure to get back to posting them again for next week.

Will You Be An Intercessor?

2006-09-25T15:27:00.000-04:00

As most of you know, Jamie and I are coming to Indy next week as part of a New Church Specialties Conference. The purpose of it is to train pastors and lay leaders in the process of "resurrecting" a dying church. As part of this process, they ask that we secure a team of intercessors. This is where you come in. We will begin to post weekly prayer requests and updates so you know how to pray. We'd like you, if you're willing to commit to pray at least once a week, to comment to this post. For those of you who aren't familiar to posting on a blog, all it takes is clicking on "comments" at the end of this post. Then type your message. If you don't have a blog, you can post anonymously...just be sure to write your name in your comment.

If you know of others who aren't Internet savvy, you could always print off our blog posts and update them. Jamie and I are excited about what God is going to do. You can be excited too, because your prayers are the fuel for God's work. Like Mike Brown once said, "Prayer is like calling in the big guns and bombarding the devil." Thanks for praying!

The Church: God's Instrument of Grace

2006-09-24T19:40:00.000-04:00

Here's today's sermon. Be sure to see the post underneath this one.

Misguided Understandings About the Church

Today we’re going to talk about the church. The church and its purpose are often misunderstood by both outsiders and church members. Some of us find ourselves faithfully attending the same church yet forgetting why we’re there. We even serve in any way needed with good hearts and great intentions. We tithe our ten percent, sing, pray, and respect the pastor when he’s preaching, whether a good sermon or not. We don’t complain and are genuinely happy to be among our Christian friends on Sunday. And yet, we tend to forget why we do all those things.

Then there are those who know why we exist, but don’t know how to accomplish God’s purpose. They will try anything and everything to make church “appealing” to guests, but in the process forget what those guests truly need. They’ll do anything to get new people walking through the door, whether it’s great preaching, modern worship, dramas, kid’s ministry, or plasma screen TVs. And these people get so caught up in the newest craze that they forget God’s plans.

If you’ve read the gospels, you no doubt know how they portray the disciples to be a little slow. They don’t tend to understand Jesus’ parables or his mission. They don’t believe him and they bicker about being the best. I have a story about these guys (which, believe it or not, isn’t in the Bible). Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s accurate. Listen as we see how easy it is to forget what following Jesus is all about.

Pete: This meeting has been called at the request of Matt, John, Tom, and Little Jim. Bart, will you please open with prayer?
Bart: Almighty God, we ask Your blessing on all we do and say and earnestly pray that You will see our side as Your side. Amen.
Pete: Jesus, we have been following you around for some time, and we are getting concerned about the attendance figures. Tom, how many were on the hill yesterday?
Tom: Thirty-seven.
Pete: It’s getting to be ridiculous. You’re going to have to pep things up. We expect things to happen.
John: I’d like to suggest you pull off more miracles. That walking on water bit was the most exciting thing I have ever seen, but only a few of us saw it. If a thousand or so had a chance to witness it, we would have more than we could handle on the hill.
Little Jim: I agree. The healing miracles are terrific, but only a limited number really get to see what happened. Let’s have some more water to wine, more fish and chips (it never hurts to fill their stomachs), still more storms, give more signs. This is what the people need.
Pete: Right. And another thing, publicity is essential, and you tell half the people you cure to keep it quiet. Let the word get around.
Matt: I’m for miracles, but I want to hear a few stories I can understand. This “those who have ears to hear, let them hear” business just clouds the issue. You have to make it clear or most of us aren’t going to be able to take anything home.
John: I’d like to offer an order of service. First a story, then a big miracle followed by an offering, then maybe a saying or something, followed by a small miracle to bring them back next time. Oh yes, and a prayer if you’d like.
Tom: We have to do something.
Little Jim: That’s for sure. Attendance has been awful.
Judas: I’d like to say if we are going to continue meeting in this upper room, we ought to do something about the carpet…

So you see how easy it is to forget our purpose. I’ve been reading a book called Falling in Love With the Church by Larry McKain. In the book, he explains that we must know what the church is before we can even think about growing. I would think that most of us here would like to see Parkway grow. Maybe you don’t want to be as big as Walnut Hill, but you would like to see more here than those present today. Right?

So would I. But first you and I have to know what the church is. Open your Bibles to Acts 2:42, a famous passage describing the early church. This passage speaks about what was happening in the earliest days of Christianity, and that gives us somewhat of a picture of what the church is.

Our Actions Must Stem From Grace

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

You hear all that was happening—the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, communion, service, prayer—and it’s easy to miss why they were doing that. We must look behind all the goings-on to see what the church is. The Church is God’s primary instrument used to distribute His free grace to a dying world. You and I are a part of that dying world while at the same time a part of the Church. Though we’ve received God’s grace and are saved, it doesn’t mean we quit receiving His grace. Without the grace of God each moment of life, we would cease to exist.

Babette’s Feast

And this grace is like a story told by Philip Yancey in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace. As the story goes, there is a sect of Christians in Germany committed to renouncing all worldly pleasures. They all dress in black, and eat boiled cod and gruel, tolerating life on earth until God takes them home. Their leader has two daughters: Martine and Philippa. They were both beautiful and attracted the attention of many men. But they rejected their suitors in order to take care of their aging father. Fifteen years passed and their father died. They tried to carry on his mission and lead the parishioners but with little success. One man held a grudge against another, rumors spread about an affair involving two of them, and two women hadn’t spoken to each other for a decade. But they kept on.

One night the two sisters heard a knock on the door. It was a ragged woman who handed them a note. It was signed by one of the men who had courted Philippa years ago. The note explained that her name was Babette, she had lost her family in the French civil war, had sought shelter by fleeing to Germany. And, she could cook. So they took her in, and in exchange for chores she was given room and board.

For the next 12 years Babette worked for the sisters. One day she received a letter from France. To her surprise, a friend had renewed her lottery number in the French lottery…she had won ten thousand francs! (which is like $30,000 today). The sisters were all but happy because they knew Babette would leave. Coincidentally, the letter came at the same time the sisters were planning a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of their father’s birth. Babette came to them with a request. “In twelve years I have asked nothing of you. But now I would like to prepare the meal for the anniversary…a real French meal.” The sisters weren’t so sure, but agreed to it.

Babette ordered all the food she would need to make the dinner: small birds, fresh vegetables, pheasants, ham, cow, huge tortoises, and other strange sea creatures. Everyone in the village was amazed and somewhat alarmed at the sight. It snowed the day of the dinner. Babette had scrounged enough china and had decorated the room with candles. The guests all ate without much talk, most of them somewhat disgusted at the taste of foreign food. But gradually the meal grew on them. They began to reminisce about the good old days when their leader was still alive. And finally they all left, leaving Babette in a mess of a kitchen filled with dirty dishes.

The two sisters approached Babette. “It was quite a nice dinner. We will all remember this evening when you’ve gone back to Paris.” Babette tells them she will not be going back. All her friends and relatives had been killed, and it would be too expensive to return. “But what about the ten thousand francs?” Then Babette tells them she spent every last franc on the feast they just ate.

And this is grace: it costs the giver everything, and the one who receives, nothing. Grace cost God His Son, and it cost us nothing. Now we as the church are called to give grace to those who haven’t received it yet. And it must cost us everything: our time, our energy, our Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, our money, our talents, everything. We must give everything we have in order to bestow grace on the world. Whether it’s saying hello to a neighbor or listening to a hurting friend, we must give grace. And, as a church, we must center all of our activities on this. Whether it’s fellowship together at Muriel’s for game night or singing praise to God on Sunday, we must distribute grace.

The Apostles’ Teaching

So now we must reevaluate what we’re doing. In the early church, the first thing it says they did was to devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The word “devoted” has a sense of “giving one’s attention to” and “being faithful in.” So the earliest believers…those who were converted from the speech Peter gave on the day of Pentecost, now give their full attention to the apostles’ teaching. And the apostles’ have a simple message. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… (vv. 3-4).” The earliest Christians devoted themselves to this message. They lived and breathed Christ crucified. For it is in His death and resurrection that grace is made available to us. Without that, we would be condemned sinners deserving death. But Christ died, giving His all, while we receive the free gift of grace. And so, we must ask ourselves: Are we living as if we’ve been given grace? Are we thinking about, dreaming about, speaking about Christ crucified and risen? Or do we look at the cross behind me as if it were just decoration?

Fellowship

Acts tells us that the first Christians then devoted themselves to the fellowship. In other places in the Bible, fellowship is described as sharing or participating in something with others. It’s being known because of who you hang out with. Some of you have been going to this church for so long that it will be impossible to hear “Parkway Wesleyan” without thinking of you. And, you’ll notice that in verse 46 it says they met together every day. They loved each other so much, and knew the importance of gathering in Jesus name. God’s grace was displayed in their interaction, the way they loved each other and gave when one person had need. It’s no wonder verse 46 also says they ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They genuinely enjoyed being together. For us at Parkway, the way we interact can be full of grace or lacking grace. People who visit our church will be able to tell a lot about us by the way we act. Even in the way we joke with one another, the grace of Christ can shine through or be masked.

It reminds me of the story of three pastors going out to eat. Each of them ordered a bowl of soup and a salad. And just after the soup arrived, three flies came and landed, one in each bowl. So one pastor spooned the fly into his napkin, folded it up as discreetly as possible. The second pastor picked the fly out, put it on his finger and flicked it off. And the third pastor grabbed his fly by the wings, held it up to his face and screamed, “Spit it out! All of it! Spit it out!”

Now which one of these pastors, if observed by a non-Christian, would NOT look like a Christian? That’s right. And so our fellowship should reflect God’s grace.

Breaking of Bread

The third thing the early church devoted themselves to was breaking of bread, or the Lord’s Supper. They knew that it was more than remembering Jesus until He returned again. The Lord’s Supper signifies the death of our Lord and the forgiveness we receive in it. You cannot separate forgiveness from grace. Every time we take communion, Christ is there, imparting His grace to us. Without His grace, we would feel awful. To be reminded that Jesus had to die because of the sin’s I’ve committed is a horrible feeling, and if that’s all communion is about, then it makes no sense to eat it. But it’s not. Communion is all about grace, which Christ gives to us. You have to remember, some of these early Christians in Acts are probably some of the same people who yelled, “Crucify Him!” How do you think they felt the first time they ate the Lord’s Supper? They felt like they deserved death too, and would have always felt that way but for the grace of God.

Prayer

So they devoted themselves to breaking of bread, and then to prayer. In Acts, prayer always precedes a great work of God. The disciples were together praying and God sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Cornelius prays, and God sends Peter as a messenger to the Gentiles. The church prays for Peter while he is in prison, and God sends an angel to release Him. The early church understood that God moved when they prayed. God moved on their behalf and on behalf of those who didn’t know Him, so that they may know His grace in their lives.

Larry McKain also tells a story in his book about his grandfather, who was a farmer. His grandfather was not a Christian. He used Sundays to plow his fields and work around the farm. The pastor of the country church would ask him to come every now and then, and his response was always “no.” But that little church began praying for him by name. And one Sunday, for no apparent reason except God’s Spirit working on his heart, Larry’s grandfather ran inside his house, grabbed his wife and daughter, and took them to church. That Sunday their whole family got saved. And that little country church was where Larry’s mom raised him. He met his wife there. All because the church prayed for his grandfather.

Conclusion: God’s Instrument of Grace

So the early church was devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. The early church was devoted to being God’s instrument of grace. Like Babette and like Jesus, they gave everything they had. Is this how Parkway looks? Take a few moments and compare our church with the picture we have of grace. Then think to yourself, am I God’s instrument of grace? If not, how can I be?

Here are four practical ways to be God’s instrument of grace. If you listened well, you know them already.

Commit yourself to preaching Christ crucified. I know you’re not a preacher, but commit to it in your everyday interaction with people. Tell them about your Savior who died for you and them.

When we’re together, encourage one another. Tell someone how much you appreciate them.

When you take communion, know that you are forgiven. Your sins do not condemn you any longer.

Take time to pray for a non-Christian by name. Pray each day for them.

Cleaning Day

2006-09-24T18:59:00.000-04:00

Sounds like a boring post from the title doesn't it? Maybe it is. You decide. Saturday we spent most of the day cleaning out our church. You would not believe how many old things we found..stuff from the 1920s even! It kinda felt like TLC's Clean Sweep. We had a trash pile, a sell pile, and a keep pile. Maybe we should have called them first...

Our D.S. and his wife came to help us. I don't know how we would have done it without them. I know that people meant well in keeping anything and everything. And I know that most of them are too old to do anything about it. So a small (emphasis on small) part of me understands why all the clutter. Then the other part screams, "Trash!" We found old Sunday School material, bulletins, fake flowers and vases galore, stuffed animals, dishes that haven't been used in years, extra shingles from the last roofing project...not to mention spiders, spiderwebs, and dust.

At the end of the day we had filled 30 bags of trash along with plenty of other items too big for bags. And, at the end of the day we felt good. It's like cleaning out the church signifies the new changes to come. We feel like there's hope for the church now. And it's slowly becoming our church. So often we find ourselves imagining life at Brookhaven and forgetting we're here to stay. Our de-junking yesterday helped us feel like we are "home."

(Stephen Mowat, if you read this, we found old newspapers in pretty decent shape. One has an article about FDR being re-elected to his fourth term in office. Others have various articles about the happenings in WWII. I figure if you want them, we can bring them with us when we come to Marion next week. We should pass through either on Monday Oct 2nd or Thurs Oct 5th. We'll drop them off at Michelle's office and you can have them free.)

Odd way to end a post, with a note to a friend, but I don't have anything else to say.

I've found a FRIEND!!!!!!!!

2006-09-18T23:08:00.000-04:00

Praise God! He completely ordained this evening...I took a chance and went to a Home Interiors special guest preview night with this consultant I found over the Internet (this is NOT something I would have done in Marion!)...the party was an hour away in Richland Center, so we had a lot of talk time on the way there and back...and I felt sooo comfortable...really at ease talking about Josh and me, how God brought us to Baraboo, all about our new church and where it is now...and how it will hopefully change in the future...we were able to ask each other a ton of questions and really get to know each other beyond the surfacy topics, and found out that our interests are pretty similar. Anyway, she invited me to go walking tomorrow with a group of 5 ladies and then go out to lunch with them. And I am definitely going. It was so nice to be out of the house tonight and to really share with another girl close to my age...it also sounds like she will be coming to church this Sunday...God is at work and it amazes me! Thanks so much for praying for Josh and me and our mission here...we are getting adjusted slowly...and it is good that we are here.

Sunday Sermon: A Prayer for Despairing Disciples

2006-09-18T22:44:00.000-04:00

This is the sermon from yesterday. We were officially installed as pastor and wife of the church yesterday. Our district superintendent, Dan Bickel and his wife Reenie came up for the service. We had a meal afterward with our new leadership team, which consists of a husband and wife (he's 43 and she's 31), and another woman (she's in her late 50s). Dan reinforced the idea of refocusing the church...everything is up for grabs, it's gonna be a long, hard process, and we must commit to doing things as God leads. I'm not sure if any of us realizes the depth of craziness we're getting ourselves into.

Jamie and I will be going to Indianapolis October 1-5 for a New Church University conference. It's run by people affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene, and from what I've seen so far they know what they're doing. The purpose of the conference is to understand exactly what will happen the next three years (okay, so not exactly...it's more like the "fog" that hits in a Dave Smith Greek class). Once we get back, we'll relay what we've learned to our leadership team and begin the refocusing process. More on all this in the future. For now, here's the sermon.

Introduction: Jesus is Leaving

It was night. You had gathered together for one last meal. But this wasn’t an ordinary meal. This meal was filled with apprehension, tension, dread, endless questions of the future. The Master had said you will leave me. All of you.
“Master, no we won’t. We will die with you.”
“No you won’t. Especially you Peter. You will leave me. You will leave me alone to die. You will deny me three times.”
And now Jesus said he was leaving too. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You know the way to the place I am going.”
“But Jesus, how do we know the way? We don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way? What do you mean you’re leaving? Jesus, don’t leave.”
“In a little while you will see me no more, and then you will see me, because I am going to the Father. You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. But your grief will turn to joy, and no one will take away your joy. Don’t worry friends. I will return. But now I must go to the Father.”
And then Jesus began to pray. “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him….

"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction, so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them. I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

Then Jesus leaves, taking you across the Kidron Valley to an olive grove. Wait, what’s that you hear? Footsteps, loud footsteps. They’re coming this way. The Romans! And…is that..it is! It’s Judas!
“No! Judas don’t do this. You can’t take Jesus away. You won’t take Him!”
“Peter, put down your sword. I must drink the cup the Father has given me.” And then you run. You run faster than ever before, not worrying about the olive branches, not caring if any of your friends have been captured too. They’ve taken your Master away.

It would not have been the place to be that evening. To be associated with Jesus, known as one of the Twelve, would have been awful. In your heart you thought it was all a dream. There’s no way Jesus can leave us now. We’ve been together for three years. But in your mind, you knew he was right. This was the end. We’ll never see Him again. Back to fishing. Back to your home, where all your friends would be waiting, ready to mock you for following the crucified One. It was over.

Can you feel it? Can you feel the despair, the pain, the sadness of the disciples? For the disciples, Jesus’ prayer wasn’t an ordinary prayer either. It was one filled with truth they would cling to in His absence. They would need to know that even though He was gone, they would be okay. So turn to John 17, beginning with verse 6. There are three key themes spoken of throughout the prayer that are all things they needed to hear as a type of assurance that everything was going to be fine. The first is of God’s revelation.

God’s Revelation

Jesus revealed God to them in two ways. The first is shown in verse 6. Jesus says, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” He literally said, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me out of the world.” One’s name was equated with one’s character in Biblical times. So for Jesus to say He revealed the Father’s name, it meant that He showed the disciples the character of God. And when Jesus says that God had given Him His name, it meant that the name of Jesus was equal with that of God, and that Jesus and the Father have the same characteristics. Just as Jesus addressed His Father as holy, so He is holy. Just as Jesus’ name means “the LORD saves,” so we know God is our Savior. There is no separating Christ and the Father. They are one.

God’s name held power. It had the power to protect the disciples. Jesus was able to keep and guard the disciples while He was with them. As one of the disciples, you are comforted, because every time you pray in the name of Jesus, you know he hears you. Every time you call His name, you know He’s there. Every time you preach the name of Jesus, you know that it has the power to draw men to Him. Even when you are scared, when you are being killed for your faith in Christ, you know there is power in the name of Jesus. For us, the same truth applies today. There is still power in the name of Jesus, power to save, to keep us, and to make us one.

Jesus also reveals God in that He gave His disciples the words the Father gave Him. Through His teachings, the disciples received God. It says that they obeyed, or kept, that word given to them. What’s interesting about this is the tense of the verb “obeyed.” It would appear that it says the disciples kept God’s Word in the past and that’s it. But this verb is in the perfect tense, one that refers to an action having been completed in the past, but with effects felt in the present. Through their obedience to the Word and belief in Jesus, they were given eternal life. And this eternal life began the moment they believed and kept His word. It did not begin after they died, but sometime even before Jesus prayed that prayer. What a relief to know that even though Jesus had gone, they would one day be with Him. He had given them eternal life. We too can have eternal life, if only we would believe in Jesus and keep His words.

Truth About His Disciples

The second thing the disciples needed to hear was the truth about themselves. When Jesus left, you can bet Satan came in like a flood, trying to convince them that their doubt, their betrayal, meant Jesus could never accept them again. You can bet Satan made them feel like dirt. But they knew the truth about themselves.

First, they were “those who the Father had given to Jesus.” They could know for certain that God would not let them go. They would be protected from Satan’s attacks.

Second, they were hated by the world. Yeah, this doesn’t sound too encouraging. But Jesus had said in John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” So this is a good thing! They were like Christ. They were not of the world just as much as He is not of the world. This is great! Have you ever thought that you and I are not of the world either? We’re not. Sure we live here and all, but we’re not really of this world. It’s like getting married. You say “I do” and you become one with your spouse. Sure, you’re still the same person. There’s plenty of time you’re not even together, but you’re one. Your voice won’t suddenly match your spouse’s, you won’t always like the same food, and you’ll still like watching football on Sundays while she takes a nap, but you’re still ONE—you have common goals, you share the checkbook, you have the same last name. We may live in this world, but we are not of it. The moment we receive Christ, we become His. Good to hear when you think all hope is lost and your Master is gone.

Christ’s Desire For Us

The third thing they needed to hear was what Christ prayed for them. Jesus prayed first that they would be one as Jesus and the Father are one. One in character, one in passion, one in purpose. By the power of God’s name, they would be one. They could no longer be known as Peter, James, John, Andrew, Matthew. They had to be known as His. They had to become so fully enveloped in Jesus’ name and mission that they would be one. The reason we are not one body of Christ today is not that we believe different things, or have differing opinions about how to worship. Those could be resolved. The reason we are not one today is that we have not all committed to be known as His. Some of us have, and some of us haven’t.

Second, Jesus prayed for them to NOT be taken from the world. If I were a disciple, I would have wanted to go to heaven when Jesus did. Take me home and we’ll continue like we have the past three years. That was the easy way out. All throughout John’s gospel, the world opposes Christ and His disciples. They are hated by it. The same world Jesus created hates Him. And so the disciples are called to stay in the world in order to…LOVE it. For God so loved the world that He gave His Son. And the Son so loved the world that He gave His followers. The disciples would need to hear this word because the world had taken their Master from them. It had crucified Him. How could they love it? And we need to hear this because we know the world does not know Christ. Things happen every day that we are opposed to: abortion, violence, theft, rape, murder. We hear people use our God’s name as a curse word. Yet we are called to love the world.

And third, Jesus prayed for them to be sanctified. “Sanctified” in this context means being set apart for service to God. The disciples were already separate from the world. They needed to be separated to God. They would be sanctified through God’s word. The Word of God sets Christianity apart from any other world religion. It comes from God and is truth. We cannot love a world which hates us, we cannot be one in purpose as Jesus and the Father are one, if we do not hold the Word of God as truth.

Conclusion: Remember...

So what does this all mean to us? We’ve heard a lot today. So if there’s anything I want you to remember, it’s the last point: the things Jesus prayed for us. That we would be one, that we would be in the world and love it, and that we would be set apart for service to God.

And one last thing. Remember that the soldiers took hold of Jesus. He carried His cross up Golgotha’s hill, and was crucified between two criminals. With His last breath he cried, “It is finished.” He was then buried, and three days later, when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, Jesus appeared to her. He rose from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. And before He ascended into heaven, He said, “Surely I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

New Table!

2006-09-18T22:26:00.000-04:00

Jamie and I bought our first new dining room table Saturday. We have a small 4-seater in our kitchen now that's cluttered with mail and bills (and a dozen red roses from Jamie's birthday :). So needless to say we don't eat at that table too often. Dinner is normally served at the couch, which isn't all that bad when it's just us, but now that we are pastors, people come over for dinner. It will be nice to feel like we can host others without worrying about seating. If I can figure out how to put the picture in, you'll be able to see it. We bought it at Slumberland Furniture for... a bit of cash. It's our "we sold our house in Marion, let's go spend the money" purchase.

Sunday's Sermon

2006-09-13T18:45:00.000-04:00

This may or may not be the best idea, but I hope to post sermons from each week. Maybe Nate and Maria will find them helpful alongside CWC tapes. It's nice to only preach once a week. I'd rather start with once a week and move to twice or more than to jump right in at multiple sermons/week. This week's sermon was from Psalm 62. We talked about how solitude gives God control of our lives, and how it brings clarity to the tough situations we face (such as the BIG changes to come at Parkway). Feel free to let me know if posting the whole sermon is a good idea or not. I can always just give a brief overview. Anyway, here it is.

Introduction

As you know, tomorrow is the 5-year anniversary of the bombing of the twin towers. And as you know, our lives are very different because of what happened that day. Gas prices are much higher, our military is overseas fighting a war, and we worry daily about the threat of another attack. Our Department of Homeland Security warns us about “being prepared.” Do we have enough equipment and resources to warn people or protect them? Are there terrorists here now? And we worry and worry and do all we can to stop it from happening again. It may be overdone, but it’s called “preventative care.”

It’s the same thing as going to the dentist or eye doctor regularly for a check-up. Not only are they looking for what could be wrong with your teeth or eyes, they are there to take care of you so nothing bad happens down the road.

And it’s the same thing as spending regular time with God—both in church and out of church. And I believe that many of us do take regular time to be with God. We read our Bibles, we pray, we come to church. And if we all do that, you may wonder why you need to hear this sermon. You need to hear this sermon because, while you are great at reading Scripture and coming to the Bible study, I can almost guarantee you are not that great at solitude.

Solitude is getting away from the hectic or not-so-hectic lives we lead. It’s running away from everything, whether for a few minutes or a few hours. And in that time, we seek the presence of God. Solitude is a state of mind and heart. It is seeking to hear God. Solitude is part of this preventative care too. And yet we miss it.

I’m not saying that a few hours alone and quiet will prevent all the bad things from happening. That’s impossible. The preventative care I’m talking about is being prepared for the next day, and the next day, no matter what happens. You see, spending time alone with God is essential now because the future is not predictable. You and I have no clue as to what this afternoon holds. We could be taken to the hospital, or get in a car accident, or numerous other things. And we also don’t know what God has in store for the future. He could want to use us to reach out to a friend in need, or to share Him with a stranger, or to encourage a guest to Parkway. My question is: How will we be ready for the future, whether good or bad, unless we have spent time with God first? Look at Psalm 62 with me.

"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down—this leaning wall, this tottering fence? They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse.

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done."

Overview of the Psalm

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 62 began by saying, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” My soul finds rest literally means my soul is silent. He has come before God, surrendering control of the situation to Him. He is so confident that God is strong. There is no way he will be shaken. He is making God his foundation, thus, when the assailants come, he already knows God. Preventative care. His foundation is secure because he has been with God.

And now they come. It sounds like he is talking about another man, but from the rest of the chapter, we see knows the situation all too well for him to be speaking of someone else being attacked. He is speaking of himself as a weak man. The man is weak, like a leaning wall, and these men want to hit him when he’s down.

The words translated “throw him down” mean “murder, especially an enemy.” These men aren’t just lying and cursing, they are out for blood. And if you think about it, we have an enemy who does the same thing to us. He hits us when we’re down, piling one problem onto the next. He is a liar, but that is only a means to an end. His ultimate goal, like these assailants, is murder. And this is where time with God becomes so important. It is impossible to stand up to an enemy when you are weak, as in verse 3. But, your enemy stands no chance against you when your God is so strong.

The psalmist shows that one time with God will not suffice. To him, God is strength. And if God is strength, all the more reason to be with Him. Solitude with God will not make you a stronger person. It allows God to show His strength through you.

And this time he urges himself, “Find rest.” It is not as easy this time as it was the first, there is a real enemy. God is still strong to the psalmist. In fact, there is such a trust in God that he can tell the people, “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” We’ll look at the rest of the passage later. But you see how this solitude thing works. Even before these assailants came, the psalmist was silent before God. And then after they came, he did the same thing. He almost makes it look easy. If only it came that naturally to us.

Reasons Why We Won’t Spend Time In Solitude

But it doesn’t. so let me give you some reasons why it doesn’t come naturally. First, because silence is awkward. (SILENCE FOR 30 SECONDS). You didn’t like that did you. We’re so used to noise. I like to have music on when I prepare for sermons, just for some background noise. It’s our culture influencing the way we live.

Second, because we’ve tried and failed. Solitude is not about listening to God or about telling God your feelings. It’s about feeling God. And we’ve tried so many other ways to feel God, whether through worship or reading our Bible. And each avenue is a dead end. We don’t feel God. There’s no vitality in our relationship. And so we give up and assume solitude is a hoax too.

And third, because we like control. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are so accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. If we are silent who will take control? God will take control: but we will never let Him take control until we trust Him.” When we can tell God how we feel, or explain something, we have a sense of control over it. But when we close our mouths, we feel helpless. And we’re afraid of being helpless.

Reasons Why We Must Spend Time in Solitude

First, because it brings clarity to our lives. The psalmist was a weak man. And after being quiet before God, he was able to see how weak his attackers were too. Verse 9 says, “Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance they are nothing.” In reality, these assailants were nothing. The word “breath” is the same word translated “meaningless, meaningless” in Ecclesiastes. They were nothing, but it took time with God for him to realize that.

Second, because it brings clarity of who God is. All throughout the passage the psalmist declares God to be his rock, his salvation, his fortress, his hope. And at the end, he declares what he has heard from God: You O God are strong, and you O Lord are loving. When did God say this to him? In his times of solitude.

And third, because it gives control to God. If you look at it, we can’t control the future anyway. We can only control our time with God. For the psalmist, verses 3-4 were coming no matter what. I would say that if he had not been with God first, verses 5-12 would be different. Would he have hope for the future? Would he be able to tell others to trust in God? And would he realize how these men compare with Almighty God? No. He would not have been able to face this future event the way he did. And neither could we. And so, will we relinquish control? Will we give God the right to our lives and the right to our future? Will we give God control of our church and its future?

Conclusion: Practical Ways to Find Solitude

In closing, I realize it’s tough to be quiet. We hate it, and our culture screams anything but silence in our ears. We don’t practice it at church, and so many of us don’t know how to do it. So here are some practical ways for us to be quiet.

Take advantage of the little solitudes that fill our day. In the morning getting ready, or driving in our car, or walking in a state park. All these little times can be spent focusing on God.
You can also designate a place in your yard or house that is your quiet place. Discipline yourself so that your words are few. Know when to speak and when not to. Try going a day without speaking.

And finally, you could withdraw on a regular basis for three to four hours. Remember, solitude is meant to feel God. And so to get us started on this part of preventative care, let’s take five minutes to be quiet before God. After that I will pray.

A Rainy Birthday

2006-09-10T20:29:00.000-04:00

It's my turn to write on this thing...Josh has been so good at updating you on our lives...and so I am just now learning the details of blogging...

This week has been BUSY. I thought that as a non-working wife (those are still foreign words to me!), I would have oodles of time on my hands...I'd even get bored sitting in my house staring out my picture window. But, that has not been the case, at least not in the last week. We've visited with church people every day this week...and in between that, I've made a gazillion Wal-Mart runs to pick up things for the house...I always intend to be quick and get right back home...but then I see a new store, and it draws me in, so that I am gone from the house for hours! That's probably not a shocker for most of you who know me though...shopping is my way of relaxing:). I found out that the Farm & Fleet store has lots more than just farm equipment...it's actually full of clothes, wall pictures, kitchen and dining items and a really cool craft table/armoire that I'd like for Christmas (hint hint!).

Today was our second Sunday at the church, as well as my 26th birthday (I don't look that old, do I!?). And it was an emotional roller coaster. The good news is that we had 6 kids in service today...and I spent all yesterday preparing a Sunday School lesson (for kids ages 2-10) and kids packets that went along with the Sunday school lesson and sermon passage for them to do during service because we don't have a children's church yet and as of last week we didn't have anything to offer kids at all. So, this 1st Sunday was a learning curve. The kids packets were a hit with the kids--however, I have learned that I can't use paper gift bags to hold the contents...because they are so LOUD. In a small church used to quiet listening, six children with paper bag kids packets are definitely a disruption...so I failed there. But it's hard to know how to minister to them (and we definitely WANT kids to be part of our church AND they are AMAZING kids), and lead worship (which I did for the 1st time today), and teach Sunday school, and meet the adults of the church all at the same time, and not feel completely overwhelmed when my idea doesn't quite hit the mark. Any suggestions? (Earlier today, if given a suggestion, I would have left crying, but I've adjusted now, and could use all the help I can get...and if you have a burning desire to move up to the Wisconsin Dells area and give me another hand, I'll put you up in my new blue guest room for free!!!).

The problem is...right now it's just Josh and me who are able and willing to help (especially with kids). Tons of great ideas abound, but there are not yet enough hands to do the work. And our church needs updated badly...a new crib, a chair for the nursery, new-kid-friendly paint downstairs, welcoming colors and decoration upstairs...an overhead projector light bulb, current kids curriculum for a variety of ages, volunteers to teach AND people to just come to Sunday School, and so forth.

Needless to say, Josh and I both cried today for quite awhile after church...it's hard to see your husband sobbing because he is homesick...and frustrated and overwhelmed. And Wisconsin wasn't pretty today...just rainy and dreary, so we weren't even tempted to keep living here. We both just wanted to pack up our little car and head home to Indiana.

But we are not quitting...we've unpacked too many boxes and have too much hope for the kids here and the church...and God wouldn't let us anyway...

I did get to talk to my family this afternoon (yea!), and Josh took me out for dinner (I got a huge dose of Packers football sitting in front of 5 large screen TVs at Damon's). And I now know that GB means Green Bay on the score board, and this is the first game they have not scored in for 4 years...so I am adjusting.

In all of this, I KNOW that God is still faithful, and He is still with us...and I am not supposed to be strong, but I am supposed to lean on Him, because He is always strong. (That was part of Josh's sermon today--I am so proud of him..that boy can preach, even with distractions!)

So to all of you reading this, know that we love and miss you...keep praying for us...we need that!...and know that we are not giving up. May God be praised!

We Made It!

2006-09-08T17:11:00.000-04:00

We're here, safe and sound. I know it's been a while since our last post, so we apologize for all seven of you reading.

The first week and a half has been full of ups and downs, loneliness and meeting new people, phone calls home and dinner at parishoners' houses, a sense of God's peace and waves of overwhelming AAHH! The area is gorgeous with bluffs and trees everywhere. Devil's Lake State Park is amazing even though we were only there for 10 minutes. The Wisconsin Dells offer lots of water parks and shopping (Labor Day weekend=headache!). Just so you don't think we've been relaxing the whole time, read on.

I've been adjusting to life as "Pastor Josh." It's weird to hear that title. God has been here from day one, and I know He has because of, well, everything. He was with me on Sunday when I was sick. He helped me preach a message on trust. On Wednesday he was there at the Bible study (we're going through Matthew). A woman from the church came and was honest about struggles she'd been having. We were able to encourage her. And we've started to meet kids around our neighborhood, four of whom came to church last Sunday. One man owns a Christian bookstore in town and serves as a lay minister at the Presbyterian Church. He was there Sunday to encourage me and has sent people my way who are looking for a church home. And so in all this and more, I've seen God at work. He took me away from everything I know and trust so I could know and trust Him more. I couldn't ask for a better first week and a half.

On the other hand, I've learned some startling things about ministry at a dying/refocusing
church.

1. Everyone expects you to change things immediately. They expect to restart the Wed. morning Bible study (which we did), begin an evening service, start a ministry to people with addictions, and they want it done now. It's enough just to begin learning new names, procedures, streets, and prep for Sunday so far. Whew!

2. You get compared to the last pastor all the time. "Pastor did this and he was so sweet. I'm glad you're better than him at or maybe you should try this..." Talk about being in the spotlight. Everything you do needs commentary. And,

3. People talk about each other to you. I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard one church member give me a record of someone else's attendance or lack thereof, someone's beliefs, bad habits, sins, etc. It's crazy. Jamie and I are having "Meet the Pastor" times where we go to their houses for a few hours and talk. The majority of what we hear is about other people in the church. Even if it's not bad stuff, it still is frustrating to listen to.

Don't get me wrong...our church is a wonderful, caring church. Everyone genuinely loves each other. It's just a new way of life to adjust to. They are all past retirement and have known each other for decades. Perhaps they just feel like the new pastor needs to know everything all at once. I guess I'm just going through culture shock.

Jamie has had a good time unpacking and decorating the house. She will begin leading worship this Sunday (her birthday!). And she's going to start taking piano lessons from a worship leader in town. We're going to a pastor's house in Madison tonight for dinner and a scrapbooking party. I think I'll sit the party out and hang out with the pastor.

Hopefully Jamie will get to update the blog soon too. We'd love to get a post from you. Off to Madison,

Josh

All Packed Up

2006-08-26T19:51:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe all of our possessions are now sitting in a 26' Penske truck. Wow. We just said goodbye to Marion, IN today. The reality of moving still hasn't fully hit yet. It's almost like we're going on a big vacation (one in which we decided we couldn't part with all our belongings), and we'll go back in a few weeks.

But that's not true. We won't see our little brick house on Selby Street for a long time. And when we do it will be filled with foreign decorations and new people. If I had a concrete feeling in me today, I would share it. But right now I don't feel anything. Nothing. No emotion from leaving life behind and starting fresh. No emotion from leaving friends and family 7 hours away. The only thing I "feel" is the ache in my back from lifting boxes this morning. Woohoo.

Tomorrow we'll be with my family in Goshen and go to my brother's 21st birthday party. And Monday we'll leave from Warsaw at 8:00 AM. We should get to Baraboo by around 3:00. We'll unload and then eat dinner at the church. One of the lay leaders at the church, Irene Sainsbury, has arranged for a meal for us...a good sign that we'll love this church from the get-go :).

We'll see what life brings after that. For now, it's bedtime.

Josh

Moving in Progress

2006-08-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

I'm sick of cardboard boxes, scissors, tape, permanent markers, walking through a house full of accumulated random objects from the past 20-some-odd years, saying good-bye. This has been my life for the past few weeks. Though I'm excited to begin pastoring, this in-between stage needs to end. It's like the feeling you get midway through the first semester of your senior year of college: No more homework, let's just move on with life!

Just so you don't think life is THAT horrible, I do have some good news....God sold our house! Kinda nice, since we've been packing it up. Last month we spoke with Matt and Laura Aspinall, children's pastor at Brookhaven. They loved our house and all the decorations, but weren't sure that it was the right time to buy. So we assumed God had some other plan in mind. Then we had them over to our house at the beginning of the month for a party, and they said they'd look closer at getting a loan. Now, we have signed a purchase agreement and will be able to close later this week (BEFORE we move)! Praise God!

Keeping this all in perspective helps with the sickness of packing. At least we won't have to worry about the house after we move. We plan to arrive in Baraboo Aug. 28th, and my first Sunday is Sept. 3rd. Keep us in your prayers, and feel free to email us anytime.

Josh (and Jamie)

Parkway Wesleyan

2006-08-04T22:29:00.000-04:00

So here's our church...Parkway Wesleyan. Max seating: 130. Office space: a bit. Sunday School rooms: 3. Kitchens: 1. Basketball hoops: 1. Black congregations meeting in our building on Sunday nights: 1. Pianos: 1. Overall theme: 1960s. Bright green pillows for sitting on: 1.

From what I've heard, small churches are great "first churches." And this one will be especially great. The community is ripe for the harvest, and the church is ripe for change. With God's timing and grace, we'll be reaching quite a few people for Christ and making disciples like crazy. The city has plenty of churches, though only a few of them are evangelical, conservative churches. Us, a Nazarene church of 50, and a Bible church of 125-150. Other than that the Lutheran churches, UMC, Congregational, and Catholic church are fairly liberal.

One of my goals is to meet with the pastors of any and all churches regardless of their doctrinal statements. Hopefully we'll all be able to have community-wide services here and there. I'll get a better picture of the community through the eyes of pastors who've been ministering there before me. And I'd really like to get involved with the black congregation meeting in our sanctuary. I know God allowed them to be there for a purpose...we'll see what that is soon.

Another goal is to meet needs of the city through kids programs, teaching parenting classes, cooking classes, basketball tournaments, daycares, etc. I hope to have one "big" event each month at the church or in the surrounding area. Hopefully some of the people who attend those events will come to the church on Sundays. Along with that, Jamie and I want to spend a few hours each day driving around Baraboo, getting to know area businesses and the people who frequent them. Just like a missionary bonds with his/her new community by jumping into it right away, so we will jump into Baraboo.

And my final and biggest goal is to bring our church to its knees in prayer. It will be easy to jump in and go it alone, working as hard as possible while forgetting to ask for God to be with us. We'll start with once or twice a week prayer meetings. And during Sunday morning services, prayer will take more of a central spot in worship. We'll pray as if it's not a transition from singing to the sermon. And then we'll see what God has in store!

Please pray for our church when you think about us. We'll do our best to keep you updated so you know how best to pray.

Blessings,

Moving to Wisconsin

2006-08-02T16:49:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day of blogging, so this will probably be boring for most of you. Oh well. Jamie and I are looking forward to moving to Baraboo (when I first heard the name of the city I thought God would never be funny enough to have me live there...I was wrong). So much for living close to family, staying in our comfort zones and living in Marion. Part of me is sad to leave Brookhaven, IWU, and everything I've known for the past 4 years. And part of me knows that if I stayed I would regret it. God has something great in store for us, and because of that, I'm excited. Excited to be a pastor (though still not used to being known as one), excited to meet new people, excited to live near the Wisconsin Dells, excited to be used by God.

Jamie and I have been in contact with Dan and Reenie Bickel, the D.S. of the Wisconsin District of the Wesleyan Church. They have been amazing and we are blessed to know them and work with them. They are now in the process of fixing up the church parsonage so we can live in it! The church is made up of 30-40 people, almost all of whom are past retirement age. They are wonderful people who seem up for the changes ahead. Hopefully that won't change with the changes.

Once we get a digital camera there will be pics and this will look a bit better. For now enjoy the text.

Blessings,