Have you ever...

...Done something that you never thought you would? I'm doing it right now! I'm driving a school bus. Yes, I'm driving a school bus. I had thought about this on different occasions in the past and well this summer I decided it would serve beneficial in our adaptation to this new area we're now in. It allows me to meet many new people while also helping to make ends meet financially. Being a Contractor for all my adult life I know I could go out and build a business in this area as construction is everywhere but we didn't move here to build a business, we came here to build a church.

Another benefit to driving a school bus is the route I'm on. Others in the transportation department would argue with me but I think God has uniquely placed me where I am on my route. I transport the JJAEP Students. JJAEP stands for, Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program. Yes, I transport the "bad" kids. But you know what? Over the last month since school started here I believe God has really let me see these kids in a way other than the way many see them..."convicts". When others are referring to the students I transport, they say things like "You got those convict kids on your bus, you better watch them". I don't see "convicts", I see lives. Lives that are full of potential and lives that God loves and Christ died for. I refuse to label these kids as "convicts".

Last week I loaded an ice chest up with ice and filled it up with bottled water. When my students boarded the bus, they were amazed that I had thought of them in this way to bring them cold water. The first student on the bus asked me, "Is this on you man?" I said, yes it's on me...enjoy. He replied, "Man, not everyone would do that, thanks!". He made certain that everyone who boarded the bus thanked me for bringing cold water for them to drink.

My prayer is that this bus route would be more than a job but an avenue to do ministry even if those receiving it aren't aware it's "ministry". The vast majority of these kids are from single parent homes and are struggling at best to understand life and the hand that has been dealt them. I hope that over the course of my time as their bus driver I'll be able to have a positive influence in their lives.

Our new church work is going well and I'll be writing more about what's taking place soon! Stay tuned!

Gearing up!

I've been relatively quiet on matters concerning our new ministry here in Dickinson, Texas. The reason for this silence is that there was a transition in place and I didn't feel like it would be appropriate to divulge too much information. That has now changed. As of last Sunday, September 02, Tiff and I are formally the Lead Pastors of Bayou Community Church. Along with this comes the liberty to share more of where the ministry is and where we hope it will go. We're approaching "church" from a little different perspective in comparison to our last church which we pastored for the last 9.5 years; Living Springs in Bandera, Texas. We still very much love Living Springs and the wonderful people there but our hearts were beginning to be removed from the ministry there and God has now placed us here. Living Springs, having been our first pastorate had to put up with a great deal of inexperience with us. We think that this new work will benefit in that we have grown and matured a great deal since 1998. :)

We enter into this new work considering what it means to be the "church" in a more holistic manner. I pray that will translate into many coming to know Jesus as Savior.

This Thursday is our first midweek meeting in which we will have an open dialog about what it means to be the church and how the church should influence and impact our community. It's an ITF (Invent The Future) brainstorming session where we'll talk over many ideas that we can create into ministry. Another approach to ministry that we're going to consider as a young church plant is what I'm going to call Community3 or C3 which simply means community to the 3rd power. I'll be sharing more on this as it develops.

Needless to say, we're very excited about what God is preparing to do through BCC! Already we're seeing new faces come in and expressing a willingness to become part of this work! I think God is up to good things!

More to come :)

Chi Alpha Campus Ministries

A friend of mine, Will Robinson is a Campus Missionary at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and I thought I would highlight the positive things he and his group are doing there for my Thumbs Up! post this week.

As you may know, when a High School student makes the transition from home life to Dorm/Campus/College life, it can be very overwhelming and extremely intimidating. One of the things that Will and Chi Alpha do in Corpus Christi for the new Freshman coming into the University for fall classes is to assist them with help moving into their new homes. They offer them cold water, a helping hand and a smiling face willing and eager to help them . For many, Chi Alpha is the first or only welcoming they'll receive as they enter this new world. It's amazing to me how every year the members of Chi Alpha will give of themselves in this positive manner to make the uncertainties of college life fade to the background with a helping hand. For that, I applaud my good friends, Will and Jennifer Robinson and their Chi Alpha team! Pray for them and their ministry to the students and staff of Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.

Brownie

Too often we fail to heed the words of Jesus, "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;"

It's all too easy to pass quick judgment upon others, all the while minimizing our own failures. This little video illustrates judging too quickly pretty well. :0)

Edit: After I posted this, I watched it to make sure I embedded the file correctly and my son walked up and saw it. He said, "Dad? What did he do?" I said, "What do you think he did? He said, "eat poop!"

Yes, he needs to learn to not judge too quickly as well. :)

Mike Yaconelli

I saw this on Glenn Hagar's site and thought I'd share it here.

Super Charged!

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for our District's Annual Honor Bound Men's Retreat.

Looking forward to it!

Help us!

I could go on and write a lengthy post on the parallels here to the church/christians, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions. :)

Positive Influence

When I read Rodney's challenge for Thumbs Up!, I was encouraged and immediately wanted to be part of it. As Colin stated in one of his comments on his inaugural Thumbs Up! post, "Already I find with this Thumbs Up! initiative, that I am being forced to think of positives. I'm liking it".

Like Colin, I find myself looking for the positives in everything. You know what? They're out there, ready to be highlighted and pointed out. As I was considering what I would post positively on this week, I just looked around and watched people. I knew none of those that I was watching but I watched and I saw some amazing things, many of which we often take for granted. I saw smiles shared between strangers, hellos exchanged and have a great day was wished to others. I noticed others helping to carry things that would have been too heavy for one to carry alone. I witnessed a concerned neighbor help a stranded motorist. I watched as so many gave of themselves for the benefit of another.

To me, that is "positive influence" at work. It happens all the time but unfortunately many times we fail to recognize it for the true beauty it is. A simple Hello accompanied by a smile could make someones other wise rotten morning brighten up and help them to say, "Today is going to be great day"! We do well to not minimize the power of positive influence.

I remember just this past November I was alone and in Chicago. I knew no one and I was in the middle of downtown. I thought I would catch a cab and visit the Sears Tower. I hailed my cab and got in. As the driver left the curb, he turned, looked at me with a smile and an African accent said, Where would you like to go?" His smile put me at ease.

We began making small talk as he drove me to my destination. As it turns out, he and his wife were Christians and when he found out that I was a pastor, he was extra excited to have me in his cab. If a taxi ride could ever be delightful, this was the one.

As I exited the cab, I offered to this gentleman $20.00 which would have been plenty for my fare and a nice tip for himself. He looked at me with a smile and said, "No sir! You're a pastor and this one is on me!" I often think about my downtown Chicago taxi ride and the "cabby" who made it so enjoyable. The only thing he did was drive me to the Sears Tower! No, he made me feel at ease and shared his taxi and his life with me for a few minutes which has left, to this day, a positive influence on me. Whenever I think about him I pray for he and his wife.

What positives are we missing out on every day? You never know just the kind of positive impact you can have on someone by simply being nice and sharing a smile with them. The little things count too...don't overlook them where you live!

Accentuating the Positive...

As I was making the blogroll rounds today I read an interesting blog written by Rodney over at The Journey. Rodney has come up with a way to highlight the positive in the blogosphere. It's no secret that all one has to do to hear negativity is to turn on their television or chat with the neighbor or sadly, simply read some blogs. We're bombarded with negative communications from every side.

Join the positive discussion and link to Rodney's site via the badge code you will find at his site. Simply put it in your sidebar and post positively on someone or something every week!

There's enough people blogging about the negative aspects of life, Christianity and everything in between so let's mix it up a bit with some positive!

Alone...

Here I am alone again tonight in this old empty house...

Those are the first words to an old Alan Jackson song about going crazy after the one/s you love have left. Well, that's kind of the way I feel tonight as I write this blog. I don't want to get too mushy on you tonight but I'm missing my family terribly and they've only been gone for about 9 hours. My wife and children are with Tiff's mother and two sisters on a vacation to the beach for the next week.

It's funny, the silence you crave in moments of constant noise isn't so desirable when the noise has faded. I want to hear my children laughing or even fussing about having to brush their teeth; at this point, even that would be welcome. I want noise because noise is an indication of normalcy around our house. For the next week, it won't be normal around here. Just me and the noise I make. Yes, I may begin talking to myself just to hear some noise. :)

When they were pulling out of the driveway, my wife asked me if I was alright and like any strong man would do, I said, "Yeah, I'm fine". Honestly, it sucked watching my family leave.

So now I have a week and 1 day to find something to do with myself. Oh I'll find something to do. Actually, I have plenty to do that will keep me busy during the day, but it's the night time that gets to you, ya know?

I think the bond that we all develop as a family is Godly. I believe that God creates that bond within our hearts that when we're away from those we hold dear, it hurts. We long for their voice and their laughter but all we have until they return is the memory of those sounds. If it's true what they say, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder", I'll be so fond of them when they get back I may never let them leave again! ;-)

New blog links

I love to read blogs and have a few that I recommend for your reading in my blog roll on the right margin of my blog. All of them are there for unique reasons to myself. I've added two more today that I should have added a good while back but failed to.

Rodney Olsen- The Journey

and

Michael Morehart- Morehart

Stop by and join the conversation with these guys. You'll be glad you did. :)

Blog Addiction?

No way I'm 71% addicted to blogging! Is denial the first sign? ;)

71%
How addicted are you?

How much do I have to change before you'll like me?

Interesting indeed how often those of us who call ourselves Christians demand a change in others before we'll let our guard down and accept people just the way they are. As I read through the Gospels, I don't recall Jesus saying to the twelve he chose; to change and then come follow him. He simply invited them to "follow him". I love the way Rob Bell put it in his book titled, "Velvet Elvis". He likens the Christian journey to that of jumping on a trampoline. "We jump and simply invite people to jump with us, to live the way of Jesus and see what happens".

The radical hope of the gospel is that if we follow Jesus, change will then happen.

Perhaps if we were more "tolerant" of others as they are, they would be more tolerant in listening to our gospel and thereby be more inclined to accept an invitation to jump with us.

What are your thoughts?

1. How are you in this area? Do you typically want to see change before you accept people or are you willing to let them be themselves and allow God to effectuate change?

Have you ever done the Stupid?

I have...Shortly after moving to Texas City, Texas from Bandera, Texas, I changed the address on my Driver's License to reflect my new address. $11.00 and 3 weeks later, they arrived in the mail. I took my old license from my wallet and compared the new information to the old and everything was satisfactory. So, I put what I "thought" was my new license in my wallet and placed what I "thought" was my old license on my desk for discard later. Later came and I took the license that was lying on my desk and proceeded to my kitchen. You have a junk drawer in your house right? The drawer where all of the odd things end up. We do too. The scissors are in this particular drawer. I grabbed them with confidence and began cutting up my license that had previously been lying on my desk. All is well. That is until I go to the bank to cash a check and they want to see identification. Beaming with confidence, I pull out my long, black leather wallet and extract my new license. Just because I like the look of my new address, I glanced down to see it again and what I saw stopped me in my tracks. I mumbled something under my breath. It was something like, O CRAP, NO I DIDN'T! I had cut up my NEW Driver's License not my OLD Drivers License.

I felt sooo stupid! So now I have to pay another $11.00 to get another Driver's License which will take another 3 weeks! Whoever said stupidity doesn't cost, never met me. :-)

Cultural Intimacy

Depending upon whom you are asking, the question of cultural intimacy will yield a positive or negative response. Should the church or Jesus Followers be intimate with their culture? Intimate as in marked by very close association, contact, or familiarity. I think if one studies the life of Jesus they will notice a very close association with culture or the world. Ah, there's the real dirty word, the world. Have you ever noticed how many Christians insist that we are "IN" the world but not "OF" of the world? They go on to claim that if you're a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God. Could God be his own worst enemy?

I think the Scripture is clear that, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

Doesn't sound much like God hates the world to me. Does it to you? I hear so many preachers preach this sort of contorted doctrine as if we are to have no alliance with the world whatsoever. This may stand to reason why their ministries are failing and the only ones that are attending their meetings are those that don't have anything better to do anyway or habit simply gets the better of them.

Jesus spent much more time in the "world" arena than he did the "religious" arena. He was always mixing it up with "sinners" and avoiding the "saints". He spent so much time with the heathen that he was referred to as the "Friend of sinners". The shame of it all!

The problem herein is that too often we misunderstand the real meaning of the word, world. We carelessly define this word to mean "lost humanity". While there are certainly biblical passages that would support that definition, we must be careful not to use that definition in every instance the word is used. How is it Jesus could say in John 3:16 that God loved the world and then in 1John 2:15 "Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." It would appear that God is confused and really isn't sure of what our feelings toward the world should be. But we would be wrong to think that. The words are different in use and context.

In John 3:16-17, the world would represent the whole of humanity. The word in the original Greek is Kosmos, from which we derive, world. Though this word has other meanings such as ornament, decoration, adornment, i.e. the arrangement of the stars, 'the heavenly hosts', as the ornament of the heavens, in the context of John 3:16 it represents you and I and countless others like us.

In 1John 2:15, the world would represent world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly. The word here in the original Greek is also Kosmos but within the context it calls for a separate definition, "The whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ." John is saying that we must be crucified to the world and the lusts that fill it. Our hearts are not capable of holding love for God and a love for the things of this life. The things of this life are the weeds that come up and choke us.

So then where does this idea that we should be enemies of God if we are friends with the world come from? I think it comes from a lack of proper attention and willingness to search God's heart. I cringe when I hear Preachers say we musn't fellowship with the world (sinners) because what fellowship does light have with darkness?!? Are we afraid to be like Jesus? Are we afraid to love our Kosmos and participate in its life and function within its arena? Are we afraid to be like Jesus and become deeply intimate within our culture?

A quick test will determine where we are in this. Write down on a piece of paper all the names of your friends. You know, those you go to dinner with or have over to your home for dinner or would go to their home for dinner. You know, your friends. Now, how many of those friends are sinners or un-believers? If our list has more believers than non-believers, I wonder just how intimate we are with our Kosmos.

Cooperation with God

"Whatever God's dream about man may be, it seems certain it cannot come true unless man cooperates."

~Stella Terrill Mann

I love this quote because it reminds me that God and I are a team. Though God can do anything and really doesn't need my involvement, He desires my involvement. Many times we dismiss the successes in our lives or the lack thereof to the idea that "God is God and his will will be done regardless of anything else."
Perhaps the goals we have set for our lives depends very much on our cooperation with God. To work without God or against God is like swimming upstream or cutting against the grain. Both feel unnatural. We were created to work in unison with God.

Where is God trying to work in your life to bring about a dream that you have? Where are you resisting God's work? Consider how well you work with Him or against Him. It could make the difference of whether or not you see the dream accomplished!

A favorite quote of mine...

“Isn’t it the task of the Holy Spirit to introduce some madness and intoxication into the world? Why this propensity for balance and safety? Don’t we all long for one moment of raw risk, one moment of divine madness?”

~Ron Rolheiser

Kids...

I'm walking past my kids' bathroom this morning and as I walk past, I glance in. I see my son standing at the sink with this "stuff" all over his face. He's shaving and he's 5!

Don't get alarmed, it's a "play" shaving kit that Grandma bought him some time ago. I'm going to have to teach him that there is no need to shave one's forehead. :)

**WARNING** Random Thought Ahead

I've had this on my mind for some time now and though I'm going to just put it out there, I'm not prepared to fully blog on the thought yet. Though I hope to do so soon. Anyway, I look around my world and I see so many people that are just so disinterested in church or anything the church has to offer. I have to ask myself why? What is it about church that people don't want or don't need? I think a great deal but I digress for now. I will leave you with my thought now. Stew over it, wrestle with it. I am.

Here it is, "Church, The Great Disconnect"

So much has taken place...

In the last few weeks that I don't know where to start.

On June 1st we left Bandera and headed for Texas City, Texas where we now live. We're taking the task of a new church plant in Dickinson, Texas and were very excited about it. After getting our uhaul unloaded into our garage, we headed for Alabama for a week and a half. It was a great visit. We arrive back in Texas City to begin unpacking and settling in our new home and things were going quite nicely. It had been one week in our new home and we had one service in our new church when I got a call from my sister in Alabama telling me our dad had died earlier that morning. I cried. We packed up and headed for Memphis for my dad's funeral. On Sunday, June 24th we buried him. Without going into the long history of the relationship my dad had or didn't have with his seven children I'll just say it was a difficult time. Dad was only 58 years old. We arrived back home on Monday the 25th.

We're trying to get settled in to this new area of ministry that God has called us to but it seems that we just can't get connected like we want to. I know it's only been 2 weeks but I'm anxious to get busy doing what I came here to do. I know God's plan is in place and He's executing it as he has purposed so I have to learn to go with him and be led by him rather than try and jump in front of him. This Sunday will be our second Sunday. I'm excited about it. I have so many things that are stirring in my heart for this church. I know God is going to do so many amazing things in so many lives!

When you pray, can you say a word of prayer for us? Also, could you pray for God's direction for Bayou Community Church? We have come to build a community of believers for him, not ourselves. The new work is a step of faith for us financially. We didn't come to a huge salary. We're trusting God to provide and I'm amazed at how we've seen God do so thus far!

Well, today I've finally got connected back to the Internet and it's funny how much you miss it when it's gone :) I'll be posting much more regularly as things progress here at BCC. By the way, in case I've confused you between Texas City and Dickinson, we live in Texas City, Texas but the church is in Dickinson, Texas about 15 minutes from our home. :)