In memory of Jolee Mohr

I just returned from officiating a funeral for a friend. Due to complications with gene therapy, she passed away this past Tuesday. Here and here are some articles about the controversial cause of her death. By far this was the hardest funeral I have ever done. And yet it truly was a celebration of life. Jolee was a bright spot on the earth and she will be missed. Please pray for her husband Robb and her daughter Toree.

Despite the circumstances it was great seeing some old friends from Taylorville, IL, especially the ones who let us crash at their place. They have been life support along the way. Their daughter, Kelsey, graduated from High School this past year. Hard to believe that when I first went to Taylorville she was in 3rd grade. Man, time flies. While in the youth group she was such a great leader and used the activities she was in as opportunities for witness, instead of just fun. God is going to do great things through her. Can't wait to see it.

Candlepin Bowling

I had a first last night. I played Candlepin Bowling which apparently is a favorite in the New England area. Basically it is bowling with a smaller ball and the pins are tall and skinny. You get three rolls to knockem down. To the right is a picture of Greg in action....action of missing the pins completely that is. Yes, there is ONE thing I can beat Greg at. What was the final score....let's just say mine was double of Greg's.

Also, here's a great article on Reunion in the Boston Globe.

Day in Boston

Wanted to post quickly about my time in Boston. I got to sit in on the partnership team meeting for Reunion Christian Church. It was awesome to see how God is opening up doors to opportunities to reach people for Christ. Most people in the middle of the country take for granted the availability of churches that help others connect with Christ in a real way. Reunion is one of the few that is doing anything significant about reaching people in Boston. I'm proud that Suncrest is supporting them. It is so expensive to do ministry in Boston. It costs them $1000/week alone just to rent space to hold their worship service. An expensive but vital outreach. The lives I heard about being touched are reason enough.

In answer to a comment question from a previous post, I wanted to say how cool it is to collaborate with these guys on a few message series. Suncrest along with a 8 or 9 other churches are working together on several upcoming message series. The one we are in right now happens to be one of them. Basically how this works is that in the planning of these messages 8 weeks out we bring to the table our best stuff on the Scripture or theme. The beauty of this process is that instead of getting the best illustrations, teaching points or stories of 1 person you get at least 8. All that to say I got to pick the brain of Hank, lead pastor of Reunion on their message this last Sunday which happens to be the topic for Suncrest this Sunday. Basically, I asked him to give me what he absolutely would keep if you preached it again and what you would throw out. I probably shouldn't post about this because now someone might expect a really, really good message. Yikes.

The heart of the matter

I'm sitting at Midway on my way to Boston for a couple days I am meeting Greg out there to sit in with the management team of Reunion Christian Church, of Boston. What a great church.

The band did a great job this morning. Rick, Joe and the gang brought a definite energy to the stage...even that one guy who looked suspiciously older than college age. During their rendition of "Heart of the Matter" I thought some were going to pull out their cell phones and wave.

As with a lot of things in life, this forgiveness business can be messy. It doesn't always provide an immediate feeling of happiness, but it is the entry point for God to heal. One thing I wish I would have had time to talk about was an incident that happened to me several years ago. For me it illustrates the messiness of forgiveness. Without going into all the details a friend got so mad at me he ended our friendship. To this day I (and other close friends) don't see why he chose to react so harshly. It hurt me deeply and I spent a lot of time praying about it and meeting with him trying to iron out what went wrong. I apologized for what I did wrong and prayed with him on more than one occasion. None of that seemed to make a difference in the end. What I finally realized was that he simply did not want to forgive me and there was nothing I could do to make things better. For awhile I held on to the hurt, but eventually I realized I needed to forgive him even though he wouldn't accept it. It wasn't a one time forgiveness, it was a season of choosing to forgive him and refuse to play the tapes of our conversations. All that to say it was worth it. No, I don't have a friendship with this person, but I do have peace that I have done all I can to reconcile with him.

Friend in need

I have a friend in critical condition at U of C. I went to see her and her husband yesterday. She is stable but still critical. Basically her liver has shut down and her kidneys may do the same. If you could take a moment when you read this and pray for Jolee, I would really appreciate it. They still don't know what caused it so it's still real crazy.

I met Jolee and her husband Robb when I was at a ministry in Taylorville, IL. I have so many found memories of Taylorville and one the best is my friendship with Robb and Jolee. We were living in a duplex and they moved in the other half. It was kinda funny because before they moved in there Sheila and I prayed for opportunity to minister to whoever moved in next door. Before we could even invite them to church they actually asked us if they could come to our small group. They hadn't been active in church for sometime, but were really interested. Jolee had grown up in church and Robb had minimal exposure. Sometime later I had the privilege of baptizing Robb, seeing them become parents and watching them grow.

Please pray for them. Thanks.

Sold out for Jesus

I just read a post from a former youth ministry student of mine and had to write about her. Her name is Shannon and unlike the Rich Young Ruler, she has not let her "one thing" stand in her way of her relationship with Jesus. God has transformed this girl who had every opportunity to grow up bitter and making excuses for her life and instead chose to sell out to Jesus. And God has blessed her. And God will do incredible things in her life. You can read about her journey to eventually live and minister in Africa here. She's an inspiration.

Rich Young Ruler-Message Reflection #1

I have received some positive feedback from Sunday's message. I appreciate every comment. I would love to interact a bit this week on how Jesus' encounter with the Rich Young Ruler affects our life. You can read about it in Mark 10:17-30, Matthew 19:16-26 or Luke 18:18-27.

Here's what I am asking:

• Do you feel compelled to do anything in response to this passage?
  
• What are you doing?
  
• If you were with us on Sunday, were you able to identify your "one thing?"

In the message, what I tried to do was lay out the fact that each of us has at least one thing that stands in the way of making Jesus our one thing. Not totally due to preparing for this passage, but in part, my family is making some changes in the financial arena to make sure we choosing Jesus over stuff.

What about you? I have heard from many of you that you have read but never commented. Here's your chance. I would love to hear from you.

Day at the Zoo

We had a great day at the zoo yesterday. Fun stuff with the family.













































If you look closely in the background you will see giant hissing cockroaches. Yuck!

Oh what a feeling

I love the feeling of completing the writing phase of my message. It's such a great feeling to print it out and have in front of you something you have spent hours on and the sense that you didn't do it alone. The feeling that the Spirit was the primary source. Of course, preparation for Sunday doesn't end there.

Since I preach without notes, a number of people have asked me how I prepare for that. It really is nothing spectacular other than 2 or 3 rehearsals of the message and making sure that I have internalized it. For me the internalization is really the key and that doesn't happen in one week. The things I get to preach on I have to make sure I have been thinking about and praying through for days and sometimes even weeks in advance. I have read that in so many books on preaching but have really seen the importance of that in recent years.

I have tried every method of sermon delivery you can: full manuscript you read, full manuscript you preach from but only refer to a few times each page, detailed notes, very few notes and finally without notes. I love preaching without notes because I feel like I connect the best with the audience. By no means do I feel like I am an expert on it. I still have such a long way to go, but it is the method that I am wired for the best. With this method I am able to make more eye contact, talk in a more conversational fashion and really not let "anything" stand in between me and the audience.

Overall though, it's just fun. I still get really nervous before each message but that is the way I want it. I feel like I do my best when there are some nerves. Looking forward to this Sunday!

In the "Blink" of an eye

Jim Gaffigan has a joke about the person who sees a movie 10 years after it's release and then wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to talk about it then.

Well that's me and this book. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (love his doo) was only published 2 years ago, but it is not quite on the "top sellers" list for today. In fact, I got it along with Velvet Elvis and Traveling Mercies on the 3 for 2 rack at Borders. But it was so worth the read. The illustrative material alone was worth it. Remember all that stuff I was citing about prejudice against short people? That's from Blink.

The basic premise behind Blink is that we have the ability to make good decisions with far less information than we think. Some call it "thin slicing." Our brains are wired in such a way to cut through all the clutter when making a decision and zero in on what's most important. What stands in the way of that is our biases, prejudices and stress. But in any field, you can be trained and gain experience that will help you make great decisions even though some would call them "snap decisions." Studies have shown that a decision made quicker with less information can be better than one delayed with more information.

Some keys:
1. Seek better understanding versus more information. This is huge in an information overload age. It also helps me understand why some people I respect are totally disconnected from culture, yet they are some of the wisest people I know.
2. Recognize your own prejudices and do what you can to eliminate them. We all have them. This has to do with everything from skin color to the way people dress and they do affect the decisions we make.
3. Recognize your stress threshold. An interesting section of the book talked about how when our heart rate is within a certain range we can make really good decisions quickly (without all the information). But once it rises above that level we go off the edge, so to speak and don't really think straight.

Blink was so worth the time I will be referring back to it.

Summer Study 2

Here's the link to the 2nd lesson in our Simplexity Summer Study series. Mike, our XP, is on this week so it will be good. I had some time off this past week. It's kinda my deep breath before the rush of the next 4 weeks. Greg is taking a sabbatical and I am up to teach 3 weeks in a row. I'm jazzed about that along with 3 of the remaining Summer Study sessions. It's kinda like my marathon of teaching. It's lots of fun AND exhausting. I've learned that the best time for me to take vacation is not in the summer but actually in September as everyone else is getting back into the swing of things I'm ready for a break. And then I'm ready to go again.

Apocalypto

Waiting to fire up the grill for a little post-4th get together with some friends so I thought I would write a brief post about the movie Apocalypto which I just saw last night. We don't make it to the movies very often unless it is a kids movie so with most movies I have to wait until DVD. This one written, directed and produced by Mel Gibson is about one man's attempt to save his wife and children after being taken captive by the Aztecs. Set in the time before the discovery of these people it is on a much grander scale about the end of one world as a new one begins. Let me warn you that it is in Gibson fashion (Braveheart, Passion of the Christ) ultra violent, but if you can stomach it, it is worth a view. Lots of action and a storyline to make you really care about the lead character. One theme that comes out is the desire of the lead character to start "a new beginning" after losing everything. It reminded me of how a new beginning really only happens after you lose something. Last week Greg taught on Jesus' hard words that you have to lose your life in order to find it. Losing life is never easy, but the life on the other side is so worth it.

Another lifechanging trip to New Orleans

Last Saturday we had a team return from Suncrest's 7th trip to Louisiana. Click here for pics. Our work in that area will always remain dear to my heart as I had opportunity to help with the very first trip one month after Hurricane Katrina tore through Louisiana and other states and participate in subsequent trips. I have seen God do so many amazing things on those trips in the lives of those who have went and the lives of those we served. Here is what one participant wrote after the last trip:

"Thirteen Suncrest members just returned from a week in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, where we hung drywall, painted, and roofed a house. We saw lots of homes that had been destroyed, and met several people who have been living in small FEMA trailers for almost two years waiting for their houses to be rebuilt. Some homes have been completely gutted, some have been abandoned. Other homes are in every stage of demolition or reconstruction.

Every single home and business in the parish (county) was damaged. We heard stories of people left homeless on the highway for days after evacuation. We saw homes with huge piles of trash in front--all of their personal belongings.

We also saw the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, and the hand of God at work. Please take a moment to thank God for all you have, all He has blessed you with, and also to pray for the victims of Katrina. Some are suffering from depression, as you would expect. Some are still paying on mortgages for homes that no longer exist. Marriages are under stress. The aftereffects go on and on. Also pray for the pastors and churches in the area, that they might show God's love and be a light in a dark place."

I can only say Amen to her appeal for prayer! While our lives have gone on like normal so many lives have not returned to normal yet. If you are interested in going on the next mission trip to Louisiana click here to check out Suncrest's mission page.