'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving...

Just a note to say to the world and to Jesus how grateful I am. I have a beautiful wife, two amazing kids, the dream job, and most of all, Jesus Christ in my life. I have so much to be thankful for, and more on the horizon. Here's just a sampling:

• Had a check-up this week with the Cancer Center. Everything is normal, no sign of any return of the cancer from four years ago, and by this summer, I'm in the 5 year, 'cured' category for sure. My cholesterol is high, so I have additional motivation to get to the gym, eat better and take care of myself.
  
• After a 5 baptism Sunday, we had three people in the 101 CLASS indicate that they wanted to be baptized, too. Add that to the two or three people we had that couldn't make it work this past Sunday, and the two more that called me just today and said they wanted to meet about getting baptized, and I'm grateful to be in position to see God on a serious roll!
• God has given me the greatest staff team and team of elders; I know I am not worthy to receive such gifts. Not only am I supported by these folks, I am held accountable and given the structure and strength to succeed in ministry. I have never felt more free and more clear about the ministry I've been called by God to accomplish, and I can't wait to see what's next. Take a look at what Karl, Aaron and Chris are fired up about.
  
• God has been teaching and stirring His people. The stories I get to hear each week from people being impacted by God's imprint in their lives is so cool and so humbling. God doesn't need me, but I'm grateful He uses me and allows me to see just a smidgen of what He's doing.
• The church I serve is growing in it's ability and desire to be generous. The Angel Tree party is receiving so many donations, we're going to bless the daylights out of people, and we've had more gifts to the food pantry, to cover Thanksgiving meals for a couple families, and more. We have work to do on funding the rest of our ministry, but the hearts of our people are growing in giving.
• We have a great service planned this Sunday to put Thanksgiving in a bigger perspective. I hope you can come. Check out the website.
  

That's enough for right now. I need to go sweat off some room for my turkey tomorrow. May God bless you as you give thanks to Him for all the many blessings in your life.

Pretty great day!

Just to recap: ended the I Saw the Lord campaign with 5 baptisms today, bringing our total for the ministry year to 8, 5 more than all of last year! Awesome! Four people (besides me) got to do the baptizing, each one for the first time. Our intrepid Youth Intern, Chris Boblit, got to do his first, and made a 'splash' of it! I love the enthusiasm of a guy serving Jesus with all his heart, way to go Chris.

I'm on a break from teaching our CLASS 101, the membership class, and I have nine students, all asking good questions, all paying attention (at least I hope so!). God is doing something great in our church, and I can't help but get fired up!

Some Interesting Perspective

This was a different kind of day. I had a doctor's appointment at the Cancer Center (check up), then a couple meetings about baptisms coming up on Sunday (there will be 5 or 6!!), then a meeting to try to clear up some communication and help someone get connected in ministry, then a return trip to the Cancer Center to sit with someone as they take their first chemo treatment, then back to the office to connect with a staff person about moving some ministry stuff forward, some phone calls to get folks connected to the Angel Tree party. All that with some vague attempts to work on my message and answer all the e-mails I got today, and I feel like I'm far from done, but it's 5:15 and I have to get to Rachel's basketball practice.

So I took a quick look at my friend John Jackson's blog. I had e-mailed him earlier in the week to ask a question, and he's posting the answer. It's good to have friends in this world.

Here's to a great weekend of work day, baptisms and a baby dedication. And maybe a message...

5 thumbs down, 5 thumbs up

Here are five things I've been thinking about that bug me, followed by five things that have me excited and ready to rock-n-roll!

5 Thumbs Down:

• Racism - I read that race related incidents are on the rise since Barak Obama was elected president. Included in the examples was one from SE Idaho (not Pocatello, thankfully), which made me both angry and sad. We live in a fallen world, with broken, sinful people in it. Jesus wants to set them free, and we need to pray that people will let Him come empty their hearts of hate.
  
• "Christians" Responding to the Election - I'm saddened by the Chicken Little response to the election results. Some so-called Christians are running around as if the sky was falling. More to the point, calling President-elect Obama the anti-christ, or scaring people into buying guns 'while they still can,' even denying communion to those who voted for him. Burns me big time that people have so little regard for the sovereignty of God. The Bible teaches us to pray for our leaders, and that command was written during the Roman Empire while they were persecuting Christians! Get a grip, people!!
• Christmas Creep - I've railed against this for years, but this year it will be worse. Not only have the Christmas decorations been out long before Halloween, but the retail world has gone crazy (the economy is falling, the economy is falling!), so the Christmas sales are ramped up a full month ahead of schedule.
  
• Gossip and rumors - The front page of the paper has had articles about people spreading rumors and gossip about lay-offs at ISU, and how one e-mail got loose in cyberspace and scared the pants off dozens if not hundreds of people. Wow, how sad is that? Grown ups can't seem to figure out how to communicate directly, effectively and without sin. Makes me sick. Gossip is so underrated as a sin in our world, but so abundant.
  
• On a lighter note: My Seahawks - 2 - 8 - lost at home to the Cardinals, and last week to the Dolphins, so I'm not going to be able to live it down with the Paul Austins of the world. Plus, we go to Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, so that ought to be nasty.
  

5 Thumbs Up:

• Sunday was AWESOME! - Mark Nelson and the praise team did a great job of getting out of the way and leading people into worship, and the response to the message was great! 80 people raised their hands to say, 'YES' to God, and we had a bunch of folks sign up for our work day and the Angel Tree party. God is so GOOD!
• God is working in our Youth Ministry - Met with Chris Bobblit today, and the vision for our Youth Ministry is getting clearer and clearer. He's got a great group of leaders, some motivated students, and the desire to see teens walk with Jesus. I can't wait to see where this is going next, but as a pastor and a dad of a Jr. Higher, I'm thrilled to see the growth in our Youth.
• Baptisms This Sunday! - We have a bunch of people who are stepping up their walk with Christ by going public this Sunday. I love baptisms, it's a huge, flashing, neon sign that says 'God is working in the lives of people!' The best part: as of right now, I'm not doing any of them, others in our church family get the privilege of baptizing their friends into new life in Christ. How COOL IS THAT!?!
• Highland Wildcats are 2-1 - Rachel is playing basketball for the first time, and her team has won two games! She is learning the game, and she improves each and every week. It's so fun to see her hustle, try real hard, and stretch out of her comfort zone. It gives me a feeling that's hard to describe, pride and excitement and love all rolled together. I think God must feel a little of that when He sees us stretch and grow, too.
• My other Wildcats won, too! - For the second straight year, the Linfield College Wildcats not only beat their arch rival PLU Lutes, they shut them OUT!! 45-0! Linfield held the Lutes to 2 yards rushing for the game, had nine sacks, and basically wiped the field with them! Go 'Cats! That and the nation's longest streak of winning seasons, and it's official: Linfield Rocks!!

Last Look at TOTTOTS

I wanted to post this on my blog, but Aaron beat me to it!

Look at what God did on Halloween in downtown Pocatello!

Yes, I'm the gorilla, but that's not the point. The point is, our church family was out in the community bringing some Jesus to the people.

Man, I love my job!

Thanks go Aaron for putting that piece together, and to everyone who participated in Trick Or Treat The Old Town Streets (TOTTOTS).

Time to REFOCUS

Just took a much needed week off, so sorry to the regulars for being gone. Got some rest, got my gym routine down a little deeper, and spent some time with Beth's parents goofing off in Boise.

So - time to REFOCUS!! God is making this place more and more fun for those who are getting excited about being used by HIM to do more and build the Kingdom in this valley. It's also becoming more uncomfortable for those who are wanting church to be comfortable and easy. I like comfortable. I like easy. Nothing better than going to a restaurant, ordering my favorite meal, having someone else do all the shopping, cooking and cleaning up after me, and just enjoying the experience.

But God did not call us to be customers, He called us to be contributors. We are supposed to make ourselves uncomfortable for the sake of those who don't yet know Jesus. We are supposed to give ourselves away so that others might receive Christ. We are supposed to set aside our rights and privileges the way Jesus modeled for us so that others might find the grace and forgiveness they need. I am loving the way that people are moving to the early service to make room for folks at 11 o'clock. I'm loving the way people are giving of there time and groceries to help the food pantry. I'm loving the way people are stepping up to volunteer in our Children and Youth ministries. Mostly, I'm loving the idea that we've added 7 or 8 new Connection Groups in the last 6 weeks! People are stepping up to lead, to serve, to share and to be Jesus to other people!

We must recognize the truth: it's not supposed to be easy. I'm glad Jesus never took the easy way. He didn't back down from a challenge, even when it was the cross. We have some challenges in front of us as a church family: we need to make Chris Bobblit full time in our Youth ministry, we need to fix some of the problems in our building, like carpet and windows, and we need to advance the grace of Jesus in our city. I want you to know, I'm not backing down on these ideas, because they represent the next steps in our ministry. And if you are willing to step up and be a contributor and not just a consumer, I will be your biggest fan.

Glad to be back in the office, serving with you!!

Five Places I've Seen God In October

Here are five snapshots of what I've seen and heard God do in and through the Family at First Baptist:

• A woman in our church brought her father, who is in his eighties, to a worship service. He has been anti-church and anti-faith for a long time and very negative toward his daughter's faith. That he came to church with her is a miracle, but then he spent the rest of the day talking about how the service had touched him, how the music style and the worship of the people on the platform connected to him, and how the message was real and understandable to him was another miracle. The final miracle: he asked his daughter where he could find a church like this in his town.

• At the conference in Boise, I met a guy who lives in the same town as this woman's father. He is connected to several churches there, and gave me the names of half a dozen that are like ours and might appeal to her dad. When I told her, she smiled so bright, it burned my eyes! Just another divine appointment. You can't make this stuff up!!

• We sold out of the first 200 I Saw the Lord books, and we have had record numbers of people in Connection Groups during the campaign!

• Over 100 volunteers, over 500 pounds of candy from our church were able to serve and bless over 5000 people and 14 businesses downtown at Trick or Treat the Old Town Streets. We even saw people from some of the businesses in church yesterday!!

• The buzz that has started after I spilled a little vision about going to Galveston, TX to help clean up after the hurricane this fall. There are gobs of people talking about this, wanting to be a part of the team in some way. I can't wait to see how it comes together!!

That's five, and I could give you a few more right now, not to mention the ideas that have started to sprout in the hearts of our people. There are going to be lots of opportunities to get our hands dirty and share God's love in a practical way in our city coming our way if we stay open to the idea that we need to follow Jesus and serve in His name. I'm so PUMPED by what I'm seeing! I hope you are, too!!