Life is So Much Easier

I’m reading through the Bible in two years in my daily devotions. I’ve done the one year plan and always feel rushed, so when I found my Bible program allowed a two year plan I decided to give it a go. Much better.

However, right now, I’m reading through Leviticus - inspiring. Lots of blood and discharges and uncleanness until evening. The program also takes me to the New Testament to the book of Mark, so I am getting some reading that is a little more digestible.

Interesting contrast today.

I was in Leviticus 16, the day of atonement and I was thinking about how much easier things are today, especially as a pastor. I can’t imagine doing all the things the priests had to do in those days to make atonement for sins. Then I went to the book of Mark and my reading is from Mark 2, the story of the paralyzed man let down through the roof.. I run across this verse:

Mark 2:5 (NIV) When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

What a contrast! Bring this animal on such and such a day and kill it in this manner and sprinkle its blood here and there and don’t do this, because you will have to start all over again or “Son, your sins are forgiven”.

No wonder the religious establishment was upset. Their business depended on complicating things. Jesus made it simple. He made it personal. He made it real.

I’m going to go contemplate how I’m complicating things so I can have a job now. See you later.

A Moving Story

Marcia and I are in the process of making the move to Traverse City a bit at a time. We started at Journey on August 1^st, but are still in the process of selling the DeWitt house. So, we are living with our son, Kyle and his family while we sell and start and look for a new home, once the old one sells.

To take care of the DeWitt house we are going downstate on our days off, looking after things (lawn, hedges, dust furniture) and bringing a load of stuff up. Last week (Aug 2-3) we borrowed a tow vehicle and enclosed trailer from friends to bring up the freezer, washer and dryer and whatever else would fit. Monday turned crazy and we rushed almost the whole day, not getting away until 6 pm. Earlier that morning, when I picked up the trailer, my friend Gale, almost as an after thought said, hey, I’ve got the spare in the back of my truck. I didn’t have time to get it replaced, it has a chunk of tread missing, but if you had a flat, it might let you limp into somewhere safe. So, I picked it up and indeed, it had a chunk of tread missing about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide.

Spent the week working, never gave a thought to fixing the spare, why would I need it? We headed back to DeWitt on Sunday (Aug 9) and were looking forward to a much more relaxed weekend. According to Gretta (our Garmin), we were to arrive around 5:45 p.m.

Everything was going along great. I keep watch on trailer tires and wheels because they can go bad quite quickly. Just north of Clare I checked the driver’s side mirror to see that the tire was soft. We were only three miles out of Clare, so I kept watching, Next thing I know, it’s not just soft, it’s flat and floppy. Pull over – way over and pull out old baldy. No problem, only three miles.

Problem. It’s Sunday evening. No tire suppliers open in Clair. Nearest Walmart is in Mt. Pleasant. We set Gretta for back roads and limp toward Mt. Pleasant @ 45 mph. The tire is showing a bulge on the inside but we make it. Whew.

Problem: Walmart doesn’t sell that size. They suggest Tractor Supply. They have a tire, wrong size, already mounted on rim. $104.00! We decide to limp as far as possible and then park it in a safe place, lock it up and come back Monday with a new tire.

Miracle: We set Gretta for back roads and find a delightful route on very good secondary roads through the farm lands. I keep watch on the tire, we keep praying. Shepherd passes, Forest Hill, Alma, Eugene, Middleton. Finally Maple Rapids – we are within 25 miles of home! As we cross M-21 on DeWitt Rd, just outside St. Johns, it lets go. We are less than 14 miles from home! Plus, there is a church with a large empty parking lot right there. We pull in, disconnect and finish our trip. We arrive in De Witt in time to see some of our friends in our HomeGroup. Laughter and chocolate crème pie make everything better.

Life is an adventure. You never know what will come. On this particular weekend, things didn’t go as we had planned, and yet all the while we were driving on that tire, I kept waiting in expectation for what God would do. Would we make it all the way or would I come across a front yard with a trailer tire chained to a tree with a for sale sign on it? Or, would it get us close enough to home and go just where I could find a safe place? The latter as it turned out. As we were crossing M-21 I saw the church and thought, if it is going to go, this would be a great place. I looked back, and it was gone. I literally drove about 200 yards on it flat. Thank you Lord, for taking care us us and for eyes to see that you were doing so.

64.3%

With a major turning point coming in our lives, I began to reflect on the past and being analytical by nature I began to figure some things out. What got me started was leaving West Michigan District after 31 years of ministry. I wondered, how much of my life have I spent in the WMD? A: 55.4%. And, how much of my total ministry to date? A: 88.6%!

Then my mind turned to more important things. How much of my life has been spent married to Marcia? A: 64.3%. I remember at age 40 thinking that I had then been married half my life. Now it is well over that and it truly does get better with age.

It started out with a flirtation in the library at Owosso College, a first date, meeting the parents and getting past the big brother. I remember our first separation, when she went to Spain with a class trip. It must have been during that time that I realized I had something pretty special, because after that trip, the relationship deepened.

Over the years we have had a lot of laughs and we added some yesterday. It was our 36th anniversary and we had a great time just being together. We’ve gone through some really tough times, and there are surely more ahead. But if I could go back to those early days and start over again, I’d go back to Owosso, apply for a job in the library, so I’d have the chance to do it all again. If she’d have me.

Leaving WMD

First off, WMD is West Michigan District of the Wesleyan Church. It dawned on me this morning that I have spent well over half my life as a pastor in this District. We moved here in 1978 to pastor a small church in Battle Creek and have been in four other churches along the way: Jackson Central, Berkley Hills and Lansing Faith.

It’s been a great run. We’ve raised three children and had the support of the District when there were tough times. We’ve made great friends along the way and learned more than seminary could have ever taught us about leading churches and loving God’s people.

We have been through three district superintendents in our stay here. Each one brought unique things to the table. Vaughn Drummonds (he of white pants and white shoes) set the standard by drawing excellent pastors into the district. He did this in large part by making sure the churches were taking good care of the pastors and providing well for them. In the long view, it is what set WMD up for the kind of success it has experienced. Thanks, Vaughn.

Ron Kelly was a friend before he became our DS. He remained a friend and support as Marcia and I went through some of the darkest days of our personal lives. He also led the district through some transition years. I watched him grow as an administrator and learned from him as he led through dealing with some difficult people and situations. His administrative skills grew to such a degree that the denomination snatched him away to serve as general secretary. (Miss you Ron and Tana!)

Then came Mark Gorveatte and a whole new level of energy was infused into the district. Mark raised the level of excellence even further and made sure that our pastors and churches were healthy. Mark is known for church planting, but what gets overlooked is the effort he has put into trying to increase the health of established churches. Once again, I’ve learned a great deal from Mark and consider him to be both mentor and friend. We will miss he and the WMD team.

In our 31 years here in WMD we have tended to step into churches that were tired and needing renewal. Now we are moving to the NMD to continue that same kind of service. Journey is a great church with an amazing core of leaders. It is our prayer that we will be able to see the church renewed and vibrant once more. Please keep us in your prayers as we begin this next leg (and probably finishing stretch) of our Journey.

Life is Nuts!

Life is nuts! In a couple weeks we will be moving to Traverse City to begin the next phase of our lives as lead (solo) pastor at The Journey. It was just two months ago that I polished up the resume and sent it off to the North Michigan District as an act of obedience. It was unbelievable how fast things progressed from there. On June 14th I preached there and on Monday the 15th they extended the invitiation and we accepted.

Now we are in the process of selling our house here, looking at houses in TC, packing, and trying to finish well here at Faith. We love the people here and are going to miss them terribly. I am also going to miss the comaradarie of a church staff until Journey is strong enough to begin taking some people on.

In addition, we are enjoying having our Kiwi family with us this month. Today we celebrated Raegan's second birthday at the park by the lake (I'm going to miss that, too.) The whole family was together and it was a very enjoyable afternoon. Of course, to make it even more interesting, we received a call that the realtor is coming to show the house tonight. So, I'm done here and heading home to help get the house show room ready.

POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS Final Thoughts

The last few days of Poets, Prophets and Preachers are done and I’m sitting on my deck reflecting on my take aways. It was a profitable couple days, since I will soon be returning to preaching on a regular basis after a three year hiatus as a staff pastor. I won’t give too much on content. If you want more specifics, a few others took very good notes and are available @ http://adammoore.us/post/136370065/blogging-poets-prophets-preachers. Apparently, those bloggers disobeyed the “no laptop” rule or are outstanding note takers and have a way of transcribing very quickly. I, on the other hand, am a spineless conformer.

There were several things that struck me as odd about the conference; the aforementioned technology ban, the choice of songs for worship which were highly contemporized ancient hymns, and guided imagery and controlled breathing seminar by Shane Hipps on Tuesday afternoon.

However, I resonated with the heart of the speakers and regained focus on several preaching issues that will prepare me to return. I especially enjoyed Peter Rollins and his hyperkinetic presentation of seemingly random thoughts that challenged my heart nearly as much as the mind. I can see why he makes the institutional church nervous, but it needs to be kept on its toes. As an unexamined life is not worth living, an unquestionable church is not worth being part of either.

One last disturbing observation. Nearly everything Rob Bell taught to this new generation about sermon preparation, I learned from John Maxwell and his cohort a couple decades ago. They havereceived new labels, but are essentially the same lessons: Study hard, dig deep, collect thoughts and ideas, plan well ahead. I guess that should give as much comfort to the old guard of the “pulpit” as it probably unnerves the emerging generation. Some things don’t really change all that much, they are just reborn.

POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS Day One

Clickity-Click and Glare

I’m taking in Poets, Prophets and Preachers in Grand Rapids this week hosted by Rob Bell and Mars Hill church. I thought it would be a great tune-up for me as I return to preaching and an excellent chance for my new Mini 9 netbook to shine. But apparently, it shines just a little too brightly.

I love taking notes, but my hand writing in indecipherable once I do, so having a small, light computer with really long battery life sounded great. Toward the end of the first night while the announcements were presented which included a celebration of lanyards (?) we were told that we could not use laptops during the session because of the glare off the screen and the distraction of the clickity-click sound.

I might have thought that Bell and Co. have joined the ranks of the new Luddites, but this is a conference that includes a session on How Technology Shapes The Sermon. It seems like such a disconnect between who they are and serve (a highly tech savvy generation) that the reasoning sounds tinny. It sends me wondering why they really object to my taking notes on a laptop. What I find most disturbing is hearing such a thin and disingenuous feeling reasoning coming from a group whose buzz words include “authentic” and “honesty”. Any thoughts?

BTW: I will revert to my palm today – (small glaring screen and no click)