This morning a church planter called from Catalyst. I could hear all the commotion behind him. Nobody creates the buzz at a conference as well as the Catalyst folks. Anyway he was asking if we were coming to Catalyst. Unfortunately the answer is no.

I wish we could. Our interns were able to hook up and work for someome so they got free tickets for the general conference. But money is pretty tight and our priorities were to make sure 1. that ministry does not suffer at WRC, and 2. that we meet our obligations to the missions/church plants that we have committed to.

We decided to be very strategic in our conference attendance this year. A couple of us are going to a practicum on Multi-Church next month. Some folks just got back from Sticky Conference on shutting the back door in CA. (but this was already paid for and the decision was made to go since the bills were paid except for food). ROI should be good. One of my co-workers used to work at Home Depot and he uses that kind of term a lot. So I thought it sounded cool.

Anyway a church has to set priorities. Priorities I would set as a lead pastor: Your first commitment is to your people. Never leave them high and dry. Your second commitment is to ministry. Your third is where you meet, unless you owe the bank for property, then you have to consider how to pay for the property. Your fourth is to outside organizations.

In these rough economic times, and in difficult times in my life this verse has seen me through, “There is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear…” 1 John 4:18

Have no fear God will see us through even if I don’t get to go to Catalyst this year.

Tomorrow I will have lunch with a friend that I have not seen since we both left high school. He is a missionary with a denomination and has spent several years overseas. I am looking forward to hearing about life and family. We’ll also talk about his work in the Caribbean, it’s a rough life but someone has to do it. One time on the phone he was telling me about looking out of his home office and watching the waves. Poor guy.

Last year I met with another guy that I had not seen since my wedding almost 29 years ago. He was in a sort of ministry working in a variety of countries providing school supplies to missionary organizations. It was good to catch up with him. I like hearing about what God is doing in the lives of old friends.

It is difficult to maintain those friendships across the years and miles. One of the things I appreciate about the internet and networking is that I have been able to connect and catch up on many old friends and associates. Even writing this blog has instigated a couple of guys to contact me and ask about my ministry after some years of not hearing from them. I’m glad we live in this age of instant communication.

I guess the reason this has me thinking is my oldest daughter is probably moving 800 miles away and of course my youngest was married last week. 100 years ago we would probably be saying “farewell for life” thinking about that kind of move. Today it’s an hour and a half flight or 13 hour drive. With skype(? spelling) we can even see each other sometimes. Of course I will have to purchase that.

Anyway, looking forward to lunch. Connect with an old friend (not a boyfriend or girlfriend unless you’re not married ). Make it a time when you don’t need anything. It will encourage them that you thought about them.

Kenny Luck in DREAM says, “To deliver God’s GRACE on earth, this was the criteria: honest need.” He was talking about Jesus. Think about this, how many people did Jesus offend just by providing for someone else’s need? Offended the Pharisees when he healed a blind man on the Sabbath. Offended even the wine steward at the wedding by providing the best wine at the end of the party. Offended the religious people when he partied with Matthew. Offended the Jews when he touched a leper. Offended the Pharisees again when he offered forgiveness. Offended his own family when they thought he was acting a fool. Offended Peter when he washed his feet. Offended his parents when he stayed behind at the Temple. Offended the disciples when he was talking to the woman at the well, even though they knew better than to question him.  

Jesus offended a lot of people when you think about it. Church Planters are a lot like Jesus. Church Planters offend a lot of people, especially if you don’t do things the normal way. Church Planters offend some when they meet in schools. Church planters offend religious people sometimes when they see a “sinner” serving. Church Planters offend some people because they hang around and feel comfortable with non-believers. Church Planters offend churches when they touch the lives of people they wouldn’t dare invite to their church.

Church Planters should always consider if this is an honest need. If there is a need and you can extend GRACE, then you ought to extend GRACE. I think the Bible says something about if you have the means to meet someone’s need and don’t then that is sin. (jim’s paraphrase) It’s not what people think about you. It’s not what some denominational leader, church leader, or deacon thinks about you. The standard I believe is that you extend the GRACE that you received to those needing GRACE. What kind of church would we build if we acted that way today. Meeting honest needs through God’s GRACE. Help us be more like Jesus and offend some folks this week.

Well the long awaited day happened. Saturday at 6 my daughter and I walked down the path to her waiting future husband. I will tell you I was pretty calm when it all started. I had been a nervous wreck starting about Wednesday. I was so preoccupied that now I am behind for the church planting class this Saturday and on top of that my ministry assistant is on vacation for her anniversary. I smell overtime.

Saturday afternoon when the guests started arriving and some of my relatives and friends found out I was doing most of the ceremony several pulled out their wallets and started placing bets on in what part of the ceremony I would break down. If you want to know the truth I was betting on the personal remarks time in the ceremony. I prayed all day that this be my daughters day and that I not embarrass me or her. I held it together except for one minor gaffe: “place her finger on her left hand.” That is what they told me I said anyway.

Anyway, I feel so much lighter today. Ray and Anna Carver are on their honeymoon and currently making their home in Elijay. Anna needs a PR job if anyone is looking. She has a degree from UGA in Communications. Loves editing, events, and is a hyper creative person. And beautiful. Both are dedicated Christians and will make some church great servants.

Now that doesn’t have a thing to do with church planting. But it sure made me feel better.

A great night at WRC last night. I think about 5 other churches participated in the prayer meeting. It is amazing to me how much we as pastors encourage others to pray, say we believe in prayer, and yet we don’t show up to pray. I think the attendance was almost double the first Engage Atlanta prayer meeting.

Prayer for our churhes, our county, cour country, and ourselves/families. Paul couldn’t find another “C”. He’ll never make it as an SBC “preacher” if he can’t alliterate better than that. I know some of those guys would have found a “C” word.

Yesterday was a good example of a failure of leadership in the House of Representatives. I don’t care which side of the issue you are on. A leader knows when to speak and knows when to be silent. Here is the Speaker of the House trying to muster votes on an issue she says will save the country from financial ruin and she makes a political speech. If you want to blame the President and who doesn’t these days she could have done it after the vote. That would have shown wisdom and political savvy. She just proved how inept she is at leading and understanding how to get your way without alienating others. Now on the other hand you had Republicans crying over the statements of an incompetent leader and sold the country down the river (assuming it was bad to vote for the bill, although they blamed the Speaker not the bill for their votes). I take no stand either way. I’m only talking about leadership.  

So Pastors and Church Planters here is the lesson in leadership today. Remember the old song, “You got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.” Know when to speak, Know when to be silent. Silence is sometimes golden. It takes wisdom to know which you need to do. Pray before speaking, seek the wisdom of wise counselors, and sometimes boldly say nothing. But remember this our motto is not “in our IRA we trust.”

I am five days from marrying off my youngest daughter. It is feeling kinda weird. We moved all her furniture to North GA this past weekend. We’re (actually mom and daughter) are making the last minute purchases and completing details. Although I still have to write the wedding service. I’ve been delaying. I did send the Campus Minister at UGA an outline so he could be ready. Franklin is doing the intro, scripture, prayer and asking who is giving her away, that would be me and my wife. Then I’ll go on stage. The family is placing bets on whether I can get through it or not without breaking down. Anna was a little concerned about the vows and I told her “you know the usual, love, honor, and obey.” She was not amused at the obey part.

She is marrying a great guy. He has always been a gentleman and at least to us never complained about some pretty strict rules when it came to dating. They hung around each other in high school for more than a year before we would even let them watch a movie at the house. Here is a dating tip, it is not exactly original with me but here is my thoughts on curfews: My children never had a curfew when it came to dating. They had a time limit. Movie starts at 7, last until 9 home 9:30. Movie starts at 11:30 pick her up at 11:00 movie lasts 2 hours, be home by 2. It’s not the late hour that gets kids in trouble it is the length of unplanned time they have together. Also if he came and hung around at our house we didn’t give him a time limit either but we were ALWAYS up and walking through the room periodically. I remember several girls I dated whose parents would go to bed and leave us in a private room by ourselves. In my teens that was not a good idea.

Also I have to say they have done everything the right way. Waited, didn’t live together, got their education, got jobs. They dated almost 8 years it could have been a temptation to marry early.

Anna and Ray I am very proud of you. I look forward to the new addition to the family. Now we don’t have to rush around getting the junk out of the living room every time you come over!

I have come to despise home owners associations. I had some problems on the front of my house so instead of replacing with the same old stuff I put some nice decorative rock that matched my front porch, same color, same scheme. Other houses in my neighborhood have rock fronts or partial rock fronts, so it was not out of character with the neighborhood. Today I get a certified letter that the HOA was going to fine me because we didn’t ask permission. You know what these dummy’s (in private I use much stronger language, but don’t want to be sued) this gentleman has never made a house payment for me, he has never volunteered to paint or repair the front of my home. All he does is sneak around in the dead of night and send nasty letters to home owners. He is a coward by not at least knocking on my door.

My second is the contractors I have working on my house. The major work was done two weeks ago, but there is one strip and all of his equipment still in the driveway (take that HOA, I hope that bugs you), ten minutes and he is finished. Haven’t seen him in 10 days.

There are others but these are bugging me today. I’ll gripe more later.

Here’s my lesson, it doesn’t do me a bit of good to gripe and complain. I don’t go to HOA meetings I know I should get to know the “gentleman.” I didn’t complain to the contractor, he’s an acquaintance. Quit being a wimp, Jim. Do something.

Brian and I were on kinda the same wave length today.

I have been having breakfast or lunch with a guy almost once a month for the last 8 years. We’ve missed a few because of vacations or ministry schedules but pretty much we’ve held to the schedule. Today was probably our last meeting for a couple of years. Alvin and his wife are going to China for two years.

Alvin and I have similar career paths, we’ve both been counselors, we’ve both planted churches, and we’ve both worked for the denomination. Because of similar paths we just struck it off. When we met sometimes I would gripe, sometimes he would gripe, mostly we just kinda shared life. What was happening in our ministries, how our families were doing, how to solve the world’s problems.

It was a tough “goodbye” this morning. I’ve been praying for God to open the door for this ministry in Alvin and Ruth’s life for the last year. He will be a counselor to the IMB mission team in the East. I admire that after retirement Alvin and his wife Ruth will be traveling 1/2 way around the world to do something new in a totally foreign environment. You’re never too old for God to use you. I said to him today, “I think if you are called by God to ministry then no matter what age you never retire from ministry.”

Alvin I’ll miss our monthly meetings. Pray God’s most rewarding blessings and protection over you. Thanks for being my friend.

This weekend I had this thing on my upper thigh. It got infected. I mean scream and cuss if anyone touched it infection. My wife, who should have considered the medical field, helped me drain it several times. It kept getting bigger and sorer. So anyway yesterday after some meetings at the office I called the doctor.

By the time I headed to the doctor I was nauseated, woozy, and didn’t know if I was going to make it to the doctors office. When I got to the examining room the nurse immediately started laying out the instruments for surgery, scalpels, razors, scissors, lots of gauze, etc. Doctor walks in doesn’t even examine me. He leans back the table, lifts up the covers, sprays some icy stuff on the infection, takes the scissors and stabs my leg and asks humorously, “Are we still friends?” He cut me several times with the scissors and then got deeper with the razor. Finally to really make me scream he washed the wound out with saline solution, burn! The nurse had asked him about a pain killer, but NO, the icy stuff will do. Well I’m moanin and groanin and about to lift off the table as he cuts and squeezes the crap out of my leg.

But…within a very few minutes most of the pain was gone, the nausea was gone, and the wooziness I had been experiencing was gone. My leg is still sore and I have a slight limp but I’m not sick like I was this past weekend and most of the day Monday.

I think that sometimes this is the way trouble starts in the church. It’s small we try to handle it, ineffectively. Put a little salve on it, schmooze some people’s egos, and sweep it under the rug. But it keeps getting bigger until the infection has to be cut out. It is amazing how the air gets clearer and the church seems to breathe easier when infections are dealt with in a timely manner.

Here’s the lesson: 1. Deal with issues early. Don’t be a wimp. It will not go away. God is not going to answer your prayer that the person miraculously gets a job in another town.(I know because I prayed that prayer once or twice myself.) 2. Let people know up front that you will deal with issues like gossip, backstabbing, immoral talk and behavior. 3. If it is required don’t be afraid to ask people to leave. Sometimes you can’t be nice to people. At least not as the world sees “nice.” Confrontation in love goes a long way in the life of an individual seeking God, will fall flat in an unrepentant person, but if they’re unrepentant send them to a church where they might listen and repent. But don’t keep them at yours. 4. If it is a private matter, keep it that way. 5. If it is a public matter, give credit where credit is due, don’t confess someone else’s sin, thank them on their way out the door, pray for them.

I feel better already. Still taking medication to further rid my body of infection, but amazing what a small amount of surgery will do.  

Yesterday our staff took a play day. Church paid for their lunch at a good bbq place. (Briar Patch if your looking for some que.) Then spent a few hours bowling and playing games at Stars and Strikes, a new place in town.

It was good to just hang out and have some fun. I am much older than most of the other guys but I hung in pretty well at bowling and even with 1/2 a leg and 1/2 an arm still beat some of the young guys.

I encourage you to take your team for some fun stuff once in a while. Don’t make it all about work. Pay for it too. Most of your team works long hours, stay behind the scenes and gets little recognition for their work. This is a way to make them feel special. Include everyone (part time, secretaries, etc) and have a good time.

“A merry heart doth good or is it doeth good” I sometimes forget my th’s. Anyway hath a good dayeth.