As sometimes happens, since we had the whole family in the van, once we got to town our plans changed.  We decided to head into Erie (an hour drive) because we needed to buy some tissue paper for Amy’s home built pinatas, and that we’d hand out flyers when we got back. It ended up taking us going to three different stores to find tissue paper (orange and black were needed) and then we were a bit later in the day getting back.  On the way home, I saw a billboard for “Hot and Ready” pizza in the small town that is nearest us and we decided to pick some up for later, in spite of the fact that we were all stuffed, from having stopped at Sam’s club that had an extraordinary amount of samples, including fish, steak, sausage, chicken brats, and a host of other things.

We had decided to go work at the church and to continue cleaning up there and knew that the kids would get hungry later despite their protestations to the contrary earlier. We needed something that was quick, easy, and could be eaten without having to worry about cooking it.  We opted for that pizza joint that has the “Hot and Ready” pizza for $5.55 each.  It was on the way home, it was cheap to buy two pizza’s and even if the pizza got cold it was still easy to eat.  I also knew, from our former forays into cleaning that the local neighbor kids would probably stop down as soon as they saw that we were cleaning the church.

We checked the mail as we pulled into the church driveway and then proceeded to my office door to go in and begin cleaning.  As we began to clean, sure enough a couple of the neighbor boys came over to help.  Now, depending on who shows up, I usually use the word “help” pretty loosely, but these two boys actually are quite helpful.  From what I understand, I should be impressed with that based off of their reputation from school.  The older, bigger boy, beat up one of Noah’s friends from school from what I understand… but both of these boys have been nothing but polite and helpful to us.

I’m a bit of a “perfectionist” when it comes to the “how-to” of a job.  I was outside using a flat blade shovel to scrape the dirt and grass back to the edges of the concrete walkway up to the church.  I had a rhythm down and was moving along pretty quickly when the older boy (I know their names, I just don’t feel comfortable sharing them here) asked, “Can I help? You told me the last time I came over that I could mow the lawn but it doesn’t look like you have the lawn mower here.”  I looked at him and almost said no…  You see, I was faster, better equipped, larger and more capable to get the job done.  But God smote my heart and said to me “this isn’t about grass on sidewalks Bob”.

I said, “Sure, you can help, here’s the shovel and here’s what we are trying to do.” He took the shovel and really struggled so I showed him how to keep the blade flat and how to slam it under the edge of the grass.  He only lasted for about 5 minutes and then his younger brother wanted to try.  I had moved on to cleaning in the church and the older boy wanted to run the Shop Vac, so we let him.

So as we were cleaning, I asked the boys if they had eaten dinner and they said, “Yeah.”  I said, “That’s too bad because we have some pizza…” “Oh, we’re still hungry though!”. I figured as much, so we took a break to eat dinner.  It was then that the miraculous thing called “ministry” began to take place.  Actually, it was then that I realized that it was taking place the whole time that they had come over to help.  It was revealed how in the next bit of conversation. I asked where the boys lived (I knew, but it was conversation) and how they were related.  They said they were “Step brothers” and went to explain that “We have the same mom but none of us have the same dad”.  So, they are half brothers. The discussion moved to their “favorite dad” they ever had and how the one had only seen his real dad once in his life.

Ministry had happened all night long while I was working so that we could “begin ministering”.  It’s funny how that works.
We hope to continue to minister and to be able to show these boys that they have a heavenly father that won’t forsake them, ever.  We hope to be “Hot and Ready” with not only Pizza, but with an answer of hope.

2 Timothy4: ²Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season *** and I Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

- Sounds like being Hot and Ready to me…  Pray for these boys please.  Pray for their salvation.  Pray that God graces them with the understanding of their standing with him and how Jesus paid their way.

So here are a few pics from my “Resurrection Bread” both while it’s rising and after it’s baked, and the following Resurrection Sunday worship.  My 4th Grade daughter, who just started the violin this year, played “Amazing Grace” for us.  You’ll see the Easter Sunday my “pulpit” is an old piece of furniture we had laying around.  You’ll also notice that one of the gentleman (Ray) who attends and is in a wheel chair.  He lost his legs in an accident helping someone who was broken down back in ’81. The next Saturday, I built the wheel chair ramp and the pulpit.  Both have worked wonderfully and we feel blessed.

This week, Ray and Bonnie (his wife) brought their granddaughter Amanda with them.  Praise God, she heard a gospel message!  Still have the broken down old computer and dial up so it’s been harder to write and with the spring hitting us hard and fast, we are trying to get our garden ready.

Funny, but our garden is an outreach too… we are planting seedlings for neighbors (they don’t all know it) but my experience in the past is that people always decide too late that they want to have a garden for the year… and then can’t find the seedlings they want or need.

So from out here… that’s an update.

In other news, we are looking forward to a great Resurrection service here at the house with (hopefully) 20 in attendance (including our family of 6).

Today, I am baking “Resurrection Loaves”.  Basically bread that I will be distributing to the neighbors  with a flyer explaining that Jesus is the Bread of Life.   I’ve had several neighbors ask me “when are you going to give me a loaf of your home baked bread?”  What better time than this Holy Weekend!

Pictures to follow.

On top of planting the word of God we will be planting seedlings today too!

But here, it seems to me what some church planters do is more akin to fostering envy. Their new church is hotter. Their new church is cooler. Their new church meets a felt need not addressed by the church across the street. So people in that community shuffle from church to church. Or the new church plant sucks completely dry some older church that wasn’t quite as hip. And the church planter gets a pat on the back for doing a fine job moving people from Them to Us.

Meanwhile, the percentage of people who are genuine born-again Christians in this country continues to drop. Meanwhile, the number of people attending church on the weekends falls off a cliff. More new churches than ever, and yet worse results.

What really troubles me is that you don’t need the Holy Spirit at all to start what passes for the average church plant here in the U.S. You just need a clever marketing campaign. In fact, if one of the challenges on the TV show The Apprentice were to start a church that had a hundred regular attendees within six months , I suspect the contestants would have no problem doing so, even if not a single one of those contestants was born again.

How sad is that?

You want a real test of God’s power? John the Baptist, by the Holy Spirit empowering his ministry, helped restore a dead nation to life. This is one reason why Jesus said there was no prophet greater than John.

Go read the whole post.  Tell me what you think.

Church Asks Portion of Local Gardens for Food Bank

PRINCETON, MN (March 23, 2009) – Karmel Covenant Church is sowing the seed of an idea they hope will fall on good soil across the country.

The church is asking members and others to give at least 10 percent of what they grow in their gardens to the local food bank. They have aptly named the project “Garden Givers.”

There is a great need for the food, says Pastor Alan Johnson. “Our food banks have been crying out for food for the last half year.”

Johnson hopes churches and civic groups will consider doing the same thing in their neighborhoods, no matter whether they are located in rural, suburban, or urban areas.

Johnson says the project will greatly help food pantries at relatively little cost to gardeners, including labor. “Giving 10 percent of our orchards and gardens doesn’t make the work a lot more difficult.”

People can hardly wait to get started, says Johnson. “Everywhere we turn, we are getting positive response.” That response is coming from directors of food banks who are looking forward to the opportunity to give away fresh food.

Bringing home-grown produce to the food banks also will feel more rewarding than bringing only canned goods, Johnson says.

The church has invited the community to its Easter service, when it will hand out a seed that attendees can plant and take home with them.

The church tries to take advantage of its setting in a rural area, says Johnson. It has held a Christmas Eve service in a neighbor’s barn and also held a fall apple fest.

For more information, visit the Garden Givers website. Although the website has the name of the church at the top, there are no links to the church because Johnson says the ministry is not about promoting the congregation.

“Great things can happen when we don’t worry about who gets the credit,” Johnson says.

So what are the strengths of your church?  Although I don’t believe in a purely social gospel, I do believe in good works gospel.  That we are redeemed to good works.  Those good works won’t get us to heaven, but even more we can’t do good works without the Holy Spirit.  How can your church help bring God glory and salvation to men?  No one who receives the food may ever get saved… but maybe a food bank worker will.  Most likely the biggest blessing will be right in your community as God builds the members of your own church and equips them to love more, give more and glorify God more.

A small example from our own work is the many ways we can be helped:

1) Encouragement through prayers and cards
2) Help in finding  a church planting wife that can correspond with my wife on occasion.
3) Providing contacts that would hep us in our fund raising efforts (people to meet or those who may have contacts)
4) Providing contacts that will help me in my picture book writing, devotional writing and with selling my photography (ways we hope to help support our work in the future).

Any of the above would help us out tremendously. Everyone knows someone. I have had ministers in small churches recommend contacts in some very large churches. People underestimate what they can personally do for missionaries and domestic church planters (both are the same in my book).  God has provided each of us with the gifts to help others. You can probably think of other ways to help missionaries/church planters without spending money, leave those in the comments below.

Small churches, I’ve got a suggestion for the next time someone cold calls you on the phone asking to speak about their work for God. Instead of saying “We’re not interested.” and quickly hang up the phone (it’s happened to me a few times) or say that you’re too small and money is tight, try saying, “We have no money, but is there another way can we help?” You then might want to add the simple phrase, “I’m serious.”

I’d probably faint if someone asked me the above question. Here’s your mission – make someone faint in the very near future!!! Create a low or no cost missions ministry today for your congregation or for yourself. God will smile upon you.

Peace,

Brian

What a great reminder from Brian.  We can all do more.  We need to give more and help support Kingdom work.

“Too many conferences and chapel services are like ministry pornography. They’re an unrealistic depiction of an experience you are never going to have that distracts you from the real thing. …. Normal is that you plant a church in America and 4 years later it’s a 100. That’s normal.”

Be careful to read what he says. It’s a good comparison. Pornography (as we know the internet/magazine variety to be) provide an unrealistic depiction of sex.  It takes the sacred, marriage based sex, and turns it into something it’s not. “TOO MANY” conferences do the same thing.

My thoughts are “x10″ for rural churches… or perhaps that should be “÷10″? Let me state this so I am not misunderstood (although I think I may be anyway) I am not totally against conferences and church planting rallies. I think they have a purpose.  I think they can be a great encouragement, but we can become guilty of comparing ourselves to the standards and methods that other people have developed. I completely believe that you can take someone who has become a rock star in the church planting community for their accomplishments and based on God’s blessings and if they were plucked up and moved to a different community or culture that they would probably experience what Ed states above.

God can bless the time, location and individual and bring them together for his purpose, but we have to be careful not to formulate an equation based on our personal experience. Sometimes in the exuberance of the multitude of conferences it’s forgotten that it’s God who has blessed this individuals endeavors, or the location or the time… it’s not the formula, the equation or the work ethic that have brought this “success” (which could/should be a whole other post).

And here’s where I will try to tread lightly so as not to gore anyone’s ox.  I think that we get so caught up in that mentality that it’s too easy to start thinking that it’s because “we” did something right, or haven’t done something right. For instance, have you ever heard this at a conference? “Anyone can do this if they just…” and then a litany of things, spiritual, methodological, or habitual are given.  Is that true? Can “anyone do this”?  If that’s true, where is YOUR calling and why is that YOU are there doing this?  Or perhaps you have heard “This will work almost anywhere if you…” and then another qualifier. I know that the snappy response or thought is “their just jealous” or “you just haven’t done what you need to do” or “You don’t have the faith I did… because… look what I did.” or even “You guys just use that as an excuse”.  That is not the case at all. The truth is again based on calling.  If you, the “successful” church planter, can come to my community, or any community and “do better than the other guy”, what does that mean??? If you can willy-nilly throw a dart at a map and “be successful” is that because of the power of God in your life, or is it because you are talented?  By the way, there may be a few people who could throw a dart at a map and “be succesful” but in general I think that many a “successful” pastor or church planter would get a wake up call if they moved outside of their calling.  I often think of Paul in Acts 16:6, when he was forbidden to preach the word in Asia.  It wasn’t God’s will for the that time for him to go.  If you have the mentality that you could go and plant a church anywhere and be successful, your dependence is not on God.

Now certainly we can all learn from others and do things better.  There are many things that I don’t do as well as others, but God didn’t call those others to do His will in my community. He called me to do it.  The first thing I should do is ask God to reveal my shortcomings and depend on God to provide strength in my weakness.  I should pray that the Lord will make me the man I need to be to see his will accomplished and I should depend on the Holy Spirit to move, not because of me, but because He is God.

In the rural setting, there are many of us who are called to places that would never “qualify” for a “church plant”. It wouldn’t meet the criteria of men who believe that there is an acceptable “spiritual return” for the economic investment. In my own spiritual heritage there has always been great importance attached to the quantifiable and countable “success” criteria.  It was always seen as God’s blessing… and I can tell from many of the church conferences that this is not unique to my Independent Baptist brethren.  With some minor notable exceptions (people who have gained some notoriety through their blogs or interactions on the internet) you won’t find these conference platforms populated by a pastor of a church of 30. In fact, sadly (IMO) you’ll find many of them populated by people who have past accomplishments and have left those to become professional conference speakers… if not in deed, in appearance.

My rural context of success is so much different than other places I’ve served. Small victories seem to be the most common type.  I haven’t seen hundreds or thousands saved or even scores (yet)… we don’t even have hundreds or thousands in my most local community. In my whole county there are 43,863 people over 898 square miles.  That’s 50 people per square mile. Throw in that the biggest town (and it’s surrounding area) compasses approximately 20,000 of those people and is about 30 miles away.  My context isn’t even comprehendable to many suburban/urban folks, and my context, compared to those in the American West is probably even enviable. My context for success may be that I made a good contact with someone this week that needs Jesus and that I can hope to build a relationship with.  I know… not too successful by many standards.

Even the “successful” rural chuch planters and conferences don’t seem to comprehend this.  Now I am not condemning them, just warning folks that their equation may not work for you.  Their method, which may offer you some things you can improve on, may not offer you those successes.  In many cases, you might be better off finding other rural pastors in you direct area, (whatever that context is) and meeting up with them to pray, have breakfast or lunch, and seek fellowship and encouragement.

And this is just my opinion here, so I hope I don’t offend those good folks who run this particular conference, but I can tell my context is different than the folks who run “The Sticks” conference.  Any of you other “ruralites” may understand why I say this.  They have a conference for rural church planting but I can’t hardly get their site to load up on dial up. (actually it won’t load today, but I did get it to load once in the past) In fact, one of the reasons that I keep the photo’s to a minimum on this blog is because there are still many of us rural pastors trying to get information out here in THE STICKS, with only dial up available (at a cost we can afford and justify on our bi-vocational or rural church salaries).  I am not using this as a “my rural is more real than your rural” but as simply a way to show that our context is different and God called you (and me) here (or there) for a reason.

So in summary, be warned of “Church Planting Pornography”. It’s glitzy, attractive, and seductive, but it may bring about unrealistic expectations… and no that’s no limit on what God can do, it’s just a reminder that God’s idea of success and our idea of success, too often, are not the same.

***Forgot to add a HT to The Land of Ultra Rev who brought this quote to my attention.

I opened it up and don’t see anything obviously loose or frayed…  So my posts will be intermittent until I can get a new computer. Of course I don’t have the $$$ to do that right now. I had to weigh the options… gravel in the driveway or new laptop.

My heart wanted one… but my wife’s feet needed the other.

A computer might seem like a minor thing, but all of our flyers, etc. are designed and printed with it.  Pray that the Lord provides me with a new laptop.

Thanks!

I had a meeting with Judy the head of the ministry which owns the old empty church building. It was an informative meeting as she spent a long time talking about a number of things. They have had plans for years to start a church in the area but nothing ever seemed to come of it. She had a guy who she was training to be a “pastor” and he just got a DUI, his third in 25 years so it involves federal jail time, so they aren’t going to be able to use the building. She said she needed to speak to the “board” (whoever they are) about it.

My points were simple.  There is a church here NOW, a pastor here NOW and we need a place to meet. I didn’t want to tell her that I think God has been reserving the building for us after she told me there troubles of starting a church. I took along a man who is involved in our church plant. His name is Larry. I guess the ministry there has had interaction with people down here in Bear Lake and there are some issues with the community so that ministry pulled back a bit.

All that to say, it’s in God’s hands and it’s pretty typical of what you have to deal with in a small community/rural area. Larry told me that he thinks it may have been a bad idea to take him up there and that “this” and “that” would probably happen.  I told Larry to have some faith in God.

I truly think the reason God has pulled an outsider into this community to plant this church is because I don’t know all the old battles and animosity that may have taken place in the past and that “it won’t work because…” isn’t an option for us.  God has a purpose and reason and I trust him.  Even if I get a “no” answer.  But I think it’s God’s will for us to be in that building soon and told the head of the ministry that owns it that.

Please keep praying friends.

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In other news… I am waiting for a “certified” birth certificate so I can get my license over here. It’s costly because I have a CDL with the hazmat endorsement.  Hopefully I’ll get it in the mail today.

Also please pray that God provides a vehicle for us that can pass the PA. Inspection.  Our Ohio vehicles have no hope of passing.  Our needs are pretty distinct. 4 wheel drive is a necessity where I live, not really an option.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the prayers.

Please pray for me today(tomorrow)/Tuesday.  Pray that God’s will be done, that he would give me wisdom to guide this church plant and that he would provide for us and the church. I have plans (I feel at God’s direction) to sit down with a lady who runs a ministry across the state line in a small town. Her ministry owns an empty church building that was given to them a few years back so they could use it to reach Bear Lake. They’ve not used it at all, being busy and not having the help.  I am here and have families that want to meet. I would like to use her building. I look at it as God’s building. I asked her a couple of months back but she said they have “plans” to use it.  God impressed upon me to call her last week and tell her to re-pray about it. She said she would because their plans had fallen through again. The Lord also impressed for me to take one of the men, whose family we’ve been working with, to go with me tomorrow.

Please pray for all of this. We would like to be in there and meeting the week before Easter.

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A reminder and prayer:

Father,

I yearn to do your will but I get in the way too often. Please forgive me and take over when I lean on me and not you. Please Lord. Your will be done.  Draw me near to you. I get so caught up in INFORMATION that my focus is not on loving you and seeking you. I seek to be about your business, but feel pretty useless at it.

FatherGod, I can’t do this without you and don’t want to. My heart is heavy. God there are so many broken people here and families in trouble that need you and your word and yet I am worried about petty money/support issues. Give me the faith to do your will. Show yourself here in Bear Lake. I want to glorify you Lord.

Help me to be the father I need to be Lord. Let the Spirit speak for me Lord because my own spirit is groaning within me.  Guide me in your paths. Reveal my sin Lord so that it doesn’t get between me and you.  Please Lord give us a place to meet Lord and draw men to you as the cross is lifted.