Repent and Believe in the Gospel

This past Wednesday we were told:  Repent and believe in the gospel. We see this word again, and again in the scriptures…REPENT.

I think in most seasons of Lent I focus on the first part: In my humanity I am sinful, I am broken, I am not what I need to be. 

I do this so much:

This past Wednesday, I had the awesome opportunity to preach, and it was a good message…..yet by the time I got home I only focused on what I did not say, what I did not do, what I could have done……so when Dan asked me how it went, I was like….it was ok.

When I did not pass DCOM this year.  I thought this is not what I need to be doing, I tried to imagine myself doing other things….so that I did not have to face them again.

When I work out now, I only think of the things that I used to be able to do that I can no longer do.

I don’t need to be reminded by the ashes on my forehead that I am human, that I am broken, that I can be so much more. I do that to myself so easily.  It is my nature.

Then Wednesday night I got an email.  It was a kind message from a church member saying that God used me to speak straight to her.  She was not planning on attending Ash Wednesday but found herself in the pew.    The words that she said were kind and uplifting, but more importantly, it reminded me that God uses broken people to heal the world, to bring light where there is darkness. I did not say everything I wanted to say,  in being open to the Holy Spirit, I was able to speak to her heart.

My DCOM meeting this past year has only given me the total assurance and conviction that I am called to this work.  

I can't run a 5K anymore, but I can move.  So, I need to start moving.

Repent, and believe in the gospel…To believe in the gospel to me means to fully 100% believe that God does love me, all of me- the good and the bad.

Today I wanted to tell you:

you are broken, AND you are loved.

You are sinful, AND you are loved.

You might have been told NO, but you ARE loved.

You might not be doing all you want to do today AND you are loved.

Yes, let the ashes lead you this lent, but don’t get lost in them.  Remember that you are created from the dust from the image of God.  I can only image how intense the love it that God has for us.  I hope to live into THAT this lent…..let the ashes lead you toward the light.

The simple answer that changed me forever

A week ago I was working on a presentation titled, “Best Practices on How we Connect Church and Home.”  Sounds really exciting, I know.    I started this task like I do so many others with a simple outline:

Then I began some research to help back up what I though would be helpful to others.

I started putting together my 10 minute talk.  I had the typical research in it; some ideas about how social media can help.  I had slides full of wonderful typical information.

Then I started rehearsing.  My talk was fine.   It was totally boring.  I did not want to listen to myself.  I was frustrated, is there really a best practice?  Is there something that will help every church no matter how large or small?  Why is this so BORING?!?!?!  

Then an image of a child appeared in my mind.  A child. 

That is the key, that is the answer.  No matter what curriculum you are using, what size your church is, if you are connecting with the children of the church in ways that makes them so excited about God, about sharing, about praying, about church.  The children will wake up their parents.  The children will bring friends.  

The children…….The children……….  The children. 

This is the start to my journey of looking at a simple answer in a deeper way.

Perspective:  Sometimes we make things much more difficult that they are.  Today look for the simple answers.  

2016- Planning 101

I love color coding events in my life. Excel spreadsheets make me happy. My different calendars on my iPhone in different colors make me smile.  Why?  I don’t know.  I think it might be the perspective of order in my life.  I do understand that just because I have everything all nice and neat on paper it does not mean that life will turn out perfectly timed in reality.  But, for a moment when I look at my computer screen with all its color coding life is perfectly ordered. 

We all have a lot to balance as a church family.  I get it.  We have so many things on our calendars how can you make sure it all gets done?  This time of the year with holidays, parties, and events every other week, the calendar can be crushing.

As a family we gather together and take a look at what is most important on the calendar.  What have we committed to be at? What can be missed? What is going to transform our lives?  Then I notice that church is not on our calendar.  Somehow in all my color coding Sunday morning small groups and church services did not receive a color on the calendar.  I have my Sunday morning staff meetings marked and I have the scheduled baptisms noted, but church is not on the family calendar.  This really bothered me when I discovered it.  Then I realized why.  It does not need to be on the calendar.  It is a given.  

As a mother I want a lot for my boys and our family.  I want them to be happy. I want them to play sports and find some success in that. I want them to enjoy band and learn the music. Those events are things that we schedule and plan for.  My greatest goal for our boys is to have joy in their life.  True joy…  the type of joy that can only come from the love of having Jesus Christ at the center of their lives.  So, why is prayer and Sunday morning small groups and worship not on our calendar?  Well, I realized that not being in church is not an option; it is a part of who our family is.  Church is a stable of who we are.  The church family supports us in all that we do.  I could not imagine going through life without a church family to support our marriage, our parenting, and our children.  So, I am thinking that I might just create a new color calendar that is all things church.  Church is what is going to form my children into the men I desire them to be.  Church is what is going to support me when my family needs it the most.  Church is not a building, church is the people.  

So, in an effort to help you balance your family scheduling here is the 2016 St. Andrew Children’s Calendar.  Sit down and pencil us in…no use pen!  Make church a priority, because of all the things we as parents want our children to know as they grow up, is the story of God, and realize they are a part of His amazing story. 

One body many members

Our church family always humbles me when we come together to create something awesome… such as our Fall Festival every year.

• More than 1,500 enthusiastic people attended the festival. 
• We raised $1,100 for Missions and for the Children’s Ministry. 
• Our generous participants donated 115 bags of Thanksgiving food.
• We served over 110 lbs. of chili and cooked about 650 hot dogs.

Why do we do all this?  

This is why.  As I looked out over the crowd I realized this was not a St. Andrew exclusive event.  This was a time where the community looks to the church to provide some good ol’ family fun.  And we did just that.

It’s my prayer that some families used this event to see what this thing called “church” is all about.  That these families felt the excitement of being on the church campus and thought, “This place is fun.  I could see myself as a part of this.” 

We don’t do a Fall Festival just to be fun and have an event.  We create this event to open our doors to all of our neighbors.

So, thank you to all who made it a wonderful success:

• The CWP room parents and church Small Groups who made the trunk-or-treat AMAZING!
• Various Small Groups within the church who worked the booths with joy and offered smiles to each family.
• David Keene and his Small Group who made the Chili Dinner something to talk about.
• The Confirmation Class youth who worked diligently during the festival, and most importantly helped get it cleaned up!
• The Children’s Ministry Council and team who helped set up the festival throughout the day on Sunday.
• Our church family who offered prayers leading up to the event proved invaluable for us.  We couldn’t have received that great weather without prayers.

Thank you all.  You showed what a church can do when we come together.  It reminds me of the passage in 1 Corinthians 12:

One Body with Many Members

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

***Check out what the Dallas Morning News had to say about our festival. 

Why do we make prayer so hard?

I have been in many different meetings, conferences, etc. where when adults are asked to pray they all look down and say a silent prayer that they will become invisible. 

I have also been in a Sunday morning Small Group with our elementary age children and when I ask a child to pray five hands go up. We pray for birthday parties, football games, grandparents, new shoes, sleepovers…we pray for everything we can.

What happens between the age of 8 and 38?

I think we make prayer bigger than it is.  Prayer is simply a time to connect to God, who wants to be in a relationship with us.

Prayer does not have to be silent reverence with candles and music.  But, it can be.

Prayer does not have to be liturgy that comes from tradition. But, it can be.

Prayer does not have to be bowing of head and folding of hands.  But, it can be.

Prayer can be what you want it to be.  Simple or scripted.

 This year our family started a new tradition with prayer.  We began the year by pulling out a Christmas card that was sent to us and putting it on the fridge.  I counted our cards and we had about one for every week of the year.  Perfect! When we walked by the fridge we would pray for the family, a simple prayer of joy and thanksgiving for each family.  Sometimes we would pray together as a family, sometimes we would just walk by the card a say a simple prayer.  Then at the end of the week we would write a card to the family letting them know we prayed for them.  We really had not talked to the families asking if they received our cards or if they felt our prayers.  Sadly, as the year kept moving along at a faster pace each month we slowly forgot to pull out a Christmas card and put it on our fridge. 

Then, this past week I was stopped by one of the families that we prayed for.  A simple card that was sent to their family several months ago was sent at a time that they needed prayers.

This reminded me of two things:

1.     Prayer is simple and powerful.  It connects us to God and to each other.

2.     Our family needs to get back to our new tradition.  We will be pulling out two cards this week to make up for our lost time.

P.S. If you are looking for a simple way to add prayer into your life I recommend the prayer app Echo.  It is free and it reminds us to stop and pray in our very busy lives.