Double Rainbow After The Storm Tonight

I love being reminded of the promise God made to Noah. He is faithful to keep His promises even when we are not.

Lunch With My Favorite Kindergartener!

I got to bring Emily McDonald’s for lunch today. Of course now she wants me to bring this or pizza everyday. Don’t think our budget can afford that compared to the PB&J she usually gets.

Let’s Dye Some Eggs

Emily and Callie love getting to make the eggs for our Easter egg hunt. It is amazing how much fun comes in such a little box.

Moving On Up

Over the weekend I was able to finish painting the girls’ new room. That means Emily now gets to sleep in our daybed and Callie will be sleeping in Emily’s toddler bed. It is amazing how fast they have both grown up.

That’s How You Communicate

Today when I went to pick up Emily from school, she had this sticker stuck to her shirt. It was a reminder about a school fundraiser tonight at a local restaurant.

Think I could get with doing this for my youth when I need to communicate a message to their parents? I can just picture them all lining up to leave and me putting their reminder sticker on them!

Hello Mr. Sun

The girls just had to take advantage of the sunshine while it lasted.

She Loves To Read

Today Emily had to read a few three-letter words as she arrived at school. She knew all of them and received this for a reward.

Emily Playing Our Wii

I just love watching both of my girls play our Wii. Emily is getting very good at it and can even work her way through picking games on her own.

Church Calendar vs. The World’s Calendar

Yesterday at church I found myself in an interesting debate over showing the Superbowl at church.  The year before I came to Crestview, they tried having a lunch after the regular morning activities followed by the evening service.  This freed up the rest of the evening for everyone to enjoy the game while still technically having Sunday School, morning worship, and evening worship.  Last year we showed the game in our multipurpose room with a guest speaker at halftime.  We had a very good attendance and everyone seemed to enjoy the food and fellowship.  (I mean, who doesn't like to eat and watch football?) 

It was brought up yesterday that several did not like the church adjusting it's schedule for a football game.  This really got me thinking about the current state of the church.  I will admit that my views have changed over almost seven years of being a full-time youth pastor.  In my first church, high school football was king.  Our town would change Halloween if it was on a Friday night.  You just did not plan events during football games.  When I first started out, I really didn't like this idea and could not believe the church had to first check with a football calendar before making its plans.  Growing up we really just did our own thing at church and did not pay much attention to the world's calendar.  I believe this has severely changed since I was a teenager.  This was once again made evident to me also on Sunday.  At the end of our service I talked to one of our seniors who had a banquet from 6:00pm until 9:00pm last Wednesday night.  Church hours are no longer sacred. 

I have never liked trying to compete with the world, but I did learn that there are some battles you cannot win and therefore should not fight.  I had to learn to work around certain small town priorities without compromising the integrity of the church.  However, I am in a much different setting now and these rules no longer apply.  The truth is we do have quite a few people in our church that could care less about watching football and would much rather have church. 

One of the points I brought up involved having a our regular evening service during the Superbowl and nobody showing up but the staff.  I have been there a few times and I can definitely understand changing one service to meet the needs of a wider audience.  I personally enjoy watching the game but I probably enjoy even more getting to spend casual time with my church family laughing and having a good time.  We need to build in quality fellowship time for people to get to know one another.  Even in a smaller to middle size church, not everyone knows everyone else. 

So, I sat there during the sermon with all of these thoughts racing through my head.  I see both sides of the argument and my first response was, fine we won't change anything this year.  I surrendered my life to be used by God through the local church in any fashion necessary.  If that means I have to make certain sacrifices, then so be it.  Maybe it is time the church once again took a stand against allowing the world to dictate how we operate?  Maybe we need to focus our attention back on Christ for our direction, purpose, and strategies instead of trying to play catch-up with the world?  Most churches will never have the resources to compete with the quality and quantity of media the world has to offer.  The same is true when it comes to entertainment and options that just keep you busy.  The world will line up at your door with a million different options of activities you can become involved in and many of them are for a noble cause.  However, nothing will ever compare to the cause of Christ because that alone is what life is about. 

How do you handle the world's calendar infiltrating every part of your church calendar?  What can we do in such a chaotic culture that always seems to be on the go? 

Oklahoma State Fair 2009

We almost didn’t make it to the fair this year, but I’m glad we finally did. I had not been in several years and Theresa had never been to a fair here in Oklahoma. The girls were awesome the entire day and it was tons of fun.

Mom and dad came with us and I really think they enjoyed seeing the girls experience so many things for the first time. Emily kept wanting to ride a ride, but we were not too sure how she would do. Right before we left we let her ride one ride and she did great. She didn’t look too sure about everything when they first started, but by the time they were done she was having a great time. By next year I’m sure she will be ready for more.

I always love the food and this year we had some really good stuff. Who knew pizza on a stick could taste so good? I also got to see a few friends from high school and college that I had not seen in several years. If we didn’t have to spend some much for the whole experience it would have been perfect, but perfection is pretty hard to obtain. Here are some pictures from our day. Hope you enjoy!

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