Sunday flashback

I know it's a holiday weekend and all, but I really didn't expect to be surprised again by the attendance. Extra chairs had to be set up. Thanks to Mike and his team for their quick thinking. We ran out of outlines. Printed more. Still not enough!

There was a lady back again from last Sunday. I called her the other day to thank her for coming. It happens that I had ministered to her 4 years ago when her husband was brought to the ER with a heart attack. (They zapped him 11 times, she said.) She's been "looking for a church" and decided to give us a try last week. In her words, "I wanted to come back the next day and can't wait for Sunday." Today she brought 3 friends with her.

We also had a 35 member youth group from Mill Swamp Baptist Church in Ivor, VA. They came yesterday and worked with our nursing home team to host a New Years party at Britthaven. Obviously our style of worship was new to them. It was strange seeing teenagers looking amazed at our band. One kid came up afterward and shook my hand, thanking me for having a band "that rocked". Even their church music director came up and told me how much he enjoyed the music. Uh oh.

Great job again by the band. Chad's getting more comfortable leading, and they sounded great.

Today I spoke briefly, then we had a conversation with one of our missionary families, the Bensons. It's a great way to explain foreign missions. Our folks really seem to enjoy it when we do this. And the love offering we received for them was over the top! What a generous church.

Thanks to our support teams in housekeeping, the nursery and our hospitality team. What you folks do is so important to the big picture. While what you do is often unsung, it's not without notice.

Now I'm watching the Skins and Cowboys [pardon my french]. 3rd quarter and things are looking good for the burgundy and gold. You're in! Amazing.

Misdirected worship

I just read this news piece: Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus.

Yesterday I met another local pastor who complimented our church on our new building, and he followed the compliment up with "But I heard you had a lot of opposition".

"Really? Actually we had no opposition within the church. Everyone was excited to build a new facility, even if it meant the old building had to go". And that's true. There was sadness at having to demolish the old place, but we don't worship buildings, and it was seen as a necessary step for accomplishing our mission.

I continued with "Any criticisms about our building didn't come from our members, but from people who worship buildings that house the church rather than the Lord of the church." Sadly, I'll bet those comments came from the mouths of professing Christians who just don't get it.

Sure, we get emotionally attached to church buildings. But the only thing that makes a building a "holy place" is when people who house the Holy Spirit are its occupants. Otherwise it's just a building.

What do you think those priests in Bethlehem worship? What's with jealousies over cleaning up after Christmas? How very non-Christian.

And I thought it was only Baptists who got into fights like that!

Even at Christmas life goes on

My other "job" too often reminds me of that fact.

After eating a great meal with family and friends we gathered around to read the Christmas story (the real one). I opened up the Bible and found the passage in Luke I wanted to read when my cell phone rang. "Chaplain, this is Dare Central. Can you respond to a call in East Lake?"

I had been listening on my pager to the search for a missing boater. Apparently he had been found and the news wasn't good for his family. Their chaplain was out of town for Christmas. So I handed Andy the Bible and excused myself and drove 35 minutes out to a grieving wife of 46 years, kids and multiple grandkids; all gathered for a fun family Christmas. Their uneaten Christmas dinner was still on the kitchen counter. They were waiting for him to come home. I don't know if they ever ate any of it. Today they're preparing for a funeral.

While I was enroute to East Lake my phone rang. It was one of our fire captains. But this news was good. One of our firefighters became a new daddy on Christmas. Life is indeed a mixed bag.

Then yesterday afternoon as I was getting ready to head home for a bite, then to join our youth at the bowling center for some fun an alarm was sounded for a house on fire in Mann's Harbor. By the time the second alarm was sent I was already on my way to the fire station. When we arrived the house was obviously going to be a total loss, so I sought out the homeowners and assisted them and contacted the Red Cross. Their 3 year old soundside home burned to the ground; everything lost.

Everything but their lives and the clothes on their backs. Had the fire erupted just a few hours later when they were asleep it would have likely been a tragedy with more than "stuff" being lost.

What's valuable to you? Family? Possessions? The cold hard facts of life are that nothing we have here lasts forever. And life goes on, even at Christmas. So we have to be prepared.

I hope you are.

Christmas Eve Communion

Since 1992 we've had a communion gathering on Christmas Eve. It's become one of our favorite traditions.

Tonight we were somewhat overwhelmed by the turnout. Our guys were scrambling, both to set up an additional 50 chairs and get another tray of communion cups filled. A good third of the crowd were guests and probably half of them from out of town. We did very little advertising, so I really was surprised. There were so many people I had never seen before.

Who knows how many heard a clear explanation of the Gospel for the first time tonight? I don't. But I suspect many did. It's a great way to introduce both the Gospel and the church to the twice a year crowd.

Next year we'll hopefully be better prepared!

Sunday flashback

The Sunday before Christmas is my excuse to wear my red shirt. Since I'm now sporting a beard (that is mostly white) I've been encouraged to let it grow for next year. I don't think so.

Lots of "Merry Christmas"es, hugs, exchanges of hugs and cards and a celebratory spirit. Again, our 11:00 crowd was a little bigger (and livlier) than at 9. And we had lots of guests, both family in for the holiday and those who love to be here for Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was teaching about the necessity of God's Word in our growth as disciples, I offered to anyone who didn't have a Bible that if they would ask, I'd get them one. Yesterday I had the joy of giving a Bible to a new attender who didn't own one. This is a fun job I have.

The music was great - again mixing new arrangements of old carols, with a new Christmas song and "Glory in the Highest", which is an awesome song. This Sunday was likely Nathan's last leading us for a while until after Tricia's medical needs (including giving birth to my granddaughter and receiving a double lung transplant) are resolved, which could be several months.

I took the last two Sundays to look at "Jesus Other Name: How God Can Be With Us". The first Sunday was about Immanuel, and why God had to become a man to redeem us. Then yesterday I focused on how God is with us today in the person of the Holy Spirit and how we as Christ's body are His visible presence in the world until He returns. Here's a comment I got this AM about the messages:

"I am especially blessed to have heard your last two messages. You really 'came down' to our level. I guess that could be called, the level of 'non-seminary scholars',to share the Christmas story."

For me, as a pastor and communicator, that's what it's all about.

And congrats to both the Redskins for a great game and to the ECU Pirates for their bowl victory in Hawaii. Let's hope the Skins are ready as the Evil Empire comes to DC Sunday.

Christmas Eve on the road

With our son and daughter in law temporarily living in Durham due to her medical needs (see Nate's blog) we all (Gail and I, Andy, Misha and Ty, Terry and Sarah and Ramon and Rachel)loaded up Sunday after church and made the drive to spend Sunday evening and Monday morning with them and have an early Christmas celebration.

After dinner at O'Charley's in Durham we returned to their apartment and opened gifts. It was a lot of fun. The picture is our three kids and their spouses.

About noon we're heading back to the OBX to get ready for tonight's Christmas Eve Communion gathering - always a highlight of our Christmas celebration, and our first one in the new building. Tonight we're giving our band the night off and will sing traditional carols.

I'm looking forward to another viewing of "A Christmas Carol" featuring Gen. George Patton, followed by "A Christmas Story" before retiring. Then I'm up at 4AM to get the turkey on the smoker and have it ready for dinner.

We'll have our family (minus Nate and Tricia) and some special friends joining us tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

NOTIFICATION OF ANTICIPATED CELEBRATION

(I confess stealing this from a blogging friend. But it was too good to pass up. My guess is that he stole it, too!)

To All My Liberal Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To All My Other Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

If you thought Spock had it wrong..

Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears' mom, Lynn has a contract with Christian publisher Thomas Nelson to write a book on parenting.

The next best seller.

Oh wait, it's been put on hold for some reason.

In the mean time maybe we can see what the Bible might say about raising kids.

The Subliminal "Cross"

Let's see.
He's plaing "Silent Night" (not "Jingle Bells" or "Frosty the Snowman") in the background.
He says "what really matters is the celebration of the the birth of Christ".
He uses "Christmas", more than once instead of the generic and pc "holidays".
He ends with "God bless and Merry Christmas".

And the dufuss critics in the MSM want to say that a bookshelf behind him is really a covert cross and that Huck's trying to get his religion into our minds subliminally.

Sometimes you just gotta shake your head in disbelief at what the geniuses who roam our country under the guise of reporters and political strategists come up with.

I wonder if the Christmas tree beside the "cross" is live or artificial. Either way, he loses that one, too. Either he's cutting down an oxygen producing plant and contributing to global warming, or he's going to create more waste for our ever increasing landfills. All because he just wanted to wish us a Merry Christmas.

Oh yeah. Paul is dead.

I ran the race

Saturday morning with cold temps in the 40's and a stiff breeze, I ran my first ever distance run. It was the Jingle Bell 5K in Nags Head. Why I did this, I'm not really certain, other than the fact that I got a bit inspired watching the marathon back in November.

My training regimen included 5 runs over two weeks, most of them on the treadmill at the Y. I set a goal of a finish time between 30 and 33 minutes. With my Santa cap on my head, I started at the rear of the pack. It was comforting to see the ambulance standing by at the finish line.

I made the half-way point at 11:19 which amazed me. But it went much slower after that. The hardness of the pavement wasn't something I was used to and my shins tightened up, making me stop and walk three times for a minute or two each time. Everything else, including my lungs felt great. But below the knees I was hurting.

They've got a run planned for New Year's Eve at 10PM. Maybe.

Oh yeah, I barely met my goal with a time of 32:31. Next time will be better.
Gotta go. I've got a racquetball appointment.