Georgia Family Camp

Had a great time in Georgia. The camp is in a beautiful location in NE Georgia. It was fun spending time with my good friends John Mitchell and Tony Washburn. And the people were very encouraging regarding my messages.

The trip home was an ordeal. My flight from Atlanta to Detroit was cancelled, so I had to catch a later flight. Then, when I got to Detroit (about 9:30pm on Saturday) I found out that my flight to Ft. Wayne had been cancelled (lots of flights were getting cancelled because it was really windy). None of the other airlines were going to the Fort that night either. So I had to rent a car (ironically, the reason I didn't fly out of Indy was so I wouldn't have to drive home late on Saturday night). Well the first four rental car places I called were sold out (apparently all of the other stranded travelers had the same idea). I was really starting to sweat (it was approaching 10:00 and I knew that I had to preach at the Creek the next day). Finally I found a place with a car. That's the good news. The bad news is that I couldn't get a one-way rental. So I have to return the car to Detroit today. Ugh.

One Last Campmeeting for 2006

Last Campmeeting of the year -- I'll be leaving tomorrow for Clarkesvile, GA to preach at the Georgia Old Fashion Campmeeting. Looking forward to seeing my old friends John Mitchell and Tony Washburn. Sharing the program will be Ray Bennett, Joe O'Neal, and David Jones. I'm sure there will be some wonderful sermons. Will fill you in on the details when I return.

Heaven

I started a new sermon series yesterday about Heaven. I have been enjoying the prep work for the series. We sent out 5000 postcards to the community (from outreach.com) and advertised in the newspaper. As a result, we had several new people here yesterday.

Honey, um, About Your Truck...

To My Darling Husband,

Before you return from your trip I just want to let you know about the small accident I had with the pick up truck when I turned into the driveway. Fortunately not too bad and I really didn't get hurt, so please don't worry too much about me.

I was coming home from Wal*Mart, and when I turned into the driveway I accidentally pushed down on the accelerator instead of the brake. The garage door is slightly bent but the pick up fortunately came to a halt when it bumped into your car.

I am really sorry but I know with your kind hearted personality you will forgive me. You know how much I love you and care for you my sweetheart.

I cannot wait to hold you in my arms again.

Your loving wife.

50 Years of Celebrating Christ at the Creek

We had a great weekend Celebrating Christ at the Creek. It was our 50th Anniversary and we had a full and exciting weekend. Saturday morning began with a Men’s Prayer Breakfast with former minister Ron Collins as the speaker. Later, there was a Brunch for the ladies with Jean Anne Collins speaking. On Saturday afternoon we had games for the kids, a hog roast and plenty of time to fellowship. That was followed by a worship service with Ron Collins preaching. The teens had their own service, led by the Pulse Praise Band, and former youth minister Tony Brackenmyre speaking. And the evening ended with pie & ice cream.

On Sunday, we had a combined Adult Bible Fellowship time with long-time members reminiscing and telling stories about the early days of the church. Then we had a combined worship service (which we do a few times a year). But the atmosphere was electric as people sang and prayed and listened to the Word. It seemed like folks didn’t want the service to end.

Sunday night brought Ray Tolbert (former Indiana University basketball star) to Cedar Creek. Ray gave his testimony, and afterwards spent time with the young people (signing autographs and sharing with them).

We’re exhausted, but praising God for a fantastic celebration.

Embarrassing Moment of the Day

So I'm eating breakfast this morning with my predecessor and the chairman of the elders, and some guy comes over to me and says, "Excuse me, but did you know that you have a tag hanging from your shirt?" I just bought this shirt, and sure enough, the tag was hanging from the armpit. When the guy came over to tell me, he even had a little swiss army knife with scissors, so he cut the tag off for me. We all had a good laugh about it. But I'm glad I didn't walk around all day like that.

Trip to Notre Dame

The Revival is going well. I've got some free time today, so I'm going to head over to South Bend and visit the University of Notre Dame (I plan to stop by the bookstore and pick up some souvenirs for the fam).

Revival Time Again

On Sunday I begin a Revival Meeting with the North Liberty (IN) Church of Christ. I'm looking forward to it for a number reasons, but the primary one is that it is near the area in which I grew up. I hope to see a lot of people whom I have known for many years. On Monday night, the church will be hosting the Master's Men in conjunction with the Revival. The Master's Men is a quarterly meeting of the men & boys from the Michiana Area Churches. A good meal is followed by a time of singing and preaching. I have fond memories of attending these events as a boy.

North Liberty is a bedroom community to South Bend, IN. I hope I have an opportunity to visit the campus of Notre Dame University (it is beautiful in the Fall).

If I have internet access, I'll try to give an update.

My Friday morning study group has started to read George Barna’s Revolution. I had been putting if off because one of my friends told me not to waste my money on Barna’s heresy. And I had also read several scathing reviews of the book. I tend to agree with those assessments, but there’s no denying that some of what Barna points out in his book is a shameful indictment against the modern church:

Driven out of their longtime church by boredom and the inability to serve in ways that made use of their considerable skills and knowledge…

After months of honest effort, neither found a ministry that was sufficiently stimulating and having an impact on the surrounding community.

They are not willing to play religious games and aren’t interested in being part of a religious community that is not intentionally and aggressively advancing God’s Kingdom.

They have no use for churches that play religious games whether those games are worship services that drone on without the presence of God or ministry programs that bear no spiritual fruit. Revolutionaries eschew ministries that compromise or soft sell our sinful nature to expands organizational turf…they refuse to follow people in leadership positions who cast a personal vision rather than God’s…or who are more concerned about their own legacy than that of Jesus Christ…they are embarrassed by language that promises Christian love and holiness but turns out to be all sizzle and no substance.

If the local church is the answer to our spiritual needs, then why are most Christians so spiritually immature and desperate?

Ouch! I’ve only read the first third of the book, but I don’t think he’s going to ease up on us. More later.

Little Golden Books That Got Rejected

1. You Are Different and That's Bad
2. The Boy Who Died From Eating All His Vegetables
3. Hammers, Screwdrivers and Scissors: An I-Can-Do-It Book
4. The Kids' Guide to Hitchhiking
5. Kathy Was So Bad Her Mom Stopped Loving Her
6. Curious George and the High-Voltage Fence
7. All Cats Go to Hell
8. The Little Sissy Who Snitched
9. Some Kittens Can Fly
10. Grandpa Gets a Casket
11. The Magic World Inside the Abandoned Refrigerator
12. Garfield Gets Feline Leukemia
13. Strangers Have the Best Candy
14. You Were an Accident
15. Things Rich Kids Have, But You Never Will
16. Pop! Goes The Hamster...And Other Great Microwave Games
17. Your Nightmares Are Real
18. Why Can't Mr. Fork and Ms. Electrical Outlet Be Friends?
19. Places Where Mommy and Daddy Hide Neat Things

Back to the Future

When I arrived at the Indiana Christian Men's Fellowship meeting last night, I noticed a flyer lying on the pews. I picked it up and read an article which contained (among other things) the following statements:

“Our brotherhood had a glorious inception. Our fathers saw the reality of the sin of denominationalism and condemned it. They saw with equal clarity the possibility and beauty of the New Testament Church. They understood the difference between the two, and their preaching and writing were designed to teach the whole world the difference -- to teach it in such a way that God's people would repudiate the former and champion the latter.”

“Today some men who do not believe in the ideal of the New Testament Church are both openly and clandestinely attempting to denominationalize the movement.”

“The terrible fact that cannot be laughed into extinction is that for some reason certain preachers no longer believe the plea and therefore ignore it or speak derisively of it.”

“The Restoration Movement is in peril! Many of our preachers are in sympathy with the world’s worst monstrosity, Denominationalism…”

“Instead of preaching the gospel, some preachers are exposing their egotism by blatantly offering their personal panaceas for every ill of the world; instead of the advocacy of the New Testament Church with its pristine beauty and power, some among us openly state that we are just another denomination, floundering with the other denominations for relative truth.”

Good stuff, eh? But here’s the kicker. The document was written in 1943! Talk about a Back-to-the-Future moment. It could have been written today (except for the fact that few are willing to write in such a forthright manner and even fewer are willing to publish such articles).

Road Trip to Indy

Yesterday my staff and I spent the day in Indianapolis. We attended the Blueprint Tour, learning from Don and Paul Wilson from Christ's Church of the Valley (near Phoenix, AZ). Last night, some other guys from Cedar Creek joined us for the Indiana Christian Men's Fellowship. This is an annual event for the men of Indiana. Over 800 men were there to hear the Wilsons and to give an offering to IDES and the Alexander Christian Foundation.


It was a good day of fellowship and spiritual challenge.