Summary of September 2007 prayer day

This is an interesting time in our church and in my life. We have a great amount of change going on with the exit of our long time pastor, Dave Ridder. What does God want me to do during this time? It seems that I have so little control over the path that the church will take and over the direction of my own ministry.

After contemplating this question in prayer, I've discovered once again that God's plan for me isn't real complicated. No, in fact, it is just as simple as always. God wants me "to live justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly" (Micah 6:8) with Him.

I need to let God be in charge!

I can see through this that thee are 3 main mistakes that the religious make in their religiosity. First, they seek information instead of obedience (walk humbly).

Next, the religious substitute symbols for actions of faith (live justly). Often this is a substitution of my tradition in place of an action that someone else my require. It is law over grace.

Finally, the religious will seek routine instead of empathy (love mercy). Rather that taking the time and energy to feel and reveal true empathy the religious person will categorize situations a try to meet all needs will a ceremony rather than by actually reaching out to the hurting person. This is truly an act of laziness, as well as an response to our inability to meet all the needs before us. When the later is true we demonstrate a lack of either faith that God can work or a lack of humility that God is capable without me.

For parents...

In case you're worried about what's going to become of the younger generation, it's going to grow up and start worrying about the younger generation.
- Roger Allen

Briefs: Key points of sabbatical trip conversations

Prairie Lake Church executive pastor, Chris Rygh: Growth will require unity of staff and leadership and mobilizing volunteers. With out volunteer leadership, a church cannot afford to support growth.

Latigo Ranch owner and former missionary to Waordoni tribe in Ecuador, Jim Yost: Children today are laking purpose. They are impatient to have all the stuff and experience of the older generation, but haven't an understanding of what they want to achieve. Alway do what you are called to do, and love doing it. Reward will come as a secondary consequence in it on time and is better if not the objective of one's activity.

Don and Heather Stone, former senior pastor and wife at Sonrise Baptist Church in West Valley City, Utah: The real test of a parent's success is how children (adult children) respond to adversity. If they can maintain joy in extreme suffering they will succeed.

Denver Seminary professor, Larry Lindquist: In staff changes to be to rushed or too locked into a particular structure. Serve the church with honest vigilance, but the current change isn't forever and may open new doors to the Lord's leading.

Mission Hills Church executive pastor, Byron Johns: The relationship between the senior and executive pastors are the key to their working relationship. Build trust in all things. The role of the x-pastor is to ask the who, what, when, and why questions every step of planning.

Memory of the past

While hanging with the family, we rediscovered this poem that my brother wrote in high school.

Ode to a Smushed Frog on the Highway
By Mike Johnson

Oh little frog hit by a truck
Went hopping one day, and forgot to duck
The truck's bumper hit his head
He suffers no more because now he is dead.

One wild ride, one joyful child

What's the difference between a fairy tale and a rancher's story? One starts off "Once upon a time" the other "I swear this is true." -Jim Yost


I swear this is true. My daughters and I headed out on a all day ride with 3 wranglers and 3 other riders. About 40 minutes into the ride as we passed Red Dirt Reservoir, the lead wrangler jumped us up to a lope, when we heard some yelling from the back of the line. Stopping my horse I turned around to hear Moriah ask, "who is it, Dad? Who is it? Is it Elie?"

My heart dropped when I realized it was Elie. Worse yet, I realized that fact at the moment that I saw her tumbled to the ground and lied in a heap. I turned my horse and broke the line to get down to her. It took a while as Alonso wasn't exactly the kind of horse that one would take to a fire, but I made it and dismounted reaching Elie a few seconds after the trailing wrangler reached her. Konnie was already checking Elie out and to my joy she was alert and able to move her body parts. Her complaint was that her wrists hurt. She also had an obvious scrape on the face as she had obviously landed on her head as well.

After checking her over real well we realized that Elie wasn't going to have the strength to hold the reins to return to the ranch, much less complete the remaining 5 hours of riding, so the wranglers radioed the ranch for a truck to pick her up. They could make the pick up about 1/4 mile from our location we would only have to walk her to that point. Though woozy, Elie was able to make the walk and her head seemed to clear a little along the way.

Needless to say, I cut my ride short and returned to ranch. There I found Elie patched up, and doing well, but beat up, with tow sore wrists and extremely sleepy. She and I made the 20 drive down the Kremmling to visit the 4 bed emergency room. X-rays confirmed two slightly fractured wrists and the doctor acknowledged a minor concussion. No major treatment would be necessary, but Elie's riding for the week would be over.

Ironically, we choose the ranch vacation because Elie loves horses so much. So it would seem that this would be the end of our vacation fun. However, I am often amazed at how God works in a child and how mature my daughters are becoming. Instead of complaining, Elie put her injuries aside and found ways to enjoy the ranch in other ways. Yes, she was sad to miss out on the rides, but she found her way into the hearts of the ranch staff. She spent one day working in the ranch kitchen while the rest of us learned to round up cattle. Some might think, "how can KP be a positive experience?", still Elie made it really special. When I asked her later was her favorite part of the ranch experience was, she proclaimed the day in the kitchen.

Every good thing requires risk. The experience of riding a horse in the mountain certainly has risk. By it's very nature, risk means something can go wrong. When that happens, people can react in different ways: swear never to face the risk again, complain and wonder why it happened to them, or pick up what they have and make the best of the situation. This may be a minor event compared to other things that may have happened, but, still, I'm pleased that Elie took the highest road possible.

Ranchers for a week

The Johnson family is about as suburban as we would like to admit, but that is why dude ranches exist. Last week we spent about the best week of vacation anyone could have while suffering two broken bones and a concussion.

The ranch, www.latigotrails.com, is an incredible ranch with great scenery, wonderful staff and enjoyable horses. Prior to our week, Elie and Moriah were the most experience riders in the family having both taken riding lessons for a period of time. I have participated on on overnight men's trip, but didn't know much about riding a horse. Stef hadn't had much experience on a horse, but, all in all, we found that our lack of experience didn't keep the Johnsons from enjoying the ranch experience. The wranglers where great teachers and the other activities and food made the week a wonderfully restful vacation for all of us.

Beyond the typical rides, learning to throw a lasso and crack a whip, and the extremely tasty food, my favorite part of Latigo Ranch was the people. I was alway cheered by the kitchen staff and their smiling faces. I enjoyed chatting with the cowboy type wranglers who led the trail rides. But the most memorable individuals where the owners, Jim and Kathie Yost and Randy and Lisa George. Particularly, I spent a good amount of time talking with Jim Yost, who, with Kathie, lived 10 years as a missionary in Ecuador. Jim Yost was the first man to spend a night in a Waorani tribe village. The Waorani Indian were a violent tribe that were made known to Americans through the story of Jim and Elizabeth Elliot and the movie The End of the Spear.

Jim, now a full-time rancher and part-time anthropologist, looks every bit the part of a cowboy. He told stories like a cowboy, with a straight face and dry humor. His understanding of people was amazing and I'm hoping to use much of a conversation that he had with Stef and I in development of my Successful Parenting seminars that I'm working on.

While Jim is a cowboy, he's also a very loving and sensitive man. This was evident as we experienced some of the harder events that a dude ranch may produce. I'll write more about the experience in my next entry, but, briefly, I'll say that Elie was thrown from her horse and suffered two broken arms and a minor concussion. Elie is in good shape now, and recovering, but the event disturbed Jim visibly. Elie's fall was scary, but the reaction of Jim and the response of his staff helped our family to continue to enjoy the week, even calling it the best vacation of our lives.

two thirds of a road trip, part 1 PA to IA

The Johnson family has been on a road trip through the mid-west and west for about 21 days. This is the first chance that I've had to sit and type up something about the trip so I'll give a quick run down of everything that we've experienced.

First, two long non-eventful days of travel from home to Stef home town of Waterloo IA have taught us two things. First, our girls now that they are 12 and 14 are much better travelers than they used to be and Little House on the Prairie First Season DVDs can be good entertainment for the car ride. The second thing we learned was, when in Ohio, $20 extra dollars spent on a hotel room, just might have been a better deal than staying the the Fleebag Inn. When we invested the extra $'s in a Nebraska hotel, we discovered the difference.

Our stay in Waterloo brought great opportunities to chance to catch up with Stef's father and brother. We enjoyed our time, but the girls had few opportunities to hang out with anyone their age. But I had a great time helping my father-in-law work on his 1949 Olds.

Review of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck

What was the difference between Michael Jordan and John McEnroe? Why do some people see only failure in themselves and others while other people can see only potential? Why are even positive labels in schools an ultimate hindrance for the individuals who receive them? Dr. Carol S. Dweck of Stanford University says that both positive and negative labels come from the same mindset as held by those who see failure in all and people like John McEnroe, who become caught up in the reasons that others are holding them back. Dwecks research is outlined in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Random House, New York: 2006).

Dr. Dweck has discovered two mindsets that affect the success of individuals, one for the better and one for the worse. The open mindset reward effort over achievement. It recognized each individual, whether it be on the sports field, in the family or in academic study based on their own personal goals and how hard they work at conquering those goals. The open mindset goals would be effort based, not based on meeting standards or receive accolades.

The closed mindset, on the other hand, creates standards for all people to meet, such as test scores or trophy counts. Those who quickly achieve those standards are labeled smart or athletic or well behaved. Those who struggle to meet standards are label academically challenged, or nonathletic or a behavioral problem.

Who do the labels hurt? According to Dr. Dweck, labels hurt everyone. Those who are labeled unable are hurt as well as those who are told that they are specially gifted to meet the standard. Why? The "unables" are hurt because they are in a sense told, they will never match up to the "ables". The "ables" are hurt because they will identify themselves according to the things that they are supposed to do well. Once they fail at those things one of two reactions will result. The first reaction is self-defeating. They will have to redefine themselves. When they were once good at the activity, they will now have to admit they are not good. The second reaction is more defensive. Rather than admitting their own failure, they will blame others for their poor showing.

Dweck identifies the bigger problem with the second group. Once a child is placed in a special group they tend to develop an attitude that everything should come naturally. They stop working as had a development which set them up for eventual failure. The failure is very difficult to take because it is tied to their identity.

As a result, Dweck argues against the creation of such programs as gifted and talented classes or special sports leagues because they are used to rate natural ability rather than extraordinary effort. Likewise, she advocates against harsh punishments for failure of meeting standards, including some behavioral standards.

From a Christian point of view I can see many benefits in teaching an open mindset. Still I see some portions of this work that Christians would tend to object to. First, Dweck's anti-corporal punishment bent has long been a beef of many Christians after all doesn't the Bible say "spare the rod and spoil the child?" There is a point that Dweck can push this issue too far, still as a children's pastor I have see that too often punishment, in general, and more particularly corporal punishment are dealt too quickly to specific groups of people. To often parents want to see their children all living to a standard of behavior thus punishing any behavior that doesn't meet that standard. To offend I see parents labeling their own children as behavior problems and miss the growth moment and value that these children bring to the world, the family and the church. While I don't advocate never applying corporal punishment, some parents result to it too quickly and for the wrong issues.

Many Christians may also balk at the idea of eliminating the gifted types of programs. I don't know of any Biblical reason for this, but many conservative Christians demand that we stratify children, assume that stratification is based on hard work, and fear that unifying the children in academic and athletic programs is a slide to socialism. I don't thing this is the case. Unfortunately, most academic, artistic and athletic programs base their grouping, not on individual effort, but on early signs of "ability". We create these programs way too early in the lives of the children and measure things that are not consistent with how much work an individual will be willing to put into developing. I've seen children as early as 6 years old be placed on special athletic teams because they are a head taller than others. This isn't the exception unfortunately. This is the truth behind how these decisions are made.

I don't think that Dweck takes personal bent out of development decisions all together, and we do need to consider how each child is specially designed. Eventually, children who are good in math need a math program that can help them develop, but not at the expense of those who are more or less average. Eventually, children will need different athletic fields to address their sports development, but not based on early detection of "natural abilities" (often read physical development). Rather, children who want to play baseball day-in and day-out should have a field so they aren't bored or frustrated with those that show up once a week just for fun.

Moreover, I think Christians can find some usual guidance in this book, particularly with regard to spiritual development. The closed mindset is going to look at a specific quality that a child has to determine their value. Too often, in the church, we do this by rating how well a child is behaved while the adults teach or pray, how many verses they can memorize, or how many friends they bring to our church programs. This ignores that some may sit quietly through the prayer time while their minds drift off, while others wiggle and squirm as the try to process the value of prayer. We rejoice when Johnny finished all his verse memorization long before the rest, but need to investigate what value Johnny received from those verses. Or we get frustrated when Sally fails to recite any verses word perfect, but miss the attempt that she makes.

In general, we need to look at the whole person in spiritual development, not the surface. We need to move beyond labeling children as good or bad and work to make all of them better.

Another thing to keep in mind is that spiritual development is often affected by the athletic, artistic and academic labels we give children. These labels will often make children feel that they are good without considering their spiritual growth. More organically, often receiving the honors to be in these special programs or on special teams restricts them for the time they need to work on spiritual matters. Moreover, it creates a pressure for all families to work harder to make sure that their children receive these honors, at the expense of spirituality.

One last interesting side point that I gained from Dweck's book has little to do with the text. The point comes in the title of two sections. One is titled, "Parents (and Teachers): Messages About Success and Failure;" the next is titled, "Teachers (and Parents): What Makes a Great Teacher (or Parent)?" These tell of Dweck's wise view of parents. That is, their role is to teach their children well. The Bible makes it clear that the parent is the primary teach of a child. If parents rely on the the teachers to do the job the child will not be properly prepared. When parents take seriously their role as teacher and learn about how to to the tasks involved, children will have the best resources they need for achieving all the God as in store for them.

Review of Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

Happiness is an elusive thing. Not that it is difficult to find happiness, but it is difficult to define and pin point what brings happiness. Daniel Gilbert in Stumbling on Happiness (Vintage Books, 2005) make as case that, as the title indicates, it is very difficult to predict what will bring happiness into the life of an individual. Even when something has brought happiness to a person in the past, a later attempt at finding the joy may not come with the same results.

Happiness is dependent on many factors. Every person will find differing amounts of pleasure in different stimuli. Ever stimulus will have a different affect on a given individual depending on other factors. One might remember an event as more or less pleasurable long after the event has passed than when they were experiencing the event.

In the end, Gilbert proposes that there is only one marginal way to predict what will bring happiness. He proposes that when options arise, an individual can look to others who are currently more advanced in experiencing event and see to what level they feel they are happy. This he admits is a marginal predictor of personal happiness, but best option available.

I chose to read this book because of an interesting interview I had heard with Gilbert. I'm not sure that the book lived up to my expectation; It didn't bring to me the happiness that I predicted. Actually, my disappointment is less about happiness and more about utility. I'm not sure what to do with all the data that he provides in Stumbling. I'm not sure that his conclusion bring any great value to me or to those that I would love to teach on this subject. Really, his main point is that you don't know what will make you happy, until you are happy, is difficult to do anything with.

Further, as I set out to do this project, I was less concerned with what would make people happy for a moment, but with what kind of life long choices cause people to reflect back and say, "I've lived a joy-filled life." If you trust Gilbert, nobody can really do that without misrepresenting there own experiences.

However, maybe that is the point that I can take away from this book. If we seek temporary happiness, we may ore may not be happy in the longterm. We need to look beyond the products and activities that promise to make us happy, and choose to look forward to the greater things in life as God is our guide to true joyfulness.

Update on Sabbatical

I have promised regular updates on my sabbatical, but I have been slow to add any articles. I part, that's because I don't want to write anything without fully thinking it through. In part, I have felt that part of my sabbatical is to rest the mind, and with all I'm doing and reading, my mind hasn't felt ready to write. I will change this trend though over the next couple weeks. I start this week by writing reports on two books that I've read: Mindset by Dr. Carol S. Dweck and Stumbling on Happiness by Dr. Daniel Gilbert. In brief, Mindset has proven to be a good read, while not always taking a position that I will always agree with. On the other hand, Stumbling on to Happiness was less than helpful for me and takes an odd position on to what happiness is and how to find it in one's life (as the title implies).

Over the last couple weeks, I've been working on other projects too. This week, I will finish up a long lacrosse season as coach of the 3rd out of 3 teams. I've enjoyed the girls, grades 7 and 8, but struggled with drawing a full team which has created an odd team dynamic. I have been working on and hope to finish editing a video project which is part of my sixth grade daughters graduation from elementary school. Also, I've been a part of several meeting around the realignment of the staff at Grace Point. Some of these meeting are directly related to a project that I desired to tackle during this time, but some have been the kind that pull me out of the sabbatical mode and back into church work. Later I'll share why they have been important enough to do that.

Check back over the next few days. I promise those two book reports and I'm hoping to do some reflective writing as well.

A different definition of success

"Success is not no violence." [emphasis added]
George W Bush
May 2, 2007

What does the Bible say about success? Part 1

2 Timothy 1 gives an outline of Paul's success formula. There are three parts to it:

1. Courageous enthusiasm (v. 1-7)
2. Shameless suffering (v. 8-12)
3. Spiritual loyalty (v. 13-18)

Paul was admonishing Timothy to be enthusiastic about the Gospel even when it meant facing persecution. If Christians are to be successful in their own lives, the Gospel must be core to the message of their lives and must go before their own pride.

Paul suffered greatly in his life and in his ministry. Suffering included being locked in chain, torture, loss of rights, and--worst of all--abandonment from people he called friends. It really seems to me that the abandonment hurt Paul the most. He longed throughout this letter for his friend Timothy to hurry to be by his side. While this suffering was difficult for Paul, it was through suffering that Paul found success in his ministry. Paul wore suffering for the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a badge of honor.

Enthusiasm and suffering were not, in themselves, guarantees of success. Paul added one more key principle that connect the first two. That is spiritual loyalty. It does no good to be a flash in the pan with enthusiasm. If is needless suffering if one only gives in to the things of this world in the end. One must through all things maintain a solid sense of loyalty to the message of the Gospel and to following the ministry that the Spirit lay before each person. It is in this that Christians find success.

Notice that Paul is hurt most by those that abandoned him for the things of this world. In chapter 4, he mentions by name Demus, who left him for nothing more that to pursue the "things of this world." How often to we as American parents encourage our children to put the things of this world ahead of spiritual matters?

About a year ago, I probed a bunch of church leaders about this. I asked two questions: "Have you ever told your children that they could not go to a church function because their school work was not done?" and "Have you ever told your children to put off doing schoolwork because your children needed to focus on a spiritual issue?" To the first question, nearly ever person in the room raised their hands. Nobody raised their hand on the second question. Now in reality, there are some things that are based on a time-table and must be done in a certain sequence. Homework is often this sort of thing, while going to youth group offers much greater flexibility.

Still the answer to the second question bothers me more. There are certain spiritual windows that open only for a short while. I wonder how many Christian parents really take advantage of those windows. It seems to me that we are so afraid of loosing the worldly advantages that come with good grades, or we fear the trouble that we will receive when confronted by a teacher who has not spiritual concern for our children. In short, we teach our children to abandon spiritual things, for the advantages of worldly things.

Enthusiasm, suffering and loyalty must go together in teaching our children. We can't teach them to be enthusiastic alone and expect that they will be loyal to the Lord in the end. If we want our children to succeed, we must teach them to be so loyal to their faith that suffering will most definitely be a part of their lives. After all, good grade in school, may gain them admittance to an excellent University for four years; however, loyalty to God has eternal implications. Moreover, if their gpa falls from a 3.8 to a 3.1, there will still be many good Universities willing to continue the academic training of your child. However, there is only one Eternity worthy of pursuit. That is the eternity with God that comes through faith and loyalty to Him.

Sabbatical Introduction

As of the first of May, I'm starting a sabbatical from my normal duties as a Pastor of Children and Family Ministries at Grace Point. During the months of May, June and July, I won't be running a children's ministry. Rather I'll be doing special projects on two different issues: one family related and one on church staff structure.

For the family ministry project, I'll be read and researching on the question of "What should parents do to help their children succeed in life?" Of course, I'll be looking at this from several angles. First, I'll be studying the scriptures to see how God views success. Next, I'll review literature to discover what works and what doesn't work regarding raising spiritually, academically and financially successful children. This information will be analyzed against the theology of success to create a guide for parents who want the most for their children.

Also, I'll be reporting in on a family trip I'm taking in June and July. The trip will include 5000 miles of driving across about 2/3rds of the country. We are visiting friend, family and many beautiful locations. A week at a ranch in Colorado is among the exciting things that we have to look forward to.

I'm going to use this space to publish weekly findings on both projects. Please feel free to check back regularly. I hope all the information is helpful to you and your family plus some fun reflections on a long trip.

Warren Buffett on success

In a recent CNBC report on Billionaire Warren Buffet, the interviewer asked Buffet, "What advice would you give someone to help them know when they have succeeded?"

Buffet replied: "When you have people around you that you love."

The reporter wasn't satisfied with this answer and dug in deeper obviously looking for a quantitative means of defining success. She said, "Uh, this is a CNBC audience. Help them to understand success."

Buffet thought only for a second and said, "Doing what you love and doing it well. I've never found someone how was doing that that didn't consider himself a success."

If the 2nd riches man in the world can discover that success has not quantitative measure, should not we all begin living toward goals of success that are based on people, fulfillment and spirituality.

Snow Crevasse

As I lie in bed tonight, I had a memory of my college days when a bunch of guys got together to go skiing. Crested Butte had offered a free day for Western State students so it was the perfect opportunity for those of us who were neither good skiers nor interested in pushing the edge of the envelop.

Not being a skier, I had borrowed some equipment for the day. In addition to my rented skis and polls, I had a pair of goggle that didn't quite work right. I made them work for the better part of the day, but on one rather long run, I can remember them fogging up a bit. Perhaps I had a little snow on the inside of them. I don't remember exactly what the issue was, but the bottom half of each lens had fogged over. But since the group was moving, I chose to wait to clean them off. That was a mistake.

On this particular run there were 4 or 5 of us skiing together. I was skiing toward the front of the pack just behind one of my friends. Through my half fogged glasses, I saw him pull to the side of the groomed slope and stop, I assumed to wait for the others. This would be a good opportunity for me to clean my lenses, so I made a broad turn to stop next to him. And I would have too, but I didn't notice that he stopped as a point right next to a 10 drop into a crevasse, and the crevasse wasn't perfectly parallel to the ski run. I jotted out a bit, and I fell straight in; down ten feet into many multiple feet of soft powder.

Of course, the landing was soft and I wasn't the least bit hurt. But I was stuck. After step I made into the snow pulled powder down on top of me. Every time I reached up, the powder collapsed and I end up in the same spot, on the bottom of the stream bed.

Since I was 19 and a college student, and my friends were all in the same situation, this memory is a good one. I can remember laughing hysterically as I worked to make it out of the hole. I can remember my friends (now all 4 or 5 of them) looking down on me and getting the biggest kick out of my situation. In a way it was a blast. Although slightly embarrassed, I didn't mind their cracks and laughter, because it was a funny situation. Still, as I stood at the bottom, there was a growing urgency in my mind about getting out of this pit. I was stuck, and nothing I could do was working.

It took a few minutes, I can't really say how long, but the guys up top eventually made a chain and worked together to get me out. I can tell you, I was never more happy to be the point of so many jokes.

Why was I thinking of this story? Because in many ways, I feel like I'm at the bottom of that crevasse again. I'm having a good time and the people I'm with are enjoying the situation. I'm not saying people are laughing at me, but they are enjoying benefit from my predicament none the less. I'm not in physical peril, not stuck physically, and not here because of clumsy skiing, but I am beginning to wonder if I'm not stuck because of poor vision.

See, I'm in a ministry that in many ways I love. I work with children and I love the children. I'm good with children and they like me back. If I have a problem with this ministry, it is that they job has grown to a point where I can't do it alone, but few will join me as I need them to join me. Some have even gone so far as to say they can't join me because they don't think they can do the job in the same way that I do it.

I'm climbing, but with each step up, the powdery ground collapses and leaves me back where I started. I've added a lot of staff to my programs. Many quality people have joined in that matter, but every year I'm a few short of what the volunteers need to feel they are effective. So, at the end of a term, I have great turnover.

I've added a great program format that could be effective at reaching the children. But, every year, because most of my volunteers were raised in the old style Sunday School, I get pressure to redesign the program to match what they grew up with.

I'm climbing, but I can't reach the top. Because of my personality and popularity with the children, I've noticed more and more that the adults don't take me seriously as a trained and ordained pastor. In 10 years as a pastor, I've average fewer than 1 or 2 people coming to me seeking input on leadership issue. I counsel formally only about 2 people per year. I have baptized a good number of children, but only 3 people older than 12, including a good friend who didn't even think that it might be part of my ministry and desire to baptize him. I've performed 0 funeral and 0 wedding which leaves this 10 year veteran in the ministry with no experience in special services. Of course, I'm not too excited about doing either weddings or funerals, but there is an expectation that pastors do both. Beyond that, I've only lead one service on Sunday morning, but that wasn't even called preaching. It was the "Children's Ministry Focus Sunday" and I was just giving little thoughts for people to think about.

Rather than going on and seeming gloomier than I am. I'll stop. In fact, in general, I'm not gloomy about my ministry. I feel quite happy most days and I think I've help others to feel welcome and joyful on many occasions. My issue isn't gloominess. It is feeling like my situation will ever change. I'm stuck in a hole, digging to climb out, and going nowhere fast. And even though I enjoy my work, I'm beginning to feel a little weary and anxious about what it is going to take for me to get me out of the crevasse.

Sabbatical links

here are some links with interesting things that i should look at as part of my sabbatical research project on creating successful children.

Crossroads Community Church in Cincinnati has some interesting stuff in their November 2006 sermon series, Keeping up with the Jones.

Similar is Rob Bell's series Calling all Peacemakers from Dec. 2006.

Daniel Gilbert is not a Christian author, but I'm interested in his evaluation of happiness as he as delivered in Stumbling on Happiness.

I'm really interested in looking at the idea of contentment. The question is, does someone have to reach a professional position or earn a certain amount of money in order to be content? I will look what the scriptures say about contentment, but I also want to examine the lives of people who have been successful in different ways.

By the way, it may already be evident that I'm beginning with a presupposition that true success equals true joy in life. In other words, if a person is a billionaire but unhappy with his position, he has not succeeded at life. Or if a person is elected president, but begrudingly does the job, she has not succeeded.

I'm hopping to post more as I prepare for the sabbatical from May thru July. I'll certainly post come that time as I plan on using this site to organize my thoughts.

A Good Wife Always Knows Her Place

Please click on image to read this article. Use you browsers "back" button to return to my comments.

This is a very interesting article from Housekeeping Monthly written in 1955. While the distance of time makes this somewhat humorous for today's reader, there are other emotions that come to me after thinking about it for a while.

My first emotion is joy. I'm filled with joy as a husband to know that my relationship with my wife is more than just her working to please me. I'm filled with joy that I have the responsibility and right to seek her better good.

My second emotion is quite different from the first as I also feel sadness about something lost. I'm not sad at all about the lost of June Cleaver wife roll. I am sad that most women are culturally encouraged to not serve their husband. But just as much, I'm sad that the movement away from June Cleaver, men were not challenged more to love their wives and to work to meet their needs.

Unfortunately, the liberation of women was about women have the right to ignore their husband's needs rather than focusing on the need for men to meet the needs of women. Rather than mutuality in marriage, our culture has focused on independence.

It isn't that I don't think there was a move away from the 1955 housekeeper roll in marriage. Certainly that was not marriage as God intended it to be. Although, I do believe that God desires both spouses to find high reward in meeting the need other their partner. Their can only be reward in interdependence and no such reward in independence.

Engineering and the soul

We can engineer many things in this world. We can plan and design our home, office building and structures of many kinds. We can engineer our roadways, bridge great divides between roads and design vehicles to travel on those roads. Some vehicles are huge and can go anywhere on or off the highways. Other vehicles are small and designed to get along on very little fuel. We have developed ways to move people around the world in a matter of hours. Airplanes that people have designed, planned and build can now fly several times the speed of sound.

We have a medical industry that is in the business of engineering health. We can send a camera and clippers into the human body and remove many different ailments. This week, I'll spend thousands of dollars to pay and engineer to perfect my daughter's smile. Other engineers develop medication to wipe out all kinds of illnesses, eradicating many of them so they may never infect another human.

We can engineer so many things, but as our engineers succeed, there is not thing that they cannot redesign. That is the human soul, the spirit of a person.

This as so frustrated so many scientists and engineers that many have concluded that the soul must not exist. If it can be measure, seen or touched with an human hand or man-made instrument, it must be a fantasy. Yet it does exist.

People are trying to engineer it. They have developed a whole field to study and try to manipulate the soul. They call that field psychology. Counseling is a great growing field. But in the end, it proves to be inadequate at engineering they perfect human soul. Most counseling techniques leave their subject with a large dependency on crutches. "Six sessions may not be adequate for you. You will need to continue your counseling indefinitely," says a common psychological school.

We can't engineer the perfect human soul, but there is an engineer that can prefect it. That is the Lord Jesus. Through the work the Holy Spirit our souls will be prefect. Let God mold your soul and it will work. Human attempts may offer some relief to temporal problems, but God alone has the ability to truly fix the soul.

Life as a Children's Pastor

It's a somewhat typical day in the church, except today I have a visiting group of Japanese youth coming to speak to my 1st to 4th grade class. In addition to that change, the child's choir was singing in the service so we held our program up for about 15 minutes waiting for their return.

Just as the children flocked into the room, I saw a mother in the door way trying to get my attention. She had noticed the Kindergarten teacher in some stress and came to solicit my help. Because my children were settling in for a few minutes of music (and I'm not musical), I took the opportunity to check on this teacher's need.

It turns out that she was overwhelmed by the extra students that the children's choir had drawn to her class. I made my way down to the junior high class room to call on a last-minute assistant. No problem. As I introduced the assistant to the teach a child ran into my leg with muffled cries.

I looked down. What do you suppose I saw. A boy who had been in the class for less than 3 minutes had a bucket stuck to his head. Not sure what was up, I grabbed the bucket and gave it a tug. It wasn't budging. He, I'm sure with the help of some companions, had wedged the bucket on good. The job took some patience. and a tight grip on his ears, but the bucket did pop off.

Please pray for Kindergarten teachers. If the children don't drive them crazy, the teachers will surely die laughing at their attempts.

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Attitude

I've just begun coaching a 7th and 8th grade girls lacrosse team. I don't know anything about the sport, but my daughter asked me to volunteer as an assistant. Of course, in reality, that means I volunteered to be the coach.

Not knowing lacrosse is only a minor problem. Most of the girls on the team have an idea what they are doing and my job is to motivate them to do it right. The problem is, it's a junior high girl's team. After two practices of facing every thing from defiant attitudes, lack of desire, comments about the weather, and cliquish behavior, I asked my 12 year old daughter, "Do all junior high girls have an attitude?"

Her response came without hesitation. "Duh!"

The good news is, I can laugh my way through most of that.