The Little Things

I have been trying to do the following little actions while I am the interim pastor of this small coastal church.


Although I have thoroughly enjoyed myself up to now, and I have surprisingly learned a few things about myself and my God; my wife and I are still operating on the assumption that our tenure there is only until the end of June. And that means that there is not a whole lot of time to accomplished what God would have us do.

So, that means we have to be quite focused and intentional in regards to ministry. Their initial need in a pastor that they wanted filled was, in this order, to show pastoral care as a shepherd, to be strong as a preacher, and finally to be able to conduct out reach.

I set up a visitation sheet for the members in which to sign up. Since I am only there from Friday through Sunday, this sheet would give me the ability to visit those who desired one on one time with the pastor. To date, there have only been four who have utilized the sign up sheet, but hopefully in time more will use the sign up list. And for those who thought the wanted a pastor who would visit his members, the sheet shows my attempt in this area.

They also wanted someone who was a strong preacher or speaker. This is the area I am the most confident in. I am not saying that I am wonderful at speaking, but I try very hard to communicate clearly and in a way that can be understood. And apparently I have a lot of stories to share. I make sure every word is thought out and either used or not used depending upon the need.

The third is outreach. How this small band of believers can effectively be light to a community who thinks differently than they do is the challenge. Since the holidays are upon us, this is a natural time for reaching other people. But when January comes, our church will have to intentionally focus on reaching a people who do not know Jesus.

But now, back to the little things. And I know that they may, on the surface, seem insignificant, but I pray that they are being useful.

1. Since I am only there on the weekends for face to face, I have started e-mailing the people who attend our church, at least those with e-mails, a couple of Bible verses with a little commentary on my part. I call it “Mid-Week Musings of the Minister”. I am picking verses in the Psalms. My intent is to share comfort, give encouragement, and show how much God care about us.

2. Every week, before Sunday morning, I will write a note on the dry erase boards in the children’s and youth classroom. It is usually something short like, “Hey, don’t forget you are loved by the King”, but I think and hope they like it.

3. On Saturday, I have been walking the sanctuary and looking at each seat that will be available for the service on the next day and I say a quick prayer that the Lord would bless those who will come and sit. I also pray that I would be able to communicate His word accurately and clearly.

4. Even though for most of the time we have been at the coast, we have experienced a lot of wind and rain, I have been able to walk the few short blocks to the church building from the cottage where we are staying. The bad weather seems to take a break at the time I need to leave. Well so far, anyway. When I arrive at the church, I stop at the sign where there is a small red cross sticking up from the top of the sign, and I pray. I pray for the service to come, for the people attending the service, for the people leading the service, and for the people who won’t be there at the service. I pray that we will be used to honor God.

5. After I arrive at the church building on Sunday morning, I will go into the study and listen to one of these songs. And with decent volume, I might add. “It is You” by Newsboys; “Jesus Messiah” by Chris Tomlin; “Let the Worshippers Arise” by Phillips, Craig, and Dean; or “I See You” by Rich Mullins.

There you have it. Little things I know. And the ramifications of those little things are yet to be determined, but they are something that I believe are important. Perhaps, it is the little things in life that set the stage for the great things that will happen.
So, my advice to you is, “Stay little, stay strong!”

Busy Times Indeed

As we are finishing up our fourth full week of our new ministry and our new half-time here and half-time there schedule, here is a quick run down of how our week fills out. I am not complaining by any means, but I am still trying to adjust to this new busyness and natural time demands that direct us.


Monday
On Monday morning, T. gets up and is off to her part time job at the University. Generally, she is up at 7:00am and I follow shortly thereafter. I try to get he lunch ready and some breakfast before she is out of the house driving to her job by 8:00am. She then works from 8:30am-2:00pm, sometimes its 2:30 or 3:00, and then comes home. My son will wake anywhere between 7:30 to 8:30. I get him up, dressed, fed, and then he will watch “his shows”. They include Sesame Street, Clifford, Word World, and sometimes Super Why. It originally was going to be a “down” day for me to relax and not do a lot, but this week I found myself doing some study and writing. I think I will continue to do that as my mind is still somewhat engaged because of the weekend.

There is also during the day and after T. gets home, some housework that will get done. We will get the kitchen clean, do a bit of laundry and clean the house in anticipation for the evening. Oh yeah, and make some dinner. Monday evening is our Small Group Bible Study at our house from 6:30-7:45pm. Seven to nine of us adults meet and joining us, throughout the house, are eight to twelve children (ages range from one to twelve years old). Needless to say, it is loud and a lot of motion. But all of the parents there are used to the noise and we all seem to take turns making sure nobody is hurt and not too much destruction occurs. It is an enjoyable time and the people are fun and wonderful.

Tuesday
The morning is about the same as Mondays. I will usually make a call to the church on the coast (which I forgot today) for a catch-up and to see if there is anything pressing. I will spend most of the day studying and preparing for the messages I will preach on Sunday. I basically need to work up three (one for a Friday Bible study, an AM sermon and a PM sermon) messages for the weekend. We get more laundry done (usually for the coast trip) and do whatever grocery shopping for both places. Tuesday is our only free night here in town, so there is a lot to do. We get dinner taken care of and watch one of our favorite dramas on TV.

Wednesday
This becomes the final prep time for the coast, laundry, study, shopping, cleaning, writing, hopefully to take some pictures and house stuff. After T. gets home, we make dinner, as she gets ready to go to our home church to lead the middle and high school youth group. She leaves about 5:00 and picks up a bunch of them and then by the time the group time is over and rides are given she gets home about 9:00pm.

Thursday
Now we are at final prep time. We make sure we have whatever clothes we need to take over to the coast house. We do have clothes already over there but these are the ones that we came home wearing on Sunday or new ones to swap out. We pack up the cooler for some food transfer and load the car with computer, camera, Bible, notes, etc. I make sure the garbage is out for the next day and clean the house so we don’t have to do it when we get back home. T. gets off work and we usually leave for the coast twenty minutes later. The drive over takes about three hours. That will include a stop for a quick bite to eat. And then we arrive at our coast cottage rental, unpack and try to relax for the evening watching a few comedies.

Friday
I will get up and head over to the church building to do a little cleaning and getting ready for my extended weekend ministry. There is usually a quick meeting with leaders of different church ministries before our 11:30-1:00 Prayer and Bible Study time. After it is over T. and our son to head back to the cottage while I go and make some home visits. After the home visit schedule time, I try to make some casual visits to people in the community to get to know them. So, I go to their shops and just chat or I talk to people as I pass by on the street. Then it is back home for dinner and catch-up on friends online chats and such.

Saturday
Up in the morning and over to the church for some office appointments and then whatever home visits that are scheduled. We’ve been doing a little rearranging of classrooms and just over all tidying up. I try to look at some files to get to know the church and people and history a little better. I also walk the sanctuary and ponder and say a little prayer for the people who will be sitting in the pews, yes pews, then next day. After that, I’ll go back to the cottage and have some dinner. We usually give little I. a bath, and get him off to bed. T. and I will stay up a bit and get ready for the day tomorrow. She is playing the piano and planning some of the worship services and I am doing last minute changes to the message. Then off to bed we will go. Oh yeah, usually Saturday morning is pancake morning. Yay!

Sunday
All of us are up and dressed and fed to head to church. The weather has been relatively dry in the morning up to this point, so I will grab my notes and walk over to the church. It is only about six short blocks and gives me some time to observe and maybe say hi to someone else who is out walking. Once I get to the church property, I am making a point to stop at the cross on the sign at the corner of the church property. I pause to thank God for the day and pray that He will use me and I would be faithful to Him and to the congregation. Once all of the deacons, yes deacons, are there we have a time of prayer for the service and the people and then off we go to Sunday school. I try to “pop” into all of the various classes; in this case there are three (children’s, youth, and adult) and then settle on one to study with. I. goes to his primary class, ages 3 to 7ish, and T. goes and sits in with the youth (middle and high school) class. I will generally end up with the adults.

Then we have the service. We have made a bit of change to the order, but for the most part, it is a traditional type of service. After the singing, the responsive reading, the offering, the special music, it is my turn to preach. I still don’t know how long their normal service times were, but these have been lasting about an hour and fifteen minutes. There is an invitational hymn and the first Sunday of the month we have communion. And there is a business meeting on the second Sunday of every month.

After that, we go back to the cottage and have lunch and whereI like to watch the Seahawks win. Yes, I’m a dreamer. We also are doing laundry there, cleaning the kitchen, sweeping and vacuuming the cottage and packing up the things we will be taking back with us. At 5:00-6:00pm we go over to the church for the evening service. After it is over, as close to 6:05 as we can, T., I., and myself hop into the car and start our three-hourish trip back to the valley. Our goal is to be home by 9:00pm so we can get the boy to bed and take a breath or two before we slumber off to sleep, ready for the next morning with T. off to work, I. with his day and me doing what I do. And then our week starts all over again.

We are still in the “getting accustomed to” this schedule and with each week that passes, I am feeling more comfortable. I recognize that we are probably no any busier than the next family, but it still seems, at times, rushed. So I am not complaining or desiring sympathy. I just wanted you to know.

So, with that I will close so I can get ready to “mount up with wings like eagles”. Gotta fly.

The New LIfe

I am sitting in out little coastal apartment on a Saturday evening.  I thought that I would keep you updated with what has been happening.  We are three weeks in (or more accurately three weekends in) with our new ministry pastoring the small church on the coast.

It has been amazing not only how things have come together to make this happen, but how blessed we have been up to this point.  On many levels.  This is our first week in our little cottage. 

As this is a bi-vocational position (bi-vocational meaning part time), we needed a place to stay while we were here for the three days.  I had arranged to say in a motel with one bedroom in town.  It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but we determined that it would be doable, but a bit costly. 

As soon as we agreed to the position, we received an e-mail from a member of the church there offering us their vacation rental cottage for the eight months of our interim service.  They said hat they would take it off the rental market and we could have it seven days a week, so it could be ours.  They offered it to us at a reasonable rate, which was the same price that we originally had hoped to find so our financial situation could be eased a bit.

The place is wonderful.  It is a little two-bedroom cottage, panted blue with white trim.  The inside has soft yellow painted walls with a beach house décor.  The view from our windows include the mountains, a sandy beach inlet, a market, the post office, the back of a fish café, and their crab cages.  It is wonderful.

The church we are serving has a small building and averages about 40-45 people on a Sunday morning.  Last week’s attendance was 53.  The style of the worship service is traditional with a country feel.  Now, this is certainly not the style that I prefer, and hopefully some “adjustments” can be made, but I am focusing primarily upon teaching and building relationships.  Most of the people attending are retired with the exception of maybe four families, including us, who are younger.  And by younger, I mean not retired.

I will say that, even though I have only been there a short time, these people really like one another and are doing he best that they can to be the light to their community.  In some cases, they may not know how to reach and relate to the other town members, but they truly seem genuine.  I realize that with time ones true nature is always revealed, but for the present, they seem to enjoy each other company.  Their midday Bible study, which they just moved to Fridays to accommodate my schedule, begins with people sharing any prayer requests or things for which they are thankful.  After about fifteen minutes of sharing, they then begin to pray.  And they pray for each request, and for the praises, and for each person that was on the list.  They pray by name and with detail.  They even pray for any visitors that were there the previous Sunday.  Most visitors that attend the worship service are usually vacationing in the area or are passing through on their vacation.  But they pray for them anyway, knowing that we may never see them again.

The prayer time take twenty minutes or so, and then with whatever time is left over, we have a Bible study.  It is apparent that church believer, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God not only hears their petitions, He also acts upon them.  It was an honor to share in that time.

As with a coastal town, this town and church gets their share of vagabonds and transients passing through needing assistance for some need..  The church members told me it is only periodically that we come in contact with the needy, but I have been in the area for five weekends total, counting the two times I was there before I was officially called, and have been involved with three different scenarios.  One person they fed and a member gave them a ride to the next town 25 miles away.  One couple was given food and some money to put gas in their car.  The most recent couple were give a motel room for the night, and the guys socks were all wet, so a member went home and grabbed a pair of his own to give the man.  All of this generosity knowing they will probably never see them again.

All in all, it is good that we are here.  Good for them and good for us. 

More to tell. But for now, some pictures of our new second hometown.