Walking In Wisdom

Today was a magnificant day in many respects, but the most important was that I and a couple of buddies headed up to the Bronx to experience "Yankee-Nation."  This was my fourth trip this season and hopefully will not be my last and after today things look good.  Today my Yanks defeated the evil empire of the Boston Red Sox and completed a three-game sweep of their arch rivels!

It was a great day in that I got to enjoy the day with Eddie B, Nate the Skate and longtime, childhood friend Eric. Eddie has made the trip to Baseball Mecca once before. Even though he is a dyed in the wool Orioles fan, he does have a soft spot in his heart for the history surrounding the Pinstripes!  For Nate this was his maiden voyager and the very first time at the Stadium that Ruth built!  It was like a "bar mitzpah" of  sorts.  On the ride home I asked him if he "felt different."  he wasn't sure what I meant -- which gives me cause for concern!  Before the day began, he was a big Chicago Cubs fan - you have to feel bad for the guy. By this time next summer, he should convert and start feeling the pull up the NJ Turnpike each year!!

As for Eric, it was a sweet reunion.  Eric and I have been friends for 41 years.  Prior to experiencing today -- we had attended dozens of Yankee games as kids. Not to mention sneaking into MAdison Square Garden at 16 years old for Friday night fights! The last time we were at the Stadium with each other was the night after Yankee great Thurman Munson was killed in a private plane crash -- that was August 1979!  Wow!!  All these years later and back at the park!

That is what a place like Yankee-Nation does to you....brings people together....makes you declare your loyalties....you get to talk about great moments in sports and when you became conscience of sports in general....it makes memories....and brings to mind the good old days!  Yanks are 5 games behind Bean-Town and 1/2 game ahead of the Marniers for the Wild Card.  With any luck, I will be sitting in the same ones I was today for a play-off game or better the SERIES!

GO YANKS!

This week I finished a two part message (that is code words for...."it was my first time in three months to preach so I over did it a bit!) on Faithfulness.  Our church has been in a series entitled "Virtues that We Value" -- a look at the character qualities that are crucial for a rich Christian testimony. What a joy and privilege to study the indispensable virtue of faithfulness.  I would encourage you to log on to our church's website - www.newsongfellowship.com and listen to the messages.

Never the less the best part of the service wasn't my preaching (you don't know how hard it is to say that!) but the real highlight was having our dear resident sage Bruce helland come and share with our church family what God is doing in his life. If you remember, one of my first blog entries in May was telling of Bruce's wife, Delna going home to the Lord. It was a sudden lost and truly a sad event in Bruce's life.  He used to call Delna - "his warm-blooded PDA" - especially to the young generation fascinated with PALM Pilots and Blackberries! bruce always told me there were two loves in his life, Delna and......

Well we shared on Sunday morning about a conversation that Bruce and I had on my birthday.  He and Delna for the past 10 years have always come over on my birthday and this year was no difference -- however he came over 30 minutes early.  I knew something was up when he said to me, "Pastor, i want a meeting with the Elders!"  When our oldest and probably most godly member declares that you can only wonder what was wrong.

Bruce shared with me:  "Pastor, I don't want to sit down at the Quarryville Home and die -- I still have good health (at 80 yrs. old) and my mind is sharp and I still know Japanese well. So i would like the Elders to "send me back to Japan as a missionary." You would had to pick up my jaw if you were sitting with us. I was shocked.  My first thought was... "what does your daughters think?"  "They are 100% for it!!"  Then i asked: "how long will you go?"  He had thought it all out... "I will give it three months....if I do OK, then I will stay as long as they need me -- I am willing to give them five more years!"

FIVE MORE YEARS!!! Holy Cow!!!  This dear man is willing to give the mission field five years....and you can hardly talk young people to give up a single year of service!  What an inspiration! I looked out into our congregation and saw men and women wiping their eyes. I could only speculate that they were overwhelmed with Bruce's commitment; they were trying to comprehend life at NewSong without Bruce; or like a certain pastor, sadness that I have not gotten to that level of faithfulness!

Can you imagine this....I then followed that announce with preaching on faithfulness -- the church had already SAW a sermon before i had preached it! So there you have it -- a model of a faithful life.  I said in my message - "Faithfulness is all about finishing!" Finishing what God has asked each of us to do with our lives.  Fulfillment of His plans, desires, purposes and goals for each of our lives. Christianity is not about WINNING -- we have already won in Christ -- we have the victory when Christ went to the CROSS, went to the GRAVE, and rose from the DEAD!  That is real victory -- and we can't do anything for that victory -- we gain it through grace. What Brue teaches us is that once we experienced grace -- we live in a way to be found faithful of that unique and privileged calling unto Christ.

Well done Bruce --- you are truly a "good and FAITHFUL servant."  Great will be your reward!  Rumor has it the real reason Bruce is headed back to Japan where he and Delna serviced for over 30 years is that he could not find quality Sushi in Lancaster, PA!

you may noy know the name or maybe you have him confused with the Christian Creationist Apologist "Phillip Johnson" -- but The phil johnson I think rocks is the executive director of Grace to You. This past week he was speaking at my beloved America's Keswick. I met Phil years ago at Grace Community Church's Shepherd's Conference (John MacArthur's church and ministry).  he has the joy of editing all of MacArthur's messages and writing and producing it for the radio and books!

The first reason I thik he rock...HE IS A GENIUS! The guy has historical, theological and cultural facts at  his finger tips. Obviously he is in a world that demands him to read and keep current and do extensive research -- but still the guy make my head spin on what he KNOWS!

Second, he has a tremendous command of the scriptures and really how it all intergrates. There are Bible teachers and preachers that are unbelieveably polished and speak with great ease. However Phil has a way of being able to weave very difficult and seemingly unrelated theological issues together with great clarity.

Third, he is crystal clear with his understanding with evangelical "fads" and knows how to dismantle them. He especially is the evangelical voice to refute the emergent/post modern mania that is overwhelming churches today.

Finally, he tells it like it is.  He was asked who is more dangerous to the church - "Benny Hinn, Joel Ostein or Rob Bell?"  Without a beat he responded.... "Benny and Joel are just old fashion charlatans out to get as much money in their coffers as possible but the most dangerous in Rob Bell!"  (NOTE: Rob Bell is a post modern/emergent church pastor would sweeping the nation with his "Velvet Elvis and Sex God" books and NOOMA videoes!) Iin a day when we him and haw and don't want to offend -- Phil tells like it is. 

Allistar Begg once said - "When there is mist in the puplit -- there is fog in the pew."  HAng around Phil Johnson long enough and you will never be in a fog.  It is a joy to see that the evangelical and especial east coast pastors and churches have a chance to learn of Phil's brilliance.  he has been TOO LONG in the shadow of great men of God.  I would encourage all pastors to plan on attending Keswick's Pastors Conference in February -- Phil is the speaker!

Kind of a strange blog title - "The Joy of Anointing with Oil." Have I gone off the tracks theological -- MAY IT NEVER BE! I was taken back last week in church and seeing the reality of being obedient to the scriptures.

from the beginning of our church we have practiced what James 5 instructs us to do:

Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.   James 5:13-15 (NASB95)

We believe and practice the act of anointing with oil those who are struggling with physical difficulties and they ask the elders to pray for them. The key is that the believer must desire it -- we don't go asking if they want to be anointed. Also we pray as a elder team together -- it states clear the "elderS" -- that is plural! They reason I believe it was plural is that no one man would get credit for what God is doing and because the Elders serve as a representative for the entire church.

Being anointing and asking the elders to pray is humbling. You are acknowledging that this is a serious situation and you recognize that for me to get better or to overcome -- God will have to step in. It brings great glory to the power and work of God.

The reason why last Sunday i was amzed and over joyed by the idea of anointing people with oil was looking at our all church prayer communique. It was the first time i have seen the list since my sabbatical and i saw a list of ladies we are praying for who are pregnant!  Five of the woman came with there husbands and asked the elders to anoint and pray for them because they were have fertility issues.  HOLD ON A SECOND -- we are not a fertility clinic.  I am just making an observation that people who we prayed for are seeing GOD WORK IN THEIR LIVES -- I hear that AMEN in yor heart!

God wants to glorify Himself and when we practice this scriptural command...God is glorified and his children's heart are filled with joy!

I think that some of the MasterCard commericals are cheesy! You know the ones that end with..."Time with my son - PRICELESS!"...."expression at their first baseball game - PRICELESS!"...."indigestion relieved - PRICELESS!" (Sorry for the satire).  Nevertheless, as soon as I poke fun at something - I recognize the wisedom of advertisers.

We are doing a major facility overhaul at our church. Some of it is being handled by the contractor and all therest our staff and volunteers are doing the work. Part of the remodeling is completely re-doing our bathrooms. Back in May our facility manager went looking for bathroom prtitions and found a company in Chambersburg PA that was a dealing of the dividers we wanted.  He placed an order and the salesman requested "payment in full on special orders." I guess it is not uncommon in the industry. So we sent $5000 to the company in anticipation of our partitions.

By mid June our staffer was wondering where the dividers were and started calling and emailing with no return call. Time was getting closer to get the job completed and this week we started to really track him down. We called the office and the number was disconnected (that's not a good sign). Finally he got a home phone and called him, only to find out that the business was out of business and our $5000 was gone!

After telling me of us getting blinked for the money -- I went into "seek and destory mode" (not so much destory but certainly seek). I decided that the only way to deal with these kinds of things is to have "face to face" contact!  So one of the assistant pastors and I jumped in my car and headed for Chambersburg (2 hours away). I brought someone with me not just for a witness but to bail me out of jail if the guy wised off (again just joking!).

We went to the owner/saleman/crooks house and you can imagine he was surprised to see me. Without emotion he said that he did not have our money - that was obvious! And we have a heated and forth right conversation about his ethics, him taking our money and not having a supplier who would sell to him and preying on churches by having a "cross and fish" on his website. It was in the middle of my tirate that he said... "look i don't need ridicule but PRAYER!"

PRAYER! The only way I was praying for this guy is if he REPENTED!  But his prayer comment lead me to ask -- "What church do you go to? WHo is your pastor?"  He told me and to my surprise -- I KNEW THE PASTOR! I called him and was able to talk with him about the situation. he was surprised but NO surprised.

The pastor told me that he knew that he was having problems and certainly there was family issues -- but what really upset the pastor is that TWO WEEKS ago this man was BAPTIZED and gave this heart wrenching, tear jerking testimony of how Jesus had changed his life.  He even commented in the testimony of having cheated and scammed people in the past, but that God had changed him and his ways! HOLY MACKREL!!!

Obviously there is something very wrong!  As I was talking with the pastor I realized that our situation turned the light on a potentially dangerous, church wrecking problem.  Obviously by his fraudulant testimony he had gained favor and acceptance with the church and the pastor. His deceitfulness and now known embezzling ways have been brought to the light.  The man owes many people and the government.

We are out $5000 -- it will take three additional weeks for the partitions to arrive -- and I have little hope to get the money. Yet I weigh that in comparison with being used by God to uncover a pretender who had slipped into a church of the Lord Jesus and was getting in position to potentially "take others" in that church. Partitions can wait -- revealing an apostate has eternal consequences. PRICELESS!

This week i am speaking at Americ'a Keswick Bible Conference, Whiting NJ. What a joy to share in God's Word with these dear people who desire to maximize their vacation and grow in their knowledge of the Bible.  I would commend any family desiring to instill the value of a Christ-centered vacation to look at Keswick, or Harvey Cedars or Sandy Cove -- it is well worth the week!

My job this week is to preach four messages on the book of jude.  A few years ago i preached ten full messages on the book in a series entitled - "Detecting Spiritual Terrorists."  The title is intriguing in light of the day in which we live. Not a day goes by when we don't hear about a car bomb or "raising the threat level." Since 9-11 these have become familiar phrases. Yet the Bible talks about "spiritual terrorist" in Jude calling them apostates.

An apostate is a person who prentends to be a believer and gains acceptance in the church with the intend to relationall, doctrinally and ministrially do harm. Peter, John and Paull said in their epistles -- "THEY ARE COMING!"  Jude announced they are here!!

I have to be honest - I thought this would something novel to preach. I mean how many series on jude have you heard other than the one I did at NewSong in 2006? I thought i would bring a new conversation to the dinner table -- i mean have you had causal conversation about an Apostate lately? And seeing i was on sabbatical, i did not want to produce a brand new series of messages, so i re-worked four messages and put a power point presentation together.

But what I have discovered is that Christians are concerned about their churches. The first message i asked how many are long standing members of church - 95% raised their hands. Second question - "how many are CONCERNED with your church?" 90% indicated at one level or another they are burdened by the condition of their church. That is sad!

MAny after my sessions are asking really great questions and have stories to tell how people have come into their churches and cause all kinds of problem. They embed themselves in the fellowship and then gain acceptance and some get into leadership. It is not long that they start ascerting their influence and take the church down the path towards lukewarmness.

One pastor told me an unbelieveable story about dealing with a church leader and how he almost caused a church split. One of his fellow-leaders had said to him..."I think he is an apostate."  This pastor admitted that at first I did not believe him, but now he is convinced it is truly possible!

With the lack of Biblical literacy and woefully lackluster discernment in the Body - we are open game for savvy apostates. Our task is to deepen our doctrinal understanding; watch out in our flocks for those luring away those who are weak and vulnerable; and especially those who speak poorly of our pastors, elders and leaders.

As Jude warned us -- we are the "CONTEND FOR THE FAITH!"

This week i conclude my sabbatical.  It has been a wonderful 12 weeks of rest, reading, recreation (golf specifically), relationships and reconnicence!  Yes - I have been on RECON this summer checking out 14 different churches (really 15 but you don't review and evaluate your in-laws church!). It has been a fascinating experience and eye opening to see what was happening in a lot of churches who are very close to NewSong in size and ministry. But also it has been insightful to see how different churches are.  I have to tell you how hard it was not to "critique" the churches each week.  Not that I was critical or thought that we are perfect in any way, but it is just what a pastor does when he goes to another church.  Also I really had to hold back from being TOO dissecting -- primarily because many of the pastors whom I visited are my friends.  If they want a truly honest evaluation I will be glad to share it with them.  However I do want to share a few general things I learned this summer - both good and bad about church life. And I take all I learn back to our ministry to help us become the very best church we can become.

1. Most church are not very friendly.  Lets start off the bat with a negative that I believe is the key ingredient to a growing church -- friendly reception of new people.  I will say that at most (75%) of the churches were not friendly. From the "greeters" (which is ironic) at the door to the person in the pew next to you, not many people went out of there way to say hello or engage me in a conversation. I guess that is one insight - there is a big difference in someone saying hi in a polite way and another thing to have someone come over and ask a few questions. Only at one church, did anyone introduce me to someone else which tells me they wanted me to meet others.

2. Most churches were not doing true exposition of the scriptures. Now I recognize it is the summer and many churches had special speakers or special sundays, but when preaching was done most of it was not true exposition. This both concerns me and encourages me! My concerns lies in the fact that most of evangelical Christianity is Biblically illiterate and need to study the scriptures in depth.  Most Christians go to church - once a week -- so the pulpit will be the place where they will get the scriptures taught to them. I am encouraged because this is what will make our church different then others and we should constantly promote that element of our church's ministry emphasis.

3. Children's and youth Ministry is a priority. Every church I went to had extensive children's ministry happening -- even though it was the summer. And most were promoting student ministries as a value.  I believe that reaching unbelievers in the next ten years will be through the children.  You see the generation now becoming parents are both scared to death for their kids spiritual and character development and they are unsure what to do with their kids.  Most of today's parents come from broken or blended homes and have no clue -- even though they are very committed to be a good parent -- how to raise kids!  The church MUST have exciting, relevant and scripturually SOAKED children and youth ministry!

4. Most churches are concerned about evangelism. I was getting a complex -- but almost every church I visited was talking about or preaching about evangelism as a church.  Funny is that NewSong is entering into a major push concerning outreach with the "grand re-opening" of our building in September.  The problem is that all the training, talking, preaching and prodding of a church will not make a church more evangelistic.  I like what one church said - "they want to create a culture of outreach." It has to be in a church's DNA.

5. Most churches were hurting financially. I have never liked the idea, but many church post the church's giving in the bulletin weekly. In most (65%) of the churches visited, they were behind in their giving. I can not understand this with an economy so strong. Everyone is working. My guess is that tithing and sacrificial giving is not taught.

6. Small groups are in a few churches; but they are not churches of small groups. Years ago we tried to delinate the difference between "a church WITH Small Groups and a church OF small groups." One has groups but they are an optional program that people can go to if they want.  NewSong attempts to be a church OF small groups -- where to be in the church, you need to be in a small group. Again this is encouraging because it marks our uniqueness!

Again this is not to criticize any one church -- it is just a general obsrvation of church life.  There are many wonderful churches in Lancaster and elsewhere. NewSong is very different and that's alright as well.  I use to say - "I want newSong to MAKEa difference and to BE different."  This summer's visits have proven that true!

My last church visit for my sabbatical took me and the fam to Basking Ridge NJ and Millington Baptist Church.  I have visited this church on a number of occassions when visiting friends.  This is a church in the midst of major changes. This past year it birthed its gen X ministry called Liquid into a full fledge church. Some 600 people went with Liquid, but also its most vibrate and active ministry in the church. In addition, a long time (and loved) Associate Pastor will be moving to....LANCASTER, PA!!  Also there is vision driift at the church and its leadership is attempting to address it.

Even though there has been some negative issues at the church, i have to say that this was one of my best experiences at the church. I think the first reason is that for the summer they have consolidated all their services to one 10:15AM service. It meant that people had to sacrifice in sit in the balcony or watch by video, yet it made the sanctuary overflowing and a sense of excitement. Secondly, the music and worship time was extremely good. Their worship pastor did a fine job blend old and new and creating a wonderful time of praising the Lord. Also the full house -- made the worship loud and rich!

The final piece that made the morning really enjoyable was sharing lunch together directly after the service. In an attempt to bring the church together they have had a lunch EVERY Sunday through the summer. They have had different themes at the lunch and what they thought would draw a 100-125 has had 200 each week -- a smashing success!!! I remember my mother who use to be in charge of church dinners at my church growing up saying.... "Sunday is different, when you have a supper on Saturday night." Its true and Millington is proving how strategic these Connection Luncheons have been. I hope the leadership is considering having something like this everyother month or so during the year and apitalizing on the momentum they are gaining.

One final thought about Millington, the crises they have gone through will make a church or break it. If people respond like a Mother Bear protecting her cubs and say..."this is our church and we have to do something to save it!"  They have a shot!  If they give up and say..."Nothing is ever going to change --- same old, same old!"  Then pronounce it dead, have a nice funeral and move on.  Too many churches limp along and it only hurts the really committed people and the NAme and Power of Christ. Hopefully Millington will recover.