A Great Day

Today over 40 people came together to work on the landscaping at all three Newark Naz. locations. We split our time between Real Life, The Firehouse and the Williams Street location. Here are a few pictures taken at Williams Street and The Firehouse.

It was a fun morning capped off by coming together and eating lunch. There is no substitute for the community building that takes place during events like this. People who attend Newark Naz. come together and meet each other for the first time. Invariably there are those who find how much they have in common and friendships are forged. When people complain that they are having a hard time feeling connected I always encourage them to get involved in events like this. There is nothing like it.

Friday in Naperville

Yesterday William G. and I made a quick trip to Naperville Illinois (Chicago) to meet with one of the founding pastors of Community Christian Church and the small groups pastor. CCC is one of the leading multi-site churches in the United States. They gather in eight locations with a total of twenty services. Many of these are video venues with live worship and community but video teaching/preaching. Over 5000 people attend these services each week. If you would like to know more about them visit their website: http://www.communitychristian.org/

Here are a couple pictures from the day.

Colorado Pictures

I will put a few more pictures from my recent trip to Colorado Springs. These first ones are from the Bible College and then the rest are from my two hour drive due west. Eventually we just turned around and headed back but here is my picture journal. To see details click on each picture.

Two Days in Colorado Springs

Wednesday I boarded a plane and flew to Colorado Springs for two meetings at the Nazarene Bible College. This picture is what it looks like from the middle of row 42 on a Boeing 777. There are three more sections in front of this one!

This second picture

is of Pikes Peak taken from the campus. I am sit

ting

in a meeting and need to start paying attention so I

will blog more later.

Another Day with my Father

So today I drove to South eastern Pickaway county and met my father at this log structure. This is the home and office of the man who has done my parents taxes for many years. (Him and his partner have probably done their taxes for over 40 years!)

We were there to also start the process of preparing my parents assets so that when he can no longer take care of my mother she will be taken care of by professionals. Interesting and trying days. Here is a picture of my Dad and another of his old friends. We are two for two on older guys with big white beards. (see earlier post)

The Call

So I have been thinking a lot lately about my "call." Some have called it a calling but for me it was a clear call that I had to respond to. Somewhere into what should have been my Junior year of college, I found myself working in a meat processing plant in Cincinnati Ohio. I had left school and thought I would make a good manager in this family run business.

For some reason, I was miserable and I began to realize that God would be willing to use me if I would surrender my gifts and life to Him. My first step was to go back to school and finish my undergrad education.

What a life it has been. I could have never dreamed that God would open the doors that He has opened in the last 24 years! It is an incredible thing to be in the "people business." To stand each week in a place where God gives you something that will be meaningful to share with others and promote their (and my) spiritual growth. To work each day encouraging and helping people connect to Jesus Christ and each other in community is an awesome privilege.

I can't imagine doing anything else. Preaching, teaching, leading, casting vision, loving and empowering people, growing other leaders and seeing people's lives changed is indeed a noble and humbling calling. I am very thankful that somehow I pushed through my weaknesses, insecurities, and fear to follow God's leading into His work. I am glad that I not only received a call but that somehow I found the courage to answer that call.

Here are a couple of pictures of my meeting with the Central Ohio District Advisory Board in Grove City today. This meeting was to seek approval to make the Real Life Church of the Nazarene an official Multi-site of our church. This would mean that Real life would truly be Newark Naz. in every sense of the word.

The board unanimously approved this motion and now we have to get to work. Newark Naz. has now officially entered the world of Multi-site church! This is exciting but probably the most challenging days we have had in six years of ministry as a church are just ahead of us.

On another note: Levi is on his way back to school but not before we smuggled this project organ into his room the other evening. "We" are going to try to restore it to playing condition. Lenore discovered it by the next day. Ha!

I love the sound of pump organs and hope this one will make some sweet music one of these days. (They are great to play when the electricity is down.)

Yesterday I took my dad and son to visit an old friend of my dad's. Dan Troyer is an Amish man that can no longer speak because of a stroke but he is totally aware of everything that is going on. This man owned a large sawmill and was an entrepreneur in every sense of the word. However his most notable work was after he accetped Christ as a Savior. This happened much later in his life. This might surprise some of you but old order Amish and Mennonites very rarely have a relationship with Christ. They are in a religion that is built around what they do, not what they are or better yet who Christ is! They hope to be saved by the works that they do and the hardships they endure by shunning worldly ways. Once this man found Christ and the assurance of his salvation he became a man of God and literally traveled around the world sharing his faith. Much of his overseas work was in the Palestinian community!

It is an interesting thing to "reject or shun the world." In many ways that seems rather inviting at times. In fact I believe that most everyone I know ought to occasionally evaluate their lives in this area. We would all be better off by being less effected by the culture around us. We are after all, as Christ followers, just strangers and pilgrims passing through this life to a land far better where we will spend eternity with the one who has given us eternal life. Maybe we ought to start working on our relationship with the Lord so we recognize Him someday. (Smile) Time spent with Him down here is an investment in our future with Him forever.

This day meant a lot to my father and I was glad he agreed to find somebody to watch my mother while he got away for a few hours. Who would have thought that this old friend lives only 30 minutes away. I also found out that some old Amish friends from my teen age years live fairly close by as well. I took many a buggy ride with these guys as a teenager in Pennsylvania. By the way, my dad is the one on the right!!

Why I have been neglecting this blog!

So for the last few weeks I have not written very much on this blog. Some of you may have wondered why or where I had gone. Some you may know and some of you may even care. For those who are wondering I have been investing my spare time in developing a web site on MySpace.

I am posting two pictures from the command central control panel of my MySpace world. That would be a picture of my laptop sitting on my legs while reclining in the "chair."

This new web space is not replacing this one and in fact I will be writing more here, especially in the next three weeks. MySpace just announced this morning that they will be doing some work which means that no one has access to change anything on their site. This means I will come back here and spend some time writing on things that matter unlike this particular post. So here is the deal. . .if you want to hear some interesting music from around the world you can go to:

www.myspace.com/mandolinwes

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. MySpace like anything else can be abused and misused and even used for bad things but there are some pretty amazing musicians out there who are using it like it was intended from the beginning, as a place for people to let others hear their music. Please note that nothing will apparently change on this (MySpace) site until after April 5th.

So this morning we will spent the morning thinking about being peacemakers during our services at church. In my research for this sermon I came across the contents of the leaflets that were dropped over the cities in Japan that were about to be destroyed by Atomic bombs during WWII. It is amazing that while we were preparing to destroy the peace in a way never before seen by the world we were also trying to preserve it for the local innocent citizen. It is a dichotomy that I am still trying to get my head around. Here are the words dropped by airplanes in the days before the dropping of the bombs:

"ATTENTION JAPANESE PEOPLE: Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few days, the military installations of some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. . We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So," in accordance with America’s well-known, Humanitarian policies, the American Air Force which does not wish to injure innocent people now gives"you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives.America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has. enslaved the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan.You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war..We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but at least some or all will be so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately."

As history recorded, most people chose to ignore this attempt at keeping their world peaceful. I am thankful for those who work for peace. Yesterday, the small group leaders of Newark Naz. met in their monthly meeting. As I looked around the room I was so thankful for these individuals and couples who seek to lead others into community. True community will promote peace. Jesus said, "Those who work for peace will be called the children of God." Here is a picture of some of God's children.