What a Weekend!

Wow, what a busy weekend!

It all started with spending some great time on our first Church Motorcycle Ride.  There were 9 of us that made the trip, and we had a blast!  We are already planning our next ride–will probably be the last Saturday of October.

Sunday was a another great day.  It was especially great to have Grayson Boyd’s family with us for the second service since he was being dedicated.  His grandpa, Pastor Danny Janes, had the honor of praying over his grandson.  It was an especially neat moment!

Sunday night Life Groups continue to go well.  We are planning the next round of groups that will be around the beginning of November.  I would really love to hear some feedback about what kind of group that you would be interested in.  I would really love to see some groups that begin to meet off campus.  These groups would be given a discussion guide that will be focused on the whatever current sermon series that we would happen to be studying.  It would give an opportunity to discuss in practical, relational terms some of the things that we are sharing on Sunday AM.  So…please send me some feedback.

Look forward to hearing from you

Still thinking Jonah

I’ve still been meditating on this book of Jonah.

You know when he finally went to Nineveh he didn’t tell the people to repent.  He just told then the city would be destroyed in 40 days.  He didn’t say by who or anything.  And yet the people figured out that they needed to repent and begin to cry out to God.  Why?  Obviously there was a God thing going on that Jonah didn’t see at all. God just needed Jonah to push some buttons and the conviction of God would do the rest.

Why did Jonah even write this book.\?  Why would you tell people what a loser you were and what a sorry attitude you had?  he surely did not write this book in real time, but after all of this had taken place.  He wrote the book because in the end he did get it.  He wrote the book to show what messed up people with bad attitudes can still accomplish for God.  It all started with obedience-finally.  And even after obedience he still struggled with attitude-but he got that right to-how do we know??  He wrote the book.

To be used by God

I just read the book of Jonah twice. I read an article by Hal Seed about Jonah and it got me to thinking.

Jonah was given grace over and over again–yet he got ticked off when God gave grace to others.  What’s up with his attitude?

The book of Jonah is not about Jonah, a fish, or people in burlap.  Its’ about God!

This book really ends weird!  God asks a question and then…nothing.  Next book.

Jonah preaches this really weird sermon–”In forty days Nineveh will be smashed”–and all the people got it and over 120,000 began to worship God.

Kind of sums up all those masterpieces I been preaching lately!!

You know what I’m hearing? Do what God says, when God says to do it and when its God who is doing it it will always be way bigger than we planned anyway.

Somehow I gotta figure out how to preach this on Sunday.

Time for Reflecting

I am currently in Virginia spending some time just talking to God.  I got here yesterday, Sunday.  I decided to really enjoy the trip so I rode the motorcycle up.  Don’t really like long trips on the interstate when riding the bike, so it ended up taking my about 5 hours–when it usually takes 3.

This has been an incredible day!  As I was reading the Word today God was really speaking.  One of the verses that really spoke to me today was “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask  where the good way is and walk in it.”  Jeremiah  6:16.  I was installing some doors for my mom and lost one of the screws.  I had to get on my hands and knees and feel around the rug to find the little screw!   While down there the thought came–when you’ve lost something, the best way to find it is to get down close –most likely on your hands and knees where you can see the little stuff better and you’re way more likely to find what you are looking for.

I spent some time just going back to some of the old places today.  I went to my grandmothers grave.  The grandmother that I never knew.  The grandmother that had my father with a man that I still do not know to this day.  My grandfather.  I wonder if I am anything like him?  I’m sure an awful lot like my dad.   I went back to my other grandma’s house.  This is the grandmother that just died.  I spent some time walking in the woods where I used to play as a kid.  Nothing really looked the same as it did back then.  In fact it was a lot smaller than I remember it in my mind.

The places that meant so much to me–now seem rather insignificant.  The old barn where I used to play–is falling in and just filled with old junk.  Nobody has been in there in years.  I was to afraid to go in today for fear of snakes.  I wondered, what kind of mark I will leave behind.  What kind of memories will there be.

Even for my grandparents they sure left more than barns and land!  As I looked at an old broken down farm trailer I vividly remembered hauling potatoes out of the garden behind the tractor.  Or me and my pa hauling off the trash barrels that was filled with the ashes of burnt trash in that old trailer.  I remember how much he loved God.  How much God had changed his and Granny’s life.  I promise I could almost hear him laughing with me today.  I could almost hear my Granny just a talking as we could come back down that hill from the garden.

It was a trip down the old paths.   Sometimes you need to go back to where you started to see where you need to go from here.

So here I sit trying to figure out what kind of mark God is calling me to leave.  He has given me this awesome privilege of pastoring a church–but what kind of a mark are we leaving?  What are we supposed to be focusing on–what needs to die?

To tell you the truth I just want to scream–OH GOD!!  GIVE ME JUST AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF YOUR DIRECTION AND PRESENCE.  I AM SO AFRAID OF SCREWING THIS UP!

If you read this in the next couple of days–sure could use your prayers.

See you Sunday!!

Praying at the parsonage…

Just in case you ever wondered what the blessing sounds like at the parsonage…

Finally Back Home

Wow–what a whirlwind of activity has happened over the past few days.

We had District Conference–an event that I actually like. Not because I get to hear a bunch of reports, but I get to spend a great day with some incredible people from our church and reconnect with colleagues from around the state. It was a great conference. Just a side note…I sure do hope that Philip Modlin and Scott Smith are starting a new trend…

We had Family Camp. Great speakers in John Ott and Joe Dongell. Loved Ott’s presentations in the morning services. Attendance was down overerall–probably the gas prices more than anything else–but still a great spirit. I am so proud of all the people from Eden who make camp a success. James Henderson, Justin McKinney, Justin Donnahoo, Amanda Boyd, Sharon Hall, Bob & Linda Moore, Adam Jolley and Adam Robbins. I’m probably forgetting somebody–so please forgive me in advance. Just a guess but we probably had more workers at camp from Eden than any other church!

Justin preached his first sermon in church on Sunday. Did an abslutely incredible job. He showed his video from GodTube. Check it out if you have time.

Getting Ready for Table Rock Family Camp

I’ve had a lot of fun this week laughing about last Sunday.  I mus admit a little sorrow though…most of the young people at my church don’t even know who Jim Jones is!!  Man do I feel old!

Sharon and I are getting ready to spend next week at Family Camp at Table Rock.  It is truly one of the highlights of our year!  We get to spend a week hanging out with some of our greatest friends and colleagues; we get to experience some incredible times of worship and learning; and really just enjoy a week of being together with family.

Camp has long been a big priority in our life.  I don’t regret one year of it!  When Kallie was one month old we drug her every night up to camp–that was before the days of the camper and we didn’t stay on campus. My kids have had some awesome spiritual experiences around the altars in the tabernacle-at kids camps, youth camps and family camps–they all hold a special place.

I know with the cost of fuel this year, it could really be a strectch for some families to be able to make it up to the services, but if you can in any way I deeply encourage you to make the effort.  You won’t be disappointed.

They’re going to call me Jim Jones!

Well–it was a rather interesting Sunday to say the least.  It was the Sunday we traditionally celebrate Independence Day with a cook out and lots of fun!   Well first, it rained–which canceled all the kids games that we had rented for the day–that was a bummer.  Still had what seemed like 1/2 the church gone on vacation–I think I’m going to take another vacation just to get even with them! Then there was lunch–every pastor who reads this is going to understand the knot that was growing in my stomach by the moment–when i got that phone call that went something like this: “Hey pastor, did you know that every body is getting sick from lunch?  There’s even a girl out here in the parking lot barfing in the bushes!”  Already I’m trying to formulate my speech to some reporter that will explain how half our church wound up in the emergency room from some strange form or food poisoining or something.  I can hear it now, “Do you do any kind of screening of the food that you serve at your church dinners?”  Oh good grief–this can’t get much worse!!  Actually it wasn’t that bad at all. A bunch of people did get really nauseus and sick from drinking the homemade lemonade.  Don’t know what caused it to go bad, but it sure wasn’t fun for the people who drank the lemonade.  I’m just waiting for the sign on my door that announces,  Office: Jim Jones!

Also–it will be kind of interesting to see how many people drink the lemonade at the next church dinner.  Do you think they’ll be suspicious if I offer them a cup?

Oh well, another story for the book someday!

Monday after Sunday

Wow!  In a word-awesome!  2 great services yesterday.  The second service was just so unique–i only took about 6 minutes to preach–and that was probably more than was needed. We still didn’t stop worshiping until around 12:30!!

What an awesome experience our youth have had the last 2 weeks with Jr. and Senior high camps!  Way to go James Henderson!  Your leadership and your passion are just incredible.

Today is my wonderful daughter, Lawren’s, birthday.  You have made my life beautiful for 25 years.  God has so many great big plans for your life–bigger than you can even imagine.  You are not through impacting lives!

I sent my son off to Iraq again last Thursday.  That was hard!  Still not over it. i wanted that last hug to last a lot longer than he did.

Really looking forward to this coming Sunday.  Lots of fun stuff going on for our 4th of July Celebration!

What a Week!

Well the last time that I wrote we were getting ready to leave for vacation.  We had a great vacation!  Weather was perfect-Brian and Shannon got to come down and visit along with her mom,dad grandfather and grandmother from Arizona,  That was fun.  We took a motorcycle ride from Myrtle Beach down to Charleston, ate lunch and came back.  Longest ride that i have taken at one time so far.  Really fun!

On Wednesday the call came.  My sister called to tell me that my grandmother had been found in bed dead on Wednesday morning.  This was my granny!  She was that granny that spent so much time with me as a kid growing up. So many memories!  All of them good!  I am going to miss her greatly.  I am going to miss her prayers even more.  She had such an impact on my life and who I am today. They asked me if I would preach at her funeral-one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I had so much to say, and was so afraid that I would not say something that needed to be said. I couldn’t find the right passage of scripture, couldn’t seem to put the right words down on paper.  For me it will be one of those times that I will never forget.  On Saturday on the way out of my mom’s house to go to the funeral I just tossed my notes into the trash.  God was saying to trust Him, to lean on Him, he wanted to help me through this.  I had previously memorized a passage of scripture for my message at church, and God just opened up those words to me to share about my Granny.  It was, for me, just one of those God moments.

It was so good to see people that I had not seen, some of them in twenty years.  Great to relive some memories and see how people have grown up.

I know that my granny is right where she wanted to be today-in heaven.  She was really ready to go home.  I really appreciate all of your prayers and support of my family during this very trying time.  I can’t wait to see you in church on Sunday.