Gratitude

I'm thankful for Bob. Bob worked hard so that men could take a rest.

I'm thankful for Jack. Jack turned an idea into a weekend.

I'm thankful for Bill. Bill makes time for me every month to ask me tough questions.

I'm thankful for Benard. Benard has given his life for the least of the least of the brethren, and invites others to join him.

I'm thankful for Jim and Linda. They enable an army of others to teach and love children.

I'm thankful for a couple of Susans. One of them volunteers so hard it hurts. The other adds creativity on a daily basis.

I'm thankful for Christina. Christina helps others think I'm organized.

I'm thankful for Bruce and Jon and Bob and Jill and Gregg. They do stuff that only gets noticed if it's not getting done ... stuff that rarely gets noticed, by the way.

I'm thankful for Ryan. Ryan writes encouraging emails several times a week.

I'm thankful for Nancy and John. They made a meal appear out of thin air.

I'm thankful for Doris. Doris is a shepherdess for several nations.

I'm thankful for Cliff and his cohorts. They flexed without breaking for who we will be three years from now.

I'm thankful for Dan. Dan keeps leadership fun. And serious.

I'm thankful for Lynne. Lynne traded sleep for removing ink stains from Kenyan shirts.

I'm thankful for the body. They received a friend of mine as a friend of theirs.

And that's just in the last week.

Real Men Don't Retreat

It's been a few years, but the men of Grace are having a retreat. In this case, real men do retreat. We have paintball on Friday afternoon, dinner and a team competition Friday night, plus some time to just hang out and talk. On Saturday: breakfast, more teaching, more food, and some unscheduled time. After lunch, we'll have time for straight talk about what men's ministries needs next.

Great thanks to Bob Simmons for all his work on getting the logistics together. Clearly, this is a far better retreat because he did this and not me. If I had done it, we'll be eating PB&J off of paper plates and sleeping on the porch. Thanks, Bob, for bringing your skills.

Also thanks to Jack Finley for getting this whole idea off the ground. He got the right people in place, got us pointed in the right direction, and sorted out big picture decisions. Again, if it had been left up to me, I would have announced the idea just three days before it was supposed to happen.

Our teaching will not consume the entire retreat. The main feature is not the teaching, but the fellowship. We want this retreat to be mostly about the men of Grace building stronger friendships ... and shooting each other with paintball guns. Somehow, those are supposed to go together. Manly men make friends by shooting each other ... something like that.

Ladies, thanks for making it possible for us to peel away. I pray that your investment will reap dividends. Would you support us even more by setting aside time to pray for the retreat?

And at the retreat, I'll explain what this picture means:

Karibu!

I am excited about a special guest coming to visit us in less than two weeks. Pastor Benard Ondiek from Kenya will be with us to share about his ministry in Kenya. Pastor Benard is the man I work with when I have traveled to Kenya in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Pastor Benard is a good friend and a man of inspiring faith.

Pastor Benard has started two Christian orphanages among the Luo people to help meet the dire need that exists in Kenya today - the "Friends of Christ" orphanages. Because of malaria, AIDS, and a variety of other health issues, there are orphans literally every where you turn. Almost every adult we know in Kenya has at least one orphan in their home. One orphanage is in Ahero, with about 300 orphans. The other is in Wachara, with around 50 or so.

Pastor Benard has also started a Bible school to train pastors, elders, and Sunday school teachers, called the Ahero Evangelical School of Theology (AEST). When I travel to Kenya, I spend my time at AEST. This ministry is strategic, because it multiplies. Most pastors are pastoring several churches at once, which spreads them too thin. AEST helps put more trained pastors and elders in these churches.

When Pastor Benard is here Oct 24, he will speak to the children's Sunday schools, share from the pulpit, and then on Sunday evening at 6pm, we'll have a potluck dinner to get to know him better, show some pictures and video from the orphanages in Kenya, and have a question-and-answer session.

There is a book about Pastor Benard's life called Benard's Vision. We will have copies available for you - we ask a minimum $15 donation per copy. Every penny of the donation goes straight into the operation of the orphanage. See also http://benardsvision.com for more about the book.

The organization I'm a part of is called "Hungry4Him" (http://hungry4him.com). We are responsible for finding sponsors for orphans. Just $15 per month provides all the school supplies and school uniform that a child needs, plus two nutritious meals per day. I'll be sharing more about this when Pastor Benard is here.

Also, I'm praying that the Lord would raise up a team of people that I can take on a short-term mission trip to Kenya next summer to work with the orphans, the teachers, the Bible school students, and the villagers. We'll talk about this when Pastor Benard is here, too.

If you would like to provide a meal (in a restaurant or in your home) to get to know Pastor Benard more fully, he would love to meet you. He will also be available to speak to your Bible study or group, any time from Oct 24 through the morning of Oct 27.

I'm anxious to get to share with you something that's been so important to us.

Karibu! (That means "welcome" in Swahili.)

The Easiest Voters' Guide

The elections are coming up quickly, which always raises the question of what I should say. The law allows me to say some things, but not others (and generally speaking, these are guidelines that I think are pretty good). It would be inappropriate and unethical (more than just illegal) for me to use my privileged position to unduly influence the process.

I can endorse causes and principles. I can inform on particular issues. I cannot endorse particular candidates. Nor do I want to.

But I like to take a different angle on the issue of elections. (Why should I start being normal now?)

Ecclesiastes has a lot to say about wisdom and politics. In 7:19, the "Teacher" (1:1) says that "Wisdom gives a wise person more protection than ten rulers in a city." In 9:13-16, he shows how wisdom in a ruler is better than power. And in 10:16-17, he compares a land that has a foolish ruler with a land that has a wise and noble leader - the difference between "woe" and "blessed."

The blessing for the land comes through wise rulers. Biblical wisdom is the most important quality in a political leader, in my opinion. I have personal opinions about left v. right politics, but I am more interested in having a wise ruler than a ruler who shares my political views. "Wisdom," of course, in terms of God's wisdom, not worldly wisdom. When I choose between candidates, my first thought is not on which letter is in parentheses after their names on the ballot. My first thought is, "Who do I think will display more of God's wisdom?"

Instead of voting along party lines, I want to vote along wisdom lines. I believe it will fair far better for our land if our rulers are wise by God's definition.

Some of you may say, "Well, if they are really wise in God's eyes, then they will be from the XYZ political party - since that's what is wise!" I can easily point to exceptions to this rule from any party you want to pick. Whether or not one party is more or less likely to produce a biblically wise person is not my point - I simply want to consider biblical wisdom when choosing for whom to vote, and to make sure that all other factors are less important in my decision process.

I would say, however, that choosing not to vote is unwise more often than not. Please exercise this rare privilege. And imagine what would happen to our land if more and more of our leaders displayed biblical wisdom.

(Congratulations to our new American citizen, Julie, who will be able to vote for the first time!)

Last Supper = First Meal

We have decided to celebrate the Lord's Supper once a month in our worship service. I've been to churches that celebrate it every week, and to churches that celebrate it quarterly. There are pluses and minuses to every option, and I don't hold that there is one "right" schedule. As long as the practice is frequently before us without becoming empty habit, I think you've got a good thing going.

There is one habit that I'd like to recommend you try on occasion. I heard it from some friends, and on certain occasions have done the same. The idea is simple - practice a fast leading up to the Lord's Supper. Some choose to simply skip breakfast so that the Lord's Supper is their first "meal" of that day. Other choose to fast for 24 hours leading up to the Lord's Supper (do this only if you know you're in the right health for that).

Two of the benefits from this fast is that it helps you focus in prayer, and it makes the Lord's Supper a little more special, being the food that finishes your fast. Fasting often aids us in being more focused in prayer, for whatever reasons. Some of my best, extended times of prayer have come while fasting. It's no magic formula for awesome prayer - I've had times of fasting with absolutely nothing special going on in prayer. It's just an aid.

But there's also that sense of letting the Lord's Supper be the thing that breaks the fast. You don't have eggs and bacon on your breath, already pretty full from other food. You're hungry, but you're seeking satisfaction more from Christ (and the symbol of Christ) than from food. There's not the lingering memory of breakfast to make the Lord's Supper seem like common food. The symbolic significance of the Lord's Supper can be heightened if we set it apart from other food.

If your health allows, consider a short or medium fast before this Sunday's celebration. If it doesn't help, feel no need to try it again. If it does help, great - even if it is of benefit only one time.

Pullin' weeds

Every time I pull weeds, I can't help but think of the spiritual lessons I'm holding in my dirt-encrusted hands, thinking about the "weeds" of the spiritual life.

• It's easier to pull weeds when they are small, rather than letting them grow talk, thick, and strong. Letting spiritual problems grow stronger only makes it harder to remove them later.
• Rather than bypass the thorny weeds, wear gloves. Some spiritual problems are painful to deal with. Rather than ignore them, letting the thorns get thornier, bring in the right equipment to handle the job - such as a wise counselor, a good book, a change in lifestyle, giving up something in order to remove the weed, and so on.
• Some weeds are insidious because they drop new roots every few feet, making them harder to remove - killing one section doesn't kill the next section. Spiritual problems can foster other spiritual problems, which then take root all by themselves. Better to remove the weed early before it drops new roots a few feet across the lawn.
• You gotta get the root, or the weed comes right back. It's tempting to deal only with the surface of spiritual issues, rather than getting to the root of the problem. Just masking a spiritual problem to look good in front of the neighbors only allows the roots to grow stronger and pop up new surface issues harder to remove than before.
• Sometimes you gotta dig to get at the root. Sometimes, you need people who are trained in counseling to really figure out what the root problems are. But you must get to them to get rid of the weed.
• The neighbors have weeds, too. Rather than worrying about how my lawn compares to the neighbor's lawn, I need to tend to my lawn, and to have empathy for the weeds in his lawn. We're both trying to grow healthy lawns, so comparing doesn't help anyone.
• Weeding is never finished. Tending to your spiritual life takes constant, life-long effort.
• The best way to keep weeds out is to have a thick lawn with healthy roots. The best way to keep spiritual weeds out is to be as healthy as possible in my spiritual life, disciplines, and practices.
• If I do nothing, the weeds will take over. If you do little to maintain your spiritual life, you won't just stay in the same state - weeds will take over, and your spiritual life will decline. 

I'm sure you could come up with several of your own analogies. Usually after weeding, I'm motivated again to clear some weeds out of my life, too. I like how the lawn is healthier without all those weeds in it.

Less is More

I was in John 3 this which, which includes John's statement in response to some of his disciples leaving him to follow Jesus, "He must increase; I must decrease." I generally get what John's statement means for an individual, but then I wondered what it means for a church. Is there a sense where a church says, "He must increase; we must decrease"?

In a sense, yes. Of course we want every local church to grow (increase), which means that Christ is increasing. But like John, we also want "our" disciples to "leave" us and follow Jesus directly - meaning that they become less disciples of Grace Fellowship (and her elders) and more disciples of Jesus directly. They leaders become less - the people become less dependent on the leaders, who become less of their connection to Him. Instead of a church that builds a following of the leaders, we want to "lose" our following like John did. Just the image of disciples leaving the tutelage of John specifically to go follow Jesus directly is a clear picture in my head of our task - to "lose" disciples to Jesus. This can happen while we grow in numbers - we still "decrease."

As one of the leaders, I want to eventually become less important in your life as a leader (but more important as a friend!).