Pastor’s Blog

Well, this has been a remarkable five weeks. I thought it would be good to share a more or less chronological account of ‘what I did this summer’ for those who may not have heard the details - and for my own benefit.  I’m going to structure this as several chapters, each a separate blog entry.I had hoped to put several pictures with each chapter, but for the sake of actually getting this done before it gets too far in the past, I’m going to have to leave that for future edits.

Chapter 2: Elaine Ruth Rask

Abbie may actually have been due the last week in June, so that she was at least a week overdue by the time Gail and I’ve left for Dallas on Sunday July 6.  Abbie had actually been in false labor the preceding Friday, or at least not fully productive labor, and she was tired and discouraged that weekend.  So Gail asked if she and I could come up to gather that Sunday so that Gail could be there for the whole of the labor and delivery.  Abbie was more than willing to have her come.

We drove up on Sunday afternoon and arrived at Abbie and Tim’s in time for dinner.  I had to be at the seminary by 8:00 the next morning so we went to bed relatively early.  I got up modestly early to do some work and discover that Abbie was already beginning to feel one other onset of labor.  By the time I left for seminary she and Tim had already talked to the midwife, and labor seemed definite.

All that day, as I sat through the introduction to my seminary course, I got updates that Abbie was continuing and labor, and by late afternoon It at gotten pretty intense.  I decided to stay at the seminary into the evening, because Abbie and Tim’s house will stop really big enough for someone to labor in modestly.  In fact Abbie and Tim and the midwives and Gail spent time in pretty much every room of the house during the course of Abbie’s 24 hour ordeal.

By the time I finished up of the library, labor had been going on all day and some progress was being made.  I stopped on the way to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart, and then snuck in the house, and Gail the groceries, and retreated to Tim’s study or Gail and I were sleeping on an air mattress.  I lay there and will send to the sounds of labor, napping briefly, until Gail came in around 11:40 to tell me that they had broken Abbie’s water and that she was beginning to make real progress.  It was actually quite a lonely moment as I had to lie there all by myself while everyone else was involved in the delivery.  But at about 1:40 I heard an intensification of the tempo, and the next thing I knew I was hearing Abbie say “breathe, baby, breathe”.

And so Elaine Ruth Rask was born.  Almost the first thing that Abbie did after the delivery was to get a little bit modest had to call me in so that she could give me my birthday present.  Ellie was born on my birthday, July 8.  It’s actually one of the better presents that I’ve ever received.

Gail and I stayed the rest of the week.  I went every day and enjoyed being a student at the seminary, and came back every evening to to enjoy been a grandfather at Abbie’s home.  It’s funny how the Lord juxtaposes death and new life in our lives.  The grief of the previous week was matched by the joy of this new little life.

Blog

Well, this has been a remarkable five weeks. I thought it would be good to share a more or less chronological account of ‘what I did this summer’ for those who may not have heard the details - and for my own benefit.  I’m going to structure this as several chapters, each a separate blog entry.

I was hoping to put a number of pictures with each chapter, but for the sake of getting this done before it gets too far in the past, I’m going to leave that for the end.

Chapter 1: Mom’s Homegoing

It began, of course, with the decline and passing of my Mom.  She had reached a certain level of contentment at the nursing home, but continued to decline mentally, and eventually physically. She began to lose the ability to chew, swallow or grasp.

On June 17th, Mom had a brief black-out, and it was discovered that her blood oxygen was down to 70%.  This may have been congestive heart failure or a heart incident of some kind, but the immediate diagnosis was bronchitis and aspiration pneumonia. Mom responded well to antibiotics for a few days, but then continued to refuse to eat, even with help, even after that round of antibiotics was complete. She became almost completely unresponsive to the world around her.

At this point Gail and I guessed that Mom was in a final decline. But I misjudged how steep that decline might be and left on Tuesday, June 24th for the Evangelical Free Church of America National Conference in St. Louis. My plan was to be there for only three days.  But on Wednesday, June 25th, Mom had another incident. Though now unable to talk and laboring to breath, she had obvious significant chest pain and nausea, possibly brought on by another major heart incident.

So I was in St. Louis, and Gail had to go through that very difficult day without me.  Fortunately at the end of the day hospice stepped in and the use of morphine provided significant relief from the pain. After a short time on morphine Mom no longer needed it and slept peacefully.  Early in the morning on June 26th, about 3:30 a.m., Gail got a call from the nursing home indicating that Mom was slipping away.  Gail went to her bedside, where she seemed to be at peace, and read Scripture to her for several hours. At about 8:00 a.m. she went to be with the Lord.

Fortunately, despite the fact that I didn’t think anything would happen while I was gone, I had taken the time to say a prayerful good-bye to Mom before I left for St. Louis.  So as Gail and I talked to by phone several times that morning I was relatively at peace with Mom’s passing.  At the conference, we voted that morning on the new statement of faith. I stayed until the vote was counted (it passed), and then left and caught an afternoon flight to Houston, so that I could be with my family that evening.
My focus over the next several days was the preparation of a memorial service for Mom which was held on Tuesday, July 1.  I really wanted to share are Mom’s life, but even more to share a word from the Lord which would show how he was glorified through her life.  On Saturday morning as I was thinking and praying about this I felt like the Lord spoke to me to the effect that Mom’s ordinary life made her a trophy of his grace.

The next several days were spent planning the next several weeks.  We were waiting for Abbie to have her baby, and she was already overdue.  But I knew that I needed to coat at Dallas on July 6 because I was starting a doctor of ministry course at the seminary on July 7.  Gail, of course, wanted to be there when the baby was born and was scheduled to drive to Dallas as soon as Abbie went into labor.  Then, after my week in Dallas was over we would have to go to Connecticut to inter Mom’s remains and then leave on our family vacation.  But we’ll have to save those stories for the following chapters.

I have slightly tweaked the Bridge Illustration that I used for children’s corner on June 22nd and put it online in several places (Youtube, Godtube, and hopefully Google video if I can get it to upload).  I’m hoping to add a bit more animation to it as computer time permits. Comments welcome!

The Bridge to Life

Google video has been a little rocky of late, and Frank and I are looking at possibly hosting our videos ourselves, but they did finally post the video for “Behold Your God”.

As you may recall, this message was the first in the series on the new Evangelical Free Church statement of faith. The text of the proposed Statement of Faith can be found here (PDF) and some good supporting materials can be found here.

May 25, 2008: “Behold Your God”

One of my goals with the sermons that contain enhanced visuals is to put them online as video messages. I’ve just completed the first of these.

May 4, 2008: The Leaven of the Age

I hope some of you noticed last week that I had severely cut back on the visuals in the PowerPoint that goes with the sermon. (Actually, its MediaShout - powerpoint is kind of a generic name I use for what we project on the screen, though we don’t actually use the Powerpoint program on Sunday morning anymore.)

I had several reasons for the severe cut back last week, some personal, some having to do with comments made by various folks about the recent visuals. Among the most important of these reasons was that the visuals seem too complex when combined with lively preaching, and that they were taking me way too much time.

Partially in reaction, partially in response, I cut way back last week and made a discovery that is blatantly obvious but still has to be tried to be appreciated: when you do less, it takes less time!  I have been looking for ways to increase my ‘margin’ in ministry - to tune my own ministry, if you will.  But until last week I had been unwilling to try cutting back on the visuals because I’d convinced myself that more was better in that arena.  Clearly that’s not so.

So, it’s time to try a new experiment, and I welcome your comments over the next six or eight weeks. On most Sundays I am going to try to combine relatively simple visuals with lively preaching. I’ll always put the text on the screen.  I’ll frequently put some cross references and maps. And I’ll occasionally put a very pertinent picture up.  But I’ll almost never, in a normal week, use fast moving montages or other forms of motion.  On the other hand I will be able to use some verbal imagery and approaches that I have been limiting because everything needed a visual.  So I hope that will be a gain.

Then, maybe one Sunday out of four, I’m going to go the opposite direction and prepare a message with what I’m calling ‘enhanced’ visuals.  This will be similar to what I have been doing, but tweaked even more fully toward visual communication. I’ll try to have a cohesive visual theme for the sermon and to say again what God has said in Scripture in the best visual ways I can manage. Significantly I’m going to try being ‘aware’ of the video, standing a bit to the side and at times even narrating what you’re seeing rather than trying to have the verbal part of the message stand alone.  I hope this latter approach will keep the visuals from being ‘too complex’ because you won’t be expected to process them independently of my words, but through my words.

Anyway, that’s the plan. This Sunday (April 20th) will be a ‘restricted visuals’ Sunday, as will the 27th.  On those weeks especially, I’m hoping this provides the ‘margin’ I’ve been needing to do my part in tuning ministry at Trinity. The following Sunday, May 4th, will be the first ‘enhanced visuals’ Sunday.  I’d appreciate your prayers as I prepare for that, that God would guide me to effective techniques of visual presentation, keeping the best and most cohesive of the things I’ve done.

Our ministry goal this year is ‘tuning ministry’.  This includes making our facility more efficient and welcoming.  The approach we are taking is to create a list of a hundred or so things that need to be done to the facility and committing to accomplish at least fifty of them this year.  Here is the list so far, organized by location within the facility. Please add to the list by making comments.  I will republish the modified list once a week or so until it is stable.

Landscape and Building Exterior
Repair and Resurface the Parking Lot
Run water line to sign
Run power line to sign
Connect light in sign
Fix broken limb on front tree
Replace basketball goal
Trim tree outside Bob’s office
Install Fence for New Playground
Repair / Replace outside flood lights
Clean / paint building exterior
Clean gutters
Purchase / install new playground equipment
Get new dumpster

Building Interior General
Replace and rekey main door locks
Replace and re-key interior door locks
Redo maps / bulletin boards
Get more white rectangular tables
Replace vacuum cleaners
Extend Reliant contract

LIFE area and offices
Finish the trim / door in Bob’s office
Finish light fixtures in Church Office
Finish painting in LIFE Room
Install AC Duct grills in LIFE Room
Finish trim in LIFE Room
Repair Boys bathroom near LIFE Room
Repair Girls bathroom near LIFE Room
Repair damaged doors and frames

Sunday School wing
Repair Girls toilet in SS wing
Get bayonet water heater for SS wing bathrooms.
Service alarm system (needs batteries)
Fix ceiling for water damage from SS wing AC
Fix duct work for SS wing AC
Clean up conference room - make useable space.
Clean up storage closets in SS building
Repair / replace water fountain

Kitchen
Repair / replace water fountain
Replace / fix up first aid kit.
Repair / replace microwaves
Build and install kitchen island with cabinets
Fix counters / backsplash panels
Paint kitchen

Main Auditorium
Fix broken church chairs

Rooms in Auditorium Building
Clean up storage closets in Auditorium building.
Get three organizations to maintain glassed bulletin boards
Repair damaged doors and frames
Fix legs on couch in prayer room
Repair hole behind door in prayer room
Women’s sinks pulling away from wall

I’ve been reading, for the first time, the book Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis. It’s  the myth of Cupid and Psyche, re-told in Lewis’ inimitable fashion.  One of the things that means is that profound, or at least humorous, insights into human nature are thrown into the narrative free of charge.

 In the story, a young woman is mentored by an old Greek philosopher she calls ‘the Fox’. She is desperately trying to get his insight into a terrible difficulty when the following passage occurs:

“Daughter,” said the Fox suddenly (I think no woman, at least no woman who loved you would have done it). “Sleep comes early to old men.  I can hardly keep my eyes open.  Let me go. Perhaps we shall see more clearly in the morning.”

 What could I do but send him away?  This is where men, even the trustiest, fail us.  Their heart is never so wholly given to any matter but that some trifle of a meal, or a drink, or a sleep, or a joke may come in between them and it, and then (even if you ar a queen) you’ll get no more good out of them till they’ve had their way.

Needless to say, I saw myself in this observation.  Gail saw me too! How about you?

As I’ve been studying in the book of Revelation and preparing for these Easter messages, the central truth of Christ’s death and resurrection begins to show up in every chapter. For example, in Revelation chapter 1 John sees one ‘like a son of man’, dressed as a priest and walking among seven lampstands:

“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”

What a fantastic description – especially a voice like the sound of rushing waters. John responds as every sane person would, in awe and fear: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid.”

And as Jesus goes on to reassure John, it is on the basis of his death and resurrection: “ I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

“I was dead and now I am alive for ever and ever.” That’s the foundational truth that makes eternity possible. Someday we will all be able to say that. But for now it is only our risen, victorious Lord who can make that paradoxical statement in truth.

I got a little busy yesterday (with car repairs, among other things) and didn’t get to post. But I did to another ‘music video’ for today’s sermon and thought it would be good to share it

I love the text and I love Michael Card’s setting of it.

Photo credits, by the way, go mostly to Pat Marvenko Smith who sells Revelation artwork at www.revelationillustrated.com.