Bishop Robert E. Hayes, Jr. Is Coming to Lamont

Bishop Hayes will be preaching here in Lamont tomorrow at our regular worship service.  I am very excited to have him in worship with us.  To my knowledge, a bishop has not come to Lamont all that frequently, so this is an exciting opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to him and get to know him a little bit better.

I am amazed that with all of the preaching and traveling that Bishop Hayes does, that he is able to consistently preach inspiring, Spirit-filled messages.  We are blessed by the leadership and vision that Bishop Hayes brings to our conference.  I look forward to seeing the ways in which God uses him to revive and renew our conference during the rest of his episcopacy.   But for now, I especially look forward to hearing the message that he will bring to us tomorrow.

One Thing Is Needful

I actually posted last Sunday’s sermon to my podcast several days ago, but I forgot to post here about it. That means that if you are already a subscriber to my podcast, you probably have already gotten the sermon. If not, now you know that it is available. As always, you can click on the “deeply committed sermons” link on the right or click here to go directly to the podcast.

The Scripture Reading for Sunday’s sermon was Luke 10:38-42, where Jesus is a guest at Mary and Martha’s house. In life, we are often distracted by many things. As a result, we can forget that nothing is more important than our relationship with Jesus. Martha was reminded of that in this Scripture passage, and through retelling the story - so are we.

Simple Church

Simple Church reveals the results of research comparing growing and vibrant churches to nongrowing and struggling churches. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s research showed that “the vibrant churches were much more simple than the comparison churches” (13-14). Here is the essential conclusion they come to based on their research:

The significance is that, in general, simple churches are growing and vibrant. Churches with a simple process for reaching and maturing people are expanding the kingdom. Church leaders who have designed a simple biblical process to make disciples are effectively advancing the movement of the gospel. Simple churches are making a big impact.

Conversely, complex churches are struggling and anemic. Churches without a process or with a complicated process for making disciples are floundering. As a whole, cluttered and complex churches are not alive. Our research shows that these churches are not growing. Unfortunately, the overprogrammed and busy church is the norm. The simple church is the exception, yet our research shows that should not be the case (14).

Here is how they define a simple church:

A simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus) (67-68).

One of the motivations for writing this book is the conviction that the church should be making disciples, not just converts. The church should help people be transformed and grow in their faith. The authors write:

The Wrong Question

Click here to listen to this past Sunday’s sermon. The title of the sermon was “The Wrong Question” and the Scripture Reading was Luke 10:25-37. I tried to remind myself and all who were present of how radical this story is. Though we all think we know all about the story of the good Samaritan, this story reminds us that we are called not just to love those whom we know and love. Rather, we are called to a way of life that isn’t interested in restricting our sphere of responsibility. If the wrong question is “Who is my neighbor” or “Who do I have to help?,” a much better question is “How can I help” when we are confronted with need. This is the radical love that Christian discipleship calls us to and frees us for.

A Good Definition of Accountability

I recently came across a definition of accountability that I found helpful. It is from Dr. James B. Scott and Dr. Molly Davis Scott’s book Kingdom People:

Accountability is not judgment, nor judgementalism. Accountability is an attitude of love and care about self and other people we love and trust. Accountability is the commitment to self and other loved ones to encourage, teach, build up, and sometimes to correct each other in order to be Kingdom People doing Kingdom Living. Accountability with this attitude and in this context is love assuring salvation. One tangible place where there needs to be accountability is in the finances, but the intangible areas, like connecting with God, must be held accountable also. Simultaneously evaluating every ministry of the Church tells us where we are succeeding and where we need to re-evaluate and improve.

This definition helps us to see that the central goal of accountability is to help each other grow in our faith. The goal is not to gleefully point fingers, but rather to help each other to take steps forward in faith. This kind of accountability, as Wesley put it, involves “watching over one another in love.”

Signs of Life by Steve Rankin

I just posted the sermon Steve Rankin preached here in Lamont on July 1st. Steve is a campus minister and professor at Southwestern College in Winfield, KS. He is also an ordained elder in the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church. Steve has been an immense blessing to me personally as he has been willing to meet with me periodically to encourage me and hold me accountable for growing in my own faith as I seek to help others grow in theirs. It is always a gift to have someone fill the pulpit whom you know and are excited to have preaching in your absence. Although, it can tend to raise the bar and make it difficult to follow in their footsteps!

You can listen to Steve’s sermon by clicking on the “deeply committed sermons” link on the right of this page, or you can click here to go directly to the podcast.

The title of the sermon is “Signs of Life” and the Scripture Reading is John 6:25-34.

John Wesley’s Thoughts Upon Methodism (Part IV)

Thoughts Upon Methodism (Part IV)

I have been discussing John Wesley’s Thoughts Upon Methodism in a few previous posts. You can read them here, here, and here.

I have focused on Wesley’s essay, which reads:

I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.

The last two posts discussed whether Methodism in America has managed to hold fast to the doctrine and the spirit of the early Methodists. The goal of this post, then, is to seek to answer the question: Has Methodism held fast to the discipline that Wesley set before the first Methodists?

In order to answer this question, we need to first answer another, more basic, question: What was the discipline with which the Methodists first set out?

The basic discipline was the structure that Wesley created to ensure that Methodists would grow in holiness of heart and life. In other words, the discipline was the means by which Methodists expected to become holy. This discipline consisted of three key levels of organization: the society meeting, the class meeting, and the band meeting.

Thirsty for God

Here is the sermon I preached on June 24th. I know what you are thinking, but hey at least I got it posted before a month had gone by! I have recorded the sermons from Steve Rankin, and Richard Knight, our guest preachers from July 1st and July 8th and will be uploading them to my podcast soon, so stay tuned.

The Scripture reading for “Thirsty” was Psalm 42 and it discusses our thirst for God and challenges us to put our hope in God, even when it seems like it would be easier to hope in the things of this world. You can listen to this sermon by clicking on the “deep sermons” link on the right column of this page, or you can click here to go directly to the podcast.

Disciple Training

Today I am at Boston Ave. United Methodist Church in Tulsa, OK. I am attending the one day training for Disciple Bible Study. I am impressed with the training so far. Sometimes training events like these are very tedious. So far today, the time has passed quickly and it has been helpful. I have a fair amount of familiarity with Disciple, but have not actually gone through the class or taught it. After learning more about it today, I can now more personally say that it does seem to be a very helpful resource for helping folks to be transformed through Bible Study.

I am curious if any of you have experience with Disciple. If so, what has you experience been? How do you feel about Disciple?

The Harvest Is Plentiful

The Harvest Is Plentiful

Originally uploaded by deeplycommitted

When we got home from our trip to New York City, there were many vegetables waiting to be harvested. In fact, some of them were desperate to be picked. If you look at the yellow squash, they are much larger than they ideally should be. Typically, I would pick squash when they were about half the size that the largest ones are in this picture.

There are also green beans, also many of them larger than is ideal, carrots, potatoes, banana peppers, cayenne peppers, bell peppers, and one okra that looks like it was on steroids. My garden also had lettuce, strawberries, and raspberries that are all done bearing fruit. I also have tomatoes that are not ready to be picked yet.

I have really enjoyed gardening the last two years. It has been an entertaining hobby. It gives me something to do with my hands, to give my mind a breather, and it makes me feel a connection to my family roots - I have very fond memories of going to my great grandmother’s farm in Michigan and picking raspberries. Even more, I remember helping my grandfather with his garden when I used to visit every summer in Tulsa. One of my favorite pictures from my childhood is of me and my grandfather kneeling down next to a much bigger and much more impressive harvest.

So, it was nice to come home to some good fresh food. On the other hand, my grandfather shielded me from the world of bugs and pesticides. With the humongous squash, I also discovered humongous squash bugs. So I spent today spraying the plants. Hopefully these squash won’t be the last.