Thanks for the 50th

LaJune just had to get the Happy Birthday in there, after the sermon.  You guys are great.  Thanks for the Birthday potluck.  Very nice.

Doing Well

Alicia and little girl, Lilian? are doing well, 7.11lbs.

Campmeeting Week

A busy weekend this past weekend as Karl Haffner wrapped up the week.  He made us laugh and some cry as he told stories that lifted up our Connection With Christ.  It was good to see so many members out there.  Time to catch up on some sleep now.

Campmeeting Begins

Bill Kilgore spoke tonight.  Are you an Adventist was his question.  Good message.  Good spirit.  Beautiful out at DAA this time of year as the sun sets late over the “Missouri river.

Campmeeting

Off to campmeeting this week.  See you out there or in two weeks at church.  No church next week.  Have a great week.

Flying Anyone?

Sermon^Integrity

Jesus apparently didn’t go in for Swearing much.  Peter swore he didn’t know Jesus, that didn’t work out too well for him.  Israel swore they would be faithful, they weren’t.  Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 5, don’t spend your time swearing, just say yes or no.

The promise of a simple life, yes or no.  When you get it down to those two words, and live it that simply, you are living with integrity.

Pancakes Anyone?

Staff Huddle

Our first staff huddle takes place today. What is a Staff Huddle anyhow? Staff are the folks who do the main work of an organization. They are important in several ways.

• If the staff understands the mission of the organization, they can be encouraged by that mission to serve in alignment with it.
• If the staff is well organized, they can accomplish more.
• If the staff understands that it is not their job to do all the work, but to share the ministry with others, they can accomplish a great deal more.
• If the staff has leadership, they can see their ministries prosper.

A staff model is nothing new, having been the key model for business, education, and military organizations for centuries. When teams of staff work well, they make a large difference in their organizations. They require training, support, leadership, and direction. That is the purpose of staff huddles.

Today’s main purpose will be to begin the process of building teams in the church and helping involve more people in our church teams.

After the Sermon on Anger

Some things are clear, some are not.  Some things we declare to be clear are only clear to us or those who think like us.  When Christ spoke to the gathering on the hillside, I’m sure He knew there was anger in their hearts.  Perhaps the anger was dormant at the moment, perhaps it was undetectable.  But human nature being what it is, they carried anger inside their hearts.

That anger worked itself out at last in the crucifixion.  A completely innocent human,  never a sinful moment in His life, yet He was treated as if He was the devil himself.  Anger does that.  It demonises to accomplish its goal.  What is the goal of anger then?  Just as it was for the Pharisees, to convince one that in my anger I am right and someone else is wrong.  It was and still is a self defense mechanism used to convince myself that I am on the right(eous) track.

The type of anger that Jesus cautions about is the slow burn, long nursed, grudge building, I’ll eventually see you fail, I’ll dance on your grave type of anger.  I can’t say that any anger is good, even though I can find a couple of texts where it seems clear that Jesus had righteous anger.  I can see and admit the value of anger as a motivator against bad and hurtful things.  But I feel that so called “righteous anger” needs to be about issues, not people.  When we are angry at Iran for instance because they are talking more and more about their nuclear abilities, what are we really angry about and with whom?  And what does that anger achieve?  Most of it is useless, turning inward on ourselves.  Can some of that anger be useful?  I think so, if used carefully.  Maybe Iran seems far away to you at the moment, bring it closer then.  Take a moment to think about what makes you angry and then take a moment to think about how much you think about it.  And take another moment to think about how easy it is to feel anger rise in your heart and mind.

For the passage we used today in church, anger is not part of God’s way.  We are not called to be “Moron Detectors.”  In fact, this is the very thing Jesus warns us against.  At the end of the chapter, we are called to be perfect.  That call is based on these 6 points of growth and maturity, the first of which being the realization that anger in our heart for our brother or sister is a form of murder and severely consequential.  In some senses we can kill a person and their spirit without killing their body.  We can kill their influence with our words, counteract their actions with ours, kill their spirit with our unwillingness to refresh them.

For me, it’s clear that this is not a God given purpose.  He made no call, even to His own Son to be a detector and corrector of wrong headed, empty headed, Raca type people.  He did give us the Gospel and the call to share it, let it be a light, let it be salt, spread it far and wide.  This is where He spent the vast majority of His ministry.  Anything else is like a counterfeit bill, looks good, until we see it as it truly is.