+ The Good Life

My Response in Church

We are in the process of updating our records at church. A tool we are using to help us do this is the "MY RESPONSES" card in the weekly worship bulletin. We are asking our members, friends and visitors to share their contact information and place the card in the offering plate when passed.  These cards are more than a tool for updating our outdated records. Here's how we plan to use them in the weeks ahead:

1. By SIMPLY PLACING YOUR NAME on the card, we are able to easily register your attendance. We now have a worship attendance data management system that we have initiated to track if people are missing from worship for a while. In this way, our care ministry team can reach out in a reasonable time to be of support to our members.
2. In addition to recording your attendance, when you place your basic information on the card, our VISITORS ARE ENCOURAGED TO SHARE THEIR CONTACT INFORMATION.  A growing church needs the contact information of their guests to be able to follow up and nurture a relationship. When someone has a card in their hand for a longer period of time than the passing of a pad down the row, they offer more information.
3. The cards also allow us to have a DIALOGUE with those attending worship. You may communicate anything on the card, and we will be able to respond.
4. One of the positive features of this tool of communication is the OPPORTUNITY TO ADVANCE OUR CARE for one another. We would appreciate you sharing your needs or telling us of needs that you would like us to address.
5. A very special use of the cards is the sharing of PRAYER CONCERNS.
6. Other uses for the Response Cards include signing up for events, letting us know of people who need a visit, telling us if you would like to become a member, sharing a desire for baptism, and any other needs, concerns or interests you'd like to share.

Dealing with Differences

The challenge with unity is real differences between us.  In this video I discuss how the Apostle Paul invites us to breathe in the Spirit of God to create potential for an organic unity in the spaces between us.

Adam 1 or Adam 2

This is a THOUGHTFUL reflection on what matters most, by a Jewish Journalist not all that far in his thinking from the message of a Christian evangelist like Billy Graham.

A Loving, Sovereign God

The miserable man in this picture from "Walk Thru the Bible" is Job, but he is in God's hand. Since God is in control of all of life, we give the Book of Job the key word that tells us that God reigns: sovereignty. The Book of Job examines one of life's most perplexing questions. It introduces a pious man of God named Job, who lived perhaps 4,000 years ago. In a sudden series of catastrophes brought on by Satan with God's sovereign permission, Job loses his family, fame, fortune, and his health. For 35 chapters he searches his soul and debates with his best friends to find a reason for his misfortune. After exhausting the conventional wisdom of his four counselors, Job is confronted by God Himself, and his demanding "Why?" melts into humble worship when he realizes he is in the hands of a loving, sovereign God. 

Blotchy, Incomplete and Beautiful

 When I reflect on how the Bible says that we are God’s Workmanship, I think of the time when my son, Lane, was a new art student. He did a self-portrait that looked to me blotchy and incomplete.

“It looks beautiful,” I said to my wife, “But unfinished.”

“That’s right,” she said, “Maybe that’s his point.”

The Bible teaches that though we be blotchy in places, our Lord and Master is nevertheless at work doing something beautiful. 

A couple years after my son's art education had begun, I had an opportunity to address the beauty of blotchiness again.  I was looking through an art book of the master Russian oil painter Nicolai Fechin, with my son. When I saw Fechin’s painting of a young girl, I said, “Wow, that’s an amazing portrait.” Then I added, “Lane, why do you think he leaves it blotchy on one of the edges?  It looks unfinished.”

“That’s right, Dad” Lane said, “Isn't it beautiful?”