Simple church. As a new young pastor I’m looking for something simple. Need something simple. Many things to do during the week and one can forget that the message Jesus gave was simple. Love your neighbor as yourself. Simple Church is a new book that a friend said that the staff he was serving with was reading through. Just got it. Hope to finish it soon. Seems like a “simple” read.  

Today, I spent some time with a wonderful guy and church member named Jimmy. Jimmy has cancer. It’s a horrible cancer. His body is filled with tumors. This last year has been difficult in that the doctors can’t stop the cancer. Nothing seems to work. Radiation and chemo haven’t worked. He began hospice a few weeks ago and just yesterday his hospice nurse said that his kidneys are failing and that he’s only been given a few weeks to live.

If Jimmy crossed your path today, all you’d see is his smile. His smile is contagious and his heart loves the Lord. He loves his kids, his wife, and his mom. You’d never know that he was physically in pain. As Jimmy and I spent some time together this afternoon, Jimmy is certain that he’s going to heaven. He said, “Last night it hit me, that I was going to heaven soon.”

As I sat in the quiet of his back-yard with his wife, I reminded him of a recent trip he and his wife took to Alaska. I asked if he was doing anything else or if he was spending time with family. Jimmy smiled and said he wanted to go to the ZOO and that this Friday he was seeing the opening of a movie and that this was the first time he had ever seen a movie on the day it opened.

Something I did grab from a theology professor in seminary was the art of being present is what matters and that pastoral care sometimes is just being physically present in the midst of someones pain. No answers, no fixing, just being present.

Today, Jimmy and his wife and I sat. We laughed. We were quiet. A few tears were shed. We laughed some more and we prayed and we will continue to be present praying for Jimmy and that he would enjoy these last days sitting in the presence of family, friends, and the Lord.

Please pray for Jimmy.

new nooma premiere here: http://www.myspace.com/NOOMAmyspace to view for a day.

 ht: Chris

According to East Coast time, I’m officially 39 years old…AGHHHH….praise you Lord for another year of life and the blessings of being a follower of Jesus. Thank you for loving me in spite of my “stuff…

When Jesus sends us out into the world, he sends us to places that either bring us joy or places where we will be challenged to grow in our faith. After finishing a week of vacation Bible school, I can’t help but hear the words of Jesus, “as the father sends me, I also send you…”

Ministry is a whole lot of sending sometimes. Every where you go and everyone you meet is an opportunity for giving and living like Jesus. I have to say that I was on the receiving end of grace this week as we concluded a week of VBS. I love watching kids move from that initial first day of, “what have I gotten myself in to,” to singing goofy VBS church songs, which yours truly always enjoys doing. (I will be singing “whose side are you leaning on” in my sleep for about a week in my dreams) I especially enjoyed our celebration this evening when the kids whose parents had showed up for an end of week BBQ wanted to sing the songs for their parents. It was awesome and refreshing. I especially enjoyed watching the adults give of their lives in a way where one adult made a comment to another, “now what am I going to do now that VBS is over?”

I have no doubt they experienced what I experienced in receiving grace from a bunch of kids who were challenged at the beginning of the week to do just one thing…just have fun. The joy in being sent by God is knowing that even when we are sent to places that either bring us joy or challenge us that God has a way of renewing our hearts for for his purpose. Even when and if we’re feeling spent after a week of goofy VBS church songs, bible themed snacks, and loud ear piercing sounds and smells of kids just trying to enjoy the gift of being kids.

Blogging stinks right now. Not much happening. Went to Gilbert Arizona for a few days with the family. Nice little community there in Gilbert AZ. Gilbert has a few things I’m liking that California needs to get quickly…and that we loved.

1. lifetime fitness (a very cool gym with more televisions than best buy to work out to, a rock climbing wall facility, and an indoor/outdoor mini-water park and pool that we sat in and played for around four hours in 108 degrees of HOT sun) I’m sorry 24 hour fitness. When lifetime fitness comes to Cali…you guys are toast, we’re going lifetime.

2. PEI WEI- I loved Panda. I love Pick Up Sticks even more…PEI WEI will take over Pick Up Sticks fairly soon and I will love PEI WEI. Please come to the AV Mr. Pei Wei???? (We didn’t get to go, but drove by two stores I think…have come to learn PEI WEI is here in Cali…hurry up and come to the AV)

3. Wildflower Bread Company We had breakfast here and Panera Bread you rock with the all you can drink coffee and free WIFI…but these guys serve a cool little Honey-Cured Ham & Brie Frittata that was awesome and yes all you can drink coffee is happening at the Wildflower…

We are now back and ministry is happening this week in Littlerock! Another cool thing about my call as a pastor and that I get to help make happen….

VBS!!!! 15 kiddoes. It was pretty cool. I have to say that we have a cool church in that we have people who really do care about ministry and making sure that when kids come to the church that they are loved like Jesus loves them.

Four more days to go!!! Please pray for us as we try to reach kids for Christ in Littlerock! AND YES I get to play my guitar!!!

Kids and gaming. One word…Ughhhh

My gaming as a kid was asteroids and pac-man at a local 7-11 in Hollywood in 1981. If you wanted to play a game, it cost you a quarter.

I will be charging now as the kiddlings enter the age of the need to play 24 hours a day…

Twenty Five Cents…in 1981????

$5.00 in 2007?????? Oh yeah!!!! I”ll be rich by the time they get out of high school…I guess they will need allowance now…maybe not rich, but coffee money is nice.
ht: ysmarko

Young pastor I am. Wet behind the ears I am. I was left speechless today after a kind church member’s child helped pass some Vacation Bible School fliers out today at a park to a bunch of kids. When the child walked up to the kids to tell them about our VBS week, the child was confronted with a degrading remark made to the child that made the child cry and made the parents want to crawl out from under their skin. I walked up to the child who graciously tried to help pass out these fliers later on in the day and told him how happy I was that he helped the church pass them out. How do you as a pastor confront issues of difference between different groups of people? Especially in the 21st Century? What left me speechless was that this was on a day that we celebrate freedom and give God thanks that we can together live without fear of being ridiculed or put down because of our differences or in the way we look or sound.

We have a time in our service at church where we hear prayers of concern or praise. Let me take you back to our church this morning for this little bit of coolness…

Me: “Are there other prayers of praise or concern?”

Child 1 raising hand: “I’m going to Tahoe.” (Going with family member)

Child 2 raising hand: (Huge smile on his face as a he raises his hand) “My dad is taking me to see transformers.”

It was the cutest thing I’ve ever experienced in church and a reminder of the need for us big people to come to the Lord in prayer with a kids heart.