Back...AGAIN!!!

I'm a terrible blogger! It's not that I don't have thoughts, it's that I don't write them down! However, I've been challenged to do better. (By the way, I also hate bloggers who start every post with an explanation of why they haven't been blogging lately...now I'm one of them!)

Anyway, what has been going on in my life? The Sanctuary has opened! That's a great new beginning in the life of FBC Vidalia. The moment that we've been waiting for has finally happened! First service was a little awkward. Second service was pretty formal because it was our "Grand Opening." Third service (this past Sunday) finally felt natural. I'm so glad to be back in our sanctuary. I'm so glad to be out of our gym. I'm so glad the project turned out as well as it did. If you want to see pictures, go over to our family blog and check it out here. We are so proud. Our committee did a wonderful job of moving us through this project.

Another thing...we've got a new worship pastor. If you know us and if you know First Vidalia, then you know that Joshua Roberts left us back in November to continue ministry at a church in Pearl, MS. Because of the turmoil that our church was in (sanctuary renovation project underway, meeting in the gym, etc...), I made the difficult decision to carry the church through by filling the interim worship pastor position. Yep...that meant that I was both leading the singing portion of our worship service as well as preaching. Can you say, TIRED?!? Every Sunday afternoon I would just go home and crash (if that was an option due to meetings and such). I had a D.Min class back in December and a fellow student told me that singing and speaking use different vocal muscles. He said that preaching usually puts quite a strain on your "speaking muscles" and singing usually puts a strain on your "singing muscles." However, as long as you're not tiring both sets of muscles out, you should be ok...well, I pushed both sets to their limit. Enter...Stephen Powell!! Stephen and his wife, Meghan, have been with us since May 24th and boy am I glad!! As a matter of fact, I think my body reacted too. I made it through the 6 month gruel of having to both sing and preach, but as soon as Stephen got here, I got a severe sore throat. One that I still haven't quite kicked. Anyway, I'm glad to have Stephen here. He came in under enormous pressure! We were moving into the sanctuary on his first week. His first Sunday was our first Sunday in the new sanctuary. He has had to deal with a lot of upheaval in his first few weeks at FBCV, but I'm very proud of the way he's handled the pressure! Welcome...Stephen and Meghan!

Another thing (a BIG thing!!). I've been married for 10 years! On May 15 of this year, Nicki and I "celebrated" our 10th wedding anniversary. I say celebrated in quotes because we went to Monroe for our celebration. What fun!!! Well, at least we were together! It was great getting away and reflecting on the last 10 years. God has brought us through so much! Seminary...Erlanger...Vidalia (Worship Pastor)...Vidalia (Pastor).... Who knows what God has in store for the next 10 years!!! I can't wait. I'm just so glad I have such a loving and supportive person standing by my side!

Finally (or the last thing I can think about right now)...Jonah is potty trained!!! Wow! I never thought I would say that. Nicki and I had talked about how important it was for him to accomplish this feat before school next year, but I never thought it would be so easy. How did we do it? We've found a great method. Ready for it? Listen carefully...Drive to Meadville (that's right, Meadville, MS), Get out of the car at the gas station (you know the one), put your child in Mimi's car, drive away... That's it! Nicki's mom accomplished the whole thing in ONE DAY!!! We dropped Jonah off on Sunday and he was potty trained on Monday! He had one accident on that Monday and hasn't had one since (Monday was two weeks!!!) He's even sleeping in "big boy unnerwears." (A couple of days ago, he called them "panties." I put a stop to that pretty quickly!!!) I'm so proud. Now, we just need to teach him to make his own food, drive, and work for a living...our job will be OVER!!! Ha! I love being a part of these milestones in his life!

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try to be more consistent with this blogging thing!

It's great to be a Daddy...

My little boy is 2 1/2 years old today! (That's 30 months for all of you month counters!!) It's hard to believe that two and a half years ago they put this little bundled up child in my arms and said, "Here you go, Daddy." I never knew a feeling like that!

I'm so glad that God has given me an opportunity to be Daddy to this little boy. I asked Nicki the other day..."When do the 'terrible two's' kick in?" She said I should be very quiet when I ask that question. Well...I don't know anything about the "terrible two's" so I thought we may be already in the thick of it and I was convinced that it wasn't that bad! Honestly, I think our child is an angel from heaven! (Or maybe we're just that good of parents! HA!)

All that to say, I'm so blessed to be this little boy's dad. What a joy to know that God has allowed me to raise this child. God, give me the strength and wisdom to do a job with this responsibility that will make You, my Heavenly Father, proud of me! I want to be a Daddy to Jonah the way God has been a Father to me!

I love you, my little Jonah-Bug!

Been a while

Ok...it's been a while!  I know.  This is not really my giftedness, but I do want to share with the people of "Blog-World" some of the things that are on my heart.  AND, Nicki and I made goals for each other for 2009 and one of her is for me to post something on my blog at least twice a month. (So what you're seeing now is the competitive side of me trying to live up to expectations!!)

Read something recently that talked about hospitality in church.  The idea was from the perspective of a worship leader, but it could be applied to the church as a whole.  The thought was that someone who is leading in worship should be very hospitable in their leadership.  That means that worship will become less about the leader and more about those he or she is leading. That's confusing...so for example.....If someone has an unbelievable voice and is singing to his heart's content on stage...that may not constitute worship leadership.  Instead, that person may have to mask his singing ability to keep the congregation engaged in the worship experience.  Think about it...most of the best worship leaders in our world today are not the most talented individuals.  You can mostly see this when some contemporary artist decides to step into the worship world (probably to catch the wave of the current movement)...usually a very awkward album.

So...how does this apply to a pastor?  I have to be sure that my ministry is to the people, for the people, and with the people.  Sometimes I can get so theological that I go right over people's heads.  I have to be sure that I'm communicating to the individuals that God has brought to our worship service rather than just amusing myself with what I've learned from a particular passage or subject.

Now...how does this apply to our church?  It means that we exist for the outsider.  One of the travesty's of church is that sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own pleasure that we forget that we have guests that we're trying to reach.  And even more than that, we have people who haven't darkened the doors of our church that we're trying to reach.  How are we going to reach them?  By doing what makes the longtime church member happy?  By making the pastors happy?  I think not. Outsiders are going to be reached by being engaged with the gospel.  We must show people how much God loves them and how much he wants a relationship with them.  What better way to do that than to allow God to engage their lives through worship and stand back to see what happens after that.

This Sunday, I pray that the people that come to our church will think more about others than about themselves.  Who are the most important people in the room?  They're probably the people that have been there the least amount of time.  May we put all of our effort into reaching them with the Love of God.

An update

Just for you Spydermonkey!!

Worst nightmare!!!

This HAS to be this guy's most embarrassing moment.  When you get up and speak to lots of people every week, things like this are bound to happen!!

My Little Boy is growing up!!

Several weeks ago, I said in church that I had never been the parent of a two year old.  I will never be able to say that again after today!

It's hard to believe that Jonah is growing up so fast.  It is such a joy to see him growing up more and more every day.  I say this all the time, but I LOVE being a daddy!  It's one of my favorite "jobs" that I have ever had.  Better than being a minister, better than being a camp counselor, better than being a bag-boy, hey...even better than working at the Cookie Store!  I absolutely love the responsibility of being a Daddy!!

Today, we were at Natalie Ainsworth's birthday party and Jonah was completely infatuated with the big fan they had going to keep a little bit of the heat down.  I was watching him closely because I had already told him not to touch.  I didn't want him to get hurt.  As I was talking to somebody, I caught him out of the corner of my eye sticking his straw into the fan!!  I let out a sound that can only be described as the guttural "uanh" that you use when your dog does something wrong.  I wanted to get his attention and quickly.  He got the picture!  Then, I wanted to lean down and tell him how much I loved him and that I was only trying to protect him from getting hurt.

I see that as my role in his life right now.  I want to lead him to be the little boy that I know he can be so that he will be able to live his entire life being that person.  I've said it before, but I want to follow Christ and tell Jonah to follow me.  I want to see my little boy reach his full potential in this world but, more importantly, in the kingdom of God.

HOWEVER, here's the deal about my kid:  I think his little heart could lead more people to the kingdom of God in one week than I may be able to in a lifetime.  I continually see God working in this little boy's life (and he's only TWO!!).  I truly believe that God has big plans for my little boy.  It may not be as a minister (boy will I try to lead him away from that one) or as a teacher or as a counselor or anything else you can think of, but one thing I will try to always teach Jonah is that no matter where his life leads him...let God use him there!

At this point in his life, I truly believe that God is developing his heart to be compassionate (you should see the terror on his face when someone else cries), caring (he never passes an open door without wanting to close it...now that's caring), loving (you should see him run to someone's arms), and kind (he truly is a "nice" kid.)  I just hope that those qualities continue to develop and that God (and his parents) protect him from developing some of those qualities that are so prevalent in the world today.

I'm the father of a two-year-old.  For some of you that know me well, that's a SCARY thought!!  However, I'm so glad that I can say with confidence that I don't raise this child on my own strength and knowledge...I'm just going to follow God's leading and then trust him to cover the slack.

Happy Birthday, Buddy...I LOVE YOU!!!!

GI Joe and the Bible

Jon Acuff over at stuffchristianslike.com has a post comparing the different versions of the Bible to GI Joe.

You should go over and read it then come back here...

As a point of information...I was a HUGE GI Joe fan when I was a kid. I still remember the "...and now you know...and knowing is half the battle" lessons at the end of each episode.

Well, I'll leave it up to Jon to describe the bible in terms of GI Joe characters, but I'm curious what you guys think about this debate. Is it really worth all of the time that people give to it? Is it really worth the headache and division that it can cause?? As a matter of fact, when you really think about it, is the version of the Bible a reflection of your character like so many people seem to assume that it is??

I for one don't think so. The Bible that you carry is just a personal preference. Me? I preach from the NIV, but at home, I read the New Living Translation (one that didn't make Jon's list...sniff-sniff). How about you? What version of the Bible do you like best and why? Is it just because that's what you've always had or because you actually see something in there that really interests you? Leave me a comment and let's do a little unofficial poll...

Here's Joe!!!

Here's the video I promised yesterday...this is a video of the man who "reverently" proclaims the Word of God every Sunday at FBCV doing "Hello, My Name is Joe." Please...don't fire me!! HA!!!!

EDIT FROM THE WIFE: Be sure to watch the video all the way to the end. It only gets better! I'm so proud!

OOOOOOOPS!!!!

This week is SMACK week at FBCV. We've been doing our Summer Music Activity Camp for Kids for 5 years now. It's a really great week, but VERY exhausting. Well, I guess the exhaustion got to me this morning.

You see...ever since the very first year of SMACK, we've been singing a song almost every morning to get the kids geared up for a very active day called "Hello, My Name is Joe." Some of you may have played before, but for your information, I have posted a video below that might give you an idea of how active this little song is. (I'm going to try to video it tomorrow and maybe post a video of yours truly doing "Joe.") Watch the video even if you know about "Joe" because it's absolutely adorable.



For those of you that didn't catch the words to that aerobic workout, they're:

Hello, My name is Joe
I got a wife, three kids, and I work in a Button Factory
One day my boss said, "Joe are you busy" I said, "No"
He said, "Good. Work this button with your left hand."

You continue adding body parts to the song until you just can't go anymore!

Ok...here comes the "Oooops." Today I was doing this game with the kids and having a great time. About half-way through, I looked to the back of the Sanctuary at one of our youth that was obviously trying to get my attention. He made a motion that I immediately recognized (and any of you would have, too) to mean "Your zipper's down!"

This has not been a big problem in recent history for me, but apparently I didn't quite get all the way dressed this morning. How EMBARRASSING!! I would have loved to just ignore him, but I thought about what could happen if I didn't go ahead and take care of my problem.

So, right there in front of God, children, youth, and adults, I had to fix my issue. It was unbelievably embarrassing...probably my life's most embarrassing moment to date.

Aren't you glad that we have those moments in our life that remind us that we don't have it all together. THANKFULLY, God loves us anyway. What a good God we have!!!

How about you? Care to share one of your most embarrassing moments?

A Long Awaited Day...

I enjoy golf. It's one of the places that I find solace. I really enjoy getting away from the busyness of my day and going to the golf course to enjoy some moments of solitude (and some challenging competition at the same time.) Well, one of the things that I have been looking forward to ever since we knew that we were having a baby boy was taking him out to the golf course with me. We took Jonah out to Duncan Park on his 1st birthday, but that was just to take a picture at the 1st hole marker (an idea Nicki got from one of her friends). We also took him to the putting green that day, but it was quickly obvious that was not his scene! I thought my days of enjoying the golf course with my little boy may be coming to a premature end.

So yesterday was a real joy!!! Nicki was in Jackson, so Jonah and I had the day to ourselves. That meant lots of playing, lots of chasing, and, at the end of the day, a short round of golf. It was Jonah's first real time to go to the golf course to play. We had recently bought him a "just-his-size" putter and I was anxious to give him a chance to use it.

I actually figured we would just go out and play around at the putting green, but when I stepped outside and noticed how hot it was, I figured riding on the golf cart would give him a chance to cool off between shots. So, we arranged a price with the pro shop and ventured out for a few holes. it was not very long before I realized how much fun this was really going to be. The first time I got into the golf cart and put my arm around my little boy, it almost brought tears to my eyes. I was so excited to be able to have my little boy with me enjoying some thing that I have enjoyed for so long.

One story from the day. I had a putter ("puh-er" in Jonah language) for him but not any other clubs. That will take a couple of years of growing. So, when i was doing anything except putting, I had to find something for him to do. I would tell him where to stand and he would stand there without moving a muscle. Then, I would tell him to watch the ball. Right after I hit the ball, Jonah would let out a typical, "Iownno." For those of you that don't speak a language...that's "Jonahese" for "I don't know." Of course, that's because Jonah would be looking intently at the ball on the tee or the ground and all of a sudden a "whoosh" and the ball was gone. Hard to describe here, but it made me laugh every time.

What a cool experience to see that little boy growing up. I'm so excited thinking about all of the years of enjoying many experiences like this over the years. We only made it through 4 holes yesterday, but I know the day is coming when Jonah will last through all 18...even beat his dear old dad. What a day that will be!!