Could Be A Carpet Bagger

Well since we last spoke some major changes have taken place.  I felt like my job was finished in the small northern Ohio town.  So we left people we loved and those who were tired of us, a mostly successful ministry to journey into the Old South.  In fact it is the place where the slaves were sold and the war was fought over it.  We now live on one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina.  Part Southern and part Slave culture.  The Southern culture is highbrow.  Mansions with oak trees covered in Spanish moss.  Kind of a snobbery exists on the downtown streets and in the parlors of the mansions on the point.  The Slave culture or Gullah roots has turned into a slave to the now black culture.  But on the average, people are people.

The place I have come to work in is a whole world of difference away from Ohio.  Many people here are welcoming and friendly but they seem closed up.  Willing to be cordial and hospitable but not open.  There are many transfers like me, northerners who come for the weather and the beauty of this fine fort.  By the way the name of the town is Beaufort pronounced “boe,” not “bue” (except in South Carolina)—is a French name that means “handsome” or “great” or “strong,” as in a fortress.  People seem to have taken the name of the town and set up their own little fortresses.  

Those transplants who come from north of the mason-dixion line are treated with suspect.  Kind of like the carpet-baggers of times gone by.  But it seems as though they relax this mistrust with time.  
Time will tell!  
I will keep on trusting God for direction and how to do His work in this beautiful place.  May God's will be done and His plans be fulfilled.

I write again soon!
Y'all be blessed!

THE BIG GREEN TOMATO EXPLOSION

Many years ago...


... I shared a room with my younger brother Tim.  We had a large attic type room with the ceiling following the roof line down to about 3 feet off the floor.  Taller people would bump their heads as they walked closer to the wall.  Tim had his side of the room and I had mine.  I have many fond memories of us sharing a room, because that meant that me as the older brother of 5 years was experienced in the art of fooling my younger brother who was  the more inexperienced.  What was fun for me was not always popular with him and more than a million times I would get in trouble after carrying out a little plan.  I would play my little jokes on him.  He would scream MOOOOOOOM, and at that point was usually when I would receive my comeuppance.  Many times that punishment found me in the garden weeding or hoeing around the corn.  I hated working in the garden.  That is why mom or dad would send me there. One day after I had received my comeuppance for a wonderfully concocted tease, I was there in the garden weeding and my brother decided it was time for a ya yana ya ya ya moment.  You know what that is, little kids say it all the time.  Kinda like  nanna nanna boo boo you can't ketch me.  On the same line anyway.  At the time my parents were building onto our house, so there was a huge pile of dirt mounded up just behind the construction site right in front of the garden.  My brother (who never did anything wrong') climbed the hill and started his banter.  "Ya yana ya ya you got in trouble."  Hey I was the older brother, I should have been shown some respect but instead I was ya yana ya ya'd.  I was furious, I was livid...  I grabbed a big green tomato and launched it in an arch fashion, not directly at his face but in a arch.  You know an arch like one half of the golden McDonalds arches.  With no real plans of hitting him. Honest!  But what happened next from my point of view was the most funniest  thing I had ever seen.  He moved around trying to dodge the tomato.  Oh yes he saw it coming.  He was trying to get out of the way, but the way I see it, he wanted to get hit. That big green fruit exploded on top of his head.  I mean it looked like someone had placed a green tomato on his head, put a firecracker in it, lit the fuse and it exploded.  He ran screaming into the house.  I laughed until I came to my senses.  Replaying the scene in my mind, I thought was that his brain that just blew up or was that the big green tomato that I had launched. Their was not blood shed that day, no brain damage, just green salsa all over the place.  Again I received my comeuppance.  As I would for many different reasons that year.  Some kind of conspiracy if you ask me.  I was totally innocent.  I can tell you this...  We had the prettiest weed free garden that year.  I can still see that green tomato flying through the air and then an explosion of green goop....

 Man I hate to weed in the garden!

Distrust or Mistrust what will it be?

Have you ever mistrusted someone?  Maybe they had shifty eyes or something in their voice told you ...do not trust this person.  Your detected something with your Spidey senses and became leery of the person whose eyes were set to close together.  How does a person lose or gain trust?  Is it ever possible to gain someones trust after you have lost it?

I personally have been given reason to mistrust other persons...  Many in fact. Distrust is not enjoyable when you have to be around that person or you have to worry about where they are and what they are doing.  It is usually something a person does.  The way they carry themselves that brings on the feelings of suspicion.  Words they use or as if they are trying to become overly friendly to gain a confidence.  Watching me to see my reaction to their words.

Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!  I hate feeling this way.  Even more I really don't like being mistrusted.  It used to be that the title pastor brought with it a respectful trusting from people.  Like they were saying,"Now there is a man we can trust." I think the spirit of politics has wormed it's way into way to many area's of life.  To much distrust because the highest office in the land has become a haunt for liars and deceit.  Mistrust/distrust  has become the overriding feeling of every election, of every office and lays in the back of every persons mind these days.  No wonder our Spidey senses are tingling.  Many pastor's have fallen, doctors, bankers, police officers, a man is not as good as his word any more.

Churches don't trust pastors and pastors don't trust congregations.

Who can we trust? Some would say, "NO ONE." I say without trust faith is lost.  If we can't trust someone we have no faith in them.  So it is with the church.  So it is with Christ.  People are so skittish that they trust no more.

How do we change that?  Is it possible? How do we turn all of this around and gain one another trust and faith again?  Love!  Unconditional LOVE.  I will love you no matter how you treat me. It is the only way to change all this...  I will lay down my life for you even if you reject me.  That is what Jesus did.  That kind of love will never let you down.  That kind of love is the example that Jesus gave us to earn trust.  To build faith. To prove to the world that they can trust someone.

CAN YOU BE TRUSTED?

Love you!
Jesus

Church Security

We would never think of needing a security team in a small or even mid-sized church in years past, but as Bob Dylan wrote and entitled his album in 1964 "The Times They Are a-Changin'"  All of a sudden we are quickened into a world where the Sunday offering is looked at as easy money or the restroom becomes a place of gender choice.   Yes times are changing and we in church leadership have to adapt to the things that are being forced on the church.  

The offering to the normal church attender is sacred but to the addict who needs money the church offering becomes his ticket to a much needed fix.  To the non-custodial parent the church is an easy place to pickup his/her kids without any resistance form the custodial parent.  Many states now are in heated legal debates over the so-called bathroom laws, where transgenders can use the bathroom of their choice.  

The pastor's calling has changed from praying, preaching and teaching to loss prevention, security guard and investigator.  Adjusting to these changes is not easy but it can be done with some knowledge and planning.

Churches have become soft targets, so more crime will venture into the church just because of that reason.  No security guards or security systems protect from one who has ill intent.  

The first thing is that people are more important than money.  Advise those who are handling the offering if they are threatened, to hand over the money right away.  It is not worth dying for.  God takes on the responsibility for the loss and dealing with those who would steal it.

Secondly, We are living in a different time and place when it comes to domestic problems.  Children have become pawns in a game called, "How To Hurt Your Ex." When dealing with a child custody issues the experts are the authorities.  Call the police department or sheriff's office right away. Try to keep the parent from leaving with the child until the authorities arrive.  We don't always know the background of the domestic cases so we must try to protect the child as best as we can.  Even the non-custodial parent has rights and we don't always know what they might be.  We always  investigate claims and we always report child abuse . 

Thirdly, never in my life would I have thought we would be dealing with such an issue in the church as transgender use of bathrooms, but sin is sin.  So when it comes to your state and bathroom laws.  We must protect the innocent.  That is why children should always be chaperoned.  Now I'm not saying that we need to follow a child into a bathroom but it is fine to have someone of the same sex check the bathroom before the child goes in.  Also it is ok to ask someone to wait until the child finishes and comes out.  We must be on our guard because there is an evil one that desires to destroy the church and to take people captive in in the bondages of sin.

This is by no means exhaustive as to what security needs to be provided in our churches today.  These are some of the issues of the day that must be processed.

Blessings and be secure...

SNOW DAY

YES!  I remember as a kid hoping and praying for a snow day.  They never canceled school the night before. They would always wait to cancel it after you were wide awake and getting ready to go.  I would imagine our Principle pushing the button on his garage door then getting in to his 4 wheel drive truck with a snow plow and plowing his way to school.  Then saying, "aw it's not that bad"...  I hated that vision.  In my mind if I were Principle I would look out the window the night before and say, "Well it looks like it might snow... Better cancel school."  Then I would sleep in and everyone would like me...  Ha Ha Ha!

Now I am the pastor of a church and people will call the day before and tell me the weather forecast for the week and ask, "do you think we will have church?"  Now I know what that Principle goes through.

 I heard a story about a larger church where  it snowed pretty hard and the person who makes that decision canceled the services.  Well, some lovely couple took it upon themselves to disagree and drive a long distance to prove that they could have had Church.  They went to the decision makers house picked up their newspaper out of the box and hand deliver it to the front door.  Just to prove that the weather was not that bad.
This has never happened to me but if it would I would want to cancel them.

Their is a lack of trust in our leaders, in our decision makers.  Principle you better make the right decision...  Pastor you better make the right decision or we will prove you wrong.

In the secular world you can count on critics.  They lay and wait to find fault.  It seems as though if you bring the leader down, then when you make a mistake you have a reason not to take blame.  I have a friend who is a new this year High School Principle and he is struggling to try and please everyone.

In the church the secular world has crept in, no mercy and grace.  It is so sad when I see pastors being taken for granted.  In the past several years I have watched pastors get so frustrated with people that they have ended up leaving the ministry.  Sometimes people can be so cruel.  The secular world shows it's ugliness in the church.  No one in leadership is perfect just like no person is perfect.

What am I saying?  I guess it is,"All have sinned and fall short of the city of God."  And even though we are not perfect we still are trying to follow the Perfect One.

The subtitle of his blog is Ramblings and that is what this Pastor has done here... Rambled.

DESTINED FOR GREATNESS

What is it that will give you your 10 seconds of fame?  Saving someones life, achieving some great feat that will impress the world.  Will you be abducted by aliens and have a probing story?  How about winning the Powerball for 700 million dollars? What is it going to be?  Well that last one will not be me because I don't gamble.  Unless you call driving in my truck around all those people who think that they're vehicle has become a mobile phone booth. Other than that.

But back to the thought at hand, do you feel it inside you?  That thing that says you are going to do something that is so vital if you could just work it out.  If you could just wring it out of you everyone would see the beauty, the perfectly fit cog that makes the big wheel turn and that cog is you.

You know that God created us all with a special purpose.  We are a handmade, genuine laser cut puzzle piece that only goes one place and that piece completes a beautiful work of art that God had painted Himself.  God did that when he created us...  Very Cool Huh?

You know I have spent the majority of my life trying to impress people.  Titles seem to impress people.  PHD, Esquire, Professor, President.  All these demand respect.  I used to think that Pastor was a respected title but times have changed.  Oh maybe to some it still holds a little bit of reverence.  Not like it used too.

We can't stop there if we did we would be like so many others that believe it is man that we must impress, but it's not...  It is God.  The one who created the pretty picture and specifically made you a major part of it.  Be encouraged pastor's! God is so impressed with where you are.  Remember where you came from and your obedience it took to get where He wants you.  BE ENCOURAGED!