Gym Membership

Today was, hopefully, the beginning of a new pattern of regular exercise at the gym. I have been a member for a little over two years now and I would have to say that my use of the facility has been sporadic. I usually will get into a pattern of going five days a week and then after about a month something will break the pattern. I don't really know why, but there will just be something that makes not going today easier if I didn't go yesterday.

All that being said, I have been there regularly enough to notice a pattern. I have been faithfully working away on the elliptical machine when someone comes in and signs up. You see them over the next month or so and then they disappear. I friend of mine told me that he bought a year membership and only went three times! I hope he got a great workout those times because he certainly paid a high price for them!

Why do we do that sort of thing? We pay for something and then don't get the benefit of it, even joke about avoiding it! If I knew the absolute answer to that I would write a book about it and make enough money to buy the gym. What I can say from my experience is that priority is critical. Just how high on the "To Do" list is working out? For me that translates into what I do first. In fact, I have found that when I determine to go to the gym first thing in the morning I am usually more successful in creating that pattern which all the exercise folks say is so important in improving overall health.

So, let me ask you, would you benefit from working out regularly? That is an important question, but the follow up is perhaps even more so, how high a priority will you set on this? Almost all of us would answer yes to the first question. How you answer the second question will determine if it is worth doing at all.

Organization

I admit it, I have a thing for organization. Someone famously said, "a place for everything, and everything in its place." I have to admit that there is just something about working to get all my books in just the right order, my papers in just the right file, and a large pile of things "weeded out" and assigned to the trash. The other day I had one of those unusual days where no one would expect to see me. It had snowed, a wet, heavy snow. Traffic was at a crawl and I could invoke the "absolution of the snow" to justify my time in the office. I really enjoyed seeing everything "organized."

Now, typically I will do this sort of thing about once a year, and this was a bit early in the year for me to take on the task, but, as I said, the opportunity presented itself. Somewhere in the process it occurred to me that my life is something like my office. There are times that I need organizing. Somethings (maybe priorities?) need to reordered, other things are out of place and need to be put in the right file (read goals or ambitions), and finally some things just need to be chucked!

I have to admit, it is more difficult to organize myself than it is to organize my office. It takes time and typically time without distractions. I had the luxury of a "snow day" for my office. I think wisdom would be to just take a personal organization day, regardless of the weather.

Baptized?

It was early one week day when I got an unusual phone call. A pleasant sounding young lady had an inquiry. She wanted to know if we kept records of baptisms? The answer to that is both yes and no. I know that some churches keep a sort of "accession book" which notes when anyone is baptized or when someone is voted into the church membership. Yes, we have a membership roll, but no, we don't have a book where we just note when someone is baptized.

So far, so good, then she hit me with a follow up question that I had a hard time getting my mind around. "Well, I might have gotten baptized there, but I really don't remember. I was hoping you could clear that up for me." My first thought was that she had a recollection of getting baptized, but was unsure about which church had performed this ordinance. No, she was unsure if she had ever been baptized and thought that if she had, it would have been at the church I serve.

Baptism is supposed to be a symbolic identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. If you can forget whether you did that, then do you really understand its significance?

All of this was running in the back of my mind as I assured this young lady that I would look into our records. My hope is that I can find some record of her, or her family, which would give me the hope of making a connection. Perhaps I can point her in the direction of a real relationship with God. She mentioned that she had not really "been in church" since childhood. Who knows, maybe this curiosity of hers was planted by God? I don't know about her past, but I hope there can be a relationship between her and God in the future.

Elections And Their Commercials

Well, the election has come and gone. I have to admit that I will be glad to not be getting "robo-calls" from candidates and those that endorse them. I will also be glad to have all of the attack ads off the TV. Now, it is not that I don't mind politics, it is just that so many of the attack ads are just stupid. I wish politician would learn the simple lesson that the most memorable way to get across a message is just to either be very straight forward, without being sanctimonious, or to be genuinely funny. The only example I saw of the latter was in an ad against the mayor of Winnipeg Manitoba. They actually have a clip of this guy in a soccer match where he kicks a young player in the face! The commercial went viral and is high on the list of Youtube viewings. Now that is political advertisement! I suppose it is not very substantive, but it certainly is memorable and in politics that is half the battle.

So, here is to all those that spend millions of advertising dollars. I am sure the TV, radio, and newspaper people love you, but could you spend a little more money and come up with some better commercials? If you have no sense of humor then just be straight with the public and tell them what you want to do. Be specific without being a policy wonk. If, on the other hand, you do have some sense of what will bring a smile to our faces then by all means do so. The Lord knows we could all use a good laugh, and who knows it might just win you some votes. Really good humor is a sign of intelligence and the world needs smart folks at the helm. Prove you are one of them by finding a humorous way to get your message across.

What Is The Big Idea?

On my bulletin board, just over my computer printer, I have a picture of one of my homiletical heros, Haddon Robinson. Dr. Robinson has been teaching preachers how to preach almost as long as I have been alive. He worked first at Dallas Theological Seminary, and then at Denver Seminary, and finally at Gordon / Conwell. I suppose though that his biggest claim to fame is the book he wrote years ago, entitled Biblical Preaching. I suppose I have read that book three times from beginning to end, and I have always profited from the experience.

I got the picture of Dr. Robinson from an ad for Gordon / Conwell where he is pictured with a quizzical look on his face and underneath are the words, "What is the Big Idea?" Anyone who has read Robinson's book will know that this referring back to one of his cardinal concepts about preaching, it must have focus. In other words, every sermon needs to be about something, which he calls the "big idea." I hate to admit it, but I have heard messages where the subject of the preacher's sermon was so disguised or confused that you just couldn't find it. Sadly, some of those sermons were my own!

That is why I have the picture where I see it every time that I sit down at my computer. I need that reminder that what I have to say must be focused if it is going to communicate. On more than one occasion I have refined or even rejected an idea because I just couldn't state it clearly enough. Clarity is an important goal for me.

I think that is essentially important in the day that we live. This has been called the "information age," and I suppose that is as descriptive a name for it as any. The implications for me as a preacher though are arresting. There are tons of "messages" out there which the average attender at Bethlehem Church is exposed to in the media. Some are tedious, others mundane, but a few are malicious. That is why it is so important to effectively communicate God's message to the church. It is, after all, the good news. It is so important to get that message across. I need all the tools of the effective communicator to accomplish that task. Humanly speaking, one of the keys it focus. I don't want anyone leaving church on Sunday asking, "Now, what was the big idea?"

Friends

Yesterday I had opportunity to eat lunch with a couple of guys that I have known since my college days. While we have not always been in close proximity to one another, we have for the last four years. Our lunch conversation focused on areas of common interest with a joke or two thrown in for good measure. I suppose it was while I was driving home that it struck me just how important it is to have friends.

Maybe that is one of the reasons that fellowship is such an important part of church. I suppose we could get the information that we receive in Sunday School or worship from television or by reading a book, but that interactive element would be missing.

Thinking of friendship, and its role in Christian discipleship I think it is pretty clear that we need it. I have to admit that my friends have been a help to me in terms of my Christian walk. Now, this is not some sort of accountability group where you expect that sort of thing. No, this is just people who care about me manifesting that concern. I am grateful for it, and I have to hope my friends get as much benefit from knowing me as I do from knowing them.

There Is Power!

Currently, I am reading a book by Chuck Swindoll entitled, "Flying Closer To The Flame." I'm only about half way through, but it seems to me that Dr. Swindoll wrote this book to correct an error which he sees in the evangelical church. From his perspective, there is so much fear of "wild fire" when it come to the Holy Spirit that, many evangelicals act as though the Spirit is not part of the Trinity. No, we are not about to change our doctrinal statements, but in practice we are nowhere close to what the New Testament says we can have.

I think that the esteemed president of Dallas Seminary may be onto something. Let's face it, the Charismatics are all over religious TV and some of them are just down right strange. I don't want to be associated with them, but has my fear of that kept me from a balanced appreciation for the ministry of the Spirit? I think it has. That is why I have begun making a study of what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and, to the best of my ability, I intend to personally apply it.

One illustration that Swindoll used made me smile even as it made its point. I know there is power in the Spirit, just like I know there is power in an electrical outlet. I know it abstractly, intellectually. If I were to put a paper clip into that outlet I would know that there is power in the outlet experientially! That leads me to say that I'm not doing this just to better understand the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, I want to feel that power!