Another trip and another tire...

Ok, so I don't know if this is a sign, but the fam and i are on the way to visit family for the holidays when we get a nail in one of our tires. Good thing we were near the Corvette Hall of Fame because we found a tire place that could patch it right quick!

Vacation has been great. Caught up with good friends. Visited my home church and reminded myself why I am the pastor I am today.

If you have this on RSS feed, be sure to visit my blog to see the latest books I've burned through. And yes, I did finally finish the Harry Potter series. Totally didn't end the way I thought it would.

Oh yeah, the best part of the vacation was watching Ohio State beat Michigan. Go Buckeyes!

Cya on the flip side...

Hug your musician

Bizarre event last week. Our organist played at both our Sunday morning church services. Then, 4 hours later I get a call from the hospital that she had died! She suffered a heart attack and there was nothing the paramedics nor hospital could do. Here's the hand of God in all of this: on that same day, she shared her testimony of faith in front of the congregation. One of the points she shared was that she knew that God wanted her to tell everyone that Jesus loves them. That was her mission. She said that God wouldn't take her until she told everyone that Jesus loves them. And then, 4 hours after she said that, God took her home!

Yesterday, we celebrated All Saint's Sunday and God certainly worked through our organist to show us the kind of faith we all are given.

Amazing

CampRestore

Came down Tuesday to camp restore in New Orleans. The devestation is immense. And the home that aren't even gutted. There's piles of garbage in one yard and in another yard, there's a picture of hope as the grass is cut and the mold is ripped out from the insides and drywall is screwed in. It's truly amazing to see the swath of devastation and the glimpses of new builds happening.

Right now, my team is working on putting up sheetrock for a duplex. We're having fun but we're also humbled and amazed by the immense work that it will take to get houses to look like habitable dwellings.

Wow.

Whoops

Ok, sorry folks. I haven't updated my blog in a long long time. I'm away at a conference in Atlanta, GA and the link is below. Check it out! It's cool. And, I'm in the Guinness Book of World Records (we had to blow bubbles and throw frisbees all at the same time). Of course, I'm learning tons more than coordinating a wand full of soap and a little plastic disk. Great speakers and awesome, rockin music! They even played I Saw the Light which is a song we play at church a time or two.

http://www.catalystconference.com/

Great places to eat too. Last night, my wife and I went to a sushi bar called Blue Fin. They prepared the sushi right in front of you and when you eat it, it just melts in your mouth. Yummo.

More later...

Worship Wars

My 4yr old daughter taught me what worship is about (remember, I'm a Pastor and I'm supposed to know all these things). She was in the car with her grandparents and they were listening to an oldies radio station. A song came on by the Beetles and she instantly recognized it and said, "We sing that in church!"
I was beeming! When someone associates a song that is heard on the radio with 'church', that's an awesome thing! We are able to take church into the week ahead. Worship doesn't just happen for 1 hour on a Sunday...worship is 24/7 and when a song on the radio helps worship God, that's a good thing in my book.

Leadership is Tough

We Lutherans always say that God is a God of order and we take that verse and justify to ourselves the intricate structure, elaborate traditions, the fancy manners that we make up in order to somehow think that we're pleasing God.
Whenever I see others rely on their traditions more than God, I read Genesis 1:1. Genesis 1 is cool. Before anything was created, there was nothing. And that can be a scary thing, right? Then God starts setting up shop and in 7 days creates everything. But that pre-first day is chaos. But it's a good chaos because God is in it.
Well, just when I thought things were going honky-dory, I'm slapped in the face with the reality that there's more bubbling under the surface than what I see. For those who don't know, our church is going through a revitalization (say that 5 times fast), or a transformation, so that our church reaches out into the community better.
Things are exciting with all the new possibilities and directions that we could go with certain areas: structure, interest groups, worship, etc. One day I get comments from someone that we're going in the right direction and the next day (literally) I get comments that it's all going to pot.
God is keeping me humble and no matter what the comments, I know His hand is in all this and that He will guide it the way He wants to. I compare a lot of uncertainty and unknown to that Genesis 1 pre-creation scene.
Sorry that this post sounds like a bit of venting, but I want to encourage you that no matter what you're doing: at your job, with your family, whatever; just remember that you're NOT the one in control: God is. And when it feel like it's chaos, disconnected, doesn't make sense, God is still in it.

Ever get stopped by a train?

I did just last week. It doesn't happen too often because most roads go right over train tracks. Or, the tracks are built parallel to the road. But there are some places where trains stop traffic. And I'm glad. When you're stopped by a train, you're forced to take your foot off the gas pedal, take a deep breath and slow down your hurried pace. You watch the tracks give way to the weight of the train. You hear the methodical grinding of steel and the 'clickety-clack' of the wheels. You wonder if a mischievous kid put a penny on the tracks (unless you already did!)



But the caboose always comes too quickly. The gates go up, the relaxing moment is gone and we pick up our rushing and hurrying about.



Take a moment to stop.

Not so lucky on this perfect day

While on vacation, we had a flat tire. No biggee...got it fixed and back on the road. But the lucky day 7-7-07 wasn't too lucky for the Miller family!

A big thank you to my bestest bud, Ed, who helped me get into the year 2005 by helping me create a blog...watch out, I'll need to get an iPhone next!