Back in Our Family Room

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I haven’t done the math yet, but since the beginning of the summer, my preaching schedule has been the lightest it’s been in years. I feel it in my soul. I love preaching at CLF. Sometimes, like Sunday, it’s like we’ve come into our family room at our house and we’re rejoicing in Christ and learning from Christ. It’s amazing to me how comfortable it is to preach at ‘home.’ I know from other pastors, in other places, their churches don’t feel this way. I’m grateful for this.

Servanthood and Transparency

It’s this ‘home’ comfort that allows me to preach a sermon like Sunday’s. I know our church fairly well. One of the things (among many) that I love about our church is that our church is filled with servants. There are many people (too many to name), who find great joy in serving the Lord and others. We have people who volunteer, never complain, and never want recognition for their service. And knowing our people, they want to serve better and more (not more better😂).

So, Sunday’s sermon was not because we had a service problem. As a matter of fact, I can preach Sunday’s sermon, because our church is filled with gospel-centered servants. Further, because this is ‘home’ I am fully comfortable preaching to the ‘heart’ of servanthood and I know that our people will hear, apply, and deal with any sinister motives in their hearts.

This also allows me to be transparent about my own shortcomings. I don’t know how the rest of you feel, but I know that I don’t feel like much of a servant. I know that in my heart, I am sometimes a begrudging servant. I don’t serve with the purest of motives. And I see so many shortcomings in my servanthood. And I’m grateful that I can share these with my church family, point us to the hope we have in the gospel, and confess my sin and need to God. Aren’t you glad we can do this??

This Week

As Frank Gifford said years ago on Monday Night Football, “We’re coming to you live from” 30000 feet in the air! I’m on my second flight heading to Orlando for the Sovereign Grace Pastors/Wives Conference. As I said Sunday, I would rather be home. But I also felt bad after I said that because I’m going to the conference with 6 other men from our church who I love to hang out with. Periodically, we bring men along to SGC conferences to ‘expose’ them to broader things in SGC. This week, Dave Quilla, Dave Ruble, Stan Welch, and I will be accompanied by Luis Castellanos, Robert Sidlo, and Andrew Crawford. A great group.

At the conference this week, we will hear messages that are focused on pastors and their churches. SGC does a great job of equipping and encouraging pastors with the hope of the gospel and helping us biblically navigate some of the cultural issues we’re facing. I have returned from SGC conferences refreshed and overjoyed about what God is doing in our denomination and our local church. The same will hold true this week only this time, when I return on Friday, I will not be traveling again until March (I’m looking forward to being home for a while).

Elders/Wives ‘Retreat’

As we entered into our working retreat last weekend, I had a sense that the Lord wanted us, as a team, to be more ‘open’ and ‘forthright’ with one another. I sensed this, not because we haven’t been, but because over the course of the last several months, with my busy travel schedule, transitions in our church’s organization, and budget season, things have felt more ‘corporate’ than normal. We’ve looked at more spreadsheets and flow charts than I’m used to and it’s felt like we’ve had a small relational disconnect on our team. So, this retreat was needed for us to regain our ‘family’ feel and discuss the needs of the church from that perspective.

The Lord met us wonderfully over that weekend. We had robust discussions about eschatology, spiritual gifts, offices in the church, and church leadership. We discussed funny stories from our early days in marriage, grieved together over parenting regrets, and prayed for our church and our families. It was a sweet time.

At the end of the weekend, as we discussed our building plans, we came up with an idea that we’re excited to explore and share with you. Mark December 10th on your calendars for our Family Meeting. We will discuss this at that time. We’ve asked our architect to visit with us about this idea. But just to whet your appetite: Has the Lord provided UCC for us in this season, so we could actually build in phases on our current church property where our buildings currently are?

Thank you to all of you who prayed for us. God was more than kind to us.

SGC

If you’re interested in keeping up with Sovereign Grace Churches (our denomination) news, here’s a link to their website: https://www.sovereigngrace.com/home. At the bottom of the page, there’s a spot to add your email address to get monthly updates. These updates give you a ‘bird’s eye view’ of what is going on in SGC.

From the Cheap Seats

Have you heard…The Texas Rangers are still the World Series Champions! I’m still stunned. The Texas Strangers no more!
Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher. It cost them $77 million. I’m glad Jimbo is gone, but I don’t have a category for where these payouts are going.
Dak Prescott is playing some of the best football I’ve seen from him in the last few weeks.
The Man City/Chelsea 4-4 draw was one of the most exhilarating football matches I’ve ever seen. You should take a look at the extended highlights.

To watch or listen to the sermon described in this post, please click here.