My Idea

 The Fellowship fast is upon us. Not every church does it at the same time. And in our older churches not many people fast at all any more. So I have an idea. This is not meant to undermine any pastor. It is just a thought that I had and since this is my personal blog here is where I will share it.

How about if our pastors and leaders set apart this time of fasting and prayer for themselves? Any staff evangelists, or assistant pastors, or young couples wanting to go into the ministry could join in. It would be a way for a pastor to see which of his young men took the ministry seriously by seeing who fasted with nothing buy a dream to inspire them. 

We need our pastors to minister to us where we are and to help us stay faithful to Christ. We need their words to be healing words and comforting words and redemptive words. This could be a time where our pastors get in touch with God for us.

A local church rises or falls depending on it's pastor. They need God and we need them.

I pray for my pastors. I pray for some of your pastors too.

My Thoughts Today

 "And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, the old is better." Luke 5:39

Jesus taught this parable concerning patches and wine. That you cannot fix old clothing with patches from new material. You won't fix it, you will make it worse. And then the parable continues with teaching about wine. New wine in old wineskins will destroy both the wine and the wineskin.

This parable is not about clothing and wine, it is about people. It is about us. It is about the life we live for Christ and dealing with problems that arise with the passing of time. Saints wear out just like clothing wears out. Nothing lasts forever. If you can patch it you will save some money and make it last longer. But in time the clothing will be worn out even if patched.

Wine is usually a symbol of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. The Holy Spirit uses people to do His will on Earth. And with time and use wineskins wear out and stiff and old. You cannot patch a wineskin. When it is no longer useful it must be replaced. Fresh wine must be put in fresh wineskins. The moving of the Holy Spirit must be with people who are fresh and new and not worn out.

So what happens to people who are old and worn out in the spirit? Do we cast them aside and forget about them? Do we ignore the old while we search for the newest and latest and freshest thing happening in the church world today?

The thing that interests me is the statement that those who have drunk the old wine think that the old wine is better and that new wine is too harsh and biting and unpalatable. The key word is immediately. This tells me that in time and with gentle care old wine drinkers may develop a taste for the new wine of revival today.

This parable follows a teaching on fasting. Fasting for old wine drinkers may kill them. Fasting is putting new cloth on a worn out garment. Fasting is putting new wine in worn out wineskins. Fasting can do more harm than good for those of us who have been doing this a long time. 

One size does not fit all. 

Thoughts On Podcasts And Preaching

 I do not listen to podcasts. I find them boring and off the cuff and seat of the pants and they do nothing for me. I also have a hard time listening to some preachers. I find them to also be boring, or too emotional; speaking loud but saying nothing. And today I realized that what is wrong with podcasts is what is wrong with this generation of young pastors. It is the age that we live in. So here is some unasked for advice for anyone who wants to preach to a thriving and growing church.

First let me say that no local church will grow beyond the ability of it's pastor to feed and care for it. And that involves good preaching. Your emotional rants might work in an outreach in the neighborhood but it does not work on Sunday morning. You need to learn how to put together a real sermon and how to preach in a way that ministers to everyone in the place, from the least to the greatest.

1. If your message is aimless and wondering don't be surprised if no one is paying attention to you. Get a word and focus on that specific word. Do not wander all over the Bible. Stay focused.

2. This is no place for improv. You may be able to wing it and be good with words. But flying by the seat of your pants won't gain you the impact that you desire. Be prepared.

3. Preparation is the work of crafting a sermon that works. Do the study. Understand what it says. Do the hard work of study and prayer. And then organize your thoughts in a logical form.

4. Reading the Bible is death to the hearers. The word that could help is dead when just read. Make the Word become flesh. Tell a story in real life. Make me want to know how the story ends. 

5. A poorly organized thought is just lazy. Having your notes so mixed up that you can't find your place is lazy. Time spent in preparation will produce fruit in your hearers.

6. Editing is the tool to pare down your studies into a compact form. Just because you read it doesn't mean you need to say it. Everything must move to a conclusion. TMI puts us to sleep.

7. A boring sermon will do nothing. You can be loud and be boring. Enthusiasm is no substitute for compelling content. A house without windows is a cave where only rats and bats live.

8. The Holy Spirit will anoint the Word. Not your words, but the Word. The Word explained and the Word applied is rhema. God will help you as you pay the price to know the truth.

Childish Behavior Is Not Super Spirituality

 I have been in Pentecostal churches since the day that Jesus saved me in 1973. I grew up in nominal Christian church but I have been a part of a tongue talking hand clapping vocal praising church all of my adult life. The Prescott church is a Pentecostal church. The Tempe church is a Pentecostal church. Every church that I have attended all of these years, including my current one, have been Pentecostal churches.

I have seen people from the Fellowship criticize the Prescott church as not being alive enough or enthusiastic enough. They said that we were dead. These same people came to our conferences and attended churches that we had planted years ago. And they had the arrogant pride to criticize us in Prescott. These are the folks who attend a regular service in Prescott and who stand up to sing even though none of us are standing.

In our new building if I say amen at an appropriate time no one hears me. I respond to the preaching when he asks if we can say amen. He can't hear me but I say it. I appreciate good preaching.

I have noticed that there are some people who evidently think that they are more spiritual than us or that they are closer to God than us and they demonstrate their superiority by putting on a show. The way they clap to a song is not just clapping like everyone else in the audience. The way they shout during the sermon like they get it even if us common slobs don't.  I find their antics childish and very distracting. I'm surprised they do not leap to their feet and dance around the building since they are so full of the Spirit. It is a spirit all right, but not the Holy Spirit.

These people are a tiny minority in our church. They make no difference in the long run. But they are a distraction and we just recently had a pastor tell us to beware of distractions. I have been in this Fellowship longer than they have been alive. I will not leave. I pray that they will shut up.

Maintaining What We Started

 It's easy to get saved. It's harder to stay saved. It's easy to get married. It's harder to stay married. It's easy to lose weight. It's harder to maintain weight loss. And that seems to be the big issue today in our Fellowship. How to maintain where we are and what we have when the thrust of revival is in the past.

I was born again in December of 1973. That was a long time ago. I do not often refer to that event since it involved actions on my part that I barely remember. Some people often refer to their salvation experience like it just happened. I wonder if that is the only thing that they are sure of. And if that is the only time that the Holy Spirit was active in their lives?

As we age things change. Our marriages change. Our experiences change. Our hopes and aspirations change. Young men may see visions but old men dream dreams. It is not the same thing. And so the question is, can we maintain what we have using what worked a long time ago?

We seem to be experts in beginning things. We have a lot still to learn on maintaining those things that we started.

Why do marriages fail? One reason is we think that marriage is that short burst of excitement and we get angry or discouraged when the thrill is gone. Why do dieters gain back the weight that they lost? Denying yourself can produce uncontrollable appetites that must be satisfied. 

Sending out workers is exciting for a moment. But new pastors soon realize that it is work to start and build and sustain a church. We have focused attention for pastors and missionaries to help them stay in the ministry. Do we need the same focus and attention for marriages and for older saints on a regular basis?

As we age, we must adapt what we do to where we are in life. Saying it is not so does not make it not so.

Big New Buildings

 When I first moved here I enjoyed the old building. It was quaint. It felt lived in. It needed some renovations. But it felt like a church for real people. Now that we are in the new conference center our church feels more like an institution than a home. It's like going to church in a museum. It feels sterile.

I have felt this before. When Prescott moved out by the airport it was still pastor Mitchell's vision and it was a building that felt familiar. Once we were moved into the conference center it felt too perfect, and too new, and too sterile. It felt more like a magazine picture than a place where people could feel at home and feel secure and feel like what they did mattered.

The world is filled with cathedrals where no one worships anymore. Some have a handful of old people who can't let it go but can't keep it either. Buildings that once housed revival or at least housed large congregations now are relics of bygone eras in church history.

We as a Fellowship feel like we need bigger buildings to entice God to move again like He did in years gone by. For a fraction of what our new building cost we could have renovated our old building inside and out. Instead our old building is up for sale. Twenty years of memories cast aside just for the sake of holding conference under our own roof occasionally.

Everyone who visits our church loves our new big building. Those of us who worship there three times a week do not love it as much as y'all do. We do our best to make it work. We trust our pastors to do the right thing for us.

One final word. If you build it, they will come, only works in movies. It rarely works in real life.

The Involvement Conundrum

 In my Prescott years there was a time when I was not involved in The Door concert ministry and therefore what happened there was of little interest to me. I felt like I was only doing my duty just to attend. But then I was invited to be in a band and my how my attitude changed. I looked forward to Saturday night whether we played or not. I cared about the results and I prayed for that ministry. Once my involvement ended so did my interest.

Boot camp is a huge thing here. They talk about it for weeks. They go over the rules many times. They pulled for men to help get things ready. And as I am sitting here boot comp is in full swing. And my interest level is about as low as it can go. I have been praying for and asking God to help our teens this week. I went to help get the camp ready last week. But beyond that I have no involvement and therefore what I gave in time and money and prayer has no impact on me personally today. I have nothing to gain or lose by what happens at boot camp this week.

Involvement is a strange thing. We are challenged to get involved and then we run into that weird territorial ownership that church folks have over their sphere of involvement. And so I find myself once again being a senior citizen in a youth oriented ministry with nothing to do but the basics that I have been doing longer than you have been alive.

My First Involvement In Bootcamp

 When the need for men to help set up the campgrounds for bootcamp was announced I was glad to volunteer to go and to help out. I was curious as to where the campgrounds were located and what the area looked like. I had no idea what we would be doing but I figured there would be something that I could lend a hand to accomplish. I had a good time working with the Fellowship guys who came to help.

We set up the big tents where the boys will be sleeping and we set up the cots that they will be sleeping on. The sound crew set up the chapel and got it ready for the church services. We arrived a little after 7am and we were hanging around to see if anything else needed to be done at 9:10am. So by 9:40 we were in our car and headed home.

The campground is 80 miles from San Antonio and it is a beautiful old ranch converted into a retreat center.  I have no idea what goes on at boot camp but we did our part to prepare for it. I am grateful that I could go. 

Camp of any kind can be a life changing event for teens. Join me in praying for good weather and good ministry and that our teens will be helped while at camp.

The Need For Ministry To Our Aging Fellowship

 There is a theme emerging as our Fellowship grows older that does not seem to have a clear solution. I hear people my age and older who spend their time reminiscing about what they used to do for the Lord. They talk about things they used to do as though it was current events. And for the most part these fine folks could not do those activities even if they wanted to. Aging, believe it or not, forces us to change our behavior.

There are men I have talked to who are over 50 years old who think that they are called and that pastor will send them out to pioneer. I have met them in almost every church in our Fellowship that I have been. Others try to stay involved long after they ceased to be relevant or effective. In their minds they are very young. In their real lives they are grandma and grandpa with all of the aches and pains of old age and the responsibilities to their health and their families.

There are people who cannot get to every service who sit at home felling condemned and feeling forsaken and lukewarm.  There are preachers whose answer to everything is to do what you did as a new convert. What a stupid thing to think and to preach. A 67 year old grandpa is not an 18 year old new convert. Duh.

I wish that our Fellowship would come up with a plan and a strategy for helping us who were the first wave to survive and even thrive up to the end of life or the Rapture. Prescott put Kris Hart on staff as a ministering pastor to care for the elderly in the Prescott church. I hope that that will catch on and that Kris will not be pulled to pastor somewhere else.

Very few people leave our Fellowship churches over false doctrine or pastoral failure. Some people simply fade away while they live out the end of their life on Earth. They don't go anywhere except maybe to be near their children. That's what I did.

Honoring Our School Graduates

 We had a great service last night. To honor those who were graduating from either high school or college we had all of the graduates wear their cap and gowns to church. Then before the sermon by our youth pastor, pastor Rubi had all of the graduates come up on stage and he had two of them testify both of salvation and of the hard work of finishing this level of their education.

I have never seen anything like this in church before. Prescott does not do this. But we did it and it blessed me. After the service we had a simple cake and coffee and refreshments in their honor in the fellowship hall.

Brent Harris, former missionary to China, and hoping to go to Viet Nam, preached a good sermon aimed at young people. He is our youth pastor during his time here.

Graduation was a long time ago for me. But these young people in our church have some big decisions to make in coming days.  Their whole life is ahead of them. I am happy that I was there last night. Pray for all of our teens and young adults.