Great Escape Clergy Retreat 2007!

Great Escape Clergy Retreat 2007!

The recent Western Pennsylvania Conference Clergy Retreat titled ‘The Great Escape’ was a wonderful opportunity to gain new insight on some life principles as well as “The Life Journal” approach to teaching members of the body to self-feed.

The guest speaker was Bishop Wills and one of the ways he conveyed 5 excellent principles was through a video by Wayne Cordeiro. The principles are:

1. Know what fills and drains you. Figure out what gives you energy and what takes it away. This extends to anyone with spouses so that they can write down what fills and drains themselves and exchange it with each. If someone is single focus on what fills and drains yourself and if someone is married make sure you do not drain, but rather fill yourself and your spouse. This is also helpful for the spouse. Wayne took some time to talk about the rising divorce rate of people in ministry.

2. Understand balance in life. There is a balance between family/home life and ministry. One needs only to understand that the fulcrum moves. The fulcrum being the point two objects are balanced on needs to be moving and not static. If we allow room for following the Holy Spirit’s lead then when there is a push in one area or another then we can adjust the fulcrum so that if there is more needs at family move the fulcrum toward family and so move the fulcrum toward the push or direction from the Holy Spirit. This works the opposite so that if there is a need toward ministry the fulcrum can be adjusted as long as we remember this is not fixed and thus should not stay stronger to one or the other when the balance is shifted because of the push of the Holy Spirit.

3. Lead out of rest. Schedule rest points even though we might not always keep them, but make them the norm. An example of this is that Monday nights is family night for my family as well as Friday’s are my day off. On top of this I work a half day on Saturdays. Granted I am only a student local pastor supposedly only working part-time at the church and the rest of the time is to be devoted to studies while I am in Seminary. However, the point is if you do not even schedule times of rest then you are already behind the eight ball.

4. Find a lighting rod. This is to say when problems arise there needs to be a less biased person that is not related to you or the church you are serving that is reliably confidential like a professional councilor, but if that makes you uneasy then find a friend or mentor and share with your family from what Wayne Cordeiro calls “sharing from the victory side”. The victory side means that you share once the problem, dilemma, frustration, or tension has passed.

5. Disciplined daily devotions. This is important because “you can not give what you do not have”. This is the place where the Life Journal was discussed. The Life Journal is an approach to help everyone, all followers of Christ, be better devoted to God, coming closer to God, following Jesus way better, and seeing the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This Life Journal is a daily devotional where there is a plan to read the bible in a year, but if you follow it you will read the entire Old Testament in a year and read the New Testament twice. Wayne Cordeiro explains that the Life Journal follows the S.O.A.P. technique so that you read scripture, write out one or two verses that stand out. Then briefly write out observations about it and then write out the application usage. This is followed up by writing out a prayer.

***** Disclaimer: This is an oversimplified and out of context example only meant to show the basic idea of the S.O.A.P. technique and this is not meant to limit people, but guide the general populace. If this does not work for you it can be altered to fit the person..

This S.O.A.P. may looks something like this: if the passage chosen was “Jesus wept” an observation might be that Jesus cares and an application might be that if Jesus cares this much so should I. This leads to the prayer that the Holy Spirit might show me how to be more caring and follow Jesus example.

God bless,

Corben

Pearl is Learning and Teaching

On Sunday evening there was a hymn sing at Bridgewater and since there is nobody in the congregation who could lead the singing and Corben is not a song leader we recruited my Dad. Therefore, I decided to cook dinner and have both my Mom and Dad over for dinner before the hymn sing. We were getting ready to eat the menu was homemade chicken noodle soup and Italian bread. Everyone was getting ready to eat and Pearl decided that she was really going to say the blessing so she did. I understood she said God at the beginning and Amen at the end with a huge smile when she opened her eyes. I did not understand a word in the middle, but I know God did. That would have been enough for me but she showed us more latter. When we were about done with dinner, Pearl ran to the kitchen for more bread. She grabbed the end of the loaf that I had not cut and took off. My Mom told her to wait she would cut it for her. Pearl said no I do and ran to the dinning room. She proceeded to come to me rip off a piece of bread and hand it to me, Corben, than my Dad, than my Mom. She than stood in between her Grandma and Grandpap and said "now eat." She continued to do this until there was no bread left. I guess she is listening and learning in church when I think was this really worth the effort this morning. Jesus said "Let the children come," some may believe children should not participate at the Lord's table, because they do not understand, but I say as Jesus said let them come for they do understand. They understand better than we do at times.

Our night of Bishop on the Butler District!

Well we had our night of the Bishop on the Butler District and it was held at the Harmony Zeilenople UMC on September 18th, 2007.

It was a word of encouragement from our bishop to continue the increasing paid mission shares which are already higher then where we were last year at this time as well as a pep talk and a reminder of our purpose as a body of believers united as one.

The Bishop reminded us of our vision, mission, and core value as:

Vision: "To ignite and sustain a spiritual connection with Christ among all people in Western Pennsylvania"

Mission: "To provide leadership, connection, and resources to make disciples for the
transformation of the world"

And the

Core Value: as "Love" as especially seen in Matthew 22:37-39 which is a reiteration of
Deuteronomy 6:5 (loving God) and Leviticus 19:18 (love neighbor), at least in part.

I do like these, but I wonder if I would be deemed a heretic if they were changed just a little...

I much prefer

Vision: "To ignite, sustain, and feed growingly a spiritual connection with Christ among all
people especially in Western Pennsylvania"

Mission: "To provide leadership, connection, and resources to make disciples for Christ for
the transformation of the world"

And the

Core Value: as "Love" as especially seen in Matthew 22:37-39 which is a reiteration of
Deuteronomy 6:5 (loving God) and Leviticus 19:18 (love neighbor), at least in part. And in so
loving that the 10 commandments are re-focused upon as loving and glorifying God in
commandments one through four and loving our neighbor as well as edifying others in
commandments five through ten.


________

The slight changes in Vision are meant to support underlying need for constant growth instead of the common vision of sustaining only in some bodies of believers as well as expanding beyond just Western Pennsylvania while focusing on Western PA as the foremost goal.

The slight changes in Mission is meant to keep the focus on Christ and more deeply remind us of our purpose.

The slight changes in Core Value is less of a change, but rather a deeper expansion of inclusion as to what is meant by love and how that is translated into a deeper purpose and understanding.

__________

the other main aspect of the Bishop on the District was the pep talk to share with everyone that we need to be churches that are, in my own words, dieing to live instead of living to die. In other words are we following the "leading causes of life or the leading causes of death". In life then there are 5 main principles which are "Connection as a sense of meaningful relationships, Coherence as a sense that life makes sense in relation to our expectations, fears, and hopes, Agency as the ability to act and do, Blessing as a web of life that flows across generations, and hope that draws us together towards life".

It is great to get such encouragement and guidance and I know it will be personally edifying for me as well as when I share it with all those in the congregation I serve that were not able to attend.

Pearl's Communion

Sunday, September 9 was communion at Bridgewater. Pearl knew as soon as we got to church that it was communion Sunday because of the difference at the altar. She immediately went up front and wanted to take communion. I talked to her and told her that it was not time yet and that she had to wait until after the sermon and than she could take communion with everyone else. Well of course as usual we did not make it that far in the service before we had to leave due to Pearl being a two almost three year-old. So after church Corben brought the elements to the house to use latter in the week for shut-in's and we ran out to lunch with Aunt Dottie and Aunt Linda.
So on Monday I was preparing dinner and Pearl came into the kitchen saw the communion bread and wanted communion. So we cleared off the table and sat down. Corben read some scripture with the elements on the table before us. Pearl sat there legs swinging and listening to Corben read. She never made a noise and I could tell was listening intently. She would look at the elements and than at her Dad. After Corben was done reading scripture he gave Pearl and I communion.
Wow. What a moment. I do not think I will ever forget that night.

Bulletin Mess ups

Bulletin mess ups can be so embarrassing. I recently read one in a book on church jokes that told everyone attending the weenie roast to remember to bring your own hot dogs and guns.

This inspired me to write down a few that I have thought of:

Suicidal tendencies Church Seminary to be held Thursday only!

United Methodist rally on anti-pro war September 14th.

Celebrate our Open House, doors will be closed until 10:00 A.M.

Please remember to enjoy our Hospitality after the service.

Enjoy our chore singing Amazing Grace for todays special music.

Please remember to put out your buts before entering the church.

and finally...

UMW will be held this Thursday in the Parlor at 12:00 P.M. which will be followed by the prayer group.

*** Disclaimer: In no way do these Bulletin entries reflect any church, secretary, or personnel even if it is resembling ***

100 year celebration!!!

This weekend the Bridgewater family celebrated 100 years in our current worship center (our church)

We had two services a 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. service with a dinner to follow on Saturday and an 11:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. service on Sunday with a light lunch to follow.

I can not believe it has been a 100 years in a single building for Bridgewater United Methodist Church. I had a great time leading the celebration this last weekend and we had great weather on top of it.

It was extremely encouraging to have guest speakers like Rev. Frank Sherman, Rev. Jim Treusel, Rev. Bonnie Rupp-Fisher, and Rev. Jeff Bobin come and share memories of their time serving here at Bridgewater as well as from the many congregational stories.

Our Scripture celebration set the tone with Matthew 7:18 through verse 29. The celebration was not about miracles, prophecies, or works of wonder, but rather relationships and faith building experiences that were focused on Jesus and the peoples response to Him.

We heard stories of people coming to faith because of Jesus’ love shining through certain members. We heard stories of object lessons that have stuck with people for at least 30 years like the worm story.

The worm story is about a person who always taught the worm lesson once a month. This person would bring in two worms and two tubes of clear liquid. The person would drop a worm in one tube and the worm would be fine and then drop the other worm in the other container and it would immediately shrivel up and die. Then there would be a follow up message explaining the other liquid was, I am going to call a similar substance to, grain alcohol. Now that is quite a lesson and on top of it they did it over and over again for possibly years.

As I was leading both services I realized that Bridgewater had their first Pastor appointed in 1808 which was only 24 after the first two Bishops Coke and Asbury where commissioned. For me it is much more of a big deal that Bridgewater has been faithfully serving the community and sharing Christ as a group of people for 199 years, and as of 2008 a full 200 years of service. I can still appreciate the 100 year celebration in one building especially since the focus was on relationships and sharing Jesus love instead of things that happened in this particular building.

With this said I am still blown away by almost 200 years of Pastoral care and support to a single group that has been together almost as long as the origin of Methodism that has become our modern denomination as a whole.

Go Navy

On August 31st we got to see Justin for the first time since he left for boot camp on July 5th. Wow. What a change. The boy that lived with us a few short months ago and I was arguing with about doing his homework and throwing away his McDonald's garbage, and telling him I needed his clothes so that I could wash them was now standing in front of me in his dress whites saying yes mam thank you mam opening doors for people and wait did I really see him eat broccoli. He is no longer a high school boy trying to just get by but now a US Sailor flying out this morning for further training in Texas. He told us that there is a chance that after that he might go to Iraq. God knows where he will end up and we a trusting God for Justin to be ready for whatever that is and where ever that might be when it happens in about six weeks. We are very proud of Justin and the things he has done thus far. Pearl really enjoyed her time she got to spend with Justin and has been telling everyone about their trip to Six Flags and the Chicago Zoo. Until we see him again we will have these memories and many more and being praying for his safety. Please join us in praying for him and all other military throughout the world.

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

August What a Month

This month is almost over and we have had a very busy but wonderful month. We started the month off by traveling to Wilmore Kentucky as a family so that Corben could take his last class of the summer. I planned on Pearl and I playing outside a lot on the playground on campus and other local parks....however when on the first day there when Pearl wanted to leave the play ground at 9:30 in the morning because it was too hot I knew I had to make other plans. So we made a trip to Walmart to buy paint, paper, glue, and siccors. That kept us very busy and she brought home with her a book bag full of wonderful art work. On Friday afternoon we took a drive to the Shaker Village. Pearl enjoyed the animals and watching them make brooms the best. It was very neat to see how the shakers used to live. We were told that there is only one living Shaker left and that they live in Main. On Saturday morning we headed for Tennessee for a week of vacation. Our first stop was in Nashville. We stopped by the football stadium to take pictures for our cousin who for some crazy reason is a Titian fan. We still love him though. We had dinner at the Aquarium a restaurant where while you eat fish swim around you. Than it was off to the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg area in the Smokies. We spent a few days at Dollywood Park, an evening at the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, and an afternoon driving through the Smokies on the Cades Cove loop. We headed for home on Thursday morning so that we were home in time to end our vacation at the Pittsburgh Pirate game against Philadelphia on Friday for Sky Blast two, with Bishop Bickerton throwing out a first pitch. Pearl spent a few innings at the playground, but returned to her seat for the fireworks and concert. Last week was called doctor appointment for me and catch up week for Corben. Pearl enjoyed seeing and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpap Price and Aunt Dottie. My sister won two tickets to last nights Steeler game against the Philadelphia Eagles. She was unable to go so she gave them to Corben and I. It was a great night out for us, and Pearl had a great night with Grandma and Grandpap. Her and PapPap cut grass with the tractor and swam in their pool. What more could a two year old ask for. On Thursday we are headed for Great Lakes Illinois to see our cousin Justin graduate from Navy boot camp.

Greaser Babies

Pearl Loves this video! It is rather cute and strange.

CONCIERTO MARCOS WITT DIOS ES BUENO / VENGAN TODOS

Languages are so amazing. This Spanish song really captures the heart we should have when we want to enter the presence of God and worship Him.

This is the the translation as it has been given to me:

Hey! Vengan todos,
es el tiempo de alabar a Dios//
Everyone come, it is time to praise God
(Repeat)

Con la musica y con nuestra cancion le alabamos hoy.
With music and with our song we praise you today
Con el jubilo de la adoracion le alabamos hoy.
Rejoicing in adoration we praise you today

Coro:
//Hey! Vengan todos,
es el tiempo de alabar a Dios//
Everyone come, it is time to praise God.
(Repeat)

Por su eterno amor y su fidelidad le alabamos hoy.
For your eternal love and your faithfulness we praise you today
Por su salvacion y su gran bondad le alabamos hoy.
For your salvation and your great kindness we praise you today

Coro:
//Hey! Vengan todos,
es el tiempo de alabar a Dios//
Everyone come, it is time to praise God.
(Repeat)

Con la musica y con nuestra cancion le alabamos hoy.
With music and with our song we praise you today
Con el jubilo de la adoracion le alabamos hoy.
Rejoicing in adoration we praise you today

Coro:
//Hey! Vengan todos,
es el tiempo de alabar a Dios//
Everyone come, it is time to praise God.
(Repeat)

Por su eterno amor y su fidelidad le alabamos hoy.
For your eternal love and your faithfulness we praise you today
Por su salvacion y su gran bondad le alabamos hoy.
For your salvation and your great kindness we praise you today.

Coro:
//Hey! Vengan todos,
es el tiempo de alabar a Dios//
es el tiempo de alabar a Dios
Everyone come, it is time to praise God (Repeat)
It is time to praise God


God bless,
Corben

Corben's personality test results

Well I knew I was crazy and this just proves it :-)

"ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions"

Next 30

Well here it is. A little over a week ago I turned 30 and I said that I wanted to make a list of things I wanted to do. So the next day as I sat waiting to see the dentist I made my list, and now I am putting it out there for all to give their 2 cents.

Routine exercise
Eat healthy
Daily quiet timme with God in prayer and study of His Word
Yearly Doctor visit
Bi-yearly Dentist visit
Monthly date night with Corben
Monthly girls day with Pearl to coinside with Corben's spiritual day
Call and talk with my Grandparents on a weekly basis
Famliy devotions
Nighty devotions with Corben
Weekly family night
Weekly family day
One meal a day @ the table as a family
One week a year vacation with just Corben and Pearl
Monthly day away
Establish family traditions

Some of these things I already do some will be new. Some of these things need a lot of work others are consistant and do not need much work at all.

I Took the Test

I did it I took the personality test. I wonder what Corben is.

How long is too long for a sermon?

I found this online at a sermon humor website: http://www.javacasa.com/humor/sermon.htm

"A preacher was on program at a district convention to preach for twenty minutes. The other preachers from the district were sitting behind him in the choir section, giving him moral support and throwing in an occassional "Amen" to help the preacher along. The preacher preached his twenty minutes and continued on despite alloted time. He preached for 30 minutes, then forty minutes and then for an hour. He even continued for an hour and ten minutes. Finally, a brother sitting on the front row took a song book and threw it at the preacher that was still going strong in his message. The preacher saw the song book as it was hurled his way and he ducked. The song book hit one of the preachers sitting in the choir section. As the man in the choir section was going down, you could hear him say, "Hit me again, I can still hear him preaching!"

Pastoral Family

Well it has been a year since Corben got his first appointment as a United Methodist pastor, and since we became a pastoral family. It has been a very exciting year with many ups and downs along the way. I am very blessed to be a part of this journey in many ways and God is showing me new things on I would say pretty much a daily basis. One of the things that has surprised me most over the past year is how much I have enjoyed being a part of the church where up until January Pearl was the only child and Corben and I were the age of must of the member's grandchildren. I had always told my parents that I would always do youth ministry, because I hated working with old people. Boy does God have a sense of humor. It has been wonderful getting involved with the United Methodist Women's group here at Bridgewater, and as a result believe it or not starting next year at the District level. I always thought of the UMW as a old ladies group. My mom always told me to keep an open mind and not say that sort of thing. Well I will say it, she was and is right (if not all the time most of the time). Pearl has not yet let me sit through many worship services over this past year so that is still a work in progress and I would say at times one of my most frustrating weekly experiences. I have also found it hard to believe what we as a church have in place for the mentoring and accountability of Pastors and their families. I can not believe that for the local pastors they meet as a group for one to two hours six times a year and that is to be their accountability group and also mentoring time with their clergy mentor. One mentor for 15 to 20 pastors, and an accountability group that size. Pretty dysfunctional if you ask me. I also have been left a little dismayed at the spouses activities. I have in the past year not once been contacted by another Pastor's spouse to ask me how things are going or to give me advice. I think that we as a church need to do more for the spouses of pastors as well as do more for the pastors, especially for new pastors and their families. With that said I would say that the local church has been a true blessing, the connectional church well let's just say we need to ask God for help. I do have some ideas from what I have experienced if there is anyone out there reading this who might be in a position to make some changes and wants to listen.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

I will write SPOILER WARNING if someone plans on readying the book and has not just before the paragraph that could possibly give a clue to the last of the Potter books, Deathly Hallows.

Is Harry Potter compatible with the bible and Christian teaching? Magic in the sense of the book is fiction and not reality. There are those in the world today who believe it to be true, but alas it is an illusion. It may not be a mere illusion since anything Satan gets his hands into can be not only tempting and seem real, but it usually contains at least a grain of truth so that it more convincingly entices. In Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets there is a plant called Devil’s Snare and it would seem the more you struggle the more you get intertwined and sucked in. The interesting part is when light, real light, hits the snare it shrinks away into the nothing that it really is.

Of course the magic that is presented in Harry Potter is not true, but one thing can not be denied.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold a record breaking 15 Million copies worldwide in the first 24 hours of its release which was noted in the Dateline interview with the famous author J.K. Rowling on NBC that aired July 29^th, 2007.

15 Million Copies in the first 24 hours seem inconceivable, but it is true. What is the most common global language today; it may just very well be ‘Potterian’. The language of world and person hood J.K. Rowling’s has created.

If we are going to speak to people with cultural relevance than maybe we need to know what they are talking about. This is why I was so excited to see the truth of the Gospel in the Harry Potter series even though it may not have been intentional.

The Dateline interview previously mentioned J.K. Rowling talks about redemption and forgiveness and that after the last book ends a new beginning is enabled. All very similar to one special person Christians everywhere hold dear, Jesus. In fact Harry Potter is called the ‘chosen one’. Jesus is God’s chosen one is he not? The series though speaks volumes on so many different levels and in so many different ways. I DO NOT WANT TO GIVE ANYTHING AWAY for those that have not read the last book yet, but the Christ like examples in it are amazing. I know there are holes, but it is something that culture knows and is interested in talking about and on top of that the face of Jesus can be seen in it.

At another point in the interview with J.K. Rowling she says, “We all have a choice like the Malfoy’s of the world”. The Malfoy’s are a family that makes some bad choices and chooses to follow greed, pride, and other things many church goers would today call sin, but J.K. Rowling is so right. ‘We all have a choice” and we are responsible for that choice.

I have many acquaintances that spasm at the idea of talking about Harry Potter let alone reading him as if they might get tainted, infected, or tempted to go down the wrong path, but Harry Potter shows, mortality, humility, selflessness, compassion, mercy, and grace in multiple forms (prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying). Harry Potter also shows these previously mentioned in balance with faith, love, truth, righteousness, and justice.

SPOILER WARNING

In the end the Harry Potter series is a made up world, fiction, but the truth of the bible, and especially Jesus Christ dying on the cross for the forgiveness of sins so that all who believe may have ever lasting life, redemption, is represented in one way or another, even the resurrection.

That is all I can say at this time so that I do not spoil the book

Happy Birthday to me

It is my birthday. Today is the big 30 as some may say. I am grateful for the blessings, challenges and growth God has given me the past 30 years and am looking forward to the next 30 years. Today Tim McGraw's song the next 30 years is my song. So I am going to make a list of what I am going to do. I will post it latter after I make it.

Worship God Tonight

Tonight we went to worship with our Christian family at Concord UMC for Saturday Celebration. Usually Corben is up front and pearl and I are in the pews with me trying to keep her quiet and there and Pearl wanting to either get up front with her dad or to the nursery to play. Not tonight. Tonight during the beginning of worship, a time of singing praises to God, Pearl wanted her Dad to hold her while we praised God. Corben was holding Pearl with one hand and raised his other hand while he sang praises to God. Pearl was looking at him and than the next thing I knew she put her hand in the air and was singing. I do not know what she was saying, but I am sure God knows. Pearl than went to the nursery to play, which is staffed, at Bridgewater if Pearl has to go to the nursery than so do I. So I got to actually sit and listen to the sermon. Which was great. The title of the sermon was "I did it my way---and still got to heaven! Why Mike is not a Christian." A few of the things that I want to remember from the sermon tonight are: 1)Know that Jesus is the ONLY way. 2) Know the truth and be concerned that others know the truth. 3) Be ready to give reason for my belief in a respectful way. It was a great evening and a truly needed worship time.