A Week in the Life

We preacher-types have heard it a thousand times: “You only have to work three hours a week!”

If only.

Bouncing off a statement produced by my previous blog, I thought I would share with you the past week or so in my life.

• I was asked to be in the room with a family as they removed their loved one from a breathing ventilator. He died peacefully within twenty minutes.
• I sat with a family as their loved one underwent surgery.
• I was called to counsel a brother (not from our culture) in the hospital who was refusing to have a medical procedure because he “trusted God, not man.”
• I visited a young man in another hospital who- while passing through- was involved in a terrible multi-car pile up on foggy I-10.
• I was asked to rush to another hospital to check on an elder from another city who had been air-lifted in because of stroke symptoms.
• I dealt with the after-math of the death of a homeless woman on our church property.
• I met with a lady from a community faith-based organization about our potential partnership in using a house on our church property as a residence for a work-release program for non-violent prisoners.
• I had a Bible study with a potential new member of our church.
• I visited with two church members in their homes.
• I met with our elders, our elders, deacons and ministry leaders, our benevolence task force and our worship committee.
• I ate well. I enjoyed a luncheon with our Young at Heart group, a breakfast with our benevolence task force, a Valentine dinner with our Young Family group, our Sunday Hospitality meal and a good lunch with a friend and brother.
• I preached on Sunday morning, taught a Share Group on Sunday night and taught my Wednesday night Bible class.
• And I have not even mentioned the time put in studying for these lessons and the study for my schoolwork.

This is not even an unusual week. It is just more adventures in preaching- and even though I can get weary at times- I would not want to live my life any other way.

Just a week in the life.

Adventures in Life and Blogging

I really enjoy blogging- both writing and reading. It is one of the better usages of the world wide web. My problem is being able to do it consistently. I marvel at guys like Bobby Valentine, Matt Dabbs, John Dobbs, Trey Morgan and others who are able to maintain quality posting.

Just in case you did not know the last two mentioned will be co-teaching a couple of classes at the Tulsa Workshop on Christian blogging. Should be interesting. Unfortunately I will be unable to attend.

Blogging (much like other things- say- working out at the gym) is about time management. Lately my time has been managed for me- between family, ministry and my MMin. work.

But I am not complaining. This weekend my daughter Taylor turned seven. She is a Valentine baby and we celebrated at a local pet store (Yes, pet stores host b’day parties now) which was fun. She also had her ears pierced- which dad was not quite ready for!

At Gateway, we have seen an increase in benevolence requests. We have set up a task force to deal with this and to redefine our focus in this area. Early this morning one lady- whom we had been helping- from the homeless community was found dead under an oak tree in front of our building. Often we feel quite overwhelmed in our efforts to address the needs that are out there.

Later this month we will be hosting the President and First Lady of Lipscomb University, Randy and Rhonda Lowery. Rhonda will be spending the weekend as the resource speaker for our annual Ladies Retreat and Randy will speak to us on the following Sunday.

For my latest class in my MMin. program, I am writing a research paper on how the divorce of a preacher effects a congregation. I am discovering that there are not a great deal of resources available on this topic.

As always- thanks for dropping in!

The Four Chaplains

Sixty six years ago on a bitterly cold February day an American troop transport ship, the USS Dorchester, was hit by a torpedo from a German U-boat and sank in less than thirty minutes in the waters of the frigid north Atlantic.

A total of 675 men lost their lives that day including four military chaplains. After assisting many of the dazed and confused survivors to find life-jackets and life-boats, these four men literally gave up their own life jackets when the supply ran out. As men were clinging for survival the four chaplains prayed, led hymns, and offered words of support and spiritual comfort. Numerous survivors told of how these four men gave them the hope they needed to hang-on. They were last seen standing together praying as the ship sunk into the icy waters.

Alexander D. Goode, John P. Washngton, George L. Fox, and Clark V. Poling were these four chaplians. They were Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, but they served and sacrificed for all on that ship.

I just returned from a Civitan luncheon in their honor. I sat in a room with men and women from many faith families. I thought about the chaplains and I thought about us. 

We are in a war too. It is not fought with bombs and bullets, but it is a war none-the-less. It is war for our very souls. Our enemy-Satan- deploys weapons of eternal destruction. How can we fight him if we are fighting each other? 

Imagine being on that sinking ship. Would some of our “issues” matter then? Would we refuse to fellowship that guy from another tribe handing us a life-jacket?

We are in a war and we need all the allies we can get.

Let’s wage peace and see what God can do with that.