Best way to make lamb chops

Since this is Friday afternoon, naturally my thoughts turn to whatever delectable treat I will make my family for dinner. It's been awhile since I've made lamb chops. Here is the simplest and best way to make lamb chops. Mix some olive oil together with chopped garlic, fresh rosemary and salt/pepper. Marinate the chopd for a couple of hours. Broil (or BBQ) until they are done. Enjoy!!!

What type of pastor am I?

I've been thinking this week about what type of pastor I am and will be. I've seen that Senior Pastors break down into about 4 basic categories. None of these are bad or necessarily worse than others. They just are

Pastor as CEO: THis is the ype of pastor who runs the church almost like a business. His guides are often business models and these churches are often modeled on a 'seeker-sensitive' model. Emphasis CAN be (but not necessarily needs to be) on numbers and size. Dave Fasold seems to fit into this model

Pastor as Manager: This pastor find and builds programs and puts them into action. These churches are know for having just that...good programs. If a need develops, design a program around it. Larger churches seem to go for this model, possibly out of necessity.

Pastor as Evangelist: Sermons and programs are often directed towards non-believers with the goal of brigning them to faith. Sometimes these chuches don't have solid teaching for mature believers because of the aim-build the church through active evangelism. Tom Johnston fits this model.

Pastor as Teacher: The pastor's main job is not to run the church but build the faith of the congregation. Strong discipleship programs are often in evidence at these churches. Believers tend to be well-trained in doctrine and theology. John MacArthur definitely fits this model. But so does John Hanneman and Peninsula Bible Church.

This last (Pastor as Teacher) is the role that I find I am the best at. It is this that most attracts me to ministry. When sending out resumes to churches, interviewing, etc. This is the type of church I will be looking for.

Why plant a tree

John Wesley's reply to what he would do if he only had a week to live was to plant a tree. He said that was what he planned to do anyway.

The point was that one should always live with eternity in mind. One day we will indeed go to be with God. As Christa says, you never know when you'll walk outside and get hit by a beer truck. I"m sure Wesley wouldn't have phrased it quite like that. Wesley was doing just that, living with eternity in mind.

What to do with 1 week to live

There was a woman who recently posted a comment on this blog. Being so excited that i had a reader, I looked at who she was. She had a question that asked, "If you only had one week to live, what would you do?'

I am reminded of John Wesley's response (I think it was him) to a question like this. He said, "I would plant a tree." The curious response was, "Why?" To which Wesley answered, "Because I was going to plant a tree anyway"

More on this anwer a little later. It's late. Christa has gone to sleep. Caleb is long asleep. He had no nap today. We went to see Open Season. We played baseball. He went on his bicycle. We went swimming. Tired little man.

Plugging in to creation

One of the ways in which we cna plug into and learn to appreciate God's creation on a consistent basis is to plug in to the rhytms that GOd has established for life. Specifically I'm talking about Sabbath. As God worked 6 days and rested, so we are to do the same. This is the God-ordained rhytm that God has established in the wake of creation. Learning to rest instead of simply doing repeatedly. We can't do God's work and create has He has (bara, the Hebrew word for 'create' only has God as subject. Only God creates. Never man). Working into the ebb nad flow of God's creative and creating (starting to sound a bit Newageish here, I fear) is how we can begin to grow in comtemplation of creation

decision time for elections

In California this November, there's a Propositon 87 tyo vote for (or against). I haven't done a tone a research yet, but it seems to be something along the lines of taxing oil companies and not allowing them to rainse prices to cover it. I think they want to put the money into alternative fuels, etc. Anyway, they're running a lot of commercials in support of it that feature both Bill Clinton and Al Gore. That's pretty much enough there to make me vote against it, just on general principles.

Star Trek cast

This probably does not have much to do with anything important at all, but on last night's episode of "Boston Legal", there were people on it who were regulars on 4 different Star Trek shows. William Shatner (you know who), Rene Auberjenois (Odo on "Deep Space Nine"), Armin Shimerman (Quark on "Deep Space Nine") and Ethan Phillips (Neelix on "Voyager")

Emerson on creation

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore: and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile."

We often tend not to appreciate that which we see or are surrounded with daily. True with creation and beauty, but eqully true with such things in life as work and family. When I was snorkeling in Hawaii, what struck me about the fish was that I was seeing them this way for the first time. They weren't in a glossy photo book or seen through thick glass at Marine World. No, right there in front of me. So close I could touch them. Would I lose this holy awe at God's creation if I saw them every day? Perhaps.

What Emerson says is that the beauty of creation surrounds us at all time and we so often pay it no mind. We get calloused to it and perhaps by extension, God also.

More thoughts on this later from Eugene Peterson, but I don't have his fantastic book "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" in front of me.

Images from the past

Yestererday while getting a couple of books out of the garage, I ran across our wedding video. We had not watched it since the wedding, 6 1/2 years ago. Of course we didn't know it existed until after our honeymoon when George halley gavbe it to me. Not only did he have someone going around the reception with a camera, but he hid one in the flowers on the altar so the whole ceremony wss taped. We didn't have a clue.

We watched the reception part of it last night. The part I enjoyed the most was when all my guys stood up and gave toasts. George as my best man did the traditional one, then Kevin Bixby. After that I think they all wanted to get their licks in (and they did!!)

Emerson part 2

Emerson's third part of what it takes to be a scholar is 'action'. I've bee saying that there are similarities between his qualifications for being a scholar and what I believe is needed for a pastor.

I believe that pastors need to be actively involved in what I call 'front-line' ministry. It is not enough to run the church, establish programs and ministries and preach. We need to get our hands dirty with 'action. No matter how big the church or extensive the obligations of the pastor, we need to be intimately involved in the lives of individuals. Discipling on a regular basis. Sharing, teaching and praying. Building into lives. Paul says in Ephesians that pastors are to train the people to do the work of ministry. But this does not abdicate our responsibility also to do ministry. We need to be in the trenches alongside our people. As pastors, we can't adopt an attitude of "Do as I say, not as I do".

Wherever I end up on a permanent basis, leading a men's group as I am doing now will be a priority. Front-line ministry

More advancement for Caleb

One thing Caleb and I enjoy doing when I get home from work is playing sports out in the front yard. Within a 10-minute span, we will play golf, football, soccer, tennis, baseball and basketball. Whew!!!! That's a workout!!!

Caleb is very good at catching a football. His other friends...not so much. You toss them a football softly and it just hits them on the chest. Caleb, as of yesterday, can catch a football while running. I'll say 'hike' and he'll take off running. I'll toss it slightly in front of him and he'll catch it while running. That's my boy!!!

Reflections on Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay on "The American Scholar", says that there are three elements that go into the making of a good scholar. They are 'nature', 'books', and 'action'.

There are applications and connections from this for pastors as well. I do consider myself to be a bit of a scholar (all that there studyin') but not enough to give myself that title. But how should these three parts of the making of a scholar apply to ministry?

EMerson says that nature is the greatest teacher. I think he was a deist, but I'm not sure. Christians can substitute God for nature. Sme do this anyway. But it is God who is indeed the greatest teacher and no pastor can truly be called that who does not put him slef at God's feet to learn.

Books also, but they can be secondary. They teach us about the past (Emerson again) and what great men have thought and taught. Obviously our greatest book is Scripture, but there are so many other deep and almost magical writings on God, Jesus, faith, etc. As pastors, we need to familiarize ourselves with what great men of God have written in the past. And, to an extent, we need to hold onto the past. No pastor is an original. Doctrine is built upon the foudation of the apostles' teaching. There is a need to pastors to connect with what has gone before them.

Action is the third part. I'm going to go into a little more detail on this in the next post.

Possible men for the group

I've been praying that God would send us 1 or 2 more men for the discipleship group. Who would God have for us?? This '2nd round' of recruitment is so far bringing forth fruit. David Christopher is in. Ron Harper and Lee Searles are going to come the first week and check it out. I've got messages in to Mark Gunnell, Kim Mack, and Tim Barron (I hope Tim joins-this could be good for him). My guys are going to call a couple of other men as well. We could end up with 3-4 new guys. BLessings from God indeed. He does do beyond what we ask or dream of.

Revamped men's group

Somethings have changed in my men's group, mainly due to attendance issues and other things coming up for the men on our appointed night-which was Thursday. I wasn't too happy to learn that they did not meet during the 2 weeks I was in Hawaii. But it's not all their fault. I missed 4 out of 5 weeks earlier, all due to events I couldn't control. Plus one of the men has some school stuff coming up with his daughter on Thursday night.

Attendance at this group is a prerequisite to being in it. So we had to ask the question of whether we still wanted to meet, and if so, what do we do. To a man, we all said that what we aredoing in this group is good nad important and that not meeting was not an option. We've decided to move to Monday nights starting on Oct 30. It's a night which presents no conflict for anyone. Plus, we've decided that we need 2 more men to join us. We've got some names out there that myself and a couple of the other men are going to follow up with.

new website

My friend Mike Kazmark has just set up a new food website. Check out bestpastarecipes.com. He's also soliciting recipes for it. Matt Karnes has already placed one for pasta with lamb and red wine (gonna have to check it out). I'll also probably drop a recipe or two on him. I've got a great one where the pasta sauce is just olive oil, red pepper flakes, scallions and parmesan. It's a little too spicy for Christa, but it will clear up those nasal passages.

Appreciating God's creation

For the first time ever, I went snorkeling while in Hawaii. I don't know why I hadn't before. Just wasn't really interested or had the opportunity. But my brother Andy is a big scuba diver and Christa likes to snorkel as well. So along with them I went.

There was a coral reef right in front of our resort, and about 10 minutes walking distance away was a littel cove called Turtle Bay. Huge sea turtles live in this bay and often come to the top for air (we saw several of them from a distance). Snorkeling sometimes allows close-up views of them-like when they swim under you. We looked in vain, but saw no turtles.

But the fish in and maong the coral reef were amazing. It was as if God had picked up each individual fish and used a different paint brush on them. There were yello-striped triggerfish. I saw fish that were almost completely black except for an orange streak on either side. Long (18 inch or so) neeldlefish which were a light green. Puffer fish were amazing. I swear the first one I saw looked like army camoflage. Green with all the camo colors mixed in. It was also covered with little white spots.

I have a great love for nature and God's creation. I think that's one of the reasons that I like backpacking so much-just getting out there away from everything and into God's creation. But the diversity among the fish really surprised me. Everything that God creates is unique and individual. God never repeats Himself

What not to name the baby

When we were in Hawaii. Christa and I did a sunset cruise aboard a catamaran called the Kapalua Kai. Great cruise-great weather-we met some great couples, etc. I also met the female part of the crew from Rio Vista. She was about 20 and very pretty. Tanned California girl is what she looked like. Unfortunately her name was Hattie.

When I was getting some food at the appetizer bar, I casually mentioned to her that Hattie was an unusual name. She blushed a little and said she was named after her great-grandmother. Not so bad, she went on to say. Her brother was named after his great-grandfather. His name was Elmer.

Cross Hattie and Elmer off the list of potential names for the baby

Back from paradise

It's been a few days since I've been here. Over two weeks, in fact. I just didn't have teh energy, or really the desire to get on from MAUI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, we just got back a couple of days ago from 10 days on Maui with the whole family (Mom, Dad ANdy and his girlfriend Gayle).

The relaxation was needed and appreciated. I played in the ocean with Caleb incessantly and we played golf about 3 times a day. There was an 18-hole putting green just outside ou door. Caleb's version of golf is more like hockey, but he likes it. As for me, I do my best putting when no one else is around to see it!! Funny how that works.

I don't often get a lot of 'do nothing' time at home. When I'm not at the bank, I'm usually home cooking or taking care of Caleb. Then there's all the church activity which keeps me going also. To be able to sit by the pool for an hour and just read (not for church, ministry or anything) is an activity that I don't get to do much.

The break also came at a great time in terms of ministry. We had just finished our small-group fall kickoff and this next week starts all the work for our upcoming men's retreat. Hawaii was sandwiched in perfectly.