Funkyjimmer's Blog

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

A SHORT REPORT ABOUT LAST SUNDAY

God blessed the Sunday morning worship service at my church so much. My long-time friend was absolutely terrific on the piano. And he gave his moving testimony of how he left touring with the Band to come home after his father recovered from a severe automobile accident in which he should have died. My friend spent a lot of years playing with some of the really "greats" of our generation. He toured with Al Hirt, "Boots" Randolph, just to name a couple.

Anyway, the music was all good and everybody really got into the spirit of worship. There were no problems in that part of the service. My friend wrote a marvelous song about, "God Doesn't Love You Any More." It is so theologically accurate to the Bible. I built my sermon around the theme of that song.

As he sang we had the words showing on the screen. And our tech person is really great with all that sort of thing. When the words to his song showed, they were highlighted in yellow. As he sang them, the projectionist moved the highlighting off the words. It was very effective.

We had a video testimony by a couple who are also friends of mine. They had been told to have an abortion of their first child. They told in simple, moving words about that experience. The couple had planned to be present but a family commitment in Tennessee prevented them from attending. But after the video testimony we showed a couple of pictures of the family to show the healthy boy who is now 12 years old that they were told to abort. People were moved. This video testimony was one of the things woven in as a part of the sermon. We also had a sharing of joys and concerns and then had a prayer time for those requests as part of the sermon.

The only "hitch" was that the video got stuck right at the first. But the projectionist got it going and all was well.

There was a very good attendance even though for whatever reason or reasons there were at least six regular families absent that day. Several from our old church attended and surprised us.

I think the sermon went okay. I really "poured" myself into it! I had prayed and prayed that it would be all right and that God would use it. I am still praying for that. I guess it was okay. I lost my voice in the afternoon as a result but it was only temporary. That always happens when I haven't spoken publicly for awhile. It is the old "use-it-or-lose-it" principle.

There were several indications that people were blessed by the service. It was a good Sunday for me after being on Sabbatical for three weeks.

On to next week! I'm preaching about the spiritual consequences of being a "worklaholic". Sunday is called "Labor Day Sunday" in America.

The next week is the kick-off for our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure.

Jim

posted by jim 4:30 PM 0 comments

Friday, August 27, 2004

"IT’S OVER"

Well, almost! I mean the Sabbatical. Sunday is my first service back from Sabbatical. Tomorrow (Saturday) I have a practice run-through with our projectionist on some of the projection stuff we’re doing as a part of the sermon.

I am looking forward to getting back to preaching on Sundays. The Sabbatical has been good and very worthwhile. I hope to make this an annual occurrence. I feel I used the time very wisely and I am thankful for that. That is usually not the case with me. I often don’t use my time wisely. I fool myself into thinking I have a lot of time and put things off and before I know it, the "lots of time" I thought I had is gone and I didn’t get done what I intended. But this time was different. And I thank God for that.

I am really excited about the service Sunday. At our church we have 4 different worship teams—one for each Sunday of the month. But every fifth Sunday there’s no one regularly scheduled. We usually "scramble" to find worship leadership for those Sundays.

I volunteered for the worship leading responsibility this fifth Sunday! I think it will all be good. A long-time friend of mine who is an outstanding pianist will be working with me in the musical portion of the service. We have planned everything out. I spent a lot of study time on this sermon both before and during the first part of the Sabbatical. It is built around a theme I blogged about July 1st, the difficulty of waiting. And my friend wrote a great song about God not loving us any more. He’ll play and sing it during the sermon.

Also during the sermon we’re doing some other things different. One part will feature a video testimony from a family I know who were told they should have an abortion and terminate the pregnancy of their oldest child. The boy is now a healthy almost 12-year old! The testimony is powerful and moving. I had hoped to have that family present to introduce after the video testimony but a family commitment prevented that. So we’re showing a couple of pictures of the family.

So that’s what is occupying my thoughts and energy right now. Maybe I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

Jim

posted by jim 1:46 PM 0 comments

Saturday, August 21, 2004

NEARING THE END

I have written previously about my Sabbatical. There is one Sunday and one week left. I have taken several days off the past two weeks from my regular, week-day job. That has been good. It has allowed Karon and me to do several thngs. And I have had some good study time during the day when I am not so tired from the day's other activities.

I am pleased with the study progress. The sermon and the entire service (for which I am in charge) for Sunday, August 29th, are prepared. The sermon for September 5th is nearly completed. I have looked at all the material for the 50-Day Spiritual Adventure and have formulated some plans and ideas for the series. And I am working on the sermon for September 12th. Before I go off the Sabbatical I hope to have the sermon nearly completed (if not totally completed) for Sunday, September 19th. That will let me study and prepare ahead and still be ready for the coming Sunday. I hope it all works out that way.

I have wanted this Sabbatical. I am grateful to my fellow church leaders to allowing me to have it. I believe I have kept faith with the leaders and the entire church and have used the Sabbatical for its intended purpose. To me, it was a matter of keeping faith with my Brothers and Sisters at Countryside church. I used the time as I had proposed to them that it be used. I didn't neglect what needed to be done. And I didn't neglect getting some rest, which was a big part of the reason for the Sabbatical. I feel much more rested physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally than I did when I began the Sabbatical.

So I intend to make good use of this final week. I will take Monday off from my regular work. But I'll be studying and still getting some rest this final week. Tomorrow we will go to our old church, Traders Point Christian Church. Last Sunday we worshipped at Countryside. The week before that we went to our old church again.

I want to post a journal entry soon about the series of three messages that the man presented at my church while I was gone. I heard one of the messages, but I plan to get the tapes and listen to the other two messages. The messages were on the three forms of Government: The Home, The Church, and what he calls, "God's Back-Up Plan", the Civil Government. A really throught-provoking series. The one sermon I heard was helpful.

Jim

posted by jim 10:55 PM 0 comments

Monday, August 16, 2004

STANDING TALL

I wrote in my last Blog about my Sabbatical. The major purpose of the Sabbatical, in addition to getting some rest, is to read, study and prepare for our church’s "50 Day Spiritual Adventure" which begins September 12th. We have done these "Adventures" at the church for several years. There is an over-all theme for the 50 days. The theme is developed through weekly topics relating to the theme. Each week’s topic is developed through the Sunday sermons, a book to read, individual journals and small home group studies. These "Adventures" have been very beneficial in the past.

This year’s theme is especially interesting to me. "STANDING TALL—FACING FEARS THAT GRIP THE SOUL". The topics we will study are concerns that everyone in the country seems to be discussing or at least thinking about. The topics are: terrorism and war; financial insecurity; rejection and betrayal; skeletons in the closet; failure and disgrace; disease and death; the paralyzing what-ifs; fear of the gathering doom.

It all sounds depressing and gloomy. But these are relevant topics. And the good part is that the 50 Day Adventure will give us an opportunity to explore what the Bible teaches about all these things.

One of the exciting aspects of the study is the way they tie the messages of the themes into the Christian themes taught in J. R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, "THE LORD OF THE RINGS." The author of the study relates the experiences of the characters in the trilogy to the particular fear being studied that week.

It all sounds very interesting to me! I hope it all works out well for my church. I hope we can reach out to people in our communities who need answers to these topics.

Jim

posted by jim 4:15 PM 0 comments

Friday, August 13, 2004

ON SABBATICAL

Feeling the need for some study time and some rest, my church and I agreed that I would be on Sabattical 3 weeks in August -- 8, 15 and 22. So I am in the midst of that Sabbatical. The goal is to do some studying in preparation for our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure which begins September 12th. I want to Blog more about that very soon.

It became more and more difficult to work full time, be a husband-caregiver for a sick wife, help my kids and friends, prepare weekly messages for Countryside and carry on other aspects of the ministry there -- AND to adequately study and prepare for a whole new series of messages for the 50 Day Adventure. I was so tired and getting little to no rest--physically, mentally or emotionally.

So I am trying to discipline myself to study, rest, prepare, rest, spend time with Karon, rest, (you get the idea.) So far it is going well. I have completed the preparations for the service for August 29th (my first Sunday back). I have surveyed the plan for the 50 Day Adventure. Now I am ready to get down to the actual study and preparation.

I have a dear friend (probably my best friend) who loves me and completely understands me. He is holding me accountable to get rest during this Sabbatical. I am so grateful to him for his encouragement and for his holding me accountable in this area. My temptation is to cram all I can into the time of the Sabbatical--excluding any rest! But my friend is "holding my feet to the fire" and I am getting some rest.

Karon and I have enjoyed watching several DVDs. Some excellent and some poor (according to our tastes and judgement). We have different tastes in movies. I really liked "The Secret Window" but she isn't into thrillers. She really like "Welcome to Mooseport". I thought it was okay. We both liked "Miracle", "Out of Time" and "Drumline". There were others that rated "so-so" in our opinons and one that was absolutely awful. I can't even remember the name of it.

Oh well, we have enjoyed our movie-watching; popcorn eating time together. Oh yes, and we've done some Bible readng-studying together, too.

One of the highlights was going to see the exhibit of "The Dead Sea Scrolls'. Absolutely fantastic. The video they showed at the beginning of the experience was excellent.

Saturday we go to the Indiana State Fair. That should be fun. The weather is great--by my standards. It is about 20-degrees cooler than normal and low humidity. Karonis freezing! Hope we have a good day for the Fair. I hate to think of pushing her all over the Fairground in a wheelchair in the rain! (We won't go if it is raining.)

Now you have a brief summary of my life during the first half of August. As if you cared!

Jim

posted by jim 4:00 PM 1 comments