Vacation Next Week

Beginning after the November 14th evening worship and continuing until the November 21st evening worship service, I will be on vacation!

With an additional worship service, Confirmation, Bible Study and other initiatives, this has been quite a busy fall. I am looking forward to some time to recharge as we soon begin the season of Advent and prepare for Christmas.

There is no exciting destination in my future for next week. I suppose you can call this a "staycation." I have two main goals for this week off:

1. I hope, with Christa, to go through our closets and do some spring cleaning in the fall. We also need to put together our basement now that we have carpet down there. I am setting aside three days to do some house cleaning. Cleaning relaxes me...it will be a nice break.
2. I plan on taking two days and devoting them completely to playing video games. I haven't had much time at all to play...and I look forward to doing some catch-up playing :-).

A Devotional Book Option

This last Monday I finished the book Daily Devotionals Inspired by Ninety Minutes in Heaven. I received this book as a Christmas gift. It, appropriately, had 90 devotionals which I broke up into two each week.

Each day began with one Bible verse, a brief devotional focused on the Bible reading, followed by a prayer.

It would certainly help to have read Piper's book before reading this devotional book, but it is not required. Many of his devotionals reflect on conversations that he has had with people at conferences, worship services and book signings.

Like the book, they all reflect on issues of heaven, the afterlife and what happens when we die. Given that this is often a hard topic for people to talk about, I felt as though this book continues the opportunity for us to reflect on those issues.

It is not that expensive and it is worth checking out. Contact me if have additional questions!

A Wonderful Birthday/Christmas Gift

I am definitely at a point in my life where I don't feel the need for a lot of "toys" for my birthday. The last thing I need is more stuff. If anything, I am trying to cut things down to some degree.

When I thought about some kind of birthday gift, I had mentioned to my parents that it would be nice to have a later edition of The New Interpreter's Bible. I received an edition as a gift when I was just beginning ministry, but it was a 1951 edition. It was helpful, but it was very outdated. I still use it, but I definitely would like to have something more modern to use as well.

As you can see, the complete set in twelve volumes, plus an index. It includes two translations of the Bible, along with a commentary and reflection. That is a lot of reading! But, it is so helpful for Bible study and sermon preparation. I was taken aback when my parents said that they would be willing to get this gift for me. I am very thankful for this gift, and was comfortable with this being a birthday/Christmas gift.

As I look to my future ministry, these books will be so helpful to me in my ministry. Pastors have a tendency to collect books for the most part. As I grow in my knowledge of the faith, these books will be very helpful. I am excited to begin putting them to work this week!

Service Schedule for November 7th

Morning Worship Service

"Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive." - Luke 20:38

At our worship services on Sunday morning, we will be addressing issues related life after death. We will be looking at a time in which we will experience a resurrection. These are difficult concepts to wrestle with, but in our reading from Luke we have the confidence that God will be with us always. We have confidence that in our own resurrection, we will live in a perfect relationship with God and with one another. Come learn more!

It is also All Saints Sunday. We will take time during worship to recognize those in our churches and our communities that have died since our last All Saints Sunday, in addition to those that we continue to remember that are no longer a part of our lives. If you have someone to recognize that is not found in the bulletin for the service, you are encouraged to lift up that name during our time of recognition.

The scripture readings for this Sunday morning are:

• Haggai 1:15b-2:9
• 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
• Luke 20:27-38

Evening Worship Service

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

At 7:00PM at Oakfield United Methodist Church, we will join together in worship for the first of four services that focus on questions about Prayer. This Sunday, we will address the question: Why do we pray? We hope you can make it for a contemporary service of singing, prayer, discussion and Communion.

Post-Election Reflection

In my younger days, I might have stayed up later to see all of the results of yesterday's mid-term elections. Christa and I voted after breakfast, and as the day went by I periodically checked the exit poll results and also saw the results up until we went to bed.

Checking the news and some social media sites, I was taken aback by the over-the-top reactions that people have to the results of this election. Allow me to show just a few of the things that I read on people's Facebook pages:

• "Run for your lives! The idiots have taken back power! So begins a hundred years of darkness!"
• "Doomsday in Wisconsin."
• "Canada's looking better by the minute."
• 'Why are Americans so short-sighted?"

Hmm...should we really be shocked by the results of last night's election? When Bill Clinton was in office, the legislature eventually became majority Republican. When George W. Bush was in office, the legislature became majority Democrat. With Barack Obama as president, the legislature has now become more Republican.

This seems pretty normal to see. To me, it is the natural cycle of politics. As with all of these changes, I wait with curiosity to see if the changes made in this election will provide what voters were looking for. As in all elections, there are winners and losers. There are people that are excited, and people that are frustrated. But, let's not jump quickly to doom and gloom. Let us also not overstep, and overstate, the gains that have been made. What this does present is a time in which a president's agenda and ideas will face a greater opposition. Again, this is not unique. Many presidents have faced this as some voters are not happy with what the president is doing.

Instead of declaring the country dead and tossing out names at one another, let us pray for those who return to, or begin new, elected positions in our local, state and federal government. Let us pray that they will work together to form a better future for each one of us. Placing blame, getting angry, and name calling will not help. Playing an active, positive, participatory role in our government will.

A Transformative Experience

I had a meeting today with a member of my congregation. This person wanted to meet with me to share a transformational experience in this person's life. While attending a program that this person was not all that excited to attend, this person, while in prayer, felt the presence of Christ. It struck straight to this person's heart. As a result of this experience, this person has found and felt a true relationships with God and is looking to learn more about, and be more involved with the church.

This person is open to sharing the experience with others and is looking to write it down to remember it fully. I am hopeful that others, upon hearing this experience might be willing to share their experiences. Perhaps others might find a voice. Perhaps others can anticipate and be prepared for an experience like this in their life.

I was honored to hear this experience and it truly made my day!

An Exciting Weekend!

I wanted to take some time to share some highlights from my weekend:

• On Saturday evening, my little brother (through BBBS) Isaac, and I went to the Milwaukee Bucks home opener at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. It was a great game that ended in a Buck's victory. Now, the game tipped off at 7:30PM, which ended with a trip to Oshkosh to drop off Isaac. I got home at around 12:30AM. It was a rough wake-up at 6:30AM!
• Morning worship services went well at both churches. When you include the folks that came to our evening worship service in Oakfield, we ended up having 48 folks in worship. That is three Sundays in a row in which we have had over 40 people in worship. I am hopeful that this is a trend!
• On Sunday afternoon, Christa handed out candy to the kids of Oakfield and the surrounding community for Halloween. I mostly watched football, but it was also nice to see the kids (and some parents) all decked out for Halloween. Football and candy...you can't ask for a better Sunday! :-D

I hope everyone had a fun and enjoyable weekend!