My crew was given the “official” name of “Crew Number 2.” I don’t know why we were given that name, except that there were thirteen different crews, and someone had to own the number 2 moniker. In addition to myself, the group consisted of one other male and four females. All of the kids were fourteen years old, or younger. To myself, I called the group, “Teenage Mayhem.”

I knew that I was in for a challenging week on the first day. Picture this… Me and a rental van full of teenagers, only two of which come from the same church group, so all of us are relatively unknown to one another. It’s Monday morning. It’s already hot, and the sun is barely up. As we begin, I ask our organizer to pull out our map from the information packet so that we can get to our job-site. She locates the map and hands it off to me, the driver, saying, “I’m not very good with these.” At this point, I’m already driving down the road with no place to pull off, so I glance at the directions and interpret them as telling us to drive South on I-270. It would later come to light that we were to have gone East on I-170. Whoops! At that, I dug my brand-new Garmin GPS out of the storage compartment and asked the organizer if she could program the address of our work site into the GPS. She did. When she placed the unit onto the dash and it located our position, the machine commanded me to “EXIT NOW!” I responded. I swear I checked the right-side mirror, but I also know that the organizer was still adjusting into her seat from having positioned the GPS. Whatever the reason, my lane-change was greeted with loud noises coming from the silver car that had been cruising along in the lane beside me and was now honking and vigorously applying his or her brakes! Having safely exited, we crawled through the lovely community of Bellefontaine at speeds reaching upwards of 30 MPH. Needless to say, we were late to our first job assignment.

The rest of that first day went fairly well. We worked inside, in air-conditioning, painting a lady’s porch, the ceilings of two of her rooms, and masking off the walls of those rooms for paint later the next day. The trip “home” that afternoon and back to the work-site the next day were uneventful, but the shadows of trouble from that first morning carried over into our second day. I thought things were going well. It looked like we might finish with this lady’s house by day’s end. At our lunch break, I received a call saying that we should clean up. We were done.

As it turns out, there was a disagreement between our resident and “Carl,” our agency contact person. Carl had told the lady that the light grey paint that she purchased would cover over her dark blue walls with no problem. Reality had proven Carl wrong. We cleaned up everything as best we could. My group was disheartened. No one wanted to leave this woman’s house with half-grey, half-blue walls. Carl told the group that it wasn’t their fault, nonetheless, with time to kill before we could return “home,” I took the group out for ice cream. I’d pre-programmed Ted Drew’s Frozen Yogurt into the Garmin, and she led us straight there. It was a good ending to a bad day.

Day three was split between two jobs. In the morning we went to a lady’s home where a previous work-group had been unable to finish the job. We worked hard painting her front and back porch, and we were finished before lunch. Carl met us after our lunch and devotion break and we went to another part of the city where a woman needed her fence painted. There was just enough time left in that work-day to sand the fence and get it ready for painting. Coming back from that site, the GPS led us off on a wild-goose chase. I was driving down I-55, near the Benton Park neighborhood, when out-of-the-blue the Garmin commanded me to “EXIT NOW.” Remember, I’d heard that one before. This time I was certain to check my rear-view mirrors and then exit in an orderly manner. Garmin had me turn right, then left, then proceed five blocks, only to turn right onto the entry ramp of I-55, again! Yes, for no apparent reason, the GPS sent us on some sort of a detour. That was when my group began to pray for deliverance for the Garmin GPS.

Day four we spent painting the fence. It was so hot. Heat index records were set. The kids spent more time playing with water from a hose “cleaning” up the equipment than actually working. Who could blame them?

All told, it was a productive week. We worked on three job-sites and did good work at each. The kids grew close together, as should the “family of God.” They were sad to leave on the last day.

Altogether, there were two major GPS detours that week. One that I can explain, and another that I can not. Life is like that, isn’t it? Sometimes the things we trust, those that we follow, can lead us down an unexpected path. Often there is no apparent reason for the detour, except that the unexplained and unexpected usually leads us deeper into prayer. Perhaps that’s the only reason necessary.

How about you? Are you in the middle of some unanticipated detour in life? Are you uncertain why life is taking you in the direction you’re going? When was the last time you prayed? My Global Positioning System may have lead me astray, but God’s Prayer System has yet to fail. Why don’t you give it a try?

Praying for you,

Pastor Clint

Such is the memory of a mother. She must remember both the happy moments (there were some of those, weren’t there?) and those moments not so pleasant. I am certain that there were plenty of those unpleasant memories. Some I have forgotten, but others, not quite. For mothers, it’s as Elizabeth Stone has said, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”

Mary, Jesus’ mother, knew much of the heartache of motherhood. From the strange circumstances of Jesus’ birth to the confusion of His becoming lost at the Temple at age twelve, to those times during His ministry when she and her family tried to “talk some sense” into Jesus, to that fateful day when she stood beneath His cross and, in Simeon’s words, “a sword pierced her soul” – Mary knew the grief of being a mother.

God also knows a mother’s emotions. He claims to love us even more intently than does a mother. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Surely they may forget,  Yet I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15 NKJV) He also claims to comfort us as does a mother (Isaiah 66:13) Like a mother, God makes, bears, carries and delivers His own. (Isaiah 46:3-4)

An old Jewish proverb claims that “God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.” If that be true, then certainly God taught mothers about forgiveness. French novelist, Honore’ de Balzac wrote, “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.” Of God, the Psalmist wrote, “Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;  According to Your mercy remember me,  For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.” (Psalm 25:6-7, NKJV)

So, how about it, Mom? That “lamp incident” was nearly 40 years ago. Isn’t it time to forgive and forget, no matter who was to blame for the broken lamp? For goodness sake? I hope so.

Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate the day. Don’t forget your Mother this month. Perhaps there’s something between you and her that could be resolved this May 9th?

Praying for Mother’s and their children this month,

Pastor Clint

May the Spirit of Easter live in and through you all,

Pastor Clint

I recall rushing out and buying a new generator. Those were difficult items to find in the waning days of 1999. People were sincerely concerned about power failure, and generators were selling for a premium. I was glad that I had mine… several years later… when the big ice storms hit and the power was out for nearly a week. That’s when I finally got to use my generator. I was not able to use it on the dreaded occasion of Y2K.

One thing I recall about entering the year 2000 was the overall pervasiveness of shared optimism. Back then, everyone seemed to feel good about the future – providing we would all survive Y2K, of course. This was to be more than an ordinary New Year. This was a new century. A new millennium! Gone, it was claimed, were the issues and struggles of the past. We were said to be on the cusp of a bold, new world. A world without the conflicts of the past. A world of peace and prosperity for all. Little did we know.

Who would have imagined, save for those plotting the dastardly deed, that nearly two years into the new century we would witness the deadly attacks of 9/11/2001 and the “war on terror” that has reigned since that date? None of the prophets of peace and prosperity in 1999 could be held accountable for missing that prediction. Hate is a difficult emotion to anticipate. Its outbreak is seldom foreseen.

Likewise, who – in 1999 – would have predicted that both General Motors and Chrysler would have declared bankruptcy before the end of this decade? OK, some may have guessed that of Chrysler, but who would have thought it of GMC? And the shake-up in the banking industry? And real-estate? The global economic depression? Who was warning us of those things a decade ago? Not many were giving such warnings, if any at all. Greed and panic, it seems, are also difficult to anticipate.

Now we are about to enter the second decade of the new century somewhat less sure of ourselves. In this decade, we have an ancient warning of some cataclysmic event to occur in the year 2012. Whatever shall we do? Should we stock up on food and purchase generators?

When it comes to the future, I’ve learned to take comfort in the predictions of God’s Word. The Bible’s authors reveal that, yes, there will be some unnatural and disconcerting events in the future, but the people of God have nothing to fear from all of that. Those whom God selects, He protects.

When it comes to the future, no one except for God knows what is actually going to happen. It’s best to trust in Him and forget all of the other predictions. God has told us enough for us to know: That justice and righteousness prevail. We know that evil, sin and death are doomed. Everlasting life belongs to those who trust in Jesus Christ. That’s one truth that you can “take to the bank.”

Who or what are you trusting in this new decade? Here’s praying your trust is found in Him.

Prayers for you in this New Year,

Pastor Clint

As for myself, I will retreat into the ancient Church calendar and seek solace in the season known as “Advent.”  Where “Christmastime” begins earlier and earlier each year with the vagaries of the retail barons, Advent always begins (in the United States) with the first Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Technically speaking, the beginning of the Advent season follows “Christ the King” Sunday, the last Sunday of the traditional Church calendar.   In that respect also, Advent differs from “Christmastime.”  Advent marks the beginning of the Church calendar year.  “Christmastime” is society’s end-of-the-year “blow out.”

The word, Advent, comes from the Latin word, adventus, which is itself a translation of the Greek word, parousia.  In Greek or Latin, the words mean “coming.”  Advent is to be a period of preparation for His coming.  Advent is placed on the calendar just before Christmas so that we may remember the ancient Hebrews’ longing for their Promised Messiah, but the gist of Advent, for the New Testament Church, has always been in making ourselves ready for Jesus’ Return, His Second Coming.  From the fourth century on, the 40 days beginning with November 11 were a period of strict fasting, much like Lent.  While those traditions have faded away, many churches still view Advent at a time of repentance and soul-searching.  Considering Christ’s much anticipated return, the idea of Advent is that we should be ready.

You see, unlike “Christmastime”  (even the “Christian” version that proclaims “We give because He gave,”) Advent reminds us that WE are the gift.  Paul wrote the church in Ephesus that Christ “loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”  (Eph. 5:25-27, NKJV)

So, at this Advent season, I am reflecting upon the only gift that matters after Jesus gift of Himself for the Church.  That is our gifting of ourselves to Him.  Indeed then, “We give because He gave,” but not of things; in the wallet-opening, debt-inducing manner or the retailers, but of self; in the heart-cleansing, sanctifying manner of the saints of old.   How’s the sanctification and cleansing going for you?  Have we, perhaps, gotten so caught up into things that are not of God that we are in danger of becoming a “spot” or a “wrinkle” on the Body of Christ?  I pray not.  Instead, I welcome this season of Advent as a period of reflective anticipation of Christ’s return.  This is a time for us all to prepare ourselves to stand in His presence.  We initiate that preparation with repentance and prayer.  Here’s to the Spirit of Advent doing it’s work in all of us.

Anticipating the parousia and praying for you this season,

Pastor Clint

Most people respond to a “Thank You” with the words, “You’re welcome.” I know what is implied when we say such things: The dictionary defines those words as, “A polite response to thanks,” but really, what do those words mean? Those who study language tell us that, in Old English, the word, welcome, sprang from two words whose meanings were “pleasure” and “received (or come).” Roughly translated then, “You’re Welcome,” is a polite means of acknowledging the receipt of pleasure in a person’s expression of thanks. I’m sure you’ll thank me for parsing that out for you. You’re welcome.

As I previously noted, all of this sprang to mind because of a consistent exchange that I noted at a recent visit to Davenport’s Chick-Fil-A Restaurant. When my order was ready, the counter-staff handed me my tray of food. I said to them, “Thank You.” They replied, “My pleasure.”

This wasn’t an offhanded remark either. I picked a spot close to the counter whereby I could hear this exchange repeated often. “Thank You,” the customer offered. “My pleasure,” says the associate. It was as if the workers there had received specific training to respond in that manner.

Now, unlike the polite, but meaningless, response of “You’re welcome” – and just the opposite of the valueless reply of “Whatever” – “My pleasure” is loaded with meaning and value! It conveys the idea that one is both important and worthy of service. I am not surprised that the Chick-Fil-A company might train their staff to reply in that way. They are a Christian-led organization.

I think this idea has a spiritual application in worship. Christian worship, or acknowledging God’s worthiness, consists largely of giving thanks to God for Who He Is and what He has done. That is the historical focal-point of this month’s major holiday.

Have you ever wondered how God might respond to our thanksgiving? I doubt that He’s thinking, “Whatever.” I’m fairly certain that His reaction is more than a polite, “You’re Welcome.” I believe that Chick-Fil-A may be accurately imaging God with their reply to thanks: My Pleasure.

Think about it. God responding to your praise and thanksgiving by saying, “It is my pleasure.” He would be saying that you have worth and value in His sight. You are important. You are loved. God loved us all so much that He sent His One and only Son, in the form of a servant, to carry the greatest burden for us all. He took our sins with Him to the grave that they might be done away with forever, and then He rose again to newness of life so that we could have life with Him forever.

To that, I can never stop saying, “Thank You.” I wonder if He replies with, “My Pleasure.” **

Giving thanks with you and for you this month,

Pastor Clint

**(for more insight, see Ephesians, chapter 1.)

Each year, with the change of seasons, my sinuses “clean house.” Imagine an automobile oil change, only this happens in one’s body and involves a stuffy head, sore throat and congested lungs. For me, it began this week when the threat of frost entered into the forecast. I don’t know how my sinuses view the television weather predictions, but all evidence points to the fact that they do. As I awoke Tuesday morning, my sinuses announced fall’s arrival.

So now I’m suffering, but not too awful badly. I had the requisite medicines on-hand: Decongestant and Expectorant. I prefer the long-lasting types of each of these, as they combat the symptoms well into the night. Those items plus a box of tissues and I’m all set for the three to five days this process requires to complete.

There are other things in life who’s regularity can be anticipated. Christmas is (depending upon where you shop) either upon us or coming soon. Soon we will end Daylight Savings time and shift our clocks back one hour. A few weeks after that, it will be Thanksgiving.

Then there are some things that you know are coming, but you cannot know when. Take snow as an example. As cold as it is getting, we know that the first snowfall can’t be far away, but no one can really tell you when that first snow will fly. You could try to guess the date, and maybe you’ll win a snow-thrower from the local news station if you guess correctly, but guessing doesn’t seem to be the best way of anticipating the snow.

The smart idea seems to be to prepare for those things that we know are coming. Like my having the proper medicine at hand for my seasonal sinusitis or Les bringing in salt for the church ahead of that first ice-storm, it pays to prepare for those thing one knows are coming. The same is true in your spiritual life.

Spiritually, you know that one day you will face your creator. God is going to want to know what you did with the gifts that He gave you. Just a partial listing of those gifts would include; the gift of life, health, wisdom, creativity – and greatest of all – the gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. We don’t know when, but a day is coming when we must give an accounting. Are you ready?

You can begin by making certain you are in relationship with Jesus. He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6) Receiving life from God’s Son should be first on your preparation list.

Assuming that is taken care of, next you’ll want to see that you are bearing fruit for Jesus. He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:1-8) Bearing fruit, giving glory to the Father, and showing ourselves to be Jesus’ disciples should be a priority of our lives.

These are just a few of what I consider to be the most important ways that we can prepare ourselves, spiritually, for the future. There are others. In fact, the Bible is a collection of books all about showing us how to relate to God. To me, improving your relationship with God is the most important means of preparing for eternity.

So take advantage of my seasonal malady. Be reminded this month to be prepared. We don’t know when, but we know THAT Jesus will return. I pray that we are ready.

Praying for your preparation,

Pastor Clint

It is this time of year when we send our little children off for their very first day of kindergarten.  It is that same time, a few short years later, when we watch them going off to college.  September is a month of new experiences and good-byes.

Life itself is but a series of transitions.  From the time one is born, he or she is expected to progress across the “stage” of life from newborn to infant, toddler to preschool, school-aged to adult, adult to… well, you get the point.  It’s when we do not transition from one of life’s epochs to another that something is seriously wrong with us.  A full, healthy life must transition.

The same is true for spiritual life.  Ephesians, chapter 4, looks forward to a time when “… we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ  (Eph. 4:13-15)”  Similarly, Peter encourages his readers to “… grow up into salvation…  (1 Peter 2:2b)

A full and healthy spiritual life must also transition.  We grow from new believer, something that Peter likens to “newborn infants,” to what Paul described as the full measure of Christ.  The problem with spiritual growth is that some of us get comfortable where we are and get “stuck.”  As in “real life,” when you fail to transition spiritually, something is seriously wrong.  The big problem, though – unlike physical development -  is that for a long time no one notices a lack of spiritual progression.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews explains some of the problems with a lack of growth in Christians when he writes,  “… About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.  (Hebrews 5:11-14)”

The mark of maturity described in the Hebrews passage is one’s level of discernment.  The mature have practiced discernment and through training are able to distinguish good from evil and to teach others these principles.   Therefore, one mark of the spiritual maturity of a believer is the ability and willingness to teach others Biblical truth.

So the question comes down to this.  Are you in transition or have you stopped spiritually maturing?  None of us can lay claim to having already reached “the full measure of Christ?”  (When was the last time you walked on water.  Or I, for that matter?)  So all of us need to be transitioning in that direction.  Life is short.  None of us can afford to halt that progression.  Examine yourself.  Allow God’s Spirit to search you.  Be honest with what you find.  And then keep “growing up” in Christ.

Praying for transition,

Pastor Clint

The report notes a long-standing criticism of megachurches: That they are experiencing growth at the expense of smaller, more traditional churches. The critique being that the net growth of believers remains about the same every year, and the amazing growth experienced in the largest congregations is happening not through new converts to Christ but through church transfers. Overall, this report found that charge against megachurches to be true. “… roughly 6% of [megachurch] attenders said they never attended any church before. The national data on all sizes of churches claimed 5% of attenders were formerly unchurched.”

Another interesting section of that report focused on church attendee loyalties:

“There was a time when church participants were members of only one congregation. Switching, when it occurred, happened serially – a person moved loyalty and participation (and hopefully official membership if church rolls were being well maintained) from one church to the next. This may no longer be true for all congregations’ attenders but it is certainly no longer descriptive of many megachurch attenders.
When megachurch participants were asked if they considered this church their “church home,” just three quarters said this was their only home church. Eleven percent of those in the pews didn’t consider this their home church (yet only 7% said they were visiting). Likewise, 12% claimed the megachurch as “home” but said they also attended other churches as well. Therefore, almost a quarter of those in worship any weekend have divided loyalties to the church they are in. ?These divided loyalties make a considerable difference in how committed the attenders are. If attenders have a church home other than the one they attended for the survey or claim to have multiple homes, they are far less likely to attend, give, volunteer or invite others than do those who say this congregation is their only church home.”

So what does all of that mean to Cable Community Church?

First, and you already know this, we can’t judge a book (or a church) by it’s cover. Those churches with multiple Sunday services and overflowing parking lots may or may not be actually increasing the Kingdom of God. We dare not allow their perceived “success” cause us to shrink back from our calling to minister to the communities and workplaces wherein God has planted each of us.

Secondly, each of us needs to rededicate ourselves to the ministry of the local church. If you’ve been tempted to call one church your “home church” while “shopping” around on Sundays for other ministry experiences at other churches – Don’t! Your church body needs you! We need you to attend, to give and to invite others. We need you to pray about your ministry skills and “plug-in” to the ministry that best fits your skill-set. And if that particular ministry doesn’t exist within our local body, perhaps God is asking you to spear-head the creation of that particular ministry.

As your pastor, when I pray for Cable Church, my desire isn’t necessarily that we might become the megachurch of Mercer County (or even the Quad City area.) I’ve never been focused that way on size and numbers. Instead, my prayer is that each one — EACH ONE — who belongs to Cable Church is growing in Christlikeness. That sort of growth involves maturing in our orthodoxy (right thinking) as well as our orthopraxis (right living.) May we all grow in each of those as we experience God together.

Praying for the church,

Pastor Clint