Thursday @ Camp

~ Slept from 2:30 - 8
~ Breakfast, taught seminar
~ Chat about future of camp
~ Lunch
~ Tennis, Chat, Trix
~ Supper, Botche-Ball
~ Service, ping-pong, trix
~ Stayed up real late
(23 chocolate milks)

Wednesday @ Camp

~ Slept from 2:30 - 8
~ Breakfast, worship
~ Taught Seminar (sabbath)
~ Light lunch
~ Kan-jam, ping pong, cards
~ Supper, sleep, service
~ Wii, board games, cards
~ Watched 'the office'

Tuesday @ Camp

~ Slept from 2-8
~ Breakfast, worship
~ Taught seminar
~ Bible study, Lunch (12)
~ Botche (spelling?) ball, b-ball
~ Wii, cards
~ Supper (14 total chocolate milks)
~ Relax till service, service
~ Funny family story sharing

Monday @ Camp

~ Slept from 2-7
~ Stayed in bed till 8, got ready
~ Breakfast
~ Taught seminar on healing
~ Attended morning Bible study
~ Lunch (current chocolate milks: 6)
~ Played basketball, cards, etc
~ Supper (8)
~ Lil nap and service
~ Comedy DVD in recital hall
~ Relax, wii

Sunday @ Camp

This morning I'll be preaching at Lockport (on faith), teaching SS (on denominations), and then preaching at Hess Road (on marriage) before heading toward Houghton for Family Camp. Aaron Henderson has already graced me with his presence. I know of about 45 from church who will be going to camp. Should be good. I'll be sharing the highlights of camp throughout the week, just like last year.

~ Arrived around 3:30
~ Set up rooms (created bunk beds)
~ Had chocolate milk for supper
~ Went to Filmore to buy water
~ Went to evening service
~ Checked on seminar rooms
~ Talked with friends from other churches
~ Talked with friends from our church
~ Played Wii
~ About to look over seminar notes

Recent TV

My taste in TV has changed a bit. I got tired of re-runs. The 3 shows I watch most now are:

1. House Hunters
2. Colbert Report
3. Psyche

We Messed Up

I haven't blogged about politics much lately. I guess that's because it's so depressing. We have 2 candidates for President who both stink in their respective ways. Obama has no experience. He's all talk. And now even his talk is getting downright ridiculous. He has little to no substance. McCain has been able to turn peoples respect for him into votes. I thought he was a slime-ball throughout the primaries. I disagree with his take on his #1 issue.

Meanwhile I am continuing to read Ron Paul's stuff. The guy is right on target. Either the voting is rigged or we messed up big-time. Again. Frustrating.

The Final 10

We're down to the final 10 in our OT Idol competition. Remember, the competition has changed now in that we are voting FOR the people we want to win. But there are still categories. This week: In light of the new "Batman's" success, vote FOR the character who was the best crime-fighter and vote FOR the character who had the most 'superhero' skills.

Daniel
David
Deborah
Gomer
Isaiah
Joseph
Joshua
Noah
Ruth
Samuel

The other winner of this competition (besides the winning OT character) will be the person who has voted FOR the winning OT character the most often UNLESS the winning OT character is my pre-competition plant character (in which case I and that character are the winners).

Camp Seminars

This year I'm in charge of seminars at our 'better than Beulah' District Family Camp. Here is a list of the topics that will be covered each morning:

Monday:
Creation/Evolution
Sports Ministry
Environmentalism
3 Views of Healing

Tuesday:
Reaching the community
Marriage
Environmentalism (pt. 2)
3 Views of Healing (pt. 2)

Wednesday:
Will your kids stay in church?
Missions Emphasis
Using musical abilities for God
3 Views of Sabbath

Thursday:
What would a worldwide flood do?
Christian relationship to social concerns
Building your worship ministry
3 Views of Sabbath (pt. 2)

Friday:
Developing Authentic Worship

Questions

Sunday night we gave Steve Gregg a chance to do what he does best: Answer Bible questions. I always think it's interesting what questions get asked. Here's a list of questions people in the congregation wanted answers for:

Why didn't Jesus know timing of 2nd Coming?
What does James 1:10 mean?
What are we to make of modern Israel?
Should Christians tithe?
What translation do you prefer?
What's going on in Job 1:6
How come we don't see more miracles?
How important is eating healthy?
Is cremation ok for Christians?
What letter would Jesus write to us today?

Steve Gregg

In a few hours I am going to the airport to pick up my favorite Bible-teacher: Steve Gregg. I first heard of Steve while listening to the Bible Answer Man radio program. Steve was a guest discussing his book 'Revelation: 4 Views.' I was growing weary of BAM's long and numerous commercials and so I started listening to Steve's own Bible Q&A show 'The Narrow Path.' It's a great show! No commercials. No cliche answers. In fact, he'll talk for nearly the whole hour with 1 caller if the conversation is interesting enough. I'm looking forward to meeting Steve.

Schedule
Friday: Camp-out at the church
Saturday: Men's morning
Sunday: Steve preaching

The Final 12

We're down to the final 12 in our OT Idol competition. It's a good assortment. We have characters from the Pentateuch, the History, the Wisdom books & the Prophets. We have guys (9) and gals (3). We have Jews & Gentiles. The competition changes now in that we start voting FOR the people we want to win. But there are still categories. This week: In light of summer camps, vote FOR the character who would make the best camp speaker and vote FOR the character with the best one-verse line in Scripture (please refer to the specific line).

Abraham
Daniel
David
Deborah
Elisha
Gomer
Isaiah
Joseph
Joshua
Noah
Ruth
Samuel

The other winner of this competition (besides the winning OT character) will be the person who has voted FOR the winning OT character the most often UNLESS the winning OT character is my pre-competition plant character (in which case I and that character are the winners).

Outraged at Outrage

Recent developments in California & NY state dictate that homosexual couples from our community in Appleton, NY can fly out to the west coast for a marriage ceremony that will be recognized when they return home. Intense email forwards, message-board discussions & verbal angst make clear that many evangelicals are outraged. But, if outrage is the game, I'm outraged at the outrage.

Are the planks removed from our eyes and I missed it? Is 'Christian' marriage suddenly a far more secure institution than pagan marriage? Has our context changed so much that it is now inappropriate to let God be the one to judge those outside the church while we refrain from judging those inside? Are we really more concerned with a union performed in the eyes of the state than we are in the dis-union performed in front of a holy God?

I am persuaded that, at least, until the Christian church is a truly salt and light when it comes to the institution of marriage, we have no voice worth listening to when it comes to public policy. Instead of outrage over our belief that the world is quickly heading toward a giant waterfall, shouldn't we be concerned to right our own nearly sunken ship?

Our hope for the purification of the institution of marriage is not found in public policy, but in 20, 25, 40 & 50 year anniversaries. After I preached on this subject yesterday I had 3 couples come up to me excited to share that they, indeed, had just celebrated such milestones (40, 50 & 50). Praise the Lord!

Short Sermon

I only preached for about 10 minutes today. We had our VBS program, so it was more like a devotional thought connected to the theme (Creation). But that's certainly the shortest sermon I've ever preached. It reminded me of my time at Sussex Wesleyan Church. I remember, one semester, it seemed like the average sermons was about 12 minutes. There wasn't enough time for a long sermon anyways because, it seemed to me, every week was a 'special' Sunday (ie, fireman sunday, gas station attendant sunday, etc). What's the shortest sermon you've ever preached? Longest?

Re-Naming Community

I was a bit disappointed that the Wesleyan Church made big changes to 'community membership' but didn't rename it! What a lack of creativity. Here are some ideas on what 'community membership' could have been called:

Wesleyan Wino Membership
Drunk on the spirits Membership
Biblical Membership

Fix this Blog

Keep voting for OT Idol Below

As I'm sure you notice, I've finally updated to the new version of blogger. Please let me know what's 'missing' yet 'mandatory.' In other words, what did you like on my old blog template that MUST get re-instated onto this new version of my blog? What looks really bad right now? Do you like the BBC reader? The Blogroll is still around, just lower at the moment.

OT Idol #14

Voted Out Last Week
Elijah
Jacob

Group B is down to 8 contestants. Now it's time to find out who will make it to the top 12 (groups A & B will be combined).. First, in light of recent discussions about alcohol in Wesleyan circles, vote AGAINST the character Who you think would be the most likely to get drunk if living today. Second, since I've been doing recreation at VBS, vote against the biggest cry-baby! Yep, vote against the WINO and the WHINER.

Group B
Gomer
Job
Joseph
Joshua
Noah
Ruth
Samson
Samuel

Remember the TWIST, I have 1 remaining OT Idol character. I will try to MANIPULATE victory for them via my categories and word choices. If one of my characters wins, you are all losers. If not, the people/person who voted AGAINST the winning character the least amount of times are/is the winner. (NOT VOTING any given week will count as a vote against the winner, so you'll have to vote a lot to win)

VBS

Every year I make a post about VBS, so I'll continue that tradition. Our Vacation Bible School started today. We're using AnswerinGenesis's Amazon Expedition program. It seems pretty good so far. It's a lot more biblically focused that some other VBS program's I've seen. The songs are pretty catchy. It's less technologically driven, giving people in the congregation more chances to minister. I noticed that next year AIG is doing a 'space' them. I tend to think that'll be really cool. For my part, I am in charge of audio/visual and recreation (as per usual). I'm already exhausted though. Any of you participating in VBS this Summer?

Ending a Marriage

Marriage is meant to be a beautiful thing. Divorce is ugly, any way you look at it. That being said, I have run into quite a few people lately on message boards who have a real hard line stance on divorce. Basically, there position is that the only thing that ends a marriage is death. No divorce allowed (they re-interpret the exception clause about adultery). Today, I want to post about the 3 biblically valid ways to end a marriage, as I understand them.

Three Valid Endings to a Christian’s Marriage

1. Death of a spouse (Romans 7:1-3)
Nearly everyone seems to agree on this. 'Till death do us part' is true. Death ends a marriage. A widow(er) is free to re-marry b/c death has ended their previous marriage in God's eyes.

2. Departure of unbelieving spouse (1 Cor. 7:12-16)
In a mixed marriage, if the unbeliever desires a divorce, Paul says the believer should not stop them. The divorce is unfortunate, but is, nevertheless, recognized by God. A valid divorce in God's eyes is real. The believer is free to re-marry.

3. Divorce for reason of unfaithfulness (Matt. 19:9)
Even in the case of 2 believers, if one party has sinned by committing adultery, the offended party is allowed to initiate a divorce. Of course, reconciliation would be the highest hope. But a divorce in this case would be valid. And where there is a valid divorce in God's eyes, there are 2 single people.

I would also have to admit that I don't think #'s 2 & 3 are as black & white as some make them out to be. Let's say you have a marriage of 2 professing believers. If one initiates a divorce without biblical grounds (no adultery) and resists the other parties attempts to reconcile (1 on 1, counseling, appeal to the church for help), the initiator is demonstrating that he/she is not a true Christian. After this process of attempted reconciliation, he/she falls into #2. Furthermore, I am not extremely black & white on what exactly constitutes 'adultery' or 'unfaithfulness.' Is it only sexual intercourse with another person? What about sexual neglect? Addiction to pornography? Etc. I think, as a counselor, one must determine the heart of the offended party. Are they just looking for a way out of an unwanted relationship? Or are they just being broken? These issues need to be dealt with on a case by case basis, but biblically.

EXALT!

Last night EXALT led worship at our church. I was so thankful they didn't put on a concert. Our congregation was able to meet with God through the ministry of these teenagers. It was great to see Dave K, Richard S & Renata too! I was expecting something good. I received something great. What a win-win-win scenario for the college, the churches & the teens.

OT Idol #16

VOTED OUT LAST WEEK
Solomon
Moses

Group A is down to 8 contestants. Now it's time to find out who will make it to the top 12 (groups A & B will be combined). First, in light of the fact that EXALT is putting on a concert at our church tonight, vote AGAINST the character that you'd least want to sit on a bus with for many hours'. Second, in light of the upcoming US Independence Day , vote AGAINST the character that hurt his/her country the most.

GROUP A:
Abraham
Daniel
David
Deborah
Elijah
Elisha
Isaiah
Jacob

Remember the TWIST, I have 1 remaining OT Idol character. I will try to MANIPULATE victory for them via my categories and word choices. If one of my characters wins, you are all losers. If not, the people/person who voted AGAINST the winning character the least amount of times are/is the winner. (NOT VOTING any given week will count as a vote against the winner, so you'll have to vote a lot to win)

Jeff Finger?

For real?

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