Innovative Leadership Experience: Lynn Carter

On Wednesday evening we went to dinner with the most inspirational person that we met all week. Lynn Carter is the youth pastor at Arlington A/G Church, in Arlington, VA. She has been a youth pastor there for 28 years. She jokes with the Sr. Pastor that she was hired to fill in until the church could get a "regular" youth pastor, and she's been there ever since. The inspiration that comes from her ministry is in the dedication and faithfulness that she has shown for the last thirty years. I remember her from when I was a teenager at camp. She has pastored hundreds of students over the years and told me that she's about to start the third generation of ministry; that's kids who grew up and had kids that grew up and will be having children soon.

She has also done ministry through a time of great transition for the neighborhood. Once a wealthy white suburb of D.C., this community has been the victim of what Lynn calls, "white flight". The neighborhood has changed to a poorer community. In response the church has changed their methods of reaching the needs of the community. They feed the homeless five nights a week for the last five years. They have opened a computer lab and offer free education classes. They have an outreach to bikers and have even dedicated a part of their building as the "Harley Room". It is floor to ceiling Harley memorabilia. They use it to help bikers take their first steps into a church.

Another ministry they have is the train room. It is model trains from floor to ceiling. At Christmas they open it up to the children in the neighborhood, and share the gospel.

Lynn and her church family are making a real difference in people's lives. It was an interesting juxtaposition to have a morning meeting with John Ashcroft and an evening appointment to feed the homeless with Lynn. It was a dramatic difference from the top of society to the bottom, but we found through Lynn's ministry that God is moving everywhere.

--Ben

Church Planting

Today I'm meeting with a group of pastors to begin forming a partnership to establish a network for church planting in and around the Baltimore area. This meeting will be discussion oriented, brainstorming, and vision casting for the future of church planting. I can't wait.

--Ben

Innovative Leadership Experience: Dr. Rhoden

Wednesday I met Dr. Rhoden in Arlington, VA and drove to Valley Forge Christian College to pick up the students that would join us for the trip. To put in perspective the respect that I hold for Dr. Rhoden I feel that he is one of the top ten Christian leaders I've known. I was thrilled last fall when he invited me to attend this trip. He asked me to do some driving, and went on quite a bit about how thankful he was to have me drive. To be honest, I would have pushed the van around all week to get the chance to be with him.

Dr. Rhoden reached a place several years ago when the station of his life had brought him to a place of investing in the future. He has adopted the motto: "Your potential is my mission", and has put his ministry where his mouth is. In trying to discern how he might affect future generations he decided to open the circle of his relationships, one way, by offering this experience to eight Valley Forge students each year. This is the first year he has included pastors as well.

From pulling out of the parking lot at Arlington Assembly of God Dr. Rhoden began investing in me. Our conversation ranged from price/earnings ratios to ministry memories. Throughout the trip anytime Dr. Rhoden shared, it made an impact. On Saturday morning we picked up Joan Rhoden, a wonderful lady, in the Richmond area and she brought out parts of Dr. Rhoden that were inspiring as well. Here was a couple that has been married 43 years!

He shared openly and candidly about any topic or question that came up, and he modeled for the students a brilliant brand of leadership. At one point he said, "Come on now, I know you can keep up with this 60 year old buck." But I'll tell you it wasn't easy. He kept the pace like I drove the van: pedal to the metal.

The most meaningful part of the trip was standing on the front porch of Commonwealth Chapel in Richmond, VA. We had dropped the group at the steps and then he and I went to park the van. As we walked toward the church I was sharing with him about the potential that I feel is in my own life and ministry. Dr. Rhoden stopped walking and said, "You know, Ben,". I have been around Dr. Rhoden only a handful of times, but I have come to know that when he starts a conversation that way he is about to bring it. What he shared with me over the next one to two minutes were some direct affirmations and diagnosis of where he saw my potential being, and how he felt I would get there. It was very personal, and so I'm not quite ready to share it here in this essay. I will say though that it was the highlight of my week. Those words, at that place, were the kind of thing that should make me build a memorial or altar to the Lord.

I hope that every follower of Christ will hear those kinds of words from a godly leader, and that I'll be able to offer those words to others that I lead.

--Ben

Hello Blog, Nice To See You Again

Wow! A long time with no update. Sorry about that, but I did try to keep a running post in the twitter section (on the right). I have been away at one of the most exciting and challenging experiences of my life; the Innovative Leadership Experience with Dr. Rhoden. It was an amazing trip, and I look forward to recapping each part of the trip on the blog for posterity sake. You'll see the posts, and I'll identify them in the title, if the names interest you, by all means read them, but they are mainly going to be for my digital memories.

One of the benefits from online journaling like this is that I have a record of my experiences large and small. We forget so much, it's nice to bolster my memory this way.

Suffice to say, that I had a great time, and could only hope to enjoy experiences like this in the future.

--Ben

This Week

I'm really excited about the conference trip that I'm attending this week. Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with one of my heroes in ministry, Dr. Robert Rhoden. I get to spend a couple of hours one on one with him as we drive to VFCC to pick up the rest of the group. I'm looking forward to the format. The entire trip will be spent with about 15 people so I look forward to the ideas that are spurred on from the close conversations. The people that we're meeting are top-notch, and I think will be very inspirational.

Most of the names are familiar to my collegues in minstry, but almost everyone recognizes the name John Ashcroft and Senator Inhofe. Should be a sharpening week.

--Ben

Postmodern Stained Glass

The term that serves as my title is taken from Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church. It came up in conversation yesterday with one of my new friends, Brenda. She commented after the service that she really connected with the video clips helping her relate to the scripture. I shared what I had heard Mark describe. He says that the screen is postmodern stained glass. In the middle ages stories were told in stained glass. Beautiful stained glass can tell a story as you look at it. The Christian faith is so story-rich that those stories were depicted in the windows of churches. In fact, until the last century, the church was the place in society for story telling. Today television and movie theaters provide us with the stories of our culture. They promote the values and messages that inform our culture on the areas of morality and worth. That's why I find people connect well with video during sermons. Using the stained class of the projector screen I can show the story of scripture more clearly.

I don't always use it, but it's definately a tool in my box.

--Ben

New Friends

Yesterday was Friend Day at SRC. We were pleased to have seven new friends with us for worship. Friend Day is really a chance for us to reach out to others and let them know what we've found; a great church that we love and loves us.

I look at Friend Day as a way to introduce our church to our guests. Let's be honest, people that come to a church for the first time don't quite know what to expect. People that come to Severn River Church in a lecture hall at AACC, really don't know what to expect. I try to help them by giving clear instructions and information.

As a bonus I got to enjoy lunch with some of our new friends. Great Day!

--Ben

New Upcoming Series: The Game of Life

Broken Brackets

Well the first round of the NCAA tournament is over, and today we head into round two. It seems like just two days ago I didn't have any losers on my brackets, and now it turns out they were just waiting to prove themselves. I picked a couple teams that lost in the first round to go a couple more rounds, oops.

I really enjoy the games in the tourney because they are always good games. For me, it doesn't matter who the teams are, I'll stop and watch or listen and really enjoy it.

I particularly like college basketball because it is a sport where the talent base is pretty level so you can watch the swings of mometum very clearly. Basketball is played in spirts; one team goes on a scoring run, then the other team. The question during the game is who's going to capitalize on the swings of momentum.

--Ben

Shopping

It's that time of year when you start changing your cold weather clothes for warm weather clothes. I usually take this time of year to shop for some new clothes. So I ordered some last night. On another clothing note, I have an appointment next week with a former Attorney General and a US Senator. For the appointment I need to where jacket and tie. It seems weird as a pastor to say this, but I've got to dig out my suits and get myself ready for that.

Since starting a church that dressed casually, suits and sport coats are not a regular part of my dress code. So I've got to get that in order before next week.

--Ben

Wants and Shoulds

A Harvard Doctoral student is studying the correlation of two kinds of products: Wants and Shoulds.

Wants are products that we want in the moment, whereas Shoulds are products that are things we know are better for us over time. It is an interesting study from what I read in Fast Company magazine. They did a study of an Australian company (similar to Netflix) that sends movies through the mail. What they found was that people would hold should films longer than want films. Specifically they referenced Schindler's List and Die Hard Three. People watched the Die Hard want film much faster, while the Schindler's List should film sat on top of the DVD player.

Another example comes from online grocery orders. (Some of you may not even know you can order your groceries online, but you can locally, I know through Giant Foods.) People who place online orders for today are more likely to order want foods like Cheetos. While those who order for dates further out include salads. Dan and Cliff Heath sum it up this way, "We are salad people in the future and Cheetos people in the moment." (Fast Company, 04/09, p. 53)

They pose some pretty interesting applications of how we can use our wants to motivate our shoulds. For instance, what if your payroll company only sent your check after you spent quality time with your children? What if your gym received your magazine subscriptions, so that in order to read the latest magazine you had to drop by the gym?

I wonder what Churches could do to help people leverage their wants and shoulds?

--Ben

Repost From ArielRainey.com

I found this on my sister's website. I'm very thankful that she has made use of our invite cards, and hope you do too. Thought I'd share this as an encouragement before Friend Day.

I like that Severn River Church has little business cards made up with the church information on them. They contain the meeting time and location, complete with a little map. On the front they have a picture of a welcome mat; others have toast with the caption, “Burned out?” I carry the welcome ones in my wallet, because on occasion a conversation with someone will introduce the idea of church or religion or something I can use to mention the church. A card like that is a powerful visual aid and serves as a personal invitation.

In recent weeks—exactly one month, really—I have had two such conversations. One was during Valentines week, when I helped out as day labor at my sister’s employer, A Blooming Basket. They had several thousand roses in stock for Valentine’s Day and needed day help cleaning the roses. I scraped thorns off and put little green plastic sleeves on the necks of the roses to keep them firm. It was monotonous and hard on the hands, but everyone kept cheerful conversations going in the chilled workroom. The lady I worked with the most shared, unexpectedly one day, that she was backslidden. She was raised in an Assembly of God church and had given up her faith years before. Now, she was contemplating finding a local church; did I know one? I was shocked that she would confide these details (and many more to this story), and I wished then that I had a card with me for the church. Instead the best I could do was to tell her audibly, but I knew that was weak. What if she forgot? After that conversation I got ten cards in my wallet the very next Sunday.

Last week, my sister and I were doing some volunteer labor at my home church, and on our dinner break, we popped into Quizzno’s. We sat with Olivia, her daughter, and ate our subs in peace; the place was dead. A young couple came in and contemplated the menu, and “The Locomotion” came on the stereo. My sister and I were joking with Olivia, trying to get her to dance, and the young couple smiled over at us. Immediately the man came to the table, right across from me.

“Is your name Ariel? Do you remember me?”

“Bobby! Of course, I remember you!”

A guy I hadn’t seen since high school stood there, looking slightly more paunchy, slightly balder, and a lot friendlier than he did when he was a teen. I know I looked twenty years older, more paunchy, and a lot less judgmental than I was at fifteen when he was a troubled kid in a difficult situation. His father died recently, and I had heard about that, so I expressed my regrets. He mentioned that he had heard at the funeral that my brother was a pastor now. I verified it; he mentioned that he lived nearby, and after that brief exchange, he and his wife picked up their order and sat down across the restaurant to eat. My sister reminded me of the welcome cards, and got one from her wallet. Just before we left, I went over and gave the card to Bobby.

“I happen to have a card for my brother’s church, and I know he would be glad to see you again. The information is on the back. It was good seeing you, Bobby.”

At best, Bobby went home and thought about it, or maybe talked to his wife about it. At worst, he stuck it in his jacket pocket until one day when he’ll clean out the gum wrappers, old receipts, and find that card. It will be another reminder, one that might even work the second time.

That’s why I carry the cards.

The Shortest Pencil

I've heard Rick Warren share an idiom that I have find really helpful in a recent transition: "The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory." This is specifically true of my memory.

I am absolutely absent minded. I have conversations that I forget. I have a daily ritual of searching all around my house for my car keys. But the truth is you probably all have your own experience to prove that I'm absent minded.

Recently I've undergone a major switch over in my time management, and I've gone old school. I used to use calendar planning in my college days and in the beginning of my ministry. Over the years I've given way to electronic calendaring, but over the last several months have realized just how many things were slipping through the cracks. I needed to make a change, and so I moved back to the calendar. So far, it has put me back on top of things. I'm glad I found the pencil again.

--Ben

Coaching

I'm a soccer dad. Just wanted to clear the air for those who were wondering. I'm in charge of bringing up a generation removed from baseball that now flocks to soccer and football for their sports outlet. It wasn't so in my day. When I was growing up I played little league baseball and soccer, but soccer was always the lesser sport. Today though boys and girls play together on fields of green chasing a little ball and trying to kick it in the right goal.

Sydney is headed into her second session, and I've been called up to coach. Now, I should probably say that there were not enough, so I was next on the list. But be that as it may, I'm the coach now so watch out. I'll be updating here to keep you in the loop on my adventure.

-Ben

Thankful For Help

Over the last two weeks, people have been stepping up to help in great ways. I want to publicly thank Tina Gillmeister for taking over our mass Emails. She sends all our stuff through constant contact, and is doing a great job. She is remarkably competent.

Already gave a shout out to the mixer team, but again thanks to Tina, Jenn, and Meghan.

Thrilled to start work with our transitional board of directors: Drew, Larry, Ryan and Meghan.

Glad to welcome the Screen on the Green task force: Sarah, Ariel, and Meghan.

And relieved to add the help of Jessica Harp for administrative tasks.

Thanks everyone.

--Ben

Mixing It Up

We have a term going around at SRC it is: One Tribe. We are taking steps to help unify the church through relationship building. The long and short of it is something we call Mixers. A mixer is a social setting to help people connect in friendships and build new ones. Mixers will be planned monthly and open to anyone. I'm so thankful for the team that is putting this together. Shout out to Jenn, Tina, and Meghan!!!

We have one coming up on March 28th: Duck Pin Bowling. Details went out via email last night. If you didn't get it here's the 411 -- Click Below.

The Priceless Thoughts Of Night

You know how at night when you're dreaming the most nonsensical thoughts make sense?

We have a rule in our house that Sydney can't come crawl into mommy and daddy's bed until the light is coming in her window. This latest time change has really been messing with her.

So last night she shows up, twice, in our room in the middle of the night. The first time she said, "Mommy, I can't go back to sleep, but there is no light in my window." Corie sent her back to her bed. The second time she's crying and says to Corie, "I can't make the light come into my window."

I wonder how she was trying to make the light come in?

--Ben

The Altar Of Life

I shared previously about the altar of life and how at SRC I challenge people every week to live out their response to God by living it out in their real life. I shared openly this weekend about my own spiritual growth, and that I had faced an issue that God had dealt with me about. But I also shared that when I dealt with the conflict I was praying the whole time, "Please God help." My palms sweated, my nerves were on edge, and I was relieved when I got voice mail the first time I called. I shared it because we're all on an equal playing field when it comes to following Jesus. If you think you have it tougher than anyone, you're wrong. We all have the same steps of humility and faith to walk through.

That's why I was so proud of someone yesterday that came into church and repented to me for a conflict that had been going on. Someone who wasn't satisfied with letting things continue unresolved. I feel like there was some spiritual breakthrough yesterday.

--Ben

*Note: That person was only able to talk with me yesterday because the band was rehearsing without me. I was out in the hallways greeting people, and the Lord opened the door. Thanks to the band, not only did they do a great job with the music, but they freed me up to minister. I'm very thankful.

A Place Of Holy Mystery

This is something that has shaped my day, I hope it's a blessing to you. I was doing my daily read through the scriptures this morning and I came across a really cool story that happened in Luke 7. It is always good to read about Jesus raising the dead, but this was particularly refreshing because of the way Eugene Peterson interpreted the story in his book The Message.

I'll give you a bit of back story. People are coming out of town in a funeral procession carrying the body of a widow's son. (Consequently, the effort of the author is to communicate in this story that Jesus gave two lives back that day; the son and the widow's.) Jesus walks up to them, stops them, and reaches over the shoulders of the pawl bearers to touch the corpse, and tell the boy to get up alive. AND HE DOES!!!

What really stood out to me this morning was Luke 7:16, "They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful -- and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, "God is back, looking to the needs of his people!"

Awesome. It made me reflect on times when I've been in a place of holy mystery. I'd much rather look ahead to the next time that I've been in places of holy mystery. I love what the scripture play-by-play records it as. 1. They silently worship. I think this is like when you see the work of God and you say, "what!?!" Did that just happen? 2. Noisily grateful. Yes, there should be some noise raised when Jesus shows up, and the holy mystery continues. We don't know what, but we know who. Jesus does mysterious and holy things. When he does we should worship silently, and then get noisy. 3. God is back!!! Here the words of people who felt like God was far from them. People who were desperate for God to intervene among their problems. They knew God was back, and was caring for His people.

I have been praying for this kind of visitation from God. I want SRC to be a place of holy mystery.

--Ben

So Far So Good

Well, so far so good. I haven't had any symptoms yet, but still a little suspicious. I found out this afternoon after my nap that my brother-in-law has it now. So it may be coming. We'll see.

--Ben

Sick Man Walking

You know how they say that people on death row are dead men walking? Their death has been determined, it is just a matter of time.

Well, two days ago my nephew came down with a 24 hour virus. I went to his side and prayed for him. Last night my daughter Ellie erupted at 3:30 in the morning. I've now prayed for her as well. I now have a paranoid sensation that it is incubating inside me. My illness has been determined, it is just a matter of time. Lord help me.

Thankfully, tomorrow is a "Band Without Ben" Sunday, and I've notified my Sister Ariel to prepare a back-up message so we'll be covered even if I'm erupting tomorrow morning.

--Ben

How I Deal

Thought I'd jump on and update you on the events of my week. I'm thankful for those who have been concerned regarding the situation I found myself in this week being overwhelmed. I did not mean to whine or complain. I'm sure we all have times when that type of stuff happens. I thought I'd share how I deal with the beast, to give you more insight into my approach to life. This is what I do:

• I get perspective; honest perspective. I spell it all out, I make sure that if I'm going to be overwhelmed, I know the whole story, every detail.
• Then I pray, and lay out for God, everything that I know about the problems.
• Then I prioritize a list, and thanks to my compulsive nature, I work through the list until I'm back on top.
  

There are people I think who when confronted with being overwhelmed sort of stop functioning. They see the task(s) as too much. Not me. There is nothing that I'm unable to do given enough time. So I work my way out of situations like this. I use it as a reset, to revisit better practices going forward to avoid problems in the future.

Feedback

It has been refreshing this week to hear the feedback from last week's teaching on Conflict. It's available here if you want to listen. When I grew up, it was in a tradition of altar calls. The end of the message draws you to confront your short-coming in the face of what God wants to do through you, and draws you to a place of prayer to sort it out with God.

At SRC tradition meets logistics, and an altar call is impossible. Instead I draw people to next steps to be played out at the altar of real life. I try to end my teachings with an understanding of what the scripture teaches and the challenge to go live it out. Last week was that kind of message for sure. And there were people who needed to engage some constructive conflict. I'm glad God is working in these lives, and pray that it leads to a family that is more like what the family of God is supposed to be like.

--Ben

One Church

Sunday I was preaching on constructive conflict; a part of our Family Meeting series. One story that I didn't share, but I found compelling, was the experience of one of our SRCers. Last week I was visiting Clarence Myer, and while we talked he began sharing about a church he used to attend. He summed it up that this church was one church with multiple congregations. In fact, he said that there were even people in the church that wouldn't talk to each other.

I loved his response, "I just said hello to all of them; whether they said hello back to me or not."

--Ben

Changing Up

I found out this week that the Cohort that I am a part of is meeting this weekend. It is on Friday and Saturday this time, so I'm going to be tied up on my normal day off. This week I'll be taking Thursday off. Resting tomorrow, looking forward to it.

You have probably figured it out by now, but my day off is reserved to rest in honor of God, and play in honor of my family. We try to go to a park or do something special. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but I'm sure whatever it is, it will be great.

--Ben

Just Want To Get Away

Today I got away. Left the house, and went to a place that I would not be interrupted. A place where I have history with God. A place that is only three miles away.

Pasadena A/G church is the church of my upbringing, and today I crashed their to pray, fast, and get centered. It was a great day, and the plastic table I sat in front of did everything I needed it to do. After a day of breakthroughs I headed home, and grabbed dinner with the family.

I hadn't prayed to the end in a while. Let me explain what I mean. I think that our prayer life is made up of parts. There's the beginning part, the middle part, and the end part. I know that might be overly theological for you, but deal with it. Here's the thing... "In Jesus' Name, Amen." can be placed at the end of any one of those parts. So I believe most of us, most of the time, pray only the beginning part and say Amen. When we are particularly in need or struck by the voice of God speaking to us we pray past the beginning part, and we get to the middle. That's the part that really stops talking and starts listening. It presses us to think of new words to use that we don't usually use in prayer. It is beyond our mind, it starts to become a soul prayer. And there are times that we pray the middle part and say Amen. When we pray to the end we go even further, and it appears to me that it is tied to time spent with God in prayer. I've never gotten there quickly. After we've prayed what we knew to pray and then came up with more stuff on a deeper level we come to a place where our spirit engages and the power of our spirit connecting with God's Spirit overflows us and the lid is lifted. Suddenly there is no question that things you hadn't even thought about begin to come to your heart to pray. You're praying about stuff that God cares about, you've gotten to the conversation He wanted to have. And when you say Amen it's only because you know He has said Amen. I got to enjoy that kind of prayer today.

--Ben

My WIfe, God's Answer To Prayer

Today has been a long day, and as Robert Frost elequently expressed,

"But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Early this afternoon, when I had returned from prayer I was working through my list of tasks, and they were taking longer to finish than I had planned, and there were an endless number of post-its, with my tightest writing to list all the tasks ahead of me. Corie had left to go to the bank, and the girls were asleep upstairs. In my basement at about 1:30 I reached a difficult place. It was a place of desperation. I sighed deeply, backed my chair away from my desk, got my thoughts in order and had a meeting with God.

I told Him, that I couldn't do what He was asking me to do. I couldn't accomplish all that needed to be accomplished to lead this church. I had tried, but I was drowning, and I needed help. I reminded Him that this was His idea, and that I was doing my best to accomplish what He had asked me to do, but I was at the end of my ability. I confessed all the things that I have done to create the problem, but reminded Him that He knew what He was getting when He signed me up. As I concluded, and took up my position again in my seat to continue working through it I repeated the same prayer over and over, "I need help. I need help. I need help."

Corie returned not long after that from the bank, and came down stairs. When she came near my desk, she got a puzzled look on her face. She had clearly forgotten why she had come down. We made short small talk, and she said, "Is there anything you need me to do?" I told her to get a pad of paper, listed as many tasks as I thought she could handle, and she went to work helping me.

My wife, God's answer to prayer.

I hope we all get to be God's answer to prayer one day.

--Ben

Today

Today has me praying with pastors at Hamilton A/G. I'll be heading up there momentarily. Then it'll be back to work on a number of assignments. Lately, I'm reaping the consequences of poor time management, and am trying to dig out. I've even gone old school. Maybe I'll post about my time management journey at some point. Anyway, I'll sum it up like this. I reviewed my task lists twice this morning picking and plotting those that needed to be done today. I felt overwhelmed at that point with so much to do. Then I closed my calendar and noticed another list full of stuff, ugghh.

Digging in to dig out,
--Ben

Note: Martin Luther is credited with spending three hours a day in prayer, and said that when he had a lot to get done in a day, he would add an extra hour of prayer to get it all done.

Location

Ok, quite a bit of buzz yesterday with our location change. I heard a lot of people juggling pros and cons related to the space. Someone even turned in a list written down with their connection card. I would like to hear from you on this, what did you think of the CALT space.

One person already listed that the name, "CALT", sounds like CULT. So, other than that...

Click on comments below to leave your thought. By the way, you can do it anonymously if you want.

--Ben

To My Knees

There is so much to look forward to this week, and so much to do. It really keeps me busy, but I take time to center myself in the scripture and through prayer. I know that God is enough. This morning as I read from 2 Corinthians I was reminded that life is made up of success and failure, good times and bad, but I appreciated Paul's take on things:

I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

"My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. "

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Well, alright!

--Ben

Reminder (great video)

Location Change!!!

We've been talking about this for a couple weeks, and have sent reminders via email and snail mail. But I wanted to post a reminder here as well. For this week only we are changing locations on campus from the Florestano (FLRS) building to the CALT building.

It is easy to get to, just drive on West Campus Drive and instead of turning right, go straight into the first parking lot. The entrance is at the bottom of the parking lot. Here are some pictures to help you get visually acquainted:










See you tomorrow.

--Ben

Friday With The Fam

I really enjoy having Fridays off. I make it, as much as I can, a family day. The way I see it, I work hard all week giving my best to everyone else. I want to take as many opportunities as possible to enjoy the girls. Today it was the park with our cousin, Olivia, and Aunt Sarah. Then it was out to lunch with Grammy, Aunt Ariel, and Great Granny. Then this evening we're hanging with our other cousins and Uncle Brad. Good times.

--Ben

All Day Meeting

I sat in a meeting from 10 a.m.- 3 p.m. today for a Church Planting initiative that I'm part of. I really like sitting with those men, although there were some things I didn't like. I think I'll vent here:

• The chairs were way too comfortable. The chairs that we used were in the board room at our district office. Those chairs are so comfortable people wouldn't get up to shake hands with new people as they entered because it was so difficult to get out of them. They were so comfortable, that I was uncomfortable. I opted to spend most of the day sitting on the edge of the seat leaning forward so I didn't fall asleep.
• It was a meeting. I used to love meetings, but more and more I would rather be doing something meaningful. I find that meetings like that (no matter who runs them) tend to get run down with discussions that don't really further the point being discussed.

No those gripes out of the way, I will say that the men in that meeting today are exceptional pastors, and I have a lot to learn from them. I was glad for the stories and wisdom I heard imparted today.

In short: good day, long meeting.

--Ben

Sorry For Your Loss

When I was visiting brother Myer today. He shared with me that his brother passed away. You may remember that his sister-in-law passed away just five weeks ago. It was her husband that passed this week. My heart goes out to the elderly as they lose family. But brother Myer seemed to be in a good spirit about it. I think he sees it as an end to the suffering his brother endured with cancer.

As you think of it, please offer a prayer for brother Myer and his family.

--Ben

Wow, What A Day

Today has been a day of perpetual motion. I started this morning caring for our daughters. Corie is working full-time through the end of the week, and our babysitter is out of town today, and our other babysitter was tied up till 11:30 a.m. (turned out to be 12:30 p.m.) So I kept the girls. But I accomplished a lot with them this morning. It was breakfast and dressing then address letters, and a trip to the post office. Then stamping letters. Those girls worked this morning. Then it was home and working at my desk while they played (read: fought) in the basement. Then it was over to the babysitter's house. Where I caught up on email, and gave them lunch. Back in the van and headed to AACC, got some pictures to have a feel for the room Sunday. Visited Clarence Myer. Stopped by PAG church and talked to two people there, picked up some paperwork, and am just now getting back to my desk. Yikes. Stuff on my to do list is getting bumped around, and were crossed off the task list this morning, only to go back on the list this afternoon.

I love it!

--Ben

Enough Snow

Sydney started praying early last weekend that God would give us enough snow to use the sled they got for Christmas. He delivered!

Yesterday I got to take the girls out and they learned how to sled. Both Sydney and Ellie really liked it. No pictures unfortunately. Sorry. But we did have a great time.

--Ben

How It Ought To Be

Sunday I started a series on how the Family of God should interact. It's called Family Meeting and Sunday I started with the affirmation that each of us who have come to faith is part of the Family of God. (A metaphor I borrowed from the Apostle Peter.)

In reflection of the message I know I preached on how it ought to be. The fact is there are many people that are part of the family that just don't feel like they are. They don't feel befriended, valued, or welcomed. The only way to get there is to look at how it ought to be, and let the Holy Spirit lead us there. I think the next steps of that process are in how the family interacts in the following areas: Conflict and Care.

The next two weeks we are going to look deeply at these two issues. If we know how to handle conflict and if we know how to properly care for each other those feelings of not fitting, melt away. The question is whether we'll follow the instructions of Peter to abound in love because it covers over a multitude of sins.

None of us is perfect, and no church is perfect, but we need to love more like the Family of God we're a part of.

--Ben

The Fast/Feast

Yesterday was an interesting one at SRC. This weekend we held our first Fast/Feast. The idea came from a friend, and I explained that yesterday. The result was not dramatic in the present. It's an interesting thing about fasting. There are times when things happen in the present, but more often, I think things are changed in the future because of it.

Yesterday we had perhaps the lowest attendance in church history. Several families I know were traveling. Others were just away. I wondered if some people stayed away because they didn't fast. Not sure I'll ever know. I hope not. That wasn't the point.

After church we held the feast at my house, and I really enjoyed hanging out together. It is a neat experience to break a fast together as a group. It's a sacred time, even amongst the love and jokes of friendship.

I'm looking forward to the next one.

--Ben

Yawn, Good Morning

Up and at 'em. (Don't you love when people say, "Up and Adam"?)

It is early in the morning, and I'm going over my message for today. Trying to prepare myself to be used as the mouthpiece of God. We're starting a new series today called, Family Meeting, and I want God to speak to us.

One thing we have going for us is that this weekend we called a Fast/Feast, and I've heard from several that are fasting with me. This was an idea that Rob shared with me, that I really counted as a word from the Lord for us. We have called the church to fast meals from lunch time on Saturday to lunch time on Sunday where we will break the fast together at a feast. The feast will be held at my house, and everyone is welcomed to come and bring food to share. I'm looking forward to it.

Fasting isn't about us moving God, it's about God moving us. It is a deliberate action of placing faith in God to give us all we need.

If there is one thing that I wish people would hear this morning it is this: Each of us is part of the family of God.

In some ways we are going to face dysfunction in the family, not in a condemning way, but I just don't think we know how to function as the family of God. Next week I'll be dealing with how the family handles conflict, and I'll conclude the series on the 15th with how the family handles care.
Should be a good series.

--Ben