NO ACT OF KINDNESS, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, IS EVER WASTED- AESOP
Today was leadership training day at Cornerstone.
One of my core values as a pastor is continual learning for our leadership. So once a month we set aside a Saturday for training. Today was a review of some of the training lessons from the past, specifically Atomic Habits. Atomic habits are small changes that reap great change.
This quote reminds me of the atomic habits. It’s not always the grand gestures that change the world. Sometimes its just a cup of cold water offered at the right time. I am trying to practice little kindnesses in my life now. I am trying to be more kind (with varying degrees of success depending on the day, but I am trying). I am also working on my mindfulness in life’s activities. When I show up I am trying to be present…really present.
WHAT ARE SOME LITTLE KINDNESSES THAT HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE?
We just marched through the second weekend of Advent, The weekend of Peace. It was so much fun. Last week our church was honored to host our local high school for three days while the school was repaired from a malfunction with one of its hot water heaters.
This weekend we had a team come in to clean up and get ready for church on Sunday. But the church staff and school staff did such a great job of putting the church back together that the congregation was able to do a few extra jobs which have been waiting in the wings.
I had thought we would have the students with us for two weeks, so I rented this huge dumpster which the school hardly used. We used it instead to get rid of a shed full of rotten lumber we have been sitting on for a looooong time. Meanwhile a group of ladies went through out kitchen and indoor storage rooms to get rid of old and broken kitchen and ministry items.
I love cleaning out!
Another group of congregants worked in the sanctuary reattaching the chairs which had been disconnected and because it is the fourth season of the church year they also vacuumed. You know the four seasons of the church year don’t you? Spring, Summer, Fall and Glitter.
Vacuuming is not really effective against glitter but at least it gets up the sand and the salt that people carry in from the parking lot.
After the clean out Amanda and I headed over to our sister church, Bread of Life, which was hosting the Special Touch Ministry Christmas party.
It was ten years ago that Amanda and I joined twelve other people led by Mike and Kim Ferguson to start the first New England Chapter of Special Touch Ministry to the Disabled.
It is amazing to see what God has done over this last decade through this ministry!
It was even more amazing to see Mike playing King Herod for the Christmas story wearing a tiara.
While we were partying, Kristine was hard at work at home reorganizing the Vicarage kitchen.
Amanda, Melanie, Daniella and Abigail, finished off the night by attending Cornerstone’s leadership Christmas party.
Yesterday, was a huge day of celebration at Cornerstone Church Winchendon. WE baptized six new believers, welcomed four people into fellowship as members and we held a DLT chili cook off to help raise money towards our new parking lot. It was a great fellowship sponsored by one of our DLT groups, The Blessing Bunchg of Mixed Nuts. Here are some photos from the day.
The crowd.The Book Club chili took third place, Andrew and Gabe.The Steadfast Sons chili made by Mike Murphy.Bag End Beam took first place for best decorated door. Melanie and Trinity in their Ho bit garb.Corn bread was a big part of the day. Here are Crystal, Deb, and Sandy with their chilisGood conversations around the table.
In the end the ladies group, Beter Together took home first prize.
One of the things I regularly do is go through my life and evaluate how my life is going. Is it the life God desires for me? Is it the life I want to live? Am I living to my potential? What am I doing that I shouldn’t be doing? What am I not doing that I should be doing?
One of the things I discovered in my latest evaluation, is that I want to get back to writing again. And I want to get back to artistic expression.
We started Royal Rangers (our churches boy’s group) again last week. The first merit we are working on is the art merit. Maybe that is what is driving me back to the desire to create. I want to get back to story. I want to get back to drawing. I want to back to making something that draws on imagination.
Then again, maybe it is something in my current work of pastoring that is driving me to this. I was in a conversation last Friday with someone as I attended a local worship conference. As we spoke I realized just how complex the work of pastoring has been lately. I have many questions about what comes next in the work.
I spent the weekend in deep prayer. As I was praying in the midnight hour on Saturday evening some words and a picture came to mind.
I am not sure what these things mean exactly, but I know they are my brain trying to process some very intricate data. So maybe that is what is driving me back to writing again. I just know that whatever it is, my desire to write again is overwhelming. I need to do it.
Well, Brenda has returned to her home and ministry in The Netherlands after her six week breakaway.
She sent us a few pictures of her flight back.
And then some shots of her home in Zaandam just to prove she made it.
Oliver, her dog is very happy to have her back.
While she was with us, we had Sevy’s second birthday and Mom’s 87th birthday.
We took a trip to Tennessee to visit friends and to rest in the mountains.
She sang on worship team and visited with friends from the church and the area.
Now it is back to life as “normal” for both us and her. Brenda starts rehearsals for her Christmas shows this week. We have a worship conference and a Fall Festival in town this weekend. I guess I am not really sure what “normal” is. Brenda says her house is quiet compared to ours. maybe that its back to normal, but I know our house is quieter too without her voice in the room and her present in the table.
Maybe normal is us here and her there. Maybe it is us doing our jobs. But maybe normal is just what we are used to and abnormal is the things we have yet to get used to. Anyway whatever normal is I know we miss Brenda and she misses us.
We will celebrate, simply: A few bouquets, some slippers for winter, a new sweater, cake and ice cream.
Mom has lived an exciting adventure. 87 years is a lot of water under the bridge and a host of life events.
A third generation, Winchendonian, mom’s life has never wandered far afield. She lives in a house, only a mile and a half from where she grew up. The Vicarage is the house she and my father bought when I was in third grade. Still, 87 years in one place can give a person a wealth of experience and wisdom.
My mother grew up on a small farm. She remembers having an outhouse before her father installed indoor plumbing. She learned how to milk a cow and how to gather eggs from chickens. She remembers canning fruits and vegetables for the winter and recalls hand ringing clothes before they were hung to dry outside.
Mom’s father, my grandfather, was a carpenter and a machinist at several local factories. He built the house they lived in with the help of his father and brothers.
Mom’s mother, my grandmother, was the daughter of Finnish, and Swedish immigrants. She ran a tight ship at home, but then she had to. She had eight children and a farm to run.
Mom was daughter number three and child number six. The Family didn’t have much money. Mom put herself through nursing school in Boston.
Her life has spanned: The great depression, World War II, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, 9/11 and Desert storm. Her life has been touched by every president from Roosevelt on.
She raised two children, both of them pastors. She worked as a nurse in four different health care systems. She was married to a small businessman, my father, for 24 years and lived as a widow for thirty years.
Mom traveled the Unites States. She has seen Puerto Rico and Germany. She has visited Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon, DisneyLand and Disney World.
She has served in roles in GirlScouts and Soccer. She was President of Women’s Club and played Golf and Tennis on leagues at different times in her life.
Her world is smaller now. She doesn’t leave home and many of her memories have been stolen by this horrible disease, dementia. It’s a new part of her journey and there is more ahead because life doesn’t end with this life. We celebrate 87 years today, but we also celebrate the years ahead into eternity.
I am working from home this week! And all ministry is taking place off campus! We should be back in business by Sunday morning! At least that is the hope. This morning the company doing the lot found a large deposit of clay that needed to be filled in with stone to bring proper drainage.
“Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.[d]4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. “
As the Vicarage has filled up one of the things that has become clear is how differently the various Lillies all think and practice this thing called life. The differences show up in big and little ways. For instance my son and his wife have taken over washing the dishes. I never considered that the three pockets on the edge of our strainer are for presorting the silverware into spoons, forks and knives. When I do the dishes the silver just falls into whatever pocket I happen to chuck it. Joe and Kristine just seemed to understand that the pockets were there to help with the organization.
MIND BLOWN…
My sister and I are headed out for vacation on Saturday to a Missionary retreat called Eden Ridge.
The kids are taking care of things when I go. My daughter Amanda has the incredible thought processes of a lead administrator. She called the whole Lillie/Franklin team together for a planning session last Monday night so that schedules and duties are all marked out before my departure.
It is so powerful to see this multiplicity of minds working in my family. It is also beginning in the church….AS WE DISCOVER OUR GIFTS WE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD.
Our church at Cornerstone is organized into what we call DLT groups. Each group has five purposes.
To study the Bible together
To pray together
To break bread together
To build Authentic Transparent Vulnerable relationship together
To use these methods to outreach our community
I have just started a new DLT group. It is composed mostly of octogenarians in the church. We call ourselves “The Saints of Fire and Valor.” Our outreach is to the Senior Center in our town. We are joining in with another group, “The Warriors of Fire”.
Here are some photos from our first outreach as a group.
I WISH I COULD READ THE MINDS BEHIND THESE EXPRESSIONS.
This summer has gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was enjoying the lilacs. Today we are enjoying the late summer and autumn flowers which are in full bloom.
It seems like everything is about two weeks ahead. The blackbirds are flocking in large numbers to my feeders. They are nervous things this year and getting pictures has not been easy.
But twice a day about 100 grackles and starlings and cowbirds swoop into my feeders eating us out of house and home.
Last year I remember commenting on the fact that there wasn’t any flocking at all in the area. So I certainly won’t complain. But it does seem early to me.
Notes From the Vicarage 