Uncategorized

The Ones Who Carry the Song

/ joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

The kids and grandkids came over last evening. We took a walk to the playground with the kids and while the girls were sliding and climbing my daughter Melanie and I had a conversation about singing. I can’t sing like I used to. I am out of singing shape and my voice doesn’t obey me as it once did.

There was a time when I sang for a living. The congregation expected me to carry its song, and my bosses (the lead pastors) were expected to carry the vision. The song serves the vision and in a perfect world breathes life into the vision so the people are inspired to follow the vision’s path. I guess that is a little heady, but it is a good metaphorical explanation about the place of worship in a church congregation.

I am no longer the worship leader. I am the lead pastor. I now carry the vision and the song is carried by others.

Jody Clapp, our lead worship director and a deacon in the church

Melanie Franklin one of our worship leaders

Patrick Cortiss one of our worship leaders and an assistant at the Worship Room.

Jon Bauver one of our worship leaders and the director of the Worship Room. I am glad for those God has commissioned to carry the song now.

Storyworth, the New Lawn Mower and the Smoke From Fires

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

I have a few random updates for you from The Vicarage today.

For Christmas last year, I bought my mother a subscription to the Storyworth App. I haven’t written much about it these last few months because I sort of fell off the story making wagon. But we have gotten back to it these last few weeks. I have been listening to stories about Mom’s first boss, Josephine Martin, and about how she got her first car. As with most things with Mom these days the stories come in small bits and pieces which I have to put together like a puzzle at the end, but that is half the fun really.

Yesterday I got the new mower set up and running.

It is so quiet. I love the fact that it is electric.

I did the front and side lawns last night. Those are my mowing boots.

Even Amanda got into the fun today. She doesn’t have mowing boots.

We are working hard to get ready for the arrival of Joe, Kristine and Sevy in just fourteen more days. I even bought three easy ups for use as family comes in to say hello to the returning Lillies.

Today the sky is extremely hazy and humid. According to our phone apps this is all due to the fires up in Canada.

I have been awakening in the middle of the night these last several night with severe muscle aches and headaches. I had to get up to take Motrin and stretch at 3 A.M. this morning. I didn’t even consider the cause, until breakfast, when my daughter asked if I have been sleeping with my window open.

Well that’s all for today. It is time for me to spend some time practicing tomorrow’s sermon.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

Yesterday the Parks and Rec department of our town held the third annual food truck festival. We bought supper at the festival and then I volunteered to clean up when the event shut down at 9 P.M.

Today all that its left to show that a thousand people gathered in the park yesterday is the event tent, the portages potties, a flat bed that the Battle of the Bands used and the deflated bouncy house all awaiting pick up by the rental companies.

Today Amanda and I went for a couple of hours to help a church family with a move. Tomorrow I will preach the next sermon in our series from the Book Of Revelation.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each day comes to pass. What remains is the relationships we build with each other.

Sometimes It Takes a While

/ joseph elon lillie / 2 Comments

In 2013 I was given an opportunity to be part of a project geared to bring our community together.

Our small committee of very diverse individuals representing several micro communities and various town boards in our town met for months trying to come up with a project that would bring the whole town together.

After several months we came up with an idea. Ingleside!

Ingleside was a 43 acre waterfront property owned by a local private school. We wanted the town to purchase the property somehow and to turn it into a gathering place for all the communities of our community. The dream was that it would come become a uniting place.

It took a few years and A LOT OF MEETINGS to work out the land deal.

Obtaining the land was just the first step. Clearing the land and turning it into a meeting point was the bigger job.

The shifts in ministry in 2018 meant I ended up leaving the committee after the land deal was done. My little part of the dream of Ingleside was done.But others picked up the gauntlet and ran with it.

Trails were blazed

Uniting points were created.

Last year a grant was obtained to build an outdoor amphitheater.

On Saturday I got to volunteer as an usher for the grand opening of the amphitheater!

Sometimes it takes a while, but dreams really can come true!

Destrangling the Vicarage Pt. 2 Memorial Day

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Today was Memorial Day here in the States. That means it was a big weekend. Pastor Amanda and I had a going away party for a service man being deployed and then a pastor/ staff/ board celebration dinner on Saturday. Sunday of course was Memorial Day and Pentecost Sunday and then the church celebration for Pastor Amanda’s ordination. We were EXHAUSTED by Sunday afternoon.

I find I need most of a day to recuperate from a busy weekend and most of a week to gear up for another one.

So today I spent resting in prayer and moving very slowly as Worked around the Vicarage property.

Today I was working on a stand of sumac that has gotten out of control and become infested with bittersweet vine. It went from this:

To this.

More to do tomorrow.

Destrangling the Vicarage Part 1

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Those who have followed “Notes From The Vicarage” will remember that last year at this time our family was living away from the Vicarage as it got much needed surgery for survival into the future.

We had the pipes torn out and replaced; The shingles torn off, new insulation put up and siding put on; The bathrooms were gutted to the studs and remodeled; The floors downstairs were refinished; Eight windows were replaced; The sills were replaced and the trim painted; And the stone porch which was falling down was removed.

As an afterthought we ended up having to replace all the pipes from the house to the street, and then the town had to come in and replace the pipes from the edge of my property to the center of the street..

As it was all happening I kept reminding myself, it had to get worse before and got better. And it did get better. We love the Vicarage and the work that was done inside.

This year we will be working on the outside.

It turns out tearing down a three-quarter- of- a -century old stone porch and digging up your yard not once but twice is not good for the landscaping.

Parts of the Vicarage are barren moonscape and others are…. well….. Strangled.

So as we get ready for upcoming fencing and masonry work to get done. I am starting to destrangle the Vicarage.

This might not look like much yet, but at least now the mason will be able to get to the disintegrating pillar.

Today’s Decision With Noom

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

Every morning I get up, walk the dogs, make my bed, listen to my morning Bible chapters for Prime prayers and then do a brief lesson in my Room weight loss app.

Hey, you might find this Noom article interesting!
Get 14-day free trial + 20% off your subscription at Noom:
https://www.noom.com/s/ar

This morning’s lesson was “Defining Your New Reality”.

In it I was asked to name three emotions, mindsets or conditions I wanted to experience along with three behavior shifts I would make to obtain those conditions.

I AM CHOOSING TO BECOME: MORE CENTERED,

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

MORE HEALTHY

Photo by Jane Doan on Pexels.com

AND MORE, FLEXIBLE

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

TO GET THERE I WILL FOCUS MORE ON PRAYER AND SLOW MINDFULNESS

Photo by Ric Rodrigues on Pexels.com

ON EATING RIGHT AND EXERCISING

Photo by Zakaria Boumliha on Pexels.com

AND ON DAILY STRETCHING

Photo by RUN 4 FFWPU on Pexels.com

I have been stuck on my first weight loss plateau for about a month (20 pounds down). It is time to settle in to the deeper behavior change that is restful and sustainable.

Between Bunnies and Ordination

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. This new series we are doing as a church has been taking a lot of prep time and prayer time

I am also finding myself emotionally spent from the preaching and teaching of it. It is really good stuff, but it is also very emotional stuff.

We are also coming up on a very important meeting with the congregation about our parking lot.

And we are in the midst of a relaunch in our town of the council of churches.

Sooo… yeah it’s a lot.

In the midst of it here are two really high points from the last couple of weeks

My daughter Amanda got ordained. Here she is with her mother, Tina, and younger sister, Melanie. She loves the photo ops, can’t you tell?

Here is Amanda at her ordination banquet with friend and missionary Rev. Kim Ferguson.

And then of course the bunnies in the back yard are always a welcome distraction.

Between the ordination and the bunnies my heart is full.

OK folks, it is time for me to go pray. Big meeting tonight to plan for a bigger meeting next week.