About five years ago I began hearing this line over and over again in my private prayer times. I hear it to this day.
This morning one of my congregants posted a question in my Facebook Feed.
WHAT WAS THE GREATEST TEMPTATION JESUS HAD TO ENDURE?
His answer and my response brought me right back to this long standing question.
Ray says…What was the greatest temptation Jesus had to endure? The answer to this question will confirm why prayer is so vitally important. The answer was everyday, He had to surrender His Will and His Freedom to God. Are we willing to let go of our greatest idol, our will and our freedom in exchange for Jesus. We will never experience true freedom in Jesus until we completely surrender and trust in Jesus. We have to destroy the idol we keep hanging onto. It’s name is SELF. MY RIGHT. I AM ENTITLED, and the one we love even more, MY WILL BE DONE, not yours. This is why we must surrender in prayer everyday.
I responded…Jesus did surrender daily to the will of His Father. He never did anything He did not see His Father doing. When you think of how much Jesus actually did, that He saw His Father doing, it does make one wonder how much we are missing of the Father’s work around us.
HOW MUCH OF WHAT THE FATHER IS DOING ARE WE NOT SEEING?
Maybe it is just because I am getting older and so have less time on this side glory than I used to have but it just feels like there is less time for more things and I am saying “no” to more things than ever before.
Last week the Lillie VI family arrived at the Vicarage and began to settle in. I cancelled almost everything on my schedule before they got here thinking that the settling in was going to need most of my attention. I was right and I was wrong. It was good I had the time so that I could help ease my son and his family into life here in Massachusetts. Jetlag really effected my grandson’s sleep schedule.
And so my son and daughter-in-law’s sleep schedule was likewise effected. They muscled through and it got a little better everyday. Then I got sick with a bug my son brought back from The Philippnes. I ended up cancelling even the things I had kept in the schedule.
The week ended with a family party for my oldest granddaughter.
This week our schedules went back to normal.
My son had two job interviews and two job offers. My daughter-in-law’s social security card came in and today the Lillie VI family is beginning the search for an apartment.
My schedule of meetings has been completely full to make up for last week and Amanda’s schedule has blossomed as we approach the coming of fall and the restart of our children’s school programs (it is unbelievable to me that we are almost to the start of the new school year!).
I am filled with awe at how fast things seem to be moving. At the same time I have this sense that it needs to be this way. Something is coming and we must be prepared.
DO YOU FEEL IT IN THE AIR? THERE IS A CHANGE COMING!
It was a week of celebrations in a season of celebrations at the Vicarage.
Of course the Lillie VI family came home. HUGE CELEBRATION AT THAT EVENT!
Not only that though, this week marked my oldest granddaughter’s fifth birthday. That I have a five year old granddaughter is beyond astounding to me. That I have all my children and grandchildren within five minutes of where I live makes me unbelievably blessed. I will revel in it for however long I have the privilege of it.
Daniella decided she wanted a Princess Peach birthday party. She of course got to be Princess Peach.
Her sister got to be “Mickey Hero”…. I do not know who that is, but Abigail seems to have taken on the role with serious gusto.
We had a great party with all the royal attendants in attendance.
And I even got to play a role in the weekend….By royal edict of Princess Daniella Peach and Mickey Hero Abigail I was dubbed Sir Bowser The Monster Villain!
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.
Getting here has been a life’s journey. I have always felt called to this thing called ministry (well since I was twelve anyway). The calling is necessary. The calling keeps you going when you don’t love what you’re doing or the way you’re doing it.
Honestly, there have been many times I have not loved the ministry. There have been even more times when I did not love the way I was doing ministry. I thought about giving it up more than once. I even tried it a couple of times. The calling did it’s job and called me back.
I’ve had jobs before. I’ve even had what I would consider careers before. The ministry is not either of those things and I guess it’s both. It is a calling. It has a job component and it consumes more than enough time and energy to qualify as a career. Still, there is more to it more than job, more than a career. Ministry has an element of destiny attached to it, a hope a predestined future.It’s not a fate you can’t escape, but a direction you shouldn’t try to escape.
I intended o write sometime during the weekend, but it was a big random weekend and the moments for writing did not coalesce as I wished them to.
On Friday I had a load of washed stone brought for the patio and the end of my drive. Yay! No more two foot drop off the end of the gravel!
Also on Friday I decided to go up to see the progress on The Ingleside property, now the Winchendon Community Park. I was a part of the committee that spearheaded the purchase of this land by the town. It is amazing to see what it is becoming.
Saturday morning I started with another tour around the yard to get my bearings of what needs to be done…. a lot of work lies ahead.
Then I met my friends Ray and Deb and Paul and Dawn to help set up for the “Taste of Winchendon Fair”. This is a multicultural fair that is in its third year in Winchendon.
Once set up was done I headed home to do a few chores.
I went back later in the day to help with breakdown. I caught the end of one of the bands that was playing. Big Random is a band that does a lot of charity work for the town. The drummer is a local lawyer who actually helped me a lot with the decisions concerning Grace’s estate work.
I met my daughter an son-in-law and grandchildren at the fair and we hung out for a while talking with other congregational members who were helping out at the various booths. Then Ray and I helped break the fair down. The dessert table had a left over cake so I brought that home as a Mother’s Day treat for mom.
Yesterday was Mother’s Day. The flowers are from my sister Brenda. I got Mom chocolates. We got Wendy’s for lunch and then had naps. Naps are a Sunday necessity after church.
As I said a big random weekend at The Vicarage. Now I wonder if we will have a big random week.
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.
Commander Andy, our outpost commander, for Royal Rangers boy’s ministry went out for knee surgery last week, and so I am filling in for the rest of the year. My son-in-law James is now the outpost commander. I am his second and a spare set of hands in ministry.
Last week James and I met to set up the next six weeks of classes for the boys. Last night I was assigned the task of the Bible study. I was to teach from Acts 1:8 and Acts 2:1-4
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
I never thought I would be a lead pastor. I was very content as an assistant. I always felt called to the pastoral lifestyle…the prayer ministry…the study….the preparation of sermons…the visitation and actual pastoring of the flock…navigating the supernatural move of The Holy Spirit… spiritual warfare. All of that felt like a natural fit for me. As an assistant those were the focuses of my work.
As a lead pastor I knew I would also have to assume leadership in the business end of the church’s work….The managing of staff… the balancing of budgets…the care of the building and property of the church. These felt like less of a fit. In spite of that I knew that when our last lead pastor left, I was being called to let my name stand for the position.
I let it stand.
I became the lead pastor.
It came with increased spiritual work.
It also came with three building projects which had been waiting in the wings for some time. The time has nowcome to address these projects as I reach my second and third year….the time when, according to my mentor, ministry really begins for a lead pastor.
The projects, we at Cornerstone, have affectionately named:
THE PINK
A tip of the hat to our Pepto Bismol-colored and very worn sanctuary rug.
THE STINK
A longstanding and undiagnosed smell that comes seasonally to our church building.
AND THE SINK.
The term we use for our pothole ridden parking lot.
THE PINK, we dealt with last summer with the help of a congregant who is a contractor.
Well, the chairs are still pink but the carpet is no longer a tripping hazard.
THE STINK, has a diagnosis in a rotted and pitted pipe in the floor beneath one of our bathrooms and soon will be dealt with.
THE SINK is a bigger need which we are beginning to deal with as we gather the quotes and prepare to contract with a paving company.
God is funny. He has chosen me to lead the church through this work. I have no inherent ability in running a business and certainly no ability in the building trades (in fact my inability is legendary among my parishoners). Nevertheless, here I stand!
Here is what I am learning about this end of pastoring:
Prayer is as helpful in directing the more earthy matters of the church as it is in directing the spiritual matters of the church.
I do not make any of these decision alone. God has made us a church and He has raised up a very talented leadership team in this church. He has placed voices schooled with the wisdom we need for each of these works.
Absolute agreement is not needed to move forward in the work of God. What is needed is unity and those two things are very different.
Mistakes can and will happen along the way. They are as important as the successes and have much to teach us as a church body.
God loves irony. He also loves putting His people in positions where they learn that what seems like irony is really just spiritual growth potential.
Notes From the Vicarage 