My personal schedule shifted recently and I took on more meeting ministry opportunities. Up until last April,Tuesday through Friday was probably my most busy part of the week. I did a lot of personal meetings, a staff meeting and at least one prayer service on those days.
But in the Spring God changed things up. The church needed another set of hands in our boys Doing Life Together Group. Then in August it became apparent that I was going to be taking over a new adult Doing Life Together group along with a return to worship ministry.
Now Sunday to Tuesday is my gauntlet time. Sunday morning generally starts around 4:30 A.M. This week I did morning service and an afternoon funeral (last week it was an afternoon Chili cook off). Mondays are Bible study, devotional video and worship set. Tuesdays are devotional video, staff meeting and Boys Doing Life Together group. By Wednesday I am ready to drop.
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.
Ministry has shifted again. I think this shift is at least for the winter. About a month and a half ago I moved my day off from Monday to Wednesday. Mondays became a morning Doing Life Together Group (our church’s small group Bible studies) and a worship devotional session at TWR House Of Prayer.
The schedule is now:Sunday church, Monday teaching and service work, Tuesday staff meeting pastoral meetings and Royal Rangers and somewhere in this I have to make sure my sermon is put together and sent off to the admin staff for power pointing.
The last several weeks I have been working on Wednesdays as I transitioned out of other ministry responsibilities. Last night was my first Ranger meeting and today is my first Wednesday Sabbath for real.
I got up this morning after the last three days of ministry and realized just how much I needed a sabbath.
I have known for many years how important sabbath is for the work of ministry. That said, it has been something I have pushed off many times for the necessity of the work. This new schedule is not going to permit that. I toyed with the idea for a while of keeping a couple of work items in the mix for Wednesdays. The way I feel today shows me just how much I will need this.
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.
This has been a good week for staring at mountains.
My sister and I have rented a breakaway cabin in Tennessee. We are deep in the Cumberland Mountains. The remoteness of this place lends itself to what I call the following of the threads. Following the threads is a form of prophetic prayer. It takes time and the sense of wonder and how God is moving in the world around us.
It is finding God and the pathway He would walk with you.
I have spent many hours, staring at the mountains, listening to the Scriptures and wondering at God‘s work in my life. It’s funny how prayer produces situations which reveal the heart of the man of God.
Yesterday I spent the morning following the threads. I was gaining what I thought was a lot of understanding. When the time came for my sister and I to drive down the mountain for lunch at a place called the Pour House. The car battery was dead.
My inner calm was instantly gone. Our host here at the cabins, gave me a jumpstart and the name of a local mechanic. Chris, the manager of Shadden Tire in Centerville, Tennessee, took good care of us. We had a new battery, and were back on the road by 12:30 in the afternoon.w
We went to the Pour House And had an amazing lunch.
We then went grocery shopping to get what we will need for our trip home. And we finished off the day with custard at the Custard Cabin.
The custard of the day was slobber knocker: Vanilla, frozen custard, mixed with Oreos, Butterfingers and frozen Snickers bits.
It turned out to be a really good day, and I learned something about myself. My sense of calm is still tied too much to circumstances rather than to the immovable nature of the Holy Spirit. I need to work on that.
What aspect of inner healing or inner growth, are you working on right now?
I am in the Cumberland Mountain Range this week. Our scenic cabin is in a place called Eden Ridge.
There isn’t much to do here, except rest, and pray, contemplate and study. At some point, we will have to make our way back down the mountain for a little more grocery shopping and probably stop at the country club attached to this retreat center for a swim in the pool.
Today I have spent several hours in prayer and study. I put together the outlines for all the Royal Ranger devotions and church sermons through the new year.
Tomorrow I will put together the outlines through June.
One of the hours I spent in prayer was at The World Missions Park by the visitors center.
During that hour of prayer, I had a really strong sense that our congregation is about to face some challenges in the near future. Specifically, I feel as though God is going to challenge us to new levels of spiritual health. This will involve us letting go of some unhealthy cycles we have allowed our personal lives and relationships to fall into.
I have the sense that ministry is going to get increasingly complex when I get back.
I am grateful to God for this period of calm before what I think will be a period of crazy.
Joe and Kristine have to go to New York tomorrow to meet with someone from The Philippine consulate. So Amanda, Brenda and I are watching Sevy for the day.
I still have one meeting before I am on break.
But I feel ready!
WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR YOU TO GET READY FOR VACATION?
“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.
Notes From the Vicarage 