Classes for the Spring semester began today. I'm taking fewer hours this time around. This morning I actually had a thought that perhaps next semester I will go back to (12) hours. All first year students have to take a course entitled Spiritual Formation. It's a Pass/Don't Pass course. The work is not heavy at all, but does require 2-3 hours each week to complete the required work. That will be a decision for late summer.

I have decided I will make more use of the library's resources from now on both for school work and sermon preparation. It was a shame I wasted a whole semester before I started going to the library. Yes, I realize how incredibly nerdy that sounds. Still, my pants don't go up to my chin and my hats still have a slight angle when I wear them and music is never too loud...that often. So, all is not lost, yet.

We'll see if that decision will produce better sermons. I am configuring material to use on Sunday mornings for those who go to church to follow the sermon. This is sort of a notes page. i haven't quite figured out how it will look or how I will implement it. Sure, it's funny to note how people say they like your sermon even though they can't remember what you said, but I'm not terribly interested in people liking the sermon. More than anything I want them to be involved with the text to get their own sense of God's calling from it.

So, whether it's an insert or perforated piece of the bulletin will be seen. I hoping, along with some other plans I have, we'll begin to see some corners turned in our people's approach to Scripture.

Stay blessed...john

I dropped off a special letter this morning. It was addressed to the Meadowbrook Baptist Church. That church is right across the street from us. In the spirit of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity I wrote a letter that expressed our intention to be in prayer for that congregation this week. Members signed the letter also. I’ve been told they have shared a similar experience as Oak Haven with membership and finances over the last several years.


An important piece of ministry for me is when churches do things together—especially churches outide our own denomination. I believe those activities and efforts speak more about our faith than any of our little “What We Believe” pamphlets or even some of sermons I’ve heard preached. This Sunday we will have a special time of prayer for Meadowbrook as well. I’m not quite sure what that will entail, but we’re gonna do something.

Stay blessed...john

You can't resist, can you?

Then here 'ya go. A funny "photo project" I think you'll enjoy: How to Make a Baby
I can handle this explanation with the kids!

Stay blessed...john

A couple of tidbits from Sunday.

Gloria had told some of the members my lowly state of football viewership. I’m the guy that used to have the Eagles socks, boxers, shirts, hats, helmets, mugs, rags and anything else I could find. Well, somehow, my Eagles paraphernalia has dwindled down to a single Eagles pillowcase. This pillowcase has served me well in recent weeks. I have been wearing it as a cape (of course Nathan sees that and thinks it’s only appropriate to put on his Batman cape) during games. So, yesterday one of our members brought in some green beads, clappers and megaphone for me to use. They came in handy. It’s a good thing they weren’t real heavy; they would have damaged the TV screen!

Nathan received a new nickname yesterday. It seems his Sunday school teacher caught him practicing a new stunt. He jumped from six steps up and made a perfect landing. So, she now calls him Nathan “Dare-Angle” Fletcher. She didn’t think calling him a daredevil would be appropriate because 1) it was in church and 2) he’s the pastor’s kid.

In all, a good Sunday. We have a work day scheduled this week (Friday and mainly Saturday). We’ll be painting the sanctuary. I really wanted our Trustees to begin compiling a listing of all the work that needs to be done for our church. It was my thought that list would guide what the Trustees work on. Well, needless to say, I’m okay with painting right now, but I sure hope we’ll get to putting together a complete plan.
Stay blessed…john

Okay, I want you all to give it up for my United Methodist Men. The other night we had our monthly meeting. You may recall how I feel about regular meetings (necessary evil, thorn in my side, etc). This was different. The meeting did drag on a bit initially; the food was great, though!

I will gladly let you remind me that with larger groups attendance percentages tend to drop. Now, you know I don't play around with numbers and try to pad and all that. We were missing (4) men from our church at the meeting the other night. One is still pretty new and we weren't sure if he was aware of the gathering (shall we say an area for improvement?), another we think just forgot since he is a regular attendee. The third gentleman had been traveling to San Antonio and the final member usually works evenings. In other words, the overwhelming majority of our church's men were in attendance, even a few that had yet to go since I've been here--in all there were 12 of us.

The best part is we got over the drag mentioned earlier. We are going to host our first pancake supper and begin raising money to benefit Irving schools either in the summer or at back-to-school time. It just took a little shaking up. I can't tell you how excited I was after that meeting. You'll be hearing more, for sure! Stay blessed...john

In late February our church will have its first usher training in as long as anyone can’t remember. At the very least the ushers we have now have not been trained, and they’ve been pretty faithful with their job for quite a while. Of course I said I would lead the training.

So, I’ve been putting together some material. Do any of you have any good or bad usher stories? You know like the time the head usher….? Most of my usher stories are pretty boring and usual. There was the time Gloria and I asked an usher about scholarship information. It was at …. UMC in ….., TX. We were both in school (no kids, yet) and had been going to the church for a while and happened to see material (don’t recall what it was) for a student scholarship. We asked and not only got the run around, and never really found out anything, but were ultimately advised there would be no way it would be available to us. Read as much as you want into that.

Anyways. I’m looking for suggestions as well. What do you believe makes someone a great usher? Provide some characteristics or names if I know them. The greatest I’ve met was Mr. Wilke in Edinburg. He’d never serve on a committee, but he’d do anything else you would ask him. He knew, and probably still does, how to make anyone feel like they belonged there in church. Don’t let me get off track.

Help me out if you can. Stay blessed..john

Well, that's not my prediction. That's the score from the NFL madden '09 Forecast.

I'm feeling good about this one. Who cares what the score is as long as the E-A-G-L-E-S finish strong!

Go Green!

I’ve been working on a bunch of newsletter material. So far there is about a page worth of material. We’ll see if that’s a good thing or not. I’m trying to help our church provide information that focuses less on “We did…” and more on “We are…” and “We will be…”

One of the items on that list is our church’s website. I’m almost done with it. Of course there’ll be a link here. Originally, I had planned to have it complete before the semester began. That idea hasn’t been entirely discarded, but it may or may not happen that soon. The semester begins next Thursday!

Stay in school…I mean blessed…john

Oak Haven is the first church I’ve been able to work closely with the United Methodist Women’s Group. In Bandera I was always in class when they met and in Edinburg I was always tied down with other responsibilities. I’ve enjoyed being a part of their meetings. A few nights ago they installed their new leaders for the year. That was a special time.

That same evening we share in a Love Feast. I had never led one of those. If you ask me I’d say it was meaningful. You know I wouldn’t just say that. A Love Feast has a few specific characteristics. There is always prayer and Bible reading, go figure. Also, a common element is the passing and sharing of the bread and water. Each person takes a piece of the bread and passes the loaf to the next. Similarly, the water is served to everyone.

There were a few things I did a little different. First was our prayer time. The Book of Worship suggests for a leader to pray and those attending respond with Amen, Hallelujah or Praise the Lord. I told the ladies they had two of each of the responses. When the prayer was offered they would respond either with an Amen, Hallelujah or Praise the Lord. Of course, they couldn’t use one more than twice. In the end, there were five prayers they responded to. The sixth was left out and explained they would have to share whatever response they had left with someone during the remainder of the week. In other words, some had used all but a Praise the Lord. Now, they would have to share something to praise the Lord about with someone this week.

Secondly, for our primary Scripture reading (I Corinthians 13) I separated the passage into four sections. Each section was printed on legal size paper that had been rolled as a scroll would be. We recalled how many of our ancient brothers and sisters in Christ had scrolls and fragments of their Scripture. Groups surrounding each scroll and read their piece. There was no particular order of their reading.


I’m really excited about their special project this year. We are going to put a great deal of effort to provide shoes for students in three surrounding elementary schools. The group will work with Payless to offer shoe vouchers that cannot be used for anything other than children’s shoes. This is going to be a great way to reach into this community. I’ll let you know how it is going once it begins. Stay blessed…john

We still regularly help Nathan with his bath time. This one particular instance I was giving Nathan a bath right before bedtime. He was doing his usual splish-splash business. When it’s time to rinse out the shampoo he likes to keep his head under the running water. On this evening I told him I would get most of the suds out of his hair and he could finish. I ended up getting it all out and quickly told him to finish up. As I got up I figured why not? I turned the light out so that when he got out from under the water he’d be in for a surprise. I waited at the light switch for him to open his eyes.

And I waited.

And I waited.

Obviously, a minute isn’t a very long time. It all depends on the circumstance. One minute can mean everything to someone sharing a dying moment with a loved one or be another minute in time-out for a child. For me, this minute dragged on like no other I’ve ever had—I was itching to get to my next task. In all it was probably only about (75) seconds. That’s how long it took him to open his eyes. By then I was ready to just forget my marvelous idea. I’m glad I waited. Sure it was worth the, “Hey, Dad, turn that light back on!” More than that though, later it was a reminder for me.

We in the church share a task and a great responsibility—to share the Gospel of our Lord and make disciples. It bothers me how we can settle in our congregations and limit the work God can do through us. Jesus’ words have yet to fail when He said the poor would always be with us. The need for ongoing assistance for health and food will always be a concern in our communities and around the world. But those are not the only needs. What keeps people in hunger? Please don’t be quick to assume people in those situations are deciding to be there and have yet to work harder. Trust me; things are not always so simple.

Abandonment, violence, abuse, discrimination, separation and illness are but a few other ways people suffer. I wonder if perhaps we don’t see the darkness around us because we keep our eyes closed. Surely we aren’t too busy to blatantly ignore those around us. Church cannot keep us so preoccupied we neglect to see the real needs of those who worship with us. All those we are not in our churches need to same kind of assurance of God’s grace as well.

Sure we should be thankful for the work we have been able to do. I am so proud to have been a part of some great work in the different churches we have been at, and I love to hear how they continue. How though could we ever believe we’ve done our part and are finished?

Well, maybe if we keep our head in the water. Shall we keep working? Stay blessed…john

What a game.
NFC Championship here we come.
Go Green!

Well, scratch that last post. I went to the training. Gloria and the kids explored the town we were in while I attended the sessions. It wasn’t too bad. Something I’ve always been intrigued with is communication. In today’s world there has to be a tie between marketing and evangelism. I think for some churches it’s the marketing that gets the edge and evangelism coming in at a close second. While it’s totally possible to combine the two, the church seems to get a little trendy with some of the things we do. I for one am tired of hearing how we should be more like Starbucks. Please don’t try to explain. I understand the reasoning and will even agree with most points. I just think we’d do well to remember Starbucks probably cares more about selling lattes than creating community. It’s their niche not their purpose.

Anyways, I met a few people at the training and got out fairly early. There was even enough time to hang around town for lunch (and shopping!!) and still catch both games. Okay, things will be a little tricky in the morning. We have our monthly lunch and meetings scheduled tomorrow and all the game stuff starts at noon. So, I don’t plan on chewing or getting seconds; I’ll direct everyone to my written report and suggest we adjourn early. Maybe not, but I’ll try my best. Go Green!

This weekend will mark a first time in a long time event for me. Our district is holding its annual leadership training for the various ministry areas of the church. Guess what. I’m not going. I should say we’re not going. Usually, Gloria and I make it a point to go. There’s no childcare and we didn’t want to have to try to make arrangements.

It really is a little disappointing. I wanted to use this time to get to know some of the people in our district (oh, and get trained). In the first six months of being here I have met probably two other pastors or church leaders from the district. This is the first time in six years, three districts and two annual conferences I haven’t gone. Don’t worry I’m not panicked or anything. Jesus is still Lord.

These leadership trainings are a benefit, I believe. I almost feel ashamed to say, but that only holds true when the right people are leading them. Leadership should demonstrate what ministry could/should be. So many people who have taken leadership roles in the church share a few characteristics: 1) A lot of them were never really asked or given an option. You know that drives me nuts. 2) They have no idea what exactly they are expected to do. See number one for a good reason why. 3) Many don’t think they can have an impact on the work of the church.

If we can have people in place who demonstrate what good things happen when church members work in their positions, people leave wanting to take what they’ve learned and apply it in their home church. Then it’s not a waste of time for them, and people like me can feel okay with encouraging their members to attend. I’m not talking about having adult VBS. Leave that to those who think they have to entertain congregations.

So, Oak Haven you got off easy. This event snuck up on me. Usually I will send out letters, emails, put the schedule in the bulletin and newsletter and figure out ways to get people there. The score so far is: John (0) and 2009 (1).

I’ll bounce back Coach. You know I will. I won’t let the team down. We’ll get ahead.

Sorry, it’s playoff time! Stay blessed…john

After a week of great Eagle football, a bowl game and time with out-of-town friends and family, things in our house are beginning to get back to that thing people call normal. I won’t begin classes for two more weeks; so, things are completely on track, yet.

This week we are making adjustments to our order of worship (dramatic music, please). There are some things that I’ve felt would benefit our time in worship. It shouldn’t be too traumatic. I know, I know. “You’re supposed to wait a whole year before you make any changes.” You have to be a little flexible in this ministry gig and know when things need to be done. I can’t do gymnastics anymore, but I am able to bend on a few things when the timing is right, and now is a good time, I think [/grin].

Just to prove to you just how flexible and easy going I can be: Since Gloria and I have been making the bulletins there has been some type of error every week. I’ve messed up usher groups, hymn numbers have been wrong and last week the “c Choir” sang an anthem instead of our usual Choir. Despite all that I still have great hair and all is well. Isn’t God good? To that, the people say…

P.S. Funny thing. We’re were, of course, watching the Eagles game last week. As Gloria and the girls were doing some bead project or something, Nathan and I went from football to slot cars. Returning from a commercial break, the station, as they typically will, showed footage of some of the cheerleaders. Nathan noticed, and with a smile on his face tugged at me and said, “Dad, look. Girls!” That was a sweet moment only because it was just Christmas afternoon that Brittani put up her first poster with some creepy little boys on them. Okay, they’re not creepy, just boys.

Sure you may have known. But today I learned it's a little difficult and a lot annoying to change these letters when they're wet. Yes, that's ice on the bushes.