I recently put down Shepherding the Small Church. Before the end of the spring semester I bought this book to read through the summer. I didn’t finish the book—most of it, but not all. If you’re looking for something to give some basic direction about what to look for in ministry, I wouldn’t steer you away from this resource. It just wouldn’t be the first book I would suggest to you.

About midway through the book things seemed to begin to drag on. The headings within headings got to me. From the title I imagined a book that would focus on small church issues. I don’t feel like it did. Much of the content seemed applicable to any church, regardless of size or location. That doesn’t take away from what was presented. There are good points throughout the book. For example:

• Effectiveness is defined by transformation. The purpose of the ministry of the church is to transform the lives of people into the image and character of Christ (p18).
• The ultimate test of the Christian faith is not what one does but what one becomes (86).
• The idea that one should have a “worship service” for the unsaved is a myth. For worship can only be done by the true people of God (96).
• The task of witnessing, then, may be described as gentle persuasion relentlessly applied (151).

If you have done reading on church leadership you’ll most likely recognize much of this material. So, it’s not a bad read, but I wasn’t getting anywhere with it; time to start reading what professors tell me to. Stay blessed…john

testing a post to tweet function...

Time to get everyone excited about this event!

Okay, to help everyone remember the armor of God mentioned in Ephesians 6, we came up with the dance. I did it in church last Sunday (Sermon:I'm No Fashion Expert, But) and we couldn't stop laughing. I hope that means they'll remember it. Sorry there was no video!

You'll have to ask me to demonstrate it to you....youtube video coming soon?

Stay blessed...john

Where Vincent Angel in my name comes from.....see you later Grandpa...


Vincent Angel ascended into the presence of Christ on August 16, 2009. He was born in Galveston, Texas on April 5, 1931, and was proud to be a BOI. He worked for Model Dairy, the City of Galveston and Gerland’s Food Fair. He served his country as a soldier in the U.S. Army (568th O.H.M.) during the Korean War. Later he became a member of the Disabled American Veterans.

Because he enjoyed learning; he was always reading and taking notes. Vincent loved to quote and study the bible with family and friends and although he never got the chance to be a preacher; he was very grateful for his two children and one grandchild who became pastors to carry on what he loved. He was a faithful member of the First Church of God in Texas City. “A righteous man will be remembered forever.” Psalm 112:6. We will always remember his wit, his laughter and most of all, his love.

He married Guadalupe De La Rosa and had six children Johnny (Susan) Angel, Yvonne (John) Tsimiliotis; Elena (Warren) West; Teresa (Aaron) Hrachavina; Jesse Angel and Mario (Jessica) Angel. He is the proud grandfather of 16 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Vincent is survived by his brothers Jesse Angel and Ben Angel; sisters Anna Skinner, Mary Skinner and Lola Ayala. He now goes on to be with his dad and mom, Anancleto and Francisca Angel, brothers Heron and Guadalupe Angel and sister Esperanza Angel and grandson, Jeremy Angel.

Pallbearers will be Mario Angel Jr., Joshua Hrachavina, Jacob Angel, Dimitris and Emmanuel Tjanis and Billy Hernandez.

Visitation will be Wednesday night, August 19, 6 - 8 p.m. at Emken-Linton Funeral Home in Texas City, Texas. A “Celebration of Life” service will be held at 10 a.m., Thursday morning, August 20, at the First Church of God, 2209 29th St. N., Texas City with pastors Johnny Angel and Aaron Hrachavina officiating. His interment will follow at Calvary Cemetery in Galveston, Texas.

Special thanks to Vitas Hospice and to Miss Joanne Campbell for their special tenderness and care.

Emken-Linton Funeral Home

Published August 19, 2009

When reading a blog, I hate it when the first paragraph is an “I’m sorry for having other life activities that I’ve needed to get to, so I haven’t posted in a while, but I’m back in the saddle ready to blog away.” message. Yea, who could ever imagine having other things to do? Since I dislike those kinds of messages so much, I won’t post one. So, let me just say: Updating the blog should be more a part of my schedule now (apologies around to you whom understood that as one of those messages).

The kids are getting back to school. I suppose that means I’m getting ready as well. Yes, check your calendar again; we are already eight months into 2009. Since I haven’t shared a whole lot this summer, I figured I would get you up to speed. Here is a look at our summer (slide machine appreciated):

A Seminary First (for me) I took a three week summer course. There were pros/cons, obviously. There were only three weeks to go over a lot of material, but hey, it was only three weeks. Final result: Well, it was a class covering Post-Modernism. While I didn’t come away a full pledged PMer, I did appreciate the challenging aspects of our studies. Sure the amount of work (reading, etc) in seminary had its overwhelming moments, but honestly I had been disappointed with the experience up to this point. Perhaps my expectations were too high for this first year. This class changed that. So far I can say I haven’t gone a year in seminary without being challenged.

Oh, I got an “A” in the class! My first in seminary (commence Macarena).

Phone Home
Our family traveled to Galveston for the first time since Hurricane Ike. Things looked different. I was a little bummed at first. But I got over it when I realized how much work was being done, and how far the city had already come. We attended a baby shower for one of my sisters, and a few weeks later here comes little Angelina in a baby carriage.

We stopped in Bandera and Pearsall as well to see friends, family and friends-as-close-as family. We even go to attend worship service at BUMC. Good trip.

Acolyte Sunday No one at church could remember ever recognizing our acolytes. I can’t have that. So, we held a small recognition time during church one morning. We thanked four youth who have served for a while now, and prayed the work they do now would prepare them and encourage them in their future work in the church. We also introduced a rookie. Little Ms. Ashlei.




Crocodile Dock Oak Haven had its first Vacation Bible School in a few years. My goal was a hundred children. We did reach that goal—not even close. It wasn’t because we didn’t do our part. We went walking with flyers and other advertising; it just didn’t happen that way. However, the 21 children who went had a good time, came back and learned about God’s love. The group from Trietsch Memorial was great. They were well organized and did a fabulous job with the children. I am looking forward to working with them again.



Did I Do That? Maybe part of our not reaching the goal of 100 children at VBS was the weather. We had rainy, stormy weather from Monday to Saturday. It was early Thursday morning I thought I heard something strange. When I looked outside this is what I saw:



It’s been taken care of and there was no major damage. Can you tell? There is a second car under that tree! Poor, poor Kia. It could have been so much worse.


5 Practices The five weeks we spent were not enough. After members of our church took time to learn about the five practices and generate some ideas they wanted to make sure others in the church had the same opportunity. So, we had a Sunday breakfast, all our Sunday school classes met as one group and got more people involved. It was great.

Ho-Ho-Hot! Our United Methodist Women’s group hosts a Christmas in July for the nursing home in our community. We were able to be a part of that. It was a wonderful experience. Smiles throughout. Well, maybe Santa wasn’t smiling too much under that beard; it was 100 degrees out. We even had live music. I would like our church to do more for the residents there—maybe more visitation or worship services. We’ll see.


3 simple rules This week we began our study on the Three Simple Rules of John Wesley. It has only started and I don’t have pictures, yet, but I think we all enjoyed our time together. I’m looking forward to the next three weeks.

There you have it. Summer isn’t officially over, but we’re winding down. We don’t have any trips planned (maybe family issues). We’re waiting for our members to get back home and together. If things and people go the way I’m thinking, there may be a few extra pews pulled out of storage in a couple of weeks.

Let me know you’re alive. Leave a comment. Most of all, stay blessed…john