Would you rather do this or visit the dentist?

Gloria makes a return to the dentist's chair today.  Let's hope this takes care of everything.  When we were younger we made a bet concerning our teeth.  First one to have them fall out owes the other a brand new car.  We'll see how this visit turns out.

A few random thoughts about the dentist:

• Dentists can be frustrating. You wait a month-and-a-half for an appointment, and they say, "I wish you'd come to me sooner."
• A husband and wife entered the dentist’s office. The husband said, “I want a tooth pulled. I don’t want gas or Novocain because I m in a terrible hurry. Just pull the tooth as quickly as possible.” “You re a  brave man,” said the dentist. “Now, show me which tooth it is.” The husband turns to his wife and says, “Open your mouth and show the dentist which tooth it is, dear.”  
• Dentist: I have to pull the aching tooth, but don't worry it will take just five minutes. Patient: And how much will it cost? Dentist: It's $90.00. Patient: $90.00 for just a few minutes work??? Dentist: I can extract it very slowly if you like.

Here is a great thought for your day from Peter at beauty of the bible:

If you really want to get to know God, you have to be willing to get to know a God completely different from the God you think you know.

What do you think?  How easy is it to get God to mirror what we would like God to be?  What are some of the things we discover when we choose to know a "different" God?

Stay blessed...john

I am extremely excited about Oak Haven's youth ministry.  We are starting from the ground up.  There is no model; there have been no young people to teach or guide.  Now, we have an opportunity to develop, teach, nurture and lead our young people, and those adults WHO WILL minister with them.  And it all begins this Sunday afternoon!

What do you think is important for a youth ministry to be faithful?  Are there some things that are common that should be done away with?  If you're helping me build a youth ministry what are you bringing to the table?

Please be in prayer for this ministry.  Whether you live in Irving or anywhere else your ministry with us begins with your prayer.

Stay blessed...john

The role of the United Methodist Women cannot be understated. They do so much to raise awareness of issues surrounding justice and mission in our church. I’ve always appreciated their efforts to raise money and do good. I haven’t always been the greatest UMW member; school has kept me from many meetings. So, when I was asked to help update the UMW directory for Oak Haven, I wanted to do something special. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what that would be. After all, this is only a directory. All the information was in order; I just had to delete names and addresses no longer applicable.

What was a pastor to do?

Then it hit me. I conferred with the UMW president about my idea. She thought it was a good, but was unsure how the ladies would react. We wondered if a few members wouldn’t appreciate the effort. However, we concluded most of them would might. All together the project took several months to complete.

We began by asking each UMW member to bring in a picture of themselves. There were several we had to return. The pictures had to be from, at least, this decade, but preferably from only a few years back. We had to be able to recognize who they were! Once we finally received everyone’s pictures we were ready. One of the members of the group is a caricature artist. So, of course, we put together a caricature pictorial directory. Oh, this was so not your grandma’s UMW directory.

The ladies loved it! It was like Jr High all over again. Everyone wanted to get their yearbook directory signed by everyone in the group. I wrote in one, “You’re cool. Don’t ever change!” I hope it is something to keep around for a while, and maybe a fun way to introduce new members to the group. The laughs, the very loud laughs and smiles were worth every minute at the computer and copy machine. Each lady also received their original caricature. Thanks, Micki for all of your work!

At this point there are twenty members of the group. The directories included 1) a one page listing of members with phone numbers 2) Officers for the year 3) UMW mission statement 4) caricatures of each member 5) a birthday listing 6) alphabetical directory listing and 7) extra page for new members. We printed color copies on our office machine. We gave these to the group, but each directory cost approximately $5 to print. So, it wasn’t a costly project. Who knows, maybe it’s something you can do.


Have you thanked a United Methodist woman today?

First, watch the video below (or here).  Then decide what song is in your heart right now.  Maybe you don't have a Hallelujah Chorus right now.  That's okay.  There are no right or wrong answers. This is your Music Monday.  I think I have two right now.  This one and this one, in no particular order.



So, let's hear your song.

Stay blessed...john

Here is the latest edition of the NTC-News.

We finished the church newsletter yesterday.  Most people have to wait 2-3 working days to view theirs, or get their copy on Sunday morning.  Not you!  You get to first crack.  See how awesome you are.



Stay blessed...john

I'm in the final stages of preparing our charge conference booklet.  Our annual meeting has a different format this year.  Next Sunday we are joining other Irving congregations for a joint worship service at Plymouth Park UMC, then each congregation moves to a room for their own charge conference.  In part, I suppose, this helps eliminate administrative hours for the D.S.  That was one of the goals of the conference realignment.

Hopefully, Oak Haven will respond the same way we have the past couple of years.  We have had most of our church represented at our meetings.  I really try to emphasize the celebration aspect of the meeting.  Every year we were able to be in ministry together; that is a blessing in itself.  Sometimes we were able to do what we usually do; sometimes we didn't get to do what we wanted; sometimes we were able to try new things.  In any case, we were in ministry together.

There are three questions I hope each member takes time to consider and answer.  Our conference booklet has space to answer them.  Having the questions helps (doesn't define) us put into perspective the activities we have been involved in, and what the point of our mission is. I'm of the opinion our churches don't do enough reflecting.  To that end the questions are:

1. How has your faith been encouraged, strengthened or challenged the most this past year at Oak Haven?
2. Provide (3) strengths and (2) weaknesses of our ministry here at Oak Haven:
3. What areas of ministry would you like to see developed more this coming year?

If someone answers those then they will celebrate what God has done.  They will have taken time to reflect on our mission and how we need to make sure we are working towards that end.  Finally, it helps direct the goals of what the church will be doing in the coming year.

What about your charge conferences?  What kind of mood does yours have?  Do you look forward to the meeting, or is it a necessary evil?  Do you get in and get out?  The longest meeting I've had lasted just over two hours.  The shortest meeting lasted 29 1/2 minutes!  Happy Charge Conference Season!

Stay blessed...john

You know how it goes. The pastor asks the congregation to "turn in your Bible to the book of..." Half the people spend the first minute trying to find where that book is. Some are brave enough to use the Table of Contents (that's what they're for!). Obviously, the more you read the more you know. So, read.

However, it is easy to get lost in the biblical world, especially if you are just trying to find a starting point. Funny names, unfamiliar places and ideas can mount up quickly and prove frustrating. If you're trying to get a better understanding of the Bible my advice is simple, I hope.

Of course, read. Get used to reading the Bible before anything (Well, praying is good, too). Even if it's just a paragraph at a time. Then learn the structure of the Bible. For example, it should be easy to find Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy. Why? Yes, they are the first five books, but more than that they represent a particular period of the story of God's people. The books of the Bible are grouped together by category. Learn the categories.

Once you get a good understanding of what is happening overall in a book you can better understand more of the images or ideas within it. That's just a general idea to get you going.

I came across some pictures that represent various books of the Bible. Here is your homework.  Learn how each picture relates to its book. This helps with what I'm talking about.

Here are a few examples:

What do you think?

Stay blessed...john

Here is the sermon from yesterday. It is the second sermon in a 7-week series entitled Is That Church Growing? There are many things I’m an excited about here at Oak Haven. Still, I don’t want to give any impression of my answer to the series’ question.

I did leave out an important connector in this sermon. Towards the end, after the balm in Gilead reference, I did not connect the idea of the church’s role in praying for that hope and healing like I should have. That was the main point of the sermon. So, hopefully, I said enough about prayer to stress that. Probably not, but God is gracious.

This morning I came across a small article in a book entitled We Believe in Prayer. The article was called God is in Charge, written by Dr. Nels F. S. Ferre. Here are the opening words:

Without prayer I cannot now conceive of life. We are real and right as we pray correctly, for we are real and right in relation to God, and prayer, at its deepest, is our relating ourselves to God’s will.

Somebody a lot smarter said something I did (or something like that); why wouldn’t I share that with everyone?

You can listen to the sermon by using the player below or by following this link. Also, you can view the order of worship by clicking here.



Stay blessed…john

All this plus a Cowboys defeat!

Happy Birthday, Britt. You can't imagine how proud your dad is of you. Yes, even though you wear 3-D glasses (with no lenses, mind you) everywhere. Maybe that's a reason to be proud.

Love you.

You have got to get you the Spat Solver; it's what you need!

The heat of July is upon us.  Do what you can to stay cool.  These links will not help you do that, but are still worth checking out. 

• Does The Office have one of these?
• When you can't be there to tell them a bedtime story.
• If Twitter Isn't Christian Enough for You
• Take the Michael Winslow Movie Quiz
• The Best Pie Chart Ever
• Some Things You May Not Know
• Your Toy Story 3 Easter Egg Guide
• Miniature skyline made out of staples
• Your Globe
• Hilarious Newspaper Headlines
• Top 100 Songs Ever Recorded

• Pavarotti and James Brown - This Is A Man´s World

I know I’m a few days late. It’s been 2 years and three days since Hurricane Ike hit Galveston. Galvnews.com gets a daily hit from my laptop. Of course, all my family is in the area. I think I may have already mentioned that.

So, to bring you, my online reading family, to Galveston I want to share with you this link from The Galveston County News. It’s called Hope and Resurrection. Shouldn’t that be a sermon title? Still, you get the impression that things are, though slowly, coming together. It takes time.

Have you been lately?  Stay blessed...john



From Galveston County Daily News

I have to confess; I was not familiar with the ministry of Bishop Mathews.  During the summer I took a UM History course.  One of the reading assignments was Matthews' autobiography entitled A Global Odyssey.  At first, the just under 500 page book seemed like another daunting addition to a course book list.  However, I was glad I read it.  I can't imagine living a life full of accomplishments and experiences that would require that many pages.

But that was the life of Bishop Mathews.  Last week Bishop Mathews died at the age of 97.  Read an article about Mathews here.  I would recommend reading the book.  It was interesting for me to read how someone whose life was lived in complete Christian mission reflected on his experiences. 

As it turns out, I may have been the only person in class to answer the one essay question about the bishop.  I'm glad I had a chance to know of his witness. 

Stay blessed...john

Okay, Gloria wasn't thrilled about me sharing her video coverage on the Irving channel. So, you'll have to ask her to show you where that is. John Fletcher, however, is taking this time to be as self serving as he can be right now (third person is always the place to begin).

This was the second time I was asked to give the invocation at the city's council meeting. Last year I left a little ticked, but got over it. A councilperson's laptop magically turned on during the prayer. I won't rant about why that bothered me.

Anyways, here is the video (click here if you're reading an email) of last week's council meeting with a special invocation by the most reverent John Fletcher. Oh, and the rest of the meeting can be viewed on another website. Stay blessed...john (back to normal)

In preparing for the beginning of this semester I came across Microsoft’s OneNote program. It came with the Office Suite I ordered a couple of years ago, but I never paid any attention to it. I was trying to sync my relatively new phone to my computer so I could have my classes, tasks and contacts up to date. As I did that OneNote opened.

So, I started messing around with it. I think I like it. Essentially, it’s a multi-subject notebook—all in one place, thus OneNote. You can create notebooks that contain sections. To each section can be added pages and subpages. For example, I created a Notebook entitled Perkins (school). Then I labeled a section (more can be added) within Perkins as Fall 2010. Under each section are pages for each of the four classes I am taking. Finally, each day’s notes are created in subpages of each class respectively.

Of course, you can type, but inserting other elements like pictures or shapes is just as easy. Many times a professor will use a graph or diagram as an illustration. By the time I would try to create one of those in WORD I missed the point of the topic. OneNote allows me to easily arrange shapes and other elements. Also, text boxes can be moved around.

I’m still getting a feel for it. There might be more convenient ways to use it, and who knows if I will continue to use it. For now, thought, I think I like it. The program comes with Office Suite 2007. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Are there security issues or anything else to keep in mind?

Last week I told you about our upcoming sermon series.  This past Sunday we began the series Is That Church Growing?

You can listen to the first sermon of the series by clicking here or using the player below.  Beware: the recording didn't come out like it should.  I tried my best to make it easier to listen to.  Sometimes that happens.

You can view the bulletin we used for our service as well by clicking here.  Let me know what you think.  Stay blessed...john

At this point we have enough people to begin a Disciple I group. I think this is an important element of Oak Haven's growth. So, thanks for praying with me, and keep praying.

I think I am going to share this picture with the group.


Those of you who have participated in a Disciple study probably realize how true this is, and that Disciple's goal is to get past that. What do you think? What are your Disciple I, II, III or IV experience? I've only met a couple of people who have completed all four. We're trying to change that!

Stay blessed...john
+link

Let’s talk about sermons (not those). Specifically, let’s make mention of the sermons those Chosen ones at Oak Haven hear each Sunday—mine. I was somewhat surprised, but of course grateful, when I noticed recently our sermon count. As some of you know, in addition to being posted on this site, the church’s weekly sermons are available at www.oakhavenumc.org. I’ve told you before about the sermon player we use. It is great; I can’t personally do it right now, but if you’re interested you might consider a gift to help support all the work they do.

How many sermons have you heard?

Our sermons date back to just about when we came to Irving.  There are obviously some missing in that time. Technology is great, but sometimes it doesn’t do exactly what you want, and sometimes I just ran out of time! In all, as I write now, there are 58 sermons available online. They have been played 2,351 times (2-comma-three-five-one). Now, some churches can sneeze sermon counts that high, but this is the place they used to call The Little Country Church in the City. That’s a lot of plays, if you ask me. Some sermons have been heard as few as 3 times (thanks, Mom!), with the highest at 58. So, if I did my math correctly, that is approximately 40 plays per sermon.

Here is what I think is best about it. For the most part, I’m not convinced the people sitting in Oak Haven’s pews are doing the listening. Why on Earth would they do that to themselves? Of course, there are those that occasionally tell me they listened after they missed a Sunday. That’s good in and of itself. For the most part, however, I’m pretty sure these are others that either came across our website or may have visited before.

Regardless, I am pleased our church is able to connect this way. So, keep listening and sharing with others and we’ll keep posting.

I’m curious. What sermon topics would be beneficial for some of you? I would like to do a series related to your questions.  Let me know. Stay blessed…john

I am grateful for the rain.  We needed it.  Our water was tasting funny and our grass was suffering, etc.  Of course, with rain comes flooding, car accidents and endless newscasts about them.  That is so frustrating.  We watch local news in the morning as we are getting ready for the day.  When it rains like it has the past two days there is nothing else worthy of reporting.  Some people probably appreciate that.  I don't.

Rain falling on streets doesn't constitute shocking video coverage.  Thank you for letting me know it is raining.  Thank you for warning me about flash flooding and thank you for the up to the minute rain gauge reports. 

Rant over.

This reminded me of a video from the Ellen DeGeneres Show.  It's funny, and will most likely make you laugh.  So, only watch it if you need to.  Enjoy.  Stay blessed...john

Summer time is over for us.  It's back to the grind of school schedules and other activities.  I thought I would share some pictures of some of the Fletchermints during the hot days of summer. .

Stay blessed...john

It's a party

Gloria and Oprah

Lovebirds

First day of school

Posing in the water

Another pose

Family visit

Nice moves

Feeding the ferry birds

Grandma and her baby girl

How much attention has your local UMC given to the upcoming 10 Fold project? This may be something you mission committee members should take a look at.

Watch the video below or click here.


Stay blessed...john

I'm not sure which translation this represents, but I thought it was funny when I first read it. Thanks, Parks.

On the first day, God created the dog and said:

'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'

The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?'

And God agreed.


On the third day, God created the cow and said:

'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'

The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years… How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said:

'Eat, sleep, play, marry, and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'

But the human said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'

'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it...'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I'm doing it as a public service.

Here is the final sermon in our latest series entitled Chosen. I would be interested to hear your comments or observations from the last three weeks. I am beginning another series next week related to this post; it's entitled Is That Church Growing?

You can listen to today's sermon below or, if you're reading by email, you can click this link. Also, if you visit the sermon channel you can view a copy of our bulletin. Let me know if you think that is a good idea.

Stay blessed...john

These pictures came in an email a few weeks ago (Thanks, David).  Some of these are pretty funny.  God separating the clothes is good, and Jesus being rejected is hilarious! I figured you could use a laugh.  Which one do you like?

A few weeks ago I was introduced to someone as the pastor of Oak Haven. The eyes of the person told me very quickly there was a connection to the church. “I grew up in that church” was the reply. This individual shared family memories of being an active part of Oak Haven in years past. It was a surprise to both of us, I think, the opportunity to share this conversation had occurred.

Before I took my place the person asked me one question, “Is that church growing?” There was something very important in knowing the answer for that person.

Of course, there is something important for us in knowing the answer as well. So, what do you think? Is Oak Haven growing? What does it mean for a church to be growing? Are we growing like we think God is calling us to? These are just a few questions I like to make sure to include in the growing church discussion.

I was there; so, I know what my response was. What about you? Let’s hear what you think. Leave a comment to answer the important question. Try your best to go past yes or no. If you think so, tell why. If you don’t think so, tell why. Tell us how you would like to see Oak Haven grow.

This should be fun. So fun in fact next Sunday we are beginning a 7-week sermon series entitled Is That Church Growing?  I would appreciate your thoughts as I prepare for this series.

Stay blessed…john

No one looks forward to the Summer time youth car wash when it's 107 degrees outside.  And now that school is back in session churches will be looking for that oh-so-impressive, this'll rake in the dollars FO SHO fundraiser.  Well...you've come to the wrong place.  First, I don't like fundraisers (church fundraisers).  Also, this idea just isn't one I would want to get tied up in.  But you might be looking for a new way to put your best foot forward.  So, tell me what you think of In-Souls.

Incidentally, someone who goes to Oak Haven told me about a church he knew of that built a step to the pulpit with a Bible enclosed.  That way when the preacher said he was preaching on the Word of God he wouldn't be lying.

Stay blessed...john


+IronicCatholic

Some of you are on Facebook and/or Twitter way too much.  Yes, I understand and appreciate what these sites offer.  I use them and have made sure Oak Haven does as well.  If, however, your first waking act and last moments before bedtime and as often as you can in between are spent adding to your list of likes, then you might be a facebook glutton.  Sorry, someone had to break it to you. 

However, instead of just going cold turkey you can find ways to find a little freedom here and there.  For example, you could try ordering a Friends Social Mug.  This site retrieves profile pics of your friends and adds them to a collage that is used for your mug.  So, as you drink your coffee throughout the day you can feel like you're still connected, and it won't even matter that your best friend just changed their profile pic. 

Stay blessed...john
+ChurchCrunch