Ichabod

"She named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed"" I Samuel 4:21

It. You got to have it as a ministry. You can't buy it, you can't earn it, you can catch it, you can realize one day that you've had it, or you can realize that somewhere along the way you lost it.
That's where I find myself. Having just read It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It, by Craig Groeschel. I find myself having lost it.
I've been flying by the seat of my pants, stressed out, missing appointments with God and I'm flat out grounded and broke. I have tried for the last two years to read through the Bible. I made it about half way through. I've decided that I will press on, I hope to read the second half in half a year, but even if I finish in a year, I've done it, straight through once.
I feel as though the creative juices have dried up, but I know that's not entirely true. They're just drier in the desert, the well has to be cleaned out and dug deeper. The past 9 months have seen a lot of struggles and changes in our lives and I'm just starting to get a handle on some of them. I plan to write something each week in each blog. Our photography studio is off to a slow start, but I am hopeful with some of our unique marketing, we'll grow our market share.

Snowmen

As another snow event comes through and I contemplate shoveling its good just to stop and reflect: We love and hate the snow. It's beautiful and has a calming action in our life. Things tend to slow down. We hate because we have to go and move, we drive slower, we have accidents, things get canceled. The kids love it, they whiz down hills on their sleds, pelt each other with snowballs and build snowmen.
We are a lot like snowmen. We are short lived, temporal beings. We are stubborn (ever try to move a snowman?). We let the world around us make us who we are, and put the smile or frown on out face. We can be looking good on the outside, but we're still dirty on the inside, a snow flake forms around a tiny speck of dirt.
Snowmen have all different personalities, short and fat, tall and lean, large and small, straight and crooked. Some hat top hats, some baseball caps, some long pointy noses and some short squatty noses, some where sun glasses and scarves and some just a pair of mittens.
We are like snowmen in how we are all different in shape and personality. We are all unique and special to God. Next time you see a snowman, remember were a lot alike. Maybe when it snows round up the kids and build a snowman or two.

Christmas Traditions

What's so important about Christmas traditions? Think back about your family traditions for Christmas, maybe you opened your presents on Christmas Eve after a church service, or maybe just one. You could open your stockings as soon as you got up on Christmas morning or you had to wait. Maybe it was a special meal? Did you read the Christmas story? Traditions are the generational glue that hold families together.

(Sorry about the format. Blogger and Open Office don't get along).

I took a look back at some of our family traditions this year, because we've added two girls to the mix.

• Cutting the tree down at the Christmas tree farm and dragging it out through the woods, usually in deep snow and on snowshoes of late.
  
• Decorating the tree has a number of traditions, the lights, then the ribbon, then the ornaments.
• Christmas breakfast: fruit from around the world, baked brie and sparkling juice.
• We open presents on Christmas morning after breakfast.
• We try to stay home on Christmas, so we all play Santa on Christmas Eve and deliver presents to the rest of the family in the area.
  
• We tried to read the Christmas story every year, and to celebrate the advent Sundays.
• Our cat's tradition is to sleep under the tree, eventually he ends up on the back side, either on a pile of boxes or in the last open space between them and we wonder where he is.
  
• The Moscow Ballet's "The Nutcracker" has become a tradition. Moriah is a mouse this year, she'll have quite a bit of stage time compared to last year.
  

Traditions are fluid, they can change as needed. It won't be too many more years and we won't play Santa on Christmas Eve, because the kids will have grown up. We had the first advent Sunday sneak up and right on by us this year. That's okay, the youngest wouldn't get much out of it. Next year they'll both be ready for it.
I mentioned that tradition is the generational glue that holds families together, it can also tear them apart. Back when I was a kid: we'd get the whole family together, 30+ and have a party. That generation still has a party, but many of the younger generation doesn't make it. They've started their own family traditions. It's tough to break away, but it's okay, the young family needs that chance to establish itself.
The most important tradition of all is the one that teaches the next generation that Jesus is the reason we celebrate, His birth and His purpose in coming to this sin stained world to redeem us. Last year I wrote Moriah's renaissance alter ego a Christmas story.

Warning: Plot spoiler ahead. Princess Afeicta was chosen to dance with the traveling ballet in the Nutcracker. After the performance she got to stay up late and recieved a special present from her father. She went to the cast party. It was late when she fell asleep. She dreamed of being a daughter of a Magus, and they were traveling across the desert at night, following a star. They came to Jerusalem, and found no baby king, they found him instead in a small house in Bethlehem. Her fathered was warned supernaturally not go back to Jerusalem, and Joseph ad Mary were told to flee. He father decides to hire Joseph as a carpenter and go on to Egypt. She dreamed of the flight of the caravan and coming into Cairo. The bazaar was wonderful, dancers from all over, Egypt, India, Gypsies, Greek, and it ended with the beat of the Irish drum and their fast moving feet. She awoke, to the drumming of the snow on the window. and she hugged the book, she remembered looking into the King's eyes, this future King, she now held, holds the world in place and came to save her.

Think hand bound with leather cover and illustrations. That might sound like a couple of beloved Christmas stories. That's tradition that will be hard to repeat this year, even though it has been requested. I've got to go: Time to get working on the Christmas story tradition.

Family Day!

I took Saturday off from everything to spend a day with all my girls. We went on about a 200 mile odyssey around central New York. Here's some of the sights we saw along the way.

From Fall Falls Tour

Mesmerized.

From Fall Falls Tour

From the bottom.

From Fall Falls Tour

Old meets new in the wind farm.

From Fall Falls Tour

Cascades.

From Fall Falls Tour

What a view!

From Fall Falls Tour

Dunes in CNY?!?!

From Fall Falls Tour

Golden Harvest.

From Fall Falls Tour

I don't see any salmon!?!

From Fall Falls Tour

Daddy and his girl.

From Fall Falls Tour

A beautiful end to a beautiful day.

From Fall Falls Tour

Sunset. Time to go home.

Diversity and Community

I attended the world premiere of Tales from the Salt City. Thanks to Syracuse.com for the picture Here's what Syracuse Stage had to say about the production:

Tales From the Salt City
Conceived and directed by Ping Chong October 14 – November 2
World Premiere
A powerful exploration of the changing face of Syracuse
through an interview-based theatre work, Don't Look Back
presents the first hand narratives of citizens of Syracuse—both
recent arrivals and long-standing residents—who are in some
way living outside the dominant culture. Created by theatrical
innovator Ping Chong and constructed as a chamber piece of
storytelling, the performance features real people telling their
personal experiences of creating cultural identity out of rich
and complex histories. Ping Chong continues the compelling
work he has done throughout the United States exploring the
divergent lives that make up our communities. These stories
will carry us around the globe and bring us home with a
more complete understanding of how the world out there
is the world right here.

It was really very good. It's about how each of us bring our past and culture to where we are now and it forms us and gives us a framework for social interaction. From a missions perspective, we are missing the boat. We have not done a good job understanding the mix of culture and "old world community" that these people have. Here's a short list of who's who in the play. Some of these people have been here for a long time and some haven't. But if we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, we forgot some people groups: Hispanics, Latinos, Blacks, Cambodians, Eastern Europeans, and First Nation People. in all of their cultures there is an element that leads into the goodness of the gospel. In these seven individuals, there is an event that Jesus can heal their wounds and calm their life storms. The other underlying theme is the lack of good community in Syracuse. In some way they each expressed a loss for the community they had before and didn't find in Syracuse. It's a report card on Syracuse, we failed.
I'm no Ping Chong, but I'd like to rewrite the play to have seven martyrs/prisoners (Jesus freaks) and then take it to churches for missions education and motivation.

October is Persecuted Church Month

I came across a number of items of importance that you should know about:

October if Clergy Appreciation month. Hit the jump to find out more.

October is also Persecuted Church month. It is a time to remember our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. We need to pray for them. Find out more at Voice of the Martyrs. Teens need to know that Christians around the world face death and imprisonment for their faith. Check out the Underground Reality inside Vietnam. DC talk is still going strong at JesusFreaks.net. They've got a great interactive map right on the home page to see what's going on around the world.

Anti-blasphemy resolution impact brought to forefront

(Photos by Reuters/Eric Thayer)

International (MNN) ― The United Nations Anti-Blasphemy resolution is drawing the ire of mission groups.

Carl Moeller with Open Doors explains that in application, "This anti-blasphemy resolution is mostly seen to be putting a 'chilling effect' on Christian work and outreach around the world, and that is a very troubling development for us."

Free speech advocates say the non-binding resolution is being used to intimidate believers and spread Sharia law. Adopted in 2007, Resolution 62/145 reads in part: It "notes with deep concern the intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities in the aftermath of 11 September 2001."

Despite the good intentions, Moeller says, "The reality is that wherever Christianity and Islam come into relationship with each other in the culture, the net effect has been for Christian evangelism to be silenced or to be intimidated through this act."

Though it has little teeth in law, the act has been reviewed and passed more than once. That gives it some kind of authority and often emboldens militant Islamists to use it as a club against Christians.

In effect, it is a shield for the fundamentalists who retaliate against perceived offenses. Moeller says the resolution passes under the guise of protecting religion, but it actually endangers religious minorities in Islamic countries.

That's why he's urging prayer. "The slope is so slippery because everything that purports to criticize Islam is considered 'blasphemy.' Anything that promotes another religious viewpoint, like Christianity, is considered 'blasphemy.' It really becomes the ultimate weapon against free religious speech around the world."

Open Doors is raising awareness, Moeller adds, because "people need to get involved with organizations that are standing up to draw attention to the anti-blasphemy laws...to make true religious freedom a hallmark of international religious liberty and not a sham of anti-blasphemy laws that the UN is passing."

If you're in New York or Pennsylvania this is for you (My apologies, if you're else where, it may be to far.):
Pastors' Conference with James MacDonald On October 28th.

Family Life invites you to attend a one-day Pastor’s conference with Dr. James MacDonald (Lunch will be served). The event is free and will be held at The Family Life Center in Bath, NY. Check-in begins at 8:30 am and the conference starts at 9:00 am. Registration is necessary. Please call 607-776-4151 or 800-927-9083 during regular business hours to pre-register for the event.

This years conference we are excited that the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove in Asheville, NC has offered a give away package for a Pastor and spouse to either the 2009 Pastor's Institute or Leadership Institute (dates TBD). The package would include one night's lodging as well as meals and materials.

The moment it converges!

Coincidence, no. Divine convergence, yes. Several things have converged in my life, I attended a seminar "Breaking the 500 Barrier", I really got know and understand the words of "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath and I read "Who Stole My Church?" by Gordon MacDonald.
First of all, if that title, "Who Stole My Church?" is something you're asking yourself, then you need to read the book. If it intrigues you, then you need to read the book and if you're a leader, then you need to read the book.
What are we doing to re-focus the church to go beyond the four walls? The church is not for those inside it's fold, but the lost still outside. How do we get them inside? We need to have Jesus' eyes and Jesus' arms and Jesus hands to see them, love them and serve them. We knock down the barriers by making our church a place of relevance to the lost. The message doesn't change, but the way we reach out, changes.
Ours is a post-modern world, a scary place where people don't have a basic understanding of Judeo-Christian thought patterns. They are wandering in the dark, and their are many lights that beckon them. The question is what is our local light doing to attract them?