I am really rejoicing this morning as I reflect on Sunday. God is so faithful and yesterday was a great reminder of his faithfulness, of his presence and of the great work he is doing here. God really is up to something good in this place. My thoughts this morning …

-I love baby dedications. Yesterday I had the honor of dedicating a precious baby to the Lord. It was made even more special because the parents are enthusiastic followers of Christ. Also, they had prayed for 4 years to have a baby. The whole church was rejoicing with this precious family.

-The spirit in the building was great all day. It is so much easier to preach when there is such a great spirit of expectation.

-We had several new people in the service yesterday. Some were there for the baby dedication, but there were 3 families here that live in the area and evidently do not have a home church. Seeing new people also adds to the energy in a service.

-We had a carry-in meal after the worship service. I love these events because of the opportunity to talk with people in a fun and relaxed setting. It is amazing how people open up more in these settings.

-Our small group was fun last night. We had the best attendance we have had in a long time. We hadn’t been together for a couple of weeks and I think that added to the fun. We had some great discussion during our study, sharing prayer requests and praises and then of course the after group talks are always encouraging.

-Thanks to the baby dedication and visitors we had a great attendance. I am encouraged.

-I was humbled by watching so many of our people serving in so many different ways yesterday.

-My wife was out of town for a baby shower for one of our daughters. I am glad she was able to be there to worship with them on Sunday morning. However, I think I preach better when she is here. I miss her anytime she is out of town, but I miss her even more on Sundays.

Yesterday was a full, upbeat, encouraging and fun day. I love reflecting on days like yesterday. Every Monday morning doesn’t feel like this so I am going to enjoy this for a little longer today. Here’s hoping that your reflections are positive and encouraging today.

Dennis

Wow, I am exhausted this morning. The problem with ending a vacation on a Friday is that I spend Friday night and all day Saturday really busting it to get comfortably ready for Sunday. This year had the added issue of a community event that I needed to prepare for and participate in on Sunday evening. Enough whining, here we go.

-It was great to be back home and worship with my church family. I told several people who asked how my vacation went, “It was great to get away for a few days and it is even better to be back home.” Love these people.

-There was a community event with our Police Department and a few other local churches last evening. The Churches purchased and filled 250-300 backpacks with school supplies for elementary and middle school students. They were free for the taking. The city pool was open and free for anyone to use and we all supplied snacks and drinks for all to enjoy. It was a great night and it was wonderful to be a part of this event.

-We have had a very good summer of worship and yesterday was another very good day.

-I preached on “Getting Up from Being Down” (overcoming depression) using Elijah and I Kings 19 as the outline. For too long we have not addressed this in many churches. It is real, it is important and it can change lives.

-We had good attendance for the Sunday before school starts. It has been a good summer regarding our attendance.

-I loved how our people worked with such a persistent and positive attitude at the community event last evening. Did I mention that I love these people?

-I am really excited to be here for an entire school year and find ways to get involved.

-I am missing coaching volleyball. This would be a week of really pushing things with a team getting ready for the first competition. I miss the players, I miss the forming of a team, I miss the sport and I am going to feel sorry for myself today. Don’t worry, I won’t stay in this mood, but it is my honest feelings this morning.

Now that vacation is over I will get back to regular postings on the blog.

Here’s hoping you have someone to share with today and that your musings this Monday morning are forward looking. Talk with you soon.

Dennis

My musings are very different this morning since I was on vacation yesterday. We will see if I can get my mind engaged enough this morning to do any musing.

-Yesterday was the first Sunday in 9 months in which I did not preach. My body clock still woke me up at 4:30am as if I were home and going to preach. Fortunately I was able to go back to sleep for a while.

-Being a visitor is always an enlightening experience. It always reminds me of some things we need to do better so that our visitors have a better first experience. I made some notes of things to work on when I get home.

-The church we attended was good. I enjoyed the music, I was not a big fan of the theatre type seating, it felt to confining for me. They did an outstanding job of greeting and training their people to be very friendly as you entered. They have some real parking and traffic challenges that makes me appreciate our location.

-The focus on this Sunday was on marriage and there was a guest preacher. It was very good and I especially liked a couple of the illustrations that were used. They may, or may not, show up in a sermon back home in the future.

-I thought a lot about what was happening back home and prayed for the service and everyone involved.

-This was my first Sunday away from this church, so I was a little nervous wondering if I had all bases covered in my absence.

-It was nice to sit by my wife in worship. That is a rare occurrence for us.

-I did a reasonable job of not muttering during the service. I always have to fight the urge of critiquing when I am visiting another church. Not being critical, just observing and commenting. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing, but it is a thing for me.

-The biggest moment of realizing I was on vacation is that when the service was finished my wife and I could just walk out and go on about our day. There was no duties to perform and I didn’t need to check to see if doors were locked and lights turned off. I think that is when my vacation really started.

I have a few more days away and I am trying to not mentally shift back into preparation mode until I turn my vehicle toward home. Here’s hoping you find some time to reflect and relax today. Excuse me but I believe a nap is coming on.

Dennis

Reflecting on yesterday is an enjoyable exercise today. Yesterday was a good day. Many things went into it being such a good day. Some of the reasons are …

-The spirit in our time of worship was outstanding. This was not because everything went smoothly, there were many glitches, but none of them negatively impacted the atmosphere.

-I was honored to be able to introduce a newborn baby, just 8 days old, to the congregation. It is one of those meaningful moments given the back story of the baby’s birth and how long this couple prayed to have a child. It was fun and very moving. And hey, it is church growth also.

-There were a couple of first time attenders. Both of whom were invited by people in the church. They didn’t just show up, they didn’t come because of an ad, an event or because of our marketing. They came because a friend invited them. I love when that happens.

-We had a very meaningful time of prayer in the service and people are beginning to courageously open up about needs in their life.

-We had a great spontaneous time of several people sharing testimonies of God’s faithfulness in their life. That was awesome!

-People seemed very engaged during the sermon and several responded to the call to be “devoted” followers. To move beyond being curious or interested and be devoted to Christ and to live so that their actions demonstrate this devotion.

-Both of the small groups that met last night had some great times of sharing and discussion. The group that meets at our house was once again inspired to not only do our study time but to hang around until we had solved some major situations that our world is facing. I love this group.

-More supplies came for the back to school backpack project that we are participating for families in our community. I love the generosity of our people.

-A wonderful young lady in our church became engaged to a great young man yesterday. We are rejoicing with them.

-We had some big sound problems yesterday and we won’t be able to do a lot about the issues that created the problems until we are able to replace a lot of our sound system. The good news is that we are not allowing that to be an excuse to do things poorly in worship. I love the attitude of our people.

-My wife and I are going to be able to get away for a few days of vacation soon and we will celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary while we are away. We are looking forward to some days of relaxing and refreshing. How great is it that after 39 years we still love to spend time together.

Here’s hoping that you have some great things to reflect on this Monday. Thanks for glancing at this post, I know you are busy and have many things clamoring for your attention. For you to take a few moments and read my musings means a lot to me.

Dennis

I am struggling with my musings this morning. Fatigue seems to have taken control of my mind. There were several nights in the past week where I had trouble sleeping through the night. Part of the reason is many prayer burdens. I often awoke during the night with people and situations on my mind and heart. That is a positive in most ways, the only negative is that after several nights like this my mind begins to get a little foggy. This morning is one of those foggy mornings.

The above paragraph is somewhat of a disclaimer for whatever I may post this morning. Read further at your own risk.

-We had a great praise this weekend with the birth of a beautiful baby to a wonderful couple in our church.

-Our small group went above and beyond when we met last night. We had some very good discussion on what we were studying and then we veered away to solve most of the world’s problems. I have no idea how we ended up talking about some of the topics we discussed but it was entertaining. Love this group of people.

-We had some new people return for a second time. That is always encouraging when someone comes back after a first visit. We must be doing some things right.

-I realized that the message for yesterday needs to be expanded to one more week. When preparing it I thought it was going to be a “stand alone” message, but during our worship and in some discussions after the service I believe I need to go one more time.

-It was hard work to get the congregation engaged yesterday. That happens, the good news is that it has been awhile since it felt that way. I love how engaged my church usually is during the sermon.

-Our attendance was reasonable for the last Sunday in July.

-Yesterday was the 6 month mark for me with this church. Wow, a lot has transpired in 6 months. Most of it has been positive. There are always a lot of adjustments in any move. No matter how prepared you feel you are for a move it is still a difficult time, especially when leaving a church where you were for 8+ years. The congregation has done a nice job of welcoming us and allowing us to adjust.

-I am planning a new message series that will begin in September. I am not real patient when working on a series of messages. I am always tempted to jump into it early. This time I am determined to not jump too early and to just keep studying, working and praying for this one. We will see if I can hold off.

-Part of yesterday’s message was the progression from being curious, to being interested to being devoted to following Christ. We must recognize where we are and keep moving forward. We need to move beyond just defining where we currently are to living in such a way that our life is a description of following Christ. (Sorry that is a rather vague picture isn’t it? Hey, I warned you when this post started that I am foggy this morning.)

I am excited for the future and I must make sure as I evaluate individual days that I don’t forget the big picture. Yesterday was positive toward the big picture even if the day by itself was not outstanding.

Here’s hoping you are clear, rather than foggy, as you reflect and evaluate on this Monday morning.

Dennis

My musings, and reflections, this morning involve the weekend at church and having 3 grandkids staying with us last week as well. I mentioned last Monday that we had the grandkids with us, but we took them back to their parents on Friday. So today I am musing and reflecting on that experience as well as the ministry from this past weekend.

Our church had a campout on the church grounds on Saturday night. We had a campfire, with s’mores, talked and got to know people much better (we have only been here 6 months so getting to know people better is a common theme), watched a movie together outdoors on a large screen and on Sunday morning we had breakfast together and then we had our Sunday morning worship outdoors.

-I didn’t know what to expect from this event. It was very enjoyable and I really got to know many people better.

-We have great laypeople who love to serve and work for the, Lord, the church and its people. I love serving with these people.

-We had a great mix of people participating in the events on Saturday evening, ranging in age from 4 months to 86 years old and most everything in between. (In case you are wondering I was one of the “in betweens”)

-There is something special about disrupting the norm that gets people mixed in with some people they don’t normally spend a lot of time around. That is a very cool thing. Now to figure out how to do a few more things throughout the year that are just disruptive enough to mix us up without creating chaos.

-An outdoor service has many things that can go wrong. Weather – ours was nearly perfect for late July in the Midwest. Sound – trying to use some type of portable sound system while not being able to control your acoustics is challenging. Our sound worked okay, and I will take okay in an outdoor setting. Sometimes the sound of other stuff outside is a problem, we were fortunate that we had almost no competing noise on Sunday. Visual distractions – being outside certainly lends itself to having wondering minds. When you are looking at trees, or critters, or other people’s reactions to critters it can be difficult to stay focused. Our people did well with this and there was very little obvious zoning out. Seating – using lawn chairs and chairs from your church can certainly create less than ideal seating. Most people seemed to do fine with seating and we didn’t have anyone who chose to seat themselves way away from the group. For all of the things that can go wrong very few of them factored into our service.

-We had visitors who live in our community even with an outdoor service. That was encouraging.

-We had a very good spirit during out time of worship. That is not always the norm with outdoor services.

-People were very engaged in the message and there was some great response to the challenge in the message.

As for musing about the grandkids …
-The house was very quiet this weekend.

-I, and my wife, were very tired this weekend.

-I love the awe and joy with which 2, 4 and 7 year olds see everything in life. I need to recapture some of that each day. My guess is that you need some of that as well.

-I loved having the grandkids with us. It has even more meaning to it these days because we have 5 grandkids that are in Africa. They, and their parents, are serving as missionaries and we have not been able to hug them in over a year. So having the other grandkids visit, for a whole week, and getting multiple hugs per day was very special. I am getting rather emotional as I am typing this, so it must be time to sign off.

How was your Sunday? Here’s hoping your musings are positive this morning.

Dennis

This Monday morning is definitely different that most because we have 3 of our grandkids staying with us. We are taking care of them for a week while their Mom and Dad go to a conference. Today is the third morning that I had the joy of waking up and peeking in on sleeping grandkids. This is a great start to a Monday morning. Even better was the hugs as they got up and having the two year old cuddle with me in the recliner for about 20 minutes. Having the grands here means my Monday time of reflecting is most definitely different.

-We had a very good day at our church yesterday. The spirit in the worship service was very good and the people were very engaged throughout the whole service. The attendance was great and there was some great evidence of people growing in their walk with Christ.

-We remembered and paid tribute to 3 of our church family who left this place for their heavenly home within the past couple of years. It was a moving moment as their families stood to receive a memorial recognition and the church family remembered. For me the remembering is through the stories and memories of others as all of them were already gone when I came here to pastor. Part of the remembrance was me asking the congregation who was standing in the gaps that these three have left in our fellowship.

-It was fun having our grandkids attend church with us and I viewed how we do things in our children’s area in a different light. I love our children’s workers and their love for the children who attend. I love that they prepare and anticipate the children’s arrival. I did however look at a few things differently and believe we can do some things even better.

-Jody (my wife for those of you who may be new to my blog) and I enjoyed having a young couple who are early in their ministry preparation attend and come to our house for lunch. We are going to do some coaching with them and it was awesome to hear their stories and their passion for Christ. I am really looking forward to watching God work in them and through them.

-The message seemed to go well and as I mentioned earlier the congregation was very engaged. Even more encouraging to me was to hear a few people share what spoke to them from God’s Word on Sunday.

-Our small group went very well, our attendance was small again but we had a new person attend and the sharing was great. I love seeing people interact and really fellowship and to see them get to know each other better. Leading small groups is a great way to watch and facilitate real fellowship and growth.
-Yesterday was exhausting, but I have a hunch that has more to do with the 3 little ones staying with us than anything else. But it is a fun and precious (Yes I just used the word precious) tired.

-My wife is a rockstar. Yesterday morning she got 3 grandkids ready for church and had them here early. She did this for years when our kids were young and she hasn’t lost her touch. She did that while still preparing to have another family over for lunch after church.

-I loved watching much of the World Cup championship match yesterday. You have to admire the passion and energy that the players, and fans, displayed. All of that is for a championship in a sport. What are we doing for Christ? Our service to Christ impacts eternity, not just a single championship.

How is your Monday morning? What did you take away from your Sunday experiences? Here’s hoping you take the opportunity sometime today to reflect and rejoice.

Dennis

My reflecting this Monday morning is all over the place. Thoughts are bouncing from yesterday’s events, to my kids/grandkids in Africa, to next steps at the church, to trying to get away for some vacation time and many things in between. This scattered thinking is making my Monday morning routine of reflecting and evaluating the happenings from Sunday difficult. You have been warned that these musings may bounce around a bit. Read on at your own risk.

-We heard a couple of great praises from testimonies in our worship service. One involved God’s faithfulness and powerful presence during a difficult experience and one involved a physical answer to prayer from a long time problem. I love hearing testimonies of what God is up to in people’s lives. We don’t provide enough avenues for this to take place. Need to work on that one.

-The congregation seemed very engaged in the message yesterday. That is actually surprising to me because I felt like my words were not as clear as I had envisioned. Just another example of God doing his thing in spite of me. That probably happens more often than I am even aware. For that we can all say “thank you Jesus”. (Or at least those who hear me preach often should be saying it.)

-Our attendance was much higher than anticipated for a holiday weekend. Not complaining, just observing and rejoicing over the growth that God is creating.
-While our morning worship attendance was higher than expected our small group attendance was lower than expected. We had some very good discussion and God is obviously speaking into the life of many in the group in powerful ways. The hearing of individual’s discoveries from God’s Word and the great questions they are working through is very exciting.

-The area where my kids and grandkids are serving as missionaries continues to have some scary stuff happening. I trust God and believe they are right where he wants them to be at this time. As a dad and grandpa I still worry a bit. It certainly makes for more intensity in my prayer times.

-I love the wisdom of those who have followed Christ for many years and I ache as I see some of them struggling physically and emotionally with changes in their lives. It is on their shoulders that we are standing. Let us never forget or take that for granted.

-I am humbled when I know someone is really praying for me and my ministry.

-I keep seeing signs that God is up to something really special in our church and community. Lord help me not to get the way, instead I want to be in the flow of your movement. Lord help me to see your plans and to courageously serve in them.

So how is your Monday reflecting going? What did you learn yesterday? Where are you headed this week? Here’s hoping you are sensing and seeing God’s hand in your life and service.

Dennis