The Healing Process

As many of you know, I had hernia surgery almost 3 weeks ago. I have to say that I've never had surgery before and while I've had cuts and sprained ankles, the healing process for this hernia repair has been very different.

For the first few days, I kept Ice on the incision and was very diligent about my pain medication. It was difficult to sit up, get out of bed or do anything that required the use of my stomach muscles. As time progressed I started to get more mobility, less pain, more flexibility and more options for clothing. However, now that it's been almost 3 weeks I've entered into another stage of the healing process. I no longer have intense pain but rather I experience annoying discomfort. The scar is starting to set in and the stitches are dissolving. There's still a little swelling but for the most part I'm feeling pretty good . . . Until . . . I move just right or my pants rub on the incision. That's when I feel a small amount of pain but mostly I feel just an annoying discomfort.

Our church has experienced a fair amount of pain over the past 4-5 months. We've had about 50+ people decide to leave the church. We've see a dip in giving by about 32% and it's been very painful. In fact it's been much like the first week or so after my surgery. Not sure how to stand, not sure where to turn, not sure how much to say or to whom. However, I believe that the healing process has taken place at The Carpenter's Church. The major pain seems to have subsided but the annoying discomfort still exists. Every time we hear about someone who has decided to hide behind an e-mail and blast our leadership or someone comes in and meets with one of our pastors to voice their "concerns" about the the church the pain comes back and you sense this annoying discomfort.

I truly believe that God has allowed this pain and even the annoying discomfort to build up our leadership, solidify our vision and prepare our church for the massive undertaking of reaching Northampton County for Christ. I believe that our church is on the edge of something great. If we can endure the pain and the annoying discomfort long enough, the true healing will take place and the Great Physician will lead us on the next leg of our journey.

Spiritual Impotence

OK, I know I already posted today but I came across Perry Noble's Blog entry and I had to link to it. Perry is the pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, S.C. What he has to say to Pastors and church leaders is incredible.

Here's a bit of what Perry had to say:

The church has ALL that it needs…an empty tomb, the Bible, the Holy Spirit…and combine those with the technology that none of the Apostles had and–DANG–we should be making noise!

BUT the stats on the church in America are sobering. Over 80% have hit their max and are now declining. Around 3,500 churches every year are shutting down…and over 80% of church plants fail within the first three years. NOW putting this into business terms…if a business operated like this then it would go BANKRUPT! Is that where the church is heading?

Check it out the entire blog entry by clicking here.

For those of you who call The Carpenter's Church your church home, let's grab the vision, put passion behind our actions and reach Northampton County for Christ.

Hang on, it's going to be an awesome trip!!!!!!!!

Why So Complicated?

Last week I found myself so busy that I feel like I hardly accomplished anything. Have you ever had weeks like that? You work hard all week, you're busy everyday but when you reflect back on the week you wonder where the time went and why you didn't accomplish much as all. Between meetings, taking kids here and there, meetings, services, rehearsals, meetings, small group and prep for the weekend, I felt like I was really busy but didn't go anywhere.

Why do we fill our schedules so much and allow life to become so complicated? I think we bring it on ourselves because we don't make "life" the priority. Instead we make everything else a priority because we think it will give us the "life" we want.

Isn't that the way our Christian walk is as well? We fill our life with so many "Religious Activities" in hopes that we will feel closer to God or feel better about ourselves when all God really wants us to do is to simply Love God and Love Others. I met with some friends on Friday night and we talked about this very issues. We (humans) tend to complicate everything from grocery trips to spiritual relationships and everything in between. When we allow our lives to become complicated it's very difficult to see truth from fiction and to see God at all.

John 17:3 says, "And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth."

"Life", Eternal Life is knowing God. So let's keep the Main Thing the Main Thing. That is, let's focus on Knowing God and Loving Others and everything else will fall into place.

I know this is basic stuff. It's simple but not-so-easy to do. However, what would our church, our families, our neighborhoods, our communities and our world look like if Christ Followers across the planet decided to focus on Knowing God and Loving Others?

Just a Thought!

Are We Ready To Look Foolish?

Well, I finally finished Mark Batterson's book, "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day" and I must say that it is an awesome read. It's taken me a few weeks to get through it because I'm reading several books at the same time (not the best idea by the way).

The last nugget that I got from the book is that we as leaders and Christ Followers in general, need to be more concerned about what God thinks than what anyone else on the planet thinks. Too often we get concerned about what "our friends" or even "other believers" think of what God is telling us to do. So, we short circuit God's ideas or plans for us and modify them to make things more palatable for those around us.

In Mark's Book he reminds us that if we are going to do great things for and with our great God, we are going to look foolish to those around us . . . and that's OK. We're reminded of how foolish Noah looked building an ark in the middle of the desert. How foolish did the Israelites look as they marched around Jericho blowing trumpets? How foolish did David look as he attacked Goliath with a slingshot? How foolish did the wise men look as they followed a star? How foolish did Peter look as he stepped out of the boat in the middle of a lake? And how foolish did Jesus look as He hung half-naked on a cross?

I don't know about you, but I'd rather look foolish and be doing exactly what God is calling me to do than to try and look good for those around me and allow God's plans to be sidetracked.

Are you with me? Are we ready to expose Jesus to our community . . . even if we look foolish in the process?

Start by inviting someone to church this weekend for the second week of 'til Death. We've got a couple of surprises in store. You won't want to miss it.

Expect Great Things

I've been reading a lot lately about the power of Prayer. I have to be honest, I've never been a real consistent "Prayer Warrior". It's an area of my spiritual walk that I constantly have to work on. Now don't get me wrong, I talk with God on a daily basis but I've never been good at praying very specific prayers on a consistent basis and watching what God does.

Last week we had our staff and leadership team pray some very specific prayers for the launch of our new message series, 'til Death. It was awesome to see God work in some big ways this past weekend.

We had 4 people make decisions for Christ, we had the largest attendance of the year and the largest offering in 11 weeks. God heard our specific prayers and answered them in a big way.

It was very convicting for me. How many times have I missed opportunities because I didn't pray consistent, specific prayers with the expectation that our Great God was going to do Great things?

I want to encourage you to pray big prayers with me, expect our big God to do big things and then step forward with Him as we watch and experience all He has in store for us.

Sink or Sit?

I was reading today, the story of Peter walking on the water toward Jesus. I've read this story many times and I've always looked at it from a perspective of Peter's Lack of Faith. I mean if only Peter had just kept his eyes on Jesus he would have been OK.

However, today I saw it from a different perspective. Peter was the only disciple willing to get out of the boat and walk toward Jesus. Yes, maybe his faith wavered a bit, but he had enough faith to get out of the boat and make steps toward Christ. That's more than we can say for the rest of the disciples in the boat that night.

We've been going through a lot of "issues" at our church and often times I'll say, "I believe we're going in the right direction." However, in the quietness of my head, I ask, "Am I really sure this is right." Everything I'm reading and learning and everything I'm hearing from God says we are on the right track but attendance is down, giving is down and it forces me to question.

As I looked at Peter today, I realized that not only do we have to keep our eyes on Jesus but we have to be willing to take the hard steps. We have to be willing to step out of our comfort zones, into the unknown and do what God is calling us to do. No matter what others may say or what the outcome may be.

I believe that God is calling The Carpenter's Church to reach the Lehigh Valley for Christ. While we may have our "sinking moments", I'd rather sink, as we take steps toward Christ, then to just sit in the boat and do nothing.

Can You Feel It?

I'm getting my mobility back, have drastically cut back on the Vicodin requirements and seem to be progressing well.

I was talking with Art today. (Art is one of our Elders and he is responsible for our drama ministry) He was giving me the update on the video shoot from last night.

As many of you know we are launching our new message series this weekend called, 'Til Death. It's a marriage and relationship series and it's going to be amazing. Last night we shot one of the sit-com videos that will air during this series. It killed me not to be able to be at the shoot but I understand that it went really well and Clint and Jesse did a great job. (Way to go guys!)

I also received this weeks copy of the Key Newspaper and opened up the front page and . . . BOOM . . . there was the ad for 'Til Death. It looks awesome! I hope to see the ad in the US Newspaper tomorrow as well. I really believe that God is going to use this new series in a big way. I think we're going to see God move in our community and our church like never before.

I can feel the excitement; Can You?

I'm Not Going To Settle

The past few days have been very different for me. I've spent a lot of time laying down, ice pack on and when I do get up and move it's very ssssslllllllooooooowwwwww! I never realized how much we use our stomach muscles. Try sitting down, getting up, getting in and/or out of bed, brushing your teeth, or doing much of anything without your stomach muscles. Trust me it's very heard.

Before I had my surgery, I spoke with a lot of people about the procedure and the recovery process. Everyone I spoke with said that I would not want to move around much but they also said the more I do get up and walk around the faster the recover will be. In fact the papers that I received from the doctor indicated that I should be up and walking around 3-4 times per day. As I mentioned the other day, with in an hour or so of the surgery, the nurses had me up and walking around.

I must say that when I'm laying on the couch, reclined back, ice pack on, blanket on, T.V. and/or Computer on . . . I feel pretty good. I don't really feel like moving much at all. When I do move it hurts. it's difficult, it's slow, I feel like an old man and it's not fun at all. However, I know that if I'm going to get from feeling "pretty good" to feeling great, I need to go through the difficult, slow, not fun process.

Isn't that the way we can be with God sometimes. We settle for "pretty good" when we could have the "great" things that God really has in store for us. However, in order to experience the Great Things of God, we may need to go through the difficult, slow, not-so-fun process that helps us get from "pretty good" to "Great." We sit in church, go to work, enjoy our family, watch some shows and experience a "pretty good" life. However, if we'd step up and step out and really pursue God, we could have the "great" life that God promises.

I was reading Mark Batterson's Book, "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day" and he was talking about this same concept. We settle for God's Goodness when we could have God's Greatness but too often we are not willing to go through the pain, discomfort, not-so-fun process of following God.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to settle for "pretty good" when I could have "Great." Even if it is uncomfortable.

Vicodin Is My Friend

Well, It's been a unique day.

It all started at 10:45am as I checked in to the Ambulatory Surgical Center at St. Luke's in Bethlehem. Within minutes, I was in the "prep" room, getting vitals and being informed as to what will be happening. By noon I was laying on the gurney, I.V. inserted, hair net in place, little hospital booties on my feet and a very small gown wrapped around me. About 12:30 I received an injection in the I.V. to help me "relax"as they wheeled me into the O.R. Then . . . I woke up about an hour later. I have no clue what took place during that hour but I was told that all went well.

After a couple of hours in recovery, 2 pieces of toast, some coffee and a very successful trip to the little boys room, I was told I could go home.

I've just completed a very long awaited bowl of chicken soup and will spend the next 48 hours or so with some new found friends. . . Vicodin and Ice Packs.

Thank you all for your prayers and I'll keep you posted over the weekend.

I'm Getting Old!

I've come to the conclusion that I'm getting older and there's nothing I can do about it.

I was on the phone the other day with a woman from our church. She is considering taking part in a Good Friday drama we are planning. I told her that I heard she did drama when she was in high school. She said, "Well, yes I did, but that was a long time ago." I proceeded to ask a question that I know is not politically correct but I asked her when she graduated from high school. (You see it's not politically correct because I could quickly calculate her age) She answered me and told me that she graduated way back in 1996. I responded with a laugh and said, "That's not a long time ago. I graduated in 1985 and . . . That's a Long Time Ago."

Tomorrow is a big day for me. My oldest daughter (Emily, 11 years old) is going on her first Youth Trip this weekend. The student ministry of Carpenter's is going on their "Winter Blast" trip and she is going to be with over 40 students from our church, 2 hours away from home, for 2 days, without Mom and Dad. Can you feel my pain? Can you see my sadness? It was only yesterday that I was rocking her to sleep in my arms. Today, she doesn't fit in my arms.

In addition to Emily being away, tomorrow I'm having Hernia Surgery. I've never had surgery of any type. I've never had an I.V. I've never been put to sleep and I've never had days of recovery from any procedure. So, I'm very nervous about tomorrow. From what I understand they are going make an incision and plug and patch me with a mesh plug and patching material. I don't know how things will go but I do know that God is in control. Check back on Friday or Saturday and I'll post some details and let you know how I'm doing.

Needless to say, with my kids growing up and my body slowing down, I'm realizing that I'm getting older and there's nothing I can do about it. My only saving grace is that I believe God has some big things in store for me yet. . . or at least that's my thoughts.

On The Edge . . .

I've never been rock climbing; I've never stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon; I've never been to the top of he Empire State Building; And I've never had any desire to go bungee jumping. However, I believe I am on the Edge of something great and I'm not sure what will happen as I jump.

The Carpenter's has gone through some major changes in the past few months. Some have been very painful and others have been very helpful. God has used them all to strengthen our leadership and prepare us for something amazing. As we stand on the edge of what God has in store for us, I believe He is going to give us a little push and allow us to be totally amazed at what He does through us and in our community.

Stay tuned. . . it's going to get exciting.