Tri-State Fellowship

by

Elder Board Math

My father was a math wizard and worked as a bookkeeper. He was constantly running some figures through his head, and I suppose I picked up a bit of that from just living with him.

For some reason while preparing the agenda for yesterday’s monthly Board of Elders meeting, I got to thinking about how many of these and other special elder meetings I have attended since coming to Tri-State Fellowship in 1994. The number is about 245. To put it into more manageable terms, I have spent 8 months of my life attending TSF Board meetings!

And then, on the way home, I started to calculate how many miles of driving I’ve done simply to attend these meetings. That number is in excess of 6,100 miles – which is like driving to El Salvador and back.

But you might say to me, “Randy, that is your job; stop complaining!”

Well, first of all, I’m not complaining. I’ve had the opportunity to work with wonderful men who want to serve God.

And secondly, I’m not writing this to talk about myself, but rather to put the service of someone else into perspective – Tim Thorpe.

Tim joined the Elder Board during my first year in Maryland, and has been a part of it ever since. And in that he is essentially my neighbor – who lives the same distance from church as do I – Tim has been to nearly as many meetings and driven as many miles. And his rewards are not here, but over there!

Tim is going to take a leave of absence from the Board of Elders. Do you think he has earned it? All of you who know him know that he goes through life about 100 miles per hour. The guy has earned a break! But we know he’ll be back again before too awfully long.

Tim Thorpe stories abound. Here is one: In his first year as an elder, Tim did what most of the other elders did that year – speak on a Sunday morning. This was a new experience for him! I have no memory of what he actually talked about, but I remember the coke can. He walked up front (at Northern Middle School – before our building was completed) with a coke can in this hand, and never let go – gesturing with it for 30-40 minutes without realizing he had it. During the sermon he told the story of how he was riding his bicycle one day near Interstate 70, and how he was deep, deep in thought that day. It was a mile or so down the Interstate when it dawned on him that he had absent-mindedly gone right up the ramp and onto the shoulder without even realizing it!

There is only one Tim Thorpe in the world! And I am thankful for his years of service and friendship.

by

Pray for THAT guy??

Well, it is a new year with the new blog, so, might as well start if off with a bang and with a topic of emotion, if not controversy! This is probably why people who grow up in New Jersey shouldn’t grow up to be pastors!

In church Sunday, an illustration was used of praying for and supporting President Obama. The point of the reference was not to necessarily get this specific application as an action step, but to make an illustration that would cause the listener to stretch emotionally. The speaker presented it in terms of “if Obama claims to be your brother in Christ, then you need to support him in prayer, and so forth …”  Is that really true? How do we evaluate that?

Well, before it was out of his mouth fully, I was already hung up on the “if” portion. I’ll confess that I don’t see the POTUS very much as my brother in Christ, apart from the most general sense of those words. Yes, he has called Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior. And I guess I believe he really does espouse the Christian faith and is not a closet Muslim, though he has done and said enough things to fuel the doubters on that subject. And the Christian connection he had in the years leading up to his public ascendancy is one that we would not find biblically accurate. It was in a culture and vein of thought heavily endowed with a brand of “liberation theology” – which redefines the Gospel away from the spiritual issues of the blood payment of Christ as the atonement for sin, to seeing the work of Christ as an example to follow of liberating oppressed peoples from establishment power systems. (One can easily see how this category of biblical worldview would energize a left-wing activism.)

HOWEVER … the question is not ultimately one of prayer support by determining if he is truly a Christian brother or not. After all, we know that the world is full of people who carry the Christian label who do not really have a life changed by the Gospel. Jesus said there would be many like this – people who don’t really embrace the Gospel in a way of life-giving change.

The reason to pray for President Obama is because the Scriptures say to pray for all people in authority.  (1 Timothy 2:1-3 … “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior.”) And I remind you that Paul wrote those words while under the heavy hand of a persecuting Roman government. The thought here is that our prayers for civil authority may work toward an establishment of peace for the sake of the Gospel and its proclamation … that as a peaceful civil society succeeds, so does the context for the work of the Church and the spread of the Word.

Some years ago, at the height of controversy in the Clinton administration, I referenced this passage and prayed for the President. A person in the church thought this was dreadful and went to the Elders with a complaint on the issue – about the pastor praying for an avowed abortion-rights person, etc., etc.  Of course, it was a simple matter to point out that praying for the President is a clear application of the words to Timothy.

So, we may pray for and support civil leaders in this way, while also NOT supporting their policies and even working for the success of alternative views. We may pray for their ultimate success (as in the terms above) while also accepting the reality that they do not hold to our values – which we may in turn give energy to through our efforts. So, for example, we may pray for the Administration to honor God on the issues of the value of human life, yet understand that they see it differently than the Scriptures, and so our energies are thrown toward what can be done through agencies like the Hagerstown Area Pregnancy Center. When the Romans threw away unwanted babies in the first century, it was the Christian community who went around and took them and gave them life. And they were ultimately respected for this work.

A difference between the Roman Empire and now is that there was no legal and practical means for protest or political action then. However, standing in opposition publically is a cherished right of the system of governance that we have, and I do not believe it is wrong for a Christian to participate appropriately – to call publically for a redress of grievances and speak to the decay of historic values and foundations. As many of you know, I have done this in a very public way.

Yet in it all, we need to remember that our primary mission in life personally, and in life together as a church, is to be God’s ambassadors as reconciling agents of the Kingdom to a lost world (2 Corinthians 5). Some may have a calling by God to serve in the systems of this world, but we are primarily citizens of another, eternal Kingdom and warriors in that cosmic conflict. I can honestly say that I have, in this season of my life, that calling to serve for a time in a political capacity. It found me; I did not seek it. I will tell you that honestly, I don’t really like it that much and am disappointed that even in the Conservative movement, there are too many who do not live exemplary lives and walk by the values they publically espouse. This is very sad.

So, I will pray for the President and all those in authority – which of course include many with whom I have much in agreement. My goal – our goal – is to see this country thrive … yet we know that there are historic values that have made this place exceptional in history. That exceptionalism is not because we are better as a people, but because there has never been another culture with the same “stew” of freedom and opportunity – for advances on all fronts, including the spread of the Gospel – as has been facilitated by the God-blessed ideals of those founders some 200+ years ago.

by

Plans for Reading the Bible in the New Year

Every year, Christians make plans to read through the Bible. It is a worthy goal, but like so many worthy things, the disciplined execution of such is the problem!

Let me direct your attention to an incredible new tool to assist and facilitate your Bible reading resolution for the New Year. It is on the following web site:

http://www.youversion.com/about/reading-plans

There are literally hundreds of reading plans from which you may choose, and then load to whatever device you have … in whatever way you’d like to receive it.

Let me give you just two examples of reading plans:

Example 1 – The Essential 100 » 100 days

The Essential 100 Challenge (E100) helps you get an overview of the Bible… without getting bogged down. The Plan guides you through 50 Old Testament passages and 50 New Testament passages — The Essential 100 — so you can see the big picture of God’s Word, and form a daily Bible reading habit in the process. E100 is an achievable way to have a “through the Bible” experience; it’s the Bible reading plan people love to complete.

Example 2 – Historical » 1 Year

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to read the Old Testament in ancient Israel? Or, the New Testament as the books were written? In this plan, the order of the Old Testament readings is very similar to Israel’s Hebrew Bible, progressing from Law to Prophets to Writings. The New Testament ordering is based upon research regarding the order in which the books were authored. Although this research is not conclusive, it may offer helpful insights to your Bible reading.

There are many other incredible features on this web page … so check it out. Actually, Eric is using some of the technological elements in his Wednesday night discipleship work with the teens.

by

When Are You (Not?) Helping?

Our church staff meeting today featured an hour or more discussion on the issue of benevolence and helping people in need… and beyond that, what role to play with various agencies in town. There is not a clear answer, and I have struggled with this over my 30 years as a pastor.

The difficulty involves knowing when someone has a true and genuine need, and if by helping with the immediate need, are you facilitating a destructive pattern of life and continuing a culture of dependency?

A most difficult call is when someone connects with the church (either by a phone call or drop in visit) seeking financial assistance for what is often a convoluted story. There is no doubt that many of these situations involve people working over a list of churches with the same story – going even from town to town doing such as a way of life.

When I first came to Hagerstown, I was hit by a guy who some months before hit me with the same wild story at my previous church in New Jersey! When I confronted him on this, I got quite a vile change of tone and response. One of the other staff guys today talked about being at a McDonald’s this summer and hearing the guy in the next both calling one church after another with a story about needing a place to stay. When he got a “winner” he put them on hold (with the pretext of going to the bathroom) in order to call the hotel they were willing to put him it – to see if there was wireless internet for his computer!

Our general policy, with only occasional exception, is that we will only help people who either attend TSF or are connected to people in TSF. It is difficult to evaluate situations, but we REALLY do wish to help people who have a genuine need – and we are able to do so in many situations with people we know.

Another category of this discussion involves partnership with various agencies in the community that work to assist the poor and needy. Most of these do not have a spiritual component – which is not necessarily a disqualifying factor for us. We gladly work with Holly Place – for example. Evangelical churches in recent decades have not tended to put significant resources toward such endeavors – believing them to be outside the spiritual mission of the church. Additionally, for many, knowledge remains that in previous generations, social work activity ended poorly for many denominations with the Gospel being redefined as that social work, rather than the cross work of redemption for sin.

We have much room to grow missionally (the word we use to describe involvement outside the walls of the church and the church family). We want to do more and intend to lead in such directions. Yet we want to do this in a way that is helpful – to the agencies, to those receiving the aid, and to those serving in such endeavors.

I welcome any discussion on this – and definitive answers also!


by

Animal Ambiance

So, my attempt at ambiance went all astray! “Animals never do what you want them to when you want them to,” said Arnold Horst. He should know – after years of farming and raising every kind of critter.

If you were not at church Sunday morning, I called the kids up front (as I did 6 years ago) and read them a story I had written about “Two Boys in Bethlehem.” To create a little bit of a stable/barn type of feel, I brought in a crate with two chickens and a rooster from my “farm.”

I thought sure that the rooster would give me at least a couple of crows – after all, he does it about every 30 seconds all day long, and even screams through half the night! But, in church, he was as quiet as a church mouse.

My Jack Russell Terrier is an incredible singer – simply amazing. She even seems to be trying to stay on pitch. I’ve thought to put her in our summer picnic talent show, but I know what would happen – she’d get the same stage fright the rooster had and clam up!

Maybe I should give up on the animals completely, but I’m not sure I’ve had a lot of success either with getting people to do what I want them to do when I want them to do it!

by

Christmas Music at TSF 2011

We had a great Sunday morning service this past week, with a variety of musical special presentations and teaching segments.

Luke Greffen and Renee Peterson put together a terrific worship team with a lot of special effects and extra instruments for accompaniment.

Each of the four lead singers – Luke, Renee, Aaron Buchman, and Laura Holtzman – took a turn as the lead voice for a special presentation song.

A huge highlight of the program was Dom Palmer and a dance team that he put together. The energy of it was fabulous, and the athleticism and contortions by these young adults defy belief! Dom has been using a room in the church on Sunday nights to teach and choreograph. It is amazing to see!

We also enjoyed a group of the children presenting three songs. Led by Fran Shay, this Kids Bridge class put on a great vocal display. Hopefully even more children will want to be a part of this in preparation for the Easter season.

No, it is not exactly the old “Christmas Show” that we have done often in the past. Those things are huge commitments of time and resources!!!  But it was a very productive morning. Thanks to all who participated and to ALL the people who attended! It was great to have to bring in extra chairs!