SURGE in Review: 6/27/2012

It was great to be back with all the AWESOME Connection Youth Ministry students last night at LifeQuest.  We started the night with a little review of my sabbatical with a race to dig some facts out of my blog.  Let's see how well you can do!


What are the animals that I crossed paths with?

How many states did I stay in?

About how many fish did I catch on the Norfork river?

What were some of the books that I read on my trip?

After this crazy whirlwind of wifi frenzy, we combined with the G-Force Children's Ministry for some worship.  We sang "Your Grace is Enough", "I Lift My Eyes Up", "The Stand", and finished with "Jesus Paid It All".

After the worship we dug into the first week of the series "Ummmm...Can I try that again?"  There are so many instances in Scripture that talk about God giving people a second chance.  Last night we talked about Jonah and his deliberate disobedience to God.  God did some pretty crazy things to get Jonah's attention.  We talked about a couple specific things.

1. When Jonah was going through the storm on the boat he was asleep.  It was the other people on the boat being affected by the storm that had to wake Jonah up from his sleep.  Sometimes there are people in our lives who are "asleep" at life and because of their disobedience to God have caused all kinds of storms yet they don't even realize it.  Is there anyone in your life who needs to be "awoken"?

2. Every day we are bombarded with decisions.  There are certain decisions that will either draw us closer to God or further from him.  Such as: Do we hit the snooze button in the morning or do we open up our Scriptures?  Do we do our best in everything at work or school as if we are working for Christ himself or do we do what is easy?  Do we sit with the group at lunch who is known for picking on people or telling bad jokes or do we sit with the lonely kid who looks like they are neglected at home?  Do we honor and obey our parents or do we decide that we have enough wisdom to make it on our own?  Do we take that time right before bed to talk with God or do we use that time to text our friends?

Luckily Jonah found himself in the middle of some vomit.  This would be a turn off to most people but I guarantee vomit looks awful good when the choice is that or the grave.

The 5 Star Church

I am currently rereading The Five Star Church: Serving God and His People With Excellence by Stan Toler and Alan Nelson.  The first time I read this I was still in college so I am hoping it will bring a fresh perspective back to ministry since I've been in about 11 years now.  One of the first quotes that caught me right off the bat came in the first chapter.

The quote comes in a fictional dialogue between Gary, a church pastor, and Jeff, the manager of a 5 star hotel.  Jeff tells Gary:

"It kills me to see how hard we work to serve people in order to turn a profit, and how mediocre most churches are when their stakes are so much higher in the eternal scheme of things."

So my question is...is there a double standard?  Do we put more of an emphasis on the appearance of our workplaces and homes when compared to the appearance of the local church facility?  Do we treat the customers at work better then we treat the congregation at church?  And just to get a little mischievous on you...(I think Pastors or Church Staff sometimes forget)...that they(we) wouldn't be able to serve in a community without the financial backing of those folks who do turn profits...So in reality I believe the financiers are just as important as the messengers who are getting paid to share the Gospel.  Any thoughts on this?

Unfortunately, I'll have to settle on this being my reading spot until Friday.  Lol!  When CS Lewis wrote the Screwtape Letters do you think he envisioned a guy like me reading them in a place like this?

The view was Grand!!!

More from the Norfork...

Here is a time lapse video I made of the river and how fast it rises.  I snapped a picture every minute and just reversed them at the end to get the reverse effect...

Also here are the pics of the catch this morning before I packed up to drop the camper off in Thayer and then off for home for the weekend.

I sure have missed Amanda and the kids this week.  I'm looking forward to spending time with them this weekend and then I am off to the west coast with Amanda for one of her business trips.  She has been on plenty of business trips of mine so I'm looking forward to just spending time with her in-between meetings and reading, blogging, and journaling while she is in meetings.

I caught a few...

courtesy of the Norfork River...