A Stone's Throw

I have really had several encouraging moments over the last week or so that have really made me rethink Paul’s words in Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

First off, I went to my new dentist here in Carthage and one of the dental hygentists is a daughter of a fellow pastor way back when (’95) , when Jenny and I were in Pryor, OK.  Her father is a great man and served in the Methodist Church in both Pryor and Locust Grove (where I was serving).  The work in Locust Grove was especially challenging, but he was always faithful to the call of God on his life.  I learned a lot from him in a very short time.

Then, later on that evening, I got a Facebook message from a former student in my youth group.  He was recalling a particular message I preached on a Wednesday night a LONG time ago that was still impacting his life!  What??  He talked about a simple phrase has stuck with him all these years and has helped him finally deal with some “junk” in his life and actually let some other people in the body of Christ to help him along in the journey!  At this point, I’m feeling really pumped about what God has done through me.  It gets better. . .

This Saturday night, I was studying for the next morning . . . looking over service, message, etc.  I had my email inbox open and got a latenight message from another “blast from the past.”  It was from a young lady that was in my youth ministry in Burleson, TX while I was in seminary.  She had been thinking about me and looked me up on the internet and found the Finley Crossings website and eventually this blog.  While she was looking at the CFC website, she downloaded a podcast–happened to be my last message at Finley before moving to Forest Park Carthage.  As she and her husband were sitting in their kitchen listening to the podcast, they made a decision to find a church in their city and really follow the call of God on their life–AWESOME STUFF!  So now I am really thinking that God is amazing and what am I mopeing around about, right??  It gets even better–last night . . .

I took Dinwiddie with me to Hopedale Baptist Church in Ozark, where I was a student pastor starting in ‘99 after seminary.  We went to hear Aaron Hill give his first sermon ever.  Pretty stinking cool!  Aaron  was a 7th-8th grader when I left to plant Finley Crossings.  He was always one of “those kids” that you know God was going to do an amazing work through–you know the kid.  I am really good friends with his dad, John, who’s blog is linked over in the right margin.  Jenny and I have been worship pastors at their (HBC) children’s camps for about 5 or 6 years now and have gotten the opportunity to spend some quality time with Aaron in a cabin with a bunch of crazy elementary kids!!  I have always thought God was going to “do something” with Aaron. . . and I think he deep down thought the same thing.  It was really great!  He did an awesome job!  Brought back a ton of memories of student ministry at Hopedale as well as my “first sermon.”

I remember my first sermon in January of 1994 at FBC-Springfield at “College Night at Christmas.”  I gave the message and several of my other buddies did the other parts of the service.  It was a real nerve-wracking experience to say the least!  I was really nervous . . . in a suit and tie . . . had microphone feedback issues . . . and forgot (are you ready for this)–John 3:16.  I think they probably should have pulled my license at that point for sure!!

Again, I am reminded of Paul’s words of “never give up in doing good.”  Even thought things don’t always “go your way” or turn out the way you might want them to turn out . . . never give up.  Life and ministry are difficult and Paul was encouraging the early church to keep pressing on and hope for the harvest.  I am so thankful that the Lord has called me to do what I do and really thankful for His encouragement this week!  Thank you God!

We have had a crazy busy and productive weekend so far!  Tucker and Jenny went to Springfield on Friday so Jenny could do an inservice training for the Elementary music teachers in Springfield Public Schools–she’s so stinking talented and smart it’s pretty amazing she hangs out with a schmuck like me!! While they were gone, I took the opportunity to fix the brakes on my car that were about 3 weeks overdue and the rotors showed!  Thanks to my friend Devin Bobbett for helping me change my first set of brakes probably about 7 years ago.  I have always tried to repair them since then after I found out how “easy” it is.  There is always something that goes wrong when I try to do anything it seems.  This time, I stripped out some screws and had to go get some screw extrators from the store to finally get the brakes repaired.  Of course, I had to put the old brakes back on, go to O’Reilly’s and then come back and finish them.  I finally got them fixed at about midnight last night. Henry (our new puggle) and I went to pick up Taylor after school and decided to go to the pet store to get some stuff for the dog.  The pet store has another puggle for sale and the girl was really pushing hard for us to get another to keep Henry company.  Funny thing happens–Henry poops right in the store–while Taylor is supposed to be watching him on the leash!  I told the girl, “see I’ve got one that poops all over the place, I don’t need another!” Jenny and Tucker got home and we went to eat at the Ranch House.  We walked in and saw our good friend Kent Doyle and the Ozark High School varsity girls softball team that was in a tournament here in Carthage.  It was awesome getting to hang out with him for a bit.  Sweet people!  Taylor got to talk to Kaleb on the phone and Morgan got to talk to Jenny.  Pretty cool deal for everyone. Had our first CONVERGE this morning.  It went pretty well.  The next CONVERGE will be in January.  I am really excited about what God is going to do this fall through Forest Park Carthage! Went to Crosswalk tonight to hear John’s message “Dirty Jerseys.”  We are starting a spiritual growth campaign tomorrow called Generations.  It was an awesome message and I am really excited to see the response from our people tomorrow morning.  We have the potential to really reach a TON of people for Christ in the next decade or so through this campaign. The key verse is, “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.” Psalm 102:18.  Stratton, McBride and I went out on Thursday and shot some videos for our children’s ministry classes.  It was a lot of fun!  The best part is related to this verse. . . we have an opportunity in this campaign to reach people of the future generations by our faithfulness to get involved with God in this generation!  I am excited that we are helping Taylor and Tucker’s generation to have a great facility here in Carthage.  My hope and prayer is that they will in turn, because of our example, build His Church for their future generations!  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through this campaign!  Fasten your seatbelts.

Here are the pictures I said would be awesome if we had any!  I absolutely love what God is doing through this concept of multisite!  We had 366 people and the 2nd service was PACKED!!  That is the highest attendance we have had since the launch or Easter 2008–on a non holiday weekend!!

Enjoy from Stratton’s iPhone . . .