The End of A Fiscal Year

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

In my position dollar signs have danced through my head the past few weeks. The end of a fiscal year and the beginning of a new fiscal year. My stomach turns, my head aches and I lose sleep. Why? I worry if I am going to have enough $$$$ to end the year on a positive note, and then I'm worrying about the future of the school district.

God tells us not to worry. I will take care of you. Put your trust in me. Easy words, hard concept to put into practice.

Many examples in God's Word of individuals who did place their trust in Him and everything worked out.

The YP/College Class will be looking at one of those simple stories of faith and trust this Sunday. The story of Noah.

May God give us the faith of Noah as we struggle with our daily life responsibilities.

That's What It's All About

Saw this blog the other day couldn't resist sharing............

What if the hokey pokey
is what it's all about?

Saw this exact bumper sticker as we were driving home from the YMCA this morning-- It made me laugh, and I had to pass it along! And as a side note-- I just couldn't resist! There was a great loss recently in the entertainment world. Larry LaPrise, the Detroit native who wrote the song "Hokey Pokey," died last week at 83. It was especially difficult for the family to keep him in the casket. They'd put his left leg in and... well, you know the rest.

We Aren't Coming Back!

I love this response from Minister Patrick Mead. It’ll come in handy some day I’m sure.

A couple was furious with the church they attended. We had gone to see what happened to them after someone noticed they’d been gone from our worship assembly for some time.

“We aren’t coming back,” the husband said. “That is an unloving, cold church that claims to care about people but doesn’t.” I asked him on what basis he made that judgment and he replied, “We were gone four weeks from that church before anyone there even noticed. What kind of church doesn’t even notice something like that?”

I replied, “What kind of person are you, that you could be gone for four weeks and that no one in the church could tell?” They were shocked by this ‘attack’ so I pressed on. “What work suffered because you stopped your ministry? What mission work ground to a halt because you withdrew your funding, prayers and support? Could it be — just imagine with me a moment — could it be that you never really were a part of the church? Could that be why your departure was unnoticed?”

A Great Vacation

My arm is killing me. My best friend this past week has been ibuprofen.

Debbie and I played 175 holes of golf this past week on our annual golf vacation. We set our personal best with 63 holes on Tuesday.

The course at Berryville, Arkansas was in super condition. The individuals that own the course are great people. They really enjoyed watching us play (struggle) the three days we were there.

We appreciated having the course pretty much to ourselves all three days. Unbelievable not more people play this fantastic course.

I enjoy the beautiful Ozark mountain scenery and spending time with Debbie. She about killed me on the course and I about killed her bike riding at Lake Fayetteville last Sunday afternoon. The heat and humidity were high all week. It was a nice break to get rain on Thursday afternoon. The bad thing was that we were on the 5th hole when it began to pour. We were soaked but was about to finish up anyway and travel to Bentonville for the night.

One last golf outing at Nevada, Missouri on Friday, then a short trip home.

Vacations are great but as Dorothy says.....There's no place like home!

Order of Worship

“God Wants Us To Be A Serving Church”

Welcome

Scripture: John 13:3-17

63 I Will Call Upon the Lord
54 We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise (Twice)
559 The Joy of the Lord

Prayer

Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11

365 How Beautiful
366 By Christ Redeemed

Communion
Contribution

Dismiss 2x2 Students

635 Freely, Freely
694 Make Me A Servant (Verse 1 Only)
693 Give Me The Heart Of A Servant
694 Make Me A Servant (Verse 1 Only)

Message: “God Wants Us To Be A Serving Church” Evan Burdan

Invitation: 429 Oh To Be Like Thee (Verses 1 and 3)

Announcements

Closing Prayer

Vacation

It's time to take my wife on our annual summer golf trip this week to Berryville, Arkansas. I really sacrifice for a week and let her play golf for 5 days. Tough but I try to be a kind, sacrificing and considerate husband!

Craig and our high school students are at Camp Zenith this week. Be praying for them as they study and worship with hundreds of young people at Oklahoma Christian.

Who Goes to Church?

Members of the Church of Christ and Mormons came out on top in a Gallup analysis of worship attendance between 2002 and 2005, with Episcopalians near the bottom. Percentage of members who attended services weekly or almost weekly, by denomination or group: Church of Christ, 68; Mormon, 67; Pentecostal, 65; Southern Baptist, 60; non-denominational, 54; Catholic, 45; Methodist, 44; Presbyterian, 44; Lutheran, 43; Episcopal, 32; Jewish, 15. (HT: Ed Plowman)

Who Would You Invite for Dinner?

If you could invite two individuals from history to your house for dinner tonight who would you invite?

If you could invite two individuals from the Bible who would you invite?

Leave your answers on the comment section of the blog or e-mail your response to me. I need them for a project I'm working on.

Can Life Really Be That Bad?

In my position as a school superintendent, the one aspect of the job that I really struggle with is attending funerals of my students and former students. This past Monday, Debbie and I attended a very sad funeral service. One of our former students committed suicide.

As I was sitting their during the service, I felt numb. I felt what a waste. A young man that had his entire future in front of him decided life wasn’t worth living.

Can life really be that bad?

Direction-Correction

As a professional stock-car racer, Darrell Waltrip was once proud of his image as the guy folks loved to hate. When crowds booed, he’d just kick the dirt and smile. Then things began to change. He miraculously survived a Daytona 500 crash. He began going to church with his wife, Stevie. He and Stevie began to try to have a family. Stevie, however, suffered four miscarriages.

One day their minister came to visit. He asked, “Your car is sponsored by a beer company. Is that the image you want to portray to the millions of young people watching you each weekend?” Darrell had never thought about it. He had always loved watching kids admire his car, but the more he thought about it, he discovered that he did care about his image.

He thought, if Stevie and my prayers were answered for a child, what kind of dad would I be? He remembered his minister’s admonition to “walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” He didn’t know what to do to convince the car owner to change sponsors, but amazingly, an opportunity opened for him to sign a contract with a new racing team sponsored by a laundry detergent company.

After much thought and more prayer, he switched teams. Two years later, daughter Jessica was born. A few years later, daughter Sarah was born. Then in 1989, he won the Daytona 500.

In order to receive direction from God...you must be able to receive correction from God. Hebrews 12:5-6: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

God disciplines us in many ways. Sometimes to train or prepare us for his ways. Sometimes to punish us for unfaithfulness. The Children of Israel suffered for 40 years in the desert because of unfaithfulness. David was punished for his sin with Bathsheba.

Has God punished you?

Or has God used individuals, situations in your life to remind you of his love for you?

I know God uses individuals, situations and things in my life to help me refocus on Him.

We talked in our Sunday YP/College Class about faith. The sandbars that hold us down. Doubt, Anger, Frustration. A particular sin that we battle constantly with.

Sometimes I have a pity party for myself. Life is not fair. Why does God allow this to happen to me?

Because he loves us and he cares for us.

This life is short - Eternity is forever.

This past week, I stopped by my grandparents’ graves in El Dorado and Augusta. I said a prayer at my grandparents’ grave in Augusta. “Thank you Father for giving them to me, for only a short time, but because of their lives, I found You.”

God blesses us each day. He wants us to be part of Him.

We do this when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior.

Remember this week, in order to receive direction from God, you must be able to receive correction from God.

A Forgiving Church

Evan, thanks for the challenging message yesterday on A Forgiving Church.

A Forgiving Church is a necessity. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness of sins...... here's a good definition: "The act of divine grace by which, in virtue of the merits of Christ's atonement, appropriated by faith, God frees the sinner from the guilt and penalties of his sins. The Law is vindicated by the atonement of Christ, and the penalty of sin is paid. God offers free and full forgiveness to all (John 3:16), and such forgiveness is received by all who believe in Christ as their Mediator and Redeemer (Isaiah 1:18; 55:1–2; Acts 5:31; Romans 3:24, 28; 1 John 2:12).

Viewed from another angle, this act is called justification, not in the sense that the person justified is morally just, but just with respect to the Law and the Lawgiver, one who has received pardon is justified in the sense that he is declared innocent, being placed in a position of not having broken the Law and not deserving punishment.

Such forgiveness is granted believers as a free gift, not because of any merit of their own (Ephesians 2:8). The whole pattern is one of mercy, to which the sinner makes his appeal. This mercy provided a Redeemer who reconciled men to God (2 Corinthians 5:19)."

So what is a loving and forgiving Church? You see, God is the one who is love and He tells us what is true love. What a wonderful thing it is to love others. To be a peace with others. A person who truly loves cannot be easily hurt, will rarely ever get bitter and will not criticize others. They see the business of being forgiving as their privilege in Christ Jesus...as children of God.

May God help us to apply these godly principles in our lives and be loving Christians, and may we, here at Central, continue be a loving and forgiving Church.

What Is Faith

YP/College Class remember your assignment for Sunday....

What is Faith?

When it comes to living a life of faith how does it work, this thing called faith. What does it feel like? How does it act? What does it do? How do you know the difference between somebody who’s living a life of faith and someone who is not?

Gone For A Few Days

I am currently at a State Technology Conference in Wichita for the next 2 days. Be praying for Evan as he continues our series on Central......A Forgiving Church. See you Sunday!

Losing Our Young People (Part 2)

Another reason we are losing our young people in the Church from a Christian's perspective..........

"It is a normal growth process for young people to question the faith of their parents as they take responsibility for their own faith. The biggest danger to our youth is the rot within the church not the rot without. As young people try to find a faith of their own they see the failures of the people of their churches, the wishy washy belief systems, and the lack of passion and it is no wonder they don't want to buy into this faith. Worldview classes are one way to teach our youth but I think it is the generation of the parents that need to get it together. Give the youth something genuine to believe in and they will follow your lead. Knowing why and what you believe is the best way to lead the next generation into the Kingdom."

Do We Change to Meet Their Needs?

“Public schools must change. If we do not change to meet the needs of our customers, then they will go elsewhere. And, to continue to ignore this salient fact is short sighted and an extreme danger to the continuation of public education”

Jan Borelli
The School Administrator

I have been thinking about that quote that came across my desk last week. Public schools are changing immensely from the way we did school 20 years ago. We have started to emphasize the state curricular standards more and encourage students to take as much science and math as possible. We have examined different course schedules and looked at the senior year of high school and found ways to enhance the learning opportunities for seniors. We have gone to all-day kindergarten so all children can have educational opportunities that, in the past, they did not receive. We serve breakfast, lunch and after-school snacks in our after-school programs. Technology and problem-solving are key elements in classrooms across our district. School buildings have been turned into community learning centers.

How about Church?

What are we doing to meet the needs of our customers?

Are we meeting the needs of our young people today as future leaders in the church?

Across the United States, we are losing the majority of our young people when they leave and go off to college or to the work-world. Why?

I have a couple of thoughts after visiting and listening to young people.

First, the Church is not relevant to them. They don’t understand why they have to go to church if the adults don’t go. They don’t understand why their opinions are not given any validity.

Second, the Church is boring. Our young people are very bored of how we do church. Can you blame them? We live in a world where technology has taken us to new heights. Our kids have ipods, palms, laptops, dvd’s, cd’s, cell phones………and then we ask them to sit in an ancient worship service for a modern day world. Sometimes I have difficulty doing this.

So, what’s the answer?

Do we throw out worship?

We must meet the needs of our culture today by staying true to God’s Word. We must find ways to involve our young people more in the planning of worship where it does become relevant and interesting to them.

We need to show them why worship is important. By being adult examples. Being at services. Participating in services. Looking like we enjoy worship services.

Then we need to instill in them that worship is for God not us! Sometimes we do things in worship that might seem boring. But God doesn’t. God sees us as servants praising Him if our hearts are truly centered on Him.

The Churches of Christ are losing our young people. If we don’t act quickly, souls will be lost and our churches will sit empty.

A Faith That Goes The Distance

“Faith That Goes the Distance”
Young Professional/College Class Study
Begins Sunday, June 4 at 9:15 a.m.

Have you ever waken up from a dream that felt so real?

Have you ever received a wake-up call from God through a circumstance or situation that causes you to take inventory?

Sometimes the sound is deafening. Other times a still, small voice. But each time, God calls us to wake-up and evaluate our lives.

If you listen, you will hear God’s wake-up call…..to experience more of who he is, to delve deeper into the spiritual life, to take some risks, to surrender. He’s calling you to live extraordinarily by faith.

By listening to God’s wake-up call and renewing our faith, people with extraordinary lives reconnect with God’s purpose. We serve as Christ’s Ambassadors.

One way to grow in faith is to look at examples of people of faith.

If we want to live a life for God, if we want to discover the power of God moving in our lives, if we want a renewed passion for God, we must submit to Him and learn from those who have walked in faith before us.

We can’t change the past, but we can experience the adventure God has for us today.

The adventure begins Sunday, June 4.

A Busy Weekend

Beginning Sunday mornings, during the month of June, we will be looking at characteristics that we need to have as a Church as we begin the summer of 2006. Evan will be bringing us messages on unity, love, forgiveness and serving. Please plan on attending to hear what we all need to do to encourage and build each other up as a Body of Believers this summer at Central.

Tomorrow is a busy day! The Camp golf tournament will begin at 8:00 a.m. at Lake Shawnee. Several will be teeing it up as we support Tallgrass Christian Camp. Several from our congregation will be having a Teacher Workday as we prepare for our VBS and summer quarter. At 2:00 the big event has finally arrived as Rob and Sharon exchange wedding vows. Should be a great day!

Hope to see all of you in worship Sunday!

A Lighthouse

A Lighthouse

Growing up in California provided many great places to visit. One of my favorites was Point Loma.

On the western edge of Point Loma stood an old lighthouse and one of the most beautiful views in all the world of the vast Pacific Ocean and the California Gray Whales.

The old lighthouse still is one of my favorite locations to just sit look and soak in the beauty of God’s creation.

The old Point Loma Lighthouse stood watch over the entrance to San Diego Bay for 36 years. At dusk, on November 15, 1855, the light keeper climbed the winding stairs and lit the light for the first time. What seemed to be a good location 422 feet above sea level, however, had a serious flaw. Fog and low clouds often obscured the light. On March 23, 1891, the light was extinguished and the keeper moved to a new lighthouse location closer to the water at the tip of the Point.

That beautiful location had a flaw. It was so high the ships could not be protected from the rocks and cliffs. They had to relocate for the protection of those on the Pacific.

Many times we, as Christians, need to relocate and get closer to our God. Many times we are tempted by earthly beauty and fall for the traps of Satan and all we would have to do is simply walk away and draw closer to our Savior.

Sounds easy, buts it’s difficult at times.

Remember, the view might look pretty good from where you are, but your eternal soul could be in jeopardy if you are not obeying God’s commands.

"Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, Who inspires and perfects our faith." —Hebrews 12:2