Big 12 Championship Saturday

Go Sooners!

Focus

For the past 6 weeks in our Young Professional/College Class we have been discussing Eternal Perspectives. Changing our focus off ourselves, and placing it on God, and the work that he has challenged us to do.

"LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath."
Psalm 39:4-5

What was your ambition in life when you were younger?

What is it today?

How would you most like to be remembered?

Most of us had dreams and desires of great wealth and fame growing up. But through the "real lessons" of life have realized that “stuff” and riches do not guarantee true happiness in life. Only a life focused on Christ provides satisfaction and peace.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21

As we enter the holiday season of giving, I encourage you to give and build relationships with people as well as build on your relationship with God. That is where true happiness can be found.

Quote for the Day

Remember what Casey Stengel the former NY Yankees and Met's Manager use to say (I believe its very appropriate for school administrators also):

"The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided."

Have a great day!

Tulsa Workshop Update

Memorial and Garnett have enjoyed over three decades of workshop partnership. As many know, Memorial Drive is taking Garnett's workshop year for '08 to give them room to weigh their future relationship with the workshop. I count Wade Hodges as a dear friend and Garnett is like a second home to me over these many years. Garnett has reached a tough decision to step away from leading the workshop. They will remain supportive and involved as they love the event as well as we do at Memorial. Wade gives the most concise explanation for their decision: The consensus here is that on the leadership level there simply isn't the passion for and commitment to the workshop that is needed to design and execute a quality program. We love the workshop. We support the workshop's vision and mission. But we feel like its time for our church to direct it's energy in other directions.

The Memorial leadership has been in prayer knowing such a possibility loomed. We had many options, including whether it is time for the workshop to cease. The future of the workshop is headed in the following directions:

It will continue until we read from God the event is no longer a needed venue.
Memorial has three highly qualified ministers in Shane Coffman, Jason Thornton, and Bobby Smith.

I will train the three in the details of workshop preparation and execution. Eventually they will take the even years as was Garnett's pattern. This will give me a much-needed break.
We four work in the same office so mutual availability for training is quite simple. While we experience complete partnership, we have differing approaches to the same work. This will give the program a good and new perspective.

I felt it important that we find those to lead who have strong hearts for evangelism while possessing such leadership strength they would not think exactly as I. We need younger minds to protect the workshop from burrowing into my rut.

I must applaud Wade and Garnett. It takes great courage to step away from what has been any famous and effective ministry when the leadership senses the call from God to do so. It's easier to cave to the pressure of rote pattern as well as fear over potential rumor. They weighed, they prayed, they concluded and they acted. It was time for them to step back. That is courageous leadership. How many ministries now burden congregations because the time had long come to pull the plug, but lazy leadership couldn't endure the pressures of such?

Garnett will remain a partner in assisting with the workshop as are increasingly more area congregations coming on board over the years. The Tulsa International Soul Winning Workshop is a desperate mission lodged in our hearts. We at Memorial sweat bullets over its direction. It takes us two years to prepare for one workshop. This means I have been working on 2008 and 2009's workshops for the entire 2007 season. I love it!

Garnett and Memorial remain positive, sweet friends. We need them. They need us. Our admiration remains mutual. Today I find it time to be sharing these decisions so you can be praying for our congregations to do God's work the most effective way possible.
Thanks to many of you for years/decades of support.

Terry Rush

God Weeps

"When God looks at our world, God weeps. God weeps because the lust for power has entrapped and corrupted the human spirit. Instead of gratitude there is resentment, instead of praise there is criticism, instead of forgiveness there is revenge, instead of healing there is wounding, instead of compassion there is competition, instead of cooperation there is violence, and instead of love there is immense fear.

God weeps when God looks at our beautiful planet and sees thousands of maimed bodies lying on the battlefields, lonely children roaming the streets of big cities, prisoners locked behind bars and thick walls, mentally ill men and women wasting their time in the wards of large institutions, and millions of people dying from starvation and neglect. God weeps because God knows the agony and anguish we have brought upon ourselves by wanting to take our destiny in our own hands and lord it over others.”

- Henri Nouwen

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I'm Thankful for:

• my beautiful wife


• two great boys that have great dreams and goals


• that Jesus loved me enough that He still died for me


• my job (Some days)


• my three principals that I work with about 15 hours a day


• the Central church


• mom and dad


• my fishing buddy and brother


• Soft pretzels


• my new hobby.........fishing


• golf


• the YP Gang at Central


• the Central Elders


• Growing up in California


• Peace

Willow Creek Repents?

Why the most influential church in America now says "We made a mistake."

Few would disagree that Willow Creek Community Church has been one of the most influential churches in America over the last thirty years. Willow, through its association, has promoted a vision of church that is big, programmatic, and comprehensive. This vision has been heavily influenced by the methods of secular business. James Twitchell, in his new book Shopping for God, reports that outside Bill Hybels’ office hangs a poster that says: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value?” Directly or indirectly, this philosophy of ministry—church should be a big box with programs for people at every level of spiritual maturity to consume and engage—has impacted every evangelical church in the country.

So what happens when leaders of Willow Creek stand up and say, “We made a mistake”?
Not long ago Willow released its findings from a multiple year qualitative study of its ministry. Basically, they wanted to know what programs and activities of the church were actually helping people mature spiritually and which were not. The results were published in a book, Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek. Hybels called the findings “earth shaking,” “ground breaking,” and “mind blowing.”

If you’d like to get a synopsis of the research you can watch a video with Greg Hawkins here. And Bill Hybels’ reactions, recorded at last summer’s Leadership Summit, can be seen here. Both videos are worth watching in their entirety, but below are few highlights.
In the Hawkins’ video he says, “Participation is a big deal. We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it will produce disciples of Christ.” This has been Willow’s philosophy of ministry in a nutshell. The church creates programs/activities. People participate in these activities. The outcome is spiritual maturity. In a moment of stinging honesty Hawkins says, “I know it might sound crazy but that’s how we do it in churches. We measure levels of participation.”

Having put all of their eggs into the program-driven church basket you can understand their shock when the research revealed that “Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”

Speaking at the Leadership Summit, Hybels summarized the findings this way:
Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

Having spent thirty years creating and promoting a multi-million dollar organization driven by programs and measuring participation, and convincing other church leaders to do the same, you can see why Hybels called this research “the wake up call” of his adult life.

Hybels confesses:
We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

In other words, spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.

Does this mark the end of Willow’s thirty years of influence over the American church? Not according to Hawkins:
Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.

A Praying Wife

Have you ever experienced several stressful work related situations in your life all at one time? It’s hard enough to deal with one crisis at a time but having to deal with five situations that all hit at once.

What do you do?

Do you quit?

Do you say I’ve had enough?

Do you go on the attack?

Or do you do what Jesus did and go to the Father?

When you give it to God he deals with it and takes care of it. All you have to do is have faith, trust, listen and wait. That’s tough for selfish individuals like myself.

I’m so thankful for a praying wife who goes to the Father on my behalf. When a serious meeting is taking place she is praying not only for me, but peace in the troubling times. What a Christ like spirit she has. But even more than that, encouraging other wives to be praying for their husbands through the situation also.

I’m blessed to have a very special gift from God.

Thank you Debbie, for giving the ultimate gift of yourself, your love and faith in our Father!

Order of Worship

Order of Worship
Sunday, November 18, 2007

Announcements/Welcome

Scripture: Psalm 145:1-5

4 To God Be The Glory (verse 1 only)

781 Thank You, Lord

68 Give Thanks

Prayer

513 I Will Sing of My Redeemer (Verse 1 and 3 only)

Communion

Contribution

533 I Am A Sheep

537 Here We Are But Straying Pilgrims

Message-Evan

Invitation: 912 Burdens Are Lifted At Calvary

Closing Announcements

These Are the Days of Elijah

Closing Prayer

Birthday 46

Today I'm finally as old as my wife.

My birthday present......................fishing with my brother Mike at our favorite quiet spot, 15 minutes from Osage City as we look at the beautiful trees and watch the deer on the hillside.

That's a great gift!

Our New Hobby

We have enjoyed our fishing moments this Fall. Still learning about catfish and enjoying every minute of it.

Family Memories

On the west side of K-15 highway, in southern Kansas, is the big city of Dexter. In Dexter sits an old, white, two story building in the downtown area that is about to fall down.

It was the old Henry’s Candy store. When I was a kid, my grandmother and grandfather would drive us down from Augusta on a Sunday afternoon after church for homemade candy. We loved it, especially at Christmas time when they made very special candies.

Today, the candy store has relocated and is on the east side of K-15 in a newer building. They still have over 100 varieties of candy and continue to give free demonstrations on Sundays.

I took Brian and Craig there on several occasions as they were younger to show them the candy store that was made special by my grandparents. Memories of the past are so important. Memories of special family times are priceless.

We have those each Sunday here at Central when we gather as a family to worship our Heavenly Father. We share our lives - some good times, some not so good - but they are precious moments when we encourage each other and make memories that will last a lifetime.

I enjoyed reading the Thanksgiving messages from many of our members here at Central in the bulletin this month. The number one message that came out throughout all the different stories was the memories and special times we have as a family here at Central.

To become a member of God’s Family is a very easy process. The problem that so many have is, it’s a change of life. It’s a commitment. It’s saying goodbye to how I once lived and allowing God to take me and use me for his will.

The story of the rich man in Mark 10:

“And as [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But at these words his face fell, and he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property.”

Such a sad story because this man remembered what he had in earthly possessions and couldn’t give them up. He remembered the stuff. He remembered the pleasure he received from all that he had. It was such an important part of his life that he couldn’t give all that up and follow Jesus.

I’m thankful God has given us our minds to remember the good things and not so good things in life. It helps us on a journey towards Jesus each day. It helps us remember what Christ did for us at Calvary.

American Education Week

AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK
November 11-17, 2007

“The future of America is written on school blackboards and in student notebooks. The quality of thought in our classrooms today will determine the quality of our lives a generation hence”

Lyndon B. Johnson

As I look at the classrooms of our state, I see quality. I see students who are eager to better themselves academically and in the activities they are involved in. I see highly qualified teachers and staff who encourage students to work to their fullest potential. They spend numerous hours inside the classroom as well as outside the classroom working with students to give them opportunities that we could of never imagined when we were in school because of the advances in technology and the information highway that is available today.

Kansas classrooms are ones of quality with increasing test scores, academic and extra curricular accomplishments as well as former students achieving great success in college and university settings. Faculty and staff work countless hours to stay abreast of the latest educational methods by continuing professional training and working on advanced college degrees.

Communities encouraging school districts to have high quality academic programs. We appreciate the continued support and working relationships between school, city and business.

As we celebrate American Education Week we want to thank each individual. Because of your determination and support we can continue to be a state that focuses on academic quality and helping our students achieve great things.

David Carriger
Superintendent
USD 420 Osage City

Veteran's Day 2007

This is a picture of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery at Point Loma in San Diego, California. As I was growing up, this was my symbol of brave Americans who sacrificed everything to give me the independence that I enjoy today. I appreciate my father, grandfathers, uncles and family who served our country so we could enjoy the blessings of the United States of America.

What If?

Have you ever thought about what if? If I could start over again what would I have done differently? Would I have the same job? Would I have married the same person? Would I have gone to college or went to work right out of high school? Would I have kids? Would I live in Kansas? Would I retire as early or as late as I did?

We sometimes ask these questions in moments of sadness, stress, rejection and difficulty.

Asking these questions is common. Many great heroes of faith in God’s Word asked the same questions about their lives. David evaluated his existence, his mission and his life as his last days were nearing.

I want to challenge you this morning to do that one thing that God has placed on your heart to do that you just haven’t made time to do.

Maybe it’s something out of your “comfort zone” that you have wanted to do but you have been scared to try. Maybe its telling that neighbor about Christ or patching up a relationship that has been destroyed many months or years ago. Maybe it’s that mission trip that I have always wanted to take but just haven’t found the time.

Find the time today!

Our Greatest Need

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

NY City's Finest

Don't worry Brian wasn't arrested or hired by the New York City Police. Just a picture with the City's finest. He enjoyed his visit with Craig last month.

Psalm 56

Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me; all day long they press their attack.
My slanderers pursue me all day long; many are attacking me in their pride.
When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?
All day long they twist my words; they are always plotting to harm me.
They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, eager to take my life.
On no account let them escape; in your anger, O God, bring down the nations.
Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll are they not in your record?
Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise-
in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
I am under vows to you, O God; I will present my thank offerings to you.
For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

A Monday Prayer

God,

Your servant is struggling. He needs Your protection so that he will not become disillusioned, negative, and bitter in the face of opposition. I ask that You fill Him with Your Spirit even more this week. May love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control ooze out of him and be noticed by all he comes into contact with today, tomorrow, Sunday, and in the days and weeks to come. Such responses will only come from you, for as a human his flesh will want to lash back, exert control, and make demands. Please help him to rise above the struggles and always be Your faithful, humble servant.

Through the power of the risen Christ, Amen.

The Hurting

This came from a friend......I can't tell you how tired I am of being sad. I'm afraid I'm not bearing all that well under the heavy weight of mourning. I fear I'm becoming the phone call you dread receiving or the party guest who constantly brings the room down. I want to have a different answer when people ask me how I'm doing, but a different answer would not be an honest one.

Hurting people everywhere. Even in the pews on Sunday.

Church Attendance

I just read a report that was released in 2006 by Reuters which states that members of the Churches of Christ have the highest rate of weekly church attendance among all religious groups in the United States of America. The rankings went as follows:

Church of Christ: 68 percent
Mormon: 67 percent
Pentecostal: 65 percent
Southern Baptist: 60 percent
Nondenominational Protestant: 54 percent
Catholic: 45 percent
Methodist: 44 percent
Presbyterian: 44 percent
Lutheran: 43 percent
Episcopal: 32 percent
Jewish: 15 percent