lesson one

Did you ever have a day that didn't go as expected? We got to Chicago an hour early not remembering the time change, our plane was four hours late due to water problems in the bathrooms that never got resolved, a six year old sat behind Peggy and kicked the seat all night, our transport to the hotel didn't show because we were so late, and our hotel gave us two twin size beds to sleep in! I am wondering what God is trying to tell us. (maybe he is saying that we didn't need any more kids) LOL!

But you know what happened? We went to St Peter's today and it was closed for some reason. There were long lines, so we waited. Then it happened. They opened the cathedral and the Pope was there for a special prayer service!!! Wow, on the steps of St. Peter's stood the man who is in Apostolic Succession to the one buried in this church. Now, a Catholic would have been in awe of the Pope. I was, however, in awe of the Church God created from the words of Jesus, "upon this rock I will build my church." I don't believe Jesus was talking about the building but the institution we are a part of. The church is important to God, commissioned by Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit. God had a plan and through Jesus we now have a church.

So what is my lesson? When things don't go as planned, maybe God is in the middle of it. We would have never seen the Pope or learned this first lesson if life would have gone as planned. Maybe God's plan isn't ours but it could just be better.

I will try to get you some pics tomorrow. Aaron

Italian dressing, Greek yogurt and French fries

Well, It is 5 am and the time has almost arrived. We are packed and ready to leave for Rome. In a few hours, we will be on a plane flying over the Atlantic. I am a little nervous today. I don't know Italian, Greek or French. I like Italian dressing, Greek yogurt, and French fries but when it comes to their language; just not happening. I was laying in bed last night wondering who had this idea of flying half way around the world to see the places the Apostle Paul walked anyway. Then I realized it was me.

My nerves seem to be superseded by the expectations. I read through the book of Acts this week and kept having this thought, "I will be standing there next week." Ephesus, Philippi, Rome, Athens, Crete, Corinth and Patmos just to name a few. Then there is Saint Peter Cathedral, The Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon and the Coliseum.  I just wish that they would unearth the lost letter of Paul to the French so I could justify spending three days in Paris Biblically. LOL!!! Maybe a few days holding hands with the love of my life in Paris is just what this trip needs.

I have two prayer requests as I end this post. I ask for you to pray for us to have a great time away from the cares of this world. Pray for good weather, a safe trip, not to get homesick, for the kids to get along well at the grandparents house, and all those other things that go into a great trip. Believe me, there has been lots to think about and plan for in something like this and I want it to go well. But more importantly, pray that this is the spiritual experience of a lifetime. I want Peggy and I to see Jesus time and time again over the course of the next 15 days. I want to shed tears of joy and sorrow in sacred places. I want the Bible to come alive again and again. I want to think thoughts that deepen my faith and trust in Jesus. I want to come home more like Christ than I have ever been in my life.

My commitment to you is this. In the coming days, I will be praying for you in places where the veil between heaven and earth is very thin. I have picked out some special spots to pray for each of you by name and I will send you all pictures of those spots on the day that it was completed. So, grab a bottle of Italian dressing, plunge your spoon into some Greek yogurt or pull into the drive-through for some hot and delicious French fries and lets start this journey together.

Feeling Loved

What a day!!! It's 4 am and I should be asleep. But my mind has been racing about the day and sleep continues to evade me. I can't help but think of the church full of my friends, the wonderful food, and all the work that went into today. When I think of those guys who were up all night cooking a whole hog, and the people that cut the shrubs at the church so the place would look nice, and the

wonderful decorations, and chocolate fountains, and the ice cream station, and the tent filled with friends and family it is almost more than my mind can comprehend. All of this for Peggy, me and our family. WOW! If there is one sentenced that would sum up the thoughts of today it would be that I felt loved. This isn't something new from my church family. I can say that for most of the fifteen years that I have been at Logansport I have felt loved. But today; today was just over the top.

Today was a day filled with different emotions. There is a piece of me that is so excited about what God is going to do with the congregation this summer. There is a piece of me that looks forward to time with my family. There is a piece of me that can't wait to walk in the footsteps of Paul. And there is a piece of me that already misses my church family. My emotions were in high gear as I shed tears of sorrow saying goodbye at the end of the service and as I shed tears joy being roasted by my friends. What a joy to empower Pastor Mike and Pastor Tom to lead the congregation during the worship service and then, at the bible trivia game, I have pastor cheat sheet setting on my left and the prophetic pastor answering questions before they were read on my right. I knew it was a set up from the very beginning but what a blast. I laughed till I cried and I cried until I laughed. 

You know, when I go to the funeral home they call me pastor, the newspaper calls me Reverend, my students at Indiana Wesleyan call me professor, my computer calls me doctor but my church calls me friend. And of all the titles I carry that one means the most to me today. I was blessed and I can never say thank you enough. From the cooks to the servers, from the decorators to the clean up crew, from the planers to the preparers, from the roaster to the scorekeeper, from pastor cheat-sheet on my right to the prophetic pastor on my left I say thank you. Thank you for making our departing day special. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into today. Thank you for making our family feel loved.  You are all such a blessing!

Shalom...Ciad... Aloha...TTYL...

It is hard to believe that the time has really arrived. It was three years ago that Peggy and I went to a planning session from the Lilly Endowment concerning a Pastor's Sabbatical. It was Two years ago that we began dreaming of what we would do with fourteen weeks of rest. It was 18 months ago that the congregation voted to give us a Sabbatical in the summer of 2013. It was fourteen months ago

that we sent in a grant request to the Lilly Endowment. And on June 23, 2012 we received word that we were one of twenty two pastor's families in the state of Indiana who received a Sabbath Rest. Now, for the last year, we have prayed, planned, and pondered what this summer would hold. It really never sunk in until the tickets for Rome came in the mail two weeks ago. But a deeper sense of reality struck when we saw the sign in front of the church this week. On May 26, Peggy and I will leave the comfort of our church family for a fourteen week experience of a lifetime.

It is hard for me to describe the emotion that I am feeling at this moment. I really don't know why I have been so emotional. Day after day my eyes fill with tears and a ball forms in my throat. I have a hard time with words and have found myself quiet even in the presence of my family. Peggy said that it is because I don't have any control for the next fourteen weeks around here. (Probably some truth to that for a control freak like me.) Maybe it is the the incredible blessing and honor of receiving such a prestigious award. Lord knows that I don't feel worthy of such a great blessing. Maybe it is the
fear that things will go just fine for fourteen weeks around here and you all will know that I am not really needed. (Which is why I wanted to do this in the first place. I wanted the church to know that they will get along just fine without me. And I wanted to know that I trained up a church that will move forward if God called me away at some point in time.)  But maybe, more than anything else, it is the fear of what God is going to show me about myself this summer. It is easy to hide behind the mask of being a pastor. It is easy to share religious jargon with others. It is easy to think about the spiritual life of others and not be as concerned as I should be about my own spiritual life. For fourteen weeks, I must face my own demons. For fourteen weeks, I must look at my relationship with Christ. For fourteen weeks, I need to see where I stand with my Lord. For fourteen weeks, I will stand in the presence of Jesus and allow him to reveal to me what I need to see. And frankly my friends, that scares me.

So, the tent is up out back, the hog has been butchered, and the date of my departure has come. Know that in the coming weeks and months, I will miss you all greatly.  My pastor's heart wants me to stay but my desire to be a better minister for Christ pushes me to go. Throughout the coming months, I will be posting here quite often. There will be pictures and stories that many of you will want to see and hear. I will show you the places where I will be praying for each of you by name. I will share with you what the Lord is teaching me. And I will give you some of the fun stuff as well. So visit this site often this summer and see what God is doing. And when you see what's up, say a prayer for us. And know that we will be doing the same for you. Love you all, Pastor Aaron

Live, Connect, Believe

Live, Connect, Believe

“In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other.” Ephesians 4:25

             I love technology… when it works… I am amazed at how great technology is. I can accomplish things today that I never thought possible just five years ago. Smart phones, apps, and laptops have made my life so much easier; well, some days life is easier. I wanted to hook up my television to a device where my kids can watch movies from the web. It is just a little box that connects to the internet that lets me view movies on the television. I wanted to hook it up while they were home for Christmas break but I couldn’t get it to work. I hooked it up and re-hooked it up, and changed the channels, and got out a flash light and I almost read the directions to make this thing work. Let me make this clear, I said almost read the directions. For some reason, I could not get it connected. Then, after thirty minutes of messing around, I found the problem. I wasn’t fully connected. There was just one wire that I was missing and without that wire there was no connection. I plugged in that wire and immediately there was that channel that I was looking for.

It is amazing what can happen when we are not connected. Think about a time that you were not connected in a conversation. Someone was talking and you were not paying much attention. At some point you realized (and so did they) that you weren’t connected. Ever been on a phone conversation with a bad connection. I talked for fifteen minutes one day on a dropped call and didn’t know it until they called back. There may have even been a time that a movie was on television. You had the channel turned to the right station, your eyes were on the show, but you couldn’t remember what had happened in the last five minutes of the movie. You were not connected. Usually, in those moments, you realize that something else had your attention, so much so, that you were not connected as you should have been. Maybe it was with your spouse, your kids, or your teacher at school. It could have been your boss or an employee at work. A lack of connection brought problems and frustration on your part and on the part of someone else. Living life is not easy when we are not connected.

So what is it like when you are not connected to the Body of Christ? Paul says in Ephesians that we are all connected to each other because of Christ’s body. That may be true theoretically. But think what it is like when there are people in the body of Christ that are not connected to each other. Sure, Jesus is our connection point, but we also need to be connected to one another in the body of Christ. We need to support, care for, and help each other. We need to be there to listen, laugh with, and enjoy our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to Live for God, we need to be connected to each other, and we need to believe in His word.

In 2013, here at LCB we are going to focus on the words Live, Connect, Believe. In 2013, we are going to strive to Live our lives for God. In 2013, we are going to strive to Connect to each other. In 2013, we are going to strive to Believe deeply in His word. We took the first three letters of Logansport, Church and Brethren and came up with our call as a community. God wants us here at LCB to Live, Connect, and Believe. I was convinced in 2012 that the Lord has a good life that is worth living. There is not a doubt in my heart that being connected to each other will make life much better. And as I finished reading the Bible through in the last two years I know that His word is worth believing.

What does God have in store for us in 2013? Well, none of us know that for sure. But I am convinced of this; while 2013 may be filled with lots of thoughts, opportunities and messages, we can be sure that God is calling us to Live, Connect, and Believe. 

 

 In His Love, Pastor Aaron

 

Christmas Creeds

Christmas Creed

            The word Creed often gets a bad rap. The Church of the Brethren is a non-creedal church meaning that we don’t believe a creed can summarize the life of Jesus. It takes the whole Bible to fully understand who Jesus really is. But there is a purpose to creeds, and Christmas may just help us to understand their significance. Jesus asked a question of the disciples at the foothills of Mount Hermon. Jesus inquired of the disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” It is a question that men have been asking for generations and one that has received a thousand answers.

             Whatever the view of Jesus has been, the church throughout the ages has affirmed the words of Peter who said, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” In many ways that statement is an early creed that became scripture. But is that statement enough or do we need a little more information? Or, take for example the virgin birth. Is it enough for you to know that Jesus was born of a virgin or have you ever wondered how deep the significance of that event really is? You see, the creeds of the faith were developed to deepen our understanding of Jesus becoming flesh. The term for God becoming human is incarnation. How well do we understand the incarnation of Jesus?

            During the Imperial Age of the church, the emperors pressed Christian leaders to form statements accurately expressing who Jesus is. But this was not the first attempt to deepen our understanding of the Christ. Paul quotes a hymn of the faith in Philippians 2:6-7. Paul says, “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross!” This may be one of the first Christological statements on the incarnation of the Word. Paul was quoting someone else when he pinned those words. It is easy to see that the early church was interested in the development of a deeper understanding of Jesus being fully man and Jesus being fully God. Statements in the creeds would be written to clarify these positions.

            There are many creeds that have influenced the Christian belief concerning Jesus. One of the most famous Christmas Creeds is the Apostles’ Creed. The Apostle’s Creed signifies a Christology that begins with Jesus’ birth and moves toward his divinity. But did Jesus’ existence begin at his birth? No! At the council of Niceae in 325, another Christmas creed surfaces that again tries to deepen our understanding of Christ. At the end of the meeting, a statement of faith was developed and adopted that says, “I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made…” This statement was viewed as a way to deepen our understanding of Jesus and let us know that Jesus has always been God even before his birth in Bethlehem.  

Another creed that deserves some attention is called the Athanasian Creed. It takes the teaching of the Apostles and the Council of Niceae and deepens once again our understanding of Jesus. Part of the Athanasian Creed states, “The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Spirit is uncreated… So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet they are not three Gods but one God…” Athanasius takes our understanding of Jesus to the next level and moves it to a deeper understanding of the babe born in a manger.

My friends, it is Christmas time. Many will come together in the coming weeks and talk about a baby that was born in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. Can I say that the statement of a Christ child born in Bethlehem to be the Savior of the world is completely true yet so lacking? There is so much more to this baby than one blog article can explain. So let’s come together in the month of December, study about the Christ Child, and deepen our understanding of a God who became flesh.

 

In His Love,

Pastor Aaron

 

Feeling Empty?

Feeling Empty?

The year was 2009. Annual Conference for the Church of the Brethren was in San Diego, California. After watching Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Summer Vacation, I wanted to take my family across the country visiting the greatest landmarks in the United States. The St. Louis Arch, Four Corners, Pike’s Peak, Garden of the Gods, Arches National Park, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Giant Sequoias were just a few of the locations we would experience on our 6351 mile trip. The beauty of God’s creation, the inspiration of His construction, the power of his mighty hand was evident in every location. It was easy to see that what man has the power to make in no way compares to the beauty of God’s creation.

It was day five of our journey when we pulled into Hoover Dam. My wife, Peggy, and I had been there many years earlier. Because of our visit, I had a great desire to show my kids what I had seen. We drove across the dam slowly, looked at the water to the left and the river to the right. Well, I looked at the water and the river but my kids were still looking at their Nintendo DS screens. We pulled into the parking garage, put the DS games away, and began our journey. I started telling them about the experience we had the years before; like they were really interested, and then it happened. I looked at Lake Mead and noticed how the water level had changed from 1998 to 2009. You could see how much it had dropped. In a study done by the by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, water levels from 1998 to 2009 showed a decline in water levels by 108 feet. In 1998 the water level at Hoover Dam was 1212 feet above sea level. When we arrived at Hoover Dam just eleven years later the water level was only 1104 feet above sea level. The visual was shocking. On the tour, our guide told us how the water usage of Las Vegas and Los Angeles was pulling water out of Lake Mead in record proportion. He shared about the Aqua Duct system that was being built to take more water out of Lake Mead simply because of the number of people that were moving into Las Vegas. He also shared how snow fall totals were less than adequate in the previous ten years to fill Lake Mead with the run off.

 The information given to us was astounding. My mind, however, was no longer thinking about Lake Mead. Instead, I had a vision of what my ministry was like. I saw people we did not have enough spiritual water to get them through the tough times of life. I say families that did not have a reservoir of wisdom to know how to raise children. I saw Christians that for years were living off of my spiritual life and not developing one of their own. It thought about the words of Christ to the woman at the well. In John 4:10, Jesus says, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Living water; that is what people need, they need a reservoir of living water.

My mind wondered back into the tour just long enough for me to hear these words from our tour guide, “If the rate of depletion remains the same, and the snow levels in the mountains do not increase, there will not be enough water to turn the generators and produce power in 2021.”  There was the problem. If people kept depleting their spiritual resources and did not fill themselves up with God's word, prayer, worship, fellowship, small groups, and the like; their power would be exhausted and soon their would be nothing left spiritual to draw from. Children would  spiritually perish, marriages would end, relationships would be taxed, and the love of many would grow cold. The spiritual reservoirs of life were being filled with the wrong things and it was taking its tole on me and on many others.

How do you fill a spiritual reservoir? That will be the discussion on next weeks blog. Hope to share with you then.