Baptist churches are notorious for always being open.  We still have three services per week in a day when some are down to two or even just one.  If it's six o'clock on Sunday evening it's time for church.  Wednesday night is our other big time to gather.  One trend is the mid-week service is larger than the Sunday evening time.  Our church will have adults, students and children meeting all across the building.  But that did not happen on this day.  Our lights were out and the hallways were quiet.  Being a crime scene tends to do that even in the best of churches.

It was Monday evening that my personal vehicle was vandalized while I tried to do some reading.  Calling the police to report an incident is foreign to me but the officer was great in taking the report.  Last night it seemed that walking over would be smarter in light of me missing a window on the truck.  Well, there is a saying about the best laid plans that is absolutely true.  Lights were on across the building.  Trash was scattered on floors.  Our church safe somehow ended up on the desk of our secretary.  The final straw was checking this computer only to find various explicit websites on the history.  I knew that was nothing of mine according to the time stamps.  Yet again there was a call to our police who came over quickly in response.  One of our associate ministers also came over along with a church member who is also our mayor.  It would be a late night for us all.

We found some vandalism here and there.  Windows were shattered as the culprits came in that way.  Other items were taken but the safe remained locked.  Much of the morning today was spent as officers took photos, dusted for prints, and gathered other evidence.  Did you know it takes much longer in real time than it does on television?  It was up to me to make the call on not meeting after all of this.  So my decision was to keep people at home since there is more cleanup to be done.  Canceling a Baptist service is not an easy thing to do.  Some feel cheated without getting to spend time here on any occasion.  Perhaps we can survive as a congregation but time will tell.

Paul Harvey once told the story of a man who was rescued because he didn't make it to a mid-week service.  People went out to look for him on his farm when he didn't show up.  I always wonder, as did Paul Harvey, how many would be noticed by not being present?  Now it is true that going to church is not enough by itself to be a good Christian.  But it is a good reflection on character when your presence is noticed by those who do go.  So as Mr. Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.

Bro. Trey

Years ago the band Chicago sang a song asking " Does anyone really know what time it is?"  Time change Sunday is a day that question comes to my mind.  Falling back is not too hard since we gain that extra hour.  Springing forward never was one of my favorite things to do.  Age doesn't seem to help matters any.  Between the time change and spring break we did not have anywhere near a full house.  I actually made it on time despite moving slow this morning.  Now comes the adjustment to the new time.  Maybe trying a bit more discipline will move matters along.  Going to bed early tonight and then getting up early would be a nice start for a change.  Time will tell if actions follow my intent to adjust.

Discipline comes easy to some people.  I realize they improve on that natural disposition but a few are prone to self regulation.  Nothing really comes natural to me.  Any athletic success of mine took place after hours of practice at home with no one around.  Doing the research for studies is still fun but being creative doesn't happen by itself.  Now there are a few things where discipline works for me.  Exercise is one of those places that develops with an intention to make it so.  Missing a few days of exercise makes a big difference for me.  Working in the yard or mowing is another spot where being disciplined comes through.  I am not quite as serious in taking care of my grass.  Years ago it would kill me to not mow every few days.  I can appreciate a nice growth of the yard now. 

Paul will write to Timothy on the need to have a grasp of discipline for life.  His advice revolves around becoming determined to seek out a godly depth of character.  Part of this lifestyle means knowing what not to pursue along with having priorities.  Far too many believers end up giving their life to the wrong things.  Some may have this idea that becoming godly will happen by osmosis or by simply hanging around.  Neither one of those approaches lead to the desired outcome.  One of our people here will be running at the Boston Marathon in a few weeks.  She is training to prepare.  No one wants to attempt a 26 mile trek without being disciplined to get ready.  Such a reality would be foolish.  Yet there are still believers who equate showing up for church as active discipline.  It just isn't so.

What we do as well as what we avoid goes into spiritual training.  Most know of the basics of such a lifestyle by now.  We pray, study, worship, give of ourselves in order to grow or mature in the faith.  We learn more, feel more, do more as we become increasingly confident in maturity.  But we also realize how much grace plays a role in this.  Faith cannot be limited to our mechanics.  Our ultimate hope is in God responding in His blessing while we make room for Him.  Too many believers think they can run the church without digging deep with God.  They may not do much in the way of training but they imagine the marathon is theirs to win.  No wonder we wind up in a mess.  Discipline is hard.  Paul says the results are blessing, character and faith.  Having those three elements will let you know you are on the right track.

Bro. Trey

Signs of old age appear everyday for me.  My latest venture is to feed the various birds hanging out in the trees at the house.  I started a few weeks ago in the midst of the brutal cold weather we experienced.  My menu consists of cheap bread from the local store.  Maybe it's just me but that sounds like a decent sign of aging.  Whistling when tossing bread is one of my experiments.  I wondered if it was possible to call birds the way one calls the cows to come eat.  Results are mixed at the moment.  Evaluating whether they recognize the bread or the whistle is still a work in progress.  One clear result is there are fatter birds hanging around now.  My favorite is to watch the cardinals come down to get their bites.  One selfish bird even tried to take the entire piece up into the tree.  Yeah, feeding birds may be a new sign of getting older.

Experts tell us that 50 is the new 30 and so forth.  I remember thirty years of age.  My body hurts more now than it did then.  Working out is one way for me to get into my life with a generally healthy body.  This doesn't mean a bus or big truck may not take me out but it does seem to produce for me.  Even going through two near fatal illnesses didn't stop me from exercise.  In fact, my usual habit was to finish chemotherapy about four in the afternoon then hit the gym as soon as possible.  Perhaps what exercise I was doing helped my heart recover a year or so ago to be healthier than before.  No one can mistake me for an elite athlete.  One of my other goals is to just train so body parts remain where they were when I was born.  I am just grateful to still be active even if it hurts on occasion.

Would I go back and do it again knowing what I know now?  That is a question that haunts me to the point that perhaps it's time to stop asking.  Let me be honest enough to say there are many things that would be done differently if I knew then or could use what I know now.  Frank Sinatra sang he only had a few regrets not worth mentioning.  He is lucky.  My guess is more than a few of us would do at least a few things different.  But regret can never replace experience or forgiveness.  There is also the truth of being blessed beyond measure with life.  God has a way of taking our worst mistakes to make them into something wonderful.  We do have this one single life to live.  My hope is to live it until it ends.

Work stuff is not nearly the same as it was years ago.  I tell people they can have any of my sermon notes should they ask.  What matters to me is the years of research or bible study that went into those messages.  I know far more about how to study in terms of what works for me.  Less time is spent dealing with the incidental in comparison to grasping the ideas of scripture.  Even being able to relate to people is on a different plane than it once was.  Being comfortable with who you are goes far in building relationships with others.  Way too much time was wasted in my youth trying to figure people out.  Aging gives you the insight that people are just people for better or worse. 

So my afternoons will include time to feed birds.  Perhaps they will learn my whistle as we move along.  God cares for those birds far more than I do.  He also cares for us far more than we imagine.  So let us all find daily bread in the comfort of His presence.

Bro. Trey

Doing the same job for thirty years or so can lead to a loss of enthusiasm on occasion.  Most people no longer labor at the same position for years on end.  Our grandparents did settle into a single position for decades way back when.  Most adults today change jobs or even entire careers once if not multiple times.  I read recently of retired coaches who burned with a passion for a lifetime then suddenly retired when their fire burned out.  This is not about boring jobs or hard times but it is about how we approach what we do.  Doing the same thing for years even after we lose interest is not uncommon.  Just having a steady income replaces that desire to matter in our world.  It does happen.  But my journey is not yet at that point.

We studied a single book of the Bible to open this year.  1 John served as our beginning series for the last nine weeks or so.  Dealing with a single book has advantages in what I do.  Perhaps the best thing is you always know where you left off and where you pick up the following week.  Enjoying your preparation is always key to making any sermon much less single sermon come alive.  A downfall is when you draw to a close there are just as many studies you could go back to deliver.  By then it is time to move on to a new set of sermons to bring.  One pastor that I knew would outline an entire year of messages long before they were made public.  Such a discipline is beyond me.  My preference is to do two months or so at the most before changing topics.  So that is what we are doing now.

Lent is the time of the Christian calendar when we look forward to Easter.  Now we as Baptists do not traditionally make a big deal out of this season.  I don't make it anything official but there is an awareness of this observance in the back of my mind.  Some years I will take the lectionary to follow along with the suggested scriptures each week.  Going in a new direction kept coming to my mind the last few weeks while thinking and praying.  So this year our focus will be on grace.  We may use a few of the texts found in the lectionary guide to worship.  But we will not be tied to its progression.

Starting out on a new adventure in preaching still excites me.  Comparing it to planning for a game in the athletic field would be a good analogy.  My heart and mind will still race as I gather the topics or scripture to study each week.  Maybe there is a smidgen of creativity in me that gets my motor going at the start.  Let me be honest to say that where it often breaks down is in developing the overall idea for the series.  Just saying that the topic is grace may strike a chord among the regular church member but it may not get to my purpose.  I would love nothing more than to do better at this.  But the point of all of this is to say the excitement is still here.  That is a sign of life.  When that spark fades is when I know it's time to shut it all down.  For now we will just keep churning out studies which will keep the fires burning.

Bro. Trey

We could write tonight about any number of things.  I was watching the Oscars just before getting online.  There is a much different feel this evening as they seem to just be nicer than usual.  Even the speeches are unusually eloquent.  But we won't get into that this time.  Writing on the problems in Russia could be timely.  Who couldn't see the handwriting on the wall when Ukraine began having real problems?  We will skip that one also.  I could talk about the awful weather of today.  March surely has its own set of weirdness when it comes to the climate.  Let's skip that one also.  Seems like there was one more idea but it escapes me at the moment.  So perhaps memory loss will be a topic soon.  Well, it will be if I remember it.

Our town is doing something unique that perhaps you read about last summer.  Four of our churches gather once a month or so now to worship together.  All of this started last summer on a whim or wild idea of mine.  Nobody could ever anticipate what would come of this.  You would think this was the greatest idea since sliced bread.  I would have to agree though what the big idea was before bread was sliced is unknown.  Something happens when congregations come together that does not happen any other way.  There is the Baptist church, the Methodist church, the Christian church and a non-denominational church who meet regularly.  When you draw a decent crowd in the midst of torrential rain along with a cold polar wind then you know something is going right. 

But there is one thing even beyond that which some may not realize is also a terrific blessing.  Four men are meeting to be alone and just talk about whatever comes to mind.  Our pastors are growing a resource in each other we never knew before.  Conversation runs from what our goals are in the community to just picking on each other.  Giving a hard time to the Methodist minister is fun since he is kind of new to the whole pastor thing.  We also ride the Christian minister as he is a newlywed.  You may think he is young from that statement but he was a widower prior to this occasion.  All of it is done with great love that seldom develops among ministers.

You would need to know that pastors or ministers do not always make friends easily.  We may have relationships based on what another can do for us.  That is pretty common among my tribe of Baptists.  There are times a connection happens over issues within a denomination.  We have to choose a group to align with then these guys become your companions.  But here is a place where we simply exist to be there for the other.  I really believe any of us could go to another with heartbreak or celebration just for the honesty of the moment.  You can feel a closeness among us when together.  My career spans about thirty years so far.  Let me count on one finger how often this type of relating became real.  My one prayer is it will continue as well as thrive.  I hope you will do the same.

Bro. Trey