"A New Heaven and A New Earth"

I'm kind of excited. I get to preach this morning. And I get to preach on Revelation 21:1-7. Not my fault. It's the lectionary's fault. Someone else decided it would be a good text to preach on the fifth Sunday of Easter so I decided I would go with it. What a beautiful text! You should read it...when you have time. Our community needs to hear it today. We have had a one heck of a week. But, Sunday's a comin'! It is such a hopeful passage and is so powerful when you think of the context of preaching in an inner city church that often feels forgotten. To realize that Heaven comes down to us in the form of a city is an awesome thing. Have a great Sunday!

Struggle Today

Good evening...today was "one of those days." From the beginning it had the thickness of disfunction all over it. We had been in our weekly staff meeting maybe 30 minutes when a guy who has created problems for six years showed up, expected us to pay his cab bill and then began making threats toward the pastor and his family and cursing at the top of his lungs. We called the cops...twice. They came...twice. He is quite possibly one of the most difficult people I have ever seen...when he is on crack. When clean, he is as meek as a lamb. Then I got to deal with two people who have consumed much of our time in the past two months. Quite possibly the most disfunctional relationship I have ever witnessed. Both are good people, both are crack addicts and professional liars. I then went to speak with a guy I like a whole lot who lives in our recovery house...he is a wonderful guy but struggles with an addiction that is getting the better of him right now. He is smart, funny and capable of so much more. I tried to talk with him about going to treatment. We'll see where it goes. Hopefully he will let me know something on Thursday. I drove home thinking about boundaries...still struggling with boundaries. I have always worked in contexts where guidelines and rules were followed and everyone could follow them and if not, there were consequences. I am now working in a context where all the folks who couldn't follow them come! And we are supposed to provide structure and a model of living for these folks. The problem is confounding and troubling to me. I want it to be so easy. I want it to be black and white. It would be so much easier. Am I wrong for feeling this way?

Going...Home?

It's been a busy few days. Traveled to Kansas City to sing in a wedding for a family we know and used it as a really good excuse to visit with some friends while there. We had hoped to spend a lot of time at the reception but Sam had other plans and decided to poop his pants! So...we left. We had a great time at Central Church of the Nazarene on Sunday morning and were able to connect up with many, many people that we love very much. It was really cool. We've been gone since December and in some respects it felt like we had never left. I think that's the way it is supposed to feel when you go "home." I never thought I would think of Kansas City as home but I guess I kind of do now. SO many wonderful people helped make up a great part of our lives there and loved us and our boy so much. We had a great time. Sam slept for three hours on the way home!

I started my first day of "Boot Camp" this morning at 6am. I heard about this through a friend and it was as tough as I thought it would be. It felt like football two-a-days all over again! I'll probably throw up tomorrow, but that's ok. I'll feel better when these 30 days are over...and then I may do it all over again. To this point in the day, I have consumed 80 ounces of water...which is not common for me. How do people do this all day? I've been in the bathroom for a quarter of my day! But I do feel pretty good though. I won't in the morning. I hate "core" work. I wish they would just let me do what I'm good at...bench presses, squats, deadlifts...anything but situps!

An Awesome Day!

It was a special day at OKC First. It was a commissioning service for Amy and I...and for the people of OKC First as they, in a sense, committed just like we did to serving at Penn Avenue. It was amazing. I've never been a part of a service like that. I suppose that's because this situation is so unique. A church in OKC sending missionaries to another church 10 minutes away. It was special. But it really wasn't about us. It was about Penn Avenue and OKC First. Our goal is to provide a conduit between the two churches, and I think we accomplished that today. My friend, Jeremy Lamb, started things off great singing his song (scroll down on the blog and you can hear and see it!) "The Least of These." From there, Debbi McCullock shared about Celebrate Recovery and the way that things were beginning to set up to eventually start this program at Penn Avenue, with the help of OKC First people. Then, Jon spoke a bit about Amy and I and introduced us as the newest staff members at OKC First. It was a surreal moment as we walked up on to the stage. It truly is a dream come true to be able to serve as a pastor in the church that I really came to know Christ in. Amy and I shared our story and all the elements involved in getting us back to OKC. We tried to share a few stories of the lives changed at Penn Ave. Then, the best part of the service began. Our friend, Anngee, shared her testimony. She spoke for fifteen minutes about how God had changed her...about how he saved her from death and destruction. As soon as she finished, the crowd stood up as though they had rehearsed it and gave her a standing ovation. From the stage view, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Truly a special moment. After that Amy and I sang "The Prayer" as the offering was taken. After the service it became clear that we were able to connect well as people were coming in waves to talk to us and to the folks from Penn Ave about the ministry opportunities there. My heart was jumping inside me. I think God was pleased about what had taken place the hour and a half before. I think he will be even more pleased with what takes place in the future between these two great churches.

Commissioning Service

Well, it's about 1:45 a.m. on Sunday morning, April 13th. I confess I'm still up. I haven't even tried to go to sleep yet. I suppose that's because I'm excited. God is up to something. We get to go to church in a few hours at OKC First Nazarene. The place where I really started to grow in my faith. It's the place that has shaped me more than any other. I've been to OKC First a number of times over the past several years. But today is different. We are going, Amy, Sam and I...to be commissioned as missionaries from OKC First to Penn Avenue Nazarene. Amazing. Who new back in October what God would have in store for us as we took a leap of faith to come back to OKC to follow God's call. Who would have thought that I would have the opportunity to work alongside my childhood youth pastor who now serves as the senior pastor? Who would have thought that Amy and I would finally get a chance to work together doing what we REALLY wanted to do all along? Oh that we can say what God wants us to in a couple of hours. Thank God that he is faithful.

The Least of These

This is a friend of mine from Penn Avenue who wrote an incredible song. He's a talented guy, but the words of this song are directly from the heart of a man who gets it because of Christ's work in his life.

A New Video!

This is our newest video from OKC Compassion. A special Thank You! to Carl Zoch for putting this together for us. It's just the first of many more to come! Thanks so much Carl. I hope it begins to help tell the story for more of you. These are our people and we love them.

Been Too Long!

Hi everyone,

First off, let me apologize for my lack of posts over the last several weeks. I really don't have a good excuse for it, as I feel that it is one of my jobs to communicate to the world what is taking place at Penn Ave./OKC Compassion. So much has happened since I posted last, so I'll try and pick up where I left off. Amy, Sam and I just returned from a week of vacation in Estes Park, Colorado. It was our first vacation with Sam...and nobody warned us that it would be different than ever before! We had a great time with Cory, Vanessa and Ava Stipp...some friends from KC. But, it wasn't what you would call a restful vacation. But that's OK. We had some funny and expensive moments while on the trip. First off, we got a foot of snow in Estes the night that the Stipps made the trip. Did I mention that our condo was halfway up a mountain? They drive a van. The van didn't do so well. It got stuck about 1oo yards from the condo at 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning. Cory then decided to carry their luggage up the side of the mountain to the condo and he was wearing a headlamp. A true mountain man...it was hilarious! It wasn't all on Cory, though. I decided that it would be a good idea to run directly into a curb at about 20 miles an hour. Blew it out and found out when I returned home that I needed to replace both hubs because my bearings on both sides were damaged. Not good. That cost about 700 dollars. Keep those donations coming! Hopefully I won't have to use them on tire and car repair too often! Amy was kind of enough to let me attempt skiing for the very first time. Now that was fun! But very tiring. I could easily see how a person could die on the side of a mountain. Cory is much better than me! We had a good time and got to be with some good friends. It really was a lot of fun. We are thankful for the folks who allowed us to go and stay in the condo at a very reduced rate :). Thanks for vacation God! I'll post again soon!