The Standards of the Future

This is the week we give four issues of Christian Standard to the printer: June 3, 10, 17, and 24. Our managing editor, Jim Nieman, spreads the color page proofs out on a countertop for one last check before uploading them. There was room there for three of the four issues today. The fourth issue was getting corrections and layout changes on the computer. He'll print the final proof for that issue tomorrow.

We have some good things coming in June:

June 3: advice for fitness from Dale Holzbauer (he has quite a testimony).

June 10: encouragement from Wayne Smith in his classic message, "Playing Hurt."

June 17 and 24: two issues helping us confront the question of immigration. Two essays offering different points of view on what the Bible says plus testimonies from Christian leaders involved with immigrants and portraits of undocumented immigrants and their experience in the United States. We hope the issues will stimulate healthy conversations among concerned Christians in many places.

Actually there's more than all that in these four issues, and I'm looking forward to reading the comments from our readers.

A Good Day

"Isn't it interesting," Tom Moll said in his sermon this morning, "that the first church received no instruction to meet on the first day of the week. But from the earliest days of the church, they consistently met on Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of the Lord."
I'd never thought of it that way; I think it's a good point to realize that for 2,000 years Christians have consistently met on Sunday to worship the Lord, primarily because of the example of those in the first church and in the generation before them.
My wife and I go to church every Sunday. Once every so often business  or even pleasure travel keeps us away from church, and  I can miss without feeling guilty in those situations.
But it never occurs to either of us NOT to go to church on a typical Sunday--here or on the road. I know most readers of this blog are of the same mind. But I remember a Christian Standard column Paul Williams wrote some time ago reporting that church leaders now call those who come a couple of times a month "regular attenders." Ethan Magness told me about an interview with a new Christian at his church:
"So how often do you figure a person should come to church?" the new Christian asked Ethan.
"Well, we think people should come every week," Ethan said.
"R-e-a-l-l-y!" the guy responded. He was shocked.
I wasn't shocked at church today. I was blessed, though. And I usually am, even when I'm not expecting it. Besides the thought Tom's sermon stimulated, at church today we had meaningful, sometimes fun, conversations with several people we saw there--folks involved in our lives in many different ways, several of them for many years.
We stayed for the beginning of the Classic Praise Service to hear the special four pianos, eight hands prelude several friends played as the prelude to the service. "Special." Yes. But in a way typical too. There's too much too good at our church to risk attending only once or twice a month.
And of course, this is more special than just come club or group of acquaintances whose company I can't miss. The fellowship factor is important, but God is at work at church in ways that don't impact me in other settings.
Sunday. It's a good day. It's the Lord's Day. It's when we go to church.

Shower of Blessings

Ken and Susan came in yesterday evening so Susan could attend a wedding shower for Jennifer at Christ's Church at Mason today. Just as they arrived, our Internet went out, and I spent an hour on the phone with Cincinnati Bell trying to solve the problem before giving up and yielding to hunger pangs and going to dinner. Finally last night about 11:30, I checked one more time and the Internet popped on. I quickly posted yesterday's blog post, which I had written but not published before the Internet went down. Whew! I thought for a minute there I was going to miss my goal of one post per day.

Ken and I went to lunch with Sam Stone while Gwen joined 15 or 20 other ladies for Jennifer's shower. All reports afterwards were more than positive. Laughter, almost some tears, wonderful gifts, great visiting and catching up--just a foretaste of all the fun we'll have at Jennifer's wedding reception (which somebody reminded me today is NEXT MONTH!). 

"Maybe it's because it was yours," Evelyn said to Jennifer on the way home, "but I think that's the most fun I've had at a shower in a long time."

We piled the gifts on the dining room table so Jennifer could look at them again and show them to me. There's leftover carrot cake in the kitchen, and we're going to enjoy some soon!

Mary Lautzenheiser and Cindi Cooper planned and hosted the shower. What a nice thing they did!

Evelyn, Carol Ray, Joan Maxell, Susan Aulen, and Jennifer let me snap their picture as they arrived for the party.

Mary made the centerpiece, a tower of towels and cloths and other
kitchen necessities, all atop a nifty over-the-sink cutting board
and colander combination thingy.

It's All About Choices

Took time away from work today to attend the Chick-fil-A Leadercast, hosted by Prasco in Mason, Ohio. They had an overflow crowd at the beautiful Prasco facility, part of 125,000 nationwide who viewed the sessions via uplink satellite as well as several thousand who attended live in Atlanta.

There were many inspiring and helpful sessions. The theme of the day was choices. "All choices lead you somewhere. Where they lead is up to you." The first session, led by Andy Stanley, was probably the best one.

He said a leader is the one not intimidated by the uncertainty he's facing. An effective leader, he said, acknowledges, "I may be in charge, but I don't have all the answers."

In the face of uncertainty, effective leaders ask themselves three questions, he said:

1. "What would my replacement do?"

This brings remarkable objectivity to the decision-making process. And "losing objectivity can sink you."

2. "What would a GREAT leader do?" This question takes you out of the smallness of your personality and your environment. It leads you to consider the right course of action driven by the mission and vision of the organization and away from your concerns about self, income, or the reactions of the board.

Bill Baumgardner and I posed during
one of the breaks.

3. "What story do I want to tell?" "Every time you make a decision," Stanley said, "ask yourself, 'When I'm sittin' around talkin' about this later, what do I want to tell?' Don't choose anything that will make you a liar in the future. Make decisions that create a story you're proud to tell. Money comes; money goes. Your story is with you forever."

The program featured Tim Tebow, Soledad O'Brien, John Maxwell, Marcus Buckingham, Patrick Lencioni, plus others. A couple of the speeches were summaries of new books, but the content was good, and I'm guessing I ought to read the books!

I'm glad I attended.

Got to see Ed and Angie Carl, Dale Reeves, Lindsay Black, Scott Gibson, Larry Travis, and Bill Baumgardner, among others. It was a good day. I made a good choice by deciding to be there instead of behind my desk at work.

First Visit of the Season to the Cone!

New Church Initiative

 Yesterday I attended a lunch hosted at Mason Christian Village with a bunch of Cincinnati-area ministers and other church leaders. The agenda was to share information about a new church-planting start-up group for the Greater Cincinnati area.

They're calling it New Church Initiative. It's goal is to partner with other church-planting efforts and organizations to start new churches between Northern Kentucky and Dayton. 

"Church planting is the most effective means of evangelism on the planet," Jeff Metzger told the crowd. "I heard Donald MacGavran say that in the 80s, and now I've experienced it myself." To highlight the need in our area, which we think of as "churched," he shared some research he did. "On a typical Sunday, 8.4% of the population in Clermont County attends church. In communist China, the figure is 8.3%!"

"We want to create a high-output, no-overhead organization," he said. He will serve as a trustee of the new effort, along with Don Sams, Stephen Sams, and Larry Travis, who will also serve as the director. (Larry is also serving as associate minister with the Riverhills church where he will have his office for both jobs.)

"I believe every church, every Christian should be involved in new church planting," he said. And every speaker encouraged us to remember that the gifts of many Christians throughout the area can combine to make new church planting happen here. 

This is a worthy goal, pursued by men with pure motives, it seems to me. I'm glad I was there to witness something close to the birth of New Church Initiative.

Right Here, Under the Rainbow(s)

Evelyn called me while I was getting my hair cut to say she was in the basement. "They say the tornado is heading east from Indiana, and people close to the outlet mall should take cover." We're one exit south of the outlet mall, so she took cover.
It had been pouring rain, torrents of rain for 30 minutes or more. But but the time I was finished at the hair cutter and heading home, the rain was diminishing and the sun was trying to peek through the clouds.
The weather warning blared on the radio, and the voice said a tornado was headed across I-75 and toward Lebanon and Warren County. Or at least that's what I thought I heard it say. I looked to the northeast, and the clouds seemed angry and blue-gray above the horizon, but as I headed home, the sky ahead seemed to be clearing.
Evelyn was getting supper ready when I arrived, and we ate without incident.
Later I stepped out on the front porch to look at the sky and smell the clean air. At first I heard the raindrops hitting the leaves of the giant river birch just outside our front door. And then I felt them; by then I was standing on the walk outside our small porch's shelter.
I came inside, and the rain began pelting the roof and our deck harder and harder.
I was reading the chapters in King's Cross for my men's Thursday-morning study. Soon I looked up to see Evelyn heading for the patio sliding glass door. It was still raining, but the sun was shining from the west toward the black clouds in the east. And there was a rainbow, a full rainbow that stretched from one side of the sky to the other. And above it, faintly, a second rainbow!

I must have snapped a dozen pictures. None of them does justice to the brilliant color of this rainbow, maybe the prettiest we've ever seen.
Jennifer kids Evelyn for her recurrent ecstasy whenever a rainbow appears. Her ooo's and ah's and squeals of delight at this one (these two!) were typical. I'll have to admit, the display this evening merited them, immediately brushing aside any other notion of what I should remember about today to record in this diary/blog.