Youth Night, 1/27/06

So we had our first youth night in over a year. There was a lot of interest in doing it, a lot of excitement leading up to it... but lots of spiritual warfare. In the week leading up to youth night, and the day of, lots of things came up that kept many families away... and it was a little odd at first having a youth night where the adults outnumbered the youth by a factor of just over 2:1... but God was in it, and we were all very blessed.

Chuck Wiltshire shared from the Word a good exhortation to "get in the Word!"

Then we burned stuff.

Much fun.

Chuck sharing from the Word...

...take 'em to the mattresses...

...more of the mattresses...

The fires grow...

Reba likes the fire...

...and the fire likes Reba.

Joseph gets a wee tad close...

Larry, Master of Fire and Flame

Why go to church?

My lovely and gracious wife sent me this by e-mail... I'd heard it before, and it's been cited before, but never posted to this blog yet before now, so...

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WHY GO TO CHURCH?

If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this!

If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read it.

If you're spiritually curious, there is still hope!

Why Go To Church?

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it
made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he
wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the
life of me, I can't remember a single one of them.. So, I think I'm wasting my
time, and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to
the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some
32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a
single one of those meals. But I do know this... They all nourished me and gave
me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals,
I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for
nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to
nothing.... God is UP to something!

Faith sees the Invisible, Believes the Incredible and Receives the
Impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

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Good point. Don't know how true this anecdote is, but good point. Hebrews 10:24-25.

The RonBlog

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye... I would like to quasi-formally recommend The RonBlog as a weblog worthy of the closest and most thoughtful consideration and ponderance. Pondering. Ponderancing. Whatever.

Ron is a great guy, a fellow Calvary Chapel pastor, and an all-around great guy... but I repeat myself again, repetitively...

Going through old pics...

Going through old pics, ran across this great one of me & the boys at the 2003 Pastors' Conference at Murrieta, CA.

From left to right, we have: Ed Yearack, pastor of Calvary Chapel Grand Rapids, Roger Ulman, pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Kalamazoo Valley, me (hi), pastor of Calvary Chapel of Muskegon, and Dave Halan (aka., the "male model" -- running gag, you really had to be there), pastor of Calvary Chapel Oakland County.

We're at the "Brazillian Steakhouse," engorging ourselves on much dead animals... Mmmmmmm...

As the PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) saying goes, "If God didn't want us to eat animals, He wouldn't have made them out of meat."

Amen, bro... amen...

Psalm 138:2

I will worship toward Your holy Temple, and praise Your Name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your Word above all Your Name.

- Psalm 138:2