What is Thankfulness?

This past weekend I got the opportunity to take some young men on a road trip to Indiana Wesleyan University. It was a great time, full of adventure, excitement and all around fun. While on the trip I got to visit with family and friends, ones that I have not seen in four years and others that I have not seen since I left Wilmore, KY. Getting to reconnect and talk about life made me become really thankful or appreciate the things I do have. Like friendship hear in North Carolina and friendships that will not change no matter how far away we may live from each other.

Wikipedia says, thankfulness “is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.” While this statement is true, I think that real thankfulness is much deeper than this. True “thankfulness” comes from the heart, soul, mind and strength, it comes from the whole being of the person. It is more than an emotion or attitude, it is part of a person’s character.

I am not trying to say that I or anyone who is truly thankful is better than anyone else. I am simply saying that those who know thankfulness experience life at a deeper level. When I started to see the faces of friends, I knew I was truly thankful and that my life was much deeper than I realized.

Saying “thank you” for someone who opened the door for you is great. Giving “thanks” before you eat your dinner tonight is wonderful, but are these just words? Or does your whole being express thankfulness? When you get ready to cut into that turkey on Thursday how will you express your thankfulness towards God, family and friends?

I believe it can be as simple as letting grandma get the last slice of pecan pie or letting your father set in the best sit to watch the big game. What ever the action or the words, do they comes from a passing emotional experience or do they come from something much deeper and lasting?

Special thanks to Jeremy B. for going on the trip to Indiana Wesleyan with me and the guys.

Change . . .

King Whitney Jr once said, "Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."

Over the past few weeks I have been feeling the stresses of change, not only in my own life as I move into a new place in life. Aka North Carolina, but also at church. Whitney Jr.'s words ring through in my life as I have learned to seek value, find encouragement and even see the joy in change.

I am not saying it is easy, but as he stated "it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better." I hope and pray anyone reading this blog does not hear me say that the past is bad or wrong, but just a starting point. God is all about change, creating and recreating flows out of His deep love for humanity. Out of that I find my encouragement to move forward and find the ways of making things better.

Six weeks down!

I can’t believe it has already been six weeks since I started working as the assistant pastor at Ramseur Wesleyan Church (RWC). It has been a full and eventful six weeks; I have been to camp meeting for the district, district conference, preached twice, taught some leadership courses for the youth ministry, attended LBA meetings, chaired a Christian Education Board meeting, worked with different areas on what fall ministries will look like around RWC and started setting up shop in my new office.

I know see RWC as home and the congregation as family, it is a church about 200 to 215 on a normal weekend. She has two services a contemporary and a traditional, with sunday school sandwiched between them. The sunday school ministry is bursting, there was about 150 some people last weekend. The church has a great heart and a deep passion for fellowship, where a normal church in america would greet for about two minutes each sunday morning this church greets for about six or eight. They love to fellowship and greet each other, but it does not end there. They want to reach out with love to the community, through their children’s and youth ministries, and along with a partnership with others churches in the area to run the Ramseur food pantry.

I am not sure what God has planned for this church or myself, but I know God has blessed these people and I am thankful that He has allowed me to join the staff here at RWC.

General Superintendent Jo Anne Lyon

On June 9th,The Wesleyan Church come into a new chapter of life. Since our planting in the 1800's we have supported women in ministry and women having equal rights in life and society, but never a woman in the highest leadership position of the church. That has changed, Jo Anne Lyon CEO and Founder of World Hope International has become our first woman General Superintendent.

After "accepting her new assignment, Dr. Lyon challenged the church to go places it never has gone before. 'I believe the Lord is positioning The Wesleyan Church to have a voice in the 21st century like never before, ' she said." (take from http://www.wesleyan.org/doc/news#bk95)

After attending the whole General Conference, I was challenged by Dr. Lyon's words and her passion for a social holiness that flows out of a deep personal holiness. This will be a great new chapter in The Wesleyan Church. I am ready to go into the local church and live out holiness of heart, powered by the Holy Spirit.

General Conference ‘08

It is time again for another General Conference of The Wesleyan Church. It is my first time attending and it is in a great location sunny Orlando, FL. Over the next few days we will hear about the past 40 years of ministry and a vision for the next. There are some very interesting items coming to the conference floor; that will be voted and discussed. It should be a great time in Orlando for The Wesleyan Church.

The Search . . .

Over the past six months I have been seeking God’s will and guidance on which church I will be going to. During that time doors have opened and closed, I have been discouraged but I have also learned a lot about who God has created me to be. The last church I visited was a nice church with a deep passion for the Bible and loving people. I interviewed for a youth and college position, through the weekend God really laid a deep passion for discipleship and spiritual formation on my heart. This is not new, but it did help me see a little more of the direction God is leading me down.

While the Saturday afternoon of my graduation has come and gone. And I now hold a master’s degree of divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary, and it is great to be done with all the class work and assignments. I find myself seeking God more and more, asking those questions of where and when. What does the future hold and what direction do I walk. I know it is connected with spiritual formation and discipleship, but is it as a small group pastor or a small church pastor? I am not sure, but I know God is still God, and He has not brought me to this open for nothing.

What are Spiritual Disciplines?

Many of you know that my connection group on Wednesday nights is studying spiritual disciplines using Coach Drury's book. Each week we study a different discipline, but we always come back to asking what the purpose of spiritual disciplines are? Susanne Johnson says, "Spiritual Discipline is not a program of self-improvement, not an ideal to be striven for, not a set of tasks to be accomplished. It is, rather, a way of posturing ourselves to receive God's work 'for us' through Israel and in Jesus Christ."

Many times as Christians we see spiritual disciplines as something we do in order to grow spiritually, but since it is 'spiritual' it follows out of who God is. Spiritual Disciplines become ways that we partner with God in His work in our lives. Spiritual disciplines are less about what we do and more about who we are and becoming.