A Day at the Beach

Guest Blogger: Pastor John

Have you ever watched people at the beach? There are all types enjoying the setting in their own particular ways. Some enjoy basking in the sun---very rarely going in the water. Others enjoy walking the beach while taking in the scenery and having a conversation with a friend. Still others will wade into the waves as they break but not venture any further. Some enjoy the water and spend most of their time in the ocean.  A few will try to ride the water with boards and devices.  This is very similar to one’s involvement in mission work. Some people will serve on a missions team only in controlled environments---where they speak a common language or eat food they are familiar with. Others will, over time, attempt a new challenge in a location where the problems come faster and the difficulties are harder. Although the challenges are different, the rewards are as well.

Here is how Metro North Church has created mission opportunities so you can find what God is calling you to do:

In Church Missions -  Serving in the local church as nursery worker, usher, greeter, KICK teacher, youth leader, member of the praise team, productions team, etc. (You are serving with people you know in a relatively known context.)

Local Community Missions –Serving locally outside the church at a soup kitchen, service organization, volunteering at a public school or library, coaching a ball team, etc. (You are serving with people you may not know in a context that may be a little new or even foreign.)

Stateside Missions- Serving on a missions trip in the United States. For Metro North this includes serving on our mission trip to Orangeburg or at a Workcamp. (You are serving in a new context with people who are new, sleeping in a new place, and maybe eating some new foods.)

International Missions – Serving on a foreign mission trip for a time period of one week to one year.  For Metro North we have taken past trips to Jamaica, Bulgaria, and Juarez, Mexico. (Here you will serve people you may never meet again, who speak a different language, and eat strange foods.)

Long-Term Missions - Finally there are those who accept the biggest challenge. They have listened to the call of God to go and serve in other nations for possibly years. They accept the challenge of each new context and trust the Lord to expand His kingdom through them. These are the missionaries we regularly support like the Romans in Bulgaria, The Goodwins in Germany, the Jones in North Africa, and the Bakelaars in Japan. Their sacrifice is huge and we can regularly pray for them as they serve.

What’s the point in all of this? Simply put, God uses each of us in every one of these spheres. In each venue He’s calling us to serve and to continually trust Him more as we meet new challenges, learn new truths about Him, and serve new people.

In September our Missions team will begin promoting the available trips for this coming summer, which this year will include a local mission trip, a stateside mission trip and an international opportunity.  Prayerfully consider what God would have you do. Take the first step and start serving in some area of mission!


John Schley
Associate Pastor
Metro North Church

Two Ways to Detrain Godlessness

I’ll admit it.

I’m hooked.

Have you moved from mild allurement to entrenched addiction with the Olympics in Rio yet?

Watching the Olympic athletes compete gets my blood pumping and churning.

Seeing a fellow human being perform with beauty, strength and perfection pleases me at a very deep level.

But when you and I watch these elite athletes compete, we are only seeing the effects of their prior training.

What about all of the painful practice sessions that preceded their performance?

Paul, the famous perfectionist-turned-pastor wrote to his young friend Tim a challenging text message about training a long time ago:

1 Timothy 4:7-8  Rather train yourself for godliness;  8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Did you notice that Tim was challenged to train for something greater than even a sport’s competition?

He was challenged to train for godliness.

·       What exactly is godliness?

The Greeks used the word eusebeia (our word “godliness”) when they wanted to encourage people to devote 100 percent of their heart and soul to the gods.

Paul snatches this over-the-top devotional word and says “Tim, a Christian must train for a life that erupts with 110 percent ardent commitment, loyalty and love for the triune God.”

Is your heart enflamed with inward delight leading to outward acts in the service for our God of love?

Maybe your heart flickers weakly like a candle trying to light the darkness on a windy beach.

Did you know??--Our hearts often fail to exercise a fervent godliness because we live out of our “default training.”

We all exercise practices that give us pleasure and purpose driven by a selfish, godless training regimen.

We work-out in our self-oriented gymnasiums of

-  Excessive Entertainment

-  Excessive Social Media Surfing

-  Over and Under-Eating

-  Workaholism

-  Performancism

-  Substance Abuse

-  Even Athletic Addictions

Paul gave Tim two ways to de-train godlessness.

First, Paul highlighted how godliness holds promise for the present life.

Said another way, devoted commitment to God promises life now.

Life!

A present foundation and feeling of animated vitality connected to the very life of God NOW!

Our default training is to focus on our selfish demands NOW!

But we suck everyone and everything into the black holes of our demanding desires and bring death.

Let’s train for the opposite. 

Let’s respond to God’s outgoing love for us in Christ by training in Godliness and living into Christ as the animating center of all that we think and do.

A devoted concern for God and His glory can break the spell of our obsessive self-concern.

How?  Let’s worship together on Sunday

Pray for each other

Visit each other when we are sick or stuck

Share our stuff with each other

Be interested in the interests of others

and enjoy the joys that God gives us every moment in smaller groups of committed community as we walk through life together.

The second way to de-train godlessness is to look to the future.

The Olympic athlete trains for the future prize.  The gold metal shimmers and glimmers on the horizon of their hope.

For the Christian, we not only have an effervescent, abundant life connected to God and others now, but we have the promise of a life knitted into God and others for eternity.

When we only look down in despair at our present suffering, we get locked in the labyrinth of our default training in self-absorption.

Let’s train for godliness by looking forward and toward our new destiny and hope.

·       Life without a compelling horizon leaves us aimless, adrift and bored.

The Christ-follower is becoming more and more human again as we are living into rich and real relationships centered on God and others.  The kingdom has broken in and re-creation is replacing ruin.  Can you see it?

Hey.  Grab a towel and join me for some training.

We’re gonna need each other as we disengage our default training and train for a life eagerly committed to Jesus.

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

Questions about questions. Curious?

Is it true that a person gives his true self away in the questions he asks?

Did you ever notice that Jesus loved to slip sacred questions into ordinary conversations?

Why did he enjoy and employ so many curious questions?

Was his goal to simply unsettle the settled status-quo or to re-root us into his liberating reality?

     What exactly is a question?

Is it a child-like quest that seeks and searches playfully for a reply?

Why do children love questions, live with questions and bounce like a ball through life by questions?

Why did Jesus ask “Can any of you add a single hour to your life by worrying?” (Matthew 6:27)

Why didn’t he just give a solid statement like “Worry is a waste of time and it can’t prolong your life so STOP!”?

Why do statements seem to bounce off of our bullet-proof hearts while questions seem to slide and soak in, like soft butter oozing into hot bread?

Why did Satan ask Eve “Did God really say you must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1)

Did that question slither into Eve because of its oily deceptiveness?

Why did Jesus ask two blind men “Do you think I can do this?” (Matthew 9:28) before he switched on their sight?

Do you think his question was aimed to help them to say what they saw—to help them to see his strength more than their sightlessness?

     Why is it so easy to ignore and refuse a true fact aimed directly at us?

Why do we tighten up and experience a temporary incapacitation after being tased with a truth?

After a good question skips into our situation-- like a flat rock skipping on the surface of a lake-- why do we feel free and released as it finally sinks into us and rests on the floor of our heart?

Why does a great question offer a warm invitation to throw open all the windows and locked doors of your soul to allow the fresh air in?

Why does a question have the Ninja-like ability to sneak over, under, around and even through our defensive mind-armor?

Why did Jesus ask his Father-- as he hung on the cross, in searing pain for sinners who abandoned him--,  “Why have you abandoned me?”

Was this question by the sinless Christ out of the question?

Does God conquer or sponsor death as we consider the cross?

     Why did God ask Adam and not Eve “Where are you?” after they both sinned?

Why didn’t God give immediate justice to both of them and instead gave Adam this undeserved question?

Since God knows everything, when he asked Adam “Where are you?” was God really needing more information?

Did God ask Adam about his whereabouts to gracefully assist Adam to assess and address his spiritual location and situation?

After Adam answered God with a statement of fear and nakedness and hiding, why did God reply back with another question: “Who told you that you were naked?” instead of a quick verdict of condemnation?

Was God kindly helping Adam to assess and admit the self-focused sources of authority Adam was trusting instead of God?

Why did God ask the final question, “Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?”

Was God trying to make Adam guilty?

After Adam transferred blame onto the woman, and the woman transferred blame onto Satan, why did God transfer blame onto innocent animals and clothe our first parent’s shame in innocent skins of grace?

Does our current culture even admit that guilt is real?

Doesn’t our current culture teach that guilt is unreal and should be ignored and replaced with self-love?

     Has the church been salted and lit by the statements of the world?

What if you asked a person who would deny the reality of guilt “Do you believe in forgiveness?” before you blasted them with a statement like “You are guilty and a sinner!”?

Wouldn’t that person most likely admit that they believed in forgiveness?

Don’t we all have a primal belief in forgiveness or at least hope that it might be true?

Wouldn’t it be better to ask a person “Do you believe in guilt?” only after you asked them “Do you believe in forgiveness?”

Since imitation just might be the highest form of worship, what if Christ-followers asked more questions, imitating Christ’s style of life, and gave less conclusions?

What if the next time you experienced a yuck-producing disagreement with a lover, friend, son, daughter, or boss you became more curious about why they disagreed instead of shooting statements at them?

Why did Jesus say “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die, Do you believe this?” (John 11:27)

Do you believe this?

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

How to Slow Down the "Busy Blender"

Continue reading ONLY if you are a busy person.

Continue reading ONLY if you have texted while driving in the last 24 hours.

OK. Thanks for the honesty.

·         Have you ever watched the before and after of a fruit smoothie in the making?

I watched one of my kids making one the other day in the following way:

Individual frozen strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries were mixed with orange juice, and Greek yogurt.

The liquefy button was mashed and the blades of the blender began to whirl.

As my ears filled with the screaming roar of the blender, my mind began to realize just how busy my life has been.

·         Are you busy?

·         Are the mini-moments of life overcrowded with buzzing activity?

Would you like to learn two ways to slow down the “busy blender”?

First, know that busyness without a brake leads to burnout.

We all know what it is like to be overdrawn financially.

You live beyond your means.

But do we know that when we live beyond our means with the time God has given to us we become overdrawn in our humanity?

Calculate a quick time budget with me (Are you overdrawn?)

Let’s start with the 168 hours that God gives us each week.

I’ve heard counsellors suggest the following “healthy” time budget:

Sleep:  50 hours (Kinda important for our bodies.  This is applying the brake of rest to our always-on-the-go life.)

Work:  50 hours (We were created to work six days and rest one.  Work is aiming our effort at growing beauty for God’s glory.)

Family:  17 hours (About a “tithe” or tenth of our 168 hours.  Family/spouse time is all about giving undivided ATTENTION to family.)

Care/Recreation/Community:  51 hours (Break it down hourly any way you like…but don’t sacrifice family, work or sleep to get more from these three good things).

·         Care for your stuff (Cars, home, etc.)

·         Recreation (What restores and relaxes you?)

·         Service to others: (Sharing your gifts with your church family and community)

How did you make out?

Are you overdrawn?

Maybe you need to apply the brakes in an area that is blending too many ingredients for your own good.

Maybe you need to scale back and reduce the pace of busyness to avoid burnout.

Secondly, seek to understand the “Why?” behind the need for busyness.

If I’m honest, I usually whip and whirl the opportunities of life together at an inhuman pace because I am addicted to productivity.

I love to set goals, accomplish dreams, enjoy spontaneous opportunities and multi-task to make the most out of every moment.

But why?

Could it be that I equate my productivity with my worth?

Deep down I often see God as my employer rather than my smiling heavenly Father.

This category error pulls the curtain back to reveal the “why?” behind my high-paced productivity.

Listen to this oh so good news!

Psalm 37:7 says “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him.”

Stillness for this Hebrew poet was a motionless silence of active waiting.

It’s like a child playing hide and go seek with her daddy.  As her dad counts to ten, she runs into the bathroom, steps into the bathtub, pulls the shower curtain and enters into a state of stillness.

She stands motionless in silence actively waiting.

Her dad playfully shouts “Ready or not here I come!”

Her pulse quickens as he rattles the bathroom doorknob and slowly slides open the shower curtain.

She screams with joy as she is discovered.

Did you notice that it was in the stillness NOT the busyness that she experienced breathtaking joy with her father?

I want to slow down the blender of busyness and heighten times of playful wonder with God.

·         What would you need to do to slow down the blender of busyness?

As we walk through the door of summertime, let’s enjoy times of stillness before the LORD.

We just might become more human in the waiting.

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church