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Weekend Recap – 12/22/13

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My 12/22/13AM sermon, God-Centered Christmas from Luke 2:1-7, is now online.  The sermon sought to showcase how God and Christ are seen in the Christmas story so that we might believe and worship God for His amazing plan in sending His Son.  I hope it does this for you and you spend time this week marveling at God becoming man.

My Christmas Heritage

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Remembered a story I had heard at my Grandpa Lemay’s funeral visiting with family and got permission to post it here.  It was written up for our family’s newsletter and called Christmas In Tonica.  The Gpa Lemay in this story is my great grandfather…

Grandpa Lemay accepted a job to run a farm implement store up North and moved his wife, six children and Grandpa Denny to the little village of Tonica, IL. Three weeks after arriving there the farm store burned to the ground. Grandpa picked up whatever odd jobs he could and looked for other work. Eventually the railroad decided to re-open the depot in Tonica and Grandpa was hired to run it. They all worked at the depot for weeks cutting down the tall grass, pulling weeds, scrubbing the inside, doing repairs, etc. Two days before it was scheduled to re-open, Grandpa received a telegram saying that they had changed their mind and decided not to re-open the depot after all. Grandpa was back to picking up odd jobs and the family struggled to make ends meet and put food on the table thru that fall and into the winter.

Christmas came and Grandpa Denny walked the children to church for the Christmas Eve service. Mom said that there was the most beautiful tree in the church and she sat there and just drank it in so that she could remember it when so got home, because there was not going to be any tree at their house. She had been hearing her friends talk about what they were going to get for Christmas and she knew that she and her brothers and sisters were not going to get anything. So, she sat there trying to listen to the service, but feeling sad and gloomy about the Christmas that wasn’t coming to their house. And then, she would feel guilty because that wasn’t what Christmas was about – it was about the birth of Jesus and she should be feeling happy and joyous about the birth of her Savior. It was a long, hard service for that little nine year old girl.

After church they began their trek home. The snow was falling softly and the world seemed quiet and peaceful. Grandpa Denny started them singing Christmas Carols to pass the time as they walked. Their house was up on a hill and shortly before you got to it, there was a creek with a wooden bridge across it. When they got to the bridge, Grandpa Denny exclaimed in his booming Irish baritone, “Raise your voices, children. How is the Lord going to hear you praising Him when you are singing like that? Raise your voices and praise the Lord, now.” Of course, they had no way of knowing that they were not just praising the Lord – they were also signaling the people gathered in their house.

Mom said that all of a sudden there were tiny little lights that looked like fireflies in their parlor. But, that couldn’t possibly be because the parlor was always closed off and no one ever went in there! But as they got closer the lights began to look like little flames – candle flames! Could it possibly be! Her heart was filled with such excitement as they all dashed into the house. And there, in the parlor, was a Christmas tree decorated with beautiful ornaments and covered with tiny lighted candles. While they were gone the neighbors had brought in the tree and decorated it. And they had brought one present for each of the children and food and candy and all sorts of goodies. The neighbors stayed and everyone visited and ate and laughed and wished one another, “Merry Christmas.”

And it was indeed the very Merriest Christmas. Mom lived to be 90 and she always said that was the best Christmas she ever had. As I was cleaning out her dresser after she passed away, I found one little silver Christmas tree candle holder carefully wrapped in tissue paper at the bottom of a drawer. It wasn’t from that night as it looked relatively new. I don’t know where she had found it, but I certainly know the memory that it held for her.

LRC Email – The Side of Caution

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alums for 12/16/13:

Are you paralyzed to error on the side of caution?  I know I am.  As we’ve rounded out this year thinking about the “gap” that exists between where we believe things need to be and what our realities are, one thing we don’t like to admit is how much we are driven by the path of least resistance, erring on the side of caution or never ever upsetting the apple cart.  The only problem with being paralyzed by this way of thinking is that it rubs against a core leadership principle: leadership is risky. 
On this day many years ago, our country’s founders decided to engage in an act of leadership and rebel against King George by dumping some tea in the harbor (the Boston Tea Party).  Undoubtedly, they were driven to do something out of norm.  We love stories like this.  We don’t typically celebrate the acts of leadership that never had any risk to them.  Now, I am saying that engaging in acts of leadership can be risky and not necessarily encouraging you to be reckless.  The risk for many of us is simply doing things a little differently than we typically have done them in the past or like we typically do them.  By experimenting in this small way, I believe we can make progress in the gap.
So, as this year moves toward an end, what acts of leadership—even daring, risky acts of leadership—do you need to engage in?  What kind of progress might you make in the “gap” if you did things just a tad differently?  That’s what “leadership is risky” is all about. 

With you in this risky adventure…

Weekend Recap – It’s Time

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My 12/15/13AM sermon, In the Fullness of Time, from Galatians 4:4-5 is now online.  We had a great morning singing songs of our Savior’s coming to save, Children serving the congregation by presenting the Song of the Stars musical and lots of energy.  My sermon got at how God sent His Son to redeem and adopt sinful humanity.  I hope it served everyone well.

Hope you had a great Sunday, too.

Review of Disney’s Frozen

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Here’s the trailer:

I got to watch this movie over Thanksgiving break as Meg and I took our nieces and nephew to the theater with our oldest 2 to watch it.  We were pleasantly surprised with the quality, story and overall positive message this movie propelled.  Here are three things:

1) The movie “felt” like other Disney classics.  I, for one, grew up singing Lion King, Little Mermaid and Aladdin songs.  This movie delivered that classic Disney feel with soaring melodies, fun songs and memorable characters.  I even purchased the soundtrack and enjoy remembering the movie’s highlights.

2) The movie helps us get past bitterness.  Ok, a little deeper thought, but by and large people can tend to not open up about problems they face.  Unfortunately, this can be seen in church culture especially at times.  One subtle message brought home powerfully was the danger holding all of this in and how it wrecks you.  The Bible speaks of bitterness as a damaging root.  The bitter root of the older sister helps drive the plot of this movie and drives the plot of much of what we read on Facebook or other places where we tend to hold our problems in.  Don’t be given to such things, but be open and move ahead in progress.

3) Finally, and most encouraging is the clear Gospel message.  Trevin Wax quoted Gene Fant’s piece and I could agree more.  He writes: “The film’s world had been plunged into the deepest darkness of winter, families were torn apart, evil was sneering and shameless, everything was falling apart and when the young woman dies, it looks like all is lost. Then something amazing happens: We realize that her death was the antidote for all that was wrong. She returns to life. And spring returns. And relationships are healed. And evil is exposed and brought to justice. And joy returns. In our theater, the audience erupted into cheers. I was dumbfounded by the movie’s final twenty or so minutes. It was an astoundingly clear parable of the Christian Gospel…”

So, take in this tremendous film. Enjoy it. But be mindful of how it points to something greater: the true and better sacrifice of God’s Son so that people can relate rightly to God the Father.

Music Review – Folk Angel’s All the Earth Rejoice

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Been listening A LOT to Folk Angel’s All The Earth Rejoice.  If you don’t know Folk Angel, according to their website, they “write and rearrange traditional Christmas songs, and through that creative process, retell the Gospel story that illuminates all things.”  I have most all of their projects, but this most recent one has been getting a lot of play, mainly because I enjoy the stylistic diversity.  There are traditional songs redone in fun ways, new songs that help us glorify Christ and songs that I anticipate using in the local church.  My favorite track features Isaac Wimberley and is entitled He Knows.

I can’t say enough to recommend this to you.  But, don’t just take my word for it…go over to the All The Earth Rejoice page and sample each of the songs.  And, then, give them support by purchasing it for your holiday worship and enjoyment.

Folk Angel is also on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram



LRC Email – Your Purpose in the Gap

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Here’s the email I wrote to Leadership Reno County alums today, 12/9/13: So it’s been a couple of weeks and I thought I’d check back in. First off, I might remind you that I’ve been writing about how there is a huge gap between our current reality and our expectations. Part of my contention was that bridging the gap between those challenges we face and where we’d like them to be takes us acting different. It requires us to engage in an act of leadership, which will help move people to difficult work. We talked a bit about authority and how anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere; it’s not just the most gifted people at the table that can bridge the gaps you see in your reality. We also mentioned how these acts of leadership start with you and engage others. Too often, we’re sitting waiting for someone else to act not realizing that we have the capability to engage. Today, I want us to think about the gap and how a clear purpose helps our way of behaving in the gap. You might recognize that sometimes the gap is a scary place. People of all different political stripes and spectrums think that engaging in the gap requires this or that. In other words, progress may look different to different people. Moving from our current reality to make things better needs a clear purpose. This way, the focus isn’t on the change but on the purpose. This is hard to do. We want to focus in our results and effects. But, if we spent more time thinking purposefully about our engagement, I believe we’d make more progress. So, today, take this idea out for a spin by clearly articulating why you do what you do. And why is that true? And why do you that? And why is that so important? Press those why questions and see if you get at a purpose that isn’t so disagreeable as much as something that must be pursued at all costs. Seeking to be purposeful with you….

Weekend Recap – It’s Christmastime…

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My 12/8/13 sermon, Christmas In Revelation, is now online.  In it, I try and unpack the meaning of Christmas in the book of Revelation, showing how the eternal GodMan took on flesh, brought salvation to all and is coming again.  We had a great morning looking at these things.

I mentioned Jared Wilson’s blogpost Don’t Let Christmas Distract You From Jesus, so go over there and read it…

And, I was encouraged by 2 ladies singing Born Is the King.  Here’s the track with lyrics: