The Dad Concept

While working on my Father’s Day talk, I was thinking of all the different situations people face with dads. While some see Dad as a really great, loving guy, many struggle with the very concept. A history of anger, abuse, or abandonment can really mess with someone’s feelings toward dad. Then that gets attributed to God, making him the great ogre in the sky. I think that’s an epic failure.

If the person struggling with dad is a guy, chances are he will be a dad sometime. Then the fun begins. Unless he gets the idea of father sorted out, he may not do real well trying to be one.

So now I have my assignment. I really want to help men get dad right. But it’s going to take some work. I think it best starts with God. If we get the father who is in heaven right, we can be a better father who is on earth. The Bible gives us a lot of material on God as the best father we can imagine. And he offers his Holy Spirit to help us grasp it and heal us where we’ve been messed up.

In order to be a good dad we need a good dad. God can be that. And he provides people with skin on to make up for lost dads.

God has helped me big time by showing me what he is really like and giving me some great role models of dad. I want to be one of those examples.

How about you? What’s your dad concept? Let God improve it. And connect with a father who is on earth. Make it a better Father’s Day.

In Over Your Head

All week I have been thinking about how awesome our youth worship band did last Sunday. Due to a scheduling glitch, our regular worship leader was not going to be there. So we decided to ask the youth band to step up and lead. And lead they did! With a little practice and some great coaching from Emily, Jason and Rosanne, Gabi and her group led us all into God's wonderful presence.

I have to admit I was a little hesitant when we first considered the idea of giving the youth full responsibility for worship. I really like to stretch people and help them move to the next level. But at the same time I never want to throw people out into deep water before they are ready. Well, in this case, they were ready. I'm guessing these guys even impressed themselves with how well they did.

As I look back, God has often put me in situations that were way over my head. It made me depend more on him. And it made me really grateful when he came through. I discovered that he had prepared me better than I had first imagined.

Maybe you feel like you are in over your head. Trust God, get some good coaching and see what God does. You will be amazed.

The Start

I thought I would start a blog as a way to connect with people and share some of my passion and experiences. God is doing some really great things in our church. I’m excited about where we are and where God is taking us.

For example, the Red Bag ministry is going super. In case you aren’t familiar, this is one way we help people become followers of Jesus. They pick up a red bag off the platform after the service, which includes a booklet, Bible, and other helpful info. Someone unpacks it for them and gets to pray with them as they commit their life to Christ. We’ve been doing this for only seven Sundays, and each Sunday but one someone picked up a bag. Wow.

I am in awe of God that we are seeing so many people come to Jesus in our church. This has been my longing for years. I’m also thrilled that we have a great follow-up plan to connect with them and disciple them after they start following Christ.

I can’t wait to see more of what God will do. Expect great things from him in your life, too.