Walking In Wisdom

It was the 520th Sunday in our history and it was like anyother Lord's Day -- simply special.  I think every Sunday has been my favorite -  as God's people gather and meet with God and each other.  The worship was touching as we focused on unity and God's faithfulness.  We honored  the originals and showed our anniversary video - which we need to make available on You Tube or our website www.newsongfellowship.com. Then our long time friend Dr. Les Ayars shared a message on the basics of ministry -- The Laws of the Harvest.  It was simple and profound!  Four Laws - GO, WEEP, SOW, REAP!  Psalm 126 tells the people of Israel how to go back in the land and start growing a harvest again!  The principles apply to us as well in wantiing to reap a spiritual harvest! Listen to the message on the web. Well next week is 521....Civil Government Sunday!  We start a new decade of devotion all over again!

Saturday evening of this anniversary weekend was dedicated to the original members. We gather this evening for a Hawaiian Luau.  The fact is that as the founding pastor I did not get a trip to Hawai, so we settled for a luau!!!  We enjoyed great food, an entore smoked pig and great fun around the Hawaiian theme (each person assumed the persona of a famous Hawaiian!). 

The highlight of the night was hearing from a myriad of former members sharing about what these past ten years meant to them.  We shed a lot of tears, laughed uncontrollably and praised God for His Faithfulness!  I waws emotionally shot after the evening. I was completely drained. The evening ended with the originals presenting me with one last gift -- a picture!  It was a picture from the balcony during our prayer time when everyone was holding hands....inscribed was the phrase "THE SERVANT"S SECRET"  refering to a message I did in Mark on the power of prayer in the life of Jesus and his ministry!  What a gift and what a truth -- the secret of this servant's ministry is the power of prayer as unleashed by God's people.

What a great night Friday September 26 was when James MacDonald came to town and rocked the flock at L-S high School for our anniversary celebration. With 1000 plus in attendance, we were encouraged by our worship team and chorale. Pastor Brett Lovern did a masterful job as always to help us come into the presence of the Lord. This was a major task in that we were in a "visiting arena" and had to deal with different technical issues. But the fact was it was great!

James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel shared a message from his latest book - 10 Choices that will change your life forever!  The message was - CHOOSE TO TRUST!  It was fantastic. It was a great challenge especially in light of the elections, eonomic conditions and stress of the world!

It was a powerful evening and one that allowed us as a church to minister to the entire Lancaster Christian community!  Thanks to WDAC and their partnership on this evening and WJTL for allowing me and Brett to co-host the morning show and promote the event!

This weekend we finish our tenth anniversary celebration. We began talking about it last year and then in April launched a series of events, videos, testimonies and written correspondence highlighting the fact that God has been in the house at NewSong.  It has been a fantastic time of celebrating what god has done and giving a vision for what he will do in the future!

This past week the staff and elders planned a wonderful service thank me, Kris and Alex as a family for our ministry to the church. Being the founding pastor your personal contribution is blended into the church's history, but we were so encouraged by the tribute and kind words everyone shared. Also we got to have my former pastor from New Hampshire share in the service and preach on "Running to Win."

It has been a wild ten years -- so many challenges, victories, lessons learned and changes personally and in our church. Firday night James MacDonald comes tomorrow (Friday night) and we get to be challenged.  It would be great to se people come to faith in Christ that evening!  Then on Saturday night we get to have the former members, elders and staff for a hawaiian luau!  All in all what a wonderful ten years and tremendous celebration it has been!

.....CEO's and Executives being bailed out of jail! I could write forever about the economic crisis facing the nation right now. It seems inevitable that the government must bail out the financial markets but i want to know -- who is going to jail for this?  I want to know the names of people who are at fault for this horrendous blunder???

Here are some facts.....

1. This all began dueing the Clinton administration when Bill pushed for greater homeownership -- making stupid statementrs like - "every American has the right to own a home"....no they don't!  We have the right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness.... but that5 does not mean a home!  You buy a home when you can afford a home!

2. So to fulfill this notion that every person should own a home, they began to mess with the economy.  Drive interest rates down; loosen up regulations for first time home owners and propably the worst policy - lift the normal and conventional rules on buying a house -- the need for a sufficent and meaningful down payment.

3. Let me talk about a "down payment" -- why is it so important?  The fact is when you put a significant amount of money into a home -- it is more than likely that you will fight to keep the home and not jepordize the lose of that down payment. If you have little in and you are struggling to keep the house -- you basically walk away. Think about it - if you put $5000 down on a home that should have had $20000 down and you have a $1200 monthly payment -- if you don't pay for three or four months and foreclosure procedures begin....anoth three month -- you have recouped your down payment during your lapse of payment!!!  get the picture.

4. Now Bush is not innocent, when he took office, he continued this policy and even encouraged more high risk loanees to get into the game. In 2001 he announced that millions of minorities need to own a house..."whether they can afford it or not." Talk about a stupid line!

5. When the government took this stance - it opened the door for greedy, unethical, money hunger bankers to prey on people's greed and desire to have a home. They began setting up mortgages with little to nothing down; provide a second mortgage to cover the short fall in the downpayment; so home buyers were starting out with two mortgages. Worst they would encourage people to buy more house then they needed or could afford!

6. Now with a whole bunch of people buying homes, housing prices went up because of demand being high. Building homes sky rocketed. Mortgage companies popped up all over. Morrtgages were being issues to homeless, unemployeed and illegal aliens! House values increased. Now with great equity in the home and interest rates falling -- people re-financed their mortgages and took ouyt more money from the banks. They purchased cras, remodeled basements, built pools, took trips, paid for college....and that increased their mortgage!  Still with the original small down payment on the home.

7. 9-11....a war....global economy....out of control spending....job become tight and some of these who bought homes started to default on the loans. When that happened banks start building an inventory of foreclosed properties.  They can't say anything because they are the ones who issued the loans and fudged on the rules. They wake up and they have mre deeds in hand then money in the bank!  Now balance sheets have more liabilities then assets! They try to sell the homes -- and lose money on the homes. The original homeowner has walked away -- why not they lose a few thousand dollars and have paid for college; bought a new car, lived for months free...

8. When the government talks about bail out -- they are in a real sense -- paying for the homes and businesses that these banks hd to foreclose on. The govt scoops up all the deeds and now has a warehouse full of bad paper....they give the money to banks and they start lending money again. There CEO's who allowed this to happen - get a sizable bonis for saving the bank and the shareholders stock values....everyone is happy but...

9. The tax payer is strapped with a 700 billion price tag and a boat load of foreclosed property. The fact is the government will begin to release these homes through government sales and many will purchase homes at staggering discount prices and we will recover. But during that time each tax paying American -- mostly the middle class -- will be asked to fork over thousands of dollars in the next five years to cover the bail out.....not one person in government or the business world will go to jail for mismanagement.  Not one person who walked away from the home will be held responsible. Innocent people -- who work hard -- were faithful to there commitments will be punished.

So what are we to do....PRAY!!!

I remember where i was when JFK was shot....at home recovering from having my tonsils out. When Neil armstrong stepped on the moon...Sunday night, sitting at home, eating a tuna melt - Bonanza was interrrupted. When the Challenger exploded...in my first church office, the secretary called out and told us to look at the TV. 9-11...I was sitting in a seminar in Hickory, NC (just outside Charlotte)....the church secretary busted in the classroom and told us to check it out...I then drove home some 11 hours listening on the radio and stopping at truck stops to find out the latest news.

It is one of thos days you will never forget. I attempted to call friends of mine and make sure they were safe. Sadly I lost three friends in the WTC. As i drove home I kept thinking about how the church was to respond and what a pastor is supposed to do when this kind of thing happens. Whata was interesting was the following Sunday was a special evangelistic day we had planned - VIP Sunday. We really did not have to work hard to fill up the house, our chhurch was packed, as was all the churches. Now some seven years later, the pain, the upheaval and despair of those days that followed have become -- sadly-- a distant thought. I was thinking this morning....what should I remind others about concerning that time and what was important to us.

1. Pray was valued -- even in the public forum. Interestingly we did not invoke the excuse of "Separation of Church and State" if people wanted to pray. They prayed on the Capitol steps; public school; in the workplace; in Malls; everywhere. funny when we are desperate -- we will pray to God for help and no long can stop it.

2. Patriotism was vital -- America had been attacked. As its citizens, we were offended and desired pay back to whoever did this. Not to mention, we said -- either people stand with us or they are against us. There was no middle ground - you were proud to be an American or you were our enemy. How quickly we have backed off that rhetoric.

3. Politics was invisible -- there were no blue and red; dems or GOP; conservative or liberal.  Even if people held to partisenship leanings-- they kept quiet. WE WERE AMERICANS...period! It was completely distasteful to blame anyone or try to use this for a self-serving agenda. Later it was...but not right away.

4. Payback was verocious - Americvans were united and forged in our heart that whoever and what ever did this --- would pay dearly. We identified the enemy - Islamic Extremeists - but we also finally started to speak the truth -- Islam's core tenets teach that all Christians and jews MUSt die...we were not fighting a country or a visible enemy, our enemy was invisible, resident in the hearts of those who held to such violent, angry doctrines.

5. Protection of the victims - We looked at the innocent targets and their families and were commited to care for them, aid them, assist their children and try to rebuild their broken world.

6. Praise the Victors - Police, firemen, emt, first responders....they are our heroes! A new level of respect rose within our country for these who serve us and put there lives on the line for us!

May we never forget!

For ten years our church has gathered the Sunday after Labor Day for an all-church BBQ to gather everyone together and get going in the fall ministry season! Yesterday was our tenth such event and it was...in the word of Billy Crystal - "MARV-O-LENCE!"  i am not sure why this was so memorable but it was!  First we had 500 plus people there. It was an awesome sight having all those people under the trees of Long's Park relating, fellowshipping, worshipping and laughjing in real joy together!  I have to tell you that makes my heart melt. When you hear about all the in-fighting in churches and then you see such harmony and love in one place -- it is joy unspeakable for a pastor.  It was also memorable because it was :Friend Day" -- we had people invite there friends to join us.  It was spectacular!  i spoke on what makes a good friend from the Book of Proverbs and really believe that it encouraged and challenged! Praise the Lord.  Finally, it was a memorable day inwhich how well it ran!  I am so proud (in a good and godly sense) of Jerry and Robyn Lingenfelter and Brett Lovern, our staff people at the point of this event.  It was like a well oiled machine, an army operation and better then any well funded event of its size.  Way to go you guys -- we love and appreciate what you do -- and how you use your gifts to honor God and bless us!  Well now begins this ministry year -- we are really excited at what God is doing at NewSong!!!

Over the next few weeks there will be a lot of jawing about who we should vote for to be our President. Those supporting the Big O and Joe are very zealous and agressive in regards to their candidates. Not to mention -- very emotional. It is very difficult to dialogue, so in many respects you have one opportunity before they get angry or turn you off. So how do you talk with them and what should you say, here are a few suggestions:

1) Don't get upset or rattled. I am not sure why they are this way, but there is a level of anger in their voice. I don't know why or who they are mad at! Proverbs tells us -- "A soft answer turns away wrath."

2) Don't try to go thru issue per issue. The Big O is basically presenting a platform which gives or at least promises all kinds of perks for the people. If you want to govt to give you more, you are taken by that. Trying to go thru each issue is basically going thru a Christmas list and how do you speak negatively about Santa Claus.

3. Start with QUALIFICATIONS. That is painful. Ask them what he has done. What legislation. What programs. What accomplishes. What has he led, begun, started, organized (a community?); what has he done??? There is usually quiet, awkward silence, maybe this is where he will get angry. BUt the point is -- he has no real experience.

4. Ask why he picked JOE? They will probably say -- "Joe's experience and ability to handle foreign policy?" So he needed someone to "make up" for his lack of experience - please refer to #3. 

5. Ask why BO did not pick Hillary? Picking her would have guarenteed a victory?  The reason is that he is so intimidated or insecure about having someone of Hillary's capabilities and gravitas -- again that does not speak well about his confidence to lead.

6. Ask him if Obama is the candidate of CHANGE -- if he is going to stop "business as usual" and be the great community builder in the giovernment and bring everything together -- why did he pick Joe Biden?  Fact: the most liberal voting member of Congress - BO - next Kennedy - next Kerry -- fourth Biden!  They have not reached across the aisle very much....also Change?  Biden has been in the Senate - 36 years -- if he couldn't get anything changed in 36 years -- why would we think he can do that now?  Then pause and let them answer...

7. Ask what they think is the three or four BIG ITEMS that make up Obama's and McCain's philosophy?  They might be able to list off Obama's position but not McCain -- explain both and contrast them fairly and simply.  Then point oput that if you are going to support one you should know what the other person believes....challenge them to examine McCain's life, experience, record and ability to lead before locking into one candidate.

8. Finally ask them what there view of the abortion issue is...be respectful of there position and don't debate them. If they are pro-life this is a slam dunk, but more than likely they are pro-abortion. Seek to understand at what level they are pro-abortion -- do they believe that it is ok to abort a baby at any time before birth -- they might so don't be surprised.  But then ask them if a child came out of the birth canal and was on the table alive, but the mother did not want the child, would it be ok to terminate the baby's life?  Unless they are complete inhuman (if so, say thank you and walk away but keep looking over your shoulder) -- they will tell you absolutely not.  When they do tip their hand of the level of morality they hold to, explain to them that Obama voted against a bill that would protect the live of a child born alive while doing a late term abortion -- how do they reconcile that moral insensitivity in regards to a man they are supporting for president?

 

How it helps....the most imprtant thing is that you need to know the issues. JM