Oregon FMC Annual Conference

This past weekend was the Annual Conference Meeting for the Oregon Free Methodist churches.  Many denominations have something like this, and to be honest I kind of enjoy these. The first night is always special; it is an ordination service.  This weekend marks one year since my ordination last year at Annual Conference!  The second day is a full day of business where we discuss things and vote on them, it’s a cool process.

I like that all the pastors, or most of the pastors, are in one place where we can all connect and catch up, it’s not often we are all in one place. Further, our Bishop comes and runs the Annual Conference meetings.  He is an incredible man of God who consistently brings powerful words of wisdom and direction for our Conference and our denomination.  We are blessed to have a leader who follows Jesus so passionately!  He writes a great blog, you can follow it here: Bishop Matt Thomas. This year he brought up some significant critiques of the American Free Methodist Church which I will write about later.  For now I will leave you with this quote from one of his messages to us,

“To be honest, I often get annoyed that after our worship everything changes.  We seem to have what looks like furver for the Lord when we sing, but when the music stops that seems to go away and we become very dispassionate about our faith. There is something incredibly broken about living a Christian faith like that.” Bishop Matt Thomas

Thoughts?

5 Years!

Today Christina and I are celebrating our 5th anniversary! What an exciting time in our lives.  5 years have come and gone so quickly, with so much happening in between. We have moved 5 times in 5 years, have had more than one job transition, traveled to Europe, been to Seminary, gained many Friends, have seen a few pass away, planted a church, began a career, became an aunt and uncle, have seen all of our siblings marry, and are 7 weeks away from our first child. The list could go on and on.  Most of all I am grateful that I get journey through life with the most amazing wife of all time. She’s beautiful, kind, compassionate, loves Jesus and loves other people.  She’s a servant through and through and willingly gives of herself to see others succeed. She’s supportive yet driven herself and constantly reminds me to enjoy the beauty of life all around us. One of the great things about being married is that we get to experience life and Jesus through the perspective of another person. In other words, all you guys out there, stop trying to fix everything and start listening more to your wives! Stop thinking you are always right because our wives are most likely right more often than we are! My point is that I am incredibly blessed to be married to the most amazing woman I’ve ever known, my beautiful wife Christina!  So basically I win!!! Yeah!!! Happy Anniversary Christina, I love you.

David Crowder, “How He Loves” Update

Okay, for those of you who want to hear the David Crowder version, here it is.  I’ve listened to this about 60 times in the last few days, its incredible!

A Time of Prayer

For daily Prayer & Reflection

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, so here it is!  This is an amazing prayer site that walks you through about 10 minutes of prayer and reflection.  Everyone should try this.  It’s run by the Jesuits and they do a great job!

The Best Kind of Morning

Donut & Coffee from Roths!

I love mornings! I am one of those morning people. You know the kind that is always happy in the mornings.  I am as awake first thing in the morning as I will be all day. I am most productive in the morning, and consider the mornings to be my favorite part of the day.  In the mornings I tend to think more clearly, and I have an easier time praying and spending time with the Lord.   Finally, I love getting something fun to eat or drink in the morning, because it accentuates my good mood! For example, a donut and coffee every once in a while is really fun to have in the morning!  What are your morning routines? Are you a morning person or not?

How He Loves–David Crowder Band

I love the David Crowder Band.  They always produce well written songs which are musically creative, theologically sound, and seem to be true of authentic human expereince.  I can’t wait for their next album.  Yesterday they released a single from their upcoming album.  This is not a new song, but it is a powerful song, especially if you know the story behind it.  If you have 10 minutes watch the you tube video of the origin of this song, then go get the David Crowder version on iTunes!  Its amazing.

A statement about Faith

My iPhone home page!

Wow, third post of the day. However, this one is cooler because it’s from my iPhone! I’ve actually tried this about three times but somehow they have not published correctly; hopefully this one will work fine.

I preached a sermon on Sunday regarding the role of Faith in our lives and how our Faith works in relationship to God. Using the story out of Luke 4 about Jesus’ trip to Nazareth I attempted to highlight the faithlessness those in Nazareth compared with the “great faith” of those in Capernum. One of my main points was that the blessings of God, Jesus’ miricles, and signs were more often a product of faith rather than the cause of faith. Thoughts?

New Music

Wow, I guess I feel like blogging a lot today. I really like finding new music.  I saw this video today (thanks Tyler!) and love these guys, what do you think?

What type of Blog is this?!!!!

Blogging is, for me, a difficult adventure. It’s not often I allow myself time to sit and write a blog posting, and yet I feel I should blog  more often.  Part of the difficulty stems from a lack of clarity on what type of blog I have.  I’m torn between two familiar types of blogging styles.  The first is a blog in which I write often regarding God, theology, social justice issues, and the like.  I really like this type of a blog (a good example is my friend Tylers blog).  This type of a blog is a good approach especially for ministry. However, I also find myself drawn to the type of blog that is primarily an update on the happenings in the life of me and my family (a good example of this is my sister Sarah’s blog). While there’s nothing that says a blogger’s style must be mutually exclusive from any other style, it’s difficult for me to approach my blog in two categorically different ways. In other words, my blog could be a mixture of two or even three different styles, but it is difficult for me to do it like that.

What I know is that I will most likely have a blog that feels as if it doesn’t have an identity for a while; that is until I figure one out.  Further, I can’t currently commit to writing very often, and for that I apologize.  With the fast approaching due date of my daughter, I’m sure my blog will turn into a lot of pictures and videos of my expanding family! That’s something to  look forward too. Thanks for you who read my blog.

I leave you with a question, what type of blogging styles do you like the best?

The Wedding

This last weekend came and went very quickly.  As you know from my previous posting I performed my first wedding this past Sunday, and it went really well.  Sam and Michelle are now married and off to a tropical honeymoon for a week.

I’m grateful that part of my job as a pastor is to be involved in peoples lives in this way.  Every time I hear wedding vows, or now get to read them, I’m reminded of the sacrifice of Christ for each of us.  Further I’m continually inspired by the depth of the commitment that is reflected in our human relationships through marriage, which has its ontological beginning in God.  Weddings serve, at least for me, as a sacred remembering and renewing of that covenant on many levels of the heart and mind.

Oh, and just for fun I made Sam give me $10 before I’d let him kiss my sister-in-law.  I was really funny!