REJECTED

aplacetotalk was attempting to join and receive some support from a well known Christian denomination over the past few months. In that process I was asked to meet with the leadership of a local department of that denomination. I prayed throughout the process that God's will would be done, but I now realize that although I would say, and even pray for God's will I really wanted what seemed advantageous for the forward momentum of aplacetotalk. I constantly teach and say that it isn't about an organization (or Sunday morning club, like aplacetotalk) but that it is really about people! Meeting and ministering to people in the name of Jesus Christ and through the energy and power of Jesus Christ is the real goal. Yesterday a group from aplacetotalk built a handicap ramp for a gentleman who had some trouble getting into and out of his house. Yes we worked on a Sunday. I am not even going to take a touch of energy to validate our ministry yesterday. Well the leadership team from that "well known denomination" asked me a series of questions. At the heart of every question was the desire to know whether or not our participation in the denomination would damage their reputation. One of the questions was "What would you do if a homosexual group asked to use the aplacetotalk building?" Now there was a prior question that may or may not have led to this question. One revolved around the question of authority. This isn't a direct quote but the question was basically, How do you make decisions, or who will make decisions at aplacetotalk? I responded that we will discuss the decision as a group and try to come to a saying that pleases the group. I explained that we do things that way based on scriptures where we read "the saying pleased the multitude," like Acts 6:5.

So back to the question, "What would you do if a homosexual group asked to use the aplacetotalk building?" I responded to that question by saying "First of all, let me say that I am glad that I wouldn't have to make that decision alone. I would talk to the people and they would get to decide." Then the "leadership team" of the well known denomination asked me what I would do if there wasn't an agreement and I responded "Until there was an agreement we would have to wait." Later in the conversation I did say that if I believed that homosexuality was sin, just like gluttony, lies, gossip, and murder. I also added that if I believed there was any chance of influencing this imaginary group of homosexuals for Jesus Christ I would have to strongly consider allowing them to use the building. However; we can't forget that I wouldn't make that decision alone. I have no more rights to the aplacetotalk building than any other aplacetotalk partner or participant. We haven't discussed or planned anything about membership or partnership yet either so we need to nail that down someday as well. But that is a different blog post all together.
Anyway I am writing because I got a phone call today and the message was, and I quote "Hey Josh this is _(his name)_ uh, I talked to the leadership team and they said no on signing off on you guys mostly because of the willingness to have open homosexual groups come into the church uh if you need to call me back go ahead... talk to you later, bye."

Are you as surprised by this as I am? aplacetotalk was rejected by this little organization based on the possibility that some "imaginary group" may want to have an "imaginary cookout or meeting" on our property and we might have an "imaginary meeting" and discuss the possibility of allowing this "imaginary group" have an "imaginary cookout" on our property. I am so glad that I don't have to live in that "imaginary world" where human beings have imaginary authority over other human beings. I am so glad that I live in the real world where Jesus (the real King with the real authority) allows blacks, whites, racists, homosexuals, rednecks, democrats, republicans, fat people, skinny people, smart people, dumb people, alcoholics, drug abusers, rapists, rappers, bloggers, and even pastors live on His property and He doesn't toss them out just because they aren't perfect.

Bloody Tennis

Adam wanted to try tennis today. We did. Ever play tennis? Do you remember how hard it was your first time? I do. Have you ever tried to play with someone for their first time?

Well if you have, you know that it is mostly a game of chasing balls. My experience with Adam was the same, until about 20 minutes in. After about 20 minutes we had our first real volley! He hit to me, I returned to him, he returned to me, I returned to him, and he, attempting to return to me, hit the ball with his racket. The ball careened off his racket and directly into his nose, and blood spewed.

The end.

When fifteen thousand is better than a million!

When fifteen thousand is better than a million!

On vacation on August 16^th, 2009 and really chillin’ out! Early today I was watching Drop Dead Diva. Evidently it is about a girl who died and when she got to the afterlife she reached over the counter and hit the return button. That event threw her body back into the body of another person, an intelligent slightly overweight female lawyer (by the way, prior to her death and return she must have been a model, hence diva maybe?).

Anyway in the episode I was watching it was her birthday, only the new body she is in has her turning 32, but she would’ve been 24 in her previous (model) body. In a slightly parallel situation she is given a client who she has to represent who has just been released from a 10 year prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. See the parallel; both she and her client have had a number of years taken from their lives.

The wrongfully incarcerated individual has been offered $15,000.00 for his loss, but that seems way too little for ten years of lost life, way too little to the lawyer anyway. So in the next scene the “drop-dead diva” convinces the guy to fight for more money, she tells him as they are walking into the courtroom that he looks like a million bucks and that is what he deserves!

I left the room to go and play shuffleboard with my kids at that point in the show, so I have no idea what happens next, but I thought about that story the rest of the day. Taking the $15,000.00 would’ve been so much better than the million bucks. In America today we have lost a proper understanding of the value of an earned dollar and we have a screwed up idea of the value of a free or gifted dollar.

I recently read somewhere that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it, I guess that is true. The problem is we don’t see a handout as a bad thing that happens to a person anymore, instead we think that free government assistance is a good thing but I think it is usually a trap.

I told a friend the other day that I was afraid that his disability settlement and check was going to kill him. I am afraid that he will lose the drive and desire to get back to work, and in turn that he will simply live off the little stipend that he receives from the government. Oh I pray that handout doesn’t steal his life away. Pray for my friend, we’ll call him Chris for now.

Recommended by a friend

I’m on vacation in Palm Coast, Florida. Relaxing is nice. I have started three of five books that I plan to read while here, and one of them clearly stands out above the rest – “Killing Cockroaches and other Scattered Musings on Leadership.” Although I will probably never post a blog related to a particular reading from this book, simply because of its nature, I am really enjoying it.

This morning (over a week ago when I post this blog – I am choosing not to pay for the internet here, because I need a break from internet and email as well as other things) I took two of my books to the pool to read while the kids swam, but I intentionally didn’t take Killing Cockroaches because I wanted to make myself read the other books. However as I was walking back from the pool I was anxious to read another section of that interesting book.

I am sharing about this because of the nature with which I discovered “Killing Cockroaches”. Before vacation I carved out a full two hours to sit at Barnes and Noble and read the first few pages of dozens of books, in order to find the ones I wanted to read on vacation. I choose 4 through that process. Later that same day I decided to call a friend and ask him what the best book he had read lately was, and yes you guessed it – Bob Templeton said “Killer Cockroaches.”

Bottom line… I probably should have asked more friends about what they are reading that I should read!

This entire story reminds me as to why Jesus gave us one another! By the way it’s Sunday, and we didn’t go to a Sunday morning club and we aren’t going tonight either. Truth is… I get frustrated attending most Sunday morning clubs during the typical Sunday morning worship hour. I enjoy the worship, and sometimes I learn a lot in the message, but I almost always want to raise my hand, interrupt the speaker and ask questions. Participating in a dialogue to me is so much better than listening to a lengthy lecture. With Hebrews 10:25 in mind – If your “assembling together with other believers” doesn’t include encouraging one another you might be missing the whole point!

It's a miracle

On Saturday August 15^th, 2009 my family and I were heading to Palm Coast Florida to spend a week on vacation. I certainly felt like I needed a vacation, but I am not sure that I appreciated the time off like I should have.

That Saturday was the second day of our journey. On Friday we had traveled from Hickory or Newton to Saint Augustine with a couple of hours stop in Jacksonville, Florida to have dinner with some friends. (We had a great time catching up with Anthony and Angie Poole by the way.)

Anyway, I am writing to make a point, I better get to it. We borrowed my in-law’s GPS to make this trip but the address of the resort where we were to stay wasn’t on the GPS. In the process of contracting the resort I found the street that was on the GPS, but I had entered the wrong street number. I knew this but kept thinking I would correct it closer to our arrival.

As we were getting close we passed this sign. The sign was really big, beautiful and extravagant in the mind of my 5 year old daughter (she’ll be six by the time I post this) and it read “PALM COAST RESORTS”. As we drove by she said “wow, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could stay there!” I heard her, but didn’t think a thing about it as we drove past. After a few more minutes of driving maybe 2 – 3 miles, I remembered that I had entered the wrong address just as the GPS said we had arrived. By looking at the house numbers I realized that we had already passed the place where we were scheduled to stay. At that moment I wondered, “How will Faith respond if that was where we will be staying?” (Thanks to my parent’s time share we were blessed to be able to vacation at a resort that we couldn’t afford on our own. Thanks mom and dad.)

As I turned back toward the big sign, I quickly realized that it would be our home for the next seven nights. Right then I said “Faith, I think we are staying at that place. What would you think if we did get to stay there?” She said “Dad! It’s a miracle!”

Sometimes I wonder if we miss, or simply overlook the great things God provides us. Do you think it is because we get so used to just living life and thinking that we provide for ourselves without recognizing that everything is a gift of God? When was the last time we thanked God for our health, our family, and our friends?

Sunday's talk - 8/23/09

I enjoyed being back at home and with my friends at aplacetotalk. I am really enjoying what we do together. I wish I knew how to get more people involved in the weekly conversations though.

Today we looked at a passage in Acts 5 – where Peter says we would rather obey God than men, and then Gamaliel says that the other Pharisees should let the disciples alone, and then the disciples continue to teach and preach in the name of Jesus.

Over the next few weeks we are going to discuss as a group how a person could grow by participating with us and aplacetotalk. I would like for a visitor to be able to simply attend one Sunday and walk away knowing what his or her journey might look like if he or she allowed us (the people of aplacetotalk) to be a part of his or her journey in faith.

For example – they might first attend searching for some answers for his or her life

-they might first attend searching for some answers for his or her life

-then they might realize their need for a personal Savior or a relationship with Jesus Christ

-may decide to make that decision public through Baptism

-often new believers attempt to mimic the behaviors or practices of other believers

-then they begin to notice how others live and they may even begin to attempt to convince others to behave differently

-eventually we hope that believers learn that Christianity isn’t about following men, pastors, priests, or religious institutions

-freedom from following men – should set a person free to really walk in and know Jesus personally

-later that person will realize that Christianity isn’t about following rules but is about following the Spirit of God

-following the Spirit is sometimes frowned upon by others who are following rules, and you are sometimes tempted to try and convince everyone to follow what you believe you have learned through the Spirit of God

-eventually some grow to the point that they can follow the Spirit of God and allow others to follow God too, hence not judging others and attempting to be the religious police

-at this point I believe witness takes on another facet because you begin to have people ask you why you are different – you aren’t pushing Jesus or a church on anyone but instead you are allowing people to live

As you are being formed into a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, He (Jesus Christ) starts allowing you to be a part of helping others learn to follow Him – it is at this point that people begin wanting to follow you (earlier in your journey you would have longed to have people following you) but now you want people to stop following you and begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. Because watching someone find the freedom and joy that comes in really walking in Jesus is the greatest thing on earth.

Well I don’t know what I just said – I am not proof-reading or correcting anything – if I said something stupid please reply to this blog or join this discussion in the aplacetotalk.net forum.

Just to be clear – we are trying to come up with a catchy easy to remember, and easy to explain way to set out a path ( of spiritual growth ) for those who will consider participating with the people and ministry of aplacetotalk.net.

We are trying to build a place where:

1.Christ is exalted

2.Talking is normal

3.The Journey is Celebrated

4.Priesthood is Practiced

Maybe it is something like – exalted, talk, journey, practice and the idea is that people meet the exalted Lord, talk through beginning a relationship with Him and get Baptized (which is another way of telling people that you have chosen to follow Jesus, then the journey takes you from following rules to following the Spirit, and finally you practice the priesthood by hosting home groups and disciplining people…

Let’s work on this together….

We may need to include a new believer day now and then or a new member dinner now and then… whatever we need to think it through…

can I set a blog to post in the future?

I mean if I change the post date and time - on the bottom right here to say January 1, 2010 at 5:00am will my blog not post until then... I am testing with this post, but I want go that far into the future - let's try maybe sometime later today.

Well the new web site is up, not complete, but up

Since the blog is now attached to the web site, and the web site is up.... I thought I would let the millions (acutally 3 - not 3 mil, but 3 LOL followers, my wife and kids aren't even following) of blog viewers know that aplacetotalk.net is up and running - not complete, but up!

the new church - aplacetotalk and my roller coaster of thoughts...

Every other day I have a new thought about whether or not advertising and starting a new church is right, practical, and honoring to God.

Some days I wonder if advertising something like a "church" or a movement of God is just silly, (thinking about advertising a church reminds me of this picture - http://www.greetingcardsresource.com/miracle-healing-services.html) because if God is really doing something then people will just show up, because they are drawn to what God is doing. On other days I believe as strongly as anyone that God doesn't just randomly bless people or groups of people. Instead we discover God's will and recieve blessing (or the natural fruit of our labor) as a result of our work.

Today I thought I would take a moment to write down what I think - when I think I am thinking clearly. I will continue to do all that I can (to promote, advertise, and start the new church), without taking too much time and attention from my primary role as a husband and father of four, and at the same time I will remember that advertising, promotions and events are not the goal but just a tool to tell people about Jesus Christ.

So I will roll on with the public opening of aplacetotalk. Our first advertised public service will be Sunday, September 27th. Hope to see you there.