What Is There to Look Forward to in 2006?

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14

Looking back on 2005, I have plenty of things to remember and be thankful for. Some of the highlights included completing my doctorate and going to Boston with my family for my graduation, successully climbing Mt. Rainier and several small peaks on the North Cascades, fly fishing, taking a team to Manila with my wife Heidi, having Heidi re-join the pastoral staff of Eastside, seeing our two children becoming more excited about youth group than ever before, and experiencing a rewarding year of ministry. Every year of growth is also full of challenges and some losses. Struggles in my life tend to have more to do with the personal challenges that come from being "not yet made perfect." -- Making mistakes, struggling with relationships, priorities, character development and striving to be the person God created me to be.

"One thing I do, forgetting what is behind I press on..."

Going into 2006 my hopes/resolution and goals include:

1. To live a life that reflects a growing and deepening love for God and His word.
2. To trim from my life things that keep me from doing the things God has called me to do.
3. To focus more on people, developing deeper friendships.
4. To approach each ministry opportunity with a wholehearted effort to do my best.
5. To grow in a confidence that flows out of God's affirmation of both who I am and what He has called me to do.
6. Two great missions trips: One to Europe and one to Manila.
7. To enjoy a deepening relationship with my wife and kids.

I also look forward to some suprises this year. God (and life) has a way of bringing unexpected and unplanned events that He works in. Only He knows what those will be.

What I Want For Christmas

I love Christmas. But honestly, with only days until the holiday, one part of me is a little bit nervous about Christmas, for the following reasons:

1. Busy-ness overload -- 5 services on Christmas Eve, 1 on Christmas Day, a family reunion in Coos Bay, Oregon on the 26th, a 5 day hockey tournament for Levi in Vancouver, B.C. on the 27th...New Year's Eve back in Seattle with a big weekend of services...No kidding...
2. Shopping pressure. I better get going because I haven't done much shopping yet, and I have many nieces and nephews, and my own kids. The shopping could be fun, but at the same time we have the stress of many additional expenses this month with sports dues, hotel costs (for the hockey tourney), gas prices, etc.
3. Missed work -- Whenever you miss days, you have the sense of falling behind (and you do fall behind -- especially when going into a busy month).

OK -- I'm done complaining -- How about some proactive thoughts? Feel free to list your own as comments. Here is my advise to myself.

1. RELAX, in the busy-ness. Have fun shopping. Enjoy the drive with your family. Celebrate the 5 services on Christmas Eve. Don't worry about next week...
2. Schedule personal, quality time with the Lord! This is the key. What I mean by this is digging deep with time in the Word, in prayer and in journaling. THIS will make all the difference. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition..."
3. Focus on people. Wherever you go, make the most of special times with your wife, children, friends, family, and acquaintances. People are more important than any"thing".
4. Eliminate time wasters that aren't refreshing. Put important things before TV, websurfing and other wasteful activities.
5. Find joy in the moment. Don't focus on what you're not doing. Instead, enjoy what you are doing.
6. Bring the Lord into the conversation -- catch up on Advent, share the Christmas story, and pray with one another.

These are the things I want for Christmas. And they don't cost a penny. Maybe this advise will help you as well. Merry Christmas!!!!

Favorite Things to do During a Boring Sermon

Please don't take this too seriously now...

But I would like to hear what the best ideas are that you have for occupying your time during a boring sermon (something that doesn't happen at EFC :)).
For example...balance your check book...make origami with bulletin inserts...etc.

I may end up sharing your ideas for a laugh during an upcoming sermon on James 1:22-25...

Tribute to My Father

By John Gunther, Sports Editor, The World Newspaper -- Coos Bay/North Bend, Oregon
December 10, 2005

Mention the name Messner in the Bay Area and many people will think first of wrestling — for good reason. Brothers Eric and Clint Messner, who were national champions while at North Bend High School, have been inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame for their wrestling prowess, and Mike Messner, their cousin, was a state champion for the Bulldogs in 1992 and later coached the team for a year.

The Messner name is back in the wrestling forefront in the Bay Area, at Marshfield, where the new head coach is Randy Messner, Mike’s dad and the uncle of Clint and Eric.Just because he’s the new head coach, though, doesn’t mean Randy Messner is new to the sport or to Marshfield. Messner and his older brother, Wendell, grew up wrestling at the YMCA in Nebraska before both followed their parents to the Bay Area.Wendell Messner started the North Bend Mat Club 27 years ago as his four children (Jesse and Ben followed Eric and Clint in wrestling) were growing up. Randy began helping him coach the team about 25 years ago, when his oldest son, Kendall, was a fifth-grade student. He has pretty much stuck with it ever since except for a short stint when the family lived in Bend, where Matt, Randy’s middle son, won a state cross country title.

For more than a decade, Randy Messner was the wrestling coach at Sunset Middle School, where he had a large, active program (the school has 50 seventh- and eighth-grade wrestlers this year). Messner also has helped as an assistant to Marshfield coach Wayne Van Burger for several years after the Sunset season ended.He’s excited to try his hand as head coach of the high school team.“This is fun,” he said. “I’m getting a chance to try some things that I always wanted to try.”Van Burger said Messner has an ideal personality for coaching wrestling.“One of the things about Randy for sure is that he’s a very positive influence on kids,” Van Burger said. “He’s always really upbeat and looks toward the positive. He always thinks the best of people.”A number of times as coach, Van Burger said, Messner has nurtured a student who was struggling in life.“He was always able to give them something positive to look forward to,” Van Burger said. “He’d bring those kids in at the junior high and get them going and hopefully we fostered some of that at the high school level.”

Matt Messner said kids always have looked up to his father as a coach because of how he treats them as athletes.“At a personal level, my dad’s greatest qualities that he brings as a coach has to do with his ability to motivate and encourage people to be their best,” Matt said. “He is a very genuine person and I know that he has a way of making people want to do their best for him.“He believes in people. I think kids feel that he is their advocate, which is unique for a teacher or coach.”Randy Messner also has a knack for getting his athletes to understand the mental aspects of wrestling, Van Burger said.“One of the things we did over the last 10 or 12 years here was to work on kids’ mental toughness and mental attitude ... and that’s what gets you to the next level.”

Matt Messner expects his dad to continue to be a successful coach at the high school level, much as he remembers his father coaching him in baseball, wrestling and running when he was growing up.“He is willing to work with kids to take them as far as they can go with their abilities,” Matt said. “He believes in them more than they believe in themselves. He sacrifices lots of time and energy because he wants them to be successful — not just in sports, but in life.”

Wendell Messner keeps tabs on his brother’s progress and was in the stands Thursday when the Pirates split a pair of league dual meets with North Eugene and Lebanon.“He’s got a job to do, but he’ll do fine,” Wendell said. “I’m proud of him.”Wendell thinks Randy’s continued association with the students at Sunset Middle School, where he is a teacher, will help.“Those kids don’t forget about him when they get to high school,” Wendell said. “His strength is the rapport that he has with those kids. He truly enjoys the company of the kids.”

Lost in the Pageantry

"Christ" is brought to the forefront of our culture during the Christmas season. Whether people like it or not, mangers take center stage in store displays, malls and in yard displays set up all around our cities.

Churches capitalize on the cultural receptivity that this holiday creates. Musicals, "pageants", theatres, candle-light services, Christmas Eve services, Christmas Day services, concerts, parties, benevolence projects, outings, and much more -- these all are added to our calendars as we try to make the most of the opportunity afforded to us by this cultural receptivity.

People that work at churches feel the stain of this demanding season. In the bustle and busyness is there time to rest? Time to enjoy? Time to reach out to neighbors? Time for children and family? How about time to even decorate or purchases gifts?

I wonder if it isn't just clergy and staff members feel this way? What if Christmas pageantry was skipped one year. What would happen?

What if people scheduled their own time to carol in their neighborhood? What if the people of the churches serviced the community foodbanks? What if instead of having pageants at churches, families were encouraged to go to the community tree-lightings and the community events? Would we be missing out on fulfilling the purpose of the church?

Or are churches that are scaling things down really the ones that are compromising? Here is an excellent article about churches that are closing for Christmas:
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051206/ap_on_re_us/closed_on_christmas

I've asked a lot of questions that you may want to comment on.

I guess where I "land" is on the hope and prayer that this Christmas will be something that God will use to bring Jesus to the focus of my life, my family's life, and the life of others. And I'm all for anything that would help this happen.

Last Night's Nightmare, Today's Reality

Last night I had an awful dream that really shook me up. In my dream I was walking towards my wife's VW Beetle. For some reason I had a deep fear that my 12 year old son was dead. I looked into the windows of the car and his twisted body was lying across the front seat -- looking like he had died very suddenly. Somehow I found comfort by thinking that whatever had happened, had been fast. Opening the door, he began to move and I realized he was alive. My wife was there with him. "Levi, are you OK?" -- He looked towards me with blind eyes, responding to the sound of my voice -- my wife said his sight had recently gone. Then he spoke to me with tender honesty regarding the inevitable death that was coming, "I'm starting to get nervous." His condition was terrible -- his gums were raw, and diseased. Teeth were missing. His sight gone. His body emaciated. I reached out and held him and he kissed me. My heart was broken -- it was unimaginable. I told him that I thought it would be over during the next 24 hours.

When I woke up, I was shaken and upset. I laid there and prayed for my children. I wondered what this dream might be about.

Two hours later I found myself sitting at a breakfast put on by World Vision for World AIDS Day. There I heard Rich Stearns, President of World Vision recite some of the statistics: 8,000 die each day. 14,000 infected every day. 8 million people every year receive a death sentence. Children are infected at birth or through their mother's milk. Women are infected by husbands. 39% of all adults in Botswana are infected. There is no cure...Then I walked through a maze of a exhibits called "The AIDS Experience", hearing the story of a boy named Timothy-- from Malawi. As I walked through the exhibit the MP3 player told his story from one of hope and childhood innocence, to one of tremendous loss culminating with his own death.

Behind every number is a tragic story. The story of the loss of a son, a daughter, a parent, a friend.

This crisis has been called the greatest crisis of our generation. History is being made. When will the church lead the way with care and compassion, rather than judgment or indifference?

Midway through the breakfast my dream made sense.

I had been given the unique chance to feel that awful sadness that millions are feeling today because of AIDS. Only for me it was just a dream and only for a moment. For others, it is a reality and it lasts a lifetime.

James 2:14-17 "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

My challenge to you: Do something about it! Let's not ignore this problem. If we ignore it, I believe we're making a huge mistake. If you get a chance to visit the exhibit in Seattle, please do so.

The experience also gave me a greater understanding of how great God's love is. It's one thing for Jesus to die for us. But I think it may have been even a greater thing for the Father to send His Son to die for us. This sounds simple, but the feeling I had in the dream made this reality profound like never before.

Please comment or pass along to someone that needs to hear this.