Over the last couple of years I’ve learned of several pastors who get most (and sometimes all) of their sermons off the internet, meaning for all practical purposes they do little original work. One I know of did this for over three years.

By original work or sermon preparation I mean we go through a process of prayer (hearing God’s voice to our heart for the flock we will be feeding on Sunday), reading the Bible, preparation by reading our commentaries (including online resources) and books, and typing or creating Power Point slides that when finished reflect our thoughts and creativity and not someone else’s work as if it were our own.

If a pastor uses a quote or thought or outline and gives credit to the originator, that’s fine of course.  I would never say that my Sunday sermons contain information that no one else has ever thought of or shared before. I believe it’s irresponsible to imply I have a corner on creativity – I know better.

Someone asked me if I had sermon books in my library.  I asked them to come to my office and showed them my small collection and they were surprised I had no sermon outline books – nothing I could use “off the shelf”, much less long term.

But Mark, what about the days when a pastor/presenter is sick or experiences a loss in his immediate family or is raising teenagers or gets cancer or his or her parents have health issues or is in a car accident or is depressed or _______ ?

In those cases you prepare yourself the very best you can and that includes resources from sermon.com (a real site).  Our job is to be prepared and God will use His word for His glory no matter what!  In those situations it’s integrity to simply state “many of the thoughts today are not mine, but are from Rick Warren or _____”.  Or I’ve said “The outline I’m using today came from John MacArthur, but most of the meat on the skeleton is original.”

I know of people who left their church when they discovered their pastor was presenting something as if it was his or her own when it wasn’t.  Those people told me they felt betrayed and wondered if they could trust their pastor’s word on anything else.  That may not be fair but when a pastor takes lightly the sacred trust of preparing fresh bread for the table his or her people will be sitting at on Sundays, it hurts deeply.

There are few things sweeter than knowing in your heart that you gave your best to the precious people you love and serve!

Anything less suggests a pastor should repent and do original work or find another vocation.

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

A good friend of mine has reached a real milestone in his life. Today is his last day of full-time work before retirement. He told me that he worked over 200,000 hours in his work life!

That number equals 8,333 24-hour days or 22.83 years.  For a person who lives to age 80, they could have worked 25% of their lifetime.  One in four heart beats were given to providing for their family.

I know none of us work a 24-hour day, but it gives us something to think about.

How are we investing the 75% of our life?  What are we doing with the three out of four heart beats available to us?

I’m not viewing this in a negative way at all – just the opposite!

If we spend one of the three heart beats loving and serving our family, another caring for others, and the last of the three serving God and His church and the world, I think when the final tabulations are done we would hear:

Well done, good and faithful servant!

Let’s take a moment today and count to four.

Four heart beats.

One for work and the rest for us to invest!

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

The truth is I have no idea what my IQ is (maybe that’s best?) and I have average intelligence.  I’ve tried to get smarter but find I’m running out of time to add much more to my mental file cabinet than is already there.

So – on the subject of Easter, click below:

And on the subject of Easter eggs, click below:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2010/february/how-fast-of-lent-gave-us-easter-eggs.html

Both articles are from Christianity Today and are fair summaries of these two subjects.  Stories about eggs turning red are just that – stories and the Bible is silent on them.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not our Christian Easter has its roots in paganism. I never thought it did and still believe it doesn’t.

I’m not a big fan of churches doing Easter egg hunts and don’t judge other churches for what they feel led to do.  I see both sides.  It is, in fact, a delicate balance to be part of a culture (and serve it) without adopting the culture’s traditions.

What I know for sure is that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and yours and His physical or bodily resurrection makes it possible for people everywhere to be made right or reconciled with their Maker.

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

Work the numbers and you will discover two things:  1) there weren’t enough lifeboats for all the passengers (this tragedy brought about changes to maritime law) and 2) there was room in the boats they did have for another 600+ people.

The sad reality was as people got into the lifeboats and were lowered from the ship, many of the boats weren’t completely full.  Even more tragic was the decision for the “less than full boats” not to go back towards the sinking ship to pick up more survivors.  The reason is clear enough – they were afraid those in the water would fight to get into their boat and capsize it due to too many people.

On that fateful night when two-thirds of the passengers and crew perished I’m reminded of the church as a lifeboat. Because of God’s rich mercy and saving grace through Jesus there are enough boats and enough room in each boat!

Let’s be careful that none are lost while we are safe in the boat of God’s salvation!

Click on this link to hear one survivor’s story.

AND – a reminder to vote next Tuesday the 15^th! 

Vote early and often!  

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

In normal times I think Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio would battle it out for the Ohio Republican primary election, but 2016 is not business as usual!  Americans are angry and doing something that hasn’t been done in my lifetime.  The “outsider” Donald Trump has gained enough support and momentum to win big on Super Tuesday.  If that happens, Cruz and Rubio will likely be done and Trump will start talking about a vice-president.  I’m guessing Kasich or Christy, though South Carolina governor Nikki Haley would by my choice.

The main thing is this: Vote!

Vote for the candidate who most closely mirrors what God says is best for any culture or country.  Vote with the hope God isn’t done with America!

If you are not registered to vote, GET REGISTERED, so you can vote in the November election!

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”                 ~President John Quincy Adams

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

The first restaurant to pop up was called Zinc, in downtown New Haven. I checked out the menu and recommendations and both were excellent, so I tapped on the “call” icon and made reservations.

Four hours before our reservation my wife wasn’t feeling up to the drive or meal so I handed her my phone to cancel.  I pointed to the number I’d called in my iPhone’s recent calls list and as she was ready to tap it, she said “Mark, did you make reservations in New Haven, CT?”

Of course I said no, but when I hit the “get directions” icon it took me from Lima to New Haven, Connecticut!

Some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you!

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

For some odd reason, the old movie Forest Gump came to my mind the other day.  I was thinking of the running scenes.  He amazingly runs across America a few times (probably not part of the ‘Run for God’ that we are doing this summer).  If I remember correctly, he runs to get away and to think.  And then one day, he just stops and goes home.  He was just done.

Sometimes I feel like am just running.  Running to and from; busy all the time; picking up kids, going to the grocery store, back to get kids, forgot something at the store, over to the church and you know the routine.   We are a busy society.  Isn’t that our #1 response to ‘how are you doing’?  As if that is the answer of successful people.

I found rest in the account Luke writes about in his Gospel.  The 72 had just returned from sharing the Good News and giving a report to Jesus. They were super excited about all they had seen God do and I’m sure it was a busy time of sharing for them.  I don’t think they were bragging on themselves but on what God had done through them.  They said, “even the demons submit to us in Your name.”  His response: “I saw Satan fall like lighting from heaven…however, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:18-20).  As if to say, you DID great things in My name, but the more important thing is your salvation.  It’s not what you do, but what Jesus did for you.

It’s not about how much we do, but about the decision we have made to follow Christ.  We may get busy, but the important thing is being who Jesus made us to be.  We don’t have to run here & there all the time.  We should take time to just ‘be’ with God.  I’m so glad I don’t have to earn my Salvation…not sure I’d have time.  Have I taken the time to just be with God?

Well, time to finish things for youth group, recruit a couple of leaders, go get the kids, run back to the store (hopefully for the last time this week!), finish a sermon…

PB

I’ve found that just one degree’s difference on the thermostat makes a huge difference in the number of sleepers on any given Sunday!

It’s been said “Pastors don’t talk in their sleep; they talk in their parishioner’s sleep!”  I can tell you that’s a true statement.

On a recent Sunday I had one couple where the man’s head was all the way back and sound asleep and his wife had her head all the way down and she was gone.

Once a man sat in the back near the wall and I watched as he started to fall asleep. His head went back until it rested on the wall and he entered that place of quiet contentment.

And, it’s fun to be preaching and watch people fight sleep!  They kind of stare at me and strain and focus to keep their eyes open.  I can usually tell whether or not they are going to win the battle.

I gave serious thought of buying a drone with a video camera so we could fly it during my preaching and show the sleepers the following week.  I didn’t sense strong support for this.

By now you are thinking “Pastor, if you preached better sermons people would stay awake!”

Maybe, but I’ll leave you with this gem:

 “People in sleeping bags are the soft tacos in the bear world!”

It could be much worse – at least the sleepers at our church don’t bring their sleeping bags!

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

The cheapest gas I remember buying was 22.9 cents and I know it was as low as 19.9 cents per gallon.

I did a little research and found that a barrel of crude oil in 1971 was $2.24. Even adjusted for 2013 prices the cost of crude per barrel was only $12.87.

The cost of crude oil today is a little under $31 which translates into roughly $1.65 for a gallon of gasoline.

I heard on the news that the price could fall to $20 per barrel which might translate into $1.25 gasoline.

Great for the Dodge Charger, but…

Not so good for the oil producers.

Why do I care?

Because when there’s too much oil (and there is) countries like Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Venezuela will continue to sell oil at bargain basement prices just to keep revenue coming in.

A couple of weeks ago congress passed and the president signed a law that allows the US to start selling crude oil to buyers outside the US and not just use it for domestic refining.

Again, great for the Dodge Charger.

But not good for the workers in the oil fields of North Dakota and Texas.

So the next time you fill your tank and you spend $30 instead of $60, be thankful for the extra coins in your pocket – but pray for the oil workers who may not have $30 to fill their tanks.

Blessings!

Pastor Mark

I preach off my iPad mini, have an iPhone, I’d have an Apple Watch (if I could get away with it, but alas, no points in my bank I’m willing to spend), my phone synchs with my Dodge Charger, I have an HP red “Beat Edition” all-in-one-computer, and a nice Canon digital camera.

One device I didn’t have was an iPhone 6s Plus.

My wife and I always agree to not buy anything for each other for Christmas and I always cheat. But this year I was committed to our agreement.

After the Sunday morning service of December 20 (Christmas Sunday) Dinah, my staff, our treasurer, and other friends came to my office and presented me with a large gift bag. As I looked inside I first discovered a large bag of small Snickers bars.  That figures because everyone in our church office LOVES chocolate. “Give me the chocolate and no one gets hurt” – you get the idea.

Underneath the bag of Snickers bars was a brand new – wait for it – iPhone 6s Plus smartphone. I’m told the look on my face was priceless.

As cool as that gift is, the plan to get me one is what meant the most to me.

My wife cheated.

No other way to say it.

Dinah bought the phone and involved my staff to hide the secret.

So Christmas 2015 was memorable for many great reasons AND that I have a wonderful and creative wife who loves me.

And a new iPhone 6s Plus!

Blessings!

Pastor Mark