moments from a good weekend

We were blessed to have my sister Naomi and Angela Lennington, a family friend, join us for this past weekend.

Angela is pursuing photography, and she was kind enough to bring her camera and catch some images of our weekend. The images below are from a Game Night we had Friday evening, Saturday out and about downtown, and our Sunday morning Worship Gathering.

I just grabbed a few of my favorites. There are many more, which I'm sure I'll share in the future.

Thanks so much, ladies!

me and Antonio

Austin, Trey, and Eric

Grace, Marissa, and Victoria

Kathy

Austin

Worship Gathering

Shameer and friends

Tanika, Kristy, and Che-kina

Vern, me, and Frank

Naomi and me

inside the Shrine Room of the Indiana World War Memorial

Kristy and me

the fam

Shameer

caught up in the madness

Did you feel that rush of joy come over you Sunday evening?

Oh yes, my friends. It's time for the Madness that is the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

I've thought since I was, oh, eleven years old that the first Thursday of the tournament should be a national holiday. Twenty-four petitions later, that hasn't happened, so I do the next best thing, which is to make the first Friday evening the traditional Gathering To Watch Basketball.

So, be at my house at 6:30 this Friday evening! There will be lots of food, and the losers* who don't like basketball will have lots of fun playing games and, unlike Us, having conversations lasting more than one sentence.

And in the spirit of the season, my picks are below. A few notes:

- I don't start with a champion and work backward: I pick each individual game and live with the results.

- Catalyst is doing a pick 'em contest here, and they're giving away some good stuff. If you're a young leader, check 'em out.

- Yes, I'm a bit of a homer for the local teams: Butler, Illnois, and Purdue.


*You're not really a loser. You're really not. But if you actually looked down here, you're not helping things.

coming along just fine

Kristy went to school Monday to meet with Derek's preschool teachers about his progress. They've been working with him on some speech therapy and preparing for school.

They were excited about the progress he's making, and they went on an on about what a joy it was to have him in their classes. One teacher described him as a role model for the other students, someone from whom others took their cues on what they were supposed to be doing.

It made Kristy cry, and it made us both very proud and thankful. Derek has progressed so much in his ability to communicate and express himself. This has only opened his curious, intelligent mind and love for creativity up to us all the more.

Apparently, there is an endearing goofiness gene.
Derek has it, though not to Trey's degree.

We played "Duck Duck Goose" the other night,
and Derek would start to twitch with anticipation
when the Duck would get close.

Derek, on his recent birthday, with his Monster Jam cake

Every night, I pray with Derek before he goes to sleep. We pray that Derek and Trey and I will be men of God, and when we're done praying, we share the following exchange:

"I love you, Derek." "I love you, Daddy." "You do?" "Yes, I do."

Thank you, God, for blessing our family with such a wonderful boy.

housewarming

When we first moved into our home, the lot to our left was empty. It was that way for a couple years, and then, suddenly, a house went up in next to no time. And into that new home moved our new neighbors - Vern and Che-kina Franklin and their kids.

They had a housewarming gathering last Saturday, so we got to go over and see the new house and hang out with them. We got to meet some of their family and friends, and I got to eat wings and laugh as Vern's auntie described her attempt to kill Chuck E. Cheese earlier that day.

I got out my phone and started taking pictures, and everyone started posing for the camera. It was a blast, until my phone battery died. Then Che-kina got her camera and took lots more pictures. (I got a picture with Vern, but someone didn't hold the camera still.)

We'd actually had them over to our home for a game night in January, and, as it turns out, Vern's good at dominoes. Better than me, anyway - and anyone who knows me knows that I set the bar pretty high.

It's cool to be part of the beginning of something like a neighborhood. Where once there was rocks and weeds, there was a house, and now, there is a home, with great people raising kids and enjoying life.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

the immediate need

Depression is a constant and growing presence in our culture. And it's more prevalent among followers of Jesus than we like to admit sometimes.

I preached this morning from the account in Scripture of when Elijah struggled with what we would call depression, and something really jumped out at me.

The account is in I Kings 19. For context: Elijah has just won the huge smackdown with the preachers of the false god Baal, and he's just finished off a bunch of them. (Read about that here.) The queen of the nation, Jezebel, was a huge fan of said Baal, and she responds to his actions by pronouncing him as good as dead.

Somehow this pushes just the right buttons, and Elijah responds to this by running for his life for a full day, then stopping and asking God to let him die, because he's useless. And God does something interesting:

He sends an angel to feed him a meal.

And then again.

Is this the best way to deal with Elijah's depression? Shouldn't he be confronted about his lack of faith? Doesn't he deserve a good smack upside the head?

And this is not just a nice gesture from a passerby, a random person. This is God, who knows everything and knows exactly what to do, choosing to send an angel to...fix him a meal?

And then it hit me: at this moment in time, Elijah is exhausted, scared for his life, probably afraid to stop for food, at his wits' end.

Right now, Elijah needs to eat.

And my guess is, when an angel fixes you a meal, you understand what's going on. You're not mistaking an angel's cooking for, say, mine.

You know it's God. You know He's there. You know He cares. You can't forget.

There will be time for God to confront Elijah, to bring him to his senses, for Elijah to return from his depression to once again be the voice of God to the nation of Israel. But in that moment, God chose to meet his immediate need, to not let him forget that He is present.

I wonder if God wants to use us in this way. Seemingly small gestures that meet an immediate need serve a purpose: to remind us of the presence of God in our world. They serve to make it so that we can't forget that He has not left us, even in our time of sorrow, of grief, of depression.

Do you know someone struggling with depression, with doubt, with fear?

Does God want to use you to meet an immediate need, so that they can't forget that He is present?

...but the senior discount was a no-go

Kristy and I went to breakfast this morning with some of the older members of our church family. We had a great time - sharing stories, laughing, giving each other a hard time, deciding where we were going to eat next time, telling Kristy and me what Indy was like years ago.

Vessie, Bill, Ruby, Kenny, Kristy, me, Bonnie

Around the table sat more than eighty combined years of following Jesus as part of our church. As they talked - some about parts of their lives they had not shared previously - it became more clear just how tightly they had hung on to their faith through some hard life experiences. I was honored to listen, and left the restaurant seeing them in a different light.

I'm thankful to be their pastor.

- - -

I would be remiss if I did not give special thanks to Joshua, who made this possible by watching our kids for us. We greatly appreciate it!

go read my friend's blog. now.

My friend Bob has cranked up a blog about what he's learning as he plants a church in rural NW Pennsylvania.

He has a passion for this, he's not afraid to learn, he's not afraid to be real. He's got a lot of great, thought-provoking stuff up already.

Check it out!

book review: "living between generations"

"Living Between Generations" by Rodney A. Agan

I love this book. To help you understand why I love this book, I must tell you about the first time I sat down to read it.

I was intrigued by the title and description, and by the fact that a book with this title and description would be written by someone from the churches of my heritage. So I sat down to read, and began with the first of two forewords, written by Dr. David Gibbs, Jr.
Dr. Gibbs is the founder and president of the Christian Law Association, and a man universally respected for his faith and work on behalf of churches and Christians in our country's legal system.

I read the first sentence of his foreward:

"There is a moment in every generation of time when the fundamental Bible-believing church has to earnestly evaluate how to reach the culture and society in which the Lord has placed it."

I closed the book and set it down. I almost cried.

There came a point in my life and ministry when I realized the truth - and the urgency - of that statement. I have spent my time since doing my best to do just that - evaluate how to reach the culture and society in which the Lord has placed me.

But what I have learned in my pursuit of this question, I have learned almost entirely from pastors and leaders who do not share my spiritual heritage. So to see someone from my tribe say these things, was - and is - a huge relief, a breath of fresh air, a sign of hope.

Pastor Agan's book resonates with me for several reasons. First, he does not consider it an oxymoron that he both enjoyed his upbringing and sees the need for changes in light of a changing culture. Second, he asks for grace - both on the part of those who struggle with embracing change, and on the part of those who are frustrated that change isn't happening quickly enough.

His writing style embraces all the best qualities of a great sermon - conversational, personal, passionate, sensitive, clear, even visionary. He is both gracious and firm as he lays out a vision for Christian faith and ministry that celebrates its heritage and embraces its future in light of its mission.

I am excited that this voice has stepped forward among my tribe with this vision, and I highly recommend this first of what I hope will be many articulations of what this vision looks like.