Transitional Ministry

I’ve been having an Affair

It is no longer a secret. I have shared this information with people who are close to me and now I share it with everyone. When my wife and I sat down to talk I didn’t know what to expect. She just looked at me with very little emotion. Every so often she nodded showing she agreed with what I was saying or that she was already aware of what I thought was a secret. It’s not that I had the affair in secret, no, it was quite the contrary. Everyone who has seen me in the last 30 years or so, has not only seen me with me affair partner but has for the most part thought we were happy together. They also saw me with my wife and we were happy too, so they said nothing.

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911 – What Is The Nature of Your Emergency?

“I am looking for someone.” “When did you last see them?” “It was quite a while ago.” “When were you expecting to see them?” “I was hoping to see them Sunday.” “I’m sorry sir, but the person is not missing until they haven’t shown up, we cannot help you with someone you are supposed to see. This is an emergency number set aside for many things including people who can’t be found but your case has not happened.” “But I can’t find this person.” “Sir, I believe there is some misunderstanding. Let me clarify some things. You can’t find someone you are supposed to meet on Sunday?” “Well, yes, sort of.” I can’t find the person today for Sunday.” Okay, I think I understand, you were supposed to meet up with this person Sunday, but you can’t find them today.” “Yes, you got it, can you help me? Our worship drummer is away and no one else can play from the church, it’s an emergency, please, I can’t find a replacement, I am desperate, I’ll take anyone…” “Sir, this line is for emergency calls only…” “It is an emergency, we have no drummer…”

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Better The Devil You Know Than The One You Don’t

Sometimes it’s just easier not to change, not to risk being more let down than you already are. It is often the reason behind why people vote the way they vote. It can be the reason we put up with bad service and return to the same restaurant or retail outlet. We may remain at the same doctor with the horrible bedside manner or buy the same car brand with the not so sexy looking models. Bad service, bad government, bad manners or bad looking may seem much safer than taking a chance on something new; at least I know what I’m getting. These situations are rather benign in comparison to areas in our lives that choosing the devil we know over the one we don’t, is not only lazy but it is also ungodly. Maybe that should be a given since choosing any devil is not godly…

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Taking an Acts to the Church

No, I didn’t spell the title wrong. Yes, I could have spelt Acts “Ax” and gave it a perfectly suited title for this post at least. Yes, for some I also could have used the word “Ask” and while the meaning would be different unlike the interchangeability I am aiming for between “Acts” and “AX” if read out loud the same word would be heard, acts or ax. It’s time to rethink church by taking Acts to it which, if my premise is accepted, we will take an ax to many of the things we call church.

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Separating The Sheep from the G.O.A.T.s

It seems wrong but maybe we need to undertake this task. Jesus, in (Matthew 25:31-46 NIV), talks of His return and that at that time He will separate the sheep from the goats. I am not Jesus and I will not be returning in glory with all the angels but right now I think the task of separating the sheep from the G.O.A.T.s might be a good approach to refocussing my life on true Christ following rather than the hype of the modern day Christianity. In our western civilization and its distorted version of Christian values, we must hit reset by separating the idea that aiming to be recognized and rewarded based on worldly parameters is not a desirable pursuit. It’s time to separate the sheep from the G.O.A.Ts.

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Reports of My Death Are…

…greatly exaggerated. I really don’t know if anyone reported my death and if they did, I don’t know if they embellished anything other than the untrue statement that I had died. Yes, I have not blogged a lot. I have written weekly emails to the church I pastored during their transition, some of which will make great future blogs but that was the limit of what I could do. Writing blogs, as much as I enjoy it, is not something I could continue to do and still complete my transitional pastor calling. I did not die, I guess that is obvious by the existence of this new post, but I did struggle with some very serious health problems that have shown me that I may have been greatly exaggerating my own death.

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