Telling the Story of Good News...

The Preacher after church

If there was one word to describe what "The Preacher" does well (other than "everything) it would be "communication." Rebekah is beyond awesome when it comes to connecting with people; be it just the one, or a room full of a thousand.

I'm sure I've already said this, but my wife is absolutely without a doubt the most interesting and inspirational preacher I have ever heard! But she also happens to be a really good writer, a wordsmith who manages to draw people in with just the right words at just the right time.

Our church newsletter - "The Happenings" - goes out twice a month, and the "Rebekah's Remarks" page is never a disappointment. A lot of preachers brush the newsletter off as hardly worth the effort, but Rebekah understands that her message is an important element of the communication package and she always takes the time to get it right.

It actually reminds me of a weekly newspaper column. The "Op-Ed column" is an art form, and when it's done well it's one of the best reads in the paper. Rebekah gets it right every time.

So I thought I'd share a couple of paragraphs with you, just to offer a different slant from a writer I truly admire. They are the first and the last from this week's "Happenings".

Dear Fine People (Rebekah writes):

We were gathered for our weekly staff meeting two weeks prior to Easter, and it was noted that "things will calm down after Easter Sunday." I don't know where such a thought came from. I was told of this so-called slow-down my first year in ministry... and I'm still waiting. By now, I know that a church sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit isn't about to slow down.

Every day is Easter.

Every day affirms that the tomb is still empty.

Every day allows us to realize our world's constant need of the Light and Power of the Risen Lord....

...There is so much going on, in such a wide variety of ways, as people are being led to go deeper and wider in their relationship with God in Jesus: The world Jesus sends us out into will break; wars continue; lives are destroyed by natural disasters and random acts of evil and violence; termites will eat away in poorly reinforced walls (Inside joke - it happened at our church!).

But:

God's healing is found in the midst of brokenness...

Peace transforms conflicts...

Natural disasters will be cleaned up...

People will commit their lives to Christ...

Celebrations will be enjoyed...

Ministry and mission will be carried out...

The Bible will enlighten and strengthen...

Our church family will be faithful, as we continue to be who we were created to be - the Body of Christ for right now.

Invite your friends to church with you. They'll find out more about who we are in the next few weeks than even some of us know (Next week is the church 50th b/day celebration).

I love you - Rebekah

This coming weekend we celebrate 50 years as a church, witnessing to God's grace here in the Brandon community. Stay tuned, there's bound to be a blog post that reflects some of the excitement!

- DEREK

Healthy men's ministry = healthy church

Rules for churches to live by:

1. NEVER assume that the pastor's spouse is a full-time unpaid employee of the congregation.
2. PRAY to God that the spouse who comes along with the preacher you hired is a passionate Jesus-follower who loves God and is called according to God's purposes.
3. Note: #2 is far and away better than # 1.

The beauty of being the pastor's husband is - as I've mentioned before - the absence of stereotypical expectation. Bottom line, the church is thankful that A) I'm a faithful husband who loves their pastor, and B) That I'm actually there.


I've found a lot of niches in the church, places where - just like any other church member - God uses my particular gifts. But, and I sense that this is a calling every pastor's husband should seriously consider, I feel a particular inclination to encourage the "men of the church."


There's a lot of talk in every church about reaching young-adults, much concern over children's ministries, constant emphasis on programs for youth, exciting initiatives to reach retirees, and ongoing reevaluation when it comes to the effectiveness of outreach to minorities.


All of the above are most certainly important...

BUT, if there is one demographic that's both seriously undernourished and chronically under resourced in the average "mainline" Christian church, then it would have to be that of men, aged 30-60. 


Here's what this Preacher's Husband believes:

• Men and women are not the same (I love that!).
• Women are more highly-evolved - relationally - than men. And, consequently, women share with one-another, encourage one-another and pray for one-another more naturally.
• Men also need one another to grow spiritually. Men need close-knit community, but they don't know how to go about it.
• Men need to be more deliberate when it comes to creating Christian community.
• Traditional men's ministry fails to go nearly far enough in terms of spiritual nurture.
• When men encourage one-another in the context of a "Band of Brothers" their sense of discipleship takes off exponentially. I'm talking about support, encouragement and accountability. I'm talking about "Provoking one-another" as brothers in Christ.
• Once men move beyond a Part-Time Christianity to dynamic discipleship, it doesn't take more than a handful of disciples to make a huge difference in the mission and ministry of a previously uninspired congregation.
• I'll take that a step further: A dynamic men's ministry will literally transform your church.

I believe, with all my heart, that the role of encourager-amongst-the-men is a calling that every preacher's husband should seriously consider.


In the mainline church culture, there's a lot of room for progress when it comes to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. That may be where we are, but God has charged us with a critical mission, and that is to be agents of positive change. Listen to this scripture from the letter to the Colossians: 


"Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules?" 


The rules that dictate church has to be boring, and that men's ministry is either non-existent or uninspiring, are rules that need to be challenged. We have been renewed and restored with Christ! 


That, my friends, is what I am talking about!