Jeff Noble's Blog, page 36

Merry Christmas 2015 from the Nobles

The kids awoke. The cat pestered. The presents were opened. Pictures were taken. Oohs and aaahs were heard. Gratitude soared. After the dust settled the wrapping wreckage was thrown away, we listened as Sam read from Luke 2.

We hope that you too had a settled and joyful Christmas morning. It’s not just about presents – but about presence. I’m learning that all over again this year. The beautiful quality of being there. Of sitting back and watching my ginormous kids (who used to be so small) enjoy family time and gifts and games.

It’s not all been perfect. It never is. Our Christmas tree wouldn’t stay up earlier this month. This morning, our hitches included being on chat with Comcast because we couldn’t get ABC to work after just switching from DirecTV. #FirstWorldProblems

It’s so small and insignificant compared to what some are experiencing this morning. There are always those who sit in empty living rooms, alone. Others sit in full rooms feeling empty due to inner turmoil. Still others notice empty chairs – chairs that had loved ones in them last Christmas who have now passed on. Then, add in illness, cancer, loss, hurt, divorce, unwanted change… And Christmas feels “off.”

It’s a wonderful truth that our experiences of Christmas – whether Norman Rockwell-ish or Tim Burton-ish – are not what define Christmas. All of life is colored by nuances – how we feel in any given moment impacts our enjoyment or lack of it. Our emotions can mislead us. What matters is reality. What is the truth anchor behind it all?

Jesus defines Christmas. The divine gift to man in a baby-become-Savior sets the tone. When we anchor our feelings and confidence in God’s love for us in Christ, we can face minor hitches or significant losses with proper perspective and actually encounter hope. In 1977, the first Star Wars cinema release was titled A New Hope. The epic provided hope only for fictional characters living inside a make-believe universe. However, 2000 years ago, with the advent of the Christ-child, a new hope was given to us all. It’s real. Genuine. Lasting.

and in His name [all nations] will hope.” (Matthew 12:21)

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

The Noble Family 2015 Christmas letter

Here’s our annual Christmas letter:

Dear Family & Friends,

Provision. Emergency Room. Aliens. Gold. Rainbows.

It’s Christmas time, and we’re eager to share with you how we navigated this past year and encountered each of the above surprises. It’s been a wild, blessed ride.

The year had hardly begun when we encountered PROVISION of astonishing magnitude. You can read more about it on Jeff’s blog, but before January concluded, a GiveForward campaign enabled us to pay off all our medical debt – over $30,000! We were and are stunned by the generosity of so many family, friends, and even strangers. Our verse for those incredible days was:

“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father” (James 1:17 NLT)

Our spring was busy, but one evening in late spring, Adelyn was sick. Really sick. Before the week was out, she’d spent time in ER and nights in ICU as she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. She’s no longer our sweetie. However, she is our hero because of her attitude and maturity. It was only a minor speed bump to her year as she got her drivers license, a new-to-her 2000 Jeep Cherokee and continued her swimming on the BHS team. She’s also become one of Northstar’s primary worship leaders and enjoys the privilege. She worked all summer at a Lebanese restaurant and learned that she loves falafel and was a lifeguard at the country club.

Jeff’s been busier this year than ever. Northstar entered a building campaign, and he helped build the campaign website (www.northstarfamily.org/more), designed the promotional materials and wrote the content for the sermons and small group material. Maybe the demand of his church responsibilities is why his fantasy football teams have been so bad. On top of that, one of his beloved television shows, “Falling Skies,” about ALIENS ended this summer.

Sam graduated from BHS in the spring and moved to Charlotte this fall to be a 49er at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. As a 49er, we keep hoping he’ll get lucky and find GOLD. So far, the only metal in the picture is the bent stuff from his truck wreck in September. We were grateful no one was hurt! He’s loved his college experience so far, and the Christian community he’s found in his involvement in Young Life there has been worth its weight in gold.

Carolyn was promoted at BHS this year, as her job became a full-time, 10 month position. She loves working in the guidance office, literally in the center of the school. She’s also learned more about carbohydrates than she ever wanted to know as she’s helped ensure friendly foods for Adelyn. She was actively involved in Northstar’s building campaign, serving on the team that planned all the events. She also took an incredible picture one Sunday as she captured a RAINBOW literally ending on the church’s new land! (www.bit.ly/nstarrainbow)

We’ve been trying to sell our house for several months as well. We’re ready for a transition. You can be praying that our home sells and that we find one that meets our budget and enables greater hospitality. Jeff has a desire to write another book, so prayer for creativity and time. Also pray for his leadership of Northstar during this season of the building campaign. Sam will begin serving a a Young Life leader early next year, so pray for his intentional spiritual leadership as he works with youth. Pray for Adelyn as she continues to disciple a group of three girls and is active both at school and at church. Pray for Carolyn as she adjusts to our new stage of life with drivers’ licenses and a college student.

(Visited 2 times, 2 visits today)

Happy birthday, wifey

December 24th is a rotten time to have a birthday. It crowds against Jesus’ birthday, for Pete’s sake. I just learned this year that Caro was actually born in the wee morning hours of December 24, so if her mom had just pushed a little harder, she could have been a December 23rd baby.

Today is Carolyn’s birthday, and our family is celebrating this morning. Sam is still in bed, but I’m sure he’s dreaming sweet things about his momma and how his hair is as long as hers these days. Adelyn and Carolyn left, with Adelyn driving, to go get pedicures. I didn’t even know their pedis were sick. And me? I’m going to go all out… and make the bed for her – even though she got up last (we have this deal; whoever gets up last makes the bed). Oh, and I’m writing a sweet blog entry in her honor. And making a collage.

Over the years, Carolyn has trained us well. We have another friend from OBU whose birthday is also on the 24th, and I wonder if Susan has also trained her family? The following are our guidelines to ensuring that Carolyn’s birthday doesn’t get lost in Christmas:

Each family member should give her a birthday card. (This is the easiest to forget with all the Christmas shopping going on.) There have been many years where a last-minute homemade card has been made and presented to her with the ink still wet. If I had to categorize the card topics she’s received over the years, I’d say the breakdown looks like this: 50% about flatulence, 15% about getting older, 20% random funny, 10% homemade; 5% sweet and thoughtful.

Notice Sam broke the wrapping paper rule this year.

Presents must be wrapped in birthday paper. Even though it’s a Christmas season birthday, the rest of us get birthday paper wrapping, so it’s only fair she does as well. This normally produces a scramble for me and the kids trying to figure where she stores birthday wrapping paper. It often results in grocery sacks, newspaper and copy-paper-with-hearts-drawn-on-it wrapping.
The dining table becomes a birthday display a few days in advance. My family didn’t do this growing up, but since we’ve had kids, Carolyn has always begun a birthday display on the dining table. It’s a growing mound of presents and cards from each other and from grandparents and friends. Cards received in the mail are put on the table as well, all to be opened on the birthday. So even though the dining table also displays Christmas cards received during December,  for a week or so, we shove the Christmas cards over, and the crowded table also displays Carolyn’s birthday mound.
There must be a birthday cake. Yes, there are dozens of other goodies around, including pies and cookies. However, those are Christmas snacks. This year, she’s requested brownies.

All these guidelines are to help us genuinely celebrate her birthday as distinct and separate as the rest of the family.

Carolyn is the soul of our home. Her birthday is worth celebrating intentionally and intensively. She keeps things running, makes sure we all show up in places we’re supposed to be, whips up incredible meals, and works incredibly hard to transform the house we live into a home for refuge, laughter, hospitality and rest.

Happy December 24th birthday, Carolyn!

No visits yet

Seven things Apple doesn’t do well

I know. I hear the collective gasps of disbelief. I imagine the following comments being made over coffee with smirks:

“Jeff is falling off the wagon.”
“The Mac fan boy has finally seen the light.”
“Steve is turning over in his grave.”
“First the demise of the laser discs and now Jeff is talking bad about Apple. The sky is falling..”

Of course, some of you Apple haters out there are gleefully reading along, hoping that I’ll torch Apple and agree with your long-held convictions.  Maybe I will. But I still won’t use a PC. I want to productive and happy in my computer use, after all. However, here are ten things I think Apple gets wrong:

Failure of innovation in its software. Case in point: Apple Mail, Pages. While some of its software is incredibly useful, Apple seems to rely on “tried and true” and just can’t seem to turn the corner on true innovation and “must-use” in its software. Granted, it’s much easier and less buggy than alternatives like Microsoft Office.
Reliance on third party developers and jailbreakers for really good ideas with iOS features. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then I can’t explain it, but much of iOS 9’s vaunted achievements are built on the shoulders of those who hacked tweaks and usefulness into prior iOS systems through the jailbreak world.
Refusal to integrate external memory options into iOS devices. This simple feature addition would pull a ton of device users from other platforms. It’s a financial decision – either buy the device with more built-in memory or constantly be deleting to make room for more music or apps.
Not listening to users. While this probably originated with Steve Jobs who thought he could make something that people didn’t know they would want in some kind of zen thing, it’s good to listen to users. I’m a long-time Apple fan boy, and Apple listening is not something they do well (or at all?). A good example recently – people liked the size of the iPhone 5/5S. What did Apple do? They made a bigger iPhone. My wife is not a fan and doesn’t want a bigger iPhone. Thanks, Apple.
Resistance to user customization on iPhones and iPads. I have to rely on jailbreak options to tweak my devices with customization. It’s one of the things that drives some of us batty when other brand users smirk and say, “What, you can’t customize your _____ (fill in the blank with lock screen features, sounds, etc.)
Blocking competition. Consider the AppleTV. I can’t get Amazon Video app on it. I can get the Amazon Video app on my iPhone, but not on my AppleTV. Because Apple doesn’t want me buying videos from Amazon. Apple wants me paying more for the same things – purchase and rental on the AppleTV. So they block the Amazon Video app from the AppleTV.
Price points. Yes, Apple products hold their value much better than PC or phone counterparts. However, I have always thought, “They could seal up the market if they’d just sell a laptop for $500.” That seems to always be a “switcher’s” complaint – “Apple products are too expensive. No matter how many times I say, “You get what you pay for,” people will still opt to buy a cheap laptop and then regret it a year down the road.

Now that I think about it, most of the things that bother me about Apple aren’t related to the Mac at all. Rather they are connected with their devices.

Apple’s attitude seems to be like that of someone trying to convince you something is “good.” A parent knows that certain things are “good” for their child, even when the kid doesn’t want it. Take asparagus, for example. It’s good for you. But it tastes like old grass, unless you put cheese on it – which then makes it not-so-good for you. Other times, it’s like someone convincing you to try something you’ve never tried – like Cap’n Crunch Donut cereal. People think they won’t like it, but when they try it, they can’t imagine life without it.

(Visited 5 times, 5 visits today)

Nuff Said: Bonhoeffer too popular? When $17.38 changes a life.. Churches & communication… The death of cultural Christianity… A college president stands up… Star Wars cast acapella

“Nuff said” is a collection of saved entries from across the interwebs. Here are some interesting, provocative and fun things for your reading and viewing:

1. Bonhoeffer too popular?

Geoff Holsclaw wrote last year about the danger of German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s rising popularity causing us to miss the point of Bonhoeffer. Quoting the pastor is trendy as is building theological constructs out of his writings. He’s mesmerizing to many because of his tragic death – he was killed in a Nazi prison camp just days before the Allies liberated the camp.

Holsclaw points out:

The forgotten lesson of Bonhoeffer is not that we should all strive to be more like him, but that we should strive to be a church that wouldn’t need him!

I worry that people will either look for the next Bonheoffer or try to be the next Bonhoeffer in some heroic protest, rather than entering the more humble protests of daily life.

You see, Bonhoeffer had to be Bonhoeffer because the national church in Germany failed to be the church at all.

[The real fear is that] we in America might be the type of church that, in a time of crisis, will capitulate to preserving the American Dream rather than living as a Kingdom Reality. Let us not make Bonhoeffer merely into a Christian Celebrity…

2. When $17.38 changes a life

You’ve got to read Andrea Gardner’s account of when someone graciously paid her grocery bill of $17.38. It begs us to ask “do we see people?” It encourages us to assume the best. To put ourselves in someone else’s shoes instead of getting wrapped up in our own life’s mini (or many) dramas.

We never know when simply putting someone else first enables them to feel “seen.” Noticed. Appreciated.

A $20 bill is worth breaking when $17.38 winds up being a difference-maker in another’s life. Keep that $2.62 change as a reminder that it’s worth seeing others.

3. Churches and communication

This 2013 Christianity Today article may seem a moot point, but you’d be surprised how many church leaders stink at communicating well. I don’t mean preaching. I mean simple telling people “what’s up.” Our associate pastor Neal Nelson reminds our church staff often, “Communicating is one of the hardest things we do.”

The article urges churches:

It’s a post-website world, but you still need a website.

No longer are first impressions what a guest receives when they visit your church meeting. Rather, guests form their first impressions through your digital front door. Does your “greeter ministry” extend to your website and social media? Are you warm, welcoming and loving online?

Some will find your church through its website, but more than likely, they’ll find it through a friend on Facebook or Twitter who recommends the church, points to a video or story on the church’s website, or some other form of word-of-mouth communication.

Mobile matters.

Great practical tip! Most will visit your website on their iPhone. How does it look there? A beautiful site on a computer screen may look downright ugly on a small screen. Make sure your mobile version is easy to use and navigate.

Don’t forget email.

Email is a communication ballet. Make yours attractive, well-written and as succinct as possible. People are bombarded with email daily. Don’t let yours fall through the cracks by unnecessary email. Be wise, timely and strategic. Also…

Use your emails to point to specific places on your website. Collect email addresses whenever possible, and make sure your lists are current.

Time is precious.

Essentially, if what you’re wanting people to click on isn’t helpful, inspirational or fun consistently, you’re conditioning them to stop clicking. It’s one thing to provide links to your website, but if your content is boring, people will learn not to visit again. Don’t waste people’s time with boring. Have fun.

A recent post by two of our church staff illustrates that your website needs to interesting, light-hearted and fun just as much as it is informational and directive.

Put high-quality articles and videos you already have onto your church’s website so that there are always valuable things to point to from your social media and e-mail channels. Encourage your staff and volunteers to use scheduling tools in Facebook and Twitter that allow you to post updates in advance, keeping them on a regular schedule and limiting effort to one or two blocks of time each week.

4. Cultural Christianity Is Dying, and That’s a Good Thing

The reality is that the number of those professing to be Christians may be in decline, but that’s because it’s unpopular to be a Christ-follower in today’s culture.

Ed Stetzer’s article points out:

Cultural Christianity is dying because nominal Christians are becoming more and more comfortable with giving up their labels.

In short, people realize that they don’t get cultural mileage anymore from identifying as a Christian. Why call yourself a Christian these days if you really don’t believe in the Bible’s teachings? If it creates discomfort at work or school? It may appear that the church is losing ground, but if the people leaving were only associated for personal gain or comfort, were they really part of the church to begin with?

5. A college president stands up

President Everett Piper of Oklahoma Wesleyan University called America’s college students to the carpet in a recent blog post on the university’s site.

“Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them ‘feel bad’ about themselves, is a ‘hater,’ a ‘bigot,’ an ‘oppressor,’ and a ‘victimizer.’”

When a student at his Christian university complained that a sermon in chapel made them feel victimized and guilty (apparently, some college students today don’t know what conviction feels like?), rather than capitulate, Piper pounced:

The university needs to recognize that our obligation is to challenge bad thinking and bad ideas and not coddle individuals in their self-absorption and narcissism. If you want the chaplain to tell you you’re a victim rather than tell you that you need virtue, this may not be the university you’re looking for. If you want to complain about a sermon that makes you feel less than loving for not showing love, this might be the wrong place.”

2015 has been a year where we’ve seen the alarming erosion of the high value of the right of expression (unless it’s liberal expression). Whether it was outrage at the University of Missouri that led to its president’s resignation or to Yale where students signed a petition to repeal the first amendment, college students across America seem more interested in mob rule than disciplined thought and open discourse.

6. Star Wars cast, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots… acapella

We showed this as a bumper to our church’s special showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night. We call events like that “funtivities.” They are intentional opportunities that we embrace to provide a fun place to invite people and build relationships and goodwill. We rented one of the theaters, and catered a meal in the movie. We also provided several free tickets to the Virginia Tech Police Department for the showing.

No visits yet

10 Recommended Books (that you may not have heard of) #3

I began this series over a year ago. For those of you who have been clamoring for the last three books in the list and complaining that I didn’t finish the series, filling my inbox with pitiful notes… (yeah, right… I don’t think anyone noticed I didn’t finish the series yet).

3. The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

The following is a repost of a review that I did on this book back in 2006:

The Pursuit of Holiness is a short read, but a powerful one. In fact, I would even say that in this day of reading, it’s a book that every Christian needs to not just read, but digest.

It’s not about church trends, fads, emergent this or that. It’s about holiness. Holiness is a concept far removed from most of our experiences, yet the Lord says, “Be holy as I am holy.”

It is holiness that marks us from our corrupted world and society. Church attendance or membership does not ensure your holiness. Neither does naive hype or hand-raisin’. Bridges says that we fundamentally misunderstand holiness.

“Our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered,” he says. (p16) In other words, we are more concerned about conquering sin for our own benefits and self-worth than we are because our sin offends God. Because we see our struggle with sin as a success-failure game, we strive for “success” or “victory” over sin, which results in our attitude toward sin being mainly about us rather than about God. There are few tears of confession and repentance in our churches and lives these days over our sin because we see our sin mainly as personal failure rather than divine rebellion.

In addition, Bridges comments that “we have misunderstood ‘living by faith’ to mean that no effort is required on our part.” I agree wholeheartedly. After teaching for many years, first to youth then to collegians, and now to folks of all ages, I see that as 21st century believers, we appreciate good exposition and application of God’s Word, but we fail to go home and match what we’ve heard with personal, disciplined effort. There’s a disconnect between our ears and our hands. It requires much sweat, effort, decision-making, resolving, and scheduling to change our habits, attitudes, and lifestyles to be in accord with the teaching of Scripture. We will not be holy without change. Change requires effort.

He also adds that “we do not take sin seriously enough.” If every sin we committed incurred immediate, divine wrath, then perhaps we would begin to conceive how hateful God is toward sin. However, it is His grace and wisdom that stays His hand. His grace cost the life of His Son that we might not incur his immediate wrath, while His wisdom allows us to experience the consequences of our sins so that we will realize with distaste how unhealthy our selfishness is.

We pick and choose what sin we will consider unacceptable. Sexual immorality in the church is greatly frowned upon; however, pride is not. Yet it is pride that is preeminently hated by God. We whisper about embezzlers but laugh with gluttons. We fail to take sin seriously. We cannot choose what parts of God’s Word to obey and what parts to fudge on. “We cannot categorize sin if we are to live a life of holiness,” says Bridges.

I’ll be reading this little book regularly for the rest of my life. It has immense value because we live in continual spiritual compromise.

Also in 10 Books You’ve Never Heard Of

Want to add some books to your reading list that you may not hear about elsewhere? Jeff offers you 10 great books you need to read that you probably haven't heard of.

10 Recommended Books (that you may not have heard of) #10


10 Recommended books (that you haven’t heard of) #9


10 Recommended books (that you haven’t heard of) #8


10 Recommended books (that you haven’t heard of) #7


10 Recommended books (that you haven’t heard of) #6


10 Recommended Books (that you may not have heard of) #5


10 Recommended Books (that you may not have heard of) #4


10 Recommended Books (that you may not have heard of) #3

View the entire series

(Visited 7 times, 7 visits today)

Review: Life with God

Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation by Richard J. Foster

My rating: 3/5 stars

The first two chapters were excellent as Foster unpacked the importance and primacy of scripture. He points out that God constantly asks tells us through the Bible, “I will be with you,” and the question is… “will you be with God?” The main way of discovering who God is is through His Word.

He has some quotables throughout the book, but I lost interest in several places as he just didn’t seem to be adding to his overall thesis: Scripture is primary for entering and cultivating a relationship with God AND the spiritual disciplines help us stay in relationship with God.

The chapter on “Reading with the Heart” had some good thoughts on how quick we are to move toward “application” of the text and in doing so miss the broader invitation into relationship. We want steps and solutions instead of a relationship with the Savior. This emphasis on application may, unfortunately, lead us to be more in control of our “spiritual” life than God though.

I enjoyed his emphasis on reading the Bible with the people of God. Theology is best done in community, it has been said. Foster hits a good note here.

The closing three chapters brought it back to the spiritual disciplines as only being a means to entering relationship with God and not the end. They were decent, but I felt like they were repetitive from what he’d said earlier in the book.

Overall, a fair read. I can highly recommend the first two chapters as soundly helpful.

View all my reviews on Goodreads.

No visits yet

Planning for spiritual growth when your schedule changes

Image from Next Level Leadership

This is a post written mainly for college students, although any follower of Jesus who experiences a schedule change will benefit. Having served as a campus minister for eight years, I personally experienced how an abrupt change in my schedule over holiday or summer breaks could also impact my spiritual discipline and ultimately my walk with Christ.

I developed the following while at the BCM at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and have revised it.

One caveat: spiritual disciplines are not the end goal. Just because you may maintain daily scripture reading does not automatically draw you closer to God. It’s a love relationship that you seek to enrich and cultivate, not a set of activities to mark off a religious list.

Richard Foster, in Life with God, says:

A spiritual discipline is an intentionally directed action by which we do what we can do in order to receive from God the ability (or power) to do what we cannot do by direct effort. (16)

Bible study, prayer, self-control, and other disciplines nurture our relationship with God and place us in the pathway for transformation. They themselves don’t change us. It is God who superintends our transformation.

With that said, here’s the opening to the attached Spiritual Growth Plan below:

You’re about to “break.” “Breaks” are a wonderful time. However, any interruption in routine needs to be approached with intentionality in your spiritual life. Perhaps, you’ve not been walking with Christ as you desire. Your break gives you the time to “reboot” the spiritual disciplines in your life that are needed to draw closer to Christ. If you have been regular in your devotional life, a break can make you irregular. Head into your time off from classes knowing you this is an opportunity to “retool.” Make plans to continue your daily walk as your schedule changes.

Download the Spiritual Growth Plan .

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)

God the Includer

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” (Isaiah 56:3)

If you need some help understanding why a eunuch would proclaim that he’s a “dry tree,” then you probably should stop by webmd.com. I think you’ll get the gist of the above verse without the link, however.

The Old Testament is full of tantalizing invitations to people who should not have a chance with the God of Israel. Verses like the above are like the someone from the “cool kid table” in the school cafeteria inviting the outcast table to eat with them – not for the purpose of teasing, but genuinely and joyfully.

If you continue reading Isaiah 56, you’ll discover that the words above are followed with the promise of a place before God.

“[For the eunuch] I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” (v5) [For the foreigner] “…these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (v7)

It is our amazing, gracious God who is such an includer. A lover. An inviter. A welcomer.

These promises transform outcasts into cool kids. They invite the unwanted into the circle of promise and the presence and peace of God. Those who think they don’t have a chance with God are not just offered an “at bat,” but they’re given a starting position on the team.

Perhaps you think you’ve messed up, that you’ve missed your spot with God, that you’re relegated to second string – or worse, you’ve missed the team bus. God is an includer. He will not overlook those who “choose the things that please Him and hold fast to His covenant” (v4). He waits for those who make it their aim to “love the name of the LORD,

and to be his servants” (v6).

Take from Hope In His Presence blog

Non-Jews. Eunuchs with no earthly heritage. All find a place before God when they seek God.

It wasn’t to the cool kid table that the angels appeared on the night of Jesus’ birth. Before they realized what they’d been invited to, the shepherds showed up at the birth of the King. We don’t know exactly why God chose those shepherds. Were they in the middle of a pasture Bible study? Were they singing Chris Tomlin songs around a campfire before the angels arrived? We don’t know. I suspect the angels themselves were surprised when told to go to invite and sing their chorus to such as these.

After seeing them make haste to the manger site, I wonder if one of the heavenly host realized the significance of God being an includer and said to his angel buddies, “I love that the Father is always including the most normal people in His plan.”

If you’re not wrestling with how much God loves you this Christmas, why not? He does. He’s waiting on you to be overwhelmed by the promises He offers you in Jesus.

In addition, this Christmas, who do you need to include in your social circle? Who are you avoiding? Who have you refused to offer fellowship to? It may not be an outcast. It may be someone who you just don’t want to like?

You’ve been included. It’s time to quit excluding.

In the way of reminder, there are conditions to being included by God. We should “choose the things that please Him and hold fast to His covenant and love His name.” And yet, it’s also easy. We don’t have to impress Him or clean ourselves up. We just orient our life in His direction through repentance and wonder.

May your Christmas be filled with inclusion.

No visits yet

Donald Duck and our Christmas tree

There’s a game we play at our house when we decorate our tree. And by “game,” I mean a competition – because everything can be turned into a competition, right guys? And by “we,” I mean, well, me. Because the rest of the family doesn’t really play it or appreciate that I do.

The game goes like this: Put your favorite ornaments in the prime spots on the tree before anyone else does. By “prime spots,” I mean up high and front and center. It doesn’t matter that no one else plays the game. They are naturally drawn to the best places initially. It’s just important to beat them there.

Before I explain the what happened this year and the tragic deaths that occurred (that’s foreshadowing to pique your interest), I’ll describe the scientific process by which the Nobles create a tree masterpiece. The steps go like this:

Insert live tree into base.
Adelyn and Jeff wrap tree in lights. They must be green-corded white lights. I learned the hard way a few years ago that white-corded white lights being put on the tree – no matter how well spaced or placed — and no matter how many are on there — will result in no-so-gentle instructions to remove said white-corded lights and insist on a trip to the closest store for green-corded lights.
Carolyn then makes the tree fru-fru. By “fru-fru,” I mean, she prettifies it. This usually happens by her insertion of dead decorative sticks into the tree in random places as well as frilly objects with tassels and large red Christmas ball/globe things.
Then, and only then, the tree is ready for real decorating – or the Noble free-for-all. That’s when the game begins.

It may be helpful to review this entry from 2008 to understand what I count as a “worthy” Christmas ornament. In that list, you’ll find this:

Any ornament that has Donald Duck on it is worthy. In fact, the kids and I played a game called “Most Blessed One” in which we kept score of which kid was able to hang up the most Donald Duck ornaments. And they’re all very Christmas-y, so they don’t violate the first criterion.

Back to this year. So, one of the new additions to Carolyn’s fru-fru stage is a large, gilded wire crown that is the tree topper. It’s actually a wonderful representation and reminder that baby Jesus is truly King Jesus. The crown itself is also, unfortunately, a wonderful place from which to hang ornaments.

As you have probably figured out, the ornaments I grab first are my Donald Duck ones. I have several. And by “several,” I mean nine. There’s always room for more. So on Sunday morning (because our church has night services during December) when the free-for-all began, I grabbed Donalds and began installing them on the tree.

What comes next is an admission that in retrospect, I’m not proud of… I may or may not have hung a Donald from Jesus’ crown. Don’t get me wrong. This wasn’t The Donald. It was just Donald. I didn’t Trump Jesus. I just Disneyed him. Carolyn was horrified. Adelyn rolled her eyes and shook her head. I had gone too far.

So I was forced by game rule #11 – if all contestants agree that placement of an ornament is unfair or offensive, said ornament must be relocated – to replace Donald.

What happened in the next hour caused me to duck my head.

As we stepped back from the finished, decorated tree and had our warm-fuzzy, job-well-done Christmas moment, I sighed in contentment. It’s a joyous joint holiday project for us, and we love it. It draws us closer and preps our heart for the days of celebrating ahead. Also, my Donalds had some of the best spots…

With the tree done, Adelyn and Carolyn went to other parts of the house – getting ready for the day and such. I stayed in the living room, reading and listening to Christmas music with our tree rivaling the Rockefeller Center tree.

I was literally taking a picture of it and attempting to post it on Instagram (afterwards, when I opened Insta, the post was still there waiting to be published), when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Our tree was moving. By “moving,” I mean… falling. It was one of those slow motion falls that I think I should have been able to stop by jumping up and catching it, but I dumbly sat there, trying to process what I was witnessing.

Our tree did a face plant on our living room floor. With a crash. Ornaments shattered. Women came running. It was like Black Friday without the sales. In just a moment, the three of us were staring at a yuletide wreck scene. As I lifted the tree back into place and fixed the base (or so I thought… more foreshadowing), Carolyn was distraught. Fortunately, none of her favorite ornaments were broken. It was just a couple of the fru-fru ornaments that were now piles of glass shards. Then she began to laugh. And so did Adelyn.

The Donald I had hung from the crown lay there in the living room floor. Beheaded and broken. His little head was still attached to the hook on the tree. They looked at me almost immediately with smugness. The implicit message? Jesus hates Donald Duck. Look what He did to Donald. It was an uncomfortable moment.

I thought of the story in the Old Testament where the Philistines steal the Ark of the Covenant and put it in their god Dagon’s temple. It had similar results:

Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. (1 Samuel 5:2-4)

Yeah.

Donald is Dagon.

I shrugged off this uncomfortable episode quickly as we cleaned up the mess, vacuumed and poured more water into the Christmas tree base. The girls left to go shopping, and I mourned a little over the loss of one of my favorite Donald ornaments. I finally sat back down to read.

It had been 5-10 minutes when I heard a creak, and… you guessed it. Same thing. Same frozenness on my part. I. Could. Not. Believe. What. I. Was. Seeing. The tree crashed to the ground again. More ornaments broken. As I sat across the room, I was shocked and chilled to see one of my Donald ornaments – just a large round head of Donald – come rolling across the carpet to rest at my feet. Unreal.

I texted Carolyn to tell her. I think her response was a sensitively kind one that went something like this “BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.” Yeah. We support one another.

I shared the incidents with my church that evening in my message [podcast here] and even showed them the broken Donald. One of the take-aways for me was this: anytime we elevate things – even good things – in our lives above our relationship to Jesus, it’s not good.

The Donald-Tree episodes, though funny, do point to a bigger reality at Christmas. It’s so easy to get caught up in decorating, buying, eating etc. I’ll try to avoid all the trite “Christmas-is-too-commercial; Jesus-is-the-reason-for-the-season” comments. Yet, the reality is that the only reason Christmas exists is because of God’s season-defying love for us. It makes no sense how He came, and yet He did. Christmas announces with angelic chorus that God is WITH us, that God loves. Immanuel is here.

May your Christmas be full of Jesus. I hope you can identify what your “Donalds” are and put them in their proper place.

Interestingly, I apparently broke one of my own rules from the post linked earlier:

An ornament, no matter how worthy, is not allowed to hang from the tree-topper angel’s wings. This was instituted by Caro a few years ago, and apparently still remains firmly in effect in spite of protestations that the Mystery Van from Scooby Doo would blend very well with this year’s theme if it was allowed to hang from the angel’s wings.

The crown this year is the same as an angel tree-topper in years past. In the meantime, the Noble tree is leaning – back into the corner. It’s noticeable and may not be ideal, but we’re just not taking anymore chances this Christmas. Dagon Donald is still on the tree, just a lot lower.

(Visited 6 times, 12 visits today)

Our Story: From planting to growth

In my last post in the Our Story series, I said:

I began to get a growing sense that Monticello needed another church – not one born out of strife or conflict – but one begun with a clear vision and a fresh strategy that would reach the unchurched, disciple those that followed Christ and equip them for ministry to the community and beyond. I especially longed to see a church which would embrace college students and young adults and intentionally develop them as leaders rather than just urge them to attend services. I shared these thoughts with Carolyn one day as we were driving home from church.

Journey Church was launched in January 2003 as a small group of friends began to meet in our living room. Weekly, I shared the vision for a new expression of the body of Christ in our community. That August, my resignation from campus ministry became effective, and I transitioned into becoming a pastor for the first time in my life.

As I mentioned in the last post, I started a graphic design business to help pay the bills, and with Carolyn snapping pictures of everything that moved, our church planting adventure began. Our small but growing band of “Journey-ers” were a joyful, flexible group. We met in seven locations in our first three years – on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Monticello (the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, the Missionary Baptist Student Foundation and the Wesley Student Foundation), SeaArk Boats building, the Walmart shopping center (one spot at first and then two), and the Malco Theaters. It was truly a journey.

One of the things that developed quickly was excellent musical worship. It got off to a bad start, however, as I learned to play the guitar and would plunk away those first few Sundays. Thankfully, Ben Coulter jumped on board quickly and assisted us as a co-pastor and worship leader. He was followed by TJ Files who developed an incredibly praise band. Jeremy Woodall and others took the reigns after TJ was called to serve in another church as their worship leader.

Week in and week out, we saw God do amazing things our faith family. We were a tight knit group, but each family was coached and encouraged to have a vision for the “empty chair.” It was a concept we reiterated often – a chair that’s not full belongs to someone that’s not there… yet.

From Operation Christmas Child to family camps, community service projects (we went out one weekend and cleaned public bathrooms) to disaster relief (tornado cleanup in a neighboring town), we wanted to demonstrate that the church is not about a building, but about showing the love of Jesus to our neighbors. We didn’t want to just show them; we also wanted to tell them. Kind behavior without Christian content can be misinterpreted as us only being “nice” people. All our members were constantly encouraged to tell others what Jesus meant to them and to invite them to consider how much He could do in their lives as well.

The church grew consistently for four years, and in those years, we still had constant transition. Just when we’d begin to reach a full room, families would move. Others would “try Journey out” for a while and grow uncomfortable with the reality that we really intended to live our lives for Jesus. It wasn’t just a place to “go to church.” It certainly wasn’t Bible-Belt, comfortable Christianity.

Our kids were in the middle of things with us, and it was a joy-soaked affair. It was also some of our hardest days as a couple. Finances were always an issue. We struggled mightily to simply make ends meet. There were days the church couldn’t pay our salary, and we’d just pray it through and encounter God’s gracious provision in amazing ways.

It was an amazing day when Journey purchased a building – a former church facility. It was a 5000 sq ft. metal building, and we renovated it ourselves, from top to bottom. We mudded wood paneling for days and then textured it and painted. We took the back room and made a cozy fellowship hall that we all felt was incredible as we lined the walls with donated wood torn from an old barn. As we moved in, we invited pastors from other churches in the community to our dedication service, and they kindly came to celebrate with us. In addition to being blessed with our own facility,  a local doctor donated land to us in a prime area in Monticello that could serve us if we needed to grow from the new spot.

Then came 2007. It was our “year from Hell.” That’s what we still call it today. It was that year that a group of faithful Journey members left all at once – a result of a lot of factors. I was called a lot of things in those horrible months. I even received a letter from one of the couples who left, telling me I was like Bruce Barnes in the Christian book series Left Behind. Pastor Barnes was “left behind” because he wasn’t really a Christian, only going through the motions. I described the aftermath to ministry friends later as like walking into cobwebs. You’d think the dust had settled, and then you’d be brushing away that uncomfortable presence of relational ickiness again in a conversation.

As hard as those days were, the leadership team of Journey came together, and we experienced uncommon unity and grace as we prayed hard through those days and sought God in the days ahead. The people of Journey stood by Carolyn and me in some of our hardest times. Through health crises, especially. It was not unusual at all to call one of the guys one afternoon or evening and say, “Hey, would you like to meet me up at the church to just.. pray?” That building was saturated with intercession and a people crying out to the Father – for our own families and lives and problems, but more often for our community and for those who wanted to come into a faith relationship with Jesus.

One thing that was affirmed in our lives during the six years I led the people of Journey was the power of the Word of God. Sunday after Sunday, I learned afresh how daunting and simultaneously joyful it is to simply let God’s Word do its work in His people. Combined with authentic worship, we consistently experienced the presence of God in our services.

Our leadership team would meet on Thursday mornings at 6:00 a.m. Those meetings were some of the best of my ministry experience. Of course, they’d begin with one of us attempting to scare the daylights out of the other. If you arrived, and saw a car in the parking lot, and the lights were off in the building when you entered, you’d be pretty much guaranteed the need for an undies change in the next few minutes. One mornings, TJ hid under the kitchen sink. I still have no idea how he squeezed into that cabinet.

Journey began experiencing fresh growth and vision in 2008-2009. They were years of special connections, as we reached out to local churches more for partnership and even began forming a network with other new churches in Arkansas. As sweet as those two years were, we also saw some more key leaders leave – this time through healthy transition as jobs and other opportunities took them from Monticello.

It was toward the latter part of 2008 that I began to sense a transition ahead. Carolyn and I both felt it. We knew God was up to something. We even began asking the Lord for help and direction for “next.” We had experienced significant grace from some of the bruises and hard work of church planting’s early years, but we were just… ready. We’d been in Monticello for almost 14 years at that point.

Then one evening I got a phone call from an old friend… To be continued.

 

Previous in series (Visited 24 times, 21 visits today)