Jeff Noble's Blog, page 49
December 22, 2014
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Merry Christmas from the Nobles 2014
Exciting things have been happening this year for Northstar. This has made Jeff’s year quite eventful. From the church purchasing 10 acres of land to hiring our good friend, Neal Nelson as Associate Pastor, we are overwhelmed by God’s provision. Jeff was able to go to Montenegro on a discovery trip which has led to one of our church members returning there for a long stay to help our friends. They are using a dynamic tourism website as their business model. Because there are so many outdoor recreation opportunities there, Jeff started running to get in shape for the trip. Since then he has continued running at least 3-4 times a week. Jeff has also had two fun media experiences this year. He and another guy in town were featured in the NRV magazine about being scooter drivers. More recently, Jeff wrote and produced a Razorback song/music video that our good friend and country music artist, Ben Coulter, sang. You can find it on YouTube under I’m a Bielemer. It has over 9000 hits, been on all the local Arkansas channels and even an ESPN write up. We are still waiting for the royalties.
Carolyn is still working at BHS and loving her job in the Guidance department. This past winter Blacksburg had record cold temps and snow. She and Jeff made the 3 mile trek to see the frozen Cascades, a 69 feet waterfall that is just up the road from where we live. This summer she was able to travel to Texas to help her sister move to San Angelo. A week-long line up of projects to work on with her grandmother, mom and sister is right up her alley. She also was able to drive to San Antonio to visit and go to church with her grandfather which always does her heart good. This fall we met our good friends, the Ramseys, at Ouachita Baptist University for all of our kids to have an official campus tour. (that’s the background photo above) We saw many friends and the campus is even more beautiful than when we were there. We think Adelyn is sold on OBU, but Sam’s roots are deep here in Virginia. Carolyn had several trips to Arkansas to the oncologist this year for some suspicious lymph nodes. We are still in a holding pattern. Though the tests came back negative, there are some other suspicious areas. However, God continues to answer prayers and we are so thankful.
Sam is a senior in high school. It just doesn’t seem possible. We are soaking up every moment with him, even the annoying ones. He was able to go to YL camp again this year which is always a highlight of his year. He has applied to several colleges. He is leaning towards James Madison University or UNC-Charlotte. He is still undecided as to what he wants to major in but knows he wants to lead Young Life. So he is basing his decision not only on the school but on the Young Life programs. This fall Sam was able to lead the YL Bible study talk at one of his meetings. They said he did great. He spent a lot of time preparing for the talk – if only he gave that much effort in his schoolwork… He and his friends had a team in the city league men’s softball league. They had a blast. His latest feat was snagging a black bear while bow hunting for deer in the Jefferson National Forest. We are lucky he is alive, crazy kid. We have a freezer full of bear meat and he has turned the cape in to a taxidermist for a bear skin rug. He might have to sell his truck to pay for it, but it’s once in a lifetime event, so he is willing.
Adelyn is in tenth grade and still excels in school-her classes and sports teams. This year she is swimming with the BHS swim team instead of basketball which shares the same season. She also plays BHS softball and is co-president of her Sophomore class with her best friend, Kate. So she stays busy. She continues singing and playing the guitar. It has been a blessing to watch how the Lord uses her and her talents. She is on rotation in the Northstar worship band and she leads worship periodically for the children and youth ministries. She and Sam along with their cousins, TJ and Daniel, went to MissionFuge with the Northstar youth this summer in TN. The camp focused on mission work around the area and was a blast yet was able to teach them to live beyond themselves. She is counting the days until March when she gets her driving permit. We have complete faith that she will be a great driver. However, we are not sure about her sense of direction. Exciting days ahead for all of us indeed.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Jeff, Carolyn, Sam & Adelyn
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December 21, 2014
Health update 2014
I’ve not updated you on the latest with Carolyn’s health in a while, but 2014 has felt a lot like 2008. It was in November 2008 when we received results from a PET scan that there were three areas of concern that required biopsies. You can read more about that journey here.
What’s different this year is health insurance. I’ll resist adding some angry comments about Democrats and their ugly ramrodding of Obamacare down our sore throats (see what I did there?). The compressed version is that there have been growth in some of Carolyn’s lymph nodes.
We’ve known this for a year as a result of CT scans. We were scheduled for a PET scan in March, which Anthem denied. That forced the oncologist in Little Rock to order another CT scan for November, which showed even more growth. As a result, Carolyn had two biopsies in November. The biopsy report was initially good news – no cancer. However, upon further review, it was inconclusive since they indicated the presence of granulomas.
Without a PET scan, we can’t know if there are more granulomas present in her lymph system. So the doctor scheduled her for one, we booked flights, and two days before, Anthem turned us down again. This is not like 2008. Carolyn’s doctor called Anthem, protested vehemently and was treated rudely on the phone. Mind you, we’re paying our insurance premiums faithfully every month – even higher insurance premiums now, thanks to Obamacare, and yet the insurance company is telling the doctor what he can and can’t do to treat my wife who has been fighting cancer off and on for over 20 years. (I may be a little bitter.)
The appeal is in process, but in the meantime, I’d like to rehash an entry I wrote back in 2008 – “As You Help Us By Your Prayers.” The situation is similar, and more importantly, the solution is the same:
We covet your prayers during this time for our ability to set our hope on Him. Please pray for us all around. There are several areas of this “life stuff” that we are helpless to do without His work at this time. As always, we thank you for your gracious and tender mercy toward us through your prayers and help.
After years of learning dependence on prayer during these times, our emotions are not quite as raw as they used to be as far as the why’s. What makes these days frustrating is needless interference from the insurance company, knowing that we still carry medical balances on what they haven’t paid in years past.
In light of that, we ask for your prayers again. Thank you in advance for your kind and consistent intercession for us. Specifically,
Pray for healing for Carolyn. Something is up; we just don’t know what.
Ask God for provision for medical expenses (past/present).
Pray for Anthem to reverse their decision and cover the PET scan.
On a larger scale, pray for wisdom for those leaders in our country to truly fix the health mess.
Also in Our Cancer Saga
Carolyn was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease in 1991. Since then, it's been a wild, crazy cancer saga.
A Sheep’s Tale
Our Story, a week in October
Health update and uncertainty
Biopsy results…
Today’s stop: surgeon consultation
Doctor update
“As you help us by your prayers”
Where we are
Health latest…
Experiencing intercession
Two birthdays of good news
The chemo word
Surgery today
A little closure…
Chemo hero
Our Story: Miracles
Another opportunity to trust
Round 6 update
A La Carte: Health Update, December Nights kickoff, Saving Change and The First Snow
Final surgery – Round 6: gratitude in busyness
Health update 2014
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December 20, 2014
Review: The Hole in Our Holiness
The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness is the first book by Kevin DeYoung I’ve read, and I’ll be checking out some others. He is the Senior Pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan.
First, I appreciated his sense of humor sprinkled throughout in a book that should have been difficult to make “fun.” Second, his writing style seemed to always lead me to read “one more page” which would actually result in another chapter being read.
He opens with an illustration that I really connected with, mainly because I’m not a huge fan of camping either. He likens prep for camping to “packing up the van like Noah’s ark and driving to a mosquito infested campground where you reconstitute an inconvenient version of your kitchen and your bedroom” and notes that it “just doesn’t make sense.”
As far as camping near a beach, I can totally identify with this line of thought:
“…there must be a cleaner, less humid way to export the children for a week… even if the kids have a great time, the weather holds up, no one needs stitches, and the seventeenth hot dog tastes as good as the first, it will still be difficult to get all the sand out of my books.”
The zinger:
“Is it possible you look at personal holiness like I look at camping?”
His point? The idea of holiness in the western church today is largely looked at as fine for some people (like camping). The unholy implication is that it’s not to be expected of every Christian.
DeYoung then gently unpacks the teaching of scripture about holiness. I never felt like I was being “yelled at” or preached to throughout the book. Rather, it was like a warm conversation with a friend who really cares about me. Sure, it was intensely uncomfortable at times, but that was only because the truths he points out expose my own levels of spiritual compromise.
There are a few comments in the book that aren’t consistently true. Such as:
Holiness is written on everything in heaven.. You would not be happy there if you are not holy here.
The first part of that is obviously true. However, the second part is most definitely not. There will be no unhappiness in heaven, no regret. All will pale in the light of the reckless, abundant love and holiness of Christ Himself. I understand what he’s saying though. Why would Christians today not consistently want to seek Christ in our lives here when we’ll be enjoying Him throughout eternity?
However, the great weight of the book is a very readable foundation for every believer to understand the call to holiness – which actually is just a call to enjoying one’s relationship with God. It’s very difficult to enjoy a love relationship with a self-described holy God without cherishing holiness yourself.
The may not be the toolbox for holiness (“do these things”), although DeYoung does offer four simple spiritual disciplines that will place you on a pathway of communion with God: prayer, scripture, fellowship with other Christians and the observance of the Lord’s Supper. Even so, the book is an important one to read and grasp if you desire a daily pursuit of walking more intimately with Jesus.
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December 18, 2014
Happy birthday to the book..
Today marks the second birthday of Super Center Savior’s publication. To celebrate, I’m going to share another guest blog post I wrote for the Virginia Baptist’s website. At the end, you’ll get to see a video that friend and NYT best-selling author Kiera Cass made for the book as part of our church’s encouragement to me last November.
“Lessons in Church Hospitality from Walmart Greeters”
In my last blog post, I introduced the concepts and thoughts behind my book Super Center Savior. In this post, I’ll take a few thoughts from the book about what the church can learn from one of Walmart’s most visible (and beloved) employees – the greeter.
In smaller communities with Walmart, the greeters are more noticeable, because you generally KNOW them. It’s “Ralph” or “Bob” or “Susan.” You know them because you go to church with them, or they live in your neighborhood. In larger towns, the Walmart greeter has a little bit tougher job – to simply greet you, without having a relationship with you.
They are Walmart’s first “touch” on customers. Their attitude, their smile, their simple “welcome” will shape your experience. Good Walmart greeters can enhance your experience. Average greeters may not add to your experience, but they don’t subtract from it. Bad greeters can be a definite hindrance.
What about an excellent Walmart greeter? In the short book The Richest Man in Town, the story is told of Marty Martinson, an elderly Walmart greeter in Brookings, South Dakota who made a huge impact on his community and individual lives by simply being an excellent Walmart greeter. I dare you to read it without being moved to thankful tears by a life of loving, focused simplicity.
Is your church or ministry really ready for guests each and every Sunday or Wednesday in the same way that Walmart is ready for customers?
How does this apply to your church? In Super Center Savior, I devote an entire chapter to simply asking, “Are you ready?” In other words, is your church or ministry really ready for guests each and every Sunday or Wednesday in the same way that Walmart is ready for customers?
Walmart is a multi-billion dollar corporation. It sees the need to have trained, ordinary people greet customers as they enter their stores. They hire for it. They know that there’s something about being welcomed well that shapes a person’s experience and facilitates their return.
It’s been said that proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Has your church or ministry prepared to welcome guests? Do you have a plan and a loving strategy for how people will experience their first encounter?
Our preparation will dramatically impact the experience that guests to our churches have. In so doing, our preparation will also impact our ability to participate in God’s work. Scripture assures us that it’s God who draws people to Himself, and it’s God who adds people to the body. Is your church actively believing that
Think back to Walmart for a moment. How would you react if you walked up to their building and their automatic doors didn’t whoosh open for you? You might be a bit stunned initially if you had to manually slide open the doors. Think further. How would you feel if you walked in and no one greeted you?
If you walked further in and noticed that the floors hadn’t been swept or shined? That things looked generally “dumpy?” How would you feel if you began to notice that the shelves were poorly stocked, things weren’t where they should be, and the Walmart associates were standing around talking to each other instead of seeking to help you?
As a campus minister, I often supply-preached for pastors in southeast Arkansas when they went out of town on Sundays. I remember arriving at one small country church to preach and being momentarily alarmed. As I tried to enter the sanctuary from the door closest to the parking lot, it was locked. Had they seen me coming?
I walked around to the front of the church and entered through the large main doors. As I related to one of the leaders that the parking lot door was locked, they responded, “Oh. Yeah. Everyone around here knows to come in the main doors.” I nodded and grinned to let him off the hook, but it screamed, “Not ready!”
Unfortunately, this is an all too real description of many of our churches. Our churches simply are not ready to receive guests. From the physical appearance and presentation of our building or rented facilities to the private conversations and cliques of the members present, we communicate our unpreparedness on a weekly basis.
When visitors step into our places – whether a sanctuary or a small group – they get the same sense that we might feel in a dirty Walmart with self-consumed employees.
Some of you may be thinking this doesn’t apply to your church because you don’t have visitors very often. There’s probably a good reason for that. You see, if you’re not ready to “love your neighbor,” I doubt very seriously that God will send visitors your way.
Why would God send people that He wants to hear the glorious message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to a church that is not ready to lovingly receive the guests He sends?
The book drop video
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December 17, 2014
Two year anniversary of publication
December 18 will mark the two-year anniversary of the publication of Super Center Savior. To gear up for the little tyke’s celebration, I’m reposting a guest blog I wrote for the Virginia Baptist’s blog:
If you’re a church leader or member, it’s difficult to back away from the proverbial front doors of your church and look at your entire ministry from a fresh perspective. Occasionally, churches innovate and invite a guest to come as a “secret shopper” of sorts to give them added insight into practices, culture and facilities that might hinder a first-time guests’ experience. No one wants to put unnecessary obstacles between a person’s entrance to a church building and their experience with the Savior.
I wrote Super Center Savior as result of several years of observation of church life in the Bible Belt. I grew up Southern Baptist and have served in SBC ministries since I was 19 years old. The book is not so much an empirical study as it is an intuitive one. As a pedigreed Southern Baptist, my family and I were at least TTAWs (three-time a weekers). Sunday morning, afternoon and evening found us at the church building, as did Wednesday nights. We were in good company (and I’ve never had better banana pudding than at after-church fellowships).
Flash forward to my early 30s when I was taking my own family to church three times a week or more. The realization dawned on me slowly. With all of us professional Southern Baptists so active in our churches, our communities remained fundamentally unchanged. In other words, our activity did not enhance our influence. It hit me particularly hard one fall day when our family cheerily headed off to church in the minivan one Sunday afternoon, waving with big smiles on our faces to our neighbors.
Those pagan neighbors of ours… Do you know what they were doing while my shiny family drove resolutely to church? They were raking their yards. Some were visiting with each other across backyard fences. Some of the pagan kids were riding bikes or playing football in front yards. We threw towels over our kids’ heads so that they couldn’t see the fun idolatry. Ironically enough, our church secretary’s last name was Pagan, so we couldn’t escape from them even at church…
I stewed on the reality that the local church in most communities was simply providing religious people with activity and occasional opportunity. Even on our best days, the church was more consumed with its own programs, events and membership than it was with its community. And it wasn’t just our church or our denomination. We were all happy with our occasional banana pudding and Vacation Bible Schools, thinking that it wasn’t our fault that they didn’t come.
So I asked myself, “Where do my neighbors and folks go?” When they’re not at work or at home, what do they do? The answer was obvious one evening when Carolyn and I went grocery shopping. Our town was at Walmart with us. If you’ve ever lived in a town of 50,000 or less, you know how central Walmart is to the culture. It’s not just a place to shop. It’s a place to socialize. Walmart has more influence over most towns than all the churches within a 15 mile radius do.
Ask yourself what it would look like if your church had as much influence in your community as Walmart does.
Super Center Savior was written slowly over about four years – from Monticello, Arkansas to Blacksburg, Virginia. It’s intentionally a short book – about 110 pages – so that Joe or Janet Churchmember will be open to reading it in one sitting, or at least a weekend. It’s full of humor and good-hearted poking at the church. It’s also a thought-provoking discussion-generator for Christians open to considering how life might be different for our communities is the Christians within lived life every day joyfully in love with Jesus.
You may ask, why you should read the book. You’ve never heard of me, and there are too many books already on your reading list. In addition, that Francis guy has a new book. Or perhaps for you, it’s just life is too busy to read another book. Think about this way. On your next drive to church, look around at your neighborhood, at your town. I want you to notice all the activity going on while you drive to church. All those pagan joggers, pagan shoppers, pagan Hardees breakfast eaters. Let it dawn on you that there are more of them – a lot more – than there are of people in your church (even if you attend a “megachurch”).
Ask yourself what it would look like if your church had as much influence in your community as Walmart does. We’ll learn something about being the church from those friendly Walmart greeters in the next installment.
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December 16, 2014
What my kids do when they get home from school
Yes, I’m having blogger’s block. So, my kids are going to serve as my blog fodder this afternoon. It’s exam week at Blacksburg High School, and Adelyn (sophomore) and Sam (senior) have strange exam schedules. Adelyn had two exams, and Sam only had one. They can come and go as they please during this week, depending on when exams are.
I can hear them arrive before they ever enter the front door. Sam’s truck is identifiable by its rumble. Then two car doors slam, and they march through the yard to the driveway, up the front steps. Today, they’re friendly with each other. Sam checks the mail. I happen to be outside with a mug of tea. The tea bag becomes a missile, and I peg Adelyn in the stomach with it from 15 yards away. She loves it when I throw wet tea bags at her.
As soon as they open the front door, the noise level in the house soars. Tabby the cat runs to Adelyn, and she picks him up and carries him on her shoulders for a few minutes, talking to him like a baby.
Sam says, “Hey,” and that’s pretty much the extent of his scholarly commentary after a day in the Virginia educational system. You can pursue conversation with him with a “How was your day?” to which his normal reply is an erudite “Good.” He then disappears into the man-cave, with an immediate detour to his bathroom.
Adelyn heads to the kitchen and wanders around in there, opening cabinets and the fridge as if some fully-prepared meal will jump out and insert itself into her mouth. Finding nothing waiting on her, she makes her way to the couch, where she sprawls and takes a selfie with Tabby.
Now Adelyn disappears into her bathroom where it becomes the audition room. Whether she’s pooping, showering or make-upping, she’s singing. Right now, it’s Christmas carols. Even though her bathroom is upstairs, she forgets that when she’s singing, she’s entertaining/bothering anyone up here.
Next Adelyn wanders downstairs to ask Sam what exams he has tomorrow. He’s still in the bathroom, so the conversation takes places through his bathroom door. It’s normal around here. As she wanders back upstairs, I notice that she changed into warmups in the bathroom to get ready for swim practice. While she waits for her friend to pick her up, she’s back on the couch, playing on her iPhone, with her mouth open, catching flies.
During this entire blog entry, Sam has not emerged from the bathroom. I don’t ask questions; I just report the facts. Adelyn’s friend has picked her up, and now I’m alone upstairs again.
In the middle of all this, Carolyn calls me. She’s in line at the post office, and she thinks that since it’s such a long line that I’d have time to wrap a Christmas present and then drive it to her to mail before she gets to the front of the line. I kindly explain that her idea is not going to happen (very kindly). She kindly explains back that I’ll just have to take it the post office tomorrow. I’m ok with that.
And now Sam reemerges from the man-cave in gym shorts and a t-shirt. He’s heading to the Blacksburg rec center to play basketball with his buddies.
And that, my dear readers, is a typical afternoon of the kids coming home from school. Here’s hoping I recover from blogger’s block soon.
I
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