Several news agencies are reporting that a stock clerk in New Jersey lost his life as shoppers knocked him down and trampeled him to death today.  Apparently, few of the shoppers cared enough to even stop and observe the goings on.

It would appear that the only thing that got their attention was when store management shut the store down.

A pregnant lady was also knocked down and injured.  One source is reporting that the paramedics were overheard telling her that she lost the baby.

I’ve often espoused the opinion that the hassle isn’t worth the deals.  I am quite confident that the deals aren’t worth being a part of a mob that values those deals over life.

You can read about it from these services:

NY Daily News|Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

Chicago Tribune|Wal-Mart worker dies in Black Friday stampede

Balitmore Sun|Wal-Mart worker in N.Y. dies after being trampled during Black Friday event

Fox 5 NY|Mall Worker Killed In Black Friday Trampling

KTAR.com|Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

I wonder if you consider it to be “Scriptural baptism” if the person, say an 8 year old, shows complete and proficient understanding of salvation by faith in the substitutionary atonement made possible in Jesus and this same 8 year old convinces you that he/she has put his/her personal faith in that atonement…

BUT, years later they confess they didn’t understand the need to be baptized and did it because they felt pressured to do so, though they understand baptism now.

What do you think?  Was it legitimate?  Do they need to do it again?

So the sermon yesterday was the last in a series, “When God shows up…” that studied the interactions and reactions of several Old Testament epiphanies (physical manifestations of God, for Vicki and Tiffany).  This has led us up to Advent when we will study the ultimate revelation of God in His ultimate physical manifestation:  the incarnation of the Son, Jesus.

The text was Exodus 33 and the outline went like this:

1.  The people were “stiffnecked” or rebellious and needed to be obedient. (vv 1-6)

2.  Moses valued God’s presence more than being in the land of milk and honey. (vv 12-17, esp 15-16) For us as Christians, God’s presence does not leave us, but we have a way of segmenting our lives so that we only pay attention to God’s presence at certain times of our choosing.

3.  Obedience and the pursuit of God’s presence will open you to experience God in ways you never before would have considered. (vv. 18-23)

At the end of the sermon, I stated that we had been through a desert kind of year this year.  We seemed to be doing so well and the church was growing, but we had staff turnover and that was confusing and frustrating and nothing seemed to be happening about that.  The church hadn’t really had the sense of excitement that we had the last couple of years before.

Now, however, God is beginning to move among us and open us up to things that we never before have seen.  The Search Committee is finishing up their service in pursuit of a Worship and Young Adult Pastor.  He should be coming in view of a call very soon.  They are traveling to meet with him after Thanksgiving.

But even that is not the biggest news…

A year and a half ago, I asked for us to pray that we would be a place that God would do things that only God could get the glory for doing.

Seven months ago I challenged our church to work and pray toward paying off our debt, about $90,000 at the time, by the end of this year.  We worked faithfully and reduced the debt by about a 1/3 in that time to get our church to a place just under $62,000 by Sunday.  Though we worked hard and were faithful, we just couldn’t reach that goal.  Or really get close to it.  Enough to show faithfulness, not enough to claim that we could do it in our power.

When I challenged the church to pay off the debt, a man in our congregation began to ask God for the ability to pay off the mortgage, unbeknownst to me.

On Friday morning I received a phone call asking me for a meeting with this man and his wife.

On Sunday morning I held up a check for $62,000 given with the only stipulation being that he and his family not be made known – that God would get the glory.

I know it has been a desert kind of year for us, but, as with Moses, it is better to be in the desert with God’s presence than in the land of milk and honey without Him.

I know that God has bigger things in store for us than we have ever imagined.  We must simply be obedient and continue to focus on dwelling in His presence.

The holidays are here and that means plenty of opportunities to focus the topics of your sermons on things seasonal.  Do you?

I avoid sermons based on holidays like the plague – no Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, 4th of July, etc.  I just think that you can only say so much in a sermon aimed at a holiday before you begin to repeat yourself the next year or two.  Then you have to fight to be original.

The exception?  For me, Easter and Christmas.  In fact, I do Advent.  Four sermons targeted at the coming of Christ and what it reveals about God and it starts next week, the 30th of November.

Am I schizophrenic, or is there a method to the madness?

What about you?

One of the best ways, one of the easiest ways, for a church to missionally engage its local community is to serve the local elementary school.  Elementary schools are typically located in neighborhoods that mimic the placing of churches (obvious exceptions include mega churches that move to a 55 acre campus on the edge of town).  We’ve got one right around the corner and we even share a name:  Skelly Elementary, Skelly Drive Baptist Church.  Everyone refers to both places as “Skelly.”  Context determines about which you are speaking at the moment.

It is my goal to blur the lines by becoming so integrated in our local school that people get confused about which we are talking no matter where you are.

We’ve served the teachers lunch, we’ve offered clothes and school supplies to needy kids, we’ve brought snacks to the teachers’ lounge…

And we’ve painted the blacktop play area.

Just a couple of weeks ago we went out and freshened the paint on the blacktop play area where they had faded 2-Square, 4-Square, hopscotch, kickball and a map of the United States.  Here are some pictures:

(Click on the thumbnail to open the picture.  No, it’s not Phriday Foto – that’s tomorrow.)

[Show as slideshow]

The principal of the school was in the service this past Sunday and we read some thank you notes from a couple of students.  I’d like to quote a few to you here as well.

Dear…, Skelly Drive

Thank you for repainting our blacktop.  If you hadn’t done that people would still be cheating on all of the games.  Especially on foursquare people would say that they were playing fair but they weren’t.  I also appreciate the 50 states.  I like what you did for us.

Gratefully,

Ty Ree’lle

Another,

Dear SDBC

Thank you for repainting our blacktop.  It’s so much easier to play kickball and four square.  In kickball now, we know where the bases are, and there is alot less arguing.  In four square now there is less cheating.  I appreciate your kindness.

Your friend,

Chase

One more…

Dear SDBC

Thank you for painting the lines on the blacktop.  I like having the lines because there’s no more cheating.  I like playing four square and now it’s funner.  I appreciate your kindness.

Sincerely,

Kelsi

Clearly, there has been a cheating epidemic at Skelly Elementary.  We at Skelly Drive are glad to serve God in the pursuit of justice on the four square courts of our local school.

:)

Not avoiding you, dear reader.  Just busy as can be.

We are growing closer in our staffing search and this has taken a lot of time.

Of course, we have just hosted the BGCO in our fair city.  I went Tuesday for a while and had a couple of great conversations.

Since I usually blog at night and my nights have been full, I’ve not had time or energy to spend writing, but I have several things I still hope to get to this week.

See you soon.

If you enjoy these pictures, you can check out more at my photoblog or flickr.

These are of a spider I found suspended on a bridge of his (or her?) own making above the floor of the woods whilst hiking the other day.  Though I think I disconcerted him (or her?) somewhat at first, he (or she?) seemed to get used to me pretty quickly.

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge the picture.

[Show as slideshow]

One of my great hopes for race relations in America is that there will be healing now that someone that is not a full blooded white dude has been elected.  The best case scenario is that minorities will feel that they are included in the leadership of America and that minority children will really believe the saying, “In America, you can be anything you want to be.”

Nevertheless, I have heard some skepticism on this issue.  That President Obama will not be able to meet the expectations put on him by minorities and frustration will grow.

Do you think that race relations will get better or worse in the next few years?

Why?

Can the church help?  If so, how?

I voted today.

If you haven’t, you should.

I am concerned about our process, though.  I walked up and just told the registrar my name, though I had my registration card and driver’s license in my hand.  I had seen several before me just say their names and he simply let them sign and vote.

No id required.

*sigh*

No wonder Indianapolis has 105% of its eligible population registered to vote.

My prediction is that Oklahoma will vote Republican and Barack Obama will receive the majority of the electoral college and become president elect.  That seems pretty clear to me, though I confess some anxiety over the issue.

What was not so certain is the two tax initiatives for citizens of the City of Tulsa.  A few months back, Tulsa wanted to develop its riverfront area in the fashion of suburb, Jenks.  The additional tax to fund the project was shot down by the voters, primarily because of the failure of the city leaders to maintain the infrastructure (mostly the streets) with the tax money it had already collected.

The cry went up and the vote came down.

So the leaders said they learned their lesson.  They came up with not one plan, but two, to fix our streets.  If one initiative passes, only its projects are funded, so the new slogan is, “Vote Two for Tulsa.”  The promise?  This time, WE PROMISE that all the tax money we raise for streets will actually make it to the streets.  Really.  We promise.

Ahem.  You have not learned your lesson.

The solution is not that you will raise a new tax, in a floundering economy, when your people are concerned with the future, in order to provide what you promised before and have yet to deliver.

Tell you what.  Reduce the size of local government and make room for the improvements from monies diverted to projects less necessary and you’ll have both the improvements and support of the citizens of Tulsa.

Sheesh!  How hard is this?

Does the Missional Church and the Simple Church process reflect similar ideology?  Can Eric Geiger and Ed Stetzer co-exist?

Actually, they seem to think that the thoughts behind Simple Church and Breaking the Missional Code work very well together.  Writing an article together for Neue Quarterly, they propose several similarities.

Here are some highlights:

1. Being missional and being simple requires strategic thinking.
2. Living a missional life is part of a simple discipleship process.
3. Simple churches offer less at the church building, thus creating opportunities for missional living.
4. Missional and Simple leaders know culture.
5. Both Missional and Simple are people focused, not program focused.
6. Neither Missional or Simple is a church model.

Be sure and check out the full article, Simply Missional in Neue – EdStetzer.com.