On the way home from my small group at Bradenton Christian School this morning, I heard something shocking on the radio. Dana Jacobsen, of ESPN’S  “First Take,” was heard saying, “F@%$ Notre Dame, F!$% Touchdown Jesus, and F%$# Jesus!”

I ‘like’ to give my money to local Mom and Pop businesses. First of all, they’re local. Second of all, I’ve found several which have earned my trust, and therefore my business. It’s good to find a place you can trust.

My ‘check engine’ light went on yesterday, so I did what I was supposed to do: Have someone else check the engine. So today I came to a place that really specializes in tires. But they were willing to check it out and not charge me 68 bucks just to look at it (like the Mazda dealership yesterday).

Apparently the spark plugs needed changing, as did a corrosive wire. Thirty minutes later a dude came to me and explained that one of the wires, which didn’t technically need to be changed, wouldn’t come to the shop until 3pm today. So he awaited my decision as to what they should do.

I simply asked a question that I always ask when I trust someone: “What would you do in my case?” If that person knows more about the situation than I do, that advice usually gets put into practice. That’s the advantage of having people one can trust.

I just can’t read everything (I read really slowly, which makes ‘everything’ that much more impossible-as if something can be ‘more’ impossible than something else), I can’t do everything (I pastor, husband, fish, watch football, workout, play guitar), and I can’t know everything (I’ve even forgotten a lot that I’ve learned-sorry Mom and Dad, my educational benefactors).

So I often have to rely on knowledgeable people I trust to assist me in decision making. Having people you can trust makes life a lot easier. And that is by design.

A local church community, the Church at large, and even those in the community all play a role in helping us make tough decisions.

On special holidays, Amy and I usually do something really special and fun. On Labor Day, we painted. On MLK Jr. Day, we threw out-or gave to Goodwill-everything we didn’t use to make room for “Little T’s” closet. 

This weekend, we took the youth group camping. I say “we” because I didn’t, and would never dare do anything like this alone. An elder and another young adult came along and were incredibly helpful. I’m forever grateful for all those who’ve helped serve alongside of me (for free!), and particularly grateful to have had their help this weekend.

Last night I had my 2nd Candidates Committee meeting as the Chair. Our committee of the presbytery is responsible for bringing those seeking to be ministers ‘under care’ (our supervision, testing of gifts, encouragement, approval of internship). 

On Tuesday morning, I attended a church planting meeting. As a presbytery, we are hoping to see some serious church planting activity in the next several years. And as part of that process, we will be having monthly meetings to network, grow, be challenged, and encourage one another in the process.

I finally got my Macbook up and running this weekend. I did my best to screw it up by inserting a disc that didn’t need to be inserted. As a result it did some bad things, and then nothing at all. Fortunately a gentlemen at Apple walked me through (over the phone of course) the process. An hour and a half later of reinstalling ALL the stuff, and I was good to go.

I think that the Mac will be hard to use at first. I’m used to doing things a little differently. And honestly, I’m comfortable with my computer-even though its slow. Really slow. At least I know how to do what I want it to do.

But if you think about it, everything that is new is probably going to be weird or hard at first. Praying out loud, praying with people, sharing your faith, building new relationships with neighbors, etc…All of which are part of being a Christian, even though they might make us feel weird at times.

Singing new songs or new arrangements of songs in worship is also weird, and sometimes hard. Some songs seem harder to sing than others. And some folks like to claim that most new music is harder to sing.

But if you’re honest, most songs that you’ve never sung before (or are not familiar with), with the exception of Hansen’s “Um-bob,” are difficult at first to sing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, be glad.

There are many ‘old’ songs we sing at our church that I’ve never heard before. And guess what, they’re hard for me to sing. Sometimes really hard. But Amy and I try our best, and we know that they are not hard for everyone (because they’re familiar to many)-and you will never see us with our mouths shut. We’ll sing because we like who we’re singing to.

And with newer songs or arrangements, I can only trust that people will show love and do the same. Even though it will be hard at first. Like using a Mac.

I’ll update you in a few months to see if this whole PC to Mac switch is really a good analogy. It might be a bad switch for me and never become familiar and easier-thus making it a bad analogy.

Many folks have just as strong opinions on this issue as they do on worship songs!
But know this, I’m not trying to argue that one computer or one worship form is better than another. I think they (computers and worshipers with varying tastes) can exist in one congregation.

Amy and I went out for a delicious meal at Troyer’s (an Amish style restaraunt) on Friday night. If Hooters is at one one end of the waitress uniform spectrum, Troyer’s is probably at the other end of it. In addition to the non-flattering uniforms, we noticed that some of the waitresses had some sort of head scarf (if that’s what you call it).

So I asked our waitress if those women with the head scarf things were, like, veterans who had worked their way up to the head scarf status (although that doesn’t necessarily seem like a desirable goal to shoot for). She explained to us that those were the ‘conservative’ Mennonite ladies. She was a lot more ‘liberal.’ And BTW-there were actually NO Amish waitresses at all, so I’m thinking about a false advertisement suit.

These words ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ are loaded with meaning. So I was curious about exactly what she meant by the word ‘liberal.’ Thus I inquired a bit.

Those who were conservatives didn’t believe in much electronic stuff. ‘Liberal’ meant that she was open-minded. So we inquired in regards to her open-mindedness: about life, church, social issues, etc…?

Since we had very limited time (Amy reminded me to let her go since she technically was working), I couldn’t exactly figure out what ‘liberal’ meant. It could have been liberal in the sense that she drives fast cars, uses an Ipod, believes in signing more modern music in church, or using power point slides for worship and preaching. Or she could have meant it socially. Or she could have meant ‘liberal’ in the sense of accepting every religion as equally truthful (I did notice a book in the store library while I was waiting that was a little concerning to me).

Regardless, I’ll probably never know what she meant by that word, even though Amy advised me to leave my business card on the table. Nevertheless, there are scores of words loaded with meaning. The only problem is that they mean something to one person and something totally different to another in a different context.

Then how can we know if we’re saying the same or different things? Do something I don’t like and am not good at: take time, ask the question “What do you mean?” and (this is the hardest) LISTEN.

Otherwise you may be fighting with someone you actually agree with (been there, done that) or agreeing with someone (or them agreeing with you) who you should be ‘fighting’ (been there as well).

This morning I had the privilege of preaching at a sister PCA church in Sarasota. They are currently without pastor and have been bringing in folks for some time now to come and preach.

Its amazing that a church without a pastor would grow as it has. There were very few empty seats this morning, far fewer than there were last time I preached (when we found out Amy was pregnant, and she’s about 21 weeks or so; I lost track). The fact that it had grown significantly in size and giving, and perhaps in health as well (they were going to reach out through a homeless ministry this afternoon) showed a lot about God’s faithfulness to this church.

No pastor, no problem. If God desires a church grow, it shall grow. And in the absence of a pastor, the newly installed elders have begun to take charge of ministry, lay leaders are continuing lead, and people are really giving sacrificially. Nevertheless, I do hope they can call a pastor or stated long term pulpit supply sooner rather than later.

But it is interesting though, that the main things which seem to be attractive to visiting folks were this: friendly community, good music (though not my particular ‘taste’) and something for the little one’s (children’s ministry) and bigger one’s (youth group). There’s probably been great preaching at this church for a time; but hearing the same pastor week in and out has obviously not been a high priority.

Of course I didn’t interview anyone; these were just some of mine and Amy’s thoughts as we drove home.