Few things in the blogosphere are more annoying than bloggers who blog about the fact that they haven’t been blogging. Such blog posts are a temptation a blogger should resist with all one’s willpower. Still, I have been known to give in to temptation from time to time … so here goes anyway.
I have not posted to the Joshua One blog in a little while. Surprisingly, the media have not been knocking down my door to inquire if everything is OK. I nevertheless want to assure the watching world that all is quite well, and I have just been extremely busy with several ministry projects.
* I have begun a new sermon series at First Christian Church, Jones, Okla., on the book of Philippians. What a marvelous Scripture — on joy and contentedness and ambition and priorities and ministry. I hope to post those sermons to this website as I preach them.
* In November, we hired a part-time youth minister at the Jones church. He is a grad student at Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond. The Jones church is a small congregation, 40 to 50 people on a Sunday, with almost no young families with small children. So, we have truly given Neil an impossible assignment: not just to lead a ministry for kids, but to actually bring in the kids. Working with Neil on developing his program is another important thing on my plate.
* Beginning this week, I am teaching a class on Wednesday evenings at Edmond Christian Church on Bob Russell’s modern classic, When God Builds a Church. The book tells the amazing story of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, which has grown from less than 100 people in 1962 to more than 18,000 average weekend attenders now. The subtitle of the book is: “10 Principles for Growing a Dynamic Church.†Each chapter addresses one of those principles: Truth, Worship, Leadership, Excellence, Faith, Harmony, Participation, Fellowship, Stewardship, Evangelism.
When God Builds is a great tool for a church to use to conduct an honest self-assessment on how it is doing in each of those important areas. We had 16 people, most of them church leaders, in our first session. I have developed my own study guide for When God Builds. My goal this semester is to turn those materials into a weekend seminar I can offer to churches.
* The biggest project that has been keeping me busy these last few months is our upcoming missions trip to Costa Rica. Norma and I are leading 15 people to San José in 11 more days! We will be there seven days, during which we will facilitate a three-day preaching convention for several Costa Rican churches, and offer a medical clinic on two days. Primary purpose of the trip is to visit and encourage and strategize with Rodrigo Rojas, senior evangelist of Costa Rica For Christ, one of the ministries of Joshua One Ministries.
Our missions team includes 5 members of Edmond Christian Church, 2 members of Jones Christian Church, Norma and I (members of both churches), and 6 other believers from 4 other churches. One of the great things about this week will be the fellowship we 15 members of 6 different churches will enjoy among ourselves.
Norma and I led many missions trips when I was director of Spanish American Evangelism in El Paso, TX. But most of those trips were in Juárez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. That made planning and leading the trips so much easier than preparing for this venture to Costa Rica. For several weeks I have been swamped working out countless details: air travel, speaker for the convention, medicines and supplies, gospel tracts, lots of questions from our team, and raising the funds for all of this! It has been a huge project.
I’m sure not the only one who has been working very hard to make this trip a success. Missionary David Savage has put in countless hours planning this trip with me, and is in Costa Rica now making final preparations. Ralph Shead, coordinator of Spanish projects for LATM (Literature and Teaching Ministries in Joplin, MO), will be our convention speaker and is busy preparing his messages. One team member, Jodi, a registered nurse, has been a godsend in overseeing the medical clinic. Roger, our team treasurer, has put in several hours of hard work in that capacity.
Of course, Rodrigo has also been busy handling logistics and publicity for the convention and medical clinic. And at home, Norma has been wonderful about keeping the rest of our lives on track, while she has meanwhile been busy with her own ministry projects and does what she can to help me with mine. I can’t imagine what a single day would be like without her.
Norma will be shooting lots of photos in Costa Rica, and as soon as we get back, I will post a full report with plenty of pictures of our Costa Rican adventure.
So, yes, I’ve been busy lately. Costa Rica For Christ is just one of the ministries of Joshua One Ministries. Another goal is to post a lifetime of sermons and lessons on this website. In December I began posting two series of materials: “The Doctrines of Christmas” and “What Mormons Believe About…” I need to finish both of those. Two other series I want to get online as soon as possible are a year-long series of lessons on Daniel-Revelation that I preached at Jones Christian Church in 2006, and a “Tough Questions and Some Bible Answers†series I preached in 2007.
Never enough time. Never enough time. Never enough time. Here’s what I say about that:
There is never enough time to do everything one wants, and rarely enough time to do anything as well as one wants. Fortunately, nothing we do or want to do is half as important as we imagine it to be. Just do what you can. What you can’t get done God will assign to someone else, if it really needs doing.
I also say this:
What can it possibly mean to say we don’t enough time, when we have eternal life? We have the rest of eternity! But most things worth doing will have to wait until we are on the other side of the eternal veil.
