Thoughts...

One of the pastors who lead our church passed away yesterday. Jim Terry retired from our church a few years ago. He always had a smile on his face and the love of Christ in his heart. He died at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock. He had pastured Methodist Churches across the Northwest Texas Conference, and had attended Asbury Theological Seminary.

Last night everyone that finally made it home at the same time, after two weeks of non-stop travel and being out of town. I think Cap was glad to be home. Honey, Bear and Braegan came over and played last night. The boys had a good time.

Last weekend while we were in Clovis there were a couple of toddles that had to go to the ER the night before the party. Of course during the day there were a few cuts, bumps, and bruises that go along with it. Ryan said something to the effect that, “There is an inherent risk of injury when you grow and get bigger, it is demonstrated in all of humanity.” A few weeks ago I was at a meeting and the individual that developed some global software was talking about his software like it was a person that had a personality. I had to take some risks when he grew his software and his business. I think that a parallel can be draw between the living person and church programming or the church itself and growing. I think that there are times when a program just has to step up and say this is the direction we are going and here is how we are going to get there. It might be that we trip, stumble and fall. After which it is self-evident that it was a bad idea, and we learn from that and springboard into another avenue. During WWII I believe that Gen. George Patton said, “The problem with Monty (Gen. Bernard Montgomery) is that he is too afraid of losing to attempt to move forward and win.” If a program does not move forward, it will languish, and if a church does not take risks then it will parish. (The risks that I am talking about are things like, changing the style of worship, putting in projectors, inviting praise and worship, or perhaps playing some old hymns.)

Everyone should read this news story:
Pregnant woman crashes, has baby in car