Rock New Haven

Thoughts of Haggard...and us

All of our worlds ought to be just a little "rocked" right about now. Click here for some thoughts I shared with other clergy in the New Haven 828 blog.

Pastors Voice Their Opinion

Reporter Paul Bass, from the New Haven Independent came to interview Pastors Todd and Leslie earlier this week on the issue of the spiral in teen violence in the city of New Haven. The article, entitled "Ministers Challenge the Church on Youth Violence," appeared yesterday. Check it out!

Phenomenal Desserts, but....

I've never seen a spread in church like the "Venetian Dessert Table" that Rod LaFrance put out for us at our 15th year anniversary. I hope someone got a picture of it! By the time I got out there, it was pretty well picked over...and reduced to a mere shadow of it's original splendor!  Yet, similar to beholding the ancient ruins of Greece, I could just imagine what it must have been like in its most glorious moments.  I did manage to taste some of the remnants though!!! My God, that stuff was good! Rod, we have certainly found your gift!!!  The fanciest bakery in town couldn't have done any better taste-wise or with the presentation!!! It was a superb finish to a great night of celebration.....

It does raise an interesting point though concerning the eating habits of the typical church. We went from a message a week ago about taking care of our bodies to an incredible, but frankly gluttonous feast Sunday night. From an article posted on the Chicago Sun Times Blog:

"America is becoming known as a nation of gluttony and obesity, and churches are a feeding ground for this problem," says Ken Ferraro, a Purdue sociology professor who studied more than 2,500 adults over a span of eight years looking at the correlation between their religious behavior and their body mass index.

"If religious leaders and organizations neglect this issue, they will contribute to an epidemic that will cost the health-care system millions of dollars and reduce the quality of life for many parishioners," he says.

Further into the article, this astute observation is made:

"In religious traditions where drinking alcohol, smoking anything and even dancing are vices regularly preached against from the pulpit, overeating has become the "accepted vice," Ferraro says.

Now that's some food for thought!!!!

The point is not to embarrass anyone or to make us feel guilty. Guilty? no. Convicted? Yes! I want us all to be around for years to come. I want us to be as blessed and full of energy as we possibly can be! There is so much work to be done and we need to be fit if we're going to do our part.  On the other extreme, we're not going  to make idols out of our bodies. We're just going to take care of them as the temples for the Spirit that they were created to be. We're not going to go crazy with this....but we will be paying more attention.  I look forward to seeing another Venetian Dessert Table.......but any more than once a year and we'll have to rename it the "Table of Sin!"

Still Love me? I absolutely love you!

It Pays to Shop for Gas

It pays to shop around for gas. Here' a link (click on logo) to NewHavenGasPrices.com.  The range in Greater New Haven goes from $2.95 to $3.10. On a 15 gallon fill-up, that's a $2.25 per fill difference.  Fill up once a week and there's a $117 per year difference.

Farmers or Hunters?

Seth Godin has a blog that deals with issues of marketing. In a recent post, he stated:

Five thousand years ago, every human was a hunter. If you were hungry, you got a rock or a stick and you went hunting.

The problem was that all of the animals were either dead or really good at hiding.

Fortunately, we discovered/invented the idea of farming. Plant seeds, fertilize em, water em, watch em grow and then you harvest them.

The idea spread and it led to the birth of civilization.

Everyone got the idea... except for marketers.

Marketers still like to hunt.

What we're discovering, though, is that the good prospects are getting really good at hiding.

So what's all that have to do with us?

Marketing is the attempt to persuade others to a point of decision or action.  The term marketing has all kinds of negative connotations, especially in the world we call "Church." But if we remove the "sales" slant normally associated with the term marketing and insert "persuasion toward something glorious and wonderful," then we're talking about a particular kind of God-ordained and mandated marketing that we biblically refer to as "evangelism."

Isn't it true that the church seems to be more interested in hunting than farming when it comes to its attempts to connect people with Jesus? Whether it's in the form of evangelistic crusade-type events, one on one, or in a Sunday morning altar call, we often look to (excuse the expression), "bag the game" and whether it's intentional or not, we often move on.

Don't get me wrong, any way we can help people make the connection to Jesus with integrity and pure motives is great. There are times when we will just need to trust God to lead new babes in Christ to others who will help and guide them beyond the point of their new birth, but my heart is leaning more and more in the direction of personal responsibility and tenacity in the process of cultivation or "farming." 

A clear demonstration of love over time will speak volumes and be much more persuasive than anything we could ever say in a fleeting moment. If the gospel is not real enough in our lives to sustain a convincing, living, ongoing testimony, then our words will never suffice in being able to persuade.  Of course if we lead them to the Lord and never see them again, we might persuade a few (or perhaps many). That's all good, but frankly, some folks will just never be good at that kind of evangelism and run from it every chance they get.

Everyone, on the other hand, can plant and water in their own way.  Everyone can tell a piece of the "Good News" even if they have trouble conveying the whole wonderful idea. Farming, as opposed to hunting, is painstaking and costly in terms of time, commitment and sacrifice but worth it in the end...and EVERYONE can be involved.

What kind of seed will you plant today? One of my jobs will be to find creative ways and make creative opportunities for all of you to work this great farm.  "The harvest is ripe,"Jesus said. Where are the laborers? Find a mirror.  Behold one very qualified laborer. Remember those aprons I gave out on New Year's day?  Think of them as your bib overalls, my beloved farm hands. Are you ready to, I daresay, touch the manure and get "farm dirty" for Jesus?

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 1 Cor 3:7-8

Blow of the roof! (Pray hard).  Tear down the walls! (Work the Fields). See God move!

Five thousand years ago, every human was a hunter. If you were hungry, you got a rock or a stick and you went hunting.

The problem was that all of the animals were either dead or really good at hiding.

Fortunately, we discovered/invented the idea of farming. Plant seeds, fertilize em, water em, watch em grow and then you harvest them.

The idea spread and it led to the birth of civilization.

Everyone got the idea... except for marketers.

Marketers still like to hunt.

What we're discovering, though, is that the good prospects are getting really good at hiding.

So what's all that have to do with us?

Marketing is the attempt to persuade others to a point of decision or action.  The term marketing has all kinds of negative connotations, especially in the world we call "Church." But if we remove the "sales" slant normally associated with the term marketing and insert "persuasion toward something glorious and wonderful," then we're talking about a particular kind of God-ordained and mandated marketing that we biblically refer to as "evangelism."

Isn't it true that the church seems to be more interested in hunting than farming when it comes to its attempts to connect people with Jesus? Whether it's in the form of evangelistic crusade-type events, one on one, or in a Sunday morning altar call, we often look to (excuse the expression), "bag the game" and whether it's intentional or not, we often move on.

Don't get me wrong, any way we can help people make the connection to Jesus with integrity and pure motives is great. There are times when we will just need to trust God to lead new babes in Christ to others who will help and guide them beyond the point of their new birth, but my heart is leaning more and more in the direction of personal responsibility and tenacity in the process of cultivation or "farming." 

A clear demonstration of love over time will speak volumes and be much more persuasive than anything we could ever say in a fleeting moment. If the gospel is not real enough in our lives to sustain a convincing, living, ongoing testimony, then our words will never suffice in being able to persuade.  Of course if we lead them to the Lord and never see them again, we might persuade a few (or perhaps many). That's all good, but frankly, some folks will just never be good at that kind of evangelism and run from it every chance they get.

Everyone, on the other hand, can plant and water in their own way.  Everyone can tell a piece of the "Good News" even if they have trouble conveying the whole wonderful idea. Farming, as opposed to hunting, is painstaking and costly in terms of time, commitment and sacrifice but worth it in the end...and EVERYONE can be involved.

What kind of seed will you plant today? One of my jobs will be to find creative ways and make creative opportunities for all of you to work this great farm.  "The harvest is ripe,"Jesus said. Where are the laborers? Find a mirror.  Behold one very qualified laborer. Remember those aprons I gave out on New Year's day?  Think of them as your bib overalls, my beloved farm hands. Are you ready to, I daresay, touch the manure and get "farm dirty" for Jesus?

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 1 Cor 3:7-8

Blow of the roof! (Pray hard).  Tear down the walls! (Work the Fields). See God move!