Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks and my well-meaning goal of writing in the blog almost every day has really taken a hit. However, I am not giving up. It will just take some time to build the momentum. When I am not in the office it is hard to have time to sit down and sneak out a post, but I will work on it. Monday and Tuesday brought the CB Mission Northeast Board Meeting out it Pittsfield, MA. It was my first time going to a CB Board meeting and I went representing our Central Maine Cluster but also turned out to be the only one representing the great state of Maine. I won't go into all the details of the meeting, but we voted on a reorganization of the administrative/shepherd structure of CB and worked on tweaking the new covenant agreement that will bind the churches together in Association. There is much to do. From my own experience and talking to other pastors including some of the ones at the meeting, there is a real lack of connection between most or many of the member churches and the association. I myself have felt that as I struggled greatly with what it meant to be CB after we went through such a difficult time as a church three years ago and CB was silent both during and after. Now I understand more of why these things happened and I have made a personal choice to try to help correct these issues rather than just giving up on them. Some see the issue as one of commitment. I think really the heart of the matter is one of relationship. The churches need to sense, to "feel" a relationship with CB. And that will only be accomplished through people. First it must flow from those in leadership who will set the stage, prime the pump, be the example by reaching out and touching the local pastors. Then the local pastors can begin to replicate that with each other and lead their congregations into the covenant relationship that will build the Association between churches. This by itself will be a challenge as Randy Keely has so many churches spread over such a wide area with which to try to have contact with and so many of the cluster leaders are already busy pastors with congregations that absorb most of their time and energy. I do believe it can work though as we learn how to care better for one another and reach out to one another in love for the sake of the whole body of Christ. On another personal note, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some of the other pastors. I made many good contacts and started building some friendships. I came back exhausted, but also challenged and refreshed for the work here at Bean's Corner. It is that result-challenge and refreshment- that we need to help our brothers experience so that they will feel a relationship connection to CB Northeast.

Well, intention of writing almost every day fell by the wayside this week as I have had to be out of the office again almost all week. In fact, I may be anti-social at our supper tonight and flee back to the office in an attempt to get some things done before we leave tomorrow to spend the weekend with Sarah's family. Having said that, I'm not complaining about what I am doing while I'm out of the office. Of course Tuesday was a bit of a lost day as I got caught up in trying to get the car repaired and had to jump between two different garages. Fortunately, the car is good to go now. Today was three visits plus national day of prayer. I fit in a fourth visit when someone from church spotted me stopping for lunch and joined me. Day of prayer was good today and although it misted some during our meeting, it didn't rain, so that was nice. It was great to have the area evangelical pastors all there. Pastor Alan Archer, Dave Zamboni, Steve Parks, Barry Trask, and myself all participated in the meeting so that was cool. I am so thankful for the relationship with these other pastors. I think that is so important to the body of Christ that we have fellowship and friendship between us. It is also so valuable for us personally as we have accountability and encouragement between us. We can lean on each other, get counsel from one another, and draw strength from each other. I have another blog post brewing about what is going on in state government, but I don't have time to put it together right now as it is time for youth group. If I have time later tonight, I may try to get it done but I am still so very behind on things.

This morning I am in the office because a very busy week means I'm not quite done with my work yet. So I'm writing a blog entry to get the juices flowing and then its finish my sermon so I can spend the rest of the day with the family. Made breakfast for the family this morning. Since today is supposed to be a family day except for some time this morning, I was reflecting on that as I read the Bible this morning. I looked up verses on household, fathers, and children. The biggest verses were Paul's teaching in Timothy about the importance of a pastor/elder/deacon managing his household well. There is also a teaching of Paul in Timothy about the importance of men providing for their household. The last Scripture was an admonition to fathers not to provoke their children to wrath. That last one prompted a little more study on my part. There are several different variations of translation of that verse with the NAS saying "do not exasperate your children" and the KJV saying "do not provoke your children to anger". Good News translation says don't "irritate" and the Contemporary English says "don't be too hard" on them. NIV says don't "embitter". Looking at the word they are translating: "to stimulate (especially to anger): - provoke." It is presumed to be a prolonged form of the word for quarrel, debate, and strife. So What Did I Learn? How does God the Father parent me? He leads with love, gentleness, firmness, instruction, correction, reproof. He's not on my case all the time and He allows me to make mistakes but he always tries to get me to understand, come back from, and learn from them. He invests time in me and is constantly asking me to talk to Him. He is also constantly trying to spend more time with me and talk to me. He constantly seeks to share what He is doing with me and involve me. Is that how I parent? Too often I think we, especially as Christians and most especially as pastors, have over-emphasized discipline over relationship. There are plenty of Christian kids, especially pastors' kids, who have been "provoked to wrath" or "embittered" or "discouraged". (the greek word could be literally translated "no passion"). They have been corrected to the point of exhaustion. I notice very clearly that it takes a lot less time and energy (in the short run) to simply reprove and correct than it takes to get down and make sure I am sharing myself with my kids. After all, I am a busy man. But when I get down and talk to them, share how I am feeling, share my thoughts about what is going on, include them in what I am doing, when I am slower to correct but quicker to bond, the result is a more obedient, more helpful child who has a better attitude. Sometimes I have to correct, but sometimes I need to redirect. Sometimes I need to punish, but then I need to sit down and connect and share my heart and hear theirs. Sarah and I are still learning and practicing the dynamics of this, but we see results as we do. That leads us back to where we started. How God fathers me and how I father my children goes right to the heart of being a pastor. Am I heavier on correction and guidance than I am on connection? Does my church know my heart and hear my concerns? Do I parent the church the way God parents me? I am still learning the dynamics of that too although I hope we are off to a good start. Ok, the juices are flowing. Thanks for doing this little study with me. For those of you who go to BCBC, tomorrow morning we are going to be looking at the power of being a Christian that many of us miss in the daily grind. I am excited about this new study as we enter the book of Ephesians. And you dads out there, spend some time today entering into your kids' world the way God entered into yours and connect. Its what I plan to do.

That heading catch you attention? I thought it might. As I've been thinking lately about our approach to being Christians in this world. What does it mean for us to be Christian? What does it mean to live a Christian life. I know a lot of people who "struggle" with their Christian life or who will admit that they don't always live a Christian life. But what does that mean? Is it about following the moral code of Scripture? Is it about having a personal devotional time or reading the Bible or praying? I think perhaps we turn a life into a lifestyle. Now there is nothing wrong with good habits. We need to have good habits and good standards. The problem comes with turning our entire "Christianity" into a lifestyle. As a married man, I live differently than I did when I was single. My priorities are different, many of my habits are different. I live differently. However, I didn't just go out and decide to adopt a different lifestyle. My life changed. To make the point. Do you go through your day trying to be a good Christian and live your Christian life? Or do you go through your day in love with Christ? Does your lifestyle flow out of your passion for Christ or your effort to conform to a "good christian life"? Scripture tells us that the love of Christ controls us. Not the morals of Christ. We will be different, have less temptation, fall less often, struggle less, and have more victory, more joy, more power, when we each day focus not on living a Christian life, but meeting with, spending all day with, focusing on CHRIST. That in turn will create a much more powerful witness to those around us, reduce the hypocrisy that plagues the church, and more will seek us out to help them know our Lord and Savior, Jesus. So Stop changing your lifestyle, and make sure Christ is daily changing you.

PepsiCo who owns Orange Juice Tropicana, recently redesigned and then un-redesigned the packaging on their Orange Juice. The article can be read HERE. It was interesting to me because I had recently attended a CCCA conference workshop on branding by Michael Staires in which he talked about your camps "brand". Since that time I have been working more on both the brand image for Berea and for Beans Corner. But this led me to another thought. What is our "brand" as Christians? At least as "evangelical" Christians. What defines us in the minds of the general public? As I watched what is going on in our world, in politics, in culture, I am not sure that we have done a great job in defining, defending, and presenting our "brand." We are known to be religious, conservative. Probably pro-life and anti-homosexual. Since these are Biblical stands we perhaps feel a sense of satisfaction that we are known for our convictions. The problem for me is, I don't see Christ in that list. Jesus had a very specific brand and it is interesting that he resists "broadening" out and diluting that. When they try to draw him into politics about taxes, he sidesteps the questions (render unto Ceasar...) and instead returns to a focus on the relationship with God. When confronted about whether he posed a threat to the current government, he again refocuses (my kingdom is not of this world...). Micah says that He has told us what is good and what the Lord requires, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. So just asking, is that our brand? When people think of us as a church, as Christians, what is the first characteristic that pops into their heads? Is it our humble walk with Christ and our concern for others? What is your brand?