Merry Christmas from Greg

I decided not to send out Christmas cards this year mostly due to time and most of the folks I desire to send my special regards at this time of year will be reading this. I wish for all of you to have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This year has been one of great joys and laughter and also many challenges.

This year I sang and danced my way through the Spring and Christmas seasons of the Songspinners, performing more than 50 shows and 2 flash mobs at 2 different DMV locations. I also got to emcee and perform with the Songspinners at a special concert in October with the Velvet Hills Chorus. It was a hoot.

We had our grandchildren from Alaska here for 5 weeks this summer and my grandchildren from Virginia along with my son and daughter in law were here during the same time. We also enjoyed having Mom Sullivan here from HI along with Ruth’s sister Mary and the rest of the Souza’s from the Big Island. All the grandkids got to meet their Hawaiian cousin and that was a special time. We celebrated the 4^th of July at the Rock Ledge Ranch and enjoyed the history lessons.

Ruth taught in VA in Sept-Oct and got to be with our Virginia family; while she was gone I took 4 days off from work to paint the outside of the house and the garage. It was a needed project and I am glad it was accomplished. Ruth then attended the Int’l Quilt Festival and Market in Houston in Oct-Nov for her business and had a very productive time there. My wife is an accomplished artist, businesswoman and author and I am so very proud of her!

Church rolled on and we enjoyed some great music with Lisa throughout the year along with some sweet fellowship. We signed a new 2 year lease and are looking forward to 2017-2018 at our current location as a church. Lisa and I are working with a good friend Ken Pulliam to put together a new CD of music.

For this year the honest truth is that life has been a bumpy road. I’m the type that can pull the dark cloud out of every silver lining; I can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory every time. Don’t forget, I work for the government and on top of that, I work for the DMV! So bumps in the road are a daily occurrence. I understand that as a follower of Christ I always have hope and joy. I instinctively know there is a happy ending to my life no matter the strains and pains. Sometimes all you can do is put your head down and plow through it. I’ve done a lot of plowing this year.

It was 5 years ago on Christmas Day that my mother passed away. It was heartbreaking news because I knew I couldn’t get there on time to see her but I am still rejoicing that she is at peace with the Lord. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t miss her. Her loss on Christmas Day along with the loss of my dearest friend in the ministry Mike Rogers (who passed on Christmas Day in 2010) makes Christmas a bittersweet time, and I do believe it will be like that always. That’s OK; every day is Christmas Day for a Christian and memories are made from the small pleasures of life that I experience every day with Christ as my Lord.

So on this day and every day, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. I am completely dependent on His grace for there is nothing in me that can accomplish anything; He has accomplished all for me and it all belongs to Him. Rest in His grace; even if you fall and it seems like all is dark, though He slay you, yet you can trust in Him. Once eternity has been figured out, the rest is a journey of epic joys and pleasures. My prayer for you is peace and prosperity for you, your families, and for this great nation of ours. God bless 2017!

A special note of thanks and info on our upcoming services at Freedom – I had a great worship time at Heartsong Church last Sunday and I do so appreciate you letting me go sing. I enjoyed seeing the picture of Jess, Lisa, Johnie, Darrel and Ron on FB; that was a nice touch.

Don’t forget tonight we will meet for a Christmas Worship Service at 5pm and then have a potluck following. Bring your usual great culinary creations at which we Baptists excel. We’ll have a Christmas sing-a-long following.

Next Sunday night (Dec 18) at 5pm we invite all back for an early potluck and then the Songspinners will be performing at 6pm. This is a great time to bring friends and family to enjoy our fellowship and friendship as a church as we open our doors for those that are coming to the show. It is the closing show for the Songspinners Christmas season. Bring a lot of potluck goodies; enough for those who attend and for the Spinners to snack on after their show. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you guys doing this.

With Christmas and New Year’s on Sunday this year there will be regular worship services at 10am both Sundays but no Sunday School.

His Ways Past Finding Out

I lost someone recently. Robert Walker was the son of friends that I had for over 40 years. He was adopted by my friends in 1985; my wife and I were there when they brought him home. My son and Robert practically grew up together until about high school when they went to different high schools and their lives took different paths. There was so much history and so much time spent together, though. For the most part every time we got to see our friends it was like no time had passed at all. 2 weeks ago I got a message that Robert had suffered a stroke; I went to see him and my friends in the hospital here and I could tell it was bad. Within a week Robert had passed away at the age of 32. While it is so difficult to make sense of such a tragedy, I took comfort in something my daughter posted that is about as good a thing to think in such times.

I lost a friend I haven't seen in....... I don't know how long

I still lost a friend today

He was a part of all of my growing years. He and his parents were always there. All the truly pivotal moments, somehow, someway, they were there

I lost a friend today

I keep trying to explain away or downplay my grief because of the distance

But the truth is, I lost a friend today

I keep wondering if my sorrow is because he was so young, or because I feel so much for his parents

But the truth is, I lost a friend today

The truth is, people grow, and move, and start over. It doesn't mean they leave their roots behind

They may not visit each other, or talk on the phone, they may not see each other for years

It doesn't mean they don't love each other

I lost a friend today

There are roots in our lives that never rot. Those roots are often our childhood friends that helped shape us into who we are

I lost a friend today

I lost a friend today and have absolutely no idea how to grieve

How do you grieve through the guilt and regret? How do you grieve through the path your lives took

How do you grieve through the window of childhood memories?

All I know is, through distance and memory and love,

I lost a friend today.

Thank you to my daughter for these wonderful thoughts

Sometimes it's hard and there's nothing to say: we'll keep on going but it's just plain hard sometimes

Pray for my friends and for one another

If we have hope only in this life, we are people to be pitied. Our hope is in the future in the hands of our loving God

We're still here but you wouldn't know it from this blog

I haven’t updated for some time; I intend to put some thoughts down but with full-time work and preparing for Sunday I never seem to get to it. I intend to send more posts of wandering thoughts and activities in my life and the life of the church so I hope you're all satisfied with my good intentions. I have brilliant posts and observations in my head so I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!

I want to let our friends know of a project that Lisa and I are working on. Our good friend Ken Pulliam is offering his technical expertise to put together a better music recording than we have ever been capable of doing before. We have been meeting on Thursday nights to record some of our favorite Christmas songs and the results so far have been very satisfying. My thanks to the sacrifice that Lisa is making to play and Ken for his willingness to see this project through. He has been working on me for some time to do this so I am glad we have it going. We don’t know when we’ll be done because recording is a time-consuming procedure but we will let you know. More to come

Don’t forget that next Sunday is the change to regular time so fall back one hour next week

Tonight I will be emceeing and performing at “A Harvest of Harmony” featuring the Velvet Hills Chorus, the Songspinners and Joe and Katie Uveges. Tickets are available at the door for the 7:30pm show ($20); if you want to come for dinner and the show ($35) it starts at 6pm. The show is at The Retired Enlisted Association Hall at 834 Emory Circle. It will be a great show and I’m glad they asked me to be a part of this.

And remember: we're not the worst church you'll ever attend and it wouldn't kill you to attend church once in awhile. The best thing is: no snakes!

For Sunday April 17: where did spring go?

It is said Colorado has 5 seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall and that stretch of 3 days in April in which all 4 happen at once. We’re living that season this weekend for sure. Be safe and we look forward to better days and better health as we move slowly but inexorably toward summer. We will keep an eye on the weather and keep you posted about Sunday services for April 17

What Good Does it Do to Sing?

In a world of so much debauchery and destruction, what good does it do to sing and dance? Aren’t we frittering away valuable time by doing something so unserious?

It’s so important to have something in your life that is based purely on art. Music is not a purely emotional thing: it is sometimes more math than emotion. Each note has a pitch, a tone, a volume and quantity (long or short). Each note is broken down on a staff and fits into a certain category. The voice is a complicated thing and can be trained with exercise, practice and technique to sing certain notes a certain way within a certain range. Like I said, music has a lot of technical engineering to it.

But it is also art; it is an expression of the soul based on those technicalities. Those that listen to music do not listen technically; they listen intellectually (is that note on pitch? What was that word? Do I relate to this song?) and emotionally (what does this song mean to me? I remember what I was doing and where I was when I first heard this song…) It is because of these connections that all are touched by music even if they are not particularly musical themselves. Music is the language of the soul, both intellectually and emotionally.

For those that do sing and dance, music is an expression of the soul of the individual. It is painting a work of art with the voice and body. The motions and the music form a single unit for the artist that causes the forgetting of self and ego and intense concentration on the full expression itself. What could be more fulfilling than to forget about self and be thinking only on the expression itself?

I enjoy singing and dancing with my show choir group. For years all I did was sing in church and stifled the body. I started leading singing as a 14 year old teenager in the little Baptist church I was raised in. I was taken aside by an old tenor that sang in a family quartet who introduced me to southern gospel quartet music, a music I have loved ever since. But we weren’t too expressive in the Baptist church; the idea of tapping feet or clapping hands was usually discouraged. After all, clapping your hands is just one short movement away from speaking in tongues, right? No, it isn’t and such a belief has stifled so much creativity and talent in the Baptist church that it is no wonder we are the farm system for the growth of every large Pentecostal church in the last 50 years.

But remember this: the complete abandonment of the mind from musical expression, disconnecting the mind from the body when singing, denigrates the music. When the body and emotions are given full reign much of the glory and expression of the music is lost. There is no music when the mind is turned off.

So I have discovered that the expression of music with body and voice speaks a language to my soul that I cannot fully explain but that I truly know is from God. He has granted me a gift to praise Him with that I know He is pleased with. Since people are fallen I know not all will appreciate this sort of thing but I’m fallen too and I know I don’t know everything perfectly either. However, the expression of song along with the expression of mind and body forms a whole that He enjoys in me. When I sing and enjoy it and bypass the usual egotistical thoughts (how do I look; who is pleased with me or not pleased with me) He is glorified. This is what we were made for as human beings: to glorify God and be enjoyed by Him forever. A little singing and a little choreography is surely a better thing to do than most of the stuff we engage in.

In a world that hates the truth, telling the truth is seen as hate (unknown source but it’s certainly worth repeating)

New Sunday School Series: Avoiding Intellectual Laziness

For Sunday school we are reprising our study of Thinking Like a Christian that we did last year as a spring and summer mid-week series. Since I never teach the same thing the same way twice even if it is a repeated series it will seem new even to those who heard it before (split personality is my friend). This subject is always relevant for each generation of Christians has new issues and new approaches to the world it must deal with. In my 28 years of preaching and teaching we have seen several of these changes and have had to face each one of them. When I first started preaching in the 1980’s the issues were driven by the baby-boomers with their narcissism and hedonism, and how to approach the church worship and growth movement.
It moved to the technology revolution and facing the challenges of the de-personalization and destruction of the individual the technology brought.
Now we face multiple movements driven by social media that changes so fast we sometimes face attacks on our worldview from Sunday to Sunday. These multiple movements are led by the LGBT attack on Christianity, the redefinition of the family and the continued apostasy of moral relativism.

Because of these constant challenges the development of a Biblical Christian worldview is all-imperative. Although we run the risk of repetition it is pretty clear that intellectual laziness has pervaded the pew and we must respond to the challenges of each generational attack with our minds fully engaged. Have we truly learned everything we need to know about a subject the first time we hear of it? I don’t think so!

The Christian doctrine is the only unifying knowledge between beliefs and actions; the Bible answers the pertinent questions every generation asks and does so with consistency and clarity. We cannot teach enough about what the Christian faith has to say to this people of this time.

Chasing Sermons and Rabbits

As I reach the end of another sermon series (this one 2 Corinthians) it becomes time to start another one. My entire ministerial career (1981 to present) the mantra has always been “expository” or “verse by verse teaching.” It seemed this type of preaching was the only type allowed in truly Biblical churches. Any pastor that did not engage in verse by verse teaching was guilty of heresy (or at least that was implied). I did not grow up in Baptist churches with this type of teaching; for the most part the sermons I heard were topical sermons each week (although every sermon was going to be what we called a “salvation sermon”). So it becomes necessary to reevaluate the priority of what is studied and how it is studied every time a series begins.

Another comment that is frequently heard in “verse by verse” churches is that it takes so long to get through a book or series. This can be a legit criticism if the preacher is deliberately going slow or “chasing rabbits” as we like to call it in order to make the study time stretch out. However, many times the verse by verse teaching is interesting and brings up a lot of different subjects for discussion. Therefore more time is taken to get through a particular verse or portion of a verse because it brings up more subjects that are relevant and timely. Folks need to understand that some verses take longer just because they are “meatier,” much like you should take your time getting through a good quality piece of steak and not just wolf it down unappreciatively.
Topical preaching (or subject preaching) can be effective but since it stays “on topic” many get bored because the subject is mentioned frequently. “What, are we still talking about sin again? Why can’t we study something else?” (Insert your best whiny voice impression here) The balance of keeping a subject interesting but being thorough and practical is a delicate act indeed. The preacher must constantly keep his skills sharp so as not to be boring but he must also be thorough and “plumb the depths” of a subject so that true knowledge can come from it.
I have never heard of a bored student learning anything; but I have also never heard of a shallow preacher being interesting. We all need to understand that it takes time to get through a subject or a series; shallow knowledge is not edifying to anyone. Bored listeners might mean there’s a boring preacher in the house. Keep it in balance, people, and keep it real; your desire for something “interesting” or “practical” can change from Sunday to Sunday and we don’t yet have an app for your smartphone for you to punch in your “subject of the week” prior to Sunday. The key is that the information being presented in the sermon is vital and necessary to spiritual life. If it’s important to knowing Jesus Christ, then you need to know it no matter how often it is repeated. On the other hand, the preacher must learn to say the vital information in an interesting manner and not say the same thing the same way week after week.
The nature of truth is that it’s eternal, and if it’s eternal it’s been around awhile. If it’s been around awhile it’s old and therefore if you’ve been in church more than 30 minutes in your life you’ve probably heard it before. The mantra of “we want something new” can be very unhealthy and in fact could be a sign of the coming apocalypse! (They heap to themselves teachers having itching ears) Be careful what you wish for when you constantly want something new.
I find this subject interesting because I think many preachers are pretty full of themselves and don’t like any criticism of their preaching at all. They’re such strutting peacocks they’re funny: who are you to think you’re the be-all and end-all of preaching and that if you’ve said it there’s nothing left to be said? Get over yourself. And people need to realize the nature of learning the Bible and applying it to your daily walk: repetition, repetition, repetition. Achieving a good balance of this in our churches will lead to spiritual health and edification of all.
So, what am I going to preach when 2 Corinthians is over? Haven’t made up my mind yet but whether it is topical or expository we’ll try to continue to learn and grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the goal of every sermon to result in the edification of the people and what best represents Jesus Christ in whatever we study and learn from a sermon or a Sunday School lesson.

And That's Not Bad!

Tomorrow at Freedom we will be celebrating 28 years as a church. On January 31, 1988 4 families met in my home and we prayed about the possibility of starting a new church. For 28 years now we have met every Sunday and sang, prayed and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. What keeps a small group of people going for so many years? It truly isn’t of our own power or desire for doing the same thing for 28 years expecting different results is the definition of some word that I won’t mention here. Some may view what we have done as being an exercise in futility, especially since the size of the church has remained pretty close to the same for the vast majority of its 28 years. We have watched some of our children grow up in the church, go away, come back, and have children of their own. When you think about it, it’s kind of a neat thing to see that happen with one constant being there for their entire lives, this little church. And that’s not bad.

Have we done fantastic things? Have we changed the world? Has the Day of Pentecost broken out? Is our little church the last vestige of truth and spirituality in this cold, fallen world? No to all of those questions: we know we haven’t changed the world and actually we have passed through this world with little attention paid to us. But you know what? We’re not the worst church you’d ever attend; we’re safe, we’re stable, we love the truth and we let you be free to make your choices to follow the Lord. And that’s not bad. We believe the truth and try to surrender ourselves to following the truth wherever it may lead us, and we praise the Lord for 28 years of faithful, loving service that truly belongs to Him. We are but trophies of His grace; we are nothing as a church other than what He desires to do with us. And that’s not bad.

For most of these 28 years I have worked full time in different jobs so I have truly filled the role as a bi-vocational preacher. Last Sunday in 2 Corinthians 10:8-9 we meditated on the working pastor: “I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you; and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.”

There are advantages to a church to have a working pastor: he’s more independent and free to lead; he rubs shoulders with non-church people every day in the business world; he hears and sees what is going on in the culture that he could never see in the friendly confines of his local church; you don’t have time to attend “fellowship meetings” and engage in petty ministerial fights; and the church is less burdened in supporting a full-time pastor and can channel its resources in other directions. On the other hand, there are some real pitfalls to the working pastor: not being full-time makes the pastor feel like a 2^nd-class minister (he’s not good enough as a preacher to be full-time); he has to juggle the details of the ministry in half the time that full-time pastors have; he has to make difficult decisions with his time that results in some feeling snubbed, whether his family or his church members; and the sense of isolation he has in not being able to cultivate friends among other pastors is a real problem. So we see that there are pros and cons to being a bi-vocational pastor, and that’s all right too. When I made the decision to go to work back in 1989 I did so because of the cost of medical insurance on our church, and look what that little issue of medical insurance has become today. It is arguably the biggest social, political and financial issue of our time, and it touched my life very early on and continues to do so. So like Paul, we work so as not to “be a burden to you,” and you know what? And that’s not bad, either

So I say God bless the small church, God bless the working pastor, and God bless us one and all as we celebrate 28 years as a church. We will sing, worship, learn, fellowship, eat and reflect on where God is leading us. And that’s not a bad way to spend a few hours on a Sunday (Greg C)

Being Children of Grace and Gratitude

It’s the first Sunday of the new year and we look forward to the coming year with anticipation and hope. Of course we know bad things will happen, which we do not wish on any of our friends and neighbors, but we also know many, many good things will also happen and we must be the children of grace and gratitude for the coming year.
We are continuing our study of 2 Corinthians this Sunday and we are in chapter 9 for this Sunday.
2 Corinthians 9:11-13     You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all,
The more this principle is understood the more giving is blessed by God (“enriched”) and generosity will spread with more and more giving thanks to God for what His gracious provision
The contagious nature of the giving of thanks will spread to all God’s children; when the bulk of God’s children are filled with the giving of thanks directed to God it will be a wonderful world
Vss 14-15              while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
The teaching of Paul on giving in chapters 8 and 9 ended where it began: with the grace of God. We have nothing other than what God has graced us with, and we are to honor Him in whatever He has given in our spiritual attitudes and conduct
“They” referred to the Jerusalem Christians who would receive the offering and then pray for those that gave, benefitting the givers because they were being mentioned before God in gratitude and prayers
There is a relationship between giving and praying, then: to assist a believer with giving is the same as praying for them and to pray for them is the same as giving them an offering. Placing praying and giving in the hands of God is the best way to go