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

 

Jesus What a Wonderful Child

Sending a shout-out to all our Freedom folks that Ruth and I will miss you all tomorrow as I sing and give a devotional at Heartsong Church during their Christmas celebration and the Spinners will perform following the service.
The Heartsong celebration is at 10am followed by a potluck and the Spinners at 1145am
I have about a 5 minute devotion to give tomorrow; Doyle Combs asked me if that was a Baptist Preacher 5 minutes which we all know means it could go on and on and on ....... but you all know that already, don't you?
My thanks to Johnie, Darrel, Ron, and our inimitable and intrepid Lisa for handling the service for me tomorrow; all in all I would rather be at home with you but these kind of celebrations are important because it gets me and therefore you out there in the community so they know who we are and I get to do what I do best, show off!
No, seriously this is a great opportunity to release the faith and grace that we have experienced as a church and give it to others; there is nothing wrong with others seeing what the Lord has done for us. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and we want others to taste also
Everyone is welcome to come up at 11 for the potluck and watch the Spinners at 1145am, but keep in mind the Spinners will be performing next Sunday night 12-13 at our church at 6pm with a potluck preceding at 5pm
The Lord bless; pray for one another there are more prayer requests out there than you know so as you pray seek out the Lord to heal and help those that so desperately need Him at this time and always; you may not know who they are but the Lord does and we pray to Him
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Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5)
Christ did not regard the outward expressions of Deity to be something to be held onto as tightly as a thief holds his ill-gotten treasure. He emptied Himself of those outward expressions (keeping fully intact His personhood as God) and became just like us – a servant, made in the likeness of men. He came down to earth as God incarnate and born of the Virgin Mary in humility. He humbly yielded Himself (just as He became a man) to death, the death of the cross.
For this reason (His humble incarnation - God becoming a human) the Father has lifted Him up to an exalted place and given Him a name above all other names. In the exact opposite of His coming to earth, He will be honored and worshiped by all mankind whether they believed in Him or not. The living and the dead will bow the knee before Him and declare that He is God, agreeing with God the Father that He was justified in sending Him to earth and bringing glory to God the Father.
C. S. Lewis put it like this: The Eternal Being, who knew everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but before that a baby, and before that a fetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.
The right response to the story of Christ coming down to earth is humility. We are most like Christ when we humble ourselves and act the way He acted in being “Emmanuel – God with us.”
Humility is one of the most elusive virtues for us. We either have it or we don’t; if we think we have it we don’t; and if we try to have it, huh-uh, we don’t. If we have to tell people we’re humble, we ain’t humble. Humility needs no advertising or hype.
True humility is not when we think less of ourselves but when we think of ourselves less; when we spend more time looking up to God and Christ and less time looking inward at how we feel or looking outward to see what other people think of us. We find humility and therefore find Christ when we go ahead and do what the passage in Philippians 2 says we will ultimately do, bow the knee before Jesus Christ and declare that He is Lord.
This same Jesus came and died for us, extending mercy and grace. Funny thing about mercy and grace: we’ve got nothing to do with getting it. The very nature of mercy and grace is that one party extends it to another party that in no way earns or deserves it.
Christ came to us as an expression of God’s character of mercy and grace. That is all: we don’t deserve it and we cannot demand it. All we can do is beg for it and then take what He gives. And He gave us mercy and grace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore Christmas gives us the blessing of declaring Jesus is Lord before He assumes the throne. When we bow before Him in that manger, humble, meek and maybe even crying, we find the mind of Christ and find peace. We truly find humility when we learn to worship the baby Jesus, to honor Him as God when He was at His most humble.
Bow the knee before Christ; worship Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords even as all we see is a baby in a stable and in a feeding trough surrounded by a mom and dad and farm animals. Lift Him up as the God of the universe, singing praises to His name, honoring and glorifying Him as Lord, declaring “what a light He is, what a King He is, what a Lord He is, what a Baby He is.” We declare in humility and glory and in an exclamation of praise that is so selfless and so pure and so wholesome that the demons tremble and the angels weep with joy. Our praise is this: “O my Jesus, what a wonderful Child!”

A Little Story

I want to share a story with you. I have shared this story several times at church as a sermon illustration and it is very meaningful to me.

Growing up in a fundamentalist Baptist church that was very missionary oriented I heard many stories about God’s judgment on those who are reluctant to evangelize, surrender to preach or respond to the call of the mission field. Stories were told of loved ones and family members who became sick or were tragically injured or killed in auto accidents. These stories were told to motivate us to surrender or face tragic consequences.

It was made very clear that if something tragic happened it was caused by disobedience or faithlessness. Time does not permit mentioning the numerous sermons and conversations that made very clear to me that if there is any suffering in our life we caused it. We caused it by our sin, our weak faith or our reluctance to commit ourselves. Even the altar call to rededicate our lives to the Lord contained such warnings. We had to go forward during an altar call because there could be grave and dire consequences to our lives or the lives of our loved ones.

When at the age of 13 my mother informed me of my father’s lung cancer (my father was 64 years old at the time so he had me very late in life) my first thought was, “What did I do to cause this?” I must have done something very wrong for this to have happened. I blamed myself and wracked my brain as to what I could have done to cause God to make my dad sick. And if so, what could I do to convince God to heal my dad? There were people in my life that tried to comfort me and told me it wasn’t my fault (my Dad was a lifetime smoker so lung cancer was always a possibility but I wasn’t mature enough to understand), but I still blamed myself. All I could remember were those stories of how disobedience caused all suffering in our life.

My father passed away in 1969 when I turned 14. I went on with my life but I still thought that I must have done something wrong for this to have happened. A dark cloud seemed to park itself over my head: no matter how good I was or how active in church the mark of darkness was upon me. Suffering had happened in my life and I caused it. Life was dark and tragic and destined for calamity no matter what I did.

We moved to the town I was born in, Arkansas City, shortly after my father’s death. I continued to faithfully attend church and even became a church song leader at the age of 14 but I still had doubts and questions about suffering. The teaching I had received had cemented itself into my brain and even though the church I was attending was not as fundamentalist it did not speak much about suffering. I read Scripture and prayed, asking God to make me better and change me but I still did not understand what had happened. There was no theological teaching or spiritual construct that helped me with the notion that I was the cause of all my suffering. To be fair, I don’t think my mom or my church had any notion of what was going on in my head. Teenagers don’t open up and share what they’re thinking, usually (and probably a good thing in most cases). But I simply did not have an answer to my questions. Why did my dad die? Did I cause him to suffer? What could I do now to make the pain go away? Surely if I just went forward at enough youth meetings and church camps God would miraculously spare me from my faltering, weak faith.

In the town of Arkansas City on West Kansas Ave there was an old cinder block building, very non-descript, where an old couple opened up a Christian bookstore. It wasn’t there but for a couple of years but in hearing the music of the Gaither’s and gospel quartets, all new to me in the 1970’s, I searched out their sheet music. I found great comfort and peace in listening to and singing gospel music. It was one of the great joys of my teenage years. I searched out the music and when I could find it at this little bookstore I would put together my quarters and dimes (one song cost a little more than a dollar then) and buy it. I would get the church pianist to play it for me and would sing it at church.

While listening to a program called “The Elmer Childress Show” which came on from a Wichita, KS station every noon hour (it would come on for 15 minutes and Elmer and his family would sing gospel music) I heard them sing a song that I thought sounded good and the message seemed so different from everything I had ever been taught about suffering. I then heard the song on “The Gospel Singing Jubilee” (I think that’s what it was called) which came out of Oklahoma City on Sunday mornings. My mother would put this program on every Sunday morning while we were getting ready for church and I grew to love the southern gospel quartets and family groups. The song intrigued me even more  so I set out to find this song. One day when perusing the sheet music at the little Christian bookstore I found it. The song was “Through It All” by Andre Crouch.

“I’ve had many tears and sorrows; I’ve had questions ‘bout tomorrow”

“There’ve been times I didn’t know right from wrong”

“But in every situation God gave me blessed consolation that my trials come to only made me strong”

“Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God”

“Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word”

Could this be? Could it be true that I didn’t cause my dad’s suffering and death but part of why it happened was just to make me strong? Could trials be something that make us stronger and test us and not just be a punishment? Could I suffer and still trust God without blaming myself? As I meditated on the song I realized that what I had been taught was wrong. Now to be sure, we can cause our own suffering. Many of the bad things that have happened to us are a result of our own personal sin. I was well aware of this and made plenty of mistakes as a young man (and an old man) that were my own fault. But this does not explain all suffering and it certainly didn’t explain my father’s death, even though I had been convinced it was my fault. But when I heard that song I was comforted and at peace. A gospel song was responsible for one of the seminal events of my life. It made sense of my father’s death and gave me a new resolve to serve God faithfully, go to Bible College, and become a preacher.

There have been many ups and downs in my life, but one thing I do know: suffering makes sense. We may be at fault for our suffering, or it may be random because of the evil in this world, or it may come from the weakness of our bodies, but regardless, God will see us through it all. Trials come to only make us strong so we can trust in God and His Word and He will give us blessed consolation.

This song comforts me. It tells me of the power of gospel music. There is no other music in the world that has this kind of power. Rock music only wishes it could bring the inspiration, influence and power that gospel music brings. I have been empowered by gospel music in my life and I will never forget how a great gospel song forever changed my life and helped a young Christian boy grow up to follow Christ his entire adult life.

Thanks to Dennis A, Hello to Ed P, and a few random thoughts from Pastor G

A great big thank you to Dennis Aleson for stepping in for me while I was gone Sunday Sept 13. The
church folks truly enjoyed him and he enjoyed them. His experiences and wisdom are greatly appreciated and his willingness to help me out is appreciated.
For this Sunday Missionary Ed Potter, missionary to the Madeira Islands, will be with us and he will preach for us. He is in the states for a short visit and this is the only Sunday he can be with us. Please come to hear him and give a love offering if so led. Ed and Abbie have been great friends to us over the years and he is truly loved as a partner in the ministry.
Just a few running thoughts from the pester:
There are just some things you don’t want to constantly hear when you go to church:

•          Don’t want to hear constant litany of bad news

•          Don’t want to hear constant begging for money

•          Don’t want to be guilt manipulated

•          Constant preaching about church membership (goes with giving)

You want to hear the good news of the gospel and hope for life today. The Bible acknowledges that we will suffer in this life but it also gives us reason to hope, to strive and to have joy. The steady drumbeat of “we need more money” is wearying after awhile. Of course there are times when money and giving has to be addressed but it is best to discuss it in the normal course of expository teaching or when there is a dire need that the folks need to know about.

We must also be careful to not “toot our own horn” all the time about how great we are. We are not great. Even Paul was reticent to defend himself against his enemies because it would sound like self-promotion: “are we beginning to commend ourselves again?” (2 Cor 3:1). I really don’t think that a church’s finances are a matter of a lack of teaching or a lack of knowledge. Another “stewardship campaign” is not always the answer: for the most part we present the good news of Jesus Christ, the power of God and the leadership of the Holy Spirit and “all these things will be added to you.” This is a part of what we are about at Freedom.

 

 

A Bio for our speaker this Sunday Dennis Aleson

Ruth and I will be gone this Sunday traveling to VA to see Tim, Christa, Neva, Esther and Oliver. My good friend from the Songspinners Dennis Aleson will be speaking in my absence and I appreciate his willingness to come and speak. Here is a bio of Dennis' ministry.

Rev. Dennis Aleson is a retired clergy member of the Dakotas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and also a retired chaplain with the U. S. Air Force (1977-2003).  He was born in 1947 into a parsonage family of the Evangelical United Brethren Church in North Dakota, where his father served as a pastor for 50 years.  Pastor Aleson’s twin brother Darrel, of Bismarck, ND, is also a retired United Methodist clergy, just retired from 26 years as a fulltime hospital chaplain, preceded by church pastorates in ND and MT.

Dennis Aleson graduated from Kindred,  ND High School in 1965, followed by a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Westmar College in LeMars, IA in 1969.  After two years of military service courtesy of his draft board (1969-71) and with duty in Turkey and Spain, he felt his call to ministry and in 1975 received his Master of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, with an additional year of post-graduate studies at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA in 1984.   After two years as a civilian pastor in Hettinger, ND,  Rev. Aleson began a 26+-year career as an USAF Chaplain, with 10 duty locations during that time,  His stateside assignments included two in Colorado Springs: the USAF Academy (1986-90) and his final assignment at Peterson AFB / Cheyenne Mountain AF Station (1999-2003).  Other unique assignments included Izmir, Turkey, ancient Smyrna of biblical times (1981-83), and the Greek island of Crete (1990-92).  Following the Air Force Chaplain Service, Pastor Aleson has done a variety of short-term interim pastor locations in CO and ND, as well as supply preaching and other occasional services of the church (weddings, funerals, etc.)
 A defining moment in his life and ministry occurred in 1996 when he was the senior deployed chaplain at Khobar Towers, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, a military housing complex attacked by Islamic terrorists on 25 June 1996.  Nineteen persons were killed, along with 300-400 injuries.
For his leadership of chaplain services in the aftermath of this tragedy, he was named the
1996 USAF Outstanding Chaplain of the Year, and in 2000 was named the Outstanding Alumni of the Year in Specialized Ministries from his Denver seminary.
Dennis Aleson has been married since 1971 to Carol (Arnold) Aleson, a Nebraskan.  They have two adult offspring: 1) son Ryan, living with wife Emily and grandchildren Calvin (2010) and Lucy (2012) in Orlando, FL, and soon to add grandchild #3 in early 2016.----2) daughter Heather Bingham and her husband Dustin living in Colorado Springs……Besides volunteer work and occasional ministries, Pastor Aleson is a longtime member of the Colorado Springs Show Choir, the Songspinners.  Travel is also now high on the priority list for Pastor and Mrs. Aleson.  

For this coming Sunday the 13th

So for this week we will have the Meet-Eat-Greet time on Wednesday night instead of Tuesday night and there will be no Thinking Like a Christian meeting this week. Greg and Ruth are heading to Virginia on Friday and we would sure appreciate your prayers for us while we go. This coming Sunday the 13th we will have Dennis Aleson preaching for us. Please plan on coming and hearing him speak this Sunday. Greg will be back for the 20th
Rev. Dennis Aleson....retired Air Force chaplain, serving from 1977 through 2003 including both the USAF Academy and Peterson AFB here in the Springs.....named the 1996 USAF Outstanding Chaplain of the Year......retired United Methodist clergy member of Dakotas Conference of the United Methodist Church but resident of Colorado Springs......married to wife Carol since 1971....two adult offspring, both married......two grandchildren in Orlando, FL with #3 due early in 2016......two grand-dogs.....a Songspinner for over 10 years, sharing music adventures with Pastor Greg and Nancy
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Dennis will be at church at about 9:15 Sunday to share some of his experiences at the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist truck bombing in the Sunday School hour. His message in the service will be based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, entitled "Journey to 'Vegas' and Back" 
We look forward to Dennis’ sharing with us on Sunday!