Good morning!  It’s Friday and once again, I’m totally pumped to be able to write my blog.  I participated in my life group last night and as usual it was amazing.  We talked, we laughed, we ate, we danced the night away – ok, well that’s not true, but everything else was.

I have a lot to do today so I’ll be brief, but there are some things I want to share with the people from Fellowship for the weekend at hand.

We start a new series this week called, the Advent Conspiracy.  We’ll focus on the Christmas story and specifically this week “Bringing down the empire.”  I’ve enjoyed preparing for the series so far, and Al Dancy will be leading worship for us this weekend as well.  I’m excited about that, and don’t tell anybody, but he’s nervous.  Steve and his Family Ministries Team are prepared to hook your kids up this weekend with a great time, a lesson that focuses on Peace, and probably a snack or two.  Billy’s team of greeters, baristas, and ushers will enthrall you as they welcome you and your guests warmly into our Sunday morning environment.  The two services are 9:30 am and 11:00 am.  See you there.  (www.fellowshipholden.com)

On Sunday night, our church will come together to connect relationally around the thought of Christmas Traditions.  This is a potluck dinner that will begin at 5:00 pm.  There will be childcare for kids.  Please dress warm,because later on, we will be going Christmas caroling (if you wish to), and you have the choice to take your kids along, or leave them playing with childcare.  Oh the options.

Okay, well my hope is that wherever you are while reading this, you will have an excellent weekend.  Here’s one more preview:

Next Monday, I will be reviewing a book I’ve recently read called,”Uncovered Truth:  A Pastor’s life exposed”.  This book was written by my former pastor, who writes about his hardships in running from God and into the arms of sin while he worked in the ministry that I currently pastor.  After finishing the book last night (it took me all of 30 minutes), I was going to review it today, but decided to hold off until Monday, so that I can digest the writing a bit better.  I’ll be interested in reading your thoughts on my thoughts of the writing, but I also thought I’d warn anyone who reads my blog that it was coming so that it doesn’t take them off guard.

So be advised:  Monday morning will bring a review of the book I’ve expected for 6 years.

Until next time…

I feel great this morning!  For the first time in a week I had a full nights sleep and Carie and I have been hard at work during the evenings moving into our new house.  We’re really excited that the project will be finished soon.  We’re pretty busy, and this task, along with our mutual sickness, has made us to be busier than we’d really like to be.

Anyways, todays topic on my blog features some of my closest friends over the last several years.  I have had many more, but I wanted to offer up special attention to these friends and the influence they have had on my life.  So many people in the world believe themselves to be “self-made” peeps, when in reality, without the support, encouragement ,and love of other people, we would fall very short of any goal we’d like to accomplish.

So I’d like to take the time to write up some words about some close friends of mine (just a brief summary really) and hopefully encourage you to find friends, not just one, but a couple, or even many, who will influence you to become the person you cannot become by yourself.  (For a better glimpse at what I’m saying, recall Michael W Smith’s song “Friends” circa 1983) Enjoy!

Clay Davis
I have had no friend as close and for a longer period of time than my junior high best friend, Clay Davis.  We were the biggest nerds back in 1988 and 89, but we loved the spotlight and loved making people laugh, including one another.  Later on, in college and beyond, Clay and I continued our friendship, and he always told me the truth, even when it was hard.  Even to this day, I spend most holidays, either before or after I hang with my parents, with Clay and his wife Carrie (who I went to school with since kindergarten). 

Chad Ridgeway
I first met Chad in my freshman year at Pensacola Christian College (don’t ask),and thought we were not going to like each other.  He was from the backwoods of Alabama, and hated contemporary Christian music, specifically DC Talk.  We then proceeded to live in the same hall at college for the next four years, and our friendship grew the entire time.  Ridgeway is one of the most loving, loyal friends a guy could ever have.  Right now, he’s going through some hard times personally, and my hope is that I can be there for him as much as he’s always been there for me.

Ruben Cimbron & Al Dancy
I put these two guys together because we always hung out together.  Ruben I knew because we were NBT Evangelists together, and Al went to college with Roo here in Boston for a few years.  We did some pretty crazy stuff together, none of which I’ll share with you here in this venue, however, I really appreciate these guys and there impact on my life.  In a way, they helped me to grow up faster than I probably would have, and yet we always had the time of our lives when we were together.  Roo is currently teaching in Virginia, and Al is about to come and work with us here at Fellowship Church.  Sweet!

David, Amber, & DD Huey
There’s no greater sibling mix than this.  I met Dave in College, and later, I met his sister Amber.  After school, I moved to Atlanta, GA, where I ran into them at the church I attended, and the relationship blossomed.  (is that the appropriate word?)  So Dave and I would hang out, go to concerts, steal newspaper machines (don’t worry, they were the free ones), eat Chick Fil-A and Ramen noodles for about the same cost, and listen to music.  Amber and DD became my sisters and outside of my wife and my own family, there’s no females I have loved more in my lifetime.  This family has meant a lot to me, and though my schedule gets busier and busier, (hopefully not for long)  There will always be time for them.  (Of course, I really do need to call all of them as of this writing)

Brandon Whittall, Steve MacArthur, and Ray Pierce
These guys helped me make it through a period of time at Wachusett Valley Christian Church that I didn’t think I was going to make it through.  We became as close as brothers, and they seemed to be always there when I needed them.  Steve is now one of my heroes, in Iraq, Brandon works as a caterer in Texas, and Ray works for the State of New York (which I try not to hold against him). 

Everyone in my last 4 small groups
I know we constantly say this at Fellowship Church, and maybe if you’ve heard me say this, you think it’s a commercial or something, but the truth is that when I go into a small group, I literally put my all into it.  I try to influence and be influenced by the people in them.  I know it’s not going to be a seminary education but I don’t need one of those.  I need spiritual growth and influence which I can get and give in the contexts of relationships.  So over the last few years, here is who I can say that I’ve influenced and who has influenced me to lead me into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ from 2003 – present:

Jeff and Kiley Campbell, Billy & Colleen McGuiness, Brandon & Michelle Whittall, Steve & Amy MacArthur, Steve & Tina Blumer, Beth Parent, Pam Watson, Jim & Kristen Hilton, Dave & Sharron Smith, the Crafts, Simon & Tiffani Beckwith, Scott & Diane Herzig, Chris Pezzano, Joe & Neva Novarro, Trinke Vaughn, MB Makara, Garret & Sue Walker, Phil & Leslie Kenney, Ben Daggett, Whitney Jones, Mark Duclos, Nicole Lagace

So I’m interested in knowing:  Who are you influencing and being influenced by?

Until next time…

Christmas time is here and the ever-rising cost of Christmas has joined this yuletide season.  Toys, decorations, gifts, parties, and food all bring with them the idea of spending lots of money.

To share with you this idea, I have borrowed a popular advertising scheme on print, radio, and TV to show too, that the virtue of self-sacrifice is a rising cost.  You may or may not know this, but following Jesus means sacrificing your desires and wants for Him – Giving Him all the praise and glory for everything in your life.  Sound easy?  Let’s just see about that:  (We’ll start with an easy one)

*Cost of two cheap tickets to a NFL Sunday afternoon game:  $200
*Cost of food for two at the same game:  $50
*Cost of investing in someone and inviting them to your Sunday morning service:  Priceless

*Cost of staying home on Thursday night because it’s been a long hard day at school or work:  Free
*Cost of ordering a pizza that evening because you have nothing in the house:  $15 (including a 2-liter of soda, of course)
*Cost of going to your Thursday night small group (or whenever you might meet) and growing together with other followers of Christ who’ve also had a hard week:  Priceless

*Cost of sitting and reading a novel at lunch time during work hours:  $6 (You bought the novel at Wal-Mart)
*Cost of walking to the mall to get some last minute shopping done during lunch time:  $150
*Cost of spending quality time with a co-worker, and investing in them relationally because you care about them as a person and as a follower of Christ:  Priceless

*Cost of 2 Sunday evening tickets to see the new holiday movie, “Enchanted”:  $20
*Cost of eating at the theater that evening:  Unprintable as it might go up after today.
*Cost of attending “Christmas Traditions” at Fellowship Church and connecting relationally with others here at your church:  priceless

*Cost of being born in a manger in an animal setting:  A little comfort
*Cost of walking around Israel and the surrounding areas speaking the truth, loving, and serving people:  A little rest
*Cost of giving your life for a world that will choose to ignore what you did for them just so they would be able to have a relationship with the Heavenly Father:  Priceless

So how much did you want to pay?

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for Carie and I as we’ve been a bit under the weather.  We both feel better today.  She has been resting and feels much better.  I have not been (at least not on Monday), and consequently, I only feel a bit better.

Anybody see the Steelers/Dolphins game on Monday night?  Evidently the grounds crew at Pittsburgh laid down a layer of grass over the already existing layer of grass, and then it began raining and raining and raining.  So basically the ground was a thick nasty bog, in which no one could move. Of course this made for a low scoring game, of which the Steelers won, 3-0.  Big Ben didn’t throw the ball a lot, but almost every time he did, it was completed.  Thats what I’m talking about.

Today I have a meeting that lasts all day with a company we’re using at church called Fellowship One. Hopefully this will not make me more sick. And then I will be working tonight on packing and preparing our new house.  Pretty exciting!

This weekend begins our new series, a Christmas Conspiracy!  For those who attend Fellowship Church, prepare yourselves.  It’s going to be a ride.

Until next time…

It seems that the only one at church yesterday without any energy was me.  On Saturday afternoon, I received what my wife has had for the last several weeks, and began to experience some major flu symptoms.  I felt horrible on Saturday night, took some Ny-Quil, and went to bed at 8:00 pm.

So Sunday was a bit better, but I still had a hard time walking at first, and every time I moved, I broke out into this cold sweat that asked me, “Can’t you just wait till you can go home and go to bed?”

Despite this, we had a good day at Fellowship Church, and here are some thoughts I had about the morning:

It was the last week in “The Riches” series.  We were supposed to have a testimony of someone who has a tremendous story of including God in their personal finances, but they cancelled at the last week.

The band was led by Jamie and Beth Hughes. Jamie was in a band called, “Not pictured”, and I was in a band called “Albino Buffalo” back around 2002, 2003.  We played together.

We were down in regular attendance, but some visitors made up for the decrease.

I really wish I didn’t feel a bad as I did when I gave the two messages. 

I’m really quite proud of the leadership team at our church.  They are doing an amazing job bringing things together and getting things done.

Michelle Hartman, our Kids Town leader, was in London over the weekend, where she met with Mike Burns.  I’m interested to see how her trip went.  This has nothing to do with Sunday morning, but I thought I’d add the thought.

Thats all I have for thoughts this week.  I’m still in bed and not feeling well.  Uuugh.

Until next time…

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today I’m only going to say that, and perhaps tonight I’ll write another blog complete with pics and such from a day with my family. 

Ok, I guess I’ll say more. Because of weather, Carie and I didn’t leave NH until last night after 10:00 pm.  It was cold and rainy, but the flight went really smooth.  Then we arrived in Columbus at around 11:45 am, and went to rent a car, and we ran into some snags there.  I won’t go into the story (unless you want to ask me in person), but let’s just say I now hate the company Hertz, who really jacked Carie us up, forced us to spend a lot more money than we were supposed to, and we could do nothing about it, unless we wanted to spend the night in Columbus. (which was very appealing at the time because of the nasty rain)  But don’t worry, I have forgiven them.

To finish out the day, which actually was a very pleasant day, despite the end of the last paragraph, I drove about a hundred miles from Columbus to Richmond, Indiana in the rain and nastiness, between trucks and cars, and we finally arrived here last night around 2:30 am.

I have now woken up this morning, and am an excited mood to spend the day with my wife, extended family, and maybe even some people I don’t even know.  That’s the best!

 Until next time…

On Sunday, Carie and I were looking for our airline information for when we fly out on Wednesday (today).  I couldn’t find the email, so I couldn’t find the confirmation code, so I couldn’t find the info.  This was not good.  Finally I found it,and we were both happy.

So it appeared that we left on Wednesday morning at 6:55 am and arrived around 8:30 am.  This was not good, because Carie works today until noon, and the school that she teaches at has mentioned to its teachers not to miss a day of school around the holiday vacations.  I could not believe I had done that, because I thought that I had not done that.  (I had purchased the tickets in May)

Carie wrote an email to her mentor, who never responded, but came to Carie on Monday morning,and politely said that she erased the email, and it did not exist.  She also asked Carie if she was coming down with something, because she looked pale, and that she probably should be sick around Wednesday morning, so she’d better call in.

My wife being the amazing person that she is, felt bad about this insinuation that she must call in sick (though she had missed a day of school for being sick the week before) and not really be sick, so she wrestled back and forth with telling her principal that she was flying out on Wednesday and could do nothing about it.  Basically, I told her she could say, “my husband screwed up.”

So I had thought we were arriving at 11:00 pm on Wednesday evening, but this new revelation brought on some great circumstances.  Like this one:  About the time we found out we were leaving on Wednesday morning, Lonnie, my former pastor, wrote a text message to me, telling me that “the Steelers suck,” which of course on this particular day, was not far from the truth. 

But I had an idea.  I asked Carie, “What if we visited the Snells in Cincinnati for lunch on Wednesday?”  She loved this idea.  It was about a half hour out of the way, but would be an excellent time to hang out with them, and still get to my parents house in decent time.  So we made plans to visit the Snells for lunch on Wednesday.  Despite my mishap, things were coming along very nicely.

Things got more interesting Tuesday morning when this happened:  Carie’s uncle Joe, who is a businessman in Boston, was supposed to be a major part of this Sunday’s service.  He has a great testimony of how God had freed him financially after spending his younger years in enormous debt.  Since this was the major topic of our current series, “The Riches” at Fellowship, I had invited him to share that testimony.  He called me and told me he couldn’t make it because of an unforeseen circumstance (a good one) in the life of his family.  I was gracious (as I so often am), but was basically forced to do more work than I was supposed to be doing during this partial week off.  So on Thanksgiving, I’ll be eating turkey and pouring over sermon notes.  Good fun!

Then on Tuesday, something else occurred.  I found the “REAL” airline reservations for this weekend.  You see, it appears that the Wedneday morning flight at 6:55 am happened last month, which you can read about here:
http://pastormarty.wordpress.com/category/conferences/

So the real time Carie and I were leaving is tonight (Wednesday) at 9:29.  Which mean a few things:  Carie doesn’t have to lie to skip school, I hae a bit more time to study for Sunday, but on the other hand, we no longer have the time to have lunch with the Snells.

Tomorrow I’ll be writing my blog from Indiana, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving wherever you are!  For those of you at Fellowship Church, I’m so excited about the last week of “The Riches” and more excited about getting to see many of you.

Until next time…

The following is a parable I wrote a short while ago that I hope you’ll enjoy.  Currently we’re going through a series at Fellowship Church (fellowshipholden.com) on this topic.  And as I type the story into my blog, I’m watching the snow gently fall onto the landscape outside of my office.  Uugh.

A short time ago I was walking down the street in Downtown Holden.  The sun was shining over the town, and I was pleased to be able to enjoy the day.

Then something very odd happened, when I spotted a man and a woman, both dressed in sharp business clothes, jumping up and down in a dumpster outside of Friendly’s.  Obviously this caused me to laugh some because these two people were dressed so nice, their clothes were even neatly pressed, and their hair was perfect.  Overtaken with a bout of curiousity, I approached them and, without sarcasm or humor (this was not easy) I inquired, “Excuse me, but do you mind me asking what you two are doing?”

“We are rich…Yes!…We are sooo rich!  Just look at what we found in this dumpster!” They exclaimed.

Cautiously I stepped towards the dumpster, not fully trusting the situation, and peered into the large odorous container.

“Can you believe it?” The man asked excitedly.

“Believe what?” I replied, all the more curious as to what they were thinking.

“Well you looked, didn’t you?  Come on, didn’t you see all the trash that was in the dumpster?  We are so lucky!  A trash dumpster that’s full of trash,and we found it.  I gotta go call mom.”  He said as the man leaped out of the container.

“And I’ll stay here and guard our treasure,” The woman said.

Before he left, the man looked at me, put his hand on my shoulder, and motioned to his left hand.  “Sir, I want you to have this, I don’t need it anymore.”

My mouth dropped as he placed his black leather wallet into my open hand.  I glanced inside and saw at least 10 $100 bills, plus credit cards.

I walked away that day thinking how crazy the entire situation was, and asking myself how these two people could walk away from their money for trash.

Then I thought of how I do the same thing in my life.  Christ has promised me great treasures in the future – “True riches” he says.  He’s promised a whole new world for us (not to steal from Alladin), where we will fall at His feet to worship Him. Where we will have no tears, or sorrows, or pain.  But most importantly where we will live under the headship and perfection of Christ Himself.

But I lose sight of these things because of the things here that blind me to God.  These “things of this world” will soon pass away and be worthless, yet I continuously seek them out and place my trust in them, ultimately giving my heart to my treasure.

Scripture promises “true riches” that are beyond compare.  Would we really rather jump in a dumpster?

Until next time…

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Week number 3 of the series at Fellowship Church, “The Riches”, was a great one!  We had good attendance for both services and there was just a great atmosphere as we talked about money once again. You can find the Riches, week 3, at the headline below. (If you’re reading this at pastormarty.wordpress.com)

Here’s a few highlights of this week’s service:

In both services, attendance was pretty good.  I have this recurring nightmare that since we’re talking about money, I’m going to show up alone.

Rob Bell is the man.  Did you ever think that him and I would be co-preaching together?

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’ve had some new people come to Fellowship and have been checking it out to see if they want to make this their home church.  Are you talking to people you don’t know?

I loved the band this week, with an emphasis on the song that Susan sang.  It was beautiful work by the band.

I’m amazed at how people have taken this topic of finances and instead of getting defensive have begun to ask themselves what areas they need to change.   The people at FC are so great!

Fot those of you who are wondering where I go after the service, I get by myself for a while.  I usually wake up very very early on Sunday,and then I’m going, going, going until the services, which I participate in, and then preach at twice, so afterwards I’m very tired.  So for ten minutes I relax.  This also keeps people from feeling like they have to talk to me because I’m the pastor.  Fortunately I don’t keep my cell phone number hidden, so if someone really needs to get ahold of me, it’s actually quite easy.  Of course after te minutes, I come out and hang out, because I like doing that.

I was able to hang out for a few minutes on Sunday with Jeremy Dugan, a former attender of FC who was transferred to St Louis in the armed forces, and is on his way to Iraq. He too is one of my heroes.  Thanks Jeremy. 

I ate with most of the members of our leadership team and some of the people in our church on Sunday. This just gets me so pumped about te future of FC.

Finishing out the day, I was able to shut my phone off and hang out with my beautiful wife last night.  It was great!  I love my wife, my life, my church, and my friends.

I’m interested in hearing what you’re doing for Thanksgiving.  What ya doing?

 Until next time…

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The last several weeks at Fellowship Church we’ve been talking about Finances and how many times in our culture we end up “acting” like other people.  Another way to say this is that we buy things we can’t afford and live beyond our means.

The premise of this series of messages was taken from a television show which I saw the pilot episode of called,”The Riches.”  Basically this group of traveling gypsies who were all an immediate family decided they wanted to do something else with their lives other than stealing and earning a living in a less than ethical way.  So they take off, not knowing what they were going to do. 

In the process of taking off though, they left with their extended families money, and a high speed chase of RV’s ensues. In the midst of the chase between the two families, a BMW stays on the road and encounters these two massive RV’s, ultimately ending with the untimely death of its drivers, the Riches.

To make a long story short, the main family steals the identities of the Riches and heads toward their new home in a “Desperate Housewives” type neighborhood, and where the Riches were just moving in, so noone knows who they are, and all is well in their new home, with their new cars and their new riches.  But of course they’re just acting.

This week at Fellowship, like any good television program these days, will highlight a twist and a turn that can free us to move beyond where we’re at as we begin to be wiser in this area.  But  that only happens when we know who we really are and where we really are (week 1 of the Riches) and when we view our stuff the way God views our stuff: as a tool.(week 2 of the Riches)

Those of you who are from Fellowship, allow me to emplore you not to miss this week, and to come expecting God to challenge you like He never has before.  It’s going to be great!!!

Have a great weekend.  As usual on Fridays, you can find me at noon having lunch with my friends at the Finder’s Pub in West Boylston.  Otherwise I’ll be preparing for Sunday!

Until next time…