With your help on Saturday, December 22, 2007, I returned to the gym.
Thank you.
Until next time…
ps below is the a new video series I’m producing called Darren’s Dailies. Check out www.youtube.com/darrensdailies for more hilarious action.
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=gn6kJlWdh9s]
Today is Friday. This is important information because every Friday you can find me at the Finders Pub in West Boylston, Mass around noon. And that is important information because today, I’m going to share a bit about my plans for the Christmas and New year’s holidays.
Tonight is date night. Carie and I will go out to dinner and talk and pretend like we’re not really glad that it’s Friday, but the reality is we’re thrilled and relieved.
Saturday night I have a match with the monopoly posse scheduled, and I will continue to attempt world domination at this very festive game.
On Sunday morning, Fellowship Church will be presenting the last message in our series,”the Advent Conspiracy.” It should be ana amazing service with some creative things planned, so if you’re in town, invite some friends and family and check out one of our two services at FC. Those times are 9:30 and 11:00 am. The music, videos, and message will be awesome, and what a better way to spend a Sunday morning than celebrating the birth of Christ!
After Sunday morning, Carie and I will be away for a short time, leaving Jessica at home I think, and we’ll be returning on Monday afternoon. Christmas Eve night is typically when Carie and I celebrate together as “the Holman” family. Interestingly enough, my time with her on Christmas Eve and the parties that go along with the season, are my two favorite things about celebrating.
On Tuesday, we’ll be celebrating with her family. It will be a blast. No, that wasn’t sarcastic, that was for real. Her family has gone through some hard times in the last couple of years, and some of those things have been “patched up”. So this celebration on Christmas should be a good time.
Oh, I forgot to mention the blog. My blog all next week will be a Christmas story that I’ll write from day to day. I get this idea from Katie Ferguson’s blog. (wow! I just found out in linking you to Katie’s blog that her husband Ian has one too. I didn’t know!) Every November she writes a novel in National Novel writing month or something and this year she blogged it. Actually she put my name in her novel. You can check out what I did here.
So even right now I’m coming up with ideas for a Christmas short story (Don’t have the discipline or time right now to do the novel thing) all next week on my blog.
Then throughout the week Carie and I will be working on the house and finalizing the move we started last week. Carie has the week off and I’m going to take a few days off to prepare the house and organize stuff.
Lastly, on December 31st, Carie and I will be having a new Year’s Eve party at the house. Feel free to join us. Hopefully we’ll be able to accomplish some tasks this week to prepare for the party, and hopefully the couch we ordered from Jordan’s Furniture (not on credit, ha) in early November will have been delivered to our house. Please O Please…
Then on January 1st, my lead team at FC has a very important meeting to start off 2008.
So that’s my plans for the week. I hope that you have a very merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!
Until next time…
This is New England, and it’s snowed everyday for what seems like the last two weeks. Looks like another two inches on the ground today. This is the excuse I’m going to share with you today.
I’m having a hard time getting back to the gym. There, I said it. This summer,I made it almost everyday. Monday – Friday, and many times that included the weekend days too. But now, I can’t bring myself to get there.
Here’s the thing – I love to go in the morning, and I hate to go in the afternoon. I’m a morning person, and I love the morning, but right now, it’s just not happening. I tell myself every night that tomorrow will be different. But it is not. Each morning I find a different excuse why I’m not going to work out. “I don’t have a book to read on the treadmill”, “My work out person, Jason, is injured, and therefore unavailable to work out at the moment”, and “now Lonnie’s not around to call me out, so I can stay in bed and be lazy.”
I need your help. Please offer me a suggestion as to how I get my mindset back on track to go to the gym each morning. What can I do?
I don’t even care if you give me a sermon. In fact, it may be needed in this area right now, so feel free to get in my face, proverbially speaking, and let me know how important this is.
Until next time…
Yesterday I had a lot of meetings. Telephone, person to person, email, and hologram. Okay, not the last one, but the other three kind were all true. They were different kinds of meetings with different kinds of people, and the day ended up being an amazing one.
Now the last meeting was especially significant, but through the meeting, something was confirmed in me that I knew I needed to do, but I was having difficulty actually following through with it. What was it? A clear direction.
At FC, we have a direction in that we desire to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating a culture that moves them into small groups, or life groups as we call them. It is there that we believe they can experience maximum growth spitually and relationally.
But I don’t think we’ve been very good about clarity. About giving people a clear direction as to where we are going and where we’d like to take them as well.
Having said this, one of the things I’m really excited about is the unveiling of our theme for 2008. We’ll be sharing the theme with Fellowship Church on the last week in December, and then sharing our goals throughout the month of January.
I’m excited about offering FC a clear direction for the future so that in the end, all of New England will be blanketed with small groups who are leading people into this wonderful, amazing growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
p.s. Check out the Fellowship Holden group on Facebook today at noon for a new video series known as “Darren’s Dailies.”
Until next time…
Christmas is an amazing time. At the risk of being trite, it’s a time to be with family, friends, to give of yourself for others, and unfortunately, to watch a butload of Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel and eat enormous amounts of food.
But one thought I’ve had this season so far is, Who is my family?
At this point you’ll probably wonder if I’m okay, and would like some help or to be transported in an ambulance or by car, but I think it’s a fair question. Consider this: In the Bible, a man asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is. Jesus replies with the very famous verses on Loving God with everything and loving your neighbor as yourself. The man then asks, “Who is my neighbor?”
It’s really not a bad question. Let’s get specific Jesus. Let’s not deal with the general, let’s figure this thing out. Who in the world is my neighbor? Jesus, of course replies with the parable of the good Samaritan. You can find this story in Luke 10.
So this Christmas, because we all say that it’s about family and friends and neighors and peace and giving, I’d like to ask this question: Who is my family?
Come on, based on the “neighbor” story in Luke, this thing can’t just be about bloodlines and middle children and inheritance, and I want to know who my family is. Now please understand, I love my immediate family. My beautiful wife Carie is the most patient, caring, and sweet person who ever existed. My parents are amazing people who love God more than any people I know. My sister Amie has a great family, and when we talk, we talk like two people who are both living in cold tundras. (This is because I live in Massachusetts and she lives in Green Bay) My youngest sister Brooke works really hard in a home for troubled boys,and has such a huge heart.
My wife Carie and my nephew Philip
This is my immediate family. But is that it? This could get really depressing, really fast. Or perhaps there are others who could be considered part of the club. Perhaps, like the neighbor who lived in another country, my family members could branch out a bit to become less strictly defined.
I began thinking of this when I was a bachelor working at Fellowship Church in the early 2000′s. I was invited over to some friends house for Christmas morning, an invitation to which I accepted and had a great time. Afterwards, the family invited me over to their extended family’s house for more Christmas fun, only to be rebuked by the matriarch of the family for inviting a stranger over, and having their request denied to have me join them for their Family Christmas.
I hated that they were put in that position to tell me I couldn’t join them because…
I wasn’t in their family.
This Christmas, I ask the question, who is in your family? Is it just you and a few select others who are “special enough” to be allowed into your gatherings? Or would you extend the definition of family to allow others into your home for the holidays and for Christyear just as Jesus extended the definition of who my neighbor might be?
This could really be an excellent means for Discipleship. You see, when you bring someone into your circle, you allow them access to who you really are, and if that’s a good thing, then the good that is who you are should eventually transfer to them, especially (but not limited to) if you’re a good teacher.
So my challenge to you is to allow a new family member into your home or your celebration this Christmas, and if it gets vetoed by the king or queen, take your royal celebration somewhere else next year.
Until next time…
Sunday Morning @ Fellowship was cancelled yesterday,and I missed everyone, though I did have a nice day with family.
I woke up early Sunday morning because I had to make the decision to have church or cancel, which ended up not being as much of a choice as I thought it would be. It was bad. All day the wind blew. All day the snow came down. All day there was a quiet storm.
So I had breakfast with Carie and Jessica and Tom and Tina and Phil and Leslie. It was a blast! Throughout the day we relaxed, decorated the Christmas tree, read, watched football,opened gifts, and played mega monopoly.
Now I want you to know I absolutely love monopoly. I play often and even have a monopoly posse in Mike Burns, Darren Bell, Brandon Peper, and Jon Koch. One of the thing I love about monopoly is how it teaches me to trade and be wise with investments and money in a buying/selling scenario. I’m always learning to be fair and balanced in the trades that I apply, because if they are not, I could easily be taken advantage of, or I could take advantage of someone’s charity, an equal offense.
After last night’s victory in mega monopoly, a game which I’m growing to love (nine more properties, skyscrapers, and train depots), I have won 3 games in a row. This is magnificent because before this, I had not won a game of monopoly for a few months. I was in monopoly draught, and nobody likes to be in that kind of a draught.
If you’d care to try your hand at monopoly with our posse, please let me know, and I’ll make sure you’re involved the next time we come together to dominate the world.
So I’ll leave you with a new picture of Carie and I after decorating our tree. Have a great Monday!
Until next time…
Our services were cancelled this Sunday due to inclement weather. Because of this, I have placed my sermon transcript on my blog this morning. Later, I will place a recording of the text online as well. Have a great Sunday morning!
Matthew 2:9 – 11 – “After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the East guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
What we have been looking at over the past several weeks is how to celebrate Christmas, and not just celebrate a holiday. Because if we want to celebrate a holiday, we could celebrate a holiday however we want, but it we want to celebrate Christmas, we need to celebrate the way Christ intended us to celebrate Him, especially if we’re going to make a big deal about the title of the holiday.
Like most conversations about the Christmas season, we’ve talked in this series so far about making Christ the “Reason for the Season” and making Him the focal point of how we’re celebrating, but where this series differs is in applying truths that hold not just to this month, but to the rest of the year. In a sense we’re not celebrating Christmas, but we’re celebrating Christyear!
My question for us today is this: What is the appropriate way for me to give gifts and how does the idea of giving gifts fit into God’s plan for how I should be living the rest of the year? Because giving gifts isn’t evil, and in fact, the reason we give gifts to others is rooted in God giving us a relational gift: His Son, Jesus Christ. So how do we give gifts to others in a godly way, and how do we apply that – not just for a day, a month, or a particular season – but as a new perspective on living?
Now as I’ve talked about the last several weeks, I absolutely love Christmas! And I say the same thing today about gifts. I really love gifts! I love giving them. I love getting them. In fact, I’d like to share with you my top 5 Best Christmas gifts ever:
5. Gift: Waterbed (wavy, not one of them stiff ones) Year: 1988
Giver: My parents, Marty & Susan Holman
4. Gift: Ten speed bike
Year: 1987
Giver: My Parents, again
3. Gift: Ben Roethlesburger Jersey
Year: 2005 (Super bowl year, by the way – coincidence, yeah right)
Giver: My wife, Carie.
2. Gift: Civilization 4, the video game
Year: 2005 (This was a every good Christmas)
Giver: Carie’s mom, Angela
1. Gift: Guitar Hero games and controllers
Year: 2006
Givers: Carie, Angela, and Mike Burns
So before we really get into today’s sermon, I want you to know that I get gifts too, and I accept them, and I love them. But this brings me to a question: Doesn’t it seem like sometimes at the end of gift giving or gift getting you feel empty inside? Doesn’t seem, and maybe not as a kid, because you just received a whole lot of things, but as you got older, even if you get a guitar hero, or even if you just watched your kids get all the stuff they want, that there is something missing? Whether it’s a guitar hero or a nice pair of socks, something seems amiss about a time and a place where I can come and give gifts to those who don’t need gifts, and then I hope for the best possible gift I can get as an adult.
Oh come on, don’t act so self-righteous, you all know you’ve struggled to get the best gift at a yankee swap, to the point of dissing someone else’s chance of getting something good. And it’s not only that, but something feels empty about setting aside a time and a place when we are supposed to be extra nice to people. Uncle Jack and Cousin Matt hate each other, but they need to “put on their best smiles and be nice” because it’s Christmas!
I know, I know, you’ll hate me for this. But the truth is, it really is a modern way of thinking. That I need to set aside time, about a month out of the year, to be really nice to people. To give gifts to people who I wouldn’t normally give gifts to.
Maybe right now you’re thinking about the Bible, and how Scripture promotes holidays and special celebrations where the Jews were to celebrate special things. But the truth is that each time Scripture talks about a special day, either in the OT or the NT, it always puts the focus of that celebration on God, and the implication being that each time we celebrate something, that the focus of that celebration be put back on Him.
(Isaiah 1:13 – “Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offering disgusts me! As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days of fasting- they are sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings.”)
So where does that put us? What do we do? Of course, our purpose here at Fellowship Church is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. An important piece of that purpose that we often miss is “to lead.” So many times we follow. We follow culture like a puppy dog follows his “best friend” or like a junior high boy follows young girl he likes. We follow whatever the trend says. But our desire here at Fellowship is to be leaders. And so we want to use culture to our advantage, not to be led by the culture in which we live.
And there are times when Culture and our beliefs disconnect, and when that happens we need to begin speaking up, not just with our mouths but with our actions. Remember, this series is more about rethinking our way of life than it is about rethinking Christmas.
So what does God have to say about gifts? And about Gift giving? Mucho Grande. I searched all through Scripture, and it certainly isn’t a narrow search. Spread out throughout all of Scripture, the word Gift is used 154 times, and the word Giving is used 219 times in various ways, but for the most part, the two types of gifts the Bible mentions is the type of gifts that you and I give and receive and spiritual gifts that Paul often refers to. Our focus will be on the former.
But today I want to look at a passage in Proverbs a book of wisdom in the OT, that talks about gifts. Now it does not talk about Christmas, as the passage that was read earlier discusses, but it does focus on gifts, and the types of gifts that are not good.
This book (of Proverbs) was written by one of the richest, most powerful men in all the world at the time of its writing. He was a king. People were always giving him gifts. And this is what he writes. We’re going to look at 2 verses today in Proverbs 22.
Proverbs 22:15 – “A youngster’s heart is full of foolishness, but physical discipline will drive it far away”
That is, a child (or anyone who gets whatever they want) will be spoiled and will ultimately act however they want to act. I mean, you don’t need a Bible verse for this, do you? You’ve seen that kid in the mall, even this Christmas season, acting out because they are not getting what they want when they want it. You’ve seen the temper tantrums of the spoiled. Maybe it’s someone in your children’s school? Maybe it’s someone at church? Maybe it’s at the store over the hoidays? Wherever it was, you know that this proverb is true. That the child, left to his or her own devices, will ultimately act however they want to.
“But physical discipline will drive foolishness far away.”
This is not just for young people, but the author is assuming that older people have figured this out. In other words, discipline in your life and in my life – The discipline to say no. The discipline to not buy that. The discipline to not act on that impulse. The discipline to say no to that night, that weekend, that proposition, will in a sense, drive foolishness far away.
This is true of many areas of our life. This is true of hygiene. This is true of homework. This is true of marriage and relationships. And this is true of buying gifts at Christmas.
So is the next verse… Proverbs 22:16 – “A person who gets ahead by oppressing the poor or by showering gifts on the rich will end in poverty.”
That there is something, there is a connection between your money, and how you use your money in your relationship with others that is directly connected to how successful you will end up being in the long run. That is, It may seem like a good idea at the time to be able to buy a gift inexpensively at the sake of the child who made the item you’re buying, and to not have to think about that process, but in the end, it will turn out badly for you.
Or, It may seem like a great idea to shower your kids with the maximum amount of gifts possible in order to make them happy and unwanting, or to shower your boss with the gift that’s gonna make him see you in some sort of a good light, or give gifts to people who might have more money than others and ignore people with whom you don’t care how they see you, but in the end, it will not turn out good for you, but it will turn out bad and, and you will not get more but you will have less, and you may even end up in poverty.
You see, when you spend unwisely, it does not help you, it hurts you. And the stats when it comes to Christmas spending are not pretty in America. 455 Billion dollars on gifts. And to make matters worse, Consumer credit debt right now is 2.4 Trillion. And when people spend unwisely, foolishly if you will, or without the discipline of saying, “I will not spend more than I can afford”, than the end is poverty.
It only makes sense. And the writer of this proverb, who’d been there and back again, who was one of the richest men in the world at the time, and who was spoiled as a child and spoiled his own kids, in the end said, listen, God has set up the world in such a way that he will get the glory, not you, so you better treat people a certain way in all aspects of life, including your stuff and including the gifts you give.
So What can I do and what can you do? The answer is to give Relationally, because God gave relationally. In other words, Because God gave us His Son, Jesus Christ as a relational gift, we can then rise above the trap of materialism and overconsumption and give relationally to our family and friends, without “making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer.” Here’s how we can do that:
1. We can give gifts to meet needs.
That’s what love is all about, right? love is meeting needs. So we ask the question, What does this person need? If I care enough to give this person a gift, I should know what this person needs. I could ask. Here’s an interesting concept, if you ask someone what they need for Christmas, and they answer, “I don’t need anything”, take them up on that, and tell them you’ll give a gift (in their name) to someone who does need a gift, and do that.I can hear the complaints now – “But that’s not the Spirit of Christmas if I don’t get my friends gifts” No, that’s not the spirit of 21st century, modernistic, commercialistic, make us all rich and fat Christmas. But it is the spirit of my Jesus who loved me enough he knew what I needed – a Savior.
2. We can give gifts to express my love for those I love
(We don’t have to express our love by spending more) If you think you have to spend more to love more, than you have it all wrong. Some of my favorite gifts from my wife (with the exception of the Steelers Jersey, which is more about the emotional attachment than the gift) have been cards, notes, text messages, and little things she does for me throughout the year, including Christmas. Could it be that there is more to be said about the effort of giving a particular gift than the purchase of buying an expensive gift?
3. We can give gifts to express my love for God
So we can ask, What is the gift that I can give this person that can show how much I love God? Now listen, it doesn’t have to be from a Christian bookstore, though it can be. I’m not even saying it has to be a Christian gift, trust me on this one. I’m simply saying that if you give a gift, does it come out of an expression of your love for what God has given to you? For as we’ve seen in the last several weeks, the gift that God gave us was so special and so relational that it had an amazing impact on the entire world.
And as leaders, and as culture creators and culture cultivators, I want to have an amazing impact through my gift giving on my entire world. My family, and my friends, and my coworkers and my children and anyone I would give a gift to.
I want to give relationally, because God gave relationally Because He sent His Son down to this earth to give of Himself, and become our Savior, saving us from a separation from God that was too deep for us to cross, but not too deep for Him.
So this Christmas, before you go out and get gifts for everyone, think about this: What is the gift that will link this person (the person to whom I’m giving the gift) to my heart?
Last night we survived the first snow storm of the 2007/2008 winter. It appears we got around 10 inches here in Holden from noon to 10:00 pm. And we’re not even finished for the weekend. On Saturday night/Sunday wemight get some more, or it could turn out to rain. We will see.
This weekend, at Sunday Morning @ Fellowship, we’ll continue our series on “The Advent Conspiracy.” We’ll be focusing on “Giftology” Al will be leading our worship, and the band has a special treat ready to begin the service at 9:30 am & 11:00am.
I know it might be a bit snowy, but if it’s not too dangerous, let’s come together as a church, invite a friend or two, and create a culture on Sunday morning that leads people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Have a great weekend.
Until next time…
Today in new England we’re about to get hit with a whole weekend of snow. I believe this is connected with the lack of snow we’ve had before Christmas for the last two years, so we’re about to get crushed over the next 3 days. This is not bad news. But I am asking God to move the snow away from Sunday morning. He hasn’t got back to me yet.
To commemorate this weekend, however, I will be sharing my fave top ten recorded Christmas songs with their respective artists. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy them. But if not…you might be a scrooge.
10. All I want for Christmas is you. (Mariah Carey) – Listen, when she wrote it in 1994, I thought she was talking about me.
9. Celebration (Mannheim Steamroller) So classic.
8. Christmastime (Michael W Smith) – I used to stand in front of the mirror at college, and secretly mimic the fact that I was Smitty singing this Christmas tune in front of thousands.
7. The Christmas Shoes (Newsong) – I love this song so much, it would be higher on the list, but I’m afraid you’d listen to it and start crying.
6. Christmas is all in the heart (Steven Curtis Chapman) – I first heard this song in a log cabin in the backwoods of Georgia with light flakes of snow falling over a Georgia hillside.
5. Christmas Time is here (Vince Guaraldi Trio) – I think of Charlie Brown. I think of the Peanuts. I think of presents. I think of Christmas. And it’s all this songs fault.
4. I celebrate the day (Reliant K) – The best Christmas song you’ve never heard of, because its from a punk band.
3. Baby, it’s cold outside (Dean Martin) – This song was so taken over by Will Farrell and his counterpart in the movie “Elf”. But it’s a great one!
2. O Holy Night (Sister Hazel) – One of the greatest combinations of all time, The story of Jesus and Sister Hazel. Check out Hazel’s new album, “Santas Playlist” here.
1. The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole) – This song. Unbelievable.
Friends, enjoy the holiday. My plea to you is to make the whole thing about Christ. It’s not easy, but it will be worth it.
Today I wanted to write about some of the behind the scenes things we’re doing at Fellowship in order to prepare for 2008. Some of the changes that are in store for us as we move into the next year. I’m excited about what’s going on at Fellowship, and my hope is that this stuff gets you as excited as it does me, specifically if you attend FC on a regular basis. So here we go:
-One of the most interesting changes at Fellowship is going to be our new Children’s check in process. If you’re a parent, you’ll get more info about this over the next few weeks at Church.
-It looks like we have a good future with some good worship leaders at FC. I’ve been really impressed the last few weeks with the music and the leadership of Al Dancy and Josh Grohman. Good stuff!
-We’ll be really working on our Sunday morning service @ Fellowship, to ensure that you can come and grow by participating in the service, and more importantly, that you can be ensured that each time you invite a friend or a family member, We will grab their attention and then they will be led into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
-Life groups. The way to go.
-Our online capabilities will be enhanced beginning in January as online, you will be able to register for our “Link” events, find out more info about the small groups that are right for you, volunteer for serving at FC, and online giving towards the vision of Fellowship Church to carry out its mission.
-We’ll renew our commitment to excellence in our Sunday morning services, Family ministries for children, youth,and the whole fam, and our environments (like the Link) that connect people into life groups. We believe this will allow for our life groups to be more relational and ultimately, become the people God wants us to be.
-We’re also working on steps for every age and every generation to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ through small groups. I’m so pumped about this.
I hope these changes excite you as much as they excite me. Please let me know if you have any questions about the future. It is bright.
By the way, I just saw the music video to Linkin Park’s “Shadow of the Day”. Very powerful. Also, my friend Jay Destratis has a new blog. He’s pretty smart, so you’ll want to check it out, even though it’s new.
Until next time…
