This is Wendy.  In this picture Wendy is sliding down a bouncy water slide with about a hundred kids, college students, and parents.  Wendy is a huge part of Fellowship Church! She tells me each week how much she loves the community, the services, and especially, the kids.  Each week Wendy spends time preparing to teach toddlers about Jesus, and tells me that she loves it so much, she would do it every week if she could.  Every time I see Wendy, she has a smile on her face.  One of the most amazing things about Wendy is that she is 70 years old.

70 years old.  She’ll never even read this blog because she doesn’t get online.

I believe she is the eldest regular attender of our church, and this is her sliding down a water slide at our Party in the Park last week.  She doesn’t mind that there’s “no around around her age” or that “the music is a little too rocky”  She loves Jesus.  he changed her life.  And now, with a smile on her face, she wants to help Him change other people’s lives too.

And she is so important to our community!

I have a fear that when we have a “good idea” at Fellowship Church, the idea in our minds won’t translate to getting across a real point of spiritual significance, but will translate into “Man, that sucked.”

Several weeks ago, Carie and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary at the Italian restaurant where Carie’s sister Jessica works.  It’s a nice restaurant that only recently opened by occupying another failed Italian restaurant.  The experience was enjoyable, the food amazingly delicious, and the only negative was the ambiance given off by the restaurant’s 1970ish looking decor.

Fast forward to last weekend when Carie and I decided to hit up a brand new Italian Restaurant in the same city that reoccupied a closed McDonalds.  To say I was skeptical of whether it would be a good experience or not is to under-exaggerate.  I figured that I would not be able to get past the fact that I had spent some time ordering “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun” at this establishment.  For a short time at the new restaurant I felt this way, but eventually they won me over having redecorated the entire building, so only the outside was reminiscent of the golden arches.  Then the wait staff was outstanding, and the food was even better than the aforementioned Italian restaurant we visited on our anniversary.  (It should be mentioned here in all fairness that we have only eaten at both restaurants once, and in both cases the food was great!)  Also, the restaurant was packed, for this particular restaurant has four other restaurants in Massachusetts, and they clearly did a great job of building their platform nicely on this launching weekend.  Food, check.  Wait staff, check, check.  Atmosphere, triple check.

On the way home, Carie wanted to encourage her sister, who was working at the first restaurant, so we decided to stop by there for dessert.  The first thing we noticed as we walked in was the number of cars in the parking lot.  Clearly most of the Italian restaurant connoisseurs decided to eat we ate that night, as the parking lot loomed largely empty.  As we walked in, the same vibe that had illuminated Jessica’s place of employment 2 weeks earlier had clearly disappeared as we wondered if this was really the result of a new restaurant in town.

The hostess sat down in a booth, and within two minutes of sitting, we noticed something was going on about 20 yards from us on the other side of the bar.  It looked like…No, it couldn’t be.  “Are they setting up for Karaoke?” I asked Carie in disbelief.  Alas, the woman leading the karaoke in charge was about to answer my question as she picked up the microphone and made an announcement that singing and good times would begin in about 5 minutes.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked Carie and now Jessica as she also stood in apparent disbelief, having not known about this before we walked in.  In the next 5 minutes, three couples formerly sitting in booths and enjoying the remains of there dinners quickly left the scene.  And then as tradition has it, the woman leading the Karaoke charge takes the mic, asks the Dj to push play, and begins to bellow a nasty country song worthy of any honky tonk on any side of the ‘ol Mississip.  A new couple walked in holding menus and walked towards a booth, then realizing what was happening, and about the time they were passing our booth, silently and with cat like prowess, they turned around and walked out.  The woman leading the Karaoke charge kept on bellowing.  Nothing could stop her.  And Carie and I were witnesses to the unraveling of a classy Italian restaurant.

Jessica served us our fancy desserts as some guy who had a halfway decent hit a grand slam with a U2 song, the only runs of the evening.  She responded to my inquiries about who in the world thought it was a good idea for a nice Italian restaurant to host karaoke by telling me the Chef was pissed and felt like the evening was a slap in the face to him and his kitchen staff.  By the time we walked out for the evening, the bar held a handful of wedding singers and the booths were practically empty.  Later, the owner confessed to his staff that he was trying to boost his bar numbers, and thought this was a great way to do it.

So he compromised what his restaurant was great at for a lackluster attempt to resurrect what was not going so well, and the result -  at least for that evening…

An epic failure in every area of the restaurant.

Its been a crazy few weeks.  About two months ago a famous musician/blogger confirmed to do a benefit concert for Fellowship Church, which was great considering we needed to raise some money for Phase 1 of our new building project.  Unfortunately, with 2 and a half weeks to go, the headliner cancelled and I was up a creek without a paddle.  Metaphysically, of course.

For whatever reason, I allowed the loss of the headliner to bring up a whole bunch of other negative things that were going on in my life, nothing harrowing mind you, but enough to make me plunge into a negative mindset for about 3 days.  I called friends, emailed famous people, and after 3 days of working hard to find another headliner, I got nothin’.  On Thursday night I met with our lead team at the FC and canceled the concert scheduled for 2 weeks and 3 days away.

Then Friday morning hit.

And a beautiful day landscaped Central New England.  Not that it needed to be beautiful for what was about to happen, but it helped.  I received a call from a band I had contacted earlier in the week about headlining the concert, and after some chatting back and forth, and a bit of negotiation, “The Wrecking” was our new headlining band!

So this Sunday, June 13th, from 6-9, our church will be hosting an amazing concert that I know kids from 5 to 65 will enjoy  (And possibly even older)!  The Wrecking will be headlining along with an excellent set from the Black Raspberries, honestly one of my favorite up and coming bands.  And we’ll be opening up with some sweet hip hop from The Czar, Steve Patton and Aima.  This has turned out to be an excellent concert and I can’t wait!

We’ll even be having dinner from 5-6 out in the cafe for those who are interested in some pizzas and other such goodies. Tickets are $15 in advance (Either online or at Sunday mornings @ Fellowship) or $20 at the door.

You can buy your Ticket to this great concert here!

Or you can just say hello to me here.

The following is not really a quote from Congressman Kennedy, but a satirical  interpretation of recent events.

“Hi, I’m Patrick Kennedy, and I’d like to be even better than my late father, Edward – I’d like to be Henry VIII.

“So what I’ll do is reveal to news outlets a confidential letter from my priest, asking me not to take communion because of my stance on the topic of abortion.  And because I don’t agree with their request, and because I typically get whatever I want (what’s my last name?), I’m going to do what’s best for everyone and reveal something personal between the church and I in an effort to make them look bad and to make me look like a victim.

“If I was a real man, I would take a step for what I really believe in, which seems to be very little based on my abuse of confidential information, and leave the church I disagree with, allowing them to have their rules and authority that they have as leaders.  But that would look bad for the voters, which is why I practice faith in the first place.  In fact, it’s why I do everything I do – the voters.  A backbone?  Why that’s for lesser men and women who have character and make decisions out of the values they hold.  Me?  I kind of just go with the flow, as long as the flow agrees with me, and of course votes for me.

“In the end, this will be just another black eye on the church.  Which is no big deal because no one votes for the church leaders, and they have thick skin.  They can suck it up.  But the good news is…

“I’m in the news again!”

Which one of these are turkeys at Fellowship Church?

Now that’s a good helping of turkey to start off your Thanksgiving!
And to the others I am thankful for their huge helping of teamwork at Fellowship!

People and the way they connect and build one another up to become more like Christ.

This is the one reason why I love church.  Sure you have serving and teaching and organization and leadership and bearing one another’s burdens and music, and for some there might be other reasons why they love the church, but for me, that’s it.

Last night Carie and I finished another season connecting and building up (and being built up) a group of people who we have come to love as our family.  We mixed in there a few people who will be a part of our next season of community, and in the midst of all this, I’m reminded why I do what I do.  It will be another few weeks of awkward time getting to know a new group and having them get to know us.  No doubt there will be some lull in the conversation and an inability to decipher what someone is trying to say, but in the end, I’ll be back here in a year or two writing in this blog, on a natural high, telling you how I’ve come to love this new group of people.

We are expanding our influence, challenging one another to serve, love, and give more than we think, and moving to deeper levels of intimacy with the God who we serve and the Christ who makes it possible.

And in the process, we become different people

Francis Chan should be calling me any day now.

“I understand, I just won’t participate in it.”

Those are the words I shared with my wife this morning as we discussed the topic at hand.  A few weeks ago, a pastor I know twittered that he loves collaborating with pastors from around the area. I responded with a tweet that said something like, “Then lets get together soon _____________”  This is where the story gets good (this is, of course subjective).  The local pastor in question evidently goes to his gatekeeper/secretary/hall moniter and tells him/her to set up an appointment with me.

About a week later I receive an email from gk/sec./hm who informs me that there is a spot for me in the schedule and to let me know when’s good for me.

Now before I go any further, allow me to say, that despite the slightly sarcastic tone I’ve used thus far in this blog post, I affirm this person’s wise system of making sure his schedule is kept clean, neat, and free of distractions so he can work more effectively.  In fact, I could certainly learn from this type of mentality.  I’m not one of those people who believes that business practice and organization is bad for the church.  As you know though, via this blog, I am really into relationships, and Stop being a stubborn muleI don’t know if I want to participate in the frenzy or to add to the dude’s schedule.  This post is not really about him, it’s more about me.

Yesterday I spent about 4 hours with two guys who are rockin it for Jesus in the Boston area, and it was all done because one of them called the other one, then the other one called me.  We had a great time and I learned tons just talking through some of the elements of ministry we’ve all gone through.

But for whatever reason, I have a mindset to not get back to Gk/Sec/Hm, and at the same time if Buddy, Andy, or Francis‘s Gk/Sec/Hm emailed me and said they wanted to get together with me, I’d say, “Sure, how high do you want me to jump?” So basically what I’d like you to do today is to tell me…

to stop being a stubborn mule.

One of my greatest enemies is the little things.

The little things bother me in a way that so very few other things do.  They adjust my attitude in a not so subtle way and make me madder than a hatter in wonderland.  They cause me to scowl at the nicest of people and beep at the loveliest of elderly ladies on the road.

The little things cause me to be quite ineffective for at least an hour while I wait to cool myself down and remind myself that it was just a little thing in the first place. After all, “it’s not even a big thing” I try to say over and over again.

The truth is that it’s not the big things that render me useless for much of a regular week in Martyville, but the little things.  It’s not my enemies that normally make me mad and bitter, but my friends who mistreat me or someone I respect that disagrees with me.  Normally, It’s not the passing of a loved one or a major financial struggle that really gets me down, but when I’m slowed by a cold or forget to pay a bill that irritates me and causes me to lose my cool.  Its not a major problem at Fellowship that will suck up the majority of my week, but a whole bunch of little time stealers (i.e. facebook, “hi phone calls”, and excessive blog reading) that will cause me to say, “Where did all the time go?” and if I’m not careful today…

The little things will crush my entire day.

Picture this:

This might be a bit controversial, but I can’t get it out of my mind.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if every church (that is under its own authority as opposed to denominational control) organization where 90% of its members have attended the church for 20 years or longer were to give all of their assets to a church planter or thriving local church in its area?  Wouldn’t it be great if they realized that the Kingdom of God could still use them in this way to make a difference, and unselfishly handed over their properties, savings, and organizational control to this “recommended” church planter or healthy church organization?
Then they could have the liberty to meet together in their homes on a regular basis without power struggle or politics getting in the way of their desire to know God more, and a new generation would be enabled to focus more on reaching their generation for Christ and less on fund raising.

Realistic?

You’ll be happy to know I’ve just found Al’s new back up singers for Fellowship Holden.

Next Sunday Morning @ Fellowship anyone?