Exiled Community

Here’s a video from a television crew doing a live broadcast from a state fair when a snake slithers into the reporter’s pants. (Yes, you are free to insert your own joke here.)

View the video by clicking here.

It’s Monday. Nothing helps a Monday out like routine to help one settle into the week to come. So I am introducing a Monday blog that I will hopefully use each Monday to look back on the weekend and look towards the week ahead. Marko at ysmarko.com uses this, and I am going to shamelessly steal it.

the weekend that was: I actually wrote about this yesterday, but the Pirates-Phillies game plus golf = a pretty good weekend.

Church Review: Worship at Avenue was pretty good yesterday. Pastor Phyllis spoke and there was a nice response as people came to the altar and were prayed with. We may have threw some people off with the worship team flipping sides. I felt different leading worship from the left side of the stage. Strange.

where i am at the moment: I am sitting at my office computer at the church.

on my to-do list this week: I have a busy week ahead. I am prepping a sermon for Sunday and working on some capital campaign stuff for September. We begin interviewing candidates for our Youth Pastor vacancy. The family is going to Cape May on Thursday for a get away day. Andrea and I are taking 8 college students white water rafting on Friday/Saturday. And tonight (Monday) is date night with Andrea. *Whew*

What Abbie is up to: Right now, Abbie is showing considerably more clingy-ness than she has in the past month or two. She is a very independant girl, so this is a little suprising. It’s tough to clean the house or cook a meal when she just wants to be held, near one us. We have a suspicsion that a new tooth could be in the works. (but we’ve thought that for several weeks now)

book i’m in the midst of: Suprised By Hope by N.T. Wright, and Reasons to Believe by John Marks.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: I have been listening to The Classic Crime’s new CD, The Silver Cord. I also downloaded Brooke Fraser’s song Shadowfeet this week. She is a member of Hillsong United’s worship team and authored the powerful worship song Hosanna. On her own, she is a rising star down under and has a new CD out.

how i’m feeling about this week: Busy

The LaMotte weekend really consited of two days. The first, on Friday, I watched Abbie during the day. We had a good daddy-daughter day. We went to the park and played. Just two months ago, she cried when she got near the playground equipment, now she is having so much fun playing on it.

That night, we went to the Pirates vs. Phillies in Philadelphia with Andrea’s family. I wore my new Pirates shirt and hat, fully prepared to be verbally abused and harassed by the Philly fans. I was wrong. Not one single rude or derogatory comment. Why am I disappointed about this? In some way, the fans of Philadelphia let me down. On the other hand, I root for the Pirates. They suck, and no one else really cares about them.

The game was great. Abbie made it until the middle of the 10th inning. The Pirates ended up winning in 12 innings. I wish I could have seen the ending, but it was fun to be at the game as a family.

On Saturday, I went golfing with Andrea’s dad. I played my normal game, which is a 110. That is not good at all. I really need to golf more so I can get better.

The really funny thing about golf is the male desire to impress the people around them. Twice I heard someone say something to the affect of how long there were going to hit the ball (really long), and then shank the ball really badly. I tend to stay really quiet on the course and let me play (no matter how bad) do the talking.

It’s Monday afternoon, and I have had a little time to process the week that was Jr. High I @ Delanco Camp. Our theme for the week was Set-Apart, and I used 1 Peter 1:13-16 for my text. Overall, I thought the messages went ok. Last year, I build the messages to climax around Wednesday or Thursday. This year, they climaxed on Friday. The basic themes for the nights were; Hope, Grace, Holiness, Loving One Anothere, Daring to Be Different. Looking back, I think I could have done Tuesday and Wednesday (Grace/Holiness) more effectively. Overall, though, I think it went alright.

The camp itself was pretty good. It was a more low-key group of campers this year compared to last year, which obviously changed some of the dynamics. I thought the leadership team did a more consistent job this year than last, which may be from another year of maturity.

There were minor things that could have been better, but they are not worth mentioning because they are, well, minor. I’m looking forward to being there next year.

It’s Wednesday morning and I am sitting at at Dunkin Donuts in Medford, NJ…near Delanco Camp where I am speaking this morning. My coffee-like drink is not very good and my computer battery is going to fail soon. I wish Starbucks had free internet so I didn’t have to be at Double D.

I am at Delanco Camp, where Andrea grew up attending camp, speaking at Junior High I. This is my second year speaking here. The group of students this year are different from last year. Last year, there were several confident, outgoing students who really set the pace for the week. This year is a more non-descript group and I feel like I am having trouble connecting with them, although people tell me otherwise.

The theme this year is Set-Apart. I have been using 1 Peter 1:13-16 as the basis of my talks on leading a Set-Apart life. It’s challenging to communicate to a middle school student the need to be set apart through their faith rather than blending into the crowd. It is so much easier to blend in with what is going on around us. Tonight, I am speaking on holiness, specifically God’s call for us to live a life that reflects His Holiness. I am pretty set for tonight. I need to work on Thursday and Friday.

It has been hot at camp this year. (isn’t that camp though?) I’ve been helping to lead worship this year, and I sweat through everything before I even get a chance to speak. It’s crazy! It rained some over night, so hopefully it will cool things off some.

My battery is about to die. I will be writing more about camp at the end of the week.

Last night was the home run derby during the All-Star showcase in New York at Yankee Stadium. If you were following sports, then you probably know there was a big to do about the major homerun hitters not participating in the event. A-Rod, Manny, Ryan Howard, and Griffey, Jr. all passed on the event.

It didn’t matter thanks to Josh Hamilton.

I had Abbie duty last night while Andrea went on a walk. Knowing that Hamilton was coming up to bat, I hurried through her meal, bath, and put her to bed. I was not disappointed. Josh Hamilton put on a show. While he didn’t win the final round…he still had more cumulative homes (by far) than Derby winner Justin Morneau.

This is a great story about redemption, second chances, and the transformation that happens when Christ is part of our lives. Josh Hamilton was the #1 draft pick in the country in 1999. After an injury that laid him up, he became addicted to alcohol and cocaine (or herion depending on the story you hear). Josh failed several drug test and was ultimately kicked out of baseball for three years. During the time away, Josh got help with the addictions and became a Christian. Once he got reinstated to baseball, he made the jump to the majors (after a 3 year layoff) and now is just mashing the ball like crazy- showing why he was the #1 draft pick.

Josh has an accountability partner who travels with the team. They eat together, pray together, and take part in Bible study together. In interviews, it seems apparent that Josh is genuine in the second chance that he has been given. It is one amazing story.

This is just beyond my mind…but a church in Oklahoma sponsored a teen event where they were giving away an semi-automatic assualt rifle. You can read the story here. (Be sure to watch the video) The Church’s Youth Pastor, Bob Ross, said it was a way to attract kids to attend the event. Ross said that the event was not about guns or shooting, but about finding faith. Mr. Ross says in an interview on a local station that they had given away a gun a previous conferences (which had been going on for 25 years.) Ultimately, the give-away was cancelled because the pastor leading the giveaway was unable to attend.

Being a former youth pastor, and still working with young people, I am not sure how this gets by the board for approval.

Youth Pastor: We are very excited about this year’s youth conference. We believe it will be the best one ever. We are so excited that we have come up with a creative way to attract even more students.

Board Member/Trustee/Elder: We would love to have more students experience Christ in their lives….what do you have in mind?

Youth Pastor: Well, Our two ideas we wanted to bring up to you for approval is this…We want to give away either a AR-15 Semiautomatic Assault Rifle or a kilo of cocaine.

Board Member/Trustee/Elder: Wow, you are really thinking outside of the box here on this giveaway. Way outside of the box. But since we live in the heartland, why don’t we stick with the Assault Rifle giveaway and not do the cocaine giveaway. It will get us into less trouble.

Youth Pastor: Consider it done.

Wow. That’s all I can say. This is a strange story.

Andrea, Abbie, and myself joined the rest of the Logan family for vacation in Williamsburg, VA this past week for vacation. It was pretty relaxing and enjoyable.

• On Monday, we went to Busch Gardens. It was a great day to be there. The longest line was 40 minutes for DarKastle, which was way better than I thought it would be. The Griffon was amazing (although short). We rode in the very front row, which is intense as they dangle you over the top of a 200 foot hill and hit the pause button. A great rush.
• On Tuesday and Thursday I golfed with my father-in-law and Joel. I hadn’t golfed in several weeks. Part of the day I did well. Over two days, I played bogey golf for about 11 consecutive holes. That’s pretty decent for me.
• We went to Jamestown one morning to check things out. Not much really there. I really enjoyed being in the church that is at the settlement. Somewhere in my family tree I am related to Pochahontas and husband John Rolfe (not John Smith). It was cool to consider some of my ancestors landing in Jamestown and what they had to go through to make it in the New World.
• Andrea and I took Abbie to Williamsburg before heading home on Saturday. It was really enjoyable. We didn’t get tickets, but just walked around and enjoyed the morning.
• We also swam, ate, and read a lot. I read two books while on vacation. One being The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. This is a really good vacation book. The other was Who Stole My Church by Gordon MacDonald. Good book for pastors serving in churches that are trying to change the culture and not be stuck in a dying church.

It was a great vacation, but as always, it is great to be home. I have two weeks to prepare for Delanco Camp…which I started one evening when I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and could not get back to sleep. More on that later.