Fall

I love the fall. There are so many great things that happen this time of year; harvest, great weather, football, World Series, Halloween, colorful leaves and apple cider.
When I was at my parents a couple weeks ago, we took some pictures of the fall colors. Most of these pictures are from my hometown of Fort Madison, IA. Fort Madison is a town of old churches, historic homes, brick streets, nestled along the Mississippi River.

Corn

Corn is the currency of my parent's liveliehood. It's the gold that grows up out of the black Iowa topsoil. There is no better time to be on the farm than during the harvest; there's an energy pumping through the machinery and the farmers.

The first picture in the 2nd row is my dad sitting in a truck with a load we're taking to the Ethanol plant, you can see some of the other trucks sitting in line. The bottom right is my uncle Pete unloading a wagon into dad's truck.

This was the best harvest my dad's ever had in his decades of farming. The yield is record breaking and the prices are great. Those two usually don't happen in the same season.

Super Servants - Joe and Vanessa Kumor

Joe and Vanessa are quiet and steady leaders and servants.
Vanessa has recently stepped up and taken on the role of nursery coordinator, which is quite the undertaking. Vanessa also organized all the childcare for our Love and Logic event in October.
They've recently began hosting and leading a new small group bible study, offering their hospitality and spiritual guidance.
The night of our Trunk or Treat, Vanessa introduced me to an unchurched friend she invited to the event, which really PUMPS me up!
And on top of everything else they do, Joe was recently named enlisted man of the year within his Army brigade! He's still in the running for Kansas enlisted man of the year, too.

It's service and leadership like this that allows our church to help people grow in their walk with Christ.

As a side note, if you're not currently connected with a small group, please contact Joe at jkumorski@aol.com.
If you have kids but currently aren't serving in our kids ministry, we REALLY NEED your help! To find ways to get involved, please contact Vanessa at knessa123@aol.com.

My brush with greatness

All preachers are artists at some level or another. The study and communication technique that come together in crafting a sermon (on a good day) can be a thing of beauty. Today I had the chance to meet the DaVinci of my generation, Rob Bell.

Rob preached 1 1/2 hours from memory. He subtly yet effectively choreographed his movements. And when he was referencing a story from a book about a primitive subSaharan tribe, I turned to my wife and said "man, he must read all the time." At one point the thought, "why do I waste my time preaching every week when people could listen to this guy?" But right after it was over, a preacher friend of mine for whom I have a lot of respect, Bob Cave, came up to me and said, "we don't all have to be Rob Bell." I guess me thinking "what's the point" would be like my 7th grade QB, Bradly Allen, deciding since he wasn't Bret Favre, the team didn't need him. We're called to grow into our best in the setting God has placed us.

When I got a minute to talk with Rob after the event, I thanked him for all he does. I told him that I'm a church planter and that my wife says my preaching has really improved since I started listening to his podcasts (along with Mark Driscoll, but I left that out). What I meant was that listening to a great communicator has sharpened my own communication. Erin told me however, "sounds like you just steal all his stuff." I should've just gotten my copy of Velvet Elvis signed, taken the picture with him and kept my mouth shut.

In the minute I interacted with Rob, he seemed to be just as personable in person as he seems while preaching. Although tickets were being scalped outside the door, he seems to be much closer to a pastor than a rock star.

I'm sure my good friend David Brush will post a deep theological review of the message.

As soon as I wrote this, I checked David's blog and sure enough, he'd already posted.

The next day after the event, Russ Koelzer told me the proceeds of Rob's speaking tour are going to an organization that provide no-interest micro loans to help people in impovrished countries start businesses. What a shocker...

suffering

I just heard a great quote from a Mark Driscoll podcast.
It's from a Romanian Pastor who suffered under communist rule.
Christians are like nails. The harder you hit them the deeper they go.

District support for Love Wins

I was at the Kansas City District's Mission Development Board meeting today (where we talk about new ministries and new churches) and our DS had me share about our Love Wins ministry. He's so excited about what we're doing and is thinking of ways this type of ministry could spread across the district. Both in getting support from other churches for what we're doing and in helping other churches near gentlemen's clubs to start similar ministries.

What can I say? It's a movement of God!

My week with the monks

I’ve just packed up and am ready to end my time at the St. Benedictine Monestary in Atchison, KS. It’s been a unique and helpful time. Besides the emotional and spiritual renewal that I already blogged about, it’s also been a very productive time. It’s amazing how much work you can get done when you’re pulled out of your regular environment.

I’ve taken these couple days to plan out my sermons for 2008. The KC pastors were trained by our DS, Jeren Rowell, a month ago on how to do one of these retreats and I think that for my first time, it went really well. I came with some ideas for 2008, one of which was to preach through the Sermon on the Mount but after some more thought, I started kicking around the idea of staying in Matthew’s gospel all year. The two conclusions that got me thinking that way were that (1) the Sermon on the Mount would take about 1/3 or more of the year and (2) if I ever decided to preach through Matthew later, I’d have to skip the entire Sermon on the Mount. So what if I just stayed in the gospel all year?

I ran the idea by several pastor friends to make sure I wasn’t crazy, one of which was my Jeren and they all thought it was a good idea. Jeren was pretty excited about the idea. One of Jeren’s suggestions was rather than preaching through Matthew in order of chapter/verse, to preach through the book in themes. So I went through every section of the book, trying to find it’s central idea and then grouping passages by themes. The themes I’ll be covering in 2008 are the following: Community, Advent, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, Forgiveness, Jesus, Healing, Holiness, the Kingdom, Pharisees (Jesus vs. the Pharisees), Politics, Prayer and the Resurrection. I think my scholarly skills have increased during the past two year’s worth of preaching. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to do this two years ago.

The time with the Monks was interesting, too. I set my alarm, but didn’t get up this morning to join in the early morning prayers. I did however, sing Vespers with them one night and join in the afternoon prayers. There is a schedule in our room that the Abby follows every single day, for who knows how many years.
6:00 – Arise6:20 – Vigils and morning prayer
7:00 – Breakfast
12:00 – Midday prayer
12:15 – Lunch
5:05 – Bell
5:15 – Community Mass
5:55 – Supper
6:40 – Bell
6:45 – Vespers
8:00 – End of Recreation

During the evening meal, the head Abbot reads from a 3 volume commentary on the orders of Benedictine monks. I found it surreal, the first time I was eating in their meal hall with a bunch of guys in monk robes. I got used to it, but it felt like I was in a movie or something. This is a very foreign world to a guy like myself who grew up in a very low-church environment. There is a lot to be admired about this monastery but also some things I find a bit strange. I also felt pretty dumb sometimes, not knowing when to sit or pray or bow, just another reminder of how people new to a church feel.

I think the Monk that I ate meals with, whose in charge of the guest house, thinks I’m an idiot when I shared two facts with him that I learned on my trip to Europe: that Constantine was crowned in York, England and that the Westminster Abby is no longer affiliated with the Church of England. He muttered under his breath, “I doubt that” which made me feel like of small. I’ve experienced just a tad bit of the guilt and arrogance with which Catholicism leads their people and the world’s Christianity.

On the good side, I saw a lot of people walking around campus and the abbey that I can tell passionately love Jesus. It was neat to see college kids coming to Mass and midday prayers the same way MNU students go to chapel (probably without the chapel fine, though). I wouldn’t have been able to experience this week several years ago, back when I was still living under the unspoken, yet very real, assumption with which I’d been raised – that Roman Catholics aren’t real Christians. Thankfully, I’ve moved way past that. Sometimes I wonder if I’m a real Christian, after hanging around a Catholic campus. Strangely, the campus didn’t celebrate Reformation Day yesterday as they’re celebrating All Saints Day today.

I also felt a bit strange walking around the campus and hanging out in the library of one of my alma matter’s biggest rivals. I hated Benedictine when I was in college, they were quite the football powerhouse (although MNU has basically taken their place in the conference). But thankfully, I’ve matured enough to appreciate the campus and students and didn’t even flinch too badly when I walked by the football field where BC beat us in a close (JV) contest.
This has been a very peaceful and reflective time. I’m excited about the journey through Matthew that we’ll be taking in 2008.

Constipation

On Sunday, I had the privilege of having lunch with Mike and Mary Palmer. Mike is the DS of the Missouri District, the dad of our MNU intern, Michael Palmer and my former pastor. Mike’s the 2nd of my former pastors to worship with us at TF, the first was Trent Tinker’s dad, Tim. And another former pastor, Dan Arnold, will be speaking at TF this spring.

Anyway, at lunch Mike was talking with me about church health. He said a healthy church, like any living organism, must do 3 things: 1) remove waste 2) Eat healthy food and 3) Reproduce itself. A church must be doing all three things to be healthy.

That’s good info about a church, but I’ve actually been thinking about how it applies to Erin and myself. With all the junk that’s been going on in our lives lately, we’ve been feeling pretty constipated. We’ve been taking in a lot of crap, so to speak and haven’t been able to get rid of it.

The other night Erin had quite the inspiration of exactly what we’re feeling. She said…, well, I won’t write exactly what she said because kids might be reading this blog. She borrowed the line of Cousin Eddy’s from National Lampoon Christmas Vacation. If you recognize the scene from this picture, you’ll know exactly what Eddie said. And it’s exactly how Erin and I have been feeling.



So I’ve been asking God, “how in the world do I get rid of all the crap inside of me right now?” And in his timely and graceful way, God has responded to my cry for help. You could say God gave me a big cup of exlax (think of the scene from Dumb and Dumber).

Everything came out this morning, while jogging through Atchison and walking around the Benedictine Abby. Acthison is a lot like my hometown of Ft. Madison, IA. It’s on a river, it has old and stately houses (along with some old dumpy houses), brick streets and sidewalks and beautiful old cathedrals. Like FM, Atchison is a very Catholic town, although not all the churches are Catholic. As I jogged along the brick streets looking at the old houses standing underneath maple trees in full color, my heart was softened.

But when I got back to the Abby (it’s a beautiful abby that could fit in anywhere in Europe) I walked along the river and found some amazing sights. There are several look out points over the Missouri River, some of which were a part of Lewis and Clark’s expedition. And there are several trails down the bluff right up to the river. As I walked down one of the trails, the vines and foliage were breathtaking

At the far end of the monastery campus is a trail through the woods that has all the stations of the cross. When I was nearing the end of the path, the song Just to Be With You by 3rd Day came on my ipod. A song about Jesus going to the greatest lengths possible just to be with us. As this song played, I took a seat on a bench at the top of the bluff overlooking a bend in the river and a few tears came. Not much, not too much emotion, I’m not that emotional of a guy, but the cool breeze, beauty of the scenery, the sun on my face and the song about God’s love all combined to give me a feeling of release, security and peace. Thanks, God.