Posted in Ministry

On the road again

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I tried running again today. I had taken a month off since my heel started feeling like it was bruised. I did a lot of bike riding instead. Finally, today, I thought it was better enough for a gentle three-miler. I took some ibuprofin and iced it just in case, and it felt pretty good. In fact, it felt better throughout the day than it has for a long time.

Four weeks is probably the longest I’ve gone without running in the past 30 years. I try to go out 3 times a week now. I need a day of recovery in between workouts. I just run better that way. When I was younger, I could run seven days a week. In fact, when I go back and look at some old running logs, I am shocked to see that I ran 70-100 miles a week sometimes. I would run twice a day several days a week. An easy run was 5 miles. I guess you just can’t do that forever. I enjoy it just as much even though it’s just 3 days and 9-15 miles a week.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am my most creative when I run, and I pray my best when I’m walking. I’m not sure why, but it works.

Posted in Ministry

Jesus laughing

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Today’s Advent candle was pink. On this Sunday the theme of joy resonated through the lessons. So I wondered out loud today, is joy a common response to God’s presence with us?

David danced for joy when the ark came back to Jerusalem. Unborn John the Baptist jumped for joy when the unborn Son of God showed up at his mom’s house. The magi rejoiced with exceeding joy when they saw the star. When God shows up to save, joy follows.

Even God rejoices. He rejoices to be with his people, to be reconciled to them, to see their lives restored. I wonder how many people picture God as a happy, joyful God rather than a stern, angry God.

We have a picture of a laughing Jesus in our house. I brought it for the children’s sermon today and asked, “Why do you think Jesus is so happy?” One young man, probably about five, said, “I think Jesus is laughing because someone just told a joke.” I really liked that answer. I like to think of God as someone with a sense of humor. If the Son of God can experience grief, why not joy?

In John15 Jesus wants his disciples to have the same joy that he has, so he must be joyful. Every time someone could see or hear again, got up and walked, or even came back to life, I like to picture Jesus filled with joy, seeing his creation restored.

Posted in Life

Crash

Posted on by William Douthwaite

We had a computer crash at our house last night. I was minding my own business, scanning some pictures and listening to Pandora, when suddenly, the computer burped and I got the SOD (Screen of Death.) “Windows has shut down…” I couldn’t reboot. Couldn’t reboot from an emergency boot disk. Couldn’t do anything.

Today, I just reloaded Windows XP, thankful for having done some good backups and not losing anything but a few pictures. But it’s a pain to have to reinstall software. But not as much of a pain as it used to be. Most of what we do is in the “cloud.” I use Google Docs more than I use resident word processors and presentation programs. So everything I use the most is always there, somewhere for me.

I had to take the machine apart, too. Change the CD player from slave to master. Unhook the DVD drive. And wait a long, long time for about 60 updates to be loaded. But in the end, everything works good. In fact, it was a blessing, since we had some Google redirect virus somewhere in the bowels of the machine that no program could find and deal with. No problem now. Kind of like a clean slate.

Posted in Ministry

What they didn’t teach me at the seminary (part 2)

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I am still leaning that I have to do a lot of things around the church I didn’t realize were part of the job description. For example:

  • Changing batteries in smoke detectors that are chirping and driving you up the wall.
  • Compiling the list of who gets offering envelopes, which includes active members, those who regularly attend but are not members, and excludes those members who don’t use offering envelopes.
  • Pick up dead bugs in the chancel.
  • Reassemble chapel Advent wreath that was disassembled to make a Good Friday tenebrae candle holder.
  • Retrieve loaner key from drop box where a black widow spider is living.
  • Fetch new roll of toilet paper for “stranded” parishioner.

A lot of these things end up on my plate just because I’m around just about every day. Try as I might to delegate these jobs, new ones, different but similar will find their way to me.

Posted in Grace, Ministry

House cleaning

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Today in my sermon I asked if anyone cleaned up their house before their cleaning person came to clean their house. Just about all who had cleaning people admitted to that practice. Which is a little mind-bending for me, but I think I get it. You really don’t want anyone to see your mess, even if that someone is your cleaning person.

I brought it up as we were talking about confessing our sins rather than covering them up with denial, excuses, or justification. Do we have to try to clean up our lives before Jesus comes to clean up our lives (Malachi 3)? We can’t actually do that, since he knows what’s going on with us anyway. It’s better to confess, knowing that he’ll forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It’s better to confess, get it out on the table, knowing that he’ll clean it up.

I also talked about the importance of voicing your confession. To God. To each other. To a pastor on occasion. Getting it out there goes a long way towards appreciating his grace. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.

One of the boldest prayers of the bible is at the end of Psalm 139 where David invites God to poke around in his life and see if anything needs fixing or straightening out. How many of us would have the guts to pray that prayer?

Posted in Life

Wine recommendations

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A woman stopped me in the wine aisle of Publix today to ask my opinion of some wine she was considering buying. I wasn’t dressed like someone who worked there, just jeans and a t-shirt. But she assumed I could help her understand the subtle differences between two bottles of red wine she wanted to give as a gift.

My knowledge of wine is limited, although I have learned quite a bit over the last few years by hanging out with people who do know something about wine. As we talked, she mentioned having bought a bottle a few years ago that was over $20. Now I knew I was out of my league. My league is the under $8 varietals. She seemed to be more interested in the price that anything else about the wine, so I helped her find a more costly choice on a top shelf. She was grateful for my help.

When it comes to wine, I mostly know what I like (mostly reds) and what my wife likes (Chardonnay), and buy what’s affordable. I’ve had many people comment about how much they enjoy the communion wine at church. We use Manischewitz Concord Grape, which is a bottom shelf variety (on sale this week at WalMart 2 for $7).

My best wine advice: buy what you like and enjoy.

Posted in Life

Holiday concert

Posted on by William Douthwaite

My wife and I attended our daughter Olivia’s holiday concert at her high school this evening. There are few things I enjoy more than attending our kid’s events, and I am admittedly biased towards band concerts, since I played in many of them myself over the years.

Attired in long black dressed and tuxedos, the band looked so different from the marching group who just finished their season. A number of the students played different instruments than they did for marching season. Many from the percussion section and pit were back on their primary instruments, which looked strange at first.

The jazz band started and played some very nice, swinging Christmas numbers, including a medley from the original Charlie Brown Christmas special. The concert band followed with some Christmas and Hanukkah pieces. The low brass resonated beneath the talented, well-blended woodwinds, trumpets and horns. A nice way to spend a chilly, rainy evening in Palm Coast.

I can still remember many band concerts from elementary school through college and even some community bands after that. I can even remember some of the songs we played. It’s amazing how all those notes tend to stay with you, as well as the faces of the people you played with.

Posted in Ministry

A little dialogue

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Last night at our Advent Midweek service, I tried to interact with the congregation during the sermon. I asked questions to get responses, to get at what they were thinking or their impressions of a person or situation. I’ve done this a little bit in the past, but tried to do even more. It’s an interesting process. In our church, they aren’t used to talking to me during a sermon, although we’ve had plenty of personal conversations in the past.

I believe they liked it. I believe it kept their attention on a warm, rainy evening. (Yes, in Florida, Advent is usually warm.) And it gives me a chance to respond to their thoughts, rather than simply guessing what they might be thinking.

The idea of some dialogue in a sermon requires a lot of flexibility, and the ability to keep moving towards the goal and conclusion. It requires a lot of faith, that people will respond and that you’ll be able to think on your feet, responding to what they say. You may need to abandon something you were going to say along the way, to make room for other thoughts. It works best, of course, in a smaller group. In front of 500 people, it just won’t happen. But with 50 or so, it has possibilities.

Posted in Ministry

The cattle are lowing

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I sang “Away in a manger” with the preschool children this morning. I meet with them each Wednesday to read a Bible story, sing some songs, pray, and learn some Bible words. They are getting ready for their Christmas program next week, so we practiced a few of their songs.

After we sang about lowing cattle, I asked them what “cattle” were. I got some really interesting answers. Everything from flying very high in the sky to something you wrap up the baby in, to a box with feathers in it. Once I told them it was a bunch of cows mooing, they understood. They told me the mooing cows woke up baby Jesus, but he didn’t cry, at least not that time.

There are probably lots of other words they can’t define, but we’ll just take one at a time.