Alabama Teen Camp UPCI Youth -- June 18, 2008 -- Day Two

Funny how those guys who thought all the coughing and gas passing was funny at midnight last night don’t think it is too funny at 0730 this morning. These clowns did not want to go to bed last night and now they don’t want to get up this morning. They have it all backwards. Confused about when to get in and when to get out. The thing that they have to remember about sleep is that you need it and you need to get all you can when you can. All the pictures are at this link.

The morning started off with a bang with my good buddy, Pastor Perry Wells from Vincent, Alabama. He told this bunch of kids this morning that things went pretty smoothly last night except for at Midnight Madness there were about 1001 Skittles lying around that needed to have something done with them. So before breakfast could be started, they all had to be picked up. So we got the Skittles taken care of and scooted off to breakfast.

The Dothan gang pretty stays together for most of the days as you will notice from all the pictures, today wasn’t any different. They were all together at breakfast except for one. He managed to slip away from me although this was the first time he had managed to do so. Jacob Puckett went missing in action. So I went off in search for him. I looked in the concession stand, no Jacob. I looked on the front steps, no Jacob. So I decided to go into the auditorium and see if he was there. When I opened up the doors, I was being serenaded by a drum solo although I could not see who was playing. However as I turned the corner and looked all the way across to the platform, Jacob was playing the drums. He was apparently having a time with it. So I went over and told him that if we did not get breakfast then we would miss it for the rest of the day. So we headed back toward the café and had a hearty breakfast.

Our first session of the day involved a forum of sorts. Numerous questions were asked to Sister Vanderford (forgive me for not knowing her first name), Jeremy Sherrill, Shaun Meeks, Kelly Martincic, David Goodwin, and myself. Good questions and good advice came from all around. Hopefully some of it connected with the kids.

Then Brother Kelly Martincic, one of the sectional youth directors, preached “Your Father Has the Final Word” from Genesis 35. Again, it was a good message that challenged the youth to understand that God has much control in the circumstances of our lives and it will work toward His plan if we will just be faithful to what God desires.

After this session, we were turned loose for lunch with recreation to follow. Lunch today consisted of the other end of the box of the chicken fingers. In one end, I think they pack chicken fingers and in the other end they pack what is left of the chicken, such as toes, lips, ears, and such and put it into a handy little patty. That is what we had for lunch, chicken patty sandwiches. Teresa and I ate with Brother Wells who again rivaled us with some famous stories from Vincent, Alabama. I think that toe-to-toe Brother Wells could give the late Jerry Clower a run for his money.

Brother Wells told his that his grandmother would sit out on her front porch and rock in a rocking chair, read her Bible, and dip snuff all at the same time. He assured us that she could do this because she was Baptist! This was greatly amusing to me when he was telling us about it. He told us that one day his grandmother intended to spit a big wad of snuff out in the yard and then toss her Bible on the small little cot next her rocking chair on the porch. The cot was there because the “old country folk” would sometimes take a nap on the porch. Anyway, instead of getting the snuff in the yard, she got a little confused. She spit a big wad of juice on her nice white sheets on the cot and tossed her Bible out into the yard!

He also told us that he had traced his family tree all the way back to the mid 1700’s and the Wells had come out of South Carolina with some very strong Irish and German stock. They were all army officers and such but he said that the tried to trace his wife’s family back (the Reynolds) to 1946. They could not find anything beyond a jail break in Clanton, Alabama! All of this is hugely funny to me. At breakfast he had rivaled me with great stories about how to make sauerkraut. He went into much (too much) detail about how it was done. I always thought that sauerkraut made a bad hotdog worse. But I have now come to find out that sauerkraut is actually very good with ribs that you BBQ with. I doubt I shall try it in the near or distant future but at least I know how to make sauerkraut now, which I did not last week.

The afternoons were full of hanging out and the boys spent a lot of time on the basketball court. I managed to slip off on my bicycle for about a 17.5 mile ride through the Pike Road community and found some valuable decompression time on the bike. Bikes are sort of like those broncs I am reading to the boys about at night in Dorm D, they can jerk the kinks out of your spirit.

Supper was around 5:30 PM and when I got down there, all of our kids were settling down in front of meatball subs. It sort of stirred up that old camp song of something about a meatball being on top of spaghetti all covered with cheese and I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed.

Silent Praise was due to make their debut in singspiration but after some technical difficulties with the CD, they were unable to do so. They aren’t interested in doing it tomorrow night because they have the Pizza Party and no one wants to wear black to the party.

One thing I am discovering this year and it appears to get worse yearly is that there are some extremely messed up kids that come to our camps. The devil has done everything he can to wreck our society. Kids have little discipline in their home life and it plays over into all that we see at camp. Suffice it to say that we need an old-fashioned revival in America. Having said that, it makes me clearly more committed to our Dothan bunch and doing all that we can with them!

The service took off with a bang and the choir continued to roll it and Brother Linder ended up not getting to preach tonight. Seven kids got the Holy Ghost for the first time tonight. After an extended altar service, the kids were dismissed and told to return to the auditorium at 9:45 PM for Midnight Goofiness. I again retreated to the kitchen not desiring any excessive nerve jangling and had some leftover chicken. During that time, Brother Wells and I commenced again with our task of rectifying the societal problems at large. I think we are making some headway and if President Bush hears a peep out of our ideas, there is great potential in the both of us being whisked off to the White House.

Tonight in Dorm D, the giddiness of our bunch seems to be giving way to fatigue. Not much objections tonight to settling in. I read about 2 chapters from Mustang Man by that prophet L’Amour and it was again a resounding success.

See you tomorrow. . . .

Alabama Teen Camp UPCI Youth -- June 17, 2008 -- Front Row!!!

We arrived in Montgomery around 10 AM on Tuesday morning for the most part in pretty good condition. Everybody was in their usual excited state about getting into the dorm they were in last year but the boys group was too large to all get housed in Dorms A, B, and C, so we had to pack up all the stuff and move it to Dorm D. The only problem with this is the A/C. In the other dorms it is usually cold enough to “bust the bark” so to speak. But this year we have to make some adjustments and will have to fair in a little warmer climate to get all the boys in the same place. I am told the registration is somewhere around 165+ and it appears that we have a good crew this year.

We have a few newcomers this year. Christy, Morgan, and Nikki are the new girls. On the boys side we have Clay who has never stayed in the dorms without the close presence of his mother and also the Pucketts. Andrew and Jacob are with us from Atlanta. Jacob is a mile a minute to keep up with but he has spent much of the day with Brother David or myself.

Shortly after dumping all of the things in the dorm it was time for lunch. Some of those hearty soybean burgers from all appearances and taste! Along with chips and chocolate chip cookies we realized that we were in for a high-carb week.

After lunch was over with we all hustled over to the auditorium for a rally that was preached by Ryan Vanderford who is the Alabama District UPCI Youth Secretary. He preached a message about “The Power of a Discovered Identity.” He encouraged the youth to understand that there are two choices. Saul, who never really lived up to the intended identity, ended up flopping entirely at what God really had intended for him. On the other hand, there was Paul, who did live up to his discovered identity of what God really wanted. As young men and women the choice of seeking out the right things of life are incredibly important.

This message was ended with a good time of prayer and a challenge. The challenge was issued to the kids and they were encouraged to sign their name on a banner that will be on the front of the pulpit all week during the camp. I was proud of the Dothan bunch who took up 22 seats on the front row. The guys and gals are stretched across the whole front (as you will see on the Flickr photostream).

The altar service ended with the introduction of the illustrious pastor of Vincent, Alabama, Perry Wells. He immediately called for all knives and pistols to be coughed up and if they were not voluntarily handed over they would be forcefully taken! Furthermore, Brother Wells is about to start a cell phone company and anyone who is caught “texting” during the service is going to contribute their phone to his company and the phones will be leased out to excited customers who are in the Vincent, Alabama area. Both of these comments were received with much mirth. He also was concerned about those who had not been potty trained and asked for a showing of hands of those who did not know how to operate a commode! This too was received with much hilarity.

We were then turned out into the hot, humid Montgomery afternoon to play softball, volleyball, basketball, and football. For those who sought the cool rooms on the inside, there was ping-pong, air hockey, foosball, and just general hanging out. The concession stand is again being manned by the famous Blaylock family from Sulligent, Alabama. With her usual demeanor, Sister Blaylock has proved herself to be one of the most famous and active talkers from the north end of the state. Very few women can hold a candle to Donna Blaylock when it comes to talking, fabricating, sarcasm, and everything in between! She can sell pickles, eat a Subway sandwich, and harass me every single time I even venture into the concession stand area.

A bunch of the Dothan girls showed up for choir practice and my battery died to my camera and so I have no pictures of any of this although I do have some from the night service. They were well into the songs (as you can see, although you will have to pardon the red-eye effect that I could not correct with my digital camera).

After a time of song and worship, Brother Sammy Sherrill, our district Youth President, introduced Brother Harold Linder (from parts unknown to me at this time) who had to quickly fill in from Aaron Soto who could not attend due to some very extenuating circumstances in his church. Brother Linder preached a very short sermon (alas I do not want our kids getting too used to this) about the power of God-given desire in your life. He used examples like Joseph, the Hebrew kids in the fiery furnace, Esther, and a few others to get his point across. The altar service followed and a number of kids spent some time praying.

Following the service was the infamous “Midnight Madness.” I stayed for about 7 minutes and 28 ½ seconds and couldn’t handle it any longer. I left the restless savages in the hands of the Youth committee and staff and went somewhere to keep my nerves from getting more jangling than what they could handle. Very fortuitously or maybe even directed by God, I ran into my good friend and Vincent, Alabama pastor, Perry Wells. We rambled around to the backside of the old campground and snuck in the back door of the kitchen. Lo and beheld we thought God had sent ravens to save us but found out later it was Sister Oma Overton. She put up the leftover chicken fingers, a few buns, sliced tomatoes, and left them lying about for a few hungry prophets, umm, preachers to come and enjoy. We had cold chicken samiches and Coke and spent considerable time fixing all the problems of the world. Be on the lookout, things are going to get better here in a few days from all the changes we will endeavor to make.

When the kids got in from Midnight Madness, I picked up a tradition that I started a few years ago. I read aloud to the boys in the dorm to try and wind things down so that they will go on to sleep. I pulled out my trusty Bantam paperback and struck out on the trail with Nolan Sackett who was the central character in “Mustang Man.” I read about 18 pages in 20 minutes or so but should have read for about another ten because they were still a little wound up when I cut the lights out. Typical boy stuff goings on that has been around camps for years. Stuff like coughing, giggling, whispering, passing gas, fake ailments of every sort, and some were “texting” somebody in the way off cellular world. I think I shall invite my friend from Vincent, Alabama in here tomorrow night to see if he can add some of the phones to his collection!

When I shut the lights down, Justin called me to tell the Celtics had trashed the Lakers and won the finals by a score of 131-92. Brought back some sweet memories of my high school days when Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson, Robert Parish, and Coach K. C. Jones were wearing out the likes of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy of the Lakers.

Nothing like these Youth Camps! See you tomorrow!

Last Weekend. . . . Work, This Weekend. . . Celebrate

Last weekend, Power Supply worked for a Sheaves for Christ carwash. This weekend, we celebrated!

Five graduates from our church have made it! Amanda Collette, Ashton Foster, Daniel Elmore, Melissa Mills, and Caleb Stark are our graduating class of 2008. Our hats are off to them as they now enter the “real” world.

This year Amanda’s graduation will be etched down in history. At her graduation from Enterprise High School, First Lady Laura Bush gave the commencement address. It was pretty interesting watching it all unfold especially with the Secret Service involvement. She gave an inspiring speech and all the grads got to shake her hand after they had received their diplomas. Mrs. Bush came because President George Bush came to Enterprise in March, 2007, when a wicked tornado came and destroyed the school. The aftermath of the storm left eight students dead. Four of them were posthumously awarded diplomas on Thursday night.

Friday night, we went to see Daniel Elmore, Ashton Foster, Melissa Mills, and Caleb Stark graduate. This is my old alma mater. I sang with great gusto the first two lines of the alma mater along with the Rehobeth High School graduating class of 2008. You can see the graduation pictures here of EHS and RHS.

On Saturday, we had our annual graduation party for all the grads. You can see the pictures here.

These Kids Are Incredible!

Memorial Day Weekend kicked off today and the vast majority of Power Supply, our youth group here in Dothan, was in fine form. Our youth group was not at the lake or the beach starting summer vacations but they had their sleeves rolled up and worked at a car wash. It was all-out work. . . . they had a tremendous day and raised $$$ (of which we are keeping a secret so the “enemy” does not find out how much we have).

Sheaves For Christ is a program that helps the United Pentecostal Church, International lend support to home missions, foreign missions, our Bible colleges and Urshan Graduate School of Theology, just to name a few of the things SFC supports.

Our General Youth President Shay Mann had the following words at the General Youth Division Website: “We cannot just arbitrarily choose an ending at the conclusion of this campaign, we must write the story now.”

Today, President Mann, Secretary Williams, Promotions Director Francis, we wrote a small part of the story that we have joined. . . . We are pushing from our end. . . . thanks for the challenge. . . .

Power Supply. . . . My hat is off to you!

You can look at the pictures here. . .

Book Recommendation - Meet the Puritans

An amazing book that I bought several months ago has been well worth what I paid for it. It is entitled “Meet The Puritans, With a Guide To Modern Reprints” by Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson. The Puritans, particularly in our day, have gotten quite a bad name for some of their practices in the past. One of the activities that critics of the Puritans like to point out is their involvement in the Salem witch trials and the gross miscarriage of justice that was allowed. Because of that wide-sweeping characterization, much of their writings have been dismissed. In addition to this there are some huge doctrinal differences that permeate some of their writings. However, I have learned a long time ago that you read with a sifter and shake out the bad and keep the good.

This book is basically a summary of the work of many of the Puritans. The chapters run from 2 to 10 pages on each Puritan. It starts with a brief biography and then progresses to a description of their writings, sermons, and books. The book is loaded with good devotional material that will help stimulate your heart and mind from sermon preparation and Bible study. This book has become a highly treasured volume in my personal library.

If you have a high regard for Scripture and for the preaching of that Scripture, this book will certainly give you some motivation in that area. This is especially true when you begin to read some of the sermon titles associated with their study of Scripture. It is also a book that will put you on the trail of more books by the Puritans who spent much focus on gearing men toward prayer, holiness, worship, and the power of Scripture.

Just as a few examples that you will find are:

Thomas Brooks preached 58 sermons from Hebrews 12:14 and they are introduced in his book, “The Crown and Glory of Christianity.” He also wrote a book “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.” In this book he describes twelve of Satan’s devices and their remedies. He then focuses on eight devices that Satan keeps believers from using the means of grace. He writes of ten helps against the devices: walk by the rule of the Word of God, don’t grieve the Spirit, strive for heavenly wisdom, resist Satan’s first motions, labor to be filled with the Spirit, remain humble, pursue watchfulness, retain communion with God, fight Satan by drawing strength from the Lord Jesus, and be much in prayer.

Thomas Watson has become one of my favorites among the Puritans. He wrote “The Mischief of Sin” which is a written about the danger of sin. It is divided into four parts: (1) The Mischief of Sin; (2) An Alarm to Sinners; (3) The Desperateness of Sinners; and (4) Hell’s Furnace Heated Hotter. This book has some of the most incredible word pictures that you will ever read.

Benjamin Keach is described in this book also. From “Exposition of the Parables” it is noted that 147 messages are gathered from the parables which Keach preached. In “The Travels of True Godliness” he introduces the reader to over two dozen enemies of godliness. Some of them are apostasy, hypocrisy, legalism, antinominianism, worldliness, and the devil.

In the opening section, Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson give the following reasons that one will profit from reading the Puritans.

• They shape life by Scripture.
• They focus on Christ.
• They make Scripture guide the life by addressing the mind, confronting the conscience, and engaging the heart.
• They show how to handle trials. Some of the titles they mention in this point: Thomas Brooks “A Mute Christian Under the Rod”; Richard Sibbes “A Bruised Reed” and Jeremiah Burroughs “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.”
• They show how to live in two worlds.
• They show the power of a true spiritual life.

You can purchase the book from Reformation Heritage Books for less than $30. It is hard-bound and almost 900 pages in length.

Brendi's Big Day

Yesterday, April 12, 2008, Chad Kirkland and Brendi Mullen were married in Dothan, Alabama. They were married at the Dothan National Golf Club in an outdoor ceremony just along the edges of the course. It rained steadily most of the day until about thirty minutes before the wedding started.

You can see some of the photo's on Flickr.com. To get the best effect, click on the tab to "view as a slideshow."

Sir. . . . Reverend. . . . Would You Please Have Them Hold The Mayonnaise. . .

There are times that I really get wrapped up with being important. I mean those times when I am so into the importance thing that the whole world finds it’s orbit around me. I know that you may find that hard to believe. . . . . . . that “importance” could have such a dizzying effect on me but it does.

In fact some time ago, I found myself being very important. Our church was hosting a preaching workshop. Rick Wyser was doing his very good seminar “The Six Should-Be’s of Preaching” and I was feeling particularly important. We had plotted and planned and had all sorts of free books, gadgets, computer programs and all sorts of other things to give out to the participants. Somewhere around fifty ministers came and we were having a tremendous time. Nothing motivates me like talking about becoming a better preacher, so I was definitely enjoying the element.

We started on Friday evening and went long into the night and were to continue the next morning and work through most of the day. There I was in front of all of these ministers opening up the day with prayer and some brief but very important comments. I had on crisp, dry-cleaned clothes and a sparkling new tie and had the look of, well, importance. Right before Brother Wyser came to the platform, I managed to see someone motioning to me in the back of the church and behind the person who was motioning was someone very unimportant-looking. I knew what he wanted and I knew that in my status of current importance that I did not really want to get involved.

However, because of my importance that day, I was chosen to meet a little man who began to germinate the thoughts of what you are now reading. He was dressed in ragged clothes, his shoes were literally coming apart on his feet. He looked as if he hadn’t been near a razor or a tooth-brush in days, who knows, maybe weeks. As I got closer to him, it also became very obvious that he had not been near soap and water in several days either.

I ushered him into the office and honestly I wanted to give him a few dollars and send him on his way. See, I was busy helping Brother Wyser and busy helping other ministers become better preachers, frankly I was very busy being important. However, his story was compelling, in fact so compelling, I shall never forget that day or his story as long as I shall live.

He had a severe speech impediment that made it a little difficult to understand him. He had gotten a job with some Texas boys who had taken him to South Carolina to work at a condo along the beach. He knew how to hang sheet-rock and could paint so that is what they wanted him to do. The key to this whole deal was that the poor fellow was one of those guys that this world is constantly taking advantage of and that is exactly what happened. He had worked for three weeks and only had two-hundred dollars to show for it and then they conveniently left him in a bar in north Georgia drunk as a hoot owl. When he finally had aroused from his drunken stupor all he had was the clothes on his back, the shoes on his feet, and the two-hundred dollars were now gone!

So I began to quiz him on his story. Maybe quiz is not the right word, I began to interrogate this man. His story was so outrageous and I was so busy being important and I needed to get back in there with the action. Where is your car? I don’t have one. How did you get here? I walked. When was the last time you ate? Yesterday morning when I cleaned up some trash in a Burger King parking lot and the manager gave me some biscuits. How long have you been walking/hitchhiking from north Georgia? Four days, please sir, I am not lying to you. I see a fence row that needs cleaning off, can I do that for some money? I need to get back to Texas. How are you going to get there? Well, somebody told me in Georgia and if I could get to Hwy. 84 and follow it, it would take me to Texas.

Up to this point, my importance had been progressively dissipating but now all the importance had been effectively squeezed out of me. I took him to the fellowship hall and loaded him up with a large bag of food from the continental breakfast from our meeting. I noticed that as I walked down the hall that he was literally limping almost to the point of being crippled. I inquired about this and he told me that his feet were blistered so bad that he could not hardly walk and that he was going to rest for the remainder of the day.

I ended up taking him to a motel on Hwy. 84 and putting him in a room and thought to myself how wonderful and how benevolent that I had been on my way back to the church. It took me about twenty minutes and I slid right back into my important mode. I forgot him. . . . . . . . . until the waitress at Larry’s brought my second run of BBQ chicken around 8:30 P.M. I had been having a great conversation with Brother Wyser and Brother Patterson about. . . . . . you know, preaching and other important stuff. . . . . . but when I bit into that second run of chicken, the Lord graced my memory with that little guy. I asked Brother Patterson to take care of Brother Wyser that I had something that I needed to take care of. To this point, Brother Wyser nor Brother Patterson even knew about this little guy.

So with a full stomach and a very troubled soul, I went to this little guy’s room. The last time I had seen him had been around 9:30 that morning and it was now working toward 10:00 PM. He opened the door to my loud knock. He appeared almost fearful to me. Now as I think in retrospect he probably thought that I was coming to throw him out or take him downtown to the police station or some such as that. I asked him brusquely, “do you have any food left?” “No sir, I don’t. I ate the last of it around 2 o’clock.” “Are you hungry?” “Yes, sir, I am.” “I am going to Burger King to get you a Whopper Value Meal,” I said. I turned and started for my car and had gone no more than ten feet when I heard his voice again. “Sir. . . . . . Reverend. . . . . . would you please tell them to hold the mayonnaise?” I could not answer, I could only nod. I got in my car and he left the door open and watched me drive out of the parking lot and watched me go on down the rode.

The next twenty minutes or so as I drove to BK the Lord gave me a whole lot of insight into some things. Not an audible voice, but I heard the Lord as plain as day, tell me, “That is how you look to me when you get busy being important.” He reminded me of all the times at the great conferences that I asked Him for all the big stuff. Use me Lord to do the big stuff, the powerful things, the glamorous things, the high visibility things, let the miracles fall off of me, let my name be on the lips of all far and wide, please make me important, and by the way, God, can you hold the mayonnaise?

Where did I get that attitude from? From all of that blarney that I had been feeding my mind over the last several years, this leadership book, that time-management program, this self-development seminar, and on and on, ad nauseum. Now understand with me that I feel very strongly about all of these areas and some of the personal and professional development that has occurred within my own life could never have come to pass had I not known about the “how-to’s” and “what-for’s” of leadership development, goal-setting, and raw, rigorous discipline.

But there is something that is lost when our lives become dictated by the Covey “Habit’s.” We have a tendency to lose touch with humanity and the hurts, stresses, anxieties, and pressures that they battle with day-in and day-out. When we lose touch with those pressures that come from the pews, we become empire builders instead of kingdom builders. When I get busy intersecting flights, reserving hotel rooms, planning events, and just being important, I lose touch with what God wants for my life.

God does not want me to be important, He wants me to do His will and His will is never a mystery. His will is to do the best serving where I am when the need arises. Importance will rob you of a miracle. One of the most notable examples of this is Namaan. He almost did not get his healing because he was too important to dip in the muddy Jordan. I wonder how many miracles that I have circumvented miracles in my own life by being important.

Importance is summed up at the Last Supper when the Lord knelt down, girded with a towel, and washed all of the disciples feet. Maybe I had known it but somehow it had escaped me for all of these years that Jesus washed the feet of Judas before the supper ever began. He washed the man’s feet who was going to betray him. That is what importance really is. It is serving the Judas Kiss. It is serving the betrayer. It is ministering to the deserter.

Michael Card has a song entitled The Basin and the Towel. It goes like this:

An upstairs room, a parable is just about to come alive,

And while they bicker about whose best,

With a painful glance He’ll silently rise,

Their Savior Servant must show them how,

By the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.

And the call is to community,

The impoverished power that sets the soul free,

In humility to take the vow,

That day after day,

We must take up the basin and the towel.

In any ordinary place or any ordinary day,

The parable can live again,

When one kneel and one will yield,

Our Savior Servant must show us how,

By the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.

And the space between ourselves sometimes is more than the distance between the stars

By the fragile bridge of the servant’s bow,

We take up the basin and the towel.

And the call is to community,

The impoverished power that sets the soul free,

In humility to take the vow,

That day after day,

We must take up the basin and the towel.

When we bow to the basin and the towel, importance has a way of being totally removed from our lives. Servants are not very important. Servants have no rights. Servants move at the command and the whims of the master. Servants have no personal agendas they focus on the mission which supercede any personal agenda.

When we do the small things for the Lord, we advance the Kingdom. The whole attitude of importance revolts against the idea of doing something “hidden” in the Kingdom. Yet, when we fill this role of washing dirty feet, great power, great humility, great purpose slowly seeps into our lives. Increasingly, I am becoming convinced that spiritual greatness comes from serving and with heightening anonymity. Through the continual denial of the flesh, which is a monumental challenge in itself, and through the pouring out of ourselves into the lives of others with no expectations from those actions, that greatness does indeed seep into our lives. Therefore, live out and flesh out this principle of the basin and the towel because in doing so it strangles the very thin veneer of importance.

John Piper writes in Brothers, We Are Not Professionals:

We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and the heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness (Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32); there is no professional panting after God (Psalm 42:1).

But our first business is to pant after God in prayer. Our business is to weep over our sins (James 4:9). Is there professional weeping? Our business is to strain forward to the holiness of Christ and the prize of the upward call of God (Php. 3:14); to pummel our bodies and subdue them lest we be cast away (1 Cor. 9:27); to deny ourselves and take up the blood spattered cross daily (Luke 9:23). How do you carry a cross professionally? . . . .

I trust that you take this Barnabas Blog in the spirit by which I have tried to write it. We still need discipline, we must have vision, we will fail if we do not plan, and we must continue to lead, but there must in all of this be ministries marked by utter dependence on God. The Kingdom of God is not advanced with importance nor professionalism but rather with humility.

Trying to Decrease. . . .