Over and Out

If you have been following this blog for almost 2 years, I applaud you. The Helter Skelter nature of my blogging this year has made me decide to call it quits. I might post something when I have something worthwhile but for the most part, besides my family and work, I just don't have the energy to keep up the blog.

It has been a helpful way for me to journal about my experiences that otherwise I would not have done. Keeping up on my blog had become a chore and I decided I don't want to do it at this time. Perhaps, if the joy for blogging comes back, I will start up again and let you know.

My final words... enjoy your life while it's happening.

Sampson Sunday School

I am still alive. This is proof. I do more than make videos. Will write more later. Thanks Liz for the Video.

VBS Video

Liz Neil in our chuch made this video. It gives you a snapshot of what happened this week.

Heroes Sunday School Video

Last Sunday we began a summer sunday school program for kids called Heroes. We are looking at Old Testament Characters each week. On top of that, we are finishing Bible School this week. And Kate and I leave for camp next week. Therefore, we are tired. But I have had fun leading the singing.

Intercessory Video Prayer

This is a video I made to end the service tomorrow. I love this song. I am encouraging people to pray for our city.

Our Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great weekend. I was off from church and we did a lot of stuff including going to Chattangooga, waterpad, campout, smores, etc. Here is a snapshot of the weekend.

What's Going on?

Last week I participated in Career Day at Aiden and Max's school. Parents each manned a booth in the gym where we talked about our jobs for 5 minutes to rotating kids groups. I was the only pastor represented and tried to make my job sound as interesting as possible as compared to the other jobs. I was amazed at how many kids think pastors work only a day or two a week and were surprized by the amount of education we receive. Next year I need to have a cool giveaway like some of the other parents did.

A couple weeks ago we went to a party for Isaac, a kid from church and we are friends with his parents. It was based on a Heroes theme. These are some pictures from the party.

Last Wednesday we had a family Fun Night at Fun Expedition where we could ride go carts, play video games, etc to celebrate the end of school. The kids loved it and I must admit, I did too. They even gave me a free game card to play the games since I was a pastor. I should have said that to the kids at the career fair that being a pastor has its privledges.

Last night we celebrated school being out by lighting a fire in the fire pit and making smores.

Today I am heading out to go golfing and have a little fun for myself. I have this Sunday off and I am looking forward to it. Life has been stressful at work because we are in staff transition which has lead to some uncertainty and each of us picking up the slack. I anticipate in the next 2 months things should be worked out but the past few months has had its challenges.

Bulgarian Mission Team from FUMC

A team from our church left for a 10 day mission trip to Bulgaria last week. Here is a picture from their blog. They are having a great experience. You can check them out by clicking here.

A Growing Church

Some pictures are coming later. This is for my next newsletter ...

Becoming a Growing Church

The mission of our church is “Making Disciples of Jesus Christ by Reaching, Growing and Serving”. Last week I began a three week series on looking at our mission statement as a church and what it means for us personally to reach out to people with the love of Christ. In this issue I will talk about becoming a growing church. A “Growing” church can mean many things to many people; growing in attendance, growing in buildings, growing in finances. As a church we have defined growing as growing deeper in our relationships with God and one another.

A number of years ago a storm came through my neighborhood and uprooted some trees and did damage to homes. What was surprising were some trees that I thought had deep root systems that had come up and other trees looked like nothing ever happened. Life has a way of bringing storms our way and the aftermath of those storms reveal how well rooted we are. We find in the book of Acts the early church was committed to each other and to growing deeper with God. Luke writes in Acts 2:42 that, "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." He could have said they were committed to deepening themselves in the truth of God’s Word and committed to one another. Can that be said of you? Do you have a hunger for God and knowing his Word every day? Are spiritual disciplines that vital to your daily life? My hope as a pastor is that your desire for God increases. If you find yourself in a season of life when that desire for God is lacking or non-existent, pray for the desire to have the desire for God. God works with us where we are, not where we are not.

Secondly, when was the last time you had someone from the church over to your house for a social engagement or just to have coffee? God’s desire for us is not just to go to church but to be the church to one another. Luke says they met daily together. At a recent conference I heard a speaker share a story of a guy in his church who was leaving. This guy had been part of a gang and he told the pastor he was leaving church because he thought the church was going to be like a Christian gang. He thought the church would be family like his former gang and he was disappointed. In his gang they were committed to each other and had his back. That wasn’t his experience with church. God’s desire for us is to be that kind of group in the church. It is more than people just knowing your name and your occupation. It is to have soul-friends, where each person knows one another’s needs. These friends not only encourage you but hold you accountable in walking with God. Do you have Christian brothers or sisters like that? You can only have these kind of relationships in small groups. If you are in a group, I encourage you to be vulnerable and take initiative in becoming that kind of Christian. It takes some work but I know many who would testify that it’s worth it.

That is what it means to be a growing church, not just in numbers on Sundays but in love for God and for one another that is practically lived out week by week.

What does it mean to reach?

Yes, I am still alive. Work has been especially busy and I feel like I am continually behind, including blogging. This is from an upcoming newsletter article for my church.

Last week four of us from church attended the Orange Conference in Atlanta Georgia to experience worship and teaching with 4000 other like minded folks. It was a great conference. The first night we heard a talk by Reggie Joiner about the prodigal son story from Luke 15. That story is so familiar to us in the church that it often looses its power. While many think the main character in the story is the prodigal son, in the context of Luke 15, it presents a contrast of the other two characters: the loving father or the elder brother. Joiner explained that these are two approaches to sinners and invited us to examine our hearts: Are we more like the loving father or the elder brother?

Loving Fathers… Elder Brothers…
Welcome Sinners Condemn Sinners
Are preoccupied with those who are missing Are preoccupied with themselves
Operate from a context of forgiveness Operate from a context of shame
Throw Parties Throw Fits
Keep the lights on as long as it takes Close the door and turn off the lights

During Joiners’ talk, while I like to think of myself as like the loving father, I realized that I have a lot of the elder brother still in me. Too often I judge people more by how they look and speak than by “the content of their character”. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That means before we were cleaned up and presentable before God, God loved us and died for us. If you and I are to become like Christ, that means we must love people, warts and all. It means more than being nice. It means being intentional and taking initiative in reaching out to people who need Christ. The question we all have to ask ourselves if we are disciples of Jesus, are we more like loving fathers or elder brothers?

What Women and Men Want

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I came back from vacation and Got hit with a bunch of stuff. On top of that I got Sick. I am beginning to be on the mend.

Yesterday I gutted out a sermon called "What Women Want". It is part of a series I am doing on the marriage. Not being a woman, preaching that sermon is a challenge. This week I am preaching on what men want. I have had several women tell me yesterday that they don't need to come next week since they already know what men want (haha). I found this clip that I thought I might open up my sermon with Sunday to take it from a humorous angle.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X4MwbVf5OA

Some Pictures From Hilton Head

I must say we had a great vacation. The Weather was in the 70's, I got to golf, we ate well, went to the beach, rode bikes. I could have stayed another week easy. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Htting The Road

Tomorrow morning real early Kate and I are going on a vacation for spring break. I must say the drive I am not looking forward to but I am looking forward to getting out of town. A generous family in the church offered us their condo at Hilton Head for a week. Took me about 2 seconds to accept. I will not be blogging for at least a week, which will probably be no different than if I stayed home.

Our Keyboard Player

Our Keyboard player Tim Horner for our Contemporary Service was once a professional wrestler. This was described by one person as the best wrestling of his career. He is a great guy.

For Aaron Only

Dear Aaron,

You will be proud of me. I am blogging for the second time in Java Garden, a local coffee shop. It feels good to have a scone, coffee, and read in some peace. I hope to add it to my regular schedule.

My battery though is about to die. No plug nearby.

Gotta go.

Scott

Upward in Morristown

Our kids really enjoyed the Upward basketball program at our church this year. It was the first year and so we were just getting this program going and Maggie wanted to participate but Max was very hestitant. It was quite fun seeing them learn how to play and I felt it reallyl helped their self esteem. Max in particular had so much fun playing. He was so animated. Maggie worked hard and I was so proud that she memorized the scripture verse almost every week.
Here are some pictures from the season.

At the end of the season we had a celebration with a Magician. He actually Picked Max out of the crowd and had him come forward. He got some gifts and he was so excited. I wish you could have seen him.

Februrary Birthdays

About a month ago we celebrated Aiden's birthday. We were sick mostly on his birthday but here he is cutting the cake and blowing out the candles. A couple weeks later I took Aiden and a couple of his friends to see the SpiderWick Chronicles.

Max's birthday was on a sunday and for his party we went to the local bowling alley for a bowling party. It was a lot of fun. Max got several gifts, mostly bionicles. He really enjoyed the Wii game I got him of Star Wars Lego game. I must admit, it is awesome. It is amazing how far video games have come.

For Aiden's birthday he was given Happy Feet Wii game by a friend and that hast been a very fun game for us to play. We have the new TV from Christmas and it works very well with the video games.

Last Fall at Dollywood

I was going through my camara on my phone last week and found some pictures I do not think I uploaded from our trip to Dollywood with my mom and Kate's brother Kevin and Lisa, his wife.

Upward Celebration Video

I am still alive but way behind on blogging. This video was done by Robyn Wilson at church. If you look carefully you will see Max and Maggie in the video.

Newsletter Article

Today I had to write an article for our newsletter. It is based off of a comment Sr. Pastor Darris made during yesterday's service. I thought you might like it.


Most Attractive Staff Member ???

For those of you in the 10:30 service this past Sunday, you will know what I am talking about. At the end of the service Darris commented that now that Suzanne had left the staff, he had to take up the mantle of being the most attractive staff member now. I must say, that brought the house down. It was one of those lines that becomes the primary thing you remember from the worship service.

It got me thinking. Magazine covers specialize in spotlighting attractive people. People Magazine has the 50 most beautiful people. Sports Illustrated recently came out with their annual swimsuit issue. If the Kingdom of God had a magazine cover, who would be on the cover? Perhaps instead of beauty it would highlight those who are most godly, most embody what the kingdom is. One issue would have a picture of the Sunday School teacher who arrives early each week to teach their kids God’s Word. Another issue would have a picture of someone sending out supplies to soldiers in Iraq. Another issue would show someone answering the phone at the church. These are all people who are in service and doing their part to extend the kingdom of God. What matters is character and Christ-likeness, not attractiveness! Who would you put on the cover?

Max's First Book

This is something Max did recently for a project for school. THey had to write a book. I hope you enjoy it.


This book is dedicated to my family




There are some...
….Unusual things




One fine summer day Bob was riding his skateboard, and then he stopped to look around. He didn’t notice the old lady following him. Before he could get back on his skateboard, the old lady walks up and pokes him with a cane and yelled, “World domination”.

Bob immediately ran away. When he finally got to his friend’s house he told him every mysterious thing that happened. Then his friend said, “Come back here tomorrow and I will have a plan”. The next day he went to his friend’s house. While he was walking the same old lady came. The tried to run faster but his back started to hurt. He eventually got to his friend’s house.

His friend said if he got a new haircut and looked like somebody else then the old lady would stop it. So Bob asked his mom for a haircut and when he got his haircut, he looked like Elvis. When he got home and he got on his skateboard, the old lady recognized him, poked him with a cane and that made him fall off his skateboard. She got in his face and said, “World domination!”


He immediately picked up his skateboard and went to his friend’s house. He told his friend that it didn’t work and so they tried many other ideas. They kept failing. He decided to ask the old lady to stop poking him. The old lady says, “World domination”. Bob responds by saying, “Who is dominating the world?” She says, “Nobody”.

Then Bob runs and tells his friend what she said. He said, “Let’s write cartoons and forget about the whole thing.” The End.

All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises

I made this video yesterday for our service on Sunday. I hope you enjoy it.

We Need your help!

Giggles is one weird little rabbit. He cannot make any decisions, so he leaves his most of his life changing choices to the public. So go to the address below and vote on the poll to help Giggles decide what to do.


http://illuminatedhoneysuckle.blogspot.com/

Super Bowl Reaction

The game was a difficult one for me to root for. While I respect the togetherness and execution of the Patriots, I do not like their coach for the way they run up scores. He is a sore loser. On the other hand, being from Philly, I don't like the NY Giants and especially most NY fans. I like Eli Manning and wanted him to do well.

It seems to me the Giants had a great game plan and excuted it better than the Patriots. I was so excited to see Eli throw the winning touchdown. I just was so happy for the guy. He's taken so many shots about his personality and character and he rose above it being himself and winning says a lot.




The commerials on a whole I was not that impressed with. The best by far was the Coke Commerical with Charlie Brown. Overall, it seemed not the best use of $2.7 Million Dollars for many companies.



Plan on writing more tonight.

MLK Day for the Layers

We went to Knoxville for the day to have some fun and get out of town. The kids and I had off. We went to the mall. These are pictures from the day.


In the mall a pottery store had opened and the kids did pottery pieces. They also had these large walls to draw on. It was a lot of fun.




Mommy made a print of Pierson's hand like we have for all the other kids.



The other kids did a vase, a mug, and a ceramic tile.

Memphis Revisited

These are few pictures from the Estonia weekend. Taavi Holman, District Superintendent from the UNited Methodists churches in Estonia came from his visits to East Tennessee to share with them about the ministry in Estonia.

Dr. Eddie Fox, president of World Methodist Evangelism, was there. He is such a great leader. He reminded me of John Ed Matheson at Frazier Memorial. Very winsome, caring, fun to be around.
We worshipped last Friday night with Maxie Dunnam, Chancellor of Asbury Seminary. This picture doesn't do this justice.

Emmauel UMC hosted this event. They did a good job promoting and highlighting things at this church. This is the church in Estonia that they sponsor.

These are the Estonian Pastors or represenatives who came all the way over from Estonia to be here for this gathering. That is quite a commitment in terms of financial and physical space to navigate to share what is going on.

I am personally looking forward to going to Estonia in July. It looks that now we will do a survey of the capital Tallin, spend some time with our connecting congregation in Aseri and hopefullly do a VBS type of program for their kids and the kids of the community. We also are looking at spending 3-4 days at Camp Gideon, a UMC church camp that continually needs updating.

Ellen Fisher Day

Our church Wednesday night had a retirement celebration for Ellen Fisher, former Associate Minister of First UMC. She just retired from ministry at Christmas time and we had quite a shindig. About 225 people came, more than double our usual Wednesday crowd. Former ministers and youth ministers came to speak as well as testimonials from the crowd of what Ellen has meant to them. On top of that, there was a video tribute remembering all the ministry she had over the years. The county mayor, a member of our church, presented her with a commentation and declaration that January 23rd was Ellen Fisher Day throughout the county. Then the church presented her with a love offering of $3000! WOW. How generous. She was blown away. It was a great evening for Ellen. Below are some pictures from the night.


Lora from Church made two great cakes, one the Methodist Cross and Flame and another for Duke, her alma mater.

Some of our kids sang a song for Ellen.

My Time with Joel Osteen

Matt, one of my Beeson Colleagues from last year found this video on a blog and I pass it on to you for your enjoyment. It was from our visit to Lakewood Church in Houston last January. Enjoy!

http://gregwythesvideos.ning.com/index.php/main/video/show?id=13695411

Memphis Day Two

Last night was a dinner for all connecting congregations that sponsor Estonian Congregations. There were about 5 estonian folks here for this gathering and about 15 churches represented. Of course we had bbq. It was good. It was neat to meet people and begin some networking and hearing what congregations are doing. In particular, I met one man who has gone to Estonia for years and is planning on going the week we had hoped to from our church in Late July. Today is the main session of hearing what is going on in ministry in Estonia and we have a worship service tonight.

On a personal note, I had almost the whole day yesterday to myself so I used the time to read, write my sermon, pray and do some thinking. I was kind of like a retreat day for myself. It made me think how I need to schedule some time to read and think into my weekly schedule.

See you later...

Memphis Day One

Just got to Memphis last night after a 7 hour drive from Morristown. Went with Harry Turner, from Kingsport who has gone to Estonia many times and who brought me up to speed on the ministry in Estonia. I learned that my friend Kaupo Kant who is a pastor there has had two church plants come out of his church in Voru in the past 5 years. This is a small congregation that is looking to launch additional groups and I applaud them for that. This should challenge us in the States with what we are doing in terms of reaching out.

A pastor from Severville is here for the gathering and He and a member of his church and I went to

They are famous for their ribs. I must say they were good but not the best I ever had. In fact, I think I liked the ribs place a mile from my house a little better but it was a fun experience.

Today, I am working from the hotel before our dinner tonight with other Connecting Congregations from around the country. I will report more later in the next couple days. Pray for kate and she is with her mom for several days till I come home. Nancy graciously came to help with the kids. The kids our out of school for a snow day today. Too bad I missed it.

friends of estonia

Tomorrow morning I leave for Memphis Tennessee for the National Friends of Estonia Gathering. Since our church sponsors the Aseri Church, I am going to represent our church and connect with other people to see how they are assisting the ministry in Estonia. At first, I was not looking forward to the 400 mile trip and the 4 days away from my family but now I am looking forward to connecting with folks and getting the bigger picture of what is going on in estonia. I also get most of Thursday to kill so I am looking forward to doing some reading and thinking without the busyness of being here.

Gotta go. Pierson is crying.

My First Post of the New Year

Something is wrong in life when my first post of the year is January 12th. Right now I have 2 sick kids and a sick wife but all is well since they are alseep and I am watching the New England Jackson ville game. I would like NE to loose because I don't like their coach and cocky attitude but it is looking unlikely that will happen. They just scored again. ouch.

Tomorrow I get another Sunday when I don't have to preach. Last week's service was led by our youth and this week's service is a missions sunday led by the Hispanic Church which began just a year ago and now has about 60-80 people in attendance, most by profession of faith or rededication. I am looking forward to it since it will be led by their praise band. We also have the District Superintendent From Estonia (Rev. Taavi Holman) coming to preach for us Sunday night. It should be a great day. I got to go get some rest.