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Eastern European Mission Benefit Dinner

In about a half hour Katie and I will be heading down to the DFW area with Tim Pyles, the preacher here at Broken Arrow, for a special benefit dinner that Eastern European Mission is putting on. We’re excited to spend some good time with Tim, as well as see some friends at the dinner, and hopefully make some more contacts and future partners for our work in Kharkov. It’s about a four and a half hour drive there, and after the dinner we’ll be turning around and coming straight home, so it’ll be a late night.

You know how it is: Sometimes when you get hungry, you just have to drive to Dallas to get a bite to eat.

Aimstock: The Beginning

This weekend Katie and I were blessed to attend the first annual AIM Alumni Retreat. This retreat has been a dream for many people for many years, and we feel so blessed that we got to be a part of the inaugural year. It was a great two and a half days to spend with old friends and new friends, and a great time for connection and healing.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Last night Katie and I were invited to join a group from church to watch a Tulsa Drillers baseball game. One of the men in the congregation works for a company that has a box suite at their brand new stadium (the picture above was taken from the suite) and so we spent a wonderful evening enjoying great fellowship, eating good food, watching baseball, and even getting a little rained on. It was another moment that made us so thankful for the time we have to be here with the Christians from Broken Arrow.

Hanson

I mentioned yesterday that last week Katie and I got to go see a concert with our friends who came to visit from Lubbock. I thought today I would just briefly mention that we went to see Hanson, and that the concert was fantastic. I’ve been a fan of the group for years but have never had the opportunity, so when we found out they would be playing here (which also happens to be their hometown), we jumped at the chance to go see them live.

A Week of Visitors

Last week was a busy week for Katie and me. My parents actually arrived the weekend before for a short trip. We enjoyed having them here and were grateful to show them a little bit of our lives God has blessed us to live here in Oklahoma. Since they were here on a Sunday they were able to meet so many of the wonderful Christians here at Broken Arrow. We enjoyed getting to see them, even though it was for a short time. After they left early Tuesday morning, I spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday sick at home.

“Radical” — A Book Review

The Christian American culture is something I’ve thought a lot about over the last couple of years. For so long many people have considered being an American synonymous with being a Christian. And, whether it’s intentional or not, it feels as though many people value their status as an Americans more highly than they do their status as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. What does being a Christian have anything to do with the country I live in? And how does the proverbial “American Dream” fall in line with what Jesus had to say about our allegiances and our values?

Katie and I were at Mardel several weeks ago and I saw the book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream by Davit Platt. I was immediately intrigued by the title and began to flip through it. It seemed like a good book, and I filed it away in my brain as a book to get sometime in the future. A couple days later we were at a friend’s house and I noticed they had a copy. When I asked about it they told me I could have their copy. I read through it quickly and now Katie is almost finished with it.

This is an excellent book.

A Busy Sunday

Sunday was a pretty busy day for me. I realize that “normal” preachers do this stuff all the time, but for me, it was busy.

I taught my final class with the high school students first thing that morning. We had a good lesson on understanding that, as Christians, it matters what other people think about us. I’ve been able to teach that class for about four weeks now, but beginning next week I’ll start rotating through all the adult classes so that Katie and I can continue to meet more and more of the congregation.

Life Groups at Broken Arrow

Once a month the church here splits up for Sunday evenings and does what they call “Life Groups.” To use a more familiar term, they do small groups together. Though they have tried versions of these in the past, they really seem to have taken off this time and have provided good community and accountability in this congregation of seven hundred Christians.

Stuff I’m Learning: Ministers and Social Security

I have been absolutely amazed at all there is to learn about ministers, missionaries, and taxes. I feel like every day I learn (or re-learn) something new. It is amazing how hard it can be to do this work with integrity, as so much of this stuff is just begging to be swept under the rug and labeled “Not So Important.”

One such matter that has really surprised me is the subject of ministers opting out of Social Security. Ministers are one of a very select few who can easily say they don’t want to participate in Social Security. The simple reasoning behind it is that if you feel like being a part of Social Security goes against what you believe, and you work as a minister (a job entirely based on your faith), you may opt-out.