Jeff and Jennifer Kudler are friends of our from The Gate.  Jeff owns a company called Majestic located near Columbiana, OH, and they sometimes invite friends over to test drive equipment that is either new or newly renovated.  What a blast!  I thought you might like to see some pictures:
Click Here For Photo Album

Apparently, somebody was thirsty.  We had another Gate Give last Friday, giving out 500 cans of Coke & Pepsi, and their diet versions, to people stopped at a traffic light at an intersection in northern Columbiana.  Like the first two Gives, we slipped a small card under the tab of each can with the word “Thirsty” in the middle and our web address at the bottom.  And, like the first two gives done the last Fridays of May and June, we found ourselves turning down donations and explaining that the pop was really a free gift – an absolutely free gift.

At least one of the 100 people in attendance at The Gate yesterday came because of the pop received Friday evening.  What a blessing!  The Give will happen again the final Friday of August, one week before the Columbiana street fair and right at the beginning of the new school year.

As I was handing the pop in her window last Friday a lady looked at me quizically and asked “what’s the catch?”  I responded “You have to accept it.”

She did.

One elderly man refused the pop and told John Gerner, another Gater handing out pop, “There’s one thing I’ve learned in life: nothin’s for free.”

Well, friend, we’ll be back next month to offer again one of the few things in life that is entirely free with the hope that you may want to accept an even greater gift that is absolutely free – a gift that will change your life forever.

Having some trouble with getting the next series on our home page.  This Sunday we’ll be starting a three part series on the tiny New Testament book of Philemon.  His runaway slave, Onesimus, was saved and is now returning to Philemon.  Philemon was holding a church in his home and had been doing many great things, but Paul (the author of the letter) is preparing him for how much of a difference Jesus can make in a Christian’s life.

The issue of slavery is not dealt with much, maybe because the slavery in the Roman world at that time wasn’t nearly as bad as the slavery in our history.  Still, it doesn’t condone it.  And, running away was a very bad thing to do.  Coming back was a big deal for Onesimus, who was putting himself at the mercy of the Christian leader Philemon.  What should Philemon do?

 See you tomorrow to find out.

There is a great deal to be done to get ready for church this fall.  I was getting nervous about getting enough sermon prep time in and decided to cut the 10-day vacation a day or two short.

The offering for last Sunday needed to be deposited today.  Since I had planned to work today anyway I dutifully prepared the deposit, took it to the bank drive-thru, placed the deposit into the cannister thingy and sent it on its way.  After a minute or two the guy behind the glass said “Sir . . . this deposit appears to be for another bank.”

The inciteful young man was correct.  Our personal bank is not the same as the church bank.  I went to the wrong one.

Embarrassing to say the least.

In high school we were taught how the Japanese worked so much harder and for so many more hours a week than lazy Americans.  Now we have precious little vacation and work longer hours compared to the rest of the industrialized world.  Vanda is from England.  Getting six weeks vacation a year is considered normal, and yet things still get done.  What are we striving for?  It’s not lazy to take well-earned rest.

People work much better when they’ve had time to enjoy God & family, and you can take that to the bank. 

Any bank.

This week will be the final week of our “How to be Rich” series.  Our guest speaker is my church planting coach, Dr. Dan Peterson.  Don’t let the “Dr.” part fool you.  He’s about as down to earth as they come and somewhat of a monster church planter guy.  Our district of churches, Converge MidAtlantic, has had over 40 church plants, more than doubling the churches in the district, since Dan came on board about 10 years ago.

We call it “Obsession Sunday” because we’ll be taking an offering to support more church plants in our district.  We’re obsessed with church planting because God is obsessed with church planting since it is so very effecting in bringing people to know Jesus Christ.  We want to establish ourselves as a giving church, so I figured the best way to do that is to be involved in giving from the start.  This offering is above the normal offering for our church (we need to survive, too!), and we’ve given our church folks a few weeks heads-up so that they can prepare a special offering.

Here’s the link to the Converge MidAtlantic website if you’d like to take a look: http://www.bgcmideast.com/

We’re going on vacation!  There’s a place called “Hocking Hills” in Southern Ohio where we will spend our gift from the government intended to stimulate the economy this year.  Never been there, but have heard fantastic things.  We’ll be going after church this week and will be gone for 10 days.

A friend of mine asked if I would be taking my laptop.  My response was a resounding “no!”.  We learned a long time ago that God gives wants us to spend time away from our obligations, despite how much we love them, to refresh our relationship with Him and to enjoy His creation.  We’ll be doing just that, without a hint of work during the week.  I can’t wait to enjoy my time with God and my family.  I hope you are planning to do the same, if you haven’t already.

Take a look at the left hand site of this screen.  Scroll down a bit to see the list of the “Total Visitors by City”.  Do you see the first one?  Novato, California.  It would seem like the most visitors from any city are from there, though Daryl (our computer genius) tells me that Youngstown, the medium-sized city not far from Columbiana, is actually listed several times and is also included under the city “United States”.  Even with that in mind, Novato is a close second: 156 total visitors to date.  I’m thrilled by the interest, but what does Novato, California have to do with Columbiana, OH?  Why do residents from that city pay our humble site a visit so frequently?

 Mapquest indicates that Novato is near San Francisco.  Maybe the name “The Gate” is a big thing out there . . . something to do with the Golden Gate Bridge?  Google shows “SFGate”; something to do with their newspaper.  The info lines for our Google listing specify that we’re a church, but don’t note that we’re in Ohio.  Maybe there’s a lot of you looking for a church out there?  If so, you can check out www.ncbcweb.org.  Or, you could move to Columbiana, OH!

 Just curious.  Anybody out there want to fill me in?

God’s been off the hook lately when it comes to our baby church.  As I’ve said before, we’ve had many times when our bank account has been at around $50 after all the bills have been paid.  Well, as any church planter would tell you, the first summer can be the most trying time for a church’s existence.  After calculating our payroll expenses and other bills today, we have 88 cents left.  A few months ago this would have scared me a great deal.  Now it seems to come with the territory.  Because God gives us only what we need, through the generosity of the churches and individuals that support us as well as the greatly increasing generosity of our own congregation, we have made it a habit to put our faith in Him.  It’s an awesome plan made by a God who loves to let us know that He is not only with us, but wants to see us succeed as long as He gets glorified.  And so, we praise God.

Another great thing done by our God.  Attendance at churches generally drop over the summer.  Again, church plants tend to see this happen to an even greater extent.  Our hope to stay above 70 people on Sunday was on track for the first few weeks of June.  The last two weeks have been crazy.  Two weeks ago God blessed us with 96 people, and last week there was 100 people at our Sunday morning worship at The Gate – on 4th of July week-end!  Many were new guests or those who have been coming for only a few weeks.

 God is doing great things in Columbiana.  Stay tuned for our plans for the fall and feel free to be our guests some Sunday as we watch God do His thing.

When we first got our dog just over two years ago, the animal shelter told us he is pure beagle.  For a number of reasons, we haven’t been to sure of the accuracy of that.  For one reason, he’s a bit big for that breed.  At least the one’s we’ve seen.  And not just because we feed him too much.  He’s a bit taller than most as well.  We’re curious as to what other breed he must be.  I believe the mystery has been solved.  He’s part beagle and part . . . . chicken.  Guess that makes him a beacken.  Or possibly a chickle. 

Fireworks are quite illegal in Ohio, and yet we still hear them.  Not just on the 4th of July either.  Some funny law allows people to buy fireworks even though they aren’t permitted for private use in our state.  And, the part about not using them isn’t even enforced.  Anyway, Winston is terrified of them.  If he even hears a faint rumble or pop he runs to our room or in the basement.  I find myself pointing out to him that those loud sounds have never harmed him before.  “What evidence do you have that this will hurt you?”  I asked him just this evening.  Beackens aren’t logical creatures.

Ever wonder if God is the same way with us?  We can be so quick to be fearful about things in life that we don’t understand or that make us uncomfortable because of a perceived negative outcome, like choosing a career or a spouse, or even simply trusting God when things about life just don’t seem right.   Linda Penney, a wonderful lady I worked with at our district office, has a note on her desk that goes something like this: “Worrying about something that may never happen is like paying interest on money you will never borrow.”

Jesus addressed this in Matthew 6:34: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Don’t be a beacken.