Adrian Cole

Fall Premiere- August 19th! Why?

Our goal in ministry planning is to start something new on the best date possible. You might be asking yourself, what does “best date” mean? Let me try to give you some insight into what that means.

Generally, the best date to start something new in the church is in the fall after school starts. That gives us the best opportunity to have the largest participation and to build momentum going into the fall. We have learned through experience that the energy of the church program and activities parallels the school year. I use to try to fight against that, but I have come to the conclusion that most of the time that is a losing fight.

Back in the spring we decided to “amp” worship up several steps starting this fall. We thought we had picked the “best date”, which for us is the weekend after school starts. For some reason on our planning calendar we had Edmond schools starting August 15th so we settled on August 19th for the launch of our Fall Premiere. Then last week we learned that Edmond schools don’t start until August 20th.

We considered moving the start date to August 26th, but then we realized that the very next weekend was Labor Day weekend. Labor Day weekend is generally a low attendance Sunday for us. We want to build momentum going into the fall church programs so August 26th was not a good option. Probably the “best date” would have been September 9th. School would have started, the holiday weekend would be over, but we felt that was too late. Our hope is to go into and through the fall with the greatest participation and best momentum possible. So, we decided to stick with August 19th.

What does that mean? Well, for one thing it means that we need you to commit to being in worship on August 19th at either the 9:15 or 10:45 worship service. I know a lot of you will be busy buying school supplies, clothes, etc, and that the weekend before the start of school is hectic. We understand! I also want you to know that the commitment to be in worship on the 19th is going to be worth it.

We are planning a great experience for you on that day. I am launching a new sermon series called “Losing My Religion… Finding Jesus”. This series is based on the gospel of John. We are planning great music and adding a few new “creative elements” to that experience. Our hope (goal) is to move you closer to God and to each other. Mark your calendar now and plan to be there. Invite a friend to come with you!

Church Email Problems

Since last Friday we have not been able to receive email at church. We have people trying to figure out what the problem is, but no luck yet. Something got messed up when we changed over to the new website with the new design. We will keep you posted.

Where is God in all of this?

This morning I had a conversation with one of the leaders of The Walk to Emmaus community in Hong Kong. Last month they asked me to help them find two Spiritual Directors for their fall Emmaus weekends. They have been having a tough time finding available clergy help there. I contacted a few individuals here and one seemed to be interested and available. I got a call last week that indicated the person I suggested couldn’t do it.

As I talked with the Emmaus leader he was dealing with a larger question, “Does our struggle trying to find available help indicate that the Holy Spirit is trying to communicate something to us about our community and the way we operates?

By the time we talked this morning I had found a few new possibilities for help. Although I had found some possible help, I told the leader that the question he was raising was a good question. What do the struggles we encounter tell us about ourselves, life and God?

The struggles we have faced in our church community have not been easy. Our expectations after our moving have been different than what we thought they would be. I have asked myself a lot of questions just like the Hong Kong Emmaus leader has asked. We should always be honest and willing to evaluate ourselves.

Through all of our struggles I have come to some helpful understandings…

1. I choose to let God be in control of my life, of my family, and of the church. He is the Lord of life, not me.
2. I will work faithful and hard to accomplish what God has called me to and has called our church to.
3. I will not abdicate responsibility but I will leave the results of that ministry in God’s hands. He is the one that bears the fruit; I have to be faithful to plant the seed.
4. I need to pray more and be more specific about what I am praying for. Our struggle or “fight” is a spiritual one and at the end of the day what real matters in eternity will be done by the Holy Spirit through His church.
5. If God leads you to it, He will see you through it!

There are many great things going on at New Covenant. Sometimes they are not easy to see because sometimes we are looking at the wrong things or in the wrong places. We have made great progress since our move. It is not in the areas that we thought it would be in but I believe the fulfillment of those expectations will come. I am willing to continue the fight the fight, how about you?

A Tour of the Farm

(This post was supposed by have been posted Saturday. The post yesterday about the Cherry Tree doesn't make much sense without that little input.) The picture from last Friday's post is the farm house where we come each year for vacation. This is where Bev grew up and that house was moved to the farm in 1960 from town (Alexandria, MN). Before they moved this house to the farm they lived in a house that was built in about 1863 on a homestead that was started by some Swedish immigrants. It was moved to the farm in 1906 by horse, wagon and “stump puller” by Bev’s grandfather on the occasion of his marriage to Gina .
It was about a half a mile move. The old house had two rooms down and one room up. The other picture is the old barn where Bev’s dad milked cows for over 44 years. He milked twice a day and the first milking was at 4:30 am and the second milking was at 5:30 pm. The cherry trees are added value and were planted after his retirement 1985.

An Inconvenient Truth!

Do you recognize the picture? It’s a picture of “ice trays”. They are emptied and refilled after every meal. We don’t do that much in Edmond. Most of us have “ice makers” that empty and refill automatically. We just go to the frig and get ice. Very convenient! There are a lot of conveniences in our lives but… I still don’t have time to go fishing or pick cherries. (I don’t have a cherry tree but if I did I think that the cherries would probably rot.) Here they do things like fill ice trays and other chores, but they have time or make time to go fishing and pick cherries and strawberry and watch fireworks and eat homemade ice-cream. It is a good thing to periodically get away to “take stock” of our lives. The farm is such a radically different life from the life I live that it gives me perspective about myself and my lifestyle. It is an important point of reference about all the “conveniences” I have in my life or not.

Moving On To Sunday

This Sunday is Devon Noonan's last Sunday with us. She has been here for about 6 years, first as an intern in the Student Ministry program while in college and then on staff part-time after college as director of programming for Student Ministry. The past 12 months she was Director of Student Ministry and now she is moving on to seminary and working at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. She is a wonderful woman of God and I wish her well with God's blessings. She is preaching this Sunday about "Coming Alive in the New Covenant!" Come an worship God and support Devon!

Incommunicado

On the farm… no phone, no internet, no cell phone coverage, no cable TV. Sweet! Today is the 4th and we are headed over to some friends who live on Lake Cowdry for a July 4th cookout and fireworks. Not much of an agenda for today. I got up and read the lesson in my Life Journal. I finished reading “Deepening Your Effectiveness” and started reading a new book call “Amazing Grace” by Eric Metaxas.

It is about William Wilberforce and his work to abolish the slave trade. Metaxas says that, “the idea of ending slavery was so completely out of the question at the time that… they focused on the lesser idea of ending slavery… but never dared speak of emancipation.” So complete was Wilberforce’s work that it seems so odd to for us think about the notion of selling human lives. It is a repugnant idea. So complete was his work that we have forgotten those that ended this horrible business in western culture. Wilberforce is one of those forgotten heroes. The slave trade was ended in 1807 in Britain, so this year is the 200th anniversary of that remarkable achievement.
Here is a picture of Bev and our Sister-in-Law, Debra Gilmore.

4th of July FIREWORKS at Lake Ida. They are covered up not because it is cold, but because of the mosquitoes!

A Crappy Situation

I was leaving the church last week at about 5:00 pm on Friday and I noticed a Roto-Rooter truck pulling into the parking lot at the 300 building. I drove over there and Marlin, one of our custodians, was there. I noticed that there was water flowing from an open “manhole” and it was sewer water. Marlin, “Fish” as he is known around the church, said that the line was stopped up and that raw sewage was flowing into the parking lot. He said that they had run a line in both direction but hadn’t been able to clear the line. I told him to call me when he found the problem.

About 8:00 pm Fish called to tell me they had located the problem. Evidently last November the city had been installing new waste water lines in the neighborhood and that when they installed the section where our 300 building line came into the main line they, the city crew, thought that it was an old line no longer in use. So, they plugged the line with cement. Fish said that it was about 300 feet from the building to the main line so it has taken this long for it to fill up. Fish said that the city is supposed to bring a crew back this week to fix the problem. With a facility like ours it seems that there is always something that needs urgent attention. Friday was Marlin's day off. I am glad he was there to take care of this problem. Now I hope the city does their part.

Vacation

I hope you are going to have some time this summer for personal renewal so that you can “recharge” yourself. We are doing that right now. We will be away the first part of July on vacation. I will try to write some new posts while I am away. We are going to the farm in Minnesota as we have done over the past several years. I don’t have internet access on the farm so I will have to write when I can and post when I go to town. Maybe I will be able to post some pictures of a big fish or home made ice cream. Who know?

Take some time for yourself, for vacation but when you are not out of town decided now to be in church. Summer time for church is a slow time and a lot of people are gone. But there are a lot of things that have to continue. People have to be cared for, staff have to be paid, bills have to be delt with and ministry must continue. Some people give to the ministry of the church only when they are present in worship. This can strain our program when people are away on vacation. Your continued support is critical during these summer months. So, don't forget to send in your support.