About Me

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I serve as pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Annapolis, MD. I'm married to beautiful Paula, mother of my 4 sons and one daughter. I was a systems engineer before entering ministry 29 years ago.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Haiti and Holy Week

Last night (Friday, March 27) Trinity Church was honored to host a marvelously eclectic concert of music to benefit long-term care of orphans in Haiti. Organized by David Slade of the SladeChild Foundation, a great collection of local jazz, blues and worship musicians donated their time, and the appreciative audience donated approximately $1500, 100% of which will go to Haitian orphan care.

I think this was a tremendous way to lead into Holy Week. But the way many people approach the week before Easter, they might miss the connection entirely.

Holy Week, sometimes called Easter Week, starts and ends with celebrations. Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, recalls the cheering of the crowds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the deliverer promised by God. They cheered, sang, and made a carpet of palm branches and their own coats to keep the road dust down as the donkey carried Jesus.

At Trinity, we will celebrate that tomorrow (March 28) with the premier presentation of “Majesty on a Donkey,” an original cantata for praise band (we call it a Praisata), written by our own George Lewis, at the 9:00am and 11:00am Sunday services.

Holy Week ends with Easter, which celebrates the fact that Jesus rose from the dead as a guarantee that all who put their faith in him will also rise from physical death to eternal life. Trinity, like churches everywhere, will be bursting with music, praise and joy.

But there’s a third name for Holy Week or Easter Week: Passion Week. The passion of the Christ, as many people know from the movie by that name, was a horrible episode of betrayal and sadistic torture that Jesus endured in between those Sundays. When the formerly-cheering crowds discovered that Jesus had come to deliver them from spiritual bondage, not from the Roman army that occupied their country, they turned on him. He was beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross to die. And in so doing, he paid the price for all the sins of all the people of the world.

That’s why we celebrate. And that’s why I think it is so appropriate to lead into Holy Week by doing something to help Haitian children orphaned by a massive earthquake. Because the children in Haiti are suffering. And if you take away the Sundays, Holy Week is all about suffering. Jesus knows what those children are going through, and Jesus cares.

Some people might wonder about jazz and blues music in church, especially leading into Holy Week. But the Bible says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress, and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27). I think a concert that raises money to help orphans is the purest form of religion.

So have a wonderful Holy Week. Celebrate Palm Sunday! Celebrate Easter! But find a church service on Maundy (Holy) Thursday or Good Friday to remember what the celebration is all about. If you live near Annapolis, we'd love to see you at our service at Trinity on 7:30pm Thursday. Many people say it is one of the most moving services of the year. Or join the 24-hour prayer vigil starting at 8:00am Friday, organized by our youth.

And remember: in Haiti the ground has stopped shaking, but the work has just begun.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Fourteen Rules for Happy Relationships

From marriage to work to the clerk in the store, it’s all about how you treat people. Jesus said, “Treat other people the way you would want them to treat you.” Here are fourteen specific ways to apply it.

1. Smile

2. Take the initiative - most people are insecure, so say “Hi” first

3. Set the tone for every interaction by projecting the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)

4. Look for God’s image in everyone

5. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative – choose to focus on things you like about the other person and things they are doing right

6. Watch your mouth – Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement (Ephesians 4:29)

7. Pay attention – To get anything worthwhile you have to pay something, to get a good relationship you have to pay attention

8. Don’t take offense – choose to give the benefit of the doubt

9. Give the defense a rest – proving your innocence is not always the most important thing

10. Look for win-win – relationships are not a zero-sum game

11. Ask, “Which is more important: getting my way, or this relationship?”

12. Pray God’s blessings for the other person

13. Look for ways to be God’s blessing for the other person

14. Love ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out

What if it still doesn’t work? “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). A relationship is a two-way street, and some people just won’t cooperate. Don’t let them make you feel guilty about it.

Monday, March 8, 2010

It Feels Good to Get Something Done

Three years ago I was invited to speak at a conference on the Holy Spirit in Turkey. Being invited to speak anywhere is exciting. Being invited to speak on the Holy Spirit is really exciting. But being asked to do it for the Christians in Turkey, which is 99.7% Muslim, is downright cool.

A year later I was invited back to lead conferences for Turkish pastors and church leaders in two cities. I will be going back to do the same again in September.

There are fewer than 100 churches in Turkey, a country of over 70 million people. About half of the churches are in Istanbul. Few of them have been in existence longer than about ten years. As a result, there are very few experienced pastors in Turkey. There are also very few Christian books available in Turkish, and none that I know of on the practical aspects of administering a church. That may explain why my talks on that subject were so well received.

In the last year I have been working intermittently on expanding my notes into a book that can be translated and made available to Turkish pastors and church leaders. It will be in three sections, on the pastor, the local church, and the wider church. This morning I hit a milestone. I finished the first draft of the first section!

I know what you're thinking. "You've been working a year, and you just finished the first draft of the first third of the book?" In a word, yes. And it feels good. If you've ever worked a long time of a big project, you can identify.

Please pray that it is useful, and that I finish the rest of it more quickly. (As many of you know, the biggest problem is setting aside time to work on it regularly.)
And please pray for God's work in Turkey.