On Sunday morning Pastor Eric preached from Luke 5:1-11. In this Scripture, Jesus preaches to the multitudes from a boat before telling Peter to push out into the deeper water to go fishing.
Having just washed his nets after a fruitless (or should I say, fishless) night of work, Peter replies, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).
For those of you out there interested in preaching, here’s a book I would highly recommend: Expositional Preaching by David Helm. At only 100-some pages, it’s an easy read with sound practical advice for preparing messages.
Part of the 9Marks book series born out of Mark Dever’s “nine marks of a healthy church,” this book promotes expositional preaching as essential for today’s churches.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about the church lately…
You might say, “Well, of course. You’re doing a church planting internship!”
Yes, that’s true, but that’s only part of it. Another part of it is simply the fact that I see local churches everywhere I go, whether in Omaha or in the Des Moines area.
I love how Hebrews 12 begins: “Seeing then that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” In the context the author is urging his readers to live in faith, following the example of the many men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11.
As I begin my church planting internship and anticipate many years of church planting ministry in the years to come, I love every opportunity I have to interact with the church planters who have gone before me.
No, pastors and church planters don’t have one-day work weeks, preaching on Sunday and then taking rest of the week off. Sunday is only the end of one week of hard work and the beginning of another.
Yesterday was my first full day in Bennington for my internship. In fact, in all my trips out here over the past five years, it was literally my first full day out here.
Anyway, the day was filled with meetings of various sorts. At 9am I attended the regional pastors’ meeting with several pastors from the Omaha area and beyond. It was a great time of Christian fellowship, light-hearted humor, mutual prayer, and engaging discussion.
I enjoyed catching up with several men that I had previously met and hearing how God was working in their churches. It was also fun to catch their vision for the future, especially in the areas of discipleship and church growth.
For lunch we went to a Chinese restaurant where I got to sit in on part of the a camp board meeting. Having worked at IRBC for several summers, it was interesting to hear the pastors discuss the ongoing ministry of the camp here in Nebraska.
Finally, I had a meeting with Pastor Eric to discuss the general plan for my internship. It was a great discussion not only about the internship but about church planting and life in general. I’m excited to see how God will teach both of us in the upcoming days.
For supper I ate Nebraska’s famous Runzas with the family, and afterward I headed to my house for the evening.
Before I went to bed I was able to do some reading from Haddon Robinson’s classic “Biblical Preaching” and download some other free books for future reading.
‘Twas a good day and a great way to start the internship! More than anything I was reminded of why I’m here. The vision and excitement and initiative of these Omaha-area pastors is exactly what I want to be a part of this year and in the future.
The sun was shining, the snow was melting, and the wind was blowing slightly.
A golden ’95 Toyota Camry meandered its way through several wind farms, clipping along at a steady 70 miles per hour.
Leaving a growing city of familiarity and comfort, the vehicle’s operator traveled 2 1/2 hours away to a city of opportunity, anticipation, and potential for personal growth. Unaware of the full implications of the transition, the driver eagerly looked forward to the days to come.
The plane began its descent on American soil, and shortly before 6am EST we were on the ground in Atlanta.
A new day, a new month, a new city…and a new perspective.
My ministry trip to Brasil is over, but life continues on. I could not just come back the same person that I was when I went there. But I’ll talk about that later.
Hello, Fortaleza.
We arrived at the massive bus station in Fortaleza shortly before 7am and disembarked with our stuff.
We found a couple taxi cabs that took us to the BMM apartment office where I stayed during my first night in Brasil, and we dropped off our stuff there so we could go shopping.
After a light but tasty breakfast of granola, mamo, coconut yogurt, and caju juice, we went to a large mall a few miles away. Man, once again I was reminded of the CrAzY traffic and terrible infrastructure of that rapidly-growing city.
So, Tuesday morning I woke up enjoyed Aunt Julie’s homemade carne de sol tapioca for breakfast one last time, and spent the day packing and cleaning up any loose ends in the house. Other than that, not a whole lot went on.
For lunch we had mashed potatoes, chicken, and vegetables, and for supper we had a yummy macaxeira casserole with lettuce. (Notice how I still made sure to record what we ate. I’m weird like that.)
One of the beautiful things about new experiences are the new relationships you form. Indeed, for an experience to be enjoyable, relationships are one of those necessary elements. Well, I enjoyed several new relationships during my time in Brazil, and it was time to start saying farewell to some of the more significant people I had met during my trip.
What should I write about next? Are there issues that you are facing or that the church is facing today that need to be addressed? Take 15 seconds to let me know!
